Recent Poker News Dump: Happy Holidays Edition

Peter Eastgate's 2008 Main Event Bracelet Sells for $147,500 If you follow the PokerTips Blog, you might have seen that 2008 World Champion Peter Eastgate listed his WSOP bracelet for sale on eBay recently. The auction concluded last Thursday with a winning bid of $147,500. This came as a shock to some since the bracelet was appraised by an independent jeweler at $16,000. The winning bidder, whose identity is not clear, certainly places a very large intrinsic value on the item. online poker 468x60 The auction, which gave bidders a chance to add a highly unique item to any memorbilia collection, was a charitable one; Eastgate is giving all of the proceeds from the bracelet to UNICEF. UNICEF is one of the most well known philanthropic organizations in the world. They provide needs and rights to children in impoverished areas. Eastgate's decision to sell his WSOP bracelet was not a terribly surprising one. Earlier in the year, he announced his retirement from the game of poker. Although he stated that he will always hold of a lot of pride in winning the Main Event, he thought the bracelet might be used for a better cause. Eskimo Clark Bracelet for Sale on eBay There is good news for anyone who wishes to purchase a WSOP bracelet but couldn't afford the six-figures that Eastgate's bracelet commanded. Another WSOP bracelet hit the eBay market last week. This one, won in 1999 by Eskimo Clark, appears to be much more budget-friendly. Clark won the bracelet in a $1,500 Razz event. It is one of three bracelets he has won in his lifetime. Clark's wristpiece is considerably less valuable than Eastgate's, both intrinsically and for it's absolute value as a precious jewel. Poker News Daily estimated the bracelet's value in gold to be $5,175. Currently, the leading bid on the item is $3,850. There are still x days before the auction ends. durrrr Challenge Returns Two years ago, Tom "durrrr" Dawn threw down quite the interesting challenge to the poker world. He invited anyone, except Phil Galfond, to play in him in 50,000 hands of high stakes no-limit hold'em or pot-limit Omaha. His rule is that he and his foe must play a minimum of four tables simultaneously. Dwan sweetened the deal by offering an additional prize of $1,500,000 to anyone who shows a profit after the 50,000 hands. However, if he shows a profit, his opponent must fork over an additional $500,000 to Dwan. Despite having been in the works for some time now, Dwan is yet to complete a challenge with anyone. He and Patrik Antonius are close, but have taken nearly two years to play 39,436 hands. Currently, Dwan leads Antonius by a little more than $2 million in that challenge. Since the pace of the Antonius challenge has resembled that of a snail, Dwan decided to commense a match with his second taker. He and Dan "JungleMan12" Cates began play in August. They got off to a rapid start that had the poker world thinking the challenge might not take more than a few weeks. However, things grinded to a halt and nearly two months passed in between hands played in the Dwan vs. Cates challenge. Last week, Dwan and Cates got back to the tables by logging a 2,123 hand session. Dwan was a winner to the tune of $12,000 in the session which is a fairly modest win given the challenge's potential for huge swings. Dwan's win barely put more than a dent in Cates' overall lead. The up-and-coming online superstar still leads Dwan by $645,000 after 9,783 hands. Thus far, Cates has won 61% of pots which has surprised many in the poker world who know Dwan to possess a style that typically results in winning a majority of pots. Indeed, Cates is out-durrrring Durrrr thus far. World Series of Poker Goes to Florida One state that has made some very poker-friendly strides over the past several years is Florida. Caesars Entertainment (formerly known as Harrah's Entertainment), the owners of the World Series of Poker, decided to reward Florida's poker-friendly actions by adding a WSOP Circuit event in the Sunshine State. From February 17th to March 1st, WSOP Circuit events will take place at the Palm Beach Kennel Club Poker Room. This will mark the first time the WSOP has chartered into Florida. WPT Goes European Several years ago, dozens of new, major poker tournaments were added in venues all over America. This lead to something of a "thinning out" effect in the U.S. were there were more major tournaments than there were interest in them. Now, it appears Europe is primed to go through a similar bubble-effect. The World Poker Tour recently announced three new stops at European venues. The three new events, which will be held in Venice, Vienna, and Paris, bring the total number of WPT events on their season nine schedule to over 20. The buy-in for the Vienna and Venice events are €3,500. The Paris event commands a bit of a larger bankroll with a €5,000 buy-in.