Top News – Duke and Hellmuth Leave UB, Jungleman12 Scores $4.9 Million in 2010

Hello there and welcome back to OnlinePoker10 in the year 2011. Christmas and New Year's was loads of fun in the snow, but now it's time to come back to the ever-exciting world of poker to see what's been going on lately on and off the felt. Actually, there's been a lot of things that happened in poker during the holidays and we're here to tell you all about it in this week's Top News! First, of course is UB: they've bid farewell to they're two major pros and the icons of the site Phil Hellmuth and Annie Duke, who has also got engaged on Christmas. Plus, there's a new pro coming to the team and that is Prahlad Friedman who some time ago swore he would not sign with an online poker site. Other news include Dave Ulliot's Devilfish Poker being sold and Daniel "jungleman12" Cates becoming the best online player in 2010. Read all about in in Top News.

The Parted

The news of the week is that the long-time Ultimabet Poker pros and the faces of the site Annie Duke and Phil Hellmuth have parted ways with the company and will no longer wear UB patches and represent the site in both live and online games. This came as a bit of a shock to the poker industry – the separation was sudden and unexpected. Although the rumors about Hellmuth leaving UB were alive in the poker world for quite a while as he appeared in several public events without the UB gear, the divorce still came as a big surprise.

Here's what the still UB Poker pro Joe Sebok had to say about the situation in his blog: “These two legends in our industry have, quite literally, helped to build UB into what it is today. Phil and Annie have been the face of the company for years now, and we thank them for their unbelievable contributions and bid them the utmost in success moving forward. With that said, we look forward to 2011, and I believe it will be the finest year that we have ever had at UB.”

Read Seabok's full interview on PokerNews.

However, UB are not going to stop at this point and are already recruiting new pros for the team. Although the information of Prahlad Friedman joining the site has been officially announced only today, he has already been “congratulated” by the PokerStars pro Daniel Negreanu on Twitter last week. And to be honest, Daniel judged Friedman big time: “So disappointed in @prahladfriedman signing with the devil who stole millions from him.He was so "anti sellout" then he did the unthinkable. They must have paid him a lot to join the dark side and endorse the exact same people who ruined him”. You can read more of this by paying Negreanu's Twitter a visit.

And here's a video UB made about Friedman joining the team:



But the person to benefit the most from this whole situation probably remains Annie Duke who made a big step in her life by posting “I said yes!” on her Twitter... actually, she said “Yes” to her long-time boyfriend who is also known for playing poker for big money, Joe Reitman who proposed to Duke on the first day of Christmas, and only then posted it on Twitter.

Devilfish Poker Sold

The Entraction Poker Network site carrying the name of the WSOP bracelet winner and the holder of the WPT title, Dave “Devilfish” Ulliot, Devilfish Poker has been sold to the online gaming lottery company, The Weather Lottery. The online lottery operator which is listed on London's Alternative Investment Market has announced that they've reached an agreement to acquire Devilfish Gaming, the company managing the online poker site. The Weather Lottery is going to pay £40,000 in cash and £290,000 in shares to acquire the Devilfish Poker site.

“Devil Fish Poker has an established brand name in a sector which is complimentary to the existing gaming operations of TWL. We have a growing database of users in both FCBetz.com and FC Lotto some of whom will we believe wish to take advantage of the DFP products. The Board considers its acquisition at a time when there is still considerable untapped potential for development fits in with our gaming strategy,” said The Weather Lottery Chairman Lord Razzall.

The Wall Street Journal has the full announcement.

Jungleman Rocks The Online Poker World

The year 2010 is already in the books, but lets read them a bit and see who's got the best of it in online poker. At the beginning of last year, there were only a few people who actually knew the name Daniel “jungleman12” Cates, but with the way online poker spreads through the world, the new starts just keep coming.

We can now say for sure that jungleman12 was the 2010 online poker star as he came out with $4.9 Million in winnings all throughout last year. He scored $1.1 Million in PL Omaha and another $3.8 Million in NL Hold'em which guaranteed him the first place in the online poker rankings. Another online pro, Andreas "skjervoy" Tobergsenonline came in second with a total of $3.7 Million in winnings all through 2010 bypassing the poker superstars Tom “durrrr” Dwan and Phil Ivey who finished the year with $3.6 Million and $3 Million in winnings respectively.

For more on this, head over to HighStakesDB

The European Poker Awards

The 10th Annual European Poker Awards will take place in Paris on February 13 and the nominations have already been announced. There are 8 awards with the most players on the nominees list coming from UK. Up for the top European player of the year title are Theo Jorgensen from Denmark, Vladimir Schemelev from Russia and England's duo Jake Cody and Sam Trickett. Tony G, Jesse May and Anthony Holden are nominated for Rob Gardner Memorial Award for Poker Personality of 2010 whereas Liv Boeree and Annette Obrestad are competing for the best female performance. Chris Moorman (England), Patrik Antonius (Finland), Mickey Petersen (Denmark), Ilsidur1 (Sweden) and Andreas Torbergsen (Norway) have been all nominated for the Internet Player of the Year award.

Here are all the nominations and nominees for the 10th Annual European Poker Awards:

Player of the Year: 

Theo Jorgensen (Denmark)
Jake Cody (England)
Sam Trickett (England)
Vladimir Schemelev (Russia)

Poker staff person of the year:

Marty Wilson of Matchroom Sport (England) 
Simon Trumper, Dusk Till Dawn (England)
Thomas Kremser, TK Events (Austria)
Gerard Serra Retamero ,TK Events (Spain)
Kirsty Thompson, president of the UKIPT ( England)

Internet Player of the Year:

Chris Moorman (England)
Patrik Antonius (Finland)
Mickey Petersen (Denmark)
Ilsidur1 (Sweden)
Andreas Torbergsen (Norway)

Outstanding tournament performance:

James Bord (England)
Jake Cody (England)
Fillipo Candio (Italy)
Liv Boeree (England)
Tobias Rinkemeier (Germany)
David Vamplew (Scotland)

Europe’s Leading Lady:

Liv Boeree (England)
Annette Obrestadt (Norway)

Rookie of the Year: For the most promising newcomer 

Jake Cody (England)
David Vamplew (Scotland)
Toby Lewis (England)
Julian Herold (Germany)
Fernando Brito (Portugal)

Lifetime achievement award:

The Lifetime Achievement Award is decided entirely by the votes of the nomination panel and will be announced at the presentation ceremony in Paris.

Rob Gardner Memorial Award for the Poker Personality of 2010:

Jesse May (Denmark/USA)
Tony Guoga (Lithuania)
Anthony Holden (England)

And that's it – these are the first Top News of 2011, be sure to log on to OnlinePoker10 next week for more.

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