My goodness, how many new poker (and non-poker) internet shows can there be … it’s like everyone in the world has a built-in laptop cam and a connection to the internet!

But this new venture from a couple of Poker Beat cohorts on the tournament coverage frontlines could actually do it for me, as I can’t think of a more morning-friendly way to find out all I need to know about WPT-Bellagio/Festa as it nears the money bubble. It’s like Regis & Kelly for poker junkies in a G4 generation.

Topics of the day include Allen Kessler, Phil Ivey, Annette Obrestad, and Matt Affleck … but really, it’s way more fun that that. 🙂

Getting caught up and back in the swing of things — slowly but surely — so what better way than to listen to the most recent episode of The Poker Beat?

The Poker Beat: July 22, 2010
[audio:http://www.pokerroad.com/download/the-poker-beat:74]

Rookie twitterer @GaryWise1 took his turn in Capt. Huff’s chair as @BJNemeth and @JessWelman panel-bantered about:

• The pre-markup hearing in DC with Annie Duke
• Make-up of the 2010 November Nine
• The value, if any, of poker agents — and how the WSOP accommodates them during the main event
• BJ’s philosophical non-dilemma over coverage of Matt Affleck’s emotional bustout *
• The difference between poker media and poker journalism
• The Year of Mizrachi and the accidental WTF? of the current WSOP Player of the Year scoring system
• Annette Obrestad’s B- performance
• The 3-headed Monster of Team WSOP without @JeffreyPollack
• WSOP numbers and final table times

* great explanation, BJ. But question … Is there any discernable line where the “field of play” in poker begins, and ends?

Other episode-relevant links:

The Redemption of Matt Affleck by Gary Wise
The Long, Lonely Walk of Matt Affleck by Howard Swains (with photos by Joe Giron)

Next ep coming tomorrow. Play along in the PokerRoad forums.

Briefly recapping a busy Wednesday afternoon:

Montgomery leads 1k NL

Five players remain in the $1,000 No-Limit Holdem, with original November Niner Scott Montgomery moving into the chip leader with 3,200,000. Adam Richardson is close behind with 2,700,000. See who comes out on top at PokerNews.

Obrestad, Tran make early exits in shootout

The two big names in the $1,500 No-Limit Holdem Shootout, Annette Obrestad and JC Tran, both were eliminated short of the final table, finishing in 11th and 13th respectively. Derric Haynie (1,365,000) leads the remaining 9 players, follow the updates and see who wins at PokerNews.

Final five in Razz

The $2,500 Razz is down to five players with the most recent elimination being Jennifer Harman in 6th place. Melville Lewis (945,000) leads the field with Maxwell Troy (545,000), Vladimir Shchemelev (455,000), Frank Kassela (390,000) and Mikko Pispala (385,000) rounding out the field as they take their dinner break and/or play in the $10,000 HORSE. Updates available at wsop.com.

Baker leading $1,500 PLO 8 day 2

Jeffrey Baker (no relation to the dueling David Bakers) holds the chip lead with 160,000 chips with about 60 players remaining in the $1,500 Pot-Limit Omaha 8 or Better. Notables still in the field include Barry Greenstein (153,000), Kevin MacPhee (89,000), Mike Matusow (68,000) and Phil Hellmuth (60,000). Find more updates and chip counts at wsop.com.

Another large field in $1,500 NL

The first of Wednesday’s tournaments drew a field of 2,521 players for the latest $1,500 No-Limit Holdem tournament. Less than 1,000 players returned from dinner break with the early chip leader Arnaud Mattern reported as leading with 46,000 in chips. Other notables: Eric Lynch (33,000), Shane Schleger (25,500), Jon Friedberg (22,700), Bernard Lee (17,000) and Lauren Kling (14,000). More information on the happenings in this tournament at PokerNews.

High stakes HORSE underway

The 5pm tournament was the debut of the $10,000 HORSE World Championship, which drew a field of 241 players. The top 24 players make the money, with the winner earning $611,666. David Oppenheim is the early leader with 52,000 chips, followed by Jimmy Fricke (44,000), Maria Ho (40,000), Team Pokerati’s Tom Schneider (36,000), Erik Seidel (34,000) and Joe Hachem (31,000). More updates and info at wsop.com.

Recapping Tuesday night’s action, starting with the latest bracelet winner:

Kwaysser makes it two for Hungary

Valdemar Kwaysser of Budapest, Hungary defeated Matt Marafioti heads-up for the $10,000 Pot-Limit Holdem Championship bracelet, along with $617,214 as he joins Peter Gelencser as Hungarian bracelet winners this year. Marafioti earned $381,507 for the runner-up finish, with the planned rematch from the NAPT Venetian final table fizzling out with Tom Marchese finishing 6th for $123,264 and Sam Stein finishing 10th for $44,010. Full results and Nolan Dalla’s tournament report available shortly at wsop.com.

Obrestad, Tran highlight final day of $1,500 Shootout

The final day of the $1,500 No-Limit Holdem Shootout will have 14 players seated at two seven-handed tables playing down to a winner starting at 2:30pm. Here’s the list, each starting with 450,000 in chips:

Annette Obrestad
J.C. Tran
Dustin Dirksen
Michael Cooper
Derric Haynie
Heinz Kamutzki
Steven Kelly
Jeffrey King
Johnny Kitchens
Reagan Leman
Michael Pesek
Justin Scott
Brett Shaffer
Paul Varano

Final table for 1k NL set

The $1,000 No-Limit Holdem event started with 38 players when play restarted this afternoon, deciding when to stop and play it out today at 2:30pm. Here’s how they’ll be seated:

Seat 1: Scott Montgomery – 604,000
Seat 2: Adam Richardson – 702,000
Seat 3: Daniel Fuhs – 1,251,000
Seat 4: Peter Dufek – 780,000
Seat 5: Sebastien Roy – 1,867,000
Seat 6: Michael Michnik – 307,000
Seat 7: John Dolan – 967,000
Seat 8: Timothy Beeman – 1,788,000
Seat 9: Mick Carlson – 917,000

Lewis leads final day of $2,500 Razz

The third bracelet to be determined today will have Melville Lewis (504,000) leading the final 15 players in the $2,500 Razz when play resumes at 3:30pm to determine a winner. Other contenders for the bracelet include: Stuart Rutter (295,000), Chris Bjorin (163,000), Frank Kassela (144,000), Jennifer Harman (108,000) and Vladimir Shchemelev (81,000). Full chip counts and updates available at PokerNews.

Chappus chips up at PLO8

The lone tournament to start on Tuesday, the $1,500 Pot-Limit Omaha 8 or Better restarts at 2:30pm with 157 players returning to the felt. Michael Chappus (133,400) leads the field, with notables James Dempsey (119,800), Barry Greenstein (83,000), Mike Matusow (54,700), Ben Grundy (46,000) and Phil Hellmuth (31,600) in contention. The full list of chip counts and updates available at PokerNews.

Wednesday’s tournaments

Another pair of bracelet events return to the Rio, starting with another $1,500 No-Limit Holdem tournament at 12pm. Last year’s version of this event was won last year by Ray Foley in a field of 2,715, good for $657,969. The 5pm tournament is the $10,000 HORSE World Championship, the first time a $10,000 HORSE event has been held at the WSOP. This event replaces the $10,000 Mixed Game Championship, won last year by Ville Wahlbeck in a field of 194 for $492,384.

I just voted for the Maven Awards. Not usually my bag to give out all my confirming email data (in a time-consuming way) that lets someone else plausibly sell or profit from my internet ID. In fact, many know I consciously chose not to vote for the WSOP-TOC because I couldn’t help but see that as an email harvesting operation for WSOP.com, done in a way that trivializes the value of sites like Pokerati when it comes to someday sending players to the WSOP for online poker play.

(Also, by standing on such principles, I didn’t have to tell Tom he had a more promising future in selling pants than trying to qualify for the TOC.)

However, because the Maven Awards presumably isn’t looking to open an online poker room in the near future, and because, frankly, I was feeling bad for women in poker after the punk-bitch episodes in this year’s WSOP-Ladies event … I decided to give up my IP address to support the cause … somebody’s cause … in a way that seems like a good step toward someday negating the need for a separate Women in Poker Hall of Fame.

Much to my plausibly noble delight, it turns out The Maven Awards has an anonymous voting option that still does a decent job of preventing blatant ballot stuffing. (I tried; would require too much work for me to vote twice.)

I’m not sure when their voting deadline is, but it’s gotta be soon … so I encourage you to get your votes in, too, by voting here. Below are whom I voted for in each of the 14 categories and why:

More…

Reviewing the start of week 4 at the WSOP:

Seniors’ event sets record

The $1,000 Seniors’ No-Limit Holdem event drew a record 3,248 entries this afternoon when play started shortly after 12pm today. Not only was this a record field for a Seniors’ event, it was the largest field to start a tournament on a single day in poker history. The current leader is Team Pokerati and Loudmouth Poker’s own Tom Schneider with 29,000 in chips. Other notables include: “Minneapolis Jim” Meehan (16,000), Lon McEachern (14,500), Alan Boston (13,000) and TJ Cloutier (11,000). The field is currently on their dinner break with four levels remaining for the field to play. Follow the occasional updates over at PokerNews.

10k Heads-Up sells out again

The $10,000 No-Limit Heads-Up Championship drew a sold-out field of 256 entries, with two rounds scheduled for today. Winners of round 1 matches include Gavin Smith, Tom Dwan, Jason Mercier, Annette Obrestad, Josh Arieh, Phil Gordon, Blair Hinkle and Phil Ivey. The 128 winners will return at 10pm for round 2 action. See who moves on and who moves out at PokerNews.

Barbieri leading HORSE final table

The final table of the $1,500 HORSE has returned from their dinner break with eight players remaining. Here’s the chip counts when play resumed:

Al Barbieri 635,000
Konstantin Puchkov 605,000
Blake Cahail 540,000
Hani Awad 520,000
Andrew Revesz 475,000
Dustin Leary 420,000
Robert Mizrachi 250,000
Ken Lennaard 250,000

Follow the updates over at wsop.com.

Gonzales leads 1500 NL day 3

Christopher Gonzales (2,700,000) holds a large chip lead in the $1,500 No-Limit Holdem final day with 11 remaining. The field will be returning from dinner break shortly, see if anyone can run him down at wsop.com.

Brady leads bunch at 5k 6-max day 2

Dinner break ends shortly for the 56 players remaining in the $5,000 No-Limit Holdem 6-max event, with 54 making the money. Matt Brady (465,000) holds a slight chip lead over McLean Karr (460,000) when play resumes. Other notables include David Ulliott (265,000), Christian Harder (255,000), Isaac Haxton (185,000) and Eric Baldwin (157,000). PokerNews will be there to follow the action when play resumes.

Tieman leads during day 2 of PLO/PLH

The $2,500 Pot-Limit Omaha/Pot-Limit Holdem field is on dinner break with 54 players remaining, but only 45 make the money. Joshua Tieman is looking for his 2nd WSOP bracelet this year as he leads the field with 209,500 in chips. Victor Ramdin (155,000), John Kabbaj (98,000), David Chiu (87,600) and Burt Boutin (67,000) are among the notables looking to get a return on their investment when play resumes. The fine reporting team at PokerNews will be there to see who bubbles and who bounds into the lead.

It looks to be a long night for some of these events to get finished, but for those who don’t want to stay up that late, another report will be forthcoming in the morning.

A recap of Saturday’s sextet of bracelet events this afternoon:

Star Studded Final Table

Six players remain in the $10,000 Seven Card Stud event, with Men Nguyen the current chip leader with over 1,000,000 in chips. The rest of the final table consists of Nikolay Evdakov, Brandon Adams, Michael Mizrachi, Joe Cassidy and Steve Bilirakis. The first two to to cash from the final table are Vladimir Schmelev ($55,991) and Sirious Jamshidi ($46,206). Follow the final table activities, and other WSOP events over at PokerNews.

Dempsey Dominant at Pot-Limit

The final table of the $1,500 Pot-Limit Holdem event is down to heads-up, with James “Flushy” Dempsey holding the chip lead over Steve Chanthabouasy. JJ Liu fell short of triumph, finishing in 3rd for $86,512. Updates of the battle are ongoing over at PokerNews.

$1,500 NL in the money

Less than 100 remain in the $1,500 No-Limit Holdem, with chances appearing slim that a final table will be reached. Notables remaining: Blair Hinkle, Tom Dwan, Neil Channing, Roy Winston, and Alex Bolotin.

$1,500 Limit Day 2

The field in the $1,500 Limit Holdem event is down to 77 after their dinner break, with 63 making the money. Michael Miccio is the current chip leader at 85,000, followed close behind by Jameson Painter (82,000), Terrence Chan (81,000), Jason Potter (74,000), and David Plastik (56,000) in the top 10. Play continues until they reach the final table or around 3am, whichever comes first. More updates available at PokerNews.

Donkament #2 Numbers Down

1,922 handed over their money for day 1a of the $1,000 No-Limit Holdem event, a decrease from last week’s 2,600 day 1a. The remaining 450 players remain with play ending for the night when 15% of the field remains or 10 levels of play, whichever happens first. Some of the notable post-dinner break survivors: Phil Gordon, Kathy Liebert, John Cernuto, Tony Cousineau, Liv Boeree, and Vitaly Lunkin.

2-7 NL Lowball Draws a Crowd

A field of 250 players decided to give the $1,500 No-Limit 2-7 Lowball, Single Draw event a try, with notables such as Annette Obrestad and Eric Baldwin making their lowball debut. Players start with 1,500 in chips along with three $1,000 “rebuy” chips that can be used anytime within the first 4 hours. Nick Schulman appears to be the early chip leader with 25,000, but the volatile nature of the game means anything can happen over the eight levels of play this evening.

In just a few short hours, the 41st World Series of Poker will get underway at 12 noon at the Rio in Las Vegas with the first bracelet event, the $500 Casino Employees event. This will be followed at 5pm with the $50,000 Players’ Championship, consisting of HORSE, no-limit holdem, pot-limit Omaha, and 2-7 triple draw lowball with no-limit holdem being played at the final table.

Friday preview

Last year’s Casino Employee’s winner was Andrew Cohen, a bartender at the Palms, who won $83,833 in a field of 866 players. Hopefully Team Pokerati member John Harris can improve on his 25th place finish last year. This is the first year for the $50,000 Players’ Championship, a five-day event that is replacing the $50,000 HORSE event that was held the previous four years. David Bach won what appears to be the final $50,000 HORSE event last year, besting a field of 95 to earn $1,276,806. The Chip Reese trophy that was given to the HORSE winner will now go to the Players’ Championship winner.

Where to find information

For those looking for updates, the official WSOP site will have live updates powered by PokerNews. This year, the WSOP.com site will also be making various tournament information available to everyone, including entry lists, end of day chip counts, tournament reports from WSOP media director Nolan Dalla, as well as the media guide. CardPlayer, Bluff Magazine, PokerListings, PokerRoad, ESPN.com’s poker section and other poker media outlets (like Pauly) will provide updates, reports, gossip, video segments and other stuff for the poker enthusiast.

2010 WSOP storylines

With 56 bracelets up for grabs over the next seven weeks (with the final one decided in November), there’s plenty of interesting angles to find in this year’s WSOP:

Does the Year of the Woman continue? With the wins of Annie Duke at the NBC Heads-Up, Vanessa Selbst at NAPT Mohegan Sun and Liv Boeree at EPT San Remo, the poker media is anticipating a breakout WSOP for women. The last year more than one woman won an open bracelet event was in 2004 (Annie Duke, Kathy Liebert and Cyndy Violette).

How will Annette Obrestad perform? This is Annette’s first year she can actually play at the WSOP in Las Vegas instead of being a spectator limited to the hallway, a moment that has been eagerly anticipated by the poker community since she won the 2007 WSOP Europe Main Event at 18. She’ll be the most followed, scrutinized, criticized, fawned over, etc. newcomer of this year’s group of WSOP newbies.

How will the UIGEA affect the WSOP? With the June 1 deadline rapidly approaching, online sites and players are wondering what will happen in the next few weeks. Does the US Department of Justice swoop down on the Rio and arrest Team Full Tilt? Will players not be able to get their funds in time for the Main Event? Will it be business as usual, with no noticeable drop in attendance at the Rio?

Betting on Bracelets Bracelet bets for big money is not reserved to Phil Ivey and his fellow pros. Justin Bonomo was laying 10 to 1 (1k minimum to Justin’s 10k) that at least one person from a list of people living at Panorama Towers will win a bracelet at the WSOP. Bonomo offered the same bet last year, laying 7 to 1, and Greg Mueller’s two bracelets had Bonomo winning his bet. The big Phil Ivey bet this year is with Howard Lederer: Ivey has the 2010-12 WSOPs to win two bracelets, WSOPE bracelets count only towards making the bet a push, for $5 million. Talk of other bets Ivey will surely hit the rumor mill over the coming weeks.

More updates to come during the next few weeks, and good luck to all the players.

Currently listening to last week’s episode of The Poker Beat. Hadn’t yet heard the second half of the show. Always love the parts I’m not on, because it’s where I actually learn something. Not so excited about hearing me and BJ talk about the WSOP Conference Call (no offense, BJ) … but definitely want to hear Gary and Jess break down what happened early last week at the confluence of FTOPS and SCOOP. Supposedly there are some disputes over whether or not 20+ hour tournaments are unfair to players or just begging for Terms of Service violations and other shenanigans. And of course can’t wait to get to Stapleton’s Tight Laydown … to hear what he decided to go with for the Annette15 joke!

The Poker Beat
5/6/10

[audio:http://www.pokerroad.com/download/the-poker-beat:62]

The Poker Beat Crew celebrates our first-year victory in Bluff Magazine’s Reader’s Choice Awards. Then we take on the Kathy Liebert / Daniel Negreanu confab in Mississippi where they talked about what it really takes to get a sponsorship deal in this day and age … and we speculate on where Annette Obrestad fits in to all this. Then, what it means if anything that Phil Ivey dethroned Daniel Negreanu as the all-time tournament money leader.

The Poker Beat
1/28/10

[audio:http://www.pokerroad.com/upload/radio/23/audio/TPB12810.mp3]

Here are the other winners:

Favorite Poker Personality: Mike Sexton
Top TV Poker Show for 2009: High Stakes Poker
Favorite Poker Podcast: The Poker Beat on PokerRoad.com
Top Poker Blog for 2009: WickedChopsPoker.com
Favorite Poker Forum: TwoPlusTwo.com
Best Poker Twitterer: Doyle Brunson
Favorite Las Vegas Poker Room: The Bellagio
Favorite Poker Room Outside of Las Vegas: The Commerce
Favorite Online Poker Site: Full Tilt Poker
Favorite Online Poker Resource: CardRunners.com
Top Story of 2009: Phil Ivey Makes WSOP Main Event Final Table
Best Online Poker Player: Tom “durrr” Dwan
Favorite Poker Villain: Phil Hellmuth
Favorite Player of 2009: Phil Ivey

Players are flocking to Poker’s Second City for that other, LA version of the WSOP, aka the LAPC. Early numbers look strong. Much more to come from this festival of poker tourneys to be sure:

Elsewhere around the world, the big action is going at the Borgata Winter Poker Open in Atlantic City, at EPT-Deauville in France, and the Aussie Millions in, er, Australia … where our favourite under-25 Betfair-blogging scrapper fought FTW in the $1k PLO event. @Annette_15’s inspirational tweet-story:

Dinner break in plo, avg 32k, got 20k. Lost half my stack with KxJxTs9s on KJs8sAx5x board lol. 30 something left, 16 paid. Start in 1h.

22 left. At avg

Got 50k. Avg 56. On the bubble now. 17 left. Good table

Itm yay

Final table :). 9 left. Cont. tomorrow at 4. Avg 100k. I got 150k. 40k for first. 1x?

One hour break. Got 550k i think. Didnt count. 4 left. Got over half the chips in play. Go me 🙂

yayyyyy i won!!!!

A nice little roadmap on how to move from the middle of the pack to the final table with the momentum it takes to go all the way, no? 40k AUD ($36.7 USk).

REMINDER: Today is Omaha day at the Hard Rock in Las Vegas. Playing 1/2, half no-limit hold’em, half PLO … w Run-it-2x. I like to think of this game as PLO with training wheels. Did you know sets aren’t necessarily all that good in Omaha?

The final teams have been picked … Annette Obrestad and Daniel Negreanu did the equivalent of a coin flip when they drew for high-card … and now action is underway.

The WSOPE’s made-for-TV special event:

Team Europe is comprised of – Annette Obrestad, Peter Eastgate, Dario Minieri, Bertrand “Elky” Grospellier, Ilari Sahamies, Patrik Antonius, Gus Hansen, and John Harvey – Betfair Qualifier.

Team Americas in comprised of – Daniel Negreanu, Doyle Brunson, Phil Hellmuth, Phil Ivey, Huck Seed, John Juanda, Jennifer Harman, and Barry Greenstein.

Caesars Cup began at 1 pm on Friday, 25 September at the Empire Casino in London. Play is expected to last until Friday evening, when one team wins four match victories and wins poker’s ultimate bragging rights.

You can follow American coverage here. And for a European perspective, our friends at Betfair have it here.

Aww, sad for Annette_15: The European captain is the only player without a sponsorship patch, and it’s her site’s event!

Click below for a closer look at the trophy that Fake Phil Ivey is just dying to win. Says Fake Phil: “Winning this will be the pinnacle of my career. My patriotism is on the line. I’m doing it for America. I’m doing it for Barack Obama … oh and Jesus, of course, but I’m always doing it for Jesus. Big ups!”

More…

John Paul Kelly 2009: 2 bracelets, 2 continents.

The first event of the 2009 World Series of Poker Europe is completed and we have crowned the first champion. He ended Day 1 as the chipleader and finished the tournament in the same vein, step forward Mr JP Kelly.

The £1,000 entry-fee appealed to pros and amateurs alike, with Day 1a attracting 295 runners including the likes of Phil Hellmuth, Roland de Wolfe and Dave ‘Devilfish’ Ulliot with the former being eliminated very early on into proceedings.

After raising preflop, then calling a re-raise from Eddie Hearn, Hellmuth somehow managed to get all his chips in the middle holding 5h6h which gave him an open-ended straight draw. He definitely needed to hit as Hearn held pocket kings, but a 9s turn followed by a Qc river saw ‘The Poker Brat’ heading for the rail.

The action was thick and fast due to the shallow starting stacks and hour long blinds and by the end of play only 41 players still had chips remaining!

Day 1b showed no signs of slowing down either, despite it been a more pro-heavy day with Phil Ivey, Chris ‘Jesus’ Ferguson, Annette Obrestad and 2008 WSOPE Main Event winner John Juanda taking to the tables. Out of the 313 that started, only 58 would return for Day 2.

JP Kelly was the overnight chipleader with 99,000 chips but Richard Kellet, Ian Frazer andFabian Dunlop were all hot on his heels with stacks around the 65,000 mark. Of the 89 remaining players, only 63 would make the money, meaning 26 unlucky players would be going home empty handed.

More…

We know her, of course, as something between the Tracy Austin of Poker and Johnny Moss of WSOP-E. But that makes no difference … even in the UK, poker is still poker, and thus Britain’s Advertising Standards Authority has banned an ad for Betfair featuring Annette Obrestad, after a complaint about her celebrated screen name, Annette_15.

From inthenews.co.uk:

The ad for Betfair showed a photo of a young woman with the tagline “Online experience is measured in games, not years. Join the new breed. Annette_15”.

The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has upheld a complaint made about the advert, saying it “was likely to have particular appeal to children and young people, and that, by representing a successful young poker player with the implication she was 15 years old, it could encourage young people to gamble and was therefore irresponsible”.

NOTE TO SELF: Scrap plans for British Under-12 and Under-14 Poker Championships.

More…

International team poker is just a fad, right? Maybe so … but this defending Dream Team Poker-WSOP champion who loves to monitor WSOP prowess by country is looking forward to the television coverage of the Caesar’s Cup — a special event at WSOP-Europe that pits the Canadians Americans vs. the Euros in an 8-player-a-side format. As the teams take shape, it’s looking to be quite the competitive experience vs. youth match-up:

Team Americas: Daniel Negreanu (captain), Phil Ivey, Phil Hellmuth and John Juanda

Team Europe: Annette Obrestad (captain), Peter Eastgate, Dario Minieri, Bertrand Grospellier

I still don’t quite have a grasp on the format, or how the other four slots will be selected. But I do know Euros can qualify for a seat on their team via our good mates at Betfair Poker.