High Stakes Poker has just announced it's players for season 5. For the 5th season they are raising the minimum buy-in to $200,000 so it should be pretty exciting. Whenever there is a game with that kind of money, you know Phil Ivey isn't far behind.

High Stakes Poker has just announced its lineup of stars and professionals for its fifth season, and it’s sure to generate excitement as the list includes some of the most well-known poker players in the world, as well as the top two finishers of the 2008 main event.

Phil Ivey will be joined by such pros as Doyle Brunson, Phil Hellmuth, Daniel Negreanu, Phil Laak, Howard Lederer, Barry Greenstein and 2008 WSOP champion Peter Eastgate. It should be pretty exciting as towards the end of last season players were buying in for as much as $500,000. Sounds right up Phil's alley.

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Posted under Cash games

Button up your shirt dude!

The clashes between Phil Ivey and David Benyamine at Full Tilt Poker this year have been, dare I say, LEGENDARY. Some of the biggest games and pots in online history have taken place with Phil Ivey often standing victorious. However, it looks like Phil is going to be minus one as David Benyamine is rumoured to be heading to another poker room.

High stakes cash game specialist David Benyamine is no longer a Full Tilt red pro. For the past couple weeks Benyamine has been playing on Full Tilt’s site, but his red avatar has been removed and his name is no longer listed on the official homepage with the other pros. While no press release from Full Tilt has been released and Benyamine hasn’t commented, it is rumored that he has made a deal with another poker site.

Phil Ivey will miss his money.

Posted under Full Tilt

It's all about Patrik Antonius today as yesterday on Full Tilt when he left the table with $834k DOLLARS! The final hand of the session came down to Antonius, Phil Ivey and David Benyamine.

Ivey has the button, Antonius is in the small blind and Benyamine is in the big blind.

Ivey raises to $3,000. Antonius raises to $10,000 and Benyamine calls. Ivey folds.

The flop comes Jd Ts 8c. Antonius bets $16,000, Benyamine raises to $49,000, Antonius re-raises to $170,000, Benyamine pushes all-in and Antonius calls.

Benyamine shows the 9-10 of clubs for middle pair and an open-ended straight draw, while Antonius shows the Q-K of clubs for a better straight draw.

The turn is the two of clubs, giving Antonius some more outs. Now he can win with another club, a nine, a King or an ace.

The river is the Ace of diamonds. Antonius makes the nut straight and takes down the monster $439k pot. Benyamine insta-quits the table, and the game is over.

Benyamine ended up being the big loser. At one point he had a stack of over $500k and left the table broke. It was just Patrik's night.

Posted under Full Tilt

Sami "LarsLuzak" Kelopuro returned to Full Tilt Poker this week. A popular high stakes online player he has been largely missing from the scene in 2008 after he busted his Full Tilt account and wasn't finding enough quality high stakes game. A lot has changed since then as Full Tilt's RailHeaven has become one of the best plays for pros to get their high stakes action in (and for amateurs to watch it). Right away he sat in with Phil Ivey.

One was when LarsLuzak raised $3k after the whole cards were dealt and Ivey called. After the flop of [Jh 3s Jc] LarsLuzak bet $4k and was was raised by Ivey for an additional $12k which then LarsLuzak re-raised again to $29,600…Phil Ivey then re-re-raised to $47,200 which at this point LarsLuzak folded his cards and Phil Ivey took down the pot worth $65, 199.50.

LarsLuzak went on to take a pot from Ivey before getting into some HUGE pots with David Benyamine. Welcome back LarsLuzak, Phil could always use some more opponents.

Posted under Full Tilt