Pokerati | Texas Hold'em and Las Vegas Poker Blog

Shenanigans at Texas Charity Tourney?

DanM — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 19:29:46 +0000

We know little because we’re thousands of miles away, but why am I not shocked that what coulda been the greatest thing ever — poker that helps a bunch of kids on Super Bowl Sunday — has left at least a few people with a sour taste in their mouths?

I sent an email trying to find out how many people played, how much money was raised, and what celebs if any may have gone deep in the biggest freeroll in Texas history … but instead learned from Dallas CAN!, the charity who helped make it happen:

Went ok the poker company we partnered with did some things that were not right to help our charity and although we packed the place and paid up front for everything, we never saw a dime last night.

Hard Rock Running it Twice

DanM — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 04:55:12 +0000

The Hard Rock Poker Lounge is getting its weekend poker orgy underway — this is the “relaunch” of the poker room there … under new management, with new ideas, and more action than usual …

They’ve got a full slate this weekend — beyond just the free food, splashed pots, a 20k guarantee Friday tourney and stuff like that … they’ve got a whole slate of events, including a Sharon Osborne celebrity charity event (Trash Talk Championship of the World they are calling it), a party for the launch of Victory poker. Currently filming (for ESPN 360, I believe, is a $100/$200 NLH cash game. $50k buy-in … with Antonio Esfandiari, Andrew Robl and others on the table … we’ll have some more names for you. And I think that’s The Maven waiting in the wings for a seat.

Click here for a rundown of all they’ve got going on.

Of course the game next table over is what really interests me — $1/$2 NLH/PLO … just an option to run-it-2x today, not automatic. But in my jaded opinion, that’s where the real poker is going on. The plan is to keep this game running throughout the weekend — as Super Bowl raffle is currently my 2010 bankroll plan.

More TK throughout the weekend … but here’s a glimpse of surprisingly early Friday night action taking off at the Hard Rock’s big poker weekend:

Bluff Power 20 Released

DanM — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 14:44:50 +0000

Wicked Chops has the intro and the detailed breakdown … and they provided the actual list:

1. PokerStars
2. Full Tilt Poker
3. Mitch Garber
4. Howard Lederer
5. Ty Stewart
6. Doyle Brunson
7. Joe Cada
8. Barney Frank
9. Tony G
10. Daniel Negreanu
11. Phil Ivey
12. John Pappas
13. Mike Sexton
14. Mori Eskandani
15. Brian Balsbaugh
16. Lance Bradley
17. Joe Sebok
18. Barry Shulman
19. Matt Savage
20. Per Hagen

The only name I don’t recognize is Per Hagen. I’ve since learned he’s a major Norwegian agent who runs the company PokerIcons. (Their stable of players include the much heralded Annette15 , the lesser heralded Layne Flack, and underheralded Kathy Liebert, among others.)

Interesting to see PokerStars and Full Tilt there as entities not individuals. With that in mind, some might wonder where the names Isai Scheinberg (head of PokerStars) and Ray Bitar (honcho at Full Tilt) and Chris Feguson.

Some other notable omissions include Jeffrey Pollack — probably the most notable drop off the list — and Jack Effel, who most anticipate will be the on-the-ground face of the 2010 WSOP way moreso than Ty Stewart and Mitch Garber plan to be.

If you’re gonna include groups, though .. you gotta wonder about:

the WSOP
PartyPoker/WPT
the Department of Justice

Annie Duke also, to our surprise,didn’t make the cut — even though she did more to reperesent the game (for better or worse) in 2009, has more to do with poker’s Hollywood connections than just about anyone, and has raised more money for charity than just about anyone in the industry save for maybe her UB cronie Phil Hellmuth. But she has arguably taken a huge role resurrecting one of the largest online poker sites from the abyss … a role that Phil Hellmuth has taken no pulic part in.

Biggest Poker Tournament in Texas History This Weekend? Dallas Cowboys fundraiser offering WSOP main event seat to freeroll winner

DanM — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 13:33:14 +0000

There could be 1,000 players or more gathered in South Dallas this Sunday, just a few blocks from Dallas Police Headquarters btw, competing for a WSOP main event seat in what’s being advertised as the biggest “True Freeroll Texas Hold’em Poker Tournament” in history

The event is technically a charity fundraiser for the much-respected DallasCAN! Academies around a Super Bowl viewing party. Tons of non-poker stuff and prize giveaways going on — and the freeroll poker tournement just happens to be part of it.

It took them like 6 years to figure out how to pull this off in a fully legal way, Big ups to all things Texas poker for this. Though like a McDonald’s Monopoly game, no purchase is necessary, they do offer a VIP upgrade that includes, among many things, extra chips for players in the tournament.

It all goes down at Gilley’s, which has much experience pulling off large poker events, though possibly never one this size before, featuring current Dallas Cowboy stars and tea legends:

Join celebrity athlete hosts and Dallas Can! Academy the 2010 DFW Big Game Watching Party!

Door prizes, spirits, food and legendary athletes all come together for the kids at the Can! Academies.

Hosted by:
Jason Witten,
Randy White,
Drew Pearson,
Stephen McGee and
Jay Novacek.

Sunday – February 7, 2010
Gilley’s – 1135 S Lamar St
Dallas, TX 75215

Fan Fest: Noon – 4PM
Game Watching Party: 3 – 10PM
Doors open to VIP at 3PM

Click here for the official website:DFWBigGame.com

Click below for details on the poker tournament itself — going around my old hometown stomping grounds via email. Should be a pretty fascinating mix of amateur poker types and major players in the Dallas area trying to win their way (via an arguably soft field in a challenging blind structure) into the other Big Game this summer:

Canadian provinces getting into online gambling business

Kevin Mathers — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 01:39:05 +0000

A report from CTV in Canada is reporting that Loto Quebec has received approval from the province’s Cabinet to allow online gambling, including poker. The Quebec site, expected to launch in fall 2010, would be restricted to residents of Quebec, but they would be able to play with players from the BC lottery and the Atlantic Lottery Corporation, which handles the lotteries of the provinces of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador and Prince Edward Island in offering a common platform for the players in the six provinces, similar to what the government of Sweden offers with the Svenka Spel site, which offers legalized online gambling to its residents.

Cake Poker experiences software issue, awards pot to wrong player

Kevin Mathers — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 01:17:40 +0000

In light of what happened over a year ago at Ultimate Bet, where Phil Hellmuth won a pot he wasn’t entitled to, a similar issue popped up on Cake Poker earlier this afternoon. Per usual, a post came to the 2+2 poker forum with all the details, along with a confirmation in the thread from Lee Jones, card room manager of Cake Poker:

Hi folks -
Unfortunately, at the moment, this appears to be real. What’s bizarre is how it happened this one time out of the tens of millions of hands we’ve dealt. Needless to say, our software people have dropped everything else to track this down. I’ll update you as soon as we understand what happened.

A later post from Jones mentioned they would shut down the servers for a brief period of time to see if the issue reappears, more details and information as they become available.

Isildur Playing at Betfair (as Omlphalotus)?

DanM — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 13:40:29 +0000

Though Isildur1 player names have popped up on the microstakes tables at PokerStars, Absolute, and PartyPoker … there’s one new player over at Betfair — Omlphalotus — that looks possibly to be the real Isildur attempting to work on his game / shore up his bankroll.

From our friends at the Betfair blog:

Firstly, the player in question is Swedish – the same nationality as Isildur1 – and is certainly playing the type of nosebleeds stakes expected from the most talked about online player for years.. A railbird told me he was seen recently with just under 400k at the tables waiting for action at some 250/500 and 100/200 NL HU tables.

[...]

Other factors that have stoked this rumour include railbirds noticing Omlphalotus playing a similar style to Isildur1 as well as enjoying long sessions multi-tabling.

More details here from a site with an arguably less-compromised interest in pimping high-stakes games on Betfair.

Also: a $27k Omlphalotus suckout.

NOTE: Omphalotus (without the extra 1/l) is a funky-looking but poisonous mushroom.

Gambling Biz Today Instapoker

DanM — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 13:15:47 +0000

Here’s a quick rundown of what’s going on in one of the hungriest industries out there, and, game of skill or not, the parent biz of our beloved little poker world:

ALABAMA — A small little gambling fight is going down in the land Spencer Bachus represents, over a matter of semantics, technology, and the millions of dollars bingo machines represent. Bingo is legal in ‘bama … but should video bingo be? The fight is a dirty — complete with one agency repeatedly trying to raid a well-monied operation that believes it’s on the right side of the law.

CHINA — After a slow start, gambling revenues in Macau are reaching record levels.

IOWA — The Iowa Racing and Gaming Commission’s computer system got hacked, and they’re blaming China:

Chinese foreign ministry officials strongly disputed the report, issuing a statement calling it “full of bias and ulterior motives.”

Personal information in the breach included names, Social Security numbers, home addresses and dates of birth. Most of the people in the licensing database are Iowa residents, but it also includes residents of Illinois, Minnesota, Nebraska, South Dakota, Wisconsin and other states, Ketterer said.

The list includes workers such as card dealers, slot machine technicians, jockeys, trainers and owners of horses and greyhounds.

LOUISIANA — The New Orleans-to-Shreveport casino-biz is in a definite recession, one not planned for when the state planned on becoming the central-coast alternative to Las Vegas and Atlantic City. They blame ~~Texans for not gambling enough~~ Oklahoma and Mississippi for cutting in on their action.

NEW JERSEY — Big fight going on over laws related to the building of Revel — the east coast’s $2.5 billion version of CityCenter. Should be an interesting development to watch go up (or down) as New Jersey fights to stay competitive with the smaller casino operations set to open shop in Delaware and Pennsylvania, but not Maryland.

MARYLAND — Gov. Martin O’Malley is saying Maryland’s not gonna jump into the gambling expansion fray, despite assertions that his state is gonna lose out as neighboring locales up their casino offerings to include table games + poker.

OHIO — As we know, Lyle Berman has effectively bought himself a piece of all the newly legalized action to come in Cincinatti, Cleveland, and Toledo. But he’s run into some blowback over the location of a new casino in Columbus. The constitutional amendment voters approved in November called for a full-blown casino-resort downtown, but now a referendum on a May ballot will decide if the Penn Gaming development should be moved to a blighted part of the city.

Related: “It’s Lyle’s Ohio Now”

UNITED KINGDOM — Once upon a time, Great Britain was leading the world in all things online gambling. But regulations and tax issues are messing that up — and it’s turning into a battle of Labour vs. the Tories for the UK’s gambling future. Good rundown on some British gambling-law history and where the different parties stand on gambling in the UK … as the rest of Europe catches up.

Full Tilt Million Dollar Cash Game

DanM — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 21:02:38 +0000

So little gets me excited about poker these days … unless, of course, it includes Pot-Limit Omaha or somebody getting sued/arrested. (C’mon HSP, can we just get one episode of PLO? Just to hear Gabe Kaplan talking about it. Promise not to sue you if you use this idea.)

But I stumbled across this last night — a game I read about on the internet back when it was being recorded (I believe in September). It’s just a regular-ole episode (Season 4 Ep. 3). But still much more exciting on video than anything I read about online, and way better than the Poker Stars Million-Dollar Challenge, not to mention Face the Ace:

Starring:

Patrik Antonius
Tom Dwan
Mike Matusow
Chris Ferguson
Gus Hansen
Allen Cunningham
Andrew Feldman
~~Isildur1~~

[via LV Poker Source]

New Poker Game for XBox Live

DanM — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 13:57:55 +0000

It really is amazing, when you think about it, that 10s of millions of people worldwide are competing in games (whether they be sports or shoot-em-ups) on XBox Live, and they’re doing it for no money!

But with Sega opening up a real-money poker room (and casino), you gotta wonder if the likes of Microsoft wouldn’t try to get in on the real-money gaming/gambling action if the UIGEA were suddenly to go away. ** (You also gotta wonder how the guy in the picture even saw the flop. Can you imagine how soft these Xbox games must be?!)

I don’t mean to overstate anything here — because poker is just a game, after all, that we know plenty of people enjoy playing for free.net — but the new Hoyle Texas Hold’em for Xbox Live leaves you wondering if they aren’t preparing themselves for a future where they stand to make more than $10 per download.

And looking at the key features of this new release …

Gamers can play as their Microsoft Avatar.
* Single player games against up to 9 AI players.
* Mixed Multiplayer games with any combination of up to 9 AI and/or human players.
* Fully customizable games let the player decide game type, table minimums, mix of AI vs. human players and much more.
* Ability to reserve seats for private custom games.
* Deep statistic tracking covers over 50 key stats categories found to be the most important to professional poker players.

You gotta wonder if any new players stepping onto the online poker landscape might not have a different outlook on things like bots and datamining than current industry leaders.

** The makers of Hoyle Texas Hold’em have slot machine games, and handheld iPhone versions, too.

ALT HED: Hoyle Sounds a Lot like Doyle

Douchebaggery > Poker

DanM — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 13:09:08 +0000

Here’s some interesting perspective on where poker stands on the pop-culture radar … the season finale of Jersey Shore (on MTV) drew 4.8 million viewers.

That’s more than double than the 2.1 million who tuned in to ESPN’s coverage of the November Nine, and way way way more than tuned in for the finale of 2 Months 2 Million.

Kasparov: Computer Poker > Computer Chess “A game whose complexities can be detailed on a single piece of paper”?

DanM — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 10:39:00 +0000

Legendary chess grandmaster Garry Kasparov is in the New York Review of Books saying (via the NY Times ideasblog) it’s time for computer programmers who make chess-related AI to learn a thing or two from the people (bots?) playing programmable poker.

Consider it a backhanded compliment:

Perhaps chess is the wrong game for the times. Poker is now everywhere, as amateurs dream of winning millions and being on television for playing a card game whose complexities can be detailed on a single piece of paper. But while chess is a 100 percent information game—both players are aware of all the data all the time—and therefore directly susceptible to computing power, poker has hidden cards and variable stakes, creating critical roles for chance, bluffing, and risk management.

Poker on IceTriple-Axeling the Shark?

DanM — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 05:18:03 +0000

I swear we’re not going gay(er than usual) here at Pokerati … but that song we told you about a long time ago, Poker Face by Lady Gaga, has now been turned into a male figure skating routine:

In preparation for the upcoming Vancouver Olympics, US figure skating champ Johnny Weir skated to the song about bluffin’ with muffins for an exhibition performance at US Nationals last week. Glad to see that the word about poker/lesbianism is still spreading.

And to prove we’re not homo just because we’re paying attention to figure skating, here’s Rush Limbaugh ~~tarding~~ rockin’ out to Lady Gaga during the talent portion of the 2010 Miss America contest:

(Oh, wait, Miss America, right …)

The Poker Beat Named Top Poker Podcast for 2009

DanM — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 13:39:46 +0000

The Poker Beat Crew celebrates our first-year victory in Bluff Magazine’s Reader’s Choice Awards. Then we take on the Kathy Liebert / Daniel Negreanu confab in Mississippi where they talked about what it really takes to get a sponsorship deal in this day and age … and we speculate on where Annette Obrestad fits in to all this. Then, what it means if anything that Phil Ivey dethroned Daniel Negreanu as the all-time tournament money leader.

The Poker Beat
1/28/10

Here are the other winners:

Favorite Poker Personality: Mike Sexton
Top TV Poker Show for 2009: High Stakes Poker
Favorite Poker Podcast: The Poker Beat on PokerRoad.com
Top Poker Blog for 2009: WickedChopsPoker.com
Favorite Poker Forum: TwoPlusTwo.com
Best Poker Twitterer: Doyle Brunson
Favorite Las Vegas Poker Room: The Bellagio
Favorite Poker Room Outside of Las Vegas: The Commerce
Favorite Online Poker Site: Full Tilt Poker
Favorite Online Poker Resource: CardRunners.com
Top Story of 2009: Phil Ivey Makes WSOP Main Event Final Table
Best Online Poker Player: Tom “durrr” Dwan
Favorite Poker Villain: Phil Hellmuth
Favorite Player of 2009: Phil Ivey

WPA Out of Business?

DanM — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 12:51:01 +0000

That’s the word we’re hearing … but no confirmation other than that the World Poker Association’s website — wpapoker.com — has disappeared. A good idea with lots of support that never quite found its way before getting entangled in all sorts of internal political struggles that left a true grassroots coalition of players a dream that never quite came to fruition.

Internet Casino Expoing

DanM — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 12:38:22 +0000

Some pokery political types are in London right now for the International Gaming Expo. Figure out for yourself why there might be foreign interest in the likes of the Poker Players Alliance, right as this bill gets ready to go into “mark-up”. Our pal J. Todd is there and he tracks down PPA Exec. Dir. John Pappas to talk about the 2010 Barney Frank bill, what’s the strategy behind it, and what makes it different from previous online poker legislation.

It’s apparently all gonna be twitter-based this go-round — www.tweetforpoker.com.

Good interview helping mak sense of it all:

Poker Meets Ballet

DanM — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 23:30:45 +0000

We love high culture here at Pokerati, but I gotta say, I never thought I’d spend 12 minutes of 2010 listening to/watching ballet. Though my tastes lean more towards watching heavy metal videos with semi-pokery themes on Youtube, I couldn’t help but click this one when I saw a ballet about the difficulties of playing pocket Jacks.

I’m no dance critic, but I think they capture the inherent conundrums with the hand pretty well:

ALT HED: Jacks Are Gay

OK, my apologies for making you watch that. Here’s a better dance about potentially troublesome pocket Kings:

Venetian Deep Stacks Offers Best Overall Player Award

DanM — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 22:08:22 +0000

The Venetian Deep Stacks, with the first ever NAPT tag attached to their main event, is underway. Click here to see the schedule.

One other ~~new~~ not necessarily that new thing this go-round is the Best Overall Player Award. Details from The V:

BEST OVERALL PLAYER AWARD
The four players that accumulate the most player points throughout the entire event will be awarded Best Overall Player cash awards. One-half of one percent will be withheld from the prize pool of each daily tournament and added to the Best Overall Player total prize pool. The standings will be updated daily and posted in The Venetian Poker Room. Super Satellites, 7 pm second chance tournament and the $5,000 NAPT are not part of the overall point’s race.

Delaware Legalizes Table Games / Poker

DanM — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 21:49:49 +0000

Damn, that was quick. a few weeks ago Delaware considered the idea of legalizing table games at its casinos (which includes poker), the Senate voted on it yesterday, and the governor signed it into law. They expect to be playing by summer time.

ALT HED: Politics Is Easy

In other casino industry news:

Harrah’s is offering the state of Iowa $70 million to scrap greyhound racing.

And MGM/Mirage is looking to sell its 50 percent stake in the Borgata in an effort to avoid regulatory trouble over their association with Pansy Ho in China. Apparently they see more value in Macau than Atlantic City.

The Rivers Casino in Pennsylvania got fined for allowing underage players on their slot machines.

And a new study out of Australia found that handling a baby crocodile makes you more likely to chase straights and flushes.

Harrah’s Closer to Buying Planet Hollywood

DanM — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 20:12:39 +0000

In my mind this is all part of some master plan for Harrah’s to some day hold the final table of the WSOP main event smack-dab in the middle of Las Vegas Blvd.:

Harrah’s is moving forward on a plan to acquire Planet Hollywood. Harrah’s took over management of Planet Hollywood’s hotel operations and some of its restaurants and bars in January. Planet Hollywood continues to run its own casino, though Harrah’s has made it clear it wants eventually to own the entire operation. If successful, it would give the company control of all 126 acres on the east side of the Strip between Flamingo Road and Harmon Avenue. Adding PH’s 2,496 hotel rooms to Harrah’s inventory would give it nearly 23,000 rooms on or near the Strip.

Liebert Talks with Negreanu about Sponsorship Deals

DanM — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 19:16:01 +0000

I couldn’t help but find this convo between Kathy Liebert and Daniel Negreanu incredibly interesting. Not just because they kinda-sorta call Annie Duke a “Hooo-ore”, but also because Pokeratizens have long dealt with @donkeybomber’s bitchings about why he doesn’t get the accolades and patch deals offered less accomplished players. With him, my usual answer is, “What have you done for me lately?” But that doesn’t necessarily apply for Kathy Liebert — who is pretty much always winning something. Instead, there’s another game out there, Negreanu suggests, that Liebert chooses not to play.

From the WPT:

NOTE: Kathy Liebert still has a standing offer to play for Team Pokerati. We don’t pay your buy-ins, but we will put a patch on your chest and clap extra loud for you.

Matt Savage Kicks Off Push for Linda Johnson in Hall of Fame

DanM — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 13:47:25 +0000

She theoretically has my vote:

Players (Unsuccessfully) Petition Bellagio to Ditch Five-Diamond Rebuy Nuttiness

DanM — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 13:23:03 +0000

We sometimes forget that a lot of poker players out there — particularly mid-tier pros — rely on big tournaments to help them make their living. So when they see something potentially asinine, they get a little upset. Unlike we analysts, who simply laugh, scoff, and position ourselves to “cover” what could well be a gloriously entertaining collapse.

So it goes for the upcoming Bellagio 5-Diamond event in April — which features a ridiculous 17 rebuy tournaments as its preliminary events. Seriously, someone has lost it here, right? We’ll see if we can’t get a comment from Tourney Director Jack McClelland on what’s the thought process behind this. Because right now, the best we can ~~deduce~~ arbitrarily surmise is that maybe it would be contractually better for him to get fired as opposed to resigning?

Some players were so incensed by this rebuy-crazy sked, supposedly, that they began circulating a petition to change the schedule back to its original set-up — a scheduling revolt supposedly led by Scott Clements. And in it, they proposed an alternative that seemed to make more sense. However, according to 2+2, the Bellagio has said thanks-but-no-thanks to the suggestion — leaving some players already talking about skipping this series, and a few media types excited about the pending collapse.

Fancy Stash Box PokerBecause walking to the kitchen is too much trouble

DanM — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 23:29:11 +0000

Check it out … I suspect someone was playing at a casino and watching how the table-embedded auto-shufflers work when they thought: How awesome would it be if you could press a button, and instead of getting a new deck, you got snacks and cocktails? The new GameBar, from the not-quite-sueably named Playerati, features a hidden, refrigerated snack bar that serves up refreshments at the table. A much better way to get everyone a round of chilled Tuaca shots than waiting for cocktail service. Press the button again for the electronic poker dumbwaiter to retract until the next round.

Theoretically can also be used to serve up weapons and drugs. Load the thing with semi-automatic handguns, and never fear home-game robbery again, knowing that you can arm your table from your game’s hidden (refrigerated) weapons cache at a moment’s notice. Good place to hide the bank, too … not to mention little sandwiches.

Ask yourself why all tables don’t have secret refrigerated compartments at Playerati.com.

[h/t @alcanthang]

Charlie Davies Plays Poker

DanM — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 12:36:55 +0000

That’s about all we know, but who knew, and glad to know … the US Men’s National Team striker has been recovering from injuries suffered in a major car accident. To help his healing, he’s been playing some $5/$10 no-limit hold’em at Bellagio.

It’s starting to occur to us that a lot of poker players out there might have a keen interest to bet some international football gamesin the coming months. Bear with us, and we’ll see if we don’t know anyone who can help that cause.

ALT HED: Phil Ivey, the Ronaldinho of Poker?

Meanwhile, Nick Geber, formerly the multimedia guru at Bluff and a Sirius Radio soccer analyst, is back in public action … just in time for the World Cup — over at The Ref’s a Wanker.

Wide World of Poker

DanM — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 10:49:58 +0000

Who says tournament poker is dying/hurting? It’s hard to go anywhere on the planet these days without finding a major ~~soccer~~ poker tournament. Lots of kids with disposable bankrolls, it seems … and lots of older folks trying to grab it.

At the EPT Deauville, which just wrapped up, all eyes were on Elky and Peter Eastgate to take down the biggest tournament ever in France. But out of 768 runners, they went out in 9th and 8th, respectively, with 21-year-old Brit Jake Cody winning the €847,000 top prize and presumably earning himself a spot on the PokerStars Kids Team.

Elky, meanwhile went pimptastic/not-gay in his homeland, sponsoring Team ElkyLady:

The LAPC is just getting into the thick of its WSOP-duration run. Click here to follow the winners as the events unfold. Of all these events going on worldwide, this one is still probably the biggest.

Across the continent, in Atlantic City. the World Poker Open at the Borgata is rolling along, with their $3,500 main event starting Sunday. They’re still drawing fields in the multi-hundreds, making Borgata the East Coast place to be.

But let’s not forget Mississippi — which used to be the preferred place for poker players to kick off the new year. They only got 208 entries into the $10k WPT main event at Beau Rivage. The final table for the Southern Poker Championship is set:

Name Chips

Hoyt Corkins 2,069,000
Tyler Smith 1,169,000
Jerry Vanstrydonck 1,044,000
Jonathan Kantor 894,000
Jared Jaffee 762,000
James Reed 377,000

Follow the good-ole-boy action here.

Halfway around the world, the Aussie Millions is into Day 2 of their main event. After a festive Australia Day celebration, things got underway for the big-daddy of this Southern Hemisphere main event:

Some other cool tourneys at the Crown Casino still going … It’s very 2 Months $2 Milliony In the Australian heads-up championship, they’re duking it out to see which four will advance to the money matches against Andrew Lichtenberger, Barry Woods, Vanessa Selbst, and Martin Gudvangen.

And action is just getting underway for the Team Event. Here’s how they play team poker down under:

How Does Team Poker Work
The game is No Limit Hold’em. Teams of two, only one member from each team is on the felt at a time.

The partner’s rotate whose turn it is to play the team’s stack each level. The first players in the game get half of the team’s start bank, if they bust in the first level the team mate comes in immediately and plays with the other half of the team’s starting bank.

That person will play the remainder of the first level, and the second, before the original partner resumes play in the third level.

From the second level onwards team will have their full stacks in play, and once it’s gone the team is eliminated.

And our new-good friends at the Heartland Poker Tour are in Quapah, Oklahoma — at the Downstream Casino in the far northeast end of the state, running qualifiers for their next televised main event, which gets underway this weekend. This one is good clean All-American fun for the kids, too, as you only need to be 18 to play.

The Venetian Deep Stacks is also getting ready to start — with Event #1 kicking off Friday, so it’s not like nothing’s going on here in Las Vegas these days. .

DanM — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 08:44:36 +0000

ESPN.com Inside Deal – Season 2 Premiere w/ Joe Cada and John Pappas

Kevin Mathers — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 21:13:02 +0000

The Inside Deal makes its to its second season on ESPN.com with Joe Cada and John Pappas appearing on the show.

Tiffany Michelle compares health care to the WSOP

Kevin Mathers — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 17:55:56 +0000

When the mainstream media attempts to interview poker players, it’s more likely than not there will be a moment where the poker enthusiast cringes. This interview with Fox Business’ Neil Cavuto and Tiffany Michelle is nearly 5 minutes of those moments:

Ivey Passes Negreanu on All-Time Money List

DanM — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 23:26:48 +0000

This could turn out to be quite the Mark McGwire-Sammy Sosa thing, with less Creatine. Daniel Negreanu and Phil Ivey could be going back-and-forth at the very top of the Hendon Mob leaderboard for all-time tournament winnings.

Ivey just re-passed Negs by finishing 2nd in the Aussie Millions $100k event.

Here’s the all-time leaderboard (not yet updated).

[via WCP]

BTW, I’m pretty sure the winner, Dan Shak, was not the same guy who helped send Beth Shak on her renegade red-carpet/no-carpet milf path. If so, he sure has aged since the divorce:

UPDATE: I could be wrong. I was confusing Dan Shak with Bill Gazes, one of the other milfly departeds in poker:

Pokerati | Texas Hold'em and Las Vegas Poker Blog

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