I tagged along with a buddy to Vegas for a “Free” $300,000 blackjack tournament he played in this past weekend at the Mirage. I stayed out of the pit and played the $2-$5 PLO across the street at the Venetian. He didn’t last long in the free roll to which his host had invited him, busted out of the main event at the Caesars WSOP-C post haste, found his way to the pit and gave me the following souvenir:

The 200 companies that are to supposed to be blocked by 11 ISPs to Minnesota residents has now been published by IMEGA, which can be found here on their site . The list of 200 companies is an eclectic list of sites, because it was chosen randomly. While sites like Bodog and Full Tilt Poker are on the list, there are a few notable omissions: Absolute Poker, PokerStars, and Ultimate Bet. The list also contains sites that don’t take US customers (BetFred, Everest Poker, Interops, William Hill, among others).

On the air … recording now:

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

That’s the unconfirmed word on the street … despite what seemed like a semi-big win for Team Aced/Gold at Dream Team Poker … Dream Team can probably go ahead and retire that jersey set, because the new online poker site and former WSOP main event champion supposedly have broken up.

No details yet … just third-hand information over here. But I’m hearing that either Gold said hey, time to pay up and they didn’t have the cash, or Aced said, yo, Jamie, where are all those players you promised us?

Either way … assuming that some element of the above is true, is it shocking that this didn’t last?

I’m still trying to figure out what it all means … who the plaintiffs are, and what they’re seeking. The best I can tell on first skim is that an LA attorney is representing himself, and seeking injunctive relief in an attempt to prevent Californians from gambling across state lines — i.e. James B. Hicks wants the site shut down.

This may or may not be connected to proposed legislation in California to allow players to gamble online within state lines.

Developing, obviously.

Click here to download and read the lawsuit.

UPDATE: Looks like this likely is a nuisance shakedowny kinda case … though personally I’m still suspicious that the proposed California intrastate online gambling bill might have something to do with it. From the Pokerati legal advisory team’s Cali branch:

This is really an attorney driven case under a California law called the “Unfair Competition Law” (UCL) that basically says, in part, that if any party is committing an act that is “unlawful” (i.e., violates a statute), that party can be enjoined from those unlawful acts and…..must pay the plaintiff’s attorneys fees. In other words, there probably is no harm to the plaintiff, but that may be irrelevant. This is really just a vehicle to get some attorneys fees paid.

There’s quite a heads-up battle going on right now between Justin Bonomo and the Grinder, Michael Mizrachi. Blogger Jon Katkin is on the rail and sends along these iPhone pics of the action:

Most recently: Bonomo’s won a couple monster pots and it could be over soon.

This just in, from the PPA:

Poker Players Alliance Statement on Minnesota Department of
Public Safety’s Announcement to Censor Online Poker

Washington, DC (April 29, 2009) – Matt Werden, the Minnesota state director of the Poker Players Alliance, the leading poker grassroots advocacy group with more than one million members nationwide, and more than 21,000 in Minnesota, today issued the following statement following the press announcement by the Minnesota Department of Public Safety that they are attempting to block citizens from accessing any commercial gambling sites, including online poker sites.

“This isn’t simply a heavy-handed tactic by the government; this is a clear misrepresentation of federal law, as well as Minnesota law, used in an unprecedented way to try and censor the Internet. I don’t know what U.S. Code they’re reading, but it is not illegal to play this great American pastime online, and we’re calling their bluff.

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Our little Texas poker bill was chugging along well, and then I blinked … poof, and we were supposedly down to the proverbial chip-and-a-chair yesterday. For all our hard work to get it to the Calendars Committee and then let them know how much support it had from a diverse group of constituents … it was just sitting there? The blinds were eating us up, and, supposedly, we were about to take a bad beat from some arm-twisting higher-ups who had had just about enough.

(Note to self: politics is hard.)

But politics is about compromise — I truly believe that the more I learn about the game — not to mention perception of intent. Our opponents apparently didn’t have a problem with poker so much as they did with the amount of poker we were trying to make possible in this bill. So as we speak/type/read, Austin politicos are “ratcheting back” HB 222. If you were a bar owner hoping to get your hands on a license for some live or electronic tables … well sorry, you’re out of luck. The slimmed-down poker bill the Calendars Comittee will (hopefully, fingers crossed) be sending to the House floor in coming days will allow for poker only at parimutuel race tracks and on Indian Reservations.

OK, imho, we can definitely live with that. And great to hear that any opposition is working with us, not against us, in pursuit of a win-win for poker and the people of Texas. Because that’s really what it’s all about, right?

(C’mon river …)

The Minneapolis Star-Tribune is reporting that the Minnesota Alcohol and Gambling Enforcement Division, part of the state’s Department of Public Safety, has sent a letter to 11 regional and national ISPs asking them to block Minnesota computers from over 200 gambling sites. State officials believe they’re the first state to restrict access to online gambling sites. However, Kentucky may want to have a few words with you, Minnesota. The DPS press release is as follows:

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While Full Tilt was proudly amassing bracelets and getting its customers to “play with the pros” a few years ago, and PokerStars was doing its best to put champions on its roster … PartyPoker was going the other way; they marketed themselves as a site for the masses — unashamed by the unaccomplished nature of their player pool. The one exception — the one pro Party claimed as their own — was Mike Sexton, who had been consulting with them since their earliest days.

He eventually cashed out much of his interest (damn UIGEA) … but now, perhaps as a sign of things to come or perhaps just out of fondness for the way things once were, Mike Sexton has re-upped his relationship with Party and will be representing them as an official face and host on the site.

More details from Party below:

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NBC is expanding their poker inventory with a brand new reality show, with the help of Poker PROductions and Full Tilt Poker called “Face the Ace” starting Saturday Aug. 1, according to Variety. The show debuts at 9pm Saturday for two weeks, then moves to Saturday afternoons for the rest of its seven episode run. The show will be hosted by Steven Schirripa of “The Sopranos” fame.

Qualifiers are now running at Full Tilt Poker, with 30 winners getting a trip to the Golden Nugget in Las Vegas to audition to be on the show. Those who pass the auditions will then have the opportunity to beat 3 Team Full Tilt Pros heads-up and win $1,000,000. If they beat one pro, they win a certain amount of money with the option to move forward. If they beat a second pro, they win a higher amount of money. If they beat the third pro, they win the grand prize, but if they lose at any time, they go home with nothing.

The bottom of the article notes that the other Poker PROductions program on NBC, Poker After Dark, is up 4% in the ratings, averaging over 800,000 viewers in its very late night time slot.

For those who missed it … or those who like to play the same song over and over again on CD or iPod … here’s the audio from today’s conference call — featuring WSOP Commissioner Chief Twitterer Jeffrey Pollack, WSOP Media Honcho Seth Palansky, WSOP Top Dog Tourney Director Jack Effel, and ESPN’s Senior Director of Programming and Free Online Poker Pimping Doug White, letting us know what’s in store for the 2009 poker haj:

WSOP Media Conference Call
April 28, 2009

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Pollack, Palansky, Effel, White, reporters

For a scan of what this hour+ call covers, check the live-blogging from Wicked Chops.

News to me … but that’s what ESPN dude Doug White (Sr. Director of Programming and Acquisitions) said on the WSOP Conference Call. They got it for live event coverage. Woot, congrats — go poker! But really? Did they see the blurriness in the background? And did they know how terribly the heads-up was handled? And did they realize it wasn’t “live” live? OK, sorry, not to throw the ESPN dudes under the Emmy bus … but really, they can’t win for 2008, can they?

Yet with an extra year to fine-tune, it’s gotta be pretty good that they know they have something to shoot for this year. Poker winning an Emmy would definitely be a big deal.

UPDATE: Apparently the Sports Emmys were last night. Trying to find a list of nominees and who won … but no luck so far.

Today is the annual conference call done by the fine folks at the World Series of Poker (such as Jeffrey Pollack, Jack Effel, someone at Milwaukee’s Best, someone from Harrah’s etc), is scheduled to start at 10am PT. The audio usually turns up later in the day, and there’ll be some live blogging/commenting of the call, at least at Wicked Chops Poker. Can we set an over/under on the number of stupid questions that get asked by the non-poker media?

That’s the word … according to a YouTube commenter, Annie got herself a two-for-one on this week’s episode of Celebrity Apprentice, knocking out not just Melissa, but also Joan Rivers … who wasn’t even on the losing team!

Donald Trump said on Regis & Kelly this morning that Joan did quit. Next week will be the final four. 2 weeks from now is the finale.

So that leaves:

Clint Black
Jesse James
Annie Duke
Brande Roderick

UPDATE: I should probably add a question mark to the hedline, because some “inside” info has come in to say Joan will indeed be back in the mix and that my predictions below are way off. We’ll have to see …

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