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Plenty of poker players will be joining the bwin Team at the Irish Open in April courtesy of the new Bounty Hunter tournament offering. The Bounty Hunter not only hands out $8,000 Irish Open trip packages to the winner, but also gives the other players a shot at glory with the bwin Team as well, as the players with the most knockouts (excluding the winner) come back later in the week to battle it out in the Head Hunter for another trip package.

The easiest way to guarantee a trip package in the Bounty Hunter, though, is to simply win it outright, which is exactly what pokerstefal did in the Bounty Hunter held on March 8th. He outlasted a tough field of 308 runners and got the better of laprenticris in heads-up play to secure his $8,000 Irish Open trip package, where he'll head off for Dublin in April to join the bwin Team for the poker trip of a lifetime.

It's Head Hunter time again, with the following 6 bwin poker players slated to do battle on  March 13th at 20:00 CET:

rogal23
samy5755
mrpoker9999
laprenticris
scarlwhite75
billysaleo

They'll be playing for $9,240 in prize money, which includes a $8,000 live event trip package to the 2010 Irish Open with the bwin Team.

As far as how they got there (and how you can qualify yourself), each running of the new Bounty Hunter tournament on bwin not only sends winners directly to the Irish Open with a $8,000 trip package in hand, but it also offers a nice consolation prize to players who claim the most bounties for knocking out other players.

Excluding the winner of the Bounty Hunter (who gets a $8,000 trip package for the win), the qualifiers in the Head Hunter finals are those players with the most knockouts in the Bounty Hunter. pokerstefal was the winner of the most recent running of the Bounty Hunter, claiming his $8,000 trip package. The qualifiers for the Head Hunter finals, then, are the 6 players in the last Bounty Hunter who had the most knockouts.

Below are the knockout totals for the qualifiers for the March 13th Head Hunter finals:

rogal23: 13 KOs
mrpoker9999: 11 KOs
samy5755: 8 KOs
laprenticris: 8 KOs
scarlwhite75: 8 KOs
billysaleo: 8 KOs

7 more players are slated to do battle at the bwin poker tables on March 6th at 20:00 CET, as the following players have qualified to compete in the Head Hunter finals which features $9,390 in prizes (including a $8,000 trip package to the Irish Open):

ALCIONE12
JonnyRocker_
kouaki
gio8325
loupoulou80
Diethelm007
Mr13Mike

As far as how they got there (and how you can qualify in future events), each running of the new Bounty Hunter tournament on bwin not only sends winners directly to the Irish Open with a $8,000 trip package in hand, but it also offers a nice consolation prize to players who claim the most bounties for knocking out other players.

Excluding the winner of the Bounty Hunter (who gets a $8,000 trip package for the win), the qualifiers in the Head Hunter finals are those players with the most knockouts in the Bounty Hunter. bondjamebond was the winner of the most recent running of the Bounty Hunter, claiming his $8,000 trip package. The qualifiers for the Head Hunter finals, then, are the 7 players in the Bounty Hunter who had the most knockouts (excluding the winner). Below are the knockout totals for the qualifiers for the March 6th Head Hunter finals:

Diethelm007 - 16 KOs
gio8325 - 11 KOs
loupoulou80 - 11 KOs
JonnyRocker_ - 9 KOs
ALCIONE12 - 9 KOs
kouaki - 8 KOs
Mr13Mike - 8 KOs

The Bounty Hunter is one of the more affordable ways for bwin poker fans to play their way onto the bwin Team for the upcoming Irish Open live event, as for just a $100 buy-in it gives you two shots at a $8,000 trip package. You can win a trip immediately by taking down the Bounty Hunter and it's guaranteed $8,000 trip package top prize, but if you don't win the tournament you may have a second shot in the Head Hunter finals if you're among the leaders in knockouts, as the players who claim the most scalps (minus the Bounty Hunter winner) qualify for the Head Hunter finals which has its own $8,000 trip package up for grabs.

The Bounty Hunter on February 22nd sported a nice field of 310 runners, including the likes of kirb18x (who had quite a nice trip at the Aussie Millions with the bwin Team, cashing for AUD $100,000), fanslau, and Chiplieder85. It'd be a new face who'd grab the $8,000 trip package for 1st, though, with Dadoo_122 proving too tough for the field and reserving a spot with the bwin Team for the upcoming Irish Open live event in Dublin.

With time running out for bwin poker players to qualify for the 2010 Aussie Millions, the Big Bounty held on January 4th would be one of their best shots at booking a last minute reservation, as the $100K guaranteed tournament would hand out three $16,000 trip packages to the top three finishers, as well as a load of cash to everyone who made the final table.

1,026 runners turned out for the latest edition of the Bounty, one of the bigger fields in recent months. In the end, it was ckohler10, jagger_007, and 10000volt who managed to survive that big, tough field and play their way into the top three, each grabbing a $16,000 trip package (ckohler10 would finish 1st, scooping an extra $2,875 in cash). While TheRealMG82 would claim the dubious honor of being the trip bubble boy, he picked a good live event qualifier to bubble, as he did collect $5,021 in cash for his 4th place finish.

Below are the top ten finishers in the latest running of the Big Bounty:

1. ckohler10 - $16,000 Aussie Millions trip package + $2,875
2. jagger_007 - $16,000 Aussie Millions trip package
3. 10000volt - $16,000 Aussie Millions trip package
4. TheRealMG82 - $5,021
5. Dickerchen38 - $3,515
6. WalkTheLion - $2,512
7. Goldensbush - $1,708
8. BigbMVP76 - $1,408
9. Marthyy - $1,103
10. OlivierBPC - $802

With time running out to join the bwin Team for the 2010 Aussie Millions, the Big Bounty held on December 21st would be one of the last, best shots at joining the Team, as three $16,000 trip packages were up for grabs to the top three finishers. With a field of 960 runners, though, players would need to be on top of their poker games if they wanted to still be standing when the last three players were alive.

cayman4, denzey112, and x nevertrust proved ultimately to be up for the challenge, with each players collecting a $16,000 trip package with the bwin Team to the 2010 Aussie Millions, and cayman4 grabbed an extra $2,775 in cash for finishing 1st. borjaimalla would prove to be the unfortunate trip bubble boy, finishing 4th and just out of the trip packages, but he did pocket $5,021 for his efforts.

PLWashy (featured in the photo to the left) was the last standing former bwin Team member, coming up just short in 20th place in his attempt to re-join the Team for what promises to be an amazing trip to Melbourne for the 2010 Aussie Millions.

Last Monday featured another running of the Big Bounty at bwin, one of the premier online live event qualifiers available that runs every 2 weeks at bwin Poker and pays out trip packages to live events, bounties on selected players, and a ton of extra cash for the top finishers. And all of that for just a $100 entry (with plenty of satellites available to win your way in for a fraction of the normal buy-in.)

The latest edition of the Big Bounty would pay out three $16,000 Aussie Millions trip packages to the top 3 finishers, with 962 runners turning out to take their shot at finishing the day in the top 3 spots. Unlike previous Big Bounty tournaments, there'd be no repeat for former bwin Team members, as indrich was the last Team veteran in the hunt when he bowed out in 25th place.

With fresh faces guaranteed to make their first trip with the exclusive bwin Team to the 2010 Aussie Millions, it was just a matter of who those fresh faces would be as the final table was set, and play wound down to the final few players. S1THL0RD would finally claim the unfortunate title of trip package bubble boy, eliminated in 4th place, but he did collect $4,920 in cash (plus a ticket to a future Big Bounty) for his efforts.

That meant that byebye_, karlsmart 88, and Air BuZZZZ had all secured $16,000 Aussie Millions trip packages, with an extra $2,775 in cash going to the winner. byebye_ would ultimately scoop ou the extra added cash for first, defeating karlsmart 88 in heads-up play.

The Big Bounty is always an exciting tournament offering on bwin Poker, with not only tons of cash on the line but also trip packages to major live poker events around the globe. The last edition of the Big Bounty was no exception, with a $100K guaranteed prizepool that included three $16,000 Aussie Millions trip packages for the top three finishers, so the 976 runners that turned out for the tourney definitely had plenty to play for.

Chalram (who was just with the Team at the Rigged in Riga event) was the last man standing as far as the Team veterans, bowing out in 14th place. The action got more and more tense as they reached the final table and the players fell away one by one. When the dust finally settled, it was ceycey79, Carsi1989, and royal-dave who each collected a $16,000 Aussie Millions trip package, with ceycey79 collecting an additional $2,750 in exta cash for finishing 1st. As far as the trip bubble boy, it was sirm3 who held that dubious honor, but he picked a good time to bubble (if such a thing exists), as he did still collect $4,920 in cash for his 4th place finish.

Chalram once again came close (but not quite) in his quest to re-join the Team again at the 2010 Aussie Millions

The Big Bounty is always an exciting affair on bwin Poker, and that's especially so now that it's handing out $16,000 trip packages to the 2010 Aussie Millions, with 3 bwin players guaranteed to join the bwin Team each and every time the Bounty runs. And that's in addition to the normal bounty up for grabs in the Bounty, including added cash, online finals tickets, and cash for knocking out the players each tournament with designated bounties on their heads!

In the last edition of the Big Bounty it was two new faces and a wily veteran who prevailed to join the team in Melbourne, with 13gordon13, Up&Down_65, and Speedzebre finishing in the top 3 slots and locking down trip packages. _adrenalien_ was the unfortunate trip bubble boy in 4th, but he did pocket $4,920 for his efforts, so all was definitely not lost. As for the winners, Speedzebre will be yet again joining the Team for what seems like the 19th time, and hopefully the Aussie Millions will be the scene for his breakthrough with a big cash with the Team at a live event.

Speedzebre will once again be wearing the bwin Team colors, this time at the 2010 Aussie Millions

The latest edition of the $100K Guaranteed Big Bounty was held on Monday, with three $13,500 trip packages to the 2010 Aussie Millions up for grabs. 1,026 players turned out to take their shot at joining the bwin Team in Melbourne for what's shaping up to be an incredible trip to one of the world's most popular major live poker events.

As they came down the home stretch to the final table there were some familiar names still in the hunt, with Bumi3 and test135 (who both were with the Team at the recent Rigged in Riga live event) still in the mix, trying to lock down another reservation with the bwin Team.

And in the end that's exactly what they did! Both finished in the top 3 to grab a $13,500 trip package, joined by kirb18x. Kubisch81 was the unlucky trip bubble boy in 4th, but he did collect $4,920 for his finish, so definitely not the end of the world, and he'll have plenty more chances to play his way to Melbourne with weekly online finals, $100K freerolls, Big Bounties, and the new Headhunter tournament all handing out 2010 Aussie Millions trip packages in the coming weeks and months at bwin Poker.

In addition to their trip packages, the top 3 finishers also pocketed some nice cash prizes:

1. test135 - $13,500 Aussie Millions trip package + $5,275

2. Bumi3 - $13,500 Aussie Millions trip package + $2,500

3. kirb18x - $13,500 Aussie Millions trip package + $2,500

We'll have to wait and see if test135 wears his dashing poker tie at the Aussie Millions, like he did in Riga.