Nick Calathes lost lots of money playing online poker because he just couldn’t lay down his beloved pocket 3s.

Online poker found itself in another brouhaha in the non-poker press last week — in Florida, where UF’s star point guard Nick Calathes (and prospective NBA first-round draft pick) was under investigation for NCAA violations over a $600 gambling debt. The investigation found he did indeed lose money playing online poker, but the NCAA only penalizes athletes who gamble on sports … or commit criminal acts. So Calathes is in the clear, and online poker, by the transitive property, is declared an acceptable recreational activity fully within the law. Yay-win! Go team.

It probably didn’t help, however, that one of the dudes hosting basketballer home games was a former walk-on who previously had been busted for allegedly hooking up the team and others with weed. (Though a friend with weed is a friend indeed…) probably not the kinda guy you want handling money transfers online.

An online-casino-biz response to situation and the suggestion on how his industry needs to work openly with the NCAA.

Alligator Army laments the nonsense online poker hubbub distracting them from the b-ball at hand.

We’re not usually big pimpers of online poker action here at Pokerati, but something came to me via Full Tilt email the other day that really caught my eye, and that was followed up by a MySpace endorsement from DealerZach (emphasis added):

Full tilt added MATRIX Sit-n-Go’s . It’s the most fun I’ve had with online poker. You buy into a 9 player sng but you play 4 tables and the prize pool is split into 5 pools with the same payouts in each pool. The 5th pool is a matrix pool, you win this pool by collecting points in all 4 sng’s . you get points by knocking players out and you also get a point by surviving every time a player gets knocked out, even if you didn’t knock them out.

Indeed, the concept of playing four simultaneous sit-n-gos against the same people (presumably in the same seats?) is definitely intriguing to me.

Should this delightfully newfangled kinda poker fun inspire you to finally sign up for an account at Full Tilt, please do so with this link, and/or using bonus code “Pokerati”.

It feels good to run good … and because it’s important to know whom you’re up against, here are six players you may wanna congratulate/look out for at the tables live and online, as their most recent noteworthy successes suggest they are running particularly well.

Mary Joe Belcore-Zogman
Heartland Poker Tour’s “The Grand Series”
Onamia, Minnesota

Bested 201 players to take down $85,723 — making her the second woman to win an HPT event, and part of the first husband-wife team to both win on the Heartland Poker Tour. Dan Zogman won $220k in Gary, IN, last year. The Zogmans hail from McHenry, IL, about 60 miles outside of Chicago.

More details about her win at HeartlandPokerTour.com

Phil Ivey
Full Tilt Million Dollar Cash Game
London

Made a stab at his 6th bracelet in the £2,500 HORSE at WSOP-Europe (banking more than US$25k for 6th place), and while overseas was the big winner in the million-dollar cash game against his fellow Full Tilt pros and other highest-stakes players. Finished +$536,400, dominating the competition for the second time in the event’s 3-year history.

Live-blog coverage from Michael Craig (relevant posts start in the #520s)

More…

The PPA responds:

PPA Statement on Kentucky Seizure of Poker Websites

WASHINGTON, DC. (September 23, 2008) – John Pappas, executive director of the Poker Players Alliance (PPA), the leading poker grassroots advocacy group with more than one million members nation-wide and more than 13,000 members in the Commonwealth of Kentucky, today issued the following statement in regards to legal action taken by the Commonwealth to seize the domain names of Internet gambling websites.

“The Poker Players Alliance is outraged at the actions taken by Kentucky Governor Steve Beshear and the Franklin County Circuit Court to seize the domain names of Internet gambling websites.  We believe this action not only unduly restricts the freedom of Kentucky residents to play games of skill, such as poker, online, but sets a precedent for censorship of the Internet by force.

“Many of Governor Beshear’s arguments – that online poker is illegal, unregulated and without a mechanism to capture tax revenue – are false. Online poker is not illegal under Kentucky law, is regulated in its home jurisdiction and the Commonwealth of Kentucky chose not to license and regulate poker websites.

“If the Governor truly wants to implement tighter regulations, taxation mechanisms and consumer protections on Internet gambling, the PPA suggests he publicly support federal legislation by U.S. House of Representatives Financial Services Chairman Barney Frank, H.R. 2460, which would achieve those goals

“Poker is a game of skill, a true American pastime and has a proud heritage in Kentucky. Simply because the game has evolved into the 21st Century, it should not be treated as suspect activity.  Forcefully and secretly seizing control of websites that offer online poker games is not a sound public policy or a sound legal solution.”

Wow friggin’ wow … sorry, trying to reign in the visceral reaction, but that’s all I can say the more I learn about what’s going on in Kentucky, and Gov. Steve Beshear’s intent on taking unprecedented legal action against online poker (and other online gambling) companies. Don’t think he’s serious — that this is an effort on which he’s willing to stake his political career? The state is already claiming to have seized legal control over FullTiltPoker.com and 140 other sites … and we all remember what happened to Bodog.com the last time American courts got into it with ICANN over issues of not-so-eminent domain.

Have a listen to Beshear’s declaration of war against an industry near and dear to so many of our hearts, and decide for yourself if you think he’s bluffing:

Steve Beshear vs. Online Poker (right-click to save/download)
Kentucky governor on the need for hostile domain takeover
Sep 22, 2008

(5 min 29 sec)

Prediction: If this case makes it into court in any non-frivolous way, it will end up in the Supreme Court. With or without online poker as a defendant, Kentucky is challenging what government can and can’t do in terms of policing/taxing the internet, issues of states rights vs. federal law, and matters of international treaty and internet jurisdiction to boot.

More…

An email from Shamus last night:

Am live blogging the WCOOP Main Event tonight for PokerStars. I tell [Mrs. Shamus] that Tom is playing.

“What is his name, again?” she asks. “Love handle?”

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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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.

While Jen was slaving away covering the WCOOP on the PokerStarsBlog this weekend, I was extremely busy playing in a $1,000 freeroll on PokerStars (12 players max). I’m sure it won’t make her extra-happy to know that I overslept for this special-invite tourney and logged in with an M < 1. But that's what it took to make the final table -- playing tighter than ever. My stats en route to finishing 9th:

During current Hold’em session you were dealt 122 hands and saw flop:
- 0 out of 21 times while in big blind (0%)
- 0 out of 22 times while in small blind (0%)
- 2 out of 79 times in other positions (2%)
- a total of 2 out of 122 (1%)
Pots won at showdown - 1 of 2 (50%)
Pots won without showdown - 0

The series of events is called The Run Good Challenge — mad props to our friends at PokerListings for putting it on. 10 independent typists and two professional bloggers from Listings … duking it out in a game of online hungry-hungry hippo for real American cash:

Event 1: NLHE, regular Stars Structure (Sept 6)
Event 2: NLHE, turbo structure (Sept 13)
Event 3: NLHE/PLO, regular structure (Sept 20)
Grand Final: NLHE Deep Stack structure (Sept 27)

For the three prelims the top three spots will pay: $600, $300, $100. Grand final will consist of top five performers from external bloggers plus best of Dan or myself and will pay all six spots: $1,000, $650, $400, $200, $150, $100.

Sweet, no? Be sure to click below for “live” chatlog coverage from the feature table — kinda interesting to see how entertaining poker can be when you eliminate the hands. (And gives you disturbing insight into the sick minds of bloggers competing in a tournament that couldn’t happen at the WSOP without the entire final table being sent to the penalty box.)

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Though it apparently took a while to get their payout system back in acceptably working action, Full Tilt has paid Boston Pedro his $4.5k:

Yes- i have received checks from them the last two weeks on about a ten day turn around from when requested. That is good.

Indeed, that is excellent to hear. Nice to know there are at least a few sites out there (other than Ultimate Bet/Absolute) that are able to take care of the players.

Backstory here and here.

Bodog, however, seems to be another story altogether … Hard to distinguish what are flame wars between jilted parties and what are real issues that may or may not have driven at least one affiliate to madness. I do know that at least one pending biz deal with some bloggers has been pulled off the table, but that doesn’t mean much … could’ve happened just as well for unrelated reasons when biz was all good. But clearly something unusual is up with Bodog — and what it is I am sure at least a few players will eventually find out, whether they want to or not.

Bodog shenanigans discourse here.

Jen, you know more about Absolute than I do, so maybe you already know … but I wasn’t aware that Scott Tom’s dad (what’s his first name? he won a 2008 bracelet, I know that much) may or may not be under indictment.

Am also curious why any indictment in this case would be sealed.

It certainly seems that way … either that or they’re just going through some rocky times that the tough-do-it-my-way billionaire who built the company didn’t want to be part of. [Gambling911]

Reading this story makes a couple things “obvious” to me:

1. The US.gov is serious about the illegality of sports wagering online, as it really is the only thing clear in previous legislation.

2. Online poker sites that accept US players are having a hard time getting new players, because the American market is tapped out, and if you were a newly addicted European, why would you choose any site that runs into potential trouble from US.gov when you can play on super-legit home-continenters such as PartyPoker, Ladbrokes, 888, etc.? The exception to this, of course, are PokerStars (because they’re so damn big and have all the champions) and Full Tilt (because they have all the pros).

3. Pete Sessions’ HR 6663 really is a sensible piece of legislation in that it makes everything clear (even though it may not cow-tow to a few special-special interests): it spells out more clearly than anything else — sports betting on the internet is bad, online poker is fine, and other games need to be decided.

Maybe this isn’t new … but it’s the first time I’ve seen it:

“Boston Pedro” writes in with some concerns about Full Tilt’s latest speed-bump in their ever-changing UIGEA-hampered payout processing:

Hey Dan-

I am having an issue with FTP where they owe me $4500 and previously I have not had an issue with them direct depositng money or sending me a check. Over the last month, they have “sent my withdrawal to the processor but are having difficulties with their processesor and are not hearing back from them”. Have you heard any similar complaints? if you post this, please do not use my name or info….thanks.

Hmm, yikes. I followed up with Pedro letting him know I recently withdrew money from Full Tilt and it took about three weeks to arrive in my bank account, and he said indeed, he had had the same experience, until recently.

Three weeks has been the norm. But this has been considerably longer, and it is concerning that they are admitting an issue.

The best I can tell you now is to be patient — Full Tilt moneychangers seem to change with regularity. And fortunately they don’t seem like a company who’s owners want to rip you off, so I suspect this problem will resolve itself soon. I know that’s not the answer you’d really like to hear, but for now it’s the best I’ve got.

If anyone else out there has more insight on the matter, by all means, please share. Perhaps the more important question, however, Shmawstin Shmete, is … you are clearly continuing to do well online. So why on earth have you not become any semblance of a threat at the big-tourney live tables in Las Vegas, Foxwoods, Shmoklahoma, or wherever?

I hate that this vid is a commercial for a new online poker site, but love the short-film itself … poignant, and funny … and hence I share it with you:

(via the Weston Poker Forum)

Some numbers coming in over the Batpod … about deals surrounding the November Nine as they made their way to the main event final table:

According to super-duper-secret well-connected, highly reliable inside sources some guy in Colorado, Peter Eastgate, the 22-year-old from Odense, Denmark, currently sitting 4th in chips was originally a Ladbrokes qualifier. Upon his making the final 72, Ladbrokes offered him $1 million to patch up. Full Tilt then came over the top with $1.75 million, and in the end, PokerStars took it down for $2 million.

(NOTE: What I’m not sure of are any “contingencies” in these deals — whether that’s $X million up front even if you finish 71st, or $Ythousand right now, and $Z million if you make the final table.)

Had a pleasant chat with PPA boss John Pappas yesterday about the state of poker legislation. “We have a new website!” he says. OK, that quote’s semi-made up, but he definitely wanted to pimp the Poker Players Alliance’s new forums, benefit packages, and webtronic goodies. Yeah, yeah, website uh-huh … I didn’t tell him that I get most of my PPA on MySpace, where they share rank with Ed, The Poker Atlas, and RawVegas TV.*

Anyhow, in hearing about what they’re trying to achieve, I came to realize just how much progress the PPA has made. There are currently five bills pending in Congress specific to our issue. You can say all you want about the “special interests” … but that’s what we are. And frankly a rather small one in the Beltway schema. Yet those five bills come with 98 unique sponsors — meaning nearly a quarter of the House of Representatives are more than familiar with poker causes and have affirmatively declared themselves on our side. That’s pretty impressive progress over the course of 18 months.

With that said, Pappas doesn’t necessarily expect to see a legally enforceable undoing of the UIGEA this year. Nor do I, nor does Lavigne in Austin, nor does anyone actively working toward that goal. This being a presidential election year, with so many big big issues in play and seats at stake, Congress just isn’t gonna get around to making the world safe for online poker in ‘08. I could be wrong on this — and hope I am — but I’m not. Fortunately the PPA leadership and lobbyists seem to recognize that hoping is seldom a good strategy … and while there’s always a chance poker could hit a political miracle on the turn and river, the PPA should shove all-in! what’s important now for the PPA is putting us in a position to succeed in 2009, when table conditions are sure to have changed.

* Pauly, dude, when are you gonna get on MySpace?

In this week’s episode: The Washington State Gambling Ban heads to court! See the only first hand coverage on the web! Plus the Rally for the Poker Players Alliance and other industry news!

James in Dallas sends along a link to some talk going on among not-so-pokery programmer types about how to build a poker bot. (I sent a reply to the Craigslist ad — using a different email address even — but for some reason those poker-bot hawkers haven’t yet replied.)

Anyhow, the code monkeys have been chirping about details for nearly two years, and now, perhaps like scientists working on the Manhattan Project, some are showing their work:

Poker bots, underground online poker boiler rooms, and collusion are a reality. That doesn’t mean online poker’s not worth playing, just that it pays to be educated about what’s possible. Furthermore, there should be public discussion regarding what to do about it because one thing’s certain: computers and programming languages aren’t exactly going to be getting less powerful. The rise of the poker bots is a virtual certainty. I’d like to see the major online poker venues open up their famously vague “bot detection” and “anti-collusion” strategies to public scrutiny, as cryptography and security providers learned to do years ago. The best security algorithms and techniques all have the weight of public review behind them and I don’t see how online poker’s any different.

In this week’s episode:

What are the SSIGI and HR 5767?
It’s Bob Goodlatte’s Worst Nightmare…
Barney Frank and Ron Paul have introduced HR 5767 to target the financial powers of the UIGEA, and they are receiving the backing of several prominent groups including the SSIGI… or the Safe and Secure Internet Gambling Initiative.

ePassporte Pushed Out of Industry…
Another one bites the dust…
Last Friday ePassporte abruptly abandoned their US Customers with little explanation. This week we learn that the US Attorney’s Office in New York has been putting the screws to them. Imagine that!

Legal Online Gambling in the US?
It’s no lie…
American citizens can use credit cards and ban accounts to fund their online gambling activities at this site that the US Government not only knows about, but actually encourages you to play at!

In this week’s episode:

There’s No Cheating in Online Poker!
Now that we have your attention…
We thought that we should let ya know that some companies are boldly selling poker bot software for under $200, claiming big returns on your investment! Good luck with that! =0)

Our Tribute to the FBI…
We just LOVE the FBI…
I mean, why wouldn’t we love the FBI? They give us so much free comedy material that we would otherwise have to write for ourselves! God bless those brave men and women fighting the tyranny of online gambling!

Washington State to be a Battleground… Again…
The War Rages on…
First, it was J Todd battling the State Gambling Commission over his websites in 2006. Then our friend Nick Jenkins was actually arrested and charged with online gambling in 2007. Now, in early 2008, Attorney and poker player Lee Rousso is challenging the State’s online gambling ban in court!

Microsoft, we know, likes to fight … and the company fired their first shot against cheaters in their online Xbox Live community by conducting a little neighborhood sweep. They aren’t banning players, but instead dropping their player points down to zero and marking their profiles with the digital equivalent of a scarlet C. Not sure how that would work in poker … but it shows the relevance of poker issues in a non-poker world, and perhaps suggests some potential allies who have an interest our fights. Online gam(bl)ing and online gaming, after all, aren’t that far apart.

Online video game competitions for money are already in play — the Fifa Interactive World Cup, for example, awards $20k to the winner. And the shoot-em-up game Kwari has started offering real-money competition, where you win cash for kills and the house takes its cut by charging you for ammo. Bullets, chips … tomato, D’amato … Seriously, how familiar does this sound:

More…

In this week’s episode:

The Man Behind Poker Dream… Meet John Dutchak…
The “dream” is over, but the nightmare has just begun. John Dutchak swears he’s not the owner of the now destroyed Poker Dream Network, but family, friends, and former co-workers all say differently. And did we mention that the hundreds of thousands of dollars in player deposits are missing as well? Yea…

Tusk Gaming Gone… Players Money is Safe… APCW Member Saves the Day…
We tried to tell players not to worry! Even though the Tusk Gaming group folded, we knew that MicroGaming would honor the player’s cash on deposit. What we didn’t expect was that Rewards Affiliates would step in and manage the casinos left homeless by the collapse… but that’s just what they did!

UIGEA Enforcement to be Debated Within Weeks… Barney Frank Expected to Speak…
It only took one year, six months, and five days, but it looks like Congress will finaly discuss how to enforce the regulations they passed into las on September 30th, 2006. Barney Frank is expected to speak, and we know he’ll remind them all just how stupid this law is… we just hope he uses really small words to do so…

Bots, colluders, super-user accounts … all things online poker players need to be wary of … and now, according to a presumably well-respected tech site, we also need to be afraid of Trojans. The claim is that poker players have been ripped off for millions of Euros:

“Online poker players are a massive target for hackers. People play it with real money obviously, so they’re a big target. We were just investigating a case where a professional online poker player was attacked by someone he would play against regularly online. And we’re talking about professional players, and big money. Hundreds of thousands of euros on the table at a time,” he said.

“All of a sudden he started losing. He would regularly lose even when he had a great hand – pocket aces for example. If he had an unbeatable hand, the other players would simply fold. And when he tried to bluff, he would lose. He lost a lot of money this way, we’re talking hundreds of thousands of euros.

“This went on for weeks. And when we looked into it we realised that one of the other players at the table had sent him a tool. A calculater to help optimise the poker playing or whatever. And we found that the application included a Trojan.

“Which means that when he was playing online poker against these people who were in another country, the guy could press a button and he would receive a screenshot of the target’s screen. So he sees the hold cards. If you’re playing poker and the other players know your cards, it’s pretty hard to win.

“It’s a clever attack because the hacker could have just stolen the account and moved the money away. But he would have been caught. But this way the target was losing his money to someone else and he didn’t realise it was a con. I don’t think many online poker players realise that those kind of attacks are being done.”

I’m not sure if this article is a good warning or just anti-online poker propaganda. It brings to light a case where online poker was apparently used to launder money to fund insurgents fighting against Americans in Iraq. Yikes.

Jonathan Little’s most recent accomplishment was making the “Elite 8″ in the NBC Heads-Up Championship, scoring a $75k payday before being slapped by eventual winner and Full Tilt honcho Chris Ferguson.

While account-sharing is hardly the worst offense when it comes to poker ethics, it is in violation of Full Tilt T&C’s for their pros. So Little, who’s FT stock was on the rise, is now out. Stupid kid Yo, bummer dude.

Confirmed by Full Tilt here.

When a player on Full Tilt Poker plays against and chats with a red pro on the site, it is imperative that they be able to trust that it is really the advertised pro playing the account. Given that Mr. Little violated that trust, we have decided to sever his ties to the site, and close his account.

The first well-known pro to get busted for online account-sharing was Phil Hellmuth (outed here, and confronted about it here).

After that, Howard Lederer reportedly sent out a memo to all the Full Tilt pros letting them know that if they ever did something similar, they would be canned immediately. Little wasn’t part of the team when that went down, so maybe he didn’t embrace the seriousness that Full Tilt places on its integrity. Gotta wonder if these sorts of indiscretions will occur more regularly as Full Tilt continues to sign up more and more pros. Also wonder how long Little’s FT page will stay up online.

Brick-and-mortar tournament success here.

From my column in The Sports Page … an interview with the original “poker brat” — who is very busy these days. (Too busy, perhaps?)

The Real Deal
HED: Phil Hellmuth off the Felt
SUB: He may be the busiest pro in poker, and that’s without even playing the game.

by Dan Michalski

Future poker hall-of-famer Phil Hellmuth was in town this past weekend—signing books and hosting La Riata, the biggest charity tournament of the year in Dallas. He stuck around long enough for a Monday round of golf with Troy Aikman (“Troy is a better golfer, but I’m a better gambler,” Phil reports) before having to jet off on the next leg of his current poker-pimping whirlwind.

I managed to catch the nine-time World Series champion via cell phone in New York City. He had a few minutes to talk before doing a shoot with ESPN, and offered his thoughts about the quality of Dallas players, his new book, his new DVD, amateur mistakes, and whether or not that’s really him you’re playing against online:

Great job this weekend. What exactly do you try to bring to a tournament you host?

Phil Hellmuth: This event in Dallas was craziness. 350 players—and they wouldn’t stop rebuying. The enthusiasm in that room was unbelievable. It was just nuts in there. I couldn’t believe it. Obviously in Dallas people just love poker. I think my schtick has become very popular, and uh … Hey Larry, how you doin’? What’s up man? You want me to sign that book for you? And the DVD? Take the plastic off … but it was absolutely insane, so what that tells me is that poker, Texas Hold’em in Texas is hot baby. It’s great to see.

So it’s keeping you busy these days …

PH: Yes, I’m very busy. Hold on, … Larry, who should I sign this to? Michael? How do you spell that? M-i-c-h … did he win a contest on your show? How ’bout “Good luck, you the winnah” or something? OK, Larry. Oh oh, yeah yeah, thank you thank you thank you. I would love to see it. Are you ready to go? Give me one second? … Go ahead, let’s get this one done.

OK

PH: OK, I’m with you.

How much of your work these days is off the tables, as opposed to on?

PH: These days I hardly even play poker. The other day a top professional said, “Phil do you even play any more?” Because you know, look, we have clothing lines and we have schools of poker and my book is on the bestseller list the last two weeks. I’ve got a new book that just came out, Bad Beats and Lucky Draws. That’s the tour I’m on.

And then we have Phil Hellmuth’s Million Dollar Poker System—that’s the new DVD—and those are just going like hotcakes too. We’ve got the Phil Hellmuth movie in Hollywood, and we’ve got Phil Hellmuth: The Reality Show. I could go on and on about all the projects I’m involved with, so it really keeps me away from the poker table right now. And yet my all-time goal is to become the greatest poker player of all time.

So right now you’re just hitting the big tournaments?

PH: Yeah, this a 17-day book tour I’m on, but for four days right in the middle I’m playing in the Foxwoods $10,000 buy-in poker tournament.

Good luck with that. Do I have like 30 seconds or do I have like …

PH: Yeah yeah …

… 3 minutes?

PH: You have another two minutes.

What do you think of the “poker brat” title or monicker for yourself now? Is that still the Phil Hellmuth …

PH: Well I try not to be the poker brat, but that’s just who I am, it’s the way I act. I try to improve myself, and I try to get better. But for some reason I just get really upset when I get really unlucky and I’m always saying something about it and I shouldn’t.

What’s the …

PH: And you know in my new book, Bad Beats and Lucky Draws, I talk … that’s a great book. Do you have a copy of that?

No, I don’t. I’d love to get one.

PH: I’ll give you a number. Are you ready?

Uh-huh.

PH: [Secret promotional book-getting hotline.]

Great.

PH: And I’m so proud of that book. It’s about 60 different hands, and some of the weirdest hands that I have seen, some of the World Series of Poker hands, some of the World Poker Tour hands, some of the hands from the European Poker Tour, and then a celebrity chapter. And then also it has a bunch of other hands written by other great players.

When you’re hosting tournaments like the one Sunday, I’m sure you see a lot of ridiculous play. What’s the most costly mistake that you see amateur and/or up-and-coming players make?

PH: Actually, I was surprised by how well they played in Dallas. There was some craziness, but there was also some really good play. But the ridiculous plays—people moving in with king-threes. And if they had top pair or second pair, you couldn’t bluff them. They’d just put all their chips in. In general people over-invest too much money with hands that aren’t strong enough. It’s a big amateur mistake.

Yeah that was my big mistake. I went all-in with a hand I shouldn’t have and lo and behold he didn’t lay down his top pair. Top pair, ace kicker, nut flush draw …

PH: Hold on one second …

… knocked me out.

PH: You guys are ready to roll, right? I don’t want to make you wait too long … OK, looks like they’re ready. You’ve got one last question for me?

Yeah, one of my blog readers was supposedly playing online against you at the same time you were also speaking at Barnes & Noble. What’s up with that? When people are playing against the pros online, are they really the pros?

PH: Yeah, they really are the pros. And that was stupid of me. We were playing online poker in the car on my UB (Ultimate Bet) account with a couple of friends. They didn’t have UB accounts, and I knew it was a bad idea, but we were right at the car and the event, and I had been playing—I was up $16 or something—we were just messing around and they said look, please let us play. They didn’t have online accounts set up and they’re new to the game and I thought it was terrific.

So they’re playing, and then about 12 minutes into it someone said [in the chat window], oh-my-God, Phil’s supposed to be [at a book signing right now] and my friend freaked out and left. You know, it’s one of these things. I felt like an idiot and it’s 100 percent my fault.

Fair enough. I appreciate the candid answer.

PH: It was stupid … OK, have a good one.

It’s not often that we see a comment on this blog that merits its own post. In fact, this is the first time … as a certain scoop-minded Grant in Dallas reports to us something that seems worthy of an appearance on Pokerati’s front page:

I always wondered if the Poker Pros really Play on Ulitmate Bet. It turns out at least one doesn’t. I was watching Phil Hellmuth play on UB when I remembered I was planning on going to go see him at the Barnes and Noble in Dallas tonight.

At 7:30pm CT I called Barnes and Noble, and to my surprise, he was there, speaking! The very moment he was playing a hand on Ultimate Bet.

I exposed the situation to the others in the Online card room, I even gave out the Phone number to Barns and Noble. Many players called and confirmed: IT WAS NOT Phil Hellmuth Playing under his UB screen name.

I play at UB and I am a big fan of the site. But having someone pretend to be a pro is a SCAM. People play against the pros for the thrill. Some even play looser than usual. Just to “beat the pro.” That is why I am so troubled by all this.

There is no proof UB is aware Phil does not play under his name. But I have the proof, on at least this nite, he does not.

I am a seasoned TV Journalist who knows how to nail down a story. And I know a Con when I see one. Those playing against the so called “Phil Hellmuth” on UB Sat Night at 7:30 were duped.

The question remains: How many other times have we been duped?

UPDATE: Phil Hellmuth responds directly to Grant’s big call-out here.