My Lithuanian is a bit rusty … but LOL, check it out, via 2+2 NVG (yeah, i went there this week) … a Lithuanian city council dude apparently has to answer to an ethics committee or something after being caught on video playing on PokerStars.
Can you imagine what a different story this would be if this were a US representative?
SN”Omg”addon was one of the many reasons that resulted in last weeks roundup to not get posted, the other main reason was that I left my laptop and was unable put things together. My apologies if you have been sitting here all week waiting on my recommendations in complete silence, hopefully this weeks selections will make up for that awkward silence.
The Poker Edge:
Fresh off his trip to the Bahamas for the PokerStar Caribbean Adventure Andrew Feldman and Phil Gordon join forces to discuss the biggest hand of heads-up play from the PCA Main Event. Jeffrey Pollack and Annie Duke join the podcast to discuss the details of their new poker league. You can listen to the entire podcast on ESPN.com, or download it directly via iTunes.
The Poker Room Radio Show:
Want to know what is going on in the Florida poker scene? These guys from the Jax Poker Room bring you the latest happenings in Florida along with some other discussion. This week the guys discuss the upcoming Chad Brown NLHE Championship and the tourneys leading up to the Main Event. They close out the show discussing table pet peeves, one of which is eating at the table. You can catch this weeks show online at The Poker Room Radio Show site.
Gambling Tales Podcast Show:
This is a fairly new podcast out there that has a no frills approach. They get right to the subject on hand without all the normal banter and poker news that can be found on most other podcast. This week “Short-Stacked Shamus” joins the host to discuss the the novel King of a Small World by Rick Bennet. Shamus reads a passage from the book followed by the crew having a short discussion. If you are looking for a short podcast to get you from home to work this would be a great addition. You can either listen to the show on the Gambling Tells Podcast site or download it directly from iTunes.
Tao of Pokerati: December 9, 2010
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Pauly chats with Change100, the newly crowned Ladies Champion at the 2011 PCA. She explained how she threw out her back and while nursing herself back to health, she parlayed a tiny investment into a satellite seat into the Ladies Event. Upon her arrival in the Bahamas, she advanced to Day 2 and the final table before she eventually secured a victory.
Subscribe to the Tao of Pokerati podcast in iTunes so that you don’t miss an episode.
Former WSOP Commissioner Jeffrey Pollack, who oversaw the WSOP through the boomtime poker era, plans to make professional poker something more akin to the PGA.
He’s founded a new California company — Federated Sports+Gaming — with Annie Duke on the executive team and serving as commissioner of the poker league, which promises to be a professionals-only set-up. Duke resigned from the WSOP’s event-steering Players Advisory Committee two months ago and last month renounced her relationship with UB, the most notoriously beleaguered online poker site in history.
According to @OskarGarcia from the Associated Press:
The yet-to-be-named league is planning four televised regular-season events plus a $1 million championship freeroll at the Palms Casino Resort in Las Vegas this year, league executives said.
“This is incredibly pro-centric,” Duke told The Associated Press. “This is the one piece that’s kind of missing from the poker landscape right now, which is something for the best players in the world to compete against the best players in the world.”
Should be interesting to see who, by Federated’ new definition, qualify as pros … with one obvious litmus test being will @donkeybomber be able to secure his card?
Corporately, Duke is an executive vice president of Federated Sports+Gaming’s, though not a member of its board of directors. The others on Pollack’s team come from YouBet.com, the biggest legal online gaming company based in the US, which was recently acquired by Churchill Downs, the publicly traded online gaming outpost for Kentucky’s horse-race industry. Others on Pollack’s executive team share varying degrees from Northwestern University, to which I say, um … Go Cats!
Pollack, serving as chairman of Federated, maintains his position as executive chairman of PBR, which real cowboys will tell you is very different from traditional “rodeo”. Read below for his full statement announcing his reburstage onto the poker scene:
This week was an incredible one on the tournament scene, with tons of stuff going on down in the Bahamas. Between the millions of dollars on the line, dozens of tournaments held, and the small detail of a live broadcast of the final table of the PCA Main Event on ESPN2, they dominated the news this week. Or they would have, if any of the members of the media were actually doing their job, rather than racking up impressive scores of their own this week.
Main Event
One of the biggest experiments, at least in the United States, in the history of televised poker, the broadcast of the final table of the PCA did anything but disappoint. A collection of young talent was looking up at Chris Oliver, a 21-year-old Florida native who held 42% of the chips in play, more than twice that of second place Galen Hall entering the final day of play. Phillipe Plouffe and Max Weinberg (no relation to the former Conan O’Brien and E-Street band drummer) hit the rail early, and they were followed by Bolivar Palacios. Each player earned more than $200,000, with Palacios earning a nice haul of $450K.
The two players who entered this final table with the biggest previous results were Sam Stein and Mike Sowers. Stein’s biggest cash entering this final table was a 2nd place finish at the NAPT Venetian last year for over $500,000, and he also has a WPT final table under his belt. Sowers finished 3rd at the LAPC in 2009 for $650,000 and added a WSOP final table later that same year. Both fell victim to the Oliver buzz saw, as Sowers exited in 5th place and Stein right behind him in 4th.
The quietest player at the table by far was Romanian Anton Ionel. By far the oldest player at the table, Ionel made quite a parlay, riding his $33 satellite win to the final three of the tournament. He played very few hands throughout and the blinds eventually caught up to him, but not before Ionel was able to turn $33 into $1.35 million.
When heads-up play began, Oliver held a chip lead of 4-1, but Hall methodically picked his spots and avoided disaster. The pivotal hand was actually one that Hall folded, and is likely to be a hand that will be discussed for a long time to come. On a board reading [5d][3d][2c][2h][As], Hall bet out 2 million with [8c][4h], leaving himself about 8 million behind at 100,000-200,000. It was a disaster card for Hall, as Oliver had hit a runner-runner full house with [Ad][2s]. Oliver eventually moved all-in, and in shockingly little time Hall was able to fold his wheel, preserve his stack, and keep the match going.
Oliver once again extended his lead to 4-1, but Hall went on a rush, and within an hour had turned the deficit around into a significant advantage. At the end of a heads-up battle that lasted over 200 hands, it was Galen Hall taking the 2011 PCA Main Event crown and the $2.3 million first prize. Chris Oliver settled for second, but he has $1.8 million to wipe his tears away. [PokerStars Blog]
$25,000 High Roller
I’ll preface this by saying there are billions of people who are truly unlucky in the world and have to deal with real world issues. It’s hard to argue against the fact that William Molson’s PCA High Roller record is one of the unluckiest out there. While he was comforted by the second place money each time, in both 2009 and 2010, Molson finished as the runner-up in this event.
This year’s table would not be much easier, featuring Jason Mercier, David Baker and Erik Seidel, amongst others. But this time William Molson sealed the deal, topping off an incredibly impressive three year run by taking down the $25,000 High Roller event and a first place prize of over $1 million. [PokerStars Blog]
Ladies’ Event
The Twitter stream was going crazy this past weekend as people back in the states (or elsewhere in the Bahamas) cheered on Kristin “change100” Bihr as she vied for the Ladies’ Event title. A veteran poker writer and reporter, Bihr had satellited into the tournament and was working on a pretty nice parlay of her own. She was up against a pretty impressive collection of players that included Team PokerStars Pro Vicky Coren and Lauren Kling, as well as ’90s talk show host Ricki Lake.
Most of the updates during the tournament came via @taopauly Tweets, and by the end of the night, @change100 had become a local trending topic in Las Vegas. Mostly thanks in part to the fact that change100 defeated Kling heads-up to take the crown and a cash of just under $30,000. Congratulations to her on her monster cash. [PokerStars Blog]
Anyone who has been around the poker scene over the last few years has almost certainly run into Rob “veeRob” Perelman. One of the hardest working guys in the game, you can be sure that he’s behind the scenes on some of your favorite poker television programs, and if you’ve ever tried to keep track of a Matt Savage tournament, you likely have veeRob to thank for excellent coverage as well as comprehensive live streaming.
Perelman found himself at the final table of the HPT event at Red Rocks Sunday night, entering as the chip leader. He faced some stiff competition that included Joanne “JJ” Liu. It was really no big deal for veeRob, though, as he found a way to take the title (and likely the remainder of the media rungood for the year, thanks a lot) and an astounding first place prize of $158,000. A big congrats to Rob as well, though I’m sure he’s setting up a live stream for an LAPC prelim as we speak. [HPT]
This week will see the Main Event at the WSOPC Choctaw in Oklahoma, just outside of Dallas, and a Main Event will take place at the India Poker Series as well. Action will continue at the Aussie Millions in Australia, the Southern Poker Championship in Biloxi, MS, and tournaments will be starting at the LAPC in LA as well as in Atlantic City for their Winter Poker Championships. One of the busiest times of the poker year, to be sure.
PCA photos courtesy of PokerStarsBlog.com. HPT photos courtesy of heartlandpokertour.com.
Of course it’s ‘starring’ Phil Hellmuth. I bet he likes it.
Was talking about the Pokerati game @AriaPoker with David Chicotsky the other day. “I know,” he said, referring to my re-pop with top set and royal-flush redraw. “I folded a set of 6s. I really don’t understand how you don’t go broke in that game.”
Pshaw! The Maven left early and down about $80. Of course he didn’t yet know that I did go bust that night x3. And I did know he knew I knew he had aggressive tendencies, too. So hrrmmm, maybe I really shoulda just called …
One of these days I will get around to getting serious about my actual on-the-table play. I did get a gift certificate for some PLO books for Christmas, but I guess reading excerpts on Amazon doesn’t count?
The Maven and Bodog Ari are having another one of their 3-day boot camps, Jan 28-30. I’ve seen them in action as teachers before … at the only actual live poker school in Las Vegas (like they have their own permanent address and everything, even a kitchen) … and it really is an impressive course … no wonder all those mavenites laughed (at me?) when I asked if we needed to take notes.
Maven training graduates have gone on to win millions — though the exact number is currently under dispute as their private community of alumni debate whether or not Joe Cheong’s main event finish should count as a $4 million win or $4 million loss.
Drop this website’s name (Pokerati if you’re slow) and get 25 percent off on tuition to the upcoming sessions. Or just sign up here. Proven Positive EV.
Move over Tom and Julie Schneider … you two were like so ’07-’09. The new, reigning king-and-queen power couple of Team Pokerati are DC n La. Sure, DC wasn’t wearing a Pokerati patch when he took down the first ring event of the inaugural WSOP-Choctaw … but hey, that’s never stopped us before from taking claim to a player with lots of chips after putting up a big win. (And of the 8 patches we have left, only three of those still have glue!)
Two days after David Clark‘s win in Durant, Oklahoma (the closest thing to the Dallas market the WSOP could find), his girlfriend, La Sengphet, got 2nd place in the $235 Ladies Event for a $5k payday. La, of course, was Team Pokerati’s 2010 WSOP MVP — making the final table of the ladies event (7th place, $22k) to add to her previous big scores in an ’09 Venetian Deep Stack (2nd, $31k) and Caesars Mega Stack (1st, $12k). (She’s Asian, too, btw.)
Check it out here, for how DC took down the $345 NLH event, with 935 players, for a first-place payout of $50,921 and proof to his girlfriend that he has indeed been paying attention during pillow talk.
Also at the final table in Oklahoma with DC was friend o’ Pokerati Josh Evans, who finished 6th for $10k. You may remember Josh for tearing up a second-chance tourney at the ’07 WSOP before making a deep run in the main event where he made his video debut in this fine poker film, which has since become an “underground” cult classic:
Wish I coulda been there. Great to see players I grew up with (poker-wise) in the Dallas boomtime poker rooms represent! Also it’s kinda a reminder why these sorts of “small” events matter to skillful grinders, even without online sponsorship in play. (After all, where else can you expect to find the next Dwyte Pilgrim?) Also cool to see Choctaw, with its brand spankin’ new casino-resort built by Dallas poker money, able to ship some cash back to Texas.
Click below to see more of DC n La in recent Pokerati-branded action:
Fully legal online gambling is coming to the United States … like this year, if not pretty much right now … regardless of whatever happened with the Reid Bill whereby one of the most powerful men in the world was not able to deliver to his strongest backers a relatively inconsequential bill that came with money and jobs for his own state (on a piece of legislation that was two years in the making) despite his party’s having control of the Senate, the House, and the Executive Branch.
But we’ll have to save that discussion for a later date … Last night the New Jersey Assembly (the Garden State’s version of the House) approved a package of five bills to recharge their battered Atlantic City-based gaming industry, one of which allows their casinos to offer online gambling (not just poker, but casino games, too) within NJ borders. Their Senate had already given the measures an official “like”, so now all that remains is needing a signature from Gov. Chris Christie, a Republican who has given no indications of wanting to veto.
According to the Philadelphia Inquirer:
Those bills’ final passage marks the first real change in more than three decades to how business is conducted in the nation’s second-largest gaming market, which is reeling from the weak economy and regional competition. The resulting structure mirrors that of Nevada.
After taking a week to get over my the New Year’s Eve hangover, the poker world has gotten back underway big time with one of the biggest tournament stops of the year, the PokerStars Carribean Adventure. Tournament series’ are starting up all over the world, with a few minor main events taking place over the course of the next few weeks, but for the next week-and-a-half the best players in the world will be fighting over millions of dollars in the Bahamas.
The typical poker tournament series tends to start off with a small buy-in event that will attract a nice sized field. The PCA is anything but the normal tournament series, and nowhere was it more evident than in how they started. A super high-roller event with a $100,000 buy-in drew 38 of the heaviest hitters in the game, including the elusive Viktor Blom.
Long-rumored to be the man behind the online handle “isildur1″, one of the PCA’s other “surprises” was the official reveal of Blom as isildur. It was one of the worst-kept secrets in the industry, but at least during the high-roller event Blom went without a Team PokerStars pro patch, though it wouldn’t have mattered much. Blom was one of the Day 1 casualties of the SHR event, coming nowhere close to a final table that will be shown later this year on ESPN2. Other early casualties included Jonathan Duhamel, Scott Seiver, Tom Marchese and ElkY.
When action finally got down to a final table, two of the seven players would be sent home on a very painful bubble. The unfortunate two were Andrew “luckychewy” Lichtenberger and former Time “Man of the Year” Sandor Demjan of Hungary, going home empty-handed. The final five was quite an impressive group, with Humberto Brenes, Nick Schulman, Bryn Kenney, Eugene Katchalov and Daniel Negreanu competing for the $1.5 million first prize. Katchalov led Negreanu 3-1 going into heads-up play, and despite several double-ups, Negreanu could never close the gap. Eugene Katchalov was crowned the 2011 PCA Super High Roller Champion, taking home the $1.5 million first prize, but all was not lost for Negreanu, as the $1 million second place prize puts him ahead of Phil Ivey and on top of the list of all-time tournament cashes. [PokerStars Blog]
Monday saw the start of Day 2 of the PCA Main Event, which saw the largest field ever for this tournament, a combined 1,560 players from two starting days that generated a prize pool of over $15 million and a first place prize of $2.3 million. As of the publishing of this post, Marco “crazymarco” Johnson was eliminated in 233rd place, breaking the bubble and guaranteeing everyone still in the field of at least $15,000.
The biggest news about the Main Event has to be the fact that the final table will be broadcast on a one hour delay by ESPN. Starting at 5 pm ET on ESPN3.com and simulcast starting at 10pm ET on ESPN2, the broadcast will feature hole card cameras and will play out the entirety of the final table in real time as it happens. This is the grandest experiment of this type and it will certainly be fascinating to see how the final table and the coverage turn out. [PokerStars Blog]
The WSOP Circuit has just touched down an hour outside of Dallas at the Choctaw Casino in Durant, Oklahoma for a week’s worth of tournaments. The first of eight ring events took place over the weekend. The $350 tournament had 935 players sign up, and it was David Clark of Dallas, Texas taking home the ring and over $50,000 for the win [WSOP].
Lots of talk this week about the Annie/Phil UB departure in the podcast world. Here is the best of the best for your downloading pleasure.
Two Plus Two Pokercast:
The guys from 2+2 open up their 6th year of their 154th episode. Tony G joins the crew to discuss his recent SuperStar Show down match against isildur1. Other topics on with Tony G were his attempt at purchasing Peter Eastgate’s WSOP Main Event bracelet and the amount of trash talking that he does on the tables. After the Tony G interview the recent UB shakeup became the focus of discussion. The potential sellout of Prahlad Friedman occupied the majority of discussion as they discussed the reason why he would join the site the essentially ruined his career. Listen to the show at the Two Plus Two Pokercast site or download it on iTunes.
The Hardcore Poker Show:
The Phil and Annie departure is the only topic on task this week on the show. Joe Seebok comes on to discuss what the recent departures mean for UB and how the new UB team is going to look. Prahlad Friedman is also discussed along with whether someone like Daniel Negreanu should be publically calling Prahlad out for selling out. You can listen weekly on Sirius Satellite Radio channel 98 every Wednesday from 8-9pm ET or you can download it via iTunes.
Final Table Poker Radio Show:
This week’s show gets kicked off with an unplanned interview from Annie Duke where she attempts to clear up some of the speculation surrounding her recent departure from UB and what her plans are for her future. WSOP bracelet winner Linda Johnson follows Annie Duke to the show to discuss changes in tournaments since she first came onto the poker scene and what the TDA can do about the influx of deep stack tournaments. If you want to listen to the entire show or catch up on previous show you can either visit The Final Table site or check it out on iTunes.
The panelist discuss the new UB and break down 2010 in the latest episode of The Poker Beat.
The Poker Beat: January 4, 2011
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- Sorel Mizzi Bluff Magazine POY
- WSOP days will end after 10 levels.
- Annie & Phil part ways with UB.
- Prahlad Friedman to sell out?
- Top Poker Stories of 2010.
Vote vigorously and/or repeatedly for The Poker Beat
for Favorite Web-based Show in Bluff magazine’s 2010 Reader’s Choice Awards.
Episode 31
This week we came back from the break with a late news Christmas present, Annie Duke and Phil Hellmuth have left UB and are being replaced by… Prahlad Friedman? We talk about this and more with “The Micros”€ creator John Wray in a brand new rebooted Rabbit Hunt!Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
Much of a good lawyer’s work comes down to listening (more than talking), reading, and writing. This is no different for gaming attorneys. I spend a large part of my time reading and writing. Gaming generally describes the type of clients I have and some of the more specialized issues that come up, but most of the drafting issues that I encounter aren’t unique to gaming; many attorneys will come across them regularly, too.
Take, for example, the arbitration clause. Very generally, arbitration is the non-judicial resolution of a dispute by an appointed person. It’s not mediation, where the parties to the dispute have to agree on the settlement; an arbitrator appointed to settle a dispute concludes it independent of the parties’ agreement on the terms of settlement. Arbitration can offer a great deal of autonomy, flexibility, and privacy for parties to a dispute. Large-scale arbitrations are not cheap, but they’re seen as highly efficient alternatives to litigation.
Gaming clients also perceive the benefits associated with arbitration. My clients include poker sites, other skill games operators, software deveopers, marketing agencies, and professional players. All of them like the confidentiality that can be built into dispute resolution by arbitration, but they really appreciate the expertise and specialized knowledge that arbitrators can bring to complex gaming matters instead of putting things before a generalist judge. Even judges on the Commercial List here in Toronto, while specialized in discrete areas of corporate and commercial private law, don’t have a deep knowledge of the domestic or international gaming sectors. (To be fair, the public and policy-makers don’t expect them to have such knowledge.)
Accordingly, arbitration has become and remains an important part of many written agreements. In fact, arbitration has become one of the standard boilerplate clauses that lawyers routinely drop into a contract. As is often the case with boilerplate, however, clauses are inserted without focusing on their particular meaning in the context of the commercial relationship between the parties. Sometimes lawyers put in language that’s inappropriate to the occasion or that they themselves do not fully understand. Where they are required, arbitration clauses are often poorly drafted and don’t fit with what the parties intend.
Some people like their arbitral clauses expansive in an effort to deal with any contingency. This can be appropriate, depending on the parties and the nature of the agreement. However, sometimes one comes across arbitration clauses that are disproportionately long or convoluted; there are relatively short written agreements out there prepared by otherwise able counsel that have arbitral provisions taking up 15% of the document. Where possible, I like to keep my arbitration clauses short and clear. Many of the framing issues in arbitration can often be worked out when and if arbitral rights are invoked, so they need not consume page after page of contingencies in an agreement. Many arbitrators also agree that, when it comes to arbitral clauses, less is more. That is, tinkering with short, tight clauses will get you into more trouble than leaving them alone.
At a minimum, a properly-drafted arbitration clause must address the following seven items:
Often, these basic elements are enough to address the parties’ reasonable concerns, although I would caution that that’s not always the case.
The single biggest problem I come across with arbitral provisions isn’t in the clause itself, but in the rest of the agreement. Often, an agreement will contain language requiring the parties to, for example, “reasonably” discuss a dispute with a view to settlement, or to act “in good faith” with respect to certain contractual undertakings. There are valid reasons for inserting language like this, but it is anathema to a completely effective arbitral provision. This kind of subjective language provides a ready-made basis for jurisdictional challenges to invoking the arbitration clause. That is, if one party seeks to proceed to arbitration, the other may claim that there have been insufficient “good faith” efforts (for example) to resolve the dispute prior to arbitration and may turn to the courts under the governing law and venue clause of the contract to foreclose arbitration. This can create a dysfunctional arbitration clause where the parties cannot get their differences resolved efficiently and may have to litigate in order to end the stalemate, which may defeat the parties’ original commercial intent.
As gaming matters become more complex, parties will rightly and increasingly demand alternatives to expensive litigation if disputes emerge, including arbitration. It is incumbent upon counsel to be familiar with the key components, benefits, and potential pitfalls associated with arbitration in order to properly advise and effectively partner with their clients in the broader gaming sector.
The second installment of the Islidur SuperStar Showdown took place yesterday evening on PokerStars. After getting beat by Isaac Haxton in the first match Islidur1 took on Tony G in the 2,500 hand heads-up match. By the time the 9 hour match was concluded Islidur1 came out victorious with a final winning margin of $44,820.
At different points of the match each player held a lead of at least $70,000 before the biggest hands of the match even happened. The largest hand of the match came on one of the PLO tables when both players were sitting with over 60k each. Tony G was the aggressor for the entire hand and was the one who got the players all-in after the river when the board read 
. Tony G held the lead throughout the hand with his 
but the river was enough for Islidur1 to steal the $124,300 pot with his 
.
As the matched closed Tony G went into desperation mode and tried to make a move with 
but ran into the 
of Islidur1. After this hand Islidur held a $45,000 lead and that was where the match ended.
Post match comments by Tony G can be found on his blog where has laid down the challenge for Islidur1 to come over to Party Poker.
Who is next in line for the SuperStar Showdown? Some think it will be Phil Galfond while others think that a Islidur/Haxton rematch is possible. PokerStars Pro David Williams hinted in the chat box last night that David “Viffer” Peat has sent in a proposal for a challenge between him and Islidur1 take place live at PCA this month. Keep an eye on the official SuperStar Showdown page for the announcement of the next opponent.
FYI “@ArtisanVegas: Ready for that free birthday bottle? Hit us up at bday@artisanhotel.com for a bottle for you and at least 6 friends.”
Had a great session with Deus Ex. Then got to another boss. Contemplating giving up and moving on to something fun. Wish there were cheats.
