The panel breaks down PokerStars most recent signing and handicaps the Bluff Magazine Readers Choice Award Nominations

The Poker Beat: December 15, 2010

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• Antonio Esfandiari wins WTP Five Diamond.
• Reid Bill AGAIN…
• Pokerstars signs isildur1.
• Bluff Magazine Reader Choice Awards Votes?

Vote vigorously and/or repeatedly for The Poker Beat
for Favorite Web-based Show in Bluff magazine’s 2010 Reader’s Choice Awards.

For the final show of the year, Chops is joined by Attorney and poker writer, Dave ‘F Train’ Behr and Dan Michalski of Pokerati.com as they discuss and analyze the latest on the Reid bill and poker legalization in America. Jess Wellman provides the poker headlines where one thing is dominating the poker world. Tune in for the latest poker news, debate and the occasional Duhamel. For more information, show notes and an upcoming schedule, go to http://thisweekin.com

Released Dec 15, 2010

This week the Entities are joined by Lance Bradley, Editor in Chief – Bluff Magazine and Canadian as they explore all things poker with a special emphasis on Canadians in Poker. Jess Wellman provides the poker headlines and Stu Hoegner phones in with an up date of the Harry Reid poker bill. All this and a giant inflatable beaver. For more information, show notes and an upcoming schedule, go to http://thisweekin.com.

Detailed episode highlights at WCP.
Released Dec 08, 2010

EPT Barcelona (Barcelona, Spain)

Daniel Negreanu’s wild ride did not result in a cheesy story book ending-type win in Barcelona. In fact, none of the PokerStars sponsored players made much noise in this EPT stop. The most recognizable name amongst the group was Konstantin Puchkov, who won a bracelet in a HORSE event at this year’s World Series of Poker.

Eight different European countries were represented at the final table of eight, with Jesus Cortes Lizano trying to capture the hometown title. He fell just short, taking home €525,000 for a runner-up finish. Kent Lundmark became the sixth Swede to capture a title on the EPT, besting a field of 758 players to win €825,000, the biggest prize in Spanish poker history. [CardPlayer]

United States Poker Championship (Atlantic City, NJ)

The USPC has lost some of the luster it had during the early days of the poker boom, but this year’s event continues a fairly strong run it has had as a $5,000 event. The main event drew 96 players, including quite a few local grinders. The infamous Mike Sica made the final table, finishing fourth for $40,000. In his first live event, Edward Gamaitoni came out victorious, pocketing $167,616 for his efforts.

Other highlights of this series included two wins on the same night for “Miami” John Cernuto, five final tables and a win for Chris Reslock, and a record three USPC titles in one series for New Jersey local Gordon Eng. [Atlantic City Weekly]

WPT Regional Series: Seminole Hard Rock Fall Open Poker Tournament (Hollywood, Florida)

Some players wait their entire lives to get their monster score. Harrison Gimbel has now struck big twice before his 21st birthday. After taking down the PCA in January at the tender age of 19, Gimbel book-ended his year with another big score with a win at the WPT’s regional stop in Hollywood, Florida. One of the few places in the United States where hel could legally play, Gimbel took full advantage of the opportunity to the tune of $330,000 following a deal made heads-up. Those who are worryed about Gimbel entering the general tournament scene can hold off on their worries in the states until next October. [PokerListings]

LA Poker Open (Los Angeles, CA)

The LA Poker Open took advantage of the insatieable local players as well as a number of well-known pros who were in town for the NAPT to award over 1.3 million over the entire series. Local player Kwinsee Khoa Tran banked almost $180,000 for the win, taking advantage of his chip lead entering the final six. [PokerListings]

WSOP-Circuit Lake Tahoe (Lake Tahoe, NV)

Despite a four-day snow storm leading up to the main event that had event organizers nervous about the turn out, 246 players showed up for the $1,600 tournament. With a spot in the WSOP Circuit National Championship on the line, Stan Quinn came out on top for $86,789. He earned one of the 100 coveted spots in the $1 million freeroll, which will be nationally televised and will award a WSOP bracelet to the winner. Also earning a seat from his results in Lake Tahoe was Andrew Barber, who won the overall points race throughout the series. [WSOP]

GUKPT Grand Final (London, England)

After finishing third in a preliminary GUKPT London stop, Leon Bui sealed the deal when it really counted. Bui won the Grand Final of this year’s tour, winning £144,905 in the process. David Johnson won GUKPT POY hono(u)rs after bubbling this final table. [BLUFF Europe]

Minnesota State Poker Tour Hinckley (Hinckley, MN)

Matt Hyland added a title at the MSPT Hinckley to his 2009 Heartland Poker Tour victory this week, taking home almost $40,000 for his win. [MN Poker Mag]

Online

The biggest news in the Online Poker world this week were the unexpectedly large overlays in PokerStars’ USACOOP. One of several regional COOP series that PokerStars is running in between its two major series, the guarantees were apparently set too high, which was most obvious during a $322 event with a $750,000 guarantee. With 1,326 players, the overlay was an astounding $325,000, with Christina “lindeyloo” Lindley taking advantage and winning the top prize of $127,500.

The main event of this series is paused with day two action scheduled for today. Among the 94 still in contention are David “Whooookidd” Baker, Garret “gbecks” Beckman, Jason “strassa2″ Strasser, Stuart “thedonator” Patterson, Steve “gboro780″ Gross, and Matt “mlagoo” Legard. Top prize is $164,050.

The left coast featured prominently in this week’s tournament action, with two different series’ winding down, while the WPT made a stop in Florida and the WSOP Circuit found it’s way to Lake Tahoe.

NAPT Los Angeles (Los Angeles, California)

The big story heading into the Main Event of NAPT LA was how the turnout would be for the first non-televised event of the tour. In a not-too-surprising outcome, the power of PokerStars’ satellites helped build a field of 701 for the $5K event, and from that came an impressive final nine. Once that nine was reached, the NAPT was able to circumvent the no-compete clause of its host, the Bike, and move the final table action to the Crystal Casino to shoot the action for future airing on ESPN2.

Jason Mercier lost a flip for possibly the first time in his poker career to exit in 7th place, followed soon after by Mike Binger in 6th. Ray Henson went out in 5th, and PokerStars lost its last sponsored pro with the exit of Anh Van Nguyen in 4th. The story of this final table ha to be the total domination by Joe Tehan. After winning the coin flip with Mercier to bust him, Tehan cruised to victory and pocketed $725,000 for his efforts. [PokerStars Blog]

That wasn’t the only action going on at the Crystal Casino, as they ran a $5K bounty shootout that was also filmed by the 441 crew. The final table included the likes of Michael Mizrachi, David Williams, Eric Baldwin, Tom Marchese, Pat Pezzin, Justin Young, Mohsin Charania, Clint Coffee and Kevin MacPhee. Each earned $20,000 for winning their initial table, as well as $1,000 for each player they eliminated. When it got down to heads-up play, it was Justin Young who locked up the most bounties, thus locking up a free seat in the upcoming PCA version of this event, but he would ultimately fall short as Eric Baldwin won a marathon heads-up battle at almost 4am local time and took home $134,800. Which might make for a pretty awkward trip home, as they drove out to LA from Las Vegas together for the NAPT. [PokerStars Blog]

LA Poker Open (Los Angeles, California)

Just down the block at the Commerce, the LA Poker Open is winding down towards the end of its Main Event. In the lead-up to the big tournament, Sorel Mizzi topped a short field to win a $1,500 bounty event, while Will “the Thrill” Failla added an LA Poker Open final table to one he made earlier in the week at the Bike, at a final table that also featured Bryan Devonshire and Matt Affleck. Affleck continued running well deep into the Main Event of the LA Poker Open before losing a tough coin flip late and being eliminated in 13th place.

11 players remain heading into the final day of play, with Kwinsee Khoa Tran leading the way with 1,075,000. First place in this one is $178,830. [Commerce]

HPT Championship Open (Mount Pleasant, Michigan)

Even with the elimination of Tiffany Michelle on the “TV Bubble”, this HPT final table managed to have a few recognizable names, despite the events in LA and Florida. Bernard Lee continued an impressive month of November by making this final table, and was joined by Dean Hamrick, who won his first WSOP bracelet this year. Ahmed Haraji was victorious, taking home $176,865 for his win. Check out the work that Scarlet did all week live from this event. [Heartland Poker Tour]

WPT Regional Series: Seminole Hard Rock Fall Open Poker Tournament (Hollywood, Florida)

The World Poker Tour dipped its toe in the water for the first time in Florida with a regional event that got underway Friday. Entering Day 3, Raj Vorha holds the chip lead with 1.34 million. The two biggest notables among the 23 still in contention are Shannon Shorr (182K) and Allie Prescott (126K).

EPT Barcelona (Barcelona, Spain)

The tournament is just getting underway with only a couple of levels in the books.Daniel Negreanu wrote a blog entry detailing his struggle to make it to this event and the hoops he had to jump through to do so that’s definitely worth a read.

WSOP Circuit Event: Harvey’s Lake Tahoe (Lake Tahoe, NV)

246 players showed up for this event, which has to be a fairly good sign considering how spread out players are around the country (and the world). After one day of play, the chip leader is Dan Black of Cloverdale, California with 329,500. [WSOP]

Elsewhere…

With just a few weeks left in the year, there’s only a couple more chances for players to crack the Player of the Year standings. In CardPlayer, Tom Marchese holds a solid lead over Dwyte Pilgrim, Vanessa Selbst, and Sorel Mizzi, while in the BLUFF race Mizzi holds a commanding lead of Marchese, David Peters and Selbst.

Online

Soi Nguyen missed out on any additional money when he was eliminated in 9th place at the WSOP Main Event, but he certainly cashed in during the FTOPS. In his first hosting duties as a member of the FullTilt team, he managed to win his own tournament. Somehow he didn’t use up all of his luck in making his run to the November Nine, as his event was a Super Turbo Rush Poker tournament that started players with just 300 chips, but Nguyen came through in the end and banked nearly $80,000.

The big winner of the FTOPS was “JHoWn”, who took down the Main Event of the series on Monday for a cool $412K.

With this year’s WSOP Champion just a few hours from being crowned, most of the eyes in the poker world are affixed squarely on Las Vegas. But there is quite a bit of other action going on around the world, including a slightly less publicized delayed final table that dealt with a cheating scandal, as well as a couple of WPT events.

World Series of Poker Main Event (Las Vegas, Nevada): Well, unless you’ve been living underneath a rock for the last four months, you know that the final table of the 2010 WSOP Main Event finally got back underway Saturday night, and did not disappoint as far as excitement goes. If you weren’t checking out Pokerati for some strange reason for your Main Event coverage you should definitely check out the work Michael Reed and Mark Gahagan were doing, as well as Dan and Pauly rattling off quite a few episodes of Tao of Pokerati.

Heads-up play between Jonathan Duhamel and John Racener will take place tonight (Monday) at 8 pm PT. Duhamel holds a substantial 6-1 chip lead over Racener, thanks to a hand with Joseph Cheong that will be discussed for a very long time amongst poker fans. The winner will receive $8.9 million, the third largest prize for a WSOP champion, trailing just Jamie Gold and Peter Eastgate. [WSOP]

Partouche Poker Tour Main Event (Cannes, France): The other table that came back from a months-long hiatus was the Main Event of the Partouche Poker Tour in Cannes. It should have been a “November Nine” for them as well, but when play resumed they were one player short.

German player Ali Tekintamgac was disqualified when tournament staff reviewed tapes from earlier in the tournament and discovered he was being tipped off to other players’ hands. He was working with people who obtained media credentials for the sole purpose of signaling Tekintamgac. This is not the first report of him allegedly cheating, as a post from several months ago on Two Plus Two apparently refers to a similar incident.

When they actually got underway, it was Vanessa Selbst beating out a fairly impressive final table that included Fabrice Soulier. Selbst took $1.8 million for her win, bringing her lifetime cashes to almost $4 million, and capping an impressive year that also saw her win the NAPT Mohegan Sun main event. [PokerStars Blog]

WPT Foxwoods (Mashantucket, Connecticut): It was almost a week ago now, but Jeffrey Forrest came out on top of a final table of impressive young players that included Tom Marchese, Nikolai Yakovenko, and Kevin Stammen. Forrest won $550,00 for his efforts, besting David Inselberg heads-up. [Foxwoods Live, WPT]

WPT Amneville (Amneville, France): Forrest wasn’t the only one to capture a WPT title this week. Sam El Sayed won the first ever WPT Amneville for just under $600,000. He also won a $25,000 seat to the WPT Championship at Bellagio, while second place finisher Franck Pepe settled for $320,000 and a $10,000 WPT Paris seat. [PartyPoker Blog]

MPCC Main Event (Lisboa, Macau): The PokerStars-affiliated Macau Poker Cup Championship held their main event this week as well, drawing 254 players. The final table featured players from seven different countries on four different continents, with Jilian Hasse of Germany winning the title and HK$1,064,000. [PokerStars Blog]

Caeser’s Classic (Las Vegas, Nevada): The Main Event of the month-long tournament series brought out quite a few of the local pros, as 290 players came out to play in this one. Among those making it into the money were Bryan Devonshire and Sorel Mizzi. Phillippe Boucher was the winner, beating a final table that included Blake Kelso and Justin Young for a first place payday just short of $60,000. [Cardplayer]

Elsewhere… Kurt Fraser of Schaumburg, IL won the HPT Tama in Tama Iowa for $75,000… Karina Jett already has one big buy-in out of the way as she won her seat in a charity event hosted at the Rio during the day off between nine-handed and heads-up play at the WSOP Main Event.

Online: “NickDandalos” channeled the Greek, beating Jason “strassa2″ Strasser on his way to winning the PokerStars Sunday Million and $195,000, while “salue” took down the $750K on FullTilt. Annette_15 finished second in FullTilt’s Sunday Mulligan.

November 9:

• The guys over at PokerLisitings caught up with Matthew Jarvis after getting eliminated from the Main Event. He seemed to be taking things well. (PokerListings)

• Stalking Sasquatch around the Rio for 10 mins with Dr. Pauly, and I am sure you might find a new podcast towards the end of the dinner break. (Tao Of Poker)

• Players are coming back from their 90-minute dinner break at 400/800/100k. Follow live updates at WSOP.com

Non-November 9:

• The WPT also has a final table today in Amneville, France. They are currently down to three players that are trying to win 426,425 €  ($598,871.27) and an entry to the $25,000 WPT World Championship at Bellagio in May, 2011. (Party Poker Blog)

With the elimination of Sorel Mizzi on the bubble in 7th place, the WPT World Poker Finals final table is set for its Tuesday conclusion.

Two of the bigger names, Hoyt Corkins and Jason Mercier, were the first two to hit the rail on Day 5. It took less than three hour-and-a-half levels to cut 12 in half and finish up the action for the day.

There is 36:18 remaining in Level 23, which is 4,000/12,000/24,000. The average stack is 1.21 million. Tom Marchese went wire to wire with the chip lead on Day 5.

Here are the chip counts heading into the final table:

1. Tom Marchese – 3,022,000
2. Jeff Forrest – 1,949,000
3. Mohsin Charania -1,024,000
4. Nikolai Yakovenko – 624,000
5. Dave Inselberg – 344,000
6. Kevin Stammen – 341,000

Play will resume at 4 pm Tuesday.

There was poker being played all over the world as the EPT, WPT, WSOPC and ANZPT were in action across four continents this week.

EPT Vienna (Vienna, Austria) Daniel Negreanu was chasing history Sunday, attempting to complete the third stage of the poker “triple crown” by adding an European Poker Tour title to his WSOP bracelets and WPT title. He was also in line to regain the top spot on the All-Time money list. He fell short of both of these goals, settling for 4th place and €175,000. Michael Eiler of Germany was your winner, banking €700,000 for his efforts. [PokerStars Blog]

WPT World Poker Finals (Foxwoods, Mashantucket, Connecticut) Just 12 players remain from the 242 who started. Play reached the money after more than three hours of hand-for-hand play Sunday. The slow start eliminated any possibility for a day off Monday for sleeping in … err, players recuperating before the final six get down to business Tuesday. Tom Marchese is the chip leader with over 1.8 million, almost twice that of second place. Jason Mercier, Sorel Mizzi and Hoyt Corkins are among those still in contention. You can find full chip counts and a recap here. [Foxwoods Live]

WSOP Circuit Midwest Regional Championship (Hammond, Indiana) The revamped World Series of Poker Circuit had its first big test as the first of four televised $10K Regional Championships was held this week. 226 players showed up to the Chicago-area Horseshoe Hammond, and the final table featured quite a few familiar names, including Shannon Shorr, Brandon Adams, David “Doc” Sands and Bernard Lee. Jim Anderson parlayed a seat he had won, which was added to the prize pool of a $200 event that he had won earlier in the series and turned it into $525,449. All nine players who made the final table have qualified for the million dollar freeroll that will award a bracelet to the winner at the end of the season. [WSOP]

WSOP-Circuit South Africa (Emerald Casino, South Africa) One of the quirks of the new WSOP Circuit schedule was a brand new stop in South Africa. Well an unofficial official stop that doesn’t count towards the $1 million dollar freeroll or award a ring, but a stop with quite a bit of money on the line nonetheless. Maria Ho finished sixth in this event, while the title was captured by Warren Zackey, who won $223,155 for his efforts. [Bluff South Africa]

ANZPT Darwin (Darwin, New Zealand) The biggest story of this Main Event had to be rapper cum poker player known simply as “Brotha D”. Danny Leaoasavaii, who captured the APPT Main Event in September, is the first to own a title on both the APPT and the ANZPT, as well as the first New Zealander to win on the ANZPT. The true test will come in the summer of 2011 as he looks to challenge Jeff Madsen and Prahlad Friedman as the best poker rapper in the game, which should be pretty anticlimactic. [PokerStars Blog]

Caeser’s Classic & Venetian Deep Stacks (Las Vegas, Nevada) Two tournament series’ with smaller buy-ins are now going strong in Las Vegas as the final Venetian Deep Stacks of the year has gotten underway. Action at Caeser’s is still going strong and attracting some interesting names. Among those who have made final tables in the last week are Barry Shulman (Event 13, 9th) and Kenna James (Event 16, 3rd).

In the Online World… There was some lack of name recognition in the Sunday Majors action, but don’t take that to mean that there wasn’t a whole boatload of money to be won. Amongst those who pocketed six figures were “Zareta” (PokerStars Sunday Million, $230,513), “chickface” (FullTilt $750K Guaranteed, $140,967), “Levan1971″ (PokerStars Sunday Warmup, $188,860) and my personal favorite, “monkeybudgie” (FullTilt Sunday Brawl, $106,737)

There are just 12 players left heading into Day 5 of the WPT World Poker Finals at Foxwoods, with a short but exciting play down to the final table looming for Monday.

The 28 players that started the day quickly became 27, but after the redraw for the final three tables it would be over two hours before there would be another elimination, with the money bubble looming at 25. After another half hour or so of hand-for-hand play the bubble finally burst.

One of the early eliminations in the money was Gavin Smith, who lost a monster pot to end the previous day and never seemed to get traction on Day 4. Upon his exit, Gavin took quite a bit of the early afternoon rail with him. Josh Arieh, who had a lot of chips entering the day as well, fell victim to some unfortunate luck and was not long for the tournament today either.

Ronnie Bardah, who enjoyed a deep run in this year’s Main Event, got into the Halloween spirit by donning a wig for several hours during play today, which you can see here. He survived on the short stack for quite some time, earning a few double-ups before ultimately succumbing to the blinds.

There are still some big names in contention for this title. The chip leader heading into Day 5 is Tom Marchese with 1,832,000 but there are some heavy hitters chasing him including Jason Mercier, Sorel Mizzi, Hoyt Corkins, Kevin Stammen, and Mohsin Charania.

Play will resume at 12 pm Monday.

Chip Counts:

1. Tom Marchese 1,832,000
2. Jeff Forrest 979,000
3. Sorel Mizzi 789,000
4. Nikolai Yakovenko 690,000
5. Chris Bonita 610,000
6. Besnik Ziba 500,000
7. Keven Stammen 400,000
8. Hoyt Corkins 335,000
9. David Inselberg 331,000
10. Jason Mercier 322,000
11. Mohsin Charania 283,000
12. Ben Klier 269,000

Average Stack: 605,000

For more information on today’s action as well as live updates throughout the rest of the tournament visit foxwoodslive.com and worldpokertour.com.

It’s getting down to the wire at Foxwoods as just 28 players made it to the end of Day 3 at the WPTs World Poker Finals.

With 25 spots paid, it’s likely to be a short trip into the money Sunday. Players will redraw after one more elimination as they get down to three tables.

Then the issue of time becomes the biggest factor, as the tournament is scheduled to finish on Tuesday. Depending on the pace of play on Sunday, there will either be a day off (if they get down to six) or a short play down to the final table.

The chip leader going into Sunday is Chris Hunichen with 714,000. Josh Arieh, Jason Mercier and Gavin Smith are all in the top ten heading into Day 4. Other notables remaining include Tom Marchese (249,000), Hoyt Corkins (239,000), Mike Beasley (120,000), Ronnie Bardah (112,000) and Kyle Bowker (70,000). The average chip count is 259,285

Play will resume at 12 pm.

Top Ten:

1. Chris Hunichen – 714,000
2. Nikolai Yakovenko – 580,000
3. Josh Arieh – 548,500
4. Ben Klier – 465,500
5. Keven Stammen – 387,000
6. Mohsin Charania – 349,000
7. Jeff Forrest – 342,500
8. Jason Mercier – 342,000
9. Gavin Smith – 307,500
10. Bryon Springer – 293,000

You can find the remainder of the chip counts and live updates during the action at foxwoodslive.com or worldpokertour.com

Episode 23
The Rabbit Hunt is here, with special guest Corwin [vital]myth Cole and they’re talking about the latest WSOP-C and WPT news, Poker Hall of Fame inductees, the latest poker court cases in South Carolina and Illinois, and Ladbrokes Poker’s new anonymous tables.

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This Week:

Ty Stewart — new WSOP stuff, Poker Hall of Fame, more WSOPE bracelet debate.
Matt Savage — WPT-Bellagio/Festa al Lago.
Matt Affleck — more WPT-Bellagio/Festa, Washington State, 15th place at WSOP.
Trishelle Canatella — beauty quiz + poker.

Watch the show, and readmore here.

If this is true, it would mark the second WSOP-Circuit addition not at a Harrah’s property. That’s the unofficial word from a Harrah’s suit, with firm-sounding dates attached. According to venerable Circuit TD Jimmy Sommerfeld on 2+2 …

I think that … a Tournament at Palm Beach Kennel Club on February 17 – March 1 would be a great Idea. Maybe its not a rumor?!! I would gamble and book a room.

Ah yes, it all makes so much sense now, doesn’t it? (That is, of course, assuming Sommerfeld doesn’t get canned before WSOP-Choctaw, in January 2011, for running his yap ahead of any official press release.

Not only would a WSOP-Florida series further support America’s favorite citrus-bearing peninsula as the juiciest destination in poker since France, but also, it would confirm Harrah’s willingness to take unprecedented steps in an effort to keep up with the new-and-improved WPT/Party/Bwin.

The above dates, if true, would run it right up against the WPT-LAPC, btw.

More…

I think we all understand the nature of the WSOP’s push for their play-money online poker game on Facebook, which is being heavily advertised on commercials during ESPNs broadcast of the WSOP main event. People seeking more information, however, could be mistakenly led to the Facebook page promoting action with the WPT, arguably one of their biggest competitors for this market.

Check out the potentially confusing appropriation of the WSOP logo in an ad currently being served up to hundreds of thousands of fans of “poker” on Facebook:

Sure enough, it takes clickers to the official WPT Texas Hold’em Poker page.

Careless mistake by a WPT social media intern … or conscious effort on days the WSOP is airing on ESPN such that they get the “likes” before Big Casino corporate lawyers make someone say “oops, sorry” and change the ad to something that doesn’t use tactics usually reserved for fly-by-night operations looking to make a quick buck?

UPDATE: On 9/21, the WPT issued an official statement on the matter:

“We would like to confirm that the Facebook ad mentioned in your September 17, 2010 post was indeed a mistake on the part of a 3rd party advertising agency used by our “WPT Texas Hold’em on Facebook” licensee. The ad was placed by the advertising agency without the knowledge of WPT or our Facebook game licensee.

Please be assured that we acted immediately to rectify the situation and that the advertising agency has pulled the unapproved ad. Thank you for bringing this matter to our attention.”