Huff, Dan, Jess, BJ, and even Stapleton (with the return of the Tight Laydown?):

The Poker Beat: October 24, 2010

[audio:http://www.pokerroad.com/download/the-poker-beat:86]

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• Poker Hall of Fame inductees Harrington and Seidel, age-minimum debates, and comparisons to Rock & Roll Hall of Fame
• Anonymous tables at Ladbrokes
• Crespo’s Illinois online poker lawsuit — significant or frivolous?
• More on WSOP-C’s new power and purpose?
• WPT-Festa al Lago FT, Randall Flowers, and the Jess & BJ Show
• Phil Ivey is gay? Craps + multi-phallus fellatio promises at the Wynn

Just a quick post in case you haven’t already heard, but the WSOP has announced the Poker Hall of Fame Class of 2010. The winners, Dan Harrington and Erik Seidel, are almost exactly at least pretty close to the choices that this non-voting member made in a series on the subject last month, but is actually exactly how the Pokerati non-scientific poll voted this time around.

Both these players boost incredibly long resumes and seem very deserving of the honor. Dan Harrington is the 1995 Main Event champion and has made the final table of said Main Event a staggering 4 times, including back-to-back appearances in 2003 and 2004. His books are probably what he’s most known for by many that have entered the poker world post-boom, and has helped many players get through their first few tournaments knowing the basics. Erik Seidel doesnt have the books to go for, but he can point to his bracelets instead to show why he is being inducted. 8 WSOP bracelets, helping launch Full Tilt, and his impact for being in “Rounders” all gave the voters good reason to vote him in. He may have taken some heat in some circles for being a vocal critic of hole card cams, but if his tournament record post-boom is any indication it doesn’t seem to have affected him that much.

Congratulations to both Harrington and Seidel for their induction into the Poker Hall of Fame! Two very deserving individuals get in, and the countdown to electing Phil Ivey at age 40 goes down another year.

Voting is closed. Your votes never really counted anyway, nor probably should they, because they don’t match up very closely with how my blue-ribbon 10/330 went. Frankly, I have a feeling the Pokerati masses can be asses will come much closer to how the real 2010 Hall of Fame inductions go. As for now, around these parts, Harrington and Seidel are clear frontrunners:

(In the real voting top two get in.)

Dan Harrington – 157
Erik Seidel – 97
Linda Johnson – 56
Phil Ivey – 54
Barry Greenstein – 49
Tom McEvoy – 25
Chris Moneymaker (write-in) – 20
Scotty Nguyen – 20
Chris Ferguson – 16
Daniel Negreanu -12
Jennifer Harman – 4

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…

The Poker Hall of Fame voting is upon us, and with only two weeks until voting closes, its time to look at three more nominees for induction. Last time Chris Ferguson, Barry Greenstein, and Jennifer Harman were analyzed and picked apart, ultimately resulting in a single number signifying my personal feeling toward that player’s admission to the hall. Overall, the three players received the following scores:

• Chris Ferguson: 4
• Barry Greenstein: 7
• Jennifer Harman-Traniello: 2

This time around we look at Dan Harrington, Phil Ivey, and Linda Johnson, and you can see how they stack up after the jump.

More…

The official ballot has been released … so basically I’ve got about three weeks to choose Mike Sexton and one other guy from this list, in alphabetical order:

BARRY GREENSTEIN
DAN HARRINGTON
PHIL IVEY
TOM McEVOY
MEN NGUYEN
SCOTTY NGUYEN
DANIEL NEGREANU
ERIK SEIDEL
MIKE SEXTON

I see two who definitely won’t get my vote. As for the rest, will have to give them some thought. It’s gonna be a tough call. I’ll probably do a bracket.

Click below for the official press release on it all, giving the criteria, PHOF schedule, etc.:

More…

Doyle Brunson has become quite open in his blogs and tweets over the past year or so, which is great for poker, in my opinion. Being privy to his opinions on issues gives the poker community a perspective from one who’s been in the game longer than most. His latest “deep thoughts” pertain to the Poker Hall of Fame, as his membership in the elite club garners him a chance to vote on this year’s list of nominees.

He pulls no punches, noting in his latest blog post that Mike Sexton is his top pick, and he also likes Tom McEvoy, Erik Seidel, Scotty Nguyen, and Barry Greenstein. Interesting that he notes he’s admired Men the Master’s “work ethic” for years without any mention of numerous and widespread allegations of him cheating in live games.

With Doyle ready to make his picks, his thoughts likely echo many of the other Hall of Fame voters. See below for specifics:

More…

Hundreds of people voted online at www.wsop.com to create the 2009 nominees for the Poker Hall of Fame, with the top 10 to be voted on by the living Poker Hall of Fame members and 15 members of the poker media. Here’s the list of the 10 nominees, in alphabetical order:

Tom Dwan
Barry Greenstein
Dan Harrington
Phil Ivey
Tom McEvoy
Men Nguyen
Scotty Nguyen
Daniel Negreanu
Erik Seidel
Mike Sexton

The entire press release after the jump:
More…

The Day 1c field has returned from its dinner break a few minutes ago, with two more levels to play today. The difference between this field and the first two Day 1’s is that the field as well as tomorrow’s field will play 5 two-hour levels. When Day 2a commences Tuesday, they’ll also play 5 two-hour levels, while the Day 2b field will play 4 levels. A field of 1,697 were registered today, and there’s a possibility that Monday’s Day 1d field could be sold out. If not, it will certainly be the largest Day 1 field with well about 2,300 already registered.

Notable names already eliminated: Annie Duke, Daniel Negreanu, Evelyn Ng, John Caldwell, Lacey Jones, Chino Rheem, and Jamie Gold. The unofficial leader at this time is Jeff Lisandro, looking for his 4th bracelet this year, leading the field with 132,000 in chips. Other notables with stacks include Hevad Khan (94,000), Joe Hachem (88,000), David Singer (78,000), Justin Bonomo (56,800), Brett “gank” Jungblut (51,000), Scotty Nguyen (49,000), and Dan Harrington (47,500). Other chip counts and live updates can be found at the wsop.com site here.

More updates later this evening from Team Pokerati, and another update from me in the morning recapping who’s left at the end of the night.

As you may or may not know, Dr. Pauly skipped town for a few days to go “see a band” (WTF?) … That left Benjo and me to report on the final table of the Champions Invitational: Tom McEvoy beats Dan Harrington and Robert Varkonyi to win himself a Corvette and, of course, the plausibly coveted Binion Cup … providing him sellable items should he ever need a little bankroll stimulus. And we hear about Phil Hellmuth’s oddly graceful 10:1 hands-shaken to hands-played ratio as he, like Pauly, makes an early but not-so-unexpected exit at the WSOP … temporarily derailing an Angry Frenchman’s plans to stage a potentially violent coup.

Tao of Pokerati at the 40th WSOP
Las Vegas, NV

Episode 11.14: Early Exits
5:00
[audio:tao/TaoPokerati_WSOP_ChampsInv_14.mp3,tao/TaoPokerati_WSOP_Outro_Benjo.mp3]

Brought to you by Phish Coventry and psilocybin.

The $1,500 Pot Limit Omaha event started at noon today, and it appeared they were competing with the two Day 1’s of the $1,000 NL Holdem Stimulus Special in terms of winnowing the field in a hurry. As the players go on their dinner break, just 198 players remain from a starting field of 809. There’s a chance that the field will be able to make the money, as 81 players will get paid, with first place taking down just over $237,000. The 75% reduction of the field in the PLO event is greater than the 67% decimation that hit the $1k NL event this past weekend. The early leaders appear to be Jason Mercier and Jesse Rios, both over 70,000 in chips. Other notables still with a chance: Josh Arieh, Amnon Filippi, Shannon Shorr, David Sklansky and Andy Black.

In games where you use two cards, the $1k Stimulus Special is on their dinner break, with play scheduled to end at 3am with the belief that a final table will be close at hand. Zach Melaney appears to be the chip leader (260,000). Notables near the top include J.C. Tran (200,000), Jonathan Aguiar (140,000), Steve Sung (90,000) and Will “The Thrill” Failla (76,000).

The WSOP Champions Invitational is currently three-handed as Tom McEvoy, Robert Varkonyi and Dan Harrington are playing for the Binion Cup and 1970 Corvette. Probably not the final three the ESPN cameras were hoping for, but that’s poker for you.

The $10,000 7 Card Stud World Championship drew a smaller than expected field of 142, down 16 from last year. However, plenty of poker’s elite still make up the field such as: Phil Ivey, Greg Raymer, Tony G, Barry Greenstein, David Singer, John Hennigan and Chau Giang. Updates on all of these events can be found at www.worldseriesofpoker.com all night.

Clearly not that closely related.

Hmm, all this time I thought …

Padraig Harrington, brother not-the-brother of poker-great Dan Harrington, won the British Open yesterday at Royal Birkdale in Scotland. Congrats, distant-cousin (several times removed) to poker! That’s two-in-a-row at the British Open for Harrington — making him the first European to repeat in more than 100 years. Wow.

Meanwhile, a lot of people have finally read and are talking about the more pokery Harrington’s new(ish) back-to-back cash game books. Supposedly they’re great — that’s what everynone’s saying. I’m starting to wonder if one of the reasons I’m doing so poorly in golf tournaments these days isn’t because I’m one of the few players who hasn’t read his Iliad on tournament play yet.