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!

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 !

André, from Germany, has won himself a $109 token for the tournament of his choice on Chilipoker.com, thanks to this picture he kindly sent us.

André aka HoRRoR

PURPLE UP – the contest

We contacted André to have a quick chat with him about this contest.

Who is André aka horror ? what do you do  and where are you from ?

i started poker late 2005 and i’m currently living in Münster where I study business economics. I used to play SNG’s, then i used to play HU SNG’s, and nowdays i am only playing tourneys and some live tournaments

How did you hear about this promotion ?

I have your German Country Manager on Facebook and read it there. I thought I would give it a go.

What makes you play on Chilipoker?

To be honest, I like the colour

How can you play 16 tables at the same time ?

As many online poker players, I used to play computer games before -warcraft III kind of professional, which resulted in games with up to 300 actions per minute. So playing 16 tables is quite fine, if most of your play is done without big thinking, since all the situations appears regularly.

You won a $109 token. What tournament are you going to play with it ?

I think I will probably play some 109$ Sunday tournament, since i think I can’t play heads-up SNG’s or normal SNG’s with this token

Alright, thanks for that André, and good luck at the tables!

Stay tuned for our next contest. Like André, you could get yourself some tokens, just for taking part in some exciting games with us!

After interviewing Virginie Caprice on this blog yesterday, let’s keep going with our second playmate, Jennifer Favier.  She will also accompany our players during the DSO stages, in order to charm our players with her smile, and to make you have an unforgettable weekend (no, she won’t prevent you from getting a bad beat).

If you are a DSO VIP player, and you are lucky enough to win either a laptop or an iPad, Jennifer could be the one bringing you the gift directly to your table. Even better if you win the tournament, as on top of the numerous zeros on the cheque, a very nice picture of you and the girls will stand on top of your fire place

The Chilipoker Deepstack Open Cannes is in two days, so don’t wait any longer and come with us to discover the great atmosphere at our tournaments, as Jennifer will explain in the next few lines.

Jennifer Favier – The Temptress

1/ Who are you and what do you do for a living? This question is for our readers who may not have had the chance to see you on TV or in a magazine.

I was a temptress in the TV program “Temptation Island” (the last season in France). It is a reality TV show where 4 couples, not married and without kids, must test their love towards each other, by trying to resist to the temptation of sixteen beautiful single individuals. (eight men and eight women) during twelve days.

I am also Sophie Favier‘s Niece. She has been a famous TV host in France for several years.

2/ How did you discover Poker? And are you a Poker Player?

I discovered poker with some of my friends who are really good players, and I discovered  gambling in general with my aunt who was presenting the euro-million on TV in France.

3/ How did you discover Chilipoker, and what did you think about your experience in Marrakesh last November, where your role was to take care of the Entrevue Pok

er Tour winner.

I knew Chilipoker because it is a famous brand, and from some players who told me about it, but most of all, I really got to know Chilipoker.com with the Entrevue Poker Tour, organised by the famous magazine “Entrevue“. They organised a qualifying tournament for Marrakesh and Virginie and I were hostesses in charge of accompanying this player.

Chilipoker is a young and dynamic company, just like the atmosphere in their tournaments.

Marrakesh was amazing, and I have lots of memories. Next step is Cannes, so I will meet you all on the 28th of April!

Chilipoker is a young and dynamic company

4/ We will be happy to have you for this second season of the DeepStack Open. You were there in Spain, and you will be in Cannes too. What is your role?

In Cannes as well as in Marrakesh and in Spain, our role was to be with the players during the whole festival and to all spend good times together, give the busted players some comfort,  and to support the others. The goal is simply to make this tournament a great memory for everybody and have a laugh.

5/ ok, now you can tell us the truth, you are going to Cannes to enjoy the sun, French Riviera and rosé right?

Yes to be honest we are going there to get a sun tan and to party with all the players. See you all on Thursday  ;)

6/ A final word for our players?

Make sure you come well rested because it will be legendary. Virginie and I can’t wait to see you all! Hugs and kisses to all of you

Thank you Jennifer!

Now you know our two hostesses. Do not hesitate to come and see them if you take part in a DSO. They are always happy to talk with the players and take a few pictures!

Good luck to all the players for the DSO in Cannes. Day 1A starts tomorrow, in France.

Hello Everyone!

As you may have noticed, during the Chilipoker DeepStack Open Costa Brava, we had a couple of lovely hostesses attending! This is help increase the percentage of females attending as the poker world tends to be about 80% male (although women are taking part in our events more and more ).

They are here to accompany our VIP players, and give them the prizes they win thanks to our numerous VIP promotions.

Last Month, our first winner of the season was really happy to get his cheque from Jennifer and Virginie!

In order to give you a teaser into our next stage – the Chilipoker DeepStack Open Cannes and also for all our other stages, we are going to introduce our lovely ladies to you! Let’s start with Virginie, who answered a few questions for us.

Virginie Caprice – FHM Sexy Star

1/ Who are you and what do you do for a living? This question is for our readers who may not have had the chance to see you on TV or in a magazine.

I started my career by winning a contest organized by FHM France: “the sexiest unknown French woman“. I was elected with 38% of the votes. I was on the front cover of the issue number 69. Most recently, I was elected in 65th position out of 100 for the sexiest FHM Star.

After a time as a striper in a Parisian club, I appeared in a few music videos with French artists like Stomy Bugsy or Laurent Wolf.
On TV I was in the movie “les 11 commandements” and the series ‘Paris enquêtes criminelles”, as well as “les petites annonces d’Elie”. I also got the chance to take part in several TV shows in France.
Also, I was a model for the famous brand Rivaldi, as well as several magazines like FHM or Newlook.
In May 2007, I joined the Spanish FHM team, and became a “Sex Coach“. In the mean time, I chose my nickname, “Virginie caprice“, and did my first appearance in an adult movie “Story of Virginie”, produced by Marc Dorcel.

In 2008, I became the new ambassador for the exhibitions “Erotica Dream”.
I now have my own sexy calendar, with photos by Christophe Mourthé, a French charm photographer.
In 2010, I am the new face of the “Entrevue Poker Tour“, along with Jennifer Favier, sponsored by Chilipoker.fr.

2/ How did you discover Poker ? And are you a Poker Player?

I have a lots of friends who play poker, like French pro player Ilan Boujenah, but I only started to learn the game one and a half months ago, and I still couldn’t find anyone to teach me. But I seriously intend to find one during the DSO in Cannes!

I hope to find a poker coach during the Chilipoker DSO in Cannes

3/ How did you discover Chilipoker, and what did you think about your experience in Marrakesh last November, where your role was to take care of the Entrevue Poker Tour winner.

The experience was great! Jennifer and I were like little princesses and everybody was nice to us. We had a great hotel room and I want to thank the boss Mr Dreyfus.

I didn’t know Jennifer before, but we got along straight away.

4/ We will be happy to have you for this second season of the DeepStack Open. You were there in Spain, and you will be in Cannes too. What is your role?

My role is to be sexy and to smile during all the Chilipoker DSO, and to give the VIP players their gifts (and of course, the cheque to the winner).
5/ ok, now you can tell us the truth, you are going to Cannes to enjoy the sun, the French riviera and the rosé right?

ah ah yes and to find a player who can rub my back with sunscreen :p

6/ A final word for our players?

I will be your little “caprice”

Thanks a lot Virginie!

You can follow Virginie Caprice through her blog (in French) and also on her Facebook Page. She will be attending all of our DSO events this season. Do not hesitate to come and have a word with her when you see her!

Black Friday strikes poker players

Like everyone knows, last friday is now called by everyone in the industry “the Black Friday“. Three major poker companies have been shut down by the Department of Justice in the USA, leaving all the american players with nowhere to play their favorite game, and leaving thousand of players with frozen bankrolls, unable to withdraw their funds. I invite you to read an analysis from our CEO, Alexandre Dreyfus, on his blog, about this topic.

Chilipoker decided to offer those players the opportunity to keep playing, without losing the benefits they acquired along the years with these companies. New  deposit bonus, higher guaranteed prize pool on our tournaments, we will also match your VIP level and buy your FPP’s. (all details here).

We’ve decided to call this the “Purple Day”. Purple because of the colors of our company, our poker room, and in opposition to the Black Friday!

PURPLE UP!

To make this a little more fun, we have decided to throw a contest! You now have until sunday 11.59pm to send us a picture of you, dressed in purple, in a poker environment. The best picture will receive a $109 token to play the tournament of your choice*. (send your picture to [email protected])

Whether it is a purple shirt in your local casino, or purple shoes,  trousers, t-shirts with cards,  poker chips, poker table. Be creative!

With a $109 token, you can play a tournament with up to $100.000 guaranteed prize pool. So don’t miss out, or you might regret it!

The best pictures will be published on our Facebook page and also on the Chiliblog, along with an interview of the winner.

Hurry up, we are waiting for the first pictures!

Conditions*:

1-players must have an account on Chilipoker.com (sign up here)

2-players must send the picture to [email protected] , between Monday 18th of April 2pm and Sunday 24th of April 11.59pm

3-The photo must be sent in a Jpeg format, and contain you, dressed up in purple, in a poker environment (cards chips, poker room etc …)

4-Winner will be elected by the Chilipoker Staff and will get a $109 token to play the tournament of its choice on Chilipoker.com

5-All decisions made by CHilipoker are final

6-This promotion can be stopped at any time and without prior notice.

So as you all know, you can go and play a tournament on Chilipoker and set up a last longer with your friends (or total strangers!)… Chilipoker even refunds you up to 5 euros if you lose your first bet on Chiliconnect.

This is a great innovation, and if you haven’t tried it yet, here is a list of websites that will make you change your mind.

WPT mag : http://www.wptmag.co.uk/news.php

Rake the Rake : http://www.raketherake.com/rakeback-news/2011/04/06/chilipoker-com-introduces-player-connectivity-at-its-online-poker-room/ 

Poker Listings : http://www.pokerlistings.com/blog/chilipoker-brings-social-media-to-online-poker

Wicked Chops Poker : http://wickedchopspoker.com/chili-poker-did-something-cool-today/ 

EGR Magazine : http://www.egrmagazine.com/news/889012/chilipoker-launches-social-media-integration.thtml 

Poker News : http://www.pokernews.com/news/2011/04/nightly-turbo-chilipoker-integrates-social-media-zynga-ptr-10151.htm

Calvin Ayre : http://calvinayre.com/2011/04/05/poker/chilipoker-goes-social-as-wpt-title-goes-welsh/

Poker Network : http://www.pokernetwork.com/forums/main-noticeboard/25470-chilipoker-unveil-innovative-new-software-update-integrate-social-media.html

http://www.pokernetwork.com/news/forget-facebook-connect-with-chilipoker26191.htm

Bluff Magazine : http://news.bluffmagazine.com/ptr-gets-sold-chilipoker-gets-social-gigi-plays-poker-19832/

Casino Online : http://www.casinos-online.co.uk/news/20110405/chiliconnect-from-chilipoker/

Poker.org : http://www.poker.org/news/chili-poker-introduces-social-media-platform-13214/

Online Poker HU : http://www.onlinepokerhu.com/poker/Chilipoker-com-Connect-Players

Pokerisivuthttp://www.pokerisivut.com/news/chilipoker-julkaisi-t%C3%A4n%C3%A4%C3%A4n-nettipokeri-innovaation-chiliconnectin.html

Donk Maghttp://donkmag.net/news/chilipoker-veroeffentlicht-chiliconnect

THPKR : http://www.thpkr.com/chili-poker-je-pokrenuo-chiliconnect/

Pokernet : http://www.pokernet.nl/chilipoker-lanceert-chiliconnect.aspx

http://www.pokernet.es/noticias/chilipoker-lanza-chiliconnect-una-idea-innovadora

Convinced?

A few of us at Chilipoker are playing with Chiliconnect so look for us (hint: we are based in Malta), and you might win a challenge!

Here at Chilipoker, we like to be close from our players. This is why I got in touch with “x4v1ar”  to get his impressions when he qualified for the Chilipoker Deepstack Open Costa Brava, a couple of weeks ago.

x4v1ar: Hi, im a 29 years old guy, I live in Warsaw/Poland,and I work full-time as an IT Engineer. My hobbies are obviously poker but also formula1, motorcycles & cars, snowboard, films, music (many kinds). I’ve starded playing poker 2 years ago and now playing online cash games  6max NLHE on a regular basis

I’m a cash game player, mostly shorthanded 6max NLHE games. My limits are from $2/$4 to $5/$10. Most of the time (like 95%) I play online.

I’ve heard about the DeepStack Open from my poker buddies from Poland, and it will be my first DSO event.

I heard that many of my buddies will be playing this DSO event and I’ve never been to Costa Brava before, so I decided to give it a chance. The tournament structure and the place looks very promising. I qualified through the weekly satelite €40+€4 R/A

Well I’ve never been the chipleader but rather had an average stack all the way.There was a couple of lucky situations I guess, coinflips that I won, etc. At the end I had a streak of good hands and that was crucial – thanks  to this I was able to win the package. In poker you always need a bit o luck

The whole series is so great because of the structure and destinations. I love Chilipoker’s idea about organizing such live tournament series. Places are great, after Costa Brava (it will be my first visit there) I’m planing also to visit Marrakesh, Malta, Paris, Vienna. Great cities, a lots of  places to discover!

Well it would be nice to end up in the money, but its poker. Nice deep structure and long blind levels helps better players so its less luck-dependent, but sill its poker so u never know I’m not gonna prepare in any special way, tournaments are not my primary game, so I’ts gonna be more like fun to me.

DSO look like a great live series, I hope that Chili will continue this year over year! Great idea and good job, guys! I also  want to wish all the best and luck at the tables to all my friends playing DSO @ Costa Brava!

Well thank you “x4v1ar”, and we wish you and your mates the best of luck for this event, starting on Thursday.

If you want news from “x4v1ar” or any of your friends during the DSO Costa Brava, follow the live updates on the blog and make sure you interact with our staff!!

As you may know if you are following us on  Twitter, our Poker Diva took part in one of the biggest tournaments in California : the World Poker Tour Los Angeles Poker Classic. Living  in L.A. a lot of the time, she was very motivated before going to the Commerce Casino, the biggest Card Room in the world.

WPT LAPC Day 1

After playing the first few levels along with 610 other players and with the aggressive touch that she masters, Liz Lieu managed to build a decent stack going from 30,000 chips to 43,000 after 4 levels. The structure is pretty slow here and allows you to play your A-game, without risking the whole tournament if you get unlucky with a bad river. The rest of the day went smoothly and she ended up with pretty much the same stack.

Day 2 : Pocket Rockets Disaster

Starting day 2 with the average stack, the journey could start and anything could happen. This is the beauty of tournament poker. Especially when after 2 hands, you take a sneak peak at your cards, and you discover a monster such as pocket kings, with all the money going in the middle against Ah Qs . With a Ks directly on the flop just to stop sweating for a second, she finally ended up with a full house and a stack twice the size of the average.

Playing a little tighter, with a solid aggressive game, getting a few pots now and then, she reached level 6 with 89,000 chips for an average of 43,000, and still 450 players left.

But the variance is such, than even when you hold THE monster, the bullets, pocket aces, you can be subject to a few surprises.

It all went on a flop 9s 2c 9h with an opponent holding a rather uncommon hand to defend : 9c 6c . a 3 and then a 8 didnt help, and Liz was now down to 51,000. Enough to take her to day 3, but not in the best shape

Day 3 : for better or for worse

As usual, our champion was looking perfect when she arrived at the Commerce. Ready to push her chips in the middle, for better or for worse. She had to double up to survive in this jungle.

Not being able to find a spot, she was down to 31,000 chips when she shoved with Kc Qs . She got called by Allen Cunningham who had just arrived at the table, holding pocket jacks. One coin flip away from fresh air, she gathered all her positive thoughts and imagined really hard a King or a Queen showing on the board. No help from the dealer. She left 150 players in the poker room, still a few spots away from the money (65 paid).

We won’t know what could have happened if she had not lost that huge pot with Aces the day bedore, but that’s what tournament poker is like. About playing your A-game, and about putting all your money in the middle when you think you are the favorite.

Very good game to her, and we will be here again next time when she takes part in yet, another major international event.

NB : while writing those lines, we are down at 18 players. Among them, Allen Cunningham, making good use of  Liz Lieu’s last chips, carlos Mortensen, or Kathy Liebert, confirming her 1st place in the All Time Women money list.

Follow Liz Lieu on twitter : click below