Canuck’s First Live Tournament Cash is a Measly €825,000
EPT Berlin, Germany

Photo C/O PokerStars

Thanks in large part to an early collision between the two chip leaders early in final table action, Ben Wilnofsky had one of the easiest roads to victory that you’ll ever see (or not) in his victory in Berlin. One of the largest stops on the European tour, the EPT Berlin drew an astounding 773 players for their €5,000 Main Event to generate a prize pool just shy of €4 million. Wilnofsky and Maximilian Heinzelmann were well ahead of the pack when the final eight began play, but a flopped set generated a pot that was larger than any of the other six remaining players and propelled Wilnofsky the rest of the way.

The other notable accomplishment at this final table has to be the performance of Martin Jacobsen. The young Swede (and member of Team PokerStars Pro) made this his third final table of the EPT season, following a pair of second place finishes. He could not end his streak of falling just short, but held on for quite some time on a short stack before ultimately falling in fourth place.

In the end, the news was all about young Ben Wilnofsky. The 22-year-old Canadian has had some online success, but leading into this €5,000 event had not so much as recorded a single lifetime live cash. That also means that his average cash stands somewhere around €825,000, the champion’s share of this massive prize pool. Not bad for a few days work.

Spencer Uniss Nets Even Less For First Cash, a Paltry $221K
HPT @ Golden Gates Casino, Black Hawk, Colorado

Photo C/O HPT

Clearly there was some sort of first-timer strategy guide released this week online that I simply could not find. In addition to the first-time cash/winning combination in Berlin, another player cashed in his “one time” in a big way.

The HPT event at Golden Gates Casino in Colorado saw the biggest field in it’s history with 491 players showing up to generate a prize pool of almost $740,000. The first place prize was set to exceed $220,000.

Spencer Uniss made the newby mistake of promising big things if he was fortunate enough to win, telling his friends he would charter a flight to Las Vegas if he was lucky enough to win. In on an investment of just $370 after a satellite win, he felt as if he had nothing to lose, but now he has to pay up after banking the win in his first ever tournament cash for $221,594. After a bit of research, the cheapest hourly rate for a private plane is about $1,000 an hour, without factoring fuel surcharges, taxes, and other fees. At least it’s from Colorado and not the east coast.

Two Rings are Twice as Nice For Three Lucky Players
St. Louis, Missouri & Rincon, California

In the business of bigger events in the last several weeks, a few impressive feats in preliminary events have slipped through the cracks, which I’ll rectify momentarily. Two players won their second WSOPC ring of the year this week in St. Louis, and one lucky player became only the second player ever to record two wins at one stop a few weeks ago in Rincon.

Photo C/O WSOP

Kurt Jewell has the distinction of winning in the largest field in WSOPC history last October, when he won the Main Event in Hammond for a cool $242,909. He added a second piece of hardware this past week by winning an Omaha 8/b event in St. Louis, the same event that Team Pokerati member La Sengphet made in her pursuit of an at-large spot to the WSOP National Championship. In addition to the second ring, Jewell banked another $13,206 and has already locked up a seat in the $1 million freeroll by virtue of his previous win.

The appropriately named Huy (pronounced “We”) Nguyen hasn’t done so badly for himself this year on the circuit. Nguyen won another of the monsterous $1,600 Main Events, his being Choctaw where he made $232,706 for his efforts. His win in St. Louis came in a Six-Handed No Limit Hold’em event with over 200 players. A $25,241 payday for the accountant from Norman, Oklahoma is another impressive score, but he too has his eyes on the National Championship, where he too has already locked up his seat.

Photo C/O WSOP

Finally we take a look back at the WSOPC stop in Rincon, where a man with quite an interesting name won a pair of events. Mstr Lynch won a grand total of over $45,000 for his two wins in Rincon, which propelled him to the most overall points of the Rincon series and a National Championship of his own. He’s just the second player (after Kyle Cartwright did so in Tunica) to win two events at the same series of the WSOPC.

EDIT: Right after the publishing of this article, La followed up with her third cash of the series in St. Louis in the best way possible: by winning her own 2nd ring of the year, according to Dan. At the very least it almost assures her of an at-large spot, if not player of the series in St. Louis. Congrats La!

It takes place in Colorado in 1880 … the gold rush is on and the town of Rincon is fast becoming known for its juicy games and associated vice. And as much as I was intrigued by the role of black people and Christianity post-Civil War (as portrayed in the late ’60s) … what really stood out was how the players shuffled their chips.

Anyhow, the music is kinda country meets the Doors, with gambler’s lyrics sung by an old-school Vegas crooner. And with last month’s news that production of Rounders 2 is underway … well, Five Card Stud, a song about the game that was the great Uncle to contemporary Texas Hold’em, reminded me how much poker stories have changed over the years, and how much they haven’t.

Barry Shulman
WSOPE Main Event
London, England

With more than $1.3 million in first-place money and a WSOP bracelet on the line, the match had Academy Award potential as Shulman, father of November Niner and up-and-coming poker bad boy Jeff “Happy” Shulman, bettered perennial fan favorite and all-time tournament money winner Daniel Negreanu.

For full play-by-play of the epic 17-hour, big-name final table, click here

Aaron Gustavson
EPT London Main Event
London, England

Across town at the Grosvenor Casino, it took just seven hands of heads-up play for 23-year-old online pro Aaron Gustavson to knock off defending WSOP main event champ Peter Eastgate and claim the £850,000 first-place prize at the EPT London Main Event.

More details at EuropeanPokerTour.com

Brandon Hall
Aruba Poker Classic
Aruba

A little rain couldn’t dampen Hall’s spirits as the 20-year-old online qualifier from Littlestown, Pa., beat out 474 other players to claim more than $753,000 and the title of Aruba Poker Classic Champion after defeating Robert Mizrachi in heads-up play. He plays online as “AreTheseUtz”.

Read more about him at the UltimateBet Blog

William Givens
HPT Mile High Poker Open
Black Hawk, CO

24-year old William Givens won nearly $145,000 and his mother’s respect after taking down the Heartland Poker Tour’s Mile High Poker Open at the Golden Gates Casino earlier this month. Givens, who has been playing professionally for just over a year, won his way into the $1,650 main event through a $360 satellite. Using cash game winnings from the weekend, he actually won two satellites and sold the other seat for additional profit.

Read more about his biggest win to date on the Heartland Poker Tour here

From thePPA.org:

Poker Players Alliance Supports Appeal to Colorado Supreme Court

Washington, DC (August 12, 2009) –The Poker Players Alliance (PPA), the leading poker grassroots advocacy group with more than one million members nationwide and more than 13,000 in Colorado, today expressed its support for efforts to appeal a ruling in state intermediate court that poker is predominately a game of chance as part of Colorado v. Kevin Raley.

The defendant, Kevin Raley, will file a petition in Colorado Supreme Court requesting an appeal of the intermediate court’s ruling that poker is gambling under Colorado law.

“The PPA is going to do everything in its power to support Mr. Raley’s efforts in order to protect PPA members and all poker players in the state of Colorado,” said Gary Reed, PPA’s Colorado State Director. “I am especially alarmed because this ruling ignores the abundance of research that proves poker is a game of skill and confuses rather than clarifies the matter for law enforcement that may use their scarce resources to raid and arrest poker players instead of investigating real unlawful activity in the state.”

In the original case, the county court allowed the jury to hear expert testimony by Professor Robert Hannum, Professor of Statistics at the University of Denver, that poker is a game of skill. Based on this testimony, and other evidence presented, the jury found Kevin Raley not guilty of illegal gambling. The Weld County District Attorney appealed that ruling, claiming that the testimony of Professor Hannum should have not been allowed because Colorado courts have already concluded that, as a matter of law, poker is gambling. Unfortunately, the district court overruled the trial judge’s determination to allow Professor Hannum to testify. The district court’s decision does not overturn the jury’s “not guilty” verdict, but it does put the future of poker in Colorado in legal limbo.

“Given the Weld County District Court judge’s ruling that poker is gambling because of the small element of chance in the dealing of cards, one could easily presume that any game that depends even a little on chance – from Monopoly to Yahtzee to Candy Land – is gambling and therefore illegal in the state of Colorado,” said John Pappas, executive director of the PPA. “We clearly think this is the wrong interpretation of the law, especially in regard to poker, and the PPA is committed to helping demonstrate to the Colorado Supreme Court the broad academic research that exists showing that poker is indeed a game of skill.”

PPA has been involved in similar cases across the country, such as South Carolina, Kansas and Pennsylvania, where the question of skill versus chance is being reassessed in the courts in order to clarify existing law.

“The choice to petition the Colorado Supreme Court is about more than me or my friends, it’s about all poker players’ opportunity to ensure that current Colorado law recognizes that poker is a game of skill and is based on much more than the luck of the draw. So much has changed regarding poker and how the game is perceived publicly, it is disheartening to see this great game treated as a crime because of a misapplication of the law,” said Kevin Raley.

WE FOUND HER!!!!! SHE IS OK!!! I JUST BROUGHT HER HOME!!!! WILL POST DETAILS SOON ON LIFESABLUFF.COM – thank you everyone!!!!

UPDATE: In response to speculation in the blogosphere that it was a runaway situation, Frank Frisina posted a response in his latest blog:

At the request of my niece and for the sake of her privacy, I have one final statement regarding last week’s ordeal;

She is safe and at home, she did NOT run away, and we are not releasing any more information at this time.

This is a rather unusual post, and one that is not pleasant to write except to help in some way. Frank Frisina, one of the main dudes over at Life’s A Bluff and poker industry friend, is in desperate need of help. His 14-year old niece, Jennifer, is missing in Colorado, and Frank is beside himself with heartache. The Colorado Bureau of Investigations and Arapahoe County Sheriff’s office are involved, but it sure can’t hurt to get her picture out to the public and try to spread the word to our Colorado readers.

If anyone knows anything or can help in any way, contact frankybones@comcast.net. The post on Life’s a Bluff reads as follows:

April 15th, 2009
My 14yr old niece is missing….

I was really hoping I would never have to write this here…..

My niece Jennifer has been missing since Saturday night. She left here at 3pm to go to a friend’s house and was to be home by 8. None of her friends have talked to her since 7pm that night and there is no sign that she ran away. No clothes.. no cell phone charger.. nothing to suggest that she had any intention of being away that long. She has never been more than an hour or so late and this is beyond her character. There was no trouble here and she was in a good mood when she left.

It took us a few days to get the police to take this seriously since the responding officer on Saturday night had her pigeon holed as a runaway from the start. Thanks to that moron we have lost precious time. Now we have the Colorado Bureau of Investigations involved and they are trying to get phone records quicker than I seem to be able to get them. We would have had them already but CBI needed the Arapahoe County Sheriff to upgrade from runaway to missing. The next step is to get her picture on the local news stations.

I cannot describe the torment we are all going through. My worst nightmare has come true…. The idea of seeing her picture on the news is something I don’t think I could ever be prepared for. I am going to want to include a reward for any information leading to her safe return. If she is hiding out… it is going to be hard for some 14-15 yr old friend of hers to keep quiet should there be money involved. I have $500 that I can start it with… Thanks to my ongoing medical bills, it is every penny I have to my name right now. If anyone would like to donate the cause, please send via paypal to frankybones@comcast.net – (* should no reward be issued…. monies will be returned.) If I get some of this other cash I waiting on, it will be added.

I have never needed the help of our readers more than now. Please take her pictures and info posted here and send out to your social networks.

For those of you who know me… know these kids are my life. I am the legal guardian of both my neice and nephew. I consider them my children and have dedicated my life to their happiness. I have always been there to make sure they had a father figure and someone to count on. I am living pure hell and each day that passes is killing my soul. I have been through too much to be burdened with more heartache. This has gotta be resolved soon… I would give my life to bring her home.

One thing that is getting harder to do is handle all the phone calls from concerned friends and family…. The constant updates are wearing me down so I will be posting here any major updates we have. You can also follow my twitter account.

That’s all I have for right now…

Jennifer… if you are reading this… I love you more than you will ever know and you are my best friend in the world… nobody is mad at you… mom is here too.. come home…

- Frank Frisina

This week we look atthe possibility that the UIGEA will be repealed in sometime in 2009. Plus, great news for online gambling from the US, as the state of Colorado joins Pennsylvania in declaring poker a skill game!

Jackson is one of four cosponsor’s to Rep. Pete Sessions’ (R-TX) HR 6663. That bill, of course, is the most straightforward fix to the UIGEA — simply limiting its reach to online sports gambling — yet one of the more controversial because of, um, politics.

Perhaps shockingly, he didn’t mention anything about the critical importance of being able to easily compete in online WSOP satellites in his five minutes he had to address the world … but hey, that’s where we stand: We have a young, pre-introductory Day 1 speaker to the Democratic party (his debut performance on such a stage) aware of our issues and philosophically on our side, though not exactly the way the PPA would like him to be.

Speech transcript / Video

It’s gonna be a late-night event at Coors Field on Tuesday, Aug. 26. $500 a seat, with proceeds going to the Paralyzed Veterans of America. Hosted by the PPA, with Andy Bloch, Barry Greenstein, and Ben Affleck serving as poker ambassadors. Sponsored tables available for businesses looking for a meaningful way to spend their charitable dollars.

Audio

I got a call yesterday at the WSOP from the Butler. I haven’t seen the guy for a couple months — not since me and my jiu-jitsu coach and heavy metal teacher got booted out of our sweet pad (pool table, poker table, dart board, 65-inch HDTV, Strip-view bedroom, fireplace/jacuzzi bathroom, no utilities) on the Eastside. We of course knew all was headed south when the Butler — the guy who set the whole housing arrangement up — walked into our casa unannounced to do a cocaine deal, and shortly thereafter got busted by The Boss (who owned the house, in theory, though not on paper) for stealing rent money.

(I met the Butler last year at the WSOP, as he was trying to sell his private concierge services to poker players and convince me to turn him into a recurring character on Pokerati.)

Anyhow, so I got a call from an unknown 973 number yesterday that I answered in the press box. “Hey, Dan, it’s John. Are you at the Series? How’s it going?”

“Um, uh, pretty good? We’re just getting rolling … so what’s up? Did you make it to Kansas City?”

“Yeah, and it’s not good. I’m calling because I need a stake.”

“Yeow, dude … can’t help you out. Wouldn’t know how to get you money if I could.”

“Western Union.”

“Sorry, man Have you tried Tom? His number is 602-97… .”

“Well, I guess I’m going to be homeless at 11 o’clock. I guess I’ll just be a bum on the street. I can do that, right, be a bum?”

It all makes me a little sad, frankly … because I think this time he was being serious. And what’s worse I really saw it coming. Maybe not so fast … but eventually he had to go bust. I had played poker with the guy once before, and even though he cleaned me out in some no-stakes mixed games, I knew he was a terrible player, and he thought he was really good. He’s the kinda bombastic, arrogant, loose-aggressive guy any mediocre 1/2 player could talk to for five minutes — not even needing to play a single hand — and realize how easy it would be to crush him, presumably for way more money than he had to lose.

Anyhow, after being booted from The Boss’s house and blaming his misfortune on the employer from whom he was stealing, the dude had nowhere to go, no vehicle, no money, a criminal record, and for whatever unknown reason, no family to fall back on. He headed back toward home in Colorado, and from there somehow managed to wrangle up about $1,800 doing odd jobs for old friends/acquaintences. With that, he planned to head East — “the games are really soft in the Midwest,” he said — and make his living as a pro / “chase a $200,000 bad beat jackpot” at Harrah’s in Kansas City.

Right. Exactly. I know. Listen to the audio for yourself and draw your own conclusions:

Bankroll management with the Butler

Sorry to have already given away the ending, but it was supposed to be kinda a funny post originally, where I would share with you the phone messages he left me seeking guidance on his poker plan. I knew what y’all would say if I asked for Pokeratizens to provide the Butler bankroll-management/game-selection advice … and we’d all have a good laugh about how poker-smart we are and others aren’t.