In a move that may or may not say anything about the state of poker on TV (or even just the state of TV for that matter), the show Stargate Atlantis is doing a little filming in Vegas today … at Planet Hollywood. Something about looking for a serial killer at a high-stakes poker game visited by aliens who hold the fate of the planet security in their hands. The Las Vegas pros at the table — Todd Brunson and Roy Winston(?).

Airs January 2 on the Sci-Fi Channel.

ALT HED: Extra, Extra!

Click below for the episode descrip:
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Mike Sexton apparently has a new gig over at my personal poker news RSS reader PokerNewsDaily, and in his debut column shares his real thoughts on the 2008 WSOP. They are respectful (of course) but, the WPT television co-host doesn’t hold back from addressing his concerns about WSOP floor staff, cheating, and death.

Some highlights:

Another problem I have: “What if someone dies before the final table is assembled?” Putting a little casket on the table and blinding a guy off would not only create a morbid setting, it would also change the strategy players might induce to move up in the money. And although a legend didn’t make that final table (such as Doyle Brunson), what if they did and then they died in October? What might have been perhaps the greatest final table ever would now be a very sad and tragic final table.

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There’s a lot of action going on, now and into this weekend …

First off, in the online world, the WCOOP (World Championship of Online Poker) is going on on PokerStars. You can rail it live as an observer on PokerStars itself, of course, or if you’ve got an offline life you can follow it semi-live on the PokerStarsBlog in the capable hands of our own California Jen and some of your other favorite bloggers (Change100, Tuscaloosa Johnny, Otis).

Believe it or not, they’ve also got “TV” coverage of these big online tourneys — they’re about halfway through 33 of them. Check it out right here if you’ve got a half-hour to kill:

The new PokerStars TV will also be all over the EPT Barcelona, which just got underway — including some live video coverage viewable on the internet, along with more traditional blog-coverage and chip updates.

On the salty side of the pond, the Borgata Poker Open is getting heated in Atlantic City. That’s where Pauly’s at. And he’s covering all the action (along with the ever-illustrative Tropical Steve and poker-media journeyman Michael Friedman) on the official Borgata Blog. The WPT main event kicks off on Sunday. The WPT has their own blog-crew coverage, too — something called “The Muck”.

Meanwhile, I’m stuck here in Vegas, where it’s a Freerollin’ Saturday for me:

I start the day in Event #2 of the PokerListings Run Good Challenge. Supposedly we’re having some blind-structure issues with PokerStars, but regardless, it will be a chance to redeem myself from my lackluster Event #1 performance.

Then, later tomorrow evening, it’s the grand-opening tourney at the Hard Rock, where I’ll be playing against Phil Hellmuth, Anjela Brunson, Rick Fuller, Scott Fischman, Scott Ian (of Anthrax), Jeremiah Smith, Andre Agassi, Montel Williams, Randy Couture, Jermaine O’neal, Paul Pierce, and others for an important motorcycle. Will be texting in updates via CSR should you care to follow my quest against a field that should be a combination of great and terrible, with a less-than-skill-friendly blind-structure.

Click below for more detailed info on the event itself, and the motorcycle.

It really is shaping up to be a Good Poker September.

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I offered “Shmom Schmeider” a sizable-to-me-but-big-blind-to-him wager on the outcome of the US presidential election. I even was willing to give up a few points on behalf of Obama, but he wanted to bet it straight up for “any amount” because he’s obviously a little bit of an Arizona homer with the hots for Sarah Palin … so, um, yeah, I’m thinking about borrowing some zeroes if ya know what I mean. So any of you with a few extra (tens-of?) thousands lying around, please be in touch.

He also probably doesn’t realize I have the inside scoop with the ongoing Pokerati presidential poll (to your right).

Just watched this week’s episode of the WSOP … and saw Phil Laak in the Old Man disguise for the first time. Couldn’t help but think, as pointed out by a commenter, how is this any different than someone’s having two different accounts online?

He gave an interview in July to CardPlayer* where he talks about the stunt sociological poker experiment, the benefits of anonymity, and how players can change their live persona at the table over the years.

*CardPlayer goes embeddable!?! Great, now what’ll we bitch about? Nice!

Best pic of Phil in disguise here.

ItsOverJonny wondered in comment below whether or not the new ShuffleTech noise machines auto-shufflers actually kept a count of the cards being riffled … I wasn’t sure (kinda assumed they did), so, because apparently this is what I like to do at 6:30 am on Saturday night/Sunday morn, I wrote to the folks at ShuffleTech (which happens to be based in the small village outside of Chicago where I was born) and they responded:

Dear Dan,

I’m happy to answer this or any other question, particularly for anybody from Shuffle Tech’s home town!

The ST-1000 does not count cards. Most of the machines that do in the casinos are also scanning the faces of each card, which enables those machines to not only count but also identify any missing card. You can understand how that could be abused in a private, unregulated environment: a clever programmer could reprogram the machine to identify the location of any particular card in a deck, and in the case of the casino machines (which function differently than Shuffle Tech) place certain cards in a certain position in the deck.

I hope this answer the question, and our reason for avoiding any mechanism or feature that could potentially be abused.

Best regards,
Rick Schultz

From another HRH-lovin’ tipster (the words … photo by me):

Perhaps if the music thing doesn’t work out for Billy Bob, he can take up professional poker as his next gig.

Billy Bob Thornton was spotted playing poker in the new Poker Lounge at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Thursday night. He was joined by friends and bandmates from The Boxmasters in the back room of the lounge that some are calling the Billy Bob Thornton room - an oversized image of the actor/musician hangs on the wall above the table. Thornton was back inside the Poker Lounge Friday morning signing the large picture of himself. Billy Bob Thornton and The Boxmasters performed yesterday night at The Joint.

ALT CAP: Billy Bob Thornton doing his best Sammy Farha at the Hard Rock.

“Bessie May” in Vegas sends along this pic she got yesterday (afternoon?) of Montel Williams playing in the big game — 5/10 NL — at the new Hard Rock.

Fascinating, I know.

Hmm, so whaddya know … I was apparently wrong in declaring the final tableists “too smart” to get outside assistance (from poker people, at least) in preparation for their big-time November sit-n-go. My only defense is that I musta been really drunk at the time when I was saying that stuff, so it probably doesn’t count.

From an announcement just in over the transom:

Dennis Phillips is pleased to announce that he will be partnering with Roy Winston and Joe McGowan of Oracle Poker Consulting in preparation for the 2008 World Series of Poker (W.S.O.P) Main Event. Dennis Phillips is currently the chip leader at the final table, where more than $32 million will be divided among the final 9 players. The final table will be played on November 9th.

Not sure of the financial details — maybe they took Oliver’s advice and partnered for free? — but regardless, one thing does have me reconsidering my position that it would be stupid to hire any poker coaches if you were one of the final nine:

Dennis Phillips is currently employed by Broadway Truck Center in Saint Louis, Mo. An amateur player, he won a $200 satellite into the Main Event of the W.S.O.P, where 6,844 players began.

Hmm, right, we should remember that. And we all know how sketchy the poker world can get at times, so why wouldn’t he want some folks intimately familiar with it on his side to help him navigate the pre-showtime waters?

Says Phillips on the matter:

“I’m confident in my game and don’t intend to change it, but I’m also smart enough to know that you can always learn more.”

There are 50 poker rooms in Las Vegas, so we thought you might appreciate the assistance of fellow degenerates in narrowing down the possibilities of where to play when you come to town. The votes have been tallied … and four places stood out above the rest … In what may or may not become a recurring tradition around these parts, Pokeratizens say the Best Poker Rooms in Vegas are:

Gold Medal
The Venetian

Great regular tourneys, Deep Stack Extravaganzas, plenty of all-but-the-highest-stakes action, bottled Fiji water, and maybe the escalator that dumps off drunkenly clad party girls coming out of Tao right in front of The V’s poker room make it far and away the favorite of this website’s readers/players/dealers.

official site / TPA

The separate tournament room really is cool, if not the best in town, and the comfortable multi-tiered cash game area never seems short of action appealing to the masses of big little-stakes players. Great freerolls for regular cash players, too.

official site / TPA

Still home to the biggest games in Vegas (in terms of buy-ins), thereby drawing the most pros and the players who want to challenge/sit near them. Everything Bellagio is always luxe, of course, and their regular $500 and $1k tourneys makes the chance to play for baller money an in-town constant.

official site / TPA

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It seems like Otis and Amy and Mike Paulle are right … poker on TV is changing. For better or for worse may still be up for debate, but those of us who have seen the action firsthand seem to be agreeing that what ESPN is doing is better capturing the “reality” of the WSOP … less documentary, more Puck … which only makes sense, delayed final table Survivor and all.

New (to me) from ESPN:

(Did I flat miss this video during the Scotty Nguyen HORSE episodes, or is it only standing out as more relevant in television hindsight?)

Also, btw, big kudos/thanks to ESPN for making their vids embeddable. I think you guys are on to something. Pretty slick … kinda like the other dude’s YouTube montage, only better.

We’re gonna be closing the polls soon, so this is your last chance to stuff the ballot box on the unscientific Pokerati poll wanting to know what Pokeratizens consider to be the best all-around poker room in Vegas.

Look on your right, scroll down (or up depending on when you’re seeing this post), and let your voice be heard. And heard again. The Venetian seems to have the gold medal locked up, but there’s still quite a race for bronze.

NOTE: This poll is only open to the one percent of readers who do more than actually read this site — the ones that leave comments, vote, hack, flame, etc. Elitism has its privileges.

Click, and enjoy.™

From the always clickworthy good folks at RawVegas.TV

It was a tragedy earlier this week when a small plane crashed into a North Las Vegas home, killing three people. Another one fell out of the sky yesterday, killing the pilot. This one crashed into a home near Jones and Cheyenne (a few blocks from where the Michalski grandparents used to live) and also took off from the North Las Vegas Airport. Seriously, two small-aircraft crashes (into homes) in one week, both flights originating from the 63rd busiest airport in America? That’s just not right.

More here and here.

Mean Gene was on the scene when all was shaking down — and he’s got some great details about just how drinky a fete the $50k HORSE championship really was — for players, fans, and reporters alike — and the bad vibes all around that may or may not have come across on ESPN.

(I was wondering about that beer-bottle label, or lack thereof. Indeed, I can imagine how even the attempt to force someone to drink Milwaukee’s Best Light could spark a little tilt.)

That’s the question this week. Scroll down a bit and over at the right. –>

We know lots of things factor into your decision on where to play — from the stakes to the amenities to the action. So using whatever algorithm you employ in your head, we want to know where it is that you feel like you’ve got to play — or where you really want to play — whenever you come to town. (Or, of course, if you live here … then just what’s your favorite room in town.)

You can actually vote once a day, so have at it however you want: stuff the ballot box for your favorite room, or spread out your votes to show your diggage of multiple poker joints.

See results of previous poker polls here.

The 2008 World Series has come and gone and will most likely, in a little less than three months, will come again. In the meantime, while cleaning out the computer(s) we’ve come across these “lost” episodes … recorded in the tail days of the main event. But this is everything … there’s no more, OK? At least not for now. So if you’d like to step back into the WSOP for just a few minutes at a time to the vocal stylings of yours truly and Dr. Pauly, by all means, have a listen/download. Some of it actually seems a little extra interesting with the benefit of a month-or-so of hindsight.

For the entire WSOP season click here.

The heretofore unheard old-new episodes, salvaged from the cut-and-pasting room floor:

Episode 30: The Cost of Donuts
Grubby joins the media to talk main event numbers and the price of trendy donuts in today’s oil economy. (3:19)

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Episode 31: Scotchy Poker
Dan+scotch early in the WSOP day=talk of Dario Minieri and Isabelle Mercier. (4:02)

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Episode 32: French Warfare
Benjo takes over the mic when Dan calls in drunk, and he and Pauly talk more about Isabelle Mercier live from the Day 2 killing fields. (5:14)

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Episode 33: New York & Texas
Michele Lewis joins in as Dan and Pauly break down the difference between Texas and New York humor, or at least the difference between Pauly and Dan. (2:40)

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Episode 34: Go Team!
Dallas’ Raj Kattamuri is going deep, and Pauly tracks down Dan in the poker kitchen to find out what it takes to be patched up on Team Pokerati. (2:37)

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Episode 35: No Wiener
Benjo is not his usual jovial self as the main event comes to a close and he bids farewell to his American friends in the penultimate WSOP episode of Tao of Pokerati. (4:41)

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Episode 36: Unhookered
The traditional late-late night poker-blogger farewell binge drinking at the Rio’s Hooker Bar, with guest appearances by Otis and Mean Gene. (3:29)

A couple hot poker topics this week have been, of course, WinStar, and Scotty Nguyen’s less than stellar behavior and etiquette in the $50k WSOP HORSE event, as seen on ESPN. Pauly (who actually watched this final table live) assures me a lot of this persona came in the editing — yeah, he was drunk and rude for awhile, but then he sobered up and played like a winner — and indeed, I remember thinking similarly as the day progressed … was rooting for Nguyen … definitely didn’t want a newbie like Michael DeMichele to win $50k Friggin’ HORSE! But after watching the episode(s) this week, I gotta say … was totally rooting for DeMichele, even though I knew he probably didn’t stand a chance.

Anyhow, point being … just wondering if a (bad) performance like Scotty’s could jeopardize his relationship with the Cherokee Casino in Tulsa, where he has hosted the biggest events in North-North Texas prior to the current River tourney at WinStar. “I am like a god in Oklahoma,” he has said. “They have my picture on billboard.”

Not saying one incident will — but wondering if it might. Because after all, there was a reason they chose him back in the day … because everyone loves Scotty Nguyen, baby! But now that’s clearly not the case.

OK, I think I got at least half of this thing figured out … here are the rest of the pics, taken by yours truly. I think the bar area is pretty cool.

Oops, I missed all the fun at the soft opening of the Hard Rock Poker Lounge yesterday. Supposedly it was wild fun with lots of great food to go with one sit-n-go after another. But the emptiness did give me a chance to take some better photos of the inside, and the cleaning crew didn’t even try to stop me!

Click below to have a look:

UPDATE: Argh, I am having trouble resizing and such. Bear with me as I learn Mac button-pressing … I swear this is supposed to make everything easier …

In the meantime, as I’m fiddling/flickring … these shots just came in over the transom from the Hard Rock:

The above shot is the main room — you can see the little VIP/private rooms along the back wall … and below is the room for whatever big-big game materializes:

Earl Burton has an interesting post up wondering why the sponsorship dollars for the WSOP main event final tableists haven’t been rolling in. While he leaves room for the possibility that it’s just a matter of time — I agree, as the kinda deals we’re talking about here don’t take place over a matter of days or even weeks — he also highlights an example that has me simply shaking my head:

A recent blog [sic.] on CardPlayer by a former guest on my “The Tournament Trail” show at Hold ‘Em Radio (http://www.holdemradio.com/), WPT champion Roy Winston, indicated that no one has contacted him regarding his offer of coaching for the Main Event.

Sorry, Roy, but I’m laughing. Because no one has contacted me, either, about my offer to put a Pokerati patch on them in exchange for guaranteed internet coverage! No offense, but whothefugk are you? A WPT champion? Big deal! The final nine — whether by luck or skill or some combination thereof — have outlasted 6,400 players to get to where they are. Have you ever done that? I didn’t think so.* Why would someone want to potentially mess their game up by receiving “coaching” from someone other than Phil Hellmuth (who clearly knows how to win WSOP final tables with any starting chip ratio) or maybe Erik Seidel? If I were one of the Nueve de Noviembre, I gotta say, I’d be feeling pretty good about my poker skills in general … and would be having many talks with the poker friends who helped get me there (The Arizona Posse, Batfaces, et al.) and probably just about any other poker player I ran into between July and November. But hire an outside coach? That would be like an athlete qualifying for the Olympics and hiring someone in the interim who happened to win a similar event in the Pan-Am games.

The story here isn’t on whether or not the final table delay was a right idea for the sake of marketing … it’s about how the remaining WSOP main event players are somehow smart enough not to fall for sales pitches from interlopers trying to get in on their action.

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Defending Champ: Sure, I may have gotten lucky on the river, but hey, I had the best hand going in!

So what do you do after beating TJ Cloutier to win $230k? That’s not exactly lottery money, after all — especially after taxes — but it was enough to (kinda) change the life of Vik Vijay, the Oklahoma poker dealer who won the 2007 Red River Roundup (now called, more elegantly Oklahoma-y, The River) and then delivered on his post-victory promise to quit his job and move to Las Vegas with highly energized bankroll in hand. Since then:

hey dan -
yeah, im headed down to winstar next week to defend - ive got the last starting day - thursday the 21st. hopefully it will go well. the last year has been interesting - i moved to vegas and have mostly been playing. i worked at the venetian this summer, dealing poker for their summer tournament set, but they didnt keep any of us on for anything regular. the poker has been going well, but i really got to lay off the blackjack. other than that, life is pretty good.

-vik vijay.

I think cards are already in the air for the pseudo-shootout River Tournament at WinStar in Oklahoma. Alas, I am not there … am still in Vegas as the first of five groups of 300 players play down to 30.

Though this is not yet confirmed, we think with 1,500, a $2,000 buy-in, and a guaranteed $3 million prize pool that this might-well be the biggest non-WSOP event at $2,000 or more in the history of ever. At a minimum, it’s the biggest event of the year for Texas poker — and Oklahoma poker, too, of course. Was hoping I’d be able to make it back to glorious Thackerville to bring you some WSOP-style coverage of this biggity poker hoedown, but it just doesn’t seem likely.

Last year’s runner-up TJ Cloutier starts today. I’m sure lots of other players we know and love are also there — in fact, if anyone has any updates, be sure to let us know. (Send me an email if you want me Ed to set you up to CSR from the felt/rail.)

Also, last I heard, today is sold out, but 140 seats overall remain. I gotta imagine they’ll fill up if the WinStar is still running single-table satellites … and I know at least two Dallas poker rooms are running sats, so …

Seems a little strange … but hey, maybe not so much. The Silverton Casino poker room (the one that tried to draw ladies with the all-pink tourney) is running Satellites to the California State Poker Championship:

CALIFORNIA STATE POKER CHAMPIONSHIP *just added*

Now through August 31, Silverton Casino Lodge offers Discovery Club members the chance to win entry into the California State Poker Championship, which is scheduled to be held in Los Angeles September 23 and 24. Members must earn points through daily tournaments and live poker play. On August 24, the top 20 players with the most earned points will qualify to compete in a satellite event at Silverton Casino Lodge on August 31. Qualifiers for the satellite tournament will be broken into two groups to determine playing time. The top three players from each group will receive cash prizes and both winning players will receive the $2,500 entry fee into the California State Poker Championship, hotel and airfare for two and $700 cash. Guests are encouraged to visit the Player’s Club for more details.

As happens with so many openings in this town (and LA and NYC, presumably) … the unveiling of the Hard Rock’s new poker room has been delayed (um, like four years late?) and delayed … but we could tell they were moving forward with things — whether it was the dealer auditions being held in June or the HRH Poker Lounge attire sported by Jeremiah Smith (and another guy — I forget whom) during the WSOP main event. Anyhow, am now hearing it’s set to open-open by the end of this month … and here’s what the Hard Rock will be saying about the poker component of the hotel-casino’s $760 million revamp:

Poker Lounge - The Poker Lounge is the only poker room in Las Vegas with a full bar and lounge, but don’t get the wrong idea—this is the real deal for poker players of every level. New to the game? The Poker Lounge offers free lessons. Want to find you hand with your own music? Bring your iPod and plug it in to one of our private VIP tables. This isn’t your old man’s poker party. It’s everything you’ve come to expect from the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino and a world-class poker room—18 tables, great music, a full service bar and lounge in signature Hard Rock style.

I really don’t know where I stand on this — especially without knowing the backing details and long-term intangibles — nor whether or not it’s even my position to have a stance when I think just about everyone is stupid, lame, and corrupt for working for The Man!. So I have put it to the readers … new unscientific poll on the right, asking how you would handle a potential business relationship with and de facto endorsement of an ethically challenged poker enterprise.

I leave Texas and the Batfaces (so 2007) are clearly going to pot … except for all the good stuff they have to say, of course. While catching up on some of the not-so-relevant blogs out there, I came across this post from one of my best friends whom I don’t even know. All I can say is I would’ve expected as much from Shane, but with far better links:

PokerNOTi
I don’t know about you guys, but has Dan’s lack of content on Pokerati been somewhat disappointing? I’m not talking about Pokerati’s content, just what Dan has posted. My roommate in college first told me about Pokerati about 5 years ago, when most posts were about yall’s home games and the Dallas poker scene in general, and I have been a loyal reader ever since. When Dan started adding contributors like Karridy, and that Michele Lewis chick, I was excited because it seemed like he was getting “more serious.” Then Tom Schnieder came along, Cali Jen started posting, and Dan moved to Vegas and I thought, Wow, pokerati is going to be competing with Pauley’s website, taopoker.com as THE place to follow the WSOP. Man, what a let down. If it wasn’t for Cali Jen (who maybe the best poker writer in the business), and some dude named Kevin Mathews, there wouldn’t be any content. Sure, Dan has the Country Leaderboard, and the occasional 2 minute podcast with Pauley but that’s about it. Where is the live blog, the behind the scene’s stories, the Dallas player profiles, the inside scoop as to what is REALLY going on at the Rio???? Instead, we get pictures of a dumpster fire and talk about All-In Energy drink. Oh well, maybe next year.

Was just going through some old, buried emails, and I came across one dated May 13, 2008, that I sent myself to remind me of all the good, unique-content posts I had building up that needed to get written before the WSOP. Obviously most of them didn’t make it … and while the time of relevance has passed for some, others still might make for good reads, and maybe someday I’ll have lots of free time and get around to crafting/completing thoughtful narratives. As for the rest, I figure their patent-time has expired, so here they are for anyone else to run with if you’re looking for fresh stories to explore. As for now, I really just wanna be able to delete the email.

[Note: Links and strikethroughs are contemporary add-ons, not part of the original email.]

• What’s Going on with the Poker Bowl?
• Will the WPT see 2009?
• Is High Stakes Poker in Trouble? (They haven’t filmed yet this year)
• My time at the table with a colluder-turned-killer (now in jail)
• Rock, Paper, Kenna: Roshambo with Kenna James
• Tiffany Michelle’s Inner Stripper
• Poker Politics out the Ying Yang
• Dance AJ Dance! (AJ Benza on Celebrity Fit Club)
• Chris Ferguson’s Tip for the Heads-Up Championship
• The Arizona Judge challenging the system with a legally questionable card room
• World Series of Beer Pong
• All sorts of readers writing in with questions about poker lawyers
• Multiple restaurant reviews
• Various social party things attached to playing poker afterwards
• Skill-based slot machines
• Etiquette: Why It’s Bad to Slowroll
• How My Friend Created a Law in Texas that Challenged the Amateur Tournament i created (Lodge tourney becomes $0+5 with state taking the rake - I call my friend out for doing sloppy work, and the courts agree by declaring his law unconstitutional)
• Pauly vs. Pauly (dumb kid’s comic strip “Poker Pauly)

Yeow, if someone actually wrote about all that stuff, it would probably make for a pretty good blog, no?

Poker archaeologists recently unearthed this episode of Tao of Pokerati, an ancient recording that carbon-dates back to Day 3 of the main event of the 2008 WSOP. In it, Dr. Pauly and I survey the tournament remains after the slaughter of 6,111 players and speculate on what human life is like so close to the money bubble. Ah, yes, it was a fascinating era — one that witnessed the death of Eric Morris and the survival of Ignacious Rex; a time where players Pauly identifies as “Average Joes” heavily outnumbered “unknown” pros like Pat Poels who knew all too well that further bloodshed and eventual extinction was all but inevitable.

Episode 29: Almost in the Money

The poker shark just can’t seem to be jumped. While I don’t expect to see All In: The Musical on broadway any time soon, apparently some people believe that poker players actually go see shows, or at least that they are more likely to if the show is about poker. The Real Deal is gonna be part poker theatre, part poker tourney, part poker game show, with audience members interacting with various pros on stage via wi-fi at The Venetian. Poker thespians will include Doyle Brunson, Daniel Negreanu, Phil Hellmuth, Jr., Antonio Esfandiari, Gavin Smith, Eli Elezra, Jennifer Harman, Phil Laak, Scotty Nguyen, and Todd Brunson — guess they’ve got nothing better to do with High Stakes Poker gone — and surely it is only a matter of time before Hellmuth wins a Tony and/or The Producers will be brought to you by FullTiltPoker.net. No word on whether or not they plan to add hypnosis to the mix (”I will find inner peace and fold these pocket 10s”), but just to let the poker entertainmentpreneurs out there know, poker still has yet to be translated into any of the following:

Poker: the Topless Revue
Poker: the Pool
Poker: the Mechanical Bull Ride
Poker: the Buffet
Poker: the Surgery

Who says there still isn’t room for growth in this industry? Click below to read the full press release, and for more info about a show that will be sure to dazzle us in frightening ways before the end of the year:

More…

Was just watching a little early Fox News, and the weekend hosts got visibly excited about the World Series of Poker. Their hedline: “Average Joes Taking Over.” Wha? Apparently the Fox reporters/interns aren’t reading Wicked Chops. Idiots But regardless, dead money is dead money, right?

“That’s why we like it so much, because the underdog can win!” cooed Ainsley Earhardt. Coming up is one of those Average Joes, Dennis Phillips. From there the Fox-branded morning sunshine went on to a story about cadaver dogs being called in to search for a two-year-old girl, and then the weather. My personal chills subsided.

Go delayed final table!

UPDATES/LIVE-BLOG

Interview starts with “This is wonderful stuff, the World Series of Poker”

Dennis appears, wearing STL ballcap and Pokerstars.net logo on his shirt. (Boo, St. Louis!)

He refused sponsor money for his cap.

“I’m a 53-year-old truck salesman, I’m not going to go around wearing a hat backwards. It’s just not going to happen.”

Headline under random, low-quality footage from the WSOP (as if the lighting situation in the Amazon room were new to them or something) — Poker-Palooza: Average Poker Guy Takes Vegas

The key to his success at the WSOP was having fun the whole way.

Dennis is not married and has no kids.

The Fox News staff is rooting for him.

After a break, the extended crew comes back and has a discussion about how amazing his poker face is. They all give impressions, then asks who plays — I’m shocked that the two dudes who are so excited about poker say they don’t — and then they turn to Courtney Friel. She says that while he was hostess of the World Poker Tour, she herself wasn’t very good because she gave away her excitement over big hands.

They end the show with: “Go All-in with Fox & Friends!”

Photo: Flipchip/LasVegasVegas

This seems as good a time as any to share with you another leftover bonus! episode of Tao of Pokerati … where Dr. Pauly chats with Change100 (his personal fashion yogini) about Tiffany Michelle’s attire before her Ultimate Bet patchwork became such a major wardrobe malfunction. It’s sickeningly cute as this pokerblogging duo draws the fine line between rocker-chick chic and Tijuana hooker — and further fashion analysis tries to differentiate between the new-money stylings of Alexander Kostritsin, typical “online douchebag” and Mean Gene, and the poker-prep ways of Shronk and Brandon Adams.

Tao of Pokerati
Episode 28.5: Fashion Report (feat. Change100)

Posted this link in a comment down below, but really it deserves a little more pimpage … as this write-up by Change100 provides one of the best factual recounts and opinionated analyses of the whole Tiffany Michelle final table sponsorship saga. She tells a compelling story of girl-power gone awry, and the deeper Tiffany got, the more in over her head her agent may have gotten … all while having to make decisions affected by the emerging corruption of Ultimate Bet and escalating high-pressure tactics from frothing sponsorship-brokering wolves trying to mount her in the midst of her WSOP heater.

Jeffrey Lisandro, one of Tiffany’s backers, had been hovering around the Amazon Room all day on Day 6. The other, PokerNews owner Tony G., had already left Las Vegas several days prior. The UB scandal was blowing up, and so was Tiffany’s chip count. Personally, I was concentrated on the task at hand– reporting the tournament– but couldn’t help but notice all the little side conversations that were taking place in the empty back quadrant of the room, which, until only 48 hours prior, had been a sea of poker tables. PokerNews people and Tiffany’s agent, Katie Lindsay. PokerNews people and other agents. And Lisandro himself, putting his arm around Lindsay and walking off with her to have a private discussion. The war over Tiffany Michelle was in full swing as she sat 100 yards away, propped up on her knees, playing in the biggest game of her life.

I spent 8 years in the Hollywood machine and dealt with a lot of agents in my time. They are some of the most ruthless, yet sickeningly hardworking people you will ever meet. The client’s interest is your interest, and it is the only interest. Everyone else can go fuck themselves. Agents can piss people off and get away with it because they hold the keys to the castle by controlling the talent. Talent is the only real currency in Hollywood. Producers, financiers, studio executives, marketing divisions, publicists? Without the talent what do they have?

While I’m not so sure I agree with pinning so much blame on Katie Lindsay from Suited Connections — full disclosure: she’s a personal friend of California Jen’s, and I always saw her as one of the “nice ones” — Change has a little more understanding of how a cutthroat television world can work (a world that is new to poker even though we’ve been on TV for 5+ years) and has me wondering if Tiffany Michelle weren’t, at least indirectly, an unforeseen casualty of a delayed final table that noticeably upped the television stakes as we got closer and closer to The November Nine.

Oh, one other interesting thing … check out Change’s post right before this one. You’ll notice on that picture of Tiffany Michelle, posted before anyone knew of the brewing UB/PokerNews friction … the PokerNews logo is the most prominently displayed, even after she did her deal with Ultimate Bet.