Men “The Master’ Nguyen
Photo: WhoJedi / LAPC

Today’s Boxscore

Men Nguyen $21,255 – 2013 LAPC $125 No Limit Hold’em Rebuy
Jon Seaman $10,080 – 2013 LAPC 2-7 Triple Draw/No Limit SD
Ryan Wince $29,010 – 2013 LAPC NLHE Doublestack

The big news over the last few days, unless you are Jean-Paul Pasqualini or Cedric Rossi, was the World Series of Poker finally releasing their summer schedule. Some players were getting ansy, now they are all settled down and able to make their plans to invade Las Vegas for the 2013 WSOP, whether they are a small ball newbie or an “every event” grinder.

The series will feature 62 bracelet events along with the standard non-stop non-bracelet side tournaments and their crazy draw. The WSOP always likes to throw something new at their customers (2009 Stimulus Event anyone?) and this year around is The Millionaire Maker on the opening weekend. This tournament will be a $1,500 No Limit Hold’em with two starting flights on the same day and players can re-enter 1B if eliminated in 1A. The big twist is the guaranteed 1st place prize money of $1,000,000 to the winner. Guarantee should be in quotes since the payout structure will be adjusted to make this work, not money added to the standard structure.

Last year’s Big One for One Drop was so successful they will have two smaller versions this summer. The $111,111 One Drop High Roller and $1,111 Little One for One Drop which will feature unlimited re-entries through 4 levels. There is also some pretty decent buzz around for an event which won’t even award a bracelet. The WSOP will run a trial $5,000 Open Face Chinese poker tournament during the Main Event. This is the newest, latest, greatest big thing for the youngns.

Perhaps the biggest change this year is to the Ladies Championship, where now it’s technically a $10,000 event but women will receive a hugely discounted price of $1,000. It’s probably the best way to severely discourage men from entering the tournament as their EV is ridiculous. Poker legend Linda Johnson expects that any man in the event would need to make the final table just to have a positive ROI.

I am interested to see how they handle any issues which arise with post- or pre-operative transgender players trying to enter the tournament. If they’ve made a comment about it, I haven’t seen it.

Back later this week with a more detailed 2013 WSOP schedule rundown later.

Tweet of the Day – Uber Limit guro Matt Matros with his take on the 2013 WSOP schedule.

I’m a very sad poker player tonight. Three Limit HE events (counting Mixed as Limit) taken off the schedule for 2013. #wsop

— Matt Matros (@Matt_Matros) February 15, 2013

Don’t get cheated on the Open-Face Chinese app – Huge news for those playing on the popular Open-Face Chinese Poker app and wagering on the side (as opposed to through the app itself, for now). There is obviously a HUGE security hole, so buyer beware. I’m surprised this hasn’t made a bigger splash but maybe most people already know who they’re playing against and trust them. Barry Greenstein is not one of those people.

Global Poker Index “suspends” two players from the system – GPI savior and guru Alex Dreyfus announced last week they were “suspending” Jean-Paul Pasqualini and Cedric Rossi after some very shady behavior at the 2009 Partouche Poker Tour final table. Seemingly well earned but does this restart the “Standards and Conduct Committee” discussion? Please say no.

Newsjacking and Poker Marketing – Speaking of the GPI, Barry Carter with a look at the trend of “newsjacking” to market a poker product. Not that uncommon or remotely new.

Tech Industry Sets Its Sights on Gambling – Another mainstream media article, this time by the NY Times discussing how online gaming companies are positioning themselves for onling gambling.

If you had looked into the London sky last night, you might have seen Barry Greenstein rotating slowly through the air like a hairy balloon. Which should have come as no surprise, were you standing at the base of the London Eye. Otherwise – I hope you enjoyed your drugs.

Barry, Vanessa Selbst, Antonio Esfandiari, Matt Matros, Ali Eslami, Jennifer ‘Jennicide’ Leigh, and Isaac Haxton were representing the U.S.A. in the Nations Cup. A duplicate poker tournament arranged by the International Federation of Poker, as part of the UK Festival of Mind Sports.

The action continues tonight inside the grand County Hall, which is directly behind where I was standing when I took that photo. Sadly, the UK team are already out of the running, but at least they have a short journey home.

While the two men left standing punch back-and-forth, it’s a good time to catch up on some of the other action that led up to this point … such as the entire careers of Linda Johnson and Barry Greenstein, who got inducted today, shortly before cards went in the air.

Pauly and I were there to bring it to you … or at least Pauly was, to tell me what I needed to know:

Nov. Nine – Poker Hall of Fame Ceremony (Ep 7) by taopokerati

Dan and Dr. Pauly chat about the 2011 Poker Hall of Fame induction ceremony honoring the new class — Lind Johnson and Barry Greenstein. They also revealed who exactly was on their ballots.

This license plate might make a nice inclusion in a more-real Poker “Hall” of Fame some day; for now we get Linda Johnson but not her car.

Congrats are in order for Linda Johnson and Barry Greenstein, as WSOP officials announced earlier today that they won the ballot race this year — and will be inducted into the Caesars-owned Poker Hall of Fame during the November Nine.

I still haven’t been able to find the actual “hall” anywhere on Google maps, but hey, at least there’s a list … which is included in the announcement below. Fwiw, whether right or wrong or historically consistent or not, a 2011 nomination (and subsequent induction) does seem to come with an extra stamp of approval for poker careers run on a clean path.

Barry seems incredibly deserving for his accomplishments mostly on the felt, with a little bit of important poker work off of it. He got 3 of my 10 votes.

Linda got 5 from me. Only the second women bestowed with the PHOF honor, she put up admirable numbers back in the day and still plays winning poker in medium-big mixed games during the WSOP … but really helped shape the direction of poker off the table as publisher of CardPlayer Magazine through the ’90s, a founding member of the TDA and PokerGives.org, and an instrumental force in the World Poker Tour, the PartyPoker Million, the general concept of “poker cruises”, and the Women in Poker Hall of Fame (which doesn’t have a hall either, but does have a fancy dinner with speeches, food, and booze; I do miss the grander fete for PHOF induction way-back in 2009 when Mike Sexton got in). Extra-charming to know the job she quit to pursue a career in poker was at the post office.

Scotty Nguyen got my remaining 2 votes, but did not get in.

More…

Matt Savage

---

OP-ED

My dedication to poker tournaments and the game itself is two decades old. Starting with my first foray into the role of tournament director in 1997 and through my founding of the Tournament Directors Association (TDA) with Linda Johnson, Jan Fisher, and Dave Lamb in 2001, I have worked tirelessly to standardize tournament rules and to make poker a better game for everyone involved.

This is the reason that we host the website www.PokerTDA.com, open the TDA to all interested parties, and make myself available on Twitter and other social media outlets. My passion for poker only grows when I share it with others.

The rule is not new, and does not ban table talk by any means … A recreational player may not understand, nor even care to know all the rules, but professionals who make a living at the game should.

During the 2011 World Series of Poker “nearly live” telecast from the Rio, I became aware of comments from Daniel Negreanu (@RealKidPoker) through my own Twitter feed (@SavagePoker). He said that the TDA created a “new” rule that banned table talk. This certainly is not the case and in hindsight, it was learned that he had received an incorrect ruling at the table that had nothing to do with TDA rules. Since social media has limited words with which to sufficiently explain the rule and its longtime existence, this clarification seems necessary.

The TDA board, in conjunction with tournament directors and card room managers, has donated thousands of hours to standardize rules in the best interest of the game.  When well-known poker players like Negreanu and Phil Hellmuth choose to say on national television that “the TDA has it wrong” and “does not care about what the players want,” it becomes personal.

More…

Special Monday afternoon program where we focus on Travis Makar’s latest bombshells about the UB scandal, as well as questions for Travis from Barry Greenstein.  Greenstein also confronts Druff about alleged mistreatment of his stepson Joe Sebok.  Druff talks about his unwillingness to confront Annette Obrestad at the WSOP for wearing a Full Tilt patch.  Micon obsesses over bitcoins.  We talk about Men the Master’s fracas with Hollywood Dave at a WSOP table.

download
[audio:http://www.donkdown.com/components/com_podcast/itunes/DDRadio-2011_06_06_22_00_44.mp3|titles=DonkDown Radio 06/06/2011 – Travis Makar & Barry Greenstein|autostart=no]

A Scot named Gingertoys with a new site called OneOuter.com interviewed Barry Greenstein, who discussed Phil Ivey … providing a bit closer glimpse at the angst and anger surrounding Ivey’s decision to file a $150 million lawsuit against Full Tilt and skip out on the 2011 WSOP.

Have a listen:
download
[audio:http://www.oneouter.com/wp-content/podcasts/greenstein.mp3]

The stuff we hadn’t heard before begins about 50:40.

After declaring that he “helped [Ivey] probably more than anyone” as he was coming up, Greenstein addresses his closeness to the situation and how much has yet to be told: “I’ve got friends on both sides at the moment … There’s more stuff behind the scenes that isn’t coming to light.”

In the interview, Barry talks of a phone call where Ivey — generally emotionless on TV and in public — is screaming for nearly 5 minutes. “I couldn’t get a word in edgewise.”

He also reveals the key to Ivey’s game being his “adapting to what his opponents are doing, and in real time figuring out a way to beat it.” I think Greenstein’s talking about poker here, but it could probably just as well apply to any off-table actions where millions of Ivey dollars are at stake.

He also says Ivey’s decision to skip the 2011 WSOP was independent of the lawsuit … that not only does Ivey want to be breaking records, but also he has several million dollars worth of bracelet bets he’s potentially surrendering.

This should be a big week, whether its days of explosion or fizzle. Some might contend poker has already changed just having gotten to where we are today — with US Senators actively engaged in decisions immediately affecting the way people play online poker in this country.

Though a bit more cynical than Howard Lederer’s take on the political game, Barry Greenstein offers his interesting take on how Washington DC works here … bits from an episode of Live at the Bike recorded on November 29, 2006 — shortly after George Bush signed the UIGEA into law:

Gotta wonder how Greenstein’s perspective may have changed in the past four years, as he has been at least peripherally involved in poker policy ever since he made a declaration in 2007 that we were six months away from legally mainstreamed online poker.

Disclaimer: I will not be able to do this column justice, hence I have changed the title somewhat to reflect that. Well…that and I’m probably much closer to 90% of the tournaments than Kevmath was.

NAPT :: Day 1a is in the books of the NAPT Los Angeles Main Event, taking place at the Bicycle Club in Bell Gardens, CA, which is a stones throw from Compton beautiful place to put a Casino. 330 players entered the first of two day 1s, and 162 players emerged after 10 levels of play with a day off and, in most cases, more chips. Nick Grippo leads the way so far with 235k, but there are plenty of notables still in the field:

• Scott Fischman – 224, 600
• John Phan – 101,400
• Jason Mercier – 95,000
• William Reynolds (or, that blond guy that was on The Big Game recently) – 93,000
• Issac Haxton – 75,000
• Justin Bonomo – 65,000

For every big stacked pro, there seemed to be a busted pro, and a lot of them were from the LA area: Adam Levy, Antonio Esfandiari, Soi Nguyen (yea he’s an amateur but he was in the November Nine so he’s a familiar name), and even Barry Greenstein found themselves felted by the end of the day. There is another day 1 to play though, so we’ll see who shows up and either scores big or goes home early.

In the last article we looked at the last four candidates for Poker Hall of Fame. So now its time to break down the votes that each player would get depending on the criteria of the hall, as well as some other fairly easy to determine metrics. What I will do is look at each criteria and metric and see who has the “edge”, similar to how its done in sports matchup previews.

The Hall of Fame’s criteria are:

• Player must have played against known top competition
• Played for high stakes
• Played consistently well, gaining respect of peers
• Stood the test of time
• Contributed to the overall growth and success of the game (this normally applies to non-players, but I think players should help in this aspect as well)

Some additional criteria to consider include:

• Tournament Success
• Cash Game Success
• Depth of Poker Knowledge (NLHE specialist vs. mixed game master)
• And..finally…public perception (because this is really important these days)

But, of course, there is a little battle to settle. While Dan Harrington and Erik Seidel cleared the hurdle, Barry Greenstein and Scotty Nguyen are neck-and-neck, so before we can do anything we have to settle a simple question, who (in my mind) is worthy of a vote?

More…

With the 2010 Hall of Fame voting underway amongst readers of Pokerati, it makes sense to try and take an objective look at the players to see what their contributions have been and whether they merit entry into the Hall come November. Now, there are standards that all voters are expected to consider during the process, and I hope to reflect that throughout this series. With that said, it does make sense to put up some stats on each player before delving into the reasons for why I would/wouldn’t vote for them, so here are the categories I will look into:

• Age (because I am a proponent of the Chip Resse Rule)
• Time active in poker as a professional
• Recognized Tournament/Cash Stakes played at both peak of performance and now
• Tournament Accolades (WSOP/WPT/EPT Titles/Cashes, relevant important other tournament wins)
• Contributions off the felt

At the end of each candidate I will add my own personal thoughts as well as how many points I would give a particular person (out of 10) if I felt like I just had to vote for the candidate on the ballot. Just for reference, I think I need to at least explain the “final score” a little bit. If a 1 is “Not Deserving” and a 10 is “Should have already been inducted”, and the other numbers are varying degrees between the two extremes. A 5 would be that they are deserving of entry in the hall, but not necessarily this year. So you can do the math to figure out where things far. At the end of this series, I will take the three highest point totals and use that to determine who I would vote for on my ballot for this year’s HoF class. I may not have a vote, but I might be able to help persuade others that may.

Because of the obvious length this would inevitably be if I did all 10 players in one go; I’ll be going in alphabetical order in a four part series. The first three, which you can see by clicking below, are Chris Ferguson, Barry Greenstein, and Jennifer Harman(-Traniello).

More…

Three more WSOP bracelets were rewarded in the overnight hours, with the first double-bracelet winner at this year’s WSOP, an original November Nine participant, and a first-time bracelet winner.

Kassela razzes Troy for 2nd bracelet

Continuing a streak that dates back to 2000, Frank Kassela won his second bracelet of this year’s WSOP, defeating Maxwell Troy heads-up in the $2,500 Razz, earning $214,085 and moving into a tie with John Juanda in the WSOP Player of the Year race. For his second runner-up finish at this year’s WSOP, Troy has to be consoled with $132,229. Full results available at wsop.com.

Montgomery makes most of opportunity, wins 1k NL

Scott Montgomery, an original November Nine participant, defeated Michael Carlson in heads-up play to win his first WSOP bracelet along with $481,760. Montgomery’s win also moves Canada into a tie for 2nd again with the United Kingdon in the world standings. Carlson earned $297,996 for the second-place finish. Full results and Nolan Dalla’s tournament report at wsop.com.

Kelly last man standing, wins shootout

The $1,500 No-Limit Holdem Shootout winner was Steven Kelly, defeating Jeffrey King heads-up, pocketing $381,927 and a coveted WSOP bracelet. Full results available at wsop.com.

Hellmuth and Greenstein feature PLO 8 final day

Only one bracelet to be awarded today, but the $1,500 Pot-Limit Omaha 8 or Better event could be one for the ages. Ryan Karp will lead the remaining 15 players with 564,000 chips, but the presence of Phil Hellmuth looms large as he’ll start 4th in chips with 331,000 in his ongoing quest for bracelet #12. Barry Greenstein (204,000) will be looking for another bracelet to add to his resume as well when play resumes at 2:30pm. The full chip counts are available at PokerNews.

Zheng zooms to day 1 lead in 1500 NL

Jackson Zheng (151,000) leads the 277 day 1 survivors in the $1,500 No-Limit Holdem when play resumes at 2:30pm, the money being reached when 270 remain. Notables in contention include: Humberto Brenes (146,400), Carter Phillips (122,100) Arnaud Mattern (107,500) and Dean Hamrick (86,000). Full chip counts online at PokerNews.

10k HORSE Day 2

Day 2 of the $10,000 HORSE resumes at 3pm with 164 players remaining. Sergey Altbregin leads with 143,000, to see the full list of chip counts, they’re available at PokerNews.

Thursday’s Tournament

Just one tournament today, starting at 12pm is the $2,500 Mixed Holdem, consisting of 30 minutes of no-limit holdem, followed by 30 minutes of limit-holdem. Last year’s tournament was won by Bahador Ahmadi defeating a field of 527, good for $278,804.

Recapping the rest of the Sunday night WSOP action, besides Durrrr finishing 2nd to Simon Watt in the $1,500 NL Holdem event:

Matros Wins Limit Holdem Bracelet

Matt Matros won the $1,500 Limit Holdem for $189,870, defeating Ahmad Abghari in heads-up play. The full results and Nolan Dalla’s tournament report is available at wsop.com.

Binger Highest at Lowball Final Table

The final table of the $1,500 No-Limit 2-7 Lowball, Single Draw final table resumes at 3pm with this lineup, you can follow all the tournament action over at PokerNews:

Seat 1: James Bord – 83,800
Seat 2: Alexander Kravchenko – 144,500
Seat 3: Mike Wattel – 146,000
Seat 4: Yan Chen – 182,500
Seat 5: Derric Haynie – 189,000
Seat 6: Nick Binger – 309,500
Seat 7: Todd Bui – 68,500

1k NL field combines for Day 2

Day 2 of the $1,000 No-Limit Holdem event drew a total field of 3,042 players, with 445 players remaining for a 2:30pm start. Andy Black is the current chip leader with 90,275 in chips. 324 players will make the money, with the winner pocketing $472,479. A full list of chip counts can be found at wsop.com.

Stud 8 World Championship

Marco Johnson will start day 2 of the $10,000 Seven Card Stud Hi/Lo World Championship as the chip leader (121,500) when play resumes at 3pm. Phil Ivey is currently in third place (109,800) with Jennifer Harman (93,500) and Barry Greenstein (88,700) towards the top of the leaderboard. The tournament drew a field of 170 entrants, with 112 remaining. 16 players make the money with a first place prize of $447,446. A full list of the remaining field is up at wsop.com.

First 6-max at this year’s WSOP

Monday’s only tournament is the $1,500 NL Holdem 6-Max event starting at noon. Last year’s winner was Ken “Teach” Aldridge, who defeated a field of 1,459 good for $428,259.

Recapping the Tuesday night action, with two events finishing earlier this morning:

Grinder chews up competition in 50k

Michael “The Grinder” Mizrachi overcame a 3-1 chip deficit during heads-up to defeat Vladimir Schemelev and win his first WSOP bracelet along with $1,500,000 in the $50,000 Players’ Championship . Schemelev collects over $960,000 with his runner-up finish. David Oppenheim, who was chip leader when the remaining five players took their dinner break, finished third for $603,348. John Juanda ($436,865) and Robert Mizrachi ($341,429) finished fourth and fifth respectively. You can read Nolan Dalla’s tournament report here.

Chow Main Man in Omaha 8

The other bracelet awarded this morning was the $1,500 Omaha 8 or Better event, won by Michael Chow, defeating long-time pro Dan Heimiller in heads-up action. Chow picks up $237,140 for the win, while Heimiller adds $146,505 to his long list of cashes. Full results for this event along with Nolan’s tournament report can be found over at wsop.com.

Final table set in $1,000 NL

The $1,000 No-Limit Holdem is down to a final table, resuming at 2:30pm after plans to play to a finish this morning were scuttled. The final table almost had the first father and son to play the same final table, but Irving Rice’s elimination in 10th place meant his son Richard would take up the charge to win a bracelet. Here’s how the final table will be seated, you can follow the live updates this afternoon at PokerNews.com:

Seat 1: Dash Dudley — 1,355,000
Seat 2: Bart Davis — 1,355,000
Seat 3: Nicholas Mitchell — 1,280,000
Seat 4: Deepak Bhatti — 400,000
Seat 5: Gabe Costner — 1,830,000
Seat 6: Richard Rice — 700,000
Seat 7: Aadam Daya — 2,855,000
Seat 8: Isaac Settle — 970,000
Seat 9: Cory Brown — 2,315,000

$1,500 NL down to 23 for Day 3

The $1,500 No-Limit Holdem event has 23 players remaining when play resumes at 2:30pm this afternoon, playing down to a winner. The chip leader is Vincent Jacques with 1,498,000. Notables remaining include Praz Bansi (616,000), online stars David Sands (628,000) and Yuval Bronshtein (498,000), along with three-time WSOP Circuit ring winner Dwyte Pilgrim (209,000). The full list of remaining players is available at wsop.com.

Shootout Day 2

36 players, each guaranteed $16,607, remain in the $5,000 No-Limit Holdem Shootout when play resumes at 2:30 today. The remaining players will be seated at six six-handed tables. Those winners return Thursday for the final table, with the winner earning $441,692. Among the notables who won their table yesterday: Chris Ferguson, John Duthie, Chad Brown, Tom Dwan, Christian Harder, Blair Hinkle and Justin “Boosted J” Smith. The list of survivors can be found here.

Hanna Leads Lowball Enthusiasts

The $2,500 2-7 Triple Draw drew a field of 291 entrants for a 5pm start. After ten levels thet field was reduced to 87, with Salim Hanna the chip leader with 65,400 when play resumes Wednesday at 3pm. Plenty of big names remain including Hoyt Corkins, Allen Kessler, Jeff Lisandro, Scott Seiver, Ted Forrest, Barry Greenstein, and Archie Karas. For Team Pokerati followers, Tom Schneider finished 12th with 43,200 in chips, Pat Poels was 46th with 21,000, while Julie Schneider was eliminated on day 1. A full list of chip counts will be available soon at wsop.com.

More No-Limit On Tap

Wednesday has just one event starting today, the second $1,500 No-Limit Holdem event of the WSOP, with a 12pm start. The second $1,500 of the 2009 WSOP was won by Pete “The Greek” Vilandos, winning over $600,000 in a field of 2,506. PokerNews will have constant updates available throughout the day as the field plays ten one-hour levels.

Kiplinger’s, the DC-based publisher of business forecasts and personal finance advice, appears to have “gotten” poker. A senior editor there attended a WPT boot camp (for a compilation story on adult camps), and before long he started seeing the world of investing and finance as a poker player … and that spawned a three-part series relating poker to all things economic.

Check it out … they’re all good reads:

INVESTOR PSYCHOLOGY
How Poker Can Make You a Better Investor
Learn to avoid emotional traps by playing a little Texas hold ’em.

STOCKS & BONDS
How Texas Hold ‘Em Simulates Investing
Both are based on incomplete and unfolding information.

STOCKS & BONDS
How Deepak Chopra Helped Me Play Poker Better
A device featuring the wellness guru taught me to keep my emotions under control.

And then, to top it all off, in yet another article in the January issue, they quote Barry Greenstein about investment risk:

Barry Greenstein, for instance, is a poker player by profession, so you might think he’d be prone to gambling with his portfolio. Instead, Greenstein buys utility stocks and municipal bonds, and says he follows his father’s advice: “You can play poker, but don’t trade commodities.”

So in conclusion, if I am surmising this right, the key to personal financial success in 2010 is play more poker. OK, got it.

(This, btw, is probably a good-for-poker message to go out to Kiplinger’s subscribers.)