Race (rowing)
Seat 2 (rowing)
Boat (rowing)
UPDATES:
horse (gymnastics)
skill (gymnastics)
floor (gymnastics)
shuttlecock (not a poker term, but should be)
(Funny … while typing this up and watching badminton, a PokerStars commercial just came on.)
While I can’t keep up with all of the Olympic coverage, I’m doing my damnedest. My TiVo has been working in hyperdrive, recording everything airing on NBC, the USA network, and CNBC, and I’m watching a lot and fast-forwarding (with occasional stops) through everything else. With more than 24 hours of coverage a day, it’s a Herculean task.
One thing I’ve noticed is that PokerStars is putting up a fair amount of commercials during the Olympics, at least here in the Atlanta market. (Can anyone watching the Olympics in other markets confirm that it’s national?) The two commercials I’ve noticed the most are from PokerStars — one with Daniel Negreanu (playing pool & playing poker) and one with Vanessa Rousso (bungee jumping & playing poker). Of the two, I think the Vanessa Rousso one stands out much more — more contrast between bungee jumping and poker compared to Daniel’s billiards commercial, and it also has a taste of those “extreme sports” that the young’uns seem to like.
Regardless of what you think of Vanessa as a poker player, I think this could actually be good for the game of poker. One of the things Barry Greenstein came away with during last year’s Congressional visit (to discuss the legality of online poker) was how impressed the congressmen were with the female players who showed up — Annie Duke and Vanessa Rousso. In their eyes, Vanessa is an attractive young woman with a degree from Duke University, and plenty of opportunities open to her. But she chose to play poker. That challenges their view of poker much more than seeing players like Greenstein or Doyle Brunson.
I highly doubt poker will see a post-Olympic bounce from these commercials, but if PokerStars is targeting an entirely new demographic of sports fans, I think they could do a lot worse than putting Vanessa Rousso out front and center.
A few weeks back, a bunch of us got a press release from PokerStars boasting that six of The November Nine were Team PokerStars players. Now don’t get me wrong — I’ve got lots of friends at PokerStars and generally like what they do. But c’mon, who ya tryin’ to fool? Those guys aren’t really PokerStars players — at least not in the way Chris Moneymaker and Greg Raymer were!
So while I’m happy to share the official word on the Stars-heavy WSOP main event final table (even though none only one of their 2,000 true online qualifiers made it), I couldn’t help but try to get a little more info first on what goes into buying a temporary online team in an effort to increase the odds that the buyers will indeed get to be the site that crowns the next American (or non-American) Poker Idol:
Some numbers coming in over the Batpod … about deals surrounding the November Nine as they made their way to the main event final table:
According to super-duper-secret well-connected, highly reliable inside sources some guy in Colorado, Peter Eastgate, the 22-year-old from Odense, Denmark, currently sitting 4th in chips was originally a Ladbrokes qualifier. Upon his making the final 72, Ladbrokes offered him $1 million to patch up. Full Tilt then came over the top with $1.75 million, and in the end, PokerStars took it down for $2 million.
(NOTE: What I’m not sure of are any “contingencies” in these deals — whether that’s $X million up front even if you finish 71st, or $Ythousand right now, and $Z million if you make the final table.)
The scandal seems to be at an end, at least as far as official statements go. PokerNews took the first shot and Tiffany Michelle took the last, or so it seems, but somewhere in the middle, PokerNews’ big daddy, Tony G, had his say as well. He recounted the situation as he remembered it and ended by saying, “It’s over.” Let’s assume he doesn’t mean that in the I know people and you’ve screwed me for the last time sense, but in the My contract wasn’t as detailed as I thought and I can’t sue you sense.
Just so we’re comprehensive in our coverage, here is Tony G’s full statement, as taken from his blog:
While the game of poker is normally considered to be played across the green felt with chips in hand, the game encompasses a whole world of deals, situations, complexities, and extremes that are never placed in view on the felt. I am deeply distressed over a situation that I feel did not need to happen and it goes against the integrity and trust that I placed in someone that I considered to be a friend and an employee at PokerNews.com and I need to air the events to help myself deal with what has just happened.
Just when you think you know a guy comes this story from Florida, about David “Chino” Rheem, who’ll start play 7th in chips. The article mentions his prior record, including his failure to appear in court on a misdemeanor charge of trespassing back in 2003. While it’s doubtful he’ll be arrested, did Harrah’s include in its contingency plan the need to provide lawyers for any of the players?
23 players left, returning to 50/100/10k level
Eliminations:
Aaron Gordon - 24th
Niklas Flisberg - 25th
Phi Nguyen - 26th
Michael Carroll 27th
Chip leader - Dennis Phillips - 14.4m
Tiffany Michelle - 5.1m (still sporting UB gear, athough Pauly says a deal with PokerStars had been made, then spurned)
It is no secret that poker tournaments filmed for television have made logos an important part of the game. Online poker websites and companies selling poker-related products are among the most lucrative deals to be had, as they are willing to pay players in front of the cameras to advertise for them. It works – players receive bonus compensation to allow a company rep to strategically place a Full Tilt or PokerStars or All In Energy Drink sticker on their shirts or hats.
Most television production companies involved with the big tournaments now lay out specific guidelines for the number of logos allowed, as well as the size and wording of them. For example, the World Poker Tour allows only one pre-approved logo per player, no bigger than 6 square inches and located on the shirt breast pocket.
The World Series of Poker has taken a different approach, allowing multiple logos for any site or product, with a few exceptions like prohibiting dot.com gaming sites that accept U.S. customers. The specific rule about logos at the WSOP is as follows:
Tournament Rule #43:
Tournament participants may wear apparel with multiple logos, patches or promotional language. However, no individual logo, patch or block of promotional language is to be larger than 12 square inches. No single company name is to be represented more than once on any individual article of clothing. For players seated at a table taped for television or broadband video coverage, logos may not be added after the beginning of that day’s session of play.
As the 2008 WSOP hit the money, many players had sponsorship deals of some sort, and there was no shortage of logos in the tournament area. Full Tilt logos were well within the guidelines, while PokerStars pushed the envelope but somehow did not violate the rules. Other sites like UltimateBet played by the rules, except when it came to Phil Hellmuth’s jersey, the entire front of which is a UB symbol.
When I asked a WSOP official about the exception made for Hellmuth, he noted that the ESPN cameras never get the entire logo in the shots. He likened it to a player’s shirt that read “Illinois” across the front, and when I pointed out that Illinois isn’t selling itself like UB is, he said that it would simply be too arduous a task to ask everyone with a word or symbol on their shirt – like University of Michigan or Nike – to change clothes. Understandable, but is it too much to ask that an experienced pro like Hellmuth abide by the fairly clear-cut rules?
The WSOP official did mention that the logo rules will be revisited during the planning of the 2009 WSOP. Now, if someone would just tell Hellmuth…
Thanks to PokerStars PR guru Chris, we have some photos of Monday night’s party at the Palms.
The obligatory credit for all photos reads: The PokerStars.net Burlesque Party to Celebrate The World Series of Poker at Rain Nightclub inside The Palms Hotel Casino, Las Vegas, Nevada - 07.07.08
Photos by Image Masters.
It was a fabulous party! PokerStars went all out for this bash at the Palms, even so far as to have the valets where PS logos on their shirts. The night began with a media get-together for the players and PS guests from 7pm to 9pm with free drinks in The Lounge, and continued with the party at nightclub Rain that started at 9pm with a red carpet entry for the media to get shots of the pros with the night’s entertainment, burlesque star Dita Von Teese. Personally, I skipped the mish-mash of media fighting for a spot to snap pics and went straight for the club, as it was a night off for me, and I was ready to enjoy it.
Matt from the PokerStars PR company told me that the party was filled to capacity with 1300 people, and there were still lines of people trying to get in. Makes sense…it was wall-to-wall people in there. Oh, and there were free drinks.
The big story of the night was the locked lips of Isabelle Mercier and Dario Minieri. Evidently, there was no shame and no realization that despite a ban on cameras in the joint, everyone has cell phones with photo capability. Those pics will surely surface sometime today.
All I can remember say about the evening is that I’m really starting to like the Germans, and I think there were free drinks at the party.
It might seem at first glance that Full Tilt and PokerStars fought it out - in the monetary offerings sense - to get Scotty Nguyen to sign some sort of deal. Full Tilt got him for the $50K HORSE final table, and PokerStars got him for the rest of the WSOP, at the very minimum.
An inside source says that Full Tilt reportedly dropped him just after the HORSE win because of his sometimes rude (for lack of a better word) behavior during the final table. Because of the way he acted for a good portion of the play-down, Full Tilt decided they didn’t want him on the team. Soon after, PokerStars picked him up.
However, another source had a bit of an alternate take on it. This version of the story noted that PokerStars had a deal brewing with Scotty for the HORSE final table but dropped the ball and allowed Full Tilt to come in. Since the Full Tilt deal was a one-time table sponsorship, PokerStars was able to get back in with Scotty after HORSE.
It boils down to the fact that the online poker sponsorship business is a cut-throat industry. And it’s only going to get more interesting as the main event final table approaches…
2008 HORSE Champion Scotty Nguyen is playing on the ESPN feature table … in a different uniform. The VietPrince of Poker was decked out in Full Tilt gear last week. This week it’s PokerStars …
He’s not an actual Team PokerStars member (yet) … but considering Star’s intense focus on the Asian market in the coming years, he’s gotta be on their short list for something, as we know Nguyen has already fully captured the Northern Oklahoma market.
I’m thinking about going to the Palms Party, too — started a few minutes ago — just downing another All In Root Beer to see if I have it in me to go. (Huh, do these things even have any flavor any more?)
Big tourney for me tomorrow, of course. Half a million bucks at stake in what seems sure to be an organizational fustercluck.
In the meantime, as of a few days ago, none other than PokerStars is all over (literally) the Palms. Get the sense that with hundreds of main event online qualifiers shacked up across the street from the Rio the low-stakes cash games will be extra-juicy there?
Oops, I may have been drawing lots of conclusions from the WSOP about the state of the poker economy under a false assumption pretense … Tao of Pokerati listeners have probably heard me ramble incessantly about how there’s so much less online money here this year. While technically that is true … the lack of online-company hospitality suites is not necessarily a recessionary indicator. As WSOP title-sponsor Everest Poker has opened up a suite, and other European sites have partnered up to open “The Champions Lounge” … the real reason that there’s no Full Tilt suite, no PokerStars Lounge, etc. is simply because sites that accept American players aren’t allowed the Rio exhibition space this year.
Will seek confirmation on this … but until then, just know that wherever poker’s fiscal health stands, the pure Europeans will be the ones living the cush life during the main event this year.
Poker Players Alliance Executive Director John Pappas did another one of his WSOP fly-ins for a couple days — manning the hallway booth and meeting with pros — but much of his time was spent away from the Amazon and in his room at the Rio, on the phone/computer/Blackberry with Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA) et al. about HR 5767 — which is scheduled to be voted on in committee Wednesday or Thursday. While getting this bill on the agenda brings the notion of pre-UIGEA poker one step closer to reality, the measure also faces the threat of being voted down and derailed ’til next year or never.
It’s supposedly an all-in push that should hold up … and if HR 5767 — co-sponsored by Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX) and 17 19 others — passes muster in House Financial Services, of which Frank is the chair, then it moves to the floor of Congress for a vote — preferably having shown strong bipartisan support in committee.
So what does this mean for you, the non-political poker types who are fine-and-dandy with playing unofficial WSOP satellites on Full Tilt and PokerStars? More fish, basically … and poker industry people would in some way or another have a say in what may or may not constitute Unlawful Internet Gambling that the Treasury Dept. could look into/stop. (You know, like online site owners who peek at hole cards … that should be unlawful, right?)
A fascinating (if not challenging) story that you can only presume would be of great interest to anyone in the online poker-room security biz, or anyone who wants to philosophize on the meaning of “good for poker”:
How I Built a Working Online Poker Bot, Part 3: The Million Dollar Pet Project
The programmer in question draws inspiration from Big Blue, the IBM supercomputer that challenged chess champ Gary Kasparov. And thus, at any given time online, here’s what you’re potentially up against:
Not in the tournament, I don’t think … but I did just see him hobble by (distinguishedly) in apparent defeat.
Speaking of Doyle, I’ve also noticed Arizona player Mike Wattel decked out in Doyle’s Room gear — a DR.net wide-brimmed golf hat and heavily washed DR.com golf shirt. Congrats to Wattel for whatever deal he’s worked out. Am guessing it’s no coincidence that he has been logo’ed up by the same room as his ex-girlfriend Cyndy Violette.
(Syntax dilemma of the day: Does Cyndy Violette support Doyle’s Room, or does Doyle’s Room support Cyndy?)
Am also noticing a lot more dot-commage all over the place this year. From my perch in the pressbox, right in front of me I see some Euro journo wearing a big PokerStars.com splay on the back of his T-shirt … and several other players in the second-chance tourney right in front of me wearing all sorts of FullTiltPoker.com swag.
Not sure yet what this means … either it’s irrelevant because there’re no TV cams around, or in general The Empire* is lightening up over the terrorist threat dot-coms present?
What’s going on at the WSOP as Pauly writes that the success of event #2 doesn’t mean all is well in the poker economy and the Poker Shrink opines that 2008 may be the year that poker reaches its peak.
The first final table is taking place right now, as Andy Bloch is dominating the final table at this time. Patrik Antonius (named a Team Full Tilt Pro in a press conference today) was an early casualty, while Kathy Liebert (on a final table deal with PokerStars) was hanging in there with 4 left.
Monday will be the first day with two tournaments starting the same day. Noon brings the $1,500 Pot-limit holdem event, while at 5, the $5,000 Mixed Holdem (half limit, half no-limit) will get started. Many pros surely will be double-dipping tomorrow if they get eliminated early in the day, as always Pokerati will be there to blog their little hearts out, God bless them.
It’s good to know business deals are still going down at the WSOP … even though the money isn’t flying willy-nilly to any kid with moderate online success or railbird floozie with prime hooter-estate as in past World Serieses. (Can I get some help on the plural of World Series here?)
Though I can’t quite tell if this is a temporary final table deal or a long-term investment based on future success, Kathy Liebert, oft-overlooked despite being arguably the most successful woman player in the history of poker, just signed with PokerStars as she makes her run for a bracelet in the $10k PLH Event. Am interested to know if this suggests online poker sites are looking for longevity over one-hit wonders in their sponsorship deals this year, or if it is simply a matter of still plastering televised final tables with logos on whatever body space is still available.
UPDATE: Just got confirmation that this is just a final table deal — she’s not Greg Rayer/Chris Moneymaker/Joe Hachem/Isabelle Mercier yet. So it seems winning the main event/being hot-and-young in France is still key when it comes to booking long-term sponsorship deals.
So new question: Will all these new “World Championships” really be perceived as such by the masses, and perhaps more important, the online-poker room payhandlers?
Click below to read the info sent from a Stars representative:
Leftover example of a prop-bet loss — PokerStars EPT annoncetrix Kara Scott getting her bunny on in San Remo, Italy:
The Final Four is set … and PokerStars, Ultimate Bet, and Bodog have all been fully eliminated. The upcoming matches:
Phil Ivey vs. Chris Ferguson
Huck Seed vs. Andy Bloch
Holy crap, it looks like it will be some actual hardcore competition amongst four notably accomplished players. Who woulda thunk it?
Also totally shocking commendable is that CardPlayer’s coverage is kicking butt …
I rarely post hand histories, but this one is just too good. I am curious what people think of my move on the flop? The set-up: we are on the bubble in last night’s Sunday Million on Pokerstars, and I am sitting in pretty good shape in the top 40 in chips with 487 left (486 get paid) when I am dealt KT suited, aka the ‘new John Brown’. One other somewhat criticalish piece of info (and as a result of playing a PL Omaha game simultaneously) when I made my move I did not realize that ‘2A472′ was in the pot.
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.
The Absolute Poker scandal should have been enough. It remains unresolved, though most of the details of the cheating have been made clear, and the poker public still awaits the conclusion of the audit.
Back in early October, there was another mini-scandal on PokerStars. The winner of the WCOOP main event — the largest online poker tournament in history — was disqualified, and “TheV0id” was stripped of his title and $1,378,311 in winnings.
And we have another.
This time the allegations of nefarious online play revolve around Bluff Magazine’s managing editor Chris Vaughn. On 10/21, he took down the $1 Million Guarantee tournament on Full Tilt Poker for $197,984. The following Sunday, he won the Sunday Million tournament on PokerStars for $240,633. Well, it seems the first one didn’t stick.
According to the second place finisher in the Full Tilt event, Soren “Kongsgaard” Kongsgaard, he received an e-mail from FTP stating that Chris - screen name “BluffMagCV” - had been disqualified and “Kongsgaard” was awarded first place money.
Reportedly, though unconfirmed at this point, Chris’ backer, Sorel “Imper1um” Mizzi, took over at some point in the tournament and played the remainder of it for him. Chris and Sorel have now been banned from Full Tilt. More details can be found on Sorel’s blog, though it’s not clear who is writing the posts.
Interestingly, Chris was just interviewed on 11/18 by Scott Huff and Haralabos Voulgaris on Big Poker Sundays, a radio show on PokerRoad.com. Haralabos asked him if he’s ever been accused of ghosting, where a person’s backer plays for them, and Chris said, “I’ve been accused of that. I think it’s going to come with the territory when someone relatively unknown wins two in a row… But as far as having someone take over, that’s ridiculous.”
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
I gotta say, it’s kinda fun watching the Pokerati peeps in PokerStars’ World Blogger Championship of Online Poker from the electronic rail. Just wish I could chat/heckle.
After the first break, Karridy (”Karridy”) is out — in 1,048th place out of 1337. But it wasn’t him playing … was a “friend from work” he insists. By the way, for those wondering, that does fall within the PokerStars substitution rules. (Scroll down to the bottom.)
California Jen (”Cookie_555″) was briefly 3rd in chips … and is still sitting pretty in 76th out of 770something remaining. She contends having this many chips is a relatively new experience for her. UPDATE: She just moved up to 37th, out of 730 remaining.
Big Robert won’t tell me what his screen name is/was … but he reports:
All in on 8 hi flop. had kk v qq…q on the turn. out.
Ouch, Robert. You woulda done better had you had the queens. But like Princess Leia as a Jedi, there is still hope for the Arizona Posse, as Green Lisa (”HelloCity”) hit her 10-outer on the river to get comfortable.
Ed the Commenter (”hungerfan”) is out in 800somethingth place.
The prizes everyone is playing for haven’t been released yet, but it’s : about $40k worth of assorted cash and goodies. (Thanks Lisa!)
The listeners have spoken, and it’s official:
16 percent of all poker podcast fans prefer Beyond the Table!*
Woot!
Click for the latest episode of the second-best poker podcast ever!
Extra-fun times this week:
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, HUMBERTOâ€. 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.
Let’s not talk about me (and how turning the straight with the second-nuts flush draw didn’t get there) … no no, there’s far more excitement going on in Scottsdale, as our good friends in the Arizona Posse are making quite a showing online this weekend.
Big Robert won a 300-player multi on Full Tilt last night–paid about $7,000–and tonight he’s sweating Pat Poels and Ryan Hughes, who are both at two different WCOOP final tables on PokerStars.
Poels is chip leader with seven left in 2-7 Triple Draw, and Hughes is sitting solid in Pot Limit Omaha (6-max). Both are playing for big five-figure payouts … actually Poels Hughes is already there.
Meanwhile, I’m deciding whether or not to drive home … or to Arizona.
UPDATE: Poels — pstarfish – finished 2nd (out of 649) to win $18,821. Hughes — elycash41 – finished 3rd (out of 1,818) to win $27,379. Nice job, Arizona! Way to represent. So wanna party like you guys.
The online poker world for American players continues to stay funky. What is and isn’t allowed seems to change with regularity, particularly when it comes to your deposit and withdrawal methods (in an unregulated, international jurisdiction environment).
As Michele pointed out, there’s a “crackdown” on players with more than one account. The Pokeratizen known as Como has gotten caught up in this sorta investigation on Full Tilt. He has two accounts — one from way long ago that he never uses with no money in it. Another one that he uses regularly with some relatively significant dough. As FTP sorts through it all, his account with no money in it is open, while his real account is closed and his kizzash essentially frozen.
Meanwhile, Sanbob writes in with some info about a new preferred status he has been given from PokerStars. It seems akin to getting special clearance to pass through airport security or something:
Hey Dan,
Logged onto Pokerstars last night and got a popup saying that I was one of the select few U.S. customers to be allowed to use echecks again. I went to the cashier and used my bank account to deposit funds. I do not know if they are allowing to cash out with this option yet but will let you know. When I deposited I received a email notification from a company named Dunfinance. I don’t know how I got selected to be on of the select few, maybe because I qualified for the main event thru them, but according to Pokerstars this option will soon be open to all U.S. customers.
Later,
Robert
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 as the anti-poker side is encouraging their “pro family” members to write their representatives about the plagues that will fall if the UIGEA is undone, pro-poker ambassadors are also hard at work rallying the troops. Click below to see the letter Greg Raymer sent out seeking similar political activity from presumably lazy poker types.
Interestingly enough, I have a PokerStars account and am a paying member of the PPA … but didn’t get this email. (It was forwarded to me by Don the Las Vegas Real Estate Guy.) With the other side well-practiced in their methods of swinging votes, I gotta think the poker side may need some extra coordination to keep up with the competition. Perhaps the three federal bills in play would benefit from something similar to what we used in Texas to electronically connect the legislators and citizenry en masse. Seriously, this relatively small programming effort went a long way toward ensuring our beloved little HB 3186 was a good chunk of the hallway/bathroom buzz around the state capitol at a semi-critical time.
Again, Greg Raymer’s request below …
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.
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).
LAS VEGAS–It’s gettin’ kinda funky in here. As the intensity of the on-the-table action ramps up, everything else is dying down. They’re tearing down the tables in the tent and throughout the Amazon rooms, the cash games hearken back to a low-rent poker room (with just a few smallish stakes games going), the Lewis family is headed back to Houston … just a couple hours ago a guy from Pokerwire was being staked 60-40 for some online play by some online pro — I have no idea who, but he reportedly has had as much as 141k in his Full Tilt account.
“Don’t worry if you lose the first thousand,” he said. “I can keep giving it to you $1,000 at a time.”
Meanwhile, at “the crossroads” right outside the Amazon Room, Max Pescatori was talking to Jason from Full Tilt about a potential endorsement deal for an online phenom named Dario. (He’s the kid who bought a Porsche with his PokerStars points.) And we have new security guards on duty. One of them was advising (in a whisper) some Germans to go to “The Green Door” — a Las Vegas swingers club — and his replacement is talking WWII history to anyone who will listen.
Should be even more different as Day 5 moves on. Speaking of … with 112 players remaining, Josh Evans enters Day 5 with exactly 1,792,000 chips — enough to put him in the top 20. Everyone redrew for tables, and an exact map of who’s sitting where is forthcoming. But I looked at the bagged chips on his table, and while he’s not the chip leader, he should be relatively comfortable, with only three others in his chip vicinity.
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.)
I think I’m flummoxed. I mean sure, SEO is so 2006 … but Pokerati’s traffic has been growing, our content has been improving, other blogs continue to find reason to link us up, and we’re ready to bust nuts at the super-big frickin’ WSOP! Yet in the eyes of almighty Google, we are less than we once were — as Pokerati’s “page rank” has dropped from 5 to 4.
This may not mean much to most of you, but it’s kind of a bummer to poker web geeks, especially those of us who just finished reading Search Engine Optimization For Dummies.
Big Brother Google must have recently recalibrated its algorithm or something, because their page ranks have dropped, too. Check it out:
Pauly dropped from 6 to 5
PokerProf — from 6 to 4 (LasVegasVegas dropped from 7 to 5)
Bill Rini — from 6 to 5
The Fat Guy — from 6 to 5
Iggy — from 7 to 5
PokerBlog (run by the SEO team at PartyPoker) — from 6 to 4
Wicked Chops — from 5 to 4
PokerWorks — from 6 to 5
CardPlayer — from 7 to 6
Bluff — from 6 to 5
worldseriesofpoker.com — from 7 to 6
PokerStars Blog — hanging tight at 6
Up for Poker — hanging tight at 5
The Poker Biz — from 4 to 3
Subway Jon in Garland writes in with some long-awaited info from a major, non-UIGEA-compliant online poker site on how they (and Harrah’s) plan to handle buy-ins at the forthcoming WSOP:
Dan -
Thought you might find this interesting…below is a message I received today from PokerStars. I won a couple of WSOP Main Event seats this year, and they originally said that they would let me know as soon as the registration procedures have been finalized. Now they have apparently given up and are just putting the cash in all of the winners’ accounts. Last time I checked, there were over 700 seats already won on PokerStars. Assuming that they gave everyone the cash like they did me today, I think this will dramatically reduce the number of players in the Main Event this year, as many will opt to take the cash rather than use the $10k to go buy themselves in.
Bluff announced Tuesday that Greg Raymer’s PokerStars account was accessed by another player by “guessing” the 2004 WSOP champ’s password.
The hacker circus side-show weight guesser other player reportedly signed into Raymer’s account, registered for sit-n-go’s then dumped chips to himself (to make winning the tournament easier).
