A lot of people have been clamoring about my TV poker hosting debut wondering what has happened with the U.S. PokerBowl. Indeed, this inaugural team poker concept tourney was supposed to be airing this month on FoxSports. But I don’t think it will be — despite the arguable success of the event. Sure enough, everyone there seemed to be having a really good time … the televised images looked different than what has previously been seen on Poker TV … and amid an interesting re-interpretation of important poker rules, there was all sorts of heartwarming emotional drama with potential controversy (would Marc Seif’s Absolute team insist on wearing their be-logo-ed hats so visibly?) to give us announcers — and presumably the blogging television audience — much to talk about.

But perhaps everyone knew something was amiss when the only two people not smiling in the Key West ballroom at the Palms were the guy organizing the whole thing and John-Robert Bellande (who wasn’t even playing).

“Hey, congratulations on pulling off something really cool,” I said to John Nightingale at the start of the final-final table.

“Well, it was until about 30 minutes ago when the shit really started to hit the fan,” he responded before walking away all exasperated. I guess maybe we shouldn’t be surprised when a tournament that relies on too many freerolls and forgets to take any juice runs into a financial clusterflubbing. Bummer if it can’t be resurrected. Just ask anyone who participated … it really was pretty cool.

Click here to see my photos from the PokerBowl (kicking myself for not taking more of the real behind-the-scenes stuff) … and/or click below to read an email that went out last week updating those with a vested interest in the success (or failure) of the PokerBowl on where things currently stand and what the money situation is:

Date: Wed, 2 Jan 2008 23:29:35 +0000
From: help[-at-]pokerbusinessenterprises.com
To: help[-at-]pokerbusinessenterprises.com
Subject: POKERBOWL MONEY OWED URGENT UPDATE

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Huh, maybe I’m wrong about poker’s decline … maybe Lycos is right and poker is just starting to boom. Was checking out YouTube early this AM, and with so much important stuff going on in the world — the assassination of Benazir Bhutto, Ron Paul’s squelching by Fox News, the New England Patriots yadda yadda — what’s the number one spotlight video? How to play Texas Hold’em. “The fifth and final card dealt is called the river.”

On the upside, it led me to a related video with Oliver Tse at a final table. Southern California Poker Tour announcer Matthew Dodd rips into the O-man for leading out from early position when he flops two pair … and I just gotta say, Doddo, you are dead wrong in your analysis — despite your Tom Schneider looks emphatic delivery of it! But hey, I guess that sorta expertise should be expected from the people who bring us the video above?

Two years ago, poker items were the hottest holiday shizznit in the retail stores. It didn’t matter if you were shopping at Oshman’s, Bed Bath & Beyond, Target, or CVS … the poker goodies were on prominent display and selling like proverbial hotcakes. Then last year, you saw some of these same items — only they were marked down on clearance, as their didn’t seem to be too much demand for the crappy variety of poker supplies. I’m guessing the real poker merchants still did fine, but don’t know for sure.

This year, I again took note of poker’s place amongst the Christmas merchandise … and here’s what I found:

Who knew that Popeye the Sailor Man played poker? This t-shirt did, and it was the only poker-related apparel I saw in the whole mall.

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Following a pattern established by arena faves Frampton, Kiss, and Cheap Trick, this episode of Beyond the Table captures the group in a rare live performance. With no edits, overdubs, or other studio gimmickry, “Live and Otherwise” finds BTT returning to its off-the-cuff, improvisational roots.

The set gets going with a raucous medley of blues-based numbers, including soon-to-be-classics “Queens Done Done Me In (Again)” — featuring a solo from Little Tommy Schneider — and the Askenasy-penned “I Think My Hair Has a Mind of Its Own.” The group then transitions into a surprisingly peppy version of “House Hoppin’ Blues” chronicling Dan’s recent move Vegas-ward.

From there the boys turn topical, with rockers “Flight of the Dragon” (noting David Pham’s having locked up Player of the Year), “Enjoying the Game” (an homage to Chip Reese), and “Guilt Trip” (regarding the Vaughn-Mizzi account-purchasing affair). As an encore, the group surprises the audience with a new title, “Fortune’s Steward,” a brief romp recognizing Falstaff, author of PokerStage and tireless organizer of the recent WPBT Winter Gathering.

Be sure to catch this important live document of the power trio’s development, circa late-2007. And be sure to email your feedback to theshow(at)beyondthetable(dot)com and/or call the listener line @ (888) 820-8091.

Bluff reports that “poker” was still the number one search phrase on Lycos for 2007 — and suggests it’s proof that poker’s popularity is hardly in decline. They fail to mention, however, that no one has used Lycos for search purposes since 2005.

The Top 10, according to a site that may or may not still exist doesn’t even acknowledge the relevance of Lindsay Lohan, Facebook, or the UFC:

1) Poker
2) MySpace
3) Britney Spears
4) Paris Hilton
5) Golf
6) YouTube
7) Naruto
Disney
9) Pokemon
10) WWE

I guess this means Iraq isn’t such a big deal anymore either.

Pokerati loves to indulge in some unscientific polling … and we have a new one up on the righthand sidebar if you haven’t already noticed. This time we are looking for “the next big thing.” When you think about it, if poker has been anything, it was the first unbridled, boom-market economy of the 21st century. That time has now passed for poker, so presumably something else will take its place.

But we’re not just looking for what will be big — I am pretty sure I was wrong when I declared darts anything close to the next poker — we’re also looking for new niches fueled by a profitable confluence of the internet, TV, hard technology, and live engagement. (Because when that happens, you can also expect a lot of laws and politics to come into play.) To this day, I don’t see why tournament fishing — particularly with the use of “hook cams” that allow you to watch fish contemplating taking the bait — hasn’t taken off. But that probably has more to do with the business behind it all than the thrilling nature of the sport itself.

Anyhow, would love to hear what you think … not just so we can mentally masturbate to the concept of a blog about whatever wins … but moreso because its always refreshing to remember what’s going on outside the poker world that isn’t war.

I haven’t played much at PokerStars in a long while … I dunno, I guess I ran out of money on that account last spring — brutal pot-limit heads-up against Gonz — and just stopped playing because I didn’t wanna go through whatever new process to get money back online. But i just got an email from our good friends at Stars, telling me there’s a new way to transfer funds directly to and from your American bank.

Hmm, interesting. At least if it’s anything new it is:

Dear RiverDan72 ,

Instant eChecks is a great deposit option which allows you to make safe and secure electronic fund transfers (EFT), directly from your bank account to your PokerStars account.

eChecks allow you to load your account instantly, (providing you have no past negative eCheck history), so you can hit the tables and get in the game in no time at all!

You may deposit funds into your PokerStars account using eChecks at any time. Simply click on the Instant eChecks icon in the PokerStars Cashier to make a deposit.

If you have any questions about eChecks, please feel free to contact us at cashier@pokerstars.com.

Regards,
The PokerStars Team

Business Week is reporting that Harrah’s may be shopping around to acquire an online poker site in the U.K. How awesome for poker would that be? Imagine if Harrah’s owned an online poker site and players from all over the world (except the US of course) could qualify for the WSOP online. I’d take over 10,000 entrants for the next WSOP for any amount you can count.

In this week’s episode:

Sweden, Germany, and France…
What a big week for online gambling, with lots of great news mostly coming out of Europe! Sweden wants into the industry… Germany says any ban on internet gambling is impossible… and even France knows it’s time to surrender.

EU Trade Commissioner in the United States…
Why should we care that the EU Trade Commissioner was in the United States this week? Because this man flew all the way across the ocean to tell the US Congress they’re a bunch of schmucks! Peter Mandelson urged US Legislators to overturn the UIGEA.

Barney Frank, Ron Paul, and Radley Balko…
We all know Barney Frank… many know Ron Paul… but who the heck is Radley Balko? We feature a video from June of this year where Mr Balko testifies in a Congressional hearing about online gambling. You simply must see this video!

This story on Channel 8 has nothing to do with poker … but really it does.

It’s about energy drinks (yum!), and newfound health concerns associated with them. Pokerati has long contended, as the hedline suggests above, that the boom-time business of possibly addictive, taurine-infused pharmaceuticals sold at convenience stores (to kids!) for upwards of $3 a can is just waiting for a little government intervention … because there’s simply too much money being made for the politicos to not want their cut.

What we’re not good with here at Pokerati is time. Whether that will take five months or 15 years to happen, we’re not so sure. But I do find it especially interesting that the Channel 8 story above says that last year there were more than 4 billion cans of lightly carbonated liquid meth sold … which would make the energy drink biz a $12 billion industry. Does that number ring a bell? It should … because it was the estimated value of the online poker industry shortly before the passage of the UIGEA.

You see what I’m getting at? Poker is about math. So is politics …

(And some people wonder why I don’t sleep.)

From Boston to Cali to Las Vegas to Washington DC … it’s all about poker-poker-poker ’til the cows come home.

So wow, so much is going on right about now. A lot of smart people doing a little bit more than just geeking out about poker and the industry’s/game’s/lifestyle’s future. Wish I could be everywhere:

We’ve got the Global Poker Thinking Society getting together at Harvard — featuring Howard Lederer, Charles Nesson, and Crandall Addington.

And then this weekend is the California Poker Conference — where speakers include WSOP Commish Jeffrey Pollack, PPA Executive Director John Pappas, and some influential old-timers such as Mike Caro, Lou Kreiger, Barbara Enright, and many others.

And then on the next day, Pappas heads back to Washington DC, where he’ll be hosting the Poker Player’s Alliance DC Fly-in — a little Beltway lobbying fest on behalf of pro-poker legislation. This is the one I really want to be at — and we’ll try to stay on top of things from afar — because twisting Congressional arms enlightening our representatives is a lot of fun. I gotta say, it also kinda makes me proud to know that our success wooing Rep. Pete Sessions (R-TX) as a co-sponsor to HR 2610, the Skill Game Protection Act, kinda inspired it.

From CardPlayer:

JP: We had a really great meeting in August with Congressmen Pete Sessions in his Dallas, Texas, office. It was myself and a number of our local PPA members, including Clonie Gowen, who’s a Dallas, Texan, and Robert Williamson III, another Dallas, Texan. We went in and sat down with him and talked to him about the Wexler bill and why it just didn’t make sense that a game of skill is being outlawed on the Internet. And it really resonated and it really came through and what I saw was, wow, this is something we need to replicate, this is something we needed to do more of. Based on that meeting, I thought we needed to get people out to Washington. Whether we make 20 meetings or 200 meetings, I think it’s going to be a worthwhile event.

Very cool! (And well done, Pokeratizen politicos!) Good times, all around. And indeed, we should do more of that.

I’ll be in Vegas … assuming I make my flight, which leaves in — yeow! — four hours, to do the TV Co-hosting thing with Tom Schneider for the inaugural Poker Bowl. This should be a pro-studded affair … even Doyle Brunson will be playing, along with Greg Raymer, Scotty Nguyen, reformed self-colluder ZeeJustin … and Absolute spokesman Mark Seif. Like seriously, we have so much to talk about!

And so little of it to do with how to play in middle position.

As feces continue to fly about the fan, Absolute Poker has agreed to a third-party investigation by a supposedly independent agency, Gaming Associates.

Mark Seif, a former attorney with a stake in AP has taken on the role as spokesperson on his “blog” at Bluff, and a few days ago announced that Absolute was conducting its own audit in an attempt to reassure players that there was nothing to fear:

Specifically, Absolute Poker’s internal investigation determined that it is impossible for any person, device, program, script or other means to see hole cards.

See, right there, we know that’s not true. Because obviously the computer randomizing/dealing the cards knows … which is how they can send hand histories to each individual player. C’mon, AP … try again. While personally I may be reserving judgment until at least a little more evidence comes out, it ain’t looking pretty. The phrases being uttered (and not) by Absolute Poker remind me of the Catholic Church denying child sex abuse in the mid-’90s. Not to put online poker on par with priestly pedophilia, but as is often the case in “damage control” amid scandal, attempts to cover-up, redirect, and deny may work for a little bit, but can prove costly in the long run. As to corporate CYA, the general public has become quite adept at seeing through that sorta doublespeak, and poker players will eventually take their addiction dollars elsewhere! [/soapbox]

I wonder if anyone playing (or observing) on Absolute has had their chat privileges suspended or blocked for providing warnings to players. That would be really interesting to know.

Anthony in McKinney-ish writes in with more:

Ok, I swear I’m not an email attention whore, but the hits just keeepp ooonnnnnn coming with this Absolute thing.

http://www.pocketfives.com/06D9EA78-E38F-49D3-AFA1-2B4B128CE7E7.aspx

Not to make it all about blogging, but poker players should be proud of the “citizen journalism” at work in this case. When “former” chief operators of a company are allegedly the ones pegged as playing with “superaccounts” … that clearly can’t be a good thing. Absolute looks to have done themselves in here. Short-term greed catches up with the offenders. This page now seems like a sadly ironic case of Strong Means Weak.

So as the evidence against Absolute becomes more and more solid, it raises a lot of other questions, including:

1. Will anyone go to jail? In an unregulated environment can anyone go to jail?
2. What other sites might be engaging in similar activities?
3. How can we trust that any particular site is not?
4. Will politicians in the United States see this as an example of why online poker needs to be regulated, or will it be their case for why it needs to be more comprehensively banned?
5. Since Absolute is in bed with Ultimate Bet, what will become of that relationship? And how connected are they really?
6. Will UB pros — Phil Hellmuth and Annie Duke specifically — speak out on the matter? And/or will they leave Ultimate Bet?
7. Will major online affiliates — such as CardPlayer, PokerNews, and PokerListings, for example — stop sending players to Absolute?

Big questions for online poker. How different folks with a vested interest in the answers react to this situation will tell us a lot about what kinda players we really are dealing with in this biz.

UPDATE: PokerListings is currently refusing to send players to Absolute and Ultimate Bet:

PokerListings.com has temporarily suspended the listing of the Absolute Poker and Ultimate Bet poker rooms as a result of serious problems with both historical and current payments due PokerListings for services rendered. We are aware that our decision not to list these two brands may be an inconvenience, but as a trusted guide and resource, we do not believe it is appropriate to continue listing them.

Sincerely,

The PokerListings.com Team

Like the US Poker Championship, the Ultimate Bet Aruba Classic lost its TV deal (with the WPT) … Have a look at how its field size has changed over the years:

2002 - ??
2003 - ??
2004 - 647 players (Eric Brenes d. Layne Flack)
2005 - 647 players (Freddy Deeb d. Josh Schlein)
2006 - 512 players (Devin Miller d. “JohnnyBax”)
2007 - 548 players (”TravestyFund” d. Jim Mordue)

For those who are curious, here’s how the USPC has changed over the years, in terms of the size of the main event field, and thereby payouts:

(Top 2 finishers in parentheses)

2002 — 72 players* (John Hennigan beats Erik Seidel)
2003 — 99 players (Toto Leonidas beats Erik Seidel)
2004 — 177 players (John Aglialoro beats Joe Cassidy)
2005 — 226 players (James “Capo” Caporuscio beats Ralph Pecorale)
2006 — 261 players (Alex Jacob beats Jordan Morgan)
2007 — 164 players (Winner TBD / Not Gavin Smith)

Not sure what all this says about the level of competition or the poker world in general, but the numbers are telling of something. This tourney did lose its TV contract this year, which certainly alters the field. But what becomes of it from here remains to be seen.

Click here to see the top-heavy payout structure.

And/or click here to dig into the history of this boldly named event. (Pre- and post-poker boom.) Do you think it’s possible that “struggling” tourneys like this one might change their payout structures to make them more appealing? Because while the 1st Place prize is plenty hefty, pros know how hard it is to actually win one of these things … and I gotta think if they knew a final table provided a bigger ROI it might be easier to put it on their schedule. Just a thought …

* Buy-in in 2002 was $7,500. Raised to $10,000 thereafter.

Poker must be the most boring activity in the world. Why else would the industry focus its cameras on the most ridiculous people?

We have spelling bees and Scrabble championships on TV and none of the competitors have little “charks” and make munching sounds then yell their name “HUMBERTO, HUMBERTO”. None of them spell a tough word and start making animal sounds while moving their bodies in hunchback dance moves. Could you imagine Humberto as a little kid competing in a spelling bee and yelling his name every time he spelled a word correctly, then getting out a little Power Ranger and acting like he is going to hit the little girl he is competing against?

We as poker players should want nice people with lots of money to come play with us. Do you think when Bill Gates sees Hevad Kahn doing his monkey noises and strange gyrations he says to himself, “boy I want to play with that guy? Maybe I could get that guy to represent Microsoft.” I’m guessing not; however, I guess that’s exactly what Pokerstars says. He is now a face on Pokerstars. Why would any company want to associate with these embarrassing people? Answer, they get a lot of exposure on TV. Michael Vick is getting a ton of exposure, I hear he likes gambling too, and he’s available for about 5-10 years.

Poker is reaching the lowest common denominator, and it’s a joke. I am really tired of people having to exhibit ridiculous behavior in order to get noticed in poker. There was actually a guy at a featured table at the main event who made balloon animals for the other players at the table. Are people really this desperate to get on TV? The answer is clear. Therefore, I have compiled a list of things that I’m willing to do at a featured table next year.

More…

That’s what I’m hearing. From a generally reliable source who heard it from some guy who heard it from some other guy in Vegas.

Quality journalism at its finest! Remember, you heard it here first.

UPDATE: Confirmation from the brick-and-mortar poker-room gurus here.

UPDATE: Mike Paulle’s insightful obituary.

After much legal sparring and delay, a curious, first-of-its-kind poker room just opened up in Little Rock that publicly challenges the laws — or at least the standing interpretation of them — by running free tournaments that award money prizes. OK, sounds like any legal amateur tourney we’ve got going here … but there’s a catch.

The difference: if you so choose, you can pay $100 a month to be tracked and ranked. Cool! Hmm, is that a legitimate premium service or a cover for a buy-in? Hard to say … I suspect it will be up to the courts to decide. I’m not familiar with the details and nuance of Arkansas gambling laws … but listening to the Little Rock city attorney, I’m not so sure he’s making a strong case, which is probably why the dudes behind Arkansas’ “first ever dedicated poker lounge” came over the top.

More…

Itsoverjonny’s comment on the post below has me thinkin’bout nicknames for chips used in cash-game poker and as casino currency. I know they exist, and know most a few three of them, but not all. Perhaps some of you who have played more regularly with the different denominations can help me fill in the blanks? Thanks in advance for your assistance.

$1 -
$2 -
$3 -
$5 - Redbirds
$10 -
$20 -
$25 - Greenbirds
$100 - Blackbirds
$500 -
$1,000 -
$5,000 - Flags
$10,000 -
$25,000 - Cranberries / Pancakes
$100,000 -

Good stuff from J Todd and friends, as is generally the case, to those of us interested in the socio-political-economic waves (and butterfly effects) of the poker biz.

• New British gambling laws go into effect. The moralists fear “normalisation.”
• APCW takes on NPR for their gambling-law coverage.
• New American tax on poker winnings chaps some hides.
• Brokeback Harbor.

Yeow. The tax thing is pretty big, I think. (It’s gotta be enough to make Eskimo Clark’s heart skip a beat, yo.) From what I can tell, it doesn’t seem to take into account losses. And the 25 percent … perhaps a tax-minded Pokeratizen can clarify for us … is this in addition to standard income tax that all poker players dutifully report on their W-2Gs?

I mean it’s hard enough for low-stakes players to beat the rake. Now high-stakes players face a juice that seems almost impossible to successfully swallow.

UPDATE: Found a little more good information via Lou Krieger. His take makes it seem just that all casinos have to be like Harrah’s now, and automatically withhold the taxes, that’s all. Sucks, sure, but understandable? Unacceptable? Undesirable?

At the end of Day 2 of the WPT Legends of Poker tourney at the Bike, there are 53 players remaining … 45 of whom will make the money — $16,000 for crossing the bubble — and a few who will have a real chance at the $1.6 million first prize. Tom was a serious force all day, but ended up with 180k in chips … just below the average stack line. Robert (along with David Chiu) will start Day 3 with the smallest stack. Should be a real test of his critical bubble play. That or pocket queens on his first playable hand will or will not hold up.

Dallas underground expat Gavin Griffin is also alive and well, by the way.

Interesting thing in the official tournament wrap-up is the growing disparity between CardPlayer, now in partnership with the WPT, and the WSOP. I guess it’s kinda like Japan and Italy were technically allies in WW2, semi-united in their animosity toward the USA and its way of doing things:

Legends of Poker Day 2 Recap

In a quiet corner of the Bicycle Casino, day two of the Legends of Poker played out as the antithesis of the World Series of Poker. The first major tournament since hoards or poker fanatics descended upon the circuit, Legends produced a focused group of name professionals that batted until 53 were left standing. Flurries of action were set between long periods of calm, and numerous pros fell early.

I guess it shouldn’t surprise us that they are trying to put a positive spin on the “closed set” nature of their events. After all, it is quite different from the carnival atmosphere of the WSOP, and indeed, that’s their prerogative to run ‘em that way. It probably will work just fine — players will still play — but gotta say, I probably wouldn’t care as much about what’s going on behind closed curtains if I didn’t have a couple friends alive behind them.

Any thoughts on this from you poker-geeky internet readers out there?

Sounds like our friends at Neverwin are fast becoming the Bang Bros. of Poker. Prior to the reported high-five-figures+stock-options sale of their website to the Tony G Syndicate, Dustin Woolf got called out by Mark Newhouse for allegedly owing him some big bucks. This wasn’t just a web-forum spat, it affected play in a live WSOP event … with Newhouse screaming across the tournament floor for his cash and Neverwin calling officials to have him removed from the rail.

Now a frozen online account. Dude, party on.

Just when you thought you rid your vocabulary of the phrase “sell out” it pulls you back in. Only it has true meaning this time. According to WCP (who apparently knows everything), NeverwinPoker.com just won some dough from Pokernews.com to sell, sell, sell.

And in unrelated rumors…No, I’m not moving to Vegas and no, I’m not pregnant. I just ate a lot of peanut M & M’s in Vegas.

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 …

More…

Some of you say that you want to get a breakdown of what Harrah’s takes out of the pot and how much the dealers make. It’s none of your business. Some of you have done some horrendous math which indicates that dealers for the main event only made $10.15 per hour, hogwash. Hey, I’ve never used that word before. That was fun. How can you divide the total tip by 700 people working 11 days? I didn’t notice 700 dealers at the final table.

Do you know how much the person at the Gap makes when you go in to buy your plaid shorts? Do you know how much the guy makes that is changing the oil in your Yugo? How much does the Slot Manager at Caesar’s Palace make? Who cares about any of this, and who cares how much dealers make except for dealers and the people hiring them?

What should a dealer make? I say pay them whatever they need to be paid to attract reasonably talented people. The answer I’m guessing is probably somewhere between $20 and $35 per hour. For a full time employee, that’s an annual salary between $41,600 and $72,800.

Excepting errors, does the dealer have anything to do with me winning or losing a tournament? If you say yes, start collecting stamps not playing poker. Since the answer is no, why should I tip them? Do I want them to make a good wage? Of course I do. So here’s the plan. In this plan I will use the WSOP as the example:

More…

LAS VEGAS–The WSOP dealers, as mentioned before, were wanting to see Jerry Yang win for the sake of a bigger tip. He couldn’t have had a reputation as a big tipper — because as a guy playing in his first WSOP and with no noted accomplishments high-stakes or otherwise, how could they know? Perhaps they saw him as a mark … an inexperienced player who had already committed 10 percent of his winnings to charity might be easily persuaded to “give a little back,” if you know what I’m sayin’.

Not sure what Yang’s intentions were as he walked into the payouts room … but Chris Ferguson reportedly joined him — not because he was invited, but because he was a Full Tilt guy looking after a Full Tilt player. When the payout ladies asked what he would like to leave for the dealers, Ferguson supposedly informed him that he had already given 2 percent. Nolan Dalla corrected him, saying, “Actually it’s 1.8 percent.” [Ed. Note: Inaccurate as originally reported. We regret/apologize for the error lazy journalism.]

At that point Ferguson pointed out what that came out to — $148,500 by my calculations, but not certain that’s the number he cited — and said, according to a mostly reliable source who was in the payouts room, “So I recommend zero.”

More…

LAS VEGAS–Remember how I was telling you that Full Tilt honchos henchmen weren’t too excited about the prospects of Jerry Yang winning? Well something must’ve changed by the time they got heads-up.

The players had just gone on break, and Jerry Yang had a 6:1 chip lead over Tuan Lam. An Asian guy in a suit grabbed Oliver Tse (who represents Yang for now, but is already trying to plan for the likelihood of bigger agencies wrestling his World Champion client away from him) and the two started walking away. Following not too far behind the was Yang, who was headed to the bathroom, with a small entourage following him.

That’s when the Full Tilt guys both, almost simultaneously, clapped their hands together and started rubbing their palms with wide eyes and grins on their faces. I let them go through the door in front of me, saying, “Please, you have serious business to attend to.”

“‘Wha…? I’ve just gotta go to the bathroom,” the smaller Full Tilt rep said.

“Like I said, serious business.”

They chuckled and kept walking briskly.

More…

LAS VEGAS–Raymond Rahme, the first ever African to make a main event final table, just went out (on a questionable play running a quasi-bluff with KK after an ace flopped) … so they’re heads-up now. “I made one mistake this whole tournament,” Rahme says.

The dealers are rooting for Jerry Yang. Not only is he apparently a very nice guy who reportedly plans to give a huge chunk of his winnings to the Make-a-Wish foundation, but also he is known as a very generous tipper. (Just confirmed — 10 percent of his winnings will go to three charities.)

A high-ranking source within Full Tilt, however, said (when Alex Kravchenko was still alive) that his people were pulling for Kravchenko over Yang, even though both signed on with Full Tilt upon making the final table. For starters, Yang has never before played online, and learned the game only two years ago. Not quite a “Play with the Pros” kinda guy. And as a family man who looks at pictures of his six kids throughout a hand and says prayers that praise the non-Chris Ferguson Jesus upon moving all-in … “Not exactly the style we’re looking for.”

NOTE: Rahme also has six kids. “Battle of the Brady Bunch x 2″ ESPN’s Howard David just dubbed it.

As for the people who have little stake in who wins between Tuan Lam and Jerry Yang, they are suddenly Yang fans just because that will lead to a quicker end.

Shame on them!

LAS VEGAS–”Have you seen a big black Navigator come back here?” asked Craig Abrahams, the official WSOP “new media” guru. My answer was no, with a joke about being a white navigator, which clearly didn’t amuse him. He was waiting for the money to arrive.

They’re down to six players in the 38th annual World Series of Poker. To follow along online live-blogging style, click here. Or for $20, you can watch the action on a one-minute delay — without hole cards — here.

Here’s how the final table started off:

Seat 1 - Raymond Rahme - 16.32 million
Seat 2 - Alex Kravchenko - 6.57 million
Seat 3 - Lee Childs - 13.24 million
Seat 4 - Jerry Yang - 8.45 million
Seat 5 - Lee Watkinson - 9.925 million
Seat 6 - Tuan Lam - 21.315 million
Seat 7 - Philip Hilm - 22.07 million
Seat 8 - Jon Kalmar - 20.32 million
Seat 9 - Hevad ‘Rain’ Khan - 9.205 million

And here’s where it all stands at 5 pm Vegas time, with five four players left, whereupon they have all crossed the millionaire’s line:

Jerry Yang - 69,790,000
Raymond Rahme - 29,890,000
Tuan Lam - 18,105,000
Alex Kravchenko - 9,700,000

FUNNY: Somewhere out there the ESPN live feed can be seen for free. Benjo informed us of this with his angry Frenchman’s smirk, and when ESPN’s Andrew Feldman, with great concern, asked for the link, Benjo responded [thick accent here], “I am note go-eeng to tell you!”

Anyhow, eventually Ty Stewart, the official WSOP marketing maestro, did drive up — in a white BMW SUV (not a black Navigator) and started unloading the metal money suitcases. (Properly branded with a Milwaukee’s Best Light logo.) He grabbed three of them out the back, at which point I joked vociferously, “That’s one million, two million, three million …” Not even a smile … but he did walk off into a tunnel while leaving the back of his SUV open, at which point I mustered up all the discipline possible not to grab a money suitcase to find out if they were fully loaded or not.

Inside it’s another story. All about the money — but not necessarily the $8.25 million at stake for first place …

More…

UPDATE: Oops, Dario is out in 96th place — for $67,535. He’ll be back, of course. Hevad “Rain” Kahn (not to be confused with Jeff “Mr. Rain” Banghart) is still alive and well, slightly above the middle of the pack.

LAS VEGAS–Loyal readers have heard me yammer on and on for the better part of 2007 about how this is going to be the Year of the Europeans. So far I’ve been kinda right … while they haven’t dominated this WSOP, they have been a ubiquitous presence deep in just about every event. But the real “Year of” players this year have been the internet kids. Not internet people like Chris Moneymaker … but internet kids. Think about it. The poker boom exploded in 2003. And thus, in 2007, a lot of guys who got their start right around then have just turned 21 — making quite the impression on players at the tables and poker insiders off.

Throughout this World Series, friends and colleagues have been coming up to me saying things like, “You mean you don’t know who RamSquad64 is? Dude.” Or, “JohnnyVoltron, man, JohnnyVoltron!” OK, he sounds familiar. What has he done? But otherwise, sorry, I haven’t really been following the shenanigans on PocketFives. But it seems like soon we might have to. One of the most fascinating stories — Pokerati’s correspondent-on-loan Chris Hanel is all over this one — is a guy named Hevad “Rain” Kahn. This upstate New Yorker was supposedly banned from PokerStars because they thought he was a bot, playing up to 40 sit-n-gos at a time. Kahn then shot a YouTube video to show him playing 26 tables at a time and had his account re-opened. Wow, no? (For some reason I can’t find the vid on YouTube. If anyone else can, please post a link!)

But the kid everyone is really talking about is Dario Minieri (pictured).

More…

LAS VEGAS–Loyal Pokeratizens might know this guy … Josh Evans from Dallas is the Day 1d chip leader, with about 240,000:

(We watched him take down a second-chance tourney last year.)

UPDATE: The fact that I am eating my first Poker Kitchen fruit salad of the entire WSOP right now — just like the one the chip leader is eating! — is testament to the notion that non-online-poker-room endorsements, sponsorships, and product placements really work. Yum.

One of the asses he is currently kicking belongs to Paul Magriel, quack-quack.

With Day 1 (all four of ‘em) minutes away from coming to a close done — and almost 2/3 of the field eliminated — various poker dreams and fantasies are really starting to spin in people’s heads … though possibly not in the minds of those who actually have a chance to win it.

LAS VEGAS–If you had the over in any main-event field-size over-under bet … you almost certainly won. Considering the hit poker took as a whole since last year’s WSOP, everybody seems pretty happy about the numbers for 2007. Small dip … Clearly the 2017 WSOP will feature between 25,000 and 250,000 players.

For 2007:

6,358 players
621 spots paid
621st place — $20,320
1st place — $8.26 million

Thanks to Justin from PokerPages for the early info.

LAS VEGAS–For the first time since the UIGEA “devastated” the poker world, WSOP officials have given an, er, official pronouncement about the expected number of players for the 2007 WSOP main event. Not sure who it was, but a voice over the intercom announced that there are [inaudible] players in todays Day 1c … “So we’ll easily have more than 6,000.”

Poker bizzers breathe a sigh of relief to know that the lack of online qualipaloozas for American players doesn’t set the magic measuring stick back even a year … as 2007 will end up falling to a number bigger than 2005, when Joe Hachem won it

LAS VEGAS–We’ve got a doozy brewing in the final points event of the 2007 WSOP … with much more on the line than a single bracelet in the $5,000 No-Limit 2-7 Draw Lowball w/ Rebuys.

With 60 players remaining …

Tom Schneider, WSOP Player of the Year points leader, is currently 3rd in chips. Jeff Lisandro, who is only 20 points behind him, is currently 4th in chips. (Phil Hellmuth is also still alive in 2-7 Lowball, but he is a below-average stack, and has never made a WSOP final table in a non-hold’em game … so not much of a threat.)

Click here to follow along.

UPDATE: Players are on dinner break, and Lisandro has jumped into the chip lead. Tom is 6th in chips. Also kinda interesting that Tony G — the man behind the money behind PokerNews.com — is second in chips. Wonder if it’s too late for Tom to hire someone to pull a Nancy Kerrigan on Lisandro’s ass.

Lisandro reportedly wants Player of the Year so badly that he was willing to invest $100k in this event. Tom took a more fiscally conservative approach — taking a rebuy and double add-on for $20,000 total.

Not only does WSOP Player of the Year come with a certain amount of cache, but also it comes with extra cash. The winner receives an automatic buy-in to next year’s main event ($10,000), a buy-in to a circuit main event of his choice ($5,000), entry into the WSOP Europe main event ($10,000), and $5,000 in walking-around-money … adding up to a mano-y-mano lasts-longest battle for essentially a $30,000 overlay and any added business goodies that go with Player of the Year accolades.

More…

RE: HammerWear

LAS VEGAS–There’s a sale at the Rio! That’s right, get your non-freebie swag! Last year so many T-shirts were being given away, I’m sure it was hard for the official joint to hawk its merch. This year no one’s here to give away the goods gratis … so apparel is being sold on the corner (like literally — prime location at the Amazon room crossroads) for $25 a pop. Or shall we say $17.50 a pop?

A few featured selections:

Wow. Kinda hard to believe that these shirts have the officially licensed WSOP logo, no? Oooh, Dead Man’s Hand! Pizz-izz-zashhaw! Don’t Hate the Playa, Foo! Booh-yah! Perhaps the worst shirt for sale — one commemorating Phil Hellmuth’s historic 2007 WSOP victory:

click to enlarge

These shirts have been on sale for about two weeks now … guess how many they have sold.

More…

Fellow blogger Crispin Glover Jeffrey Pollack (photo of Crispin Glover not Jeffrey Pollack) reported Friday night he would be addressing the temperature of the Amazon room here at the Rio as well as the limit structures, next day breaking order, space between players and railbirds, the infamous-tent comfort zone and visibility of the tournament clocks. All of us in the media room are shivering with frostbite anxiously awaiting the solutions.

And in other poker related news…Patrik Antonius is starting day two in the 10k PLO as a chip leader. Lance Bradley of “The Poker Biz” is salivating and not because Patrik is the sexiest poker player in the world (at least Lance’s wife hopes not) but because he’s on his Fantasy Poker Team.

Pokernews will have the live updates.

LAS VEGAS–Yesterday was kinda a crazy day — full moon and all — and today looks to be just a shade less looney.

Play has just three hours ago gotten underway in the last $1,500 NLH. According to Mean Gene:

Eerily Quiet
You put 3,000 people in a room you’d think there’d be a bit of noise, but as with the other $1,500 events we’ve covered the room falls nearly silent when play begins. For so many of these players this is their first World Series event and while they have their game faces on, it takes some time for them to find their voices. A dry mouth will do that to you.

The final table of $1,000 7-stud Hi Lo gets underway at 3 pm. This was supposed to be just a two-day event. TOM SCHNEIDER entered into nine-handed play last night (with a random fifth alternating between two tables) as the shortest stack; he’ll take his seat as the CHIP LEADER.

Hoyt Verner 129,000
Scotty Nguyen 203,000
Hieu “Tony” Ma 60,000
Saundra Taylor 202,000
Tom Schneider 275,000
Tommy Hang 110,000
Miguel De La Cruz 253,000
Woody Deck 110,000

SCOTTY NGUYEN should be sober by then. He gave Tom a lot of chips as he got drinky and aggressive in the wee hours, turning over bluff after bluff as Tom drank with him and laughed it up while rebuilding his stacks.

Dallas poker lady SONG WEBB, by the way, won $4,498 for finishing 26th; and OLIVER TSE (who started the day at Tom’s table) scored his first WSOP cash (in 11 tries) with a 21st place for $5,106.

Oliver stuck around last night long after he busted because, in his off-the-table attempts to become the BRIAN BALSBAUGH of non-American players, he was chasing down a couple GERMANS fighting for a seat at the final table.

Click here to follow today’s bracelet-eyed action semi-live.

Garthy giving a shout out to the Batfaces.

Getting underway about an hour ago is the final table of $5,000 Short-handed No-Limit Hold’em:

Seat 1: Greg Pohler - 655,000
Seat 2: Alex Bolotin - 2,010,000
Seat 3: Gioi Luong - 570,00
Seat 4: Bill Edler - 535,000
Seat 5: Dutch Boyd - 705,000
Seat 6: Erik Friberg - 2,795,000

Some friendly North Texas faces made quite a showing in this event …

Raj Kattamuri (left) finished in 13th place, winning $27,031. Vandy Krouch got $16,766 for finishing 26th. And GREGG MERKOW eeked into the money — 78th place, $6,159.

Other notable cashers include: Tobey Maguire, Vicki Coren, Jamie Gold, Scott Clements, Men the Master, Justin Bonomo, Phil Hellmuth, and Dustin Woolf.

Day 2 of the $2,000 NL Hold’em event is rolling — playing down from 147 players to a final table. This event also featured a ROUNDER CLUB cash: GINA Salinas-Torres won $4,080 for finishing 180th. Way to go, Gina!

Check this out:

A drunken THOMAS WAHLROOS showing how the Euros like to have fun fucking with HELLMUTH …

[via Shuttergypsy]

The EUROS are arriving in force. ENGLISH-ONLY is becoming more and more of a rules call throughout the Rio and Las Vegas. Just ask STEVE WONG, who finished 7th in the SHORT-HANDED event, or MARCEL LUSKE, who fell short of winning a bracelet yesterday in $2,000 Omaha Hi Lo …

LAS VEGAS–The $50k HORSE event finished up this morning … and FREDDIE DEEB is officially crowned the best all-around poker player in the world for the time being.

You can only presume HARRAH’S OFFICIALS are breathing a sigh of relief — after having pimped the tourney as the biggest deal, it makes a much better story to give the title to an immigrant who came to America to save his family from war and turned to poker as a way to make good while AMERICAN IMMIGRATION BUREAUCRACY futzed around with his ability to earn a living.

Had JOHN HANSEN won, the story would’ve been about a relatively unknown bad-ass from the NEW YORK hardcore poker underground. Less savory.

Speaking of LEGALLY QUESTIONABLE poker players, did you know drug kingpin JIMMY CHAGRA — released from prison earlier this year — played in the SENIORS EVENT?

He was on “Talkin’ Trash” with BRIAN WILSON just a couple days ago. [via Gary Wise on 2+2.]

JEFFREY POLLACK did a little semi-live blogging from the HORSE final table. Maddest props to the Commish — not only for letting us know what he heard from the poker-players town hall, but also for providing his first-ever outbound link. Puts him on a short-list of people who just-might qualify for Pokerati posting privileges some day. We’ll be watching as he continues to cut his Wicked blogging chops.

In the meantime, The Jeffster tells us:

1. There is insufficient play in the middle levels of limit games and too much in the beginning.

2. There are some instances where the color-up process isn’t being handled correctly.

3. The tent is not a comfortable place to play.

4. There needs to be more room between the spectators on the ropes and the players.

5. The next day’s breaking order should be posted when an event ends for the night.

6. We need to improve media access to final tables.

7. The sequestered tables are tough to cover for the media and follow for the fans.

8. Tournament clocks should be more visible.

9. The Amazon Room is too cold.

10. We should continue and better publicize escort service to the parking lot late at night.

Yesterday’s “other” bracelet went to a guy named SAIF AHMAD, who