While the eyes of the poker world are on the city affectionately known as “Lost Wages” for the annual WSOP there is another, lesser known but very competitive tournament that was played last week - the ASOP. The Affiliate Series of Poker is played 3 times every year by some of the best poker playing affiliates in the world in some of the most beautiful cities in the world. All players have to qualify through online tournaments and the most recent event was played in Prague. It was once again sponsored by Victor Chandler and Cake Poker and the final table included a truly international field of affiliates including the 2010 London ASOP champion Messaoud Bouchaib. In the end the final 3 players came down to Erno Mityok and Erno Gallyas both from Hungary and Yael Haber from Israel. Yael was bounced out in 3rd place but earned cash plus a ruby & diamond ring as the last lady left.

Then it came down to the best battle between 2 Hungarians since the Gabor sisters, Eva & Zsa Zsa, fought over their high school prom date. The final hand saw Mityok raising it up and Gallyas pushing all in. Mitoyk made the call and Gallyas showed 4 7 while Mitoyk had him dominated with a K Q. The flop came J, 3, 8, turn 2, river 5 giving Erno Mityok the ASOP Prague championship.

With just 1 months to go until the iGaming Super Show it is time to start thinking about the ASOP and crowning our 11th ASOP champion which is even more incredible when you think we have given away over $220,000 since the tournament was launched 3 years ago! With regards to sponsorship, we welcome Cake Poker back as the straight flush sponsor and Victor Chandler as Royal Flush Sponsor.

Below is the schedule for the tournaments – To obtain the passwords register here on the site and you will be sent the passwords once approved. Please note that passwords will only be sent to you a few hours before the event in order to avoid online leaks and non-industry players.

Victor Chandler Tournaments

06/05/2010– 19:00 GMT – 5 seats
13/05/2010– 19:00 GMT – 6 seats
16/05/2010– 19:00 GMT – 6 seats
18/05/2010– 19:00 GMT – 7 seats

Cake Poker Tournaments

05/05/2010– 19:00 GMT – 5 seats
12/05/2010– 19:00 GMT – 6 seats
15/05/2010– 21:00 GMT – 6 seats
17/05/2010– 19:00 GMT – 7 seats

With 54 final qualifiers to the London Affiliate Conference ASOP tournament, tensions ran high on the first day of competition.  With affiliates and affiliate managers competing side by side, there was sure to be more than the fantastic cash prizes up for grabs – pride was on the line!

The field was abuzz with news that THE Victor Chandler would be competing and the lucky player that knocked him out would win over £500 of free bets at Victor Chandler.  In the end, it was unfortunate that Victor was unable to play, but he did send a replacement with the same bounty on his head!

After 3 hours of first day play, 23 players remained with an average chip count of 11,700 – each in for a restless night dreaming of ASOP glory.

As day 2 began, the players realised that as blinds were increasing every 20 minutes, there was only one way to hit the money in this tournament – go hard or go home.  And that’s exactly what happened.  Incredibly, the 23 players dropped to a final 8 in under 40 minutes.

The final table and chip counts consisted of:

Seat 1: Chris Phillips – 40,000 chips
Seat 2: Nick Gandy – 28,000 chips
Seat 3: Antal Babarczi – 57,000 chips
Seat 4: Vlad Pinte – 22,000 chips
Seat 5: Anders Van Riesen – 52,000 chips
Seat 6: Vael Haber – 16,000 chips
Seat 7: Messaoud Bouchaib – 45,000 chips
Seat 8: Tony James – 16,000 chips

With blinds at 3000/6000, Tony James was forced all in within the first couple of hands and was very quickly knocked out of the tournament.  It seemed like the blink of an eye and the remaining players were in the money!

The next hand saw Antal raise to 16,000 in third position.  It was folded around to Vlad who looked down at his cards.  After a period of deliberation, Vlad pushes all of his chips into the middle and Antal instantly calls.  Vlad shows AK while Antal shows 99.  No help comes on the board for Vlad and it’s game over for him.

Walking away from the table with a glum face it would have been easy to feel for Vlad, however he did walk away with $250 and was lucky enough to have knocked out Victor Chandler’s bounty replacement earlier in the tournament which won him £500 worth of free bets.

With the blinds continuing to shoot up, the next ten minutes saw a series of all-in blind steals.  It wasn’t long after, however, that Nick (6th) and Anders (5th) were knocked out.  We were now down to the final four.

As the only remaining female in the tournament, Vael Haber was desperately trying to become the first female ASOP winner.  Unfortunately, she was fighting against a small stack for the entire final table, and even getting her chips in with AJ against Messaoud’s A4 didn’t help – as Messaoud found a 4 on the flop to send Vael packing in 4th place with a handy $1,200 prize.

It was now down to the final three players – Messaoud “Cut Snake” Bouchaib, Antal “Rocky” Babarczi and Chris “Bingo Tiger” Phillips.

With a dominant chip stack, Messaoud was in no mood to have this tournament last any longer than it needed to.  All players and spectators were keen to finish it off and get drinking to celebrate the end of LAC.

Antal raised all-in under the gun with Messaoud quickly calling.  Chris, in the big blind, went into the tank and decided to pass.  Antal showed King high while Messaoud showed 9-6 offsuit.  It was no surprise to see a 6 on the flop, and Messaoud’s luck continued, knocking Antal into third position, which picked him up $1,700.

And then there were two – Messaoud a poker affiliate and Chris a bingo affiliate.  The writing was on the wall, with Messaoud having a 4 to 1 heads up chip lead over Chris.

The very next hand Messaoud raised putting Chris on a decision for all of his chips.  After much deliberation and staring down his competitor, Chris decided to call.  Cards on their backs and Messaoud showed K2 suited.  Chris offered Queen high.  No help came on the flop for either player and the tournament was over, relegating Chris to second place and $3,000 in winnings.

Messaoud Bouchaib was the 2010 LAC ASOP champion, winning a gold and diamond bracelet worth $10,000 along with $6,000 cash!  A big congratulations goes to all players and tournament organisers.  Thank you to the tournament sponsors Cake Poker and Victor Chandler and we’ll see you all again at the next iGB Conference for more ASOP glory.

With just 2 months to go until LAC it is time to start thinking about the ASOP and crowning our 10^th ASOP champion which is even more incredible when you think we have given away over $200,000 since the tournament was launched 3 years ago! With regards to sponsorship, we welcome Cake Poker back as the straight flush sponsor and introduce Victor Chandler  as our new Royal Flush Sponsor. Victor Chandler is also going to be adding a bounty to the main event of £500 on the head of the actual Victor Chandler himself so you have even more reasons to qualify now!

Below is the schedule for the tournaments – To obtain the passwords register here on the site and you will be sent the passwords once approved

Victor Chandler Tournaments

16^th Dec 2009 – 19:00 GMT – 4 seats

30^th Dec 2009 – 19:00 GMT – 4 seats

10^th Jan 2010 – 19:00 GMT – 4 seats

13^th Jan 2010 – 19:00 GMT – 5 seats

20^th Jan 2010 – 19:00 GMT – 5 seats

Cake Poker Tournaments

15^th Dec 2009 – 19:00 GMT – 4 seats

29^th Dec 2009 – 19:00 GMT – 4 seats

9^th Jan 2010 – 21:00 GMT – 4 seats

12^th Jan 2010 – 19:00 GMT – 5 seats

19^th Jan 2010 – 19:00 GMT – 5 seats

I hope you are enjoyed your Christmas and New Year and are now fully relaxed buit hopefully not too much as we have some poker to play as we have the London ASOP in just 4 weeks time.

If you haven’t heard this ASOP will be the biggest one we have ever done so expect some serious competition. Not only are we allowing all the Barcelona qualifiers in due to the problems we had there we are also getting an additional 30 entrants through the upcoming free rolls so it should definitely be one to remember….Oh and did I mention we have a redesigned ASOP bracelet literally covered in diamonds.

So lets get going = Once again we have 2 sponsors helping us organise and fund the event so a big thank you to AffiliateClub and Everest Affiliates for stepping up to sponsor this again as it really isn’t cheap by any means.

The Free Rolls are as follows - Remember to recieve the passwords you need to register here at www.asop.com

Qualifying Tournaments at Poker Kings

1. All tournaments will take place on Poker Kings  - Download the poker software from here. www.pokerkings.com

2. Register as a player and then click on the “MULTI TOURNEY” tab and then the “PRIVATE” tab underneath that.

3. Register for the tournament - All tournaments are open for registration 24 hours before the tournament start time. Passwords are below:

Tournament #1 
Official Tournament Name:  “ASOP Freeroll”
Start Date:  December 29th, 2008
Start Time:  19:00 GMT
Password: Register at ASOP.com for password
Top 3 Qualify for a seat in CAP Euro London

Tournament #2
Official Tournament Name:  “ASOP Freeroll 2?
Start Date:  January 4th, 2009
Start Time:  19:00 GMT
Password: Register at ASOP.com for password
Top 3 Qualify for a seat in CAP Euro London

Tournament #3
Official Tournament Name:  “ASOP Freeroll 3?
Start Date:  January 8th, 2009
Start Time:  19:00 GMT
Password: Register at ASOP.com for password
Top 3 Qualify for a seat in CAP Euro London

Tournament #4  
Official Tournament Name:  “ASOP Freeroll 4?
Start Date:  January 15th, 2009
Start Time:  19:00 GMT
Password: Register at ASOP.com for password
Top 3 Qualify for a seat in CAP Euro London

Tournament #5
Official Tournament Name: “ASOP Freeroll 5?
Start Date:  January 18th, 2009
Start Time: 19:00 GMT
Password: Register at ASOP.com for password
Top 3 Qualify for a seat in CAP Euro London

Qualifying Tournaments at Everest Poker:
 
1. All tournaments will take place on www.everestpoker.net - so US affiliates can play as well - Download the poker software from here: www.everestpoker.net IMPORTANT - Make sure it is from the .NET site as the .com lobby is different.

2. Register as a player.

3. Register for the tournament - All tournaments are open for registration 24 hours before the tournament start time. Passwords are below:

Tournament #1 
Official Tournament Name:  “ASOP Freeroll”
Start Date:  December 28th, 2008
Start Time:  19:00 GMT
Password: Register at ASOP.com for password
Top 3 Qualify for a seat in CAP Euro London

Tournament #2
Official Tournament Name:  “ASOP Freeroll 2?
Start Date:  January 1st, 2009
Start Time:  20:00 GMT
Password: Register at ASOP.com for password
Top 3 Qualify for a seat in CAP Euro London

Tournament #3
Official Tournament Name:  “ASOP Freeroll 3?
Start Date:  January 7th, 2009
Start Time:  19:00 GMT
Password: Register at ASOP.com for password
Top 3 Qualify for a seat in CAP Euro London

Tournament #4  
Official Tournament Name:  “ASOP Freeroll 4?
Start Date:  January 14th, 2009
Start Time:  19:00 GMT
Password: Register at ASOP.com for password
Top 3 Qualify for a seat in CAP Euro London

Tournament #5
Official Tournament Name: “ASOP Freeroll 5?
Start Date:  January 17th, 2009
Start Time: 21:00 GMT
Password: Register at ASOP.com for password
Top 3 Qualify for a seat in CAP Euro London
Good Luck

We are GO on the ASOP and below is the scheudle of free rolls we have coming up - For teh passwords you need to register here on teh registratuon tab above and I will send you them:

Below is the email I just sent out (without the passwords)

Hi All,

As you probably know Affiliateclub.com is one of the sponsors for the ASOP which is actually their second time so thank you Affiliate Club!!! However more importanly they have weekly tournaments for their affiliates which provides a perfect excuse to practice for the ASOP - This happens every Thursday at 7pm GMT - The link is http://new.affiliateclub.com/en/promotions/affiliate-weekly-tournaments.html

So we are officially live with the ASOP happening at the Poker Conference and CAP SpringBreak and it is looking really good with a whole new twist to the tourney as well as new prizes for the winners - If you are interested in knowing more just click the register button.

Here is the official launch PR

The ASOP (as seen on the Poker Channel Europe) is an international series of poker tournaments specifically for affiliates. The massive prize pools of $20,000 along with gold and diamond winner’s bracelet ensures the competition is always fierce! But what makes this series really unique is that taking part in the qualifying freerolls is completely free of charge; you just have to be an affiliate registered to attend the offline event where the tournament will take place.  

The next ASOP event will be taking place with a backdrop of sun, sea and surf. The event is being held on the sun drenched holiday island of Cyprus during CAP SpringBreak and the Poker Conference and as always will be filmed and shown on the Poker Channel Europe.  

Unlike previous tournaments though, the field of players is going to be upped to 50 and played as a freeze out following feed back from previous final table qualifiers. Due to legal reasons the organisers are unable to give out cash prizes at this event, however has only ensured even better prizes which now include a seat in the WSOP main event, an even bigger and more bling winner’s bracelet plus paid accommodation in Barcelona for the top 6 finalists.  

Commenting on the ASOP Jeremy Enke, General Manager of PokerAffiliatePrograms.com said: 

“With the amazing growth and recognition of the ASOP tournaments, we wanted to make the poker conference event extra special.  So we decided to go “all-in” and give the winner a WSOP main event package, as well as the coveted diamond ASOP bracelet.  With over $20,000 in value to the winner, I can’t think of a better affiliate freeroll in the history of our industry.” 

Since the first ASOP in London back in January 07 the tournament has rapidly grown in popularity with as many as 100+ affiliates trying to qualify in each of the freerolls and with the past champions all looking for a second bracelet this is looking to be the toughest ASOP yet. 

To register for the ASOP go to www.asop.com but don’t forget you have to be an affiliate and be attending CAP/PAP events in Cyprus otherwise you won’t be approved. For this event the sponsors are Everest Affiliates and AffiliateClub.com who deserve big thanks because it wouldn’t happen without those guys. The freerolls themselves will be taking place on the sponsor’s sites from mid April 08 to mid May 08.