Poker Celebrities: Steve Davis

Steve Davis was born on the 22 August, 1957 in Plumstead, London. Steve Davis is an English professional snooker player who has won more professional titles in the sport than any other player. Steve's most well known for six World Championship wins during the 1980s. This winning roll in the the 1980s made Steve Davis the snooker world number one for seven years. He also reached eight world finals; while at the same time becoming the sport's first millionaire. Davis's dominance in the 1980s, produced a popular saying "that he was on television more often than the Prime Minister of the time".

Steve Davis has not won a major title since 1997. He continues to play snooker at a high level, which is very unusual in a player over 50 years of age. Steve Davis retained his place in the elite world top-16 players almost every year, being ranked no. 15 for the 2007/08 snooker season. However, poor results saw him drop out of the Top 16 for the 2008/09 season, in which he was ranked no. 29, and his official ranking for 2009/10 is no. 23. Davis is now an established television analyst, and occasional commentator, for BBC's snooker coverage.

To a lesser extent, Davis is also known as a nine-ball pool player, having achieved some notable success in the Mosconi Cup, and World Pool Championship competitions. In his early days, he also played billiards. Steve Davis is also known for his interest in the game of poker.

Steve Davis is a great poker player, with successful appearances at televised tournaments; one of these included an appearance at the final table of the 2003 Poker Million together with fellow snooker player Jimmy White. At the 2006 World Series of Poker, Davis finished 579th in the no limit Texas hold'em main event, winning $20,617. Steve Davis has had quite a few more cashes in his poker career including one in the World Series of poker in 2008. Steve finished in 389th place earning himself an almost triple up of his buy in and $28,950.00. He has also cashed at the Irish Poker Championships and the Poker Million Masters where he came respectfully 3rd and 5th.

Steve Davis who is one of the renowned poker celebrities is also known as  "The Nugget".

European Poker Tour

The European Poker Tour (more commonly referred to as the EPT) began in 2004 as part of the worldwide explosion in Texas Hold 'em poker popularity. The EPT is a series of televised poker tournaments and is very similar to the World Poker Tour (WPT). It is branded and partially owned by Poker Stars.

In seasons 1-3 of the European Poker Tour, the most significant difference between itself and the World Poker Tour was the buy-in and its effect on the prize pool. The EPT featured buy-ins about half the size of the WPT and therefore the prize pool was somewhat smaller. This changed in season 4 when the buy-in for most of the EPT events was increased to €8,000. The increase was made due to its high popularity and lack of space in participating casinos. At the time (2007) after exchange rates, the buy-in was close to equal to US$10,000 which is the buy-in for most WPT events.

The final table of the European Poker Tour is made up of 8 players. This is again different to the 6 player final tables popularized by the World Poker Tour.The EPT is taped by Sunset + Vine for television broadcast across Europe.

The European Poker Tour was created by John Duthie, winner of the inaugural Poker Million tournament. John Duthie commentates for the show, alongside Colin Murray and James Hartigan. The show was first hosted by Caroline Flack, then joined by Natalie Pinkham. Season 4 of the show is hosted by Kara Scott.

There to date have been 6 seasons of the EPT. Although the location of the EPT changes frequently major locations such as London, Copenhagen and Monte Carlo remain the same each year; usually with Monte Carlo being the season finale location. The following locations are where the European Poker Tour have been held to date:

· Barcelona (Barcelona Open 2004)

· London (European Poker Classics)

· Dublin (The Irish Winter Tournament 2004)

· Copenhagen (Scandinavian Open 2005)

· Deauville (The French Open 2005)

· Vienna (11th Vienna Spring Poker Festival)

· Monte Carlo (European Poker Tour Grand Final)

· Baden (The Big Double 2006)

· Dortmund (EPT Dortmund)

· Warsaw (EPT Warsaw)

· Prague (EPT Prague)

· PokerStars Caribbean Adventure

· Sanremo (EPT Sanremo)

· Budapest (EPT Hungarian Open)

· Kyiv

· Vilamoura

· Salzburg

As the European Poker Tour has many events a Talley has been kept alike the Olympic Games showing each countries win score and Talley. This has no real meaning but may in years to come. Until now The United States is in the lead with a total score of 9 wins. Here is a chart showing countries who have taken down an EPT event:

1st United States 9

2nd England 7

3rd Germany 5; France 5

5th Netherlands 4; Sweden 4

7th Denmark 3; Canada 3

9th Finland 2; Norway 2; Portugal 2

12th Lebanon 1; Italy 1; Russia 1

The European Poker Tour Seasons 1 to 6 can be found on youtube and pokertube in bits and pieces with the final table of each event the easiest to find. This is brilliant viewing for all poker players across the globe.

World Series of Poker

The World Series of Poker (WSOP) is an annual poker tournament held in Las Vegas. In its first year which was 1970, the WSOP was an invitational where Benny Binion invited six of the best known poker players to The Horseshoe Casino. As the years have passed, the event has grown in terms of its prizes, events and participation as well. In its present format, the WSOP consists of 55 events which traditionally take place over one or more consecutive days during the series in June and July.

The winner of each event wins a World Series of Poker bracelet and a monetary prize based on the number of entrants and buy-in amounts. If one takes a look at the history of poker, the WSOP bracelet is the most coveted trophy a player could win and one from the main event is revered above all others. The series features all the variants of poker, but the one that is most played is Texas Hold’em.
The main event of the series is the $10,000 no-limit hold’em where the victor receives a multi-million dollar prize and the series ends. The winner of the World Series of Poker is considered to be the World Champion of Poker. Peter Eastgate is the youngest person to win the main event of the world series of poker.