Top News – Zynga Poker Hosts Live Event, EPT Snowfest Down to Final Table

Another poker week is almost over which means it's time to look back and see what happened in the past 7 days and tell you all about it. The tournament of the week is of course the European Poker Tour Snowfest which is still underway in Austria. The final table of 8 is set with Kevin Vandersmissen from Belgium leading the way.

Another big event was the first-ever Zynga's live poker tournament. The most popular online poker application went live last weekend and hosted an event with some of poker's most popular characters including Doyle Brunson, Annie Duke, Antonio Esfandiari and Scotty Nguyen. Online poker is now legal in Netherlands and the government announced that it is now giving away license to all those interested in doing business in the country. And last but not least is the deal signed between UB Poker and the Heartland Poker Tour. Read all about it in the new edition of Top News on OnlinePoker10.

EPT Snowfest: Final Table is Set

The European Poker Tour Snowfest in the Alps has reached its final stage with only 8 players left, one of whom is going to be crowned the new EPT champion. The best chances of doing so are in the hands of the man from Belgium, Kevin Vandermissen. The chip leader holds 4.5 million tokens in his pile which is two times bigger than that of Cristian Dragomir who is currently in second place with 2.3 million.

Day 4 of the EPT Snowfest saw an outstanding performance from Kevin Vandermissen who won almost every hand he played, busted a number of opponents and stormed into the lead leaving the rest of the field far behind. Giancomo Maisto, the former chip leader, wasn't able maintain his position and finished the day only in 7th place.

Three Belgians, an Irishman Denis Murphy, Vladimir Geshkenbein from Russia, young Dane Morten Mortensen, Romanian Cristian Dragomir and Giacomo Maisto from Italy are the Top 8 players of the 2011 EPT Snowfest and they will very soon all start the final battle for the title.

OnlinePoker10's Top News will tell you all bout the outcome of the tournament next week but for now here are the standings before the final table:

1. Kevin Vandersmissen – 4,512,000
2. Cristian Dragomir – 2,293,000
3. Philip Meulyzer – 1,758,000
4. Vladimir Geshkenbein – 1,678,000
5. Koen De Visscher – 1,543,000
6. Denis Murphy – 991,000
7. Giacomo Maisto – 986,000
8. Morten Mortensen – 780,000

Zynga's PokerCon

Zynga Poker is the most popular online poker game in the whole world! Their Texas Hold'em app on facebook boasts the biggest player traffic in the online gaming industry – 7 million users each day. For comparison, the largest poker site allowing real money games – PokerStars only attracts 34,000 cash players a day.

However, despite the fact that Zynga do not allow their online players use real money, they've decided to host a live poker event and invite some of the world's best poker players. Doyle Brunson, Antonio Esfandiari, Scotty Nguyen and many others attended the tournament which took place last weekend at the Palms Casino in Las Vegas. Zynga PokerCon was the name of the event which featured poker seminars hosted by Annie Duke and Ali Nejad and a $100,000 guaranteed poker tournament.

The two-day event was sold out the day before it even began. 500 players attended the tournament which was divided in to two flights of 250 players. 54 of them made it into the money and top 3 of each flight got their seats at the final table. However, only one player came out victorious and it was Aaron Alawen who became the winner of the first-ever Zynga PokerCon and collected $26,000 first-place cash prize.

It's Legal in Netherlands to... Play Poker Online

The Netherlands is perhaps the most liberal country in the world and many things that are banned in other states are legal there. So it comes as no surprise that the residents of this European country will be now free to play poker online.

Last Saturday, the Dutch government had issued an official statement that it was ready to grant internet gambling license to those willing to run their business in the country. The state secretary of security and justice, Fredrik Teeven sent a letter to the Dutch parliament claiming that hundreds of thousands of people in Netherlands were gambling on the internet and that it was necessary for the state to intervene and control the process in order for the state to gain benefit.

“It is a big shift (in policy), but this is a new government with a more liberal approach,” said Jaap Oosterveer, a spokesman for the Dutch Ministry of Public Safety and Justice.

Heartland Poker Tour and UB Poker Make a Deal

If you don't known yet what the Heartland Poker Tour is, you should start taking interest now, because they're about to make a big name for themselves. First HPT signed a sponsorship deal with the 2009 WSOP runner-up Darvin 'Lumberjack' Moon and now they did the same with UB.net. The US-friendly poker site announced that it will join the HPT for their 7th season and will bring their team pro along with them.

“What HPT has been able to do is fantastic. The best kept secret in poker with their homegrown events and national television exposure, they simply get bigger and better every year out. For us, to come in and back their product, we know we'll help to shine a spotlight on HPT like never before. So, expect more players having some fun at the HPT tables and overall richer prize pools across the tour,” said the UB team leader Joe Sebok.

The poker tour which is broadcast 52 weeks a year and reaches over 100 million U.S. homes agreed to include UB in all of their TV episodes of HPT coverage and advertise the site during the live events. Plus, UB Poker will run a number of Heartland Poker Tour qualifiers rewarding winners with the tour's event packages.

“Tiffany Michelle and Maria Ho are fan favorites after playing a few HPT events. We're looking forward to seeing them more often, as well as other members of Team UB,” said the HPT executive producer and co-founder Greg Lang.

And that's that for this week's edition of Top News. Next week we'll come back with more.

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