Top News – EPT Kicks-off in Tallinn and More on UB Scandal

In this week's edition of Top News at OnlinePoker10 we will tell you all about the start of Season 7 of European Poker Tour in Tallinn Estonia. The first-ever major poker tournament in Baltic States ended up in one of the most exciting final table battles in the EPT history. And although everyone was certain that the chip leader and an EPT Prague 2007 Main Event winner Arnaud Mattern would swoop the trophy, they were proved wrong.

In other news we have the youngest-ever WSOP participant Alexa Fisher, who is a huge poker fan, coming to Vegas for a family vacation. Although she's yet too young to play at the World Series herself, Alexa is kicking at home and family games and even some public poker events. So the Card Player Magazine decided to take an interview from the young poker prodigy. Joe Sebok has decided to fill-in the public on the UB cheating scandal in his blog and 888 Poker signed a sponsorship deal with the London Poker Circuit.

EPT Tallinn

For the first time in the 7-year EPT history, the tournament's been hosted by a Baltic country. A six-day poker event gathered 420 players to the €4,000 buy-in Main Event, but it was only one man to win the €400,000 cash prize and the shiny EPT trophy. And despite the fact that Arnaud Mattern was the main favorite for the title, it was the young Norwegian Kevin Stani who went home victorious.

Mattern and Stani along with the Russian youngster Konstantin Bilyauer were three leaders coming into the final table holding three quarters of the chips in play. Therefore it came as no surprise when the three were the last one's to still hold on to their seats at the final table. However, the outcome of the game was not the one expected by most of the EPT Tallinn crowd.

After five days of live poker action in Swissotel Tallin the final table was set in the following order:

Seat 1: Konstantin Bilyauer (Russia) - 2,498,000
Seat 2: Steven van Zadelhoff (Netherlands) - 805,000
Seat 3: Kevin Stani (Norway) - 2,586,000
Seat 4: Nicolo Calia (Italy) - 637,000
Seat 5: Bassam Elnajjar (Lebanon) - 744,000
Seat 6: Dmitry Vitkind (Russia) - 502,000
Seat 7: Arnaud Mattern (France) - 3,720,000
Seat 8: Mikko Jaatinen (Finland) - 1,166,000

With Arnaud Mattern holding the position of the chip leader the general sense was that him becoming the first-ever double EPT title winner is the most likely scenario. And as the contenders to the title small stacks started dropping out with Mattern still holding on to his pile of chips, the sense grew even stronger.

Finally, it was down to three players – Mattern, Stani and Bilyauer – no surprises there, but the fun was just about to begin. At first Stani pulled a huge bluff on Mattern leaving the Frenchman short-stacked, and then, minutes latter he went all-in with pocket queens vs Stani's pocket threes. Unfortunately for Mattern the turn brought another three for Stani which meant the end of his game and third place with a €160,000 cash-out.

As the heads-up match between Stani and Bilyauer began, the Norwegian had a two-to-one chip lead against the Russian. Bilyauer was struggling behind though the whole match-up until it all went down to the final hand. It ended with Stani going all-in and Bilyauer calling after some moments of intense thinking. Stani showed a 2 to 6 straight and Bilyauer mocked.
Konstanin Bilyauer got €250,000 for his second-place finish and Kevin Stani received €400,000 in cash along with the EPT trophy. It was Stani's just second live tournament after he finished 127th in this year's WSOP Main Event. Congratulations to the Norwegian! We at OnlinePoker10 hope to hear from him again very soon.

And here are the final standings for EPT Tallinn:

1st: Kevin Stani - €400,000
2nd: Konstanin Bilyauer - €250,000
3rd: Arnaud Mattern - €160,000
4th: Dmitry Vitkind - €120,000
5th: Mikko Jaatinen - €80,000
6th: Steven van Zadelhoff - €63,000
7th: Nicolo Calia - €47,000
8th: Bassam Elnajjar - €32,000

As always, the PokerNews live reporting team have been covering the event providing the latest news, photos, videos and chip counts, so we recommend you to check out this EPT Tallinn wrap-up video to see what's been going on in the Estonian capital the whole week:

7-year-old

Alexa Fisher is a big poker fan and a player, she can name a dozen poker pros if you would ask her which players she liked, but her favorite is Barbara Enright. Alexa likes playing poker with her family, she even played poker in a public event and unlike most of the poker fans, of all the poker games Alexa likes Omaha best. She loves watching poker on TV and even dreams of playing at the World Series one day. All of this would sound more or less usual, except for one little detail – Alexa's just 7 years-old.

The Card Player Magazine was thrilled by the young Alexa's story and decided to put it into their latest issue. According to the article, she became interested in poker at the age of 3 when she noticed the game on TV. With the help from her dad Alexa learned the numbers and how to count by using the deck of cards. For the last two years she's been learning the rules of various poker games and now she can play Texas Hold'em, Omaha, 2-to-7 lowball, H.O.R.S.E., and Badugi. She's especially interested in those that are played at the WSOP.

Alexa likes playing poker at home and has even opened a bank account to put her home game winnings into. She has also recently played a $30 buy-in "Homes For Pets" event in Schertz, Texas beating a bunch of adults and finishing higher than the half of the players in the tournament. Alexa was described to be a smart player who even managed to bluff her way into a few pots.

“I know how to shuffle and deal the cards, raise, check, fold, and bluff. I also know how to play deuce-to-seven lowball, H.O.R.S.E., and badugi. I can now play any poker game with the best poker players in the world!” says the young poker prodigy.

This summer Alexa and her family came to Las Vegas for their family vacation at the time of World Series so that the young poker fan could see her favorites live and get their autographs. Watch this short interview of Alexa talking about her future carrier as a prec... a pre... a pref... a professional poker player:

The UB Scandal

You've all probably heard about the UB super-user scandal. It's proved to be one of the biggest frauds in online poker history with over $22 million dollars being stolen from a number players including well-known poker pros.

The “hero” of the story, the 1994 WSOP Main Event champion Russ Hamilton, who has been working at UB as a consultant, had acquired a tool that would allow him to see the opponent's hole cards and used it to cheat against such players as Mike Matusow, Prahlad Friedman and many others. Having access to the “God Mode” as it was called, Hamilton stole money from fellow poker players and business associates in heads-up battles played at UB.com

It all came to light in 2008 when the Kahnawake Gaming Commission found convincing evidence that Russ Hamilton was responsible for multiple cheating incidents at Ultimate Bet having taken place from May 2004 to January 2008. WickedChopsPoker.com done some serious research on the matter and have publicized a lot of facts and material about on the scandal. According to WCP it was to the tune of 23 accounts, 117 usernames and $22 million dollars.

This week, the UB poker pro Joe Sebok has also decided to share his thoughts about the issue in his blog at PokerRoad.com. “To those that want more done in this matter, I simply say that I agree with you and would like to accomplish more. I wish we were a police force, but we are not. I wish we could really round up all of these people and interrogate them, but we can't. I believe we did as much as we possibly could to this end though. I also wish we were a court and we could try them all and jail the convicted, but again, we cannot do this. The poker community would be a better place if we could, but as of right now this just isn't possible. If it was, believe me, I would be working on it,” Sebok said.

For more on the UB super-user scandal read The UltimateBet Super-User Scandal: Part I and Part II at WickedChopsPoker.com You can also find the full Joe Sebok's blog post on PokerRoad.com

888 + LPC

It has become a standard for major online poker sites to become sponsors or even own and manage big live poker events. 888 Poker is keeping with the trends as well by becoming partners with the London Poker Circuit. From now on, everyone's in the mood for a fun holiday in London (this, of course does not apply to Londoners) can win their seat into the monthly LPC Super Stack event at 888Poker.com.

“The London poker circuit is the preeminent destination for live poker. 888poker looks forward to adding our online offering to the LPC experience. Together we will be able to provide a quality and unique poker experience that will engage all the forms in which you can play the game," Director of Global Strategy Gareth Edwards said.

The partnership deal between 888 and London Poker Circuit is expected to bring more money to the LPC tables as well as attract even more players from outside of London and even Great Britain. All LPC tournaments will take place at the Kensington Close Hotel and will include a guaranteed £30,000 prizepool.

To win your seat at the Super Stack events you simply need to join 888Poker and look for freerolls and satellite tournaments rewarding London Poker Circuit Super Stack packages. And don't forget to take part in OnlinePoker10's exclusive $500 Deposit Freerolls! For more info visit the 888Poker review page.

And that's all we wanted to share with you in this week's edition of Top News at OnlinePoker10. Check us out again next week for more news on all the most important poker events.

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