In a time where buy-ins are dropping to accommodate a slumping economy, leave it to Monaco to make people feel poor again. Not content with the highest buy-in tournament to date being the $100,000 Aussie Millions High Rollers event, Casino Monte Carlo in junction with the IPPA (International Poker Player’s Association) is hosting a $250,000 buy-in shootout in late November. Before you ask, “who could afford this nonsense?”; evidently 14 pros have already signed up, with names ranging from Phil Ivey and Tom Dwan all the way to Robert and Michael Mizrachi. There are a few things with this tournament that help it stand out beyond the absurd high buy-in:

• It will be “limited” to 48 players total and played out in a shootout format, with $5 million guaranteed to first place. Which means that if this is a true guarantee and not just a projected prize if all 48 slots fill, mean that you would need 20 players minimum just to break even (sans rake, and only if it’s a winner-take-all tournament).
• The IPPA is not…well known, at least certainly not in the US. Their website is equally sparse in terms of action information, but they may be trying to put themselves on the map with a tournament of this size.
• There are satellites running in at least two confirmed places, Monte Carlo (naturally) and The Bicycle Casino in beautiful Bell Gardens, CA. How does one even satellite into this tournament? Think the step tournaments online, except the stakes are much, much higher. The Bike already ran $100, $1k and $9k satellites during the Legends of Poker tournament series, but their site does not have any results for the $1k and $9k satellites so its unknown how many takers they got.
• It will be a televised event, but with the field the way it is so far the IPPA and/or Monte Carlo hopefully will be pushing hard to get some whales in the game, or it may deter other pros from throwing their hat in the ring.

Still, the organizers have to cover their “overlay” first, which will be no small feat when pros are being asked to drop $250,000 in one go into a shark-filled tank. If this tournament happens it certainly will be an interesting sight, not just for the prize pool but the revival of a lingering question regarding how we keep score in poker. Already there has been talk of what “counts” on the all-time money list, so if someone like Ivey did win the $5 million for what amounts to a 48-person (or less) SnG it could lead to some gripping from a few pros (quite possibly including the #2 man on that list…who could become a distant #2 or 3 after this tournament).

@JDNewitt may or may not be prohibited by law from live-tweeting a court-ordered visit with federal prosecutors in New York. #pokerWTF?

Wicked Chops is reporting that Jason Newitt has been subpoenaed by a US federal court in the Southern District of New York. Though not confirmed, they are comfortably saying that JDN has an order to appear (presumably before a grand jury?) on Tuesday, September 14.

Newitt, a well-known figure in Las Vegas poker circles, is probably most famous for being crippled by yours truly in the Pokerati half-and-half tourney at Detox — Dude, I admit it was a bad call for all my chips with only a 10-high flush draw! So I got there, deal with it! That hand would propel me to near-victory while setting him up for an early departure. But probably more relevant to the Feds is info from JDN as:

• a loyal Full Tilter who hooked up players with patches
• sender of the infamous Gobboboy email, a forwarding oopsie that may or may not have revealed Howard Lederer to be kinda a big jerk to fat kids, but also someone calling the shots at Full Tilt
• someone who claims to have received distributions for his supposed ownership in Full Tilt
• someone who sued FTP after getting fired and said distributions suddenly stopped, laying out ownership and operational structures at Full Tilt.

More…

The Tournament Trail

Partouche Poker Tour – Cannes – Vanessa Selbst, Fabrice Soulier, Soren Kongsgaard and Tobias Reinkemier among final tablists return November 6, first place prize €1,300,000 – Winamax.fr

Beau Rivage Gulf Coast Poker Championship, Biloxi, MS:: – Mark Rose wins $5,000 main event for $177,386, Chad Brown finishes 4th. – Results from the Hendon Mob

Commerce Holdem Series :: $120 NL w/ $100k to first, $300k prize pool starts today. More from Matt Savage:

PartyPoker World Poker Open – London :: Yevgeniy Timoshenko, Andrew Robl, and John Duthie among heat winners, final table on Friday. Party Poker Blog for updates

English Poker Open – London :: $1,000,000 guaranteed tournament starts Saturday at Palm Beach Casino, live streaming all weekend. English Poker Open

PokerStars UKIPT – Dublin :: Action gets underway Thursday afternoon – http://www.ukipt.com“PokerStars Blog

PokerStars WCOOP – First week of most successful online poker tournament series continues – WCOOP.com

Also …

Deliverance Poker sues Michael Mizrachi and Full Tilt for breach of contract – Cake Poker Blog

Intrastate online poker in California legislation reappears, passage by end of year? – EGR Magazine

Online poker coming to Indian casinos? – ATIG press release

Schedule finally announced for NAPT at the Bike in Los Angeles, will no TV coverage affect the field? – PokerStars Blog

WSOP Europe makes it’s appearance on crowded London poker calendar starting Tuesday – WSOPE Schedule

Finally, This Week in Poker w/ Scott Huff and Jess Welman:

Speaking of Jungleman … this has little to do with poker other than that the Lion habitat at MGM happens to be right outside the poker room … so it’s the kinda thing plainly visible from the 1/2 tables — happened just a few days ago:

Damn. Kinda cool to see the lady lion try to help break up the fight. And Papa Lion clearly had it in for that one dude. That’s how it can go at MGM poker … a tame game can suddenly turn brutal. Still contend that the lion wouldn’t stand a chance against Ivey.

Also, with no information other than what you just saw in the video, I’ll bet for sure that the overall rake for MGM poker goes up over the next week, even though the number of lion attacks will almost certainly go down.

Another good interview from the WPT-London Poker Classic, which seems to be going on for about as long as the Durrrr Challenge. Wha? Nevermind, it’s the PartyPoker World Poker Open … more poker in the same London Palm Beach Casino … but technically a different event.

Anyhow, London-London-London … that’s the hottest spot in the poker world this month. And everyone loves Durrrr (many in a strangely homosexual way according to YouTube comments) … and forget the Patrik Antoniuses and Gus Hansens … now Jungleman seems to be the only non-Ivey nosebleed opponent that matters.

I personally dig his talk of the two games he plays — no limit hold’em and pot-limit Omaha.

Greg Raymer busted from the main event of The River @ Winstar yesterday in 11th place. Little clue what Fossilman’s payout was, nor even where I shoulda been looking. Limited media info was one of many justifiable gripes people had for a tournament of this size … others included player lockouts, bad blind structures, and you should see the vitriol attached to Facebook comments about Toby Keith’s steakhouse at Winstar!

I’ll hold some of that for another post, lest we sully the winner’s accomplishment with analysis of the obstacles certain Indian casinos face in 2010 moving forward. But be sure, as evident in the fifth running of this tournament at WinStar, the paradigms have shifted … particularly for what constitutes a major minor-league event capable of profiting from a national player base.

The River’s $2.5 million guaranteed main event, with three Day 1s, drew 1,440 players … a much better result for Winstar than last year when they had to cover a $580k overlay on $3 million guaranteed. It coulda been even bigger had the casino not put itself in a position of pissing off players who trekked out to the Oklahoma hinterlands only to be turned away … but regardless, with a $2,100 buy-in and several months of satellites, first prize came to a relatively whopping $647,690.

To put that in perspective, that’s better than 10th-place money in the WSOP main event. So would it be a stretch to contend winning The River is just a notch below making the November Nine?

More…

The WCOOP has reached day three, but already some noise has been made outside the hundred of thousands of guarantees that Stars is running each day. No fewer than three pros are no longer signed with Pokerstars, and all without much fanfare or even explanation from Stars as to why they removed them from their rosters.

Hevad Khan, core reason behind the “Hevad Khan” WSOP tournament rule, out.

Gavin Griffin, first player ever to lock up an unofficial triple crown, consisting of a WSOP bracelet and WPT and EPT titles, gone.

Peter Eastgate, 2008 WSOP Main Event Champion, sayonara.

In the end, these three all seem to make some sense. Peter Eastagate has quit retired from poker, though its anybody’s guess how long this haitus retirement is going to last. And if Hevad’s and Gavin’s Hendon Mobs are any indication, neither player has done anything particularly spectacular in the last two years. This coupled with high profile signings of David Williams and Vanessa Selbst earlier this year may have prompted Stars to trim the fat with regards to its pro holdings. Whether they stop here or not is anyone’s guess, but it will be interesting to see if at least the non-retired pros get picked up by a new site in the near future.

Much more to say on the matter … but just to set the record straight, after further research I am now fairly confident that the rumor propagated across the internet about a Harrah’s sale of the Rio being “complete” was not accurate.

Pretty sure something was close to done and may or may not have fallen apart, and that Harrah’s is still looking to unload the home of the WSOP on someone … with any serious offers of $300 million or more getting a real look. But I don’t really know even that. Meanwhile, any poker media who ran with the story needs to consider their willingness to rely on such unsavory sources, and should probably go sit in a corner and think about what they’ve done.

Good video from WPT-London … with Neil Channing discussing the travails of backing James Akenhead and a more detailed explanation of what goes into staking players, from the guy Brits worldwide look to for bankroll assistance:

The Tournament Trail

WPT London :: 21-year old Jake Cody wins his 2nd major of 2010, WSOP win away from Triple Crown. PartyPoker million dollar man denied. PartyPoker Blog

WPT London High Roller :: Justin “Boosted J” Smith defeats Tony G heads-up in marathon final table, earning £141,000 WPT High Roller report

Partouche Poker Tour, Cannes :: Vanessa Selbst, Fabrice Soulier and Phil Laak near top of leaderboard as field plays down to final 18.

River @ Winstar :: Greg Raymer has a very good week: Finishes 6th of 101 for $760 in $330 Jack and Jill tournament with his mom in her first time playing, returns for final day 3rd of 20 for main event. Winner takes down over $600,000 Day 3 lineup from 2+2 WinStar’s Twitter providing updates

Beau Rivage Gulf Coast Poker Championship, Biloxi, MS :: Chad Brown holds the chip lead at final table of their $5,000 main event. Winner earns over $177,000 and 2011 Southern Poker Championship seat. BeauPoker Twitter

Commerce Holdem Series :: Guarantees in weekend tournaments go 1 for 2 as series enters week 2. Commerce Tournaments

Also …

Controversy in side event of Partouche Poker Tour regarding floorman’s decision, tales of alleged bias against non-French players.

PokerStars’ WCOOP continues with three more events today. PokerStars Blog.

World Poker Open underway at London’s Palm Beach Casino. Phil Laak defending champion of made-for-TV event, 48 players vying for $200,000 first place money. World Poker Open updates

Sorry, meant to get this out to y’all earlier … occurred to me tunes might work better than video for the holiday weekend, and poker podcasts better than that … so here’s some stuff that caught my ear for an extended period of time in recent days/weeks … I’m gonna presume you already listen to, and probably subscribe to The Poker Beat, the definitively #1 podcast in poker, you know, according to the readers of Bluff Magazine and WPT-Poker, which is the official magazine of the World Poker Tour in Europe. But if you can handle more than that, you might wanna perma-connect with these shows, too — via iTunes, RSS, or muscle memory:

Donkdown vs. Coolio

Donkdown Radio :: The always-NSFW working-class Vegas grinders at Donkdown went to war with Coolio last month before moving on to better things (like hunting down @asianspa). This feud started a few weeks back with an on-air story about how the aging rap star, a recent relo to Vegas, showed up at Binion’s during BARGE … allegedly to buy drugs from a player attending Barry Tanenbaum’s keynote address … only to end up with pictures of himself passed out butt-naked (literally) on the Donkdown forum. Coolio even came on their show and sang a few bars of Gangsta’s Paradise before getting hip to Brandon and Micon’s game a few days later, at which point they allege he began threatening to retaliate … right after the next season of Ultimate Big Brother. [Link]

Laak Extra-Whack

The Strip Podcast :: A worthy leftover from the summertime WSOP … Vegas culture blogger and New York Times stringer Steve Freiss’ talking to Phil Laak 114 hours into his record 115-hour poker-endurance run. If you thought Laak ever said weird shit before, listen to the twisted gems Freiss pulls out of him (or stumbles into) tableside during his final hands. [Link]

More…

More multimedia for your Friday … Team Pokerati got some good lovin’ on ESPN this week. Good thing, too, because The Big Randy would fail to deliver on his patch-wearing duties early on Day 4 when he happened to be sitting next to Michael Mizrachi … have a quick listen to step back in WSOP-time when Pauly and I seemed to have a certain prescience about both patches and Mizrachis starting to mean something:

Tao of Pokerati
Episode 64: Big Head Randy and the Min-Cashers – Dan and Pauly hang out at the Bad Beat bar and wonder if they are coolers? Or if the Big Randy had busted out because he was not wearing a Pokerati patch. Yes, the Big Randy busted before the money bubble. The discussion shifts to the bubble strategy for PokerStars qualifiers who also have a PCA package riding on the line along with the min-cash.

Fortunately, team captain Tom didn’t disappoint (anyone but himself and his family). Schneider showed up on ESPN this week, playing the main event on the outermost feature table, and for a surprisingly funny bit with him and fellow Team Pokerati-er Julie Schneider, as Norman Chad tries to learn about cooking and/or what makes a poker marriage work:

Be sure to check out Pauly’s post about this episode — scroll down to Day in the Life of the DonkeyBomber and Pancakes with Angry Julie — for some decidedly Tao take on Tom and his Loudmouth living.

More…

It’s a long weekend for most. For those who might need to take their poker multimedia on the road or boat … here’s some watchable and/or downloadable stuff that I’ve taken particular note of recently. You might want to, too:

Online Gambling Guy

APCW Perspectives Weekly :: Actually caught a brand new episode getting the link for this post. Thought I was gonna tip you to J. Todd’s more-than-just-poker online gambling take on payment-processor forfeitures, internet filtering, and French protectionism. But that was like so mid-August. To catch up with the times, this week it’s California protectionism FTW! for the stalemate. [Link]

Charlie Rose + Wicked Chops

This Week in Poker :: TWIP is (slowly) becoming must-watch for me. Not live … that would just be ridiculous. But definitely informative+enjoyable on the download, even if you’re just half-watching and listening in the background. This week’s ep features Full Tilt red pro (?) Jason Calcanis, Donkdown’s UB-Scrutinizer-in-Chief Todd Witteles, and Durrrr. Holy shit, it’s Durrrr!!!! Fast forward … [Link]

Poker Personalities

Under the Gun (with Jon Friedberg) :: First time I saw UTG, some guys were talking fitness and nutrition. Struck me as terrible net-TV odd, yet found it strangely compelling, watched all the way through. A few weeks later was watching a sit-down with Jean-Robert Bellande. I think UTG’s format seems to lend itself to guests who can let down their guard and shoot more from the hip. This week: Alex Outhred, recently relocated to Vegas, shit-shooting about coaching and the cutthroat poker training biz. [Link]

Artsy Euro-Fartsy

TheNutz.TV :: Have seen these dudes before, and remember thinking they were pretty good. Here they are at WPT-London interviewing Lisa Jane, the poker-artist you learned about here. Had to watch to learn more about her show, “Poker in the Eye”, and see if she’s hot. Now all I gotta do is get me one of them “like” buttons. [Link]

This is one of those stories that may not be a big deal — especially for people who don’t bet sports (like me) … but for some reason I see a lot in play here that could prove plausibly significant for the future of gambling, both live and online. You decide whether or not this is a game-changer:

Check out this article from the AP about what will be called “Leroy’s App”.

American Wagering Inc. launches their new Blackberry app supposedly like next week … in time for the NFL and college football seasons. And then in coming months they’ll have the same thing for iPhones, Droids, and other “smart” mobile devices, they say. The Blackberry version has already been approved by the NV Gaming Control Board, while the others will face similar vetting upon release.

The catch: You can bet on sports from anywhere — your home, the grocery store, a bar, middle of the desert, Pahrump whorehouse, etc. — so long as you do so somewhere in the state of Nevada.

The things I find curious about this, both technologically and, um … license-and-regulatorially(?):

• GPS tracking applied to online gambling, creating a virtual gaming wall at the state lines; makes me think of both Kentucky and California.
• Different than Cantor Gaming devices at M Resort, the Venetian, and (coming soon) the Hard Rock, as their mobile sports-betting tech only works on casino property.
• Wonder if Leroy’s app will have in-game betting, like Cantor’s casino product.
• Would love to meet Leroy. He’s got to be an interesting character.
• Wonder what this has to do, if anything, with stripping sports betting from HR 2267.
• GCB approval suggests confidence in ability to block underage bettors online. Live first-deposit at Leroy’s seems to be the key.

Here’s a little more on the forthcoming release as per the tech-biz media at cnet.com.

There’s a lot going on going into this (American) Labor Day Weekend. Some happenings in poker you may want to follow, or follow up on:

On the tournament trail …

WSOP Circuit Council Bluffs, Iowa Blair Hinkle wins $1,500 Main Event, Robert Georato “Casino Champion”, qualifying for $1m National Championship at Caesars Palace in May. WSOP.com

PokerStars.net EPT Vilamoura, Portugal :: Toby Lewis takes down the title, football legend/MBE Terry Sherringham finishes 5th. PokerStars Blog.

WPT London :: Final table set, Party qualifier eligible for $500,000 bonus with win, £15k High Rollers starts this afternoon PartyPoker Blog

Partouche Poker Tour, Cannes :: Over 750 players, prize pool nearly €6 million, live streaming w/ hole cards starting Monday at Partouchepokertour.com. Follow along en Francais w/ Benjo at Winamax.fr

The River – Winstar, OK :: Raymer, J. Mercier, Chainsaw, G. Smith, Flack among hundreds of North Texas locals fighting in the $2.5m guaranteed main event this weekend

Commerce Holdem Series :: – Encouraging numbers halfway through 500k guarantee opening event despite rumblings of a boycott. Commerce Tournaments

UPDATE:

Gulf Coast Poker Championship – Biloxi, Mississippi :: $5,000 Main Event starts Saturday. BeauRivage.com

Elsewhere & Also …

PokerStars’ WCOOP gets underway Sunday.

WSOP Circuit Horseshoe Hammond tournaments to add more than 40 $10k Regional Championship seats to their tournaments – WSOP.com

Jennifer Harman, Kathy Liebert and Billie Brown get inducted into the Women in Poker Hall of Fame tonight. US Ladies Championship Saturday at the Golden Nugget. Women in Poker Hall of Fame

And Tatjana Pasalic spends three minutes with Phil Ivey