Top News – Zinga Goes Asian, Krause Wins FTP Merit Cyprus Classic

This week in Top News at OnlinePoker10 we will tell you something about online poker and something about the live games. The first in line is Full Tilt, but unlike you would expect, it does not go into the online category, because this time it's about the Full Tilt Poker Merit Cyprus Classic – a live poker event which had taken place this week on the sunny side of this beautiful Mediterranean island. The online news, however, is not about any of the poker rooms most of us are so used to. We will tell you about the Facebook sensation – Zynga Texas HoldEm Poker and their Asian expansion as well as the home of WSOP – Harrah's going into the online business. And last but not least is something about the WPT Legends of Poker.

Full Tilt Poker Merit Cyprus Classic – Krause Victorious

This year's Full Tilt Poker Merit Cyprus Classic was hot not only because of the sunny whether, but because of the poker action at the tables. 181 pros and amateurs have entered the competition in hopes of winning the title, but after five days of play there was only one man standing – Andreas Krause. He got $415,780 in cash along with the bracelet as well as the honor of becoming the champion of one of the most prestigious live poker events.

Just naming some of the people seen at the tables in Cyprus tells a lot about what an event this was – Sorel Mizzi, David Benyamine, Carter Phillips, Tommy Vedes along with as many as four of this year's November Nine – Michael Mizrachi, Filippo Candio, John Racener and John Dolan. However, none of them managed to make it to the final table with Benyamine scoring the highest – $15,590 for the 12th place.

Still, the final table featured one Full Tilt Red Pro – Van Marcus with most of the tournament crowd being already familiar with the name Andreas Krause – a player with over $2 million in lifetime tournament winnings. However, after Day 4 of the event it was the Hungarian Zsolt Vasvenszki who was the chip leader coming into the final table holding one third of the chips in play. He was followed by Van Marcus and Mathieu Clavet with Krause only in fourth place.

But all changed when it came to the final table. The short stacks Hakan Dalokay and Ahmet Ucali went out pretty fast followed by the former chip leader himself to be kicked-out in fourth place. First he was seriously crippled by Krause in an A-K vs A-J battle with the board bringing two more Jacks for Krause along with the most of Vasvenszki's chips. It wasn't long before the Hungarian lost his final hand and hit the rail.

The last three players standing have finished the tournament in the following order: Van Marcus in 3rd with $162,415, Mathieu Clavet - 2nd with $285,850 and Andreas Krause – the big winner receiving the tournament bracelet and $415,780 in cash.

Here are the Full Tilt Poker Merit Cyprus Classic payouts and standings after the final table:

1. Andreas Krause – $415,780
2. Mathieu Clavet – $285,850
3. Van Marcus – $162,415
4. Zsolt Vasvenszki – $90,950
5. Ahmet Ucali – $68,215
6. Hakan Dalokay – $55,220

The PokerNews live reporting team with the oh-so-charming Gloria Bolding were also there covering all the tournament action so we suggest you watch this short video about what's happened in Cyprus this week:

Zynga Poker in Asia

The world's largest poker site PokerStars Zynga Texas HoldEm Poker have announced the launch of the first international version of the most popular online poker game. With 38 million monthly users Zynga Poker is the third most popular application on Facebook just behind Farmville and Facebook for Blackberry. If compared to the real-money poker sites, Zynga Poker has 50 times more users that the most popular poker room – PokerStars.

Now Zynga have decided to make their Poker room available to an even bigger audience and by releasing a new version which will make the game available in Mandarin Chinese for Facebook players in Hong Kong and Taiwan. The game will appear under the name of Zynga Texas Poker and will include most of it's current features, except the language and the amount of chips the players receive at the start of the game. Because 8 is considered to be the lucky number in China, at the beginning of every game the starting stack of chips for each player will be 8,888.

Just like in the regular version of Zynga Poker players will get to enter a casino lobby and play at any table, meet people from around the world, or join friends in the game. They will also have the chance to choose from Texas Hold'em tables, tournament play, or VIP tables. Chinese players will be able to compete for prizes and take part in the shootout tournament with a prize pool of 880,000 Taiwanese dollars.

Harrah's Online

If you live in the US and are at least a little into poker (which we believe you are), you've probably noticed that one of the largest gambling operators holding the rights to the world's biggest poker event – the World Series of Poker, Harrah's Entertainment began an advertising campaign promoting their online gaming sites.

Both Harrah's online casino and online poker sites are advertised on the national newspapers as well as on ESPN. Although all online gaming for US citizens is free, the users are encouraged to join the site and play online games while waiting for the online gambling to become legal. However, players from the other parts of the world where online gambling is allowed are welcome to join and play real money games.

With the expectations of online gambling and online poker being legalized some time in 2011, Harrah's is most likely to continue their online promotion campaigns, despite the fact that not long ago they stood on the other side of the fence claiming to be against online gaming.

WPT Legends of Poker

After 5 days of play the World Poker Tour Legends of Poker $5,000 Main Event at the Bicycle Casino in Los Angeles reached it's finish line and the player to come in first was Andy Frankenberger. 462 players got to the tables on Day 1 of the event, but only one survived. Frankenberger was a pleasant surprise for everyone, except his opponents by leading the final table and going all the way to the title.

The winner got the crown and its distinctive bronze Wild Bill Hickok trophy along with the $750,000 first-place cash prize.

Here are the World Poker Tour Legends of Poker final table standing an the payouts:

1. Andy Frankenberger - $750,000
2. Kyle Wilson - $370,000
3. Tom Lee - $174,772
4. Tom Braband - $109,000
5. Jared Jaffee - $86,000
6. Franco Brunetti - $63,000

So that's all we had for you this week. Be sure to visit us next week for more poker action on Top News at OnlinePoker10.

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