Don’t know much about bullfights. I know Carmen ends up at one. And there’s that part in The Sun Also Rises when everybody goes to Pamplona to drink and watch ‘em. Apparently your traditional corridas de toros features three distinct stages or tercios, each full of symbolic significance and designed to increase suspense before the final killing of the bull.

This week Juan Carlos Mortensen, a.k.a “El Matador,” successfully completed a third big stage in his World Poker Tour career, besting a field of 143 players at the WPT Hollywood Poker Open in Lawrenceburg, Indiana to take down the $393,820 first prize. That makes three WPT titles for the Ecuador native, tying him with Gus Hansen for the most ever.

As B.J. Nemeth noted in his WPT live reports, the win also makes Mortensen the all-time money leader in WPT history, bringing his total earnings to $5,754,308. Mortensen’s other WPT titles include a victory at the WPT Doyle Brunson North American Championship in 2004 and a win at the WPT Season Five Championship at the Bellagio in 2005.

B.J. also points out that Mortensen has now amassed more than $9.6 million in career tourney winnings. In other words, he’s killing.

Add to all of that Mortensen’s pre-boom WSOP Main Event title in 2001, and he’s certainly helped his candidacy for such things as the vote for the 2010 WSOP Tournament of Champions (where as of this moment he does appear among the Top 50 vote-getters). Not to mention helping his cause for possible Poker Hall of Fame consideration.

For more discussion of “El Matador” — as well as the WSOP TOC and other pokery topics of the day — check out this week’s episode of The (award-winning) Poker Beat.

This has nothing to do with the lessons CardRunners is making available to me through TrulyFreePokerTraining.com … but while waiting for their latest special-for-Pokerati installment to process on YouTube, this video came up, which made me laugh:

Oh, also CardRunners cohorts at Stoxpoker are both being accused of multi-accounting shenanigans, Nick Grudzien (the founder and namesake pro at Stoxpoker) has resigned, and now the two companies are merging (effective May 1) in an effort to cement CR’s position as the pre-eminent online training site.

Who’s up for some PLO?

Supposedly some 140,000 ballots came in during the first week of WSOP TOC fan voting. Our eligible pal Tom Schneider’s not in the Top 50 yet, let alone the all-important Top 20. As Harrah’s continues its First Annual Worldwide WSOP.com Email Harvest Tournament of Champions All-Star game, many pros are realizing that they may not get in just on the merits of being tied for 39th among all-time bracelet winners (with dozens of others holding two) and having a twitter account.

So DonkeyBomber is making a desperate unique attempt at getting himself on this uber-elite invite list … check it out … this just showed up in my inbox from everyone’s favorite 2007 Player of the Year:

This year, the World Series of Poker is having a Tournament of Champions. Only 27 players will play and 21 [sic.] of them must be voted in.

Here’s the deal.

You vote for me, Tom Schneider, and ONLY ME, and you will be part of the pool that will split half of what I win. First place pays $500,000. 50% of what I win will be split by people who have voted for me. If I win $500,000, $250,000 will be split by my voters. It’s that simple, and if I get voted in, I will be competing against only 27 players.

The site below is where you vote.

http://www.wsop.com/TOC/TOP50/

They will send you an email with a code in it. That code must be entered when voting.

After you have voted. Send this email to me and the verification email you receive from the WSOP site to tom@bigstackmedia.com and you will be part of the pool. I really would like to play in this tournament and your vote is very important to me. That’s why I’m paying for it.

One more important request. Please email this to any friends or family you have that you think might find it fun to own a piece of someone playing in the WSOP Tournament of Champions.

Please vote and then wish me luck.

Thanks again,

Tom Schneider
2007 WSOP Player of the Year

GL Tom! I will so laugh if you make it to #21 and think you’re in when you’re not. I kid, I kid — I haven’t even voted yet, nor decided how I will. If you win, I’m concerned about the cost of stamps eating away profits.

Click below for the current Top 50 (in random order):

More…

Kristy, Amanda, and Gloria better watch out … a new generation of on-camera floor reporters is rising through the ranks … check out Katie, arguably the best poker interviewer in middle school. This adorable underage YouTube reporter tracked down legendary Louisville hoops coach and NCAA Hall of Famer Denny Crum during a March Madness charity tourney to talk a little poker:

Though technically the hand he recalls may not be a bad beat considering the unfortunate player got it all-in after the flop, it really is a pretty rough way to go out, first hand of the WSOP main event … and Katie’s ability to assess the situation and multiply by 10,000 makes her a nominee for Top Poker Reporter in the Under-12 division.

H/T: @Jennicide

Fahrenkopf: Click your mouse for the house FTW!

As much as we try to resist, about twice a year CardPlayer.com does something uniquely worthy of sending you to them. (See, their spade points up, ours points down … that’s why we’re generally not link-friends.) The first of 2010 come from Stephen Murphy’s interview with Frank Fahrenkopf, president of the American Gaming Association. It’s a great getting-to-know one of poker’s most powerful potential allies in Washington DC … and he provides a solid explanation of where, from the Big Casinos perspective, all the current legislation, in DC and the various statehouses, stands.

First thing is that Fahrenkopf acknowledges the AGA has officially changed its position on online gambling. For years the folks at AmericanGaming.org were against, and more recently shifted to neutral. Now, overall, they can be chalked up as for. “Open to the concept” means they’ll get behind it, so long as it’s done the “right” way.

However, Fahrenkopf informs us, the AGA’s voting membership is leaning more towards a state-based regulation model, and are maintaining a neutral stance on Barney Frank’s federal bill specifically. Also, he acknowledges, there actually is a need for the UIGEA if we really want the safe, protected internet gaming that we all purport to be demanding.

Good stuff that you can’t find anywhere else … and something that anyone following how the legislative framework that will shape poker’s future is, er, taking shape … will want to read.

I buried my RunBad Q1 2010 this past week — booking a $61 win by clawing my way back from bankroll despair, once after a terrible player got lucky … and then again after having to (smartly, I believe) fold away half my almost-back-to-even stack with Ace-King …

Last week’s game-sharpening lesson came from Pawel Nazarewicz, bka Verneer … pretty straight forward, on how to think through a hand when you don’t have the best of it, but you probably also don’t have the worst.

To get more like these, sign up for TrulyFreePokerTraining.com.

BTW, the way it works … you sign up for TFPT, and then, as you play on Full Tilt and accumulate points, you get yourself a free Cardrunners (and/or StoxPoker) membership, giving you access to some 3,000 video lessons. Full Tilt won’t actually deduct your FTP points from your account, they just wanna know you are worthy of CardRunners’ time … you know how these things go.

Jihad Chetwie, the final suspect in the March 7th heist at EPT Berlin, turned himself in at Tegel airport after flying in from Beirut, Lebanon. Chetwie left the country shortly after the heist, but he could not handle living in Lebanon, and decided to turn himself in rather than being arrested in Lebanon.

News this morning from Germany that a third suspect has been arrested in connection with the armed robbery at EPT Berlin that took place two weeks ago today. According to the Associated Press, Mustafa Ucarkus, aged 20, was arrested at Tegel airport after his lawyer informed authorities of his whereabouts.

Earlier this week one member of the group of alleged thieves — a 21-year-old man of Turkish origin — turned himself in and identified his three accomplices. One, 20-year-old Ahmad el-Awayti, was arrested on Wednesday. The fourth member of the group, Jihad Chetwie (aged 19), remains at large.

We’re no TV experts here — when is Gilligan’s Island gonna get the trophy it deserves? — but we knew we were looking at something special on the small screen watching Joe Cada upend the hopes and dreams of Darvin Moon and logger poker players everywhere. (Phil Ivey probably had something to do with that, too.)

Sure enough, for the second year in a row, ESPN’s WSOP coverage got an Emmy nomination.

Specifically it was for the November Nine coverage in the category “Outstanding Live Event Turnaround”.

I think they’re referring to the fine TV production work of Dave Swartz, Matt Maranz, and the 441 Productions crew, moreso than the chipstack turnaround of Cada.

PokerNews is reporting that the UIGEA will go into effect on June 1, as the Treasury Department will not request another delay of the regulations to happen.

Photo: Reuters

These three suspects are still on the lam.

Bild.de (translated from German) and Bluff Magazine (in English) are reporting that one of the suspects in the EPT Berlin robbery from two weeks ago turned himself in on Monday to German authorities. The police in Berlin released names and photographs of the three other suspected bandits: Mustafa Ucarakus, Jihad Chetwie and Ahmad El Awayti. The article in the German newspaper notes that the suspect mentioned they did receive help from someone on the inside as to where the money was stored and that the security staff was unarmed. More details to come as more news is available.

UPDATE: Bild.de reports that that German police have arrested Ahmad El Awayti.

Here’s the latest episode — a good one with Phil Hellmuth in studio talking a little EPT-Berlin robbery, significance of the NBC Heads-up, and his recent non-collapse collapse at Bay 101.

They also talk with his “mindset coach” Sam Chauhan … and the process of keeping players focussed.

It doesn’t get weird until Andrew Feldman and Bernard Lee start to talk about Hellmuth shirtless.

The Prevent Cancer Foundation presented its 2nd Annual “Cancer Champion” award this weekend in Washington DC to two Full Tilt poker pros — Rafe Furst and Phil Gordon.

You be the judge … good poker face on Spencer Bachus (R-AL) as he and his wife congratulate Rafe and Phil for their good great work fighting cancer?

Perhaps one of poker’s staunchest political opponents is softening … Either that or it’s hard to oppose money for cancer, especially at an event sponsored by Pfizer.

More…

The big announcement that the WSOP announced on Twitter over the weekend has now turned up online. The 2010 WSOP Tournament of Champions will have 27 players will meet in June to play for a $1 million prize pool with the winner earning $500,000. The twist for this year is that the public will vote for the remaining field of 20 WSOP bracelet winners. A list of the 521 living bracelet winners is available here , along with the current top 50 in online voting. Voting starts at noon ET March 15 and runs through June 15th at midnight. The other spots have been filled by these players:

Joe Cada – 2009 WSOP ME winner
Barry Shulman – 2009 WSOPE ME winner
Mike Sexton – 2006 WSOP TOC winner
Mike Matusow – 2005 WSOP TOC Winner
Annie Duke – 2004 WSOP TOC Winner
Two sponsor exemptions (the WSOP will announce details on how these seats will be awarded shortly)

The TOC will begin on June 27th at noon, and play down to the final table. Play will then resume July 4th (the day before the WSOP Main Event begins) and play down to a winner. ESPN will film the action to air as a two-hour show on August 3rd. The entire press release is on page 2:

More…

My first lesson … watching Cole South talk through a $5/$10 no-limit heads-up game. Here he tells what you’re looking from your opponents to develop reliable reads, and how to size your bets accordingly:

More like this available to you with Truly Free Poker Training at TrulyFreePokerTraining.com