Annie Duke is one of two special guests on this episode, as we hear about her new poker league and hit her with the tough questions about UB and Russ Hamilton.  We talk about the situation with Johnathan Epstein final tabling the Ladies’ WSOP Event with veteran poker reporter Michele Lewis.  Brandon airs his beef with WSOP Tournament Director Jack Effel, who blocked him on Twitter!  We catch up with Dustin “neverwin” Woolf, one of the original founders of this site, and learn about his life in downtown Las Vegas.[audio:http://www.donkdown.com/components/com_podcast/itunes/DDRadio-2011_07_06_18_59_57.mp3|titles=DonkDown Radio 07/06/11|autostart=no]

All have heard by now about the constantly streaming broadcast by the Quadjacks crew … but before they existed, and perhaps giving them credibility from the get-go, the crew at Donkdown were the originators of raw poker radio. We used to never give much credence to anything live … if I couldn’t listen at my own convenience in podcast form, what was the point?

I’ll have to reassess my internet radio philosophy after the Pokerpacolypse dust settles … but in the meantime, I’m waiting in the wings now to go on the show where no one is supposed to be able to get away with any BS, but in exchange, anyone can get a say.

Should be a fun episode as some semblance of sensibility is starting to emerge. I suspect to be called out rather harshly for running an op-ed from a former UB lawyer telling people their money is presumably gone forever the day before the DOJ said they could get it back. (Clearly they’ve been reading and listening and didn’t want me to make any wagers, so thanks guys, for putting out such a statement before it was too late!)

Donkdown Radio Live. Listen here.

DonkDown Radio:

The guys over at DonkDown are known for their pursuit in getting to the bottom of things in the UB Poker scandal. This weeks show gets off to an unexpected start when Travis Makar calls into the show. For those not familiar with Travis he was linked to the scandal in the report put together by our friends over at Wicked Chops. Travis makes mention of the missing hand histories and recordings that are being used in a federal case. For those that are interested in just the UB part of the show should skip ahead to the 30:30 mark and enjoy the ride for around the next hour. You can listen to the show at the DonkDown site or subscribe and download it via iTunes.

Two Plus Two Pokercast:

This week the guys have one of the new team PokerStars members, Andrew Brokos, on the show but the main feature of the show is Eugene Katchalov. Eugene comes on and discusses his move to the US and some day trading before getting into the SuperStar Showdown that did not got his way. Eugene talks about how he prepared for the match by playing against Daniel Negreanu and then how the match actually went. Finally he discusses his Super High Roller win from the PCA. Listen to the show at the Two Plus Two Pokercast site or download it on iTunes.

PocketFives Podcast:

After giving you guys two podcast that have run times of over two hour each here is one that just eclipses the thirty minute mark. The guys over at PocketFives are joined by Lauren Kling this week to discuss her recent success, along with how she got started playing poker. Lauren also discusses how trying to make it in the poker world as a female can be difficult due to guys not wanting to give her the credit. Overall it is a good and short interview full of information from Lauren, check out the PocketFives Podcast on their site or via iTunes.

A sign seen in the new Aviator Casino, in Delano, California, reminding me of a difference between casinos regulated in lands we know well and virtual establishments based out of places that may or may not exist beyond our poker imaginations:

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DonkDown Radio:

This is the first time that I have actually listened to this show, due to me not being a fan of Podcast that extend past the 2 hour mark. After just listening to this episode it easily moves into the must listen weekly list. This week Jimmy “Gobboboy” Fricke comes in and the discussion goes from poker to Magic the Gathering. Kristy Arnett comes on next to discuss her recent mini-FTOPs win and is put on the spot with this weeks Dirty Half Dozen where things go from R rated to XXX rated. Check out the latest episode at the DonkDown site or subscribe and download it via iTunes.

Final Table Poker Radio:

The guys from St. Louis come back this week to further discuss the Reid bill with John Pappas of the PPA. John sounded a lot less hopeful that the bill will be passed before years end and gives some thoughts on where things go from here. The discussion does move off the Reid bill this week and goes into antes in cash games and the Bellagio heist. If you want to listen to the entire show or catch up on previous show you can either visit The Final Table site or check it out on iTunes.

3 Gentlemen:

Brian Hastings joins the 3 Gentlemen crew this week to discuss the love between him and Isildur. The guys also discuss their sports betting losses over the past week. These guys really like to talk their sports so if that is something that you really would like to listen to then check them out on Cardrunners or subscribe on iTunes.

Sorry, meant to get this out to y’all earlier … occurred to me tunes might work better than video for the holiday weekend, and poker podcasts better than that … so here’s some stuff that caught my ear for an extended period of time in recent days/weeks … I’m gonna presume you already listen to, and probably subscribe to The Poker Beat, the definitively #1 podcast in poker, you know, according to the readers of Bluff Magazine and WPT-Poker, which is the official magazine of the World Poker Tour in Europe. But if you can handle more than that, you might wanna perma-connect with these shows, too — via iTunes, RSS, or muscle memory:

Donkdown vs. Coolio

Donkdown Radio :: The always-NSFW working-class Vegas grinders at Donkdown went to war with Coolio last month before moving on to better things (like hunting down @asianspa). This feud started a few weeks back with an on-air story about how the aging rap star, a recent relo to Vegas, showed up at Binion’s during BARGE … allegedly to buy drugs from a player attending Barry Tanenbaum’s keynote address … only to end up with pictures of himself passed out butt-naked (literally) on the Donkdown forum. Coolio even came on their show and sang a few bars of Gangsta’s Paradise before getting hip to Brandon and Micon’s game a few days later, at which point they allege he began threatening to retaliate … right after the next season of Ultimate Big Brother. [Link]

Laak Extra-Whack

The Strip Podcast :: A worthy leftover from the summertime WSOP … Vegas culture blogger and New York Times stringer Steve Freiss’ talking to Phil Laak 114 hours into his record 115-hour poker-endurance run. If you thought Laak ever said weird shit before, listen to the twisted gems Freiss pulls out of him (or stumbles into) tableside during his final hands. [Link]

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The WSOP may be over and the vanity plates dispersed across Vegas and Southern Cali, but we still have lotsa leftover pics from the Rio’s summertime parking lots (and others around town) … providing a unique glimpse of the poker players populating America’s roadways.

Yep. Standard raise:

We know this Bentley belongs to David Williams — am extra-smooth ride befitting a WPT World Champ for the long haul from Panorama Towers.

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As you may or may not have realized, I took it extra easy today (yesterday) … left KevMath in charge.

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Last Saturday, according to the Donkdown forum (some images NSFW), Lacey Jones let Brian Micon and Todd Witteles know she is no longer a part of Absolute Poker. Lacey will be appearing as a presenter for Full Til’s Doubles Poker Championship, airing in mid-July on GSN. Further details weren’t available, but I’d think they mention this news on DonkDown’s Cold Call show, airing Wednesday night around 7:30pm PT.

Unconfirmed … but that’s the word we’re spreading, based on possibly drinky information from a semi-reliable source, a presumably reliable source, and a plausibly reliable source.

The status of PokerPages has been up in the air ever since they announced they’d be closing up shop effective Oct. 31. That day passed and they still kept publishing — and even sent two reporters to cover the November Nine. But no original content has been put up on the site since Dec. 3. Everyone was expecting some sort of sale, and now that has apparently gone through.

PokerPages, of course, is one of the oldest poker information sites on the internet — having reported on tournaments since 2000 … and having built a massive tourney/player/results database in the process.

What PokerStars plans to do with a site they haven’t yet told many people they’ve bought (or intend to buy) remains to be seen.

Meanwhile, the transition from NeverwinPoker to Donkdown seems complete — with the old NWP forums successfully transfered over to their new home. Donkdown is now a Bryan Micon and Todd Witteles (aka “Dan Druff”) joint, with no more Tony G or Dustin Woolf, who is now the lone face for his namesake site.

Speaking of forums … 2+2 honcho Mason Malmuth has sued Dutch Boyd (and a guy named Anthony Scocozza) over domain squatting issues.

Oh, and our once-superbeloved PokerBlog.com … yeah, they’re apparently gone. For at least the past week, visiting the site gives you this message:

Fatal error: Table ‘./pokerblog/cache’ is marked as crashed and should be repaired query: SELECT data, created, headers FROM cache WHERE cid = ‘variables’ in /home/pokerblogcom/public_html/includes/database.mysql.inc on line 66

R.I.P. Yeah, seems kinda appropriate. PokerBlog was/is a PartyPoker operation … but now they seem to be focussing blogging efforts on their more official company blog.

UPDATE: PokerBlog is back. Looks like we can expect some WPT coverage there.