The Epic Poker League still sounded more like a Sugar Bowl sponsor (as FS+G) when yours truly won his seat into their inaugural $1,500 event at the Palms last weekend. Excited to play … but also thinking ’bout selling it, as I’m pretty sure these seats are transferable, and I already had plans that weekend to learn the ways of a seasoned pro by going on a vision quest at the Poker Sweat Lodge with Greg Raymer and Tom Schneider.

For now, play it by ear …

2011 WSOP – Episode 25: Sit and Go Pro
A group of prolific tweeters play in a satellite to the FS+G Epic Poker League $1500 pro-am — a tournament series taking shape that few know what to make of yet. None other than Bluff correspondent Kevin Mathers shows up to provide a comparative assessment of what he just witnessed — as somehow Dan ends up winning, beating @Alcanthang, @JoeUgly, @Hollywood_Dave, and others with questionable play. A rather large rail developed to hear Kevmath laughing heartily on the inside. Whatev, says Dan, who won a seat, took home some cash, and now apparently thinks he’s a pro.

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For more episodes, visit the Tao of Pokerati archives or subscribe to the feed .

Ahh, now I get it! Concept behind Federated’s Epic Pro-Am series starting to make sense.

I just witnessed something pretty-dern interesting (new to me) … am at Binion’s for the World Tavern Poker Open 9, and saw for the first time instant replay used to help with a difficult floor situation.

WTP is one of the bigger amateur bar-leagues out there, and this is one of their two annual big kahuna championship tourneys. More than 10,000 bar-league players across the country competed for seats in this event, which started with a field of 188 … The top 8 all make the money … with prizes starting at $1,000 WSOP event entries, and $2,500 worth of WSOP dollars for the winner. They were down to 11 players when a dealer error almost seriously fugked things up.

Apparently it was a multi-way all-in, and at some point the dealer took a bunch of chips from one player to pay another … but he scooped in more than he was supposed to, and then mashed them all together. Floor got called over (Binion’s Monday afternoon TD, Alan, the guy in the Aikman jersey) and it was a bit of a nightmare sitch trying to recreate the hand to figure out who had exactly how many chips before and after the hand.

But tournament purity was salvaged when they could simply go to the cameras, and the floor guy could see exactly who had what and when:

They’re at the final table now … with eight plastic champagne glasses awaiting a toast for the money finishers once the bubble bursts … and because of cameras, all can know they did or didn’t get there fairly.

photo: Steve Hall

Don’t Trust This Guy: He’s shown a willingness to screw over five fellow poker players and sully the WSOP for just $2,400.

Big congratulations to Savvas Zenonos for successfully stealing $2,400 from the prize pool in a 2009 WSOP main event mega-satellite that was supposed to be shared in a 22-player chop.

Click here for the details of how a good chop can go awry.

It was a skillful play by Zenonos, who hails from Queensland, Australia — effectively mugging five other players of $300-$500 each without even having to reach in their pockets! Nice!

On the benefit of the doubt that it was a simple mistake (despite his saying, “I’m going to screw you over,” before actually doing so), we gave him three days to make good … and then even another couple of weeks before outing him as a brazen petty poker thief here … but no luck.

Zenonos had no cashes at the 2009 WSOP, but did finish 3,050th for number of cashes in 2008, and 2,984th in WSOP money won that year. His lifetime tournament winnings total $7,675 — though these results do not include satellite wins like this one, where he won an agreed-upon $7,800 but left (supposedly he literally ran off) with $10,200.

Pokerati was unable to reach Zenonos for comment, but will respectfully keep him on The Pokerati Bad List until he pays the money he owes (to any or all of the five afflicted) or volunteers to serve 10 days in a pillory at the 2010 WSOP.

UPDATE: Savvas Zenonos is the bad guy.

Actually, a picture of this ethically challenged poker player is available.

Despite Annie Duke’s assertion that “poker players are the most awesome people in the world!”, we all know the truth: you’ve got some bad apples in the mix. That became very apparent in one of the last $1,060 mega-sats for the main event — where 22 players agreed to a chop, but one of them reneged on the virtual handshake and ran off with more money than he was supposed to keep, effectively ganking $2,400 from the prize pool.

Hey, these are tough times. It’s been a long month+ on the poker frontlines … pressures are high, bankrolls tapped, and casualties have mounted. Character-testing times, to be sure … and save for a few multi-bracelet winners, we’ve all had to re-evaluate not just our play but also our purposes in life at some point during this Series. Thus it’s with little shame that Pokerati has decided to get into the business of morally righteous extortion poker collections.

So here’s the deal, dude: You have until the start of Day 3 — roughly 48 hours — to make good and pay up, or we’re going to out you as a shyster and do our best to make sure that anyone googling your name sees the post revealing you as a poker crook. Cool? It’s not libel when it’s true; and just because you told a few people, allegedly, “I’m going to screw you” prior to doing so, that hardly constitutes “fair” warning.

Click below for the breakdown of how this main event satellite finished up and a good chop went awry — leaving several players, including DonkeyBomber, coming up short when it came time for payouts:
More…

One of the “Pokerati Hotties” in the media Dream Team event … and for a warm-up, @RobertGoldfarb bought himself a bargain entry about 3 hours ago:

(my backers) Spent about 3k, but I finally won my main event seat.

Today is the first day of the 2009 main event. I’m sticking to my guns and saying the field size will be anywhere from 3,000-12,000 and offering 10:1 odds on anything outside of that. Just made a wager on the over for 5,000 … easy. Anyone else wanna offer that line? Seriously, it’s such a wild guessing game, and yet in the end, why do I think it’s gonna be just a few hundred less or just a few hundred more than last year’s main event field of 6,844? People can get their money off of PokerStars, right?

Meanwhile, Team Pokerati final tableist Gregg Merkow won his main event seat last night … and now is trying to figure out the differences between Day 1A-1D:
via Facebook

Winner winner chicken dinner won my seat to the main event in mega sat. today but can’t decide what day to play fri,sat,sun or mon.

Good question. Though as Kevin points out the numbers will likely differ noticeably as the 96 hours that constitute Day 1 progress, is there really a difference in the types of fields you can expect on each day? One more donkey-filled than another, for example (and is that a good or bad thing, lol).

Choosing when to play, of course, is the first of many decisions that will be part of someone’s journey toward becoming the winner. But it may also be the least relevant and simply depend on the player and his or her life schedule.

A $2,250 Mega-Sat for the $50k HORSE breaks out right in front of us, where suddenly the seasoned pros are kicking it old-school — playing with jovial intensity and the hope that their real poker dreams can be bought at a bargain. It’s the poker economy, the regular economy, and backer variance in play … with satellite sponsorship deals, backing syndicates, and a question about what kinda team Russian backers will deploy. Special appearances by Michael Mizrachi, Allan Kessler, Bill Chen, et many medium-higher-rolling al.

presented by:

Tao of Pokerati at the 40th WSOP
Las Vegas, NV

Episode 11.21: HORSE Hunting
4:09

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Episode 11.22: The Satellite Economy
5:06

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There’s an interesting little mini tourney taking shape right in front of the press box … it’s the $2,250 HORSE Mega-satellite (for tomorrow’s big $50k event).

It doesn’t look too different from many satellites or second-chance tourneys that get started in the eve, except there are a few more chips in play, and a lot more recognizable players.

27 entrants so far … cards are already in the air … 28. Alan Kessler showed up early. He’s wearing a Doyle’s Room patch. Mike Mizrachi is trying to get Bill Chen in a lasts-longest … there’s Michael Binger (wearing UB, No-Limit Management, and Deep Stacks University … a few other players that I kinda-sorta recognize, but not really. One guy hovering around who I can assume is a backer, but not sure who he’s behind …

29 entrants. Low-key, relaxed, but serious. Will find out if this is their only stab.

Day 1 of the World Series of Poker is a misnomer, really. Much of the Amazon Room is still being put together, as is the ESPN feature/final table area, and the media room was dark (well, awfully bright, actually, but without staff to hand out press passes). Many of the hallway displays were still being constructed or had not yet even arrived, and cash games were still being played in the Rio poker room in the casino. However, pre-registration was open as promised, and satellites were in full swing in the Convention Center area.

Players were anxiously getting their game on in the satellite room, looking to be some of the first to win their WSOP event seats via the mega-satellites. And there were a few excited faces walking down the hallway after having purchased their first WSOP seats. But the hallways were relatively empty, as they will not be again for the next 50 or so days.

Today is Day 2, when Event 1 allows the casino employees to get their games on before the madness begins. And that will lead us to tomorrow, which is officially noted as Day 3 but will offer up the first of the much-anticipated big WSOP tournaments – the $40K buy-in NLHE (Event 2) – as well as the first final table, which will award the first WSOP bracelet of the year to a casino employee.

Rep. Jesse Jackson, Jr. (D-IL) is speaking right now just spoke a little while ago … he’s a friend of poker!

Jackson is one of four cosponsor’s to Rep. Pete Sessions’ (R-TX) HR 6663. That bill, of course, is the most straightforward fix to the UIGEA — simply limiting its reach to online sports gambling — yet one of the more controversial because of, um, politics.

Perhaps shockingly, he didn’t mention anything about the critical importance of being able to easily compete in online WSOP satellites in his five minutes he had to address the world … but hey, that’s where we stand: We have a young, pre-introductory Day 1 speaker to the Democratic party (his debut performance on such a stage) aware of our issues and philosophically on our side, though not exactly the way the PPA would like him to be.

Speech transcript / Video

Another guy you may see representin’ at the tables: Pat Poels. Pat, of course, is the only two-time bracelet winner on the team. (Tom is just a “Friend of Pokerati” for now, while we haggle over contractual obligations.)

Not sure what Pat’s playing’ in now … probably $1,500 HORSE. He tried to qualify for the $50k — got close in some super-sats a coupla times, engaging in three chops for about $15k — but spent about $12k to win said $15k … so in the end, his satellite success just wasn’t enough to justify making up the difference.

Pat is a casino host at Casino Arizona and thinks he will be able to sneakily kick major ass in the $500 Casino Employee’s event (Event #55, starting July 7).

UPDATE: Pat was playing $1k PLO at Binion’s. Busted out about 20 minutes ago (@ 8:30 pm).

With the $50K H.O.R.S.E. event coming up in a little over 3 hours, there are still players scrambling to get in. And Harrah’s has responded with a $6K buy-in mega satellite starting in a few minutes.

The tables are set up and ready to go in the orange section of the room, and the staff arranged them to have ample space between tables for the comfort of the players and the ESPN cameras.

The powers-that-be seem to be optimistic, as there are 23 tables (8-handed), which will accommodate 184 players. Hmmm. Could my 175-player prediction be closer than everyone thinks?

We’ll know in a few hours. Stay tuned for photos and updates from the event…

This just in …

Saturday was not the last HORSE mega-sat. Two more have been added. Just now. Suspect it’s a simple matter of WSOP supply meeting demand?

From the WSOP newswire …

Attention Poker Media & Players,

The Rio Poker Team has added 2 special H.O.R.S.E. Mega Satellites to the schedule.

Monday, June 23 & Tuesday, June 24 at 5:00 PM in the Satellite Room at the RIO Convention Center, poker enthusiasts can vie for a seat in the $50,000 WSOP H.O.R.S.E. that begins on Wednesday in the Amazon Room.

For just a $2,250 entry fee, poker players can win their way into the largest buy-in tournament in the country, the World Championship $50,000 H.O.R.S.E.

Details on tournament structure can be found here: http://www.worldseriesofpoker.com/tourney/horse-wsop-satellite.asp

I’m really starting to think the main event is going to be pretty huge this year — bigger than last year, just shy of 2006. But perhaps HORSE might be smaller? If so, gives a pretty firm indication of life at the top of the poker pyramid these days. Either way, I think we were just sayin’ something about everybody wanting in … keyword, of course, being wanting, as opposed to actually buying.

Well actually, for the most part, poker is shrinking here. But just because some rooms are shutting down doesn’t mean new ones aren’t gonna pop up to see if they can’t succeed where the others failed. And one previously hip Las Vegas spot is finally getting on the poker bandwagon. Though not yet officially announced, August 15 is the opening date we’re hearing for the Hard Rock poker room. They’re smart, of course, to be doing dealer auditions now, with so many card-pitching job-seekers in town for the Series.

Perhaps unrelated perhaps not, Sully Erna is doing a solo concert at the HR tomorrow eve – presumably trying to earn himself some WSOP buy-ins, though no word on whether or not he’s requested to be paid in lammers.

Looking for a golden ticket into the wsop main event? Get in line…and a long one at that. With a few people willing to back my action (not with sex or anything remotely close) it has left me with a dilemma on whether or not I want to play in the main event. Hmmmm, decisions can be hard to make sometimes. I would put up most of the money but I’ve spent my tournament budget on earlier events and I’m very strict about money management. I want to play but I’ve been so busy writing and working on business endeavors that it has left me with very little time to play cash. My days are filled with writing, my days off are given to my children, and nights are the crumbs given to my husband. Fortunately, he’s a supportive and understanding player.

Dreams and deals are made often in the hallways here. Swaps, saves, chops (not wickedchopspoker), 50/50, 50/50 after taxes, 60/40, 70/30 and even worse deals occur when you’re desperate, owe money or favors. At least three people have asked my husband for money. I had one guy ask me for $200 today. Last year a man interrupted a conversation I was having with Freddie Deeb to ask him for money. And after all that…isn’t such a large field a crapshoot?

I just ran into a pro from Houston who told me:

I stood in line last night to register for the main event. While waiting, I looked around and could only recognize two people in the room. I got to the window, took out my 10k and put it back in my pocket and decided I’m not playing this year. I then went over to play ten and quarter and won 7500 dollars. If I win a satellite I’ll play but I’m not buying in because it’s too much of a crapshoot.

In every event I played this year I was crippled by a three outer which brings to mind Hellmuth’s line “If it weren’t for luck I’d win every time.” That poem being said…I’m done with playing the WSOP this year (pacifying words).

However, if you read that I am in the 2007 WSOP Main Event then that means one of three things:

1. I had 100% backing
2. The live update was wrong
3. I sold my media badge on ebay for 10k!