Rabbit Hunt:

Our friends over at the Rabbit Hunt started off this weeks show with some news but the part we are all interested in starts at the 16:00 mark. The guys got mookman5, who is a wealth of information when it comes to the Ultimate Bet scandal, to come on the show and discuss the latest Travis Makar bomb that was dropped the week before. They discuss reasons why Makar would be coming out at this point and speculate on this lawsuit that he made mention to throughout the interview. Take a listen to the show on either the Cardrunners site or download it directly from iTunes to listen to this interview.

DonkDown Radio:

I usually do not repeat shows in back to back weeks, but these guys are at the center of the poker podcast world this week and have came back from last weeks bombshell of a show with a followup show that has a run time of over four hours. Do not be worried though, we will tell you where to skip ahead to so that you can save some time.

• 22:30 – Bryan Micon starts to discuss his meeting with Travis Makar, where he discusses some of the documents that he saw during the meeting.
• 45:10 – Brad Booth joins the show to discuss being cheated by the super-user accounts.
• 1:20:00 – Micon starts to break down the Addressing a Few Rumors on the UB Blog.
• 1:41:00 – Haley Hintze joins the show to discuss who may have actually made the payments to Zoltan “Brainwashdodo” Rozsa.
• 2:35:35 – Travis Makar calls into the show to ask Booth some questions, the first of which is how does he know that Russ Hamilton actually cheated him.
• 2:48:00 – Booth ask Makar what it is that he is truly looking for from bringing this information public.
• 3:19:36 – Dustin Woolf joins the show to discuss how he was cheated.

You can listen to the show at the DonkDown site or subscribe and download it via iTunes.

Finally, keep an eye out for a new episode of The Micros tonight, as it was posted on their Facebook earlier today that a new episode should be up tonight at around 9PM PT or 12AM ET.

After returning from their trip to Jacksonville for the Chad Brown NLHE Championship host Christopher Cosenza & Scott Long come on to discuss a horribly played limit hold’em hand. Once they recap the hand they move on to discuss the pro heavy field that was found in the Chad Brown tournament. If you are looking for a show that contains some poker news along with some strategy talk then this might be a good choice for you. Check out the show on the Ante Up site or download it directly from iTunes.

CardRunners – Pro Chat:

Ever wondered how the top players make the transition to adding a new game into their skill base? This weeks Pro Chat guest is Brian Townsend who discusses his thought process when learning and mastering a brand new game. This podcast is a good one to have in your playlist if only to gain an insight into how some of the top players think. You can either listen to the show on the CardRunners site or download it from iTunes.

Perspectives Weekly:

Although this is not technically a podcast it is a part of my weekly, or whenever a new show gets published, must listen to list. This week host J. Todd catches up with Joe Brennan, iMEGA Chairman, to discuss the current intrastate gaming regulations that various states are proposing. Although this is a short show, that at times has other shenanigans that could be removed and replaced with more content I recommend subscribing via YouTube so that you are able to keep up to date with the episodes. You can watch this weeks show on the APCW site or just watch it below.

Episode 34
Rabbit Hunt is back and its an all-news podcast this week. Spartanfox and Tyresias discuss Russ Hamilton’s blowup in Florida, the $100k Challenge at the Aussie Million, Annie Duke and Jeffrey Pollack’s new poker tour, and more!

As a reminder of where you can go for the best ROI on your gifted holiday monies, here’s a peek at poker in the old days, with CR honcho Taylor Caby showing how the poker skills they teach you at CardRunners played out in a different era:

And if you’re still too cheap/broke to pony up real bucks for education, they still have financial aid available allowing you to earn CardRunners credits through Truly Free Poker Training … TFPT is for current CardRunners members as well as those newbies who have yet to take seriously their resolution to be a winning poker player.

This is the first time that I have actually listened to this show, due to me not being a fan of Podcast that extend past the 2 hour mark. After just listening to this episode it easily moves into the must listen weekly list. This week Jimmy “Gobboboy” Fricke comes in and the discussion goes from poker to Magic the Gathering. Kristy Arnett comes on next to discuss her recent mini-FTOPs win and is put on the spot with this weeks Dirty Half Dozen where things go from R rated to XXX rated. Check out the latest episode at the DonkDown site or subscribe and download it via iTunes.

Final Table Poker Radio:

The guys from St. Louis come back this week to further discuss the Reid bill with John Pappas of the PPA. John sounded a lot less hopeful that the bill will be passed before years end and gives some thoughts on where things go from here. The discussion does move off the Reid bill this week and goes into antes in cash games and the Bellagio heist. If you want to listen to the entire show or catch up on previous show you can either visit The Final Table site or check it out on iTunes.

3 Gentlemen:

Brian Hastings joins the 3 Gentlemen crew this week to discuss the love between him and Isildur. The guys also discuss their sports betting losses over the past week. These guys really like to talk their sports so if that is something that you really would like to listen to then check them out on Cardrunners or subscribe on iTunes.

Seriously, LOLed for real multiple times. And more than 90,000 views after being up for just a couple weeks? Not even Durrrr and Jungleman draw those kinda numbers right out the gate. Might this be the show about poker (online poker specifically) that transcends Norman Chad and 2+2?

CR is a finalist for “favorite poker resource” in the 2010 Bluff Readers Choice Awards, too. Vote here!

More nice work from JimmyLegs, aka John Wray.

Have a look at some of CR’s premier filmmaker’s efforts to enjoy himself while making videos generally of online poker screens.

That, of course, is all the more reason for you to sign up and give the training videos at CardRunners a try.

Sometimes funny, too!

Am I right? Don’t he rabbits make it so much easier?!?And who knew it could be so easy to fold such monsters early in a hand. You can get more from Nikachu’s poker training at CardRunners for free via Truly Free Poker Training, which takes your standard online play to accumulate access to CR’s library of more than 2,000 training videos by the only players who consistently seem to be winning these days.

Matt Jarvis, Fillipo Candio, and John Racener were CR’s table reps — though Racener did switch to Full Tilt-branded gear for heads-up play. No surprise that his original primary patch sponsor would want back in as rules permitted, but it is somewhat unusual (perhaps even unprecedented?) to see ESPN production crews relent to online poker patch-interests over matters of television continuity in a single episode.

The original CardRunners Three

photo: Rob Gracie / Greasie Wheels

But sure enough, with Racener surviving to be the last CardRunner standing, something looked different to TV viewers once they got down to heads-up. Maybe just big money on the table?

Also interesting to note: Full Tilt has produced and/or patched up only one WSOP main event champion — Jerry Yang.

Just a matter of variance?

One difference, however … Racener has the Sam Chauhan rubber band, while Duhamel … is from Canada, eh?

Full Tilt Patches

• Michael Mizrachi
• John Dolan
• Joseph Cheong

Cardrunners Patches

• Matt Jarvis
• John Racener
• Filippo Candio

Poker After Dark Patches(!)

• Soi Nguyen

That last one I did not expect. Poker After Dark is so obviously connected with Full Tilt its nauseating, and as for Cardrunners, well, its a lot more separate than PAD, but, its also close enough. Harrah’s hasn’t done anything yet, but the cards having gone in the air just yet.

Episode 22
SpartanFox is back in the host seat with Tyresias to talk about the first three days of WPT-Festa al Lago, Full Tilt’s mobile Rush Poker app, Deliverance Poker unsuing Full Tilt, and Scott Montgomery’s getting robbed at Bellagio … on this week’s edition of the Rabbit Hunt.

Finally … a new pro at CardRunners I can relate to. The kids at CR are smart and all — and really do offer probably the very best poker training available on the internet — but as I’m sure many of you who’ve signed up for TrulyFreePokerTraining have discovered, they also can be a reminder of the life hard-working poker players over 32 will never live no matter how many MTTs you take down.

Something about John Kim, aka Nicolak, the newest CardRunners instructor, connects with the aggressively balding. Not sure if it’s because he can remember a day when Atari was our internet, or because his scores have come in tournaments that seem a little more realistic to a lower-stakes player. Check out his Hendon Mob stats. He also recently began cohosting Cash Plays on PokerRoad, with Jeremiah Smith, a skill-based show I don’t listen to enough.

I’ve played with Nicolak once, at Detox, and he certainly doesn’t fit the mold of your typical high-stakes online aggro-baller. In fact, he seems way too mentally fit and life-steady to be a truly successful poker pro. But he must be doing something right …

Check out his personal blog, where he writes about balancing the game as a career while supporting a loving family and fantasy football team. He’s been publicly chasing a $1million bankroll goal all year, and is only about a quarter of the way there so far. You can just see his pursuits are a more familiar grind to many, whereas I’m not so sure they are yet for Jungleman.

Read his introduction to CardRunners here. And then get on over to TFPT for some free poker training, as Nicolak will soon have videos showing the keys to his slightly smoother jazz.

Kinda interesting here to watch his heads-up thinking giving lessons while playing ZeeJustin:

Remember, you can geek out for profit by studying with CardRunners poker trainers for free via TrulyFreePokerTraining.com.

That’s probably a stretch, referring to any Razz player as Jungleman … but hey, as of this moment he’s the most skilled and accomplished Razz player I’ve ever met studied on a training video. Or actually, maybe his sidekick, Brandon Shack (aka Oscillator) is the better player. It’s hard to say, but they seem to have rather different philosophies on playing the game that most of us got to know from a single Final Table hand in 2004 — you know, the one where Howard Lederer and TJ Cloutier taught us that Razz could indeed be a painful game?

(That hand, of course — they had the same low until the river — led me to my first and only bracelet, in Razz, in the 2005 $1,500 event on the PlayStation. I should clearly be in the TOC!)

Anyhow, that’s why I liked this video. And though I still have no plans to ever add Razz to any 1/2 NLH/PLO game I’m pimping, getting in the middle of an intense poker convo about the nuances of Razz does leave me feeling a bit better prepared should I ever end up in the game Vegas-local aggro-nit Rex really wants to host – NLH/PLO/Razz:

Albini, btw, is a rather interesting dude — a guy who comes to poker from the music biz. He worked as a producer on albums by Nirvana, Bush, the Pixies, Flogging Molly, the Jesus Lizard (Chris Ferguson, lol?), Helmet, Cheap Trick, and Robert Plant. Apparently he became quite the badass legend amongst producers in the underground-alt scene. Neato.

Reminds me that I’m glad I’ve signed up to get this type of specialist poker training for free from CardRunners with their Truly Free Poker Training.

Quick lesson today — from another 20-year-old kid who seems decidedly anti-baller despite going on a hella baller tear since he began his “career” two-and-a-half years ago. Now a CardRunners instructor after turning pro fresh outta high school, Mickey Petersen, known among avid onliners as Mement_mori, is in the running for CardPlayer’s Online Player of the Year at #13 … and ranks 2nd in the world over at 5+5, with qualifying results spread across 18 pages.

Though CardPlayer’s OPOY counts only $1.05 million earned with 18 final tables and two wins in the past year, Pocket Fives totals his wins at $2.7 million. But the stat I find most mind-blowing with this Gen-Z Magic player (inspired by the likes of David Williams, Eric Froehlich, and Dario Minieri to make the crossover into poker, he tells CardPlayer) … Petersen’s average cash is $1,527 … in 1,778 money finishes! Gotta think Phil Hellmuth couldn’t claim more than double that (live and online) over his entire life even if he included cash games … which says a lot because Hellmuth had already won the main event before Peterson was even born.

With Peter Eastgate retired and Gus Hansen one of the losingest players of the year (even if he takes down a WSOPE bracelet today ), seems like Mement_mori (Latin for “Remember you will die”) has easy claim as the best player in Denmark even though he has yet to cash in a live event. It doesn’t cost online players a thing to get their Cardrunners schooling with financial aid from Truly Free Poker Training. (Sign up here – promise you’ll qualify.)

In this little snippet alone you’ve got advanced progressive poker thinking that can include 3-barrel bluffs, value-bluffs, wet boards, dry boards, and how to counter the “3-bet” you hear so much about these days … not to mention situations for optimal 3-draws. It’s the kinda stuff that frustrates the hell outta old-dog poker traditionalists (I think) and yet for a generational poker tweener like yours truly, JBaller’s explanations all somehow make sense.

If you’re a super-cheap bastard without a bankroll because you haven’t yet learned how to 3-bet in a 4-barrel world JBaller’s got another free vid up at CardRunners … and of course you can get full access to CardRunners’ poker training for free here.

John K’s blog, interesting, well-analyzed poker-tinted life stuff from an accomplished Vegas grinder still trying to get there: [JK's Blog]

Pauly, on a site not about poker, on a documentary about Mad Men culture, and why it’s better to be a creative person than a suit. [Tao of Pauly]

Wonk out with your Donk out … our friends at CardRunners have set up a site monitoring legal developments in poker. [Poker Law Bulletin]

Corny T-shirts, designed by women poker players for women poker players at family picnics and in ladies events. [PMS Pokerwear]

A rap album all about poker — Portland, Maine, represent! (PokerRapper]

Yo, turns out Jeff Madsen was right about 9/11 all along, obv. [The Onion]

Donkdown vs. Coolio

Donkdown Radio :: The always-NSFW working-class Vegas grinders at Donkdown went to war with Coolio last month before moving on to better things (like hunting down @asianspa). This feud started a few weeks back with an on-air story about how the aging rap star, a recent relo to Vegas, showed up at Binion’s during BARGE … allegedly to buy drugs from a player attending Barry Tanenbaum’s keynote address … only to end up with pictures of himself passed out butt-naked (literally) on the Donkdown forum. Coolio even came on their show and sang a few bars of Gangsta’s Paradise before getting hip to Brandon and Micon’s game a few days later, at which point they allege he began threatening to retaliate … right after the next season of Ultimate Big Brother. [Link]

Laak Extra-Whack

The Strip Podcast :: A worthy leftover from the summertime WSOP … Vegas culture blogger and New York Times stringer Steve Freiss’ talking to Phil Laak 114 hours into his record 115-hour poker-endurance run. If you thought Laak ever said weird shit before, listen to the twisted gems Freiss pulls out of him (or stumbles into) tableside during his final hands. [Link]

Hurricane Poker

Ante Up Pokercast :: Chris Cosenza and Scott Long were professional newspaper guys in Tampa who had an “award-winning” podcast long before The Poker Beat existed. Then they quit their day jobs to podcast full-time and turn their show into a magazine … mostly about Florida poker. They now cover more than a dozen states but still hold their spot as the poker-media of Florida — just as the state kicks into its mini-boom. The current episode takes you on a road trip through some other emerging markets in live poker — Pennsylvania and Delaware — shortly before Earl arrived to follow a similar path up America’s East Coast. [Link]

Her Big Blonde Life

My Big Blonde Life :: Low-stakes Vegas grinder Hannah Elisabeth has a pretty unique shtick — intelligent, funny stuff, with 21st-century bawdiness set to a 1930s dial. The show kinda reminds me of Shamus’ Hardboiled Poker Radio Show … if he were a loud, sassy Vegas broad with a sharp tongue and bombastic tatas regularly hitting various $1/$2 tables on The Strip. (Facebook fan page for the liking, or … ) [Link]

Also …

Two relatively new podcasts from our pals at CardRunners :: Poker Law Round Table, commandeered by Lana Maier, Verneer, and Matt Matros, with guest experts joining the cast for a Meet the Press-like confab.

And Rabbit Hunt, which the best I can tell is like a JV version of The Poker Beat, but geekier — hosted by Tyresias and Spartanfox, whom you may have noticed is currently auditioning as “Mark Gahagan” for the job of Pokerati’s Chief Executive Intern. (We’ve got him waiting for a callback.)

Oh, and … the Wicked Chops podcast is back. Didn’t Howard Stern already try that naked chicks on radio thing? Whaddya mean no SFW naked chicks? TV writers making mainstream cop shows with poker episodes midseason? But there’s no online poker conversions in that?!?

Congratulations to Jonathon “Nikachu” Zaczek, winner of the inaugural CardRunners Video Challenge. Along with the $5,000 Grand Prize, Zaczek has also signed as a new video instructor at CardRunners. View the winning video here.

Polls were open for two weeks and voting was very close. Fewer than 30 votes separated the top 3 finishers of our contest.

Final standings of the Video Challenge are:

1st Place – $5,000 – Jonathon “Nikachu” Zaczek

2nd Place – $2,500 – Matthew Janda

3rd Place – $1,000 – Lee Przytula

4th Place – $500 – Bryce Paradis

5th Place – Chip Set ($175 value) – Johan “Roundkick” Ryning

Thank you for all who participated and please keep an eye out for future contests at CardRunners.

As always, if you haven’t done so already, give yourself an edge over someone who likes to play online poker but is lazier than you by signing up for free poker training from CardRunners.