Sunday wow! What a day… a day which will be long remember by this gang of PokerRoom.com players that’s for sure. After a long and grueling tournament the night before this was the ultimate wind down for the players.

The Race Track

Again the whole of the PokerRoom.com players and staff were treated like royalty at the race track thanks to Eurosport and the WTCC. Chauffer driven transportation to the event and back was welcomed by all. Upon arrival we were taken back to our very own private VIP viewing section where the gang could just kick back, relax, eat and drink to their hearts content and take in the excitement of the race.

holdemsurfer getting ready for some VIP action!

VIP treatment

Just as the race was due to get underway the entire gang was treated to walk the ‘Green Mile’ no no no Tom Hanks would not be making an appearance today, it’s when the cars are being placed into their starting positions. Then as the teams are frantically busy heating tires up and cooling drivers down we got the chance to be right there on the track poking our noses into all sorts of places and getting some pretty cool photos with the team, the drivers and of course the pit girls!

Getting ready for the big race!

And just between us during the races we even managed to sneak the players up onto the podium to get some great shots! But shhhh…don’t tell anyone ok?

Jump Up!, Jump Up!, Jump Up! and Get Down!

After which Player 4erkess was treated to a once in life time ride of his life. Marcelo the leading car driver took him out for the first lap of the race. 4erkess came back a little white and shaken but with the biggest grin we’ve ever seen on him just stuttering just “amazing, it was amazing!!!” That’s right folks “AMAZING!” You just can’t buy this kind of experience unless you play on PokerRoom.com that is.

4erkess getting ready for the ride of his life!

If that wasn’t enough then it was time to hit the after party. These guys at the WTCC sure aren’t shy about throwing a buck or two around to make sure everyone has a good time. An open bar, a gourmet buffet, some pretty top notch celebrities to spot and some wild antics thrown in on the dance floor for good measure made this one hell of a night to remember. Who knows maybe next time you’ll be the one joining us at the bar? Of course that is if you can beat this gang who at the end of the night vowed they would reunite in Valencia!

See you next time!

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Heads up always a tense time and this was no exception. With hands folded again and again and again, we were starting to wonder if we'd ever get to see a showdown. Sure enough we did though and what a showdown. The blinds were 1000/2000. Check had Kh8s, 4erkess was holding 5h Ah. Check raised to 5000 back and fore with the calls and calls again business, before Check goes all in. And the board? Well that would surprise us all. Ac 10c 3h to start with followed by 3d and to finnish with? Well why not a 9s. So the Aces have and a new King is crowned. Lucky old 4erkess will win a place at the final in Vienna with a shot of earning some serious cash. Well done 4erkess Well done!

4erkess takes the title!

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Up and down and up and down like a yo-yo that’s been Kozyrd all through this tournament. Some thought of him being the most likely to win here today, alas it wasn’t to be. In his hand 10c9c, where as 4erkess had Ah8h but quickly decided to fold, As for Check? He was holding 7d7s. The cards were duly dealt and gasps came when we witnessed As, Jd, Qs, 4h and 2s. Two left and in many peoples eyes not the two we all thought would finish this game. Now its heads up time this could get exciting.

Kozyrd

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4erkess just took down a big pot of 20400 taking him up to 21400, holding on to 8h8d, Kozyrd had Qd,10c but folded after seeing the flop of 4h 3c and Ac, taking the young Latvian into the lead! The chip count right now is: CheckNorris 9200 4erkess 21400 Kozyrd 9300

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So we say goodbye to another player this time its holdemsurfer from Austria. His cards were KsQh, alas though Old Check was hanging on to KcJc which when combined with 10c, Qd, 10s, As and 2d was enough to send him packing…

holdemsurfer

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Time for a quick break here, blinds are going upto 400-800 soon and here's the chip count for now:

CheckNorris 14300
holdemsurfer 3500
4erkess 6200
Kozyrd 15900

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We’re losing them thick and fast now people. Bowarrior had As8h and Kozyrd was guarding tightly his Jc10d. What happened next? Dear dear me only in Poker people….Ad, 7d, Kh, Kd, 3d….wow tough break there man…

bowarrior

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Well we just lost another one folks. This time it’s our friend Let4ik from Latvia. He was up against holdemsurfer. Now Let4ik was holding onto 7s2c and holdemsurfer had 10h10c. The cards were dealt and crowd went wild when 4d, 7h, 9c. A bit of banter, some more bets and 6d came up soon followed by Ah. AH better luck next Let4ik and learn to listen to those instincts a lesson we could all learn from.

Let4ik

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Well well well good old Check sure did pull some sweet moves just now. Holding Qh and 8s and Let4ik with As5h things heated up a bit. Back and fore they went raising and re-raising till the pot stood at 6000. And the table? Well that ended up with Qd, 5s, 8h, 6c and 9s. Check sure isn’t complaining now. And that takes us to another break and a chip count should be on its way soon enough too.

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It’s getting hot in here and old check sure thinks so too by refusing to play until the Air Conditioning kicks back in. We’ve heard some delay tactics before but this one takes the biscuit…

Check sporting some quality merchandise

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Dam life moves pretty fast and if you don’t stop and look around once in while you could miss it. Sadalmelik bit the dust holding Ac9s to Let4ik JdJs and dam what a showdown, up comes Qh, Qs,9d,7s and Qd. You do the math…

Sadalmelik

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Well it had to happen sometime but this soon? Wow…Poor jazzhocki75 will not be going to the ball in Vienna it seems.

4erkess holding KdAh, jazzhocki75 JcJd and Kozyrd with AdKh. Long story short they all go all in after much debate. And the board reads 3s 5s Kh 8d and 10c. Split pot and early bath for jazzhocki…sorry always sucks to be the first to go….

jazzhocki75

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Another break and another chip count for you lucky lot out there:

CheckNorris 7975
Let4ik 5900
holdemsurfer 4725
4erkess 4200
jazzhocki75 3550
Kozyrd 6575
bowarrior 4025
Sadalmelik 3000

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Players are on a quick break now. We just saw our first all in from Let4ik who held AdAs, 4erkess on QdQs and Sadalmelik with 3h3d. The others quickly folded taking upto 5900. We should be getting a chip count in soon enough…

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Well the blinds just got raised to 50/100… no real big hands to report about it seems. A lot small pots and a lot of tight play by all. Here’s the chip count so far.

CheckNorris 6625

Let4ik 5175

Holdemsurfer 3000

4erkess 5100

jazzhocki75 4000

Kozyrd 4575

Bowarrior 3825

Sadalmelik 4900

bowarrior and his blue chip!

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And there off...well almost...the starting chip stack is going to be 5000, with 25/50 blinds and 15 min intervals. So nothing unusual there then, should be a good tourney, good luck guys!

From L to R: CheckNorris, Let4ik, holdemsurfer, 4erkess, jazzhocki75, Kozyrd, bowarrior, Sadalmelik

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Well the Eurosport make up team sure have been busy making all the guys look sharp and ready for TV. Not that CheckNorris needs any help just look at that hat!

Holdemsurfer

Kozyrd

CheckNorris

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Getting ready for the shoot.

Meanwhile back at the hotel, the whole Eurosport filming crew is frantically working on transforming a usual conference room into a classy looking card room. It’s really quite amazing to see the TV crew work. I managed to sneak a few photos of the operating booth complete with pocket card cameras, very James Bondish I have to say.

The editing room, check out the cool pocket cameras!

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The gang from L to R : jazzhocki75, bowarrior, Sadalmelik, holdemsurfer, 4erkess, Let4ik.
and Kozyrd take a walk on the wild side.

PokerRoom.com and the Online Semifinal Winners for Brazil spent the whole day being pampered with VIP treatment by the kind folks at the WTCC. With unlimited access to the track, the pit lane and even the racing paddocks followed by a fuel filled lunch and goodie bags to go home with this was a great start to the weekend here in Curitiba!

Rosa shows off the detachable steering wheel system to Let4ik, bowarrior and Sadalmelik.

bowarrior tries on Jörg Muller’s of the BMW team helmet, he didn’t quite manage to hold on to it though.

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Billy McKloski here reporting live Live LIVE! from Brazil. Well it’s fantastic sunny afternoon here in Curitiba. The players are all starting to arrive now. I managed to catch up with a few players and get just a few words out of them:

jazzhocki75 – Not giving anything away!

I qualified via the VIP GoldRoom tournament. I’d have to say my expectations are for a fair and exciting semifinal, a lot of fun and I look forward to the participants!

Right now I play lot of online Poker and not too much live Poker, but who knows perhaps this will change in the future?!

holdemsurfer – 3rd times a charm!

I played the Sit and Go Qualifiers and finished easily in the top 60. In the online-final I got really great hands in the first hour, but I was only winning small pots: But then I won a showdown with some luck, and after that my stack was getting bigger and bigger and eventually I was even the chip leader for a while.

At final table most of the time I was in the middle of the field, the last 5 was a very hard fight, as nobody wanted to be the bubble boy, so I had more and more as the blinds got higher und higher, I moved and re-raised all in with 99, the other player called and showed AK, flop AQQ and I was out at 5th position.

This was the 3rd time I missed joining PokerRoom.com at a live event the first time was for the for the WSOP in Las Vegas, the 2nd time I came 36th place at Miami Styles in Hamburg and only 30 players made it to Hamburg.

But one week later I got a call to say I’m “a lucky looser”, because some other players couldn’t travel “WOW” I though “what a fantastic surprise for me!”

Sadalmelik – Poker helps him relax

Well a little about myself my name is Eduardo and I live in a small city near Barcelona where I work as graphic designer.

I’ve been interested in Poker for a long long time. And since I discovered Poker Online it’s even easier to play now! When I take a rest from my at home it allows me to relax playing the game.

My hopes here in Curitiba are that this match provides some success to me although certainly the rest of participants will fight hard! Despite this I’d still like to send them my warm greetings and wish good luck to them all.

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Billy McKloski here, reporting in on yesterdays nail biting photo finish of The Race Trophy Qualifiers held here only on PokerRoom.com.

Well readers as we speak some lucky players are indeed packing their bags and getting ready to jet off to sunny Brazil, ready to check out some fast paced WTCC racing! We’ll be back soon enough with lot’s more info and interviews from them all so stay tuned!

And don’t worry if you didn’t qualify this time there’s plenty more chances with our Race Trophy Sit & Go’s and Freerolls. This time though the winner of the Leaderboard automatically wins a seat to the Semi-Final in Spain! Make sure to check out how to qualify for these events on PokerRoom.com

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Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen this is Billy McKloski reporting for PokerRoom.com

Twenty-eight hours to the start of the first ‘Race Trophy Leaderboard final’ on a hot Sunny afternoon here on PokerRoom.com

And what a ride it’s been so far. Over the last twelve days PokerRoom.com has been running Race Trophy Sit & Go’s with each one paying out "Race Points" to top placed players.

The question on everyone’s mind here? Just who will be on top of the Leaderboard or Freeroll and on their way to the Semi Finals?

Today we can answer that question; in pole position it’s Puggy82 on 101 pts, followed by micky d10 with 83 pts, donray1952 taking 3rd place with 76pts. But there’s plenty more with the top 60 players all qualifying for the Race Trophy Leaderboard final, and all battling it out for their chance to head to Brazil!

Go check out the full Leaderboard to view the full starting line up. The Race Trophy time is Feb 14 15:00 EST make sure to tune in!

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Gentlemen and Gentle women battle has begun. Who'll be crowned king of the Race Trophy? Who'll be packing their bags for Brazil? What factor suncream do you need in Brazil? These questions and more will be answered by our very own Poker Race Trophy blog.

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