CHIP UP: Plaque Attack

American players don’t only miss out on online play, but they seldom get to use the larger, squared “plaques” used for extra-high-denomination chips. But now they can play like a Euro-shark in their home games while taking their chip-shuffling skills to a new level.

Use promo code “pokeratigo” at Outplay Poker for a discount on your purchase.

RUN-GOOD: The Micros, Clothiers

It’s becoming common knowledge that players showing up to tournaments big and small have been going deep while dressed as their favorite online poker cartoon character. Just recently poker media yeoman Jay Newnum took down a double-stack turbo tournament at the Commerce Hold’em Series, and then followed that up by winning a table share of the progressive bad beat jackpot Live at The Bike (seat 6) … while wearing his now-lucky shirt. New Micros designs are a sure-hit with the kids, too!

Get yours from The Micros Online Store.

WTF? Burmese Wooly Space Chips

Made from slices of solid meteorite that fell to Earth some 800,000 WSOP’s ago, these poker chips are so hot they’re illegal in the US, and expected to fetch HK$1 million at auction later today. (No prob with the gold, diamonds, or emeralds that encircle each chip, but because the rubies come from Burma, importing the set would be a crime.) The case is hand-stitched Swedish calf skin with reindeer suede lining and 18K white gold hinges and locks. But even more outrageous, included is a set of ivory dice made from … we shit you not … wooly mammoth tusks. Apparently a species can’t be endangered when it’s already extinct — but auctioneers do warn that some customs agents in some countries might not have Googled around enough to realize that prehistoric pachyderm is real, and all the rage.

More details at JamesList about the auction at Christie’s later today.

SELL-OFF: Full Tilt Swag

If diamond-crusted Kryptonite tournament chips are a bit out of your range, head over to eBay for what may or may not become collectible memorabilia from a defunct poker site. For sale are plenty of poker chips, a steel watch ($1.01 minimum bid, $3.99 to buy-it-now), a black velour bathrobe (new, never worn), travel mugs, keychain bottle openers and more. Whether it’s general distaste for FTP or out-of-work red pros trying to scratch up some cash, a lot of great junk promotional gear branded with the ubiquitous red triangle of Full Tilt Poker is on eBay these days at bargain-basement prices.

Get the most Full Tilt stock you can at eBay.

Annie Duke is offering her fans a taste of high-stakes professional poker with a fantasy camp connected to the upcoming Epic Poker event at the Palms Casino Resort on December 10. More than just the usual boot camp, this package includes hands-on training and entry into an Epic Super Satellite. Attendees also get a signed copy of her book, Decide to Play Great Poker, two nights at the Palms (with buffet) and sundry Epic Poker gear, including a hoodie and hat, none of which, by the way, is up for sale yet on Ebay.

Escape for a poker weekend with Annie Duke; better than half price with Living Social.

With 23 bidders and 88 bids in the fight for PokerNewsDaily, I can only imagine the joy “b***2″ felt upon binking the auction. No word on who that buyer really was. But they didn’t even play in the game for Pokerterms.com, a sister site to PND also put up for auction that went to “s***n” for $8,359.

This is the first time I’ve heard of an on-line auction for a poker site. It seems as if Protos Marketing, the site’s parent company, was trying to unload these domains (and related assets) pretty fast. I wonder if they are feeling the effects of Black Friday on affiliate-based poker media, or if the previous owners needed cash for WSOP Satellites something bigger and better yet to come.

I’ve overheard several people at the Rio talking about friendly wagers they had on the selling prices for these sites. Curious if people here participated in any prop bets … or the actual eBay auctions?

Here is what the buyer(s) really got for that price, and with the PND brand:

This marks the final week of a no-reserve eBay auction for the PokerNewsDaily domain, content, associated accounts and more. Originally posted on Wednesday June 15th, the auction has attracted significant attention in the poker world. Several thousand people have viewed the auction on eBay and it has also attracted 15 bids in the first five days.

The auction itself includes the following (stats as of 6/14):

The pokernewsdaily.com domain name.
The PokerNewsDaily brand name (there are no registered trademarks)
All of the content (articles, site reviews, player profiles, videos, etc) on the site. There are over 5,300 posts, over 3200 comments and over 3100 registered users.
The PokerNewsDaily facebook page with 236 likes.
The PokerNewsDaily twitter account with 6174 followers and 283 listed.
Any other data contained in the PND database such as registered users, external click tracking data, etc. Nothing of substance or potential usefulness will be deleted prior to transfer.
The full customized WordPress install including the custom theme and the configured plugins.
The original PSD for the theme (which was purchased in a contest on 99designs) and the .AI file for the logo (which was purchased in a separate contest on 99designs).
The PokerNewsDaily Google Apps account which includes our support@pokernewsdaily.com email address and several years of emails. This account also includes our Feedburner feed with 1552 subscribers (813 of those are email subscribers via FeedBurner).
The PokerNewsDaily Google Analytics account which has data going back to July 24th, 2009. This account has the Google Apps account as an administrator so you can simply delete our access to it once the deal has closed.

However, the auction does not include existing affiliate accounts, writer contracts or a non-compete from PND’s parent company, Protos Marketing. The full auction listing includes additional information and the full terms.

In addition to PokerNewsDaily, Protos has also put up PokerTerms.com for auction. PokerTerms is a leading online poker dictionary with over 1200 term definitions and some very high Google rankings for highly-searched poker terms. PokerTerms has attracted an additional 13 bids and significant attention.

Gold is currently selling for $1,390 an ounce, just short of what Eskimo would need for his next WSOP buy-in.

I’m back in action because I thought I was going to be up this morning spending my Pokerati paycheck on an Eskimo Clark bracelet — there’s one for sale on Ebay right now, in an auction that closes in about an hour. But holy meltdown, they’re up to 15 bids already, from six different bidders, and $4,050! That’s already more than TJ Cloutier got for his pawned-off WSOP hardware nearly a year ago, and puts Eskimo’s jewels way out of my league unless someone wants to give me a raise by infinity. Can you say, “Going once, going twice … going in your pants at the table?”

The auction closes today at 10 am PT.Get in before this “pre-owned” 1999 $1,500 Razz beauty is gone. (Replace the word Razz with “Dodge Neon” and that’s what my last boyfriend used to say to initiate foreplay.)

I knew I had no chance of scoring Peter Eastgate’s bracelet on eBay last week. His newer model fetched a whopping $147,500 after Interpoker got into a bidding war with Tony G, who made a play for the limelight by blog-bragging about plans to buy it for a collar for his dog. Inter stepped in to thwart him from making a “mockery” of the WSOP, but I’m not sure which is worse – seeing a WSOP bracelet on a dog or seeing it on eBay. But with the prize going to anonymous bidder “7***l”, it did raise a lot of money for UNICEF.

And check it out, Eastgate’s not done hawking his WSOP main event booty yet. Little Petey’s now got his “2008 WSOP Final Table Corum timepiece” for sale. The seller is “petereastgate” himself, making his first ever eBay posting. Asking price: $7,000. Money from that auction will go to UNICEF, too, but so far it has 0 bidders and closes on Friday.

Maybe I’ll use what I thought I’d spend on Eskimo to buy a couple Peter Eastgate 8x10s.

Four EPT winners walk into a bar …

Eastgate ups the ante for promising poker quitters like Carter Phillips, who says he’s 95 percent sure he’s done with poker after being robbed of €4,000 at EPT Barcelona. The defending champion claims he was attacked by Zorro … but this machete-wielding lunatic wasn’t like the one at EPT Berlin. Phillips was with three other up-and-coming big-money pros — Kevin Stani (winner EPT-Tallin), Kayvan Payman (final table EPT-London) and William Reynolds (winner PCA High Roller) — when they supposedly got pickpocketed at a “hookah bar” (that sounds Spanish for “hooker bar”) then ambushed by a man with a frying pan?

Phillips was the only one there with a WSOP bracelet (2010 $1,500 NLH 6-max) to pawn off if he’s serious about quitting. We all know he’s bluffing, but when the 21-year-old does decide to man up, drop balls, and get back in the game, it will be a long time before we hear him ask for a chopped pot.

So while I’m still here with nothing to bid on …

Happy-sappy crap

Bryan Micon posted on Facebook over the Thanksgiving holiday: “Let it be known: I have married my beloved Martha.” Inspiring, really. A guy who has made a career out of posting peens on the internet gets married for the SECOND time. Related: In an effort to improve my love life, I am now accepting pics of random wood.

Gavin Smith made himself a baby — with whom, I’ll find out, but right now I know he calls her “Moomy” and she’s not me. After the birth a couple weeks ago, proud poker papa tweeted, “7lbs 2oz, 20 inches long and quite well endowed if I may say so myself.” Let’s hope Micon doesn’t get a picture of that before the kid gets a million twitter followers.

Mike Matusow has a new girlfriend. Annie LePage, some Las Vegas PETA chick that Dan can’t shut up about. Let’s face it – Mike Matusow isn’t the sexiest player alive, but I’d take my chances with someone nicknamed “The Mouth”, too. It became official with giddy girltalk about meeting his parents and then a change in Facebook status that I know crushed our Pokerati in Chief. Hey, cheer up, toots. I’m sure Matusow will fuck this up before long. And you can do better with ME and my… um… yeah, nevermind.

No FAIR! I’ve got three!

And finally, once again proving that he’s constantly got male genitals on his mind, Daniel Negreanu paid some dude to get a ‘Loves Cock’ tattoo. Yup, $1,000 was the price happily paid by Kid Poker to see Dominic Mattucci declare his fondness for eating meat. Jeez… wish I’d have known about this before I got mine.

Listing the item under the “Jewelry & Watches >> Fashion Jewelry >> Bracelets >> Other” category, Peter Eastgate, who announced his retirement from poker during the series in July, put his 2008 World Series of Poker Main Event Bracelet for auction on eBay yesterday – donating 100% of the sale amount to UNICEF.

PartyPoker’s Tony G, who has pledged to win the bidding for the “pre-owned” item (a.k.a. bling for his German Shephard Zasko), can be assured that there is no wear and tear:  The Las Vegas Review Journal quotes Eastgate as saying that while he had great pride in the title, the bracelet was never worn.

While this sale hasn’t been met with a lot of support by poker media-types in Twitter this morning, at least the potential buyer(s) will be happy to know that it is ready for delivery (standard shipping free!) just after Dec 24th.  No returns accepted.

Many months ago, a group of organizations representing internet freedoms and the rights of online gambling companies won an important appeal in the Kentucky court system, and that victory prohibited the Commonwealth from proceeding with its attempted seizure of those domains. The state promised to appeal to the Supreme Court, and that latest appeal was granted this month. Those fighting the state on the matter include iMEGA (Internet Media Entertainment & Gaming Association), PPA (Poker Players Alliance), ACLU (American Civil Liberties Union), CDT (Center for Democracy and Technology, EFF (Electronic Frontier Foundation), Internet Commerce Association, eBay, and Network Solutions. (Can we win on number of appellees alone?)

According to iMEGA’s announcement:

The Supreme Court has set oral argument in Commonwealth of Kentucky v. IMEGA, et al for 11 a.m. on Thursday October 22, 2009 in the Supreme Court courtroom. The order allots 15 minutes for each side.

“We’ve been waiting for this for a long time, and we’re going to win again,” said Joe Brennan Jr., iMEGA’s chairman. “From the beginning, Kentucky law has clearly supported our position, and a win in the State Supreme Court will put the final emphasis on that.”

TPL is actually The Schindler Firm, out of St. Louis … Josh Schindler being the main dude … he got that space via Dennis Phillips’ eBay auction, making a $19,350 donation to the National Multiple Sclerosis Society in exchange for the space.

Schindler practices many areas of litigation, including some specialty in gaming law. We’ll have to add him to the list.

Meanwhile, a fourth spade just showed up on the turn … the crowd gasped (followed by shushes) … Ylon Schwartz pushed all-in, and Scott Montgomery folded.

Update: Ylon’s people are trying a third time with the auction. Now it has a $100k Buy It Now price or “Best Offer”, and 50% of the proceeds are going to Habitat for Humanity. More details at http://tinyurl.com/ylon3rdtime

Since the big name sponsors that they were hoping for aren’t beating down the doors of the members of the November Nine, it’s time to kick the efforts into high gear. Ylon Schwartz has proactively hired RecordWeb Communications to help with the marketing, and they issued a press release stating that sponsorship opportunities are available through eBay.

The eBay item already has one bid of $37,500 from f***2. (Would love to see what that proposed ad is…) Here is part of the page that lists what is being offered:

Ylon Schwartz is offering one lucky and smart bidder, the chance to place a 10 Square Inch patch on his arm, chest, hat or other mutually agreed upon location or a branded item to be placed on his chips or cards. Your brand will benefit from proven Nascar-style advertising as this patch or branded items will be seen by TENS OF MILLIONS of ESPN viewers…

As you can see the photos of Ylon at the poker table, his torso, head, arms, chips and cards are clearly visible to the viewer. Any time Ylon plays a hand in this event; your patch or branded item will be seen by millions of fans. Ylon is currently 5th in chips and will be in this event for a long time. The event will probably play for 15 hours more and then will be shown to a prime time viewing audience on ESPN on November 11th, 2008.