The mystery of who Isildur1 is may finally be revealed in a televised cash game in London next month. PokerNews, Tony G (who will stake Isildur1) and Matchroom Sport have each announced that the high-stakes online phenom will appear at the Les Ambassadeurs club in London for PartyPoker’s “Big Game IV”, a 48-hour cash game taped April 11-13th. Negotiations are still underway as to whether Isildur1 will wear a mask to continue hiding his identity or if he’ll choose to finally reveal himself to the public.

Names already announced for the cash game include Phil Laak, Jennifer Tilly, Isaac Haxton, Luke “Full Flush” Schwartz, Neil Channing with several other players to be announced over the next few days. Previous “Big Game” broadcasts filmed by Matchroom Sport have been 25-50 NL holdem, with the possibility of the blinds increasing during the session. The final product will first air on Channel Five in the UK, and eventually appear on networks around the world.

Here’s a promo previewing last year’s “Big Game” broadcast, picture this action in a much nicer location:

It takes a special white man to be able to make slavery jokes … but hey, that’s the kind of breaking down of barriers that becomes possible when you gamble for reparations.

Funny tweet from @brokelivingJRB:

Doyle joked with Ivey about how nice it would’ve been if Phil had been on his plantation 200 years ago. Phils’ response: there’d a been a bunch of black baby Brunsons running around. Lmao

If you missed it last week, The Poker Beat crew gathered via Skype to talk some poker legal news … Carlos Mortenson’s WPT domination (and where he stands overall in the poker) … and we invite folks via the Poker Road Forums to compete with us for a piece of our TPB prop bet picking the likely 20 to make the WSOP TOC.

NOTE: I predict 146 players in the WPT-Bucharest main event … turned out to be 161.

The Poker Beat
3/25/10

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Click below for my picks for the most-of-20 prop bet. And click here to submit your own and give yourself a chance at nabbing a piece of our prize pool.

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Police say they are hot on the case … details emerging about the Austin poker game that got robbed EPT-Berlin style (only for less money and with more gunfire) … and apparently this one — occurring in a middle-class residential neighborhood in northwest Austin — ain’t gonna go the way of poker robberies in Dallas, Houston, San Antonio, and others recently in Austin.

http://www.statesman.com/blogs/content/shared-gen/blogs/austin/blotter/entries/2010/03/29/police_investigate_card_game_r.html

The Travis County Sheriff’s Dept. (woking with APD) has caught at least one of the suspected bandits after tracking down a (coincidentally German-made) possible getaway car. Osaro Osagie, 22, is currently in custody on felony charges of credit card abuse, for possessing one of the poker player’s stolen cards.

An investigation on the aggravated robbery is still ongoing, and thus police are saying little else at the moment.

This all shook down at a game in near West Anderson Lane and Mopac.

UPDATE: More on the heavily armed robbery from KXAN here.

A little excitement at WPT Bucharest this weekend, when controversial soccer agent Giovani Becali got kicked out of the tournament … Hmm, throwing chips and threats of blows … seems like a little Phil Hellmuth + (old) Hevad Khan + Bobby Knight with maybe a dash of European football violence thrown in.

Kinda funny to see the new-and-improved, PartyPokerfied Tony G becoming an etiquette ambassador instructing poker bad-boys on how to behave at the tables.

Meanwhile, as WPT-Bucharest continues … the WPT is hyping a pretty competitive field for a relatively small (161 players, €3,000+300) new WPT event:

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Dwyte Pilgrim just won his third WSOP-Circuit gold ring — an unprecedented impressive feat. I sensed he was doing something special back in May, when ESPN was conducting its fantasy WSOP draft. Thought I nabbed a real gem for the 71st pick.

WSOP Fantasy Draft – May 22, 2009

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LOL, Go ESPN scouting team!

Here’s an interview after his most recent win in a $300+40 NLH at WSOP-Rincon (in San Diego).

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Finally, something useful for me specifically … Brian Hastings (Stinger885 to the online geeks who study this stuff) … on some basics of Pot-Limit Omaha, including some specifics here about how to play Aces. Don’t watch this CardRunners lesson if you plan to play with me in the near future in the Thursday 1/2 NLH/PLO game at the Hard Rock.

(You may want to double-click this vid so you can watch the full-screen version of this 4-table session.)

For access to thousands of full video lessons, many designed to improve your PLO, sign up for TrulyFreePokerTraining.com.

That’s what he’s telling ESPN-LA. At least those are his plans if he can learn to beat the games he plays in. Check out his interview where he discusses poker, family, NBA business, and USC … but not the secrets of being a 77-year-old man bagging 23-year-old high-stakes railbirds.

I now have the time to pursue another profession. I’m going to become a professional poker player. Well, let’s say I’m going to become a poker player. Whether I can earn a living at it is questionable.

They didn’t ask the obvious question: You have lots of money and blonde hair … are you Isildur1?

It’s not just the kids getting hooked on poker … here’s a 106-year-old Oklahoma farmer who plays the game — hey, he was born in 1903; who cares about Jokers! Plus an entertainingly local commercial to start off the segment:

[via CalvinAyre.com]

A poker show for the hardcore fan, with a touch of game-show whammy thrown in. To be seen on Fox Sports. That’s the word coming from Daniel Negreanu:

Buy in: $100,000 minimum $500,000 maximum
Blinds: $200-$400 with a $100 ante (the button will ante for the table)
Format: 6 handed (occasionally that may change) pot limit betting before the flop, no limit hold’em after the flop.

The Twist: One of the six players at the table will be an online qualifier, “The Loose Cannon,” who’ll get a chance to sit in the game with $100,000… and it’s a freeroll! Well, not entirely. The Loose Cannon must play the full session, and he can keep anything that he wins. If he loses, say $500 or $50,000, he gets nada.

I’d Tivo that.

There were really big guns, shouting, and shots fired. That’s the word circulating in Austin poker circles right now about a scary armed robbery somewhere on the west side of Travis County late last night — just before the bars closed … always an action time in Texas poker rooms.

Here’s an email from one of the players there, with names redacted for now …

HORRIBLE Robbery at *****’s tonight, around 1:40am. I was there 3-4 black guys w/ AK 40′s, shot their way in back door. **** was running game, 24 people there. Amazingly, No one hurt. ***** was downtown, **** and ***** hid in laundry.

They specifically asked for ***** by name. Must have known back yard had no cameras. Climbed fence from mopac.

Made us all go face down, empty pockets, took most wallets, phones keys. My wallet was found by cop, amazingly a mile down feeder laying in road, all intact except $1000 in cash (i had won $600 last night and forgot to remove it before going to *****’s).

Gunshots were fired Inside. they kept yelling at us not to look up or move, so we didn’t know if people were shot.

****** saved our lives. he obeyed them, rationalized w/ them, showed them closet w/ money, but had no key, they harassed him, they shot or kicked doors in,

Over 9 cops were arriving as we drove away. They stopped us and interviewed us individually, were very concerned for our safety and catching criminals, not even a question of poker game. Helecopters, forensics, detectives and K9 were all there lining the street.

unbelievable.

UPDATE: Unconfirmed word is that Austin police caught at least one of the robbers, when he used a stolen credit card at a “club” either later that night or the next day.

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Isildur has been outed — supposedly it really is Viktor Blom, insists Luke FullFlush Schwartz. That jibes with what Tony G had been saying months ago — but recently he has backed off attaching any name to the mysterious Swedish nosebleeder … and instead is trying to … er … “flush out” Isildur by buying him into the live poker world.

Tell the G you’re the man he’s been looking for with this powerfully stylish le chemise, perfect for an episode of High Stakes Poker:

I am Isildur1 by Pokerati (w alcanthang)

Also … just related:

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Don’t know who this character was, nor his intentions … maybe he just wanted to give the dealer his phone number?

From EPT-Snowfest, @Benjodimeo reports:

One of the #Snowfest finalists left a $1 bill as a tip to the dealers.An actual bill. He signed it. Insulting.It’s worse than giving nothing

HR 2268, now HR 4976, aka the McDermott Bill, aka the Internet Gambling Regulation and Tax Enforcement Act of 2009 2010, got re-introduced yesterday … it’s pretty similar to IGRTEA 2009, with two key differences:

IGRTEA 2010 specifies money for states and tribes — 6 percent — and attaches a dollar amount for a specific beneficiary, roughly $1 billion a year for foster-care programs. It’s being pitched as a sin tax, really — a simple addition to the tax code to allow one more group of disadvantaged youth to still get its government cheese. But if that’s the road they’re going down, perhaps they should earmark the $1 billion/year these kids will get from PokerTaxes.net as being for foster kids with cancer and cleft palettes? How can you be against helping foster children make that abused foster children with cancer and cleft palettes.

Here’s the actual bill itself. Just three co-sponsors out the gate, one of them being Barney Frank.

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Those PokerTek tables and the subsequent knock-offs are starting to look a little Commodore 64 … But still say they were onto something. Check out the latest generation of real-live poker stepping into the online technology domain.

Via Gizmodo … and Engadget …

Poker Surface: Combining Mobile Phones and a Multi-Touch Surface in Interactive Card Games

IMHO, these college kids deserve an A.

Conceptually, based on interactions in traditional card games, our poker game application explores different natural ways of interaction, including touching the table as well as tilting, throwing, and shaking a mobile phone. By translating traditional gestures into the digital domain, we provide a use case to discuss useful gestures combing mobile phones with tabletop surfaces, as well as to explore a private-public display setting for digital card games at interactive tables. Additionally, the mobile phone provides the tangible feeling similar to physical cards. The preliminary user study showed that users preferred using mobile phones for interaction compared with direct interaction on multi-touch table. Further information can be find in http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/1613858.16… . The project is done in Pervasive Computing and User Interface Engineering group at University of Duisburg Essen (http://www.pervasive.wiwi.uni-due.de/en/profile).

#AlmostGettingThere

UPDATE: There was a step in between that was pretty cool too:

#Atari2600ofPoker?