Former and/or current WSOP table sponsor Everest Poker has filed another lawsuit against Harrah’s … claiming the American gaming giant is infringing on trademark rights by playing the 2010 WSOP (and filming some of it) with Everest logos on and around all the tables.

This suit, filed in Las Vegas federal court, is the latest strike in a legal tit-for-tat between that adds to a list of matters on the table and off making 2010 arguably the most challenging WSOP year since Harrah’s took over.

Everest first sued Harrah’s on April 1, claiming breach of contract after the French ESPN affiliate electronically replaced Everest logos during 2008-09 WSOP broadcasts with “virtual signage” from Full Tilt, an Everest competitor. On those grounds, Everest refused to pay the final $8.4 million on a three-year contract, money the WSOP was expecting before this spring. That suit came, of course, shortly after the WSOP announced its $1 million “TOC” freeroll.

Buffering: So far the only live-streaming WSOP action has been from the WSOP-Academy sponsor’s exemption TOC sit-n-go, which took place on a single table with their own felt, not one bearing the marks of Everest Poker.

Harrah’s denied those claims, and followed with a suit of its own against Everest, alleging breach of contract and other infractions while seeking the promised Everest funds. And now, as mentioned, Everest has added further litigation to the Everest vs. Harrah’s docket, all of which is pending.

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Use of Sally Anne Boyer’s image is what’s in dispute.

Sally Anne Boyer, 2007 WSOP Ladies’ World Champion, filed a suit Monday against Harrah’s and the WSOP Academy, claiming they’ve used her name and likeness without authorization, and falsely claiming she’s a graduate of the Academy.

Boyer contends that she only attended the first day of the two-day Ladies Academy event, never completing the course, so was not a graduate. Post Oak Productions, the company that produces the WSOP Academy produced an email from August 2007 from Boyer asking to mail a picture of her in ‘poker tournament attire’ to use for further promotions.

More details available from the Las Vegas Sun.

Karridy had to leave the Julie final table to go play in his own tourney … just getting underway at Caesar’s is the WSOP Academy‘s Tournament of Champions, where K-man is competing for a main event seat.

Follow his self-twittering action here.

UPDATE: Never mind.

While I get some work done from home in sunny, springy Southern Cali, my Pokerati pals are actually looking for fortune and fame on the felt playing some tournament poker.

Dan is playing the much-hyped Dream Team Poker event at Caesars Palace. On his team? Shane “Shaniac” Schleger and Dr. Pauly, playing as the Team Tao of Pokerati, also known as Tao of Pokerati’s 420 All Stars. Look for some Tao of Pokerati episodes to come as they record some of their intense strategy sessions and gossip about the other players. Sure, these three may be taking more breaks (certainly at 4:20pm today) than other players in the room, but that doesn’t mean they won’t be inspired to take it down.

Karridy is competing in the Texas Amateur Poker Championship. At last post, he was the chipleader with 50,000 chips in Level 4. After his recent visit to the WSOP Academy at Winstar, he might just have that extra insight that will take him all the way.

Go Guys!

Keep up with them both via CSR reports as the day progresses.

UPDATE: Karridy finished 12th in his event. 300something entries, so almost definitely in the money, but probably just short of the big money. –DanM

UPDATE: $1,190.

WSOPA Student Interview
[audio:http://pokerati.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/03/wsopa_karridy.mp3]

Many Dallas Fort Worth poker players can clearly remember when Winstar didn’t give two hoots about Poker. At that same time, the then soon-to-be ‘big games’ were popping up all over North Texas. Many of those have since come and gone as players come to prefer driving an hour north over getting shot to death. But this alone wasn’t going to do the heavy lifting required to further increase the infamous Texas vs. Oklahoma license plate ratio of the Winstar parking lot. It would take a few years, an upstart tournament series and TV show, and finally one damn nice poker room upgrade. It appears now that the players are taking Winstar as a serious poker venue, so are promoters. Most recently, the WSOP.

Last weekend, I was given the opportunity to join a few dozen amateur players for the most recent installment of the WSOP Poker Academy. This event’s focus was near and dear to my heart; Tournament Strategy. Although I get more than my own fair share of top-notch professional tournament wisdom via poker and biz bud, Tom Schneider, I was very much looking forward to the ever present contrast that would be offered by different pros, including Bernard Lee, Michael Gracz, Greg Raymer, and friends. I would not be disappointed.

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Karridy outlasted and out-intimidated “Century 21 Rocks!” and every other student-player at WinStar.

Karridy’s in Oklahoma this weekend, attending the WSOP Academy at WinStar … (note to Texas legislators) … and, sure enough, after a day of schooling, he won their big tournament last night. I don’t know the details — I think it was like 40something players, two of whom may or may not have included instructors Greg Raymer and Mike Gracz … and the prize is something like a fancied-up trip to Vegas and seat in WSOP-A’s tournament of champions. Anyhow, nice job K-man! That’s 2-for-2 for him when representing Team Pokerati.

ALT HED: Karridy Don’t Need No … Edu-ca-tion

Oh, wait, I’m forgetting about the two WSOP 1500’s where he busted out early on Day 1. But regardless, in what is something of a rarity, the entire Beyond the Table hosting crew (SitNGo Steve excused) was playing poker Saturday night. While Karridy was winning his tourney, I was kicking a little ass playing 1/2 online, booking my second $1,000 win in two sessions (might I actually have learned something at cash games college?), and Tom was playing the main event of the LAPC, where he won his seat via satellite but would soon be busting out not too far into Day 1, thereby making him happy for his amateur BTT cohorts, but not so happy about being the biggest loser of the bunch.

Lectures, lab sessions, and lunch are all part of an academic effort to plug your leaks.

Much to say about the WSOP Academy I attended last weekend at Caesar’s … about things I learned, how I performed, and, frankly, what kinda people are shelling out close to $2,000 for anything these days. For some of the 50-or-so poker players in attendance it was just a matter of a buy-in or two for the level they play at. And for others, it was more than half their annual poker budget in a way that doesn’t even account for flights to Las Vegas from Australia or Buffalo.

Prof. Seif: “He may think it’s the right move, but Dan stands to lose a stack of 20-dollar bills this big if he keeps playing that way.”

All in all it was a great class taught by Mark Seif, Mark Gregorich, Alex Outhred, and Michael Gracz — very engaging, informative, and often irreverent — didn’t feel like Saturday/Sunday detention at all. I lost pretty big in the one session of $1/$2 NL I’ve played since WSOP-Acad graduation … I guess they shoulda reminded us to take a nap after class, or they can only do so much with a guy who insists on misplaying KQ generally 8 out of 10 times. (Ah, the painful, humiliating schoolchild memories …) If I could just misplay the hand 4 out of 10 times, that would be some serious positive EV, saving me the theoretical cost of tuition in just a few orbits!

BTW, the next WSOP Academy is at WinStar, February 21-22 — a poker room near and dear to so many Texas player and longtime Pokeratizens. Outhred and Gracz will be part of the Thackerville faculty, along with Greg Raymer and Master Mindset (?) coach Sam Chauhan.

Click here for more info … and really, you should totally think about signing up. Your Pokerati-friendly friends will feed you and everything.

Bluff also has their 2008 Reader’s Choice Awards ballots up online, where they’re naming “Bests” in 20 categories — asking your favorite online sites, broadcasters, poker rooms, forums, podcasts, etc. Pokerati is one of 10 finalists in the blog category. Sweet-ish!

Cast your ballot accordingly. To encourage your willingness to spend your valuable click-time with Bluff, all respondents go into a drawing for WSOP Academy seats and a one-year subscription(?) to thepokerdb … which is already free, but still.

This weekend wasn’t about life-changing money so much as it was about life-easing money for those who went super-deep (top 1 percent), but not deep-deep-deep in the main event: Margo Outhred reading David Sedaris’ latest (When You Are Engulfed in Flames) while awaiting important updates via text from her husband Alex. Though supposedly tournament poker is all about going for the win, there were points when he got short-stacked that she became very interested in the payout levels, and would rush back into the Amazon Room to let him know what they stood to gain if he could hold on for X spots longer.

63rd-55th place paid $115,800

WSOP Academy instructor Alex Outhred finished in 54th(-46th) for $135,100 — a small but noticeable victory on his way out of the 2008 WSOP main event.

I find a new level of respect for Annie Duke every time I speak with her.

Last month, she taught the WSOP Ladies Academy I attended, and we had several chances to speak about life and ladies-only tournaments.

On life, Annie changed hers drastically after the 2007 WSOP. She admitted that she didn’t feel so great after smoking and drinking tons of caffeine throughout the Series, so she just stopped. Cold turkey. She went smoke-free and caffeine-free in one day, and she switched to eating only organic foods. On top of that she began running – not just a mile or two but ten or twenty. When we spoke in January, she was up to nearly 20 miles at a time and preparing to run the Rock ‘n Roll Marathon on June 1st in San Diego. She’s going to challenge herself with the run while raising money for Ante Up for Africa.

Her comments on ladies-only events in poker went into my article on PokerWorks. As always with Annie, she doesn’t mince words or filter herself, which is something I admire.

Now, I’m going to think about her healthy ways while I put on my workout gear and eat some fruit light up and drink my caffeinated tea.

Speaking of women / little girls in poker … here’s an article in The Economist that some of us may have missed last month … about Annette Obrestead’s WSOP-Europe win, and what it means for the game overall, regardless of chromosomes. Gotta wonder what the youngest generation of players thinks about the poker gender gap. My semi-educated guess is that it’s far less relevant to Gen-Y and below.

Sure, I’m a lady. (Shut up, Dan.) But I’ve written numerous articles about my anti-ladies-only tournament stance…

When All In Magazine asked if I wanted the assignment to cover the WSOP Ladies Academy in Vegas this past weekend, it required some consideration. I firmly object to women being separated in the poker community, but I noticed that Annie Duke was the primary instructor for the class. Knowing that we shared the same view about ladies-only tournaments, I decided to accept the assignment and investigate. The comped room at Caesars had something little to do with my decision.

Alex Outhred Instructing Students

Glad I did it.

The two-day course was extremely informative, as Annie covered everything from bluffing to betting amounts to detailed strategy for pre-flop and post-flop play. Joe Navarro spent a few hours discussing tells, which even drew some Vegas pros like Tom McEvoy and JJ Liu to sit in. Alex Outhred also helped with the lectures and the live table demonstrations. There were about 75 ladies enrolled in the $1700 course, and everyone seemed glad to have been there.

The lingering question: Why was it for women only?

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LAS VEGAS–The WSOP Academy started their main event camp today at Caesar’s Palace. For $2200, participants will be able to pick the brains of Phil Hellmuth, Greg Raymer, Mark Seif, Joe Hachem, Scott Fischman, Alex Outhred and more. Registrants will have the opportunity to play with the pros and have them critique their play. Three long days of camp will also include a seminar with FBI Agent Joe Navarro and ends with a private tournament for a seat into the main event.

Not only did I go on to cash after attending the Ladies camp in June, a fellow happy camper, Sally Boyer, took down a bracelet!

Interested in a scholarship? Send the WSOP Academy a note on why you think it could take you to the next level.