WSOP all-time bracelet winner Phil Hellmuth was trying to add a 12th bracelet to his collection. Dr. Pauly and Change100 were on the scene…

2011 WSOP – Episode 10: Hellmuth Denied with Change100 (2:46) – Seconds after John Juanda defeated Phil Hellmuth (who was seeking his 12th career bracelet), special guest Change100 and Pauly chat about the three hour heads-up battle between Hellmuth and Juanda.

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Life’s not all about poker, right? Dan and Dr. Pauly head over to the sportsbook to watch the NBA Finals and chat about sportsbooks along the way…

2011 WSOP – Episode 11: Bookies, Dumpsters, and Mavericks (5:16) – Dan and Pauly ditch the action at the WSOP and wander over to the sportsbook to watch Game 6 of the NBA Finals, because Pauly bet the Mavs, which is also Dan’s hometown team. Dan asks Pauly to describe some of the complexities of sportsbetting, both in Vegas and in the shady underworld of online bookies.

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Jon Katkin

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OP-ED

Spend enough time around the professional poker circuit and you’ll quickly realize that it’s a very small and incestuous group. Players and media members spend hours, days and sometimes weeks together in casinos and card rooms around the world and, as expected, the close quarters inevitably lead to friendships (and, sometimes, more) between the two groups.

This is perfectly normal and, quite frankly, not a big deal in most cases. A poker pro sharing a drink or a meal with a player can be beneficial for both parties. And, so long as clear lines are kept between professional and personal relationships, there’s no real issue. When the lines are blurred, however, things become less clear.

Whether or not friendships affect reporting is irrelevant, because it’s the perception of impartiality that matters. If people paid to report on poker can’t separate personal feelings and biases from the stories they’re covering, how can anyone trust what they say or write?

We’re only a couple of weeks into this year’s WSOP and I’ve already seen plenty of instances where the line hasn’t just been blurred, but erased completely. Specifically, I’m referring to the increasing and increasingly annoying practice of poker journalists openly rooting for their friends during individual events.

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A fancy Pokerati sign inside @PalmsPokerRm had me feeling like a big swingin' dick until Annie Duke had to show me hers was bigger than mine.

I’ll be playing in a satellite for Annie Duke’s and Jeffrey Pollack’s $20k pro-am event tonight, at the Palms, starting at 7pm. I hope you are busy and can’t show up. Come by later for 1/2 NLH/PLO, sure … the Pokerati action @PalmsPokerRm has been bumpin’ all summer … but at 7 is the Federated satellite, and I probably like my chances better without you there.

Official qualifier info here.

It’s a $340 buy-in, with 20 percent of the field winning seats into a Federated 1500 later this month (or next?), with that event putting players into the Federated $20k Pro-Am. I think that’s how it works … I dunno, you better stay away until I make sure.

Federated’s first attempt for qualifiers didn’t go so well, as our good friends at Wicked Chops pointed out — only three people showed! Not necessarily surprising for a still forming league; it’s kinda hard to draw people to a qualifier for something that hasn’t ever happened before — no matter how big the names are behind it. The WSOP ran for I think like 11 years before they started filling satellites.

But tonight, our other good friends at the Palms Poker Room are guaranteeing not only 1 seat for every 5 players, but also 1 minimum no matter how few buy-in. That, of course, is why I’m playing tonight. By my math, if no one else is there tonight, I win!

The grand prize, of course is that $20k seat, where I’ll be able to play against big-name pros and hardcore grinders for $10 million!!! a six-figure payout and/or a chance to tell many of them en masse once and for all to suck-it!

Ahh, getting ahead of myself here … it’s supposed to be a professional league encouraging fair play, proper behavior, and golf etiquette … so have to wait for the right moment to make my made-for-TV scene.

First I gotta win tonight’s event, where my best shot, frankly, comes by just showing up.

Please forgive any apparent smugness of prescience … I didn’t know about the appeals court ruling when Pauly and I recorded an episode two days ago, where we addressed certain ironies about neither Clonie Gowen nor the people who may or may not have wanted to squash her being at the WSOP.

Pauly published yesterday, and even though we’ve got a fancy autofeeder here at Pokerati, I did not … but LOL(ish) … this episode was next in the queue:

2011 WSOP – Episode 8: Eskimo Yes, Jesus No (4:22) – Dan and Pauly try to pinpoint which pros are noticeably absent (Clonie, Jesus, Howard Lederer), while Eskimo Clark sightings have been rampant. They also try to figure out where the old Bat Beat Bar and Lounge went and why its been replaced by a oxygen bar.

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Not sure yet what exactly this all means … but the case of Clonie Gowen vs. Team Full Tilt (that strangely never got to trial) is still alive in some capacity. A federal Appeals court ruled yesterday that the lower federal court — Nevada District — did indeed make errors in dismissing her claim against Ray Bitar, Howard Lederer, and various companies connected to Full Tilt.

Clonie Gowen’s lawsuit of course, was the first of what would prove to be many against various Full Tilt entities — at the time dismissed not just by a Las Vegas judge, but by the “poker world” and industy as a whole. Since then the belief that Full Tilt could do no wrong has definitely reversed itself … in American courts as well as the court of public opinion.

Clonie was seeking $40 million as a part-owner of Full Tilt. But my how times have changed … If she does finally get her day in court, certainly the valuation would have to be reassessed … and these days, were an American court to way declare that yes indeed you are an owner of Full Tilt, would that be a win?

Read below for a summary of the decision by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, based in San Francisco:

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This week’s online gambling news comes from New York City, where a “Black Friday” defendant has been denied bail. Plus, is legal Internet betting in Washington DC in jeopardy? Also, updates from Merge Poker, Intertops, and QuickTender.

Here’s a question from a reader that I thought might be useful to answer for everyone, including me! Chuck in Fort Worth writes:

Hi Dan,

Jake and I will be in Vegas the week of June 13. A buddy of his will be staking him in event #26. Do you have access to any kind of staking agreement we could prepare prior to the event? Thanks.

Chuck

Hey Chuck! I’m not Dan, but I am Dan-ielle so … close enough!

There are no set-in-stone guidelines for backing players but the most common practice is a 50/50 split of winnings, after the backer has been paid back on his investment. (i.e. the buy-in.) The second most common is for the backer to get his investment back and 60 percent of the remaining winnings, with the player keeping what’s leftover after that. More…

By the time Sorel Mizzi turned 25 on April 16 of this year, he already earned one of the top nods in the poker world as Bluff Magazine’s Player of the Year for 2010. He had also been at the center of several scandalized cheating accusations.

Sorel Mizzi

There is no question that Mizzi is an exception poker player. He placed third at 2010 Aussie Millions ($599,319) and ninth ($108,967) in 2011. More recently he won the FTOPXX leader board challenge. He’s also just qualified for the new Federated Poker League. That Mizzi can play winning poker is obvious. But can he beat nearly half a decade of bad press post-Black Friday?

In an effort toward repairing his tainted public image, Mizzi announced (through a press release) that he has decided to put “his winning ways into philanthropic endeavors.”

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Dan and Dr. Pauly hang out in the Pavilion and discuss an international flag conspiracy…

2011 WSOP – Episode 9: False Flags and Low Lights (4:04) – Dan and Pauly wander around the Pavilion and Dan points out the flags, or lack of international flags, hanging from the rafters. While Dan spins an international false flag conspiracy, he also wonders about the lack of bright lighting at this year’s WSOP.

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One of my personal faves, @VanessaRousso, will be hosting a 1-day crash course for the WSOP main event, with strategy discussion specifically geared for this one unique and special tournament. She says she’ll show you how to apply advanced game theory and winning secrets to huge-field deepstack events … as well as instruction on how recent changes to tournament structure affect strategy and play.

It takes place at Aria Casino on July 7, during Day 1A of the WSOP main event. Read below for more information if you want to go. Of all the boot camps out there, I think this one will probably be the best because Vanessa’s a girl, and everyone knows girls are smarter than boys. Tee-hee.

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Though I’m not expert enough to confirm or deny any validity, this video did give me pause. To the untrained eye, it sure does look like possible (if not certain) cheating software in play on ClubWPT, the World Poker Tour’s subscription-based non-gambling site — you know, the one Mike Sexton is heavily pimping on Poker After Dark (in commercial spots previously occupied by Full Tilt) as the safest American online poker alternative out there.

Interesting to see the code explained, visually, for a clearer understanding of how God-mode in the UB Scandal probably worked … then extra-curious to realize Jim Ryan, CEO of WPT-parent Party Gaming, was CEO of Excapsa Software, Ultimate Bet partner, during the heyday of cheating on their site.

And while some may think little of it, because hey, it’s just pretend money … we all know free-play online poker isn’t just about the joys of truly amateur poker … it’s about preparation for real-money online gambling. The WSOP is pushing their free Facebook-app game throughout the Amazon Room, after all, and Zynga takes a rake in their “cash games”. Do a Google search for “Zynga poker rigged” or “Facebook poker scam” … The screams of cheating and scandal are more outrageous than AP/UB/Cereus ever coulda had to cover up.

Whether the apparent security flaws at Club WPT are a matter of coincidence, ignorance, incompetence, or shenanigans, it does make you wonder who will be ready for American players when real-money online poker comes into play.

Shuffle Master, Inc. today announced its results for the second quarter ended April 30, 2011.

“We attribute this success to our R&D efforts, continued investments in game content, and improved execution.”

“During the quarter we achieved record quarterly revenue of nearly $60 million, filled some key strategic roles such as a new CEO and General Counsel, witnessed yet another quarter of phenomenal EGM performance, and we continued to grow recurring revenue,” stated Gavin Isaacs, Chief Executive Officer of Shuffle Master. “In my first two months as CEO, I have been impressed with the commitment of our employees to build upon our industry leadership, the depth and breadth of our strong intellectual property portfolio, and the many rich opportunities that I believe lie ahead for Shuffle Master.” More…

PokerTek, Inc. the industry leader in automated poker technology, is pleased to announce that Gaming Laboratories International (GLI) has approved its latest PokerPro software, Tournaments Plus+, version 3.0. This approval clears the way for installations and upgrades of this new software into jurisdictions worldwide that accept GLI certification.

“And we look forward to running more tournaments of this size in the future.”

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Hinted at it in the PAW post, but it probably deserves a hedline of its own, at least to note it for the record.

Tony G says he’s thinking of skipping the 2011 WSOP, too … but the reason he gives — not being able to keep up with the kids these days — seems questionably weak when one of the most influential men in poker has been throwing firebombs at Full Tilt and Howard Lederer specifically, as they relate to player monies and the WSOP.

I think the real question is: Is he looking to skip just the events, or skip out on Las Vegas and/or the US altogether? I mean shoot, I was hoping he’d at least show up to play the media event!