NAPT :: Day 3 brought us down to 19 players and there are still a lot of known dangerous players in the field heading into Day 4. Jason Mercier, Matt Affleck, Michael Binger, and Anh Van Nguyen are all still in the running to become the first (and maybe only?) NAPT LA champion. A detailed chip count is available as well as a seat draw for the 4th day of competition. There is more going on today than in the past few for the NAPT as well. The $5000 Bounty Shootout is going to take place at the Crystal Casino in Compton (yes, you read that right). Turns out if you want to televise anything, you can’t do it at the Bike because the WPT has a lock on that sort of thing. Which makes the next bit of information all the more interesting. It was revealed (or at least people finally noticed) that the final table will be filmed for ESPN from the Crystal Casino as well. Oh, and these televised events will be airing in December, 3 hours for the bounty shootout and 1 hour for the main event final table.
At first glance, Stars appears to be dropping the ball consistently with the NAPT, is it birth pangs or a resignation that they just wont be getting very far with this tour? Time will tell, but for now action in this event will restart, once again, at 1PM PST.

This Week:

Ty Stewart — new WSOP stuff, Poker Hall of Fame, more WSOPE bracelet debate.
Matt Savage — WPT-Bellagio/Festa al Lago.
Matt Affleck — more WPT-Bellagio/Festa, Washington State, 15th place at WSOP.
Trishelle Canatella — beauty quiz + poker.

Watch the show, and readmore here.

My goodness, how many new poker (and non-poker) internet shows can there be … it’s like everyone in the world has a built-in laptop cam and a connection to the internet!

But this new venture from a couple of Poker Beat cohorts on the tournament coverage frontlines could actually do it for me, as I can’t think of a more morning-friendly way to find out all I need to know about WPT-Bellagio/Festa as it nears the money bubble. It’s like Regis & Kelly for poker junkies in a G4 generation.

Topics of the day include Allen Kessler, Phil Ivey, Annette Obrestad, and Matt Affleck … but really, it’s way more fun that that. 🙂

Getting caught up and back in the swing of things — slowly but surely — so what better way than to listen to the most recent episode of The Poker Beat?

The Poker Beat: July 22, 2010
[audio:http://www.pokerroad.com/download/the-poker-beat:74]

Rookie twitterer @GaryWise1 took his turn in Capt. Huff’s chair as @BJNemeth and @JessWelman panel-bantered about:

• The pre-markup hearing in DC with Annie Duke
• Make-up of the 2010 November Nine
• The value, if any, of poker agents — and how the WSOP accommodates them during the main event
• BJ’s philosophical non-dilemma over coverage of Matt Affleck’s emotional bustout *
• The difference between poker media and poker journalism
• The Year of Mizrachi and the accidental WTF? of the current WSOP Player of the Year scoring system
• Annette Obrestad’s B- performance
• The 3-headed Monster of Team WSOP without @JeffreyPollack
• WSOP numbers and final table times

* great explanation, BJ. But question … Is there any discernable line where the “field of play” in poker begins, and ends?

Other episode-relevant links:

The Redemption of Matt Affleck by Gary Wise
The Long, Lonely Walk of Matt Affleck by Howard Swains (with photos by Joe Giron)

Next ep coming tomorrow. Play along in the PokerRoad forums.