WSOPE

The company tha owns and organizes the World Series Of Poker (WSOP) and its baby brother, the World Series Of Poker (WSOPE) , has announced that the city of Cannes, in France, will play host to the Old World version of the world championship for the next three years.

The company, Caesars Interactive Entertainment, announced the move on Wednesday night. A deal has been forged between Caesers, Lucien Barrière Hôtels & Casinos and the new European branch of the Caesers empire means the WSOPE will be played at the Casino Barrière de Cannes Croisette – the same casino that hosted the controversial Partouche Poker Tour final last November that saw the expulsion of infamous German poker “player” Ali Tekintamgac for alleged cheating using bloggers and tournament photographers.

Mitch Garber of Caesars Interactive Entertainment explained: “This is a unique agreement between two casino leaders with great brands. Lucien Barrière Hôtels & Casinos is a well-run organization and we are excited to work with them to access the French market with high-quality and reputable poker events both in their hotels and casinos, and online with BarrierePoker.fr.”

A new poker tour, the Barrière Poker Tour, has been created to act as a series of satellites and qualifiers in France. The Barrière Poker Tour will start in April and will include seven stops, in Toulouse, Nice, Lille, Dinard, Enghien, Trouville and Bordeaux. The new tour play its final event once again in Cannes using the WSOPE as the concluding stop.

Eric Cavillon, operations director in charge of poker development at Lucien Barrière Hôtels & Casinos, commented: “The Lucien Barriere Hôtels & Casinos, BarrierePoker.fr and WSOP alliance allows us to put on an outstanding tournament hosted by a world famous brand in France while positioning us to become a leading operator of both online and live poker.”

The WSOPE will grow from five to seven events and will be played from the 7th to 21st October. The new location will offer 75 tables – double the capacity of London’s Casino Of The Empire en that has been home for WSOPE since its inauguration in 2007.

When Dwan put the original challenge out, there were plenty of players that said they wanted a piece of him, but Dwan stated, “There looks to be a lot of interest in people wanting to play me, but they never seem to appear online.”  That being the case, he has taken his challenge live and will be putting up $500,000 to play anyone for 500 hands in either Omaha or No Limit Hold’em.

All of the matches will take place in London and will start out with $500/$1,000 blinds.  The match cannot end until someone is broke or the 500 hands have been played out.  Rumor has it that 4 players have stepped up to take on Dwan in his latest challenge, but no details have been released as of yet as to who they are.

Dwan continues to be one of the hottest young names in the game and with his latest circus act, he pretty much assures himself that he will remain in the limelight.  While his online play speaks for itself, his live play comes under a lot of fire as he plays very aggressively and recklessly.   He has benefited from some incredible cards during his days on the High Limit Poker show, but still donked off a lot of money as he refused to ever back off.  The style did manage to get him some large payoffs as the session was winding down, but you have to question how that will work in a heads-up match.

He no longer has the benefit of the element of surprise as everyone knows his name and how he plays.  Antonius is proving that he is very beatable if you are patient and don’t get caught up in letting him bully you out of pots.  Dwan is not afraid to throw a large amount of money at the pot in order to take it down regardless of what he has in his hand.  You better be prepared to fight back when you have something or he will walk all over you.

Antonius has laid down the blueprint of how to beat him so far, but will other players follow his lead.  When he pushes, you have to push back and when you get a hand, you have to make him pay.  The ideal match would have him up against Doyle Brunson, Phil Ivey or Daniel Negreanu. All three of those players treat chips as weapons and have no problem mixing it up with middle cards.  The fireworks would surely be going off if they sit across from Dwan in London.