The Nightly Turbo: Tony G Helps Jungleman Find Action, Toby Lewis Wins TCOOP, and More

Brett Collson Chief Editor

Jan 23, 2012 4 min read

The first Jungleman Challenge flopped worse than "Green Lantern" at the box office in 2011. But Dan Cates is still looking for an opponent and might just find one at the Aussie Millions this month. We'll cover that story and more in this edition of the Nightly Turbo.

In Case You Missed It

On Monday, Dan Smith bested one of the toughest fields in poker to win the Aussie Millions $100,000 Challenge. Get all the details from that event and more in the daily Aussie Millions recap.

Aussie Brendon Rubie won the Opening Event of the 2012 Aussie Millions Championship last week. The young gun discussed the highs and the lows during his poker career in Part 2 of the latest Seat Open series.

The buyer of Peter Eastgate's 2008 World Series of Poker bracelet says he's willing to give it back to the WSOP. Chad Holloway and Remko Rinkema caught up with the big spender to find out more.

A familiar face took down the PokerStars Sunday Million this week. Find out who won that event and the rest of the PokerStars Sunday majors in the Sunday Briefing.

Only 30 players advanced to Day 3 of theWorld Series of Poker Circuit Choctaw Main Event. We break down all the action in our daily recap.

Jungleman Still Looking for Action

Dan "Jungleman" Cates didn't find any takers for his �100,000 challenge in Prague last month. His challenge to the world is still open, though, and he's getting some help from Tony G. to find an opponent while at the Aussie Millions Poker Championship this month.

Cates issued the original challenge last October. A contender would have faced Cates in a heads-up match at stakes of �200/�400 with a minimum buy-in of �100,000 at the Prague Poker Festival on Dec. 6. However, because nobody stepped up to the plate, the challenge is still in limbo.

Cates and Tony G. spoke with Nicki Pickering about the challenge and who Cates would most like to play heads-up:

Toby Lewis Wins PokerStars TCOOP Event

Fifteen players won tournaments during the inaugural PokerStars Turbo Championship of Online Poker (TCOOP) over the weekend. The series, which kicked off on Jan. 18, had crowned 19 winners through Sunday, with four more winners set to be determined on Monday.

Highly regarded U.K. pro Toby "810ofcubs" Lewis was among the weekend's TCOOP champions. On the same day that fellow Brit James Akenhead won the PokerStars Sunday Million, Lewis bested a massive field of 12,270 players to win the $55 No-Limit Hold'em Knockout event for $68,676.

The biggest winner during the weekend was Brazil's "alterbo ka," who earned $90,728 by winning Event #19, a $215 No-Limit Hold'em Hyper Turbo. The event took less than two hours to complete, meaning the Brazilian player earned over $762 per minute during the tournament.

For details on each of the TCOOP events, check out the PokerStars Blog.

Four-betting Sarah Marshall

Apparently, Drew Barrymore didn't take lessons from poker pros like Daniel Negreanu, Erick Lindgren and Sam Farha while shooting Lucky You in 2007. The actress told Vegas Magazine last week that Kristen Bell, Barrymore's co-star in the upcoming film Big Miracle, destroyed her at the poker table when they played on set.

"Kristen and (co-star) John Krasinski would have poker nights at their hotel rooms all the time while we were filming in Alaska," Barrymore told Vegas. "She definitely whooped my ass!"

For Kristen's sake, we hope Bradley Ruderman wasn't invited to this celebrity game.

Read the full story at Vegas Magazine (starts at page 80).

Bet24 Enhances Roster of Pros

On Monday, online poker room Bet24.com announced that seven new players have joined Team Bet24. Poker pros Stefan Mattsson, Tapio Vihakas, Ida Lundholm, Arvin Golrang, Matias Knaapinen and David Wintersberger will represent Bet24 on the site and during live tournaments. Sara Shalabi, a former contestant on the Swedish version of the hit series Survivor, has also been added to the team.

"We are very happy and excited to have signed up some of Europe's most high qualified players" said Bet24 poker manager Lars Kollind. "It is amazing to have seven new poker profiles in our team and to be able to participate in their development as poker players and also build and strengthen Bet24 as a brand."

Mattsson is the biggest name to join the team. The Swedish pro is mainly known for his cash-game exploits, but he has also won nearly $1.3 million in live tournaments around the world. He joins Danish pro Jesper Hougaard as the most accomplished players on the Bet24 roster.

Learn more about Team Bet24 at Bet24.com.

Poker and a Stripper

Got your attention? Thought so. A Vegas "dancer" who regularly blogs at Las Vegas Weekly recently wrote about her trip to the Bahamas during the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure. She was there with her boyfriend, whom she claims is a professional poker player, while he was playing tournaments.

"I like poker," she writes. "Like stripping, it's part luck and all balls. I get nervous watching him play, though. I mean, I'm a pretty nervous person anyway, but money makes me extra anxious. He's such a calm person most of the time, so watching him get upset over bad hands is bizarre. It makes my stomach hurt."

Unfortunately, "Justice" doesn't tell us who she's dating. But seeing as he apparently goes on tilt after losing a pot, you can probably scratch the unflappable Dan Harrington off the list. Let the guessing game begin.

You can find Justice's blog at lasvegasweekly.com.