People News: Ivey featured in Ingram’s Podcast; Tice continues lead in HU challenge; Partypoker seizes WPT500 champion payout; Veronica Brill shares interview with Postle’s ex-wife

In this column, we deliver you the latest and most interesting news and gossip from our favourite poker people.

Phil Ivey’s interesting feature in Joe Ingram’s Poker Life Podcast

Joe Ingram’s Poker Life Podcast has finally featured one of poker’s most requested guests of all-time, the GOAT himself, Phil Ivey. The one-hour episode seems to be by far the most personal interview given by the industry superstar. Through the feature, Ivey shares his newly changed and improved lifestyle while noting plans the future holds for him.

Excitingly, fans can tune in to Ivey’s memorable stories including the time he beat a guy for a whopping $16m! The interview which has just been released today has already racked up more than 33,000 views on Youtube.

On another note, Tom Dwan’s following feature on the same channel is set to air next week, with many fans equally thrilled with the great level of content.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Joey Ingram 🚀 #passion (@papigto)

Landon Tice remains in the lead as challenge vs Bill Perkins hits 10% mark

With the fifth session having concluded last Wednesday, the heads up challenge between Landon Tice and Bill Perkins has the young pro in the lead for $83,702 across 2,045 hands. The $200/$400 NLH match is set to conclude at the end of 20,000 hands with an option to withdraw after 10,000 for a $200k penalty.

As the underdog, Perkins negotiated terms of the challenge and was agreed to have a rebate of nine big blinds per 100 hands at the end of the match, which means Tice would have to cough up $720k once the match concludes and profit over that to take home the overall victory.

So far, Tice’s biggest winning session was on Day 3 where he bagged close to $160k in winnings. With a current win rate of 10.23 big blinds per 100 hands, Tice is technically on track to win the challenge but with 18,000 hands more to go, it remains to be anyone’s game at this point.

Day 5: +$29,922.33

Hands Played: 366

BB/100: 20.44

Total Update: +$83,702.3

Total Hands: 2045

BB/100: 10.23

All in Adj BB/100: 13.92

Pretty close up to this point. 10% complete.

— Landon (@LandonTice) June 9, 2021

Partypoker seizes WPT500 champion David Afework’s $160k payout

While every tournament poker player dreams of that first six-figure score, no one imagines what it would feel like to have it taken away right after. That is the case of this year’s WPT500 champion David Afework who supposedly bagged the biggest payout of the $1,000,000 guaranteed event for $160,210. Soon after, the British player was surprised to see his funds seized from his account following an email informing the winner that he had been disqualified due to a game integrity breach.

Afework under the username ‘Devplaza’ took his plight to the popular Twoplustwo forums to ask for help and input from the poker community. He indicated that partypoker believed he had given his account to a third party but has strongly denied the claims saying that he “was completely alone for 99% of the time”.

“I imagine this third party nonsense comes from the fact that I have been living with another poker player for the best part of 7 months so maybe they see we share the same ip address or whatever but I’m completely transparent about that and don’t want to hide that, no one has ever had access to my account other than myself, that’s a 100% guarantee.”, Afework posted.

With Afework battling to get a hold of his winnings, the confiscated $160k is due to be redistributed to the other players, pushing each up a spot finish. This means that Sweden’s Henning André will be deemed the overall champion, giving him an extra $51k from the initial $108,796 payout for his runner-up score.

Whistleblower Veronica Brill shares interview with Mike Postle’s ex-wife

Mike Postle’s cheating scandal blew everyone away after the alleged cheater profited around $250k in the “Stones Live!” games through unjust means. While the saga has been publicized for close to two years now, Postle is yet to be held accountable for his actions. In a recent update from whistleblower Veronica Brill, a one-hour interview with Postle’s ex-wife Sabina Johnson was published on her Youtube channel exposing Postle’s previous scams, arrests and abuse.

While Johnson did not provide any concrete findings in relation to the cheating incident, she did shine some light on Postle’s character and past schemes. In one instance she mentioned, Postle schemed for free dental treatment from Reno Casino by taking a hard piece of meat and claimed he had broken a tooth at their buffet. She also further revealed screenshots of a recent conversation with Postle that highlighted the latter’s manipulative behavior.

Currently, Johnson is involved in a custody battle with the accused over their shared daughter, which could also suggest her motives to speak out against him. Her personal stories, whilst unrelated to poker, gives the poker community a bigger picture of what kind of person Mike Postle truly is.

YouTube link https://t.co/HrDBGWxoR5 https://t.co/LqcHjaeCii

— Veronica Brill (@Angry_Polak) June 6, 2021

What makes a “top player” in today’s industry?

Followers of the iconic Doug Polk called out the pro last Tuesday after tweeting a CNN article calling Maria Konnikova a top poker player. Polk insinuated that Konnikova is not worthy of the title given that she only has over $311k in total live earnings while pushing the fact that she remains to be a small-time winner.

“Top Poker Player” Maria Konnikov pic.twitter.com/klioDG5jxn

— Doug Polk (@DougPolkVids) June 8, 2021

“Also lol all the nonsense comments ‘omg so mean’, Are we going to call a spade a spade or not. Its insulting to the game to call amateur players ‘top’ players”, Polk added.

While Konnikova may not be revered as a top poker player in the high stakes level, the 37-year old Russian-American is viewed as a top player by majority standards. Given the fact that only a very small percentage dabbles in high stakes poker, Konnikova represents a winner for the mainstream audience. Needless to say, Polk’s issue with the article’s title was uncalled for and received a lot of disagreement from his poker fans.

Illinois’ Kellogg School of Management incorporates poker in MBA program

A surprise to many, private institution Northwestern University has again recently incorporated poker theory via its Kellogg School of Management’s MBA program. The six-week course provides the women a background in theory and practice with poker context relating to business theories. So far, a total of 99 women have signed up for the sessions.

Aside from its lectures, female poker pros Melanie Weisner and Maria Konnikova were tasked to share with the students their own ideas while elaborating on concepts such as aggression and position. Taking risks, image and overall strategy are also some of the key teachings that apply to both poker and business. With poker generally being a heavily male-dominated field, programs like this are always welcome to encourage more women players in taking a stab at the tables.