We have so many convos about online poker — from the play to the business to the laws — and more specifically of late, how it’s seen by the non-poker masses. I got a little anecdotal reminder of these “normal people” perceptions of the game when a Facebook friend (who happens to be a third-year-law student who used to work for Congress in DC … so, you know, educated, pop-culture-and-politics-savvy … ) IM’d me looking for a quick synopsis of everything related to the multibillion-dollar international industry that 10s of millions of people are in some way connected to:

4:53pmKristiné
may i ask a poker related question

4:53pmDan
sure

4:54pmKristiné
what can you tell me about online poker – ala full tilt or something like that?

(i’m not going to do it, just curious)

4:54pmDan
um, there’s a lot. i blog about it every day.

4:54pmKristiné
really?

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Some of you may know Walter Whitehead, a Dallas player and semi-regular at the still-going Lodge Amateur Poker tourneys. He’s one of those super-nice friendly Cowboy-hat-wearing tablemates who always seems to have a good time while working on his game. Well, his son, John, was murdered last week in Plano, and he’s having trouble paying for the burial. Meanwhile, Walt’s grandsons — Grayson, age 5, and Jonathan, who turned 8 yesterday — are left without a father and face a future less certain than they can understand … and a difficult one for their dad’s dad to deal with.

Sorry for being the bearer of rough news, but I thought a few of you specifically might want to know. Any financial assistance would be greatly appreciated and can be sent to:

Jonathan B Dwayne Whitehead Memorial at American National Bank of Texas

Here is the bank’s info … funds can be snail-mailed or wire-transferred to any branch. And if you’d like to offer any other assistance, don’t hesitate to contact Jay Wagoner (aka “Cowboy” or “Gandalf” to Lodge players), who can put you directly in touch with the Whitehead family.

Rough times, to say the least. But it’s good to know he’s got family, church support, and poker friends to help make it all a little better.

Greg Raymer has always been an avid supporter of the Poker Players Alliance for years, and he has never been afraid to travel/speak/promote when needed. Within the last few weeks, he attended a reception hosted by Americans for Tax Reform founder Grover Norquist at the scene of the CPAC (Conservative Political Action Committee) conference in D.C.

Subsequently, Raymer was invited to appear on Fox Business News. His message seemed to be well-received, despite the female news correspondent calling him Greg “Rainer” at the end of the interview.

Heads up sit and goes provide a great opportunity for spinning up a bankroll to the beginner or play money player. The variance is very low in these games, as they combine many features which allow skill to shine through over the short term.

” …it is important to understand that heads up games will not give you that monster score of multi table tournaments, they will just give you a steady profit over the long run.”

The first point about these games is that heads up games require much more skill due to the massively increased number of decisions a player has to make. You can’t simply sit back and wait for big hands in this format – you have to be playing lots of hands in order to stop the blinds from eating you up, and this means that any edge you have is made significant much faster than in any other games, and your profits are made in a much more steady manner.

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Currently recording this week’s episode of The Poker Beat. Listen live here to know what you’re supposed to think about poker:

http://www.pokerroad.com/the_poker_beat/

I didn’t even know my old crew still existed … kinda figured my absence all the denial of partnerships, “lay-offs”, and general bad play had splintered the group into obsolescence — not to mention losing the two best tables in the home game to eviction and/or marriage. But they’ve got a new show, where I unknowingly sat in for an interview to discuss Pokerati’s future:

The above is episode 2. If you liked it, here’s episode 1.

Tune in to Wise Hand Poker on Rounders Radio … right now Gary is talking to Hevad Khan, and then I go on to talk about … um … uh … (Gary, are you busy right now? I gotta question for you …) … and then after all that, he’ll have on Layne Flack, where he promises to ask him about hanging with Russ Hamilton and his most recent dalliances with the law.

Listen live.

Eventually you’ll be able to find the podcast here.

It started when the player list for the most recent NBC National Heads-Up Poker Championship was released. Shannon Shorr posted a blog entry about being snubbed by tournament organizers, as he was not included in the list of the 64 players. (Several were qualifiers, but most met the poker-accomplishment requirements set by the NHUPC.)

Shorr wrote: “I will go on record (as I did after the 2006 calendar year) as saying I’m shocked that I don’t make the list. After very closely examining the list, Michael Binger, Nam Le, Sebastian Ruthenberg, Michael Martin, Vivek Rajkumar, Amit Makhija, Adam Geyer and Hevad Khan are probably somewhere wondering WTF! as well. No one in the poker tournament industry besides Nam Le, JC Tran, and David Pham has matched my consistency over the last 3 years on the tournament circuit and in that time I have NEVER been selected to play the NBCHUPC. As most of my readers know I’m pretty low-key and don’t exactly go looking for recognition, but I just feel like I deserve this.”

That put Shane “Shaniac” Schleger on reality-tilt and prompted a blog post entitled, “Seriously? AKA: The Award For Most Delusional Poker Player Goes To…” Though Shaniac tried to soften the blow of his words by saying that he liked Shorr personally, the post went on to list the reasons that Shorr was not invited to the NHUPC.

In part, he wrote: “Shannon, get a grip. You should be ashamed for putting yourself in the same sentence as Le, Tran, and Pham, who essentially dwarf the entire poker tour community with consistency and moneymaking.

I think you have to make up your mind if you want to go back to college or try to become a studly poker superstar. And your results are nowhere near the other players you named in the above passage.”

Evidently, Shorr didn’t take that criticism as well as hoped, but Shaniac finally posted a response that sums it all up nicely with a video created for the occasion. It takes good-natured jabs at both and can be seen by going to Shaniac’s post here. (If anyone would like to send the embed code for that video, feel free to help a sista out.)

The World Poker Tour recently announced its first Italian tournament in partnership with bwin poker. WPT Venice will be held in early May at Casino di Venezia, which sounds strangely familiar… Oh yes, I was there in October! While I was barely able to enter the lobby without a paid casino membership and almost had my camera confiscated by security guards for taking pictures of the entry courtyard, it did look like an amazing European casino tucked away between cobblestone streets and the Grand Canal.

Shockingly, WPT Venice organizers have yet to extend a personal invitation to me. I’m predominantly Italian and I do speak about five words of the language, people! C’mon…

Anyway, here’s the pertinent info:

World Poker Tour Offers First Italian Event: WPT Venice, Powered by bwin

Vienna, March 9 — Bringing the coveted World Poker Tour® to the beautiful city of Venice, WPT Enterprises and bwin have partnered to create the first ever WPT tournament in Italy: WPT Veniceâ„¢, Powered by bwin. The tournament will combine the legacy and fierce competitiveness of the World Poker Tour and the stunning Casino di Venezia, situated right on the east bank of the Grand Canal. The main event is scheduled to take place May 6 through May 10. The event, final table and crowning of the first WPT Venice Champion will be filmed for broadcast via Web-TV on www.bwin.com.

“We’re thrilled to launch our first ever brick-and-mortar WPT tournament offering in Italy,” said WPT Founder, President and CEO, Steve Lipscomb. “bwin is a strong partner with the right market position in the region. We look forward to working with them to bring this event and the WPT brand to poker players in Italy and Europe.”

“Partnering with the World Poker Tour illustrates our dedication to establishing bwin as the premier gaming destination for poker players eager to live the dream of participating in multi-million brick and mortar poker tournaments. Location was also very important to us, and Casino di Venezia is truly a location worthy of the players, the poker media as well as the bwin and WPT brands.”

“We are delighted to be working with WPT on this spectacular tournament. This event will bring together the excitement and interactivity that only bwin can offer – people will be able to bet on the players of the final table while watching the action on their screen.” added Manfred Bodner, Co-CEO of bwin.

The main event will feature a buy-in of €4,000+400. In addition to world-class player hospitality, there will be cash games and side events available throughout the tournament. The winner will receive an official WPT Venice™ bracelet as well and a $25,000 seat in the 2010 World Poker Tour Championship.

This just in over the transom, from WSOP Headquarters:

PRE-REGISTRATION NOW OPEN
FOR 2009 WORLD SERIES OF POKER®

LAS VEGAS – March 11, 2009 – Harrah’s Entertainment, Inc. said today pre-registration for the 2009 World Series of Poker (WSOP) is now open.

Players can pre-register online at www.worldseriesofpoker.com under the “Event Registration” tab or in person at the main cage of the Rio® All-Suite Hotel & Casino, host property for the 2009 WSOP. Pre-registration instructions and tournament rules are posted on the website.

It is important to note, capacity is limited and entry is on a first come first serve basis. Once an event’s maximum attendance is reached or the expected table capacity is filled, the event will be declared a sellout.

“As now customary, no alternates will be seated at the 2009 World Series of Poker,” said Jack Effel, WSOP tournament director. “We encourage players to pre-register early to guarantee their seats.”

Acceptable forms of payment include cash, cashier’s checks, wire transfers and Rio casino chips.

Any foreign entrants who wire transfer monies will receive the exchange rate into U.S. dollars at the time of the wire transfer, thus locking in their exchange rate in advance.

The 40th edition of the WSOP will run from May 26 through July 15, 2009, and will include 57 bracelet tournaments. Buy-ins for open events will range from $1,000 to $50,000. The buy-in for the Main Event – the No-Limit Hold’em World Championship – remains at $10,000. The November Nine, the final nine participants of the Main Event, return November 7-10 to declare a champion. The full event schedule is at www.worldseriesofpoker.com.

And, of course, nicely color-coded at Pokerati.com.

Photo: © Erik Kabik

From our sources at the Hard Rock, the ever-important details about Paris Hilton’s poker action:

She did the tournament Friday night at 11 p.m. as part of her weekend-long birthday celebration. She was with about 20 friends and had a special section reserved for her, however, the room was not closed and other players cycled in on her table. There was about 50 people in the un-advertised tournament. A DJ was brought in for her and the room had a great party atmosphere and vibe that evening. The buy-in was $100 and she was knocked out in about 45 minutes.

Pokerati mascot pro-pal Tom Schneider was in Fort Worth the past few days to visit Karridy on some business matters … and while all went reportedly well out in the woodshed and Tom was loving Fort Worth overall as a city … before leaving town the once and future “Donkey Bomber” got this reminder of the age-old life/poker lesson:

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As we pointed out a week or so ago, the WSOP is actively protecting their name as it pertains to all things paper … books, magazines, etc. … and now, though from what I understand all is normal with Bluff semi-contracted to produce the official WSOP programs again this year, Harrah’s filed an application two weeks ago for ownership of the phrase “World Series of Poker” as it pertains to “event programs”.

The Feds are reviewing the matter.

The World Series of Poker has released the rules for their 2009 event. There’s a couple of interesting changes from last year that will be interesting to see how they are enforced.

36. Harrah’s prohibits the use of obscene or foul language in any public area of the casino at any time. Any player who uses such language or makes a foul, profane, obscene or vulgar statement, or speaks abusively or in an intimidating manner to another player, a dealer or a Tournament staff member, will be penalized. These penalties will be levied based on Rules 31, 52 and 53.

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Just got back from Bellagio — not my usual stomping grounds — and noticed that starting tomorrow, March 10, they’re offering something different there on Tuesdays … a lower cost, above-average-stack 2 pm tourney. For a long time, this was a standard $500 weekday event … $500 for 10k in chips. But now it only costs $300, and you get 6k in chips.

They also have 1/2 NLH there now. Apparently they’ve had it for a few months … News to me, though. I still thought their smallest game was a raucous 2/5 populated with monster stacks. Silly me.