It’s a fascinating tale, I swear, how the WSOP and their new mobile online poker app won over my free-time play … and actually got me to pony up cash for playable chips — a conversion the game-greats at Zynga Texas Hold’em could never achieve with me. (Though Scramble with Friends did get a few of my bucks once.)

Zynga Poker, apparently recognizing a decrease in my “Texas Hold’em” play, buzzes me mid-Omaha in a failed effort to win me back to their handheld digital tables.

The story gets even better when you look into the lawsuit between Zynga and WSOP app-maker Electronic Arts … particularly as Zynga gets ready to do battle on Facebook for real-money gambling in partnership with BwinParty.

Have you seen this new reality show on CNN called “The Republican Tea Party Debate”? LOL, the new season is just getting underway, but already I’m looking forward to seeing who gets voted off the island. The first episode last night was full of groaners and OMGs and gawkable moments … the characters are about as good as any Real World/Survivor crew I’ve ever seen before. You can already tell Michelle Bachman is gonna be the Omarosa and Rick Santorum the Puck.

The poker-player’s candidate, Gary Johnson, apparently didn’t make the cut … but poker did enter into the debate when Mitt Romney challenged Texas Governor Rick Perry’s record on job creation … essentially calling him a luckbox.

Not quite the “licensed and regulated online poker” stuff we mighta hoped for … but hey.

Unfortunately, not only do these two look-a-likes reveal an inherent conservative opposition to “regulation” that the Barton Bill will have to overcome, but also they seem to be talking 5-card draw or maybe 7-stud with the four Aces analogy — as if they’re totally unaware that much of the country is playing Pot-Limit Omaha.

It’s PLO week on Poker after Dark, and thus the first new televised poker I’ve been excited to watch (on first run) in forever. Though I’m sure someone had to play a 4-card hand on ESPN in 2004, I can’t remember any PLO on TV since learning the definition of a “wrap” … and certainly not since the Pokerati game began introducing low-stakes players in Vegas to PLO (with run-it-twice!) a year-an-a-half ago.

(L to R) Adams, Antonius, Ivey, Dwan, Hastings, Galfond

Hard to believe televising a short-handed cash game session of the second most popular poker game in the world — the one that has produced the biggest online pots in history — would prove “revolutionary” … but really, it is kinda historic; and that says something about the limits of creative innovation in the online poker infomercial biz.

But kudos to PAD for at least taking a peak outside the ’06-’09 box to embrace variance. Though I wouldn’t contend pot-limit Omaha and four-color decks are what will reinvigorate poker on TV … for a semi-regular PLO player who doesn’t necessarily dream of playing the game for $100k buy-ins but just wants to beat my friends once a week at 1/2, hearing about a different sector of hand possibilities almost feels fresh … and it’s always good-fun to see extra cards on the table:

Talk of PLO on Poker After Dark comes as I personally have been jonesin’ for mo-bigger low-stakes PLO … and based on emails, tweets, and Facebook, a stream of Vegas visitors and locals seem to be, too. Interest in PLO may be growing, but players in Las Vegas looking for starter stakes can’t always be sure where to find reliable action.

Word from the Strip is that a rather strong 1/2 PLO game has been running lately at the Venetian, apparently fueled by the November Deep Stacks. But one-bullet buyers beware, a $5 bring-in at the V makes the game kinda steep … especially for those with a strategy of pushing with weak two-pairs, calling with non-nut draws, and relying on run-it-twice to stick around long enough for a meal comp. (Don’t ask me how I know.)

And Aria Poker spreads a vibrant 1/2 NLH/PLO that occasionally makes. Their game plays most similarly to the Pokerati Game of old — and though it runs only sporadically, Aria often has the game posted on the board with a list of mostly 1/3 and 2/5 no-limit regulars ready to take a seat against any and all PLO tourists.

Poker After Dark is trying its hand at pot-limit Omaha, according to Brian Hastings’s blog on CardRunners (via PokerJunkie). From the sound of it, imho, could be another great step in the evolution of poker on TV …

We’ve previously contended that just because mixed games don’t play well on TV, there should be an exception for PLO. It’s easy-enough for any Texas Hold’em player to follow … same winning hands (essentially) … with enough crazy beats, dramatic suck-and resuck, and occasional nut-folding to make things exciting … while opening a new realm of poker thinking that should keep viewers coming back, especially if they play the game, too.

Supposedly this rare televised high-stakes PLO cash game, played a couple days ago in Ivey’s Room @AriaPoker and airing some time next year, was 300/600 with a $100k minimum buy-in. Pretty sexy line-up, too:

While at least five of those names have inherent high-stakes appeal, and one of them is Durrrr, I particularly wanna tune in to see Farha. We always hear how Omaha is his game … but I dunno that I’ve ever seen him play PLO before with hole-card cams — and should be interesting to watch his old-school style match-up with the online generation in a game that isn’t Texas Hold’em.

Could be wrong, but If this episode plays well — which I think it will, relatively — don’t be surprised to see a little more PLO factor into other poker franchises’ TV decisions.

Day 1a of the £1,075 NL Holdem event drew a field of 202 entrants Friday afternoon. After nine levels of play, 28 players return Monday afternoon to join the day 1b and 1c survivors. The day 1a chip leader is Denmark’s Jeppe Bisgaard with 49,000 in chips. Other day 1a notables: Keith “The Camel” Hawkins – 27,800, defending champion JP Kelly – 23,800 and November Niner Matthew Jarvis – 14,700. Chip counts available here as Day 1b gets underway at 12pm London time Saturday.

Day 3 of the £5,250 Pot-Limit Omaha event will resume at 3pm Saturday afternoon with 15 players remaining. November Niner John Racener will hold the chip lead, while Chris Bjorin and Willie Tann, final tablists in the £2,500 NL Holdem 6-max event, have also made the money. Here’s how the remaining players will be seated, with blinds at 1,500/3,000:

Table One:

Seat 1. Steve Jelinek – 56,500
Seat 2. Andrew Miles – 80,500
Seat 4. Sean Dempsey – 36,500
Seat 5. Jeff Kimber – 86,500
Seat 6. Chris Bjorin – 122,000
Seat 7. Samuel Stein – 119,500
Seat 8. Karl Mahrenholz – 211,000
Seat 9. Jeff Madsen – 126,500

Table Two:

Seat 1. Willie Tann – 154,000
Seat 2. John Racener – 276,000
Seat 3. Erik Friberg – 97,000
Seat 4. Joe Serock – 72,000
Seat 5. Filipe Ramos – 141,000
Seat 6. Jeff Lisandro – 131,000
Seat 9. Michael Schwartz – 66,000

Follow the updates at PokerNews and WSOP.com

The final table of the £2,500 + £150 NL Holdem 6-max final table for the first event of the WSOP Europe has now been set. Two WSOP bracelet winners (Bjorin and Tann) will be trying to add a bracelet to their collection. However, the main attraction will be Phil Laak, with his third cash in Europe this month – 15th at the Partouche Poker Tour, 18th at the English Poker Open:

Seat 1: Willie Tann 72,000
Seat 2: Chris Bjorin 368,500
Seat 3: Phil Laak 317,000
Seat 4: Andrew Pantling 627,500
Seat 5: Ilan Rouah 200,000
Seat 6: David Peters 251,500

Final table payouts:

1. £170,802
2. £105,506
3. £70,473
4. £48,202
5. £33,617
6. £23,900

The final table starts at 2pm London time, (6am Vegas time) with updates available at PokerNews and WSOP.com. At 5pm Thursday, the second WSOPE bracelet event gets underway, £5,000 + £250 Pot-Limit Omaha event, won last year by Jani Vilmunen, who bested a field of 154 players to earn over £200,000.

The view from my room at the Hard Rock … with semi-hard-rockin’ late ’70s-early ’90s in the air (Tom Petty, Heart, INXS, Rick Springfield, The Fixx) … not exactly helping me concentrate on my Jeff Hwang, not to mention my Rolf Slotboom.

With apologies to Wicked Chops for my poor tournament PLO skills creepy zoom-lens camera-guy results … take your pick, er, I mean pic:

UPDATE: Van Halen now … off of Diver Down. So really, how much should you bet when you flop middle set on a draw-heavy board, against one big stack, and the other player a shorty? Now KISS … you can see where this is going, right? Nirvana next.

Matthew Wheat, mindcirkus, PLO

Everybody’s getting ready for the Pokerati NLH/PLO tournament … Championship! at the Detox Series. Excited, of course, to be playing my first ever tournament session of half-pot-limit Omaha. So naturally, I went to my coaches at CardRunners for some quick pointers … and they sent me to Mindcirkus … aka Matthew Wheat.

He’s made his name amongst the online kids for dominance in 6-max PLO cash games. Now I get what they’re doing with all this wax-on-wax-off paint-the-fence shit they keep serving me … but not really what I’m looking for when I’ve got a tournament in just a week to prepare for. I already know how to play PLO cash games, obv!

“Now you don’t, Dan,” my chief keeper at CardRunners said.

powered by

He pointed out that these are important skills to understand, and they helped mindcirkus make his way to the final table in the $10k WSOP PLO Championship this summer. Fair enough, but my game is really more half-and-half. Still, they say there’s stuff I’ll be able to use from this lesson about online tells in 6-max PLO — as seen primarily in bet sizes and bet speed.

You can get free membership to CardRunners simply by letting them track your Full Tilt play with Truly Free Poker Training.

Andreas “Skjervøy” Torbergsen

I swear I told’em it wasn’t necessary, but my good pals at CardRunners insisted …

Knowing I’ve been actively working on my PLO game, and that I have my first such “beginners” PLO tournament coming up Aug. 18 @detoxpoker, CR has signed Andreas Torbergsen (aka “Skjervøy”) as a dedicated PLO instructor and team pro. (He’s also been recently added as a Full Tilt Red Pro.)

Here’s an interview with the Norwegian grinder made extra-good … about taking his 1/2 PLO game to Vegas in 2005 and eventually juicing it up to a seven-figure bankroll. And kudos to the dude for not dropping out of university, apparently seeing the value of a marketing degree even though his current winnings could be enough to make most poker players say skøøl schmjool.

To get Andreas’ forthcoming instructional vids (for free) you can sign up for Truly Free Poker Training.

Unless, of course, you happen to play in the Pokerati game. If you do, then just ignore all this and continue to get it all-in with a weak pair and non-nut draw!

Note: At the time of this post (6:00am PT), registration is temporarily closed for days 1c and 1d of the Main Event.

A busy 4th of July awaits the WSOP with three bracelet events and the Tournament of Champions finishing today, maybe.

WSOP TOC finally resumes Sunday

It’s an early day for the remaining 17 poker celebrities as the WSOP Tournament of Champions plays down to a winner starting at 11am. Mike Matusow will lead the field with 85,500 in chips when play gets underway, follow the gripes, complaints and other action around the felt at PokerNews.

Proulx leads 10k PLO final table

With 18 players left, the $10,000 Pot-Limit Omaha Championship looked like it would feature a strong final table. That fizzled when Tom Dwan, Phil Hellmuth, and Jason Mercier were eliminated in the final two tables, leaving a very international final table when play resumes at 4pm with this lineup:

Seat 1: Ludovic Lacay – 2,279,000
Seat 2: Daniel Alaei – 1,800,000
Seat 3: Miguel Proulx – 2,440,000
Seat 4: Matthew Wheat – 745,000
Seat 5: Ville Mattila – 490,000
Seat 6: Trevor Uyesugi – 435,000
Seat 7: Alexander Kravchenko – 330,000
Seat 8: Stephen Pierson – 570,000
Seat 9: Dmitry Stelmak – 1,285,000

Peters leads day 3 1k NL field

Day 3 of the $1,000 No-Limit Holdem is scheduled to play down to a final table when play resumes at 3pm. David Peters leads the remaining 47 players with 594,000 in chips, with bracelet winner Jesse Rockowitz (320,000) and Alex Jacob (163,000) among the notables remaining. The full list of chip counts and results are at wsop.com.

Mackey’s Million leads 2500 NL

Day 3 of the $2,500 No-Limit Holdem finds 73 players returning at 3pm, attempting to reach a final table. James Mackey (1,011,000) holding a large chip lead over the field. Other notables who come back to the Rio include Mike Wattel (428,500), Jon Turner (288,000), Dan Shak (215,500), Isaac Baron (194,000), Craig Marquis (152,000) and Court Harrington (145,000). Full chip counts and results available at wsop.com.

One bracelet already awarded, another bracelet possibly awarded tonight, the mess that is the Tournament of Champions and other tournament action:

Kelly wins 25k 6-max, Brunson 10 Deal

The final table of the $25,000 No-Limit Holdem 6-max took less than four hours to complete, as 21-year old Dan “djk123” Kelly took down the bracelet along with $1,315,518 when his A-10 ran down Shawn Buchanan’s pocket jacks with an ace on the river. Kelly also became the 7th member of the Brunson 10 with the win, as he was part of a competition during the WSOP to award the spot. Buchanan earned $812,941 for his second place finish, he also won a big hand on the river a few minutes earlier, when the money went in on an open-ended straight draw against Frank Kassela’s flopped two pair. The straight on the river meant a 3rd place finish for Kassela ($556,053), along with 60 POY points to give him a stranglehold on the title. Jason Somerville ($386,125), Mikael Thuritz ($272,804) and Eugene Katchalov ($194,559) rounded out the final table. Full results and Nolan Dalla’s tournament report at wsop.com.

Proulx leads 10k PLO, Hellmuth’s chips throw TOC into chaos

What was expected to be the final day of the $10,000 Pot-Limit Omaha Championship is currently on a dinner break with 18 players remaining. Miguel Proulx, who won the $2,500 PLO event earlier in the WSOP, holds the chip lead with 1,966,000, with Ludovic Lacay (830,000), Jason Mercier (794,000), Tom Dwan (501,000) and Phil Hellmuth (181,000) among the notables remaining. Live updates available at wsop.com.

Hellmuth’s stack is causing problems for the Tournament of Champions, which was scheduled to resume at 7pm. With Hellmuth still in the TOC, the other 16 players were hoping for Hellmuth’s elimination tonight to get the field down to a final table and avoid a long day on Sunday. After Hellmuth made the dinner break, there was discussion about playing one level during the PLO dinner break, but with Joe Hachem asleep and Huck Seed unable to be found, that idea was scrapped and the TOC will be played out starting at 11am, unless some other problem arises in the next few hours.

Phil Gordon wins Ante Up for Africa

A field of 83 poker pros and celebrities, took the felt in the $5,000 Ante Up for Africa charity tournament, with Phil Gordon beating Shannon Elizabeth heads-up, with Gordon donating the entire $129,086 to Ante Up for Africa. Erik Seidel and Jerome Bettis also appeared at the final table. Annie Duke tweeted that over $300,000 was raised in total from the event. Full results and Dalla’s tournament report at wsop.com.

$2,500 NL nears the money

After a delay in the $2,500 No-Limit Holdem due to a shortage of available dealers, 222 players remain for day 2, with the final 196 making the money. James Mackey is the current leader with 240,000 in chips, followed by Isaac Baron (170,000), David Singer (144,000), Andy Philachack (100,000), Jamie Gold (82,000), Tom Franklin (74,000) and Jason Dewitt (63,700). Updates and chip counts available at PokerNews.

1k NL makes the money

Less than 200 players remain in the $1,000 No-Limit Holdem with at least four more levels scheduled for tonight. Check the results and updates at wsop.com.

Recapping the rest of Friday night’s action that Dan didn’t post about, with a Saturday full of battles that don’t involve UFC 116: featuring Brock Lesnar v Shane Carwin.

Taylor wins battle of roommates at Limit Shootout

The final table of the $1,500 Limit Shootout was one of the strongest final tables you’ll see at a $1,500 event with notables like tournament limit holdem specialist Terrence Chan, former WPT player of the year Jonathan Little and former Party Poker Million winner Mike Schneider. When it came down to heads-up, it would be roommates Brendan Taylor and Ben Yu battling it out for the bracelet, with Taylor coming out on top to earn $184,950 and the bracelet. Yu brings back $114,484 for the runner-up finish while Little finished 3rd ($73,218), Schneider came in 6th ($23,563) and Chan a disappointing 8th ($12,961). Full results and Nolan Dalla’s tournament report at wsop.com.

Kelly and Kassela headline 25k 6-max final table

Day three of the $25,000 No-Limit Holdem 6-max started with a flurry of eliminations in the first hour; leading Daniel Negreanu to take issues with the structure on Twitter, eventually finishing in 11th. Dan “djk123” Kelly, who started the day 18th in chips, will start the final table today as the overwhelming chip leader, while Frank Kassela will try to add to his WSOP Player of Year lead. Here’s how the final table will look when play resumes at 2:30pm PT, with streaming available at ESPN3.com (where available) or updates at wsop.com:

Seat 1: Frank Kassela – 2,610,000
Seat 2: Jason Somerville – 1,665,000
Seat 3: Dan Kelly – 5,895,000
Seat 4: Eugene Katchalov – 475,000
Seat 5: Shawn Buchanan – 2,110,000
Seat 6: Mikael Thuritz – 1,535,000

Talbot tops day 1b 1k NL

Day 1b of the $1,000 No-Limit Holdem drew a field of 1,504 players Friday afternoon, with 255 players joining the rest of the day 1a survivors to have a total field of 586 returning at 2:30pm. The money will be reached when 396 players remain with the winner earning $570,960. The day 1b chip leader is Andrew Talbot with 70,175. The full list of day 1b chip counts can be found at wsop.com, those looking for a table draw, i’ll try to get it up on my Twitter as soon as it becomes available.

Sander grinds into lead at $2,500 NL

The final prelim of the WSOP, $2,500 No-Limit Holdem drew a field of 1,941 players Friday afternoon, with 500 players remaining when play resumes at 3pm. The money is reached when 198 players remain, with the winner pocketing a payday of $826,418. The reported chip leader is Dan Smith with 229,000, although he tweeted 22,900 earlier this morning. Marc Sander holds the chip lead with 98,000, followed by notables such as Mark Newhouse (81,400), Isaac Baron (70,100), Court Harrington (69,000), Dan Heimiller (53,100), Jamie Gold (42,000), Jonathan Aguiar (37,000) and Ivan Demidov (34,800). The full list of chip counts appears over at wsop.com and check my Twitter or WSOP’s Twitter for the table draw.

Ante Up for Africa

The annual charity effort held at the WSOP, Ante Up for Africa, gets underway at 2pm. The $5,000 buy-in event helps bring poker pros and celebrities together to help out a worthy cause. Those who make the money are encouraged to donate half of their winnings, hopefully the controversy from last year’s event will be avoided this year.

Phil Ivey was at the Golden Nugget enjoying barbecue last night — at Howard Lederer’s World Series of BBQ — when he learned that Tom Dwan was making another serious run for a bracelet, in $10k PLO.

pic: Melissa Hayden

Durrrr in the headlights: Please, Melissa, I’m trying to eat …Who Tom Dwan what? How many chips? I need more sauce.

Play ended last night with 33 left and Durrrr the chip leader … by like a lot. (36 got paid.) Phil Hellmuth is 13th in chips, with 330k to Dwan’s 910k.

Here’s the event coverage Ivey and just about everyone will be sweating on Saturday: $10k Pot-Limit Omaha. Sigh. If only ESPN knew what Euros (and players in my 1/2 NL/PLO game at the Hard Rock) already do … that Omaha is hold’em, and thus can make for some great TV.

Others still alive include:

Jason Mercier
Devilfish
Ludovic Lacay (Benjo’s friend/French bad-ass)
Fabrice Soulier
Michael Binger
Daniel Alaeai
Tony Cousineau
Jason Lester (for viewers still insisting on familiar ’03-’04 faces)

Interestingly enough, the last man out for the night (winning $19.8k) was EPT Tournament Director Thomas Kremser … essentially the Matt Savage of Europe. Alexander Kravchenko, another pretty good-TV name, busted him.

But hey, this is PLO, so all sorts of card craziness can happen. Let’s reconvene when they get to the final table and see if indeed, poker geeks and uber-high-stakes prop-bettors everywhere will be clamoring about Dwan (and maybe Hellmuth) closing out the WSOP with a multimillion-dollar bang.

Recapping Thursday night’s action, with the final bracelet event before the WSOP starting this afternoon:

Welch jams Eaton for 3k Triple Chance bracelet

After a lengthy heads-up match, Ryan Welch secured his first WSOP bracelet, winning the $3,000 No-Limit Holdem Triple Chance tournament, earning $559,371. Eaton earned $344,830 for his runner-up finish, Guillaume Darcourt finished 3rd for $223,459 and Will “The Thrill” Failla coming in 4th for $163,352. Full results and Nolan Dalla’s tournament report are available at wsop.com.

Kenney leads 25k NL 6-max into money

Day two of the $25,000 No-Limit Holdem 6-max finished with 18 players remaining with John Juanda being the unfortunate bubble boy. When play resumes at 3pm, Bryn Kenney will start the day as the chip leader with 2,425,000. Among the notables: Abe Mosseri (1,035,000), Daniel Negreanu (860,000), Isaac Haxton (835,000), Justin Bonomo (576,000) and Carlos Mortensen (484,000). Full chip counts and updates during the afternoon at wsop.com.

$1500 Limit Shootout Final Table

Day two of the $1,500 Limit Holdem Shootout started with the disqualification of Yueqi “Rich” Zhu, for making a deal heads-up when he won his shootout table on Wednesday. Zhu explained to PokerNews he was feeling ill, and decided to make a deal with his opponent. After that was taken care of, the remaining 63 players at the eight shootout tables playing down to a winner. The final table will start at 3pm today with this lineup, each starting with 450,000 chips:

Jonathan Little
Terrence Chan
Mike Schneider
Joe McGowan
Ben Yu
Brian Tate
Brendan Taylor
Sijbrand Maal

Follow the updates for this event at PokerNews.

Dempsey leads day 1a of 1k NL

Day 1a of the final $1,000 No-Limit Holdem tournament of the WSOP drew 2,340 entrants Thursday afternoon to the Amazon and Pavillion rooms at the Rio. Play finished halfway through level 9 with 331 players to return Saturday afternoon. James “Flushy” Dempsey leads the day 1a field with 144,100 in chips. Among the notables returning: Shannon Shorr (45,000), Toto Leonidas (31,475), Jena Delk (23,175) and Liv Boeree (16,575). A full list of chip counts is available at PokerNews.

Paino leads 10k PLO Day 1

The $10,000 Pot-Limit Omaha got underway Thursday afternoon with a field of 346 players taking the felt. After eight levels of play, 166 will return at 3pm, with the final 36 players making the money with the winner taking down $780,599. Antonio Paino leads the returning players with 240,000 in chips, with James Akenhead (181,100), Fabrice Soulier (151,200), Noah Boeken (114,400), Annette Obrestad (106,900), Tom Dwan (103,800) and Michael Binger (97,200) among the big names in the upper half of the leaderboard. The full list of chip counts is now available at wsop.com.

Friday’s tournament

Besides day 1b of the $1,000 No-Limit Holdem event starting at 12pm, the 5pm tournament is the $2,500 No-Limit Holdem event. Last year, Keven Stammen won this event in a field of 1,088 for $506,878.