It occurred to me I couldn’t just leave “Doyle Brunson Dies” as the final post on this blog. That would be like ending Star Wars after The Force Awakens. But it’s a new era for poker, indeed. Records already are falling, and we’re almost certain the Main Event will finally break the 2006 record for largest field. And goodbye Rio All-Suites Hotel and Casino … the Horseshoe is the World Series of Poker’s new home. Sad that both Mike Sexton and Brunson aren’t around to see it.

The WSOP’s last year at Binion’s Horseshoe, downtown, was in 2004, which also happened to be Pokerati’s first WSOP. Our traffic then was about 12, and our editorial strategy was to tell friends in Texas what was going on in Las Vegas — complete with results of local players they might recognize from the Dallas underground. To promote this new blog thing, I printed up business cards with this site’s web address and the tagline, “Dude, are you thinking ’bout poker?” I left them atop the urinals at Binion’s men’s rooms (captive audience) and watched the traffic quickly grow to about 40.

It was a good run, but now it’s time for me to move on. Actually, 10 years ago was probably an even better time. But so is now, on the cusp of another poker growth spurt — if not another poker boom, then definitely a poker surge. For certain, a new poker era.

For years, “Doyle Brunson Dies” has been the default placeholder headline in poker media discussions about how you would handle a super-big story that every news outlet is gonna have, and every player is gonna care about.

By now y’all have presumably heard, Doyle Brunson, the Godfather of Poker, Texas Dolly, Ten-Deuce, died Sunday in a Las Vegas hospital at age 89. We all knew it was inevitable — death and taxes, right? — but in recent years we could hear the clock ticking a bit louder …

Brunson literally wrote the book on how we play the game. Sure, a lot has happened since Super/System, in theory or otherwise. But none of the players in today’s game would’ve existed without Doyle Brunson. (Some of today’s crushers weren’t even born until Brunson already had seven or eight World Series of Poker bracelets.)

His final tally, of course, was 10 bracelets, including two in the WSOP Main Event. Even though those won in 1976 and ’77 were against fields the size of an elementary school classroom, back then there was far less dead money for the taking and the players he beat were among the best in the world.

And that’s part of what made Doyle so special. The when didn’t matter — Brunson was ageless, even as he aged. He held his own year after year, session after session … at the WSOP, on the WPT, in Bobby’s Room, on High Stakes Poker, and sometimes even online. He did it all. He wrestled with the old dogs with quiet bravado and took on the young guns without fear. And even as poker evolved, he adjusted, and never stopped playing a winning game.

It’s just part of why he mattered so much — and will continue to matter — to millions in a world he immeasurably shaped.

In this week’s episode, er, I mean last week’s … Andrew embarks on the Las Vegas Strip low-stakes Summer circuit (Rio, Venetian, Caesars Palace, Bellagio, Aria, Wynn …) only to make a valiant 0-fer run, leaving us time to discuss a caravan of high-stakes cash games sprouting up around town — it’s open-face Chinese blossoming at the Rio, Doyle popping up at the Venetian, and Doyle doing his best Deadmau5 in the Ivey Room. Meanwhile Dave takes a look at the Carnevale of Poker and the fields it draws, and we all get a chuckle out of getting so drunk at the Carnival Court that you’re banned forever from the WSOP. (Surely no one will get that drunk at the premiere party for the online poker documentary Bet Raise Fold, right?) All that and some patch bonuses available for those willing to pimp for WSOP.com, Ultimate Poker, and/or those crazy kinds at QuadJacks.

Vegas Grinders 1.18
[audio: https://pokerati.com/podcast/VegasGrinders/VG1point18.mp3]

Ray Henson
Photo: WSOP.com

Today’s Boxscore

Reece Lewis £80,000 – WPTN London Main Event
Ray Dehkharghani $235,931 – 2013 Wynn Poker Classic
Ray Henson $16,128 – WSOP-C The Lodge Casino Prelim

The week has finally come to an end with a good number of gambling degenerates from the poker world glued to the television watching, betting, cursing the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament. It’s a fun time of year for those who like to diversify their gambling dollar but not so much for those on Twitter who only endorse messages about things which interest them.

This week saw Ray Henson win his 2nd WSOP-C ring of 2013 at a place called The Lodge in Colorado (not to be confused with the old Pokerati games at The Lodge back during the golden old days). The WSOP-C Main Event is now underway with 3 starting days and a $1,675 buy-in. Also underway is the overly-complicated PartyPoker Premier League VI in London featuring a ton of your favorite players and a super live stream with Kara Scott. The only outcome noticed so far was a bad beat on Daniel Negreanu to send him back to Vegas before the WSOP-APAC.

Link Dump

Tweet of the Day – You can’t argue with the tongue-in-cheek sentiment. So when/what/where is this Ivey Poker thing going to happen? (h/t @Kevmath)

It seems like IveyPoker and Nevada are in a race to see who can have the largest group of people doing nothing.

— Pokerlolz (@pokerlolz) March 22, 2013

Highway to Hell – An interesting read about old school gambling in Texas along the Jacksboro Highway complete with stories/quotes from Doyle Brunson.

Parx Takes Lead In Monthly Poker Revenue – As an east coast boy I find this pretty shocking. When Pennsylvania began opening casinos and card rooms, everyone shrugged their shoulders saying it would have little impact on the games in AC. I guess they might have been wrong and kudos to Matt Glantz for getting Parx ahead.

Phil Ivey To Captain Team Americas in WSOP Asia-Pacific Caesars Cup – The WSOP Asia Pacific series is just a few weeks away and they’ve announced the captains for the latest effort to make the Caesars Cup something interesting. Phil Ivey (Team Americas), Sam Trickett (Team Europe), and Joe Hachem (Team Asia-Pacific) will now “draft” their teams.

Vertical Rush from PokerStars.com – I’m not exactly sure what I’m watching in this video other than it’s a bunch of people running up 42 floors of some building in London, includes Liv Boeree, and appears to have been recorded using mid-1990’s video technology.

Daniel Negreanu and Phil Hellmuth arrive for the NBC Heads-Up draw party, even though Negreanu opted out to spend the weekend with friends.

NBC’s $25,000 buy-in National Heads-Up Poker Championship invitational tournament is decidedly made-for-television .

The draw party Wednesday night felt like little more than a chance to hobnob with the who’s who of televised poker and online wunderkinds, from Brunson to Hellmuth to Jungleman and ZeeJustin.

But after a Black Friday-induced hiatus, some in the poker world say the return of the event to the Caesars Palace poker room signals a step forward for poker in the U.S.

Caesars Entertainment Interactive, which recently acquired a license to operate online poker in Nevada, presented its wsop.com as part of the event for the  first time since the tournament began in 2005.

Mori Eskandani, the producer of the show, called it ‘good news’ for the industry that NBC wants poker back.

The matches start Thursday afternoon, and they’ll crown a champion on Saturday.

This year, Phil Hellmuth, who arrived to the party Wednesday night in his dictator coat, squares off against Mike Sexton in round one. Daniel Negreanu, meanwhile, has opted out to spend the weekend with friends. That made room for David “Doc” Sands, who put up something of a fit after he didn’t get a direct invite.

Anyway, here’s how the bracket shapes up for the first round. First place is $750,000. Anyone else got Jennifer Tilly going all the way?

The Poker Hall of Fame will induct Eric Drache and the late Brian “Sailor” Roberts as the organization’s 43rd and 44th members during the final table of the World Series of Poker’s Main Event later this month.

The pair were nominated by the public and voted in by a 36-person panel made up of existing Poker Hall of Famers and members of the media.

Roberts, who died in 1995, won the World Series of Poker’s $10,000 buy-in No Limit Hold’em World Championship in 1975. He was best known as a member of poker’s old guard of “Texas Road Gamblers,” along with Hall of Famers Doyle Brunson and the late Amarillo Slim.

More…

Yorane Kerignard
Photo: World Poker Tour

Today’s Boxscore

Yorane Kerignard $182,292 – World Poker Tour Malta
Daniel Chaky $40,773 – WSOPC Bossier City Event #4
Lance Garcia $18,449 – WSOPC Bossier City Event #5
Robin Vannucci $17,711 – WSOPC Bossier City Event #6
Jonathan Taylor $16,201 – WSOPC Bossier City Event #7
Walan Kite $16,350 – WSOPC Bossier City Event #8

Plenty of action around the poker world, both on and off the tables. This week has one new WPT winnner, a boatload of new WSOP Circuit ring owners, and a new WPT Borgata Poker Open champion at some point later today. That final table has an interesting cast of characters including Steve Brecher, David Diaz, and Tyler Patterson after fan favorite Matt Brady was eliminated on the TV table bubble after a nasty beat. They are playing for over $800,000 and a shiny trophy.

The big news is off the table as PokerNews released their 7-part interview with Howard Lederer talking about the Full Tilt implosion, Black Friday, and pointing fingers at the entire universe with barely a mention of his role in the mess. There is a lot of information to get through and it is sometimes tough to listen. The interview does not provide many new facts not known already inside the poker world but it does confirm some stories.

It also provides plenty of ammunition for those who refuse to blame everyone responsible. Lederer and Bitar deserve every ounce of venom spewed their way (except for the death threats, those are childish/dangerous) but there is a set of people unwilling to spread it around. Phil Ivey and his ridiculous lawsuit. The list of people who gladly took massive “loans” against the player funds. The board members who didn’t immediately remove Bitar the moment they realized the mess they were in. They all deserve to be put on blast.

You can catch all 7 parts on the PokerNews YouTube channel.

Link Dump

Tweet of the Day – Sweet holy mother of collusion. And right there on the Twitter machine for everyone to see.

That’s annoying!!! My horse opens and I have AA so I can’t 3bet,cuz I don’t Wna bust him,haha! Then ignored my gut and stacked off on Q52 ss

— Sam Trickett (@Samtrickett1) September 20, 2012

Two legends speak out in support of “Sailor” Roberts’ nomination for Poker Hall of Fame – (All caps title rewritten to save mine eyes) Nolan Dalla has been pumping out all kinds of top notch content since relaunching his website covering everything from politics to poker to sports. This time around he gets the opinion of Doyle Brunson and Crandell Addington about why Brian “Sailor” Roberts should be inducted this year.

Canadian man pleads guilty to conspiracy and gambling charges in NY Internet poker crackdown – Another one of those indicted on Black Friday will be heading off to lovely white collar prison when former Full Tilt payment processor Nelson Burtnick plead guilty to conspiracy and gambling charges. What do you mean it’s illegal to make gambling transactions look like something other than gambling transactions?

Phil Galfond Sues For Share Of Bluefire Poker Profits – I’ve often wondered what kind of traffic/business/signups these training sites pulled in and now we may have a little insight. Galfond was part of the Bluefire startup and made ~$400k over the first two years and now suing for his 2011 share.

BOOM documentary blog – After a few hiccups along the way, like a little government action on 15 April 2011, it looks like those behind the documentary BOOM are about ready to release their work product. I look forward to see it when released, below is the trailer they released over a year ago, and they have submitted the documentary to the Sundance Film Festival.

Antonio Esfandiari receives a really big check, with a really big number
Photo: WSOP.com/Jay “WhoJedi” Newnum

All three starting days of the WSOP Main Event are in the books and the numbers are in. A total of 6,598 registered for the tournament meaning attendance is down for only the 4th time in WSOP history*. First place pays out $8,527,982 and a nifty new bracelet, the final 7 are all guaranteed a 7-digit payday. They are paying an evil 666 spots and min-cash will earn $19,227.

Day 2A and 2B are now underway in the Amazon, Brasilia, and Pavilion Rooms. Both restarts are playing indepent of the other and will not combine until Day 3 on Wednesday. 657 players survived Day 1A and 1,387 on Day 1B. Five full levels of play today with 2,300 players returning tomorrow for Day 2C.

* 1991/92 – 215 players to 201
2006/07 – 8,773 players to 6,358 (thank you UIEGA)
2008/09 – 6,844 players to 6,358 (thank you horrible WSOP planning)

Day 1A Top/Notable Counts:

William John – 266,700
Chance Kornuth – 141,775
Leo Wolpert – 128,300
Eric Baldwin – 123,150
Faraz Jaka – 115,775
Karina Jett – 68,550
Wendeen Eolis – 55,100
David Williams – 9,100
Kenneth Shelton – 1,225
Complete Day 1A Chip Counts

Day 1B Top/Notable Counts:

John Hoang – 180,000
Vanessa Selbst – 168,350
Jason Somerville – 144,725
Daniel Negreanu – 140,575
Maria Ho – 138,425
Ignatius J. Reilly – 127,272
Shaun Deeb – 125,900
Tom Scheider – 53,500
Matt Keikoan – 5,125
Complete Day 1B Chip Counts

Day 1C Top/Notable Counts:

Jason Laso – 240,350
Brandon Adams – 153,100
Jake Cody – 124,775
Paul McGuire – 120,420
Joe Cada – 117,375
Jason Young – 76,300
Phil Ivey – 11,200
Jack King – 1,000
Complete Day 1C Chip Counts

Link Dump

Tweet of the Day – It seemed like Doyle Brunson was going to stand by his decision to skip the Main Event this year, but backed off the idea and survived Day 1C with 81,400. The WSOP just wouldn’t be the same without Texas Dolly in the Main.

I’m having second thoughts about playing the main event. I’m pretty tired after all this playing but it’s such a great event! 3 hours left.

— Doyle Brunson (@TexDolly) July 9, 2012

Ok I’m I’n the tournament. Just saw my friend Chuck get broke on a 2 outer. Ouch!

— Doyle Brunson (@TexDolly) July 9, 2012

Ivey League: A One-on-One Interview with Phil Ivey – Ivey has been pretty tight lipped over the years and rarely gives interviews. Nolan Dalla always gets his story, he was summoned to the Ivey travelling mansion for a little sitdown.

Celebrities Playing 2012 World Series of Poker Main Event – CardPlayer has your rundown of the famous non-poker celebs who played in the Main Event. Causing the most buzz was Shane Warne, not for his play but because his fiancé Elizabeth Hurley was on the rail.

Darvin Moon Slams Jeffrey Pollack Over HPT Acquisition – If Darvin Moon calls you a douchebag, then you’re a douchebag. Pretty much sums the response of every single employee who was just screwed over (your humble author as well).

WSOP VIDEO: Main Event Day 1C Headlines & Highlights – BLUFF video team keeps the updates fun and carefree, plus a lot of bloopers.

Be sure to check out our new sponsors at Face Up Gaming. Legal, subscription-based online poker with plenty of great prizes including cash, WSOP seats, and poker trips. Sign up with Bonus Code pokerati.

Kevmath has arrived to play the $10k WSOP main event. He’s currently in the process of trying to collect his pledges, which is clearly a different game than funding a $235 deep stack stab via Twitter. Lets hope his rungood starts today for a final Day 1 buy-in tomorrow … because really, with a new era that doesn’t include Doyle Brunson in the WSOP main event upon us (he’s opting out this year for what I think is only like the third time) don’t we all really need a Kevmath to be properly funded, if not fully backed?

With these kinda arrangements in mind, Pokerati has been working on a basic legal boilerplate to cover typical poker staking arrangements. We’re still working on a few revisions, and customizable blanks to accommodate a variety of backing scenarios. It’s not official yet, and thus not certain to be admissible in court — hey, you get what you pay for — but let me know if you think there’s anything missing or superfluous, especially if you are a practicing attorney in Nevada.

Here is a generic document to solidify your monetary promises in poker, regardless of unfortunate rivers or acts of nature.

Now all we need, I think, is a proper legal disclaimer to make sure yours truly and Pokerati don’t end up on the wrong end of a lawsuit we facilitated.

ALT HED: LegalPokerZoom.com

UPDATE: Tax matters notwithstanding, please add, like the back of my first fake ID, “for entertainment purposes only.”

Vanessa Selbst wins the 10-Game Mix 6-Handed Event
Photo: PokerNews.com

Today’s WSOP Bracelet Boxscore

Pete Vilandos $952,694 – Event #50 $5,000 No Limit Hold’em
Yen Dang $170,587 – Event #51 $1,000 Ladies Championship
Vanessa Selbst $244,259 – Event #52 $2,500 10-Game Mix 6-Handed

48 insanely rich (or insanely backed) poker players gathered on the stage yesterday for all the pomp and circumstance required for a $1,000,000 tournament. Group photos, individual player introductions, weird looking dudes in loincloth, and a really big ass drum Click image above for a shot of the scene during the group shot, courtesy my trusty iPhone Pano app. The number of people lined up along the rail was impressive but most of them dispersed once they realized watching live poker at the start of an event is pretty boring.

Phil Hellmuth slipped into the field at the last minute by “winning” the MGM VIP satellite Saturday evening. Rumors are circulating he made a deal with the final 8 players where he won the seat in exchange for a piece of his action. Gus Hansen also earned his way into the tournament but in the more traditional sense of winning. He made a heads up deal with Shaun Deeb where Hansen would get the seat while Deeb would get a cool million and listed as an alternate.

Interesting twist to the Deeb situation was when he tried to cash out his satellite winnings at the cage on Sunday. Some poor Rio employee told Deeb he could only cash out in tournament lammers, meaning he would have to rid himself of two thousand $500 tournament buyin chips before the Main Event when they would become useless. Thankfully saner heads prevailed and he successfully cashed out. See link dump below for the money shot.

~

Downside to most of the attention being directed at the Amazon Room three ring circus was the overshadowing of Vanessa Selbst winning her second WSOP bracelet. What should have been a grand celebration of the feat was pushed to the tiny feature table in the Pavilion while Selbst destroyed her final table. Two WSOP bracelet, over $5,000,000 in career earnings, and one of the top players in the world. She deserved more attention for the accomplishment.

As Matt Savage commented on Twitter, “Sat next to @VanessaSelbst in the 10K HORSE last year and she admitted not knowing some games. Now she is 10 Game Champion. #Legend #Boss“.

~

In other news, Full Tilt Poker’s Ray Bitar surrendered to US authorities today.

Link Dump

Feds Arrest Full Tilt CEO Ray Bitar – St. Patrick drove the snakes out of Ireland, and now the DOJ has finally pulled Ray Bitar from his spider hole in Dublin. He sent an email to remaining employees saying he “returned to the US to deal with civil and criminal case that are pending against me in New York.” And if it’s on 2+2, it must be true. Makes me wonder whether Isai Scheinberg is feeling a little squirmy today.

Tweet of the Day – They finally decided to pay Deeb properly. That’s a lot of cheddar and I hope I run into Shaun at the bar before he “Deebs” it off.

They ended up giving me the 3 c’s twitter.com/shaundeeb/stat…

— shaun deeb (@shaundeeb) July 2, 2012

Secondary Tweet of the Day – Doyle telling it like it is. Selbst deserved better and at least people are noticing the lack of appreciation.

Why isn’t a lot more attention payed to @VanessaSelbst for her 2nd bracelet? A second for a young lady isn’t worthy of publicity? Wow! — Doyle Brunson (@TexDolly) July 2, 2012

WSOP Photo By Numbers: Controversial $50k Hand – Remember the silly $50k Players Championship hand where three players were all-in but not really? BJ Nemeth has a nice recap of the action complete with photo for those who often type TL;DNR on forum posts.

BLUFF Challenge — Charania Vs. Harder – That’s enough with the serious news. Finishing up with a little fun time between Christian Harder and Mohsin Charania in a hockey shootout contest brought to you by the fine video folks at BLUFF.

Be sure to check out our new sponsors at Face Up Gaming. Legal, subscription-based online poker with plenty of great prizes including cash, WSOP seats, and poker trips. Sign up with Bonus Code pokerati.

We’ve gotta move on from all this talk of Black Friday, I know … it was nearly a year and a half ago, and we’ll be hearing about its cases moving forward in various capacities probably for another 2+ years.n But if the million-dollar buy-in tournament without certain people does indeed kick off a new era in poker — a hypothesis I’m currently formulating from the mothership — then consider this a farewell to economic powerhouses in the industry who suddenly aren’t, as you can tell by their absence.

The question’s in the subhed … Who would probably be playing in a million-dollar buy-in tournament (who currently is not) were this tournament being held in 2010? I’ll start off with whom I’d put on my list … we’re gonna presume the cap wouldn’t be at 48 either … 64 maybe, or 72 or even 96, but we can start there — on assumption without fact that the WSOP woulda made this thing a little bigger had they counted on the likes of:

Howard Lederer
Andy Bloch
Chris Ferguson
Full Tilt Qualifier and/or PokerStars Qualifier
Tony G
Doyle Brunson
Scott Tom (?)

More…

Ronnie Bardah
Photo: WSOP.com

Today’s WSOP Bracelet Boxscore

Ronnie Bardah $182,088 – Event #40 $2,500 LHE 6-Handed
Greg Ostrander $742,072 – Event #41 $3,000 NLHE
Oleksii Kovalchuk $228,014 – Event #42 Omaha/Stud Hi-Lo

Each summer the “poker media” likes to slap labels on the WSOP a few weeks into the summer, perhaps a lazy way to summarize the series in 4 words. Year of the Pro, Year of the Women, Year of the Amateur, etc, etc, ad nauseum. This year has seen a little bit of everything with top pros picking up bracelets, with the good guys, long suffering, and ladies also getting in the act.

There was a little debate whether Allyn Jaffrey Shulman’s win broke the four year streak of all male bracelet winners (aside from the Ladies Championship) since it occurred in the Seniors Championship. Jackie Glazier almost erased that question. The Australian poker player has plenty of results on her resume but came to the $3,000 No Limit Hold’em final table with the chip lead and her eye on the title.

After a long evening, she found herself heads up with Greg Ostrander for the bracelet with a significant chiplead when the hard stop time rolled around. Ostrander opted to pause play for the day and that seemed to kill Glazier momentum and she settled for a second place finish.

Glazier was the 10th women to make a final table this summer and scored the 5th highest payout for a woman player in WSOP history.

Link Dump

Tweet(s) o’ the Day – It would have been pretty unthinkable just a few years ago that Doyle Brunson would miss the $50,000 Players Championship. While his WSOP schedule has been cut way back, the 10-time bracelet winner is still out there crushing big cash games. In the end, Texas Dolly was in his seat at the start of play.

Supposed to be a giant cash game today. Thinking about skipping 50K tourney. #whattodo?

— Doyle Brunson (@TexDolly) June 24, 2012

@TexDolly If you do not play in the WSOP 50K Players, you will be sorely missed…Get in there + show @ToddBrunson how it’s done!! — phil_hellmuth (@phil_hellmuth) June 24, 2012

WSOP Player of the Year Update – The Player of the Year list is up to date through the latest events and Phil Ivey continues to lead over John Monnette, Andy Frankenberger, Phil Hellmuth, and newly crowned bracelet winner Jan-Peter Jachtmann. Still plenty of time and some big money events for others to make up ground. For anyone wondering, Allen “Complainsaw” Kessler is not in the Top 500.

It’s time for civil behavior from the pokerati – Norman Chad (your 6th place finisher in the Omaha/Stud Hi-Lo event) has his latest piece for the Washington Post where he talks about civility in poker. While I think a lot of the top young pros are doing a good job of expanding their horizons, there is still something rotten in the soft nougat center. Also, wash your damn hands!

$50k Players Championship Decline – While it wasn’t the smallest field in the short history of the $50k Players Championship, the 108 player field only missed that number by 13. There are plenty of reasons to speculate and Julio Rodriguez at CardPlayer has his ideas. Also, for the first time in history, no women entered the Players Championship.

WSOP Week #3 Behind the Scenes – Perhaps a little behind the times but who doesn’t like to watch Kristy Arnett report about odd ball things around the Rio?

Yesterday marked the anniversary of online poker’s Black Friday. Anyone who ever clicked a raise button remembers the fateful day, and many are reminiscing about how their world changed on April 15, 2011.

Here’s a best-of list of links, tweets and general brooding from over the weekend:

The cold anniversary was, of course, trending on Twitter Twitter hashtag #BlackFriday … From Ben Lamb wondering if anyone would tweet about it to Dan Fleyshman posting this sad picture http://instagr.am/p/JcjU9BJT1C/

The legal landscape

Reminding people they really do represent the players (especially since Black Friday) the PPA urged them to continue to contact their political representatives. http://www.lvrj.com/business/poker-lobbying-group-marks-black-friday-anniversary-147424325.html

As legislators grapple with the future of online poker, Nevada officials want to host the first legal sites. http://www.cardplayer.com/poker-news/13127-black-friday-the-day-that-changed-online-poker

Poker affiliates reflected on lessons learned since being forced to admit that the whims of authorities are a legitimate risk for anyone doing business in a legally gray world. http://www.casinoaffiliateprograms.com/blog/black-friday-lessons-learned/

On the casino side, Frank Fahrenkopf, president and CEO of the American Gaming Association, pushed for amendments to the Wire Act and the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA) that would “unambiguously eliminate illegal Internet gambling.” http://www.americangaming.org/newsroom/press-releases/statement-on-the-anniversary-of-black-friday

And FairPlay USA has Greg Raymer reminding you to sign their petition while former FBI Director Louis Freeh cites the anniversary of Black Friday as a call for federal action and continue the fine worl of the DOJ. http://fairplayusa.com/blog/fairplayusa%E2%80%99s-judge-louis-freeh-statement-black-friday-anniversary

Meanwhile, lawyers of all stripes took note, with a new class-action lawsuit filed against Full Tilt filed just before any anniversary parties. 
http://www.courthousenews.com/2012/04/13/45602.htm

Thanks for the memories, DOJ

QuadJacks.com did a special anniversary live podcast, which included “original Black Friday audio.” Ah, the memories.
http://quadjacks.com/poker-radio/

Short-stacked Shamus gives a thorough write-up of the drama to that would befall so many in different ways. http://betting.betfair.com/poker/poker-news/black-friday-one-year-later-130412.html

Wicked Chops Insider talked with poker industry leaders about where they were when they heard the news for an oral history of that fateful day (worthy of free distribution). http://insider.wickedchopspoker.com/543/an-oral-history-of-black-friday/

Many pros, like Shane Schleger here, had to share their thoughts and perspective from a day they won’t forget. http://shaniaconline.blogspot.com/2012/04/black-friday-one-year-later.html

Like a moment frozen in time, here’s the original 2+2 Black Friday thread, which received more than 6,000 replies in the first 3 days: http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/29/news-views-gossip/reuters-full-tilt-poker-pokerstars-absolute-poker-charged-illegal-gambling-1020606/#post26050483

The guys at pokerfuse.com produced a bomb-ass timeline, tracking all the major events since that dark day, including their own birth. http://pokerfuse.com/features/in-depth/one-month-black-friday-timeline/

Michael Gentile, a former online pro, interviewed Poker Players Alliance board member Patrick Fleming to (re)assess the online poker legal landscape in the US. http://pokerfuse.com/features/in-depth/us-legal-landscape-one-year-after-black-friday/

Here’s another sharp timeline at PokerStrategy.com. http://www.pokerstrategy.com/news/world-of-poker/One-Year-Since-Black-Friday:-The-Complete-Timeline_58551/

And another by-the-minute timeline at PokerNews.com. http://www.pokernews.com/news/2012/04/the-black-friday-timeline-one-year-without-online-poker-12445.htm

Poker still has a future

A bunch of pros, like Matt Waxman, told PokerStrategy.com that this year’s WSOP Main Event should hold steady. “It’s like so prestigious and like world renowned, you know, so everybody’s gonna just make it out cause this is the one tournament that like if you’re the guy who plays the nightly home game for 100 bucks, you’re gonna splurge your 10k just so you can play in the main event,” he said. Like riiiight. http://www.pokerstrategy.com/news/world-of-poker/Daily-Rewind-Black-Friday-Anniversary,-New-Gambling-Film,-WSOP-2012-Thoughts_58570/

CalvinAyre.com looked at the companies “making noise” about bringing online poker back to the United States. http://calvinayre.com/2012/04/15/poker/how-to-make-it-in-america/

QuadJacks put out a new music video by Sonny Caine and Dennis Rybaczewski (DRybes) to inspire a little hope for the future.

And our own Dan Michalski summarizes it all as simply a “big, industry changing day” in All In – The Poker Movie, which is available April 24, 2012, on iTunes. http://mashable.com/2012/04/13/online-poker-black-friday/

Nearly every casino with a poker room offers a daily tournament. The buy-ins range from $45 to more than $500, depending on the day of the week.

I want to explore the level of competition, how much play I can get for my money and whether the payouts are worth the grind.

I’m going to play at least a week of dailies around Las Vegas. Mostly, I plan to play on the Strip. But I also want to hit at least one event downtown and check out the action at an off-strip casino or two. I’ll avoid the WSOP-circuit events in town and Venetian’s Deepstack Extravaganza Series, as to stay out of the path of sharks.

If I happen to get knocked out early, I’ll do some follow-up reporting on the pay structure.

My first event started at 7 p.m. Wednesday, a $125 buy-in at Aria. The blinds opened at 25/50, with 30 minute levels.

Folks in town told me it’s one of the better events for the money.

More…

The highly anticipated debut of the Epic Poker League held their first $20,000 Main Event Tuesday afternoon at the Palms Casino in Las Vegas. The first day of the “rake-free” tournament ($400 of each buy-in went to the dealers) with $400,000 added ended with three of the hottest players in poker, Eugene Katchalov, Ben Lamb and Brian Rast the top three in chips.

The first EPL event featured plenty of notable names absent as Daniel Negreanu, most of Team Full Tilt, and Doyle Brunson deciding not to participate. Card-holding members need to enter at least one Main Event, Pro/Am and charity event each season to maintain their card.

In a radio interview last week, Phil Hellmuth wasn’t sure if he’d play in the first event. After making his “announcement” on Twitter Monday, he made his traditional late appearance, but was eliminated shortly after the dinner break.

The EPL will hold tournaments in a variety of no-limit hold’em formats, with the inaugural event played six-handed. Registration closed at the start of level 5, nearly 8 hours after play started. The tournament clock showed 137 players entered to create a $3,085,200 prize pool. The winner at the conclusion of play Friday will earn as the top 18 places make the money. The top 27 EPL money earners return February for the $1,000,000 League Championship freeroll.

Jason Mercier and Sean Getzwiller (a Pro/Am qualifier) are the other bracelet winners from this year’s WSOP among the 63 players returning Wednesday afternoon at 12pm PST to play another six levels.

Top ten chip counts:

Eugene Katchalov – 356,300
Ben Lamb – 287,200
Brian Rast – 260,500
Antonio Esfandiari – 248,100
Noah Schwartz – 220,200
McLean Karr – 191,800
Hoyt Corkins – 187,400
Isaac Baron – 167,700
Dan O’Brien – 163,300
Erik Seidel – 161,200

The full list of chip counts along with live updates, table draws, videos and more can be found at www.epicpoker.com

Pre-M.E. Festivities

Before the Main Event, the EPL kicked off over the weekend with The $1,500 Pro/Am tournament, offering nine Main Event seats, drew a combined field of 190 entrants as the final table was filmed for the Heartland Poker Tour. Steve O’Dwyer was the winner, earning $23,810 plus his EPL Main Event Seat. The only EPL-eligible player to snag a seat on the cheap was Andy Bloch, eventually finishing 3rd. Michael Craig recaps the final table.

While the Pro/Am final table was in action, 81 players put up $240 (plus a ton of $100 rebuys and add-ons) to raise over $50,000 for Operation USA, with the money earmarked for the victims of tornadoes in Joplin, Missouri. Plenty of goodies were given to all players with Zappos contributing $2,500 to the winner. Reigning World Poker Tour Player of the Year Andy Frankenberger won the title, donating the winnings to the charity.