SHEETS:
The World Series of Poker has announced yet
another sponsor, Sheets. It's not Bax and Sheets though it
is rumored they are backing up to 100% of the World Series
players, it's a new non poker related product. Perhaps,
Black Friday was just the right thing to light a fire under
their sales departments asses. Lighting a fire under your
ass is just what the product, Sheets, suggests it will do.
Who needs a can of Red Bull (or All-In the Poker Energy Drink),
in fact who needs a five hour shot of energy drink because
swallowing even once is much too difficult.
Sheets
gives you an energy blast in a sheet that melts on you tongue,
like those Listerine Breath sheets used to do. Not only do you
get a jolt of energy but you are also conserving the energy you
would otherwise expended swallowing. LeBron James,
Pittbull, Amare Stoudemire and Drake are partners in the
company. If LeBron's on the team you can be sure it'll
work for at least the first three quarters of a session.
HEARTLAND POKER TOUR ACQUIRED BY FEDERATED SPORTS AND GAMING:
Interesting though Federated Gaming is mum about what they are
going to do with HPT. For more Federated Gaming Press
releases go
here.
POKER
TRACKER 4 ANNOUNCED:Sounds like it will be
crazy good. Spots Super-users, it overlays tables
seamlessly, shows stacks sizes as big blinds and tracks the hand
equities at showdown (and a whole lot of other things). In
short, a great upgrade and must have software... if you could
play online poker. PokerNewsDaily has more here.
WSOP
HEADLINES:
-JOHN
RACENER FIRST IN CHIPS WITH 25 LEFT IN $2500 EIGHT GAME MIX
-ELKY
WINS BRACELET: Bertrand Grospellier, aka ELKY won
the Seven Card Stud 10k Championship. Chad Brown 6th for
57k, and Jason Mercier 14th for
24k. Others that didn't win the bracelet include 4th place
John Hennigan, 9th place Nick Schulman, 10th place Sorel Mizzi,
and 15th Matt Glantz.
-VIOLETTE
SEVEN CARD STUD HI-LOW 8 OR BETTER QUEEN. Cindy
Violette is the chipleader with Tom Dwan fifth. Norman
Chad and Frank Kassela are hovering around the top ten.
Jason Mercier who is seemingly going deep in every event is
33rd. Doug Saab of Trussville, AL is also returning
with a stack. 606 started and they are down to 172.
POKER UPDATE
06.14.11
BLAKE
BAROUSSE FINISHES 39TH:
The 3,275 person Donkament is down to
three tables unfortunately Lafayette player Barousse isn't on
one of them. He earned 9.3k for his 1k buy-in. James
Schaeffer of Eufaula, AL made the money in 96th place (34k),
Mark Rose finished 100th (for
2.9k), and Torrey Reily's torrid run came to an end in 171st
(2.6k).
1500 POT
LIMIT OMAHA NOTABLES:
They are in the money now and that
includes these guys: Michael Hallen of Katy, TX has 77.3k
(16th in chips), Tim "TK" Miles of "Biloxi" (pictured) has 22.4k
(78th),
Captain Tom Franklin of Gulfport 26.3k (93rd), Jose Severino of Panama City 13.6k (100th), and
Morton Davis of Ocean
Springs, MS 6.3k (114th). David Devilfish Ulliot bubbled
the money. Jason Mercier and Shannon Shorr went out just a
little bit before him. 1st place pays 292k.
CERUSLY?
Looks like AB/UB or Cereus
or Scott Tom's Ponzi scam owes 54 million but only has 5 to 6
million cash on hand. Scott Tom last seen locking an
albino in a tanning bed* and answering a child's question
"What's the weather like?" by spitting on him and saying
it's raining*, was not available for comment or for arrest.
Go to
Subject: Poker for
more. *(allegedly)
JASON
MERCIER IS GOOD AT POKER:
In the 7 Card Stud Championship (10k
Buy-in) Mercier is 6th out of the remaining 14 players.
126 started the event creating a prize pool of 1.18 million.
Chipleader is Steve Landfish at 780k. John Henningan,
Bertrand Grospellier, Chad Brown, Sorel Mizzi, Men Nguyen, Nick
Schulman, and Ville Wahlbeck all have chips.
POKER UPDATE
06.13.11
BLAKE
BAROUSSE TOP 20 IN CHIPS AT WSOP EVENT:
It's been a good year for Lafayette, LA
players at the World Series. Barousse (pictured) has
survived the first day of another of the WSOP's 1k donkaments.
There are 342 players remaining, 20 from the money, and Barousse
has a stack of about 70k. Torrey Reily of New Orleans is
116th with almost 30k in chips, Nathen Weed of Univesity, MS has
17.3k, and James Schaeffer of Eufaula, AL 17.1k.
SHORR ON
THE BOARD: Shannon
Shorr broke his duck for this year's World Series with a cash in
the Six Handed Limit Hold'em $2500 event. A familiar rival
of his, Alexander Kuzmin, from their WPT final table clash in
Biloxi, is first in chips. Congrats Shannon!
ROUNDERS
TWO UPDATE: Matt
Damon's character becomes the face of an online poker site,
Black Friday happens and he sues the company for $150 million.
Worm's character will play a founder of the company going by the
alias Dre Guitar. Damon discovers Worm, or Dre Guitar, has
been siphoning funds to buy Real Estate all over the world.
Okay, that's not the plot, but it should be... The
AtlanticWire.comhas more, but no spoilers,
scroll down to about the fifth bullet point.
WSOP UPDATE
06.12.11
WHO IS DAVID BAKER AND WHERE IS HE FROM; WHICH
OF THESE BAKERS WAS SEVENTH IN $1500 H.O.R.S.E EVENT:
WSOP.com has him as a Kenner, LA native.
He's won 32k for his effort. If not for their propensity
to say that Russians are from Delaware this year (of course
they may be incorporated there) we'd be giving this guy a little
more pub.
We do know there are a few
David Bakers on the circuit, and this
one has a finance degree
from Auburn but we thought he was a Katy, Texas man. If
he's a Kenner man all the better. Great job, David, and if
you are a local drop us a line (pics top; Leslie David
Baker not a desk jockey but plays one on TV, middle; David Baker
not from Katy or Kenner, and bottom; the David Baker who may or
may not be a local).
JUANDA
STYMIES HELLMUTH TO WIN FIFTH BRACELET:
On a final table of people just looking to
add to their bracelet totals, after Joe Cassidy was eliminated,
heads up play in the Deuce to Seven Draw Lowball Championship
got down to John Juanda and Phil Hellmuth. Juanda recently
was the victim of a shouting assault by James Borg about matters
surrounding the game, perhaps it was be good preparation for a
patented Poker Brat attack.
That attack even when the
match was completed never came. Phil Hellmuth started with
a 3 to 1 chip lead, seeking his first non No Limit Hold
bracelet, but he watched the lead evaporate and eventually saw
Juanda hit his draw to get bounced from the tournament.
CHAINSAW
JUST MISSES: Allen
Kessler got to heads-up play with Brian Rast in the $1500 Pot
Limit Hold'em tournament. Unfortunately, for Kessler
despite a back and forth battle all the chips went to the middle
after Rast flopped the nut flush and Kessler two pair that
didn't improve.
LAWSUIT
UPDATE
06.11.11
GOWEN'S
LAWSUIT BACK ON:
According to
Pokerati,Clonie Gowen's lawsuit against Full Tilt
is back on. Interestingly enough, should she win her suit,
then does she become one of the defendents in the Phil Ivey
lawsuit? And at this moment, would her lawsuit have DOJ
implications?
She proves she's an owner,
proves who the other owners are too... and then the DOJ expands
their net to include them? So in effect, is she now suing
to get arrested? Also, the possibility that Phil Ivey has
to give her money and then she has to turn it around and give it
right back. Anyone else getting a headache?
WSOP
UPDATES
06.11.11
HELLMUTH
OUTLASTS CHAN AND CAN SMELL BRACELET NUMBER 12:
There are 9 players left in a
stacked 10k Deuce to Seven Lowball Championship. Everybody
in the remainder of the field, except Joe Cassiday, has at least
one bracelet. Nobody thinks Cassidy one of the better
mixed games players in the world is a slouch either.
The headline of course is
Phil Hellmuth is there with his 11 bracelets. The Brat
hasn't won a bracelet in four years and despite having only won
his bracelets in No Limit Hold'em all eyes will be on him and
his below average chip stack to see if he can't get to number
12. Does anyone else think of a particular Kanye West song
when they see that photo above? Johnny Chan was eliminated
late on day 2, with the back to back Main Event Champ chasing
bracelet 11, to tie Hellmuth all time. Now he may see
Hellmuth go two ahead.
Speaking of back to back,
reigning 2-7 champion David "Bakes" Baker is third and chips,
and very much in the mix. Richard Ashby is first in chips,
Cassidy 2nd, Steve Sung 4th, Hasan Habib 5th, Greg Raymer 6th,
Hellmuth 7th, Nick Schulman 8th, and John Juanda 9th.
FRANK
KASELLA COMES UP ONE SIT AND GO SHORT OF WINNING ANOTHER
BRACELET: Andrew
Badecker won the $1500 No Limit Shoot-out event, slugging
through a 9 handed table, a 10 handed table, and the final 16
person sit and go to win the event. Kassela finished 13th,
and was the first of many big names to leave early. Lars
Bonding, David Pham, Vitaly Lunkin, Dan Kelly, and Erik Cajelais
would also follow him out of the room.
PLO NOT
KIND TO GULF COAST PLAYERS:
Sure, John Dolan, John Racener and
Hoyt Corkins all made the money, but they didn't make the final ten
of the $1500 PLO Event. Brian Rast sits first in chips
with Allen Kessler 2nd. Granted Kessler's win in New
Orleans has endeared him to us, but he's no Charles Ritchie
(Pensacola native who finished 16th) or Jonathan Poche (2nd WSOP
cash).
LIMIT
HOLD'EM CASHERS: Two
Louisianans min-cashed the 3k Limit Hold'em event. Anthony Graphia of Baton Rouge won 7k for 27th and David Baker of Kenner
just made the money with first payout at 36th (5.6k).
Tyler Bonkowski of Canada won the event and the 220k for first.
NICHOLAS
KOST 2ND IN CHIPS IN $1500 HORSE EVENT:
Kost a Ruston, LA resident only has to
worry about Eli Elezra returning with a bigger stack. With
963 entrants pared down to 196, Elezra has 92k in chips and Kost
73.6k. David Baker of Kenner is also till alive as is
David Eisendrath of Shreveport.
WSOP
UPDATES
06.10.11
DAVID DIAZ
IS NOW KNOWN FOREVER AS WORLD SERIES OF POKER BRACELET WINNER
DAVID DIAZ: The poker
media has jumped all over this story because of Diaz's tale of
being cancer patient as a child in Honduras, moving to Memphis
to get free treatment at St. Jude's hospital (more on them
below), and becoming a bracelet winner 20 years later.
It's a great angle and a great story, but let's not forget nor
diminish that David, who stayed in Memphis after beating cancer,
then discovered poker and grinded in Tunica, later became one of
our own by moving down here to play in Biloxi and New Orleans,
is a great poker player first and foremost.
Sometimes, the back-story
gets played up so much, you ignore the here and now, and in the
here and now, Diaz is a first class player who has been knocking
on the door. This isn't a story about him beating cancer
as a youth, it's about him outplaying a tough World Series
field, and coming back from a short stack more than once.
Sure he had his share of luck as any bracelet winner has to
have, but from watching the feed over the Internet it was clear
that table was likely going to be won by Diaz, Bill Chen, or
maybe one other guy. In the end, it just felt like it was
going to be Diaz's day and it felt like he deserved it.
You'll see some familiar
faces with Diaz in the picture above, it's almost like a GCP
WHO'S WHO
group shot (TK Myles, Jacob Naguin, Darryll Fish and Ben Mintz
to name a few). Great job David!
ST. JUDE
HOSPITAL: A lot of
people became aware of the great work St. Jude's hospital does
just this year on The Apprentice. Country music singer
John Rich, won the show, in part because of his selfless
devotion to their cause. It's a special place.
Here's why... St. Judes will not turn away a single child
that is ill no matter the financial situation of their parents.
Diaz is one of many
survivors that can thank St. Jude's mission statement for
beating a childhood illness. Anyway, we just bitched about
the media playing up one angle to Diaz story, and then we kind
of did the same thing too. Still, there's a reason why, we
are going to push you to donate to their cause. But wait
you greedy readers there is something in it for you. Right
now St. Jude is selling raffle tickets, $100 a pop, to the St.
Jude's
Dream Home in New Orleans
(and probably in the closet city next to you... google is your
friend). The house in New Orleans is valued at over 600k
and proceeds go directly to St. Jude. You win the house,
you've successfully given $100 to charity AND you win a house!
How can you beat that? The raffle ends this Sunday.
Go
here for more details...
WSOP
UPDATES
06.09.11
DAVID
DIAZ AKA LEFTY LEFT WITH WORK TO DO:
Congrats to Diaz for making the final ten
of the Triple Chance No-Limit Hold'em Event. Diaz has the
second shortest stack with 324k. Nicholas Rampone is a big
chip leader with more than double second places stack.
Rampone is at 1.5 million, Justin Sternberg, 2nd with 737k.
Bill Chen sits in fifth and Corey Hastings of Rogers, Arkansas
is 6th. Let's go Lefty!
GODADDY.COM
TABLE SPONSOR AT THIS YEARS WSOP: The
latest premier sponsor will have on-site branding at this years
WSOP. GoDaddy.com despite an owner who shoots elephants
for sport has been good to poker. They join Jack Links in
being brands, that aren't poker related, but are poker friendly.
LOTS
OF BIG NAMES WIN THEIR FIST TABLE IN $1500 NO-LIMIT SHOOTOUT:
Who says there is no skill in sit 'n goes? Frank Kassela,
Scott Siever, Greg Raymer, Jennifer Tilly (Jennifer Tilly???*),
David Pham, Daniel Negreanu, Matt Matros, and Vitaly Lunkin
would beg to differ. The remaining players just have to
win two more tables and a bracelet is theirs.
*Though to be fair to Tilly, the lovely lady, has shown some
poker chops and gone deep in a lot of events this year.
BREAKING....
FULL TILT
PRO AND FORMER GCPER BLOGS ABOUT FULL TILT AND NEW POKER WORLD
06.08.11
BRANDON
ADAMS IS A LOYAL GUY:
He's also one of the few Full Tilt pros
making a statement or two about the state of things. In
the face of Phil Ivey's lawsuit, you have to hand it to the
former Gulf Coaster his approach is different, it's one of
loyalty. In his just released, as in mere minutes ago,
blog post, he doesn't pull any punches in talking about the
underbelly of the poker world, that is threatening to become
simply the poker world, or in calling Full Tilt's management
mistakes amateurish, but he also says he is going to stand by
his friends and be patched up. You know it's a lot easier
to support the guy, whether you agree with his stance or not,
when he opens up about it. Hopefully, other Full Tilt pros
will follow his lead. Read his thoughts
here.
WSOP
UPDATES AND SOME BLACK FRIDAY CHATTER
06.08.11
WSOP
-JACOB NAQUIN AND JONATHAN POCHE
CASH 6 MAX WSOP EVENT:Jacob finished 85th and and
Jonathan 159th. Jacob's continued a torrid couple of years
and Jonathan's recent personal heater also keeps trucking.
Both wanted a bracelet but cashing at the World Series is a good
start to the summer at the Rio.
-LEFTY DIAZ 19TH IN CHIPS
AS MONEY BUBBLE APPROACHES IN TRIPLE CHANCE NO LIMIT HOLD'EM:
1340 players started the event and they are down to 160.
144 make the money. Peter Hernandez of San Antonio is the
chip leader followed by Jonath Karamalikis in second, and
JC Tran is third in chips. Andy Black has a stack that is
just outside the top ten big. Cliff Josepy, Ted Forrest,
Andy Frankenberger, Isaac Haxton, Bill Chen, Andy Philachak (of
Garland, TX), Darryll Fish (82nd in chips), and Justin Smith
(Kissimmee, FL) all return for day 2 as well.
-THREE HANDED IN 1K
SUPERDONKAMENT: Jon Turner is third in
chips. Playing for a lot of money. First is 611k,
second 377k and third 274k.
-JASON MERCIER MIN CASHES 10k
OMAHA HI-LOW SPLIT-8 OR BETTER: Lots of names
return including Josh Arieh, Shaun Deeb, Freddy Deeb, Mike
Sexton, and Eric Buchman. First place is 465k score.
BLACK FRIDAY
FULL TILT'S
PROBLEMS: While UB/AB Cereus are seriously
on their last legs (96% drop in traffic since Black Friday) Full
Tilt has managed to lose about half their traffic.
Considering all their marketing efforts were geared to the
United States that's actually not that bad. After the Phil
Ivey lawsuit they only lost about 3%. Still, with rumors
of letters being sent to red pros asking why they aren't wearing
their patches and still no U.S. payouts yet, they continue to
walk on a knife's edge.
More troubling for Lederer and company,
who own the software Tilt uses but not Full Tilt (wink, wink,
nudge, nudge know what I mean), is one of the guys nabbed in the
Maryland sting (see smiling cops below) is said just to be the
programmer and not an owner. Is the DOJ testing out their
case against Full Tilt against a smaller fish? Not
surprisingly, perhaps because he may have to litigate the case
twice, the Full Tilt lawyer has been hired by the software
provider in Maryland.
ALMOST DAILY TAO
OF POKER LINK: Cheating scandals or simply
ineptness... Barry Greenstein on DonkDown radio said that was
the question Joe Seebok faced every day working with UB.
Dr. Pauly has an article about marked cards at the WSOP.
Apparently, just a card manufacturer screw-up but he also lists
some recent WSOP mark-ups that weren't just manufacturer, or
user error. Go
here for more.
WSOP
UPDATES
06.07.11
1K
FEATURES 4.1K DONKS DOWN: In the massive
event 8 field, that featured 4,178 players they are down to 60.
Unfortunately, among the departed include Darryll Fish (93rd,
3.8k), Charles Moore of Bossier City, LA (124th 3.3k), Jacob
Bazeley (129th 2.2k), and Allie Prescott (221st, 2.8k).
Jon Turner is the chip leader with almost 750k. Reigning
Main Event champ Jonathan Duhamel has 250k and some experience
navigating giant fields. Other names like Young Phan and
Eric Mizrachi still have chips. 1st place will pay 611k
with a prize pool of over 3 milly.
JASON
MERCIER FINAL TABLES DEUCE-SEVEN LOWBALL: The
$1500 2-7 Draw Lowball was won by Matt Perrins who beat Chris
Bjorin in heads up play. Bernard Lee finished fourth with
Jason Mercier in 7th for 10.5k. Captain Tom Franklin added
another cash to his lengthy resume finishing just in the money.
THE
POKER BAT IS BACK: Perhaps, inspired by the
triumphant return of Kai Landry to the blogosphere and to final
tables, the Poker Bat blogged a little bit from his kitchen
table, and discusses amongst other things Phil Gordon, his WSOP
charity Bad Beat on Cancer, Full Tilt, and the bad beat they put
on his bankroll.
aPOKERlypse NOW AND WSOP
UPDATES
06.06.11
TWO + TWO IS UP IN ARMS,
PROBABLY RIGHTFULLY SO BECAUSE OF ABOVE PIC:
In the aftermath of the Maryland
bust on the mostly second tier of online poker/gambling sites,
Homeland Security (what business do they have investigating
poker in the first place), cuts a check for almost a half milly
to the a local police department. Those monies come from
setting up an illegal payment processor and running it for two
years (which is ...illegal... but profitable). Meanwhile,
players funds they've frozen at other sites still haven't gotten
back to the players. Rather than pool the monies and help
make the 50,000 US players who earn a living playing poker
online, partially whole, they've decided to dole out some cash
in a giddy photo op to a police department that helped them.
Maybe Anne Arundel can use the proceeds of the operation to
crack down on those nefarious home games and maybe Homeland
Security can help them.
Here's the
2 + 2 thread and the
articleit points to. Please
follow the second link and leave your comments below the article
on the general smugness and shadiness demonstrated in the
picture above. Thank goodness Homeland Security has
nothing better to do than to crack down on your right to play
poker. "Operation Texas Hold'em..." Wow. It
would be nice if they could put their bloated
budget/bureaucratic malaise into developing a six color
confusing system to warn us about possible terror, which they
would never really use, oh they already did that and now they've
scrapped it. That was a lot of work this past decade,
don't know how they found the time to oppress poker playing
Americans. Thanks for keeping us safe!
KAI LANDRY BLOGS ABOUT
HIS FINAL TABLE AND IS LOOKING FOR AN EIGHT TRACK PLAYER:
Staying in the Riveria,
jogging, looking for a mom and pop bookstore (they still have
those?), and playing seven card stud deep in the World Series of
Poker... Kai Landry is living in the 70s. He doesn't post
much but the wait is always worth it, go here
for more.
ERIC
CLOUTIER AND MCLEAN KARR
MAKE 10K PLO CHAMPIONSHIP FINAL TABLE: Karr
couldn't carry the big stack he wielded most of the tournament
all the way to first and was second out of the final table
finishing eighth for 67k. Cloutier was one spot higher and
20k richer finishing 7th. Congrats to both of them and to
Amir Lehavot of Weston, Florida who won the tournament, a
bracelet and 573k.
WSOP
UPDATES
6.04.11
CLOUTIER AND KARR
RETURNING IN 10K PLO: Mclean Karr, in the
video below with fellow one-time Gulf Coaster Darryll Fish, is
third in chips. He has 593k. Eric Cloutier of
Lafayette, LA is 17th in chips with 173k. Noah Schwartz is
19th in chips. Everyone is in the money and now they are
just playing for the biggest chunks of it. First place
pays 573k.
LANDRY AND LITTLE
CASH: Kai Landry
finished 6th in the Seven Card Stud event winning almost 20k.
Great start to the series for Kai. Jonathan Little won 27k
for 19th place in the 5K No Limit Hold'em event.
WARD, DIAZ AND HIKARY
SURVIVING MASSIVE WSOP DONKAMENT: 2116
entrants has been whittled down to 312 players after Day 1A of
the 1k. Jack Ward, David Diaz and Omar Hikary, all
recently of Biloxi, MS are in that crowd. When they return
for a combined day 2 there will be only a few more eliminations
until payday and the money bubble bursts. Jacob Bazeley is
also in the throng.
Shaun
Hendrickson, Tallahassee, FL, and Christopher Wafula, Bright,
MS, also have chips. There is already over 1 million
dollars in the prize pool with the possibility Day 1b will
double that. Could be a BIG payday for first.
GCPers
CHASING GOLD, GLORY AND CASH AT THE WSOP
6.04.11
KAI LANDRY 4TH IN CHIPS
WITH 12 REMAINING: Landry is just behind
Eric Buchman and Eugene Katchalov in the top ten of chips at the
Seven Card Stud tournament. Chip leader is Alessio Isaia
with 232.5k. Katchalov is at 212.5k. They both lurk
on Landry's table with Kai sitting at 200k. Let's go Kai!
JONATHAN
LITTLE JUST OUTSIDE TOP 10 WITH 42 REMAINING IN 5K:
Little is 11th in chips in a No Limit Hold'em tournament.
The former WPT player of the year is looking for some WSOP bling
when play restarts today. 865 players started and the
remaining 41 are looking up at Brian Lemke who is the chipleader
at 960k.
Behind Little, who has
415k are some familiar names including: JC Tran, Carlos
Mortenson, Matt Glantz, Tim West, Bernard Lee, and Maria Ho.
Let's go Jonathan!
MCLEAN KARR
7TH, BRANDON ADAMS 11TH;
10k PLO: Victory
Poker CEO Dan Fleyshman and Men the Master Nguyen are above Karr
on the leader board with almost half the field gone after day.
Remaining are still over 120 players looking up at Karr.
Eric Cloutier is in the middle of the top pack with Jason
Mercier, Hoyt Corkins, Shannon Shorr, Robert Mizrachi, Dwyte
Pilgrim, and Darryll Fish all still with chips. Lots of
big names pepper this field.
BTW, FINAL
TABLES WILL BE STREAMED ON WSOP.COM AND MANY LOCAL PROS TWITTERING
IN THAT BOX TO THE LEFT.
FIRST ONE
MILLION DOLLAR BUY-IN TOURNAMENT AT NEXT YEARS WSOP, WSOP
UPDATES, AND ANOTHER IVEY DRAMA BOMB LOOMING, CUE WALL OF
TEXT...
06.03.11
ONE MILLION
DOLLARS:
This year's World Series is only a few days old but is more
notable for announcements, press releases, and twitters then it
is for the action on the felt. The latest haymaker of news
is the WSOP announcement that next year's WSOP will have a $1
Million Dollar buy-in. With the financial might of Full
Tilt, more importantly what will remain of it, in question, the
profiting of PokerStars greatly diminished, and the economy as
sluggish as it's ever been you have to question the timing of
this... but why be negative. This is friggin' amazing...
One Million Dollars.
Guy Laliberte the founder of Cirque Du Soleil, and rumored sole
supporter of High Stakes online poker action, said that 11.11
percent of each entry will be withheld for One Drop.
That's a charity initiative he started that wants to bring clean
water to every human being on the planet. 11.11%...
One Drop. You get that right? Okay.
Here are the players so
far: Laliberte who uses 100 bills at baby wipes, Bobby
Baldwin (CEO of MGM-Mirage), Phil Ruffin owner of Treasure
Island, Andy Beal, Patrik Antonius, Gus Hansen, Tong G, Doyle
Brunson... but no Phil Ivey (those of you who think he really is
broke, more ammunition for that, because how could he pass up a
tournament like this), or High Roller king Erik Seidel.
If at least 22 players
register it will become an official bracelet event. If
not, it'll still be televised
by ESPN. Registration will be capped to 48 players (wha-huh?),
but if the cap is reached the prize pool would have enough to
award first place $17 million.
ALMOST
DAILY LINK TO TAO OF POKER:
Look nobody does a better job capturing
the world series from the world series than Dr. Pauly. Go
to his
blogoften. Today it's about
the grudge matches, the made for TV event, that pitches
rematches of Main Event's past. Here's some nuggets Pauly
didn't mention from last night: Caught some of the action
on ESPN3 between Moneymaker and Farha (spoiler alert... same
winner as the first go round), and Chris in the very beginning
of match three, led out post flop (possibly post turn) with an
Ace out there. Sammy shoved. Yes, there was barely
anything in the pot and both players had almost full starting
stacks.
Then Chris delivered
Sammy's famous line "I could make a crazy call on you." It
took Sammy two minutes to realize Chris was quoting him from
their famous kick-start-of-the-poker-boom bluff-of-the-century
hand. That will make the telecast surely. Nobody
showed their cards but sounded like Moneymaker might have laid
down two pair. He really wanted Sammy to say he had better
than Aces and Threes. Sammy revealed nothing.
Curious if Chris was all talk or really had a monster. Another
interesting hand was when Moneymaker called with ace high
putting Sammy on a flush draw and was right to call with the
best hand.
GUS HANSEN
MAKES FINAL FOUR OF 25K HEADS UP AND OTHER NON-MADE-FOR-TV WSOP
UPDATES:
-Hansen
will play Jake Cody. Eric
Froehlich is on the other side of the bracket seeking bracelet
number four.
-Sean
Drake won the Casino Employees event and 82k. Which makes us ask when the actions
started who dealt, who served the drinks, and who checked in the
guests?
-25
players are left in Event #3 $1500 Omaha Hi-Low Split 8 or
Better,
besides needing a shorting name, the
tournament also suffers from a lack of star power at the top.
Francesco Barbaro, Matt Waxman, Vladimir Schemelve are top three
in chips. Jimmy Fricke is fifth. Outside the top ten
but still in the 25 players remaining are Humberto Brenes, Scott
Clements, and shortest stack Lex Veldhus.
Local Eric Cloutier
(pictured) cashed for 6.8 in 33rd. Erik Seidel went out
32nd for the same payday. Also out late were Allen
Cunningham, Men Nguyen (who had to be separated from Hollywood
Dave Stann after ironically calling Stann a cheater), Chau Giang,
Dave Stann, and Jean-Robert Bellande.
-EVENT
4 5K NO LIMIT HOLD'EM: Jonathan
Little is at 80k. 243 players survived day one.
Field started with 865. Jonathan Poche is also back for
day two. Victor Ramdin and Brian Lemke are top three in
chips.
-EVENT
5 SEVEN CARD STUD: Kai
Landry is returning with Tom Dwan and Shannon Shorr seated at
his table. Shaun Deeb and Andy Bloch are near the top of
the leaderboard. Tom Franklin and Jason Mercier are also
among the 112 returning. They need to get to 40 to make
the money.
-OH YEAH,
ONE LAST PHIL IVEY DRAMA BOMB:
His ex-wife is looking to write a
book. Ivey pictured to
the right with a guy playing in this years World Series has a
lot on his mind. For more fuel to the fire of those that
think the craps and sports-bettor machine is broke, some
accounting... if he was making a milly a month, or
something absurd like that from FT, and his divorce took that
into consideration and that's dried up dude has got some bills
to pay. Wild Bill talks about why Phil Ivey's lawsuit may
not be the best thing since his five bet all in bluff with queen
high for the poker world. Go to his blog to the left.
TILTWARE
DEFENDS
06.02.11
PHIL
IVEY SUING TILTWARE AND NOT PLAYING WSOP:
Last night Tiltware played the social media game via Poker News
and allowed their response to the Ivey lawsuit to go out
piecemeal over twitter. Later,
Poker News had the full
article on the site. In Tiltware's opening statement it
got a bit WWE dropping one of wrassling's favorite adjective to
describe Phil Ivey's statement:
Contrary to his
sanctimonious public statements,
Phil Ivey’s meritless lawsuit is
about helping just one player –
himself. In an effort to further
enrich himself at the expense of
others, Mr. Ivey appears to have
timed his lawsuit to thwart
pending deals with several
parties that would put money
back in players’ pockets. In
fact, Mr. Ivey has been invited
-- and has declined -- to take
actions that could assist the
company in these efforts,
including paying back a large
sum of money he owes the site.
Tiltware doubts Mr. Ivey’s
frivolous and self-serving
lawsuit will ever get to court.
But if it does, the company
looks forward to presenting
facts demonstrating that Mr.
Ivey is putting his own narrow
financial interests ahead of the
players he professes to help.
JAMES BORD AND
JOHN JUANDA CAME TO WORDS AT THE
WSOP: What's
been reported as a heated debate
between the two was really just
Bord calling Juanda all kinds of
nasty names because Juanda
showed up with a Full Tilt badge
on day one of the 25k Heads up
Tournament. Bord and
Juanda had to be separated.
This is oldish news but it's
another chink in the armor of
the public face of Full Tilt and
might have helped spur
Tiltware's quick response to
Ivey's law-suit. Tao of
Poker reported: "Benjo
also overheard Bord refer to
Juanda as a "disgrace" and
"fake." Oh, and how can I forget
about my favorite insult when
Bord called Juanda a "thieving
prick." Go to Tao right
here
for the rest of the best account
of the incident and all it's
particulars.
THEY ARE PLAYING
THE WORLD SERIES TOO, NOT JUST
SCREAMING AND SUING:
However, in the 25k Heads-up
match the attention was again on
Full Tilt players. In the
sweet sixteen arguably the best
match-up was the last one with
Gus Hansen and Tom "Durrrr" Dwan
both patchless Full Tilt
players. Hansen beat Dwan
after a long duel when his K9
held against Dwan's Q10
short-stack preflop shove.
Hansen is in the round of eight
with guys like Yevgeniy
Timoshenko, Eric Froehlich and
Matt Marafioti. Hansen was
last seen winning the 10k WSOP-E
heads up championship.
Meanwhile in the 1500 Omaha
Hi-Low Split 8 or better Barry
Greenstein, Jimmy Fricke, and
Humberto Brenes were all near
the top ten in chips after day
one and moved on as the field
lost 715 out of 925 entrants.
GOT VERSUS?
THE WSOP-C RELEASES TELECAST AND
IT'S COMING SOON (TONIGHT!) TO A
NON-BASIC CABLE TELEVISION NEAR
YOU:
Starting tonight and each
Thursday throughout June VERSUS
will air two one-hour episodes
throughout June. The five
nights of programming will
feature the regional
championships in this order:
June 2nd, Eastern (Harrah's
Atlantic City); June 9th,
Midwest (Horseshoe Hammond
Chicago); June 16th, Western
(Harrah's Rincon); June 23rd,
Southern (Harrah's New Orleans)
and culminate with the June 30th
National Championship Free roll
from Caesar's Palace Las Vegas.
PHIL IVEY
IS AGGRESSIVE
06.01.11
PHIL
IVEY SUING TILTWARE AND NOT PLAYING WSOP:
Last night one of the owners of this site scanned through
facebook and saw Phil Ivey's mug staring back at him saying he
was suing Tiltware: Actually this is exactly what he said
in a series of status updates:
"For many years, I have been
proud to call myself a poker player. This great sport has
taken me to places I only imagined going and I have been
blessed with much success. It is therefore with deep regret
that I believe I am compelled to release the following
statement.
I am deeply disappointed and embarrassed that Full Tilt
players have not been paid money they are owed. I am equally
embarrassed that as a result many players cannot compete in
tournaments and have suffered economic harm.
I am not playing in the World Series of Poker as I do
not believe it is fair that I compete when others cannot. I
am doing everything I can to seek a solution to the problem
as quickly as possible.
My name and reputation have been dragged through the mud,
through the inactivity and indecision of others and on
behalf of all poker players I refuse to remain silent any
longer. I have electronically filed a lawsuit against
Tiltware related to the unsettled player accounts. As I
am sure the public can imagine, this was not an easy
decision for me.
I wholeheartedly refuse to accept non-action as to repayment
of players funds and I am angered that people who have
supported me throughout my career have been treated so
poorly.
I sincerely hope this statement will ignite those capable of
resolving the problems into immediate action and would like
to clarify that until a solution is reached that cements the
security of all players, both US and International, I will,
as I have for the last six weeks, dedicate the entirety of
my time and efforts to finding a solution for those who have
been wronged by the painfully slow process of repayment."
We asked ourselves two
questions; one Phil Ivey is a friend of ours on facebook?
Um, no, at some point we liked his page and got this memo as a
"fan." (By the way, you should like us on facebook too, so
if we ever say we are suing somebody via facebook you'll be the
first to know). And our second question was this has to be a
fake right? Considering the timing of the message, during
an NBA Finals game, and how out of left field it is, Barry
Greenstein, his alleged best friend, just drafted him for his
World Series of Poker fantasy team (25k buy-in), it didn't
really make sense.
Well, if somebody created
a fake Phil Ivey account on facebook, well played, no better
timing then now, to let the 70 thousands fans know they got
leveled. Perhaps, it was hacked. Then reporters
using some of the above logic chimed in that it was fake...
And then it came out it wasn't fake that it was really Ivey
firing the first bullet from the up to now silent Full Tilt
players. Wicked Chops, Bluff, and Gary Wise of ESPN were
early confirmers that this indeed was a statement from Phil
Ivey.
What's it mean?
Could be exactly what it says and Phil Ivey is officially the
people's champion... Could be a ruse to take the attention off
the player owners, it's alleged Phil Ivey is one, and to maybe
set up a fall guy... Could be it's as simple as Phil Ivey
is suing for the millions that may be in his account that he
can't touch... Rumors are also floating that Ray Bitar
might have embezzled some of that cash, unbeknownst to even the
highest player-owners, or beknownst (?) to a select few, if
true, move over Russ Hamilton and Scott Tom you've got company
in the most hated men in the poker industry short-list.
All sorts of questions
raised, some significant some insignificant. What about
his bracelet bet with Lederer? Possible neither of them
could pay out if Full Tilt is in fact going busto.
What about Full Tilt? In their last statement they said
they'd pay everybody out but also said they needed to raise
capital, that doesn't sound too good, this suit sounds even less
good. Who will Norman Chad fawn over in the Main Event if
Ivey skips it? Ivey was already Chuck Norris-like to the
readers of 2+2, is it now, God, Clapton, and Ivey? Or is
it Ivey and God?
Who in Full Tilt's roster
will be next to take a stand? Phil Hellmuth recently was
poker's biggest free agent, is Ivey already taking solicitations
from other sites and Hellmuth down to number two? Will
this motivate Howard Lederer, Phil Gordon and other Full Tilt
pros/owners to finally speak? If Phil Ivey's suit isn't
really for the benefit of the players as a whole and it's more
about him getting paid first, and should there be a settlement
where Full Tilt takes care of him, does he suddenly become the
biggest bad guy in poker? Feel free to discuss on our
facebook page and like us
while you are there.
WSOP-C
NEWS
05.31.11
POCHE WINS GIANT CHECK: At a past Acadiana Series of
Poker it was a literal giant check for 5k, at the World Series
of Poker Circuit National Championship, the check was for 75k
for fifth place, probably not a Happy Gilmore giant check but we
are pretty sure he prefers the paper to the cardboard.
Congratulations to Sam
Barnhart, not only did the Little Rock knock out Poche with KQ
vs K10 after both flopped top pair, he used that bust out to
catapult to the the championship. Barnhart won 300k
after knocking out James
Anderson (200k) in heads up play. Blogger Bella Donkey
made mention of Barnhart in her preview, and we too were happy
to see the Tunica champion take it down. Go read Nolan Dalla's wrap up for a great profile on Barnhart and all of the
final table action
here.
CONGRATS TO RONNIE HOPE, IRENE CELAYA AND LINDSEY SPENCE:
Little late on getting this up but here are the
results of the last to WSOP-C tournaments at Harrahs.
Ronnie Hope (pictured) and Irene Celaya chopped the Seniors
event. Great job Ronnie! Looks like
there was a lot of chopping going on as 16 through 4 all left
with the same amount, and Martin Kersten in third got just a
touch more.
Lindsey Spence of
Greenwell Springs, LA got her first title after 9 cashes to win
the Ladies Event. She took home $4,413 beating Mandy
Pilgrim, Kristi Andrews, Martha Guy, Marcia Holland, Gayle Duet,
and Lori Gray once they got in the money.
WSOP-C
NATIONAL FREE ROLL
05.29.11
POCHE
ATOP FINAL TABLE: Everybody is in the
money, everybody is going to get some TV time and now it's just
about the bracelet and what size chunk of the million dollar
free-roll each player is going to get. We are pulling for
a certain Gulf Coaster, winner of the New Orleans circuit Main
Event, 29 year old Jonathan Poche of Lafayette, LA to take it
down. With 26% of the chips in play, more than double his
closet rival, Poche will have a great chance to get into the
highest money slots.
Poche has 534k in chips,
with the following at least one double-up away: second in
chips La Sengphet 245k, third in chips Adam Hui 239k, fourth in
chips James Anderson 235k, and fifth Josh Evans 222k. The
next group of players led by Tunica Main Event Champion and
Arkansas native Sam Barnhart have more work to do with
Barnhart's 166k one third of Poche's stack. Barnhart faced
just as imposing odds when he won in Tunica so he's got a
chance. Matthew Lawrence, probably not the guy from
Blossom and Nell Carter's show has 140k, Drazen Illich 118k, and
final table shorty Charles Moore, 65.5k.
While the names might not
sound familiar they are a dangerous bunch, Sengphet has two
bracelets and 7 cashes to her name this year. Hui, Evans
and Lawrence don't have any bracelets but cashed enough to
garner at large bids. The other players each have won a
ring, so there will be plenty of players that know how to close
out a tournament and a final table. Good luck Jonathan!
WSOP-C
NATIONAL FREE ROLL
05.28.11
RUN DOWN OF
THE PLAYERS STILL IN...
LOCALS AND
NOTABLES STILL IN IT...HIGHLIGHTED IN RED
1 La
Sengphet 165,000 22-4
2 Huy Nguyen 122,700 22-8
3 Jonathan Poche/121,400
22-9 (Lafayette, La )
4 Shiva Dudani 96,000 22-6
5 Charles Moore 95,100 23-3
6 Curt Kohlberg 94,600 24-2
7 Stanley Quinn 92,600 24-9
8 Adam Hui 75,100 23-2
9 Doug Carli 72,800 26-9
10 Bernard Lee 70,900 26-4
11 Drazen Illich 66,600 22-5
12 Roland Isra 64,000 23-6
13 Jesus Cabrera 61,100 22-1
14 Matthew Lawrence 57,600 23-4
15 Andrew Barber 56,100 26-3
16 Tim West 53,500 23-8
17 Kyle Cartwright 51,300 24-6
18 Chris Klodnicki 51,000 26-1
19 Peter Mavro 49,500 24-1
20 Harry Cullen 40,700 24-5
21 Scott Clark 38,600 23-5
22 Dwyte Pilgrim 36,300 26-8
23 Peter Ippolito 36,100 26-7
24 Traci Brown 33,500 24-7
25 Josh Evans 32,200 24-8
26 Mark Sykes 30,400 23-1
27 Tuan Bui Le 28,000 22-2
28 Kunal Patel 27,600 22-7
29 James Anderson 25,500 24-4
30 DJ Blanchard 24,100 26-6
31 Sam Barnhart 23,800 26-5
32 Allen Kessler 23,100
24-3
33 Kenny Nguyen 22,000 26-2
34 Robert Scott 14,800 23-7
35 Brian Ali 13,900 23-9
WSOP-C
NATIONAL FREE ROLL
05.28.11
SEATING
ASSIGNMENTS FOR LOCAL PLAYERS:
We've already had one exit and one no
show. Mun Nguyn lost flush to flush against Charles
"Woody" Moore on Table 12. Gary Friedlander, second in the
Regional Championship in New Orleans is out of the country and
therefore not playing... so that leaves 98 to contend for the
money.
Table one has two GCP
bloggers, Jeremy Gaubert and Will Souther, right next to each
other in the 8 and 9 seats. On table 6, Kyle Cartwright,
who has been called the new Dwyte Pilgrim is seated next to...
Dwyte Pilgrim. On table 12, GCP blogger Shannon Shorr and
former New Orleans champion Allen Kessler are seated in the 6
and 9 seats, respectively.
Allie Prescott, and GCP
blogger Scott Clark are on table 16 (where Friedlander was
supposed to playing). Prescott in the 2 seat and Clark in
the 9. Jonathan Poche and Bobbie Talbot are next to
each other in the 9 and 8 seats on Table 21. They will
have to contend with David "Doc" Sands and Curt Kohlberg.
Brandon Adams is in the 9 seat on table 23. Captain Tom
Franklin is in the three seat on Table 26 that also features
Andrew Frankenberger reigning WPT Player of the Year.
NEW
BANNER ADS NOTES AND ONLINE POKER IN THE UNITED STATES
05.25.11
YOU WANT TO
PLAY ONLINE POKER IN THE U.S.?
The Merge network is still accepting
players. One of their better skins is FeltStars,
which you'll see on the left side of this site with a 150% bonus
offer. If you sign up by clicking through the banner we
get a little bit of affiliate money (full disclosure) and we
like to get money to keep this site around.
Why Feltstars? They
have ties to many Gulf Coast players either as pros or through
sponsorships like Kenny Milam, Captain Tom Franklin, Tyler
Smith, and GCP bloggers, Benton Blakeman and soon (we think)
Poker Monkey Will Souther. We like that they support local
players.
That being said, there are
a couple of sites since Black Friday still active, but in light
of Black Friday we are aware that anything can happen to any
poker site at any time. What we might have done
to satisfy our online poker jones was deposit an amount we were
prepared to lose should the DOJ's mallet come crushing down on
the other poker portals if it becomes a game of whack-a-mole.
We have no idea if that day will come or if it will never come,
so the decision to play is on you. If you do decide to
play online consider FeltStars where you can play with a couple
of donks like us.
SCCCCRATCH!: Hear that? That's the
sound of the Merge Network, including FeltStars, announcing
(according to this article in
Gambling911) they are no
longer accepting new players from New York, Maryland, District
of Columbia, Missouri, and wait for it LOUISIANA. Uh-oh.
See what we said up there? Well, dear readers in the rest
of the South feel free to sign up and click away on the
FeltStars banners dotting our site. Friends in Louisiana
it doesn't look like they want you to play online poker.
PPA
FLY-IN: Did you know there are only 12
politically active poker players in the DC Metro area or with
the wherewithal to fly-in for the PPA fly-in yesterday?
Okay maybe that's not true, but go to
Wicked Chops for pics of
the 12 man march.
DOYLESROOM RAIDED TEXAS DOLLY TIPPED OFF AND OUT OF THE
BUILDING: Used to be when the Texas
rounders would play some back bar room games, some well
connected folks would get an inside tip or two to avoid the
joint because "the heat was on" in advance of a bust.
Couple of days ago Doyle Brunson quietly stepped away from
Doyle's Room, and this past weekend the DOJ out of Maryland
"stung" the virtual room by setting up a fake payment processor.
Did Doyle get tipped off? That would make a better story,
but more likely after Black Friday everybody was kind of tipped
off.
Also busted were Bookmaker.com, Goldenarchcasino, Truepoker.com, Betmaker.com,
Beted.com and a few other others. Also of note Bodog.com
is now Bodog.eu. Again, the question is, was it a
tipped-off move in anticipation of a DOJ action against them, or
just expecting the inevitable? Perhaps it was just wishful
thinking by the rest of us to figure only the big fish were
going to fry in this.
NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP FREEROLL: Lots of
good stuff on PokerMonkey's blog, Jen Gay's Blog, and Scotty
Clark's blog. We were going to do exactly what Jen and
Monkey did, but as they handicapped so well, with so many GCP
names why should we. Go read them, good stuff on all of
them. And let's go GCPers and friends of GCP! Should
be a great tournament with a lot of rooting interests.
SHEETS:
The World Series of Poker has announced yet
another sponsor, Sheets. It's not Bax and Sheets though it
is rumored they are backing up to 100% of the World Series
players, it's a new non poker related product. Perhaps,
Black Friday was just the right thing to light a fire under
their sales departments asses. Lighting a fire under your
ass is just what the product, Sheets, suggests it will do.
Who needs a can of Red Bull (or All-In the Poker Energy Drink),
in fact who needs a five hour shot of energy drink because
swallowing even once is much too difficult. 
Sheets
gives you an energy blast in a sheet that melts on you tongue,
like those Listerine Breath sheets used to do. Not only do you
get a jolt of energy but you are also conserving the energy you
would otherwise expended swallowing. LeBron James,
Pittbull, Amare Stoudemire and Drake are partners in the
company. If LeBron's on the team you can be sure it'll
work for at least the first three quarters of a session.
or
24k. Others that didn't win the bracelet include 4th place
John Hennigan, 9th place Nick Schulman, 10th place Sorel Mizzi,
and 15th Matt Glantz.
,
Captain Tom Franklin of Gulfport 26.3k (93rd), Jose Severino of Panama City 13.6k (100th), and
Morton Davis of Ocean
Springs, MS 6.3k (114th). David Devilfish Ulliot bubbled
the money. Jason Mercier and Shannon Shorr went out just a
little bit before him. 1st place pays 292k.
.jpg)
urse
they may be incorporated there) we'd be giving this guy a little
more pub. 
nal table of people just looking to
add to their bracelet totals, after Joe Cassidy was eliminated,
heads up play in the Deuce to Seven Draw Lowball Championship
got down to John Juanda and Phil Hellmuth. Juanda recently
was the victim of a shouting assault by James Borg about matters
surrounding the game, perhaps it was be good preparation for a
patented Poker Brat attack. 
06.07.11
CHIPS
WITH 12 REMAINING: Landry is just behind
Eric Buchman and Eugene Katchalov in the top ten of chips at the
Seven Card Stud tournament. Chip leader is Alessio Isaia
with 232.5k. Katchalov is at 212.5k. They both lurk
on Landry's table with Kai sitting at 200k. Let's go Kai!
0k. 
elevised
by ESPN. Registration will be capped to 48 players (wha-huh?),
but if the cap is reached the prize pool would have enough to
award first place $17 million.
-25
players are left in Event #3 $1500 Omaha Hi-Low Split 8 or
Better,
besides needing a shorting name, the
tournament also suffers from a lack of star power at the top.
Francesco Barbaro, Matt Waxman, Vladimir Schemelve are top three
in chips. Jimmy Fricke is fifth. Outside the top ten
but still in the 25 players remaining are Humberto Brenes, Scott
Clements, and shortest stack Lex Veldhus. 
PHIL
IVEY SUING TILTWARE AND NOT PLAYING WSOP:
Last night Tiltware played the social media game via Poker News
and allowed their response to the Ivey lawsuit to go out
piecemeal over twitter. Later,
PHIL
IVEY SUING TILTWARE AND NOT PLAYING WSOP:
Last night one of the owners of this site scanned through
facebook and saw Phil Ivey's mug staring back at him saying he
was suing Tiltware: Actually this is exactly what he said
in a series of status updates:
POCHE 
WINS GIANT CHECK: At a past Acadiana Series of
Poker it was a literal giant check for 5k, at the World Series
of Poker Circuit National Championship, the check was for 75k
for fifth place, probably not a Happy Gilmore giant check but we
are pretty sure he prefers the paper to the cardboard. 
POCHE
ATOP FINAL TABLE: Everybody is in the
money, everybody is going to get some TV time and now it's just
about the bracelet and what size chunk of the million dollar
free-roll each player is going to get. We are pulling for
a certain Gulf Coaster, winner of the New Orleans circuit Main
Event, 29 year old Jonathan Poche of Lafayette, LA to take it
down. With 26% of the chips in play, more than double his
closet rival, Poche will have a great chance to get into the
highest money slots.