Obviously at Pokerati if it bleeds it ledes! we would never publish anything so exploitive if both the victim @RealPhilLaak and his best friend @MagicAntonio weren’t cool with it on twitter. #inTheory
Supposedly the big news on the Tom Dwan vs. The World front is that Jungleman — my personal heads-up coach thanks to free poker training with CardRunners — will be Durrrr’s next opponent in the super-big-stakes Durrrr Challenge.
While I personally think these are relevant matches in the legislative and regulatory realm — where else can you see that much money transacted, repeatedly, potentially across international borders, without Uncle Sam having his finger in the pot other than maybe Mafia Wars or real-money cocaine deals? — Wicked Chops has what could be the single best post ever about the significance of Tom Dwan’s ongoing namesake poker invitational.
Internet super-behemoth Google seems to be wasting little time positioning themselves to profit from licensed internet gambling in the United States by investing in “social gaming”.  Both the New York Times and Techcrunch are reporting that Google has agreed to purchase “Slideâ€, a software development company specializing in Facebook apps involving the exchange of virtual money.
Sale price estimates range from $182 million to $228 million (in real money). Supposedly, Google will officially announce the acquisition tomorrow.
This follows last week’s quiet confirmation from Google CEO Eric Schmidt about their partnership with Zynga – clarifying speculative reports in July that Google had “secretly” invested $150 million or so in the enormous play-money poker site.
With a current user base of 28 million budding poker degens at the ready, Zynga is primed for real-money poker with their popular Facebook app Texas HoldEm Poker. You can read more about Zynga’s interest in HR 2267 from Business Insider: JACKPOT FOR ZYNGA: Congress Wants To Legalize Online Gambling.
Conveniently, Zynga uses PayPal for a method of payment (and happens to be PayPal’s biggest client). This method of payment — turned off years ago for anything related to gambling — could be ideal for a would-be internet gambling licensee under HR 2267 with Barney Frank’s Manager’s Amendment, which prohibits credit card transactions for gambling should his bill become law.
None of this should come as a shock … after all, we saw this summer that Team WSOP employees were all wearing name tags that clearly identified them as worker-bees for HIE, Harrah’s Interactive Entertainment, the year-old parent company formed around online poker capo Mitch Garber. Also, we noticed that the wristbands identifying live tournament players clearly were pushing WSOP.COM … it wasn’t just because that’s where they wanted players to go for chip counts!
Anyhow, latest development on that progression … with their 888 partners Dragonfish, Harrah’s is set to launch a new suite of products that includes more real-money offerings for their (fully legal) UK customers and expanded play money options for (someday soon to be legal) Americans and others worldwide.
This proposition payout doesn’t require big money, but done right, it could cost someone dearly. That’s what makes for such a fun, thrilling, high-impact wager … yet without the risk of body scarification or indentured servitude:
The License Plate Bet
Winner gets to choose the loser’s license plate for a set period of time.
Simple, poignant, highly visible … up to 7 characters that if clever enough could stick with your opponent in a way that brings shame and embarrassment for years to come! But because the DMV has final approval, no worries about being tagged with something not-so-funny like HERPES or IH8NGRS.
Suggestions to start you thinkin’ about your glorious inverse-vanity payday …
Some of us know this type at the tables all too well … my read:
He comes to the table plenty-well bankrolled and plays what first appears to be a loose-aggressive game. But just when you think you’ve sniffed out a big bluff — hey, he doesn’t have a Porsche, that’s just a license plate frame! — turns out you were right, kinda. It’s not the nut Porsche as represented … but he does still have a Range Rover, which is better than your set of kings.
(Doh!)
Dude banks on lesser drivers letting him get there. Also knows how to run over a table.
Amazing. Didn’t think it could be done. Yet the entities at Wicked Chops keep getting better and better at this whole video talk format, and if you look/listen closely you might start to believe that they’re actually not unintelligent, uninformed, uncouth sexist, racist wankers. Clearly WCP’s marketing department must be going ape-shit over this travesty and calling for someone’s firing if “the entities” are gonna go on-air every week and disgrace the Wicked Chops brand.
For those of you who didn’t see it — or get to watch in full — here’s an hour and 40minutes of the masters of poker low-brow taking on the headier issues of the poker day … with their special guests this week Annie Duke, John Pappas, and me … joining the crew for my first ever video Skype at 53:00 if you’re short on time and have to get right to the good stuff.
Also fans of @JessWelman will wanna be sure to check out the early part of the show, where she makes her debut appearance delivering news briefs and tackling matters of poker pop culture such as Beth Shak’s forthcoming season on Miliionaire Matchmaker.
* Seriously, not sure what I kept looking at way up in the sky. Video-chat clearly adds 10 pounds.
UPDATE: Little of what’s below, if any, is accurate. [Link]
The end of an era is upon us … with Harrah’s finally selling the Rio — that horrendous dump of a property at 3700 W. Flamingo Rd. that reminds us how quickly Las Vegas luxe can deteriorate …
But also a place that the World Series of Poker and so many of us connected to it have long called home — at least for most of our 21st century summers.
More details TK.
Credit @LasVegasMichael for getting the pseudo-confirmation and other info as it emerges.
Our extra-reliable sources at Pokerati confirm as much. Everyone knew it was coming, but supposedly the actual sale went down yesterday. To “one of those name name and ampersand venture capital companies.”
I’ve long held that Caesar’s would be the most likely new home of the brick-and-mortar equivalent of CaesarsCasino and CaesarsBingo dot coms. But early word without having talked directly to all those people we know extremely well and would be the ones who actually do know … Planet Hollywood … that will be the new home.
Again, all of this technically unconfirmed, but place your bets on the wherabouts of the 2011 WSOP-Ho here.
Trying to remember where in town I spotted this one … hard to tell from the distorted reflection on the trunk. Doesn’t look like the Rio … but regardless, have a feeling that if I’m not following this Lexus on Flamingo, I probably am on twitter.
Real question for Nevada DMV: When will we be able to include an @ sign on a personalized plate? Could make a diff for @POK’TI. Please forward to state-gov suggestion box.
Really you should probably tune in every week … but especially this week, as yours truly takes his talking head to a new level — joining the dudes from Wicked Chops, the PPA’s John Pappas, and Annie Duke. (I’m pretty sure I’m the Skype video-chat guy with Annie in studio.)
HR 2267 will be the topic du jour … looking forward to it for sure! Say what you will about Annie Duke (I generally do, both good or bad), but she’s one of the few big-wig pros with whom I can engage in an intelligent conversation about hefty and heady matters. The others tend to either be so caught up in their own world it’s at best a 1.25-way convo, or they say little more than what their keepers (or kept) are putting out in press releases. You don’t have time for that!
More info about today’s show here … which is also where you can pass on the questions you’d like Annie or the WCPs to theoretically address. (I’m telling you now, it’s hit or miss with me today, as I likely won’t be listening so much as I’ll be tending to my hair in the little Skype video chat square.)
Also making her debut on the show will be Jess Welman, my very favorite Poker Beat cohort who happens to be a 20something red-headed female.
Uh, hairy times … not just because Wicked Chops is making a big leap in confronting their their long-held follicular prejudices — I guess we all were a little inspired by Chesea Clinton’s wedding — but also because there’s a lot to discuss about poker, politics, online gambling, and a shifting mutibillion-dollar industry … all the stuff that matters occasionally at the very bottom of a mainstream news budget.
Should lead to some top-quality discourse and debate. Or if we’re lucky, one of us will start throwing chairs.
T.W.I.P. streams live at 4pm PT here.
Once upon a time, circa 2003, I had a Google Alert set up to send me an email every time a new mention of the word “poker” appeared somewhere on the internet. By the time I started getting like five a day (!) I began thinking this poker thing might really gonna catch on — and I bought the domain pokerrati.com (misspelling notwithstanding).
My how things have changed … not just with poker, but with the whole world-wide-web, and what people are searching for on it. Check out this amusingly related new bit from CardRunners video pro Lee Przytula, giving the contemporary poker player’s world view … as seen through Google interaction:
The WSOP may be over and the vanity plates dispersed across Vegas and Southern Cali, but we still have lotsa leftover pics from the Rio’s summertime parking lots (and others around town) … providing a unique glimpse of the poker players populating America’s roadways.
Yep. Standard raise:
We know this Bentley belongs to David Williams — am extra-smooth ride befitting a WPT World Champ for the long haul from Panorama Towers.
I think we all know how much Congress’s approval would soar if they had more @KevMath. While many legal- and poli-minded folks have been waiting for a “red-line” version of a marked-up HR 2267 — with properly inserted and deleted amendments, as per voice votes and roll call — Kevin Mathers took it upon himself to do what Congressional staff couldn’t … or at least hadn’t yet.
He makes no promise of 100-percent accuracy, but based on his reads, clicks, cuts and pastes … Here is a cleaned up version of what Barney Frank’s House Financial Services Committee overwhelmingly agreed to send to the floor of the House of Representatives for further legislative action — the new-and-improved HR 2267 according to Kevmath.
ALT HED: (Way) Outside Washington DC
I swear I told’em it wasn’t necessary, but my good pals at CardRunners insisted …
Knowing I’ve been actively working on my PLO game, and that I have my first such “beginners” PLO tournament coming up Aug. 18 @detoxpoker, CR has signed Andreas Torbergsen (aka “Skjervøy”) as a dedicated PLO instructor and team pro. (He’s also been recently added as a Full Tilt Red Pro.)
Here’s an interview with the Norwegian grinder made extra-good … about taking his 1/2 PLO game to Vegas in 2005 and eventually juicing it up to a seven-figure bankroll. And kudos to the dude for not dropping out of university, apparently seeing the value of a marketing degree even though his current winnings could be enough to make most poker players say skøøl schmjool.
Unless, of course, you happen to play in the Pokerati game. If you do, then just ignore all this and continue to get it all-in with a weak pair and non-nut draw!
RT @EpicPoker: "How Thor Hansen Became More Important Than Poker" - Michael Craig spoke with Thor Hansen yesterday - http://t.co/Zcn9O0Uw
@aliceturner Got it in one. It seems so right. Also there is no Targaryen! Which sucks, but does kind of make sense.
@Pokerati Tweet style depends. Long-form should be established, imo. Would appreciate input from @BJNemeth @jesswelman other poker-j stars.
City of Scottsdale summarized both of my college goals on a lit overhead street sign with 4 words: Get Hammered, Get Nailed.
@scsuhockey10 @Bricklv @alexpokerguy @killahmcgillah @ryanrinker @matsta yea you could pick up any VD you want for $1600 I'm sure.
