These shots were taken on Day 2, and they show the player sitting to Pat Poels’ left trying to sneak a peak at his hole cards. I told Pat about this, btw, and like Tommy Grand or Joey Greco, I showed him the surveillance footage of the disappointing truth.

“It’s better that you know,” I told him.

But Pat reassured me that it’s OK, his opponent didn’t see anything, because “I’m very good at looking at my cards,” he said with a straight face as if he were being totally serious about a practiced skill. “Just ask Robert, he’s told me before when trying to sweat me he can’t see my cards.”

Pat is currently on break in Day 4 of the main event — 450k in chips with 350 players remaining, one of whom is not the guy at right.

That’s two cashes so far for Schneider. This one paid a net $1,743. Congratulations-ish, Tom.. Nice to book another win, and this one should cover two or three of the many dozens of blinds you’ve defended poorly in the cash games! Don’t call it a comeback!

I ran into Angry Julie in the poker kitchen late last night shortly after Tom had busted out, and she was unusually happy. Giddy, I’d even say. She was buying herself a Krispy Kreme donut and Tom an ice cream using the $15 food voucher you get for playing in a WSOP event. Informed that she wouldn’t get back any change, she looked at the guy behind her in line and said, “How much is what he’s having? ($8) Great, his too!”

The dude was super-thankful, but before he could walk away with a smile, she stood there and wouldn’t let him leave until he tipped the cashier. “Not until you put at least a dollar in there,” she said, pointing to the tip basket in front of the register. I know what Tom would think if he saw this: “Leak.”

Meanwhile, Tom thinks Pokerati should be all over the continuing saga of the Donkey Bomber POY Banner. “My picture the only one without a light - rodney dangerfield,” said a text he sent to me yesterday. I checked, and it’s true — everyone else has a big beam accenting their mugs. But considering that I have to sit right below his banner and I don’t want any additional glare, I think we’ll stick to keeping you posted about his feats busting out of a tournament with only nine tables to go.

photo: Jackie Endsley
Putting your last dollar toward a bad-beat jackpot may not have been the best career strategy for this guy.

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I got a call yesterday at the WSOP from the Butler. I haven’t seen the guy for a couple months — not since me and my jiu-jitsu coach and heavy metal teacher got booted out of our sweet pad (pool table, poker table, dart board, 65-inch HDTV, Strip-view bedroom, fireplace/jacuzzi bathroom, no utilities) on the Eastside. We of course knew all was headed south when the Butler — the guy who set the whole housing arrangement up — walked into our casa unannounced to do a cocaine deal, and shortly thereafter got busted by The Boss (who owned the house, in theory, though not on paper) for stealing rent money.

(I met the Butler last year at the WSOP, as he was trying to sell his private concierge services to poker players and convince me to turn him into a recurring character on Pokerati.)

Anyhow, so I got a call from an unknown 973 number yesterday that I answered in the press box. “Hey, Dan, it’s John. Are you at the Series? How’s it going?”

“Um, uh, pretty good? We’re just getting rolling … so what’s up? Did you make it to Kansas City?”

“Yeah, and it’s not good. I’m calling because I need a stake.”

“Yeow, dude … can’t help you out. Wouldn’t know how to get you money if I could.”

“Western Union.”

“Sorry, man Have you tried Tom? His number is 602-97… .”

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Without much choice in the matter, Absolute Poker has spoken in the form of a press release from Anna Molley, Vice President of Public and Community Relations.

In short, AP thinks the Kahnawa:ke Gaming Commission report is complete and accurate. AP “regrets” the “inadvertent” deletion of records and is most happy to put this “most distressing and regrettable” experience behind them.

Well, as long as AP is happy…

AP is also initiating a series of poker security summits to discuss security with “respected and independent members of the poker community.”

The site is just glad to “close the book on this sordid affair.” Wow. Poor AP. They’ve been through so much…

Here is the full press release: More…

I’ll be competing in at least one event in the 2007 WSOP — $1,500 NLH on June 16. Exciting! Even more fun is that it’s all being made possible by our new-good-best friends at Milwaukee’s Best Light. Mmm-mmm. When you think about it, it really is an amazing beer. Go MBL! Guinness-shminness! The Euros will love this stuff!

As part of this sponsorship, I’ve agreed to donate half of any winnings in Event 27 to a reputable charity of my choice. Also cool because, you know, you gotta give to live, right? So it’s on me to figure out who gets Pokerati’s highly anticipated largess. (Milwaukee’s Best Light needs this info by Today morning, fyi.)

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According to his voicemail, James McDaniel was in Shreveport for the WSOP as police were looking for him. He said something about a satellite — so I dunno, maybe true, even though the current WSOP Circuit event was being held in New Orleans. But according to WSOP sources, he was not registered for any tournaments there.

OK, sorry … am burying the lede. Point of this post is that McDaniel, one of the more notorious figures in mid-stakes Dallas poker, was arrested last night at a University Park apartment. He was unconscious at the time (?) and transported to Parkland Hospital. More info here.

McDaniel’s arrest was not directly related to the death of SMU coed Meaghan Bosch, but was for parole violations and an alleged sexual assault in December 2005.

UPDATE: More detailed telling of this story here.

Really good story in yesterday’s Star-Telegram about the rise and fall of Eon Marshall, grandmaster of WorldPokerParty.com. It gives a little background on Marshall from his pre-poker days … where he seemed to be running something scammy in California … and talks about a semi-religious tale of Eon’s showing up in his signature white limo for a neighborhood Bunko game.

OK, really, I’m not gonna pick on him … too easy to kick a jackass when he’s down. But it’s an interesting reminder about what happened to at least some of the con-men out there who tried to bank it big during the early days of the American poker boom.

Click below to read some of the comments I got via not-for-attribution email about the pleasure that went with this federal-court affirmation that certain types really don’t get to live the good life … at least not for long:

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I’m sure this won’t piss anyone off … but check out the letter Rep. Brian McCall (R-Plano) sent to a concerned poker citizen who requested his support on HB 3186:

click to enlarge

Wow. Way to encourage participation in the political process, sir. I think a lot of elected officials — perhaps the majority even — forget that regular people like Mr. Rogers are their bosses, not their bitches. I may be a little jealous because he has way better hair than me tilty based on the way he belittles a citizen who simply did what he was supposed to do to let his representative know where he stands on an issue. You’ll notice McCall doesn’t actually take a stance … he pretty much just calls Jason stupid for doing so.

Click below for more insight into what a simple-minded congressman Rep. McCall may or may not be …

ALT HED: Why We Lost, Exhibit A

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Here’s a name from the past … and I hope I’m not messing with the poker-karma river gods by taking delight in his misfortune praising their good work. Remember Robert Eon Marshall?

Last I heard he had disappeared and was on the run from the Feds. Well, the FBI caught him — and he’s been sentenced to 10 years in prison (with no parole) and ordered to pay $900k in restitution for the people he defrauded with his failed online poker affiliate venture, WorldPokerParty.com.

Marshall (seen here at left, next to Sommer, en route to bubbling at the 2004 Pokerati Invitational), you may recall was the bombastic $2/$5 NLH maniac who reportedly made his fortune by hitting a $36 million Powerball. He also claimed to be the 20th ranked poker player in the world and bought himself a Super Bowl-style ring that said “No Limit Hold’em Champion.” Very classy-sad, no?

More on Eon Marshall and his abrasive table demeanor here.

Beyond being the bearer of so many bad beats to so many better players, he also was connected to one of the first “good folds” I made in the poker biz … he had some money ready to go to start a poker magazine, and while I was excited about the possibility, in the end I decided this guy with assault rifles and glorious stone fountains in his South Arlington strip-mall office was just too shady to get in bed with — especially when I saw him yell at his daughter for putting stickers on poker chips the wrong way. It was the right read, because his whole business was a failed Enron-style investment scheme based around convincing old ladies to buy-in (and rebuy) into an online poker affiliate model that was going nowhere.

ALT HED: All Incarcerated

ED. NOTE: Eon had a limo driver whom I talked with at length a couple years ago … but I don’t remember his name nor do I have his contact info handy. If someone has a clue who I am talking about and/or how to get in touch, please let me know.

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I was at the Bellagio the past four days or so. I came in 24th in one of the events … just 23 players away from more than $300,000…almost enough to get Dan some new sex toys a personality a haircut and a new wardrobe.

Anyway, I was playing in this $25/$50 no-limit hold’em cash game when it happened. The Bellagio’s poker tables have a yellow betting line. If while placing a bet, the chips or money do not cross this line, it is not considered part of the bet. That would have been nice to know. However, anyone who plays the game with good intentions doesn’t take advantage of such things and wouldn’t call it on another player when it’s obvious they intended to raise.

The guy to my right was in the big blind. This is a reference few people know, but he looked and dressed like Leon Redbone, a strange old singer. I picked up two $100 chips to raise, to make it $200 to go. I just happened to be sitting in the 2 seat. The line is much farther away from the end seats requiring the 2 and 8 seat players to lean way over to get the money within the line. (And who says poker players aren’t athletes?) It just happened that one chip made it inside the line and the other one was just low and outside. Immediately, the guy in the big blind says, “both chips didn’t go over the line, so that’s not $200”. I said, “Are you kidding me? I made a forward motion and intended to raise. Fine, then it’s only a call.”

The one seat said, “No, it’s a raise to $100.”

I was getting a little irritated and replied, “Listen, it’s either one chip or two chips, two chips is a raise, and everyone knows that one chip is only a call if I don’t announce raise.”

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