La Sengphet took down another one on the WSOP-circuit — winning a $345 NLH at the Bicycle Casino in Bell Gardens, Calif. for her fourth WSOP-C victory (third in a ring-bearing event) and a $25k payday. Her other half, David Clark, made a final table the day before, and won his second ring just a couple stops earlier at WSOP-Tahoe. Their story is becoming sickeningly charming … perhaps even inspirational … showing that true love and poker success can go hand-in-hand for a couple of old-fashioned rounders making their way across an ever-unpredictable poker landscape.

(That, or … Go Team Pokerati!)

@WhoIsDavidClark? The #1 WSOP-circuit player right now, and boyfriend to a poker chick with skills of her own.

And while I’m a fan of these two Dallas players mostly because of La’s really cool hat, I couldn’t help but notice — in finally getting sucked in to the latest developments in poker’s minor leagues — that I was witnessing more than just entertaining poker. Her final table was an exciting up-and-down match complete with rough rivers in the face of amazing plays and questionable calls you might expect from minor-leaguers … or at a minimum, the kinda non-suckout against 7-high aggression that should make any Pokeratizen proud.

But thanks to the pocket-friendly live feed from Live at the Bike, I saw a future where I can closely follow a “small” $345 event just because I happen to have a friend at the final table, and where I can watch it live-enough (30-minute delay, I think) … complete with hole cards and a couple seasoned grinders analyzing her play.

My how times have changed …

It was almost exactly a year ago that the Dallas couple started their circuit tear with a second-place by La and a DC-win at the new WSOP-Choctaw. Back then, WSOP-LA didn’t even exist, and PokerStars still believed they had a future in the United States by heavily pimping their second foray into California with an NAPT stop at the Bike and plausible validation from a stronger relationship with ESPN. The WSOP had yet to show the poker world what was possible with new handheld technologies, and the Players Advisory Committee hadn’t even begun the debate over changing poker forever by revealing hole cards even before the next break.

As Seen on iPhone TV: La completes her three-barrel bluff by moving in with 7-high, opponent calls, she wins!

Meanwhile, both Sengphet and Clark were focused on qualifying for the inaugural Circuit National Championship, where La would place 4th to win $100k. So far this 2011/12 season, Clark has already secured his seat in the summer million-dollar freeroll with five cashes, 4 final tables (including a HORSE event), and his November win at Harvey’s Lake Tahoe; La so far has three cashes and a win this season.

Click here to see the latest standings on the WSOP-Circuit leaderboard; you can also follow La and DC on Twitter as they cruise the WSOP circuit (and other events?) leading up to the big ones in Vegas this summer. Of course now we can only hope Pokerati’s favorite rungood couple doesn’t suddenly hit the skids as circuit competition not only becomes more aware of who they are, but also has greater ability to actually study their play!

No spoiler intended … Just guessing at the plot-line from the Ace High trailer, which is fairly good-lookin’ for an indie movie still seeking funding to complete. Wonder how PokerStars got the product placement … and which online pros may or may not make any on-screen appearances … and whether or not players would have legal rights use of the likeness of their online poker avatars or even screen names:

Episode numbering seems to be the only tricky thing … and maybe using the geo-locator toggle. But it didn’t seem to matter as we sought the best way to insta-podcast the exciting highlights “semi-live” as the November Nine whittled down to the three that ultimately would matter tonight, in a few hours, live from the Penn & Teller Theater, and “live” on ESPN and possibly in your pocket:

Nov. Nine – Giannetti Lives (Ep 5) by taopokerati

Dan and Pauly are ringside for a decisive hand between Matt Giannetti and Martin Staszko. Giannetti was crippled on the previous hand and moved all-in. Staszko called with a dominated hand. Dan and Pauly call the action….

Tao of Pokerati: Quad Lambs by Pokerati

Tao of Pokerati: Non-silence of the Lamb at Penn & Teller Theater by Pokerati

My dedication to poker tournaments and the game itself is two decades old. Starting with my first foray into the role of tournament director in 1997 and through my founding of the Tournament Directors Association (TDA) with Linda Johnson, Jan Fisher, and Dave Lamb in 2001, I have worked tirelessly to standardize tournament rules and to make poker a better game for everyone involved.

This is the reason that we host the website www.PokerTDA.com, open the TDA to all interested parties, and make myself available on Twitter and other social media outlets. My passion for poker only grows when I share it with others.

The rule is not new, and does not ban table talk by any means … A recreational player may not understand, nor even care to know all the rules, but professionals who make a living at the game should.

During the 2011 World Series of Poker “nearly live” telecast from the Rio, I became aware of comments from Daniel Negreanu (@RealKidPoker) through my own Twitter feed (@SavagePoker). He said that the TDA created a “new” rule that banned table talk. This certainly is not the case and in hindsight, it was learned that he had received an incorrect ruling at the table that had nothing to do with TDA rules. Since social media has limited words with which to sufficiently explain the rule and its longtime existence, this clarification seems necessary.

The TDA board, in conjunction with tournament directors and card room managers, has donated thousands of hours to standardize rules in the best interest of the game.  When well-known poker players like Negreanu and Phil Hellmuth choose to say on national television that “the TDA has it wrong” and “does not care about what the players want,” it becomes personal.

The Rule
To begin with the basics, the TDA rule at the center of the recent discussion is the “No Disclosure” rule, which states:

Players are obligated to protect the other players in the tournament at all times. Therefore, players, whether in the hand or not, may not:

The one-player-to-a-hand rule will be enforced.

Regarding Negreanu’s previous statements, the rule is not new, as it was enacted more than seven years ago. In addition, it does not ban table talk by any means.

He also stated that players should be able to “say whatever you want in a heads-up pot at any point of the tournament.” In theory, that sounds great for the television audience. But keep in mind that far less than one percent of all poker tournaments are televised! Thus, the rule that pertains to all poker players must apply to all tournaments, televised or not. Rules cannot be changed to help individual players or enhance a televised tournament.

A quote, brought to my attention by @GaryC101, from Neil Peart of Rush sums it up best: “Glittering prizes and endless compromises shatter the illusion of integrity.” OK, kind of a random quote but says a lot about the situation in my opinion and I consider integrity the most important trait of a good tournament director.

Personally, I would like to see Negreanu say anything he wants on television, as he is one of the most entertaining players to watch. His popularity and influence on the game of poker is immense. However, as a tournament director, I believe the integrity of the game is more important than the entertainment provided by a single event. I agree with his point that the rule is difficult to enforce but it needs to be there to provide a reason for TD’s to investigate possible collusion or soft play situations.

In-Depth Analysis
Let’s start with a purely hypothetical situation:

Player A is friends with Player B and backs him in a major tournament. Both have significant chips late in a tournament. They are seated at the same table and involved in a hand. Player B raises, and it folds around to Player A, who reraises and says, “I have aces.” Player B folds kings.

This obviously does not make for better poker. In fact, it could easily be considered “soft play” or collusion, and making this permissible only encourages such actions. I am not by any means suggesting that Negreanu is in favor of soft play or collusion, but this is just one of several very negative ramifications that can arise from what he says he believes players should be able to say at the table.

Moreover, tournament directors around the world cannot be expected to be aware of all friendships, relationships, and backing arrangements between players in a tournament. Therefore, the rules are established to enable enforcement for all players, regardless of their associations. And all are protected from any collusion or appearances of collusion.An interesting idea was proposed by Barry Greenstein, who believes the current TDA rule is not enforced. He suggested that a player should be able to discuss his/her hand when action is on that player and they are facing a bet.

I discussed this idea with Dave Lamb, and we recognized the flaws in that idea.

First, it is not acceptable to disclose the contents of your hand in a multi-way action pot.

Second, it is not acceptable to disclose the contents of your hand preflop when facing a bet.

Barry responded that it would be okay when facing a bet on the river if you were only going to call, not raise. However, that does not seem enforceable and only creates more confusion for tournament staff, dealers, and players.

The bottom line is that the TDA is never going to agree to a rule that not only allows, but legalizes soft play and collusion.

The most common question I’ve received of late is this: “If table talk is legal but players cannot disclose the contents of their hands, what can they say”? The answer is simply anything except information relating to the content of their own hand with action pending. Whether lying or telling the truth about the contents or the strength of a hand, it breaks the rule and may be penalized. There is not a blanket rule for when it is a penalty or not but with the “non disclosure” rule in place it gives the players the right to investigate possible situations.

Friends
The most difficult part of this situation has been responding to television sound bites with which friends like Negreanu have addressed this issue. Also the sudden urgency is perplexing considering the rule has been in place for more than seven years.

Greenstein and Negreanu were asked to attend the June 2011 TDA summit in Las Vegas, in the same Convention Center as the WSOP. There were more than 120 tournament directors and card room managers at the summit, and anyone was allowed to discuss any rule issues or concerns. However, at that conference, Greenstein asked about procedures for raising blinds when time expires in a current blind structure, and Negreanu brought up shorting limit bets. Neither chose to discuss the “no disclosure” rule.

Suddenly, however, Negreanu’s airing of his grievance on ESPN, as well as Hellmuth’s declaration on the same broadcast that he intends to change the rule, brought it to the forefront and forced me to address the issue.

The recreational poker tournament player may not understand every rule, or even care to know all of the rules, but professionals who make a living at the game should learn and study the entirety of the TDA rules.

Moreover, these rules are in place and enforced in order to create uniformity, as they are used by nearly every major tournament venue around the world. More than 1,500 tournament directors, card room managers, and their staffs are members of the TDA, and the rules are accepted and enforced globally.

That doesn’t mean the TDA isn’t open for discussions. However, the “no disclosure” rule has been in place for many years, and there has never been an issue with it until this incident. Airing grievances may make for good television, but it does not permit the detailed analysis necessary for drafting the most functional and fair poker tournament rules that protect the integrity of the game. There will be more opportunities in the future to revisit the “no disclosure” rule and it will most definitely come up at our next TDA Summit not yet planned.

I have received a ton of feedback on this issue some positive and some negative. I have also taken personal attacks for defending a rule hundreds have put in place, which I feel is really unfair. I have worked diligently in my career to further the great game of poker with the TDA and its members and despite accusations to the contrary we care deeply about the players, as the majority are players as well.

In the end, I choose the integrity of poker, which is good for the game, over good television every time.

Anyhow, so Epic Poker League … the one with a $1,500 Pro-Am that I won a seat into and will air in Heartland Poker syndication … continues to develop, and it looks more and more like a real poker contender, with the league now having locked down the “pro” part of their TV deal.

Major network CBS will be airing Epic’s big $20k invitational events, with ousted WSOP film crew 441 Productions handling camera duties under the aegis of former NBC Sports exec David Neal. Longtime real-sports dude Pat O’Brien will be the TV host, with Ali Nejad as his analyst sidekick.

In my mind, this is yet another part of “the reconstruction” of poker we are currently witnessing, and testament to what can be may have to be done without the help of traditional online poker sites that previously pushed poker on TV but now face criminal indictment.

Also in with this deal is additional TV coverage — live-minus-30 maybe, or is that just wishful thinking on my part — on a soon to be relaunched Discovery B-side channel called Velocity. It’s supposed to be “a turbocharged network for an upscale male audience” now, according to the network … which, I dunno, haven’t seen yet so not gonna diss — channel launches in October; real, fully legal advertisers to follow — but sounds kinda, um, Epic?

Clearly poker is no women’s soccer, but still … those returns seem high enough that ESPN will probably do it again — though nothing in the ESPN press release assures as much — and low enough that next year ESPN and the WSOP will easily be able to report massive growth in whatever numbers prove most beneficial for them to deliver.

It’s hard to determine a success with a new type of coverage … but these numbers do set a certain bar, and at a minimum dohelp quantify the size of the true-poker-geek market. And thus, with results of the Pokerati love-it-or-hate-it poll, combined with the television numbers, I’m relatively convinced that if ESPN doesn’t expand their “live” poker coverage in the future … somebody else will.

(It really is all in the announcing.)

Read below for the official Nielsen data presented by Jack Link’s Beef Jerky, er … I mean:

ESPN’s Live WSOP Main Event Coverage Sees Ratings and Viewership Gains in Dayparts

Ratings and viewership for ESPN’s first-ever daily live coverage of the World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event from July 14-19 was up double digits over every daypart on ESPN2 compared to July 2010, according to Nielsen. The 10 telecasts on ESPN2 averaged a 0.4 household coverage rating, 351,000 households and 415,000 viewers.

The biggest daypart gains were made during the early morning (1-5 a.m. ET) on ESPN2 when live WSOP coverage increased daypart average ratings by 136 percent and household impressions 125 percent.

In prime time, ESPN2 averaged a 0.4 rating, 401,000 households and 504,000 viewers, while the one prime time telecast on ESPN (July 19) delivered a 0.5 rating, 543,000 households and 646,000 viewers. Late night and early morning windows on ESPN2 delivered a 0.3 household coverage rating over six telecasts.

For the month to date, the WSOP delivered over 23 million total minutes consumed for ESPN3.com, a 106 percent increase on an average event to event basis compared to the same month last year.

WSOP Weekly Shows Start Tuesday at 8 p.m. ET on ESPN
ESPN’s coverage of the World Series of Poker presented by Jack Link’s Beef Jerky continues Tuesday, July 26, with WSOP “Grudge Matches” (8 p.m., ESPN), the first of ESPN’s weekly Tuesday night shows leading up to the WSOP Main Event final table on November 8. The telecast will relive two of the most famous heads-up duels in the WSOP’s 42-year history when Johnny Chan faces Phil Hellmuth in a rematch of 1989 WSOP in a one match format, and Sammy Farha plays Chris Moneymaker in a rematch of the 2003 event in a best-of-three format. The matchups were played at the Rio All-Suite Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas on June 2. Co-hosts Lon McEachern and Norman Chad will be joined by sideline reporter Kara Scott in the two-hour special which will include interviews with the players and footage from the original matchups.

– 30 –

While I think it’s been friggin awesome and indeed downright historic, a cadre of Pokerati commenters seem to have a vitriolic distaste for the live coverage that goes far beyond a typical poker whine. (I’m very disappointed in them, obv.) Not much in-between … it seems a love-it-or-hate-it affair.

So at Marvin in Bedford’s recommendation — though I did try to remove bias by not calling the live coverage “phony” — I put it to the readers of Pokerati with a simple multiple choice question asking your quick gun-to-the-head take on how ESPN has elected to bring us the 2011 WSOP:

2011 WSOP – Episode 34: Tent City (5:01) – Dan and Pauly went outside and wandered around tent city, where all of the ESPN live feed production trucks and Poker PROductions trailers were located. Pauly hasn’t seen much of the semi-live coverage on ESPN and Dan clues him in on what he’s been missing…

For more episodes, visit the Tao of Pokerati archives.

Anyhow, check out Adidas’s new ad campaign on display around the rails at the 2011 Women’s World Cup in Germany — targeting fans of international women’s soccer with phrasing that may or may not have been grifted from poker:

“adidas is all in”

BTW, go USA still, but really, seriously, gg Japan.

UPDATE: Apparently the “adidas is all in” campaign launched back in March. Click here to see the multimillion-dollar YouTube commercials wrapped around a distinctly poker phrase … as interpreted by the world of sports.

I’m watching the “Live” ESPN coverage and it sucks. It’s like it was before the cameras. Not only don’t we see all the hands, but we don’t know whether the better has the “Nuts” or is bluffing. Since they are afraid of people telling what the other players have, how about a one hand delay?

Marvin, Marvin, Marvin … c’mon, can’t you see the positives at all? This is semi-monumental … not the kinda Poker TV you see on Versus, ya know? Though not perfect yet, they gotta start somewhere, right? You bring up some good points that I’m sure they’ll consider in the future … but really, remember, while not necessarily “alpha” version of live coverage, it is rather “beta”.

In an ideal world — according to Pokerati — all cards and chips would be RFID’d worldwide and you could watch all poker anywhere in any place at any time, as live as possible as permissible by gaming jurisdiction, and decide for yourself whether or not you wanna see hole cards. (I tend to enjoy guessing sometimes.) With super-duper extra-HD All-360 technology, of course … on my iphone should I so choose. But we’re just not quite there yet!

From the Rio sportsbook: For people not glued to Twitter, "live enough" coverage is ... um ... not too different from reruns usually airing on screens in many sports bars.

Not sure how it would work with exposed hole cards and future "in-game betting" on the WSOP. (Seen at the sportsbook in the Palms, where you can't yet bet that way.)

And remember, one other factor complicating matters here is approval by Nevada Gaming. Even just allowing twitpics in casinos and cell phones in sports books is relatively new territory for them. And there are some people who don’t believe you should be able to know a players cards a half-hour later when your buddy — or even the players themselves — can find out if that key tell thy picked up goes along with the nuts or nothing.

Click the promo banner to watch things as live as we’re gonna get them for now.

As always, you are welcome and encouraged to run it twice.

2011 WSOP – Episode 9: False Flags and Low Lights (4:04) – Dan and Pauly wander around the Pavilion and Dan points out the flags, or lack of international flags, hanging from the rafters. While Dan spins an international false flag conspiracy, he also wonders about the lack of bright lighting at this year’s WSOP.

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

2011 WSOP – Episode 5: Norman Invasion – Dan and Pauly try to hang out at the final table of the $25,000 Heads-Up Championship between Jake Cody and Yevgeniy “JovialGent” Timoshenko. However, they got stuck around a gaggle of drunken Brits supporting Jake Cody and then find themselves getting in the way of ESPN’s camera crew while they taped a stand-up for Lon McEachern and Norman Chad.

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

*THIS PODCAST ABRUPTLY CUTS OFF AT 2:20 MARK. WE APOLOGIZE FOR THIS. 80 MINUTES ARE MISSING*

Supposedly, Presentable Productions were waiting on a second installment of funds from Full Tilt subsidiary Pocket Kings that had been promised by today, and at 4pm GMT, after recording the 3rd heat, they sent the camera crew and players home, with no plans for return. (The show is an 8-heat event featuring $20k sit-n-gos with seven players at each table.)

It remains to be seen whether this was just reactionary angst over a technical blip that could normally be resolved with little problem, or indicative of cash-flow and money-transfer issues that have far more severe implications. But either way, it does confirm a certain unease in the UK after problems in the US.

Presentable has been producing poker television shows since 1999, when their show, Late Night Poker, debuted in England.

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.

Clearly magic is rigged.

Could be interesting to see what the advertisements during the broadcast are. If the network’s a bit slow in reacting it might be one of the last times we ever see a FullTilt or PokerStars advertisements on American airwaves. With the exception of a few WPT episodes in production or already in the can, it will almost certainly be one of the last times we see so many patches from the companies involved in Friday’s indictments on players.

The most troubling possibility is that it would not air at all. Sound ridiculous? Consider the following: Kevmath had a retweet late Saturday night in which @buckwild33 noted that a scheduled WSOP Main Event 2007 marathon was not airing and boxing was shown in its place.

While it would certainly be a stretch to try and correlate this change in broadcast schedule on ESPN in some way with the upcoming NHUPC broadcaston NBC, it certainly should not be dismissed outright. There will be several small milestones that come up periodically in the coming days, weeks, and months, and we who are most affected might want to pay attention to their outcomes.

The information that we may be able to get from these indicators could provide a significant portion of the information that comes our way as things progress. Both the sites and the DOJ are likely headed for a process that is going to go very slowly, and information will trickle out slowly.

Again, this is just the direction that my thought process brought me in, and I don’t claim to have any information that is unavailable to everyone else. I think the NHUPC is at least an interesting talking point and the first small event in a series of events that will eventually have effects on millions of people around the world. Now is the time to keep your eyes open.

On a side note, it’s interesting to see how the title sponsor of the NHUPC, GoDaddy, could be the least toxic element at this point in time. Who would have thought two weeks ago that Godaddy’s CEO’s elephant hunting fiasco would become old news so quickly.

(L to R) Adams, Antonius, Ivey, Dwan, Hastings, Galfond

Hard to believe televising a short-handed cash game session of the second most popular poker game in the world — the one that has produced the biggest online pots in history — would prove “revolutionary” … but really, it is kinda historic; and that says something about the limits of creative innovation in the online poker infomercial biz.

But kudos to PAD for at least taking a peak outside the ’06-’09 box to embrace variance. Though I wouldn’t contend pot-limit Omaha and four-color decks are what will reinvigorate poker on TV … for a semi-regular PLO player who doesn’t necessarily dream of playing the game for $100k buy-ins but just wants to beat my friends once a week at 1/2, hearing about a different sector of hand possibilities almost feels fresh … and it’s always good-fun to see extra cards on the table:

Good writing, clever animation, and a dash of parody played out by Lego characters in 10-minute episodes on YouTube … It all makes for an LOLably “real” look at the poker world in an internet era, with extra ha-ha on the nouveau poker riche.

And keeping it real in this episode … a bodacious semi-fictional appearance by Tatjana Pasalic: