Winners, Losers, Coinflips: Feburary 1-28, 2011

February is not a huge month for tournaments, but that doesn\’t mean there was a shortage of news. In fact, a very large part of the news this month was of the drama bomb variety, which provides easy cannon fodder for people such as myself and helps greatly in determining who came out ahead and who fell far, far behind. Given the sheer volume of stuff that happened, I have been forced agreed to do two of these a month, one for the first half and one for the second. If you want a weekly version of this, well, there is always my podcast, Rabbit Hunt (it\’s a shameless plug but it was my excuse for not doing this every week…for the moment anyway). But enough rambling, let\’s get going:

Winners

• Jared Huggins (1) and Pokerstars (1): Thanks for the bait-and-switch Pokerstars! We thought you were a mean, faceless corporation that turned down a homeless poker player just cause and then you say \”just kidding!\” and he ends up on the show anyway. Jared Huggins is a huge hit over on 2+2, and he is scheduled to appear in the Big Game in the near future. Here\’s hoping he not only wins, but wins big. That NAPT Passport (or whatever it is they are going to offer this year) is gonna be huge.

• Matt Savage (1): Another LAPC, another huge Savage-tournament success. Sure the LAPC numbers aren\’t where they were yesterday but it\’s still pretty good considering there were a number of poker players that essentially said they wouldn\’t give the Commerce business until they changed their stance on i-gambling. Although…I\’m sure an exception was made for a $10k WPT tournament.

• Donkdown Radio (1): They won this month for getting someone whom we are 99.44% certain is Travis Makar. These guys definitely are at the forefront of the \”UB Sucks\” crowd, and so getting someone that could blow a new hole in the current UB leadership is bound to be the best thing to happen to the show since…well…the last time something happened that was bad for UB I suppose. Of course, swords like this can be double-edged…and I would have simultaneously made these guys losers of the month too. Their saving grace is that it\’s too early to tell what is going on in Makar\’s head, and we have gotten a few nuggets out of the deal so far, so we will see what develops in the coming weeks. Certainly a good get though.

• @pkrgssp (1): It\’s not too often that someone comes out of nowhere, has a simple mission of just reviewing other people\’s work, and gets a ton of attention in a short span of time. His blog is 100% worth adding to your list of things to read in a given day, and he has received props from various folks within the industry, so I think I will add my props by making him one of the winners of the month. Did he actually win anything poker-wise? No, but it might be a twitter/blog that many people will follow in the future (and quite possibly could become the critic version of Kevmath).

Losers

• Sorel Mizzi (-1): SHOCKING NEWS ALERT! Sorel has been accused of cheating, this time in a live poker setting, and not because he managed to copy himself, though I think he would have made headlines sooner if he did. No, he loses out this time for being accused of dealing from the bottom of the deck by John Racener (as relayed through Shaun Deeb onto 2+2) which set off a firestorm of angry posts in Sorel\’s general direction. Still, it\’s he-said…he-said, and who would you believe more, the man perma-banned recently unbanned from Full Tilt for cheating or the 3-time Florida DUI champion?

• The Bellagio Robber (-1: Plus -1 for every year served in prison): You pull off an Oceans 11 style robbery, then completely screw up everything after that. Oh, and he\’s the son of a judge. Oh, and he tried selling chips that the Bellagio had changed out months ago. Genius!

• Joe Sebok/Paul Leggett/UB (-1): No matter what the motives are, however, UB is again in the crosshairs, and whenever that happens, Joe Sebok is forced to pick up his cross and defend the site…again. Seriously I hope they are paying him Phil Hellmuth-levels of money, because otherwise Joe has got to be wondering wtf he\’s still doing there. As for Paul Leggett, one cannot say \”I never offered a bribe\” and then have a leaked email that says \”I\’m offering a bribe.\” Yea…context is probably important, but it certain doesnt look good.

• Mer \”PeachyMer\” Brit (-1) and Pokerstars (0): Speaking of 2+2 controversies, the sleuths over at 2+2 felt like Mer Brit\’s Team Pokerstars Pro deal was a little too good to be true…and well it probably was. Even Pokerstars admits that there are occasions that her account was used when she was not in the one operating it, including one where she took 2nd in a WCOOP event. There are enough holes and inconsistencies to make most people wonder what vetting process Pokerstars seems to have. Because I personally think I need to get a pro to take over my account if that\’s what it takes to get a deal signed these days.

Coinflips

• Federated Sports + Gaming League (0): Until I see a list of players, I\’m not willing to give this league the chance some may say it deserves. They\’ve inked a deal with CBS and have a schedule out, but as of right now no one is invited to play and the pro-am idea, while great, is not likely designed to actually get amateurs into their big events (honestly, how many amateurs would/should take their temporary tour cards and drop $20k of their own money into a shark tank?)

• Peter Eastgate\’s Retirement (0): On the one hand, I\’m not particularly surprised that a young poker player that \”retired\” from the game has come back. On the other, Peter seemed like one of those people that would have stuck through it.

• Haseeb Qurashi/Ashton Griffin/70-mile runs (0): Personally, I hated the amount of coverage this story got…which is why I spent over 10 minutes out of a 45 minute podcast talking about it, because I\’m a hypocrite. Still, I think that while we got a fairly uncensored and in-depth look at some of the insane prop-betting that goes on these days in the poker world, I can\’t help but thing we simultaneously saw some darker elements that just gives some ammunition to those that would like to see talk of online poker go away, and quickly.

• Travis Makar (0): Jury is still out on this guy…or at least my jury is. If he has the information he is claiming, this completely longer than necessary leaking of incriminating evidence just feels like a squeeze. Who is he squeezing? No idea, but really if I would in Travis\’ shoes, and I was broke, accused of cheating people of millions, and knew of people that had up to this point gotta away with it, maybe I\’d do this too. OK…maybe not, but there is something deeper here that we might, as the media, be overlooking for the sake of the initial \”ZOMG UB SCANDAL 3.0!\” story.

The \”Eff You, Sir/Madam\” Award

Obviously there were enough stories to go around this month, but there is one particular entity that wins special mention, even if, at the moment, we don\’t have a confirmation of additional shenanigans:

• UB (-3…because fortunately for them my rules allow for a maximum penalty of -3): I joined the poker media unofficially in early 2010, and have been forced to repeatedly cover the UB scandal in all its various forms, from minute amounts of new evidence to the prior scandal to the encryption  bullshit to Donkdown Radio\’s repeated calls for the sites demolition to this. And honestly, I\’m sick of it. I\’m sick of talking about UB in the present tense, and I\’m sick of constantly having to listen to people preach that \”THIS IS ONLY THE TIP OF THE ICEBERG! THE AVALANCHE IS COMING!\” Personally, I hope they do find something huge, and that they find it fast. I hope they find that every non-poker pro employee of UB is guilty of being involved, and that they owe $100 million more to players, or whatever number it will take for the site to go under. Not third-tier site under, under-under. And it\’s not even because of any personal hatred toward UB (though I have plenty of that), but because it\’s because of their continued existence that we keep having to bring up a shining example of what\’s wrong with the poker industry not as a historical lesson, but as a current issue. That said, if all this Makar stuff turns into smoke and mirrors, then UB will be able to continue it\’s existence….at least until the next minor change in evidence brings all of this up again. (Writer Note: I\’m just tired of covering this, so until UB folds or is found innocent, or whatever, I will likely continue to have this vitriol. If they do go under eventually though, maybe this can be called the \”UB-Memorial Eff You, Sir/Madam\” award.)

Entity of the Month

A bit short on players this month, so the trophy has been changed to the \”Entity of the Month\” trophy (you\’ll note it looks the same). I\’ve done a fair job of limiting myself with those in the winner\’s box this month, but I think if you have to have a negative for the story you have to show the positive.

• Donkdown Radio (3): Sorry, this is easily the potentially biggest story of the month at a time where poker pros didn\’t even manage to grace the winner\’s circle. It\’s certainly a case of \”right place, right time\”, but this could change the face of a scandal that has up to this point just seen a couple people come up with vague suggestions about what \”really\” happened. If things happen in the exact why the folks at Donkdown hope to see happen, there could be some very hard choices for the pros that are sponsored by the beleaguered site. Not really the site itself…I can\’t see them making any \”hard\” choices necessarily. Either way, you can bet that they will get to the bottom of…whatever bottom they will get to with this.

I know that I didn\’t talk about Norm McDonald\’s premiere episode of High Stakes Poker, but I feel like everyone needs to see more than one episode of a new host before passing judgment. Come March 15th though…I should definitely have something to say…if there is anything worth saying anyway. Now if you\’ll excuse me, I have to prep for another UB scandal related interview (no joke, unfortunately).