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Online Poker Traffic Skyrocketing In September

The results are in and the numbers speak for themselves – online poker is experiencing an enormous boost in traffic for the month of September. Across the boards, it seems every online poker room is seeing a boost in participation, but none quite so notably as PokerStars.

The world’s largest online poker room in regards to active players, PokerStars saw a massive increase in activity this month, jumping 34% from August with an average of 17,451 active players per hour over the course of each day. Not only is that an exceptional jump from last month, it makes September the most active month at PokerStars in all of 2008, thus far.

By far the busiest day of all for PokerStars fell on September 14th as an average of 20,406 online poker players took to the tables each hour. During peak hours of 4-6pm, those numbers rose even further to near 30,000.

One reasonable explanation for the increase at PokerStars has to be the ongoing World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP), worth a guaranteed $30,000,000 overall. September 14th, PokerStars hosted Event #20 of the WCOOP, $1,050 NL Hold’em, attracting 3,467 alone.

The WCOOP can’t take all of the responsibility though as PokerStars is not the only major online poker room to see higher numbers in September. Full Tilt Poker came in second, jumping 28% since August with an average of 7,890 active players per hour.

Titan Poker, Mansion Poker, Hollywood Poker and Party Poker also experienced traffic improvements, ranging from 1% to 12% growth.

As a whole, we can safely assume that the return of college students has its hand in the cookie jar, as well. College students are infamous for dwindling away the first semester that should be spent studying, and what better way than to gamble those hard-earned tuition dollars?

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Sebastian Ruthenberg of Germany ruled the roost at Spain’s Casino Barcelona as he went on to win the PokerStars European Poker Tour (EPT) Title and an impressive €1,361,000 for the 1st place victory.

Ruthenberg, who won his first World Series of Poker (WSOP) Bracelet just a few short months ago in the Seven Card Stud Hi-Low Championship event, added the EPT title to his trophy shelf after going heads up against Irishman Fintan Gavin.

Ruthenberg held the clear chip advantage going into the final battle, and dominated Gavin straight through as it took only three hands emerge triumphant. Gavin went all-in with 4h-7c, immediately called by Sebastian with Kc-9c. The Flop came down, Ac-7h-2h, giving Gavin the early lead with mid-pair. Unfortunately for the Irishman, the Turn and River would fall in Ruthenberg’s favor as Kh-9d gave him the two-pair and the final blow to victory.

Over the 5-day Poker Stars EPT Barcelona event, lasting from September 10th through the 14th, Ruthenberg proved his incredible skill for the game of poker. Though his first two days of play went fabulously well, on the third day of competition, he found himself short stacked and aiming for the rails. It was a slow and tedious recovering, but Ruthenberg regained his position and continued to dominate the tables form there on out.

Sebastian outlasted a field of 619 players, including EPT San Remo Champion Jason Mercier, who was knocked out in 6th position by Gavin. Davidi Katia, the only other WSOP Bracelet holder at the final table, was eliminated in 3rd position by Ruthenberg to bring about the final three hands of heads-up play.

PokerStars European Poker Tour Barcelona Final Table Results

1st - Sebastian Ruthenberg - €1,361,000 (Germany)
2nd - Fintan Gavin - €792,000 (Ireland)
3rd - Davidi Kitai - €455,000 (Belgium)
4th - Daniele Mazzia - €351,000 (Italy)
5th - Dren Ukella - €292,000 (Germany)
6th - Jason Mercier - €227,800 (United States)
7th - Sam Chartier - €178,000 (Canada)
8th - Martin Nielsen - €119,000 (Denmark)

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Scott ‘dorinvandy’ Dorin Wins PokerStars WCOOP High Roller Event #5
The PokerStars World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP) was well underway this weekend when it hosted its high roller Event #5, a $10,000 + $300 NL Hold?em tournament with a guaranteed prize pool of $2,000,000. 22 year old Scott ‘dorinvandy’ Dorin of New York wasted no time in racking up nearly $618k for the 1st place victory.
A total of 321 participants bought into the $10k WCOOP event at PokerStars, enough to substantially raise the expected $2m prize pool to a whopping $3,210,000, paying the top 54 finishers. After a little more than 12 hours, a winner was revealed.
The final table slowly diminished as player after player found themselves watching from the rails. ‘Choron’ of Ontario, Canada, having already won more than $10,000 at Full Tilt Poker online tournaments last month for 1st and 2nd place finishes, left the table in 4th position, claiming an impressive $256,400 on his way out the virtual door.
Next to exit the PokerStars WCOOP Event #5 was Peter ‘#1pen’ Neff, a 22 year old poker player from Los Angeles, California. Neff, who?s already gained spotlight presence in the PokerStars WCOOP Event #3 with a 2nd place finish worth $54k, was eliminated in 3rd for $337,050.
Heads-up play ensued between Scott ‘dorinvandy’ Dorin and 29 year old Greg ‘DuckU’ Hobson of Portland, Oregon. Both professional poker players, it came down to a battle of skills, wits and of course that certain element of luck. The cards fell in dorinvadndy?s favor this time, awarding the 1st place victory and $617,925.
Just last month, dorinvandy made headlines for a second place finish at Full Tilt Poker’s FTOPS IX Event #1, worth more than $120k.
Hobson was awarded nearly $20k in PokerStars online poker tournaments just last month, including an 8th place finish at the $1k buy-in Super Tuesday on August 26th worth $10,000, and another $9,758 ten days earlier for a 3rd place finish in a $40k GTD. This PokerStars WCOOP Event #5 2nd place finish added another $459,030 to those esteemed winnings.
PokerStars WCOOP Event #5 Final Table Results
1st - dorinvandy ($617,925)

2nd - DuckU ($459,030)

3rd - #1PEN ($337,050)

4th - Choron ($256,800)

5th - gbmantis ($179,760)

6th - Money800 ($139,635)

7th - Jcardshark ($107,535)

8th - purplEUROS ($75,435)

9th - O. Hershiser ($54,570)

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Day 1A of the PokerStars Asia Pacific Poker Tour (APPT) Macau got underway Monday, September 1, as 125 of Asia’s most prolific poker players took to the tables. Andre “HoRRoR” Wagner ended Day 1A with the chip lead.

There was plenty of notable action on the first day of the event, especially regarding the day’s ending chip leader – Andre “HoRRoR” Wagner, who hadn’t actually planned on participating in the tournament. Coach Wagner had only intended to “accompany the others” to the first day of competition. Instead, he ended up entering the tournament, only to find himself with a sizable lead as game play came to a close Monday.

Another noteworthy happenstance was the early elimination of the Poker Stars.com professional poker player Barry Greenstein. He check-raised with pocket 3’s, then called his opponent all-in when another 3 came on the Flop. Unfortunately for Greenstein, his opponent held pocket 5’s, drawing another 5 on the River, and it was all over for Barry.

Three other hopefuls were met with a swift, unlucky demise from the tables – Holger “Tonding” Kanisch, Moritz “trader” Schmejkal and Francesco “BAndelfAnIE” Gitz. Kanisch was eliminated by Wagner himself, adding to HoRRoR’s final chip lead.

In the Pro blog, HoRRoR commented on his early success and interesting derailment of “Tonding”, with whom he was actually sharing a hotel room with. “The first real key hand was when I came to a new table with about 40k and found KK in the small blind in my second hand. The button open-raised, and I re-raised of course. The problem was that I knew the button all too well. It was Holger (Tonding), with whom I also share the hotel room. He already knows from the SnG’s that I am very loose, and thus he had to really consider if I also play this aggressively against him in a tournament.”

Obviously, it worked out well for HoRRoR, who finished the day well above the average chip stack. Holding the lead with more than 100,000 chips to his name at the end of PokerStars APPT Macau Day 1A, HoRRoR and 44 other remaining participants will make their way into Day 1B Tuesday, September 2.