Welcome to the August 2007 edition of "Face Up" an insight into Australian Poker news and events. The Vic championships have recently concluded, the new WSOP champion has been crowned - Jerry Yang and poker events are even more popular than ever. If you have any news or events you would like to promote please contact us with your news.

Trivia Question

Q: It’s impossible to have a straight in poker without one of these 2 cards. Which 2 cards?

Answer at the bottom of the page

The Inside Word with Bluff Australasia editor-in-chief Sean Callander

One of the strangest finishes to a major poker tournament in Australian history ensued just prior to Melbourne ’s Jozef Berec being crowned 2007 Victorian Poker Champion recently.

Holding a massive chip lead, Berec called from the small blind on the second last hand of the night before Sydneysider Rafe Aman pushed in his entire stack — except for two 5000 chips.

Berec called, but Aman unbelievably folded. It was clear a deal had been struck between the two players but Aman was still queried by tournament director Brett Jones before being allowed to play out the final hand.

Aman, a popular player at Sydney venues including the PokerDome, pushed in his last 10,000 with Q 5, and received a call from Berec (Q 10). On a board of J 6 2 9 J, Berec’s 10 came into play as he celebrated another big win at Crown (having collected the $550 No Limit Hold’em title and more than $74,000 at the Aussie Millions earlier this year).

Berec’s first prize was $250,560 while the 25-year-old Aman was listed to take home $146,880 for his second placing.

The main event field of 288 players created a prize pool of $864,000, while the kitty for the entire event was more than $1.5 million.

Another quality field of the best Australian field assembled, including Joe Hachem, Billy ‘The Croc’ Argyros, Sarah Bilney, Lee Nelson, Sam Khouiss, Emad Tahtouh, Tony Hachem, Angie Italiano, Mark Vos, Leo Boxell, Sherif Derias, Shannon Elizabeth, David Saab, Eric Assadourian, Van Marcus, Sarne Lightman, Marcus Collins, Jason Gray, young guns Julian Powel and Tim Duckworth, and glamourous US visitor Shannon Elizabeth.

Indeed, it was the American Pie star who made the running on day one as she skipped out to a handy chip lead before young gun Mark Vos (nursing a hangover of considerable size) fought his way to the lead after playing out several huge pots with Jozef Berec late in the day.

On day two, 56 players returned to battle for a final table slot and a finish in the money. Rafe Aman led the field when the order was given to shuffle up and deal, and he was still in the hunt when Helena Wong was eliminated in ninth spot just before the dinner break.

The final table, which was billed as a battle of Victoria versus New South Wales, comprised Aaron Farrell (769,000), 2006 Star City Face-Off champion Zhi Hong Ma (345,000), Rafe Aman (458,000), Ali Khalil (854,000), Zane Ly (497,000), Brett Oliver (1,004,000), George Kalil (549,000) and chip leader Jozef Berec (1,311,000).

The local contingent suffered the first blows when Brett Oliver and Zane Ly went out in seventh and eighth spots respectively but the next three out were all from north of the border — George Kalil (fourth), Ali Khalil (fifth) and Zhi Hong Ma (sixth). Aaron Farrell bowed out in third.

• PokerNews/PokerNetwork have already established a reputation for excellence — now the knowledge and expertise gathered over the years will be harnessed for their first live event: the 2007 PokerNews Cup.

To be held at Melbourne ’s Crown Casino from October 21-29, the schedule is jam-packed with a variety of events suiting all bankrolls. There will be daily $100 tournaments (including Seven-Card Stud and Crazy Pineapple), a special $10,000 Bad Boys of Poker Invitational, and six championship events culminating in the $3000 three-day Main Event with $200,000 guaranteed for first place.

To celebrate the first PokerNews Cup, more than 70 PokerNews Cup packages, each valued at $7000 are being available — for free!

Each freeroll winner will receive a $US5000 package which consists of entry to the $A3000 Main Event; six nights’ accommodation at the Crown Promenade and $US1500 for travel and expenses; and invites to exclusive Team PokerNews functions and activities

Freerolls will be held at numerousn online poker rooms including Full Tilt Poker, PokerStars, Titan Poker, TonyGPoker, Everest Poker, Gnuf Poker, Pacific Poker, CD Poker, Unibet Poker, Poker 770 and many more. These freerolls are exclusively for players who have signed up to these rooms through PokerNews/PokerNetwork so if you already have an account at any of these rooms, there are plenty of new rooms to which you can sign up.

Many of these freerolls have very easy requirements to qualify — some you don’t even need to make a deposit! To join in and win a free $5000 PokerNews Cup package — visit www.pokernewscup.comand click on the Freerolls tab.

• Poker pros Phil Laak and Ali Eslami have defeated an advanced poker computer program developed by the University of Alberta 's Computer Poker Research Group, claiming victory in the first ‘Man vs Machine Poker Championship’.

The two pros faced off against Polaris, a program developed by the University of Alberta 's Computer Poker Research Group, in four 500-hand duplicate matches of Limit Texas Hold'em.

After the first match was declared a draw and Polaris won the second match, Laak and Eslami stormed back to take the last two matches and win the title. Laak and Eslami were awarded $12,500 for the victory. But over the 4000 hands played, the humans ended with only a small ($365 or 36.5 small bets) cumulative advantage.