MERCIER SEES DOUBLE

Team PokerStars Pro Jason Mercier has won two Spring Championship of Online Poker titles in the first three days of the festival on PokerStars.

The American star, who is living in Canada throughout the championship, won the $2,100 Fixed Limit Badugi contest (SCOOP 05-H) on Monday night for $39,200, and followed it up yesterday with victory in the $2,100 No Limit Draw event (SCOOP 08-H) for $34,400. He has also secured another three cashes and leads the Overall and High Leader Boards at this early stage.

After his latest victory Mercier tweeted: “One scoop two scoop badugi scoop 5card draw scoop…” and followed it up with “This was pretty awesome. As I won the scoop… I go back to supernova status pokerstars :).” It takes Mercier’s career SCOOP titles to three, which is joint fourth on the all-time stats Leader Board.

Here’s the PokerStars Blog report on Mercier’s two wins in two nights: http://psta.rs/1H3uIL6. 

TEAM PRO CASHES

A couple of other Team PokerStars Pros have done well in the opening days of SCOOP, with Chris ‘Money800’ Moneymaker finishing fourth in the $215 Fixed Limit Badugi and Mickey ‘mement_mori’ Petersen coming third in the $215 No Limit Draw for $7,521.

Other well-known players that have secured victories so far include Sorel ‘zangbezan24’ Mizzi, who won the $2,100 NL Hold’em (SCOOP 03-H) for $354,960 and now has two SCOOP titles, and Mohsin ‘sms9231’ Charania who won the $1,050 NL Hold’em [Turbo] (SCOOP 04-H) for $198,000. A blog interview with Charania after his win can be read here: http://psta.rs/1IAZwXN. 

Meanwhile, the reigning World Championship of Online Poker Main Event winner, Fedor ‘CrownUpGuy’ Holz, who won $1.3m last September, is not above playing the Low stakes events in SCOOP, winning the $27 No Limit Draw last night for $7k. 

Story via PokerStars Press

POKERSTARS LAUNCHES LIVE POKER ROOM IN SAINT-VINCENT, ITALY

PokerStars have recently launched a new PokerStars LIVE poker room in Northern Italy, at “Casino de la Vallée”,  which is part of a new leisure destination, the Saint-Vincent Resort & Casino.  Saint-Vincent is an alpine town not far from the international airports of Turin and Milan Malpensa, and near the Italian border with France and Switzerland.

To celebrate the launch of the event, a Mini Italian Poker Tour event was held in the new

PokerStars LIVE room, with 775 entrants creating a €225,525 prizepool, more than doubling the €100,000 guaranteed in prizes.  The event was won by Swiss player Jean Marc Bellini, who took home €42,000 as part of a deal.

PokerStars launched this new poker room to give European poker players an outstanding playing experience, with staff selected and trained by the Italian Poker Tour services company. This will guarantee poker players the same high standard of dealers as they have come to expect across both the European Poker Tour and the Italian Poker Tour in a permanent venue in Northern Italy.

“The new PokerStars LIVE room in Saint-Vincent aims to become a must-go place for Italy’s poker lover. We’re excited to bring the best of PokerStars’ live poker experience to Northern Italy, and to give players the opportunity to play in a well-run, trusted and high quality new card room,” said Team PokerStars Pro, Luca Pagano.

“PokerStars LIVE in Saint-Vincent represents the most visible sign of a significant partnership between PokerStars and the Casino de la Vallée. Two Italian Poker Tour events are already scheduled in this season; regular tournaments are available on a weekly basis, and plenty of cash game action too,” said Marco Trucco, PokerStars Italian Country Manager.

The new PokerStars LIVE room in Saint Vincent is the fourth PokerStars LIVE room globally, joining London, Macau and Manila.