Still up for grabs: the vaunted poker yarmulke awarded to Last Jew Standing.

Here’s a storyline that ESPN somehow missed/didn’t feed us on the media-prep conference call … It’s a very Jewish WSOP main event final table.

The Jewish Daily Forward points out what may or may not be a statistical anomaly: Four of the November Nine — Jeff Shulman, Steve Begleiter, Eric Buchman, and Kevin Schaffel — happen to speak Hebrew, at least during family holidays.

From a stack perspective, these Jewish players control 49.6 percent of all the chips in play. How stereotypical …

The J-article also offers a rich history of Jews in the game … from Jack Strauss to Jamie Gold … and most recently Barry Shulman’s Yom Kippur victory at WSOP-E. Back in the day, of course, the World Series was all about Jews vs. Texans, but Texans have been sucking it up in recent years now the game has a more widespread international appeal that has prevented any one region from owning pwning it.

Full Disclosure: I used to make an annual pilgrimage to a Dallas synagogue in an effort to bring people with money to the Lodge convert non-gentiles to the poker way. So yeah …

ALT HED: נובמבר תשע עצה: בית על היהודים

It was a seemingly epic battle for a queen’s ransom that went well into the wee hours GMT … old-school poker in Poker’s N€w World, if you will.

And making his second consecutive go at the WSOP-E main-event title, runner-up Daniel Negreanu would come up two outs short of being “happy” that he just became the biggest winner in the history of tournament poker.

photo: The Tower / A World of Poker

Negreanu knocked out six of the other final table-ists to get heads-up. And yet in the end Barry Shulman — CardPlayer’s overlord emeritus — held strong in a war of presumably tight aggression to win £801,603 (= $1,283,687 USD). That, of course, is almost exactly the amount his son Jeff has been guaranteed for making the November Nine. No added pressure/father’s shadow issues for sure.

Negreanu’s second-place finish and £496k payday propelled him to the top of the all-time tourney-money leaderboard, passing Jamie Gold and Phil Ivey — who now needs to finish 6th-or-better this November to re-pass Negreanu as the winningest tournament player ever.

(Thanks, Lance, for the deets!)

Here’s video of the final two hands from The Casino at the Empire, Leicester Square:

(If for some reason the above vid disappears, you can find the original page here.)

For those of us debating how ESPN and PokerPROductions (a different film crew than the gang producing WSOP-LV episodes) should do their broadcasting jobs … it seems this 6-day event will be shown in 2 hours, not 20 … and that includes squeezing in the Caesar’s Cup! While that may not seem to do poker-junkie justice to a tournament that kept a bunch of us jaded, immune-to-tourney-hype types checking in on the action for more than 16 hours of final table play, I suppose movie-length could work, too.

UPDATE: Clarification of ESPN’s programming intent in the comments below (from ESPN sources who would know). They plan to give it way too much more coverage than implied above.

Click below for Nolan’s official write-up/script:

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I’m of course looking forward to whatever Dream Team Poker’s next event is … and plausibly defending Team Tao of Pokerati’s title. Seriously, having played in three Dream Team tourneys now (winning one), and taken part as either a player or analyst (?) in a few other team-concept no-limit hold’em freezeouts, I have some genuine strategy thoughts on this format … and fugk, just as much authority on it as Matt Parvis or Jamie Gold.

Anyhow, check out their rockin’ new promotional vid from the WSOP team tournament … they’ve got a few different musical varieties on their site and YouTube, but I liked this one best:

Starring Kenna James … with splash appearances by Lacey Jones, Liz Lieu, Jerry Yang, Dennis Phillips, Susie Isaacs, Alex Outhred, Barry Greenstein, David Williams, Evelyn Ng, Gavin Smith, Bryan Micon, Pam Brunson, Jose Canseco, et al.

ALT HED: Pauly Sniffs Cash

Setting foot in a casino card room for the first time since the WSOP yesterday, I did so to support my local L.A. poker spot The Bicycle Casino. The lovely Marketing Director Kelley O’Hara invited me to play in the media tournament in the brand new Event Center to kick off the month of Legends of Poker tournaments. While I opted not to play and only observed for a short time, I must say the Event Center is a vast improvement over the tournament room of the past. The spacious room is bright, welcoming, and about as elegant as Bell Gardens, California can get. Players at Legends events will be very pleasantly surprised.

Seems that about 180-200 people turned out to play in the tournament, including players like Annie Duke, Joe Reitman, Men Nguyen, and Jamie Gold. Some of the celebs spotted were Camryn Manheim and Sara Rue, along with local TV newscasters like hottie Phillip Palmer. It was no surprise that Duke took it down, though, and donated the winnings to Ante Up for Africa. (I get the feeling she’s really dedicated to that there organization.)

The Day 1c field has returned from its dinner break a few minutes ago, with two more levels to play today. The difference between this field and the first two Day 1’s is that the field as well as tomorrow’s field will play 5 two-hour levels. When Day 2a commences Tuesday, they’ll also play 5 two-hour levels, while the Day 2b field will play 4 levels. A field of 1,697 were registered today, and there’s a possibility that Monday’s Day 1d field could be sold out. If not, it will certainly be the largest Day 1 field with well about 2,300 already registered.

Notable names already eliminated: Annie Duke, Daniel Negreanu, Evelyn Ng, John Caldwell, Lacey Jones, Chino Rheem, and Jamie Gold. The unofficial leader at this time is Jeff Lisandro, looking for his 4th bracelet this year, leading the field with 132,000 in chips. Other notables with stacks include Hevad Khan (94,000), Joe Hachem (88,000), David Singer (78,000), Justin Bonomo (56,800), Brett “gank” Jungblut (51,000), Scotty Nguyen (49,000), and Dan Harrington (47,500). Other chip counts and live updates can be found at the wsop.com site here.

More updates later this evening from Team Pokerati, and another update from me in the morning recapping who’s left at the end of the night.

A few recaps while several tournaments are on their dinner breaks:

The 40th Annual $40,000 NL Holdem final table has 4 players remaining. Greg Raymer, Vitaly Lunkin, Isaac Haxton and Dani Stern make up the final four to take home nearly $2m and the first open gold bracelet of the WSOP. Ted Forrest, Noah Schwartz, Lex Veldhius, Alec Torelli and Justin Bonomo were eliminated earlier today from the final table.

Speaking of Raymer, the WSOP Champions Invitational got underway earlier this afternoon. 20 of the 25 surviving champions accepted their RSVPs to be filmed under the bright lights of the ESPN cameras. Within the first orbit, 2006 winner Jamie Gold was the first player eliminated, while 2003 winner Chris Moneymaker watched his 10,000 chip stack dwindle erode before he finally busted. Raymer was able to get a couple of hands in before returning to the $40k final table. Six more one-hour levels or until the final table of nine return Monday afternoon.

More recaps on the next page:
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One of the first “big” WSOP events will be the special, invitational Champions tourney … a non-bracelet freeroll for all previous main event champions, which will be one of only four televised ESPN events. This made-for-TV No-Limit Hold’em brouhaha — where players are competing for a shiny trophy and a red Corvette — should give the old-dog pros a chance to remind the 21st century WSOP millionaires who’s really boss … and the Varkonyis and Golds and Yangs a chance to say, “Hey, I didn’t just get lucky, Doyle Biznatch!”

27 players are eligible … and almost all have pre-registered. Bobby Baldwin ‘78 has RSVP’d in the negative. But there’s one interesting name on the list of non-confirmeds* — well actually there’re five, but one of these is not like the others … in fact, as a member of the WSOP PAC, he’s probably on Jeffrey Pollack’s speed dial:

Mansour Maltoubi ‘90
Hamid Dastmalchi ‘92
Russ Hamilton ‘94
Noel Furlong ‘99
Chris Ferguson ‘00

None of these are holdouts, from what we’re hearing … just MIA. (Though we’re not so sure the WSOP is looking that hard for Russ, because they could always give his invitation to Layne Flack.)

Wicked Chops is on the hunt for them here.

That’s the unconfirmed word on the street … despite what seemed like a semi-big win for Team Aced/Gold at Dream Team Poker … Dream Team can probably go ahead and retire that jersey set, because the new online poker site and former WSOP main event champion supposedly have broken up.

No details yet … just third-hand information over here. But I’m hearing that either Gold said hey, time to pay up and they didn’t have the cash, or Aced said, yo, Jamie, where are all those players you promised us?

Either way … assuming that some element of the above is true, is it shocking that this didn’t last?

We try not to engage in too much schadenfreude here at Pokerati, but the last post about Amarillo Slim’s efforts to restore his stature in the poker world has me contriving a poll in my head about who are/were the most undesirable people in/from poker.

Current Poker Sith Lords
Russ Hamilton — guilty til proven innocent, and with good cause.
Ernie Scherer III — he’s still innocent til proven guilty, but considering that he faces the death penalty for killing his parents to pay off poker debts — and the last 10 Google searches found on his computer were “countries that don’t extradite to the U.S.“, I think we can rest assured that he will not become a Full Tilt pro anytime soon.

Dishonorable Mentions
James McDaniel — this Dallas poker room operator was convicted of killing an ex-cop, engaged in collusion in Oklahoma (my personal observation and unproven accusation), and is currently on trial for supplying drugs to one of his railbirds who ended up OD’d-dead in a portable toilet.

Reformed Reputations
Jamie Gold
Justin Bonomo
Dutch Boyd

Jury Still Out
David Sklansky — technically crime-free, but young aspiring female players are hardly flocking to his tutelage.
Amarillo Slim — he says he’s not guilty, and his family and a lie detector now apparently agree, even though his criminal record implies otherwise.
Layne Flack — everybody seems to like Layne, but unless he’s working undercover a la Poker Brasco, hanging with Russ Hamilton surely won’t help him get sponsored by Ultimate Bet.

So who else? Really, I’m not looking for a bunch of potentially libelous name-calling … but I am looking to create a list of once and future poker bad-guys, and maybe a rating system for criminals and outcasts and offenses that may or may not attract the attention of law enforcement, but still result in scorn and contempt from fellow poker players.

Pauly is a better faster writer than I am — so it’s always good to have him in town to make me work less. Read his detailed recap of Dream Team Poker weekend here and his less-detailed first impressions here.

Likewise, over at Wicked Chops, they’ve got the Hottie Beat covered … and PokerListings has manhandled the actual tournament action.

Tao of Pokerati Dream Team teammate Shaniac has some great music to listen to while you’re waiting for more.

Meanwhile, Team Aced did their thing to keep Aced.com in the public eye as a potentially legitimate newfangled online poker room with celeb-pro representative Jamie Gold, LV poker-room man Houston Waldie, and Gold-girlfriend Ashley Nataupsky — who is still alive for the individual championship — locking up the team title earlier today.

The vibe on Day 2 (final three tables) was quite distinct from Day 1 (field of 444 playing down to 27). From an informed source on the ground at Caesar’s:

It was great. People really had to watch the standings when making plays. They might have had pot odds on a few calls, but people were laying down hands to hold. It turned into one big last longer prop bet.

With a cold coming on, I juiced up on cold medicine and headed down to Commerce Casino last night for the pre-tournament WPT Invitational cocktail party. In more of a stuffy-headed fog now, I give you a few observations from the festivities:

photo: pokergossip

William Hung was the first “celebrity” I noticed, as he arrived as soon as the red carpet was ready for action. And the poor guy was the only one from the red carpet featured by Perez Hilton today, and not featured in a particularly good way.

Food was excellent as usual, with a random assortment of Asian and Greek set-ups, along with the yum-yum appetizers floating around the room on waiters’ trays.

No DJ in the outdoor area like last year’s event, but it actually made for a more conversation-friendly atmosphere on the patio.

Wicked Chops scored seats in the tournament. I spent way too much time trying to figure out how that happened.

photo: pokergossip

Reports of the demise of the Phil Laak/Jennifer Tilly relationship were evidently untrue, as the two looked typically couple-y as usual – Jennifer in a beautiful outfit, Phil in saggy jeans and a hoodie.

Some celebrities on the “confirmed” list were no-shows, such as Camryn Manheim, Montel Williams, and Nelly. (Yes, I was more than disappointed about one of those absences!)

CORRECTION: Manheim was there, and Jen was still disappointed. -DM

Shannon Elizabeth and Derek Hough are still a couple and just as adorable as ever, with Shannon checking on Derek and his amateur poker experiences throughout the evening.

Contrary to all reports from the tournament, Antonio Esfandiari was not the first person eliminated from the tournament, as Mike “SirWatts” Watson (former WPT champion) was out of the tournament and standing with us at the bar when that announcement was made. Ouch.

New to my social radar were Mike Watson and Shane Schleger, both of whom were introduced to me by Gavin Griffin and Kristin Roberts and very nice to chat with.

Also met Jamie Gold for the first time, who was extremely friendly and psyched about his Aced Poker affiliation, though my question about his possible ownership in the company was met with the standard “details of the contract cannot be disclosed” line. Good brief chat anyway. (His calling card gives him the title “Poker Philanthropist.”)

Mekhi Phifer took the reigns during the rebuy period, grabbing the mic and encouraging players to rebuy (or even just donate) to his charity, The Vine Group, to help educational efforts in Africa. He was a great spokesperson for the organization and raised $78,270 for it, while managing to maintain his usual humble but outrageously sexy demeanor.

Where in the world is Jamie Gold these days? Maybe he’s looking for the plethora of jobs that aren’t available in Hollywood. Could be that he’s trying to develop “America’s Unemployed Hot Chicks.” But in the world of poker, he does have a gig. Bankroll Boost is reporting that Gold has signed on as a sponsored player at Aced Poker.

Say what?

Good for Gold in finding a gig in these tough times. Honestly, kudos to anyone who is securing work instead of being on the unfortunate end of losing it right now. Maybe we’ll hear more about Aced Poker in the near future, if the site decides to promote him (which they have yet to do – Aced has no mention of him on the pages of its site thus far). And come to think of it, Betfair wasn’t big until it signed Annette Obrestad and Sorel Mizzi, and Cake Poker still hasn’t signed any players to a roster but continues to gain popularity. Aced Poker is clearly trying to work its way into the upper echelon of sites in the American market by signing a recognizable name to promote it. Keep your eyes open for “Aced is Gold” and other oh-so-clever promotions.

This one will make Dan smile.

The first annual “All In for CP” charity poker tournament was held at Hollywood Park Casino in L.A. this past Sunday and is being hailed as a total success. More than $44,000 was raised for Jacob Zalewski’s One Step Closer Foundation, which helps ease the lives of those afflicted with cerebral palsy, as well as researchers seeking a cure.

Numerous celebrities and poker pros attended to make the event a success, names like Montel Williams, Shannon Elizabeth, Miguel Nunez, Jamie Gold, and Barry Greenstein. And in the end, it was The Simpsons creator and Hollywood writer/producer Dan’s man crush Sam Simon who won the tournament and donated all of the winnings back to the charity. Awww!

Congrats to Jacob for hosting his first charity tournament! Sorry I missed it, as I heard it was great fun, but hope to catch the next one…

There should be a big turnout for this one. The “All In for CP” tournament will be held on at noon Sunday, August 3rd (this weekend for the calendar-challenged) at the Hollywood Park Casino in Los Angeles. The event has been organized by Jacob Zalewski, pictured at right, who spent countless hours at the Rio during the WSOP gathering support for this tournament and his organization, the One Step Closer Foundation. The non-profit is his brainchild, and as a person who has dealt with cerebral palsy throughout his life, he hopes to raise funds to help others, as well as the researchers and scientists who are working toward a cure.

The $500 buy-in tournament (with $100 rebuys for the first 90 minutes) looks to have some famous names in the field, like Ben Affleck, Matt Damon, Mekhi Phifer, Montel Williams, Jennifer Tilly, and Norm MacDonald. It is open to the public. The only poker pro officially on board is Jamie Gold, but it is likely that others will attend, as they often do when charity events are held in the L.A. area.

A silent auction will accompany the festivities, where memorabilia will be up for bid, as well as prize packages donated by Ray Romano and Brad Garrett.

I have family (with two kids) in town this weekend, so I will not be able to attend, but my hope is that others in L.A. will go enjoy a day with the celebs for a good cause. (And if you see Mekhi there, take photos please.) For more info, visit the official website.

Not just for gamblers, of course … that wouldn’t be news. I’m sayin’ genuine free booze — specifically Stoli Bueberi, at iBar, just a few steps further yonder from the hooker bar, from 6-9 pm. It’s all part of a pretty cool traveling daily Las Vegas happy hour. Just thought some of you/Jamie Gold might wanna know.

The 4th of July holiday certainly put a damper on the size of day 1b, as a disappointing 1,158 showed up to play at noon today. Pauly notes that some country music singer did the Star Spangled Banner and some sort of flag ceremony was attempted that didn’t go as planned. The players are currently on their dinner break, with about 850 remaining. Among those whose dream is over: Kenny Tran, Ram Vaswani, Orel Hershiser, Jamie Gold, Greg Raymer, Tuan Le, Ted Forrest, Daniel Negreanu, among many others. The early chip leader appears to be Patrik Antonius, with Robert Mizrachi, Erick Lindgren, Vanessa Rousso, and 2007 ME final tablist Philip Hilm near the top of the leaderboard. Follow the progress when they return on the WSOP.com website here.

More updates as they warrant…

At the moment my background music is Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith on Spike the main event of the 2007 WSOP (Episode 4, part 2 of 5 according to YouTube):

It’s actually the first time I’ve seen this episode — if that tells you anything about the immediacy or lack thereof attached to current WSOP broadcasts … and it prominently features/follows Jamie Gold. Pretty impressed with how ESPN handled his storyline, and Gold does a pretty good job explaining the Crispin Leyser lawsuit … well enough that I start empathize for just a moment until Norman Chad follows up with a reminder of why he may not have had many supporters regardless.

(About 2:00 in.)

Just got word over the poker satellite that Gregg Merkow and Jamie Gold are currently engaged in some high stakes action — $50/$100 NLH with a $200 straddle. I can only presume in Tunica, where there’s a WSOP Circuit main event and a big WPT event going right next to each other. Don’t know who’s got what kinda stacks in front of them, but you know who we’re rooting for … 2008 baby, it feels good to run good!

LAS VEGAS–This post woulda been much more timely and sensible had it appeared a week ago, but hey, sometimes what happens in Vegas takes a little while before it becomes public. Anyhow, the last day of the World Series is the point where all unofficial media outlets have to take a back seat in terms of coverage. Understandable considering that, for the first time in nearly seven weeks, all eyes are focussed on a single table … and it just won’t be possible for all interested parties to sit ringside until Brobdingnagian dominance forces Harrah’s to make structural changes to the TV stage.

So that left most of us doing what you were doing … following some rather exciting coverage of a relatively unexciting, straightforward final table on PokerNews while listening to play-by-play on Bluff Radio (which was being piped into the media room) while watching live-camera coverage on a flat-screen monitor.

The media room, anytime there was an all-in and a call. CardPlayer decides not to run with the hedline: ESPN blogger violates Rio chair-standing policy

Actually, large-scale LCD screens were sprinkled throughout the hallways and the Amazon itself, so we could watch the overhead cam pretty much anywhere we went. We just couldn’t camp out for more than a few minutes near the real action. But that was fine by me, because we’ll all get to see The Jerry Yang Show soon enough on TV, and the World Series really is about so much more than just poker. As it turned out, there was lots of fun stuff going on away from the table that provided a little insight into how the poker industry really works …

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LAS VEGAS–They’re down to four players … and Tom Schneider is the short stack with 320k. (But he’s hardly in desperate straits.) Interestingly enough, we are thinking this HORSE event might be the oldest final table (on average) of any others at the WSOP. Not an internet whiz-kid in sight.

Remember, if you want to call Tom to leave him a message of encouragement, or ask him to borrow money, the number is 888-820-8091.

And to follow his action semi-live, keep refreshing here. By the way, BJ Nemeth is the correspondent PokerNews has assigned to this event, and he’s one of — if not the very — best. Below is what he can tell you about the quality of Tom’s competition.

UPDATE: Tom is out — 4th place, $54,913. Bummer, but awesome. Nice job, Tommy boy! One of his WSOP goals was to make three final tables. He’s well on his way to succeeding on that one. And with the payout, he’s made up for his new-bracelet losses to Jamie Gold at the Venetian! Wonder if Tom will see this event simply as a satellite the big-big HORSE tourney (event #39).

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I spoke with both David Levi and Steve Wong this evening for their updates which you can view on CardPlayer. David was not excited about ending day1 with 25k in chips but worked hard to finish today with 230,000k in chips and Steve Wong is rocking the Fontana in 4th with 476,000 bones! They both humbly said they were feeling good about their play but knew they had a long way to go. Two of my favorite Bellagio Sports Bar friends Amir Vahedi & Freddie Deeb are tied for 23rd with 240,000 in chips.

The Donkey Bomber is not only in 14th place tonight but CardPlayer even mentioned his name! Go Tom, more from you Dan/Karridy.

Fellow Houstonians, Sammy Farha is 9th with 345,000 and John “whadayagonnado boys” Bonnetti is hanging in there with 30k.

Other notables still in are Joe Sebok, Phil Ivey, Lyle Berman, Andy Black, Tran and Chan and Barney Boatmaaaan. But leading the pack is one of the greatest players in the world, Phil Hellmuth with 528,100 (don’t lose that 100 dollar chip, Phil).

Sadly Marcel Luske, Gavin Smith, Joe Bartholdi (who told me Friday he was ready to play this tournament) and Doyle Brunson have been eliminated.

And last but not least…The Ladies or as Wicked Chops Poker would say…crazy bitches.
Newcomer Anna Wroblewski leads the women with 350,000 in 7th place with Vanessa Rousso behind her in 53rd stacking up 115,000. Other ladies holding their own are Isabelle Mercier, Melissa Hayden, Erica Schoenberg, Jennifer Harman, Liz Lieu (who won her seat in a satellite), Kathy Liebert and Kristy Gazes.

Good luck to all and to all a good night.

The reigning WSOP Main Event Champ, Jamie “Kid Pyrite” Gold, is up to his tricks again, this time at the $25,000 Main Event at the Five Star World Poker Classic. Seriously, when is this guy gonna learn?

From: CardPlayer

Jamie Gold’s Breach of Etiquette
With a board showing AQ8, the player in seat 2 bets $2,000. Following a conversation about playing styles, Jamie Gold says, “Respect” to the player in seat 2 and exposes the A and mucks his hand. The player in seat 9 shrugs his shoulders as he has yet to act. Upon realizing his breach of etiquette, Gold apologizes numerous times. The player in seat 9 responds by re-raising $6,000. The player in seat 2 folds and Jamie Gold asks the table if he is allowed to play properly again.

I might be willing to give him a little slack, but he’s been turning over bluffs to Tuan Le all night. My new theory: Jamie is a woman.

Requires tremendous amounts of attention
Able to nag you into submission
Pixie nose
Unisex name

Okay… I can’t say much about the name. But there are no girl Karridy’s… That I know of.

Update Before I could even publish this, I see that Tuan Le doubled through Pyrite. Love the semi-instant kharma!

Wow, I don’t even know where to begin on this WSOP press release. So does this mean it’s true that in the World Series you can lie about your hand, but not tell the truth?

Reigning World Series Of Poker® Champion Jamie Gold
Won’t Face Retroactive Penalty For Rules Infractions

LAS VEGAS – March 28, 2007 – The World Series of Poker will not penalize reigning WSOP World Champion Jamie Gold for two rules infractions that occurred during the 2006 WSOP Main Event.

In a recent interview with The New York Times, Gold said that in one incident he exposed a hole card to an opponent. He said that in the other incident he told an opponent he held top pair and top kicker after the opponent had bet. While common in cash games, such actions are violations of WSOP tournament rules.

Under the 2006 WSOP rules, Gold would have been subject to a penalty requiring him to sit out 10 minutes of play – if WSOP floor persons had seen either of those incidents when they occurred. The rules for the 2007 WSOP call for a 10-hand rather than 10-minute penalty.

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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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Like way more … and hence the power of a net-savvy poker media willing to “upset” a poker player. Seriously, maddest props to RawVegas.tv as they continue to kick some technological, pseudojournalistic ass …

In this video, Jamie Gold finally gets real — or at least semi-real — acknowledging that he is not a “great” player, he definitely got lucky, and making himself subject to the Crispin Leyser lawsuit may have been bad form.

“I really screwed some things up,” Gold says. “There [were] several times where as the guys from Wicked Chops so aptly put it, that I basically monkey-fucked a football when it came to handling my success.”

Awesome. Jamie Gold is my new best friend. Now all he has to do is say about 1 million Hail Marys and he can go on to being a real ambassador for the game.

Trying to clean up the place for a few new bloggers has left so much poker news passing us by. So in no particular order of importance, you might be curious to know:

CHARLES BARKLEY had a good weekend in Las Vegas, pocketing $700k on mostly blackjack. No word on where he played or how much he was betting per hand.

The first WSOP poker-bloggy marriage is set to go down, between the “all over the place!” JEN LEO and Stone Temple Pilots roadie-cum-PokerNews editor JOHN CALDWELL. Word spread via AMY C … should make for a festive Day 1B of the WSOP main event.

JAMIE GOLD has settled his case with CRISPIN LEYSER — no more lawsuit for the $6 mil … they’re gonna chop the pot instead. We’ll try to find out for how much, but clearly neither was going to win at this point, and any two SEMI-SERIOUS poker players can see the folly of letting LAWYERS take such a high rake in a heads-up match.

There’s an interesting tournament going on at THE BIKE … the $10,000 Poker Netcast HEADS-UP CHALLENGE. GAVIN SMITH sucked out hard on CLONIE (J7 vs AJ — 7 on the turn, 7 on the river) to knock her out.

Hey, check it out … a new generation of NEGREANU FANS are being bred educated at CANADIAN universities.

Despite CALVIN AYRE’s semi-fugitive status in the US, the COSTA RICAN billionaire is fixin’ to bring BODOG to AMERICAN TV starting next week.

By the way, what does the United States National SOCCER TEAM love to do while traveling? They play poker. (Or shall we say Pele poker?)

A PENNSYLVANIA JURY decides it’s not right to bust out of a poker game and return to shoot people. Duly noted.

THE WSOP CIRCUIT main event is underway in COUNCIL BLUFFS, IOWA. Pokerati finds it interesting that the WSOP in (what is essentially) OMAHA has no Omaha.

Note to self: WIN MORE. Lose less.

An interesting outline for HOW TO TAX online gambling from our good friends in HUNGARY. Summation: Take 30 percent.

Not surprisingly, LAWYERS with expertise in gambling are a hot commodity these days.

And anti-online gambling laws aren’t stopping Americans from trying to gamble online. Just ask SCANSAFE, a company that blocks employees of other companies from pissing off online while at work. (Looking at Karridy.)

COLLEGE KIDS at SYRACUSE are saying the same thing … they can’t be stopped!

But here’s a good article that looks into the hard-number connections between online gambling and TERRORISM.

The LA TIMES has a good op-ed on the ridiculousness of preventing wagers on the SUPER BOWL — more than $5 BILLION slipped through unchecked hands untaxed, experts say.

And here’s a quick little item that shows how/why US ATTORNEYS are trying to draw a connection between online betting and Al Qaeda-suited.

That should be enough for now. But as always, there’s more TK.

Oh, wait, almost forgot … Starting tomorrow, you are supposed to BOYCOTT online poker through SUNDAY. Oh, wait, no you’re not.

Haley reports over at PokerNews that Bodog has ended its (reportedly $20 million) deal with standing WSOP champ Jamie Gold. Pokerati would like to think the forced blueberries-schtick had something to do with it, but really, it probably had just as much to do with Calvin Ayre’s continued American pull-out. (Thanks, Ed, for the link!)

Should be interesting to see who, if anyone, picks him up. Like seriously, I gotta think it’s hard for just about any American to pick up a new online sponsorship these days, let alone one who is hard to root for.

I missed the first segment of the premiere of High Stakes Poker: the third season. But lo and behold, the guys over at Wicked Chops have just that much! Can we say perfect?

Check it out yourself:

You’ll see Jamie Gold betting into Doyle Brunson’s nuts on the very first hand. The game starts out tough. And Gabe Kaplan, he refers to the Matusow shirt I dug as something from a “gay beer garden.” And at the end of the above video, he even talks about the fashion trend sure to be started by Jamie Gold’s square of tape. (Dude, Gabey, we are so in sync! We should be together. Love, Stan.)

Question: do you think GSN sees the airing of their episodes on YouTube as good (free advertising/promotion) or bad (copyright infringement)? Mark Cuban, of course, wants to know.

So wow, I almost forgot! Today [ed note: last night] is the premiere of “High Stakes Poker: the Third Season” on GSN. I can’t believe Sang’s missing this! (He’s on an unexpected date with a stripper right now.) This show is clearly the best poker on TV right now — and there’s been a tantalizing little buzz about what’s in store for this go-round. Real people we want to get to know. Real poker we want to play.

At tonight’s table (clockwise): Doyle Brunson, Mike Matusow, Jamie Gold, Daniel Alaei, Sean Sheikhan, Victor Ramdin, William Chen.

8:11 pm — Hmm, my guess is that everybody is gunning for Jamie Gold, and America can’t wait to see him get torn to bits … both poker-wise and personality-wise. Yep, that’s what this episode has got to be about. He knows it, and most of us know he knows it … and presumably he knows we know he knows it.

8:13 pm — Hmm, I think I like Matusow’s Guayabera … white, with flowery-red vertical lines. Gotta get me one of those.

8:14 pm — Ooh, Bill Chen … awesome. Yep, he looks the most out of place at this table. Remember that super-smart, super-dorky Asian math whiz who tried to tell particle physics jokes in high school? Like that guy … right down to the glasses and clump of hair at the back of his head that defies the square root of gravity times pi.

8:15 pm — I bet Chen knows pi to way more digits than Doyle Brunson.

8:15 pm — The way they have the logo, with “the third season” written in a smaller font below, suggests that High Stakes Poker is going for a “Six Feet Under” vibe.

8:19 pm — Jamie Gold is wearing a black hat with a logo covered up by a square of black tape. Looks kinda cool! You know, that should be a knew hipster fashion thing … hats with an “insignia” consisting of a patch of tape (or fabric) the same color as the hat itself. What a statement! Commentary on corporate legal interests in the age of TV-celebrity narcissism and untested internet laws. It could be like the new Malcolm X hat. Genius.

More…

Kudos to CardPlayer for stepping up their poker journalism a tad. Their current cover story is a Playboy-style interview with WSOP champ Jamie Gold, and in it they don’t try to pretend he’s not a controversial character with questionable poker values.

B+

In the interview, he addresses the presence of bodyguards — you are welcome to believe or not believe his claims that there were Nancy Kerrigan-style threats. (I am pretty sure I heard someone in the hallway scream, “I’m gonna kill that motherfucker!”) He also — scroll down to the end — directly addresses his dealer tip, or lack thereof … claiming that everyone who deserves something will get theirs, but he never attached a number to it. Well done, Michael Friedman, for getting him to address these topics.

But the one issue not discussed was his lawsuit with Crispin Leyser. And that’s where CardPlayer gets docked significant points.

I’m pretty sure Jamie’s “people” set up the interview only on the grounds that he wouldn’t be asked about the $6 million he may or may not owe Leyser. Fair enough … it’s common for subjects of lawsuits not to want to comment on pending litigation. But they can’t prevent you, as in CardPlayer, from writing about it! Ask Allyn … she’ll tell you … lawsuits are a public records, and therefore the media has every right to address them in pretty much whatever capacity they see fit. At a minimum, CP shoulda printed something in the story acknowledging the basis of the lawsuit and any interview restrictions pertaining to it. Or, legally speaking, they coulda just agreed to whatever with Jamie Gold and then renegged on the deal.

Oops, I knew that couldn’t be everything:

The IRS just got underway with its PRIORITY GUIDANCE PLAN. One of the things that will be discussed over the next year are new rules pertaining to poker tournament winnings.

Some colleges are banning laptops in class — in part because of internet poker play. (Perhaps SHANNON SHORR is doing the right thing by quitting school and JEFF MADSEN is a sucker?)

Local and FEDERAL authorities worked together to raid a couple poker games in ALASKA last week.

The first hearing in the CRISPIN LEYSER vs. JAMIE GOLD lawsuit takes place in LAS VEGAS on friday.

DANIEL CRAIG, the new JAMES BOND, apparently likes poker — and we are supposed to give a shit.

(Doesn’t he know that, thanks to JAMIE GOLD and DREW BARRYMORE, Hollywood poker is like so 2004/05? Just ask BEN AFFLECK.)

Here’s more NON-POKER media on the legal struggles we all face. And here’s a story about the new lives of online poker felons in WASHINGTON STATE.

All this while prosecutors in COLUMBUS, OHIO NEBRASKA are reconsidering the legality of amateur poker games in bars — in part thanks to some money-wielding players at a golf course.

And SOUTH KOREA’s prime minister is apologizing for letting gambling in his country run amuck and hurt the low-income earners. HAN MYEONG-SOOK, however, does not include live poker as part of the problem.

LAS VEGAS–Johnny Chan has been trying to help his super-stacked protege Jamie Gold win. And right now he’s reportedly a little perturbed that Gold has been taking on Allen Cunningham in the wrong way. Steve Rosenblum reports that Chan has supplied Gold with info on a big Allen Cunningham tell, one that he may or may not have failed to exploit.

(I think … am a little confused, because the tell Rosenbloom references would require Gold to go into the tank to pick up on. But apparently Chan wants Gold to put Cunningham to the test … which is pretty much straight-up poker, of course.)

LAS VEGAS–So everyone is talking Jamie Gold. He’s been dominating since Day 3. Turns out there’s an interesting story on how he got into the game. He’s Johnny Chan’s agent, of course — we all know that — and the inspiration for some character on “Entourage,” a show I don’t watch. (But all that leads me to believe he might be an asshole.) Anyhow, he was negotiating with Bodog to get some celebrities seats. As part of the negotiation, he wanted two seats — one for himself and one for a friend.

This is where my info gets a little foggy, but basically he got one seat … and I’m not sure how he and his buddy figured out how who got to play, but in the end, he took the seat … and now, of course, is guaranteed multiple millions.

But he’s only got half of himself. The other half of whatever he wins will go to — inside sources say — WPT Boot Camp instructor Crispin Leyser.