Defending Champ: Sure, I may have gotten lucky on the river, but hey, I had the best hand going in!

So what do you do after beating TJ Cloutier to win $230k? That’s not exactly lottery money, after all — especially after taxes — but it was enough to (kinda) change the life of Vik Vijay, the Oklahoma poker dealer who won the 2007 Red River Roundup (now called, more elegantly Oklahoma-y, The River) and then delivered on his post-victory promise to quit his job and move to Las Vegas with highly energized bankroll in hand. Since then:

hey dan -
yeah, im headed down to winstar next week to defend - ive got the last starting day - thursday the 21st. hopefully it will go well. the last year has been interesting - i moved to vegas and have mostly been playing. i worked at the venetian this summer, dealing poker for their summer tournament set, but they didnt keep any of us on for anything regular. the poker has been going well, but i really got to lay off the blackjack. other than that, life is pretty good.

-vik vijay.

I think cards are already in the air for the pseudo-shootout River Tournament at WinStar in Oklahoma. Alas, I am not there … am still in Vegas as the first of five groups of 300 players play down to 30.

Though this is not yet confirmed, we think with 1,500, a $2,000 buy-in, and a guaranteed $3 million prize pool that this might-well be the biggest non-WSOP event at $2,000 or more in the history of ever. At a minimum, it’s the biggest event of the year for Texas poker — and Oklahoma poker, too, of course. Was hoping I’d be able to make it back to glorious Thackerville to bring you some WSOP-style coverage of this biggity poker hoedown, but it just doesn’t seem likely.

Last year’s runner-up TJ Cloutier starts today. I’m sure lots of other players we know and love are also there — in fact, if anyone has any updates, be sure to let us know. (Send me an email if you want me Ed to set you up to CSR from the felt/rail.)

Also, last I heard, today is sold out, but 140 seats overall remain. I gotta imagine they’ll fill up if the WinStar is still running single-table satellites … and I know at least two Dallas poker rooms are running sats, so …

Paul in Dallas sends along some info about the upcoming River Touranment in Winstar, Oklahoma. (OK, technically it’s Thackerville, but Winstar is what puts this border town on the map, so …)

As for the River tourney, I’ve been up several times during the months of “qualifying,” and it has been fairly impressive. More impressive is the price you can get for your seats, nearly full price. I won a single table satellite and was able to sell the chip on Craig’s List for $1900 (buyin is $2100). The rake they’ve been able to steal on many satellites has been most impressive- they have been running big tournaments each month ($400+40) for seats, which isn’t too obscene at 10%, but they have been been running $55 single table sat’s to those tournaments, 10 to a table, with winner taking a seat ($440 value) and the house keeping the other $110. And yet people keep playing them.

Not sure if you’ve been kept abreast of the Winstar goings-on, but they did start serving liquor during the summer, and it has changed weekend play considerably. Many tables running 24 hours from Thursday to Monday morning each week. Squishy soft.

Wow. Damn. I did not know. Go WinStar! Should be interesting to see how this $3 million tourney plays out. Would expect to see a virtual who’s who of Texas poker contending.

(Last year, you may recall, this event was called the Red River Roundup and had a guaranteed prize pool of $1 million, in which Vikram Vijay of Oklahoma defeated TJ Cloutier heads-up, making it seem a little bit like an old-fashioned version of the WSOP main event for both of them.)

Today’s attendance at day 1c of the Main Event was a vast improvement over the past two days, as 1,928 laid their money down to participate in the Main Event. Rumors are circulating that Sunday will have a complete sellout of 2,700 which would take them near the 7,000 figure that seemed improbable on Thursday. Among those whose dream is already over, such notables as: Huck Seed, Larry Flynt, Sean Buchanan, Gavin Griffin, Mimi Tran, Justin Bonomo, David Chiu, Bart Hanson, and Marco Traniello.

The leader at the dinner break appears to be Michael Martin, who is just under 100,000 in chips. More familiar names near the top: Jeff Madsen, Chris Moneymaker, Mike Matusow, TJ Cloutier, and the lovely and talented Liz Lieu, Clonie Gowen, Evelyn Ng, Kara Scott, and Isabelle Mercier. More updates can be found at the WSOP update site here.

The returning horde of about 1,500 will return shortly to play two more two-hour levels, with those survivors returning to play on Wednesday, July 9.

More updates during the evening…

Poker pros.

Fans along the rail taking flash photography that is strictly prohibited in the Amazon Room. If the floor staff or someone with Harrah’s doesn’t start enforcing it, I might have to.

The ESPN video chicks looking bored to tears during the start of the most exciting event of the WSOP thus far. Obviously, they know their poker…and love it.

Players happy to see that they receive $100 food vouchers each day of the tournament. TJ Cloutier couldn’t get over it and kept telling the tournament staffer how much he appreciated the voucher rather than the buffet that Harrah’s provided last year. “They ran out of food!” he recalled like it was yesterday.

More poker pros.

The number of players pretty firmly set at 147 on the board, just one shy of last year’s total. Looks like I lost two bets big-time. My prediction of 175 was severely inflated, and I’m paying $40 for it. Biggest prop bet loss by far this series. Maybe I can borrow it from one of these players in front of me who just bought in to a tournament for $50,000!

IT’S A MIRACLE: Full Tilt wasn’t exactly a poker powerhouse in 2000, the year Chris Ferguson won the main event.

There are 35 big banners hanging up around the Amazon room — a pretty cool ring-of-honor thing going on — honoring 38 years of main event champions and four players of the year … and I couldn’t help but notice one of them doesn’t belong. [Insert Tom joke here.]

Chris Ferguson, whose banner lords over the 75/150 Omaha-8 game that has been going on all night and through the morning, commemorates his 2000 win over TJ Cloutier. But look a little closer and you’ll see this photo is hardly authentic — it bears a Full Tilt logo … branding op for a company that didn’t exist at that time. All the other banner mugs feature pics from the feat in question.

The real Chris Ferguson, circa 2000.

UPDATE: Actually there are two of them like this … The picture of Dan Harrington supposedly from 1995 shows him fully decked out in 888 and Pacific Poker gear.

Just for funsies, I thought I’d make predictions on the final 6 with 61 players left — hey, if they can change a rule mid-tourney, why can’t I change my theoretical horses? So that was last night, but I fell asleep before the official chip counts went up … hence no post until now, with 45 players remaining, and all “my guys” still in (sorry, Tom, I just didn’t “feel” a monster comeback). I did make one change, however, after seeing play develop a little bit today:

Gus Hansen
Jeff King Steve Billrakis
TJ Cloutier
Jonathan Kalmar
Robert Mizrachi
Tom Dwan/Durrr

Anyone got an over/under on how many of these I’ll get right? Or perhaps their own picks based on who’s well-chipped, favorably seated, and generally playing well of late?

Today’s paper, seen here in a box at DFW airport, seems a bit ironic.

DFW AIRPORT–Argh. After getting my arse kicked by various turns and rivers in the Batface home game last night, I am now waiting in an airport terminal for a heavily delayed plane. One of the other passengers got a good read on the situation before we boarded — “It’s never a good sign when you see your pilot hanging out the window cleaning his own windshield. Don’t they have people for that?” Sure enough, we got on the plane, waited for an hour, then were asked to deplane. (I’ve never before been told to get off a plane once getting on it.) US Airways pilots and managers and ticket agents are outside looking at the plane trying to figure out what’s wrong with it. Not a good sign.

I booked this early flight so I could make it to the Jennifer Harman charity event. Note to J-Ha: sorry, don’t think I’m gonna make it, but you should probably still have the event. T.J. Cloutier is also on this flight — headed to V-town for the $25k WPT World Championship at Bellagio — as are Dallas/WSOP dealer Beth and her poker-playing boyfriend Brice, who are taking a Vegas vacation together for the first time … and there’s one other passenger dude I don’t know but I recognize from a table somewhere, either in Las Vegas or Dallas.

Have a feeling today is going to be really fun … for traveling poker players and non-players alike.

Tom Dwan, aka Durrr, cracked Phil Hellmuth’s pocket aces with pocket 10s in the third hand of the opening round of the National Heads-Up Poker Championship … and now there is talk of a rematch for $100,000.

(Hellmuth already made about $90k from other players offering insurance on the hand while waiting for the flop.)

Phil wrote about the hand itself — and he’s right, Durrr made a bad play — unless of course the online phenom was possibly taking Chris Ferguson’s philosophy that worked against TJ Cloutier into account, which says that when you are outmatched it is mathematically in your interest to gamble. Anyhow, here’s Hellmuth’s recall of how the 2008 hand went down … and here are the terms of a potential rematch:

After I told him that I wouldn’t have lost $3,000 with 10-10–which is the truth–Durr handled himself with class, albeit he did what all the young guys do when they’re a bit insecure, he challenged me to play heads up for $100,000. Durr knew he played the hand poorly, and if he doesn’t know now, he will understand how bad a play he made in two or three years. Will I play him heads up in the real world? Absolutely! But on my terms. I don’t need the money, and I have nothing to gain from playing him heads up, whereas he does have something to gain. He could say that he beat me. Despite that, here are my terms: I will play him in the bay area, in a casino (his terms, and I echo them), during the daytime (like starting at noon), whenever I feel like it (I choose the date). I don’t need to play him, I crushed him in three hands on NBC!! He may have won the chips, but the world knows who really won the hand!!

6:02 — Who is this announcer guy? Not too exciting nor comprehensive.

6:03 — Funny, he just made it over to the Tom vs. Gavin table … pointed out that Tom was trailing by “a little more than a few thousand chips.” He then seem confused by why Gavin had some book on the table. “Oops! I Won Too Much Money,” he said over the microphone, surprised to discover the author was right in front of him.

6:05 — “Gavin Smith takes down another nice pot. No one at this table is very afraid,” he said, presumably referring to Tom’s questionable call.

6:06 — Robert Goldfarb is on the other side of the room, not responding to my texts inquiring about what is going on over at his end.

6:09 — Chris Ferguson hits a three-outer on the river … I know see a hot blonde girl standing up and clapping, and am pretty sure that is his modeltastic Brazilian girlfriend.

6:13 — TJ Cloutier shows up and is laughing tickled upon hearing the report from Robert Williamson’s little sister (and favorite Pokerati stalking victim) who informs him that indeed, Hellmuth went out on the third hand. “Heh-heh-ha,” says Cloutier in his Hank-Hill chortle.

6:14 — Oh no! My personal sleeper pick and Arizona Posse-ite Hooman Nikzad is out. He got it all-in with the best, but Greg Raymer turned a set to advance.

6:20 — Tom pushes all-in, Gavin folds … to give the Donkey Bomber a 24k-16k lead. Last time these two played heads-up at the same time, both were competing for WSOP bracelets (in different events). Tom won his match, and Gavin lost his. Just sayin’ …

6:22 — At least two very Hammery flops have come in this 8-match quadrant of first round action. Both 7-7-2 flops have resulted in bets followed by folds. Very interesting.

6:30 — There are seats for about 90 spectators in this makeshift Caesar’s viewing coliseum. Twelve media spots (not counting the dozen or so NBC folks who have the run of the floor.

6:31 — Kenny Tran doubles up against Scott Clements thanks to running clubs. “The turn always gives you extra outs,” the announcer said. No it doesn’t, at least four of us in the room are thinking.

6:33 — Back to counting … there’s standing room only for about a dozen squeezed in around the rails.

6:34 — Greg Raymer can’t seem to leave, even though he’s already one. It’s clear (imho) he’s looking for camera time … not Phil Hellmuth-style for ego … but presumably to get some HD-pixel time for his patch-friends at PokerStars.

6:36 — As Raymer loudly mentioned PokerStars, a headphone-wearing producer woman just informed Fossilman that he was getting in the camera’s way and needed to leave. “Aww, c’mon,” Raymer unsuccessfully plead.

6:40 — Scott Clements’ AK holds up against A7, and California Jen’s pick to win it all moves on.

6:41 — Gabe Kaplan knocks out Antonius.

Though I’m not sure how official these are, some odds on who’s gonna win the NBC National Heads-Up Poker Championship (Feb. 29) are out … and Tom Schneider is listed in the middle of the pack at 45:1 — the same as David Williams, Jennifer Harman, Huck seed, and TJ Cloutier. Duuude. Not bad. Clonie, after all, is 80:1, which is almost as good as Jerry Yang’s 60:1.

Click below to see the full list … and while doing that, think how funny it is that this sorta poker ink comes from marijuana.com. (And Tom says I do nothing for him …)

More…

TJ Cloutier’s latest column … an interesting if not prescient tale of some poker southern-circuit old-timers that include a game-runner who takes an extra rake right under someone’s nose ($100 a pop); a bookie sent to jail and kicked out of Dallas, Hazzard County-style; and legendary players with a not-so-unique philosophy on credit and debt.

Considering that TJ has been running good of late — and they don’t have craps in Oklahoma — I can’t help but give some thought to the road-gambler ethos he extols, and wonder where it fits in today’s contemporary poker economy:

“I’ve still got 30 days to pay that off,” Jack said, “so quit bothering me.” And the guy left. As the first man was going down the stairs, a second man was walking up them. The door was still open, so Jack let him in.

“I’m down on my luck,” the man cries to Jack. “Could you loan me $10,000 till I get back on my feet?” And Jack peeled the ten grand right out of his pocket and gave it to him! I couldn’t explain Jack Straus any better than telling this story.

One time when we were on the golf course, Straus told me that he liked me because I was like him. “I’m broke one day and have a fortune the next day,” he said, “and I don’t give a damn.”

[Photo: Flipchip]

Various trusted media outlets are reporting that poker Hall of Famer Chip Reese died in his sleep early this morning.

Wicked Chops mentions some recent flu or pneumonia symptoms, but nothing has been confirmed.

Here is a link to TJ Cloutier saying a few words at the WPT Boot Camp in the Bahamas today.

UPDATE: CardPlayer confirms in this article that Chip was admitted to a hospital last night with pneumonia symptoms and died in his sleep. He was 56.

NOTE: His PokerPages bio notes that when Chip was asked when he might consider quitting poker, he replied, “I’ll stop playing at my funeral, and only God knows what I’ll do after that.”

UPDATE: According to Gary Wise in this ESPN article, Chip called his doctor late Monday night complaining of pneumonia symptoms but never did go to the hospital. He died at home in his sleep.

We probably shoulda mentioned this earlier, but there’s been a pretty big series of tournaments going on at the Cherokee Casino in Upper Oklahoma. The main event of the Scotty Nguyen Classic IV just finished up … another quarter-million first-place payout from our good friends north of the Red River … and TJ Cloutier won it, avenging the two-outer that cost him the top spot in WinStar’s big-daddy event.

He defeated Houstonian Ray Henson, whom you may recall went deep in the 2007 WSOP main event — the last Texan standing, finishing in 12th place before being knocked out by, interestingly enough, Scotty Nguyen.

124 players bought in to this $5,000 NLHE event, including a handful of names and faces you may recognize from tables around North Texas and elsewhere:

TJ Cloutier, Richardson, 1st place — $241k
Ray Henson, Houston, 2nd place — $138k
Brant Hale, Norman, 3rd place — $72k
Gavin Smith, Las Vegas, 4th place — $42k
Noah Nodine, Norman, 5th place — $33k
Daniel Robertson, Alma, AR, 6th place — $27k
Gil George, Dallas, 7th place — $21k
Scotty Nguyen, Las Vegas, 8th place — $15k
Bill Edler, Las Vegas, 9th place — $12k

More…

T.J. Cloutier has another “blog” about good times around the unique concept of the US Poker Bowl with his Dallas Roughnecks teammates. Though for some reason he doesn’t extol the virtue of Karridy’s team management prowess — he was the bossman of the Roughnecks — in it T.J. does point us to Kenna James’ write-up about the same event — where the singing cowboy discusses how the team concept really got his juices flowing as a guy who played sports in high school but always found himself sitting on the sidelines.

Good stuff. Can’t wait to do the commentationating once they cut it all up.

I think I’ll bid on this item, since I didn’t get my personally autographed copy during the PokerBowl as promised. Speaking of, here is a great article by Dallas Roughneck, T.J. Cloutier, on the unfortunate demise of my team.

THACKERVILLE, Okla.–TJ Cloutier made a raise, and Vikram Vijay folded 2-7o face-up. Greg Raymer, announcing the action, says, “Folding the Hammer.” I think I was the only one cheering on the inside … not for the fold, but for the Raymer recognition. (Otis must have taught him well.)

On the very next hand, they got it all-in … Cloutier had A-J, an Vijay called with 3-3. An ace came on the flop … no straight or flush draw on the turn … and congratulations to the New Yorker-cum-Oklahoman Vikram Vijay, who wins the 3rd annual Red River Roundup with a red 3 on the river.

Perhaps just as it should be?

Vikram Vijay, wielding a big stack throughout the day, hanging on to the chip lead, and not afraid to get up and ask Greg Raymer for an opinion on how a hand played out.

THACKERVILLE, Okla.–It’s getting kinda exciting … 21 players left, and into the real money. Average stack is 238k, and TJ Cloutier has about 300k.

UPDATE: TJ just knocked out someone and increased his stack to more than 500k

The chip leader is Vikram Vijay, who has 650k (after losing an AK vs. QQ all-in). Believe it or not, we’ve actually got pictures … or at least I do. But the duct-taped internet connection here means we may or may not be able to share them.

UPDATE: While all the action was going on above at TJ and Arnie’s table, Vikram accumulated an even bigger chip lead, with 1.4 million in chips. “Vik” is an Oklahoman, trying to do his nation-state proud … as he reportedly is a dealer at the Fire Lake Casino in Shawnee, OK, just east of Oklahoma City … in the Potawatomi Nation. Go Indians!

Eleven players left … and hand-for-hand action has begun.

THACKERVILLE, Okla.–North Texas player Abteen Vaziri just said now that I know his name I can delete it. He is out. He wins $2,500 for finishing in 55th place. Much of Abteen’s recent success has come from study of Joe Navarro’s book on tells. But he misread a pulsing neck vain for weakness when in reality it was pocket queens.

Sorry dude.

Looks like it’s up to Josh, Troy, and/or TJ to do the Dallas gamers (whose names Pokerati knows) proud.

UPDATE: Troy “Darling” Phillips is out. He got pocket jacks on the button and raised. The ever-aggressive big blind pushed all-in … Troy called … and would learn the sad news that he was up against aces. Ouch!

50th place. $3,000. Still, nice job by the Batfaces favorite sugar daddy curly haired representative. It’s only a matter of time before he runs out of money makes another final table.

UPDATE: Josh Evans also appears to be out. Turned away for a second and his table was gone … and he couldn’t be found elsewhere in the field.

Interestingly enough, while Kido Pham and Greg Raymer were brought out here (and presumably bought in) by WinStar … TJ Cloutier simply showed up on his own and plunked down $1,100. Definitely not a charity event for him. And to think, they don’t even have craps in Oklahoma. Can we say positive EV?

With 45 players left and blinds at 4k/8k+500, Cloutier has about 165,000 chips. Average stack is 111,000.

UPDATE: Just learned that Cloutier was bought into this event by a heretofore unnamed military-ish backer in Dallas … who has 50 percent of the poker hall-of-famer.

Hand-for-hand play at the bubble to see who will compete for the big money on Sunday at the WinStar Casino’s signature annual event.

THACKERVILLE, Okla.–Below is the list of Day 1-Day 1 Day 2 qualifiers. Names of those who advanced yesterday aren’t yet available, nor is any info on the 41 39 remaining players today. But hey, no sweat … after all, the entire prize pool for this $1 million tourney was just $50k two years ago … so a lot of this is new to the people running the show here, and I gotta say, speaking as a tournament directorial wonk guy who likes to tell people they are doing things wrong, they seem to be doing a really good job. They may not have figured out whether or not they’re gonna let media take pictures — seriously, dudes, it’s cool … players like it … just be sure to remind us “no flash” — but they’ve for the most part got a smooth-running show going on here, with a player-friendly blind structure to boot. Priorities, right?

(Meanwhile, while the lone person sitting at an unwatched table littered with stray media/player/staff badges, I am getting a lot of curious looks, along with some friendly “hello’s” from WinStar employees moving in a bit closer to size me up. Like why on earth would someone be typing so vigorously at a poker tournament!?! Is that a computer?)

We’ll see if we can’t have a list of the entire field of those who have made the money and are fighting for the $230k first prize up before cards go in the air tomorrow. In the meantime, we know that these 33 people will be there:

More…

THACKERVILLE, Okla.–No internet north of the Red River, or at least not at WinStar, where the first of three Day 1s in the $1 million NLH tourney concluded shortly before midnight yesterday. We’ll try to keep you posted from now through the final table, but can only promise so much with two-thumb typing.

Red River Roundup, Day 1 report:

- Event is sold out. 1,000 players. Double last year’s field.
- 333 played yesterday, of which 33 remain and will convene on the other side of the bubble on Sunday.
- Josh Evans and TJ Cloutier both advanced.
- So did Troy “Darling” Phillips. (Go Batfaces!)
- Marco Palacios went out near thw bubble.
- Avg. stack is 50k. Chip leader has about 150k.
- Media coverage is kinda new to WinStar. They haven’t figured out yet whether or not to allow photos.
- New poker room here is very nice.

Day 2-Day 1 has gotten underway. Favorites include Kido Pham and Randy “The Big Randy” Brown. Greg Raymer supposedly plays tomorrow.

LAS VEGAS–Tom Schneider is heads-up for his second bracelet of the 2007 WSOP — against Hoyt Verner from Orlando (who finished 8th in this event last year). They go into their mano-y-mano dead even in chips, 570k to 570k. With this guaranteed 2nd place finish, Schneider moves into first place in the WSOP Player of the Year race — a spot he could virtually lock up with a win here.

The two remaining players took off to the bathroom together — theoretically to discuss a deal. But they returned with no unofficial gentleman’s agreement in place, deciding the money differential was small enough to just play for it all as-is.

Money on the line:
1st Place — $147,713
2nd Place — $82,064

UPDATE: Tom is starting to put the beatdown on Hoyt now. Will have to get a little unlucky to lose it here. TJ Cloutier has shown up to watch the action. (He says “hi” to Karridy.)

Tom wins!
First player to win two bracelets in 2007. Goal of making three final tables secured. Nice job — busting out just before the bubble was so 2006.

So as Karridy tells us, Tom has had a successful Day 1 so far at the WPT World Poker Challenge in Reno, nearly tripling his stack. Sweet. It’s still early, so lots of people are still alive. But I couldn’t help but notice that Clonie is also kicking ass, as is Chantel McNulty* … and her old beau Dustin “Neverwin” Woolf. Juicy. And speaking of juicy, Karridy’s favorite Texas man-with-big-hands, TJ Cloutier, is alive and fine with a slightly below-average chip stack.

I wonder how many days Tom will have to survive before CardPlayer (which so far seems to have the best coverage of this event) will take note. From CP:

Sun Mar 25 12:06:00 PDT 2007
Big Names in the Field
The Big names that have already been spotted are: Barry Greenstein, Joe Sebok, Mike Matusow, Daniel Negreanu, Ted Forrest, Erick Lindgren, Victor Ramdin, Barry Shulman, Chau Giang, Clonie Gowen, David Singer, David Williams, Devin Porter, Gavin Smith, JC Tran, Nam Le, James Van Alstyne, John Juanda, Layne Flack, Michael Mizrachi, Phil Laak, Ralph Perry, Sean McCabe, and Bill Edler.

UPDATE (10 pm pacific): Clonie is out. Chantel still kicking butt. Tom just took a huge hit, but I don’t know much about it, because CP doesn’t pay attention to his cards.

UPDATE UPDATE: Text from Tom (at 10:34 pm pacific) says, “Fuck everyone im out”. Yikes, dude, sorry. Interestingly, the CardPlayer Live Updates did not take note of Tom’s exit. I am typing this extra small because I don’t think this is the sorta thing he would really want to hear right now.

More…

The first weekend of April will mark the beginning of new era in poker as team-play makes it’s Vegas/Television debut in the form of the US PokerBowl. The theory is that it’s supposed to add a completely new layer of strategy to our beloved game while bringing tournament poker bravado competition to a whole new level. Representing Dallas are TJ Cloutier, Tex Barch, Jeff Littlefield, and yours truly. Our team, the Dallas Kowboys, will fight it out in a televised, collusion-friendly free-for-all.

Opposing players include some of the best in the game, including hometown boys David Williams, Scott Levy, Gregg Merkow, and Webber Kang, who I hear have worked together to win a similarly structured local tournament in the recent past. Even Pokerati Invitational champ, Tom Schneider, has assembled a top tier posse for Phoenix. I’ll soon be tearing my own collusion hymen with my home game crew in Burleson when we adopt this intriguing format for our next regular home tournament. I actually predict that you will see a surge of local team tournaments over the next year. After all, where else can you win from the rail? Other than by fading me, of course.

Here’s the thing about poker in Texas at present — it’s difficult to think big. Think too big, put together something too cool, and someone will try to put a stop to it. It’s a real shame, too … because as a society, we might be better off trying to finance schools or focussing on keeping the terrorists away. But alas, such is not reality … and the latest victim of (misguided?) anti-poker sentiment is True Texas Poker with TJ Cloutier.

So say event organizers, who have further delayed/restructured their made-for-TV spectacle. I tend to believe them, too, because for the past year they have almost constantly had to be shifting gears to appease anti-poker powers. Here’s the latest on the status of their tourney(s). Considering that no one has had to pay a dime to win a seat, all is probably well. Not sure how his sponsors feel, but regardless, Karridy/TJ looks to have moved to a poker-entertaining Plan B C D … and he’s still got a long way to go before running out of letters.

Thanks, PokerDonkey, for the tip!