Scott Seiver
Photo: PokerStarsBlog.com

Today’s Boxscore

Scott Seiver $2,003,480 – 2013 PCA Super High Roller
Peter Jetten $52,380 – 2013 PCA Open-Face Chinese
Mike Telker $96,750 – 2013 $5,000 Turbo 8-handed
Simon Deadman €67,500 – WPT National Dublin

The poker tournament circuit is back underway with the launch of the 2013 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure and a lot of noise coming from the Bahamas already. Big money, first run tournaments, and a few tweets about the silly amount of money it costs to stay at the Atlantis.

PokerStars changed their PCA schedule a few years ago, to the better, by putting the Main Event near the beginning of the festival. This leaves plenty of side events for those who bust out of the Main and still want to hang around the Bahamas instead of heading somewhere much colder. Scott Seiver was the big winner right out of the gate when he defeated the understandably talented Super High Roller final table which included David “Doc” Sands, Nick Schulman, and Philipp Gruissem. A nice payday for Seiver as he added a mere $2,000,000 to his bankroll.

The PCA also introduced the first Open-Face Chinese Poker tournament ever. This game is the latest big buzz among the young, high-rolling, twitter-happy professionals and PokerStars decided to feature the game with a unique tournament (check the link for some of the rules). They drew an impressive 59 players with 18 reentries and Peter Jetten can now call himself the first ever Open-Face Chinese Poker champion.

# Everything you always wanted to know about online gambling but were afraid to ask! #

Link Dump

Tweet of the Day – Dane Cook played this off later as a joke. The only problem with Dane Cook, it’s impossible to tell the difference between when he’s being serious and when he’s joking. I’m sure online poker players responded with their well known restraint.

If you really believe you’re playing online poker for real money against other people & not genius super computers you deserve your future.

— Dane Cook (@DaneCook) January 6, 2013

Kindt: Internet Gambling Will Cripple World’s Economic, Financial Systems – Well here’s an op.ed piece that doesn’t beat around the bush at all. Online gambling would cripple (cripple I tell you!) the economy of the entire world. I don’t suppose he could be overstating his case in the least.

Broken: The Erick Lindgren Story – The Lindgren saga has been playing out over the last year and Lance Bradley at Bluff was able to get a sitdown with the man as he sits in rehab for his gambling addiction. Interesting that it’s only recognized as an addiction after defaulting on a boat load of bets. The article is worth the read if you haven’t already.

There’s little TLC for ‘Sin City Rules’ – There was a little buzz around the poker world when it Jennifer Harman announced she would be involved in a “reality” show on TLC. That buzz died quickly once people realized the show was unwatchable and now it looks to be buried in the Nevada desert. A show that bad deserved a heavy handed Las Vegas cliche.

Zynga’s Online Gambling Ambitions Bolstered by its Patent Portfolio – You have to give them credit, Zynga hasn’t given up on their ambition to enter the online gambling market in force.

PCA 2013: Maria Ho Comes to Bahamas After Party in Vegas – Maria Ho, Kristy Arnett, the Bahamas, and talk of parties in Las Vegas.

Was just checking the GPI … with particular interest in the standings for American Player of the Year … you know, Election Day.  Actually I was curious to see, among other things, what kind of impact a WSOP main event had on player rankings. (Greg Merson moved up.)

But what stood out to me were the poker teams … and the presence of newcomer IveyPoker.

#8	—		Daniel Negreanu	Pokerstars	768.40
#9	—		Jason Mercier	Pokerstars	766.72
#10	—		Bertrand Grospellier	Pokerstars	752.53
#11	—		Joseph Cheong		748.61
#12	—		Jonathan Duhamel	Pokerstars	741.24
#13	—		Michael Watson		720.35
#14	—		Mohsin Charania		718.52
#15	—		John Juanda		714.42
#16	—		Phil Ivey	Ivey Poker	713.44

Long gone are the days of Full Tilt and PokerStars commandeering the WSOP main event final table. But will an online site bearing the name of the 11th best American this year be able to step in and successfully fill the Full Tilt void for US players?

More…

Some may recognize me from Twitter, a few may have cracked my aces a time or two, and it’s possible that some of you were smart enough to jot down that number I left on the bathroom wall. If you don’t recognize me AT ALL, then you’re part of an exclusive group called “Almost Everyone”.

My name is Kim Shannon, and I’m all up in everyone’s bidness… which is why Pokerati invited me to share with you the poker gossip and celebrity “news”. My initial response was “I’d rather drink a thumbtack-and-jalapeno smoothie”, but then Dan reminded me that I still owe him a beej from a prop bet I lost… so here I am.

Let’s skip the gristle and get right to the bone, shall we, with what’s buzzing in poker … or wait, is that coming from my purse?

Clock Blocked

Word from the felt is that Daniel Negreanu and Andrew Robl have kissed and made up in the wake of a spat over last week’s episode of “The Big Game”, in which Negreanu & Tony G were poster children for fucked up poker etiquette. Poker bitching about implied collusion aside, I hadn’t seen so much high-fiving and snickering since I last got “Eiffel Towered” in a drunken MFM.

After the broadcast, Tony G redeemed himself by posting a quasi-apology, but Daniel kept the drama going with a post of his own expounding on Robl’s nittiness. I was in the middle of reading Robl’s rebuttal when I realized that I had been punching myself in the face the whole time over the pettiness of it all. However, I do feel the need to give Daniel a special award for managing to refrain from calling Robl a “cunt”.  Then, just as I was about to start placing bets on who would blow a gasket and sprain their vagina first, Negreanu ruined my fun by saying he has since called Robl and smoothed things over.

A-Rod’s Poker

Alex Rodriguez was in the Ivey Room at Aria with Jean-Robert Bellande last week — supposedly playing 50-100 NL with a couple non-pro Aria regulars. Tweeting from Haze Nightclub, @BrokeLivingJRB reported that A-Rod “won 3k” in the game, which sounds to me more like 5-10 without steroids — hardly enough for new pair of Yankee-caliber starter tits. Dealers say A-Rod tipped adequately, btw, tossing “like $36 in gravel” before leaving the game. Not one to hit-and-run, he was back at the tables a couple days later, playing 10-20 NL at Bellagio. John Kim snapped a pic. Orel Hersheiser (great first name, terrible last) also joined the action somewhere along the way.

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…

A review of Tuesday’s tournament action at the WSOP, with 3 bracelets to be determined during today’s play:

1k NL final table set

The $1,000 No-Limit Holdem final table gets underway this afternoon at 2:30pm with this lineup:

Seat 1: Blake Kelso – 1,166,000
Seat 2: JD McNamara – 2,393,000
Seat 3: Kiet Tran – 2,311,000
Seat 4: Greg Pohler – 1,660,000
Seat 5: David Cai – 844,000
Seat 6: Michael Gross – 535,000
Seat 7: Denis Murphy – 789,999
Seat 8: Jeffrey Tebben – 466,000
Seat 9: John Tolbert – 925,000

Cowley leads final 15 in 2500 NL 6-max

Steve Cowley (1,279,000) leads the remaining 15 players in the $2,500 No-Limit 6-max event when they play down to a winner starting at 3pm. Among the notables with chips: Justin “Boosted J” Smith (641,000) and Erik Cajelais (345,000). The full list of chip counts is online at PokerNews.

Troy leads 1500 Stud 8 on final day

Maxwell Troy (430,000) leads the final 23 players who return at 3pm in the $1,500 Stud Hi/Lo 8 or Better event. Among the familiar names looking to get a WSOP bracelet in this event: David Levi (216,000), Karina Jett (187,000), Blair Rodman (117,000) and Brandon Cantu (50,000). The remaining field’s chip counts is online at PokerNews.

Klein leads 2500 PLO after day 1

A field of 596 players started the $2,500 Pot-Limit Omaha event Tuesday afternoon, with 102 returning at 2:30 today. The final 54 players make the money, with the winner collecting $315,311. The leader is Loren Klein with 187,300 in chips. Other notables on the leaderboard: Richard Ashby (137,700), Tex Barch (72,600), T.J. Cloutier (70,400), Chau Giang (59,800), and Scott Clements (58,200). A full list of the survivors will appear soon at wsop.com.

Lisandro leads 10k limit holdem

The $10,000 Limit Holdem World Championship drew a field of 171, with 102 remaining after ten levels of play. The leader is Jeff Lisandro with 130,900 in chips. Other names you’ve heard of: Brett Richey (113,800), Hoyt Corkins (109,900), Shaun Deeb (89,000), Michael Mizrachi (69,800), Doyle Brunson (65,300) and Jennifer Harman (46,300). The full chip counts are online at wsop.com.

Wednesday’s tournaments

Another two bracelet events get underway this afternoon, starting with the fourth full-ring $1,500 No-Limit Holdem starting at 12pm. The defending champion in this event is Eric Baldwin, defeating a field of 2,095 for $521,991. At 5pm it’s the $1,500 HORSE event, with James Van Alstyne defeating a field of 770, earning $247,033.

Going over what’s happened so far this Tuesday at the WSOP:

10k Stud 8 Final Table Set

The final table of the $10,000 Stud 8 or Better final table has been set, with plenty of big names looking to take down a bracelet this evening. Here’s how the final table will look when play resumed at 9pm:

Seat 1: Jennifer Harman – 861,000
Seat 2: Steve Zolotow – 684,000
Seat 3: Frank Kassela – 800,000
Seat 4: John Juanda – 787,000
Seat 5: Vladimir Schmelev – 304,000
Seat 6: Kirill Rabtsov – 882,000
Seat 7: Allen Kessler – 467,000
Seat 8: Dario Minieri – 316,000

Follow the split-pot action at PokerNews.

Vance Still Best in $1k NL

Matt Vance remains the chip leader (1,100,000) with 19 remaining on day 3 of the $1,000 No-Limit Holdem event. David Baker, no relation to 50k Player’s Championship final tablist David “Bakes” Baker, has 990,000. It was hoped that they would play down to a finish, but that looks unlikely at this time, so they’ll stop when they reach the final 9. See what does happen by following over at PokerNews.

$1,500 NL 6-max Day 2

The $1,500 No-Limit Holdem 6-max has under 50 players remaining, with Michael Myers the current chip leader with 385,000. Other notables include Ray Henson (329,000), Jordan Morgan (240,000), and Mark Seif (200,000). Follow the updates and results over at wsop.com.

$5,000 NL Day 1

The only tournament to start this afternoon, the $5,000 No-Limit Holdem event drew a field of 792 players, up over 100 from last year’s edition. Under 500 remain after the dinner break at the end of level 6 with Amit Makhija currently in front with 83,000 in chips. Other notables near the top: Chino Rheem (60,000), Perry Friedman (55,000), Scott Fischman (53,000) and defending champion Brian Lemke (48,900). More updates and chip counts are available at wsop.com.

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.

Vegas fave Annie LePage and her lapddog playing poker at the Jen Harman SPCA fundraiser. Bijou seems to like their hand or is just hoping for a walk in the big blind.

There was a big charity event Tuesday night at the Venetian … part of their Deep Stacks II series … Jennifer Harman’s Charity Poker Tournament benefitting the Nevada SPCA. This has become one of the bigger Springtime celeb draws in poker, and is always a memorable shindig because of the presence of cute animals. You shoulda seen the look on the dealer’s face when Bijou (pictured here) jumped up and scampered around the table. I think half the players nearby were all cued up with jokes of “reraise!” and “floor!” had the pup, um, pushed a potty stack across the betting line.

Anyhow, I don’t know the numbers yet …I think it was actually smaller than in previous years, with 140something entries 30 minutes before late registration closed. But it really was a lot of fun … and the NSPCA seemed thrilled about the money the event was still raising, not to mention the number of rescued pets being adopted.

Pokerati Red Carpet Video

More…

In and of herself … yeah, bring it! But sitting next to the also-at-least-partially naked Scotty Nguyen, Phil Hellmuth, and Daniel Negreanu (who’s covering his left breast with a PokerStars patch) … eww, uh, yee …

Incontrovertible living proof that poker is definitely not a sport:

From a feature in the new issue of ESPN the Magazine.

(The poker nakedness occurs for half-a-blip at about 3:15, perverts.)

via PokerNews

Teams are 3/4 of the way there …

Team Americas: Daniel Negreanu (captain), Phil Ivey, Phil Hellmuth, John Juanda, Doyle Brunson, Jennifer Harman

Team Europe: Annette Obrestad (captain), Peter Eastgate, Dario Minieri, Bertrand Grospellier, Patrik Antonius, Ilari Sahamies (aka Zigmund)

Also more on the format:

The Caesars Cup will feature the game No-Limit Hold’em with two teams of eight doing battle over a series of Heads Up and two-man doubles matches, with single points awarded for each match. The doubles formats will include alternate betting. The first team to 4 points will win.

The first match will be Doubles: Alternate Bet where two players compete per side. One player per side will play pre-flop and on the turn; the other player will play the flop and the river.

Once players are designated, their roles will not change. Two matches of this format will be played, so that 4 of the 8 players on each team will be featured.

The next two matches will feature Doubles: Same Stack where two new players compete per side. They share the same chip stack. They alternate playing two hands at a time so both have the button.

After the doubles matches conclude, the matches change to Heads-Up – if necessary. Team captains will select which members of their teams play heads up and it will be an alternate selection process, where if the European team names their player first for Match 1, the Americas team will have to name their player first for Match 2. That format continues until one team has accumulated 4 total points. The strategy of when to use a player and whom they match up with will be critical in determining which team will come out victorious.

LOL, and BJ thought my “family poker” concept event seemed gimmicky.

One skillucky Euro, of course, can still qualify for one of that team’s two remaining seats online at Betfair.

Play kicks off for this new-fangled made-for-TV event in London on Sept. 25.

Daniel Negreanu knows her as “whackjob surprise” … and though we have a feeling that might be what the Schneiders call Tom’s annual birthday present, well-informed, loyal Pokeratizens know her as “Angry Julie” (from back in the Beyond the Table days) … and as the main event nears the money bubble, she’s the frontrunner amongst the women for WSOP Player of the Year.

(Woot! Congrats, Julie!)

According to Julie, men don’t know what it’s like to have to dodge tilt at a final table on a heavy-flow day … but she didn’t let that get in the way of her finding success. With just the main event left to play — making it still anybody’s game, but statistically unlikely that anyone passes her — here’s the breakdown of the top women in the WSOP POY standings:

1. Julie Schneider – 65 pts
2. Vanessa Rousso – 60 pts
3. Millie Shiu – 60 pts
4. Annie Duke – 40 pts
5. Jennifer Harman – 37 pts

The final update before the Main Event for me, as it’s final table time in the $5,000 NL Holdem 6-max event. The final table is now four-handed consisting of Josh Brikis, Sean Keeton, Matt Hawrilenko, and Faraz Jaka. Jonas Wexler and Matthew Waxman finished 5th and 6th respectively. Live updates are available at www.wsop.com

Ante Up for Africa is being filmed now for ESPN, and it has plenty of Full Tilt Poker pros with Rafe Furst, Chris “Jesus” Ferguson, Phil Gordon, Erik Seidel, Jennifer Harman and John Hennigan appearing at the final table. Hopefully Dan and/or Jen will have more updates when there’s a result.

Friday afternoon starts the Main Event, and all the fun and chaos that brings to the Rio. Pokerati will be there to catch the action, so come back, please.

Recapping the Saturday afternoon action:

Cantu v Watkinson Heads-Up

Brandon Cantu and Lee Watkinson are the last two standing in the $1,500 Pot-Limit Omaha 8 or Better event, each going for their second career bracelet. At the moment, Watkinson holds a 2-1 chip lead over Cantu.

Habib Handling HORSE Headline

Hasan Habib remains the chip leader (453,000) with 77 players remaining in the $50,000 HORSE event as they return from a dinner break with three more levels remaining in today’s play. David Bach (426,000) and John Kabbaj (340,000) are the top 3 in chips at the moment. Among the eliminations today, Justin Bonomo, John Juanda, Eli Elezra and Jennifer Harman. More updates can be found over at www.wsop.com

Limit Holdem Shootout

The field of 64 that started round 2 of the $1,500 Limit Holdem Shootout on Saturday is down to 38 players spread over eight tables. Among the remaining players, David Williams, Tom Schneider, Humberto Brenes, Marc Naalden, and Jean-Robert Bellande.

More Donkament Carnage

A sold-out field of 2781 in the next to last $1,500 NL Holdem event is down to about 975 players as they return from dinner break. The unofficial chip leader is Thomas “titantom32” Braband at 78,000 with another 4 levels before play ends for the day.

More updates available at www.wsop.com and Pokerati for other stuff during the evening.

D’Amato

Ivey

Harman

Le

Austin

Thousands of players taking to the felt today. Whether going for a bracelet, just trying to survive Day 1, or making an otherwise interesting showing, some folks catching eyes today, in action you may want to follow:

Ret. Sen. Al D’Amato seems to be today’s guest of honor at the WSOP. While shuffle-up-and-deal duties have been relegated to active Rep. Shelley Berkley (D-NV), the Chairman of the PPA will be playing in the $1,000 NLH-Seniors event. If he goes deep, it could screw up a bunch of schedules something fierce. Event coverage here.

Phil Ivey, of course, is always a player to watch – especially when he’s advancing, as he did in his first round of the $5,000 NLH-Shootout. While it’s obviously premature to get trip-bracelet possibilities, he only has to beat two tables. Take a look at the field and you tell me who has the best odds of doing exactly that. Jen Harman also advanced in her first match. Might she be able to finally make a showing for the ladies? Strange tourney, btw, with 6-handed tables in the second round, playing down to a 5-handed SNG for the bracelet.

While multi-tournamenting isn’t unheard of at the WSOP, doing two Day 2s at the same time kinda is. Nam Le went deep (but fell short of cashing) in the $10k PLO while going even deeper in the $1,500 NLH. In that event, he’s one of 25 players left, from a starting field of 2,715.

Of the 25 players who remain in $10k PLO, dare I say I’m rooting for Richard Austin? Kinda funny for the kid who wants nothing to do with cameras and interviews or even just basic biographical info to go deep yet again. Austin didn’t want to play nice with WSOP officials after winning his bracelet in the $5k PLO. Possibilities include that he is a) shy b) the second coming of “Ricky Zilem” c) just a punk-bitch a-hole or d) a DOJ narc. Think about it … supposedly undercover Treasury agents at the WSOP and elsewhere in Las Vegas where large sums of money are exchanged amongst gamblers is nothing new. But this year, totally unconfirmed and hardly reliable word has it, whoever’s really behind the payment processor crackdown has a posse of undercover Feds sprinkled throughout the Amazon room … and you gotta think at least a few of them would know a thing or two about pot-limit Omaha, right? Event coverage here.

A little late, but here’s the first half recap of Sunday’s action…

Naalden in Dutch for Bracelet

Marc Naalden went nearly wire-to-wire to victory in the $2,000 Limit Holdem event, as he held a large chip lead over the field, handing it over to Steve Cowley for a few hands when play got to heads-up, but then going on a rush at the end to take a bracelet home to the Netherlands, as well as $190,770.

Can Cantu Can Do?

The $1,500 NL Holdem event is down to ~80 players, and Brandon Cantu is the current chip leader with 530,000 in chips. Other notables remaining include Joe Bartholdi (390,000), Raymond Davis (342,000), Nam Le (125,000) and Alex Jacob (78,000). Play will end at the 3am deadline well short of the final table, so the remaining field gets to return at 1pm to play down to a winner.

May the Schwartz Be With Him

Noah Schwartz is the current chip leader (674,000) in the $10,000 Pot-Limit Omaha World Championship with 42 players remaining, only 27 getting paid. Jonas Entin (434,000), David Williams (359,500), Erick Lindgren (270,000), Nenad Medic (216,500), Padraig Parkinson (173,000), and Barry Greenstein (111,000) are some of the other notables who’ll be happy to reach the 3am deadline with chips.

Shootout at the Rio, 5k NL Version

A field of 280 is down to 30 in the $5,000 NL Holdem Shootout with the remaining players meeting at five tables of six players each to create a five player final table on Tuesday. Phil Ivey, Jean Gaspard, Joe Serock, Jennifer Harman, Neil Channing, Peter Feldman, John Monnette and Mark Teltscher are some of the returnees for day 2 at 2pm Monday.

All Mixed Up

The debuting $2,500 Mixed Event drew a field of 412 to play eight different games (HORSE, PLO, NL Holdem, 2-7 Triple Draw) with 335 players remaining. JC Tran appears to be the unofficial chip leader at 27,000, followed by Steve Billirakis at 26,000 and Sabyl Cohen-Landrum at 19,000. The players just returned from their dinner break to play another four levels before they do it all over again at 2pm Monday. More coming from me in the morning update, and check out Pokerati for other accusations of cheating, while www.wsop.com will cover the updates and other exciting stuff that’s not as controversial at the World Series of Poker.