Casino Player December 2022

PLAYING POKER

Russell Crowe Debuts New Poker Film

➤ by Sean Chaffin

T here is plenty of news in the world of poker as the anticipation builds for December’s WPT World Championship at the Wynn in Las Vegas, including the signing of a poker legend as the newestWorld PokerTour ambassador.TheWorld Series of Poker Europe also recently wrapped up. Poker fans have a new movie to check out after Russell Crowe debuted

his new film Poker Face in November.The movie features Crowe in several key roles—writer, director and star.The plot centers around gambler Jake Foley, who hosts a poker game featuring several fellow high-tech billionaires. Players battle it out for $25 million on the line, but things go wrong, however.A killer is on the loose in the house and the stakes are raised when secrets are exposed.The film co-stars Liam Hemsworth,RZA, Elsa Pataky and others.Real-life poker also meets fiction with World Poker Tour host/commentator Lynn Gilmartin making an appearance in the film as well. Poker Face premiered at select theaters in November and is now available for streaming at Amazon Prime,Vudu,AppleTV and Redbox.

Russell Crowe stars, co-writes and directs Poker Face, about a tech billionaire whose high-stakes poker game involves his friend’s secrets.

Swedish Player Takes Main Event Title at WSOP Europe, Shaun Deeb has Big Series

W hether live or online, it seems the World Series of Poker bracelet-hunting action never seems to stop.TheWSOP Europe played out in October and November with 15 events from King’s Casino in the Czech Republic.The action featured players from around the world making the trip to score a payday and some hardware. The € 10,350 Main Event highlighted the action with Sweden’s Omar Eljach coming out on top for € 1.4 million and his first bracelet. The tournament produced a field of 763 players for a

Eljach has had some success in the traditional WSOP in Las Vegas as well. In 2019, he finished runner-up in a € 2,200 PLO event for € 79,291. Coming through with a win now meant a dream come true. “It’s really hard to describe,”he said.“So many emotions, all of them amazing. Such a draining battle. I feel relief, I feel incredible joy.Yeah … it’s an amazing feeling.” No Americans took down an event this year, but NewYork poker pro Shaun Deeb stood out in

€ 7.2 million prize pool. Eljach now has almost $2 million in live tournament winnings and just missed out on a bracelet earlier in the series after taking second place in Event 6: € 5,000 Pot Limit Omaha for € 152,827.

the series. He finished third in the Main Event for € 607,531. Beyond that,he also found two more third-place finishes as well as a 10th and a 15th. In total,Deeb scored seven cashes for more than € 1.1 million.

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