Is that a prop bet in your pants or are you just happy to see me?
As the Duke of Fremont gets ready for trial, Andrew and Dan are among a field of 200 playing $135 No-Limit Hold’em in the Golden Nugget’s $25,000 guaranteed weekender event. Dave meanwhile hooks it to Planet Hollywood in chase of the Caesars Megabeat (which pays better on a Wednesday afternoon) and damn, that’s a pretty good promo when coupled with their new 20 for 20 freeroll.
At Mandalay Bay this weekend it’s the $10,000 Tiger Jam, and is Wikipedia racist for thinking Phil Ivey = Tiger Woods? The WSOP lays out their summer plan with their annual media conference call. And we check in with David Clark, aka DC n La, from New Orleans, where the WSOP-NOLA circuit event is happening and the WSOP Circuit national championship takes place next week. And when a showdown reveals Dan’s 5c8c < 4s6s … he’s left asking Andrew if it was just an unfortunate river in the midst of sneaky button play or really, against a fellow Texan, just a late-position cliche …
Chris Reslock $18,200 – WSOP-C Harrah’s Philly $580 NLH
Chris Reslock $8,820 – WSOP-C Harrah’s Philly $365 NLH
Jae Kyung Sim $98,700 – APPT Cebu Main Event
Chris Reslock is having a good week at the WSOP Circuit series in “Philly”. The Atlantic City regular tied Alex Masek for Circuit victories with his 6th ring on Thursday and then took the overall lead early this morning with his 7th title in the short-field $365 NLH tournament. On top of his seven WSOP-C rings, Reslock also has nine other Circuit final tables on his resume, including two runner-up finishes, and a World Series of Poker bracelet in 2007.
In the online world, Ultimate Poker held it’s first “major” tournament with the regularly scheduled Sunday $10,000 guarantee event. The field hit it’s 200 player cap and the first big winner on the site was “d4heals” for just over $4,000. Meanwhile on PokerStars, “friend of Pokerati” Katie Dozier scored her biggest online title for $10,624 (and a soft drink) in their $30,000 2x-Turbo.
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Tweet of the Day – Good to see Marafioti is staying well grounded heading into his summer at the WSOP including some weird bet with Yevgeniy Timoshenko. Can’t wait for the 2013 version of the Adzizzy Bunny Hop.
People on 2+2 talk about me non stop. I’m the most talked about, hated, + imitated player in the game. #QuietInPerson+JealousOnline! #UMad?
Lock Poker Shadiness 101 – Lock poker did not have the Best Week Ever. Never a big fan on linking up a 2+2 post because I’m afraid it won’t wash it off the Silkwood shower, but this seems to be the most comprehensive list of things going south for Lock Poker, player cashouts, and the pros who support it via Todd Witless and h/t to @Kevmath.
Speeding through Monaco like a race car – The EPT Grand Final is underway in beautiful Monaco and Sarah Grant takes a close look at the legendary race course for the PokerStars Blog.
Kevin Saul $194,178 – WSOP-C Foxwoods Main Event
Bryan Piccioli $211,575 – WSOP APAC Event #1
Jim Collopy $69,662 – WSOP APAC Event #2
The World Series of Poker brand had themselves a fine time over the last few days on different sides of the globe. Big names, new tournaments, and interesting results. The WSOP APAC is underway in Australia while the WSOP-Circuit at Foxwoods wrapped up their Main Event.
Professional player Brian Piccioli captured the first ever WSOP APAC bracelet in a brand new event, something called the “Accumulator” at the Crown Casino in Melbourne. The tournament took reentry events to the next level, where players could not only enter each of the three starting days but could also play even if they had chips at the end of previous days. Whatever part of their stacks remained after Day 1A/B/C were combined and play continued on Day 2. Piccioli won they event with only his Day C stack after busting both A and B but worked it will for the $211,575 prize and gold bracelet.
Long time professional and former online master Kevin Saul is the latest WSOP Circuit Main Event Champion. There were 615 entrees into the inaugural Foxwoods WSOP-C tournament and Saul made quick work of the final table to pick up his shiny new ring, the near $200k payday, and his entry into the WSOP National Championship coming up in New Orleans.
History could be made later today when the WSOP APAC Mixed Event is played to a winner. Phil Ivey leads the final table with Daniel Negreanu right behind him. Ivey will be trying to capture his 9th WSOP bracelet while Negreanu is looking to break his 5 year bracelet slump to pick up his 5th.
Rio’s Bottle Package Get The Party Started!
Two Night Min./ Rates Vary
www.riolasvegas.com
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Tweet of the Day – Just because Hellmuth is halfway around the world in Australia, that doesn’t mean the internets can’t get their little taste of his wrath. Things don’t seem to be going well down under for the 13-time WSOP champion.
Busted 24th: I SO wish I wasn’t completely ANGRY now! Feeling unlucky, and running EVERY SINGLE HAND in my mind over-and-over-and-over…
Full Tilt Poker Ex-Chief to Plead Guilty – Ray Bitar, poster boy for Black Friday, reached an agreement with the US Attorney General’s office where he’ll pony up $40million but avoid any jail time as he’s in desperate need of a heart transplant. This naturally generated its own share of twitter jokes, mostly in bad taste.
WSOP.com Real Money Poker Beta – Feel like test driving the first legal poker site in the States. Things aren’t quite to the point of the real deal but WSOP is offering up the chance to beta test their software and shake out the bugs. Closer and closer.
East Falmouth man wins $10m in ‘poker’ game – The word poker is encased in well-deserved quotation marks but the headline still caught my eye. The Mass lottery created some bizarre luck of the draw, fake poker game that awarded a $10,000,000 check. You can’t win that kind of money in your local no-skill-to-win 2/4 limit game.
Bet Raise Fold: The Story of Poker – The documentary previously known as BOOM from the minds of Jay Rosenkrantz, Taylor Caby and Ryan Firpo has been renamed and the new trailer is out.
Jonathan Taylor $138,938 – WSOP-C Lodge Casino Main Event
Allen Kessler $20,859 – WSOP-C Lodge Casino $580 NLHE
Dan Shak $450,000 – PartyPoker Premier League VI
Michael Harris $95,663 – HPT Belterra Casin Main Event
There were plenty of results posted around the world over the weekend with the PartyPoker Premier League VI wrapping up, the Heartland Poker Tour crowning another champion, and the WSOP-C handing out a few more rings.
Dan Shak seems to love the big action, big attention games. He defeated Sam Trickett to capture the PartyPoker Premier League VI title after a few days of play for $450,000. As expected, it was a stacked final table with Antonio Esfandiari, Jonathan Duhamel, Daniel Cates, and actress/poker player Jennifer Tilly. Negreanu made a big splash as he just missed the final table (video can be viewed below).
Jonathan Taylor is the latest World Series of Poker Circuit event winner, his 3rd ring ring of the 2012/2013 series. He topped the other 420 entrees in the tournament for over $138,000. Perhaps only interesting to me, the small buy-in WSOP-C event in Blackhawk, CO drew exactly 150 less entrants than a similar Heartland Poker Tour event held in the same town just a few weeks. Also notable during this WSOP-C stop was the stunning non-min-cash of Allen “Complainsaw” Kessler who won the $580 No Limit Hold’em side event for his 2nd career ring.
Next up for the WSOP-C is a trip to the great Northeast and 12 tournaments at the mammoth Foxwoods Casino.
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Tweet(s) of the Day – Allen Kessler’s humble brag with the Matt Salsberg follow up needle. Good stuff, now where is my Entourage movie?
Atlantic City’s Revel casino files for bankruptcy – This news isn’t very shocking. The latest, greatest, fresh casino in Atlantic City hasn’t been doing well since it opened. My one and only experience there left me wondering how quickly I could catch a cab to the Borgata. The Chapter 11 filing will help them try to cut debt and stay alive, but we’ve all heard those stories before.
Kane ‘Nascar_1949’ Kalas – Risks and Riches – As a Philly boy, I grew up listening to Harry Kalas call Phillies games but most sports fans probably know him as the “voice” of NFL Films. I had no idea his son has been a professional poker player/degenerate for years. “Friend of Pokerati” Remko Rinkema has a very in depth interview talking about all things gambling and sports.
UK’s online gambling sector worth £2bn in 2012 – An article detailing the size of online gambling in the UK, complete with a numbers for the stats junkies and pretty graphs for those less inclined towards words.
Louisiana To Study Possibility of Online Gaming – Louisiana adds it’s name to the list of states looking to follow in the footsteps of Nevada, New Jersey, and Delaware to pass online poker legislation. The more the merrier.
Emotions run high as poker pro Daniel Negreanu throws all his chips – WATCH THIS VIDEO is how Jesse May would extort you to view the following (I just see the words coming out of his mouth in all caps). Negreanu, the self appointed judge of all things poker etiquette, lost his mind a little when he caught a bad beat during PartyPoker Premier League VI action.
Reece Lewis £80,000 – WPTN London Main Event
Ray Dehkharghani $235,931 – 2013 Wynn Poker Classic
Ray Henson $16,128 – WSOP-C The Lodge Casino Prelim
The week has finally come to an end with a good number of gambling degenerates from the poker world glued to the television watching, betting, cursing the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament. It’s a fun time of year for those who like to diversify their gambling dollar but not so much for those on Twitter who only endorse messages about things which interest them.
This week saw Ray Henson win his 2nd WSOP-C ring of 2013 at a place called The Lodge in Colorado (not to be confused with the old Pokerati games at The Lodge back during the golden old days). The WSOP-C Main Event is now underway with 3 starting days and a $1,675 buy-in. Also underway is the overly-complicated PartyPoker Premier League VI in London featuring a ton of your favorite players and a super live stream with Kara Scott. The only outcome noticed so far was a bad beat on Daniel Negreanu to send him back to Vegas before the WSOP-APAC.
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Tweet of the Day – You can’t argue with the tongue-in-cheek sentiment. So when/what/where is this Ivey Poker thing going to happen? (h/t @Kevmath)
It seems like IveyPoker and Nevada are in a race to see who can have the largest group of people doing nothing.
Highway to Hell – An interesting read about old school gambling in Texas along the Jacksboro Highway complete with stories/quotes from Doyle Brunson.
Parx Takes Lead In Monthly Poker Revenue – As an east coast boy I find this pretty shocking. When Pennsylvania began opening casinos and card rooms, everyone shrugged their shoulders saying it would have little impact on the games in AC. I guess they might have been wrong and kudos to Matt Glantz for getting Parx ahead.
Phil Ivey To Captain Team Americas in WSOP Asia-Pacific Caesars Cup – The WSOP Asia Pacific series is just a few weeks away and they’ve announced the captains for the latest effort to make the Caesars Cup something interesting. Phil Ivey (Team Americas), Sam Trickett (Team Europe), and Joe Hachem (Team Asia-Pacific) will now “draft” their teams.
Vertical Rush from PokerStars.com – I’m not exactly sure what I’m watching in this video other than it’s a bunch of people running up 42 floors of some building in London, includes Liv Boeree, and appears to have been recorded using mid-1990’s video technology.
Joseph Mckeehen $174,147 – WSOP-C Caesars AC Main Event
Teresa Hemingway $226,463 – HPT Golden Gates Casino
It was a good weekend for the mid-stakes, local friendly Heartland Poker Tour. Their Golden Gates Casino event in Black Hawk CO ran at the same time as a World Series of Poker Circuit Main Event, then proceeded to outdraw them despite bad weather and the fact it was located in Black Hawk CO.
The HPT event was hampered by severe winter weather and drew less entrants than the same event a year earlier but still managed to create a 7-digit prizepool. The WSOP-C Main Event was probably hampered by it’s location in Atlantic City and the number of entrees was down to 540 from 635 in 2012.
Teresa Hemingway became just the 3rd woman to win a title on the Heartland Poker Tour but she picked up one of their biggest prizes after getting in the event on a $360 satellite seat. Next stop for the HPT is somewhere in the middle of Iowa while the WSOP-C takes their turn in Black Hawk, CO at the Lodge Casino. Let’s see if they can match the HPT success in the area.
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Tweet of the Day – Negreanu still having fun with the whole joining a cult by accident thing.
8 oz of Kool-Aid, lamb blood and cayenne pepper- breakfast of champions! Off to play the 10k 8-Game should be fun!
Online gambling deals boost Zynga, Glu – Online gambling is getting a little more attention from the mainstream medai, this time from CNN in their Money section.
Losing-hand progressive poker jackpot hits, paying out $600,000 – After two months of running their multi-casino, bad beat jackpot, Caeasars finally had to pay out. Nearly $700,000 was chopped up between the winner, loser, and other players around their poker rooms.
Winamax Poker Tour : les résultats complets – My knowledge of the French language is limited to what I remember from that high school French class and what dirty words Benjo taught me. The important take away from this link is the World’s Greatest Poker Trophy in the Entire History of Poker. Also, god bless hyperbole.
Chris Reslock $25,480 – WSOP-C Caesars NLHE Prelim
Martin Bader £56,000 – GUKPT London Main Event
There were less than 200 entrees into the WSOP Circuit $580 NLHE event at Caesars in Atlantic City, but the final results were worth notice. AC and east coast legend Chris Reslock joined a very small club when he won the tournament and captured his 5th WSOP-C ring. He joins Ari Engel, Kyle Cartwright, Mark Smith, and Kurt Jewel in the 5 ring club and just one victory behind Alexandru Masek. Reslock has one WSOP bracelet as well, in the 2010 $3,000 H.O.R.S.E. tournament, and over $1,000,000 in career tournament earnings.
Also underway this week is the price-reduced WPT Bay 101 Shooting Star tournament, the buy-in reduced from $10,000 to $7,500. It looks like the discount is producing similar results as seen at the Borgata when they dropped their price to draw in more people yet still end up with a larger prizepool. Moon Kim is the defending champion.
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Tweet of the Day – Tournament Director extraordinaire Matt Savage made it “official” with this tweet, the Bay 101 Shooting Star will top attendance and prizepool numbers from last year’s event.
Not too late to jump on a plane and get out to @bay101casino @wpt. Prize pool is bigger than last year already at a smaller buy in $7,500!
Casino Industry Opposes PokerStars’ Bid for New Jersey License – The American Gaming Association doesn’t seem too thrilled with the idea of PokerStars buying the Atlantic Club Casino in AC. The AGA sited PokerStar’s troubles with the DOJ and thinks this should prevent them from buying the old haunt.
Daniel Negreanu & Antonio Esfandiari For Choice Center Las Vegas Scam-Cult – Say it ain’t so Daniel! Someone who uses all his might to shout down all the evil people in the world can’t possibly be a shill for a Las Vegas scam company. It’s just not possible, unless it is. Bryan Micon attempts to piece it all together.
2013 WSOP Registration is open – Avoid those crazy, small buyin, weekend registration lines at this summer’s WSOP by registering for your events early and online. Registration is now open.
Paul Klann $1,004,090 – 2013 WPT LA Poker Classic
Jonathan Tamayo $206,020 – WSOPC Palm Beach Kennel Club
Rodger Johnson $182,315 – 2013 LAPC High Roller
Jon Turner $27,750 – 2013 LAPC 6-Handed PLO with rebuys
The 2013 LA Poker Classic wrapped up it’s Main Event last night with Paul Klann overcoming a big chip deficit against Paul Vople. The WPT LAPC drew 517 entrants this year which is another annual drop, from 549 a year ago, at one of the biggest stops on the tour. Klann collected over $1,000,000 for the win which includes the WPT Championship buyin, but 7-digits is much prettier than 6.
Next big tournaments on the schedule include the popular WTP Bay101 Shooting Stars event, the WSOP-C series at Caesars in Atlantic City, and the always huge Heartland Poker Tour in Blackhawk, Colorado.
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Tweet(s) of the Day – Not everybody is in love with the Commerce Casino, David Bach is isn’t the first or last player to comment on some of the shadier aspects of playing there. I still standby the breakfast burritos at the Cafe.
I say this with reservation: because of course there are plenty of honorable people in poker. But…. This Commerce Casino is the:
Epic Anniversary – One year ago FS+G filed for bankruptcy killing Epic Poker along the way with a bunch of unpaid invoices (yours truly included). It’s still a touchy subject with some of us but Short-stacked Shamus has a nice recap. Check back to his site later for some of his article I published on the Epic website
A Look at Poker’s Falling Fortune in Las Vegas – The sky is falling, the sky is falling! It’s either that or the Vegas poker rooms are feeling the crunch of the online poker crackdown. We’ll see what happens when new players can be pulled in via online poker when it returns.
Team PokerStars v Team Full Tilt: Don’t Believe the Hype – Daniel Negreanu “called out” Gus Hansen, now there will be a HU battle in London. Not nearly the big brouhaha as it would have been prior to Black Friday and the PS/FTP buyout.
Pretty Broad Podcast – Three favorites from PokerNews (Kristy Arnett, Lynn Gilmartin, and Sarah Grant) started their own website PrettyBroad.com. It’s a fun concept from a fun group who get to travel to great places around the globe. Give them a look and listen to their first full podcast.
Remi Castaignon €770,000 – EPT Deauville
Michael Mizrachi $101,267 – WSOP Circuit South Africa
Tyler Patterson $19,080 – 2013 LAPC NLHE Escalator
Big tournaments finished this weekend all over the planet, from Europe to South Africa and across the US. Michael “The Grinder” Mizrachi was already having pretty nice results over the last 12 months including a nearly $1.5 million victory in the 2012 WSOP Poker Players Championship. Now he can add WSOP Circuit ring winner to his resume after winning the 116-player Main Event at the Emerald Casino in South Africa.
Remi Castaignon is the latest EPT Champion for what is apparently his first tournament cash ever with a victory in the EPT Deauville Main Event. €770,000 is a fine way to get his first entry on HendonMob and it looks like he cruised to the win after entering the final table with 40% of the chips in play.
The 2013 LAPC continues to chug along with their preliminary events pulling in good numbers for the Savage structured grind. Plenty of big names are making their way to final tables including McLean Karr, Bryan Devonshire, Matt Affleck, and Tyler Patterson who managed a win along with the traditional ugly, 500 pound trophy. Elsewhere in the world, the WPT Seminole Hard Rock will play down to their champion in a few days with Matt Salsberg once again in the running with 36 players remaining.
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Tweet of the Day – Mizrachi wins and Andrew Felman reminded to remind himself that everyone forgets The Grinder. Perhaps people could start giving the man his props now?
I won the Main Event @emeraldpoker@wsoptd @wsopLove you South Africa.Ty every 1.Every 1 Here is Great.Thanks again !!
Poker / By Alex Outhred – Hey, look who has a poker strategy article in the world renown Buffalo News! Good friend, and one of the good guys, Alex Outhred. (Part congrats, part needle, all complimentary)
Ryan Stevenson $204,795 – WSOP-C Tunica Main Event
Mervin Chan AU$1,600,000 – Aussie Millions Main Event
The poker world is done for now on one continent and immediately hops over to another one. Mervin Chan was the big winner in the 2013 Aussie Millions Main Event for a nice AU$1.6 million payout after knocking out popular (and fan girl favorite) Patrik Antonius in 3rd place. The field was down a bit from last year but that might have been due to the NHUPC and the smaller buy-in, much closer WSOP-C in Tunica.
While the Aussie Million Main Event attendance was down, the Tunica WSOP-C event drew a devilish 666 players for an uptick from last year. Ryan Stevenson dominated the final table by taking out every player from 6th place on down to win the title, collect over $200,000, and a seat in the National Championship.
The WSOP Circuit isn’t taking any time off as their next series is already underway in South Africa. It will be interesting to see what big names make the trip after spending a few weeks Down Under. The African circuit event will also have to compete with the popular EPT Deauville Main Event which drew 782 players.
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Tweet of the Day – Poor poor Matty, always the victim. Except for win he’s set his phasers to blast and off his meds.
People talk about me, make songs about me, + form false opinions about me, b/c I actually matter to them, and you don’t. The truth hurts!
Nuts: Hot start to ’13 for Selbst, Seiver – ESPN’s Andrew Feldman back with his monthly look at the top players in the game with some of your favorite poker beat writers. I’m a little surprised to see Hellmuth down in the #2 spot but Selbst is also worthy.
The WTO Loads Antigua’s Slingshot – Who knew this little battle was still going on between the U.S. and Antigua. The WTO ruled in Antigua’s favor and now the little Caribbean island is looking to make big noise.
Baptiste Chavillaz $216,275 – WSOP-C Bicycle Main Event
James Henson $31,021 – WSOP-C Choctaw No Limit Hold’em
Ross Bybee $168,433 – WSOP-C Choctaw NLHE Re-entry
Erin Slaughter $23,660 – WSOP-C Choctaw Tubro
Kevin Eyster $27,573 – WSOP-C Choctaw NLHE 6-Handed
The first WSOP Circuit event of 2013 wrapped up this week with the Bicycle Casino Main Event which drew a nice 721 entrants, up from the 549 last year. Baptiste Chavillaz turned his first ever WSOP-C tournament cash into a $216,275 title and a seat in the National Championship. In almost bigger news, poker reporter/blogger/photographer/tweeter/hair model Jay “WhoJedi” Newnum managed to make it through most of the field to finish an impressive 57th. A close friend was quoted as saying “What a lucksack.” *
On the east coast, the Borgata kicked off their Winter Poker Open festival with a record breaking field. They opened with a $560 re-entry tournament with two starting days and a $1,000,000 guarantee that drew a huge crowd. By the end of registration there were 3,871 entrees which nearly doubled the guarantee. The BWPO continues in balmy, scenic Atlantic City until the WPT televised Main Event starts on the 27th with a $2,000,000 guarantee.
* – Guilty
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Tweet of the Day – After going over the list of players in the National Heads Up Poker Championship, the most obvious omission was Vanessa Selbst. She answered all the questions in one simple tweet.
To answer people’s questions, I was invited to NBC HU but declined. Great tournament but decided to go to Aussie Millions instead this year.
NHUPC 2013: Field of 64 announced – And here is the list, nicely typed out by Andrew Feldman. No real big eye raisers here except maybe the presence of Jean-Robert Bellande. He’ll add a little TV flair but at the expense of more deserving players like David “Doc” Sands and others. I like the inclusion of Shaun Deeb, Kyle Julius, Mohsin Charania, and Dan Smith.
The Best Poker Movie Scenes of All-Time – The Poker Archivist(tm) Nolan Dalla put together a great list of poker scenes. Give it a look and then your two cents.
Want This Job? Wear Your Poker Face – Caesars Entertainment running a management recruiting program dressed up as a poker series? Well played.
Adam Teasdale $194,040 – WSOP-C Atlantic City
Marcin Wydrowski €318,295 – WPT Prague
Ramzi Jelassi €835,000 – EPT Prague
Marvin Rettenmaier €365,300 – EPT Prague HR
It’s been a rough few days in the States but life goes on and the poker games keep flying. The latest stop on the World Series of Poker Circuit passed through scenic Atlantic City just a few weeks after Hurricane Sandy tore it up. Adam Teasdale is the latest WSOP-C Main Event champion and picked up nearly $200,000 along with a seat in the National Championship.
The powers that be in Prague finally had a brainstorm which hopefully spreads to the rest of Europe. The city held a World Poker Tour, European Poker Tour, and other events throughout most of December. This kept a lot of top poker players within their city for much longer than a hit and run. Marvin Rettenmaier, Ramzi Jelassi, and Marcin Wydrowski were just a few of the big winners.
# Learn to play the pokies! Secrets to winning at Australia’s national pastime. #
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NJ Assembly passes online gaming bill – New Jersey tries again to get online gaming in state when the Assembly passed another online gaming bill earlier today. Governor Christie took time away from his meat lovers pizza last year to veto the previous effort.
Internet poker bill effort dead, Reid says – The other side of the coin show the Reid/Kyl effort to legalize online poker has reached the predictable end of it’s run for 2012. Soon the U.S. Congress will go on their hardly earned, lengthy holiday.
Mass. Treasurer: Internet Gambling On Horizon – Massachusetts throws their name into the mix as the state Treasurer says their state in looking into the possibility of offering online gambling within the state.
WSOP Europe on the Move – Poker players are never completely happy with an event or festival, WSOP-E in Cannes was no different. Next year they’ll have a chance to check out a new venue as they move the series to Casino Barrière Enghien-les-Bains in Paris.
Happy Anniversary Bovada!! – If you don’t love Melissa Costello, you haven’t met Melissa Costello or you just don’t like to have fun. Here’s her attempt to earn a gig with Bovada and shows off her sick/crazy/twisted sense of humor. Team Trainwreck! Click here to vote for Melissa.
Dan Smith €962,925 – EPT Barcelona Super High Roller
Jonathan Taylor $12,434 – $365 NLH WSOP Circuit Biloxi
Ben Mintz $30,000 – $1,125 NLH WSOP Circuit Biloxi
Patrick Smith $13,689 – $365 NLH WSOP Circuit Biloxi
Kyle Cartwright $107,992 – WSOP Circuit Biloxi Main Event
Dan Smith is having himself one hell of a year and it continued this weekend when he won the EPT Barcelona Super High Roller. He has 7 final tables, 5 tournament wins, and now over $3,000,000 in tournament earnings in 2012.
He beat a small but distinguished field in the €50,000 Super High Roller during the EPT Barcelona festival including a final table featuring Erik Seidel, JC “PrtyPsux” Alvarado, Mike “SirWatts” Watson, Ilari “Ziigmund” Sahamies, and Mike “Timex” McDonald. Smith picked up €962,925 for the win.
The WSOP Circuit Main Event in Biloxi wrapped up on Monday with Kyle Cartwright continuing a fine year (plus a few months) of his own when he won the WSOP Circuit Champions Ring and a 6-digit payday. This is his 5th ring over just 16 months and ties him with Mark Smith for most titles. As Jess Welman points out, the math averages out to one WSOP-C victory every 96 days.
Not too shabby.
On an interesting research note, I’m wondering how many people could tell you who won the most cash in WSOP Circuit events.
Mercier Sweats, Mercier Flames, Exposing Deals – The 3-Bet articles are always a bit of fun for the poker readers. This time around it has Mercier complaining (shocker) about the heat in Barcelona but correctly setting Jeff Pollack and Annie Duke on blast for Epic Poker. Perhaps he’ll aim his phasers at a few other nozzles around poker.
Poker Hall of Fame Nominations – Nominations are open for the Poker Hall of Fame Class of 2012. Check out the criteria, make your nominations, wait for the results. Those elected will be inducted in the Hall of Fame during the Main Event final table. Let’s get some overlooked European players in there.
Five Things We’ll Miss About Full Tilt Poker – Not the strongest article in the world, listed here more because I found it interesting there was something written (and posted) on the Yahoo Sports page.
I’m Such an Awesome Guy – It goes against my personal ethos to make light of those with mental illness. Unless it involves Matt Marafioti and then I’m all for it. Video magician SrslySirius takes his shots at Adzizzy this time around.
There’s always plenty of additional poker news on the legal and regulatory front — law, politics, business, and crime. Such is the development of licensed and regulated online poker in the US and worldwide. Here are some key stories, presented by LegalPokerSites.com:
Anthony Gregg $416,127 – World Poker Tour Parx Open
Ashly Butler $13,850 – $365 NLH WSOP Circuit Biloxi
John Dolan $7,580 – $365 NLH WSOP Circuit Biloxi
Ronald Givens $11,675 – $365 NLH WSOP Circuit Biloxi
Anthony Gregg is no stranger to tournament success but he finally has his first major win after capturing the WPT Parx Poker Open title in Philadelphia. Even though this is his first win, it ranks as his 2nd biggest cash behind his $1,700,000 runner-up finish in the 2009 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure. Gregg is a regular east coast grinder and another top notch player from the state of Maryland, continuing his great run in 2012 as the win puts him over $1,000,000 earned for the year.
500 players registered for the first WPT event held at the Parx Casino in Philadelphia and the next stop is the Legends of Poker Main Event at the Bicycle Casino on August 24th. The defending champion at Legends is Will “The Thrill” Failla, who is responsible for my favorite winner’s picture ever.
Also having a good week was 2010 November Niner John Dolan who won his first WSOP Circuit event at the IP in Biloxi, MS. It wasn’t the biggest field in the history of poker but it does put a ring on his finger and has him in the early mix for the National Championship.
Online gamblers handed four months in prison – Just a little reminder. No matter how bad we think we have it in the States, you could be living some place like Jakarta where these guys were sentenced to 4+ months and fined Rp 7 million (that’s a whole $735 US) for gambling on Facebook. (h/t @Kevmath)
Maryland General Assembly passes legislation for Prince George’s casino – Some good news for east coast grinders and the hotbed of poker in Maryland as their General Assembly passed legislation to allow casinos, real honest-to-god table gaming casinos, within the state. It still needs to get past the voters in during the November elections.
Mezrich’s Next New Project: Online Poker – A new book about online poker from the author who brought us Bringing Down the House: The Inside Story of Six MIT Students Who Took Vegas for Millions, The Accidental Billionaires: The Founding Of Facebook, A Tale of Sex, Money, Genius, and Betrayal, and other books with insanely long titles. Jess Welman looks forward to it, Haley Hintze not so much. I’m leaning Haley’s way if Mezrich’s premise is the AP/UB boys created online poker and are now being persecuted (not prosecuted) for it.
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As Dan wrote yesterday, the WSOP-Circuit released it’s full 20 event schedule with a few new interesting stops, a switch up for the National Championship, and a very much approved (by myself) sponsor in Southern Comfort. Most of the standard venues are scheduled but they’ve added an event at Foxwoods Mammoth Resort Casino as well as tournaments in Cleveland and Canada.
The final circuit event will once again be held at Harrah’s New Orleans for one last binge of booze-poker-food before the players head to Vegas for the 2013 WSOP. The biggest change seems to be moving the National Championship from Las Vegas to New Orleans. Perhaps this change has something to do with their new sponsor. Southern Comfort was created, and widely consumed, in The Crescent City. Book your travel early and schedule a few days to enjoy the rest of the city outside their tiny casino.
In other news, Absolute Poker’s Brent Beckley was sentenced to 14 months for Black Friday role. Beckley was a co-founder of Absolute Poker and will be going up the Federal creek after pleading guilty to “conspiring to commit bank fraud and wire fraud”. Sooner or later the rest of the indictees will have to pay the piper including Beckley’s half-brother, and UB/AP archvillain, Scott Tom.
Link Dump
Highlights from the 2012 WSOP – Gary Wise has a nicely detailed look at some of the biggest stories from the WSOP. It seems like it was a month ago (after the post-WSOP coma) but he brings up details lost in the glare of the Main Event. Would have liked to have seen Matt Matros mentioned for his 3rd straight year with a bracelet other than a parenthetical comment.
WSOP Photo Blog: A Look Back at the Summer – PokerNews had one of the best photographer teams at the Rio this summer with Joe Giron and Neil Stoddart. They put together a nice photo collection of the top moments of the 2012 WSOP.
What Happens to Poker Without Online Sponsorship? – Last week, PokerListings took a look at the poker environment around the WSOP Main Event now since the big money sponsors are no longer in the building (or in the country in some cases).
Be sure to check out our new sponsors at Face Up Gaming. Legal, subscription-based online poker with plenty of great prizes including cash, WSOP seats, and poker trips. Sign up with Bonus Code pokerati.
