And maybe even re-vote …

Pokerati, as you may or may not know, is up for a Bluff Magazine Readers Choice Award — “Top Poker Blog of 2009″. Yippee. And The Poker Beat is a nominee for “Best Poker Podcast”. It’s always nice to see hard work yield some semblance of results. Tao of Poker+Wicked Chops+Poker News Daily=whatever. Other people are up for other things, too. Hey, really, they all deserve it.

Cast your ballot(s) semi-intelligently here.

If you need help making a decision, here’s Jennifer Tilly with some strong advice:

Poker 2Nite crosses the halfway point of its first run of shows, and last show of 2009, with a segment with Justin Bonomo and an interview with PokerRoad Radio co-host Gavin Smith. Parts 2 and 3 appear on the following page.

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About 2 years ago, I received an instant message from ZeeJustin (Justin Bonomo), completely out of nowhere. This was weird because Justin Bonomo didn’t have my AIM contact info. But whoever was IMing me did …Or, they were using a poker-related email database, hoping that some players would have their AIM ID’s tied to the same email account. I replied at the time, simply asking “Who is this, really?”, which was returned with silence. My response probably spooked my contact, because as the coming days would show, Justin Bonomo’s IM account had been compromised and used to scam poker players out of money by ‘borrowing’ on Bonomo’s name.

Just a while back, during the Doyle Brunson 5-Star event at the Bellagio, I saw my old friend log in again. Pretty hard to do, considering Bonomo was at the tables at the Bellagio. So I thought I’d have a little fun.

Karridy – 2:48
  Wassup man
ZeeJustin – 2:48
  chillin you
Karridy – 2:48
  Just finished taking down a nice score on Stars. Feeling great.
ZeeJustin – 2:49
  LOL
Karridy – 2:49
  You at bellagio today?
ZeeJustin – 2:49
  how much did you win Karridy?
More…

TMZ reports that Phil and Luciaetta Ivey filed for divorce on December 22nd, and their divorce was finalized today.

More details as they come.

H/t goes to “Blackjacki2″ on 2+2 for the link.

In Washington state, this video would be grounds for a criminal prosecution on par with with child molesting. But down south, in Portland, Oregon, it’s a super-feelgood story with online poker pro Dusty Schmidt (aka “Leatherass”) gambling for the homeless.

His schtick is playing for rent for the underprivileged, and ends up making $20k for the folks in the process:

This shoulda gone up about two-and-a-half months ago … but hey, we were busy with the November Nine and Tiger Woods was busy banging every chick in Vegas who ever said “call me!” … not to mention posing for photoshopped covers of Golf Digest with advice for Barack Obama. No wonder he didn’t have time to be smoking pot with Michael Phelps …

Still, before golf officially decided to go the degen route — or perhaps in preparation for it? — Golf Magazine ran a feature in their November issue about Phil Hellmuth, Layne Flack, Erick Lindgren, and Gavin Smith hitting the Las Vegas links, apparently foreshadowing the concept of risking big-big bucks on every hole:

Golf Magazine feature on High Stakes Poker Players Golfing

The latest and greatest from Huff and Seebs as they review the WPT Five Diamond Doyle Brunson Classic, an interview with 2009 CardPlayer POY (and new addition to Team UB Eric Baldwin) and a story on several players shaving their heads in support of Thuy Doan. Parts 2 and 3 appear on the following page:

More…

A lot of people in the poker industry claim they know who Isildur1 is. I don’t buy any of it (yet) … because when you trace back who said what and how they knew who made who on 2+2, you realize there’s a 50-50 shot that the historic player on Full Tilt was probably in a movie with Kevin Bacon.

But PokerNews ed-honcho Matt Parvis did speak with a heavily accented Isildur1 on the phone recently, for a limited two-part interview:

In Part 1 they address the controversial session against Cardrunners Pro Brian Hastings. And though hardly seeming upset, Isildur does say he intends to file a complaint against presumed datamining violations.

In Part 2 Isildur reveals that he had been playing $200/$400 NL on different sites before coming to Full Tilt in October; he isn’t the other mysterious Swedish nosebleeder Martonas (“Martonas is honestly my enemy in poker”); he learned to play PLO only 8 months ago; durrr is good, Ivey tough; and yes, he’ll be back.

This video overwrite is almost two years old … but new to me, and kinda funny to post Hitler stuff around Christmas considering the issues emerging related to an online site’s control of a player’s funds:

(And this came out even before the maker of it could know that Joan Rivers accuse Annie Duke of being Hitler1.)

Also makes you wonder … surely there is at least one world leader out there, good or bad, who has an online poker account (or three). Brings us one step closer to the day where international trade disputes and military conflicts can be replaced by heads-up sit-n-gos …

… our new-good friends at Ksino.com, who think they’ve got just the stylish-cashz textiles for the guy who needs to be comfortable at a poker table and still be all-good should he get dragged out to a baller night at the clubs to compete against Ed Hardy douchebags for the affections of a lovely girl who may or may not know shit about how to play Ace-King but really needs another vodka-Red Bull …

It seems like Beanie from Bluff (the website, not the magazine) isn’t the only one with data mining on his mind these days. Joining Paul in expressing their dismay over this increasingly common trend are the folks over at 2+2 who are starting an online petition to try and convince sites like Stars and Tilt to completely ban the use of TableRatings.

Which brings us to Brian Townsend, a Full Tilt Poker pro and popular CardRunners instructor who has recently learned something about bans and TableRatings. It seems that Townsend, Cole South, and Brian Hastings got together to brainstorm strategies for taking down Isilidur1 shortly before Hastings booked his incredible $4.2 million win against the Swedish phenom.

While their strategizing was in no way a violation of FTP’s Terms of Service, the fact that they poured over a Townsend-supplied database of hand histories in order to decipher Isildur’s playing patterns was — and, as a result, Townsend is now playing without his red status for 30 days. Our buddy Matt Parvis has the full story over at Poker News.

The armed robbery of what looks like probably a 5/10 game was the lead story on KXAN’s 6 pm broadcast … and they spoke to longtime friend of Pokerati (and Texas state director of the PPA) Lavigne in Austin about the robbery at the Gaines Ranch Apartments for the skinny on what’s really at stake with these masked gunmen poker things:

“From what I understand, investigators are at a stalemate,” said Commander Chris Noble with APD’s organized crime division. “The victim is not being cooperative.”

But, Mike Lavigne, the Texas State Director for the Poker Players Alliance , blames antiquated laws for the robbers’ success and the unsolved crimes.

“A lot of times people don’t even call the cops if these places get busted by a thief because it’s not legal for them to be necessarily running that room in the first place,” Lavigne said.

[...]

“It’s not seen as a crime in most parts of the world,” said Lavigne. “It just happens to be the leftovers from some old laws in Texas. It’s not clear what’s legal or illegal in our state right now.”

UPDATE: Here’s the video:

Paul Nobles

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OP-ED

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Dan and I have talked a long time about having me as a guest contributor to Pokerati, but we never could find the exact right angle. What we ultimately decided on was a discussion about online poker trends. As someone who does consulting for online poker sites and is an active member of the affiliate community, I have some insights that might be interesting and slightly outside of the scope of most of the poker discussion here.

I have been following a few threads on two plus two recently that I think could use a bit more attention. As many people know, there is a site called pokertableratings.com that data-mines all of the major online poker sites and provides visitors with charts and such. Really just enough information to whet your appetite to get you to buy some of their pirated data. For a long while they operated as a free site and, mostly, people did not mind them or feel a need to object until they started selling the data that sites like Full Tilt and PokerStars prohibit players from using.

When players are able to have access to information that they have not collected, that crosses a line. And when you know your opponents have more information than you do, it creates a temptation that puts online poker players at a crossroads similar to athletes with steroids.

This is a particularly frustrating topic for me because I am a co-developer of the Bluff Poker Software and the owner of Bluff.com. Certainly, we knew it was possible to do what TableRatings is doing, but it did not seem like a long-term winning plan to build a site that was essentially an enemy of online poker players and online poker sites. Our software (which is in Beta) allows players their own private database so they can review their play after the fact. While players can share hand histories with other people via our forums, each player is given the option to keep all of their hand histories private. We are basically a scaled down (but online) version of some of the information you get from Poker Tracker or Holdem Manager, which are programs that sites deem legal because it is your own information that you have collected.

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@JessWelman has more info over at PokerNewsDaily about the new Aria poker room … and specifically some details about their highest-stakes salon/fishbowl:

Fans of Bobby’s Room at the Bellagio will be happy to hear there is an equivalent in the Aria poker room and it has already been put to use. Cirque du Soleil founder Guy Laliberte, David Benyamine, Tom “durrrr” Dwan, and Patrik Antonius were all spotted playing in the secluded VIP lounge on Thursday evening, the day after the casino opened. While the room is semi-private, ogling railbirds can get a peek at their favorite high-stakes players through the glass front door. According to one of the employees at Aria, Phil Ivey is currently in talks to loan his name to the room in the same fashion that Bobby Baldwin did at the Bellagio, so news of big games being played in “Phil’s Room” could be on the horizon.

Two questions come to mind:

1. Is there enough room for two “Big Games” in this town?
2. Big-name players supporting poker rooms or poker rooms supporting big-name players?
3. What’s MGM/Mirage’s vision for poker across its competing properties?
4. When are they gonna put this highest-stakes shit on 24-hour webcam?

OK, that’s four. But hey, CityCenter is big … and so far, just a few days old, it raises more questions about Las Vegas’ future than it answers.

This one apparently happened a few days ago in Houston. They were playing 1/2 NLH/PLO (interesting game selection) … and the game was running a bit bigger than usual. According to one player who was there, about $8,000 was on the table.

From Pocket Fives:

It’s about 3am and i’m up about 300 when one of the guys that was smoking outside(who is definitely not in on it) comes back in with 3guys behind him wearing masks. One has a fkn assault rifle and the other a pistol pointed at the table. “Everyone get your hands and heads on the table”. “Mother fker” I say to myself as i’m complying. The game was soo good. I had my leather jacket over my lap and i shake it off and kick it to the ground under the table just hoping they wouldn’t find the $800 i had in it.

It was a semi-violent assault, with one player trying to hide a Rolex getting clocked upside the head, and the other players being duct-taped.

Apparently the mistake the bad guys made this time was stealing a car from one of the players … which made them easier to chase and track down. Before long, cops were in pursuit, a chase was on, the robbers ditched the car (a Range Rover) and fled on foot. Eventually they were caught and the money was recovered.

More details as they come-in …

NOTE: Just because Texas players are getting better at stopping the robberies doesn’t mean the robbers aren’t learning too … in this case, supposedly, the gunmen were wearing body armor.

This is the second Texas poker robbery in the past month where players chased the assailants, who would end up arrested and facing serious prison time. Travis Thomas, the 19-year-old apparent ringleader of a botched robbery of an oldtimers game in Seagoville, has a court date tomorrow. He’s charged with aggravated robbery with a deadly weapon, and faces 5-99 years in prison.

UPDATE: Armed Robbery in Austin, Too

Turns out a higher-stakes game in South Austin was also hit in the past few days. This game had reportedly about $25k on the table, and unlike recent robberies outside of Dallas and in Houston, the armed bandits got away without being arrested or killed.