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.

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.

The Poker Beat is back … (attempting) to make sense of all that is going on in the poker world. In this episode, BJ, Huff, and I discuss (at length) PokerStars’ record-setting 149,000 player $1 tourney; the opening of the Aria poker room (and what this may or may not mean over at the Bellagio); the ridiculousness of 17 $1k rebuy tourneys at Bellagio’s upcoming 5-star Classic; everything that is the PCA; PokerStars getting in bed with the Venetian for the new NAPT; and over at Full Tilt, all things Isildur … and, of course, the second red-pro suspension of Brian Townsend.

on PokerRoad

The Poker Beat
Huff, Nemeth, Michalski
1/07/10

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BTW, a little breaking-ish news on this episode — and perhaps an indication of the perceived threat of the NAPT-Venetian, which just so happens to coincide with the LAPC, the usual early-year destination for the LA-LV poker masses … anyone who buys into the $10k WPT-LAPC main event at the Commerce before February 19 now will receive a seat in the televised $200k WPT Invitational. Neato!

@JessWelman has more info over at PokerNewsDaily about the new Aria poker room … and specifically some details about their highest-stakes salon/fishbowl:

Fans of Bobby’s Room at the Bellagio will be happy to hear there is an equivalent in the Aria poker room and it has already been put to use. Cirque du Soleil founder Guy Laliberte, David Benyamine, Tom “durrrr” Dwan, and Patrik Antonius were all spotted playing in the secluded VIP lounge on Thursday evening, the day after the casino opened. While the room is semi-private, ogling railbirds can get a peek at their favorite high-stakes players through the glass front door. According to one of the employees at Aria, Phil Ivey is currently in talks to loan his name to the room in the same fashion that Bobby Baldwin did at the Bellagio, so news of big games being played in “Phil’s Room” could be on the horizon.

Two questions come to mind:

1. Is there enough room for two “Big Games” in this town?
2. Big-name players supporting poker rooms or poker rooms supporting big-name players?
3. What’s MGM/Mirage’s vision for poker across its competing properties?
4. When are they gonna put this highest-stakes shit on 24-hour webcam?

OK, that’s four. But hey, CityCenter is big … and so far, just a few days old, it raises more questions about Las Vegas’ future than it answers.

Here’s this week’s episode, with a report from the WPT Five Diamond Classic, a Mike Sexton interview, and other stuff. Per usual, parts 2 and 3 appear on the next page:

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This week, featuring Phil Hellmuth in studio for an interview, a preview of the WPT Doyle Brunson Classic at the Bellagio, Chino Rheem (the defending champion) discussing a key hand with Justin Young, and other stuff. As usual, parts 2 and 3 appear on the next page:

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I went to Bellagio yesterday for free danish a little poker suit ho-down to learn more about the PartyGaming-World Poker Tour merger/acquisition/absorption … and was thinking how this meeting that included outgoing WPT president Steve Lipscomb and incoming new boss Adam Pliska might be kinda like George W. Bush handing the keys to the White House over to Barack Obama — you know, peaceful transition of power, new regime, new direction … change … then I thought, nah, that comparison might not be fair, and might be stretching things a bit.

But then, upon meeting Pliska a few minutes later …

Hmm … White House, WPT House, WPTE House … Party Politics … workshop … but still, there might be something there.

Click below to read the corporate bio of a guy who stands to be rather influential in shaping poker’s future. But first, here’s another pic (taken at the actual White House) of the new WPT president, who was in town to talk about plans for what he believes will be a major poker stimulus:

Short jokes aside, “the little corporal” of poker is on a Napoleonic quest to dominate the poker world … or at least the WPT.

The WPT Festa al Lago final table gets underway this afternoon/eve (4pm PT). After all the early tourney hubbub about super-late registrations and related blind structures, the final table looks not unlike just about every other WPT final table — with one well-known pro, one kinda-sorta known pro (Vedes), and four other guys.

Freddy Deeb is the chip leader going into today’s action, but not by much. This is Deeb’s fifth WPT final table (out of 70 appearances) and stands to be his third win, which would tie the WPT bracelet record currently held by Gus Hansen. Deeb also has two WSOP bracelets to his name.

The Festa al Lago final table, by chip count, with seats yet to be drawn:

1. Freddy Deeb – 3,840,000
2. Shawn Cunix – 3,670,000
3. Tommy Vedes – 2,990,000
4. Craig Crivello – 2,570,000
5. Jason Lavallee – 2,045,000
6. Jason Burt – 1,375,000

You can follow the play-by-play at WorldPokerTour.com or via PokerListings here.

Big players are (back) in Las Vegas … low Festa al Lago prelim field sizes suggest nothing is as it was a couple years ago, but the higher-stakes action is moving at Bellagio … or at least arriving there.

Seen last night at North valet:

Also seen a little off to the side by our secret valet informant: David Levi exchanging cash through a car window with presumed backer Eli Elezra. (Not sure which direction it was going, though. New guy, lots of cars to park … )

We low-stakes players love the deep-stack events … but as Matt Savage pointed out this summer, and a concern that Andy Bloch has re-raised more recently, big-time pro tourneys don’t necessarily benefit in the same way from these structures.

(The basics of the beef: the blinds move too slow early, and too fast in the middle of the tournament.)

Should be extra interesting to see these issues in action tomorrow for the start of the WPT Festa al Lago $15k main event. Not only are stack sizes in relation to the blinds in play, but also — and I’m pretty sure this part is new — players will be allowed to late-register (with a totally fresh starting stack) well into Day 2!

For a better explanation, WPT Lead Tournament Reporter BJ Nemeth breaks it down a bit more. Says BJ:

There are currently 40 players registered for this WPT event, & there is only one starting day (tomorrow).

Like the December tourney, this one will let you register anytime during the first *eight* levels. [So] they’re letting players register until 5:00 pm on Day TWO.

This tourney begins with 60,000 in chips (4x stack) and blinds at 50-100. That’s 600 big blinds. (Though I still expect someone to bust in the first level or two.)

If you skip Day 1 and show up at the start of Day 2, you’ll have 75 big blinds to work with. If you wait as long as possible and begin play at the start of Level 9, you’ll have 37.5 big blinds in your stack.

Hmm, OK … we’ll have to see if this adds fuel to Andy Bloch’s fire, or satisfies those who pony up the $15k buy-in enough that complaints about overly deep stacks fail to grow any teeth. Word is that tournament-side WSOP officials will be watching closely at how it plays out.

Click below to see Bellagio’s venerable TD Jack McClelland’s blind structure for tomorrow’s big event in its entirety:

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The United States World Poker Tour announced their Season 8 schedule of US tour stops this morning, all airing on Fox Sports Net. This does not include the Barcelona (starting today), Slovakia, Cyprus and Marrakech stops already announced.

Press Release on the next page:

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The creator of Cirque du Soleil took 4th place in the 2007 WPT Championship after winning his entry via super-satellite.

That’s the name of the day, today, June 16, in Las Vegas.

The town’s Partyer-in-Chief, Mayor Oscar Goodman, declared it such in celebration of the uber-bendy, adult-acid-trippy Cirque du Soleil’s 25th anniversary. To honor the day, the name of the Strip has been changed — with plausibly confusing street signs and everything — from Las Vegas Blvd. to Cirque du Soleil Blvd. And at 1 pm today, outside Bellagio, some 300 people will be walking around on stilts as part of the festivities and a six-city worldwide effort to break the Guinness record for stilt-walking.

More than 90 million people have seen Cirque shows, which explains why its creator, Guy Laliberte, is the 261st richest man in the world, with $2.5 billion in net worth. He is also, of course, a poker player … much to the delight of Bobby’s Room and the regulars on High Stakes Poker. Without a doubt, both directly and indirectly, he has been a valuable contributor to the poker economy.

Also this week, Laliberte’s lawyers are protesting the release of a new, unauthorized biography that details some of the ballerest Dionysian fests in Vegas that only the creator of Mystere could imagine — A-lister orgies with the finest food, booze, drugs, music … and hookers flown in from Montreal.

In September, Laliberte, 49, plans to take an arguably well-earned vacation by traveling to space via Russian rocket for 12 days.

Click below to read more about what Guy Laliberte was allegedly doing when he wasn’t playing poker:

(Or click here to see David Benyamine win a $1.2 million pot from Laliberte.)

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Pokerati player Jerry Randack is making a run at the Venetian HORSE final table today.

First off, some props to some Pokerati peeps scoring in the Venetian Deeps Stacks. Today, Team Pokerati player Jerry Randack made it to Day 2 in the $500+50 HORSE. We’re trying to follow him on twitter today, but, you know … some people don’t quite get how that works yet.

Also, big kudos to La Sengphet and Chui Kim from Dallas. La took part in a three-way chop in a $300+30 last week that paid her $24k. Chui followed that up the next day with a 4th place finish for $17k.

The Venetian tournaments are setting record numbers — with field sizes ranging from 500+ players to more than 800 in both $300 and $500 NLHs. Not sure yet on the HORSE event …

Meanwhile, the competing smaller buy-in skill-based tourneys across Las Vegas Blvd. at Caesar’s — the MegaStacks — are seeing very different results. According to one of our spies on the ground, answering the question of how it’s going over there:

Horrible. They canceled their $1k on Sunday because of lack of entrants. A player at Venetian said he went over their first, and they had 9 entries as of 11:30, one of whom was Jerry Yang. I saw Yang sit down in the Venetian tourney as a late entry at about 1:15.

NOTE: Bellagio has also affected the non-WSOP summer tourney landscape, re-upping their nightly tourney buy-in to $1,000.

With the start of the $1K Stimulus tournament came the arrival of a number of familiar faces from the East Coast. Having spent the last couple of years handling the media and tournament coverage for Borgata during their Poker Open tournaments, I’ve come to know a lot of the players out East and it’s always a pleasure to see them make the pilgrimage to the world’s poker Mecca for the WSOP.

With players whose styles are as diversified as the United Nations, the visiting East Coast talent pool features cash game kings, online aces, and tournament prodigies. Among those seeing action over the last two days were Matt Glantz (who finished 18th in the $40k — $96k payday), Dale Pinchot, Alex Neponyaschi, Farhad Sinaei and Tommy “TommyGunz” Dobrilovic.

According to Glantz, a number of AC’s ”Big Game” players are also in town and they met up to play a session of $600/$1,200 Stud, Stud 8/B and $100/$200 No Limit at Bellagio recently. As we get deeper into the WSOP, we can expect to see a sizable contingency of East Coast players make their way West, and I’ll do my best to make sure these guys don’t get overlooked here at Pokerati.

Doyle Brunson is on the grid, that’s for sure. In his latest blog post, which I read via Facebook, he tells us he’s really getting into Twitter. Here’s his address if you want to follow him: twitter.com/texdolly

In doing so, you’ll learn why he’s not playing in the WPT Championship, and that Phil Ivey lost $1 million in Bobby’s Room last night.

And then, back to his blog, he explains to all the Teabaggers out there why he thinks they should STFU!

I headed over to my CPA to get my taxes done and ran into a traffic jam. Hundreds of people were blocking the streets having what they called a “tea party”. I think they were protesting the current financial crisis our nation is going through, but some of the signs were ridiculous. “Impeach Obama”, “What comes after trillions”, “Stop spending our money” and other statements blaming our president. For Pete’s sake, let’s give the guy a chance to straighten this mess up. I got a lot of heat for voting for McCain, but I knew when I cast a late vote, John didn’t have a chance to win. I was just being loyal to the Republican Party. But now that the nation has spoken that they wanted Obama, we should all support him.

Bellagio’s ultra high stakes action is spilling out of Bobby’s room into the main poker room. WPT $25k is bringing out all the high rollers.

The Bellagio is gearing up for the start of the 7th Annual Five Star World Poker Classic running March 31 thru April 25.  The Five Star is highlighted by the $25,000 buy-in WPT Championship beginning Saturday, April 18.

Complete schedule below:

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Just got back from Bellagio — not my usual stomping grounds — and noticed that starting tomorrow, March 10, they’re offering something different there on Tuesdays … a lower cost, above-average-stack 2 pm tourney. For a long time, this was a standard $500 weekday event … $500 for 10k in chips. But now it only costs $300, and you get 6k in chips.

They also have 1/2 NLH there now. Apparently they’ve had it for a few months … News to me, though. I still thought their smallest game was a raucous 2/5 populated with monster stacks. Silly me.

Courtesy of PokerListings

By all accounts, the WPT Doyle Brunson Five Diamond World Poker Classic final table was going to be a good one with a line-up that included Corkins, Sung, Rheem, and Filippi. But most eyes were on Rheem, who was one of the November Nine favorites but had to settle for a seventh place finish at the 2008 WSOP final table.

Rheem was determined going into the WPT final table, even knowing that two of his opponents – Steve Sung and Amnon Filippi – were close friends. But as players dropped out of sight, Rheem was able to go heads-up against Justin Young in what ended up being a five-hour epic heads-up match. The chip lead was exchanged numerous times, but it may have been sheer determination and fan support that led Rheem to finally capture the title at 2am. He won the World Poker Tour title and the $1,538,730 that came with it.

Here are the final results:

6th – Hoyt Corkins $216,175
5th – Amnon Filippi $288,235
4th – Steve Sung $396,206
3rd – Evan McNiff $540,440
2nd – Justin Young $936,760
1st – Chino Rheem $1,538,730

I would point you to the official WPT live updates, but it has been unavailable on the internets all morning. So, for updates as they happened throughout the final table, check out Martin’s reporting at PokerListings.

Meanwhile, our buddy Tom, the high-stakes pro who coulda made more money at Bellagio as a volunteer blogger than he did as a poker player during his 5-diamond extended weekend, is apparently all the rage in Bulgaria. Pic #1 of 100 … pretty impressive:

(Thanks, Shamus, for the link.)

Dutch is having a good December. Not only did he win one of the preliminary events at the Five Diamond World Poker Classic at the Bellagio – the $2K NLHE event – but he found out this morning that he won his case against PokerHost.com.

The battle with PokerHost ensued in October when he received notice from an attorney that there was a UDRP complaint against him for holding the PokerHost.net domain. Dutch then turned the PokerHost.net site into one about the case and stood his ground on the issue, since he had tried to negotiate with them for quite some time before the complaint to no avail. But this morning, he received notice that the World Intellectual Property Organization decided the case for him, as he documented on his blog:

The Pokerhost.net WIPO decision came today. Not only did I win, but the WIPO panelist found in favor of my reverse domain name hijacking claim, which hardly ever happens. Unfortunately, the UDRP doesn’t actually give any punitive relief to respondents who win on this claim, but it’s nice to get anyway. It definitely put me in a better mood and was a nice thing to wake up to.

In other Dutch news, as it relates to his purchase of Steve Hall’s Pokerfolio domain, the misunderstanding has been settled. According to the text message from Dutch today:

“Just FYI, I did end up giving Steve Hall back Pokerfolio.com for free… Wish him the best.”

Ahhh, the holiday season!

Sure, the Bellagio 5-Diamond is a pretty big deal to the pros — it’s one of those tourneys that harkens back to pre-boom days of the WSOP, both in competition and relative size of the buy-ins. Every table is star-studded, and the no-names who make it to the Fontana Room have fought hard to get there, knowing mathematically maybe one or two of them stands a chance of doing something truly special.

You wouldn’t know anything about it, though, from the 82 bloggers who were in town for the fourth or fifth (anyone know?) annual Unnamed Winter Blogger Holiday Gathering — this year honoring the netty nuptials of Pablo and Gracie (ceremony officiated by Rev. AlCantHang). While all that mattered to the professional world was going on at Bellagio, what attracted reps from the other 99.9 percent of poker players out there was shaking down and out at the MGM and Venetian … where friends, colleagues, and acquaintances gathered for boozing, boasting, bitching, and busting chops, all surrounding a big-but-affordable challenging tourney that would reward on-the-felt bad-assness with real American dollars while everyone else still enjoyed ever-festive poker-bloggery times.

A full moon was closer to Earth than usual, naturally enhancing the funk. Dr. Pauly busted out the portable satellite Tao of Pokerati studio, and before you knew it, our recorded commentary degenerated into lunar analysis of semi-annual drunkfests, slumped-over gambling addicts, donk-ass keno play, and, of course, hookers in a down economy on the late-night Vegas prowl. Recorded live from an extended weekend’s worth of bars, sportsbooks, bedrooms, bathrooms, and casino floors … with guest appearances by Derek, Human Head, Bobby Bracelet, Mean Gene, and PKPNF, before and after his unsuccessful relationship with Betty Underground.

Aural delights below:

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The two chip leaders on Day 2 in the World Poker Tour’s Doyle Brunson 5-Diamond World Poker Classic at Bellagio (the WPT DB5DWPC?) are Clonie and Kido Pham. I’d say congrats, but I have argued vehemently with many an ESPNer that being chip-leader early in a big tournament is more often a kiss of death than a path to victory. Hopefully I’m wrong — I’d love to see Clonie and/or Kido go extra-deep. Also looking forward to seeing a big-table pic of her without the Full Tilt uniform.

Donkey Bomber, btw, went into Day 2 with 8,000 chips (they started with 45k) … and is still hanging on, now with 20k.

200 players left. Average stack is about 110k. BTW, field size this year was 497, compared to 664 last year. But by no means does there seem to be a shortage of any periphery play at Bellagio.

Click here to follow the tournament action.

UPDATE: Tom is out.

Also, a WPT video update, where we learn it snowed in Las Vegas today (or at least in Summerlin), Daniel Negreanu doesn’t like to tip valet parkers, and apparently now he drinks again (didn’t he go straight-edge at some point?):

The new episode is a pretty good one … Joe, Gavin, Shronk (via robot voice), a hot girl, and the other guy Ali Nejad haven’t even gotten to the Annie Duke interview that I clicked over to listen to yet … but they’ve kept me thoroughly infotained talking about the Bellagio 5-Diamond blind structure, November Nine TV appearances, and a few poker hands.

Good stuff. Goes well with FoxNews in the background: PokerRoad Radio, with Annie Duke

UPDATE: OK, I listened … and though I’m not sure I cared to know so many details about Annie Duke-Joe Reitman sex, she does answer some questions revealing why she didn’t participate with 60 Minutes (her claims of their falsehoods to lure her into the story seem totally believable to me — media people do say these things — though I do wonder could they have gone with a more regulation-oriented storyline had she or Paul Legget gone on camera), why she is indeed so confident about AP/UB/Cereus’ commitment to running an honorable business, why she remains a loyal face for the brand (it’s not the money), and how she wants to see Russ Hamilton burn in non-Atheist hell.

She also dances around questions about her rumored appearance on the upcoming season of The Apprentice in a way that semi-confirms she has intimate knowledge of a show beginning in March with a finale in May.

A lot of poker people are in town for a lot of reasons — the big blogger tourney at Venetian, and the $15k pro event at Bellagio, to name two. Apparently Donkey Bomber is hitting the meth again, as the self-proclaimed bankroll management and mixed games expert calls in after a long-ass high-stakes session binge and seems happy to report how he turned $800 into a $48,000 loss.

Unstuck? (feat. Tom Schneider)
1:21

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No word on whom he was playing against, but either way … Well done, Tom. I’m sure Julie is proud of your amazing comeback. Keep at it.

Early reports from the $15k main event of WPT Festa al Lago (at Bellagio) … Michael Phelps showed up to play … he’s out. And our favorite Donkey Bomber also just got bombed … he got it all-in with Aces only to have his opponent flop quad Queens.

Yikes, when I said “Feel My Pain,” I didn’t mean it so literally.

I’m following the so-so coverage not-so-closely via CardPlayer.com. A lotta pros … looks to be smaller than last year. Big-name pros playing mostly today (Hellmuth, Brunson, Negreanu, G.Smith, et al), probably because they’ve got the big premier of their poker musical (The Real Deal) at the Venetian tomorrow night.

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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Marcel Luske and Michelle Lau formally announced that their organization is up, running, and ready to introduce “The International Poker Rules” in the near future. According to the press release, the goal of FIDPA and the set of rules is to organize and promote tournament poker as a sport and “unite the industry on a global level.”

Hmmm. Where have I heard that before? Oh, never mind…

The IP Rules have been created in cooperation with the Tournament Directors Association, Bob Ciaffone’s Robert’s Rules of Poker, and Jack McClelland and Doug Dalton of Bellagio, among others. There are a total of 80 rules, procedures, and policies that will be announced at a later date.

Note to self: This sounds an awful lot like the World Poker Association (WPA)!

Click the “more” button to see the entire press release:

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Michael Binger said she was due … and sure enough, Clonie Gowen got it good — not at the WSOP, but across I-15 at the Bellagio Cup IV, in a $5,000 NLH event that drew 235 runners.

Kinda like a high-stakes second-chance tourney for early main-event busters and pros callously accused of being in a drug-addled downward spiral. Her payday for winning: $437,775

Awesome. Congrats, Clonie! I knew you had it in you, regardless of your status with Full Tilt … Seriously, we should be like best friends again and hang out all the time.

The Daily Show had its Stephen Colbert and Happy Days gave us Mork from Ork. At Tao of Pokerati we’ve got Benjo, the sometimes Angry, sometimes -orny Frenchman. While a little drinky at the Gold Coast, the top blogger in all of Europoker stepped up to the mike for the betterment of American and non-American listeners alike. In these episode add-ons, Benjo reports on what you learn from watching poker on a colleague’s computer; Bellagio tournament chips being used to pay (stupid) hookers; and the under-the-table pressures on a grown-up French schoolboy working the WSOP …

Episode 17.1: Barely Legal

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Episode 17.2: Tournament Hooker Chips

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Episode 17.3: Le Masturbe

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It is common knowledge that poker players in Las Vegas flock to Bellagio for cash game action, primarily on the higher end of the buy-in scale. While there seem to be a plethora of cash games going on at the Rio around the clock during the WSOP, anyone looking for games higher than $10-$20 usually heads over to Bellagio. Since I am such a high-stakes player can always use a change of scenery from the Rio, I took a trip on over on Monday night around 10pm to see what was happenin’.

Craziness.

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Boston Celtics vs. LA Lakers … apparently people are pretty excited about this upcoming NBA finals. And while quite a few poker players have been known to place some sports bets, they’re gonna have to leave the Rio to do so this year…

Harrah’s Chairman and CEO Gary Loveman owns 2.4 percent of the Celtics, and that may or may not be a conflict of interest. The directive reportedly comes straight from David Stern the NBA, and thus no Harrah’s properties will be taking bets on the NBA finals. Talk about a hit for Harrah’s, the Rio, Caesar’s Palace, Paris, Bally’s, Imperial Palace, Flamingo, Bills, Harrah’s Lake Tahoe, Harrah’s Reno, Harrah’s Laughlin … perhaps a mini-boon for Bellagio.

The Palms and Silverton also won’t be taking bets on the NBA finals, as their owners also have ownership stakes in other NBA teams. I find this pretty darn interesting … because if the NBA can remove betting on the finals at these casinos, why wouldn’t they want to maintain the same level of “integrity” throughout the regular season?

Oy ve. This is complicated stuff! For the first time, the WSOP has added the $10,000 World Championship Mixed Event, which boasts of 8 different games. Not an event for the casual player. Must be why there is hardly an anonymous face in the crowd.

The tournament was 1/2 hour late to start as the dealers, tournament staff, and players tried to get settled. With the event drawing such an elite group of notable players, they wanted to have everything right. “We have the best dealers in this event,” said TD Jack Effel, after admitting this is the first time trying this many games in one event.

And not 5 minutes into the game there was a tiff between Eli Elezra and the dealer regarding the way something happened in 2-7 Triple Draw. If I had any idea what the rules of the game were, I’d let you know about the disagreement, but… All I can tell you is that the two people in front of the button will sit out on 2-7 games. (Hope that makes sense to someone!) In the end, tournament staff came over and cleared up the misunderstanding, which there was bound to be when Effel noted, “These are not the same rules that you play at Bellagio.”

Anyway, eight hands of each game will be played before switching. The games are: 2-7 triple draw lowball, limit hold’em, Omaha hi-o split 8-or-better, seven card razz, seven card stud, seven card stud hi-lo split 8-or-better, no-limit hold’em, pot-limit Omaha.

Whew! I’m tired. And confused.

P.S. – Had my first Gus Hansen and Sammy Farha sightings of the 2008 WSOP.

Just flipping channels while changing Pokerati’s spark plugs … and Lucky You is on HBO. I’m Tivo’ing it. It’s only fair that if we’re gonna continue to look at this movie as the Greek Tragedy that poker has become, I should actually watch it.

5 minutes in — Dude’s in a pawn shop muttering … losing interest.
7 minutes in — Fontana Room, Sammy Farha saying “raisey daisey” … don’t care … ooh, wait, it’s the fat guy from Borat? At-the-table hand analysis and Andy Bloch’s hat … hmmm.
11 minutes in — Horatio Sanz as Robert Goldfarb?

18 minutes in — OK, tuning out for now. Got better things to do. Online poker joke, ha. Flush got there, damn.

Tommy-boy started the day as one of the shortest stacks in the WPT World Championship at Bellagio, and with 55 players left, he managed to squeak out an extra $13k for himself by finishing 50th. Nice job, Tom, way to represent.

Click here to follow the action as the remaining players fight for position in competing for the bigger money and real paydays.

UPDATE: I could be totally wrong … it’s possible Tom was the artificial bubble boy going out in 51st place. Will let you know …

They’re into the money in the $25k WPT World Championship Event. Every remaining player is guaranteed $39,570 (a $14.5k payday) while they compete for the $3.4 million first prize.

As of this moment, there are 85 players left — Anna Wroblewski just went out … she was looking strong all tourney long. Our best friend Tom Schneider is still alive with a slightly above average stack. (Notice he’s our best friend as opposed to just a friend or Pokerati contributor now that he’s secured the money. If he can make the final table, he’ll be our super-best-very-best friend … and I’m sure that’s what’s motivating him.)

Other names of note (to me) that are still live include Carlos Mortenson (defending champ), Rhynie Campbell (met him last night, he seems funny and cool), Mark Seif (who’s been keeping people posted about the condition of his wife’s cervix), Isabelle Mercier and Kristy Gazes (attractive women), Jared Hamby (Go Texas!), Tommy Le (one of my MySpace friends with a really cool name), Steve and Danny Wong (Go 2007 Fantasy Team!), and TJ Cloutier (Go same Dallas flight!)

Cards go in the air for the 2008 World Poker Tour World Championship at noon pacific … 188 out of 545 remain … Our boy (when he’s winning) Tom laid low with about 20k in chips pretty much all day yesterday, only to finish super-strong. (I liked his push with 3-4 suited, which “got there” on the turn.)

Click below to see the official chip counts going into Day 3, and click here to follow the action as the remaining players fight for the money — top 100 get paid.

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Today’s paper, seen here in a box at DFW airport, seems a bit ironic.

DFW AIRPORT–Argh. After getting my arse kicked by various turns and rivers in the Batface home game last night, I am now waiting in an airport terminal for a heavily delayed plane. One of the other passengers got a good read on the situation before we boarded — “It’s never a good sign when you see your pilot hanging out the window cleaning his own windshield. Don’t they have people for that?” Sure enough, we got on the plane, waited for an hour, then were asked to deplane. (I’ve never before been told to get off a plane once getting on it.) US Airways pilots and managers and ticket agents are outside looking at the plane trying to figure out what’s wrong with it. Not a good sign.

I booked this early flight so I could make it to the Jennifer Harman charity event. Note to J-Ha: sorry, don’t think I’m gonna make it, but you should probably still have the event. T.J. Cloutier is also on this flight — headed to V-town for the $25k WPT World Championship at Bellagio — as are Dallas/WSOP dealer Beth and her poker-playing boyfriend Brice, who are taking a Vegas vacation together for the first time … and there’s one other passenger dude I don’t know but I recognize from a table somewhere, either in Las Vegas or Dallas.

Have a feeling today is going to be really fun … for traveling poker players and non-players alike.

This just in on the Pokerati newswire:

[Johnny chans girlfriend arrested at bellagio for holding out aces]

Hmm. Wow. We’ll give it semi-confirmed rumor status for now …

That’s the not-so-quiet buzz around some of the bigger tables at Bellagio … that Chan’s known ladyfriend Anna was (reportedly) taken out of the room in handcuffs “recently” for (allegedly) bringing some of her own aces into the $100/$200 limit game. More TK, I am sure.

For the last few years, the biggest game in Vegas has been at Bobby’s Room — a glass enclosed high-high stakes area at Bellagio, complete with fine oil paintings of its most regular players … Doyle Brunson, Jennifer Harman, Phil Ivey, Sammy Farha et al. But the action there has dwindled, and according to Doyle’s Blog (scroll down to the Jan. 7 entry) has moved, at least temporarily:

We moved the ‘Big Game’ down to the Venetian Cardroom this weekend. Not that we had a problem with the Bellagio, but just to have a change in scenery. The Venetian is a beautiful place and they treat us very well so they may get some of our business. I really liked it because I had a nice win there.

The Five Diamond World Poker Classic brings the best in the poker world to the Bellagio each year, and 2007 was no exception. The preliminary events began in late November, and here are some of the better-known winners:

• Event #3 – $2,500 NLHE – 247 entrants, Dutch Boyd won $237,685
• Event #6 – $1,500 NLHE – 508 entrants, Chris McCormack won $239,590
• Event #7 – $2,000 NLHE – 362 entrants, Roy Winston won $230,365
• Event #8 – $2,500 NLHE – 319 entrants, David Pham won $279,845
• Event #12 – $5,000 NLHE – 307 entrants, JC Tran won $523,075

It should be noted that Tom Schneider came in fourth place in Event #3, and Courtney Harrington of PocketFives and PokerRoad made two final tables. Sully Erna, lead singer of Godsmack, came in second to JC in Event #12. Other notables who made final tables included Theo Tran, Kevin Saul, Jared Hamby, Nick Binger, Amnon Filippi, Dan Alspach, Marco Johnson, Shannon Shorr, and David Williams.

David Pham also sealed his status as the CardPlayer Player of the Year.

Next up was the $15,000 WPT Doyle Brunson Five Diamond World Poker Classic main event. The total number of players was 664, and the prize pool was $9,661,200 – the biggest prize pool ever outside of the WSOP main event and WPT World Championship.

Hopes were high that several big names would make the final table, but many of them just couldn’t get there. Phil Ivey was the Day 1 and Day 2 chip leader but imploded on Day 3 to be eliminated. Gus Hansen was doing well for days until he busted in 22nd place, and Daniel Negreanu took a chip lead into Day 5 but was sent home in 14th. Other bustouts included Erick Lindgren in 10th, Jimmy Tran in 8th, and Raymond Davis in 7th.

Five Diamond Final Table – Courtesy of the World Poker Tour

The best known player at the final table was David “Devilfish” Ulliott, Ryan Daut is a young player who won a WPT title in January, and Jordan Rich and Eugene Katchalov are young pro players. Ken Rosen is a virtual unknown, and Ted Kearly is a 75-year old former college football coach.

In the fastest WPT final table on record, Eugene Katchalov took his final table chip lead to victory for a $2,482,605 payday. All of the action was summed up here.

Funeral services are set for Friday, December 7th at 2pm. This will take place at Palm Mortuary – 6701 North Jones Boulevard in Las Vegas. (Thanks to Michael Craig for the heads-up.)

There may also be a public memorial service of some sort held at the Bellagio next week, but no plans are confirmed at this time.

The Associated Press reports that not only was Chip home when he passed away, but his 18-year old son found him. Reese is survived by that son, Casey, as well as his 16-year old daughter Taylor, and a step-daughter (believed to be in her twenties) Brittney.

For some thoughts from Barry Greenstein, visit his audio blog on PokerRoad.com. He reflects a bit on his memories of Chip, some of Chip’s great qualities, and the wake-up call that his death should be for many people in the poker world to take better care of themselves.

UPDATE: In lieu of flowers or other gifts of condolence, the Reese family has asked that friends contribute to the Alzheimer’s Association in Chip’s name.

Itsoverjonny’s comment on the post below has me thinkin’bout nicknames for chips used in cash-game poker and as casino currency. I know they exist, and know most a few three of them, but not all. Perhaps some of you who have played more regularly with the different denominations can help me fill in the blanks? Thanks in advance for your assistance.

$1 -
$2 –
$3 -
$5 – Redbirds
$10 -
$20 –
$25 – Greenbirds
$100 – Blackbirds
$500 –
$1,000 -
$5,000 – Flags
$10,000 -
$25,000 – Cranberries / Pancakes
$100,000 –

LAS VEGAS–By the way, one of the things I suspect they’ll rethink for next year … they got rid of the $1,000 bracelet events being held after the main event started. While a good idea not to cheapen the bracelets, it really has sent all the action to Bellagio … and has turned the Amazon Room into 3/4 of a ghost town at what is essentially the most exciting poker being played yet.

LAS VEGAS–Just learned from listening to Chris’ podcast that Bellagio has instituted a new rule — 20 minute penalty for anyone who uses a cell phone (or Blackberry, or Treo, or Blackjack, or iPhone) at the table … whether they are in the hand or not.

BELLAGIO, LAS VEGAS–While feeling good about turning $600 into $2,300 playing 5-10 NLH last night, I caught the back of Phil Hellmuth’s head as he stepped into Bobby’s Room (the high stakes poker room). I was hoping to see him again so I could tell him he was my number one draft pick. However, my thoughts ran back to…One buy-in down, 53 more to go. That’s right, tomorrow starts the race for the WSOP gauntlet, the cash games in Vegas are already packed, and across the highway the Rio is getting ready (hopefully) for a big turn-out.

Tomorrow starts with the inaugural $5k mixed NL/Limit Holdem event at noon, followed by the $500 Casino Employees Event at 5 pm.

Saturday is the first $1500 NLH and people are already in line registering.

I played in the $25,000 Bellagio main event last week, qualifying via my second $2,500 satellite. What an event! Nearly all of the best players in the world played. Starting the third day, I had 227,000 chips, which was about 70,000 above average. I got busted out of the 639 player field with 150 players remaining. Upon busting, I asked the cocktail waitress for a glass of Drano, easy on the ice.

Here is where I went wrong: Before I started the day, I should have established that day’s goal. What should the goal have been? Oh, I don’t know…how about make the money idiot! You paid $5,000 to get in and 100th place paid $46,000. If I make the money, I can then change my strategy. I played too many hands and was trying to get a little too bluffy, kinda like when Dan gets a little drinky. Needless to say, the moral of the story is, decide what you want to have happen and work toward that goal.

My good friend Mike Wattel came in 6th in the event, cashing in about $300,000. What a joke! Here’s my beef:

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… is up. Have a listen (and if you’re a blogger who would like your own custom BTT jukebox like the one you see at the top-right of Pokerati and at Hard Boiled Poker, let us know and we may be able to hook you up.)

Can’t really tell you what Tom, Karridy, and I cover in this episode … mostly because I have yet to listen to it in full. However, I can assure you that you will get to hear:

• Devilfish expressing desires to bang people’s daughters while declaring us “his boys”
• Chau Giang working on his English-only
• Sean Sheikhan talking about “nappy ass players”

Beyond the Table – 4/18/07
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As always … awesome, right?

UPDATE: Oh yeah, right … in this episode we talk about Tom’s performance at the WPT 5-Star World Classic, Anna Wroblewski, Karridy’s early midlife crisis, crapping your pants while at the table, and calculating pot odds when it comes to giving a blow job. Hardcore intellect and aural pleasures to go.

The Fontana Room Race for the gold continues as the field of 639 players has now been reduced to 27 lucky little devils skilled men.

David Levi ended the first day without increasing his starting stack while Scott Fischman was in worse condition ending with only 17k in chips. Yet, Scott and David stepped up to bat on day two and hit several home runs placing them currently in 8th and 9th.

But they better not slack tomorrow because Phil Hellmuth, Carlos Mortensen, Paul Wasicka, Roland De Wolfe & Paul Lee are apparently wanting to win this little tournament.

Today’s notable eliminations were Lyle Berman (WPT Chairman of the board), Justin Bonomo and Dan’s crush.

As mentioned below, Tom is doing rather well in the WPT Championship after Day 2. (This could be the tournament my fantasy team needs! Don’t let me down, guys, I got $20 riding on your results!)

Here is some plausibly interesting raw audio of my two Beyond the Table cohorts recapping Day 1 — with intense, hardcore hand histories to boot:

Tom Schneider/Karridy Askenasy – 4/22/07
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Highlights below:

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