It seems that All In Energy Drink is getting recognized in non-poker markets. Who knew?

The Examiner recently took notice of the Johnny Chan-sponsored drink, and it’s getting good reviews. In the Caffeine Examiner column, Big Red Boots (the caffeine guru, evidently) reviewed the grape and citrus concoctions of All In Energy Drink with the following results on a scale where 10 is the highest score:

Tasty grape poker themed drink keeps your game face from sagging:
Taste: 7
Nutrition/Buzz: 8
Packaging: 8
Website: 9

Citrus poker energy drink puts fear in competition:
Packaging: 8
Nutrition/Buzz: 8
Taste: 8
(Assuming the same website gets the same rating, it would be a 9.)

Mr. Peanut demanded too much money to call the opening cards in the air, so the WSOP got Michael Buffer instead.

As the 2008 WSOP was coming to a close a few days ago, Pauly and I couldn’t help but notice that there seemed to be no new sponsors that weren’t already around for in the summer. Disappointing, sure — but maybe it’s just the general economy?

I began to speculate that WSOP marketing honcho Tye Stewart must be in BIG trouble, dude! couldn’t have been too happy that the most celebrated deal inked between July and November was an extended contract with Johnny Chan’s All In Energy Drink. About 10 minutes later, though, Jeffrey Pollack was speaking to the crowd, giving specific thanks and extreme kudos to Stewart as the successful, hard-working architect of the The November Nine vision. And indeed, we now know the broadcast returned some admirable TV numbers; and even as players got eliminated, there were lines of people in the Rio hallways to fill the Penn & Teller Theater’s 1,200 seats. So maybe now, with something definitive to sell potential backers in the future, what looked a little disappointing while riding up and down the escalators is actually a sign of better things to come?

Below is a pictorial look at some added value for official WSOP banners (and inflatables) in action:

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Players are off on dinner break … and the chip counts are nicely on display for all to see:

Ivan Demidov: 30,725,000
Peter Eastgate: 27,175,000
Dennis Phillips: 26,950,000
Ylon Schwartz: 20,475,000
Scott Montgomery: 20,300,000
Darus Suharto: 10,600,000

Damn, that’s tight poker. And I don’t mean tight tight … I mean close-tight.

Before dinner break, btw, Phil Hellmuth introduced Johnny Chan, and Hellmuth got more boos than Tiffany Michelle. He said, that’s OK, boo all you want … and the crowd that is at this point tired-drinky (think post-football game tailgate in college) obliged.

They were announcing a multi-year deal between the WSOP and ALL IN energy drink. Oy, I guess all I can say for now is that after going through my bajillion cases … I didn’t rebuy.

Did anyone ever play at the site? ChanPoker did launch in the summer of 2006 with the inclusion of U.S. customers, but months later it went strictly overseas due to the passage of the UIGEA. Well, despite its cool Chinese lettering as the logo, it has closed up shop officially today. At least Johnny still has his All In Energy Drink biz…

Here is the message posted on the site:

We are sad to inform you that Chan Poker will be ceasing operation effective this Thursday, August 21, 2008. Effective immediately we will no longer be accepting deposits. On August 21 our poker clients will be disabled.

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474 players remain when play starts again at 1pm, some happy to have made the money, others hoping for a much bigger prize later this year. Brian Schaedlich, who started day 3 with over 800,000 in chips, ended up with a much smaller stack of 22,000. The leader at the start of play this afternoon appears to be Jeremy Joseph, who will have about 1,470,000 to start play today. Jeremiah Smith, the one time tournament reporter over at www.pokerwire.com, will be in 2nd with 1,300,000. Alan Jaffray, who tried to enter the ladies’ event earlier in the Series, is among the top 10. Other notables include 2008 Aussie Millions winner Alexander Kostritsyn, Dag Martin Mikkelsen, Shawn Sheikhan, Phil Hellmuth, Hoyt Corkins, Mike Matusow, Raja Kattamuri, Johnny Chan and Chad Layne looking to keep their head above water in the killing fields that make up the Amazon Room. Another 5 two-hour levels are scheduled for today, will play start slowing down now, or does the carnage continue unfettered? We’ll know more for certain later this afternoon.

To see where your favorite remaining player is starting, head to page 2:
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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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My 1 percent of Tom in the $50k HORSE now = 0 … 75th place last night … but meanwhile, Johnny Chan (who ended up with many of Tom’s chips) seems to be the gift-giver that keeps on giving …

More ALL IN has arrived at my doorstep — the “energy water”:

All In Energy buys the shirts off the WSOP waitstaff’s backs … and fuels a large-ass playing field with All In “energy water” — meaning it’s “powered by” PokerNews proprietary water molecules that have been personally purified by Johnny Chan!

This time, your Tao of Pokerati hosts discuss the Nascar-ization of Poker, one poker-medio’s addiction to a liquid Chan enterprise, and what the success (or failure) of a pseudo-freeroll bounty tourney just before the main event means for the future of poker. Damn, that’s a lot to swallow in three(ish) minutes … hence the need for a chaser.

Episode 13: Energy Bucks

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It is common knowledge that poker players in Las Vegas flock to Bellagio for cash game action, primarily on the higher end of the buy-in scale. While there seem to be a plethora of cash games going on at the Rio around the clock during the WSOP, anyone looking for games higher than $10-$20 usually heads over to Bellagio. Since I am such a high-stakes player can always use a change of scenery from the Rio, I took a trip on over on Monday night around 10pm to see what was happenin’.

Craziness.

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Once upon a time, we used to actually talk about hands on this here blog. Don’t worry, we still think it was a good idea to replace the important strategy talk with much easier to understand poker cartoons … But I did come across Daniel Negreanu’s video blog (via Wicked Chops), and in his latest update he talks about a really interesting Pot Limit Omaha hand against OMGClayAiken — aka Phil Galfond — one that leads Negreanu to the conclusion that the up-and-coming onliners are indeed threats … but not much more than that.

OMGClayAiken is currently the chip leader in the $5k PLO event with three players remaining. David Benyamine and Adam Hourani are the others … as all three have outlasted a final table that included Phil Hellmuth, Daniel Negreanu, Johnny Chan, John Juanda, and others.

The $5,000 PLO w/rebuy event is down to its final 3, with Phil Galfond the dominating chip leader, David Benyamine is a distant 2nd. Phil Hellmuth, Daniel Negreanu and John Juanda were eliminated in 8th, 7th and 6th respectively in a short period of time. Johnny Chan was later eliminated in 4th place. The $1,500 NL event finally reached its final table, with Vitaly Lunkin currently the chip leader with 7 left.

The $10,000 Limit Holdem World Championship is closing in on the money with about 45 left. Current chip leader is two-time bracelet winner Eric Froehlich. Others near the top include Hoyt Corkins, Michael Mizrachi, and JC Tran. The $3,000 NL event is currently on dinner break with 30 left. Alex Zaslavsky is chip leader, with new father David Singer in 2nd.

The only tournament to start today was the $2,500 NL 6-handed event, which started with a field of 1,012 already down to 190 at the dinner break. Notables in the top 10 include “Devilfish” Ulliot, Max Pescatori, Kenna James and Dario Minieri.

More from me tomorrow with final results, and the Tuesday preview.

Reviewing what happened last night…

In a final table that ESPN SHOULD be covering (instead of ESPN360), the final table of the $5,000 Pot Limit Omaha w/rebuys final table has been set for around 3pm.

Seat 1: John Juanda 694,800
Seat 2: Phil Hellmuth 119,000
Seat 3: David Benyamine 1,041,000
Seat 4: Kirill Gerasimov 558,000
Seat 5: Phil Galfond 1,393,000
Seat 6: Daniel Negreanu 460,000
Seat 7: Brian Rast 1,176,000
Seat 8: Adam Hourani 300,000
Seat 9: Johnny Chan 624,000

The three names that may not appear familiar to the poker fan, but those who follow the online scene know OMGClayAiken, tsarast and the_houdini very well.

Other action from last night after the jump:

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So wow, apparently I am on a $300 freeroll now, for the All In Energy tourney July 1.

Heard a knock on my door early this morning. Look what I found:

Johnny Chan is so serious about making All In Energy Drink a success that he has dyed his hair red and is throwing a tournament that almost sounds too good to be true.

You know that feeling when you shove all-in with nothing … You’re pretty sure it was the right play, but you’re nervous it wasn’t, but even then oh well, because if your read was off at least you’ve got two live little unders working on your behalf?

Uh-huh … That’s kinda how I feel, having recently put $300 into Johnny Chan’s All In Energy Drink(s).

All In is all over the WSOP this year — they’re the official energy drink, making them the Red Bull alternative at the tables, and their patches are all over players. In an effort to drive online sales and overall poker-player awareness, they’ve got a big booth right outside the Amazon Room, too, where the promotion they’re pushing is a $500k free(ish)roll on July 1 and 2 … which I will be playing in because I bought 144 cans of the stuff. Yep, should be arriving at my doorstep any day now … [whistling phrroo-hoo] .. yep 12 cases make me one of their top 1,000 customers … yep, any day now …

It all made sense mathematically at the booth … I’m getting a bunch of energy drinks (and energy water) for a Sam’s club price ($2/can). And I actually like the stuff — the root beer is totally unique and fantastic in my minority opinion. So in making this purchase, I get to play in a fun tourney where not only am I competing for a $125k first prize, but also there’ll be a bunch of pros in it with $1,000 bounties attached to their heads. Positive EV, right?

click to enlarge

The only thing that’s giving me a little grumble in the tumble is that the numbers don’t seem to add up on the other side of the felt. I mean let’s see, the prize pool is $500k “guaranteed” … the promotion says it’s limited to 1,000 players … I paid $300, people who bought multi-cases of All In before me got in for only $100 … now the price is $500 … and then all the pros who may or may not be freerolled … and two WSOP main event seats added to the prize pool. Would probably sound better were it not for All In’s play with the word “cases” … technically I bought 12, even though it would be 6 if I were buying 144 cans of just about any other beverage. I dunno, it just kinda feels like the Poker Bowl, ya know? The difference, of course, is that this event has Johnny Chan’s name and backing attached to it, but when it comes to honorable reputations among the top 3 bracelet winners of all times … um, let’s just say Phil Hellmuth is a solid second.

But hey, I’ve got an open mind, an enthusiastic desire to bust some pros, and if I wear the patch that came with my receipt, I get free All In root beers throughout the duration of the WSOP! (Go Hevad Khan-ish behavior!) Should be interesting to see what happens — because either this tournament is a model for corporate-sponsored events in the future, or it’s gonna prove a money-loser for All In. Could be both and just a marketing loss-leader, of course, assuming the 144 doses of an unregulated, arguably addictive product sold over the internet arrive by US mail.

UPDATE: Still waiting …

Update: Event #9 ($1,500 NL 6-handed) sold out just after play started at noon at 1,236 entrants.

What’s going on at the WSOP while I try to get an invite to Low Stakes Poker.

First the important news, Pokerati’s own Tom Schneider is chip leader at the end of day 1 of the $10k Mixed Event World Championship with ~140,000 in chips. 94 89 of the starting field of 192 in this inaugural event remain to play down to the final table of 8. 2006 WSOP POY Jeff Madsen is in 4th, while Gus Hansen, Johnny Chan, and Phil Ivey are all in contention. Play for them begins at 3pm.

More results from yesterday after the jump:
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