Be happy you’re not on Tom Schneider’s mass email list. If you were, you’d get far too much mal-informed conservative propaganda, stories easily disprovable via Snopes.com, and the occasional funny potty-humor vid. Anyhow, this year Pokerati’s favorite alumni-blogger-made-good is jumping on the Twitter bandwagon … you know, along with everyone else.

(In fact, check out our new little Twitter toy here at Pokerati … or shall I say @Pokerati? We’ll explain to you how it all works once we figure it out ourselves.)

Click below to see/make fun of the 2007 WSOP Player of the Year explaining to his friends and family how he, as an “early adopter” of Twitter will be able to infrequently update people he cares about in a way where he doesn’t have to really deal with them:

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Considering that the official body shape of poker is somewhere between egg and pear (with the occasional avocado mixed in):

Are You in Poker Shape? from by Brandon Muller.

You, the poker fan, can participate in the nominating process for the Poker Hall of Fame for the first time starting today. Head over to worldseriesofpoker.com and nominate someone (one vote per email address). Here’s the criteria for the Poker Hall of Fame:

* A player must have played poker against acknowledged top competition
* Played for high stakes
* Played consistently well, gaining the respect of peers
* Stood the test of time
* Or, for non-players, contributed to the overall growth and success of the game of poker, with indelible positive and lasting results.

Voting will take place from May 26-July 2nd, and the top 10 names under consideration will be announced during the WSOP Main Event. In August, the Hall of Fame committee will review the nominations and determine the final list of nominees. In September, the surviving Poker Hall of Fame members, along with select members of the media, rank the nominees and the top two selections (or whomever receives 75% of the votes, depending on what source you look at) will be announced during the Main Event final table in November.

Often in poker you come across situations where although you think you may have the best hand, you want to try and check and make your opponent bluff. These situations often occur when you have a medium strength hand that you do not want to fold, and where you think that your opponent has either a monster hand or nothing.

Always remember that poker is a game where you have to think about the best route of action considering the most likely holdings of your opponent

Imagine that you call a raise from a loose aggressive player with ace ten from the big blind. The flop comes 10c9c2s. You bet around two thirds of the pot and your opponent calls. The turn is the 4h and you bet again, a bet which your opponent calls. The river is the 3d. What should you do now?

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The WSOP unofficially starts at 9am today as the Amazon Room at the Rio opens for registration, cash games and satellites before the tournaments begin Wednesday with Event #1, the $500 Casino Employees tournament. That’s as good a reason as any to do the preview for this year’s World Series of Poker, so here’s some things to look out for during the Series:

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‘Nother Sam’s Game teaser … OK, gotta say, I’m kinda likin’ the show — at least in short, few-minute blips. Though I’ve hardly even seen any hands, I have totally dug the ones I have seen. Is it at all possible that lowering the stakes and adding in more profanity, smoke, and hooker references could ever pose a threat to High Stakes Poker’s televised hold’em supremacy?

The high hand is usually seen as the weaker of the possible hands in hi/lo split games – simply because it cannot win the low as well, where as low hands can frequently develop into high hands which can win both the high and the low end of the pot (lows can easily become nut flushes or straights as well as lows).

“Although this was a good solid style in the old games, if everyone is playing in this way it ceases to be effective.”

In fact this point has become so widely written about and understood, that many players seem to now actually try and totally avoid high hands.

I was recently playing in a low stakes Omaha hi/lo game that illustrated this point perfectly. Had I been in this game even five years ago, most players would be over valuing high hands, not playing enough lows, giving too many free cards and would generally be pretty easy to beat. In the modern era though, these games have now become full of players who basically only play hands with ace two and ace three in them. Although this was a good solid style in the old games, if everyone is playing in this way it ceases to be effective.

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News every American needs to hear! If you thought the UIGEA and Patriot Act were bad, you won’t believe what your government has for you next! Plus, European online gaming news from Scotland, Holland, and Switzerland.

Here’s a great pokery song (1985) that some of you may not probably don’t have in your ipods — Manowar’s anthem to the joys and power of being dealt 7-2 offsuit:

A good inspirational reminder before you kick off your weekend. Gotta like the way they play it, too.

Tee times, to be more specific …

I didn’t plan on it, but at the moment I’m following a Las Vegas golf match between @barrygreenstein and @RealKidPoker. Pathetic, I know … surely there’s something better to stare at on this here wall. But I’m semi-intrigued … first, by how they’re golfing and how they’re betting it; and 2 — think how funny these two guys must look twittering down the fairways. It’s extra funny on twitter, too, because Greenstein’s avatar is him in a Robin Hood costume.

Strange new world?

Negreanu says he’s playing the best 9 he has in months.

The former CEO of Party Gaming is on board with the WSOP to be sure … as CEO of the newly formed Harrah’s Interactive Entertainment. Jeffrey Pollack stays on board as WSOP Commish and President of the new parent company. All of this effective today, supposedly.

The official word:

HARRAH’S ENTERTAINMENT FORMS HARRAH’S INTERACTIVE ENTERTAINMENT
NEW SUBSIDIARY TO MANAGE THE GLOBAL GROWTH OF THE WORLD SERIES OF POKER® (WSOP)
AND EXPLORE EUROPEAN INTERACTIVE EXPANSION STRATEGY

LAS VEGAS, May 29, 2009 – Harrah’s Entertainment, Inc. (Harrah’s) announced today that it has established a new subsidiary, Harrah’s Interactive Entertainment, Inc. (HIE) to manage the global growth of the World Series of Poker® (WSOP) and explore a European interactive strategy.

“As the world’s largest gaming company, Harrah’s is taking a proactive approach toward international and interactive expansion,” said Harrah’s Entertainment Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer Gary Loveman. “It is important we position ourselves to explore new markets as well as new technologies with our best in class brands.”

Mitch Garber, a longtime gaming lawyer and public company senior executive, joins HIE as CEO. Jeffrey Pollack, Commissioner of the WSOP, remains in that role and will become President of HIE.

In addition to growing the World Series of Poker, HIE will explore the use of interactive gaming technologies to expand the reach of Harrah’s brands globally, starting in Europe. With its renowned Total Rewards customer-loyalty program, HIE will be utilized to develop new opportunities to strengthen and grow Harrah’s customer base.

The World Series of Poker, in its 40th year, has experienced record growth in the last five years. Participants from 124 nations competed in last year’s tournament, up from 24 just five years ago and entrants have gone from 13,036 to 58,720 during the same span. The WSOP expanded into Europe in 2007 with the creation of the World Series of Poker Europe® held each fall in London.

Yikes, is it really May 29 already?

Phil Hellmuth celebrates his first-round draft pick by Team Pokerati.

The draft just ended … (complete rosters forthcoming) …

1. Phill Hellmuth
2. Robert Mizrachi
3. Men the Master
4. Humberto Brenes
5. Matt Glantz
6. Nikolay Evdakov
7. Dwyte Pilgrim
8. Isaac Baron

All the above players should come find me before any of their events start so I can properly patch them up. (Those are the rules, right?)

UPDATE: Click below to see everyone else’s picks in draft position order — from Gavin Smith (via blackberry), Daniel Negreanu, Gary Wise, Bernard Lee, yours truly, Howard Lederer, Andrew Feldman, Mark Seif, Lance Bradley, Chops, and Joe McGowan (for Dennis Phillips):

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Currently listening to the piano version of Lady Gaga’s PokerFace:

Ahh, just what I needed! Not sure if this version is by my favorite poker-minded pop-star bisexual or just a cover by Randy Newman’s kid sister … but regardless, the song was starting to get a little stale, and now this keeps it temporarily fresh.

DJ DaKnish is pimpin’ the original, too, on blip.fm (?) should you want to compare.

Only four will be on ESPN the TV … but many of the rest will be available at ESPN and Bluff the dot-coms:

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/poker/news/story?id=4193851

24 events in total on ESPN360.com [and/or Bluff] … including the $50k HORSE.

Thursday is Poker Beat day … and today we’ll be talking about the WSOP, beef jerky, Dream Team Poker, and Twittering poker.

(Follow @Pokerati here.)

Tune in live or get the podcast:

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

I’m actually on the bench for today’s show to make room for Dennis Rodman. But if he doesn’t show, I gotta be ready to go.