ONLINE POKER NEWS UPDATE (02/14/09)

SEXTON AND POKER HAVE OUR DAY IN COURT.  Sexton tells Pokerlistings the day was a good one and the judge is convinced poker is a game of skill.  Video of Daniel Negreanu's expertise were exhibit A in why poker is a game of skill.  No word yet if the state is going to film the drunk at the casino that can't lose and use that as proof of luck.  Read the complete article and interview here.

JAIME GOLD GETS SECOND RECORD WINDFALL.  MSNBC is reporting Jaime Gold has signed the most lucrative contract in the history of poker.  Supposedly the deal is worth at least 8 figures.  Also, Gold's buy-ins will be comped for the forseeable future.  No word if he will divert from his strategy of telling his opponents exactly what he holds.  Read more here.

ONLINE POKER NEWS UPDATE (02/13/09)

DURRR CHALLENGE ABOUT TO BEGIN.  Full Tilt has readied the virtual felt and four tables are awaiting Durrr and Patrick Antonius to start it off.  Durrr after a miserable January has been coming back in February and Antonius is the one who has been lagging in the w column of late.

JENNIFER HARMON WANTS YOUR KIDNEYS.  Or she wants you thinking about them, and donating money to a kidney charity by playing poker.  Howard Lederer and Andy Bloch will be there lending a hand.  Read the details here.  They are soliciting casinos to send teams of ten, even though it's an individual event.

PICKING ON PEOPLE.  Being a bully isn't just for seven year olds and video game players, or for the guy in the office that steals food from the fridge and eats it in front of the victim.  Pick a target and apply blunt force.  Read more here .

WEAK DAY OF NEWS IN POKERLAND UPDATE (02/12/09)

RUOSSO GETS HOMETOWN PRESS.  Check out South Florida's Gambling blog here.  Not too much to add to the Ruosso story but check out the weird angle the photographer got her posing with pocket rockets.

JAIME GOLD THE FACE OF ACED POKER.  The Aced Face?  Anyway, Gold has now signed up with a website.  No news on whether or not a third party got screwed over in the deal.  This article also mentions his clients as James Gandolfini, Jimmy Fallon, Donnie Walberg, and Roger Lodge.  Read more here.

MIKE SEXTON WILL BE AN EXPERT WITNESS IN SOUTH CAROLINA POKER TRIAL.  It's been a good year for poker in the courts and in the legislatures in a lot of states, and Sexton hopes that his name recognition and expertise will convince the judge that poker is indeed a game of skill.  Cardplayer has more here.

GODADDY HEADS-UP ACTION SPONSOR.  GoDaddy.com will be the big sponsor for NBC's National Heads-up Poker Championship.  What will Danica Patrick do next to hurt her public image?  Find out in between poker action.

WANNA WIN A TRIP TO THE ALPS?  Bwin poker has a prize package worth 8k going on right now. It includes first class accommodations in a resort right in the mountains. Check out PokerBat's blog for more details or http://www.bwinpokerblog.com/.

 ROUSSO SWIMS, PHELPS GAMBLES, RUSS THE ULTIMATE TAX EVADER AND HEARTLAND POKER TOUR UPDATE (02/11/09)

VANESSA RUOSSO SWIMS STANDING UP?    Pokerstars paid for her to be in the swimsuit issue but it's money well spent.  She looks great.  It's possible cover girl Bar Rafaeli may also swim standing up, see your newsstand for details.

MIKE PHELPS WHY DIDN'T YOU DROP BY MY FRAT PARTY?  Wicked Chops has all the details of him losing 2 large on a beer pong table.  Wonder if it was before the bong or afterward.  Me thinks someone got hustled.  Good thing he didn't bring any of his gold medals.  Go to Wicked Chops now.  Also, the guy that owned the bong tried to sell it on eBay for 100k and shortly thereafter was arrested for drug related charges.  Smart.

RUSS HAMILTON IN THE CROSS-HAIRS OF THE IRS?  Poker players pay your taxes.  Thieves that steal millions of dollars from poker players pay your taxes.  Get 'em Uncle Sam!  Pokerati spread the rumor first here and did a much better headline then we came up with.

TAKE YOUR LAYOFF AND SHOVE IT.  Sean Sannikone about to be laid off from his job wins127k in Heartland Poker Tour Main Event.  If he went on a craps bender that would be even more tragic.  The Downstream Casino, which hopefully isn't named after its water source, in Oklahoma hosted the tour. 

POKER BLOGS UPDATE (02/09/09)

WHAT SOAP DOES TEXAS DOLLY WATCH?  Reruns of Dallas.  The savvy Texas Gambler with an eye for pushing over weak opponents and exploiting any edge he got has to to like J.R. Ewing right?  Of course.  Wonder who is the Cliffie Barnes to Dolly's J.R.  Andy Beal maybe?  Who knows... Doyle Brunson's blog here.

DANNY BOY DENIES HE'S BROKE.  Negreanu says Pokernews column must have been a joke.  More importantly, and tragically his mother just suffered a stroke read his ordeal here.

SHANNON SHORR GOES TO CIRCUIT CITY.  Sounds ho-hum?  Well for all the wannabe ballers out there see how a guy with his head screwed on right lives.  There is a reason he is so successful on the felt.  Read his blog here.

POKER AFTER DARK TO FEATURE REAL GENUISES.  We are wondering if there will be a Val Kilmer, or that smarmy reporter from Die Hard, cameo.  Chris Ferguson, Andy Bloch, Bill Chen, Brandon Adams, and Jimmy Warren are all smart guys and playing each other.  David Sklansky is also playing.  Just kidding David.  Thought the graduate degrees that are on the table will represent a significant amount of wasted time and study.  Maybe Sklansky is the smartest? 

 POKER AND BUSINESS UPDATE (02/09/09)

ANNIE DUKE THE NEXT CELEBRITY APPRENTICE?  Maybe because word is she makes it pretty far in the competition.  Who is her competition?  Dennis Rodman, Joan Rivers, Herschel Walker, Tom Green, Clint Black and Andrew Dice Clay to name a few.  We wonder if she'll take her shoes off and sit on her feet in the board room too?  Read about the Donald's latest crew here.

MADOFF INVESTORS INCLUDE BRACELET WINNER.  Lyle Berman a multiple bracelet winner, former owner of the Stratosphere and currently CEO of a firm that owns five casinos.  Berman is not commenting on just how much he invested with Madoff.  Berman was last seen at the 2008  WSOP when he took fifth in the H.O.R.S.E.  World Championship. 

BROKE WORLD OF POKER UPDATE (02/07/09)

NEGREANU AND GREENSTEIN ARE BROKE?  So says Pokernews.  They assert Negreanu's low-stakes personal challenge where he is trying to turn $10 into a $100,000 (I think one of us tried that) is actually an excuse for him hiding from the higher-stakes games he has been getting beaten up in.  As a pokerstars rep he has to play a set amount of hours and Danny Boy is doing so at the micro-stakes. 

One question we have to ask, if he's broke, and not digging through the cushions looking for change broke, wouldn't he be playing stakes he could actually win money at.  Proof of Greenstein being broke is even less convincing or non-existent.  Check out the article here.

WINNERS IN 2008, LOSERS IN 2009?  The four most profitable players last year, Phil Ivy, Phil Galfond, Tom Dwan and Di Dang all started the new year off on a downswing.  Phil Galfond aka "OMGClayAiken" lost $627k, Di Dang aka "Urindager" lost $840k, Tom Dwan aka "durrr" lost $3.25 million in January.  Durrr pictured right is on one heck of a downswing, yes, 3.25 million in one month.  He hasn't even begun his challenge yet. 

Good news is two of his potential challengers are also enduring down swings as Phil Ivy aka Phil Ivy lost $973k and David Benyamine lost $682k.  Meanwhile Patrick Antonius, much it courtesy of Durrr won $2,79 million.   Read the details on PokerKing here.

WALLSTREET TITAN, SCROOGE AND MUCK DUCKS UPDATE (02/06/09)

POKER PLAYER  RESPONSIBLE FOR DEUTSCHE BANK INVESTMENT COLLAPSE.  Boaz Weinstein hired World Series Main Event cashee, played blackjack with parts of the M.I.T. Blackjack team, played in a $100 buy-in weekly poker tournament on the trading floor, and won a Maserati at a tournament hosted by a unit of Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway.  Seemed really busy trading.  Makes you wonder why everybody's home games are getting busted except for the ones advertiz in the Wall Street Journal.  Here's a link to the story.

MEANWHILE NON-WALL STREET DROWNING IN BONUSES SCROOGE MCDUCK STYLE HOME GAME PLAYERS KEEP HAVING NON-INVITED GUESTS CRASHING THEIR GAMES.  Where is it legal to host a home game?  Read here.  Where is it kind of not legal?  House in Georgia  just got busted, so too a club in Pennsylvania.  

MUCKDUCKS, PROBABLY NOT RELATED TO SCROOGE MCDUCK WON THE FTOPS XI EVENT 1.  No word if he plans to swim in his winnings.  Full Tilt owner Howard Lederer busted out in 697th place good for a $326.30 payday.  The rich get richer.

GULF COAST UPDATE (02/05/09)

"COBRA" KAI LANDRY OF BILOXI WINS WSOP-TUNICA CIRCUIT EVENT.  Landry's only previous cash was also at this years circuit event.   That combined with his $183,974 win gives him just a little over $184,000 in lifetime winnings.  Cobra Kai kicked David Dao to the curb in heads up action when he turned broadway.

WHO'S WHO UPDATED.  Jena Delk (pictured below), BJ McBrayer, Mark Wilds and more have been added to the roster.  If  you or someone you know is worthy please send Wild Bill a heads up with your photo and a brief list of accomplishments.

GCP WILL BE ON THE RADIO FRIDAY.  We'll be on 1190am WBSL, simulcast in Baton Rouge on 1590 am.   Look for us at the end of the hour.  Show is from 3 to 4. 

 Might be a recurring segment.   Listen in, we've been told we've got faces for radio so we should be perfect for the gig.

NATIONWIDE POKER UPDATE (02/04/09)

NEW CHAIRMAN OF WPA SITTING PRETTY WITH 117,100.  When Captain Tom Franklin is in the mix everybody's backs are against the wall.  Gavin Smith (148,600), Kathy Liebert (51,700), and Jordan Morgan (84,700) are the name players still remaining.  Kai Landry of Biloxi, MS has one of the bigger stacks with 206,700.

WE ARE NOT THE ONLY BAD POKER WRITERS.  Looking at Alfonse D'Amato's Roll Call article, the poker imagery is flying "even Barack Obama can agree that tax increases to pay for his agenda won't reveal the winning hand" and "left billions in potential tax revenue on the virtual poker table."   We take our turns with the message-board no-no of bad poker clichés but Alfonse's appeal to Congress to me is a little too cute for it's own good.  For his big finish D'Amato gives us some lessons in governing through poker:

"Obama is purported to be a skillful poker player, an expertise that should be an unwritten job requirement for all would-be U.S. presidents.  Poker teaches you patience, and it trains you to calculate the odds and avoid unnecessary risks.  If Obama applies his poker skills to his job in the White House, he will reject politically unpopular and economically untenable tax increases and look seriously at other potential revenue streams like Internet poker."

And he can't resist one more cliché: "No matter how you cut the deck, regulation is the answer." 

--ugh, that's worse then our Jim Morrison bit below.

 WANT TO GIVE A SHOUT OUT TO BRIAN HEPTINSTALL WHO WRITES THE FLOPPIN' ACES COLUMN FOR AL.COM.  Brian was nice enough to forward some pics to us which we'll be posting in our Who's Who in the next couple of days.  Jena Delk and BJ McBrayer, are two of the players we'll be getting up there soon.  Had a great discussion with Brian about many things poker related and have enjoyed reading Brian's coverage of the game the last year or so.  Check out his blog here.

EVERYBODY IS A PRO POKER PLAYER THESE DAYS UPDATE (02/03/09)

JIM MORRISON, PROFESSIONAL POKER PLAYER GETS SHOWN THE DOOR OF TAO.  Also, Jim was told it was The End of his night and got his ass kicked by security (not Hells Angels),  When the Music (was) Over Jim Morrison  won a lawsuit for his trouble.  L.A. women can read about it in the LA TIMES.  People are strange but Morrison made sure to Tell All the People he wouldn't be back.  Did we overdo that or what?  Though we skipped the Light My Fire reference... or did we.

PPA CHAIRMAN ALFONSE D'AMATO SCRIBES PRO ONLINE POKER ARTICLE IN CAPITOL HILL PUBLICATION ROLL CALL.   He hits all the good points.  Tax revenues, American money going abroad, Americans at risk in an unregulated industry, and even calls out Barack's penchant for playing poker.

POKER AND THE SUPERBOWL (02/02/09)

COUPLE BETS COST OF WEDDING ON SUPERBOWL.  He's a "poker-player" and a Steelers fan.  She's a Cardinals fan.  He's a good gambler, yet he gave his wife the points instead of betting straight up.  He lost.  Their wedding will be in Catalina (home of the F*#@ing Catlalina Wine Mixer).  Read the gory details here.

You want to make some legal football prop bets?  Got a better head on your shoulders than the schlub in Arizona who gave his wife the points?  Going to have to wait til August for football, but in the meantime there are plenty of options on soccer, basketball, and more.  Check out the options at bwin's sportsbook or play a little poker or try out their casino here.

ROONEY WIN SIXTH STEELER SUPERBOWL BUT STIFFS POKER DEALERS.  His family's poker room at the West Palm Beach Kennel Club, apparently distributed dealer tips to more than just poker dealers.  Read more here.

FUTURE POKER PRO MICHAEL PHELPS DRAGS POT.  Sorry, not much of a poker story but  Olympian Phelps was pictured with a bong at a party in South Carolina, home of Hootie and the Blowfish, which might be tangentially relevant if say Phelps was pictured doing coke... but he wasn't.

MORE PROP BETS AND POKER JARGON UPDATE (01/31/09)

JUST WHAT POKER NEEDS MORE VOCAB.  Were you frustrated or flushstraighted, did you suffer a chipwreck?  Check out pokerpages for a few new words here.

SPEAKING OF PROP BETS.  Pokernews has the top 10 prop bets.  Huck Seed in an Ocean, Vegus vegan eating a cheeseburger, living in Iowa for a month, and driving a golf ball a mile.  Read it here.

LIFE PROP BET AND POKER UPDATE (01/29/09)

DOYLE BRUNSON BETS HIS LIFE.  From Doyle's blog:  "Some clown who produces the" Blend Celebrity Bucket List," put the 100 most likely celebs to die in 2009.  Guess who he had at #16?  That's right, me" ... "he said it was a 10% chance I would die.  I would like to lay 10-1".  Turns out the clown contacted Doyle and put up 1k to Doyle's 10k that he would die this year. 

DOYLE WANTS TO HAVE HIS CAKE AND EAT IT TOO.  Not only does he want to continue living through the year he wants to get paid for it.  In the meantime, as he rides out the 11 remaining months to get the 1k (it's actually going to charity), his site Doyle's room has joined the Cake Network.  So now, other dumb Americans can wager with Doyle and lose.

CAPTAIN TOM NEW CHAIRMAN OF WORLD POKER ASSOCIATION.    The WPA aims to standardize universal guidelines for running a tournament.  Captain Tom (pictured not mentoring a young stripper) is joined by name players Michael Binger and Joe Hachem who were elected non-voting ambassadors.  What is a non-voting ambassador? 

ALSO, A SITE NOTE WE'LL BE UPDATING OUR WHO'S WHO OVER THE NEXT COUPLE OF DAYS.

GLOBAL POKER UPDATE (01/28/09)

ONLINE POKER WITH REAL DEALERS, REAL PLAYERS AND LIVE FEEL.  Get your webcams ready.  Porn always the innovator and online poker never far behind.  Here is the real threat to a brick and mortar casino.  Go to a table at your desktop.  These guys are responsible... read about it here.  Pretty soon they'll start delivering pizzas and you'll never have to leave your house.

MONTELL WILLIAMS TO DEBUT NEW REALITY POKER SHOW.  Maybe it will follow an emmy-winning out of work talk show host as he amasses a huge chip stack at the WSOP Main Event only to spew it in a couple of hours.  Or would that be a rerun?  Details here.  The show is rumored to utilize online satellite tournaments and will use team poker.  Kids today might recognize Montell selling Barack Obama coin sets on TV.

POKER AROUND THE WORLD UPDATE (01/27/09)

EASTGATE, DEMIDOV, ELKY AND LUSKE WIN THE EUROPEAN POKER AWARDS.  Eastgate:  best tournament performance.  Demidov:  top newcomer aka Rookie of the Year, Elky:  best Euro player; and Luske:  Lifetime Achievement Award.  Wonder if Phil Hellmuth is pissed he wasn't nominated for anything.

THE COMPLETE WORLD SERIES OF POKER SCHEDULE IS UP.   Okay, Wildbill is a man of his word.  Read the highlights over on his blog or read the detailed version here.

POKER AROUND THE GLOBE UPDATE (01/26/09)

BOOYAH!  COOLER THAN THE OTHER SIDE OF THE PILLOW STEWART SCOTT WINS THE AUSSIE MILLIONS.   Chris Berman not sighted, nor Kenny Mayne, or Reece Davis, but Stewart Scott, lazy eye and all won the Aussie Millions.  Wait, a second the Sportscenter guy spells it Stuart?  Oh, well Stew-art Scott, a poker player won the Aussie Millions.  Anette Obrestad busted early.

FRIEND OF GCP, DAVID SPICER TAKES THIRD IN THE ACADIANA POKER SERIES.    Sure it became a shovefest as the nearly 500 players at the Cajun Dome had to be whittled to just 1 in three hours, but Spicer proved he can shove with the best of them, pocketing 2k for his trouble.  First place won 10k and the United Way had a big day as the Series raised a bunch for the charity.  Once again a great event and a great job done by all involved.

2008:  A LOOK BACK.  A good retrospective of the past year in poker.  Did you forget that the folks at Absolute Poker and Ultimate Bet cheated their customers?  Anyway, go here for more.

AN INTERVIEW WITH SEINFELD'S JASON ALEXANDER  (01/22/09)

EXCLUSIVE (FAKE) INTERVIEW WITH JASON ALEXANDER...

THIS WAS SUPPOSED TO BE THE SUMMER OF GEORGE!  Jason Alexander is now sponsored by Pokerstars.  Thinking they didn't have enough short, balding portly men that could NOT play poker on their roster they signed Jason.  Wild Bill sat down with Jason and had this interview:

JA:  Oh you're here.

GCP:  Yes. surprised?

JA:  I don't think I've ever been to an appointment in my life where I wanted the other guy to show up.

GCP.  Okay.  Well, first off congratulations, many successful players strive to get the type of sponsorship deal you've just landed with Pokerstars.  With you newfound fame how will that change your strategy of going out early and often in tournaments?

JA:  Well, I will still bust early, that's a given, but I do I have a couple of strategies at the table.  To make sure nobody capitalizes on the genius that was my final table experience on Celebrity Poker...

GCP:  Weren't they one table tournaments?

JA:  You say one table, I say final table.  Anyway, as I was saying,  I will introduce myself not as George... er... Jason Alexander but Art, Art Van De Lay.  I will throw them off the scent of my genius even further by saying I am either an Architect or an Importer/Exporter. 

GCP:  Isn't that George's bit from Seinfeld?

To read GCP's complete interview with George... uh... Jason quotes go here.

AUSSIE MILLIONS MAIN EVENT UPDATE (01/22/09)

IT'S ANNETTE'S WORLD WE ARE JUST LIVING IN IT.  Baby Poker Goddess Annette Obrestad is once again just behind the chip-leader at the Aussie Millions.  With 28 left she's sitting at 807,000.  Rajkumar Ramakrishnan has 840,000, Christian Heich 880,000 for second and Michael Tureniec is first at 1,072,000. 

WHO WILL SAY AUSSIE, AUSSIE, AUSSIE NOW? The fans want to say Oy, Oy, Oy, but player-cheerleader Joe "Pass me the Salty" Hachem was eliminated late yesterday.  Perhaps, someone will inspire them to chant Oy vey, Oy vey, Oy vey, however David Singer is not in the field.  Hachem jo

+ins fellow main event champion Scotty Nguyen on the rail.  Clonie Gowen, Patrick Antonius, and Noah "Don't Call Me McLovin" Schwartz (pictured) also got felted. 

HAVE YOU HEARD OF ANYBODY ELSE STILL ALIVE WITH CHIPS?  Maybe you know Atlantic City TV table Joe Cassidy or Main Event short stack Kelly Kim.  If so, then yes, if not, then probably not.  After that it's a bit like going to someone from out of town's wedding.  Vaguely familiar people and names, but do you really know them or just think you do.  Cardplayer has chip counts here.  Let us know if there are any hot bridesmaids we should recognize--especially the online variety.

WORLD OF POKER UPDATE  (01/21/09)

IF THE BUY-IN IS OVER 10k YOU DO NOT WANT DAVID STEICKE AT YOUR TABLE... WHO?  David Steicke outlasted John Juanda, JC Tran and a host of other deep bankrolled stars in the Aussie Millions high roller event.   He's making a habit of it. Read more here.

THE WORLD SERIES OF POKER - EUROPE TO AIR ON ESPN FEB. 1.    Oddly, this is the tournament Ivan Demidov went deep in, while he was on break at the WSOP Main Event.  Won't ruin the outcome for you.

ALSO SOUTHPAW ROUNDER CONTINUES TO RUN HOT ONLINE.  He just took down another big score. Hopefully, he'll put up some hand analysis on his blog so we can sweat him after the fact.  Pobody's Nerfect did just that here..

POKER NEWS UPDATE  (01/20/09)

SOUTHERN POKER CHAMPIONSHIP...

TYLER SMITH FINISHES 5th WINNING 134K.  Tyler got it all in with AK suited vs.  Allen Carter's pocket queens.  The winner of the hand would double up to mount a challenge to chip leader at the time Soheil Shamseddin. Unfortunately, Tyler lost this coin flip.

ALLEN CARTER ALL-IN PROPELS HIM TO WIN.  After dispatching Smith, Carter watched the old pro Hilbert Shirey hit the rail and then knocked out Shamseddin.  That left him heads up with Bobby Suer.  Two to one in chips Carter was a big dog vs. Suer's AK of clubs holding A4 o/s.  One wheel later and the tournament was over.

VANESSA RUOSSO BUBBLES EVERYTHING.  She did the SI swimsuit issue photo suit and bubbled the magazine.  Then she was the last person knocked out before the TV table.  (Pictured with fiancée Chad Brown)  Good news is Pokerstars will put her in a bathing suit for an advertisement in the S.I. issue.  But it's kind of like an after thought. 

Like if the WPT films her bubbling the TV table, she makes the broadcast but she's not ON the broadcast it's not really IN the swimsuit issue.  Course I know a guy who claims three girls in Playboy, but two were in a girls of a arbitrary college conference and one was in an advertisement.  That doesn't count right?  Chad Brown can't brag to Layne Flack about marrying a swimsuit issue model now can he?

MORE...

DAVID ANDERSEN WINS DEAD MONEY TOURNAMENT.  Reports out of New Orleans are vague but it appears Beagle Breeder Andersen bested 9 other players to win a 5k seat at this years WSOP.

WANNA WIN A TRIP TO THE ALPS?  Bwin poker has a prize package worth 8k going on right now. It includes first class accommodations in a resort right in the mountains. Check out PokerBat's blog for more details or http://www.bwinpokerblog.com/.