For those who missed it, on last week’s episode we bid farewell to co-host John Caldwell … then got to business discussing the PCA and the new breed of Tiger Beat PokerStars. And then we get into the first annual Poker Beat Awards … where the crew waxes gay about Phil Ivey and all his accomplishments or lack thereof in 2009. I woulda voted for him (maybe I did?) but he wasn’t even at the ceremony to accept his awards. What a jerk!

We also talk a little Clonie vs. Full Tilt lawsuit and say our goodbyes to those who left us in 2009.

on PokerRoad

The Poker Beat
1/14/10

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Here’s a couple of hands from this year’s PokerStars Caribbean Adventure in the Bahamas.

The most recent hand came from the final table of the World Cup of Poker VI yesterday, as 2008 November Niner Darus Suharto is the victim of one of the worst slowrolls ever. Note: As this is a team competition, players are allowed to call a time-out in the middle of the hand.

The slowrolling came back to bite the Germans, as they were eventually eliminated by Canada, but it was the team from Taiwan Chinese Taipei who took down the title.

More…

Whoever woulda thunk it … that the first big winner of 2010 would’ve graduated high school with the Class of 2009?

But Harrison Gimbel, 19, now a freshman at the University of Alabama, became the youngest PCA champion ever, winning $2.2 million by besting a record field of 1,529 in the $10k main event.

Gimbel-Gamble: I went to the Bahamas and all I got was this lousy PokerStars-dot-net T-shirt.

But Gimbel — now arguably the Doyle Brunson of Generation Z — didn’t come out of nowhere. He began playing poker at age 13 … and hit the Florida poker rooms at 18 (the legal age there) while still a student at a tony Palm Beach prep school. In June of last year, during the 21-and-up World Series, he won the Florida State Championship — a $900 main event that paid $65k. He followed that up during the November Nine, final tabling a PokerStars Sunday Million for $47k, and then the next week taking down a $125 tourney on Stars for $25k.

He won his way into the PCA via a $1,000 live satellite. On Day 1, he got it all-in pre-flop with 4-6 offsuit to crack Barry Greenstein’s Aces.

* He plays online as Gibler321.
* He’s been a member of Daniel Negreanu’s Full Contact Poker community since 2006.
* The NAPT-PCA champ will be too young to compete in the NAPT-Venetian event.

Barry Shulman, the only actual grandpa at the final table, btw, finished 3rd, booking his second million-dollar tournament win in the past four months.

CORRECTION: Turns out Gimbel dropped out of Alabama three weeks into school. Way to go, kiddo! You have chosen the right career path, as nowhere but in poker is dropping out of school more celebrated.

The Poker Beat is back … (attempting) to make sense of all that is going on in the poker world. In this episode, BJ, Huff, and I discuss (at length) PokerStars’ record-setting 149,000 player $1 tourney; the opening of the Aria poker room (and what this may or may not mean over at the Bellagio); the ridiculousness of 17 $1k rebuy tourneys at Bellagio’s upcoming 5-star Classic; everything that is the PCA; PokerStars getting in bed with the Venetian for the new NAPT; and over at Full Tilt, all things Isildur … and, of course, the second red-pro suspension of Brian Townsend.

on PokerRoad

The Poker Beat
Huff, Nemeth, Michalski
1/07/10

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BTW, a little breaking-ish news on this episode — and perhaps an indication of the perceived threat of the NAPT-Venetian, which just so happens to coincide with the LAPC, the usual early-year destination for the LA-LV poker masses … anyone who buys into the $10k WPT-LAPC main event at the Commerce before February 19 now will receive a seat in the televised $200k WPT Invitational. Neato!

As you probably know, the Pokerstars Caribbean Adventure is going on in the Bahamas, on the edge of Nassau. (I’m not yet following hand action on PokerStarsBlog or PokerNews for live reporting … just getting daily recaps from Tao of Poker.) In the two years since PokerStars has taken over this 7-year-old event at Atlantis, it clearly has become one of the big-big events in poker. Back in 2004, January poker was all about Tunica. Now, it’s kinda a joke around Vegas as to who’s not in the Bahamas. (Even Full Tilt and UB pros go.)

Anyhow, for a glimpse at how this non-European-EPT-event-turned-flagship-tourney of the new NAPT is catching on worldwide … here’s the breakdown of nationalities for the main event field (which currently has 405 of 1529 remaining):

Country Players
USA 739
Canada 164
Germany 100
Netherlands 60
UK 56
France 44
Brazil 37
Spain 27
Sweden 27
Argentina 21
Italy 21
Norway 18
Russia 17
Denmark 17
Hungary 15
Belgium 12
Finland 11
Mexico 9
Portugal 9
Romania 9
Australia 8
Austria 8
Switzerland 8
Ireland 6
Poland 5
Slovakia 5
Costa Rica 4
Estonia 4
Greece 4
New Zealand 4
Panama 4
Peru 4
Uruguay 4
Venezuela 4
Czech Republic 3
Israel 3
Lebanon 3
Bulgaria 2
Iceland 2
Malta 1
Ukraine 2
Virgin Islands (U.S.) 2
Belarus 1
Belize 1
Bermuda 1
Chile 1
Croatia 1
Egypt 1
India 1
Korea 1
Latvia 1
Lithuania 3
Monaco 2
Puerto Rico 2
Slovenia 2
Turkey 1
Turks and Caicos Islands 1
unknown 6
1529

Pauly and Benjo escape from the bitter gray snow of NYC to report from the high-70s breezes and clear ocean skies of Paradise Island at the Atlantis Resort, where what looks to be the biggest poker tournament outside of the United States in all of history — the 2009 PCA — is getting underway. If poker is dying, that word clearly hasn’t made it yet to the Bahamas.

Follow the on-table action at PokerStarsBlog, and the off-table adventures at Tao of Poker and LV-OTR. Or just listen to Pauly’s report for a conchilicious taste of all the pokery gayness goodness going down right now in the Bermuda Triangle as the ever-French Benjo threatens to disappear sans a contract for podcast big-bucks:

Book 8: The Islanders
Episode 8.1: International Hotspot 3:25

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GSN has issued a press release to pimp their Father’s Day programming. There will be an eight-hour marathon consisting of three two-hour World Poker Tour episodes and ending with the world premiere of the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure.

Isn’t this the network that has declined to renew High Stakes Poker and the World Poker Tour? Hypocrital is the word that immediately comes to mind. Watch our great poker shows on Father’s Day, and watch the current season of the WPT on our network, but when it’s over, good luck with that poker fad.

I guess GSN has to get the viewers before all of us downgrade our cable packages after the WPT season is over. I know I’ll save about $20 a month by getting rid of that tier of channels, and though I do love me some nostalgic episodes of Match Game, I’ll gladly say goodbye to GSN for their refusal to consider their loyal poker viewers or give an honest answer about why they’re dropping poker from their line-up.

Love is not often found in the poker community. Players are looking for money, tournament titles, and maybe a little fame. But sometimes a connection is made that just works. Enter Vanessa Rousso and Chad Brown.

They’ve been dating for awhile, and Chad proposed to Vanessa at Christmas. They made the engagement announcement for the first time yesterday on PokerRoad Radio during the EPT PokerStars Caribbean Adventure in the Bahamas.

Do I hear an “Awww” somewhere in Pokerati land?

Congratulations to Vanessa and Chad!

Hope so. January is packed with tournaments spanning the globe. But if you’re not traveling, you can still keep up with the main events via various websites and blogs.

• January 5, Bahamas: Where better for a tournament than a place called Paradise Island? The PokerStars Caribbean Adventure (PCA) starts and ends with the main event, the final table of which will take place on the 10th. This is an 18-and-over tournament, so look out for the kiddies young, skilled online pros to turn out in force. Otis will be blogging from the event.

• January 5, Australia: A quick 14-hour flight or so away will be the Aussie Millions Poker Championship in Melbourne. This is a series that starts on the 5th with a $1,100 buy-in no-limit hold’em event, continues with a wide range of games and buy-ins (including the $100,000 no-limit event), and wraps up with the main event that begins on the 14th and runs for seven days. A plethora of reporters, including Dr. Pauly and Change100, will be covering it all for PokerNews.

• January 3, Tunica: The World Poker Open has already begun with its preliminary events at the Gold Strike Casino in Tunica, Mississippi. By the 20th, the main event will be underway and hosted by the World Poker Tour. Aaron Hendrix is there and will be providing daily coverage of all of the events for PokerWorks, and the WPT will be live blogging for the main event with BJ Nemeth at the helm.

• January 15, Atlantic City: The Borgata Winter Poker Open starts its preliminary events on the 15th, and the WPT main event (Borgata Poker Classic) begins on the 27th with a final table on the 31st. It doesn’t seem that any media outlet is covering the prelim events, but surely PokerListings will be there for the main event along with the WPT live bloggers.