This suit, filed in Las Vegas federal court, is the latest strike in a legal tit-for-tat between that adds to a list of matters on the table and off making 2010 arguably the most challenging WSOP year since Harrah’s took over.

Everest first sued Harrah’s on April 1, claiming breach of contract after the French ESPN affiliate electronically replaced Everest logos during 2008-09 WSOP broadcasts with “virtual signage” from Full Tilt, an Everest competitor. On those grounds, Everest refused to pay the final $8.4 million on a three-year contract, money the WSOP was expecting before this spring. That suit came, of course, shortly after the WSOP announced its $1 million “TOC” freeroll.

Buffering: So far the only live-streaming WSOP action has been from the WSOP-Academy sponsor’s exemption TOC sit-n-go, which took place on a single table with their own felt, not one bearing the marks of Everest Poker.

Harrah’s denied those claims, and followed with a suit of its own against Everest, alleging breach of contract and other infractions while seeking the promised Everest funds. And now, as mentioned, Everest has added further litigation to the Everest vs. Harrah’s docket, all of which is pending.

I haven’t had time to check much of this more than cursorily — and Harrah’s generally won’t comment on active litigation — but I’ve got to wonder if this lawsuit, which presumably came with the prerequisite cease-and-desists, had anything to do with why there has been virtually no streaming video coverage of final tables this year.

I’ve also got to wonder how long before Everest is back in Las Vegas court seeking an injunction to prevent their logos from appearing in further WSOP action … particularly televised and streaming-video final tables.

[pvt to @kevmath: i don't know this, but just guessing this might-coulda had something to do with those felts being cut out by police.]

What I’m referring to is something yours truly got tipped off to as happening, but didn’t see it, nor any remnants of it. But @happyfreaked was tweeting:

Three policeman are using scissors to cut something under all the table in the Amazon Room. #wtfisthisshit #nocluewhatsgoingon
12:35 PM Jun 3rd via TweetDeck

The policeman are replaced by maintenance man. Looks like there are loose threads under the table. LOL!
12:47 PM Jun 3rd via TweetDeck

Maybe the felt on the tables has to be replaced because of some sponsor issues? Looks like they are cutting loose the rail. #wsop9
12:50 PM Jun 3rd via TweetDeck

At the time when Everest filed the first lawsuit, commenters were saying no biggie, Full Tilt or Stars would happily step up to take their spot … No way, I first thought, but with Stars.net surprisingly on Venetian felts during and after the NAPT, I did begin to reconsider the possibility. However, we would soon learn there wasn’t a snowball’s chance in Carson City of that ever happening …

Now not surprisingly, you’ll notice there is not a logo from Full Tilt, PokerStars, Doyles Room or any online site anywhere on or near the Rio this year — not even set up on any signs in the hallway — except for what individual players wear.

On the WSOP Media Conference call in early May, officials confirmed they were NOT looking for a new on-the-table sponsor, saying that they were still under contract with Everest and planned to honor it despite the lawsuit.

The cynical among us believed, wow, that’s a lot of tables … it’s probably pretty expensive to get some 400 new ones … especially when you’ve got no one to pay for it for just a year or maybe two … you know, depending on how things in Washington DC go.

Interestingly, ESPN has finally announced plans to live-stream five final tables, but not beginning until June 26.

Earlier this past week, Everest was one of 17 companies approved for online gambling licenses in France.

Sally Anne Boyer, 2007 WSOP Ladies’ World Champion, filed a suit Monday against Harrah’s and the WSOP Academy, claiming they’ve used her name and likeness without authorization, and falsely claiming she’s a graduate of the Academy.

Boyer contends that she only attended the first day of the two-day Ladies Academy event, never completing the course, so was not a graduate. Post Oak Productions, the company that produces the WSOP Academy produced an email from August 2007 from Boyer asking to mail a picture of her in ‘poker tournament attire’ to use for further promotions.

More details available from the Las Vegas Sun.

Follow his self-twittering action here.

UPDATE: Never mind.

Dan is playing the much-hyped Dream Team Poker event at Caesars Palace. On his team? Shane “Shaniac” Schleger and Dr. Pauly, playing as the Team Tao of Pokerati, also known as Tao of Pokerati’s 420 All Stars. Look for some Tao of Pokerati episodes to come as they record some of their intense strategy sessions and gossip about the other players. Sure, these three may be taking more breaks (certainly at 4:20pm today) than other players in the room, but that doesn’t mean they won’t be inspired to take it down.

Karridy is competing in the Texas Amateur Poker Championship. At last post, he was the chipleader with 50,000 chips in Level 4. After his recent visit to the WSOP Academy at Winstar, he might just have that extra insight that will take him all the way.

Go Guys!

Keep up with them both via CSR reports as the day progresses.

UPDATE: Karridy finished 12th in his event. 300something entries, so almost definitely in the money, but probably just short of the big money. –DanM

UPDATE: $1,190.

WSOPA Student Interview

Many Dallas Fort Worth poker players can clearly remember when Winstar didn’t give two hoots about Poker. At that same time, the then soon-to-be ‘big games’ were popping up all over North Texas. Many of those have since come and gone as players come to prefer driving an hour north over getting shot to death. But this alone wasn’t going to do the heavy lifting required to further increase the infamous Texas vs. Oklahoma license plate ratio of the Winstar parking lot. It would take a few years, an upstart tournament series and TV show, and finally one damn nice poker room upgrade. It appears now that the players are taking Winstar as a serious poker venue, so are promoters. Most recently, the WSOP.

Last weekend, I was given the opportunity to join a few dozen amateur players for the most recent installment of the WSOP Poker Academy. This event’s focus was near and dear to my heart; Tournament Strategy. Although I get more than my own fair share of top-notch professional tournament wisdom via poker and biz bud, Tom Schneider, I was very much looking forward to the ever present contrast that would be offered by different pros, including Bernard Lee, Michael Gracz, Greg Raymer, and friends. I would not be disappointed.

I arrived late on day-1, during the live hand demonstrations. This fun and intimate portion of the schedule was clearly where student players would get the most bang for their $1,700 bucks. It wouldn’t have taken Joe Navarro to tell me that the leaned-in, uber attentive players agreed. I was actually surprised with the enthusiasm with which the lessons were provided. It was immediately clear that instructors were really enjoying the opportunity for players’ direct interactions and were making the most of each and every mock hand.

Next up to the podium was Mindset Coach, Sam Chauhan. I’ll start off by saying that I am a big fan of such studies and disciplines as hypnosis, NLP, and Subliminal Persuasive Linguistics. However, I never felt like Chauhan really connected with the audience at a subject matter level. You can rest assured that there were plenty of interesting psych-related facts, stories, and antidotes. But a player looking to relate this specifically to poker would likely miss a lot of the lesson while they silently bridged the gaps in their heads. I think some poker-based scenarios would have been an invaluable application of Chauhan’s prowess and something that student players would have been chomping at the bit to implement. None-the-less, this segment was more than adequate for the amateur player pool, and a very welcomed addition to this informative series.

If you were looking for well explained points on tournament strategy, the Class sessions lead by Mr. Raymer, Lee, and Gracz did not disappoint. While their on-stage microphone tug-o-war’s were occasionally distracting and often led to off-topic insider banter and impromptu prop betting, it was soon clear to me that while I might have wanted to call clock more than once, the student-players were totally eating it up. Additionally, their explanations of the finer points and strategy rationale were very well considered and communicated just as clearly. Even from the back of the class, I could see light bulbs over a sea of regularly nodding and attentive heads.

One of the great bonuses of this series is the Day-1 Tournament, where the player-students get to put freshly sharpened pencils to paper in a live tournament featuring all of the professional instructors. For many, playing in an event of this size (super small) with a WSOP Main Event Champ is worth the price of admission alone. But instead, to the winner goes the following spoils: All expense paid trip to Vegas for a pre-Main Event primer and single-table satellite into the big show, and paid entry into the WSOPA Tournament of Champions, Free WSOPA entry for the event of their choice, and a shiny new pair of Oakleys. Not bad!

While I later went on to win the tournament, which was very exciting, it’s certainly the people, camaraderie, and insta-friends that stole the show for me. In fact, I’ve already been in email contact with a few of them who I very much enjoyed meeting and are looking forward to reading this post. As it turns out, all of these events seem to create the same environment, explained a member of the staff.

If that’s true, I’m definitely looking forward to my next WSOP Academy! If you see me there, say Hello. I’ll be the guy at the final table with the Pokerati patch on.

Karridy’s in Oklahoma this weekend, attending the WSOP Academy at WinStar … (note to Texas legislators) … and, sure enough, after a day of schooling, he won their big tournament last night. I don’t know the details — I think it was like 40something players, two of whom may or may not have included instructors Greg Raymer and Mike Gracz … and the prize is something like a fancied-up trip to Vegas and seat in WSOP-A’s tournament of champions. Anyhow, nice job K-man! That’s 2-for-2 for him when representing Team Pokerati.

ALT HED: Karridy Don’t Need No … Edu-ca-tion

Oh, wait, I’m forgetting about the two WSOP 1500′s where he busted out early on Day 1. But regardless, in what is something of a rarity, the entire Beyond the Table hosting crew (SitNGo Steve excused) was playing poker Saturday night. While Karridy was winning his tourney, I was kicking a little ass playing 1/2 online, booking my second $1,000 win in two sessions (might I actually have learned something at cash games college?), and Tom was playing the main event of the LAPC, where he won his seat via satellite but would soon be busting out not too far into Day 1, thereby making him happy for his amateur BTT cohorts, but not so happy about being the biggest loser of the bunch.

Much to say about the WSOP Academy I attended last weekend at Caesar’s … about things I learned, how I performed, and, frankly, what kinda people are shelling out close to $2,000 for anything these days. For some of the 50-or-so poker players in attendance it was just a matter of a buy-in or two for the level they play at. And for others, it was more than half their annual poker budget in a way that doesn’t even account for flights to Las Vegas from Australia or Buffalo.

Prof. Seif: “He may think it’s the right move, but Dan stands to lose a stack of 20-dollar bills this big if he keeps playing that way.”

All in all it was a great class taught by Mark Seif, Mark Gregorich, Alex Outhred, and Michael Gracz — very engaging, informative, and often irreverent — didn’t feel like Saturday/Sunday detention at all. I lost pretty big in the one session of $1/$2 NL I’ve played since WSOP-Acad graduation … I guess they shoulda reminded us to take a nap after class, or they can only do so much with a guy who insists on misplaying KQ generally 8 out of 10 times. (Ah, the painful, humiliating schoolchild memories …) If I could just misplay the hand 4 out of 10 times, that would be some serious positive EV, saving me the theoretical cost of tuition in just a few orbits!

BTW, the next WSOP Academy is at WinStar, February 21-22 — a poker room near and dear to so many Texas player and longtime Pokeratizens. Outhred and Gracz will be part of the Thackerville faculty, along with Greg Raymer and Master Mindset (?) coach Sam Chauhan.

Click here for more info … and really, you should totally think about signing up. Your Pokerati-friendly friends will feed you and everything.

Cast your ballot accordingly. To encourage your willingness to spend your valuable click-time with Bluff, all respondents go into a drawing for WSOP Academy seats and a one-year subscription(?) to thepokerdb … which is already free, but still.

This weekend wasn’t about life-changing money so much as it was about life-easing money for those who went super-deep (top 1 percent), but not deep-deep-deep in the main event: Margo Outhred reading David Sedaris’ latest (When You Are Engulfed in Flames) while awaiting important updates via text from her husband Alex. Though supposedly tournament poker is all about going for the win, there were points when he got short-stacked that she became very interested in the payout levels, and would rush back into the Amazon Room to let him know what they stood to gain if he could hold on for X spots longer.

63rd-55th place paid $115,800

WSOP Academy instructor Alex Outhred finished in 54th(-46th) for $135,100 — a small but noticeable victory on his way out of the 2008 WSOP main event.

Last month, she taught the WSOP Ladies Academy I attended, and we had several chances to speak about life and ladies-only tournaments.

On life, Annie changed hers drastically after the 2007 WSOP. She admitted that she didn’t feel so great after smoking and drinking tons of caffeine throughout the Series, so she just stopped. Cold turkey. She went smoke-free and caffeine-free in one day, and she switched to eating only organic foods. On top of that she began running – not just a mile or two but ten or twenty. When we spoke in January, she was up to nearly 20 miles at a time and preparing to run the Rock ‘n Roll Marathon on June 1st in San Diego. She’s going to challenge herself with the run while raising money for Ante Up for Africa.

Her comments on ladies-only events in poker went into my article on PokerWorks. As always with Annie, she doesn’t mince words or filter herself, which is something I admire.

Now, I’m going to think about her healthy ways while I put on my workout gear and eat some fruit light up and drink my caffeinated tea.

When All In Magazine asked if I wanted the assignment to cover the WSOP Ladies Academy in Vegas this past weekend, it required some consideration. I firmly object to women being separated in the poker community, but I noticed that Annie Duke was the primary instructor for the class. Knowing that we shared the same view about ladies-only tournaments, I decided to accept the assignment and investigate. The comped room at Caesars had something little to do with my decision.

Alex Outhred Instructing Students

Glad I did it.

The two-day course was extremely informative, as Annie covered everything from bluffing to betting amounts to detailed strategy for pre-flop and post-flop play. Joe Navarro spent a few hours discussing tells, which even drew some Vegas pros like Tom McEvoy and JJ Liu to sit in. Alex Outhred also helped with the lectures and the live table demonstrations. There were about 75 ladies enrolled in the $1700 course, and everyone seemed glad to have been there.

The lingering question: Why was it for women only?

My impression was that many of the women felt less intimidated without men in the room. They were open to ask questions without fear of judgment by the opposite sex. For others, it was a chance for groups of friends to attend together or simply meet other female poker players and discuss similar experiences.

Annie explained that she teaches the ladies-only classes because she wants to give women the tools of the game in a comfortable environment, and she hopes those skills will then be used to “kick the boys’ asses.” She only hopes that they will do so in a co-ed environment.

Her objections to the ladies-only tournaments are based on the fact that poker is purely a game of skill, with some luck thrown in, and that skill is not based on gender – or size, race, ethnicity, or physical ability for that matter. In a game where everyone is equal when they sit down at the table, she sees no reason for women to be segregated into smaller buy-in, less meaningful tournaments that don’t get televised and aren’t respected by most members of the poker community.

In a freeroll tournament that was held after the first day of class, the five top finishers received a $1000 buy-in to the WSOP Ladies Championship at the 2008 WSOP. However, the $1000 credit could be used toward the buy-in to any other bracelet event this summer, per Annie’s request. And though all five women claimed they planned to use their prize to play in the ladies tournament, Annie pleaded with them not to. She insisted that the Ladies Championship bracelet is viewed with much less respect by many people, and winning a regular event has so much more prestige and validity. Though the winners may not change their minds, Annie certainly had the students considering what she said.

Personally, I agree 100% with Annie. And I respect her for taking such a hard line on the subject, despite the criticism she has received from some women in poker. Even in our class, only about 50% of the room agreed with her, but she stood her ground.

All in all, it was a good experience. I learned a great deal from the coursework, which may result in a little less donkeyness (not a real word) in my play from here on out. And I realized that a ladies-only class is not objectionable as long as the attendees take those skills and play in more cash games and bigger buy-in tournaments. With the ratio of women in $10k buy-in tournaments remaining at only 3% to 5%, it would be nice to finally see that number rise.

Not only did I go on to cash after attending the Ladies camp in June, a fellow happy camper, Sally Boyer, took down a bracelet!

Interested in a scholarship? Send the WSOP Academy a note on why you think it could take you to the next level.