Bloch on PocketFives.com podcast
SAN JOSE, Costa Rica -- (PRESS RELEASE) -- The key to a successful fundraiser is attracting some of the top names in the business to appear at the function on your behalf. A few miles away from the Democratic National Convention in Denver, Colorado, the Poker Players Alliance held a major fundraiser for the Paralyzed Veterans of America. The online poker industry's major lobbying group set up shop at Coors Field. At the event were poker pros Andy Bloch and Barry Greenstein. Joining them were Hollywood stars Paul Rudd, Ben Affleck, Sarah Silverman, and Seth Myers. Bloch joined the PocketFives.com Poker Podcast this week to discuss his experience.
Bloch explained one of the purposes of the tournament to PocketFives.com, "You have to show members of Congress that poker isn't dirty; it's a legitimate activity for millions of Americans who enjoy the game without doing harm to themselves. It's just like other activity that people do for entertainment. The government has no business stopping people from playing $5 tournaments in their homes or online."
Meanwhile, there were a total of 14 major online poker tournaments held over the weekend, with PocketFivers winning eight of them. "OneTime_10" won $185,900 for his victory in the PokerStars Sunday Million and Thomas "Marduk" Nguyen took home $132,900 for first place in the Full Tilt $750K Guaranteed. "Supa4real" received $101,000 for winning the PokerStars Sunday Warm-Up after defeating fellow PocketFiver and ranked player "goodvibe" of Germany heads up. "Waters" earned $91K for winning the Stars $250K Guaranteed and Panama's "head2782" took home $74,600 for first in the Full Tilt Poker Sunday Brawl. Other major tournament winners included Adam "Roothlus" Levy and Mike "rusostreet" Caruso, who won the PokerStars $200 Sunday rebuy and the Sunday Second Chance, respectively. "Mtrau686" took first in the Bodog $100K Guaranteed for $23,600.
Englishman Chris Moorman, known as "moorman1" online, became the #1 ranked online tournament player in the world last week after a year of posting consistent results in high-stakes tournaments. He recently took second place in the PokerStars Nightly Hundred Grand to go on top of his largest career cash of $83K for first place in the Full Tilt $1K Monday. Steve "gboro780" Gross of Glassboro, New Jersey moved up eight spots to #11 in the online poker rankings after cashing for over $100,000 last week in online poker tournaments. Kevin "BeL0WaB0Ve" Saul, who dominated the Full Tilt Online Poker Series in early August with two six-figure cashes, climbed all the way up to #29 and is poised to make a run at the top 10 worldwide.