(UPDATED:
08/24/10)
Wild
Bill's reflections on poker, sports, and issues facing the Gulf Coast:
"The influx of
poker players from strategy games like the original Starcraft is
evidence the guys at Let’s Poker had tapped into an emerging market for
the future of poker. The “Internet” kids are no longer the emerging
market, they are the market. For all intensive purposes they’ve take the
game, through primarily an Internet poker experience to new heights.
Those kids start playing at 16, 17, 18 and log hundreds, thousands, and
millions of hands.
That begs the question, if the Gamers like virtual goods why wouldn’t
they like them on a casino, sports betting, or poker platform. One
quasi-virtual good, though in a sense it’s tangible information, would
be for a site to offer betting tips. Information goes hand in hand with
the experience but rather than the bettors going somewhere else for
wager advice why not buy it through a team of experts on the site.
"[+]
[UPDATED
08/23/10] Shannon Shorr has almost graduated. That's bad
news for the poker world because he's terrorized the circuit
while also being a full time college student. Now without
distractions, like class every day, the only question is how
quickly will he add to his over 3.2 million dollars in
tournament winnings. You can also read Shannon's blog at
his homepage:
http://shannonshorr.com/
"As I type
this I'm sitting in a room at Commerce Casino with my boy Jon
Little. Later today we'll play day 1b of WPT Legends of Poker at
The Bicycle Casino. This will be my 32nd career WPT, my first of
season 9 on the World Poker tour, and the first one I've had
time to play since January of 2010. They've dropped the buy-in
for this one down to $5000 from $10,000 which I actually think
is a good idea as far as drawing numbers.
Since I last posted I'm still not in my condo. There was a hold
up with some of the paperwork, but I can now officially move in
when I get back to Birmingham next week. Hopefully I'll return
as a WPT champion."
[+]
[UPDATED
08/09/10] Jonathan Little has over 4 million dollars in lifetime
winnings . He was the WPT Season VI player of the year.
Born in Pensacola Florida, a mere 24 years ago the sky is the
limit for this young pro whose online handle is jcardshark.
He also is a poker coach at
sngicons.com.
"I am currently
working on a poker book.
I am actually almost finished with the rough draft. It is going
to be called something like �Secrets of Professional Tournament
Poker� or something like that. If anyone has any suggestions for
topics to put in the book, please let me know. I have racked my
brain and am pretty sure I have already covered every aspect of
tournament poker in the book but I miiiiight have missed
something."
[+]
[UPDATED:
08/22/10] BRIAN HEPTINSTALL has been called the Nolan
Dalla of the Gulf Coast. His informative blog provides the
latest news from an insiders point of view of the poker
industry. His tournament coverage is second to none.
"It's become so commonplace to see that Phil Hellmuth made some grand entrance. Is it really good for television, or just a stroke to his ego? Phil has made, yet another crappy entrance into the main event.
This time as a boxer. I'm gonna be one of a million other people who find it repulsing to see this guy parade around like this. Then, I'll be one of the million laughing that he was ousted after just a few hours play. "
[+]
[UPDATED
08/22/10] Jena Delk, isn't an up and coming poker player on the
Gulf Coast because she's arrived. A Florida native, Jena
is a fixture on the circuit. Her blog chronicles her
travels around the country pursuing her poker jones:
"Today I am looking forward to getting
together with my friends of the High Heels Poker Tour. Lauren
Failla, founder of HHPT, formed this company is to give women a
place to improve their poker skills and provide recognition of
their efforts. of all ages the opportunity to expand their
skills at the poker table.
The mission statement of HHPT is “Our
Mission at the HHPT is to empower women who want to become
champions in the growing world of poker. The HHPT wants to
provide the best competitive environment where women can
explore, develop, and continue growing and learning top
strategies and their “A” game. Opportunities and Recognition are
what the HHPT is all about.”
"
[+]
[UPDATED:
07/14/10] Bobby Toye is a former LSU student and a
rising online/live tournament player. Toye has six live
cashes to his name half of which are three first place finishes.
The aspiring screenwriter offers a well-written window into the
life of a young poker player.
"Well...I'm
leaving Vegas tomorrow. Off to California to play at the
Commerce and then to San Diego to see some old friends. A week
without poker is all too welcome.
Vegas was a bust. It always seems to turn out that way. The cash
games eventually turned around for me, but not enough to pull me
out the hole. I still stand by the decision not to play a single
tournament. Only one or two of my roommates had much of anything
to show for tourneys here, and they're all heavy hitters.."
[+]
[UPDATED
06/19/10]Joey Gross takes you on the wild side of poker.
This tournament rounder isn't afraid to tell you how things
really are on the poker road. Buckle your seatbelt
it's a fun ride.
"Well that
happened. But, as usual...I have bounced back from crushing
small live games and owning HU omaha on Full Tilt. I would also
like to add...at any point there are several people I have the
uhh..."Power of borrowing" option available to me, but...I dunno.
If I make a HUGE
score, which I am at any time capable of doing, I dont wanna cut
anyone in on it. Maybe for a tourny situation, but not cash.
Well...i say that now...maybe in like huge OOBER game.
Anyways...I nickle and dimed myself back to a nice size,
playable bankroll, and it feels good!!"
[+]
[UPDATED: 03/25/09]
The Tiltin' Texan serves up a steady diet of crazy late nights
in poker rooms from across the coast. To him a 24 hour session
is as quick as a traffic light. His commentary on the sick
side of poker is a fun read:
"I sit down with $500 in 1-2 game and this asian girl Linda is
at the table with $260 or so. I see 2 hands played and she
raised both times to like 30 to 40 bucks preflop. I know plenty
about her and know she always goes broke along with her husband
who plays fast like a madman too.
Well my first hand i get AK, young guy with over 300 in front of
him makes it $15 under the gun. I call. It gets around to Linda
on the button and she of course reraises to $50. (i dont think
she ever puts anyone on a hand) young guy calls,I call. Flop is
all spades low board. I do have a spade but its the King.
Initial raiser checks ,I check, Mrs Saigon makes it 100.
Kid calls, i think he has best hand at the moment with QQ or JJ
with a spade likely. I think if my two overs hit im good and
hopefully my K spade hits its good so i call. Turn is a rag
spade so i got my flush but not that thrilled. The kid moves all
in for $160 ,I call and Linda calls her last $109. Nice first
hand pot!!!"
[+]
(UPDATED:
03/14/09)
Da Rock, tells
it straight from the dealers' box and the winners' circle.
"HELLO
FRIENDS AND POKER FAMILY. IT'S BEEN SOME TIME SINCE I HAVE LAST BLOGGED.
A LOT HAS HAPPENED IN THAT PERIOD AND I HOPE TO SIT DOWN AND PUT IT IN A
LENGTHY BLOG SOON, BUT FIRST I WOULD LIKE TO ADDRESS AN ISSUE ABOUT A
VERY GOOD PLAYER THAT'S NOT GETTING THE RECOGNITION THAT HE DESERVES,
AND THAT PLAYER IS KENNY MILAM. MANNNNNN, WHERE IS THE LOVE FOR THIS
GUY?."[+]
"A couple weeks ago I was able to put in a pretty long
session at Harrah's with Davey and for the most part it was
pretty fun. Didn't get out there till pretty late and it took
forever to park but I finally sat down around 10:00 in a really
bad game but luckily it broke fairly early and I was moved to a
game that much better. I didn't really do anything great but I
was able to book a win which is always nice. Never really had
any interesting hands except when I straddled and and had 4,6
and flopped open ended with 6 ppl in the hand. I bet it and hit
it on the turn and broke the guy next to me who was pretty
unlucky and flopped a set. Of course the guy at the other end of
the table "knew" what I had, well he said it was either a
straight or a flush.....no shit huh, not to much else beats a
set.
I was fortunate enough to be dealt 12 pocket pair in one night
and connect for ZERO flops. I guess I wasn't trying hard enough,
at least that's what Davey told me. Never really had any big
hands either. I got the pleasure of playing with a local by the
name of Melvin. Melvin is prolly one of the funniest ppl I've
played cards with and he's not trying to be funny. He constantly
falls asleep at the table and just brutally honest with people.
He's been known to tell people they should stay b/c they play so
bad he's guaranteed to win. He'll also call complete strangers
sweetheart and just create this very weird vibe for the tourist
but we all know it's a joke. There was Russian kid at the table
and when he asked where the kid was from and he said Russia,
Melvin let us know that "Russians are fuckin crazy, you can't
trust them at all....they're more nuts than
China-men"...needless to say he's not very P.C"
[+]
(UPDATED: 12/09/09) Austin Martin, former
owner and operator of an online poker site brings his expert
knowledge and home game expertise to GCP:
"If you
have been reading along the last few weeks, you know I have had
a terrible run. Finally, I have made a bit of a comeback. I
amended my bankroll strategy for the Sunday million double
shootout satellite tournaments. It is $11.70 to enter, and there
are two seats guaranteed. Late at night and early in the week,
these only get about 3o players. So, you are getting a good
overlay as well as only having to beat 1 or 2 players to get
into the second table. I played four of these tonight and won
two of them.
In case you dont know, you can win these and then unregister and
get the credit in tournament dollars. My bankroll is back over
$500 and I am feeling good about the direction my luck is moving
online. I will play a few more of these over the next few days
and then covert the tournament dollars to cash in the 45 man sit
n go's again"[+]
[UPDATED:
10/5/09] JASON LIPSCOMB gives you a chance to talk with a
tournament director--directly. Lipscomb will keep you
abreast of all the happenings at Harrahs regarding tournaments
and poker. Check here for updates.
"I know it
has been awhile since my last post, but I here and have some
good news. I recently signed on as a pro with http://www.feltstars.com/
and I must say the software is second to none. Yes better than
tilt and pokerstars try it out and see it for yourself after all
it free to try...
They are offering 300% bonus up to 3k total
the largest of any online site and rake back deals too up to 30%
and the rake back is added to your acct daily. Contact me for
rake back deals @ juiceypoker@yahoo.com"
[+}
"Brandon has a
training video up here...Check it out folks...just click on the
link"
[+].
YOUR AD HERE:
POKER UPDATE
08.30.10
CHILEAN
MINERS CHECKING IN THE DARK.
Surviving on food rations and poker games
trapped Chilean gold miners hope they will have enough mental
and physical stimulation to make it through. A daughter of
one of the miners said, "It will be difficult, I'm sure, but I'm
not worried about him. I know he is happy and content down
there because he is playing lots of poker and cards. It is
good for his mind." The question is how much in the hole
will losers go by the end of four months. There is no ATM
down there, but then again they are in a gold mine.
MIDDLE
TENNESSEE STATE QUARTERBACK TOOK A LOAN OUT FOR A POKER
BANKROLL. Dwight
Dasher is learning that apparently, the NCAA frowns on this kind
of thing. The $1,500 loan was given to him by Oliver
Donnell. In short order, that money was lost in a local
game or two.
Dasher rushed for 201 yards in the New Orleans Bowl against
Southern Miss last year and is now in a dash of trouble.
DEVILFISH
ULLIOT WRITES A BOOK.David "Devilfish" Ulliot
(devil fish pictured), not to be confused with Darryll Fish, has
penned a book. His a man who describes his opponents as "pale as
Dracula's feet," so he should be an entertaining and interesting
author. Devilfish, who once burglarized an auction house
to steal a grandfather clock so he could play in the home game
of an antiques dealer, is definitely an old school character.
Victoria Corean reviews his book
here.
DURRRR
CHALLENGE TWO BEGINS.
Durrrr already down over 500k after
quickly playing over 10% of the challenge. Daniel
"Jungleman12" Cates started slowly then reversed fields and has
been crushing Dwan ever since when the two
play online poker. Durrrr started hot and
got up almost 250k after just short of 1000 hands.
By 2000 hands they were
battling near even. Just short of 3500 hands after a large
pot, Jungleman12 hasn't looked back. The closest Durrrr
got to even was down a little over 50k near the 5000 hand mark.
Since then he's lost almost 500k.
2009
SOUTHERN POKER CHAMPIONSHIPS RESULTS
08.29.10
Yeah we said 2009.
With no 2010 results yet reported here's the first half of last
year's tournament. Enjoy a scroll down memory lane.
EVENT 1: BY GEORGE:
Ronnie George of
Douglasville, GA won 65k for first. Larry Alexander of
Grand Bay, AL took second for almost 24k. Tom Becnel of
Belle Chase, LA won 18k for 4th.
EVENT 2 :CHUCK NORRIS
AND AN ESKIMO: Dan
Clemente of Hernando, MS won 65k for first but all eyes were on
the Texas Ranger and an Eskimo from New Orleans. Eskimo
Clark took 5th for 14k. Chuck Norris won 6th for 12k.
Chuck Norris was a welcome tablemate throughout the tournament
because nothing escapes Chuck Norris, therefore he doesn't fart.
Jacob Tyler, Birmingham, AL 8th for almost 7k.
EVENT 3: WILD-ING
OUT. Mark Wilds did what he usually does
and that's win an event. He bagged 50k for first.
Paul Distefano of Plaquemine, LA took almost 17k for third.
Jack Miller of Pass Christian, MS won almost 9k for 6th.
And GCP got on the board as blogger Brandon Jarrett won a little
over 5k for 8th.
EVENT 4: FESKE 2ND
BEST. Michael Benvenuti of California won
63k for first. Ron Feske of Folsom, LA took second for
35k. Gabe Costner won 9k for 6th.
EVENT 5: BOSS BOSTICK.
Bill Bostick of St. Clair, MI won 12k for first. Art Young
of Biloxi, MS took just shy of 3k for 5th.
EVENT 6: TOYE-ING
AROUND. GCP blogger Bobby Toye won almost 9k
for 3rd. "Detroit Al" Green of Florida (Detroit is in
Florida?) won almost 30k for first. Thuy "TD" Djedjos of
Jackson, MS won a little over 5k for 5th.
EVENT 7: LOCALS
MUSCLED OUT. No locals made the final table as
Russell "The Muscle" Salzer of NY, NY won 16k for first.
Yebin Guo of Brooklyn took silver for 9k.
EVENT 8: PULLEN IN
POTS. Picayune Mississippi's Thomas "Eddy"
Pullens won 33k for first place. Annie Lu got on the final
table for the ladies.
EVENT 9: DO CALL ME
BUDDY. New Orleans, LA native Thomas "Buddy"
Rouzan was the runner-up winning 36k. Tony Lay of OK City,
OK won 70k for first and felt okay about it.
ODDS AND
ENDS IN POKER UPDATE
08.28.10
ANDREW
FRANKENBERGER WINS WPT.
Despite having a last night of a item that
should be on Man vs. Food, Frankenberger could also plays some
poker. He runner-runnered Jonathan Little and from there
wielded his huge stack on to victory, despite the local
villagers chasing him around with torches on the breaks.
Kyle Wilson finished second, Tom Lee third. Jared Jaffee
finished in 5th. Frankenberger won 750k, Wilson 370k, Lee
174k.
BLANCA
GAMES ACQUIRES CEREUS POKER.
Seriously. Though no changes will be
made in terms of staff, day to day operations, or really
anything? Looks like Stuart Gordon will be the new CEO but
beyond that it's same old same. Shell corporation?
VICTORY
POKER GOING TO CAKE. They
will join Doyle's Room, Unabomber Poker and some other sites.
Currently Victory is on the Everleaf network and will continue
until September 1st. The aforementioned Jonathan Little is
a Victory Poker pro.
J. LITTLE
2ND IN CHIPS AT WPT BELL
GARDENS UPDATE
08.25.10
JONATHAN
LITTLE AT 1.314 MILLION.
Andrew Frankenberger chip leader at 1.958
million. Two other players above 1 million. Chip
average is 770k. Only 15 players left. Everybody
obviously already in the money. Phil Collins yesterday's
chip leader lost his golden (invisible) touch and busted.
So too Soi Nguyen, Allen Kessler, Erica Schoenberg, Joe Hachem,
Tim Phan and Amit Makhija. Tom Lee lurks as does a
possible catalog of corny Motley Crue and Pam Anderson
references. A Little first place finish will tie him with
Gus Hansen and Carlos Mortensen for most ever WPT titles with
three.
DARRYLL
FISH CASHES.
Fish was able to turn his short stack into a 19th place finish.
The payday was only a little double his buy-in and he just
missed a pay jump, but a pay-out is a pay-out. Great job
Fish. Fish got chomped by Frankenberger whose AK improved
and bettered Fish's pocket jacks.
WPT BELL
GARDENS AND ONLINE UPDATE
08.24.10
DARRYLL
FISH AND JOHN LITTLE HOPE TO BECOME LEGENDS OF POKER.
60 left at the WPT tournament at the Bicycle Casino in Bell
Gardens, California. They are nearing the money bubble
after 462 players signed up to play. Jonathan Little is
11th in chips with 305k. Erica Schoenberg isn't far behind
at 245k (Erica Schoenberg?!?!? Erick Lindgren's girl
friend? If you want to see more of Erica Schoenberg google
Erica Schoenberg strip poker and you'll get an eyefull).
Joe Seebok and November Niner Soi Nguyen are also just above the
chip count average of 193.5k. Darryll Fish at 143k is
hanging around.
AGAINST ALL ODDS PHIL COLLINS CHIP-LEADER.
We could do the easy Phil Collins references but it's just not
in the air tonight for us to be corny. However, it is just
another day in paradise for Collins who is sitting on a giant
chip-stack of 898,00 (more than 300k more than second place
Andrew Frankenberger). Take a look at him now, he's been
waiting on this moment all his life, and the young Collins is
su-su-su-sure he has what it takes to win it all. Easy
Lover Tom(my) Lee is also in the tournament. Luckily for
you he's not the chip-leader.
MATT
GRAHAM WINS 73K AND TRISHELLE CASHES. After
agreeing to a four way chop Graham is credit for 4th place in
the Full Tilt 740k guarantee. Trishelle Canatella hosted
one of UB's tournaments the Sniper No Limit Hold'em Tournament
in the UBOC and min-cashed in her own event.
NOVEMBER
NINER JOHN DOLAN UPDATE
08.20.10
DOLAN
MAKES FINAL TABLE IN CYPRUS. The Full Tilt
Merit Cyprus High Roller freeze out. Prize pool is 873k.
Top five spots pay, 9 left. Those gone include Michael
Mizrachi, Phil Ivey, Sorel Mizzi, Andrew Feldman and Carter
Phillips. Filippo Candio also joined the two November
Niners (Grinder and Dolan) in the tournament but failed to not
get frozen out. Perica Bukara is the chip leader (951k),
Ori Miller second (546k), and Dolan is third (455k). Jon
Turner, Andrew Feldman, David Benyamine and Carter Phillips are
also at the table. Here's a Pokernews video from after day
1.
POKER
POLICE BLOTTER UPDATE
08.19.10
YOU AIN'T
GOT SPIT: Oh yeah?
One man in California, 52 year old Mesbah Khaffaji, had just
that when he projectile spat his dinner at a dealer.
Khaffaji had been running bad and lost a couple of pots.
Had to be the dealers fault right? He, shockingly, was
arrested.
L.A. Timeshas the details. If he
had been playing at an
online poker room all he would have done is
dirtied his monitor, instead he got arrested.
LIKELY HOLLOWAY KILLER, A STONE COLD NUT, WHO PLAYED POKER NIGHT
OF AND NIGHT AFTER HER MURDER. Joran Van
der Sloot was arrested in South America after busting out of a
poker tournament and killing a local girl. After that
arrest a man in Philadelphia, Matthew Biebel, came forward with
the tale he told the FBI when they were investigating the
Natalie Holloway murder in Aruba. On successive nights he
got into confrontations with Van der Sloot at the poker table of
an Aruba casino because Van der Sloot was talking to his friends
in the native tongue of the island when mulling over big calls
against Biebel. Words were exchanged, the floor was
called, and Biebel thought the kid a punk.
Prior to the arrest in
South America Biebel thought that was all Van der Sloot was,
because in his mind what young killer could possibly play poker
as calmly as Van der Sloot did the night of the murder and the
night after. Now, he realizes how possible it was.
Just goes to show, you never know who the idiot is across the
table no matter what he appears to be. Read the
Philly Inquirer for more.
JUDGE RULES
A CON ARTIST CAN AVOID JAIL BY PLAYING POKER.
We think this guys is a pretty good
con artist. While not quite ruling a man to be someone
else's butler, this decision is head-scratching at best.
Samuel McMaster, a New Mexico stockbroker, bilked his clients to
the tune of 444k. The judge will allow him to skip jail
time if he can earn 7500 a month playing poker. He will be
allowed to travel in conjunction to play the game.
What happened to the 444k?
He lost it gambling. And the judge is sending him to
casinos to win it back? Makes sense. No pressure
there either for McMaster to play his best, because if he whiffs
for two months out of six he's headed to 12 years of hard time.
ONLINE POKER UPDATE
08.18.10
MCLEAN
KARR STRIKES FOR 417k WINNING FTOPS EVENT.
The one time Gulf Coaster (by the
way check out him and others on our updated
WHO'S WHO
page), beat IReadYrSoul and Shawn Buchanan
to win event #29 of FTOPS.
The 2k No Limit Hold'Em
(ante from the start) Two-Day Event Six Max featured a number of
well known players in a tough field. Prahlad Friedman went
out 7th and David Pham 17th.
FISH SHORT
OF SHORR. Two Gulf
Coasters, blogger Shannon Shorr (you can find his blog to the
left) and Darryll Fish finished in 7th and 8th,
respectively, in the PokerStars Sunday
500. Shorr won just under 17k and Fish a little over 11k.
ARCHIVES NOW MAKE SENSE. We weren't just
busy updating the Who's Who section this weekend, click around a
bit and you'll see some improvements. Incidentally, you
can email
Wild Bill or message us
through facebook with stats and a pic if you think you are
worthy of being on Who's Who. What else did we do?
We also trolled through our archives and sorted them in a much
easier to read format by date. Click the ARCHIVESlink to sniff around yours and our recent past.
KICK PHIL
LAAK WHEN HE'S DOWN.
The Unabomber had a nasty ATV accident where he almost went
blind with lacerations to his eye, broke his arm/elbow in
multiple places, and received stitches.
We do not know if his vision was impeded
by a hooded sweatshirt, but Unabomber poker is giving away a
signed one in a freeroll on August 31st.
Whoever knocks out the
Unabomber wins the hoodie. Phil reports he has nothing to
do but play online poker at home and cuddle with girlfriend
Jennifer Tilly. He reports she's better than percocet.
He might get injured more often. By the way, Phil
Laak (or a guy posing as Laak) has expressed his like for us on
facebook, you should too. Click the badge and express your
like for us.
ONE SICK
DISEASE UPDATE
08.17.10
KEVIN
EYSTER WINS EPT TALLINN HEADS UP TITLE:
You may know him better as 1$ickDisea$e.
He's from Lafayette, LA (now living in Denver) and relatively
new to the live tournament circuit. Why new? Well,
he's relatively new to adulthood. He's younger than most
having recently turned 21 (or will so this year) and as such has
been playing tournaments in far flung places like Tallinn.
He's primed for a breakout after killing it online for the last
few years. With over a million in lifetime winnings we'd
say he's off to a good start.
The final four included
Vanessa Selbst on the other side of the bracket. Eyster
won but Selbst didn't. Eyster beat Hungarian Vlademar
Kwaysseri who beat Selbst. The title paid 41k Euro.
That's approximate 3 million U.S... or maybe a little less.
Read a Google translated version
hereor learn Estonian and scrap the translation.
A DISEASE OF ANOTHER SORT: Craigslist
killer, Philip Markoff, 24, who gave a bad name to Craigslist
killers everywhere by being a Foxwoods poker degen, killed
himself in jail. In a detail sure to not bring a tear to
your eye, he killed himself on the day of what would have been
his first wedding anniversary.
A DISEASE
AND COMPETITION OF YET ANOTHER SORT:
Man dies in the finals of world sauna
championship in Finland. This competition has been held 12
times with the competitors trying to outlast others in the heat
and steam. Shocking this ended in injury and even
death. The best part of this
piece is where it says
police are investigating the cause of his death.
Hypothermia?
POKER UPDATE
08.16.10
JACKPOT CITY: Local player and friend of GCP,
Davey "Davey16" Bourg gets the high hand in the close to 1/4
million dollar jackpot at the Isle of Capri in Lake Charles last
week. Davey had a straight flush and the loser had 4 of a kind
(I think 9's) to sweep the big portion of the prize. Our hero
walks away with around $65,000 (before Taxes)...and left with a
backpack full of cash...we like that ...screw the checks...leave
with the bricks.
ONLINE POKER
NEWS.:
We had a few gulfcoasters rack up some scores online recently:
Bryan "MaravichLSU" Lanoix
makes a nice score on Absolute Poker last
week with a $5700 score in the "Sniper $20k G". You will see
Bryan Spotlighted in the "Online Zone" in the next GCP Magazine.
The Chemist83 makes 2
(two) scores last week for close to $21,000 total. He got 2nd in
the $162 buy in "Nightly Hundred Grand" for $13,700. That 2nd
place finish came on the heels of a $7200... 4th place finish a
few days before in the $75k Guarantee on Absolute Poker
BEWARE OF
THE HACKERS: Always beware
before you ship people money on any of the sites from IM
software as this software itself...can be hacked. Seems Darryll
"DFish" Fish had his AIM account attacked last week. Good news
is that Fish found out quick...contacted all his contacts...and
the hacker didn't get very far...we just spoke to Fish (sick
brag)...and all is good.
FLORIDA
POKER AND MORE
08.12.10
MIKE THE
MOUTH ADDS INJURY TO INSULT IN FLORIDA.
Mike Matusow, front fanny pack aficionado, at a Deep Stacks
University gig in South Florida said, that in the Sunshine state
"you're dealing with a lot of raw players, and they're
terrible." There seems to be a growing sentiment amongst
the pros the waters are rife with fish in Florida because of the
recent law changes to allow no limit play to buy-ins at the
Florida
poker tables.
Is that true?
Doubtful considering how many good players there are from
Florida--just look at the Main Event Final Table with three out
of nine from Florida.
Problem is, Matusow didn't
just talk a big game he walked it (for once). Shortly
after making those comments he bested 400 players at the Isle
Casino & Racing in Pompano Beach tournament The three day
1k buy-in tournament ended with Matusow winning more than 100k
for first.
NFL NO
LONGER AN OBSTACLE FOR ONLINE POKER LEGISLATION.
Problem is sports betting was
thrown out of the online mix of things trying to get legit.
This keeps the billion dollar pockets of the NFL from lobbying
to block the legislation but still means if you want to make a
sports bet outside of Vegas and Delaware you have to make a
dodgy phone call to an even dodgier guy with a name like Vinnie
"No Nuts."
QUALITY
JONATHAN LITTLE POKER COACHING ARTICLE.
Gulf Coast Poker Blogger (and another
great player from Florida) Jonathan Little talks to PokerNews
about a new project he's engaging in: building a bankroll by
starting with $300 right
here and
here.
FLORIDA IS
GETTING THE WPT. If
you believe the Mouth that Florida is full of bad, bad, bad
poker players (despite plenty of examples of the opposite like
Jason Mercier, the Grinder et al) you should probably be heading
to Seminole Hard Rock Casino in Hollywood, Florida in late
April/early May of next year.
ULTIMATE
BET SUPER-USER CHEATING FALLOUT.
The latest in Wicked Chops excellent two
(three?) part-er on the scandal. Read
here for more.
WORLD
POKER OPEN UPDATE AND MORE
08.09.10
PARTY POKER
- BWIN MERGE. The
Euros are coming. First Anurag Dikshit paid off the U.S.
Government, we get a pro poker bill through committee, and now
the Euros are putting together a goliath poker site to take over
our players and battle
online poker rooms like Full Tilt. We say
competition is good and the more the merrier. Want to
learn more about Party's expansion efforts? Read
here.
DURRRR
CHALLENGE NOT YET OVER, DESPITE MORE THAN A YEAR OF TRYING.
Wicked Chops has a
post on the things that
have transpired since the Durrrr Challenge began but what is
really strange is the fact that he is already lining up his next
victim (and by victim we mean opponent who will slowly grow old
with Durrrr before finishing this off in a nursing home).
Who will be the lucky guy to race rascals with Durrrr 80 years
from now when the next challenge is completed
Currently, slowly losing
his good looks is Patrik Antonius. One year and one half
year later Durrrr is up by two million dollars with 80% of the
play completed. Of note Antonius wins about 3.1k per
winning hand and Durrrr only 2.9k however our of the nearly 40k
worth of hands Durrrr has won 2000 more. Aggression wins.
Bet, bet, bet, and bet again.
YOU
KNOW WHO ELSE LIKES TO BET, BET, BET, AND BET AGAIN? Tyler
Smith, the winner of the World Poker Open. Monkey, at
right, did a great write up the kid, and the destruction he
brings to a poker table at that event, and we'd like to
congratulate him again for another win. The 152k will
fatten Smith's bankroll.
The final table had a few
local names in the 91 player event.
Jeremy
Drewery took second for 80k, Gene Fletcher third for 50k, Earl
Barron Jr (Clarksdale, MS) 4th for 33k, Noel Marsh 5th for just
under 20k, Captain Tom Franklin 6th for 25k, Kathy Lehne 7th for
21k, one of our favorites Kenny Milam 8th for 16k and Patrick
Mahoney 9th for 12k.
CHRIS
FERGUSON TRIES TO WIN HIS OWN TOURNAMENT IN FTOPS ACTION.
Jesus finished 5th in the
FTOPS $300 buy-in. He won 6k for his time. The other
4,684 who played got to watch the host of the poker game outlast
all but 4 of them until he ran his AQ into AA.
WORLD
SERIES OF POKER MAIN EVENT AND MORE UPDATE
08.06.10
CAKE FOR
HACKERS?
Seems like Cake Poker is undergoing some difficulties in their
encryption, SSL protection, double blind redundancy, internet
secur... actually we have no idea what's wrong with Cake
but it appears they have a "hole" that allows hackers to come
in. Much fear and hand-wringing going on among Cake
players. Then again the Internet may be cracking, Poker
Bots are winning on Pokerstars read
here,someone just took a ginzu knife to the GCP server
(missed us? Here's a GCP-esque
post that was supposed to
tide you over... that you might have missed), and someone named
Sarah Connor has released a manifesto saying Skynet is sentient.
THIS
GUY WAS A MURDERER? Ron Fanelli who sported
a devious handlebar moustache, dastardly slick backed hair, wore
evil sunnies inside when not at a poker table, and went
by the nickname "The Mad Yank," had
an
online handle "NewTeaBag," and started filthy threads like
this at 2+2, shockingly is
a murderer. He killed, chopped up and stuffed the body
parts of a Thai prostitute into a suitcase. The
former professional poker player cited his internet connection
being down as one of the reasons he killed the prostitute.
GUY
LIED ABOUT HIS HAND AT MAIN EVENT AND FEELS BAD ABOUT IT.
Second link to a 2+2
thread today, yay message
boards as news sources! Lionel Hutz expressed contrition
about lying to a kid in a Kangol hat who said he folded bottom
set to him. Hutz had top set but said he had two pair.
Now, he wants the kid to know he made the right play. This
is a bit ridiculous and sounds like an Onion story, but we think
its true and considering the blurb above about a guy chopping up
prostitutes, let's celebrate some people with a conscious (sic)
that play poker.
NOVEMBER NINE ODDS SET. John
Dolan, second in chips is second most likely to win, behind the
guy first in chips.
Seat 1:
Jason Senti — 7,625,000 (25/1) Seat 2: Joseph Cheong — 23,525,000 (6/1) Seat 3: John Dolan — 46,250,000 (4.6/1) Seat 4: Jonathan Duhamel — 65,975,000 (3.75/1) Seat 5: Michael Mizrachi — 14,450,000 (7/1) Seat 6: Matthew Jarvis — 16,700,000 (11.5/1) Seat 7: John Racener — 19,050,000 (9.2/1) Seat 8: Filippo
Candio — 16,400,000 (16.5/1) Seat 9: Soi Nguyen
— 9,650,000 (18.5/1)
WORLD
POKER OPEN UPDATE
08.02.10
9 LEFT IN
MAIN EVENT: "Well
...Well...Well...What have we here...Tyler Smith at another
Final Table". Does this kid ever cool off???
Looks like we have 3 Gulf
Coasters making a run at the cheese in Tunica with Tyler either
the CL or 2nd in chips. He pretty much lead the way allthe way
thru from what we here. The other 2 are Kenny "Trucker Kenny"
Milam...and Captain Tom Franklin. (both pic at right). I know
Kenny got a lot of feedback on that "cool ass" 70's shirt he was
rockin...LOL
Seems Monkey made a nice
run but came up just short of the FT/Money. The hand was
described to me as below: (could be wrong)
Monkey raises and gets
popped by Kenny...Monkey Flats...Board comes out 5-6-7
rainbow...Monkey jams...Kenny calls with J-J...Monk has 8-8 and
bricks out.
OTHER POKER
NEWS.
Tim "TK" Miles made a nice run at the Sunday Million yesterday
when he decided to
play online poker coming in somewhere around 40th for over $3k.
TECHNICAL
DIFFICULTIES: We want to
apologize to everyone about the updates as the technical
difficulties we have been experiencing. Seems the server where
we are housed spazzed out and the operating system became
corrupt. Shout out to Pinnacle Computers in Houma for working
diligently to get the server back up.
JOHN
DOLAN A NOVEMBER NINER
07.21.10
THREE FROM
FLORIDA
LEFT. It's cloud nine for the November
Nine (*Brian Heptinstall) and the Gulf Coast has a rooting
interest. John Dolan, a winner of a Winter Bayou Classic
tournament late last year and a Gulf Coast Poker Championship
tournament, is now in contention to win the big one. Dolan
moved up to second in chips by a steely willingness to steal as
the Final Table bubble neared. That kind of fearlessness
has him on everybody's radar.
Dolan got his start when
he'd log on to play online poker
as a youngster, and he has
been cleaning up in the live tournament game ever since.
Read his profile at this
poker blog.
Also, Michael "The
Grinder" Mizrachi and John Racener both of Florida are still
alive. The Grinder was a massive chip leader at one point,
almost lost it all and struggled and "grinded" all day to make
it to the final nine. Arguably, the only player to grind
better was Dolan.
Gabe Costner had to settle
for 35th spot and a quarter of a million pay day. Costner
at one point seized the chip lead, too, but then went cold at
the worst possible time. We will certainly have more
on the November Nine in the coming days and weeks.
Congrats to John Dolan and all those rooting for him!
For more news that no
longer qualifies as the latest, because... it's no longer
recent, follow the link below...
"So my 1st stop a
few weeks ago was in Vicksburg, MS ...where I felt like I "Fell down the
Rabbit Hole" in the poker room at the Ameristar. The last time I was in
Vicksburg, the only poker room they had was at The Horizon. The
Ameristar opened up their room a year ago...and the Horizon shut down
their room...nice.
I showed up with the latest edition of the magazine and immediately put
a "Target" on my back. The funny part was...I had the same clothes on
that day as the picture of me in my article...exact same outfit...Same
GCP hat and all. It was somewhat "Cheesy"."[+]
Online
Pokerat Full Tilt Poker
Play poker at the only
online poker room designed by the world’s best players
[UPDATED: 08/22/10]
Poker Monkey shares his insights on the tournament poker
circuit, life in general, and the battle to make it happen:
"woke up. Fed
the dogs. Made Squirrel coffee...and logged on to 'Stars. When
the dust cleared, I had made a grand total on the day of $108. I
played maybe 25 MTT's, cashed about 14 of them...but nothing
more than a $100 score in something I can't remember. Yesterday,
I started the day with a WIN in one of those $12/180pp deals for
$596. Great way to start the day. But ended the day with a $480
profit total. Had another 14th place finish....ugh! And about
two or three other deep runs. Today in my first $12/180 I got to
the Final Table with the small stack...but doubled up with QQ
vs. A9 then 77 vs. Q5 and thought I might just duplicate
yesterday. Nope. Out 7th.
So...I am geeked for tomorrow. Going to play the Sunday Million
for the 1st time in quite awhile. Have a seat in the Lamborghini
Freeroll too. "
[+}
[UPDATED
08/22/10] ReidG ...who was raised in New Orleans and lives in
Mobile brings his perspective on the Gulf Coast scene to GCP.NET.
"150/300
(25a). Folds to my button first hand after break. I open to 700,
SB folds. BB announces "re-raise." He makes it 2500 (with about
a 10k stack that I cover) and I insta-jam. He lets out a big
sigh and finally folds AJo faceup.
This is the standard mistake lots of amateurs make. He thinks
I'm stealing, so he 3bets, then is exasperated when I shove.
First, when you consider 3betting, have a plan for how you're
going to react to certain responses. Second, don't turn AJ into
a bluff for 25% of your stack. Not good."[+]
[UPDATED:
08/17/10] THE POKER BAT is an online player from Northern
Louisiana who is trying out blogging to help him with his game.
Bat will delve into hand scenarios and discuss issues facing
today's online player.
"Ever seen a
large man moonwalk? When the Bat wins his first televised final
table that’s exactly what the Bat will be doing. The last time
the Bat was online… um about 10 seconds ago the Bat was crushing
souls and mindfarting on the faces of the pimpled online
elitists that play this game for a career. You want to hear a
hero call?
The Bat just made one. In the big blind with Nine Deuce a hand
the Bat likes because it can only improve (except when it
doesn’t) there are a couple of limpers until the button
min-raises. Really? The Bat giggles. The min-raise is a bit like
moving the limbo bar down to your shoulders when only midgets
are playing. The Bat clicks call quicker than a Gator will eat a
Marshmallow on a swamp tour. Get yourself to the Bayou if you
don’t know."
[+]
GCP.NET's
OFFICIAL FORUM IS THE FULLTILTFORUM:
COME JOIN IN THE THREADS
WITH THE LIKES OF COMPTONMASTA, VIRGE, POKERUSKY AND REX55
[UPDATED: 08/16/10] Benton is
not just a roving gambler, he's
achieved most of his success in one place, in front of his
computer screen. Benton is from Thibodeaux originally and been just
about everywhere, but currently lives in Houston but is moving
to Alabama.
"Bad news
going forward is that we are having trouble getting high speed
internet. My wife picked up a network card from AT&T so that we
could at least pay bills, and I guess write blogs, LOL. I played
poker using it for like 5 minutes but the cards dragged pretty
bad and I almost timed out repeatedly. Hopefully they can get
our internet hooked up soon. I do have my office all set up and
ready to go...
... I just
finished framing and hanging all my posters today which inlcude
an original Rounders movie poster, a blown up poster of a 2005
CardPlayer magazine cover with Stu Ungar on the cover, and an
original 2003 WSOP event poster that I bought at Binions
Horseshoe the first year I attended the WSOP after moving to Las
Vegas. This poster is cool because it has a picture of all the
"Millionaires Club" on it (people who won $1 Mill or more at the
WSOP LIFETIME) and it's only like 30 or so people. I'm guessing
half that many join the club each year now at the series "[+]
[UPDATED
06/03/10]Ross L strips down poker to its core, essentially a
constant emotional struggle for superiority based on
mathematical computations and interpreting intrinsically
incomplete information. The thinking man's blog.
"Enforcement of
UIGEA will officially begin on Tuesday 6/1/2010, & will carry a
wide range of speculation throughout the online poker community;
this speculation will range from having no major impact on most
players to complete lockdown of all U.S. accounts. This act does
not make online poker illegal or playing poker an illegal
activity, yet is it designed to block transfers from US
financial institutions to offshore gaming websites. This is just
another way in which big government attempts to micromanage our
daily lives.
“The WTO Appellate Body did recognize that Internet gambling
raises unique concerns, including: the volume, speed, and
international reach of the gambling transactions; low barriers
to entry; the isolated & anonymous environment in which such
gambling takes place. These factors make Internet gambling
particularly accessible to minors and addictive, thus justifying
special treatment in order to protect the public’s morals and
order.” " [+]
(UPDATED 03/31/09) A
new title but the same blog,
Goondingy or Big Smoove and pure aggression on the felt examines
live poker action:
"Made it over to
Harrah's this past Saturday and had to drive around for a bit as
the parking garage was closed, but after about 10 minutes of
looking for off street parking I head back over and it is
opened.
I do not claim that I am the best player but I know my way
around the poker table and have had success over the last six or
seven years but I discovered a MAJOR LEAK this weekend that I
need to get pass or it will eat me up!
"[+]
[UPDATED: 05/23/10]PLAYER N scribes a tale
of grifters, sleaze balls, and beautiful card sharks all
hustling on the Coast.
"My
palms got sweaty and my shoulders got tighter with the
anticipation of having to make a decision. It only took a half
an hour for me to be on the spot. While they were dealing Texas
Hold ‘Em Two Times bet the flop and then the turn as he always
did, he shook the other two players out the hand, and only
Silverback went with him to the river. This was the standard
poker game for those two. Yet, it
didn't feel standard at all to me.
Action on Two Times and he stared at Silverback’s cards and
right through them, I knew he was waiting. Silverback had
nothing, complete garbage, and was waiting to make a move if Two
Times checked. I was frozen stiff I didn’t know who scared me
more. Suddenly I was playing a
Texas Holdem in my
mind.
[UPDATED: 02/15/10]
Shoats, a film school buff, tackles sports gambling, fantasy
sports and of course poker but never in the buff. He also
pledges to snap off lunchboxes at every opportunity.
"Pot
#1: Limp in from the SB with 5,5 (4 other limpers already). BB
raises to $15. UTG calls, UTG+1 calls, other 2 callers call and
I call. 6 players. Flop is K,5,2 rainbow - pretty ideal for my
hand because I think anyone with a king will want to end the pot
on the flop. As I'm first to act, however, I don't want to risk
it being checked around if no one has a king and then have
someone pick up a draw on the turn. I bet $37 into the $90 pot,
figuring any king will call or better yet, raise.
I have $77
behind after this bet. UTG+1 calls and everyone else folds. No
way he has AA or KK because he would have re-raised the $15
preflop at a minimum. Turn is an A, still no flush draw. I
forget the exact action here but it all goes in for both of us
and he has me covered. I have a set, he has 3.4 off...wheel
straight. River bricks and I'm felted."[+]
[UPDATED: 11/07/09]
Matt Bryrant is trying to conquer this poker thing. He's
well armed as he meshes a dealer's insight with his grinder's
perspective.
"Is
poker all about math? Is poker all about feel? Position? Your
cards? Your opponent?
I could go on and on.....
I wanted to talk a little about feel. I think I'm more of a feel
player than a math player(I'm not saying this is the better way
to be). I will review a hand from the Full Tilt 50-50 tournament
I managed to squeak my way through. I'll try to set-up this hand
just a little:
At the moment, I have never used
PokerTracker. I'm not
apposed to it. Actually, I plan to use it in the future
when I plan to give online poker a legitimate run. But I have no
stats on the "villain" in this hand. What I can tell you, is
that this hand is played early at the final table. I don't have
much prior history with him/her. I start this hand 4th
in chips.[+]
(UPDATED 12/20/09) Virge's road
is the internet highway, he's now one of the top online
(formerly) local players:
It's
fairly obvious since I haven't posted in a while, but I've taken
extended break to travel and see the world. I'm more than happy
to talk to anyone, but I won't be offering any coaching or any
other poker services while I'm away.
Say hi if you'd like to hear some great stories; I may get
around to posting them at some point."
[+]
o.
Dasher rushed for 201 yards in the New Orleans Bowl against
Southern Miss last year and is now in a dash of trouble.
ARRYLL
FISH AND JOHN LITTLE HOPE TO BECOME LEGENDS OF POKER.
60 left at the WPT tournament at the Bicycle Casino in Bell
Gardens, California. They are nearing the money bubble
after 462 players signed up to play. Jonathan Little is
11th in chips with 305k. Erica Schoenberg isn't far behind
at 245k (Erica Schoenberg?!?!? Erick Lindgren's girl
friend? If you want to see more of Erica Schoenberg google
Erica Schoenberg strip poker and you'll get an eyefull).
Joe Seebok and November Niner Soi Nguyen are also just above the
chip count average of 193.5k. Darryll Fish at 143k is
hanging around. 
MCLEAN
KARR STRIKES FOR 417k WINNING FTOPS EVENT.
The one time Gulf Coaster (by the
way check out him and others on our updated
week with a $5700 score in the "Sniper $20k G". You will see
Bryan Spotlighted in the "Online Zone" in the next GCP Magazine.
Mike Matusow, front fanny pack aficionado, at a Deep Stacks
University gig in South Florida said, that in the Sunshine state
"you're dealing with a lot of raw players, and they're
terrible." There seems to be a growing sentiment amongst
the pros the waters are rife with fish in Florida because of the
recent law changes to allow no limit play to buy-ins at the
Florida 
Jeremy
Drewery took second for 80k, Gene Fletcher third for 50k, Earl
Barron Jr (Clarksdale, MS) 4th for 33k, Noel Marsh 5th for just
under 20k, Captain Tom Franklin 6th for 25k, Kathy Lehne 7th for
21k, one of our favorites Kenny Milam 8th for 16k and Patrick
Mahoney 9th for 12k.
an
online handle "NewTeaBag," and started filthy threads like
Milam...and Captain Tom Franklin. (both pic at right). I know
Kenny got a lot of feedback on that "cool ass" 70's shirt he was
rockin...LOL
TECHNICAL
DIFFICULTIES: We want to
apologize to everyone about the updates as the technical
difficulties we have been experiencing. Seems the server where
we are housed spazzed out and the operating system became
corrupt. Shout out to Pinnacle Computers in Houma for working
diligently to get the server back up.
ember
Nine (*Brian Heptinstall) and the Gulf Coast has a rooting
interest. John Dolan, a winner of a Winter Bayou Classic
tournament late last year and a Gulf Coast Poker Championship
tournament, is now in contention to win the big one. Dolan
moved up to second in chips by a steely willingness to steal as
the Final Table bubble neared. That kind of fearlessness
has him on everybody's radar.
