Woke up this morning talking a little Full Tilt with The Poker Beat crew … and looking back through some old archives …

I remember hearing about this “new site” from Clonie way back before they even existed (and the UIGEA was about as unimaginable as Barack Obama). Was looking to see if I happened to write anything that woulda implied a belief in ownership even before Pokerati’s traffic was borne from Google searches for “Clonie Gowan naked”.

I did not find anything resembling contractual evidence, but I did come across this site’s first-ever post … which seems a bit ironic in hindsight. For those wanting to join me in this self-indulgent quest for perspective:

APRIL 21, 2004
ON TILT?
It seems like everyone and their grandmother is opening up an online poker room these days. And why not? Each imaginary table that pops open in the cyberether forms a little vortex of constant pecuniary intake (no matter what’s happening in the game itself). But is the market at a saturation point?

Probably so, but that didn’t stop Full Tilt Poker from going online this week. Despite the competition, I suspect this site — a venture put together by a bunch of top pros (Phil Ivey, Chris Ferguson, Howard Lederer, Phil Gordon, et al.) — will fare well. Haven’t played it yet, but at first glance they’ve upped the graphical interface significantly. And the ability to give your avatar facial expressions … very cool. Could change the online game when you think about it.

Posted by Dan Michalski on April 21, 2004 09:20 AM

Click the links, which are archived.org … bias or not, honestly surprising that the judge wouldn’t give these sorts of old records a look, let alone her attorneys a chance to depose the other defendants about them.

LOL: Is the market at a saturation point?

ALT HED: Kicking myself for not using an affiliate code

Speaking of Oklahoma .. Clonie officially lost her lawsuit against Full Tilt last week. Though attorneys tell me it’s very strange that this case couldn’t get at least to the discovery phase — I mean it was all out there very publicly … she clearly had some relationship with Full Tilt, so in most cases being able to dispute the contractual nature of said relationship would be perfunctory.

Anyhow, bummer for Clonie and selfish-bummer for those of us who were curious to hear what the likes of Chris Ferguson, Ray Bitar, and Howard Lederer had to say about the early formation of Full Tilt under oath in the heat of deposition.

But here’s the judge’s three-strikes and you’re out ruling, with some explanation of why she will not get her day in Federal court. Seems more a matter of legal strategy than the merits of the case to me … but maybe some others with more-than-none law-schooling will weigh in on that.

Her attorneys, Howard & Howard, btw, will have another go in Nevada state court moving forward representing Jason Newitt and that other guy, Hilton Warmback in their similar contract disputes with Full Tilt.

Mostly unrelated, but hey, there’s a video … the day before this ruling came down, Newitt won the PLO/8 tourney and about $17k at the LAPC. Not bad for a guy who may or may not own a piece of Full Tilt:

The Full Tilt legal battles are heating up … and this time they are on the offensive, suing Cycalona Gowen in federal court.

Full Tilt (specifically Tiltware, LLC, out of California) is not seeking money from her beyond court costs and attorney fees. But they do want a clear declaration that she does not have the 1 percent ownership interest she alleges.

Click here to read Tiltware’s compaint against Gowen, filed on Friday.

So why would they be doing this? Well according to the Nevada lawyers I’ve spoken to, that’s hard to say …

Essentially, they’re looking for the court to rule against her without having a trial. She goes to court again on February 1, for the third and last time, with the court deciding if her Third-Amended Complaint has merits to proceed. But if Full Tilt wins, and the judge says, yeah, sorry, we can’t waste a jury’s time with this … then maybe they don’t win enough?

More…

I gotta say, @Phil_Hellmuth really is turning into one of the best poker reporters out there … I read his blog, follow his tweets and generally occasionally love his vids; you can tell he is actively working on his 21st-century media game.

Most recently, at his own TASER Foundation charity tourney in Phoenix — the biggest high-society charity poker shindig of the year in Arizona — he was there to report on Brandon Cantu’s being shot with a taser gun … Cantu was paying off a prop-bet he lost at last year’s event with Clonie Gowen.

Damn, ouch … but cool … didn’t realize you could bounce back so quickly from those things.

BTW, an extra-funny … @DonkeyBomber was there as one of the “star poker players” who help make the event extra fun for the Big Charity donors who play … but even on his home turf, our favorite business-exec-turned-author-turned-2007-WSOP-POY-turned-struggling-poker-pro is no Layne Flack or even Roy Winston:

More…

The Full Tilt Poker legal team is busy. On the heels of the presumably still-unresolved Clonie Gowen $40 million lawsuit, another case was filed in the Nevada court system on September 11, 2009. This is the only information available thus far:

Jason Newitt
v.
Tiltware; Full Tilt Poker; Pocket Kings Ltd.; Pocket Kings Consulting Ltd.; Raymond Bitar; Howard Lederer
9/11/2009

Contract action. Plaintiff says he was unfairly fired, and that his distribution payments were unfairly ceased. Defendants then took control of his ownership.

Newitt was the former Tilt employee responsible for inadvertently forwarding Howard Lederer e-mail about Jimmy “Gobboboy” Fricke (the “freak and very weird dude”) — an “oops” that revealed a little something about Lederer and Bitar’s positions and powers within the Full Tilt money machine. Whether or not this had anything to do with Newitt’s dismissal and the subsequent lawsuit remains to be seen until we get our sneaky little hands on the court documents.

photo: @cgowen

Considering that Texas poker players helped build the third-largest friggin’ casino in the world (literally under a tent in Thackerville, OK) we can take some pleasure in knowing a bunch of Texans kicked butt in The River tourney this weekend and will be sending back home some riches made in El Norte.

WinStar reportedly threw in a $580,000 overlay to make their $3 million guarantee. Not sure about the buy-in details — I think they upped it to $2k? — nor overall results. The best “coverage” has come via 2+2 here, mixed in with some Facebook, Twitter, and direct txt msg buzz. (Thanks KevMath and Harris, as always, for the info!)

1,210 players overall.

The winner: Bobby Hempkins, aka “Shooter” in the Dallas poker boom days. (And now your source for residential real estate in the North Texas area.) $710k win. Nice!

5th place finisher Brian @ZBTHorton provided regular updates from the final table, such as:

8 left, these people suck (4pm)

Apparently tax issues may or may not have complicated chop discussions — though sounds to me that the Chickasaw nation is under similar corporate-legal restrictions as the WSOP.

7th place reportedly went to a guy named Lance. Paid $95k. Sounds like a nice prize distribution (at the final table, at least). Not too flat, not too steep.

Blind structure was supposedly relatively fast, however.

Pros who made the trek for this event included: Clonie Gowen, TJ Cloutier, Michael Mizrachi, Eric Mizrachi, Kido Pham, Terrence Chan, Michael Binger, Men the Master, Allen Kessler, and Dmitri Nobles. The real @EskimoClark was also supposedly milling around.

pic: @EWeE420

Been gathering a few gems over the past week…

Lawsuits are so easy and fun. Well, ask Clonie and she might deliver a different response, but that hasn’t stopped the lawyers in other cases from filing some very poker-centric lawsuits.

Gambling Times Inc. has filed suit against Scott Lazar, executive producer of Deal, the almost-embarrassing poker movie that flopped (pun inevitable) in movie theaters in 2008. According to super reputable tabloid TMZ, Gambling Times Inc. was promised prominent product placement in the film, and for the lack of it is suing Lazar for $1 million, about ten times more than what the movie garnered in revenue.

More…

2+2 is speculating that “Clonie Gowan’s suit against Full Tilt dismissed” [sic].

PokerNewsDaily followed suit:

With the majority of the case being dismissed with prejudice and only Tiltware, Bitar and Lederer eligible for any further action, Gowen’s lawsuit appears to be dead at this time.

And then PokerNews reported “Gowen Lawsuit Against Full Tilt Dismissed”.

These hedlines are for the most part inaccurate, and at a minimum misleading. Clonie’s lawsuit is still alive … the courts have simply stripped out some irrelevant defendants while considering motions for expedited discovery, and her team has 30 days to amend their complaints around the still relevant defendants, i.e. Tiltware, Howard Lederer, and Ray Bitar. These recent rulings may be considered setbacks, but it’s not like she has to start from scratch to “refile”.

Read the court documents for yourself:

Gowen Motions Denied
Gowen Hearing Vacated

Now granted, these are a little confusing, so Pokerati has made half-hearted attempts to contact attorneys on both sides of the case, and have received no response from either. We’ve also contacted insiders on both sides of the case, whom literally say the exact same thing: “It’s definitely not over”. To be sure, on both sides, no one’s celebrating nor stomping about wildly screaming “Appeal!” bemoaning these most recent decisions.

In the meantime, to help us understand, Pokerati has brought in an independent, poker-savvy legal expert from a neighboring state to help translate:

More…

No details yet … just an unsubstantiated report. More info sure to emerge:

http://www.aintluck.com/clonie-gowens-claims-dismissed-against-full-tilt/

UPDATE: And that “more info” is that someone misread a legal document and pressed “publish”. LOL! If I had a dime for every time I did that I’d have at least a nickel! … April 27th still the next relevant legal date.

Crap, one of my final four picks is already out. Erik Seidel. I so almost went the other way with that one, too.

Otherwise, all is well in my bracket. Got the 4 3 other matches right — Farha d. Cunningham, Eastgate d. Bloch, Lindgren d. Lederer, Elezra d. Chan. Alas, we will not be seeing Gowen vs. Lederer deep, which Ali Nejad reminded us yesterday woulda been great for poker, because it probably woulda been followed on Court TV.

CORRECTION: I guess I changed my pick on Chan vs. Elezra / didn’t go with my gut. Of course Eli was gonna win.

If you wanna follow a little more play-by-play, take your pick:
CardPlayer.com
PokerNews.com
PokerListings.com

Flipchip for really good photos.
Audio stuff TK at PokerRoad.

And it’s still not too late to get in on the bracket-picking action … though points scored on matches already started won’t count in the end. We’re doing this with our forum friends at PokerRoad. Show who’s boss.

UPDATE: Yang defeats Gowen! Boo Jerry Yang! Makin’ us rankers eat it!

If you haven’t voted (a few times) already, be sure to check out our current sidebar poll … Currently we’re wondering how your poker play has changed in Q1 2009 from, say, Q1 or Q2 2008, back when 11-figure numbers seemed really big.

I actually asked this question in mid-December — how has the current economic climate affected the poker economy? — to all my bestest poker pro friends and any others whose email addy I pilfered off someone else’s semi-spam. Because you know, there aren’t too many professions where the “players” carry around the equivalent of a car in their pockets and keep a house in their Bellagio box.

I got only one response (I see how it goes Tom and Clonie) … from Daniel Negreanu (whom frankly I hardly know):

I don’t think it’s affected the poker community all that much yet, outside of the tournament circuit which is seeing a decrease in numbers that I think it directly tied to the economy.

I’m not sure I fully agree with him, but I can say that these don’t sound like words coming from a guy who’s going broke, as PokerNews has insinuated.

Anyhow, click a sidebar bubble and vote. I’m curious to know how off-table circumstances have affected your action on the felt.

… is coming up. Be sure to tune in live here. Not exactly sure what’s on the agenda today — I just go wherever Scott Huff tells me to — but I’m pretty sure I’ll be talking about Clonie’s lawsuit, UIGEA developments, and other assorted poker hubbub.

We’ll have the podcast version up here, too, as soon as it’s recorded.

Show starts in 5 minutes.

UPDATE: Podcast ready …

The Poker Beat
5 Feb 2009

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

via PokerRoad

This is really interesting stuff. As I alluded to in an earlier comment with respect to this case, the rubber will meet the road for FT when they have to testify with respect to the operation of the various companies and the contractual arrangements with other members of the FT Team. Looks like that will happen with the court-ordered depos of Bitar and, most interestingly, Ferguson. As I have said before, I cannot imagine that anyone with FT wants to talk about their dealings with Full Tilt Poker in such a forum, under oath, as it would seem to be tantamount to providing a knife to the butcher wanting to kill the goose who’s laying golden eggs. Plus, now there may be e-mails out there Clonie references that, at least, reference her deal? Wow, again, no way FT wants to go there.

Clonie Gowen filed an amended complaint in her lawsuit against Full Tilt Poker last month, according to Pokerlistings. The complaint added two additional defendants (Pocket Kings Consulting and Tiltproof) as well as adding seven causes of action in a response to the defendant’s motion to dismiss.

Those interested in reading the case can read the amended complaint and her motion for expedited discovery over at Scribd.com:

Amended Complaint
Motion for Expedited Discovery

Attorneys for Tiltware, the parent company of Full Tilt Poker, filed a motion yesterday to dismiss Clonie Gowen’s case against them for $40 million as an alleged 1% owner of the company. For those interested in reading the motion, it can be read here.

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?):

A few people have asked me WTF I’m talking about saying that November 2008 will go down as an historical month where everything changes/d. To spell it out, you have:

The November Nine — historic simply as it pertains to the conclusion of a single not-so-little tournament that seems to be the barometer for all things related to the poker industry.

Midnight Rule-push for UIGEA Regs — we’re just one of 100 single-issues affected by the Bush administration’s attempts to party it up like frat boys and trash the joint before checking out … but regardless, it means we have a whole bunch of additional clean-up to do.

60 Minutes/Washington Post Exposés — whether it’s determined to be fair-and-balanced good-for-poker coverage or a damning hatchet job hacked with a double-edged blade of lies … the Thanksgiving weekend stories represent the official exposure of the online poker biz, hairy warts and all, to the non-poker world.

Clonie Gowen vs. Full Tilt Lawsuit — a loyal soldier turns on her poker-biz commanders, with attempts to air grievances in American court threatening to bring the multibillion-dollar operations of a super-private jurisdictionally challenged business into the public domain. While FTP reps actively petition the Feds to let them open these books but only if they can pay extra taxes, the former Full Tilt covergirl arms herself with a taser gun and takes aiming at a Red Pro.

Formation of Cereus — the two most scandal-ridden online poker sites officially join forces to create a recovering cheater supersite, flooding their own tables with “refund” money to keep the action moving.

Plug Pulled on PokerBlog.com — hardly the biggest deal in the bigger picture … but PartyPoker’s apologetic canning of Dr. Tim represents a new fiscal reality facing even the most legitimate of online poker sites and their workers.

Introduction of HB 222 in Texas — Take 2 on trying to bring the game that had everything to do with the creation of an $18 billion industry (subject to all the hubbub above) back home where it belongs.

All this, of course, is going on in the midst of a major lawsuit related to internet authority in Kentucky — where unprecedented government action has shaken up/down the online poker industry, forcing noticeable shifts in business ops and resource allocation. Clearly:

An interesting prop bet reportedly went down this weekend … good, clean, generally non-lethal fun between Clonie Gowen and Brandon Cantu.

I wasn’t there nor have I spoken to either of the principals, but reliable sources say it was a simple lasts-longest bet (at a Phil Hellmuth charity event for the Taser Foundation for Fallen Officers, at Fort McDowell Casino in Arizona) with the winner getting to tase the loser.

Um, OK.

As you probably know, these high-society fundraiser tourneys don’t exactly have the best blind structures. But they do have great gift bags, which at this event apparently came with gift certificates for taser guns. At one point Cantu supposedly had Clonie out-chipped like 5:1 … and she was getting really nervous. But he took a few bad beats and soon was out. So now Clonie gets to zap Cantu with 50,000 volts at the time and place of her choosing.

UPDATE: The authenticity of this report has been confirmed.

ALSO: Tase-Mania … and award-winning story on the greatness of high-voltage, police-force shocking.

It seems that David Benyamine is no longer a “red” pro at Full Tilt. According to several sites, Benyamine is still playing on FTP but no longer a paid pro. And in return, they’re possibly working on a deal with Tom Dwan. According to not-so-reliable reports the forums, FTP is clearing the way for Dwan, better known online as “drrrr,” by asking someone else who just happens to be of the same name to relinquish his online name.

Nothing wrong with wanting Dwan on the list of pros, but dropping Benyamine doesn’t exactly make sense, especially when glancing at the looooooong list of pros and finding more than a handful of unrecognizable names. For instance, take this guy.

Recognize him? Evidently, he’s Greg Mascio, plays mixed games, and has a sponsorship deal with FTP.

Just not sure who’s running this Full Tilt show. First, they call Clonie’s bluff and get slapped with a $40 million lawsuit, and no matter their thoughts on winning-this-thing odds, is any publicity really good publicity? Second, their list of pros just doesn’t make sense. Sure, their Team Full Tilt kids are top-of-the-line in most respects, but it seems strange that an in-charge someone wouldn’t look at that list of a kazillion Full Tilt Pros and scratch a few to trim it up all nice and perty. But I’m not making millions and running a successful online poker site, so what do I know? Would love to see something positive come from FTP in the coming months.

For those of you who love parsing legal documents, and perhaps want a little one-sided insight into the inner workings of Full Tilt, here is the official 20-page lawsuit filed by Clonie Gowen against her former partners? employer? friends? online poker site cronies:

Gowen v Tiltware.pdf

I’m still thinking settlement … but maybe not, as Howard Lederer has responded publicly (odd that any attorney would encourage this) saying, basically, bring it on, let’s open it up … we’re all-in, ho-bitch!

UPDATE: The below from “HowardLederer” has turned out to be a hoax post. My apologies for briefly forgetting that blogs came about in part to filter through all the crap on forums, so you don’t have to waste your time. But the Negreanu stuff after the jump is really him.

From 2+2:

Originally Posted by HowardLederer
I have personally given Clonie over 600K in cash over the last three years alone. I wonder if she has paid he taxes on this money? I never once offered her 1 percent of anything. For her to say otherwise is disingenuous and is really sad.

Team Full Tilt has decided to take this case all the way. There will be no settlement. This will just give us more publicity, and when online poker is no longer public enemy number one in a few months, it will make our brand that much stronger.

Clonie, I am really disapponted in you. What you really need is a good tax attorney for the 600K that you never reported.

Regards,
Howard

OK, hmm. Intriguing. I have a feeling that Howard “never once offered her 1 percent” might hold up as technically true. But I’m not so sure how the “tattletale strategy” will work in the legal system. But can’t wait to find out! The OJ Trial of Poker: Juicy!

And even though he has nothing to do with Full Tilt, Daniel Negreanu offers up his $.02 on Full Contact Poker — letting people know essentially that Clonie should be ostracized from the poker community. He also claims there’s “no freaking way” that she is a 1 percent owner, making him the first non-Team Full Tilt member to make an assertion with absolute certainty on the mysterious ownership nature of the biggest competitor to the site he works for.

More…

Chewed up, spit out? Clonie Gowen is challenging the most fearsome of Full Tilt avatars in Clark County Court.

We all knew something fishy was going on with Clonie and Full Tilt, right? And we’ve always wondered how exactly Full Tilt operates — seriously it’s kinda a mystery, even to people who work for them — and now, with Clonie Gowen suing four different companies connected to the game so many play with the pros, we should find out quite a bit of interesting info.

As far as I know, this is the first time any online poker biz that operates in the grayish world of processing money from American players (really really light gray, but still … ) will have to show its stuff publicly. Even Ultimate Bet/Absolute, with all the audits and investigations hasn’t really had to show anything it doesn’t want to to anyone outside its own semi-corporate family.

Um, hole-card cameras in the courtroom?

Official court docs here.

Gowen v. Tiltware LLC, et al.,
Plaintiff: Cycalona Gowen
Defendant: Full Tilt Poker, Tiltware LLC, Pocket Kings Ltd., Kolyma Corporation, A.V.V., Raymond J. Bitar, Howard Lederer, Andrew Bloch, Phillip Ivey, Christopher Ferguson, John Juanda, Phillip Gordon, Erick Lindgren, Erik Seidel, Jennifer Harman-Traniello, Michael Matusow, Allen Cunningham, Gus Hansen and Patrick Antonious

Case Number: 2:2008cv01581
Filed: November 14, 2008

Court: Nevada District Court
Office: Las Vegas Office [ Court Info ]
County: Clark
Presiding Judge: Judge Robert C. Jones
Referring Judge: Magistrate Judge Robert J. Johnston

Nature of Suit: Contract – Other Contract
Cause: 28:1332 Diversity-Other Contract
Jurisdiction: Diversity
Jury Demanded By: Plaintiff

They’re talking about it on 2+2, and the summary of her allegations below comes from the Hendon Mob:

More…

For those out there looking for their Clonie Gowen fix, you can head down to the Gold Strike Casino in Robinsonville, MS and catch the final table of the $5,000 Main Event of their World Poker Open. Clonie goes into the final table as the chip leader and the $183,224 first prize available. Here’s how the final table will be seated:

Seat 1: Blake Huff 66,500
Seat 2: Jim Peanick 124,500
Seat 3: BJ McBrayer 159,000
Seat 4: Michael ‘Carwash’ Schneider 242,500
Seat 5: Barry Hatcher 122,000
Seat 6: Justin Allen 141,000
Seat 7: Brandon Jarrett 173,000
Seat 8: Kirby Brewer 251,500
Seat 9: Clonie Gowen 331,000

I’m sure Dan will gladly clean this up and add like a red headline and make it look like a table, as he’s the professional blogger. Pokerpages will be providing live updates sporadically on its website, starting at 2pm CT Tuesday.

Results of the final table are on the next page:
More…

Semi-related conversation from last week:

Dan: I knew the Poker Bowl was in trouble when they hired me to be TV commentator without even having talked to me on the phone.
Clonie: I knew the Poker Bowl was in trouble, too, when I heard they hired you.

Interesting charity event going on in Dallas this weekend … a $1,500+ buy-in with $1k going to the prize pool. The rest going toward medical expenses for internationally renowned Russian/American/Dallas artist Vladimir Gorsky, who is suffering from brain cancer. TJ Cloutier writes a little about him and the event here. Some of the other Vlad-loving pros supposed to attend include: Amir Vahedi, Tom McEvoy, Young Phan, Kido Pham, Jennicide, and Warren Karp.

The event takes place at the Westin City Center. Glad to see it. If they successfully pull off this event, it will be good to see charity poker getting back to what it could/should/used to be in Texas — though it does seem a little strange for a charity event to be going on in Dallas that doesn’t have anything to do with Pokerati or Clonie.

Fortunately, I will be able to follow the action on HoldEmRadio.com.

One other really interesting thing about this event: the support it’s getting from the Choctaw Nation. They’re running single-table satellites to this event 24/7 between now and then. And as a show of appreciation for helping out their friend Vlad, the pros slated to be in Dallas on Saturday will be in Oklahoma for Choctaw’s Friday night tourney, reportedly playing with bounties on their heads.

Click below to see the flyer and get more details about signing up:

More…

Best Poker Song Ever?!?

Interestingly enough, Clonie is playing in South Africa this week — in the Sun City Million, the biggest tourney festival in Africa, a US$1.5 million guaranteed — without any of her Full Tilt cronies. Hmmm …

(To be fair, the event is hosted by Shannon Elizabeth, who is one of her very top MySpace friends, but still … I feel a blip in the Clonie sector of the Poker Force.)

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.

Today’s attendance at day 1c of the Main Event was a vast improvement over the past two days, as 1,928 laid their money down to participate in the Main Event. Rumors are circulating that Sunday will have a complete sellout of 2,700 which would take them near the 7,000 figure that seemed improbable on Thursday. Among those whose dream is already over, such notables as: Huck Seed, Larry Flynt, Sean Buchanan, Gavin Griffin, Mimi Tran, Justin Bonomo, David Chiu, Bart Hanson, and Marco Traniello.

The leader at the dinner break appears to be Michael Martin, who is just under 100,000 in chips. More familiar names near the top: Jeff Madsen, Chris Moneymaker, Mike Matusow, TJ Cloutier, and the lovely and talented Liz Lieu, Clonie Gowen, Evelyn Ng, Kara Scott, and Isabelle Mercier. More updates can be found at the WSOP update site here.

The returning horde of about 1,500 will return shortly to play two more two-hour levels, with those survivors returning to play on Wednesday, July 9.

More updates during the evening…

What’s happening tonight at the WSOP:

Jen and Dan are taking care of the HORSE event, so I don’t need to duplicate their work, but they’re about to return from dinner break 5-handed.

The $2,000 NL Holdem event was won by Brazilian Alexandre Gomes, the first for that country, moving them up big time in the World Standings. Gomes takes home just over $770,000 while Marco Johnson won’t be feeling super with his 2nd place earnings of just over $491,000.

The $1,500 NL Holdem event is down to 40 as they play down to their final table. Among the notables remaining: JC Tran, Men Nguyen, Andy Black, Joe Pelton, Hevad Kahn. Follow their action on the World Series of Poker website here.

Other tournament action, following the leap:
More…

What’s happening at the WSOP tonight:

The $1,500 Pot Limit Omaha w/rebuys event just concluded with a winner, and it’s Layne Flack who put on a dominant performance at the final table, taking an overwhelming chip lead that no one would be able to catch him. Layne wins his 6th WSOP bracelet, putting him in some elite company as one of 10 poker players who have won at least 6 bracelets (Hellmuth, Chan, D. Brunson, Seidel, Cloutier, Moss, Baxter, Heimowitz, M. Nguyen are the others). Daniel Makowsky finished in 2nd, and Ted Forrest will have to try yet again to get his 6th bracelet, as he finished in 5th. Dario Alioto finished in 4th for those following the Italian contingency.

Other action from today after the jump:

More…

What’s happening tonight at the WSOP:

The only final table for today, the $2,500 NL Holdem 6-handed event, is down to the final 3.  Seth Fischer is the current chip leader, Team PokerStars Pro Dario Minieri is second, and Justin Filtz is in 3rd. Dario once had over half the chips 3-handed, but he’s doubled up both players and run into some bad luck to fall into 2nd. Their action can be followed at the World Series of Poker’s live updates here.

Other action after the thing that says More…

More…

Tonight’s $10k Mixed Event World Championship drew 192 players, and after some confusion regarding the structure, things appears to be going along nicely.

In other tournament action, all but the the $2k NL tournament (which just returned) are on their respective dinner breaks.

The $1,500 PL Holdem final table has Jacobo Hernandez and David Singer are heads-up and almost even in chips. The $5,000 Mixed Holdem event is on their break as well with five left at their final table as Justin Bonomo, Andrew Robl, Erick Lindgren, Chino Rheem and Roland de Wolfe remain.

The $1,500 Omaha 8 tournament just broke the money bubble, then went right to their dinner break. The $2,000 NL tournament has about 400 left, with 153 getting paid. The $1k NL tournament is down to 29, returning shortly to get to their final table with Negreanu, Gowen, and Juanda among the remaining.

I’ll be back at it tomorrow, like it or not…

photo: Steve Hall / Pokerfolio
Clonie Gowen, playing in the 2008 Pot Limit Hold’em World Championship.

Per an announcement and big whoop-tee-do on June 1st, Patrik Antonius joined Full Tilt Poker as one of their A-list pros. It was an obvious move and one that was probably a long time in the works.

According to the press release, he joins the following list of Full Tilt Pros:

Chris Ferguson, Phil Ivey, Howard Lederer, Jennifer Harman, Erick Lindgren, Erik Seidel, Andy Bloch, Phil Gordon, John Juanda, Mike Matusow, Gus Hansen, and Allen Cunningham

The thing is…there is one glaring omission in the official Full Tilt statement – Clonie Gowen. The website still lists her name and picture in the Full Tilt Pro section, though Patrik hasn’t been included there yet. Why the slight? If it is a hint, Clonie certainly doesn’t know anything about it. If it is a mistake and FTP just mistakenly left her out of the loop, that’s not good either.

See the full press release here:

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The final table of the $5k main event at the WSOP-New Orleans goes down tomorrow at 2 pm central. Semi-live video coverage at worldseriesofpoker.com.

Click below for all the official details after the jump. I’ll be paying attention to Marc Fratter, from Clonie’s hometown of Murphy, TX. (Kinda near where my folks live, too.) He seems to have his game on these days, and if so seems well-seated with a medium stack:

Fratter

SEAT 7: Marc Fratter
HOMETOWN: Murphy, TX
CHIP COUNT: 311,000
Marc Fratter is a 36-year-old attorney from Murphy, TX. He has a three-year-old daughter named Kate who loves to play poker with her dad. Fratter was the co-champion of the 2007 Caesars Indiana Poker Championship. He won $117,000 in that tournament. He also cashed in the 2007 Red River Roundup. This is his third time to cash in a major tournament.

Miles

Go Mark! I mean Marc!

He’s going up against Timothy “TK” Miles, who won a $1,000 WSOP-Circuit event in New Orleans this past winter and has the chip lead.

Drogba

The WSOP-Circuit final table, however, is in a tough time slot tomorrow — going up against the UEFA Cup finals, being broadcast live from Moscow. (Bluff Media video honcho and former Fox Football Fone-in host Nick Geber is presumably ocnflicted.) Honestly, the soccer game will probably get most of my attention even though I’m not sure whom to root for — Chelsea vs. Manchester Utd. — since I usually just root against those two teams. (Go Liverpool/Wigan/Blackburn Rovers!)

Rooney

Chelsea, of course, is are the bad-ass team from the yuppity side of London, loaded with great players, most notably Drogba from the Ivory Coast. Man-U are the working-class faves from Britain’s Second City, with bratty high-paid hotshot Wayne Rooney … who likes to gamble (badly) and used to play Texas Hold’em in a rough-and-tumble Man-U home game.

Again, click below for details on the poker event going up against what is essentially, worldwide, the Super Bowl:
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Ed. Note: This post woulda been much more relevant and timely had it gone up yesterday, when it was written.

Despite slightly lower numbers, the WPT World Championship will still likely end up being one of the five biggest tournaments in the Milky Way this year … and Day 2 has just gotten underway. Pokerati would love to beyotch about not having access to the makeshift WPT TV studio at Bellagio to do our brand of non-chip coverage, but we’ve been invited to a WPT Party tonight with free food and booze, so we’re obviously all good with the status quo.

421 of 545 starting players remain … A few names that I’ll be paying attention to for various reasons, and where they stand in relation to their starting 50k chipstack include Carlos Mortenson (defending champ – 172,075), Tom Schneider (25,400), Clonie Gowen (93,975), Gregg Merkow (40,075), Nenad Medic (12,425), Rodeen Talebi (18,000), Ray Henson (89,550), and David Sklansky (41,050).

Click below to see how the whole pro-studded field shaped up as of noon-Pacific today, and click here to follow the action throughout Day 2.

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We discussed a poorly received tourney idea on Beyond the Table a year ago — the concept being a “men’s minority event.” I loved the idea because we’ve all played dudes-only before and women have ladies tourneys … but while all women players have been the only representative of their gender at a table before, that’s a dynamic that guys simply don’t get to experience.

Psychology would be fun, results would be interesting …Logistics was the tough part — how to limit the field to 10 (or 15) percent men and still attract the necessary entries. But one thing we never considered was a simple invitational sit-n-go.

So much to my delight, the new episode of Poker after Dark just came on and lo and behold the players this week are Gus Hansen, Vanessa Rousso, J.J. Liu, Clonie Gowen, Beth Shak, and Erica Schoenberg. Very cool — well cast with Gus, who knows they know he knows they know he can be a tad horny influenced by his respect for the ladies.

“We should make all the guys play this format one time,” Clonie just said. Barack Obama presumably agrees, as he just sat down for a very similar 6-handed sit-n-go on The View:

(L to R) Vanessa Rousso, Clonie Gowen, Gus Hansen, J.J. Liu, Beth Shak, and Erica Schoenberg appear this week on Poker after Dark.

Pokerati file photo: The HB-3186 war room, led by Lavigne in Austin (standing, top left) with Texas poker politicos, player representatives, and out-of-state allies preparing for a capitol offensive.

In addition to those state-by-state member numbers, the PPA put out a press release this week announcing its new state directors. Good to see poker players getting more involved in grassroots activity as the politi-dudes looking out for us in Washington DC continue to develop into a real Beltway force. However, there’s one state where the director curiously isn’t named — and that’s Texas.

Um, Mike …? Has there been a change to your resume that you might wanna blog about that you might wanna blog about?

UPDATE: Lavigne in Austin en-route-to-Wichita-Falls confirms via Blackberry that he is indeed still a state director for the PPA, and showed off his political skills by dodging my follow-up question about “why the ‘TBA’ then?” by reassuring me that the poker political machinery in Texas, having been built and tested now, will be well-oiled for 2009 with real Texas Hold’em in Texas in 2010 so long as I don’t write anything to muck it up.

Battle of the Podcast Stars.

The 64-player field competing for $500,000 (on a $20k buy-in) this weekend has been set (up) — with pairings drawn last night at a kick-off party at Pure.

Click here to see the full bracket and make your picks. (This bracket-maker is kinda new to me, so not sure whether or not you can see my predictions here.)

Some of the more interesting pairings to me:

Tom Schneider vs. Gavin Smith
Clonie Gowen vs. Jennifer Tilly
Sammy Farha vs. Doyle Brunson
Hooman Nikzad vs. Greg Raymer
Chris Ferguson vs. John Juanda
Chris Moneymaker vs. Jerry Yang
Jean Robert Bellande vs. Sam Grizzle

The NBC Heads-up Championship is proving to be one of the more highly anticipated big poker events of the year … LV Sun columnist Jeff Haney has his own odds — Tommy Boy comes in at a middle-of-the-road 50:1. Other Pokerati faves Clonie Gowen and Hooman Nikzad are lumped together in a 4:1 field bet.

Though I’m not sure how official these are, some odds on who’s gonna win the NBC National Heads-Up Poker Championship (Feb. 29) are out … and Tom Schneider is listed in the middle of the pack at 45:1 — the same as David Williams, Jennifer Harman, Huck seed, and TJ Cloutier. Duuude. Not bad. Clonie, after all, is 80:1, which is almost as good as Jerry Yang’s 60:1.

Click below to see the full list … and while doing that, think how funny it is that this sorta poker ink comes from marijuana.com. (And Tom says I do nothing for him …)

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Poker and Pete Sessions now go hand-in-hand as the six-term Republican signs on to champion poker-player interests.

Congress is bucking up for a new legislative season — in a presidential election year, no less — and our representatives have to make calculated principled educated decisions about which bills to stand behind. On Monday, Rep. Pete Sessions (R-TX) signed on to cosponsor HR 2610, aka the Wexler bill or Skill Game Protection Act, which would effectively remove poker (along with bridge, chess, backgammon, and mah jongg) from the aegis of the UIGEA.

Sessions is the second Republican to align himself with this bill, and he promises to lend more than just his signature to the poker cause. “If we decide to get in this thing, it’s not because we’re [just] gonna use my name,” Sessions explained, “we’re doin’ it to get it done. Otherwise it’s like a warm bucket of spit — it’s no good.”

Congressman Pete Sessions (far left, pictorially, not politically) listens to PPA executive director John Pappas, addiction specialist Dr. John Talmadge, DC lobbyist Chris Giblin, and poker pro Clonie Gowen as they try to explain the bipartisan concept of fish.

This was a real opportunity to inform an influential congressman in greater detail about the horrors impact of the UIGEA and plea for emergency humanitarian aid a federal bailout sensible government intervention. It also provided a privileged glimpse into how our system really works and a chance to see the new leadership of the PPA in action … But yeesh, 9 am is a little early, no?!?

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LAS VEGAS–I just woke up from a dream about the World Series, the Rio, Clonie, and the guys from Wicked Chops (who were waiting in line but had no potato chips). Took another big hit at the table yesterday but am still up for the whole 2+ month trip … but just barely. Today/yesterday I met another “fixer” — who can hook me up with all the drugs, whores, limos, five-star personal chefs, and/or young boys one could ever want. (But no younger than 18! “This is Vegas, dude, but that would just be wrong.”) A good chunk of his client list supposedly includes aging rock stars and elected officials. I also suffered my first slot machine losses of the century — $20. It’s clearly time for me to go.

(Actually I am running a little late — should face some tough California traffic in the morning, as I am taking the long way home.)

Big ups and mad props to the gentlemen of Rounder Club West for putting up with me for my post-WSOP encore. Thanks Don and Doc. But I’m gonna get outta here before you see what I did in the corner.

UPDATE: Got a voicemail from Doctor Steve while I was napping, and he (finally) cashed in a Sahara tourney for $600. Congrats, Doc! Knew you could do it! Next step is winning it all. Our work here is finished just beginning …

LAS VEGAS–OK, this will probably be my last update of the night, because I have TWO parties I HAVE to get to. One is with my old-good-good-ole friends at PartyPoker, and the other is a bikini party at a pool. So I am sure you understand.

Clonie Gowen is out. Not happy.

Chris Como is holding together nicely, with about 33,000. UPDATE: Just took a hit and looks a little bummed. But now with about 24,000, he still has almost as many chips as Tom Schneider.

Randy Brown, whom you all know as “The Big Randy” is in the top 10 or 20 in chips for the day, with at least 115,000.

Um, Go Batfaces/Watch out Arizona Posse!?! Sorry folks … yes, I’ve got pictures, but they are going to have to wait. Enjoy what’s in the Pokerati Flickr files in the meantime.

LAS VEGAS–Wolfman Eskimo Clark has collapsed three times thus far in the WSOP. Not sure what the doctor’s are recommending but it looks like the odds of Eskimo taking their advice are the same as Al Sharpton showing up to support the disbarment of Michael B. Nifong. Nonetheless, he’s fighting, going deep and proving to be as tough on the inside as the outside.

Phil Hellmuth has made another final table. Albeit, it’s a ten-handed final table rather than the normal nine-handed. How will this work Lance?
Thor Hansen ,who has been cashing like a mofo, introduced me to Norway Poker Pro Tore Lagerborgo in the hallway moments ago.

The World Championship $5,000 Heads-Up NL Hold’em event finally has cards in the air. Pros playing are David Williams, JC Tran, Jen Harman playing Ted Forrest, Freddie Deeb against Daniel Negreanu and a match between Clonie and Amir (like Madonna vs. Bono, no last names needed).

LAS VEGAS–Yes, I know you are all jealous that I will be playing poker with a bunch of hot chicks today. You should be…you will be missing out on cleavage, cat fights and maybe even a few soft hair mustaches.

Ok, let’s take a moment to be serious. I have always had a great time in these events and have actually made some great friends. The women are funny, nice and the room smells better. It’s just…the cat fight thing makes for a better story for all of you drama addicts.

Among the favorites today will be defending champ Mary Jones, Clonie (who needs not a last name) Jen Tilly, Jennicide, Vanessa Rousso and Isabelle Mercier who will be playing on the Queen of Hearts Team. Veteran player Karina Jett will be playing on the feminine felt, while Annie Duke will be skipping out on the gender game, making her way to the Amazon Room for this afternoon’s $5k Limit Championship. Annie, I’m jealous.

I’m sure Wicked Chops Poker will have a lot of cleavage photos because those guys are a bunch of perverts. I only name-call because I was unsuccessful in my attempt to persuade any of them to register into this event. How funny would it be to see two guys at the final table of the ladies event? And the winner of this year’s ladies event is John Doe!

BTW…I covered the WSOP Ladies Academy this past weekend, which was awesome. More to come on that gig.

LAS VEGAS–Shuttergypsy sends word of an ado brewing yesterday between Clonie Gowen and Brandi Hawbacker, seated to her left. According to Gutshot (scroll all the way to the bottom) Clonie wasn’t too appreciative of the apparent coaching being given to Brandi (dubbed the Lindsay Lohan of Poker by Pauly) by master game theorist (and young-girl lover) David Sklansky.

For whatever reason, Clonie insisted it was not Sklansky but rather some random old guy — because surely Sklansky would never violate any terms of rules and etiquette, right? With all due respect to the original boom-era poker babe, I am willing to bet, oh, I dunno, how ’bout $250, that Clonie is so wrong. Not about the coaching, but about the identity of the bald and scruffy rail rooster, who looks very similar to this guy, shot by Shuttergyp last year wearing his lucky shirt:

Just saw Clonie Gowen — she’s back to blonde (with some dark streaks). Her fellow Full Tilter Perry Friedman also has an interesting, goth-like red streak in his do.

Pictures TK. If not here, then all over the internet, to be sure.

They’ve got a poll up at Neverwin Poker inquiring who’s the poker hottie du jour. They didn’t have a box for write-in candidates, so I voted for Olga Varkonyi. Clonie apparently isn’t what she used to be back in the day when her primary babe-monicker competition consisted of Evelyn Ng, Kathy Liebert, and Annie Duke. The top two vote-getters at present are Jennicide and (Dallas expat) Chantel McNulty.

Or not … our beloved little HB 3186 still has a ways to go. But we are “this much closer” to legal-better poker in Texas … at a minimum, people in the law business are becoming more and more familiar with our “issues” … and an increasing number of political bidders are looking at dollar signs (and calculating implied pot odds) on an unusual bill that has, let’s say, 75 percent public support …

Here is the testimony presented earlier this month for and against legalized Texas poker to the legislative committee charged with making the first rounds of decisions about this bill. You will find it either totally boring or C-Span fascinating … and if you’re in the latter camp, you’ll probably hear much that you find encouraging. Listen closer, however, and you may get a sense that some hardline politicking has only just begun:

House Licensing and Administrative Procedures Committee
Austin, TX – 4/3/07

[display_podcast]

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There were two hands talked about in Austin last week more than any others. One was relayed by Crandell Addington … when Doyle Brunson flopped a set of Aces and laid down a boat on the turn in like 442 AD. (Brunson was right … the other guy had quads, which would go on to lose to bigger quads on the Nile.)

The other was this hand, between Clonie and Vanessa Rousso on Cash Poker … which is basically like High Stakes Poker, only a bit smaller of a game and grittier:

Wow. After that, somebody clearly needs a big hug.