Before Black Friday, the poker world seemed to avoid the economic calamities faced by the rest of the world. I’m sure that made the ROW just love all those players seen on ESPN Full Tilt & PokerStars TV. Now, lest we be seen in the same way as the rest of the world when it comes to money, we have One Drop — that holy fugk big event that arguably changes multiple paradigms in the poker world moving forward.

Here’s Alexandra from the Wall Street Journal trying to explain the concept to people who have a hard time thinking of even a $1,500 buy-in as a small event:

Michael “The Grinder” Mizrachi of Miami became the first two-time winner of the $50,000 buy-in Poker Players Championship on Thursday night at the Rio in the World Series of Poker, dominating the field to earn $1.45 million.

Mizrachi, 31, who won the event in 2010, collected his third career World Series of Poker individual event championship bracelet, and ran his career earnings at the tournament to almost $7 million over 29 in-the-money finishes.

The event, considered the tournament’s second-most coveted title after the Main Event, drew a field of 108 competitors. Mizrachi became the first person to have his name engraved twice on the Chip Reese Trophy, named for the late winner of the inaugural event in 2006.

More…

Say what you will about the WSOP Ladies Championship — I’ve got the over/under at 15 for number of men who enter this year — it’s still the kinda event that some people get super-excited about for weeks if not months beforehand. And our super-good friend Donna from Pink Ladies Poker Tour has a series of single-table satellites this Sunday, June 24, St. Jean Baptiste Day, at the Tropicana.

More…

Even without Pauly here, and Al skillfully holding down the Pokerati fort, I do show up at the Rio every once in a while for the free water and to work on my improv skills. Considering the Bluff Hedline Cam is pretty much just a way for @MartyDerby to pick up chicks, I feel priveliged that I hadn’t yet spilled anything on my shirt and the “air quotes” I added to the script made the cut … even if I do need to practice hand movement with a big honkin sizable microphone.

Oh yeah, and Hellmuth and Ivey continue to tear it up, “Philling” the final table in $10k HORSE. Boom, book it … that’s a wrap?

The $5k Omaha Hi-Lo 8/b stood to be nothing too exciting for live streaming coverage. But if you happen to be just scrolling around for a taste of the 2012 World Series … this current live stream really does give you that.

Tune in here.

Competing for a bracelet at this final table (which doesn’t seem to have hole cards, the best I can tell … not sure what’s up with that) are:

Phil Ivey
Scotty Nguyen
Joe Cassidy
Mike Matusow
Bart Hanson
Meng La
Elie Doft

Top four all get a 6-figure payday. What is this, ’05 again?

UPDATE: Dinner break, lol.

Poker superstar Phil Hellmuth Jr. won his record-setting 12th World Series of Poker individual event championship bracelet early Monday morning at the Rio, further separating the self-described “poker brat” from his two closest rivals. Hellmuth topped a field of 309 players to win the $2,500 buy-in Seven Card Razz event to earn the gold bracelet and $182,793. Hellmuth’s 12th individual event championship bracelet puts him two ahead of Doyle Brunson and Johnny Chan, who each have 10 bracelets.

The late Johnny Moss earned nine bracelets in his World Series of Poker career, while two other players, Eric Siedel and Phil Ivey, each own eight bracelets.

Ironically, Ivey came within one place of earning his ninth bracelet Monday morning, finishing second in the $10,000 buy-in Pot Limit Hold’em event.

More…

Phil Ivey quietly returned to the World Series of Poker this month after spending a year out of the limelight.

His comeback Friday night was anything but understated.

Ivey, who owns eight World Series of Poker individual event championship bracelets, was in position to win his ninth Friday night at the Rio, reaching the final table of the Seven Card Stud Hi-Low Split-8 or Better event.

However, Ivey fell short, finishing seventh and earning $34,595.

More…

I want to clear something up that happened during a hand in a $1,500 no limit tournament. I have heard that some are accusing me of using my influence to get a favorable ruling and/or that I took a shot to win a pot.

I’ll let Pokerati readers decide.

On the river, I bet. My opponent calls, to which I announce, “nothing.” My opponent does not turn over his hand, so I table my jack-high. He looks befuddled, picks up one of his cards so only his next-door player can see it. He does NOT table his hand. Only one player sees his one card, which is a queen and would be a winner. He takes his two cards face down and places them on top of the stub of the deck.

The dealer pushes the pot to me. Two seconds go by and everyone is kind of stunned. One guy at the table mutters “sick call” thinking the guy called and couldn’t beat a jack hi.

The dealer does make a little mistake by not mixing all the cards together to make sure that the hand is unidentifiable. Now my opponent looks puzzled and says, “Wait, I had the winning hand.” Yes he did, but he mucked it. Now he’s saying he should get the pot.

We call floor and tell our stories. The floor asks if the hand is identifiable. We all say yes. He leaves and comes back to the table and says that my opponent gets the pot. So I ask, “When is a hand ‘over’? And are you telling me that a player can muck his hand and then get awarded a pot?” He says, “hold on, I’ll be back.”

More…

Another weekend with little activity in the poker world except for the WPT Championship, the WPT Championship’s low turnout, Shaun Deeb acting a greedy player by winning again, and players whining about expired Diamond Cards. I’ll take the slow times this week as next weekend brings about a daily overload of WSOP events and before the degens go broke.

Shaun Deeb is just showing off now. Gave him props last week and I guess it was a little too early as he went one louder by winning the $2,100 H.O.R.S.E. for another $46,000 and change. With his other three titles this SCOOP series coming in Stud events, I’ll just make the assumption that he sat out during the Hold’em and Omaha portions of the tournament just to keep it fair.

The only other events of note leading to the WPT Championship this weekend were the Cal State Poker Championship and Heartland Poker Tour Main Events. 316 players entered the Matt Savage operated Cal State Main Event and Nathan Bjerno won the Big Bear trophy and $133,075 after a heads up chop. Just missing out on the final table were David “The Dragon” Pham*, Allen Cunningham, and Gavin Griffin.

The latest Heartland Poker Tour stop was at the Majestic Star Casino located in lovely Gary, Indiana (aka East Chicago). HPT has been running hot this season and just missed a record field at this event, although they topped their numbers from 2011. Daniel Acevedo was the last player standing at the televised final table and picked up $133,081.

* – Not a real dragon

Photo: WhoJedi

This Week’s Boxscore

Shaun Deeb $46,325 PokerStars SCOOP $2,100 H.O.R.S.E.
Nathan Bjerno $133,075 Cal State Poker Championship
Daniel Acevedo $133,081 HPT Majestic Star

Link Dump

White House Responds to Online Poker Petition – Thousands of poker players (but not tens of thousands) signed a capitlization-challenged petition calling on the US Government to licence and regulate online poker. Brian Deese, Deputy Director of the National Economic Council, responded with a 339 word “thanks but no thanks”. I’m sure Gaming Counsel might have a more articulate read than mine.

New World Series of Poker Bracelet – The WSOP unveiled their newest champion’s bracelet, which apparently diminishes the accomplishements of THE previous Main Event winners.

Wait until you guys see the WSOP Main Event bracelet.Let’s just say this is THE year to win the Main Event. #blingerisbetter

— WSOP(@WSOP) May 17, 2012

I realize it’s just a marketing blurb meant to pump up the excitement, but I imagine the bracelet could be the most hideous piece of jewelry in the world and it wouldn’t stop players from trying to win the Main Event.

WPT Championship Numbers Down – I meant to write a few words on the significant decrease in the WPT Championship field size but ESPN Poker’s Andrew Feldman 1) beat me to it and 2) is a better writer than this hack. He lays out several reasons for the decline including SCOOP, Black Friday, and the Bellagio treating the event like crap. It will be interesting to see the numbers from the WSOP this summer.

The Micros are back! – A kind of back. The brilliant minds behind the popular web series released a comic the other day to which we can all relate. Enjoy.

Click image to embiggen

Be sure to check out our new sponsors at Face Up Gaming. Legal, subscription-based online poker with plenty of great prizes including cash, WSOP seats, and poker trips. Sign up with Bonus Code pokerati.

Hi, my name is Al. You may know me on twitter as @AlCantHang, or not. Doesn’t much matter. I recently found myself with a lot of time on my hands when the latest job to support my nomadic lifestyle ended up in the bankruptcy courts. I suppose that is a little better than my other former employer who is currently under indictment by the Department of Justice. so when Dan asked if I was available to help him row the Pokerati boat, I said sure, criminal background check pending.

Nowhere better to start than what happened over the last few days in the poker world. It’s been pretty slow on the live poker scene as players get ready for the move to Vegas for the WPT World Championship and the 2012 WSOP. That didn’t stop us from seeing big things online, especially during the PokerStars SCOOP series.

Shaun Deeb is a sicko. First he crushes the major online games back in the olden days when we could still play in the States then “retires” at the ripe age of 24 then comes back like nothing changed. Now he’s just making a mockery of the latest PokerStars SCOOP Player of the Year race by winning three tournaments for over $120,000. All three titles were in some variant of Stud but I will leave the jokes for the comments below.

This Week’s Boxscore

Shaun Deeb $41,600 PokerStars SCOOP $2,100 STUD
Shaun Deeb $44,200 PokerStars SCOOP $2,100 Triple Stud
Shaun Deeb $40,330 PokerStars SCOOP $2,100 Stud Hi/Lo

Link Dump

Dear Shaun Deeb – Deebs exploits prompted this great post from our friend Brad over on the PokerStarsBlog. Instead of spending time with his family on Mother’s Day, he was “forced” to watch Deeb go for glory. And this was written before he won his third SCOOP title of the year.

World Poker Tour Season XI Schedule Announced – The first part of the new WPT schedule was released including all dates through the end of the year with plenty of National and Regional action. For the first time since the start of the World Poker Tour, Foxwoods World Poker Finals does not appear on the schedule.

Poker World Record Attempt 2012 – I only found out this news thanks to my twitter account catching a random follower. It looks like Barry Denson will be the next player to attempt to break the streak of 155 hours set by Phil Laak in 2010. Denson will be using his powers for good as he will use the event for charitable means, benefiting Hope for Heroes. To date they have raised £30.

Women in Poker Hall of Fame Nominations – Nominations are now open for the 2012 Women in Poker Hall of Fame class to join past inductees who include Linda Johnson, Jan Fisher, Jennifer Harman, and Kathy Liebert. The Induction Ceremony will take place on August 31st at the Golden Nugget.

That’s it for a pretty slow week but things will pick up during the weekend with WSOP-C and Cal State Poker Championship Main Events along with plenty of online action to finish up the SCOOP action. We’re also just a few weeks away from hearing stories about degenerate poker players dropping water balloons from Panorama Towers, so we’ll keep an eye on the police reports and emergency home owners association meetings.

4,500-chip, four-color starting stack at Stratosphere.

The Stratosphere’s quaint 10-table poker room sits in the back of the casino, past a row of slot machines, craps tables, another row of slot machines, down the ramp past Roxy’s Diner, near the escalators to the Top of the World restaurant — just before the Double Down Pit and Back Alley Bar. On Thursday, there was a sole 1-2NL table of action about 30 minutes before the nightly tournament.

You’d hardly know that this room has supposedly become the new Sahara when it comes to Las Vegas’ most popular small buy-in dailies — with the 7pm event drawing consistent fields of 50 players or more.

I approached the podium and purchased a seat for the event. The buy-in is $45 for 4,500 in chips, plus a $20 add-on that gives you 4,000 more chips, which you can purchase any time within the first hour. (There’s also an option for unlimited re-entry within that time frame.)  With 20-minute levels, that add-on is necessary, especially considering there are no automatic shufflers in the tournament tables.

More…

Here’s a “big” poker happening @CLVPoker catering to a different kinda dbag … the Caesars MBA Poker Championship.

It’s a closed tournament open only to current MBA students and accredited MBA alumni (please show your proof of registration or diploma at the window?) … but with a few hundred chicks and dudes hoping to power-suit their way to the personal 1-percenthood coming to town for multiple days — and tourney instructions that say: “this event has traditionally attracted players who are familiar with Texas Hold-em (so we suggest you read up on the rules before you arrive)” — it might be worth checking out.

Competing with the cash games for their Business School interests are a bunch of “networking seminars” — which are supposedly what draw the MBAers here on this special (to them) pokery weekend.

Check out the vid of what the Caesars Empire currently has populating one poker corner of the Las Vegas Strip:

Some familiar faces and players worth looking up in the charity NLH mix … er … mixed martial arts.

One of my favorite charity tourneys of the year is this Saturday — Operation All In … Randy Couture’s  poker tournament and charity auction benefitting his Xtreme Couture GI Foundation. Karina Jett hosts the event, so you can expect her usual brand of fun and merry band of Full Tilt Red Pros in exile. And because OAI is more MMAish than pokery … well, let’s just say you can be sure to see some rather douchetastic! unique table interaction. And with a reasonable buy-in ($220 w $100 rebuys), you stand to get a fair share of genuine downtown tourists, too — excited by their chance to play with the fighters more so than the poker pros.

The winner gets $10k in cold American cash this year, too … no fancy qualifiers for some future maybe-cool new event in some other country. And though I haven’t personally looked into how legit Randy Couture’s foundation is, I do get a sense he takes the effort kinda personally and isn’t going to let the funds raised here get squandered en route to the beneficiaries. For many soldiers, the war isn’t over just because they are starting to come home.

It’s been an interesting relationship in Vegas between mixed martial arts and poker over the past 12 or so years … the state of which will be on display in the form of tax-deductible feelgood poker … this weekend at the Golden Nugget.

Read below for official deets on what’s going down.

More…

La Sengphet took down another one on the WSOP-circuit — winning a $345 NLH at the Bicycle Casino in Bell Gardens, Calif. for her fourth WSOP-C victory (third in a ring-bearing event) and a $25k payday. Her other half, David Clark, made a final table the day before, and won his second ring just a couple stops earlier at WSOP-Tahoe. Their story is becoming sickeningly charming … perhaps even inspirational … showing that true love and poker success can go hand-in-hand for a couple of old-fashioned rounders making their way across an ever-unpredictable poker landscape.

(That, or … Go Team Pokerati!)

More…

Oh, almost forgot to tell you … two Pokerati Game players are/were bounties in this weekend’s Epic Poker Pro-Am satellites. Both have far more accomplishments to their Hendon Mob cred than just playing 1/2 NLH/PLO with me, obv … but still, happy to declare that this is plausibly proof that playing in the Pokerati Game at the Palms is key to satellite success.

Kathy played yesterday, and Stacey takes her seat in just a couple hours — so get to the game @PalmsPokerRm ASAP! Today’s event is a $100 NLH with $50 rebuys. More Epic satellite details here.