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He has broken the record for the most gold medals won during a single Olympics, demonstrated amazing stamina and single-minded determination but how good of a poker player is medalist swimmer, Michael Phelps?  It’s been reported by Access Hollywood that Phelps will sit on the computer playing online poker for hours. 

Then there was the 2006 charity poker event he participated in to benefit the Nebraska Make-a-Wish foundation, which included an impressive field of players such as Warren Buffet of Berkshire Hathaway fame, David Williams, Evelyn Ng and Michael Mizrachi; Phelps didn't win.  He has even gotten into the action with fellow teammate and competitor, Ian Crocker, during a cross-country promotional bus tour following the 2004 Olympics.  
  
"Being on that bus for a month and a half, we had a lot of fun," Crocker says. "He was really starting to get into poker at the time. So we played a lot of hands of poker there at the table on the bus. I learned that he's far better than me at that, and that's OK with me."

Now that he has accomplished a feat that no other Olympian has, eclipsing Mark Spitz's seven-gold performance at the 1972 Munich Games, what's next on the horizon for Michael Phelps?   He will travel to London, site of the 2012 Olympics, for an appearance connected to Sunday's closing ceremonies then, looks forward to returning to his hometown of Baltimore where he plans to settle into his old life.
 
“That’s what I want,” he said. “As close to that as possible.  I’m going to live my life the way I always have, I’m going to do the things I’ve always done and hang out with the people I’ve always hung out with.”

Phelps has also expressed an interest in hanging out with Michael Jordan and Tiger Woods.  Though he has never met either of them, he said he is drawn to both because he wants to be like them and wishes to have the same impact on swimming that Jordan has on basketball and Woods on golf. 

Lastly, Phelps said it would be cool to participate in the World Series of Poker.  “My game is a little off right now,” he said, “so I’ll have to start improving it a little bit.”  Will Phelps storm the tables as he has the pool?  Only the future will tell but, be on the lookout for Michael Phelps, world's greatest Olympian, coming soon to a major tournament near you.

To send out summer with a bang, PokerStars has announced 3 additional freerolls through September, including 8 packages to the PokerNews Cup Australia!

PokerStars is dedicated to offering some of the most diverse freerolls on the web with something for everyone.  
  
Here are just a few of the incredible promotions that are coming up: 
  
$13,000 Freeroll to Seoul, Korea Sunday, August 21st at 13:30EST/14:30EDT 
  
The top two lucky finishers will win a prize package to Seoul, Korea worth $6,000 which includes airfare, hotel and most importantly entry into the main event.  The tournament will also feature an additional $1,000 in PokerStars Step Tickets to finishers 3-36.

Requirements to qualify for this tournament:
 
Valid PokerStars account with any deposit.  Must earn 200 VPP's between August 16-28th, once you do, you will receive your ticket once the qualification period ends.  Be sure to remember to sign up manually! 
  
$24,000 Freeroll (2 freerolls) - PokerNews Cup Australia  Saturday, September 6th at 13:30EST/14:30EDT AND Saturday September 20th at 13:30EST/14:30EDT 
  
PokerStars is giving away eight prize packages to the PokerNews Cup Australia in Melbourne, Australia.  Both freerolls are worth over $24,000 in prizes for the top four finishers in each tournament!  Each winner's package is worth $5,000 and includes cash for the flight and hotel accommodations at the Crown Promenade Hotel.  In addition, there is also $4,000 being added to the prize pool for the remaining participants. 

Requirements to qualify for this tournament: 

Valid PokerStars account with deposit.  Earn 150 VPP's between August 28th and September 3rd.  Once the qualification period ends, players will get a Freeroll ticket which must be used to manually enter the tournament. 
  
#30,000 Auckland APPT Freeroll Saturday September 13th at 13:30EST/14:30EDT 
  
The top five finishers of this incredible freeroll will win $5,000 prize packages to Auckland!  Each package includes of the Main Event entry, accommodations and cash for travel.  PokerStars has generously thrown in an additional $5,000 into the prize pool for the remaining players! 

Requirements to qualify for this tournament: 

Valid PokerStars account with deposit.  Earn 150 VPP's between September 4th - 10th.  You will get a ticket to the freeroll after September 10th which you will need to manually enter the freeroll. 
  
Don't miss the opportunity to play in these incredible freerolls from PokerStars!

The feature guest this week on Pokercast is poker player, writer, and coach Tommy Angelo. He joined the guys from his home in Palo Alto, California to discuss several topics including picking up tells at the table, decision making, his poker coaching and "Tiltless" training. Jason Rosenkrantz also chimed in on the program to give his analysis on the play of one of our Road to Super Nova qualifiers. Mike and Adam also talk some tournament news, forum static and of course give away the password for the August 24th Poker Stars VIP Club freeroll.

Original audio source (MP3, Right Click - Save As)

Houston area resident Bill Shiver, was awarded 21 million frequent flier miles as the grand prize winner of Continental Airlines OnePass 21st Birthday Texas Hold'em Poker Tournament played at the Golden Nugget Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas. 

Shiver says he's been playing poker as a hobby for four years and plans to use some of the miles for a Mediterranean cruise, a trip to Italy with friends and for road football games of his alma mater, Texas A&M University. 

Shiver said, "It was a wonderful experience, I didn't talk to anyone -- win or lose -- who didn't have a great time. I feel very fortunate and really lucky to be the winner." 
  
The prize pool totalled more than 25 million OnePass miles which were awarded to the finalists in the tournament that was played over 4 days and drew 243 players.  David Michaels of San Francisco placed second, winning one million OnePass miles.  The rest of the top ten finalists were awarded prizes ranging from 500,000 to 100,000 OnePass miles with the top 40 winners receiving 50,000 OnePass miles each.  A slot tournament was also held during the event for players and their guests in which Cris Farrell of Houston won 70,000 OnePass miles.  
  
The 21 million frequent flier mile award could be redeemed for up to 400 round-trip economy tickets within the US, up to 200 round-trip BusinessFirst tickets from Houston to Rome or can be used to bid on premier sporting events, VIP performing arts experiences and vacation packages available exclusively in OnePass Online Auctions. 
  
Continental's Executive Vice President of Marketing, Jim Compton said, "Continental's award-winning OnePass frequent flier program has recognized our customers with outstanding benefits for more than two decades and we look forward to continuing this service for many years to come.  We wanted to celebrate the 21st birthday of OnePass in a big way and are pleased to award 21 million OnePass miles to Bill Shiver." 
  
OnePass 21st Birthday Texas Hold'em Tournament Top 10 finishers:

1st Place  21 million bonus miles     Bill Shiver                 Spring, Texas
2nd Place  1 million bonus miles      David Michaels          San Francisco, Calif.
3rd Place  500,000 bonus miles      Rajappa Chidambaram Sugarland, Texas
4th Place  400,000 bonus miles      Bob Shega                Parma, Ohio
5th Place  350,000 bonus miles      Diego Samaniego        Scottsdale, Ariz.
6th Place  300,000 bonus miles      Steve Harris              Pompano, Fla.
7th Place  250,000 bonus miles      Don Bowdoin             Avondale, Pa.
8th Place  200,000 bonus miles      David Granik              Brooklyn, N.Y.
9th Place  150,000 bonus miles      Adam Smith              Morristown, N.J.
10th Place 100,000 bonus miles     Michael Black             Riverton, Utah

4,880 online poker players were lined up at the start of the Full Tilt Poker FTOPS Main Event this Sunday. Many of the Full Tilt Poker “red pros” also were on hand as 60 of the best Full Tilt had to offer were registered in the tournament as well.

First place was to pay a healthy $432,400 (US), so everyone was laser focused on making the final table to have their shot at this near half-million dollar cash out. Not one of the Full Tilt Poker professional players made the final table but there was clearly a lot of talent within the final 9 as they plowed through the field in just over 11 hours to see the final table.

Seat 1: valleyho (4,177,484)
Seat 2: Pokerguru19 (1,252,960)
Seat 3: dubbeemin (3,574,154)
Seat 4: hemlock1313 (1,273,018)
Seat 5: sckilla (5,646,087)
Seat 6: aaaFRANCESCOzzz (1,641,169)
Seat 7: TiltinShoes (3,472,702)
Seat 8: tvcsa (1,426,134)
Seat 9: TheTotalPkg (1,936,292)

The first elimination came after only a few hands were played and it would be a clash of the titans as the top two players chip-wise locked horns. The blinds were at 60/120K with 15K antes when dubbeemin raised to 280K from the first position. TiltinShoes popped it back to 600K and the action was folded back to dubbeemin. He re-raised to 1.3M and TiltinShoes pushed all of his chips only to be instacalled by dubbeemin.

TiltinShoes: As Kc
dubbeemin: Ah Ac

Flop: 3s 2d Qs
Turn: 3c
River: 5s

When’s the worst possible time to pick up AK? When you’re facing a bigger stack holding pocket rockets! Unfortunately for TiltinShoes his hand got no help and he was sent packing by dubbeemin, who now holds a commanding lead.

A few more players would be eliminated but noting had the impact of that first knockout by dubbeemin. Once the heads up match began, dubbeemin was the clear leader with 18.7M chips to the challenger valleyho’s 5.7M. Early on both players got all of the chips in with dubbeemin holding pocket 10’s to valleyho’s pocket 8’s. Only a miracle 8 on the turn during that hand saved the tournament for valleyho and increased his stack to around 9M.

The final hand would bring a miracle card for the ultimate winner but not without some drama. After dubbeemin called from the SB, valleyho raised it to 725,555 and was quickly called by dubbeemin.
 
The flop came: 9c 7c 6h

valleyho bet out for 999,955 and dubbeemin thought briefly before raising it to 3.5M. valleyho then went all in for another 4 million with dubbeemin calling.

valleyho: Kc 10c
dubbeemin: Qc Jc

Turn: Ad
River: Jd

Ironically, both players had to have felt good with the flush draw on the flop even though neither paired their cards. It was now the chip leader who needed a miracle card as any club would seal the hand for valleyho. While no club came, the miracle Jack did indeed arrive on the river giving dubbeemin the victory and a $432,400 paycheck to go with his gold FTOPS jersey.

Play The FTOPS Today!