Like you all know (because you read this blog daily), Chilipoker was the sponsor of the IGSOP in Dublin during the Supershow.

The supershow is THE affiliate conference in Europe where all the igaming industry gets to meet each other, do business, exchange. We call that networking.

Of course, Chiligaming was attending, and our marketing and affiliate managers made the trip to the city of Molly Malone, from Malta, going through the ashes of Grimsvoetn in Islande.

Supershow 2011

As soon as they get back they will talk about their trip on the Share The Chili blog, but from what we’ve heard it was a hell of a week.

They got to intoduce a bit more Chiliconnect to everyone, and we are happy to hear lots of positive feedback on it. Obviously, we are very eager of any kind of constructive feedback on this topic, whether is it in a comment on the blog, on on Twitter, or our Facebook page.

Andrea, our casino manager, was here too, representing Chilicasino. There will be lots of good news coming in the future regarding our Casino games so stay tuned and follow Inside Chilicasino!

IGSOP

This year Chilipoker was the proud sponsor of the IGSOP in Dublin. All the players had fun, while the Dealers could all proudly wear a Chilipoker T-shirt, and a hat. Seeing the poker tables with our logo reminded us of the WPT in Marrakesh and it is a nice feeling.

Our numerous qualified players did well, and we hear that one of them even reached the final table! Once again, more news soon on Inside Share the Chili!

While our crew is coming back today (apparently the ashcloud is being nice today), and so you can wait for the report from our affiliate team, here are a few pictures from Dublin!

Enjoy!

The 2011 World Series Of Poker -WSOP-, Las Vegas, USA,  are approaching! Another six days before the event #1 kicks off. The traditional first event will be the $500 no limit holdem Casino employees, to give them the opportunity to have some fun before spending weeks at the table, dealing cards and counting chips.

Later the same day, the real deal kicks off with the $25,000 Heads Up NLHE Championship. This is the event where players like Bertrand “Elky” Grospellier will show up, or Erik Seidel, Phil Ivey, Phil Galfond, Tom Dwan, Liv Boeree… All the sharks will be attending and since the event is capped with 256 players, let me tell you this will be sold out, and only with great players. Hard to say for sure who will make it to the money!

Then the WSOP boat will cruise its way to the Main Event, going though the 58 events, all giving away to the winners the highly prized bracelet.
This year, the organization had decided to entertain the fans with great heads up matched, that will be televised: the WSOP rematches. You will get the opportunity to assist to -legend… wait for it.. dary- heads up matches from former main event famous heads up. Chris Moneymaker will prove the world that beating Sammy Farha was not only luck and that any amateur can really win the main event. Johnny Chan will try to make Phil Hellmuth (record man bracelet holder) go crazy one more time,  and the fan will even decide what the third HU match will be! We only regret the idol of all, Stu Ungar, that everybody would have loved to see at the tables.

If you are a high roller, and whether you like Stud, PLO, HORSE, omaha high low 8 or better, deuce to seven low ball, eight game mix, razz, whether you are an online shark, a senior, or a lady (although if you are in the last category, you can still be one of the other :p ), there is always a tournament that you will want to play in the next two months in Las Vegas!

WSOP 2011 –  Main Event

The main event is THE tournament. The dream of every poker player.  If a poker player tells you that he doesnt care about winning this title, then he is liar.
This is the graal, the biggest and nicest breacelt worshiped by everyone.
A field of about 9,000 players, all buying in for $10,000 , all of this making a prize pool of about …. Millions! Last year, main event champion Jonathan Duhamel took home almost 9 million dollars!!! So much money that he was kind enough to donate $100,000 to charities… What would you do if you were to win the WSOP Main Event? Change your life? Probably. Play more poker? Buy a yacht? I’m sure you’ve been thinking about it :p

Anyhow, the two and a half months coming will surely be interesting. Whether you are actually going to Vegas, or whether you will be staying home and follow it online, the poker world is gonna go crazy, like every year, and it’s not the so called Black Friday that is gonna change anything. Players love this game, and will always do!

Full Schedule for the WSOP 2011

Our next stage of the DSO is going to be in Africa. Morocco is a beautiful destination, and Marrakesh an amazing city with so many things to do. Here is a teaser for you guys wondering whether you are going to buy in or not.

Morocco – Sun, Fun, and Luxury

Whether you go to Morocco on Holiday, or to play a poker tournament, you want to make sure you are going to have a good time and that you will enjoy the sun a little bit.

Marrakesh is the perfect place for people accompanying you or even for yourself, if you were not lucky enough and busted out early from the tournament. The Red city offers the massive advantage of being full of  resources for tourists, but also appears to be a great location for those who want to escape to the snow-capped Atlas mountains. Only a few hours away, you can discover a totally mind blowing landscape that will for sure be a big change of scenery, wherever you are coming from in Europe. You could decide to get lost in the largest traditional market in Morocco (called Souk), or discover the Moroccan desert in a 4X4 excursion .

And who knows, in the corner of a street, you could end up face to face with Jean Paul Gaultier or Juan Goytisolo, both exiled to the Red city.

Marrakesh – African Poker Capital

Along with the WPT Marrakesh, the first ever major tournament on the African soil, and organized by Chilipoker, This city is famous for the Marrakesh Poker Open, a regular tournament always loved by the players.

The casino Es-Saadi is the place to be, if you wanna play poker in Marrakesh. Excellent organisation, beautiful buffet, excellent diner breaks, you will only have to focus on your game.

The hotels available near the Casino will surely make you wanna enjoy and relax in between your poker sessions. Large swimming pools, palm trees, sun. You could even be tempted by a massage in the morning, before getting ready to spend the day at the poker table. We have tried it, it’s really worth it

Playing poker in a Palace, surrounded by numerous Pro poker players , often taking the opportunity to escape Europe to enjoy some quality time in Morocco (like French WSOPE representative Roger Hairabedian), you will surely appreciate the benefits of a casino who first thinks about the players well being.

Qualify now for the Chilipoker DeepStack Open Marrakesh

You could go and visit a different continent, and for almost nothing.

Chilipoker is giving away a bunch of tickets and packages for the DSO Marrakesh. Online satellites started 9th of May, and will be running up to the 13th of June. Schedule of satellites and how to qualify are on this page. So don’t wait any longer, get your mouse and be one click away from going to what was called Mur (n) Akush, literally the land of God, and see if the One can help you dodge the bullets!

-more info about the DSO-

Poker, sun, change of scenery, and cocktail along the swimming pool… Come on, who’s NOT in? Only a donley would miss it… I mean, a camel :p

If you are a Chilipoker player, you must have heard about the Unstack Me If You Can promotion.

Unstack Me If You Can is open to all the players. Play all week to qualify for the final, every Friday. The winner of the final is the challenger who gets to play heads up against the Champion. Win the heads up, and you become the Champion, defending your seat the following weekend. As long as you win the heads up, you keep your seat, and win money for every victory. The concept is simple : unstack the champion… If you can! (for more details, and schedule of the tournaments, please visit our website).

Unstack the Champion… If you can!

Current champion, for the second time in a row, accumulating a sweet $2,250, is player “ lllllillliiiiiiiiiilllllllllll “.

We got in touch with him to find out who he was, and needless to say after speaking with him, that he is a big player!

Norson Saho

Hi Norson, and first of all thank you very much for being kind enough to reply to our questions.

Who is Norson Saho aka “lllllillliiiiiiiiiilllllllllll” ?

• I am a 32 years old professional player from Sao Paulo, Brazil, and I have played poker for a living for about 5 years. I started depositing $20,00 and played SNGs for 2 years, moving from the low stakes to the high stakes. Before that I used to work in the quality control department of a game design company as a beta tester.  Before working there,  I was already a pro player but not in poker! I used to play the Age of Empires Series, a real time strategy game from Microsoft, professionally. I was the world champion in that game.

“World Champion of the Age of Empires Series”

You  play poker for a living. What do you play ?

• After my $20 deposit, grinding the low stakes SNGs, I moved to middle stakes MTT online. Nowadays I play mostly high stakes MTTs online and live cash game, but I also play some big live MTTs from time to time.I play mostly online MTTs from middle stakes to high stakes. I would say anything higher than $10 rebuy and $50 freezeouts. I also play live cash game but not as often such as 2/5 or 5/10.

You are the champion of the “unstack me if you can” promotion for the second week in a row, can you tell us about it ?

• I was invited to the finals because I was one of the top guns in the MTT group that week. Then I played the final freeroll and qualified to challenge the previous champion.The structure of the final heads-up is just really good. I mean, I have very little experience in heads up poker itself  but I think overall I am pretty good because I have made so many final tables and gone deep in several tournaments. So even for a guy like me, not a HU specialist, I feel like I can have some sort of edge because of the structure. And of course let’s not forget it’s a freeroll so nothing bad can come from it.

Do you think you can make it several weeks in a row?

• Well there is a lot of variance in poker, specially in one single match so I would say it’s very unlikely but it could certainly happen. Anyone can get there and beat me just like I did. I am a very competitive person so my goal is to win as much as I can!

“Chilipoker looked to be a good promising company”

Why do you play on Chilipoker ? and have you tried Chiliconnect

• Well probably like 3 years ago I was making a lot of research on all the ipoker skins and I came to the conclusion that Chilipoker would be the right pick because of the VIP program and how proactive the management was. When I pick a room to put my money I like to think like an investor in the long run and Chilipoker looked to be a good promising company back then. I think I made the right choice.
  I was one the first to give ChiliConnect a try and I really enjoyed it. The idea is great and as more people get to know about it, I am pretty sure it will be a blast. The idea of the last longers is just fantastic. When I play a live-MTT here in Brazil I always make a last longer bet with a friend of mine, whoever goes deeper gets a free dinner.

You also qualified for the WSOP main event on Chilipoker. How are you feeling about this ? have you played such a big event before ? What does it feel like to know you are going to play under the Chilipoker colors along with Liz Lieu ?

• Actually last year I had already won 2 WSOP packages on Chili, a $20,000 package  in the WSOP Warrior where I finished 2nd in the league, and a $12,000 one in the super satellite. Last year I played the Main Event and busted at the end of day two, but I got the opportunity to play at the same table with guys like Michael “The Grinder” Mizrachi and Cole “CTS” South ! It was great and a good learning experience. I also played the Main Event the year before. Having the opportunity to play again this year at the WSOP with the Chili patch will be great. Hopefully I have the chance to meet Liz Lieu in person and do some more side bets beyond ChiliConnect

Do you have a final word for all the challengers on Chilipoker who are gonna try to defeat you at the end of the week?

• All I can say is to enjoy the promotion because it is a lot of fun, and if you get lucky enough to win the final freeroll, good luck against me. YOU WILL NEED IT!

Thank you Norson and good luck for defending your seat, and also for the WSOP!

Defeat “lllllillliiiiiiiiiilllllllllll” and win $$$

So you got the message. Norson thinks you will need luck to beat him. Qualify this week for our final on Friday, and prove him that you too are skilled!

Next chance for you to qualify is tonight. You have a freeroll at 8.30pm or a $4 tournament at 9pm -Full schedule here-

You can qualify every day for the final,  so don’t miss out, and be our next Unstack Me If  You Can champion!

Last weekend in Malta took place the Malta Team Poker Tournament, organized by the Casino Di Venezia in Vittoriosa.

We found the concept quite original: 42 teams of 3 players in the same tournament. Every team distinguished by their outfits (t-shirts, hats, glasses, etc…) and identified by a team name (some of them were, trust me, pretty cool).

45,000 chips per team, shared the way they wanted between team members, and 20 minutes levels, for a pretty fast structure, but only a €35 buy in per member.

What differenciates this tournament from a normal one, is that at every break, you were allowed one chip dump per team, along with one seat change. The chip leader was allowed to give up to 25% to his stack to one team mate, and two players from the same team could swap seats at the break, making this a pretty exciting experience.

By now you must now that at Chilipoker, we are passionate about this game, and it was with a non dissimulated excitement that we were looking forward to this event.

3 members of our staff decided to make a team, and that’s how Alexandre (live event manager), Feliciana (CFO), and myself were on our way to the Malta Team Poker Tournament.

team name: F.B.I (because at Chilipoker, we also have a sense of humor, we decided to not be called Chilipoker – although we had stickers on our shirts – but instead decided to have a wink at the Black Friday ;o)

Along with a few friends on the island, we were on our way to the Three Cities, on the other side of Valetta. It didn’t take long before we all talked about a side bet in the van… You might think that we have been working too hard on Chiliconnect lately, and you might be right! Here it was, we chose the Last Longer, just like you can do on Chiliconnect. The team that will finish before the other one will be the winner. it’s as simple as that! The stakes? the losing team will take the other one for diner into the restaurant of the choice of the winning team. It’s on!

Malta Team Poker Tournament at the Casino De Venezia

Shuffle up and deal!

After the casino took a picture of every team and after calling them one by one, the tournament finally started. We could tell all the players were excited and were really ready to play.
One rule though: until the final table, team mates were not allowed to be called during a tough decision at the table.

We decided to start with equivalent stacks, as there was no reason to start with more chips than anybody in the tournament, since we thought the majority of the teams would do the same.

After a few hands, we all had a good idea of who was at our tables, and everyone got involved in several hands, starting with Alex, who quickly built a decent stack.

Feliciana, at her table, and after only a few levels, got stuck in a bad set up with a tricky player limping with a pair of jacks. Our CFO raised with A6 in position, and they both saw a flop A 6 J rainbow. All the chips went in and the FBI had to report one agent down.

On the other side, our friends from the pink panther team were doing quite good with two of their players gathering chips, and dumping to one of their short stack during the break. On our side, we decided to not dump anything when i was up to 22k and Alex around 18k. Both around average, it wouldn’t have changed anything. Also, we both kept our seats. I think it is an advantage to stay at the same table when you start building an image, and when you think you might have an edge on the table. If nobody is bullying you, then, stay as long as you can at the same table!

With 20 minutes levels, the average stack was quickly around the 20 big blinds (20k)… After being up to 30k alex started to lose some chips and finally on a last end, when he was down to the 15k mark, he lost the whole lot trying a “move” … Second agent down

It was all on me now to try and go the furthest to : A/ try to win this thing, and : B/ to win the last longer.

Not long after the bad news, one of the weakest players at my table, short stacked, moved all in for a third of my stack. I decided to isolate him by pushing all in, with pocket 8, as i didn’t want to give good odds to anybody after me (especially the blinds).  Once again, bad news when i saw the small blind calling with two Kings …

It was up to destiny now, and everybody has to know that i hate that!

8c 8s vs Kh Kd vs Ah 3h

Flop: 9c Th  Jc

Turn: Qc

River: 4c

I guess you need to get lucky once in a while. My stack went up 2,5 times and i could now play more aggressively. With only a few levels to play and blinds really high, the other team lost their two biggest stack, and were only left with Sylvie, short stacked. On my side, i kept stealing blinds until the last hand of the day. With already 7,000 in the middle with blinds and antes, plus 2 limpers, i decided to defend my big blind by a nice all in shove. Nobody wants to bust on the last end of the day, so I had quite a nice fear equity, and i was also holding Th Js, a hand that will most likely have a decent equity if i get called by a small pair (around 48%), or a weak ace (around 40%). Everybody folded and i ended up the with 60k, the tenth stack out of 64 players.

Day2 at the Malta Team Poker Tournament

A lottery

With 20 minutes levels and blinds going up not so smoothly, this game pretty much became a lottery. Just had to wait for cards, and push at the right time to steal the blinds and antes once in a while.

Sylvie, the last opponent in our last longer bet “Chiliconnect style” arrived at my table. I could already smell the nice dinner we were going to get. She was down to 1 big blind only after a bad set up on the other table! But fate is what it is. She tripled up, then doubled up, and in no time she was back in the game. She even managed to double up once more holding 88 vs 88, making a flush on the river!!!

Talking about cards, i finally saw my first pair of aces of the weekend. I was under the gun, and had to disguise a smile on my face when one player called my raise, and the chip leader of the tournament re raised for 3/4 of my stack… I just had to go all in, leaving him no choice but calling, with a pair of Kings. The aces held and i was now seating behind 100k, one of the biggest stacks.

But shortly after that, i was moved to a new table, and after a failed attempt at stealing , and the blinds going up so quickly, it was not long before i realized that i had was now holding 4,5BB … UTG+1, i moved all in with 55 to be called by AK and saw a board that left no expectations … AQT K 4
Last agent down, in 16th position.

Our team finished the tournament in 13th position out of 42 teams.

Needless to say that after coming back from nowhere, our friend Sylvie then took the chip lead and finished 3rd in the tournament! Good Game to her! We will be happy to all go for a nice diner, on our expenses  …

Most of all, we all agreed on the fact that this tournament was such in a good atmosphere, that it makes us want to play that kind of event even more. We can’t wait for the next one, and you can make sure that this time, we will bring more than one team!!!

Chilipoker DeepStack Open Cannes

Kevin, a young photographer from the Cannes area, stopped by the Chilipoker DeepStack Open to take a few pictures so we could remember this successful event (536 players) for ever.

For 4 days, players fought against each other to try and get a piece of the €268,000 prizepool. In the end, Luca Colangelo from Italy took home a first prize of €45,000, along with the pride of beating 535 other players. That’s for sure gonna be a very sexy Hendon Mob line, and a player to fear in the future events.

Here is a sample of Kevin’s work. You can find more picture on our Facebook page. Tag yourself and your friends so we know who you are !