Mike Matusow
Photo: CardPlayer.com

Today’s Boxscore

Mike Matusow $750,000 – National Heads-Up Poker Championship
Andrew Robl $1,000,000 – Aussie Millions $100,000 Challenge

The National Heads-Up Poker Championship final was like a flashback to the olden days* with a practically made-for-TV final match between Phil Hellmuth and Mike Matusow. The two of them advanced to the final after defeating Scott Seiver and Joe “Don’t call me Sebok” Serock. Many questioned the Matusow invitation but he showed some of his old form when he earned his victory. He hit a nice little naked flush draw to defeat the 13-time WSOP champion Hellmuth. This is the 3rd biggest cash of Matusow’s career after his $1,000,000 hits for the 2005 WSOP Main Event final table and Tournament of Champions victory.

On the other side of the planet, the Aussie Millions Main Event is underway but not before Andrew Robl beat a small but extremely talented field in the $100,000 Challenge to earn a cool million. The tournament was of the re-entry variety but of the 21 players, Robl was the only one to take advantage of the option and it worked out successfully. Igor Kurganov (2nd), Masa Kagawa (3rd), and Dan Shak (4th) were the other three who cashed in the even.

* – Not really that long ago, but it feels like a generation ago

Link Dump

Tweet of the Day – Two up this time, both from Matusow after his NHUPC win.

Im laying here in bed overcome with emotion truly wondering if me and hellmuth have changed the game of poker for Americans on tv once again

— Mike Matusow (@themouthmatusow) January 27, 2013

I cant stop laughing when I see a cardplayer quote that says hellmuth having trouble sleeping after loss to me! #lolololweeeee

— Mike Matusow (@themouthmatusow) January 29, 2013

Poker Players Alliance chief meets with NJ Governor Christie aide in Trenton – John Pappas met with Christie on Tuesday afternoon to make a push for the online gaming bill currently awaiting his decision or indecision.

Investor urges IGT to rethink online gaming move – Not everybody with stock in International Gaming Technology is into their direction with online gaming. Someone is getting twitchy.

Addiction soars as online gambling hits £2bn mark – Oh no, the sky is falling and there is another article out about the vast sea of gambling addicts. This one over in the U.K. where apparently every dollar spent gambling is by an addict.

Mississippi Online Gambling Effort Resurrected – Another giving it another shot to get into the online gaming business, but things don’t look too peachy for the prospect of it happening in Mississippi.

2013 Aussie Millions: Welcome Party – The crack video team at PokerNews caught up with a few stars at the Aussie Millions Welcome Party.

Some may recognize me from Twitter, a few may have cracked my aces a time or two, and it’s possible that some of you were smart enough to jot down that number I left on the bathroom wall. If you don’t recognize me AT ALL, then you’re part of an exclusive group called “Almost Everyone”.

My name is Kim Shannon, and I’m all up in everyone’s bidness… which is why Pokerati invited me to share with you the poker gossip and celebrity “news”. My initial response was “I’d rather drink a thumbtack-and-jalapeno smoothie”, but then Dan reminded me that I still owe him a beej from a prop bet I lost… so here I am.

Let’s skip the gristle and get right to the bone, shall we, with what’s buzzing in poker … or wait, is that coming from my purse?

Clock Blocked

Word from the felt is that Daniel Negreanu and Andrew Robl have kissed and made up in the wake of a spat over last week’s episode of “The Big Game”, in which Negreanu & Tony G were poster children for fucked up poker etiquette. Poker bitching about implied collusion aside, I hadn’t seen so much high-fiving and snickering since I last got “Eiffel Towered” in a drunken MFM.

After the broadcast, Tony G redeemed himself by posting a quasi-apology, but Daniel kept the drama going with a post of his own expounding on Robl’s nittiness. I was in the middle of reading Robl’s rebuttal when I realized that I had been punching myself in the face the whole time over the pettiness of it all. However, I do feel the need to give Daniel a special award for managing to refrain from calling Robl a “cunt”.  Then, just as I was about to start placing bets on who would blow a gasket and sprain their vagina first, Negreanu ruined my fun by saying he has since called Robl and smoothed things over.

A-Rod’s Poker

Alex Rodriguez was in the Ivey Room at Aria with Jean-Robert Bellande last week — supposedly playing 50-100 NL with a couple non-pro Aria regulars. Tweeting from Haze Nightclub, @BrokeLivingJRB reported that A-Rod “won 3k” in the game, which sounds to me more like 5-10 without steroids — hardly enough for new pair of Yankee-caliber starter tits. Dealers say A-Rod tipped adequately, btw, tossing “like $36 in gravel” before leaving the game. Not one to hit-and-run, he was back at the tables a couple days later, playing 10-20 NL at Bellagio. John Kim snapped a pic. Orel Hersheiser (great first name, terrible last) also joined the action somewhere along the way.

More…

The Hard Rock Poker Lounge is getting its weekend poker orgy underway — this is the “relaunch” of the poker room there … under new management, with new ideas, and more action than usual …

They’ve got a full slate this weekend — beyond just the free food, splashed pots, a 20k guarantee Friday tourney and stuff like that … they’ve got a whole slate of events, including a Sharon Osborne celebrity charity event (Trash Talk Championship of the World they are calling it), a party for the launch of Victory poker. Currently filming (for ESPN 360, I believe, is a $100/$200 NLH cash game. $50k buy-in … with Antonio Esfandiari, Andrew Robl and others on the table … we’ll have some more names for you. And I think that’s The Maven waiting in the wings for a seat.

Click here for a rundown of all they’ve got going on.

Of course the game next table over is what really interests me — $1/$2 NLH/PLO … just an option to run-it-2x today, not automatic. But in my jaded opinion, that’s where the real poker is going on. The plan is to keep this game running throughout the weekend — as Super Bowl raffle is currently my 2010 bankroll plan.

More TK throughout the weekend … but here’s a glimpse of surprisingly early Friday night action taking off at the Hard Rock’s big poker weekend:

The $1,000 NL Hold’em Stimulus Special looks to be a huge success, as day 1a appears to be sold out with at least 2,800 entered. There’s still some room for tomorrow’s day 1b, but it looks like that field will also be maxed out before play gets underway at 12 noon today. The WSOP Staff Guide projected 5,305 entrants and that has already been exceeded, so I’ll take the cheap win and take the over with a field of 5700 who will eventually play this weekend as the WSOP staff finds a few additional tables to put on the floor to accommodate the field.

The 40th Annual $40,000 NL Hold’em event returns for day 3 action today at 2pm with 23 players playing down to Sunday’s ESPN final table. Justin Bonomo will start action as the chip leader with 2,678,000 in chips, Ted Forrest in 2nd with 2,586,000, and David “WhoooKidd” Baker in 3rd with 2,367,000. Greg Raymer is the last remaining World Champion in the field, in 4th place with 2,287,000. Other notable names include Alec Torelli, Dani Stern, Matt Glantz, Isaac Haxton, David Chiu, Neil Channing, Andy Black, and Andrew Robl.

The $1,500 Omaha Eight or Better also comes back at 2pm today with 197 players remaining from their record field of 918. 2008 winner Thang Luu appears to have returned to his winning form, as he’ll start play today as the chip leader with 73,600 in chips. Other notable names remaining in the field include Phil Hellmuth, Annie Duke, Todd Brunson, and Brandon Cantu. Their final table is also scheduled for Sunday, although with much less exposure than what will be a mix of live and online stars of the 40k event or the WSOP Champions Invitational event, which also starts on Sunday. More to come today, with an update soon (?) if the Stimulus Special has sold out.

8am Update: Under 80 seats left for Sunday.
10:30am Update: 5,839 registered from Da Commish’s Twitter

Lance Bradley wrote a prescient article in the current issue of Bluff highlighting five online young-guns to watch out for at the 2008 WSOP, and two weeks into it, all of them had cashed and then some. But at the same time, they’ve hardly dominated or taken the Series by storm. In this episode, Pauly attempts to educate me on who’s who when it comes to crossing over from online studliness to WSOP success. Durrr, Gobboboy, Yellowsub, and Good2cu, previously of the shipithollabolla crew, et al.

Episode 8: Online Sharks::WSOP Salmon