Again, WTF is up with all the new poker movies, videos, shorts, Poker Beat spinoffs, internet talk shows, reality gigs, and other multimedia poker storylines being put out by folks other than Poker PROductions, ESPN, 441, or PokerRoad?
A new movie — Hitting the Nuts — debuted a couple weeks ago at the Cincinnati Film Festival to overwhelmingly positive reviews and even won the 2010 Audience Award for Best Narrative Feature. The story is a tale of professional poker’s “farm system” in Scott County, Indiana …it’s supposedly a little Waiting for Guffman, a little Spinal Tap, and by my take even a little Greater Tuna. Not about the actual WSOP as much as it is getting to the WSOP … by way of a big annual legally questionable tournament.
Seems potentially funny-ish … but probably better than the Grand, poker’s last mockumentary, which proved to be a box-office flop despite a star-studded cast with the likes of Ray Romano, David Cross, Cheryl Hines, and Woody Harrelson, who perhaps ironically made his name in Hollywood by playing a character from rural Indiana:
The producers come from LA and Las Vegas improv troupes (we have improv troupes in Vegas?) — and their actors are all no-names. Sure, Cincinnati’s no Cannes, but still … there were only 13 total awards given in Cincy, and Hitting the Nuts was competing with nearly 100 other films … many with award-baiting titles like Grandchildren of the Cuban Revolution, Sounds of Beirut, and Trailerpark.
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. 🙂
Mickey Petersen: could be the Lebron James of Poker.
Quick lesson today — from another 20-year-old kid who seems decidedly anti-baller despite going on a hella baller tear since he began his “career” two-and-a-half years ago. Now a CardRunners instructor after turning pro fresh outta high school, Mickey Petersen, known among avid onliners as Mement_mori, is in the running for CardPlayer’s Online Player of the Year at #13 … and ranks 2nd in the world over at 5+5, with qualifying results spread across 18 pages.
Though CardPlayer’s OPOY counts only $1.05 million earned with 18 final tables and two wins in the past year, Pocket Fives totals his wins at $2.7 million. But the stat I find most mind-blowing with this Gen-Z Magic player (inspired by the likes of David Williams, Eric Froehlich, and Dario Minieri to make the crossover into poker, he tells CardPlayer) … Petersen’s average cash is $1,527 … in 1,778 money finishes! Gotta think Phil Hellmuth couldn’t claim more than double that (live and online) over his entire life even if he included cash games … which says a lot because Hellmuth had already won the main event before Peterson was even born.
With Peter Eastgate retired and Gus Hansen one of the losingest players of the year (even if he takes down a WSOPE bracelet today ), seems like Mement_mori (Latin for “Remember you will die”) has easy claim as the best player in Denmark even though he has yet to cash in a live event. It doesn’t cost online players a thing to get their Cardrunners schooling with financial aid from Truly Free Poker Training. (Sign up here – promise you’ll qualify.)
It’s a long weekend for most. For those who might need to take their poker multimedia on the road or boat … here’s some watchable and/or downloadable stuff that I’ve taken particular note of recently. You might want to, too:
Online Gambling Guy
APCW Perspectives Weekly :: Actually caught a brand new episode getting the link for this post. Thought I was gonna tip you to J. Todd’s more-than-just-poker online gambling take on payment-processor forfeitures, internet filtering, and French protectionism. But that was like so mid-August. To catch up with the times, this week it’s California protectionism FTW! for the stalemate. [Link]
Charlie Rose + Wicked Chops
This Week in Poker :: TWIP is (slowly) becoming must-watch for me. Not live … that would just be ridiculous. But definitely informative+enjoyable on the download, even if you’re just half-watching and listening in the background. This week’s ep features Full Tilt red pro (?) Jason Calcanis, Donkdown’s UB-Scrutinizer-in-Chief Todd Witteles, and Durrrr. Holy shit, it’s Durrrr!!!! Fast forward … [Link]
Poker Personalities
Under the Gun (with Jon Friedberg) :: First time I saw UTG, some guys were talking fitness and nutrition. Struck me as terrible net-TV odd, yet found it strangely compelling, watched all the way through. A few weeks later was watching a sit-down with Jean-Robert Bellande. I think UTG’s format seems to lend itself to guests who can let down their guard and shoot more from the hip. This week: Alex Outhred, recently relocated to Vegas, shit-shooting about coaching and the cutthroat poker training biz. [Link]
Artsy Euro-Fartsy
TheNutz.TV :: Have seen these dudes before, and remember thinking they were pretty good. Here they are at WPT-London interviewing Lisa Jane, the poker-artist you learned about here. Had to watch to learn more about her show, “Poker in the Eye”, and see if she’s hot. Now all I gotta do is get me one of them “like” buttons. [Link]
Really quickly, before today’s poker news starts streaming in and the main event at Detox Poker gets underway … below is the video from the Pokerati tournament earlier this week. It lasted into the wee hours, not unlike this year’s WSOP Final-10-to-November-Nine … yeah, pretty much exactly the same thing.
Perhaps strangely perhaps not, I have little experience on either side of the bustout interview … but the ever-belletristic Marco from QuadJacks was on hand and presumably half-awake to discuss the finale of Detox Event #11, which saw Lev Serzhenko beat yours truly to claim the $5,184 first prize befitting the newest Pokerati (NLH/PLO) Champion.
Final hand, btw: No-Limit Hold’em, outchipped about 4:1 … I check-raise all-in when my Ace pairs the flop … Lev calls semi-quickly with open-ended straight and flush draws, and makes runner-runner trips FTW! (Dammit.)
Once upon a time, circa 2003, I had a Google Alert set up to send me an email every time a new mention of the word “poker” appeared somewhere on the internet. By the time I started getting like five a day (!) I began thinking this poker thing might really gonna catch on — and I bought the domain pokerrati.com (misspelling notwithstanding).
My how things have changed … not just with poker, but with the whole world-wide-web, and what people are searching for on it. Check out this amusingly related new bit from CardRunners video pro Lee Przytula, giving the contemporary poker player’s world view … as seen through Google interaction:
This one goes to 11: Rob Gusman and Danny Egelhoff knew there had to be a better way to watch poker — all they needed was a high-resolution camera with 11 lenses digitally stitched together.
When Danny Egelhoff was a “multimedia producer” for CardPlayer in 2007, he quickly realized, “we needed a way to make watching poker more interesting. Events were edited down to boring bare essentials, and viewers were force-fed what they had to watch.”
Fast-forward to the 2010 WSOP … Egelhoff, 31, and his partner, Rob Gusman, 34, are founders of All 360 Media, an upstart video company launching what some are saying could be the most significant technological advancement in poker since the hole-card cam.
For the past six weeks, these friends of 10+ years have camped out in a makeshift bunker across the hall from the Amazon room. In addition to powerful computers, video equipment and an all-in-one printer/copier/fax, there’s an air mattress, mini-fridge, and 4-cup coffee-maker — all of which have played a role in bringing their vision to fruition. This is Egelhoff’s fifth Series, Gusman’s first. Taped to the wall by one of their monitors is a letter from the Nevada Gaming Control Board, approving All 360 Media to record limited casino action with these strange cameras the GCB had never before seen.
The device looks something like a studio boom-mike outfitted with a Magic 8-ball at its end. It’s actually a special camera (they have two of them) with 11 different lenses all pointing in different directions, packed into a small black orb, and digitally stitched together to provide a seamless view of an entire poker area. The set-up is so new it doesn’t yet have a name. But it uses the same basic technology that Google Earth deployed to map out the planet … upgraded and customized for watching poker.
Our good friends at CardRunners want you to know about a contest they’ve got going … the CardRunners Video Challenge … where you’ve got a chance to show your educational mettle in an effort to win cash and possible side-work.
We’re more than happy to pass on the info, and encourage you to follow your dreams of becoming a Hollywood an internet star by teaching online poker geeks to mathematically extract more money from their less-educated opponents.
CardRunners Is Giving Away Almost 10k In Prizes
CardRunners is going to pony up $5,000 for the best poker video, so if you ever wondered how your poker training teaching skills match up against the competition, now’s your chance. We’re inviting you to submit the best poker training video at http://www.cardrunnersvideochallenge.com before 11am PT on July 1, 2010 to be eligible for the big payday and an offer to become a CardRunners instructor.
Spielberg. Coppola. You.
Visit CardRunners Video Challenge and submit your soon-to-be famous poker instructional video by following the stated instructions. Don’t forget to review Tech Support 101 and Lee Pryztula’s Crash Course on Video Making. It’s gonna be magic, baby.
“First Prize is a Cadillac Eldorado. Second prize is a set of steak knives. Third Prize is you’re fired.” Actually, the real prizes are:
Grand Prize: $5,000 and an offer to become a CardRunners instuctor
Second Place: $2,500
Third Place: $1,000
Fourth Place: $500
Fifth Place: A deluxe poker chip set valued at $175
There’re lots of WSOP-videos out there … enjoyed the Degen Report on RawVegas, you know … we’ll continue to show you the best ones we stumble across. (And feel free to tip us off if you see something you particularly like.)
One that seems totally click-worthy for those looking to digest a full WSOP-day before the boss peaks over the cube wall is PokerListings’ WSOP Live! — a daily video wrap-up of hedlines and surrounding personalities covering the annual poker period where all of Las Vegas, not just the Rio, caters to our ilk:
In totally absolutely not-not-related news, the dudes at Listings have an awesome house not too far from Pokerati headquarters (and the Rio) with a pool, a huge yard for a dog to run/roll/sniff around in, a solid wi-fi connection, and an unlocked back gate. (Thanks guys! Sorry about the poop.)
Just like Panorama Towers (across the street from the Rio) seems to be the place to live if you are a bachelor/ette Las Vegas poker pro … N9NE Steakhouse (across the street from the Rio), seems to be a regular dining joint for the poker elite.
This in from our Palms spy earlier today/yesterday:
Greetings,
Poker legend Phil Hellmuth dined at N9NE Steakhouse inside Palms Casino Resort Thursday night (11.12.09). Accompanied by three friends, Hellmuth enjoyed a rib eye and a beer.
That’s it, he was the only notable person there on Thursday. We can only imagine how disappointing it musta been for Phil to find no pro athletes or music stars to exchange cell phone numbers with. Things were different about three weeks ago (sorry, leftover sighting) when, according to our embed, “Matchbox 20 lead singer Rob Thomas was dining downstairs at N9NE, as were former Minnesota Twins catcher Joe Mauer and “Glee” actor Mark Salling, who ordered lobster potstickers and a kobe burger.”
+Devilfish palling around with (aging) British boy-bander
That same night:
In Playboy Club English professional gambler and poker player David Ulliott (known by the nickname Devilfish), was joined by six guests including entertainer Matt Goss who arrived later in the evening with 15 other guests. The group was drinking Ketel One cocktails.
Devilfish’s mate (in the British sense) Matt Goss is, according to an LA Times blog, “the hottest Vegas act you haven’t heard of” … and the newest musician in residence at the Palms. (He sold nearly 20 million albums 20 years ago.)
In lieu of our semi-regular Friday Night Video(s), here’s Goss’ new single, which features writhing chicks in lingerie amidst plenty of poker action:
While we’ll happily take credit for being the first to recognize the amazinggayness cultural importance of Lady Gaga’s Poker Face … props to WCP for tipping us off to this major sociopolitical statement wrapped around a poker-themed song:
UPDATE: And so long as we’re pilfering Wicked Chops content today … they’ve got the latest episode of PTV Cribs up, with Evelyn Ng showing her new pad in Panorama Towers (I’m pretty sure) after being foreclose-booted out of her previous rental at the property. She talks a little DJ Hero, too … so hey, we’re still on theme:
More douchebaggerous debaucherous good times leaking out from the UB’s big annual Aruba event … the kinda special gathering that even Full Tilt Red Pros attend. And here we see some guy I hadn’t heard of before, Poker Rapper, show Jeff Madsen that the one-time WSOP Player of the Year will never be the Eminem of Poker. (He almost sounds like he’s crying when he tries to comeback from the schooling by kicking it into Marshall Mathers gear.)
Not to get all Lady Gaga over Phil Ivey … but seriously, the dude who’s only the third-biggest tournament winner in history seldom speaks to anyone not engaged in some sort of gamble with him for more than 30 seconds at a time. But he sat down for nearly 9 minutes with Poker.se and tells what it took to develop his game (15-16 hrs/day, 4-5 yrs), how rough it is to make it as a pro, bankroll management, the importance of Bobby’s Room during the WSOP, his bracelet prop-bet odds, November Nine preparation, etc.
Again, WTF is up with all the new poker movies, videos, shorts, Poker Beat spinoffs, internet talk shows, reality gigs, and other multimedia poker storylines being put out by folks other than Poker PROductions, ESPN, 441, or PokerRoad?
