The EPT Scandinavian Open is all over in Copenhagen, and Tim Vance from Millstadt, Il, USA outlasted 459 other entrants to win the EPT event. He takes over $1.2M back home with him after hitting a flush in the final hand that made him the champion. Soren Jensen of Denmark finished in second place, winning over $600,000 himself.

No big names made the top 40 positions, although Daniel Ryan finished in fifth place. Daniel has put together a string of cashes over the last year, including three in February totalling over $300,000. Notables who made the trip included Daniel Negreanu, Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier, Bill Chen, Katja Thater, Dario Minieri, Tom McEvoy and Noah Boeken.

This makes it two for two for American champions on the EPT this season. Vance didn’t pay a dime to get into the event. He qualified for it via a frequent player point satellite on PokerStars.

The latest edition of the WSOP circuit events is taking place at the Horseshoe Council Bluffs in Council Bluffs Iowa. The stop has over 30 events where the buy-in is $500 or less, with a main event of only $5000. This is obviously to get more action in this part of the country, and it seemed to work when 492 players showed up for the no-limit holdem event #1 on Feb 18. The main event starts on the 25th and will run for three days.

The next stop is in Atlantic City at Caesars at the beginning of March. There will only be 10 events at this tournament, and the championship is once again only $5000. Mike Pickett won last month’s event at Harrah’s Rincon San Diego North. He took home $229,000, and a WSOP bracelet, after beating out 147 other players. David Peters finish in second place for $120,156.

Following poker forums shouldn’t hamper your poker game. If anything they should teach you something by getting opinions and information from players who have had similar experiences. Advice received on a poker forum shouldn’t be taken as gospel. You don’t really know the person that is offering it. As long as you don’t believe everything you read in the forums, they will be a great help to your game.

Try and use them to get good info on tournament schedules or games that fit into your level of poker. If you’re playing against the people in the forums you frequent, you may want to make sure that you’re not giving away too much info about your game.

I’ve always found them to be informative, but the more experience I gain the less useful they’ve become. A lot of it is redundant bad beat stories and irate players complaining about suck outs

Today’s best female poker players make up a pretty short list in my opinion. We see lots of female celebrity players, but when it comes to success and results there are only four I’m willing to mention.

Kathy Liebert has 153 cashes totalling $373,737 in tournament winnings and a WSOP bracelet. The other top female players are Annie Duke and Jennifer Harman. Both have over a million in tournament winnings and around 40 wins under their belt. Harman plays in the biggest cash games in the world, against the best in the business, so she would get the vote for No. 2.

The last player I’ll mention is 19-year-old Annette Obrestad. She has only been playing a couple of years but is already closing in on Liebert’s totals. She already has a WSOP circuit bracelet, where she won $2M. The world awaits her arrival in Vegas in two years.