This week’s List features 75 billion hands on PokerStars, Devo’s latest win and the end of an independent poker website, along with Jamie Gold, Daniel Negreanu and the Global Poker Index.

Buckle up. This is the In and Out List.

Poker’s In List: January 30 – February 5, 2012

Chopping the 75 Billionth Hand on PokerStars: IN

Earlier today PokerStars hit its latest milestone, hand 75 billion. And to celebrate they gave away $140,000.

And it gets better. The milestone pot was chopped, meaning two players had their prizes doubled!

edroqui07 and acer2831 both made the same seven-high straight and took $42,810 and $34,600, respectively.

Here are the payouts for the 75 billionth hand and their chat box reactions, courtesy of PokerStars Blog.

edroqui07: $42,810… “yeeeaaaaaaaaaa” acer2831: $34,600 i-268: $19,450… “awesome, ty” ant_poker: $19,010… “ooooh” Sebastfrz: $16,970 pavl007: $16,970… “enough for a sandwich” (but presumably a very big one)

We really like the sound of a $16,000 sandwich.

tcash777 for Live Updating his $2/$5 Game Against Jamie Gold: IN

Two Plus Two forum poster tcash777 sat down in a $2/$5 game at the Trop in Las Vegas and found the poker room’s namesake Jamie Gold sitting to his left.

“No one’s live updated me since the 2006 Main Event”

 

He’s In this week because instead of sitting starstruck, or the much worse ask-for-a-picture, he started a thread about it.

Drawing on the vast number of bored slackers knowledge and experience available in NVG he asked for help. The feedback wasn’t exactly helpful, and his cell phone ran out of batteries before he could get much of a dialogue going, we’re still commending him for taking the initiative.

Check out the thread right here.

Bryan Devonshire for Winning a Second WSOPC Ring: IN

The man known in the poker world as Devo has won a second WSOP Circuit ring, and a spot on this week’s In List.

Bryan Devonshire defeated the venerable Paul “Eskimo” Clark heads-up and pocketed $55,291. In total 228 players bought into that $1k event at Caesars Las Vegas.

Devonshire narrowly missed the 2011 November Nine, finishing 12th in the Main Event for over $600,000. He’s now got close to $2 million in lifetime earnings.

Get the full story from the amazing Nolan Dalla right here.

Poker’s Out List: January 30 – February 5, 2012

Subject: Poker for Closing its Virtual Doors: OUT

Subject: Poker, the website that has become synonymous with secret-source Full Tilt Poker news, has packed up shop and will no longer be publishing new articles.

Site founder NoahSD announced that he was getting into the online poker security consulting game, and would therefore be unable to present the kind of independent news for which the site was revered.

Feature writer Diamond_Flush has started a new blog, however, and will continue to follow the Black Friday debacle as it develops.

Daniel Negreanu for Bubbling the $250k Down Under: OUT

Some might call it cruel but we’re putting Daniel Negreanu Out this week for nailing one of the biggest bubbles in poker, the $250k Super High Roller at the Aussie Millions.

Maria Ho is one of 11 players bumped off the GPI this week.

 

Negreanu posted yesterday about what it’s like to go out in fourth and lose $250,000, instead of finishing third and winning $800k.

To make matters worse Negreanu spent the next evening with Patrik Antonius, the one who busted him out of the Super High Roller with jacks against A-8. Antonius, his wife Maya, plus Jason Mercier and his fiancée all went to the Aussie Open finals for that epic Nadal/Djokovic finale.

Click through here for Negreanu’s latest blog post.

11 Players from the Global Poker Index: OUT

Earlier this week 11 players were knocked off the weekly Global Poker Index ranking. The GPI ranks the top 300 live tournament players in the world.

Among those bumped off the list was Maria Ho, who has been in the top 300 since the 2011 WSOP, and Cornel Cimpan, who earned over $3 million in 2009 but hasn’t done a whole lot lately.

Still in the number one spot is Erik Seidel whose 2011 was among the greatest in poker history. Seidel has been number one 14 of the 32 weeks the GPI has been in existence. That’s more than any other player.

Click here for the full ranking.

Visit www.pokerlistings.com

Starting the day with just 344,000 in chips and on the wrong side of the average stack, Pagano went on a fantastic heater to build his chip stack to over 10x what he had to begin with.

Seizing the chip lead in the first level alone, Pagano most notably pillaged the chip stack of Day 3 leader Samphane Phomveha in a huge hand to distance himself from the field.

Pagano flopped a set with sixes, filled up on the turn and got big calls from Phomveha, who held trip aces, all the way down.

When the dust settled, Pagano bagged up 3,561,000 in chips to grab the outright lead heading into Day 5 and a one million-chip advantage over second-place Olivier Rogez (2,688,000).

Pagano had already secured a record 20th EPT cash and is now in pole position to make yet another EPT final-table appearance.

Brammer, Inizan Still Lurking in Final 24

With just 54 players to start the day and a target of 24, things moved quickly on Day 4.

Brit Chris “NigDawG” Brammer, who began the day in third with just over a million chips, tread water for most of the day but still finished up in 8th with 1,262,000.

Fellow Brit Martins Adeniya, also in the top five to begin the day, wasn’t so lucky as he busted fairly early.

France’s Yorane Kerignard (1,124,000) and Marc Inizan (481,000), two of the more established players in a local-heavy field, are also still in contention.

Play Down to Final Table Begins

Play is scheduled to resume tomorrow at noon in France with a final table of eight the target number.

Remaining players have assured themselves of at least €23,000 with six-figures guaranteed for making the final seven.

A solid €875,000 is reserved for the winner.

The top 10 and their chip counts, care of the PokerStars blog.

1. Luca Pagano 3,561,000

2. Olivier Rogez 2,668,000

3. Vadzim Kursevich 1,815,000

4. Paul Guichard 1,700,000

5. Andre Corredoira 1,316,000

6. Ignat Liviu 1,303,000

7. Christian Togsverd 1,271,000

8. Chris Brammer 1,262,000

9. Artem Litvinov 1,193,000

10. Yorane Kerignard 1,124,000

Visit www.pokerlistings.com

Benefitting the Green World Campaign, Poker with a Purpose brings big name poker pros like Annie Duke, Isaac Baron, Sorel Mizzi and Tom Marchese together for the first time to tackle core poker strategy concepts.

The book is available for just $9.99 on Amazon and covers seven essential topics, including Cash Games vs. Tournaments, Board Textures and Three-betting. Three pros tackle each topic to give you some serious perspective on what it takes to win at poker.

All the money raised by Poker with a Purpose will go straight to the Green World Campaign, an organization seeking to raise living standards for the rural poor through reforestation and sustainable agriculture projects.

From the GWC’s website:

The Green World Campaign has been cited by OnEarth, the magazine of the Natural Resources Defense Council, for its bold agenda: Turn degraded lands green again. Raise the living standards of the rural poor. Combat climate change. Create holistic ways to work for the health of our shared biosphere and the harmony of our global village.

The GWC connects those who want to help create a more sustainable world with on-the-ground projects that benefit people and planet. We focus on providing ecological and social benefits where they’re most needed. We seek out effective grassroots partners, then finding the simplest, most direct ways we can all contribute to their success.

Our work centers around tree-planting. We ally with local experts who best know the problems and opportunities in their country. Our trusted, ground-level partners work with villagers who are motivated to work for the benefits our programs bring. Contributions from the GWC get planted right in the ground. We always learn from our partners, and collaborate with them on creative solutions.

The poker players featured in Poker with a Purpose include:

Alex Kim Andre Akkari Annie Duke Dan Colpoys David Sands Erika Moutinho Greg Shevach Isaac Baron Jared Vengrin Jason Koon Jason Young John Tabatabai Mark Herm Matt Vengrin Mike McDonald Perry Friedman Sorel Mizzi Stephen Chidwick Steve Gross Tom Marchese Tony Dunst

Get your electronic copy on Amazon for $9.99 and you can improve your poker game, while helping improve living conditions for people in need.

Visit www.pokerlistings.com

Responding to a recent interview with BTG lawyer Behn Dayanim, Tapie confirmed to iGamingFrance that the unpaid debts of 19 poker pros, including Phil Ivey, Erick Lindgren and David Benyamine, could threaten the impending deal to purchase Full Tilt Poker’s assets.

The unresolved debt of $16.5 million is not something the Group is willing to take on, Tapie says, especially since the overall financial situation at Full Tilt is “worse than expected.”

Still, Tapie says they have reached out to all of the pros and some have even signed repayment contracts already. Some have yet to respond.

Tapie also specifically said Full Tilt players will only be refunded if GBT completes the takeover, which will require “the bulk” of that money returned.

If it isn’t repaid, Tapie says it is true it could block the deal.

Said Tapie, roughly translated:

“The poker community, and particularly that made up of former Full Tilt players waiting to recover their funds, deserves to know the reality of the behaviour of some major poker figures who say they are ‘sorry for the situation of Full Tilt players and want to do everything they can to help them get their funds back, blaming the old management, but also refrain from saying how much they have borrowed from Full Tilt, and lost, playing on the site.

“However these losses represent some of the funds owed to the players who are waiting to be reimbursed. When you are a poker player, a great player at that, recognised and admired, the basic rule, it seems to me, is to honour your gambling debts.

“Fortunately, among the 19 players we have attempted to contact, some have immediately called back and worked with us on a repayment plan to clear their debts, and we are already finalising contracts to that effect.”

Read the rest of Tapie’s comments at iGamingFrance.

Visit www.pokerlistings.com

Brammer, known online as NigDawG and one of the top ranked players in the world, had a huge day at the felt aided by rivering an ace against Winamax pro Ludovic Lacay and finished up in third with just over 1 million in chips.

Adeniya, the Day 2 chip leader, continued to build his stack over the course of the day and bagged up 893,000 to sit fifth heading to tomorrow.

Both, however, are chasing Frenchman Samphane Phomveha, who scooped a huge pot near the end of the night to take the chip lead into Day 4 with just under 1.5 million.

France’s Olivier Rogez (1,098,500) and Yorane Kerignard (979,000) round out the top 5.

Few Big Names Manage to Survive

With just 54 players still alive from the 170 or so that started the day and a very local-heavy field, big names are scarce with only a few managing to hold on through the day.

EPT Berlin final-tablist Marc Inizan is perhaps the most threatening, with just under $1 million in career earnings and 514,000 in chips to end the day.

PokerStars pro Luca Pagano also held on to some chips to secure his record 20th EPT cash and give him a shot at a bigger payday tomorrow.

Pagano finished with 344,000 in chips.

Making Money But Making Their Exit

Several notable players looked in position to make a big move on Day 3 but ended up crashing right out of the tournament instead, chief among them Lacay.

Bringing in a top five chip stack from Day 2, Lacay soared to the chip lead early on but fizzled out soon after Brammer hit the river ace against his jacks and busted in 58th place for €13,000.

Joining Lacay on the rail were Brits Toby Lewis and James Dempsey plus French rap icon Bruno “Kool Shen” Lopes.

Play is scheduled to resume tomorrow at noon in France with 24 the target number for players remaining by the end of the day.

Remaining players have assured themselves of at least €15,000 with €23,000 guaranteed for hitting the top 24.

Follow along with the live updates on the PokerStars blog.

Visit www.pokerlistings.com