PokerFraudAlert.com — Former Neverwin/Donkdown bandmate (and WSOP bracelet winner) Todd Witteles is going solo to be a crusader for clearing out the scumbags in poker. (And Dan Druff doesn’t need-no fancy “blog” or “forum” software to do it!)

LegalPokerSites.com — These guys hustle to stay on top of poker-related legal matters across America and worldwide … and provide a thorough rundown of the newsbuzz should a certain site’s editor need to catch up with what’s been going on!

StackemCoaching.com — Yet another training site … but this one (led by John Kim and Joe Tehan) focusses on live play and offers coaching via audio lessons and live sweats with their stable of pros. Their students (and coaches) make up many of the local grinder thugs, and thus SEC is shaping the way a certain sect of Vegas player handles their chips these days.

IGamingNorthAmerica.com — Politicians, regulators, and gaming industry nerds executives descend upon Planet Hollywood over the next few days for a boutique confab with Oscar Goodman introducing Caesars’ chief bean-counter to deliver the keynote. Who woulda ever guessed such a policy-wonk road show like IGNA (with panels on taxation modeling, regulatory timelines, internet security, and liquidity paradigms) would be such a hot ticket in 2012?

StupidBetz.com — Possibly in preparation for the inevitable legalization of making semi-obscene jackass-style prop bets online … or maybe just to encourage stupid behavior for money … this site pays out “stupidbuckz” for people to eat bugs, shave heads, and stick tongues in mousetraps.

Nevada Gaming just approved some new wagers for the November Nine … some of which are obv, and others that may or may not be a little more silly.

The list of approved wagers, at house odds:

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.

It’s time to have a poker player run for President of the United States. Forget Joe the Plumber. How about Tom the Gambler?

I actually gave serious consideration to running for President in 2012. However, when I woke up, it didn’t seem like such a great idea. I thought what could a gambler offer that others can’t? I came up with several ideas and am going to share one here. This is not an article about bashing one side or the other. I’m trying to show how gamblers typically get right to the root of the problem by viewing the world differently than others.

First, I wanted to identify a problem that 95 percent of Americans would agree was a problem, thus removing all political bias. The Problem: Politicians lie, misrepresent facts and gamble with our money. Do you agree?

In a debate, if a politician sounds convincing, we believe him. He can’t be lying, he sounds so sure. The debate is concluded and the viewers have no idea that the bastard lied for an hour straight. He made up stuff and pulled answers out of his ass to avoid having to say, “I don’t know.” (Note: when pulling numbers out of asses, avoid the sharp ones like 4 and 7.)

When trying to get the Healthcare bill passed one Senator made a huge deal about the American Medical Association (AMA) supporting the bill, thus trying to make the public feel better since all doctors support it. Did you know that only 17% of all doctors belong to the AMA, because most doctors don’t like the political stands the AMA takes? Did you know that a significant majority of doctors were opposed to the proposed Healthcare bill? It is outrageously disingenuous to act like doctors are supporting the bill.
Our elected officials say that if we pass a stimulus package, we will create one million new jobs…oops, sorry, we were wrong. No big deal, we will try something else. They are guessing with our money. I like idiots in a poker game, but I’m tired of idiots in Washington. It’s like all of us voters decided to put the worst poker player in the biggest game. Unfortunately, unlike poker, these idiots can’t get lucky with our money.

How do gamblers find the truth? We wager. When sitting at the poker table, someone might say, “That’s a tall guy, he must be seven feet tall.” I say, “I don’t think so, how much would you like to bet.” That’s it. Gamblers engage in this kind of activity all the time, and if you make bad decisions repeatedly, you are no longer gambling because you run out of money. Unlike every other profession, our politicians get no credit for being right and no punishment for being wrong.

The Solution: As President, I would set aside $200 million for a “Required Political Gambling Fund.” This fund will be comprised of a couple great gamblers, a few CPA’s, an attorney, and a historian. Here’s how it works. As part of becoming an elected official you may be required to make a significant wager on what you believe will happen as a result of the legislation you are proposing or supporting.

As President, I would set aside $200 million for a “Required Political Gambling Fund.”

Let’s take the Health Care Bill. The Governmental Accounting Office claimed that this bill will be deficit neutral, i.e. not creating more debt. If the Gambling Team doesn’t think that will be the case, then those politicians that are supporting the bill must wager…the bigger the issue, the bigger the bet.

Since the Healthcare Bill represents 16 percent of our economy, supporters of the bill have to wager 16 percent of their net worth. Think about what this does. Politicians will be doing their homework for a change. Unsubstantiated numbers and guesses will not be thrown around without significant research and understanding. They will actually have to read proposed legislation. This system will take the politics out of politics. I can hear a Republican saying t o another Republican, “I can’t support that bill because I will lose my own money.” Perfect. I want an idiot politician to lose his own money and not ours.

How do we eliminate lying? After debates, our Gambling Team will determine what lies the politicians told during the debate, and then bet on each of the lies. If the politician decides not to bet, a big flashing neon “Liar” sign will go off. Obviously if he doesn’t want to bet on the supposed facts he is spewing out, then he is a liar or a bull-shitter. This would make one heck of game show. We can use the money from the show to reduce the National debt.

I bet that the $200 million gambling fund would make it to $1 billion by the end of my term, and we would have a bunch of broke politicians. Once the politician is broke, he is out of office, kinda like a poker tournament. The “right” politicians will get richer and remain in office, and we won’t be betting against them very often. Voila! There you have it.

We would have a new form of Railbird, the Politicalbird…a broke politician looking to get back into action, eh, well, office. It would be funny seeing ex-Senators and ex-Presidents going around asking people to put them into the dog catcher race. “Come on, give me a shot. I know I can beat this guy.”

If you would like to hear more of my Presidential ideas, tell Dan, the owner of this fine poker website. If you want to donate to my campaign, please do so, but don’t be too upset if some of the funds get put into a juicy $100-$200 mix game.

The License Plate Bet
Winner gets to choose the loser’s license plate for a set period of time.

Simple, poignant, highly visible … up to 7 characters that if clever enough could stick with your opponent in a way that brings shame and embarrassment for years to come! But because the DMV has final approval, no worries about being tagged with something not-so-funny like HERPES or IH8NGRS.

Suggestions to start you thinkin’ about your glorious inverse-vanity payday …

According to the Nevada DMV’s Personalized License Plate Availability Search:

PERVERT – not suitable
GAYBOY – available!
DOOSH – not available
DOUCHEE – available!
DBAG – available!
2XLOSER – available!
HOOKER – not suitable
ESKIMO – not available
RAIL HO – available!
420 DLR – pending review
J YANG – available!
FARTER – available!
POTHEAD – not suitable
IBTIPSY – available!
COKEDUP – available!
DIKSHIT – available!

OK, that’s enough for now. Don’t wanna give all the good ones away. While some alphanumeric combos seem to be already blocked, the others still must pass human muster with the DMV … but that means there’s a chance for human error or other shenanigans to slip something through like this one, which seems perfectly appropriate for Hummers and certain sports cars.

pic: Melissa Hayden

Durrrr in the headlights: Please, Melissa, I’m trying to eat …Who Tom Dwan what? How many chips? I need more sauce.

Play ended last night with 33 left and Durrrr the chip leader … by like a lot. (36 got paid.) Phil Hellmuth is 13th in chips, with 330k to Dwan’s 910k.

Here’s the event coverage Ivey and just about everyone will be sweating on Saturday: $10k Pot-Limit Omaha. Sigh. If only ESPN knew what Euros (and players in my 1/2 NL/PLO game at the Hard Rock) already do … that Omaha is hold’em, and thus can make for some great TV.

Others still alive include:

Jason Mercier
Devilfish
Ludovic Lacay (Benjo’s friend/French bad-ass)
Fabrice Soulier
Michael Binger
Daniel Alaeai
Tony Cousineau
Jason Lester (for viewers still insisting on familiar ’03-’04 faces)

Interestingly enough, the last man out for the night (winning $19.8k) was EPT Tournament Director Thomas Kremser … essentially the Matt Savage of Europe. Alexander Kravchenko, another pretty good-TV name, busted him.

But hey, this is PLO, so all sorts of card craziness can happen. Let’s reconvene when they get to the final table and see if indeed, poker geeks and uber-high-stakes prop-bettors everywhere will be clamoring about Dwan (and maybe Hellmuth) closing out the WSOP with a multimillion-dollar bang.

One of the clear winners this year has been Tim Fiorvanti, aka @Tim00, aka “Timtern”. This WSOP youngster returned for his second Series to be a pathetically paid PokerRoad intern … and shortly into it got an additional gig as a pathetically paid Bluff Magazine writer. Nice!

Furthermore, while he hasn’t exactly torn the game up, he has become a regular and respected player in Pokerati’s 1/2 nl/plo @HardRockPoker. Thus, I was delighted to see him take-it-down further, throwing projectiles from press row to earn proper respect from Pauly, Benjo, and even the real professor, Shamus, who showed even gray-haired academics aren’t afraid to put it all on the line against any young or not-so-young poker challengers.

Sometime after midnight, we let it all hang out with the gang in the press box who engage in a silly, yet innocuous throwing-things prop bet that began with Pauly and a single piece of wadded up paper. Before everyone knew it, Benjo, Shamus, and ten other bored members of the press (both foreign and domestic) were joining the fray. Degen prop betting often keeps the free press sane during those late night insane hours, as Tim the Intern took down the inaugural Small Ball Cup.

To bring you breathtaking excitement (and palpable tension) from the Amazon floor last night, I’m gonna skip ahead in the Tao of Pokerati storyline … and catch up with Pauly and Benjo, who were of course right there as Durrrr’s chip-stack had a collection of prop-bet gamblers re-evaluating their futures.

While the final table of Event #11 was being set up, Benjo spotted a group of the Big Game regulars who bet against durrrr having a quick meeting. The T.O.P. crew speculate on a potential bracelet bet buy-out if durrrr continues to dominate the donkament.

Moments after the big donkament ended and durrrr took second, Benjo and Pauly headed over to the rail of the $10k Stud-8 event to watch the reactions of pros who bet against durrrr winning a bracelet and dodged a massive bullet.

Everyone in poker seems to really care about the French these days.

And for all you us pathetically unilingual Americans, here is an easy-to-bookmark tinyurl for Benjo’s “Las Vegas, off the record”, with his personal take on any and all WSOP action robo-translated from French to English: http://tinyurl.com/38r4wdd

“This was a huge shot in the arm for the gambling community,” said Mike Matusow to his table in the $10k Stud-8 World Championship, referring to a couple-million+ of anti-durrrr-bracelet sidebets.

@howardhlederer tweeted:

……..exhale

Frankly I was kinda surprised to see Lederer so nervous. Would seem that he was the one guy who couldn’t lose … you know, having the newest pro added to his team taking down an early WSOP donkament, for the first of what will likely be multiple bracelets.

@realkidpoker:

Congrats to Tom Dwan! We were all rooting for you… To come second! Wow I escaped. What a sweat that was.

Durr just doubled up and the rail cheered while most of the people in the stud 8 moaned and cried.

The atmosphere in the room is electric. So many of us have bets against Durrr winning. 3 left and we are sweating hard!

@realannieduke:

Players in the Stud 8 or better championship breathe a sigh of relief as Tom Dwan finishes second. Never a bigger swing in a $1500 than 2day

I’m enjoying sweating the Durrr match mainly because I have no money on it:) Big swing for a bunch of my friends and relatives though.

Meanwhile, Huck Seed is apparently owed a refund. Though I suspect he might just let Dwan hold on to the $325k, figuring that a 2010 bracelet may be inevitable.

10:10PM update: Now 5-handed with the blinds at 25,000/50,000/5,000

Tom Dwan 2,415,000
David Randall 2,085,000
Austin McCormick 3,000,000
Tom Dwan 2,850,000
Simon Watt 2,500,000
David Randall 2,200,000
Jason Young 1,695,000
Michael Smith 6th ($105,185)
Marvin Rettenmaier – 7th ($78,681)
Kyle Winter – 8th ($59,407)
Eric Ladny – 9th ($45,603)

Concerning the prop bets, one person has already paid $325,000 to Dwan. To find out who that was, check out Pokerlistings.

Surreal. A congregation of Big Game players are currently having a sit-down, most likely discussing offering Dwan to buy out of their bets.

Here’s the final table when play resumed:

Seat 1: Jason Young – 1,304,000
Seat 2: Michael Smith – 622,000
Seat 3: Marvin Rettenmaier – 525,000
Seat 4: Tom “durrrr” Dwan – 2,412,000
Seat 5: Austin McCormick – 1,939,000
Seat 6: Kyle Winter – 502,000
Seat 7: Eric “AvrilSharapova” Ladny – 969,000
Seat 8: David “ghettofabulous” Randall – 1,803,000
Seat 9: Simon Watt – 1,466,000

Catch all the live updates over at PokerNews, along with tweets from Pauly, Matt Waldron and AlCantHang

Friday preview

Last year’s Casino Employee’s winner was Andrew Cohen, a bartender at the Palms, who won $83,833 in a field of 866 players. Hopefully Team Pokerati member John Harris can improve on his 25th place finish last year. This is the first year for the $50,000 Players’ Championship, a five-day event that is replacing the $50,000 HORSE event that was held the previous four years. David Bach won what appears to be the final $50,000 HORSE event last year, besting a field of 95 to earn $1,276,806. The Chip Reese trophy that was given to the HORSE winner will now go to the Players’ Championship winner.

Where to find information

For those looking for updates, the official WSOP site will have live updates powered by PokerNews. This year, the WSOP.com site will also be making various tournament information available to everyone, including entry lists, end of day chip counts, tournament reports from WSOP media director Nolan Dalla, as well as the media guide. CardPlayer, Bluff Magazine, PokerListings, PokerRoad, ESPN.com’s poker section and other poker media outlets (like Pauly) will provide updates, reports, gossip, video segments and other stuff for the poker enthusiast.

2010 WSOP storylines

With 56 bracelets up for grabs over the next seven weeks (with the final one decided in November), there’s plenty of interesting angles to find in this year’s WSOP:

Does the Year of the Woman continue? With the wins of Annie Duke at the NBC Heads-Up, Vanessa Selbst at NAPT Mohegan Sun and Liv Boeree at EPT San Remo, the poker media is anticipating a breakout WSOP for women. The last year more than one woman won an open bracelet event was in 2004 (Annie Duke, Kathy Liebert and Cyndy Violette).

How will Annette Obrestad perform? This is Annette’s first year she can actually play at the WSOP in Las Vegas instead of being a spectator limited to the hallway, a moment that has been eagerly anticipated by the poker community since she won the 2007 WSOP Europe Main Event at 18. She’ll be the most followed, scrutinized, criticized, fawned over, etc. newcomer of this year’s group of WSOP newbies.

How will the UIGEA affect the WSOP? With the June 1 deadline rapidly approaching, online sites and players are wondering what will happen in the next few weeks. Does the US Department of Justice swoop down on the Rio and arrest Team Full Tilt? Will players not be able to get their funds in time for the Main Event? Will it be business as usual, with no noticeable drop in attendance at the Rio?

Betting on Bracelets Bracelet bets for big money is not reserved to Phil Ivey and his fellow pros. Justin Bonomo was laying 10 to 1 (1k minimum to Justin’s 10k) that at least one person from a list of people living at Panorama Towers will win a bracelet at the WSOP. Bonomo offered the same bet last year, laying 7 to 1, and Greg Mueller’s two bracelets had Bonomo winning his bet. The big Phil Ivey bet this year is with Howard Lederer: Ivey has the 2010-12 WSOPs to win two bracelets, WSOPE bracelets count only towards making the bet a push, for $5 million. Talk of other bets Ivey will surely hit the rumor mill over the coming weeks.

More updates to come during the next few weeks, and good luck to all the players.

NOTE: I predict 146 players in the WPT-Bucharest main event … turned out to be 161.

The Poker Beat
3/25/10

Click below for my picks for the most-of-20 prop bet. And click here to submit your own and give yourself a chance at nabbing a piece of our prize pool.

Dan Michalski’s picks:

Doyle Brunson
Phil Hellmuth
Phil Ivey
Annette Obrestad
Daniel Negreanu
Barry Greenstein
Howard Lederer
Chris Ferguson
Chris Moneymaker
Scotty Nguyen
Jason Mercier
Greg Raymer
Layne Flack
Sam Farha
Prahlad Friedman
Carlos Mortenson
Alexandre Gomes
Jen Harman
Phil Galfond
Vitaly Lunkin

We’ll see how any new embedding options work, and what else may or may not change with the new channel. But glad to see the industry still able to support two semi-independent poker television news shows … the other, of course, being ESPNs The Inside Deal presented by PokerStars.

The new season begins on Wednesday, March 3, supposedly at 11 pm … though I am thinking that must be Eastern Time since the Cox Las Vegas listings say it airs at 8 pm and re-airs on Fridays at 2:30 pm. Channel 38.

And a little bubbling-under semi-related to the show … Cohost Sebok says he tried to buy out of his face-tattoo prop bet with Gavin Smith and Jeff Madsen, but they wouldn’t accept … which you know how that works … makes him the odds-on favorite to win the permanent lasts-longer bet for the LAPC main event.

This go-round she tackles some of the challenges of international travel that are unique to poker players jetsetting into and out of action … and specifically the need for a good poker face when moving through Customs.

Most recently, at his own TASER Foundation charity tourney in Phoenix — the biggest high-society charity poker shindig of the year in Arizona — he was there to report on Brandon Cantu’s being shot with a taser gun … Cantu was paying off a prop-bet he lost at last year’s event with Clonie Gowen.

Damn, ouch … but cool … didn’t realize you could bounce back so quickly from those things.

BTW, an extra-funny … @DonkeyBomber was there as one of the “star poker players” who help make the event extra fun for the Big Charity donors who play … but even on his home turf, our favorite business-exec-turned-author-turned-2007-WSOP-POY-turned-struggling-poker-pro is no Layne Flack or even Roy Winston:

http://money.cnn.com/news/newsfeeds/articles/globenewswire/177471.htm

Included on the WSOP celebrity roster for the events are: 11-time WSOP champion Phil Hellmuth, Layne Flack, Antonio Esfandiari (“The Magician”), Greg “Fossilman” Raymer, Jennifer Tilly, Phil Laak, Kenna James, Erica Schoenberg, Jeff Madsen, Roy Winston, Clonie Gowen, Brandon Cantu, Todd and Pamela Brunson, and Arizona’s own celebrity players, Kevin O’Donnell and Jim Schneider.

For a good bio, check out this good old-fashioned newspaper article about Joe Cada, the reigning poker hero of Metro Detroit … written before they knew he’d be the one playing heads-up against Darvin Moon. It’s been a wild ride, he says, since making the November Nine — one that ended with a $150k losing streak leading up to the big dance.

Here’s an interview PokerStars did with “the kid” (now “the comeback kid” in Stars parlance) — who started his career as on all-American online pro at age 18 shortly before the start of this weekend’s great-big sit-n-go:

Coulda told you all along he was gonna win it. (I know he hasn’t yet, but still …) Looking back at some emails with The Poker Beat crew (we were tossing around the idea of an on-air prop-bet) … sure enough, Cada was the dude I picked! Joey Stapleton apparently saw something in “the kid”, too:

(Note: You don’t see the other guys’ picks because I mucked things up by showing mine to soon. I also thought Darvin Moon’s name was “Garvin” at the time.)

From: Dan Michalski
Date: July 30, 2009 11:42:31 AM PDT
To: BJ Nemeth
Cc: John Caldwell, Scott Huff, Joe Stapleton, Gary Wise
Subject: i want in on the action

my early pick is Cada.

lol, ESPN analysts … i will bet so against Garvin Moon. two double-ups through him and he’s dead. now factor in the TV nerve issue … mistakes likely.

cada knows what he’s doing, and has enough chips relative to the blinds to make it happen.

if he doesn’t get unlucky against a moon shithead-move early, he’s in the final 3.

On Jul 30, 2009, at 12:06 PM, John Caldwell wrote:

ok. Everyone get me their bets by 5pm today.

bets should look like this.

$20 on Joe Cada
$40 on Jeff Shulman
$40 on Darvin Moon.

It should add up to 100. Whoever turns their 100 into the most money wins the whole pot. All bets must be in whole dollars. Don’t give me $23.48 on Darvin Moon cause the math told you so.

Ship it.

I’ll e-mail ‘Insider’ now.

J

From: Dan Michalski
Date: July 30, 2009 12:09:21 PM PDT
To: John Caldwell
Cc: BJ Nemeth, Scott Huff, Joe Stapleton, Gary Wise
Subject: Re: The Poker Beat, July 30 Topics for discussion

$33 Cada
$33 Ivey
$33 Buchman
$1 akenhead

(if we are not allowed 4 picks, please put that extra dollar on Ivey.)

On Thu, Jul 30, 2009 at 12:36 PM, BJ Nemeth wrote:

I already know Dan’s picks, which gives me (and everyone else who hasn’t submitted yet) a *huge* advantage. I could bet $35 on Ivey, $35 on Buchman, and $2 on Akenhead, and totally block Dan’s action on three out of four of his picks. Then Caldwell could step in and bet $37 on Ivey and Buchman, and $3 on Akenhead, and block both of us. And the Insider could make it $40/$40/$5 to scoop those three players.

Remember, you’re not betting to win a return on your bet — you have to pick the winner *and* have more money placed on him than anyone else in the pool. That’s a very, very different betting strategy.

From: Dan Michalski
Date: July 30, 2009 2:50:53 PM PDT
To: Gary Wise
Cc: john, bjnemeth, scottbhuff, joeystapleton
Subject: Re: The Poker Beat: Rules Clarification

i still like my bets.

yee-haw!

On Aug 6, 2009, at 9:06 AM, Joe Stapleton wrote:

Here are my picks, but I’ll find a way to work them into the Tight Laydown:

1) Joe Cada
2) Eric Buchman
3) Darvin Moon

Episode 7: The Final 3

Episode 8: Wave the Flag

via PokerNews

Phil Hellmuth sat down for an hour with PokerTube.com the other day (an hoouuurrr), and while most of it’s gag-worthy, I did find his explanation of bankroll management and his personal cash sitch interesting:

He really really really wants you to buy his stuff at PokerBrat.com.