From the Lederer/Zolotow World Series of Barbecue at the Golden Nugget … after tearing it up on Guitar Hero, Jef Madsen challenged Phil Ivey’s cousin “Smokey” to a freestyle-rap “cuttin’ contest”. The words are hard to understand on this video — too bad RawVegas wasn’t there — but Madsen impressively held his own before succumbing to the three-toothed Old-Dirty-Bastard lookalike that had some of us white folks at the party saying, “Who is that? He’s a real rapper, right?” Evelyn Ng and Matt Savage looking on:

Also, who knew J-Mad had such dope skillz?

Lo and behold he’s been getting practice while videoblogging for PokerRoad. Click here to see/hear the 2006 WSOP Player of the Year giving tourney reports in rhyme.

The WSOP party season has begun… I’ve hit two of the parties this week and plan for more as the week progresses, but I can’t see myself getting crazy with it. I must say that it’s a nice break from the daily grind of tournaments, though.

On June 30th, I attended the All In party at the Palms pool. The place was packed with more people than I expected. On the other hand, the door was completely disorganized. Some people got right in, while others who were supposed to be on the list were held up for quite awhile. I was supposed to be on the media list, but no one ever checked or even seemed to have a list, so I finally just got in on my word. And when I attempted to get a VIP pass through a friend, they had run out of them and looked a little panicked about it.

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Events from last night at the WSOP, as I try in vain to come up with new ways to say the same old stuff:

As Dan mentioned in the post below, Dario Minieri took down the $2,500 NL Holdem 6-handed event in a final table that lasted almost 200 hands, surprising for a 6 handed final table. Seth Fischer finished in 2nd, putting a brutal beat on Justin Filtz to eliminate him in 3rd when the AK of Fischer ran down Filtz’ AA.

The $5,000 Stud Eight or Better final table was finally set after 7am this morning, and another first almost occurred as both Annie Duke and her brother Howard Lederer were among the final 9. However, Howard was eliminated in 9th, but the final table still has notable names such as Chris Ferguson, Steve Sung and Marcel Luske that will return at 5pm today to determine the winner. Here’s that final table:

Seat 1: Bob Lauria: 44,000
Seat 2: Marcel Luske: 308,000
Seat 3: Steve Sung: 207,000
Seat 4: Annie Duke: 277,000
Seat 5: Alessio Isaia: 398,000
Seat 6: Sebastian Ruthenberg: 663,000
Seat 7: Chris Ferguson: 434,000
Seat 8: Robert Beveridge: 288,000

The other final table today and other action after the thing you click to get to the next page:

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photo: Benjo / via Pauly
Online phenom-turned-live-action-threat Gobboboy makes peace with Howard Lederer at the PPA Booth in the Amazon hallway.

Of the many groups with a presence at the 2008 WSOP, the Poker Players Alliance is doing its best to let the amateur players who flock here know not only that their voice is relevant, but also that there is a plan of action in motion to, essentially, allow online poker sites to advertise with a dot-com. OK, there’s far more to it than that … but establishing poker’s political presence is important — and because it ain’t easy to become the NRA without something akin to the Second Amendment behind you, the PPA is spearheading the efforts both on the grassroots level as well as the important behind-the-scenes ass-kissing palm-greasing politicking in Washington DC.

To help explain the cause and sign up new members, the PPA has poker pros at its booth daily. Click below to read the full press release about these meet-n-greets designed to get everyone on the same team.

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What’s happening at this moment while reading Gary Wise’s latest entry about what’s “good for poker” is really good for poker.

Today brings another two tournaments to the starting line, first at noon is the $2,000 NL holdem event and another large field is expected. The event the pros may be swooning over is the $10,000 Mixed Event “World Championship”. This tournament will have it all for the big cash game specialists as they throw eight games into the mix. This grouping of players will play Triple Draw lowball Deuce to Seven, Limit Holdem, Omaha 8, Razz, Stud, Stud 8, No Limit Holdem and Pot Limit Omaha; playing each game for 8 hands before moving on to the next game in the rotation. Hopefully there won’t be many mixups between the players, dealers, and floor and this becomes a staple of the WSOP schedule.

Play finally finished earlier this morning in the marathon that was event #2, $1,500 NL Holdem. After over two hours of headsup play, Grant Hinkle made an aggressive move, raising and eventually going all in with 10d-4d against James Akenhead’s Ac-Kh. Things were looking good for James, but his was truly aching after the flop came down 10-4-10. A fourth 10 hit the turn and it was over, as Hinkle took the bracelet and over $800,000 in victory. Chris Ferguson finished 3rd, the full results can be found over at Pokernews.

What else happened yesterday:
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Jonathan Little’s most recent accomplishment was making the “Elite 8″ in the NBC Heads-Up Championship, scoring a $75k payday before being slapped by eventual winner and Full Tilt honcho Chris Ferguson.

While account-sharing is hardly the worst offense when it comes to poker ethics, it is in violation of Full Tilt T&C’s for their pros. So Little, who’s FT stock was on the rise, is now out. Stupid kid Yo, bummer dude.

Confirmed by Full Tilt here.

When a player on Full Tilt Poker plays against and chats with a red pro on the site, it is imperative that they be able to trust that it is really the advertised pro playing the account. Given that Mr. Little violated that trust, we have decided to sever his ties to the site, and close his account.

The first well-known pro to get busted for online account-sharing was Phil Hellmuth (outed here, and confronted about it here).

After that, Howard Lederer reportedly sent out a memo to all the Full Tilt pros letting them know that if they ever did something similar, they would be canned immediately. Little wasn’t part of the team when that went down, so maybe he didn’t embrace the seriousness that Full Tilt places on its integrity. Gotta wonder if these sorts of indiscretions will occur more regularly as Full Tilt continues to sign up more and more pros. Also wonder how long Little’s FT page will stay up online.

Brick-and-mortar tournament success here.

So it was fun making picks … but not so fun to watch the results trickle in. Everyone’s talking about their brackets around Caesar’s Palace — lots of money being unofficially wagered as heads-up fans excitedly bemoan the upsets and sometimes gloat over the mental errors of others.

Gavin Smith: “How can you pick Howard to win a heads-up tournament?!? Pshaw!”

Um, I dunno, just a hunch? Thought he had worked through his game and had incentive to win? I was betting on uniforms. Below are the standings after the first round in the impromptu Pokerati bracket fun. Cali Jen, TBR, and I aren’t exactly representin’:

I think you still might be able to get in on the bracket action, fyi.

Rank Predictor Score Predicted Final Winner Completed
1 don essinger - 13 Allen Cunningham 2/29/2008 1:05pm
2 Scott - 13 Daniel Negreanu 2/29/2008 1:20pm
3 Taylor Larkin - 13 Huck Seed 2/29/2008 2:20pm
4 Kevin Mathers - 11 Daniel Negreanu 2/29/2008 12:32pm
5 champsampson - 11 Ted Forrest 2/29/2008 1:39pm
6 dan michalski - 9 Howard Lederer 2/29/2008 3:41am
7 California Jen - 9 Scott Clements 2/29/2008 9:43am
8 Randy Brown - 8 Phil Hellmuth 2/29/2008 12:12pm

Here’s where I’ll be continuing to follow the games tomorrow — even when I’m there, sitting a few seats away from CP’s reporters in the rafters.

Yikes, of my final four, only one remains. Go Freddy Deeb!

Law professor Charles Nesson and his students have formed a group at Harvard University to use poker to teach life skills and examine important issues like the WTO v. US conflict. The Global Poker Strategic Thinking Society (GPSTS) started off their lecture series this week with a panel featuring Crandell Addington and Howard Lederer.

Nesson explained about the group:

The Global Poker Strategic Thinking Society views poker as an exceptional game of skill that can be used as a powerful teaching tool at all levels of academia and in secondary education. We use poker to teach strategic thinking, geopolitical analysis, risk assessment and money management. We see poker as a metaphor for skills of life, business, politics and international relations. Our goal is to create an open online curriculum centered on poker that will draw the brightest minds together, both from within and outside of the conventional university setting, to promote open education and Internet democracy.

Founded by Harvard Law Professor and Berkman Center founder Charles Nesson, GPSTS has three programmatic goals: offering poker strategic thinking workshops to schools and community centers, particularly in underprivileged neighborhoods; sponsoring team poker matches between law, business and other professional schools; and conducting seminars, panel discussions and conferences that explore poker as a means to teach strategic thinking and related public policy issues.

The poker matches that are part of the GPSTS schedule will take place in November, first pitting Harvard v. Yale, then taking it to the West Coast for a UCLA v. USC showdown.

Harvard folks obviously see the importance of poker in society. Can the U.S. government possibly show up for class and take some notes?

LAS VEGAS–Text to Tom (who has been a gracious sounding board this WSOP on matters of game selection, bankroll management, and getting to know that leavin’ feelin’) late last night:

5:11 am — I am good at poker, bad at drinky blackjack. In for 800, cashed out for 2800.

This came after attending Z-Fest 2007 – a 4th of July barbecue hosted by the Lederer family at Steve Zolotow’s house. It also happened to be the site of the “World Series of Karaoke,” which meant getting to see Joe Reitman dance and scream while exposing/shaking/rubbing his belly, and a shitfaced Mike Matusow parading around like a drunken 7-year-old boy with balloons. Good fun. You gotta love a party that celebrates America’s birthday with great Middle Eastern food and an open bar.

From there, I was supposed to meet up with some Dallas friends to chase a few skirts engage in frotteurism at Carnaval Court. But while waiting around I played a little tiny-stakes outdoor blackjack and somehow managed to lose $497 in less than an hour. Dammit! So I went to make it back playing poker across the street at Caesar’s …

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(Wonder if youwannapoker.com will even read this before they gank it.)

I had pretty much forgotten about the abundance of poker content thieves out there — was just gonna keep doing my thing and not let them bring me down. But then I read Gary Carson’s blog … and he reminded me that really, while maybe we can’t stop this practice outright, that doesn’t mean we should stand idly by as our “good friends” at Full Tilt continue to profit off the “work” of known internet thieves.

I’m being kinda serious: I think it might be time for a good-ole-fashioned lawsuit! Howard Lederer, Chris Ferguson, Clonie Gowen, Ray Bitar, Michael Craig … so many others — just dropping a few names who might take note and have a concerned interest in this matter — are you listening?

(Ultimate Bet, we’re looking at you, too.)

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There was a pretty interesting article in Thursday’s Wall Street Journal about a recent gathering at Harvard University, which set out to bring together some of the brightest minds in academia to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that poker is a game of skill. (Uh duh.) Howard Lederer was the main poker dude on hand, along with famed Harvard Law Professor Charles Nesson, Annie Duke, Andy Bloch, PPA honcho Michael Bolcerek, and a number cruncher who wants to run the math on billions of hands.

The WSJ’s unscientific poll is currently running 77-23 in favor of skill. Read the article and you’ll see this isn’t about rehashing old theories and debates … because really, what do you think the poll results would be if we asked: “Is life primarily a matter of skill or luck.” I am guessing 77-23 might be pretty close to the results here, too.

In the article, Lederer espouses a new talking-point argument that I hadn’t yet heard/thought of:

The “vast majority” of high-betting poker hands, he says, are decided after all players except the winner have folded. So if no one shows his cards, Mr. Lederer says, “can you legally argue that the outcome was determined by luck?”

Cool stuff — and good to see, in the ivory towers at least, a growing recognition of how some of what is currently shaking down in the poker world reaches into important future matters of internet law, international law, international business, and economics.

After his strategy session wrapped up, Prof. Nesson led the group to a bar for drinks. He was delighted, he said, at how the group “pushed game theory to the level of metaphor.” Sipping a scotch on the rocks, he tossed out the idea of creating a poker university, with himself as one of its teachers. Then, “we could infuse all levels of education with the skills that come from poker,” he said.

I’ve got a fun little speaking gig this weekend — visiting the Beth Torah men’s club to talk poker.

Last year’s appearance went well — in fact, click here if you’ve got 90 minutes to kill listening to some questionable audio — but while regaling the breakfast crowd with poker-boom lore, home-game theory, and tales from the WSOP, I did stumble on one question … “Are there any Jewish poker pros?”

“Absolutely,” I said. “A lot of them. Like, um … uh … um … oh! Barry Greenstein! He’s Jewish, right? Wait, is it GreenSTEEN or GreenSTINE? I never remember.”

Oy.

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