This form 8-K was just issued by WPT Enterprises (WPTE):

Item 8.01 Other Events.

On July 28, 2009, WPT Enterprises, Inc. (the “Company”) entered into an Asset Purchase Agreement (the “Purchase Agreement”) with Gamynia Limited (“Buyer”) to sell substantially all of the Company’s operating assets other than cash, investments and certain excluded assets to Buyer. The Purchase Agreement was disclosed in a Current Report on Form 8-K that was filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) on August 3, 2009.

Under the Purchase Agreement, the Company is to file a preliminary proxy statement with the SEC within 21 days of signing the Purchase Agreement. The Company’s Board of Directors has received an alternative acquisition proposal and is following the process required by the Purchase Agreement. Until the process required by the Purchase Agreement is completed, the Company will delay the filing of a preliminary proxy statement with the SEC.

This may just be nothing, but it’s intriguing to see someone else considering purchasing most of the World Poker Tour’s assets.

Speaking of bankroll management … an @Ali_Nejad tweet reminds me of the power of network television, and provides a glimpse of what serving as tournament director on the lowest-rated show on prime-time TV can get you:

@Ali_Nejad At BMW dealer finally gettin break-in service on M5. Sure it only gets 10mpg, but I only drove it 900mi in 3 months! “Green?” What say u?

No blood for oil, dude. Props for going green to show your support for Iran!

Wait, you mean poker pros aren’t the only ones who go broke? Apparently not … according to Brian Cuban (Mark’s brother) 60 percent of all pro athletes go belly-up after retirement. Likewise for Hollywood-types. So much for our theories on poker players being inherently more degenerate … they’ve hardly got the market cornered when it comes to pissing money away.

Though I question Cuban’s numbers, I don’t doubt so much his concept. He will be talking about it — pro athletes specifically — on his podcast (radio show?) tomorrow at 11:15 central.

International team poker is just a fad, right? Maybe so … but this defending Dream Team Poker-WSOP champion who loves to monitor WSOP prowess by country is looking forward to the television coverage of the Caesar’s Cup — a special event at WSOP-Europe that pits the Canadians Americans vs. the Euros in an 8-player-a-side format. As the teams take shape, it’s looking to be quite the competitive experience vs. youth match-up:

Team Americas: Daniel Negreanu (captain), Phil Ivey, Phil Hellmuth and John Juanda

Team Europe: Annette Obrestad (captain), Peter Eastgate, Dario Minieri, Bertrand Grospellier

I still don’t quite have a grasp on the format, or how the other four slots will be selected. But I do know Euros can qualify for a seat on their team via our good mates at Betfair Poker.

MMA bad-asses Randy Couture, Frank Trigg, Phil Baroni, and others will be joining poker pros Todd Brunson, Lee Watkinson, Chip Jett, David Williams, and others to raise money for wounded vets this Sunday at the Golden Nugget. It’s a $330 buy-in (w/ $100 rebuys) … first prize is a $10k seat (+$2k travel) to the upcoming Sports Legends Challenge in the Bahamas. Karina Jett is the hostess — and if we’re lucky, we’ll get to hear Todd Brunson talk politics.

Come play if you’re in town. Good times, good cause, all that stuff … open to the public and no funky, disputable, optional-donation prize pool — just charitable poker the way it’s supposed to be. Click the image to enlarge the flyer, and below for official details.

More…

The official word on the long-term partnership between ESPN and the WSOP is out. They’re not trying to pull a fast one on us, are they? You know, like how Harrah’s spun losing their title sponsor last year into a “happy” announcement about MBL continuing on as the official beer?

Click below to read:

More…

Phil Gordon has had his ups and downs playing poker in recent years, but he was able to finally win in court. Courthousenews.com reports that Tony DeRosa-Grund, lost an appeal to pay $600,000 to Gordon for lining up fellow pros to play in a scheduled series of poker tournaments against amateur players on CBS called Projo Poker.

Apparently DeRosa-Grund wouldn’t have made an offer to Gordon if he knew that he was a shareholder in Full Tilt Poker, because Gordon had only mentioned he was a consultant. Gordon eventually won summary judgment in January 2008. DeRosa-Grund appealed the decision, saying that the disclosure of Gordon’s ownership in FTP could not have been discovered in time for a new trial. He also said that he found the information about the ownership details from a different 2008 lawsuit filed by a former business partner of Gordon’s. U.S. District Judge Denise Cote stated that lawsuit had no bearing on this case and upheld the judgment, while declining to award Gordon no additional monetary sanctions.

It was dinner break on Day 7 of the main event — and hoping to finalize our patch deal with the really big money (and camera time) getting nearer, I joined Tom Schneider, along with Julie and Robert Goldfarb, at a Vietnamese restaurant with less than 30 minutes before play resumed. But alas, so much for Team Pokerati cracking the top 50 … all they wanted to do was play Chinese for $10 a point.

Here’s his latest instructional vid, teaching Kristy Arnett how to play everybody’s favorite 13-card game:

From PokerNews:

ESPN Signs a New Seven-Year Contract with the World Series of Poker

That puts the two in bed together through 2018. While not forever, I think in TV terms that really is a remarkably long deal. And yet it’s an interesting break point, too … with the contract expiring just before the 50th Anniversary of the WSOP.

Even more semi-pokery TV … Shaquille O’Neal is in town, doing some filming at Planet Hollywood for his new Shaq Vs. program, which debuts tomorrow at 9pm ET/PT on ABC.

The concept is that Shaq takes on the best in the world at their own game(s). He’s got some sort of swimming contest set up with Michael Phelps, a tennis match vs. Serena Williams, boxing vs. Oscar de la Hoya, and he’s been taunting David Beckham on twitter claiming the (once) great soccerer can’t bend one past him in goal.

While the entire show seems to be athletic-based — there’s no challenge to Elton John for some dueling pianos, e.g. — poker seems to have slipped in there. (Props to Disney sibling ESPN?) According to @Phil_Hellmuth, he, Mike Matusow, Chris Ferguson, and Erick Lindgren are on set right now filming an episode that we can only presume is Shaq trying to beat the best at Texas Hold’em.

Not sure about the format, but gotta think Lindgren’s got the edge after all his experience on Face the Ace.

More of the court documents that were heavily redacted now have a bit less of a black line through them, to show Full Tilt Poker and PokerStars mentioned in the case of Douglas Rennick and the freezing of nearly $40m in funds from payment processors.

iMEGA has a copy of the documents up on their site.

I came across this terrific article about poker legend Billy Baxter originally published in Sports Illustrated in 1984. This article is as relevant today as it was 25 years ago.

Oops, I might have been a bit premature when I said the Hard Rock’s August deep-stack tourney was off to a decent start.

Despite 100ish players for the first event ($340), and 50ish for the first $550 … event #3 — last Sunday’s $550 — was canceled because they didn’t have enough players. And while results are coming in sporadically, The Poker Atlas reports a pretty small turnout for at least one mid-week event:

Event #6 Results
Wednesday, August 12th at 12:00 PM
$340 buy-in No-Limit Hold’em Tournament

1st – Kelly Kellner, Calgary, AB – $3,650
2nd – Krzysztof Bernat, Chicago, IL – $2,200
3rd – Sonja Jurkovich, Las Vegas, NV – $1,425

Tomorrow is their first “big” event — a $1k+70. Should be interesting to see what happens … if anything.

George Will and I rarely see eye to eye on anything (understatement), which is why I would never have seen this column had @TheEngineer2008 pointed it out on Twitter. But in his latest Washington Post column, Will stumps for the passage of pro-online poker legislation after what seems like a conversation with Howard Lederer.

The piece opines about the criminalization of online gambling, which imposes on personal freedoms. Keeping the government out of private homes used to be something that the conservative movement traditionally viewed as an important and core issue, and Will stays true to that belief with his recent article.

It is a poker skill to know when to hold ‘em and when to fold ‘em. Congress probably should fold its interference with Internet gambling and certainly should get its 10 thumbs off Americans’ freedom to exercise their poker skills online.

Interesting, however, that he misses a key point when describing the threefold interest of Lederer in the issue…

First, his libertarian temperament — he lives in Las Vegas, where almost anything goes — is offended by mother-hen government. Second, he wants as many people as possible to have access to poker’s delights. Third, the more poker players there are, the larger will be the ranks of competitors, and the television audiences, for professional poker competitions. Hence the larger will be the potential winnings.

Full Tilt Poker, the cash cow of Lederer and others, stands to be one of the first sites to receive a license and legally cater to U.S. customers should the legislation pass. That doesn’t in any way discount his other reasons for pushing for the bills, but disclosing his part in FTP might be pertinent.