In the spirit of kicking things old-school, we’re going really new school … on the fly no less … and moving to SoundCloud, which we think will work in really neato ways.

November Nine – Evolution (Ep 1) by taopokerati

November Nine – Evolution (ep. 1)
Dr. Pauly and Dan are back with a new episode of Tao of Pokerati live from the Rio in Las Vegas. Dan showed up late, but watched some of the live feed at home. The WSOP coverage is evolving and the two discuss the latest nuances in poker reporting.

And of course to follow an old-school blogger with faster typing skills than mine, be sure to read actual writing from my partner in podcast crime at Tao of Poker.

I can tell you there has been a noted difference in our on-site commentary since Twitter.

Anyhow, go Kevmath … for asking the question:

Could Twitter Replace the Poker Media?
Apr 3, 2009

I’d say in some ways yes … but in other ways no, it’s just changed how many do their jobs. But Twitter’s still got a ways to go before the #hashtag officially usurps the adjective, and I still haven’t seen the concept really work for anyone who’s tried to possess it … so there’s gotta be a reason @KevMath has more Klout than the rest of us.

PERKY: Merchdawg’s in Vegas, and a sparkly green Escalade awaits.

Next Pokerati Game, btw, is tomorrow, Thursday, usual start time. Hoping Merchdawg et al(canthang) play when they’re done with the tournament coverage. Somebody asked me, lol, “Is this a WPT event?”

Apologies to @PokerGuyJoeV and/or @BobbyGriff9, btw, if every 1/2 PLO/NL player now thinks you can hook them up with airport rides just because.

2011 WSOP – Episode 20: Adieu, Benjo (8:40) – After almost a week of speculation and rumors, Benjo confirms that he’s leaving Las Vegas and heading home to France. His brief stint at the WSOP is officially over. One chapter ends, and a new one begins. Dr. Pauly, Dan and Benjo hang out in the dive bar inside the bowling alley at Gold Coast to listen to Benjo bid his farewells.

For more episodes, visit the Tao of Pokerati archives or subscribe to the Tao of Pokerati feed.

With 23 bidders and 88 bids in the fight for PokerNewsDaily, I can only imagine the joy “b***2″ felt upon binking the auction. No word on who that buyer really was. But they didn’t even play in the game for Pokerterms.com, a sister site to PND also put up for auction that went to “s***n” for $8,359.

This is the first time I’ve heard of an on-line auction for a poker site. It seems as if Protos Marketing, the site’s parent company, was trying to unload these domains (and related assets) pretty fast. I wonder if they are feeling the effects of Black Friday on affiliate-based poker media, or if the previous owners needed cash for WSOP Satellites something bigger and better yet to come.

I’ve overheard several people at the Rio talking about friendly wagers they had on the selling prices for these sites. Curious if people here participated in any prop bets … or the actual eBay auctions?

Here is what the buyer(s) really got for that price, and with the PND brand:

This marks the final week of a no-reserve eBay auction for the PokerNewsDaily domain, content, associated accounts and more. Originally posted on Wednesday June 15th, the auction has attracted significant attention in the poker world. Several thousand people have viewed the auction on eBay and it has also attracted 15 bids in the first five days.

The auction itself includes the following (stats as of 6/14):

The pokernewsdaily.com domain name.
The PokerNewsDaily brand name (there are no registered trademarks)
All of the content (articles, site reviews, player profiles, videos, etc) on the site. There are over 5,300 posts, over 3200 comments and over 3100 registered users.
The PokerNewsDaily facebook page with 236 likes.
The PokerNewsDaily twitter account with 6174 followers and 283 listed.
Any other data contained in the PND database such as registered users, external click tracking data, etc. Nothing of substance or potential usefulness will be deleted prior to transfer.
The full customized WordPress install including the custom theme and the configured plugins.
The original PSD for the theme (which was purchased in a contest on 99designs) and the .AI file for the logo (which was purchased in a separate contest on 99designs).
The PokerNewsDaily Google Apps account which includes our support@pokernewsdaily.com email address and several years of emails. This account also includes our Feedburner feed with 1552 subscribers (813 of those are email subscribers via FeedBurner).
The PokerNewsDaily Google Analytics account which has data going back to July 24th, 2009. This account has the Google Apps account as an administrator so you can simply delete our access to it once the deal has closed.

However, the auction does not include existing affiliate accounts, writer contracts or a non-compete from PND’s parent company, Protos Marketing. The full auction listing includes additional information and the full terms.

In addition to PokerNewsDaily, Protos has also put up PokerTerms.com for auction. PokerTerms is a leading online poker dictionary with over 1200 term definitions and some very high Google rankings for highly-searched poker terms. PokerTerms has attracted an additional 13 bids and significant attention.

Spend enough time around the professional poker circuit and you’ll quickly realize that it’s a very small and incestuous group. Players and media members spend hours, days and sometimes weeks together in casinos and card rooms around the world and, as expected, the close quarters inevitably lead to friendships (and, sometimes, more) between the two groups.

This is perfectly normal and, quite frankly, not a big deal in most cases. A poker pro sharing a drink or a meal with a player can be beneficial for both parties. And, so long as clear lines are kept between professional and personal relationships, there’s no real issue. When the lines are blurred, however, things become less clear.

Whether or not friendships affect reporting is irrelevant, because it’s the perception of impartiality that matters. If people paid to report on poker can’t separate personal feelings and biases from the stories they’re covering, how can anyone trust what they say or write?

We’re only a couple of weeks into this year’s WSOP and I’ve already seen plenty of instances where the line hasn’t just been blurred, but erased completely. Specifically, I’m referring to the increasing and increasingly annoying practice of poker journalists openly rooting for their friends during individual events.

Tackiness aside, this practice just makes the offending journalists look unprofessional. And maybe they are. The fact is, many of the reporters on the poker beat are young, inexperienced and have little, if any, professional journalism training. For many, these low-paying gigs are their first post-collegiate jobs and are merely a way to make some money in an industry they enjoy while they look for something better.

They don’t understand the importance of impartiality – or at least, the importance of maintaining the appearance of impartiality – because they’ve never been taught that journalists are supposed to remain objective about the stories and people they’re covering. Of course, this isn’t always easy or possible, but true professionals do everything they can to separate their personal feelings from the story they are reporting on. And, if they can’t, the good ones do their best to make their biases clear to their readers, viewers or listeners.

Take Maria Ho’s final table in the $5K No-Limit Hold ‘em tournament last week. While a number of journalists used their Twitter accounts to publicly root Maria on during the event – even as some of them were reporting on the action – others, like Change100, did the right thing and made it clear that they were not acting as media while sweating Maria. From her Twitter stream; “The badge is off for a while – railing @mariaho in the final four of the $5k NL. She just doubled through Allen Bari. Go Ho!”

All well and good, I can hear you saying, but at the end of the day, isn’t Change’s declaration overkill? Media members rooting on their friends is no big deal and it has nothing to do with real news.

Wrong.

Look at what’s going on in the poker world at the moment: the top three sites have been indicted by the DOJ, players are bitching about the fact that they can’t get their money off of Tilt, pros are suing their sponsors and skipping the WSOP, etc., etc., etc. These issues affect many of the pros that media members call friends and could possibly color their reporting of specific events.

And, in the end, whether or not friendships affect reporting is irrelevant, because it’s the perception of the reporter’s impartiality that matters. If the people who are being paid to report on the poker industry can’t be trusted to separate their personal feelings and biases from the stories they’re covering, how can anyone trust what they say or write?

Take me, for example. Some of you probably know that I used to work for one of the major online poker sites. Some of you don’t. Unless you know me personally, you probably don’t know which site I used to work for and, from reading what I write here, you should – ideally – never be able to figure that out. And, while I occasionally address issues surrounding online poker, I never, ever write or comment on anything specifically related to my former employer.

Why, you ask? Because I know a lot of people who still work at the company and I have a vested interest in seeing the business and the people running it succeed. In short, there’s a chance that I may not be able to report on the issues surrounding my former employer in an impartial or unbiased manner, so it’s best for me not to put myself in a position where my credibility can be questioned.

Sure, rooting for your friends when they go deep in a tourney is a “minor” ethical infraction in the grand scheme of things, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t good reasons why it shouldn’t be done. However, if you must play cheerleader, have the good sense not to do it publicly on Twitter.

Tony G says he’s thinking of skipping the 2011 WSOP, too … but the reason he gives — not being able to keep up with the kids these days — seems questionably weak when one of the most influential men in poker has been throwing firebombs at Full Tilt and Howard Lederer specifically, as they relate to player monies and the WSOP.

I think the real question is: Is he looking to skip just the events, or skip out on Las Vegas and/or the US altogether? I mean shoot, I was hoping he’d at least show up to play the media event!

The DOJ dropped an A-bomb on the online poker industry Friday, and, as you’d expect, the impact was devastating. Within hours of the DOJ’s indictments, PokerStars and Full Tilt Poker had shut down real money gaming in the US, effectively killing online poker and leaving millions of customers with nowhere to play.

And while the sites are scrambling to readjust to a world where approximately 40 percent or more of their business just disappeared and mount legal defenses for themselves and their executives, the fallout from Friday’s bombshells continues to spread far and wide from its epicenters in Dublin and the Isle of Man.

I could go on, but I’ll just end up depressing myself and that’s no fun.

While Full Tilt and Stars were certainly the two biggest poker sites operating in the states, their reach extends far beyond the virtual felt. Until Friday, these sites were the drivers of a whole industry that revolved around their players, television programs and live tournaments around the world. With the sites gone, the poker economy they supported is sure to follow.

As I write this, a number of my friends are getting trashed on Pisco Sours down in Peru, where they’re covering the end of an LAPT event for PokerStars and PokerNews. The sad fact is, though, this may be the end of poker reporting as we know it.

Providing live tournament coverage is expensive and resource-intensive, and sites like PokerNews can’t exist without financial underwriting provided by sites like Stars and Tilt. With those players now out of the US market, there’s no reason for them to be spending resources on tournament reporting when that money can be better spent on the high-priced legal teams they’re undoubtedly going to need to put in place. Bottom line – that WSOP coverage that everyone has been gearing up for next month probably isn’t going to happen.

Of course, that may not be the worst thing in the world as today’s crackdown will surely impact the size of this year’s WSOP. All those online qualifiers that send thousands of hopefuls to Vegas every summer? Yeah, they’re gone. And online players who were thinking of raiding their bankrolls to finance this summer’s live shenanigans in Vegas? They’re not going to be seeing that money anytime soon.

Who else will fell the impact of Friday’s bombshell? How about the folks who produce all of the great poker programming we like to watch? Do you really think there will be any new episodes of Poker After Dark or The Big Game? Don’t you think that ESPN is suddenly rethinking their plans for their coverage of this year’s Main Event? You can bet that the production companies and TV networks are all going to be hedging their bets and looking for new programs to fill their production and broadcast schedules.

Let’s not forget the poker mags like Bluff and CardPlayer who live on advertising revenue provided by the big online sites. With no US players, there’s reason for the sites to spend money on new ad buys, which means those publications will probably make it to press a few more times before their money runs out.

Other folks who will probably be scrambling for new revenue streams are the people who run online poker training sites like CardRunners, PokerVT and the like. Their US customer base just disappeared along with the ability to sit at real money tables. While I’m at it, I should probably mention folks like the agents at PokerRoyalty who just saw their commissions go down the drain. And the players who make their living by spending their days grinding online all day. I’m sure there’s a whole group of 20-somethings in Panorama Towers who are all learning how to say “Would you like fries with that?”

I could go on, but I’ll just end up depressing myself and that’s no fun. So, I’ll leave you all with this thought; What happened [Friday] was most definitely bad for poker in the short term, but if it prompts Congress to finally take a serious look at the regulation of online poker, then there may be some long-term benefits.

We’ll save the 9/11 comparisons for later — because no one has died yet — and it’s just kinda coincidental that the DOJ has 9 charges against 11 defendants. But there seems to be a need for people to talk through these matters openly and honestly … and in kinda an organic way, the few truly independent operations (that don’t rely on Stars, Tilt, or UB for their existence) have come together to fill that void.

What began with appearances on an “EMERGENCY EPISODE!!!!” of Donkdown radio has migrated to a 24/7 live podcast put together by @AgentMarco from QuadJacks.

It’s been a rather loose-aggressive media emergence … with old-school cooperation in play. Pokerati has taken part … Tom Schneider, myself were on for the first few hours, Mark Gahagan is on now, and I’m about to rejoin to share some new information. Others that have been on have included Dutch Boyd, Scott Matusow, Micon-Brandon-and-Dandruff from Donkdown, The Maven, Kevmath, Pete the Blunt-smoker, Thomas the Rapper … as well as just regular ole online poker players sharing their stories about how a “little” government action has greatly affected their lives.

Anyhow, blah blah blah to infinity … the podcast that won’t stop is still going on — they’ve been going for 48 hours so far, with no sign of stopping, even if Marco eventually needs a nap. More than 1,000 listeners at this moment, so check out the chat room and keep it on for background music. Here’s the link:

http://www.ustream.tv/channel/day-2-qj-live-show

Funny how once the concept of “conversions” stopped mattering, 24/7 poker radio could finally emerge.

This week’s show included a lengthy interview with featured guest Mike Sexton, a cameo from Daniel Negreanu to discuss PokerVT, MAXIM Hometown Hottie finalist and WPT Royal Flush Girl Melanie Iglesias, and a discussion with Matt Parvis about Poker News and the role of poker media.

All that plus the Tina Fey of Poker Jess Welman delivers this week’s big poker headlines.

Detailed episode highlights at WCP.

Dan is more than capable to handle things here at Pokerati, and there’s several possible things in the coming months that may make me regret this decision. I know the site will continue to grow and I hope for the best, and I’ll still make my appearance in the comments as needed. I appreciate Dan giving me my break in May of 2008 after enduring my hundreds of comments to his posts. Thanks again, and hopefully I can do with Bluff what I’ve done for Pokerati over the coming months.

Kevmath

Kevin Mathers, the venerable 2+2 moderator and longtime blogger-editor at Pokerati, will not be posting here for the foreseeable future.

No joke … he has been relieved indefinitely from Pokerati blogging duties. Technically, we had to “let him go”. Sucks, but we just couldn’t afford the increasingly valuable services of the hottest independent info-tweeter in poker. Here is a copy of his termination papers:

Kevin, I saw your interview on TWIP. Good job. I also just read Can you send me relevant threads from 2+2?

Hey, so, you are fired. Sorry. Hard times.

I really wanted to believe you were a bot.

See you on Twitter or something?

Rumor is Kevmath is headed to the minor leagues Bluff, where he and Jess Welman would form quite the menacingly mighty poker-reportage duo. Of course without Kevmath, Pokerati will change … we’ve got Gahagan to work double time and some other changes in store, but we might have to cut back on some previously standard coverage elements, such as “facts”.

But @Kevmath did leave behnd a Pokerati farewell … after 30 months, 579 posts, and 1,642 comments, all of which helped make this a better place … seriously, how lucky were we to have him as long as we did? Glad the “for hire” media finally came around.

Check back to read what hopefully won’t be the last time we see @Kevmath around these parts.

(In the real voting top two get in.)

Dan Harrington – 157
Erik Seidel – 97
Linda Johnson – 56
Phil Ivey – 54
Barry Greenstein – 49
Tom McEvoy – 25
Chris Moneymaker (write-in) – 20
Scotty Nguyen – 20
Chris Ferguson – 16
Daniel Negreanu -12
Jennifer Harman – 4

Was gettin’ all geared up for an exciting #FollowFriday when I got this reminder of how much things have changed. Alas …

But hey, I’ll always have this bit of inspiration — recorded during the 2006 WPBT Winter Classic, shortly after passage of the UIGEA … a time when Twitter hardly existed and I believed, along with Phil Hellmuth, that poker’s future was in ringtones:

Oliver Tse poker future

ALT HED: Oliver Tweetse

Pretty sure something was close to done and may or may not have fallen apart, and that Harrah’s is still looking to unload the home of the WSOP on someone … with any serious offers of $300 million or more getting a real look. But I don’t really know even that. Meanwhile, any poker media who ran with the story needs to consider their willingness to rely on such unsavory sources, and should probably go sit in a corner and think about what they’ve done.

Here’s her first bustout interview with Marco from QuadJacks … and naturally she credits all her great play + rungood recently to skills acquired in the Pokerati Game:

(At least that’s what I heard … no?)

Big ups to the best red-headed co-panelist on The Poker Beat … who also happened to be the only player in Event #1 to show up with muffins.

The Dutch contingent of PokerNews Radio tracked down Kevmath — the great Googler from 2+2, Pokerati, and PokerStarsBlog — to discuss the latest in the ongoing UB Scandal (as per the recent feature from Wicked Chops).

Always providing reader-service … for those who may not have more than a few minutes to get caught up on the scandal they long got too confused about to follow … Kevmath gives the quick essentials of the current situation as seen through his insightful culling of the internet.

Check him out with @webjoker and @happyfreaked:

And if you haven’t seen it already, while listening be sure to check out the lol-laden thread on 2+2, Who/What is Kevmath?

The Poker Beat: July 22, 2010

Rookie twitterer @GaryWise1 took his turn in Capt. Huff’s chair as @BJNemeth and @JessWelman panel-bantered about:

• The pre-markup hearing in DC with Annie Duke
• Make-up of the 2010 November Nine
• The value, if any, of poker agents — and how the WSOP accommodates them during the main event
• BJ’s philosophical non-dilemma over coverage of Matt Affleck’s emotional bustout *
• The difference between poker media and poker journalism
• The Year of Mizrachi and the accidental WTF? of the current WSOP Player of the Year scoring system
• Annette Obrestad’s B- performance
• The 3-headed Monster of Team WSOP without @JeffreyPollack
• WSOP numbers and final table times

* great explanation, BJ. But question … Is there any discernable line where the “field of play” in poker begins, and ends?

Other episode-relevant links:

The Redemption of Matt Affleck by Gary Wise
The Long, Lonely Walk of Matt Affleck by Howard Swains (with photos by Joe Giron)

Next ep coming tomorrow. Play along in the PokerRoad forums.

Episode 70: Emerging Narratives and November Nine No-Names with Benjo – The power trio returns for a rare episode featuring Dan, Benjo, and Pauly. While sweating the final four tables, Benjo quickly recaps some of the more interesting narratives from the Main Event. The discussions shifts towards whether or not we care if the final nine players are a bunch of unknowns.

Episode 71: Vampire Weekend with Benjo – During the last break of Day 7, the agents were slithering around the Amazon Ballroom and the hallways sucking the blood out of anyone in still alive in the Main Event without an endorsement deal. Benjo and Pauly discuss the sleazy side of poker and their plans to take over the live updates and become the biggest player management agency at the 2011 WSOP with BrokeDickPoker.com