Poker news tagged with 'brian townsend'

Brian Townsend completed the Sahara Race 2012, a 5-day running competition in Egypt that began Oct. 28! It took him 53 hours to complete the 155-mile race through the extremely hot (and sometimes very cold) Sahara desert, and he finished 78th place out the 146 people who participated.

Read more » Townsend Ran 155 Miles Through the Sahara Desert!

It's been a while since we've heared anything from Brian Townsend, but apparently it's not because he's been chillin' out at some beach or something like that. Believe it or not, but the American high stakes poker pro has been training day and night for an upcoming Sahara Desert Race and therefore had very little time to spare for poker.

Read more » Brian Townsend to Run 156 Miles Through the Sahara Desert!

In a new interview with one of Europe's biggest poker magazines, the youngest living poker legend Viktor Blom, from Sweden, speaks out about the day when he lost $5 million to Cole South and Brian Hastings (the biggest loss in his career) and what crossed his mind when it was reveled that South, Hastings and another 3rd player, Brian Townsend, had collaborated and made joint statistics of how he played hands. When Full Tilt found out about cheating they removed Townsend's pro status for 30 days. However, South and Hastings got away with it.

Read more » Viktor Blom speaks out about the day when he lost $5 million

The Swede Erik "DIN_FRU" Sagtrom had a rough night at Full Tilt's nosebleed tables last Monday. In a $500/$1000 H.O.R.S.E. heads-up session against Brian "sbrugby" Townsend, he lost $112,000 in just 675 hands. On the other hand this session probably wont affect Sagstrom's bankroll and game all that much since he's up about $1 million this year and has been a winner for the past few years online.

For Brian Townsend, however, the win must feel good as he has lost around $4 million dollars this year. In other words, every "nickel n' dime" will help to minimize his losses for 2010 and also strengthen his self-esteem at the poker tables.

In the past 1,5 month, Isildur1 almost hasn't played anything. Last week, however, he finally made a small comeback and played about 8000 hands. Lots and lots of spectators were following their favorite mystery swede and watched him win about $50k. Even though Isildur1 won - there is not much to say about the sessions he played. No remarkable plays whatsoever.

Are we ever going to see Isildur1 play the same crazy games as back in 2009? Many Isildur1 followers seem to have their doubts about that. Personally, I'm quite sure that it's not the last time we get to see Isildur1 winning and losing huge amounts of money. Lets hope I'm right!

Read more » High Stakes: Isildur1 returns to the tables

The danish poker pro Gus Hansen has been running extremely good in the past 2 weeks, and he's also the one who has won the most money during this time. However, it has been a tough struggle for Gus as the swings have been sick. Anyhow, he ended up winning not less than $476,603 last week and we can only hope that his winning streak continues so that he make up for some of the losses he had last year.

Brian Townsend had a very tough time at the poker tables last week. He lost $580k and we can only hope that he will run better this week.  Tom "durrrr" Dwan also lost quite big last week ($392k). However, it probably didn't hurt his bankroll so much.

Read more » Gus Hansen is running good at the moment

The hottest poker news of 2009 were mostly about one player, Isildur1 from Sweden. Isildur1 came from nowhere and won almost $6 millions in a couple of weeks and then lost it all + another $1.5 million in just a few days. After that, Isildur1 had another upswing and was plus for a day or two before he started losing again. Even though Isildur1 lost so much money, many of the world's best poker players praised the young Swede by saying that he is an outstanding poker player who just needs to avoid playing such long sessions and that he should stop playing PL Omaha and stick to NL Holdem instead.

The big scandal
Isildur1 made many poker players even richer when his game wasn't at its best. For example, he lost about $4 million dollars in one single session to Brian Hastings, and also a few more millions to Brian Townsend, Cole South, Illari Sahamies, Phil Ivey etc. Shortly after this, Isildur1 disappeared from the high stakes scene and it seemed like it could take long before we heard about the unknown swede again. However, it didn't take long before Isildur1 once again was in the headlines as a big scandal was about to be revealed. It all started after that Brian Townsend got his red pro status removed by Full Tilt for a month because he had used a non-allowed poker program to collect data from the games against Isiludr1. And according to different rumors, Townsend had shared this information with Cole South and Hastings. However, neither of them got punished in any kind of way by Full Tilt. After that Isildur1 got to know about this, he said that he will ask Full Tilt to give back some of the money he had lost, and that he probably wouldn't play at Full Tilt anymore.

Read more » Isildur1's 2009

Not long ago, Brian Townsend got his red pro status at Full Tilt removed after that the poker site found out that he had been using a non-allowed poker program to collect hand history against Isildur1. Townsend had also shared the information he had collected using this program with Brian Hastings and Cole South. However, neither of them got any kind of penalty from Full Tilt poker. This made Isildur1 really upset, and now he wants his money back, or at least some of it according to what he said in a recent interview.

"I do feel like I deserve to get something back. I feel that Hastings had a big edge over me due to the hand history database. They were able to dissect the exact way I was playing because they analyzed the hands so precisely, and it was impossible for me to adjust, as I had no idea they were doing it.
Even though this information is not out there, since they admitted to sharing hand histories, how can I be sure that all three of them did not have input on the hands while we were playing?"

Isildur1 about the future and if he will continue playing at Full Tilt poker after the scandal.

"Well, honestly I am going to stay quiet for a while now. I am planning on putting in the request to Full Tilt to look into this further, and until I hear back, I don't plan on playing much poker on the site."

Brian Townsend has been in the center of the storm since last week when he got his red pro status removed (for a month) by Full Tilt after that they found out he had been using a non-allowed program to save hand history against Isildur1, and also discussed and shared this information with Brian Hastings and Cole South.

After this, Brian Townsend wrote in his blog that he was the sole one to break Full Tilt's terms & conditions and that Hastings and South had nothing to do with it. Brian Townsend probably thought that he would get some peace and quite after writing this. Unfortunately, for him, this "scandal" has now been taken to another level as many other pros now have started giving their opinions and thoughts on the Brian Townsend scandal. One of these pros are Tony G.

"The world of poker is a very complex structure built around players, the online poker sites and casinos that provide the games, the limits and games played, rake, backers, and a lot more, and in the end, trying to provide the best game possible that helps everyone.  The entire situation with Townsend, Hastings, and Cole involving their combined knowledge and play against Ilsuldur1 leaves a bad smell in the air for everyone, especially for Full Tilt since Townsend is one of their Red Pros. As a player, I would like to see Townsend be more committed to giving his attention to doing what being a Red Pro demands at Full Tilt."

Read more » Tony G comments on the Brian Townsend scandal

Last week rumors that Brian Townsend, Brian Hastings & Cole South had been cheating against Isildur1 started circulate on the web. It all started after that someone got to know that Brian Townsend, Brian Hastings & Cole South had been going through thousands of hands Isildur1 had played and also discussed different strategies on how to beat the Swede. They could do this thanks to that Townsend had been using a program that is not allowed at Full Tilt poker. Full Tilt took action sraight away after getting to know this and they punished Townsend by giving him warning and removing his red pro status for a 1 month. However, Brian Hastings and Cole South didn't get punished as Full Tilt couldn't see that they had broken any of their rules.

This is not the first time Brian Townsend has been breaking the rules at Full Tilt poker. Back in August 2008, Townsend got his red pro status removed for 6 months after that Full Tilt found out that he had been using multiple accounts playing cash games. After this, he apologized in his blog. It will be interesting to see what he writes this time. It will also be interesting to hear what Isildur1 has to say about all this.

After that Isildur1 went from 6 million dollars plus to 1,5 million minus, no one thought that he would be able to play at the higher stakes again. Many were even speculating in that he was broke. However, it didn't take long before Isildur1 returned...

In the past few days, he has been playing a lot of PLO at the $300/$600 & $500/$1000 stakes at Full Tilt poker. Isildur1's game hasn't changed a bit since the tilt sessions. In other words - it's still the same kind of roller coaster poker as he played before. Well, something has changed, and that is that everyone wants to play against him.

A very successful comeback
Isildur1 is doing very, very well and he has went from 1,5 million minus to about $2 million plus. A lot of this money comes from Ziigmund, Brian Townsend and durrrr. The luck has really been on Isildur1's side in the past few days. For example, he flopped top set versus bottom set against Townsend and won $720,000. In another pot, Ziigmund made a move at the wrong time and was 4-1 underdog when Isildur1 called his all in. Already on the turn, Ziigmund's chances of winning the pot were gone and Isildur1 just had to wait for the river card before the pot of $788,000 was his.

Brian Townsend is one of the writers at Cardrunners that have reached "Red Pro Status" at Full Tilt Poker. He is also known under the alias "sbrugby" at Full Tilt. He has been dominating the games with the highest limits on the net. During his time at Cardrunners he got a contract with Full Tilt Poker to become one of their sponsored pros. Just like all the other pros at Full Tilt he had to start playing with his real name as his alias which is flagged in red in the poker lobby when he sits at the tables. Brian Townsend is now admitting that he has not been following this rule, he has also been playing under the alias "Stellarnebula" during his time as a pro at Full Tilt Poker. He also admits that he has been doing the same thing at PokerStars by using the alias "Markersmark66" instead of his real account which is "aba20".

Read more » Sbrugby no longer a Full Tilt Poker Pro