Tao of Fear — Pauly steps away from poker and Phish to take on the real world, a place that turns out to be filled with (very real) mayhem, foreigners, and death … and that’s just Wall Street pre-Libya! There’s a fine line between current events and conspiracy theory … a few pills and maybe a shot of whiskey, too.

Bill’s Blog and Hardboiled Poker — two of the more thoughtful poker blogs out there … well-informed, and always adding something new to the conversation. I never link to Bill Rini or Shamus enough … but hey, following either of these guys is kinda like a subscription to the New Yorker … so much good stuff, just near-impossible to keep up. I have about eight specific posts from each of them waiting to be written up, but usually about 2/3 through, one of them produces a missive that makes me realize the pedantic flaws in whatever I was originally thinking.

Poro Report 2011 — kinda like Drudge, or actually a lot like Drudge … a well-culled link-dump directing you to the most current and relevant bits of poker news and industry convo harvested from around the internet.

LV Fashion Report — Some new sassy blogger chick’s take on Vegas people and all their outerwear is trying to suggest. (With a few sneak peaks at new Vegas properties, too.) I’m pretty sure “Kate Couture” isn’t her real name, but I think I’ve seen her running around Panorama Towers … so obviously she’s got insight into the most pea-cocky of poker players.

J Gary Wise — my fellow 2x award-winning Poker Beat sparring partner seems to be swimming with craziness these days without TPB to give him a wild-rant fix — (I know the feeling) — and thus the ESPN columnist has been spewing out original, semi-intelligent content rather fierce. Sometimes pokery, sometimes not, but either way, Gary is still Gary, and therefore sure to at some point make you wanna punch him.

A Year of Culinary Curiousity — Former Pokerati contrib Jen Newell has a new non-poker blog … about food and cooking and edible bad beats. In a way, it is kinda like a poker blog, as Jen tries to move up in stakes and hone her kitchen game — skill and luck determining results. Glad she decided against calling the site All You Can Eat, Baby!

The Maven Training — If you’re not maximizing your return at the tables, you’re playing suboptimal poker, leaving profits behind. Whether you prefer cash games or tournaments, live or online, be the best at your table by training with accomplished pros. Next boot camp: March 4-6. 10% Pokerati discount here.

(Also, by standing on such principles, I didn’t have to tell Tom he had a more promising future in selling pants than trying to qualify for the TOC.)

However, because the Maven Awards presumably isn’t looking to open an online poker room in the near future, and because, frankly, I was feeling bad for women in poker after the punk-bitch episodes in this year’s WSOP-Ladies event … I decided to give up my IP address to support the cause … somebody’s cause … in a way that seems like a good step toward someday negating the need for a separate Women in Poker Hall of Fame.

Much to my plausibly noble delight, it turns out The Maven Awards has an anonymous voting option that still does a decent job of preventing blatant ballot stuffing. (I tried; would require too much work for me to vote twice.)

I’m not sure when their voting deadline is, but it’s gotta be soon … so I encourage you to get your votes in, too, by voting here. Below are whom I voted for in each of the 14 categories and why:

Best Role Model for Women in Poker Award
Jennifer Harman
Kathy Liebert
Annie Duke

Ooh, tough one right off the top. There’s little not to like about Jen, but I’m not so sure I’d want my daughter aspiring to become such a high-stakes professional gambler — too many potential negatives that go with living in what can be a rather cold, hardcore world.

Kathy … she knows I have mad respect for her game and generally feel she deserves more props. But again to my imaginary offspring … I’d think my daughter some day should know a bit more about effectively shaking her moneymaker … not necessarily in a skanky ho-jiggle way, but to allow her to use whatever that moneymaker for her might be to her best advantage.

Annie … likewise, I think she’s a true and accomplished leader who wouldn’t be thought of as so bitchy if she were male. But hey, just as women have the advantages of sex appeal to work with, they also must bear the cross of maneuvering through a world where men often see strength from females as a negative … and sometimes not without reason.

So Jen Harman gets the nod here. If that theoretical daughter were going to choose a life of high-stakes Vegas poker — I’d prefer she not, but hey, it’s better than stripping — then indeed, I’d hope she could do it with both grace and prowess, to which Jen Harman serves as a fine role model.

Woman in the Poker Industry Who Has Excelled in Encouraging or Promoting Women in Poker Award
Linda Johnson
Kathy Raymond
Lupe Soto

Wordy category … But clear and easy winner here in Linda Johnson. Kathy has also done impressive stuff at the Venetian, but not with any specific female-empowering focus. Lupe maybe someday, but not yet.

Most Female Friendly Online Poker Room Award
Full Tilt Poker
PokerStars
Maria Poker

Maybe the cutthroat way Full Tilt looked to bury Clonie is just testament to their commitment to equal treatment for men and women alike. But regardless … have never heard of Maria Poker, and Stars has often promoted women as strong and viable players without resorting to hoochie-mama tactics.

Most Female Friendly Poker Room Award
The Venetian, Las Vegas
The Borgata, Atlantic City
The Bicycle, California

Clearly couldn’t be the Bike. Have never played at the Borgata. Easy vote for The Venetian, which isn’t just a great poker room, but one that never seems to have a shortage of female players, many of them plenty cute. Kathy Raymond must be doing something right to make sure these players like it there.

Overall Best Tournament Series Award
World Series of Poker
PokerStars Caribbean Adventure
The Borgata Open

Another easy one … women love the WSOP, and the WSOP loves its lady players.

Best Ladies Only Poker Tournament or Series Award
High Heels PokerTour
WSOP Ladies Tournament
Pokerstars EPT Ladies Events

Same as above. WSOP-Ladies … the House that Linda Johnson and Jennifer Tilly built?

High Heels might be a good one, but those Ladies-Only Tourney League/Series ops can be pretty cutthroat in their efforts to corner the Y-less chromosome sector of the poker market. Not really sure how HHPT plays. EPT-Ladies events are probably really good, but for all their action, don’t recall any EPT-Ladies-specific tourneys — whether via overall field size or impressive final table — resulting in something that made me take note.

Most Appealing Poker Marketing Campaign to Women Award
Australian Poker League
Vanessa Rousso Bootcamps
Pokerica Ladies Team

What, no Victory Poker here? Vanessa Rousso does really good work with her boot camps, I’ve seen from afar, and don’t know anything about the other two.

Most Encouraging Poker Forum Award
Twoplustwo.com
Cardrunners.com
LuvinPoker.com

Ack-gag-bleh! “Encouraging”? Why do you ladies even care about that kinda nonsense? You talk such a big sisterhood group-love game, but aren’t forums more a place for the claws-out back-stabbing realities of poker chickdom?

But OK, so you want encouraging … 2+2 obviously doesn’t belong — they don’t encourage anybody (which is probably why so many uber-poker-geeky dudes like the place). CardRunners is a current advertiser … and I’ve never seen anything disrespectful to women in their world.

LuvinPoker is a former advertiser (who presumably woulda been happy to continue on had Pokerati not made a recent decision to sever relationships with online poker sites). I’ve heard many stories specifically about how “supportive” their little group of players were in their forums, but it all sounded rather small and newbie.

Slight edge to CardRunners, for keeping a lady-friendly environ in a significant sector of the poker world.

Favorite Blogger or Author Award
Kate Dozier
Gary Wise
Jennifer Newell

Hmm, another potentially biased ballot, in a category featuring the lone male nominee. You can’t exactly consider Gary Wise a party-crasher akin to the shemale ladies-event players. They chose him … for some reason, so my pal and Poker Beat cohort must be a really standout good-for-women type of writer. But Jen is also a friend, and someone who’s helped this site a lot over the years as a blogger … AND who has turned into an admirable blogger in her own right.

Her gung-ho leftie politics may drive me to tilt, but I can’t let that get in the way of acknowledging that she deserves the nod for effectively pushing buttons on women-in-poker-related isues. Also snicker at the conflict of principles the mere existence of these awards would present for her (and Annie Duke) if Gary Wise weren’t a nominee.

Humanitarian Award
Liz Lieu
Annie Duke
Linda Johnson

Clear winner. Celebrity Apprentice and Ante-Up for Africa alone should be plenty by all measure. Inspiring women while shepherding the future of poker for everyone is nice (Linda) … and Liz doesn’t seem to be volunteering her time and resources on the ground for charitable efforts in Vietnam with accolades in mind. But making a needle-moving contribution to combatting genocide and oppression — on a scale noteworthy in a non-poker world … that’s gotta get the prize this go-round.

See conflict of principles bonus described above, too!

Most Notable Performance of 2009 Award
Annette Obrestad
Kathy Liebert
Vanessa Rousso

Another tough call. And though it may be my knowledge weakness not recalling the specifics of Annette’s or Kathy’s recent wins (think Kathy won a non-main event at Borgata?) … Vanessa’s win runner-up at the National Heads-Up Championship is what I insta-remember, which has to mean it is the most notable.

CORRECTION: Vanessa got 2nd, not first. Maybe a lucky ballot for her.

(And what about Daphne Turner, the woman who beat Allen Kessler heads-up to become the first two-ring woman on the WSOP-Circuit?)

Top Female Media Personality Award
Kara Scott
Michelle Orpe
Linda Johnson

A tweet from Kara is what prompted me to vote and do this post. I’ve met her a couple times and she seems nice, too. A heart-worthy media personality for the Web 2.0 generation, for sure.

Notable Upcoming Female Poker Player of 2009 Award
Annette Obrestad
Amanda de Cesare
Vanessa Selbst

NAPT-Mohegan Sun = notable by definition. Go Annette, but Selbst making moves on the table without the help of media and PR consultants. Seems appropriate, too, that poker should have a female bad-ass capable of appealing to fans of the WTA, LPGA, and WNBA. Hope Vanessa can get to that level of import in the world of power-fem competition.

Outstanding Professional Player of 2009 Award
Vanessa Rousso
Kathy Liebert
Liz Lieu

There we go … finally one that easily goes to Kathy. She’s an all-poker poker pro’s poker pro … putting up consistent and ongoing results year after year, including 2009 and 2010. So it doesn’t matter where the year this awards is honoring begins and ends … she should be the winner in this category for sure.

So there you have it … one Pokerati editor’s ballot that means no more no less than any other … with probably way too much explanation of why I believe some finalists are more deserving than others … of an honor that hasn’t yet proven itself of any real merits, but could play a relevant role in poker should these accolades go to the right winners over time.

Again, you can vote (anonymously if you wish) for the who’s who of poker females here.

It’s a voting thing (give your email address to everyone!) … and you can cast your vote online here.

Special props and encouraged ballot-stuffing on behalf of former Pokerati contrib Jen Newell and current Poker Beat cohort Gary Wise, who is the only male nominee in the whole contest. (How pissed must BJ be to not get that nod?) They are duking it out in the Favorite Blogger or Author category, while our pals at LuvinPoker and CardRunners are also facing off for the Most Encouraging Poker Forum Award.

Click below for more deets about the honours — what, no special Courage Award for Clonie? — and a full list of contenders in what some might call a great big catfight on behalf of poker grace.

Voting Starts for Poker Maven Awards

Woman Poker Player Magazine is pleased to announce the official nominees for the Maven Awards 2010. The Maven Awards were announced in February this year and were created to recognize the achievements of women in poker both on and off the felt on a global scale. This is the inaugural year of the awards.

“I would like to congratulate everyone who was nominated for an award, and to thank everyone who spent time and their thoughts to enter their nominations.” said Maryann Morrison, Managing Editor of Woman Poker Player Magazine. “I found it interesting that the comments on the category for the most appealing marketing campaign to women were that many found current marketing campaigns derogatory and condescending to women. I hope that the Maven Awards will assist in turning that around.”

Each category of the Maven Awards has three official nominees named. These nominees were chosen based on number of nominations received from the over 3,000 nominations made. Voting begins the afternoon of June 1 and can be made at mavenawards.com until September 30th, 2010. Further details on the presentations of the awards will be made public once they are available.

“I am very excited about the potential of the awards to heighten the profile of women in poker, as well as having the industry start thinking about making additional efforts to cater to the women who enjoy poker. As we have seen already this year, more women are winning major tournaments then ever before. I hope many people submit their votes to show their support for the accomplishments of the nominees.”

Some categories of the Maven Awards are based on answers that are female only, other categories were for mixed venues, portals, or people with the goal of recognizing those who went out of their way to make women feel comfortable in poker, or that helped women to excel in poker.

Gary Wise, who is the sole male nominee this year, had this to say about his Maven Award nomination. “”It’s such a privilege to be nominated. I’ve always felt that women have a more prominent place at the table awaiting them in the future and I’m hopeful that this nomination is a reflection of that attitude coming through in my work. Thanks to everyone who nominated me!”

Maven Awards 2010 Official Nominee List in no particular order

Best Role Model for Women in Poker Award
Jennifer Harman
Kathy Liebert
Annie Duke

Woman in the Poker Industry Who Has Excelled in Encouraging or Promoting Women in Poker Award
Linda Johnson
Kathy Raymond
Lupe Soto

Most Female Friendly Online Poker Room Award
Full Tilt Poker
PokerStars
Maria Poker

Most Female Friendly Poker Room Award
The Venetian, Las Vegas
The Borgata, Atlantic City
The Bicycle, California

Overall Best Tournament Series Award
World Series of Poker
PokerStars Caribbean Adventure
The Borgata Open

Best Ladies Only Poker Tournament or Series Award
High Heels PokerTour
WSOP Ladies Tournament
Pokerstars EPT Ladies Events

Most Appealing Poker Marketing Campaign to Women Award
Australian Poker League
Vanessa Rousso Bootcamps
Pokerica Ladies Team

Most Encouraging Poker Forum Award
Twoplustwo.com
Cardrunners.com
LuvinPoker.com

Favorite Blogger or Author Award
Kate Dozier
Gary Wise
Jennifer Newell

Humanitarian Award
Liz Lieu
Annie Duke
Linda Johnson

Most Notable Performance of 2009 Award
Annette Obrestad
Kathy Liebert
Vanessa Rousso

Top Female Media Personality Award
Kara Scott
Michelle Orpe
Linda Johnson

Notable Upcoming Female Poker Player of 2009 Award
Annette Obrestad
Amanda de Cesare
Vanessa Selbst

Outstanding Professional Player of 2009 Award
Vanessa Rousso
Kathy Liebert
Liz Lieu

For more information, please see http://www.mavenawards.com. Sponsorship opportunities available.

-30-

Here’s the full final table results, with the edited final table coverage on ESPN2 May 10th at 10pm ET:

1 – Vanessa Selbst, $750,000
2 – Mike Beasley, $428,000
3 – Mike Woods, $240,000
4 – Scott Seiver, $190,000
5 – Alistar Melville, $150,000
6 – Derek Raymond, $115,000
7 – Cliff Josephy, $85,000
8 – Jonathan Aguiar, $60,244

Seat 1: Daniel Clemente (1,345,000)
Seat 2: Sam Stein (6,145,000)
Seat 3: Thomas Fuller (4,735,000)
Seat 4: “Miami” John Cernuto (1,300,000)
Seat 5: Yunus Jamal (3,940,000)
Seat 6: David Paredes (4,700,000)
Seat 7: Tom “kingsofcards” Marchese (2,370,000)
Seat 8: Eric Blair (1,690,000)

On Thursday, the final table of the $25,000 High Roller Bounty Invitational Shootout will play out, also scheduled to start at 2pm PT. Here’s the final table, with the number of $5,000 bounties each collected:

Scott Seiver (6)
Hoyt Corkins (4)
Faraz Jaka (4)
Joe Cassidy (4)
Brett Richey (3)
Peter Eastgate (2)
Ashton Griffin (2)

Each player earned $75,000 for winning their table, with the last man standing on Thursday pocketing $455,000 in the winner-take-all format. All seven players are also eligible to win an additional $100,000 from PokerStars.net for having the most bounties.

For those looking to follow the action, check out www.pokerstarsblog.com w/ ShortStack Shamus, Jennifer Newell and Otis, or the live reporting over at PokerNews.

The episode, entitled “Fold Equity” has the following synopsis:

Lightman, Foster (Kelli Williams) and Reynolds (Mekhi Phifer) go to Las Vegas to help locate a missing finalist in the World Series of Poker. Lightman uses his skills to reach beyond the other finalists’ poker faces to figure out which one knows about the disappearance. Meanwhile, Loker (Brendan Hines) and Torres (Monica Raymund) analyze Loker’s new relationship and as a result get closer to each other.

For those who miss the episode, you can catch it on Fox’s site or over at Hulu.com on Tuesday.

CORRECTION: The WSOP episode airs next Monday, not tonight.

6:50pm Update: Mekhi is nursing a shortstack with 16 players left, only the final table of 6 gets paid in this tournament.

In the first go-round of the Run Good Challenge, the guys hosting the event dominated. Oops, not very hospitable. But they rolled the money over and then the ladies started winning, including Change100′s victory in the Grand Final. But in event #1 of Run Good Challenge 2: Electric Boogaloo, the one only semi-employed male in the field with firsthand memories of Bobby Riggs losing to Billie Jean King took it down — kudos to Dr. Tim for making a stand on behalf of chubby white bald men who, frankly, needed the inspiration to know, Yes We Can!

The Shrink won $600 for his Sunday-morning skills, fending off attacks from his writing partner Amy Calistri ($300) and longtime Pokerati fave Michele Lewis ($100).

California Jen, Liz Lieu, and Lacey Jones apparently missed the starting bell, but yours truly woke up to his PokerStars alarm this time — seriously, you get a rousing beep on the first hand if you register for the tourney pre-sleep and leave Stars running overnight — but couldn’t get his head fully in the game before pushing all-in with his Q3o vs. the eventual winner’s Q8s (on a flop of Q-8-x) … damn, finished 11th out of 14, which seems about right for how I played almost into Level 2.

After all, it’s not like there’s not gonna be another Day 1 tomorrow, and the next day, and the next … I think you folks can survive for just a little bit. Probably can’t say as much for all the Day 1A players, but still …

Anyhow, so yes, content … sorry for the lack thereof and sorry for the blog-cliche post about being sorry. There’s still plenty going on out there that the poker-minded populace shouldmaybe care about, regardless of my personal battle against homelessness.

As we know, the US is currently trying to figure out how to enforce the UIGEA — the AMERICAN BANKS say they can’t really do it — so now, instead of rewriting our own bad laws, we are pressuring the UK to change theirs.

And here’s an article about EL PASO’S rich gambling history – underground or not — over the past 100+ years, starting with a mayor in 1895 known as “Poker Bob” Campbell.

A NEW BLOG (to me) I am now following semi-regularly: David Matthews’ Gambling in Space.

Through him, I learned about FRANK GAGLIARDI, a California Lottery winner who also likes to gamble and recently won his very relevant (to me and you) court case vs. the IRS:

If this case stands, then it could effectively rewrite tax law and make it easier for gamblers to report losses and more difficult for the IRS to go after gamblers.

BALLY TECHNOLOGY also won a pretty big case in court — against SHUFFLE MASTER, which up to this point has maintained an expensive stranglehold on the automatic shufflers you see in poker tables.

And CALIFORNIA JEN may have loved the poker mockumentary THE GRAND, but not everybody did.

Crap, that’s hardly everything, but I have to run …

She’ll be giving a press conference with details about the feat shortly, I am sure.

Their topic for one hour will be the Absolute Poker cheating scandal — which isn’t going away, as much as a lot of folks probably wish it would. (Jen has been all over it for PPN.) Click on over to listen, or check RR’s archives after the fact.

I have been invited to be a guest on Lou Krieger‘s Keep Flopping Aces radio show tomorrow to discuss the Absolute Poker Scandal. After having written a series of columns on the subject for Poker Player Newspaper, Lou seems to think I know what I’m taking about. For the entire hour, we’ll discuss the scandal, specifically the fact that Absolute Poker hasn’t mentioned it in months and the Kahnawake Gaming Commission has yet to release its final audit report (though it was promised weeks ago).

The show just moved from Hold’em Radio to Rounders Radio and will be live starting at 6pm PST (9pm EST).