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Tessa Munt, Member of Parliament for Wells and a member of the Liberal Democrat political party in the UK, had a bit of verbal finger wagging for the 37-year old singer, telling The Daily Mirror, “I’m outraged by this. It directly targets his fans, including children. The money he makes should go to addiction charities.”

Much of her ire stems from Williams’ own personal struggles with addiction. In the early 1990’s, when Williams was in his teens and early twenties as a member of the pop group Take That, he began drinking alcohol to excess and using cocaine. It eventually became such a problem that he almost overdosed in July 1995 the night before Take That was to perform at the MTV Europe Music Awards. As the years went on, his most significant problem became addiction to prescription drugs, many of which he used to battle depression. In 2007, Williams checked into a rehabilitation clinic in Tucson, Arizona to help get himself off of a variety of drugs including Xanax, Seroxat/Paxil, and Vicodin. He has also fought alcoholism and nicotine addiction. Munt feels that Williams is taking advantage of problem gamblers, a group with whom he should easily sympathize.

While many Williams fans are excited to try out the new site, others have similar opinions to Ms. Munt. Interestingly, however, not all who are against the idea of the poker room oppose it because of the potential gambling aspect. Some members of the fan community on Robbie Williams’ official website are upset that special Robbie Williams prizes (including the chance to meet the man himself) are being offered on a poker site, rather than just to the loyal fans at RobbieWilliams.com.

“…I fell [sic] that this opportunity to join a special online community (er hello? don’t we have one of those already HERE) and the potential for that community to have access to special perks and benefits (which by rights should also be offered here at the same time) threatens to alienate and offend the Friends here on RW.com,” one fan wrote on the RobbieWilliams.com forum. “People are bound to want to join up because of the potential benefits and rewards that Chrissie has outlined above. It is human nature to not want to miss out on something special from our favourite singer.”

“If perks are to be made available, the logical place to have made them available first surely must have been here [RobbieWilliams.com],” she added.

Robbie Williams Poker bills itself as a place for “…having fun with your friends and keeping up with the Robbie Williams community.” No real money is required to play, though it is possible to spend money on the site. Every player gets free play money chips every day, which can then be used to play in games like normal. As players win, solve “missions,” and unlock achievements, they collect experience points (XPs). These XPs are used to advance “levels,” which allow users to unlock more content. Poker winnings, in addition to being used to continue to play poker, can also be used to customize player avatars or buy power-ups that temporarily increase XP and chip earnings. Virtual chips have no cash value and cannot be withdrawn from the site.

The other form of currency at Robbie Williams Poker is “gold.” Gold can be purchased for real money and can be used to enter exclusive tournaments and gain access to restricted items in the avatar shop. Gold purchases are completely optional and are not required to play most of the games at the poker room. The vast majority of tournaments are freerolls, most of which reward winners with chips, avatar items, and even gold, while some do offer real prizes.

Robbie Williams Poker essentially follows a similar model as that of many “Free to Play” online games on the market today, except that it is packaged in a gambling wrapper. Typically, “Free to Play” games use some sort of credit system, allowing customers to play as long as they have credits remaining. Usually, free credits are rewarded every day so that everyone can get a decent amount of game time for free. Players then typically have the option to purchase additional credits to extend their play time or purchase a secondary form of in-game currency (compare this to “gold” in the case of Robbie Williams Poker) that offers additional benefits. The players that are able to advance the farthest and acquire the most valuable/powerful items (ex: weapons, armor) are usually the ones who commit real money to the game, but many games often have in-game economies that players can use to buy and sell items and game currency, allowing even those who don’t pay to have a rich gaming experience, albeit at a slower pace than those who do pay.

Despite Robbie Williams Poker’s status as a non-gambling site, it still adheres to the same rules as many real-money poker rooms, such as no chip dumping, no collusion, and no bots.

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While Guichard and Kursevich started the final table almost neck-and-neck, the story was much different going into heads-up play. Kursevich had a gigantic chip advantage entering the one-on-one match. With a fortress of 23.145 million chips, it looked like Kursevich would make short work of Guichard and his 3.365 million chip mud hut.

While their battle was not long-lived by any means, Kursevich did not come about his title as easily as he might have hoped or expected. Almost right off the bat, Guichard found a bit of luck to double-up. Down to 3.175 million, he moved all-in on the button pre-flop holding just Jc-3c, likely figuring both his cards might be live in addition to having a flush possibility. He was right, as Kursevich called him with Kh-7d; all of the Frenchman’s outs were in play. He nailed one immediately on the flop, as the dealer laid out 3h-9s-5d. The Jd on the turn wrapped it up for him, as his two pair could not be beaten. A meaningless 6s landed on the river and Guichard now had 6.41 million chips versus Kursevich’s 20.1 million. Still a sizeable deficit, but it was a start.

Just ten minutes or so later, Guichard made another big move. Again on the button, he raised pre-flop to 500,000 and Kursevich called. Kursevich checked the 4h-2h-2d flop, Guichard bet 475,000, and Kursevich again called. Same action on the 2s turn, though this time it was for 650,000. It looked like the pattern would repeat itself with the Jh on the river, but Guichard’s 1.5 million chip bet was too rich for Kursevich and the Belarusian laid down his hand. He was still in control of the tournament, but now Kursevich’s chip lead was down to 2-to-1.

Guichard wasn’t done. He wanted to make it all the way back. A few minutes later, Kursevich raised pre-flop to 500,000 and Guichard followed with a re-raise to 1.25 million. Kursevich then four-bet to 2.5 million, but Guichard wasn’t playing around, forcing Kursevich to fold his cards with a shove. With that, Guichard was close to even, trailing just 14.115 million to 12.395 million.

But as quickly as Guichard was feeling great about his chances, it all crumbled to pieces. The action started the same as the last hand we detailed, but rather than tempting fate with another four-bet, Kursevich just called Guichard’s pre-flop three-bet of 1.25 million. The first three community cards came down Js-7h-5d, prompting Guichard to throw out a 625,000 chip bet. Kursevich made the call and the two saw a turn of 9h. Guichard led out once more for 1.325 million, but this time, rather than simply calling, Kursevich shipped his entire stack to the center of the table. Guichard didn’t need to ponder his action at all – he insta-called for around 10 million chips and was all-in for his tournament life. He was an easy call, as he was holding pocket 5’s for bottom set, but he had to a fade a truckload of cards, as Kursevich had 3h-6h, giving him a flush draw and a double belly buster straight draw. Any Heart, 4, or 8 would win it for Kursevich. And it was that 8 that he got on the river, completing his straight and quashing what was amounting to an amazing comeback by Paul Guichard.

For the win, Vadzim Kursevich took home €875,000. This is the first live tournament win of his career, though he has flirted with a major title in the past. Last year, he placed 3rd in the EPT Berlin Main Event, cashing for €300,000. Accounting for currency conversion, Kursevich has now won just shy of .75 million on the live tournament circuit.

EPT Deauville – Final Table Standings

1. Vadzim Kursevich – €875,000
2. Paul Guichard – €557,000
3. Vuong Than Trong – €328,000
4. Yorane Kerignard – €260,000
5. Bruno Jais – €200,000
6. Olivier Rogez – €155,000
7. Luca Pagano – €110,000
8. Mick Graydon – €67,200

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Guichard’s road to the chip lead hinged on two big hands. The first occurred with just 15 players left and Guichard already at the top of the leader board with about 3.83 million chips. He opened the betting pre-flop with a raise only to watch both Denis Cheremisin and Chris Brammer move their short stacks all-in. As he had pocket Kings, Guichard couldn’t call quickly enough. Cheremisin held Jh-Th and Brammer showed As-Ks, so Guichard was in good shape, but he still needed to dodge an Ace and a couple flushes and straights. The flop of Qd-3d-Tc eliminated those flush chances, but the two underdogs were still alive. The 9h on the turn gave Cheremisin a little more hope, but the 4d on the river locked it up for Guichard, eliminating the other two players. That pot sent Guichard up to 5 million chips.

Fast forward to the final table bubble, with nine players left and just one more knockout needed to end the day. Now back in 3rd place with 4.71 million chips, Guichard re-raised pre-flop to 290,000 after Mick Graydon originally raised to 110,000 and Olivier Rogez called. Graydon folded, but Rogez stuck around. Both players checked after the flop of Kd-Tc-8s, but the Jc on the turn prompted Guichard to bet 325,000 chips. Rogez thought a bit and then made the call. Upon seeing the 6h on the river, Guichard bet another 345,000 chips and again, Rogez called. Guichard flipped over Kh-Qd for top pair to take down the 1.27 million chip pot. With that, he was up to almost 6 million and grabbed the chip lead.

If he were to ride his chip lead all the way to victory, it would be far and away Guichard’s biggest score of his live tournament career. The Frenchman has just five cashes to his name (including one small win) for ,680.

The EPT Deauville final table will commence at noon local time on Monday as the final eight battle it out for glory in the “Parisian Riviera.”

2012 European Poker Tour Deauville – Final Table Chip Counts

Paul Guichard – 5,955,000
Vadzim Kursevich – 5,670,000
Olivier Rogez – 4,415,000
Bruno Jais – 3,450,000
Vuong Than Trong – 2,570,000
Luca Pagano – 2,010,000
Yorane Kerignard – 1,680,000
Mick Graydon – 960,000

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