PokerStars Big Game Week 3

20/08/2010 11:44

Over in Las Vegas, even while the poker fraternity were embroiled in the World Series, the PokerStars Big Game continued to rumble on. Cloistered in their specially constructed cash game room, five of the finest minds in poker were playing for thousands of dollars. The final spot was taken by a pokerstars bonus code qualifier known as the Loose Cannon. In Week 3 of this exciting contest, it was Russian-born Nadya Magnus who took the spare seat at the table.

Now living in Illinois with her 16-year-old son, Nadya is a child of Soviet Russia who was quick to show the seasoned vets at the table that she meant business. The single mother is a regular pokerstars download tournament player who hopes to make the move into full time play. Also inspiring Nadya to victory was her mother, who sadly passed away a year and a half before the recording.

It was going to take heaps of inspiration to squeeze any money out this encounter. Her cohorts were the cream of the crop at top texas holdem sites. All Loose Cannons are given a $100,000 starting stack from which they are allowed to keep any profits. Anyone who manages to pick up some extra cash can take it home there and then, or risk it by coming back to play in the next week. Each player is given a strict limit of 150 hands to stake their claim. They have the chance to generate the kinds of profits they could never hope to pick up from the same number of hands with a pokerstars bonus.

Nadya had to contend with some of the best in the game at her table. Barry Greenstein is a popular figure in the poker community, known for the breadth of his cash game skills. MTT Poker sensation Jason Mercier sat alongside him, just next to master tactician Justin Bonomo. Daniel Alaei took another spot, with the 2010 WSOP Champion Joe Cada adding a fraction of his millions to the game. You can find these players regularly swapping huge pots in Daniels Room Poker on PokerStars.

Nadya wanted to do more than make money, she was determined to best the $50,300 total generated by the best Loose Cannon to date. The highest total winnings from the whole series picks up a PokerStars NAPT Passport that includes buy-ins to all of next year’s North American Poker Tour events. These events will feature top pros and thousands of qualifiers from us poker sites. From the moment she sat down, it was clear that Nadya had overcome her fear. She took a $47,000 pot off Jason Mercier, before lady luck swung in favour of Joe Cada - JJ against QQ. Despite this win, Cada was having a torrid time at the table. Half way through the game, he decided to cut his losses and left with almost half his stack depleted. He looked like he was headed back to poker downloads to refine his game. Joe Cassidy arrived to fill the empty space. Another player left sore was Jason Mercier, who donated his whole stack to Justin Bonomo.

The Loose Cannon was down almost $20,000 after the first episode, but rallied to put on an impressive showing. Her biggest win of the week came against Cassidy, with her A-2 two-pair beating out his A-J top-pair. There were only two hands remaining for Nadya to put herself onto the top of the Loose Cannon leaderboards. The poker gods dealt her A-K suited and she used it wisely, brining her total winnings to $63,000. With more than enough to put her in the front running for the Passport, she elected to take her winnings and return home.

For your own chance to compete in the Big Game and grab a whole host of PokerStars Marketing Codes, sign up and get playing now.

PokerStars Big Game Week 3 Results:

Justin Bonomo (+$227,700)
Nadya Magnus (+$63,600)
Barry Greenstein (+$32,600)
Daniel Alaei (-$58,700)
Jason Mercier (-$77,400)
Joe Cada (-$86,400)
Joe Cassidy (-$101,000)