Poker News

September 2nd – Daily Deal

On today’s Daily Deal, the coalition of California casinos clarifies its stance on internet gambling legislation, 888 reports its financial results for the first half of two-thousand ten, the World Series of Poker Main Event continues airing on ESPN and we find out who the final nominees are for this year’s Hall of Fame. It’s all ahead… faster than you can say, “I can dodge bullets, baby.”

Hello, I’m Sean Gibson and welcome to the Daily Deal by Poker News Daily.

Recently, the Commerce Casino, Bicycle Casino, Hawaiian Gardens, Hollywood Park, and the California Gaming Association joined in opposition Congressman Barney Frank’s HR 2267, which would create a full licensing and regulatory framework for the internet gambling industry in the United States.

The four casinos have found themselves in a war of words against the Poker Players Alliance, which has launched an online petition at PlayersBeforeProfits.com to reverse their stance against the groundbreaking legislation. Poker News Daily sat down with card room coalition spokesperson Waltona Manion to explore the coalition’s resistance.

Manion argued,

“We’re looking for Federal enforcement of the same strict licensing and regulation for online poker as U.S. land-based casinos abide by. This means that they have to license all of their employees and the physical operations should be in the U.S. In addition, the hardware and software should be tested and certified.”

She added, “Frank’s bill provides fewer industry regulations and player protections. It imposes lower taxes for foreign online companies than what U.S. casinos pay. It would enable illegal offshore companies to export significant money from our economy.”

We’ll keep you posted as this story develops.

888 Holdings, the gaming operator that owns 888 Poker, announced Tuesday that it will be cutting costs in order to address a loss in profits for the first half of 2010. The company has also decided to scrap its dividend in order to pay for acquisitions after the weak economy and World Cup caused a decline in poker revenue.

888’s first half financial results showed revenues were up 10.5% to one-hundred thirty million dollars, but pre-tax profit dropped by 56% to four point three million dollars. Poker revenue dropped 25% to nineteen point six million.

The WSOP Main Event continued airing on ESPN on Tuesday night with Day Two-B. Two one-hour episodes were devoted to the second Day Two and the feature table included Dan Harrington and Jeff Shulman, who were seated next to each other. Prahlad Friedman and Allied Network Solutions CEO Ted Bort tangled in a hand in which Bort called the clock after pushing all in. Friedman waited until the count reached one and quietly said, “I call,” but floor officials ruled that the clock had expired. Bort turned over top two pair and Friedman mucked.

A maelstrom of yelling ensued. ESPN aired a replay clearly showing that Friedman had called at the one-second mark and the dealer promptly said, “He called.” Nevertheless, another floor supervisor was summoned who also said the hand was dead. Don’t forget that Friedman was also involved in “Ante-gate” with Jeffrey Lisandro.

Finally, the nominees as voted by the fans are in for the Poker Hall of Fame. This year’s class is a who’s who of the poker world, all of whom have distinguished careers warranting their nominations. This year’s class of nominees, who will be voted on by the 16 living Hall of Fame members and a 17-person media panel. Only these 33 individuals cast votes for induction. The nominees are:

1. CHRIS FERGUSON
2. BARRY GREENSTEIN
3. JENNIFER HARMAN-TRANIELLO
4. DAN HARRINGTON
5. PHIL IVEY
6. LINDA JOHNSON
7. TOM McEVOY
8. DANIEL NEGREANU
9. SCOTTY NGUYEN
10. ERIK SEIDEL

Well, that does it for today’s edition of The Daily Deal, and we’ll be back with you on Tuesday of next week. Be sure to visit Poker News Daily every day for the latest poker headlines, and be sure to check us out at twitter dot com slash poker news daily. I’m Sean Gibson, thanks for tuning in, and we’ll see you next time. Now go crush those fish at the tables!

The Primacy Effect in Poker by John Wray (JimmyLegs)

Let’s pretend you’re a brand new poker player.  Maybe you’re in Las Vegas for a buddy’s bachelor party, you’ve seen some poker on TV, and although you’re saving a little for the strip clubs, you’ve still got an extra $500 for “discretionary expenses” in your pocket.  So, you sit down at the smallest game spread at the Venetian, fumble a big blind onto the felt, and play your very first hand of big-kid poker.

In this scenario, what would you say might be the very worst thing that could possibly happen to you?  You get stacked?  You get cheated?  You get into a drunken brawl with a guy nicknamed “Fancy Fists”?

What if I told you the very worst thing that could possibly happen to you that night is that you win?  And win big?

It seems counterintuitive, but there’s a very good reason why it might be dangerous for a budding poker player to have a wildly successful first session: the Primacy Effect.  The Primacy Effect is a cognitive bias – a psychological tendency for us to draw incorrect conclusions based on the ways our brains are wired rather than on the objective evidence.

This particular bias is the tendency for the first items presented in a series to be remembered better or more easily, and for them to be more influential than those presented later in a series.  For instance, if someone rattles off a long distance phone number, you’re most likely to remember the first few digits.   Job applicants seen early in the hiring process are often given higher marks than those in the middle, and all applicants are best remembered by their “first impressions.”

Opening scenes are critical to the success or failure of a movie or book.  And you probably have strong memories of and a special fondness for your first girlfriend or boyfriend.  Thanks to the Primacy Effect, anything that comes first in a series serves as a powerful anchor in our memories, indelibly etched and coloring our perceptions of everything that comes after.

There’s even evidence now that the Primacy Effect has considerable power over the results on “American Idol”-style shows that rely on votes from the at-home audience.  Over and over again, the contestants who appear first (and last, thanks to a different bias, the Recency Effect) get more votes than those appearing in the middle of the program.

Fans of these shows have occasionally voiced concern over potential voter fraud or judging biases, but if research on the Primacy Effect is correct, then results could actually be rigged in an even more diabolical way.  All the producers would have to do to make sure their favorites are well-received by the voting audience is put them first or last in the evening’s lineup.

And isn’t a poker career just a long series of individual sessions?  If we have this tendency to be overly influenced by the first item in a series, isn’t it possible that our entire perception of the game of poker could be distorted by what happens in the first few sessions?

The first time you played poker, you sucked.  We all did.  But thanks to the element of chance built into the game, there’s a very real possibility that you won in spite of your suckitude.  And if you won big, the Primacy Effect will make sure that you remember that session and let it influence your perception of the game for a long time to come.

You’re likely to believe that the game is easier than it really is, and that it requires less work than it really does, and that you’re naturally more talented than you really are.  The Primacy Effect will cause you to weigh the results of that first session more heavily than subsequent sessions, so even if you go on a long losing streak, you’ll constantly be comparing your results with that first success.

“How can I lose ten sessions in a row if I destroyed the game the first time I played?  I’m a great player with natural talent.  I must just be getting unlucky!”  And you may find it more difficult to accept the brutal realities of poker: the game is hard and to master it, you must put in a lot of time and effort.  What a glorious world it would be for the professional player if everyone won big the first time they played!  The experience would likely stunt the growth of their abilities and yet get them hooked on the game itself – a recipe for long-term donations.

What about the players who lose their shirts the first time they play?  They’re probably more likely to believe the game is more difficult than it really is – perhaps even unbeatable.  For many people, a big initial losing session is enough to make them quit forever.  But ironically, these players might be better situated for long-term success since they’ll likely have a better grasp of the amount of work necessary to master the game’s strategies.

There’s another way that the Primacy Effect skews our thinking on a daily basis.  After all, isn’t each individual session a series of hands?  So, by the same token, the results of your first big pot might influence your perception of the entire evening.  Personally, I have an irrational tendency to get into a very negative and self-destructive mindset if I lose a big pot early in a session.

And how often have you heard players say, “I can tell it’s going to be a great night” after raking a massive pot soon after sitting down?  Even though each hand is an independent, random event, psychologically speaking, we’re susceptible to letting our first impressions affect us long after the first hand has hit the muck.

Whether you won or lost in your rookie season, be aware that your perception of the game has likely been distorted by your initial experiences on the felt.

John “JimmyLegs” Wray is an instructor at CardRunners, one of the world’s leading poker training sites. Receive CardRunners for free through Truly Free Poker Training. Earn 5,500 points in a month playing on Full Tilt Poker and you’ll receive a free month of CardRunners. Earn a free week for only 1,375 points. No points are deducted and there is no impact on rake. Sign up now.

Blair Hinkle Wins Council Bluffs WSOP Circuit Championship

World Series of Poker (WSOP) bracelet winner Blair Hinkle came out on top of the pack in the Circuit Championship at Council Bluffs, Iowa. The $1,600 buy-in poker tournament attracted a field of 251 players.

Hinkle’s reward for winning the Circuit Championship was $88,000 in cash, a diamond and gold ring, $10,000 to buy into the 2011 WSOP Main Event at the Rio in Las Vegas, and a seat in the Circuit National Championship in Sin City, the brand new $1 million tournament. The latter event is capped at 100 players and awards a WSOP bracelet to its winner. The price tags of the Main Events at each Circuit stop have been lowered to $1,600 and four Regional Championship sites feature $10,000 finales.

Hinkle’s bracelet came in 2008, when he took down a $2,000 No Limit Hold’em event to the tune of $507,000. He became one-half of the first set of brothers ever to win bracelets in the same year after his sibling Grant landed in the winner’s circle of Event #2, a $1,500 No Limit Hold’em tournament. Grant faced some stiff competition at the final table of his bracelet event, including former November Niner James Akenhead, Full Tilt Poker pro Chris Ferguson, Theo Tran, and 2009 WSOP HORSE champ David Bach.

In the defining hand of heads-up play, Shiva Dudani bet 400,000 with the board reading 10-9-5-9. Hinkle called and the river was a benign deuce. Both players checked and Hinkle tabled A-8 of spades for ace-high, enough to take down the pot against Dudani’s king-high. Then, Dudani committed his chips on a board of 9-6-7-4-K with J-8 for a busted straight draw, while Hinkle made the call with K-6 for kings-up. The pot earned him $88,000 in cash and his first WSOP Circuit title.

The final table bubble boy at Council Bluffs was Poker News Daily Guest Columnist Bernard Lee, who moved all-in pre-flop with A-K. Dudani looked him up with a wired pair of kings and the better pre-flop hand held. Lee, a sponsored pro of Foxwoods, walked away from the Midwestern casino with $6,500 for his 10th place finish.

Thirty-three events played out at Council Bluffs with a total attendance of 4,056 players, a 12% growth year over year. The last time the WSOP Circuit came to the Iowa casino was in February, when the $5,150 buy-in Main Event drew a crowd of just 46 players for a total prize pool of $212,100. This year, attendance increased five-fold, with the prize pool mushrooming by 70%.

Also making an appearance at Council Bluffs was Doug “Rico” Carli, who has a ridiculous 42 Circuit cashes, the most of any player. Carli recorded five in the money finishes on the big stage during the WSOP in Las Vegas this year, including a $42,000 haul for taking 259th in the Main Event. He has nearly $900,000 in WSOP and Circuit Event earnings spread across 64 cashes, an average of $13,000 each, and is a two-time gold ring winner.

Here were the final results from the WSOP Circuit Championship at Horseshoe Council Bluffs:

1. Blair Hinkle – $88,555
2. Shiva Dudani – $54,715
3. Dwyte Pilgrim – $39,531
4. Matthew Lawrence – $29,092
5. Charles Moore – $21,795
6. Jack Do – $16,608
7. John Wakeen – $12,867
8. Daniel Biddle – $10,131
9. Kevin Calenzo – $8,103

Next up for the WSOP Circuit is a trip to Horseshoe Southern Indiana, located on the Ohio River just downstream from Louisville, Kentucky. The festivities get underway on October 2nd, with the Circuit Championship kicking off on October 10th and crowning a champ two days later. The buy-in for the Main Event is once again $1,600.

Barney Frank Talks Online Poker on The Tonight Show

On Tuesday, Congressman Barney Frank (D-MA) appeared on “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno.” Seated onstage alongside reality television icon Kim Kardashian, Frank discussed, among other topics, the recent success of HR 2267, the Internet Gambling Regulation, Consumer Protection, and Enforcement Act, in Committee. A lively debate with Leno ensued. Watch here.

The portion of Frank and Leno’s debate focusing on online poker and internet gambling spanned about four minutes. Frank opened the conversation by asserting, “If you have some guy who wants to play poker on the internet, we say it’s illegal… We could make billions of dollars a year by making it legal and taxing it.” The Federal Government could stand to rake in up to $42 billion over a 10-year period by legalizing and regulating the internet gambling industry in the United States.

Not everyone was onboard with Frank’s plan, including Leno, who argued, “Vegas works because you have to go to the desert to get there. You lose your money and you come home. You can’t go to the desert again until you get more money. If you’re sitting at home and you’re up late at night and you’ve got your little credit card, next thing you know, it’s like a mini bar.”

Leno began making a potato chip comparison, but Frank cut him off by noting that there are casinos everywhere in the country, not just Las Vegas. No desert surrounds Tunica or Atlantic City, for example. In addition, HR 2267 only allows for debit card and prepaid card payments as part of a Manager’s Amendment.

Leno then reminded Frank that residents of many states were sold the lottery because all of the money that would go toward schools. Now, educational institutions across the country are struggling despite the influx of cash. Frank explained, “The problems that teachers and others face in schools can’t always be solved by money… The fact that someone oversells an idea doesn’t make it a bad idea, it makes them a bad salesman.”

Frank continued by arguing, “If you want to hit somebody or you want to burn somebody’s house or steal somebody’s car, then I want to stop you because you’re doing it to somebody else. If you want to be foolish with your own money, if you want to gamble, if you want to drink, if you want to smoke, I will tell you it’s a bad idea, but I think it’s a mistake for the government to try to stop you.” Frank has routinely argued that adults should be able to do what they want within the privacy of their own home.

The conversation then quickly digressed from internet gambling, with Leno explaining that smoking marijuana is essentially legal because everyone does it. If you’re caught, it’s only a small slap on the wrist. Frank responded, “I don’t want to say to the cops, ‘We say it’s illegal, but wink at it and go after this one.’ There’s also an element of racial discrimination in the way it’s enforced.”

One amendment to HR 2267 outlawed advertising internet gambling sites to children. The topic of kids not being exposed to internet gambling came up on “The Tonight Show,” with Frank claiming, “I do agree you can limit this to kids and in fact we’ve done that. Joe Camel has disappeared. As a general rule, the government shouldn’t be trying to live people’s lives for them. You protect people from other people hurting them.”

Congress is currently on recess until September 13th. Its target adjournment is October 8th in advance of the general elections in the United States, meaning that the legislative body will have just 20 days to tackle the internet gambling issue. In all likelihood, a “Lame Duck” session will occur as well, giving HR 2267 one last chance. Stay tuned to Poker News Daily for the latest headlines from Capitol Hill.

Monte Carlo IPPA Championship Features $250,000 Buy-In

The International Poker Players Association (IPPA) will present a championship event later this year with the biggest buy-in the world has ever seen. The Monte Carlo IPPA Championship, scheduled for Nov. 29 to Dec. 2, will be a $250,000 buy-in No Limit Hold-em Shootout featuring a prize pool of $12 million, with the winner taking home $5 million. Players participating in the televised event will be referred to as the “Elite 48.”

“This is the player’s championship, the pièce de résistance,” said IPPA President and CEO Yosh Nakano.

Thirteen of the biggest names in poker have already registered for the highly anticipated event: Johnny Chan, Freddy Deeb, Tony G, Bruno Fitoussi, Tom Dwan, Patrik Antonius, Allen Cunningham, Gus Hansen, John Hennigan, Phil Ivey, Huck Seed, Robert Mizrachi, and 2010 November Niner Michael Mizrachi. The field is also expected to consist of three sponsor exemptions and two qualifiers, including one from Los Angeles’ Bicycle Casino.

Players will have the opportunity to qualify for the high-roller event in a new satellite format called the Equity Rebuy Shootout. The first round of the shootout is played 10-handed, with the winners getting their $1,000 buy-in back and moving on to the second round. Players that busted out then have the option to rebuy for the value of a second-round seat.

“For as little as $1,000 – less if you win a satellite – a player can play in a qualifier and have an opportunity to win the $5 million first-place prize at the Monte Carlo IPPA Championship,” said Nakano, who worked several years as the poker manager at the Bicycle Casino.

The inaugural $250,000 IPPA Championship was supposed to take place last year, but ended up being canceled. The 2009 version featured H.O.R.S.E. and two rounds of No Limit Hold’em, but in order to gain more interest from players and television viewers, this year’s tournament will be No Limit Hold’em only.

According to Nanoko, the goal is to create a tournament with a deep structure that will allow the cream to rise to the top. “We wanted to produce a high-end poker tournament that offered a big buy-in event with quality play. We felt that we could do a good job at putting an event together that would provide the best all-around player in the world.”

Should the event happen this year, it will be the largest buy-in poker tournament by a long shot. The current leader took place in January 2010 at the Aussie Millions $100,000 Challenge, where 24 players participated to create a prize pool of $2.4 million. Dan Shak bested Ivey heads-up to win a prize of $1.2 million. Ivey took home $600,000, while Billy Jordanou ($300,000), Tony Bloom ($200,000), and Tony G ($100,000) also cashed.

Stay tuned to Poker News Daily for further news on the Monte Carlo IPPA Championship.

Poker Hall of Fame Class of 2010 Nominees Revealed

After a two-month long public voting period, Harrah’s officials unveiled the top 10 vote getters for the Poker Hall of Fame Class of 2010 on Wednesday. Now, the Poker Hall of Fame Governing Council will review the list and axe anyone deemed not eligible to enter.

Four criteria are required for a person to be considered for the prestigious Poker Hall of Fame: “A player must have played poker against acknowledged top competition; played for high stakes; played consistently well, gaining the respect of peers; stood the test of time; or, for non-players, contributed to the overall growth and success of the game of poker, with indelible positive and lasting results.”

Each of the 10 finalists appears to foot the bill. Last year, no women were among the final ten. This year, two are up for consideration, Linda Johnson and Jennifer Harman. Johnson, a Guest Columnist here on Poker News Daily, was an inaugural inductee of the Women in Poker Hall of Fame. Harman, meanwhile, will be enshrined on Friday as part of its Class of 2010. Johnson and Harman have taken up a considerable amount of charitable work and been responsible for the growth of the game among women.

Four former World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event champions will be considered as well. Full Tilt Poker’s Chris Ferguson (2000), Dan Harrington (1995), Tom McEvoy (1983), and Scotty Nguyen (1998) may find themselves as the center of attention at the Poker Hall of Fame’s induction during the November Nine weekend at the Rio in Las Vegas.

ESPN.com Poker Editor Andrew Feldman, who will join this author on the 17-member media panel that will vote for the Class of 2010, told Poker News Daily, “The nominees this year show the amazing diversity that we have in the industry and there are definitely some names that stick out above the rest. Every player on the list will definitely deserve some credit.”

Several younger players also grace the top 10, including Daniel Negreanu and Phil Ivey. The two are a combined 70 years old, nearly the same age as both McEvoy and Harrington. Ivey has eight WSOP bracelets, tied for the fifth most overall with fellow nominee Erik Seidel. Rounding out the list of 10 finalists for the Poker Hall of Fame is Barry Greenstein, whose generosity off the felts has not gone unnoticed.

WSOP Media Director Nolan Dalla shared many of Feldman’s sentiments, telling Poker News Daily on Wednesday, “I can’t imagine a better or more qualified group of 10 nominees than this. The only question I see on each of these names is not if they will make it into the Poker Hall of Fame because in the long-run most of them will inevitably be inducted. The real question is which one or two candidates will be inducted this year. The best thing about this list is there’s no question that he or she will be most deserving.”

A total of 102 “valid unique names” received nominations, 44 of which garnered multiple votes. On September 13th, the 16 living Hall of Fame members and 17 members of the media will receive a final ballot. The group of 33 will rank who they deem worthy of admission and the top two vote getters will be inducted in November. Each of the two finalists must have received at least 50% of the vote. Last year, World Poker Tour host Mike Sexton was the Poker Hall of Fame’s lone inductee; the threshold for enshrinement in 2009 was 75% of the vote.

Here are the 10 nominees for the Poker Hall of Fame Class of 2010 following the two-month public voting period:

Chris Ferguson
Barry Greenstein
Jennifer Harman
Dan Harrington
Phil Ivey
Linda Johnson
Tom McEvoy
Daniel Negreanu
Scotty Nguyen
Erik Seidel

Visit WSOP.com for more details. I look forward to being part of the voting process once again this year.

September 1st – Daily Deal

On today’s edition of the Daily Deal, Barney Frank may step down as Financial Services Committee Chairman; the World Poker Tour and Fox Sports Net extend a partnership; and Gus “The Great Dane” Hansen gets taken to the cleaners by Phil Ivey and Cole South.

Hello, I’m Sean Gibson and welcome to the Daily Deal by Poker News Daily.

In November, the United States will hold its general elections. On Capitol Hill, the entire House of Representatives and one-third of the Senate will be determined. If after the elections Republicans gain control of the House, then Congressman Barney Frank’s time as the Financial Services Committee Chairman may come to an end, and in the worst case scenario he would be replaced by notoriously anti-gaming Congressman Spencer Bachus.

Frank has been one of the strongest supporters of the legalization of online poker and he is currently promoting HR 2267, the Internet Gambling Regulation, Consumer Protection, and Enforcement Act. The bill was marked up in the Financial Services Committee in late July and has received the support of seventy co-sponsors. Frank has been in the House since 1980 and served as the Financial Services Committee Chairman since 2007.

The World Poker Tour and Fox Sports Net announced this week that they will continue their broadcast and promotional relationship, settling on an agreement that will stretch until 2013. The World Poker Tour’s ninth Season will begin airing in January two thousand eleven, starting with the Bellagio Cup.

The broadcast will have several improvements, including new anchor Kimberly Lansing and the introduction of the beautiful Royal Flush Girls. Season nine will also debut a yet-to-be-named new analyst who will host a recurring segment called “The Raw Deal.”

New World Poker Tour CEO Steve Heller said: “This season promises to be unlike any previous incarnations of the WPT … The shows will be faster-paced and edgier, featuring the biggest names in poker mixing it up with more up-and-coming stars, pre-final table action, and, as always, poker’s greatest and most recognizable play-by-play commentary team of Mike Sexton and Vince Van Patten.”

HighStakesDB.com has reported that hyper-aggressive pro Gus Hansen lost over one million dollars last Sunday… to just two opponents.

Cole South of CardRunners fame and eight-time World Series of Poker bracelet winner Phil Ivey took Hansen for more than one point one million dollars, almost half of the “Great Dane’s” net losses on the year. HighStakesDB – which tracks the action at high-stakes online poker tables – reported that Hansen’s losses Sunday came primarily in two and four thousand Fixed Limit Omaha Hi-Lo. He lost nearly $400,000 to Ivey in that game along with $99,000 to South, and an additional three hundred and thirty five thousand in Omaha Eight or Better when it was part of a Seven Game rotation.

All told, Hansen is down $2.3 million dollars for this year, while Ivey has cashed $3.5 million on online play. South is up eighty thousand due to a recent downswing.

Guess we should be asking for holiday gifts from Ivey, South and Jungleman this year!

Thanks for watching The Daily Deal once again, and as always be sure to bookmark Poker News Daily for the latest in poker news. Be sure to add us to your twitter feed at http://twitter.com/pokernewsdaily. I’m Sean Gibson and may the flop be with you!

California Horse Racing Wagering Bill Through To Senate

A bill, which is backed by one of the largest players in the online gaming industry, is up for a vote in the California General Assembly that would open up online betting on horse racing for the state’s residents.

The proposed bill, named SB 1072 in the California legislature, would up the cut for the state regarding its percentage of the take of wagers on horse racing. More importantly, perhaps, is the provision in the bill that would allow for “exchange betting,” otherwise known as internet wagering. The bill was on the fast track to being enacted before opposition to the legislation delayed its passage.

The bill has been amended by California Senator Ron Calderon, a Democrat from Montebello serving Senate District 30, to alleviate the concerns of much of the opposition, which included California horse trainers, among others. Under Calderon’s amendments and his sponsorship, implementation of the law (if passed through the Senate and signed by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger) would be studied by the state legislature and the California Horse Racing Board for approximately 20 months to set the rules for implementation. This means that the law would not take effect until 2012 at the earliest.

European gaming conglomerate Betfair was critical in getting Calderon’s amended bill voted through, along with Magna International Developments. Betfair, who is also the sponsor of the World Series of Poker Europe, is the owner of the United States’ largest horse racing wagering site, TVG.com. The company sponsors races at New York’s Saratoga racetrack and, through TVG, offers internet wagering to millions of customers.

Intrastate gaming is a subject that the state of California, currently facing billions of dollars in budget shortfalls, is examining as a means of alleviating the situation. Along with the current bill that would open up wagering on horse racing, there is an ongoing drive to push for intrastate online poker, although a bill introduced earlier this year by Senator Rod Wright fell short over the California General Assembly’s summer session.

Wright’s bill, SB 1485, would have opened up the California online gaming market, in particular poker, to control by the state. The now dead bill would have authorized three “hub operators” to provide legal internet gambling outlets to California residents for a period of five years. The state would have taken 20% of the revenues monthly, which would have been paid to a specially created internet gambling fund. California residents also would have faced stiff penalties for playing on unauthorized sites.

The intrastate gaming debate has come forward as of late because of furor over the Commerce Casino’s stance against federal legislation that would fully legalize internet gaming. In testimony in July in front of the House Financial Services Committee regarding Congressman Barney Frank‘s Internet Gambling Regulation, Consumer Protection, and Enforcement Act (HR 2267), Commerce chairman Tom Malkasian came out against the proposed bill for several reasons.

Among the points cited by Malkasian was that the revenue generated by the new legislation would not stay in the United States, online companies would not face the same regulation that land-based casinos face, and jobs would be lost rather than created. His stance, which other top California card rooms such as Hollywood Park, the Bicycle Casino, and Hawaiian Gardens have stated they agree with, has angered many in the poker community.

888 Holdings Reports First Half Profit Losses

888 Holdings, the gaming operator which owns 888poker, announced Tuesday that it will be cutting costs in order to address a loss in profits for the first half of 2010. The company has also decided to scrap its dividend in order to pay for acquisitions after the weak economy and World Cup caused a decline in poker revenue.

888′s first-half financial results showed revenues were up 10.5 percent to $130 million (£85 million), but pre-tax profit dropped by 56 percent to $4.3 million (£2.8 million). Poker revenue dropped 25.2 percent to $19.6 million compared to $26.2 million in the first half of 2009. 888 also saw an increase in operating expenses from $41.6 million in 2009 to $45.8 million in 2010 as the search for business forced an increase in spending on marketing from $35 million to $48 million.

“Our business experienced a difficult first half against the backdrop of a challenging economic environment with trading impacted by a number of factors including general online poker weakness, adverse foreign exchange movements, and, in relation to Poker and Casino in quarter two, the FIFA World Cup,” said Gigi Levy, the chief executive of 888 Holdings.

To help alleviate the first-half losses, the company is putting in place $6 million of cost-cutting measures, reorganizing its technology divisions, and upgrading product offerings. It says the business has already started returning to seasonal trading patterns since the World Cup. “Trading in August has been significantly stronger than in July, with a double-digit daily revenue increase especially in casino and poker,” said Levy. “Poker has seen an increase of more than 15 percent in revenue in August.”

888poker had an eventful first half of 2010. The company announced the release of the sixth version of its poker software following a complete re-coding of the client with fresh new look and an online loyalty store. 888 also partnered with Microgaming, the worldwide leader in online gaming software, to gain a license to operate in the new French gaming market.

The company will continue to look for ways to boost poker revenue by upgrading its software and launching new marketing schemes. In the meantime, 888 will pay no dividend due to uncertainty about future regulation in its key European markets. France and Italy are already in the process of regulating online gambling and several others are expected to follow.

Said Levy, “In order to continue investing for future growth, and to support potential acquisitions, the board has decided not to declare an interim dividend at this time and finalize the full year dividend when the full year results are available.”

Following the recent merger between PartyGaming and Bwin, Levy stated his desire to try and consolidate 888 with other successful online companies, adding: “We look at consolidation as one of the possible routes to realizing our full value. We feel that longer term this is the direction the industry will take.”

Commerce Casino Clarifies Stance on Online Poker Legislation

Recently, the Commerce Casino, Bicycle Casino, Hawaiian Gardens, and Hollywood Park joined in opposition Congressman Barney Frank’s (D-MA) HR 2267, which would create a full licensing and regulatory framework for the internet gambling industry in the United States. The four casinos have found themselves in a war of words of sorts against the Poker Players Alliance (PPA), which has launched an online petition at PlayersBeforeProfits.com to reverse their stance against the groundbreaking legislation. Poker News Daily sat down with card room coalition spokesperson Waltona Manion to explore the coalition’s resistance.

Many in the industry have asked what brand of internet gambling legislation the Commerce Casino and its allies in California would support, if any. Federal licensing? State licensing? Poker only? Manion explained that the coalition is not against internet gambling: “We’re looking for Federal enforcement of the same strict licensing and regulation for online poker as U.S. land-based casinos abide by. This means that they have to license all of their employees and the physical operations should be in the U.S. In addition, the hardware and software should be tested and certified.” The California Gaming Association also opposes HR 2267.

The coalition also supports not granting Federal licenses to any entity that has violated U.S. law. Manion added, “Another criteria would be poker only. The Frank bill as it’s currently written authorizes all types of gaming. That violates Federal law and breaks agreements of states and tribal nations. It would violate the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act.” One amendment to Frank’s HR 2267 prohibited online wagering on sports, leading to the NFL dropping its opposition to the bill. Manion also stated that states should have the right to continue to regulate gaming in their own jurisdiction.

Manion also expressed concern over the level of protections included in Frank’s measure: “Frank’s bill provides fewer industry regulations and player protections. It imposes lower taxes for foreign online companies than what U.S. casinos pay. It would enable illegal offshore companies to export significant money from our economy.” The tax companion bill to HR 2267 is Congressman Jim McDermott’s (D-WA) HR 4976, which has not yet been marked up in the House Ways and Means Committee.

Despite the spat playing out in the public arena, Manion told PND that the poker lobbying organization and the California casinos have not yet sat down and discussed their differences on HR 2267: “The PPA’s leadership were present during the Financial Services Committee hearing and said nothing to us. They did not contact anyone from the Commerce Casino or any of the card rooms. Had the PPA contacted the Commerce or the major card rooms in California and said they had major concerns or if they had read the testimony more closely, they would agree that most of what we’re talking about is valid.”

According to a 2009 survey by Fairbank, Maslin, Maullin, and Associates, 55% to 57% of Californians support the state collecting revenues from online poker. Among the most important factors to respondents were ensuring that minors don’t play, full transparency, independent audits, and cracking down on unauthorized sites. The West Coast state could be among the first to green light intrastate internet gambling given a sizable budget shortfall. California State Senator Rod Wright had introduced SB 1485 this year, but the bill ultimately stalled on its way to becoming law in July.

HR 2267 offers an opt-out provision for states and tribes that don’t want to take part in a Federal internet gambling scheme. However, Manion believes that the provision won’t stand up if reviewed by the World Trade Organization (WTO): “We don’t believe that the opt-out provision as currently written will hold up to WTO scrutiny. If they were to challenge HR 2267, that’d be the component that would be challenged. We should preempt that now so we don’t get a challenge from the WTO. It would leave state-regulated gaming vulnerable.”

Nevertheless, if HR 2267 were to become law before the end of the current legislative session, California could opt out of the legislation and go it alone in the online poker world. However, its lack of liquidity compared to the Federal model could result in its demise. Manion remarked, “Our immediate focus is amending the Federal legislation and also working with the state legislature on legislation they believe would ensure that California revenues stay in California. If the Frank bill passed, the opt-out provision would be in play and California could opt out. The California state legislature could also act in advance of Frank’s bill becoming law.”

HR 2267 was marked up and passed out of the Financial Services Committee on July 28th. Congress is currently in recess.

The PPA’s petition has lapped 7,200 players and talk of a boycott of the Commerce has arisen among poker pros. UB.com pro Annie Duke, for example, commented via Twitter, “I and some other pros are boycotting them as well. I will give my business to a place that supports the players.” What the next chapter will be in this ongoing saga is anyone’s guess.

WSOP Main Event Day 2B Airs on ESPN

On Tuesday night, action from Day 2B of the 2010 World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event aired on ESPN. Two one-hour episodes were devoted to the second Day 2 and the feature table included Dan Harrington and Jeff Shulman, who were seated next to each other. The former has recorded four WSOP Main Event final tables, while Shulman was a member of last year’s November Nine.

Four former Main Event champs were in action along with four members of last year’s November Nine. One of the first eliminations of the night went to “Seinfeld” actor Jason Alexander, who ran pocket jacks into pocket kings on his final hand. Full Tilt Poker pro Phil Ivey was crippled after running pocket queens into pocket kings. Ivey turned a queen to take the lead in the hand, but his opponent rivered a king to send his chip stack diving to less than five big blinds. He’d later be eliminated after an opponent flopped a set.

2009 WSOP Main Event runner-up Darvin Moon doubled up a player with pocket jacks against pocket kings and back at the feature table, Shulman doubled up after flopping a set of jacks against Tibor Hegedus’ top pair.

Ted Bort, CEO of Allied Network Solutions, and Prahlad Friedman tangled in a controversial hand. Bort pushed all-in on the river while continuously barking like a dog. With the board reading 6-J-9-5-2, Bort called the clock on Friedman, who made the call at the one-second mark. However, the floor said Friedman’s hand was dead since he didn’t call in time. Bort flipped over J-9 for top two pair and scooped a 160,000-chip pot, among the largest of the night. Watch the hand here.

ESPN aired a commercial break amid the controversy and, when the show resumed, Mike Mustafa and others at the table argued with WSOP staff that Friedman had indeed called before time expired. ESPN aired a replay clearly showing that Friedman had called at the one-second mark, with the dealer promptly saying, “He called.” Nevertheless, another floor supervisor was summoned who also said the hand was dead. Friedman was also involved in “Ante-gate” with Jeffrey Lisandro.

Harrington doubled up through Hegedus after flopping top set and, to close out the first one-hour episode, Moon was all-in with 10-9 on a flop of 4-9-2, all clubs. His opponent called and flipped over pocket aces and, with neither player holding a club, the board ran out K-5. Moon told his wife while leaving the Amazon Room, “At least the pressure’s off, honey.”

To open the second episode of the evening, which also featured Day 2B play, Chris Ferguson doubled up with pocket queens against another player’s pocket fours. Then, Tom Schneider doubled up with A-K against A-J. While raking his chips, Schneider pulled out his phone and played an audio clip of his wife Julie screaming, “Stack ‘em, stack ‘em, to the top!”

Josh Arieh joined the already impressive feature table lineup and Phil Laak, who was seated at Table 2, doubled up an opponent with K-10 against A-9. In two separate hands, Laak received cash payments of $20 and $40 to expose his hole cards. In the second one, he bluffed a player with second pair holding just six-high. Others in the field included Jean-Robert Bellande, Gavin Smith, J.J. Liu, and Deuces Cracked front man Jay Rosenkrantz.

Arieh doubled up through Harrington before promptly giving away most of his newfound chips to Shulman. The CardPlayer executive ran A-K of diamonds into pocket aces on his final hand to exit stage right. Also departing was DoylesRoom front man Doyle Brunson, who re-raised all-in on a flop of 4-8-3 with pocket sevens. An opponent called with pocket jacks and a running 4-6 sent “Texas Dolly” home. Brunson received a hearty ovation as he headed for the exit.

Pros dropped like flies down the stretch. Schneider ran pocket sevens into pocket aces after the money went in on an 8-4-6 flop. The turn was a six and the river was a jack, sending the former WSOP Player of the Year home. Then, Arieh, decked out in Full Tilt Poker gear, was all-in pre-flop with 5-4 of spades and up against Joe Hanna’s pocket queens. Arieh flopped an open-ended straight draw, but no ace or six came on the turn or river and Arieh was eliminated from the 2010 WSOP Main Event.

Next Tuesday, action from Day 3 will air. Catch the WSOP Main Event on ESPN on Tuesdays at 9:00pm ET.

Matt “Plattsburgh” Vengrin Interview

Matt Vengrin, known as “Plattsburgh” on PokerStars, is one of the hottest young online tournament professionals going today. He is known as “ENGMONEY” on UB.com, “mattyv” on Full Tilt Poker and “MATT_VENGRIN” on Absolute Poker. Vengrin has been playing professionally for a number of years and is a big supporter of PocketFives.com. A big win on his poker resume came in Event #7 of the 2007 FTOPS Series for $210,000 in addition to his second place finish at the PokerStars Sunday Million. He also finished in second place at a Full Tilt Poker $750k Guaranteed. Other impressive finishes include second place in the PokerStars Sunday Record Second Chance ($28,000) and third in the $1,000 Limit Event at the 2007 World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP) at PokerStars.

Vengrin’s largest live tournament score was at the 2008 World Series of Poker, where he finished in third place in the $3,000 No Limit Hold’em Event for a $168,000 payday. His most recent large score online came in March of 2010 as he finished in fourth place in a $100+$9 $40,000 Guaranteed for $12,870. According to various online databases, he has won over one million dollars in his poker career. He originally hails from Red Hook, New York but currently lives in the greater Los Angeles area.

In this interview with Dan Cypra, which was conducted just prior to the 2010 World Series of Poker Main Event at the Rio Hotel and Casino, Vengrin talks about his new look and new mental attitude which is helping him at the tables. He discusses his weight loss plan and how he continues a steady balance of eating right and working out when he’s not playing poker. In addition he talks about how this past WSOP circuit has gone for him and what his plans are in the future with poker.

Vengrin lists his favorite poker hand as 9T of spades in Hold’em.

August 31st – Daily Deal

On today’s Daily Deal, the Durrrr Challenge resumes, the Full Tilt Doubles Poker Championship continues airing on GSN, and the fifth Ultimate Bet Online Championship comes to a close. It’s all ahead… RIGHT NOW!

Hello, I’m Sean Gibson and welcome to the Daily Deal by Poker News Daily.

On Monday afternoon, the action in the Durrrr Challenge between Tom “durrrr” Dwan and Dan “JungleMan12” Cates continued on Full Tilt Poker. Once again, Cates dominated and this time vaulted out to a $692,000 lead over Dwan. A total of 6,820 hands have been played.

It’s hard to believe that Dwan and Cates are nearly fifteen percent of the way through the fifty thousand hands required for completion. With the first incarnation of the Durrrr Challenge being nineteen months old, the second has thankfully seemed to zip by. Mid-afternoon play on Monday was the first between Dwan and Cates since late last week, when Cates jumped out to a five-hundred eighteen thousand dollar lead.

When the action will resume is anyone’s guess. Dwan had expressed interest in finishing the second installment of the Durrrr Challenge prior to the World Series of Poker Europe schedule beginning in two weeks. Meanwhile, he has been dominating the first running against Patrik Antonius, but there has been no play between the two since August third.

On Saturday night, the second round of regular season matches kicked off on the Full Tilt Doubles Poker Championship, which airs on GSN. Each of the thirty-two players in the field bought in for fifty thousand dollars and had already played out one match. Howard Lederer and Phil Galfond took down the first match shown, while Huck Seed and Annette Obrestad fought their way to a title in the second match. Sixteen of the Doubles Poker Championship’s thirty-two players will move on to the post-season.

Finally, in the grand finale of the fifth Ultimate Bet Online Championship, or UBOC, on Sunday, Charlie “CHAZ_MAN_C” Combes came out on top of the pack following a four-way chop and banked one-hundred thirty-six thousand dollars. A total of one-thousand thirty-two players coughed up the UBOC 5 Championship Event’s four-figure buy-in, or won a satellite to get in with the top 99 players finishing in the money.

Combes hails from the United Kingdom and, on the final hand of the tournament, shoved all-in with Queen-Deuce. UB.com member “TOOCURIOUSSO” made the call for his tournament life with King-Nine and was in prime position to double up. The flop of Three-Jack-Six didn’t change matters, but a queen on the turn paired Combes and held up at the river to seal his UBOC Five title. In March, he won both the Full Tilt Poker One-K Monday for $93,000 and the Titan Poker Two-Hundred Fifty K Guaranteed for another $59,000.

Here were the results from the UBOC Five Championship Event.

1. CHAZ_MAN_C – $136,178
2. TOOCURIOUSSO – $95,000
3. VENUSIGNA – $152,000
4. WALLABAER – $145,000
5. APATHY123 – $56,244
6. WAMMERMOUTH – $45,924
7. MST_MORPHEUS – $35,604
8. 1GENERAL_TAO – $25,284
9. DONRIKY – $17,544

That does it for today’s Daily Deal and if you haven’t added us to your twitter feed, you can do so by going to twitter dot com slash poker news daily. I’m Sean Gibson, thanks for watching and best of luck at the tables tonight!

The Emmys And Tournaments Around The World From Poker In Twitter

For those in the world of poker that weren’t involved in tournaments, the Emmy Awards on Sunday night provided a bit of a respite over Twitter. “Oh Crap! The Emmys,” Joe Reitman Tweeted as the show began. “I totally forgot 2 star on a show, hire a publicist & wear a tux so I could go 2 the awards & b judged on my looks 2nite.” Poker scribe Jess Welman was less than impressed when she chirped after the show’s start, “Not a good sign when we’re ten minutes into the Emmys and I’m already counting the minutes that could easily be shaved off the broadcast.”

The duo were able to find something to agree about during the Emmys, with both congratulating particular shows on the cable channel AMC that they enjoyed. “Big congrats to fellow USC Cinema School Class of ’05 alum Erin Levy for winning a frikkin Emmy for Mad Men,” Welman Tweeted in kudos to a friend. Reitman was proud for a former employee: “I am so happy my boy Aaron Paul of @breakingbad just won. I cast him in my short ‘LEO’ 5 years ago. He is the best actor of his generation.” UB.com’s Scott Ian also piped up about the run of the actors from “Breaking Bad,” Tweeting, “Bryan Cranston & Aaron Paul both won Emmy’s for Breaking Bad. You need to watch this show.”

Someone who had a memorable night for the Emmy Awards was online superstar Justin “Boosted J” Smith. “At Courtney Cox + David Arquette’s house in Malibu watching the Emmys on TV,” Smith Tweeted on Sunday evening. “Actors and producers here these guys are wild watching it! LOL.” Smith went on to describe the reactions of those in attendance: “It’s like watching European football and when an Emmy is awarded its like a GOALLLLLL!”

As the night wore on, Smith continued to channel his inner Phil Hellmuth with his Tweets. “Gave Jennifer Aniston a 4 hour poker lesson last night,” Smith recounted after the party on Monday. “If she learned a little bit more about who acts first and stuff, she’d be real good!”

There was plenty of action for those who were away from the television and on the felt over the weekend. The World Series of Poker Circuit event in Council Bluffs saw two prolific Tweeters, Bernard Lee and Blair Hinkle, making deep runs. “Money bubble broke – 27 players all in the $ – I have 450k,” reported Lee from the tables yesterday.

Both players continued their assault on the top of the leaderboard as the afternoon moved into the evening. “Unbelievable! After getting down to 275k, I sucked out again,” Lee Tweeted to his followers. “My 10-10 vs AA – 10 on flop – back up to 470k (aver 386k) – 13 players left. Play would be stopped soon after that with Lee reporting his stack as “339k.”

Hinkle had a slightly different adventure than Lee at the Iowa tables. “Ugh super crazy guy squeezes with 88 I shove with AT he calls I flop ace but he flopped 8 turn 8. 70k still,” he Tweeted during play on Monday. Although he didn’t detail how he did it, Hinkle was able to turn things around by the end of the night, Tweeting at the end of play, “Down to 13 players done for the night… 243k blinds starting at 2000ante 5-10000.”

Across the Atlantic, many top players were in the running at the European Poker Tour event in Vilamoura, Portugal, with Brandon Cantu – at first – having the time of his life. “I got 44 and shoved ak calls fours hold to break the bubble. 965k 56 left,” Cantu reported to his followers early Tuesday morning before the game took a fateful turn. “Unbelievable,” he Tweeted soon after the bubble burst. “331k aq with the ace of hearts vs 99 flop q32 all hearts turn 9… That’s the worst beat I have ever taken.” A couple of hours later, Cantu sounded the death knell by Tweeting, “Ak vs 99 ace in the door 9 to follow – out – most frustrating day I have ever had an indescribable feeling actually.”

To soothe his defeat, Cantu may want to head to Cannes for the Partouche Poker Tour’s event starting Thursday. Tweets were flying as many top poker pros announced their plans to head to the Mediterranean coast to play in the event. Eric Mizrachi (“Today is my last day in Israel, have a flight to catch in 8 hours to Romania then off to Cannes, France for main event!”), Mike Matusow (“Cannes is gonna be effing insane. Vitamins to. Lots and lots of vitamins”), Lacey Jones (“Vegas for less than 24hrs. Had the best time celebrating @DanFleyshman’s bday in 3 cities. Next stop… Cannes!”) and Liz Lieu (“Back in London for a couple days before heading to Cannes”) are just a few of the top pros who will be in France for the tournament.

For the best Tweets of the weekend, we have to start with “Hollywood” Dave Stann’s reports from his efforts in the Ultimate Bet Online Championship, or UBOC. “I like a challenge,” Stann Tweeted on Sunday. “Immediately out of 200k running my QQ into AA, then in UBOC main ran my QQ into KK for half my stack. Thanks for the memories, #UBOC. Should stand for Ur Bigpair Obv Cracked.”

Two players offered up their thoughts regarding Paris Hilton’s arrest in Las Vegas over the weekend for cocaine possession. “Really?,” Absolute Poker’s Trishelle Cannatella Tweeted. “The only thing that happened while I was away is Paris H is arrested for cocaine? SHOCKER! Drugs are gross. Especially if you’re 30.” Joe Sebok found the potential reason for his youthful indiscretions: “Paris thought the blow was gum. Now I know why I was so damn hyperactive in high school. Teachers, I TRIED to stop talking! I’m sorry!”

Finally, Jennifer “Jennicide” Leigh decided to step away from the tables, Tweeting, “Laying out for a bit… Cyprus got me addicted to sun! Definitely not going to miss my monitor tan!”

Jonathan “FieryJustice” Little – Poker Player Profile

With lifetime winnings of over $4 million and two World Poker Tour championships, Jonathan “FieryJustice” Little should be no stranger to any poker player.

Similar to many of today’s younger players, FieryJustice was introduced to online poker through playing Magic: The Gathering. The moment FieryJustice turned 18 he began playing online poker. He started on the lowest stakes available of Limit Hold’Em and worked his bankroll up to $20,000. This was done alongside attending college and working a day job. After two years of grinding and growing his bankroll he decided to quit his job working at Pensacola Aviation – where he was fuelling airplanes – and drop out of college to start playing professionally. He worked his way up to $30/$60 which at the time was the highest limit game available then he decided to shift focus from Limit cash to Single Table Tournaments, otherwise known as Sit n Gos.

It was the shift to SnGs that made his bankroll explode. FieryJustice signed up with popular poker forum TwoPlusTwo and started asking questions and making friends. Once he started playing Sit & Gos he was playing $200 buy-in games, allowing himself a 100 buy-in rule, and at the early stages all his play was at Party Poker. Fortunately for FieryJustice he was playing before the online poker boom so things like training sites were barely heard of, leaving him with pretty soft competition. Anybody that was playing online poker around 2004 and before will tell you the games were much softer and easier than they are these days. For a good player to grind a 10% ROI back then wasn’t too hard whereas now days it’s unheard of.

Because rakeback wasn’t big back then FieryJustice had to rely on volume to make good money. Once he learned how to continuously beat the games, he soon went from single-tabling to playing 16 games at once, which gave him profits of around $10,000 per month.

It wasn’t all smooth sailing for FieryJustice: at one stage he had a 30 buy-in downswing at the $200 games, which is when he not only took a step down in games but he invested in a analytical program for SnG players called SnG Power Tools. This purchase, combined with some coaching, helped FieryJustice find his game again.

When Party Poker closed to the US market and most players merged over to PokerStars, FieryJustice moved away from SnGs and started playing big buy-in Multi Table Tournaments (MTTs.) While FieryJustice aspired to play tournaments professionally; given his experience as one of the best  SnG players in the world the transition wasn’t too difficult. His first year wasn’t that profitable, but he met Tom Dwan who backed him for a while as well as helping him with his game.

FieryJustice had his career’s biggest win in 2007, taking home over one million dollars at the WPT main event at the Mirage Casino. He outlasted famous players at the final table including Phil Ivey and Darrell “Gigabet” Dicken. Five months prior to this he had also made a final table and finished fifth for a little over $300,000 at a PokerStars Caribbean Adventure tournament. His next big score came at the WPT North American Poker Championship where he sat at the final table with players such as Barry Greenstein and Scott Clements. He ended 2nd for $715,000, but this achievement also earned him the title of the WPT Player of the Year, making him the youngest player to ever receive this award.

These days FieryJustice continues to play WPT and WSOP events and can be seen at PokerStars playing under the name of Jcardshark. He is also a head coach at popular training site “Float The Turn”.

GSN Airing High Stakes Poker Labor Day Marathon

Next Monday, September 6th, catch a marathon of “High Stakes Poker” on GSN. Once the Labor Day barbequing has finished and the relatives have left, it’ll be all poker after hours on the popular cable station.

A total of eight hours of “High Stakes Poker” will air with episodes from the show’s recently completed sixth season. Players you can expect to find on the airwaves include Patrik Antonius, Tom “durrrr” Dwan, and Doyle Brunson. The action will begin at 7:00pm ET and run all the way through 3:00am ET. If you’re on the “Left Coast” of the United States, then catch the “High Stakes Poker” Labor Day marathon on GSN from 4:00pm PT to Midnight PT. It’s a great way to catch up if you missed any of the action from Season 6.

The sixth season of “High Stakes Poker” premiered in February and featured UB.com pro Phil Hellmuth going broke in the first episode. On a four-way flop of 7-6-4 with two hearts, Phil Ivey fired out a bet of $6,000 with K-9 of hearts for a flush draw and two overcards, while Hellmuth bumped the action to $25,000 with J-5 of hearts for straight and flush draws. Ivey called behind and the turn was the king of diamonds, pairing the 2009 November Niner, who checked. Hellmuth moved all-in for $82,000 and Ivey called. No saving eight came on the river and Hellmuth had blown through his $200,000 buy-in.

In an episode that appeared in March, four players were felted, including Daniel Negreanu, Dario Minieri, Gus Hansen, and Jason Mercier. It was one of the most memorable episodes of “High Stakes Poker” ever and followed a $1 million vegetarian prop bet forged by Ivey. With Ivey ultimately sitting with more than $1 million in the Golden Nugget’s “High Stakes Poker” soundstage after the four-man bloodbath, host Gabe Kaplan jokingly commented that Ivey could easily buy out of his bet: “He could have a whole barbeque if he wants.”

After six episodes of the sixth season, the ratings for “High Stakes Poker” were up big. Overall ratings among adults age 18 to 49 were up 27% compared to Season 5, while ratings among adults age 25 to 54 were up 25%. Among men age 25 to 54, a key demographic for many advertisers, the ratings had mushroomed 29% season over season.

The show held a Sunday night time slot and the sixth season began with the departure of longtime co-host A.J. Benza. In his place, GSN officials brought in Kara Scott to conduct interviews from the “High Stakes Poker” suite, while Kaplan flew solo in the booth. The change prompted a petition to bring back Benza that appeared on TwoPlusTwo and at one point had attracted over 400 respondents.

GSN has given no indication as to whether “High Stakes Poker” will be brought back for a seventh season. The show has traditionally been filmed in November, with the most recent installment making its home at the Golden Nugget in Downtown Las Vegas. Brunson, Negreanu, Victory Poker pro Antonio Esfandiari, Eli Elezra, and PokerStars front man Barry Greenstein have appeared in all six seasons of the high-stakes cash game show.

Speaking of PokerStars, the site sponsors the “Big Game” on Fox, an alternative cash game series that airs at 1:00am ET or 2:00am ET in most markets. However, the “Big Game” won’t feature any new episodes until October. Meanwhile, NBC’s “Poker After Dark,” which airs a mix of tournament and cash game cycles, will also return with new episodes on October. Currently, encore presentations of “Poker After Dark” air daily at 2:05am ET on NBC.

The Jerry Springer hosted “Baggage” will air from 9:00am ET to 7:00pm ET preceding “High Stakes Poker” on GSN on Labor Day.

Jonathan Duhamel Prop Bet

Jonathan Duhamel is the chip leader among the November Nine this year heading into the 2010 World Series of Poker Main Event final table. Duhamel hails from Montreal, Quebec in Canada and was on hand at the Foxwoods Resort and Casino for their recent tournament promotion. While there he met up with Poker News Daily correspondent Bernard Lee. The two talked and Lee found out that Duhamel likes to conduct a prop bet with his friends that travel with him over just about any debate that might come up during the trip. The way they settle the debate is through a game of Rock, Scissors, Paper. The winner gets their way with the argument and Bernard Lee was on hand to capture the latest in these high-stakes bets.

At stake in this prop bet, against Duhamel’s good friend Vincent, is who gets to sleep in the nice bed while the lose must take the bed that is next to the window. The two played a best of three edition of Rock, Scissors, Paper and Duhamel explains why him and his friends always prop bet anything they possibly can.

For those of you born in a cave, the game of Rock, Scissors, Paper is one often played by children or drunks trying to determine who is stuck with the bar tab. The game is simple, you “bounce” your hand while counting to three and when you say three out loud, you form your hand into a rock, scissors or paper. Rock defeats scissors. Scissors defeats paper. Paper defeats rock. Often times the game is referred to as rochambeaux.

Duhamel is currently sponsored by the world’s largest poker site, PokerStars. Previous to his amazing WSOP Main Event run, he bubbled the final table of the No Limit Hold’em EPT Championship in Prague for $55,000. He also cashed at the 2010 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure Main Event and qualified for the 2010 World Series of Poker Main Event through an online qualifier at PokerStars.

Bernard Lee is the official spokesperson for Foxwoods Casino and can also be seen on the ESPN.com web show “The Inside Deal”.

WPT, FSN Enter Into Multi-Season Deal

The World Poker Tour (WPT) and Fox Sports Net (FSN) announced Monday that they will continue their broadcast and promotional relationship, settling on an agreement that will stretch until 2013. Seasons 9, 10, and 11 of the highly popular WPT broadcasts will feature prime time national premiere airtimes of 8:00 PM and 11:00 PM on Sunday nights, as well as multiple repeat airings throughout the week on FSN.

WPT’s Season 9 will begin airing in January 2011 and kick off with Bellagio Cup IX. Several changes and enhancements will be made to the broadcast, including new anchor Kimberly Lansing; a new tour stop at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Hollywood, Florida; and the introduction of the beautiful Royal Flush Girls, who will serve as on-air fixtures during every show. Season 9 will also debut a brash, yet-to-be-named new analyst who will host a recurring segment called “The Raw Deal.” The WPT held auditions for the new position during the WPT Legends of Poker tournament on August 19 at the Bicycle Casino.

“This season promises to be unlike any previous incarnations of the WPT,” said Steve Heller, CEO of WPT. “The shows will be faster-paced and edgier, featuring the biggest names in poker mixing it up with more up-and-coming stars, pre-final table action, and, as always, poker’s greatest and most recognizable play-by-play commentary team of Mike Sexton and Vince Van Patten.”

Sexton and Van Patten return for their ninth season in the WPT broadcast booth and are excited about adding “The Raw Deal” host to the team. “We’re looking for sort of a Simon Cowell kind of character that’s not afraid to bring down even a Phil Ivey, a Phil Hellmuth, a Daniel Negreanu, if he feels like they made a bonehead play,” Sexton said to Poker News Daily’s Sean Gibson. “They need to have poker experience and knowledge to be capable of critiquing an excellent, superb poker player.”

FSN is composed of 16 regional television stations that reach over 80 million homes throughout the United States. The network acquired the rights to Season 7 of the WPT after GSN declined to pick up its option following Season 6. The first five WPT seasons aired on The Travel Channel.

“As a leader in sports programming, FSN has been a great champion of the WPT and we are thrilled to make this long-term commitment as we celebrate a new day for the WPT,” said WPT President Adam Pliska. “The better airtimes, improved promotion, and the increased number of repeat episodes promise to be a boon for fans and the perfect showcase for the exciting changes coming to the WPT starting in Season 9.”

Season 9 saw the first-ever WPT stop in London get underway Monday with a surprisingly low turnout as only 72 players entered Day 1a of the £5,300 buy-in event. Thirty-six players made it through the day, including Full Tilt Pros Phil Ivey, Praz Bansi, Huck Seed, and chip leader Erik Seidel. The tournament wraps up with the final table on Saturday.

Stay tuned to Poker News Daily for the latest news on the World Poker Tour.

Cole South, Phil Ivey Dominate Gus Hansen Sunday

The big live tournaments that make the poker headlines each week come and go, but the ring game tables never sleep. Action is always plentiful in the virtual poker world. Perhaps nobody knows this better than Gus Hansen, who is famous for his significant bankroll swings in online poker. In what was likely one of his worst days ever, HighStakesDB.com has reported that Hansen lost over $1 million dollars Sunday… to just two opponents.

Cole South and eight-time World Series of Poker bracelet winner Phil Ivey took Hansen for more than $1.1 million on the final weekend day of August, accounting for almost half of the “Great Dane’s” net losses on the year. HighStakesDB – which tracks the action at high-stakes online poker tables – reported that Hansen’s losses Sunday came primarily in $2,000/$4,000 Fixed Limit Omaha Hi-Lo. He lost $358,000 to Ivey in that game along with $99,000 to South, and to make matters worse, he even lost $335,000 in Omaha Eight or Better when it was part of a Seven Game rotation.

All told during 2010, Hansen is down $2.3 million according to the records kept by HighStakesDB. He started off the year strong, peaking at $2.3 million in the black in January. His current deficit is his low point of the year so far. Despite his poor run in the Omaha Hi-Lo portion of HORSE on Sunday, it looks like Hansen should stick to HORSE, as he is up over $1.7 million in the Fixed Limit format of the mixed game in 2010.

Ivey and South, on the other hand, have had good 2010′s so far, and of course, HighStakesDB only counts online games, so they could be doing even better in live games. Ivey is up an astounding $3.5 million in internet competition this year and is on the rise, as that mark is his high point. He hit his valley back in March, when he was down $117,000. Ivey’s best game has been Fixed Limit HORSE, in which he was won $1.5 million. He is at least break-even in each game type for which HighStakesDB has records.

South has not won nearly as much as Ivey, but it is safe to say that the average person would love to have made $78,825 through the first eight months of the year. It’s a far cry from his high water point in February, when he was up $3.5 million. Just last month, though, South was down $260,000, so being above break-even means that he has had a nice few weeks recently. Fixed Limit Omaha Hi-Lo has been South’s best game, netting him almost a half million dollars.

Barney Frank Out as Financial Services Committee Chair in 2011?

In November, voters in the United States will head to the polls for general elections. On Capitol Hill, the entire House of Representatives and one-third of the Senate will be determined. If Republicans were to gain control of the House, then Congressman Barney Frank’s (D-MA) tenure as Financial Services Committee Chairman may come to an end.

A recent Financial Times article discussed the future of the lower Congressional body: “Polls show control of the House of Representatives is too close to call while the Democrats are expected to retain control of the Senate, albeit with a reduced majority.” Frank has been in the House since 1980 and served as the Financial Services Committee Chairman since 2007. Democrats currently control nearly 60% of the seats in the House and Senate.

Congressman Spencer Bachus (R-AL) serves as the Ranking Member of the House Financial Services Committee, although he apparently seems far from a lock to take over the Chair should the opportunity arise. However, the Financial Times revealed, “Mr. Bachus said, ‘I will be the chairman if we’re in the majority.’ [Congressman Jeb Hensarling (R-TX)] said, ‘My expectation is that Spencer Bachus will be the next Chairman of the House Financial Services Committee and I support him.’”

What’s the significance of this story for online poker players, you ask? Frank is internet gambling’s number one supporter on Capitol Hill, having offered up a handful of bills to legalize the industry in the United States. His latest effort, HR 2267, the Internet Gambling Regulation, Consumer Protection, and Enforcement Act, was marked up in the Financial Services Committee in late July and has received the support of 70 co-sponsors.

HR 2267 received about a dozen amendments during mark-up, ranging from ensuring that online sports betting would not be legalized to prohibiting existing sites that serve the U.S. market “illegally” from applying for a license. Now, the measure awaits its time on the House floor, although HR 2267 being attached to a must-pass bill later this year is a possibility. Ironically, the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA) was attached to an unrelated port security measure to become law in 2006.

Bachus remains one of the strongest opponents of legalized internet gambling. During HR 2267’s markup hearing on July 28th, Bachus opened the proceedings by arguing, “After all of the talk of the past year of shutting the casinos down on Wall Street, why would we take steps today to open casinos in every bedroom and every dorm room on iPods, Blackberrys, iPhones, and computers?”

In the meantime, HR 2267 has caused a rift of sorts in the poker community. The Commerce Casino’s Tom Malkasian was among those witnesses who spoke against the bill in a July 21st House Financial Services Committee hearing. In response, the Poker Players Alliance (PPA), the industry’s main lobbying voice, issued an online petition to force the Commerce to change its position. The petition, found at PlayersBeforeProfits.com, has received over 7,000 signatures.

The Commerce Casino then fired back, arguing in a press release distributed in Friday, “Nevada casinos, offshore companies, and Washington insiders don’t want California to benefit from its own market. Our economic future is not their concern. We support free enterprise, fair competition, and the principle that what plays in California, stays in California.” The Los Angeles casino also claimed support from the Bicycle Casino, Hawaiian Gardens Casino, and Hollywood Park Casino.

Several poker pros have suggested a boycott of the Commerce Casino, although one has not yet occurred. The Bicycle Casino is fresh off hosting the World Poker Tour’s Legends of Poker, which saw Andy Frankenberger walk away with the title and $750,000 top prize.

Stay tuned to Poker News Daily for the latest headlines from Capitol Hill and beyond.

JungleMan12 Up Nearly $700,000 in Durrrr Challenge

On Monday afternoon, the action in the Million Dollar Challenge between Tom “durrrr” Dwan and Dan “JungleMan12” Cates continued on Full Tilt Poker. Once again, Cates dominated and this time vaulted out to a $692,000 lead over the youngster. A total of 6,820 hands have been played.

It’s hard to believe that Dwan and Cates are nearly 15% of the way through the 50,000 hands required for completion. With the first incarnation of the Durrrr Challenge being 19 months old, the second has seemed to zip by. Mid-afternoon play on Monday was the first between Dwan and Cates since late last week, when Cates jumped out to a $518,000 lead.

According to stats found on Full Tilt Poker’s blog, Cates has posted a win rate of 25.33 BB/100 and has taken down 61.4% of hands. Dwan, meanwhile, has mustered wins in just 37.9% of hands and lodged a VPIP (Voluntarily Put Money into the Pot) of 65.1%. Cates’ VPIP is 69.4% by comparison.

There were several major split pots on Monday given Dwan and Cates running it twice during the course of the challenge. In one, the money went in on a 7-2-4-J board with Cates holding pocket aces for an overpair and Dwan showing J-2 for top and bottom pair. The first river was a king, shipping half the pot to Dwan, but an ace on the second river gave Cates the other half of the $96,000 in the middle.

Dwan then scooped a $54,000 pot with K-10 for the nuts on a 7-J-8-Q-A board. Dwan also took down a $131,000 pot after turning a set of tens on a K-8-3-10-2 board. Cates’ cards were not revealed in the latter hand after calling the all-in. In a separate hand, Dwan was all-in with pocket queens after a flop of 5-J-4 with two clubs. Cates held A-10 of the suit for the nut flush draw, but amazingly none of the four turn and river cards brought a third club to the board. Dwan landed a $71,000 pot and seemed to be well off early.

After a 3bet pre-flop, Dwan and Cates checked the action to the river on a 2-10-K-5-7 four-heart board. Then, the fireworks went off. Holding 9-3 of spades, Dwan led out for $4,800 and Cates made it $15,600 with the nut flush. Dwan re-raised to $27,800 and Cates made the call to scoop the $62,000 pot. On why Cates just called the river with the nuts instead of coming over the top, one poster on TwoPlusTwo speculated, “jungle pbb knew durrrr wasn’t gonna call a shove & wanted to see his hand.”

Dwan started the encounter by posting on Twitter, “Playing jungleman again, hopefully it goes better than last time.” That obviously didn’t work, as Cates Tweeted after the match had wrapped up, “won another 173k, so far up almost 700k in almost 7k hands.” The thread following the match on TwoPlusTwo stood at nearly 150 pages at the time of writing as the poker community looked on in awe.

Around 3:15pm ET, Dwan exited the tables after the beat down, with one poster on TwoPlusTwo reporting, “Durrrr just completely sat out without any chat.” Another community member inquired, “What are the chances durrrr buys out of this after 1 or 2 more sesh’s like this one? I doubt he’d buy out no matter how bad he runs/gets owned, but this challenge could kick his ass pretty hard.”

When the action will resume is anyone’s guess. Dwan had expressed interest in finishing the second installment of the Durrrr Challenge prior to the World Series of Poker Europe schedule beginning in two weeks. Meanwhile, Dwan has been dominating the first running against Patrik Antonius, but there has been no play since August 3rd.

August 30th – Daily Deal

Happy Monday to everyone! On today’s Daily Deal, the Commerce Casino receives support from several of its competitors, Daniel Negreanu fires insults at Annie Duke, and an important figure in the Senate comes out in favor of online poker legislation. It’s all ahead… right now!

Hello, I’m Sean Gibson and welcome to the Daily Deal by Poker News Daily.

Let the battle lines be drawn. Several days after the Poker Players Alliance issued a petition to reverse the Commerce Casino’s stance against pro-internet gambling legislation in the United States, more casinos have come onboard to strike down the bill. In a letter issued to the press late Friday night from Commerce Casino Board members, it was revealed that the Bicycle Casino, Hawaiian Gardens, and Hollywood Park casinos also oppose Congressman Barney Frank’s HR 2267.

The press release claimed, “Californians wager an estimated thirteen point four billion dollars annually. That makes California the largest internet gaming market in the world, and without state legislation to protect it, critically-needed billions will be captured by offshore and out-of-state operators never to return.”

Why the Commerce Casino, Bike, or any other California casino wouldn’t just apply for a license under HR Two-Two-Six-Seven remains to be seen. PPA Executive Director John Pappas speculated in an exclusive interview with Poker News Daily, “They don’t want to compete with existing online operators or Harrah’s or Wynn or Google or anyone else who may get involved in internet gambling. They prefer to have their own fiefdom in California… A lot of lawmakers went out of their way to address their concerns via amendments, yet they still continue to oppose the bill.”

Moving over to another bitter dispute, in an interview with PokerPlayer, PokerStars pro Daniel Negreanu fired off what many have deemed inappropriate comments against Annie Duke. In an article entitled “The Evolution of Daniel Negreanu,” he was asked about the two-thousand ten World Series of Poker Ladies Event in which more than a dozen men played.

Negreanu voiced his disgust at the whole situation and then went on a tirade about Duke, who has never been an advocate of the tournament:

“What irked me is that this woman has the audacity on her website to call herself ‘the best female poker player in the world.’ So I’m like ‘how offensive are you, you f***ing c***? You want to say you’re speaking for women, yet you claim superiority over all of them.’”

Wow. Well … after afterwards Duke issued an open letter to PokerStars about the use of the c-word and the site ultimately responded, “PokerStars does not support the use of derogatory or hurtful language directed at any other player. While this was a personal matter between two players, we wish that better judgment had been used in the choice of words.”

Duke’s brother Howard Lederer and Tony G have been among those pros weighing in on the spat.

Finally, according to the Reno Gazette-Journal newspaper, U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid claimed he would support the legalization of online poker in the United States. Reid also stated he would not support any other form of online gaming, including sports betting.

Reid also won’t support anything that hurts Nevada jobs, but the Senate Majority Leader will play a huge role in whether online poker is legalized. No progress has been made on legalizing internet gambling or online poker in the Senate, so having Reid as an ally could go a long way.

That does it for today’s Daily Deal, be sure to check back every weekday for a new episode of this show. Also be sure to check back with Poker News Daily throughout your day to find out the latest in poker news. I’m Sean Gibson hoping you have an amazing week at the tables!

European Poker Tour Enjoys Record Crowd For Vilamoura Tournament

The European Poker Tour (EPT) continues its progress across the European continent, once again having a record turnout for the most recent stop in Vilamoura, Portugal.

In its second stop at the Casino Vilamoura on the coastline of the Atlantic Ocean, 384 runners put up the €5,300 buy-in to contest, the latest championship of the EPT’s seventh season. The numbers vastly outpaced the 322 players who showed up in 2009, when Antonio Matias captured the inaugural title. A number of Team PokerStars pros and other top poker players were in attendance for the tournament, making the going difficult for the amateurs who qualified through PokerStars or bought into the event directly.

World Series of Poker (WSOP) bracelet winner David Williams made his first ever appearance at an EPT event as a member of Team PokerStars and many other pros from the stable were also in attendance. Also making his first ever appearance in an EPT event on European soil was EPT founder John Duthie.

Other Team PokerStars Pros such as Italy’s Dario Minieri, France’s Arnaud Mattern, British players JP Kelly and Vicky Coren, and Russia’s Alex Kravchenko filled out the tables. Top players such as Victory Poker’s Antonio Esfandiari, former WSOP Europe champion Annette Obrestad, and 2010 WSOP bracelet winner James “flushy“ Dempsey were also in attendance, looking to take down the latest EPT title and the €467,835 first place prize.

Action began on Saturday with 181 players lining up for Day 1A. Leading the action at the end of the day was one of the Team PokerStars Online pros, Portugal’s Andre Coimbra, who sat with a nice Day 1A stack of 157,600. Several pros were also on the Day 1A leaderboard, including Minieri (fourth, 131,400), Esfandiari (fifth, 127,800), and Mattern (sixth, 119,200).

Day 1B on Sunday was the more active of the two Day Ones, with a sizable lineup of 203 players stepping up for battle. By the time play finished late Sunday night, Russian PokerStars qualifier Leonid Bilokur had stacked himself with 161,200 to take the overall Day One lead. The pros made their presence felt through Sam Trickett (fourth, 132,600), Sorel “Imper1um” Mizzi (fifth, 132,200), and UB.com’s Brandon Cantu (sixth, 122,400).

The field came together for the first time on Day 2 with a total of 221 players surviving. Esfandiari got off to a terrible start, dropping to 40,000 in chips after riding high on Day 1A. “The Magician” was able to make some chips appear and rebounded to slightly over his Day 2 starting stack, but the same couldn’t be said for several other top professionals. Such players as EPT San Remo champion Liv Boeree, Lex Veldhuis, Mizzi, Coren, and Williams were dispatched during early action on Day 2.

According to the PokerStars blog at the midpoint of Day 2, Coimbra has added to his chip stack to sit at around 220,000, but several players have stormed past him to push him back to the middle of the Top Ten. Poland’s Grzegorz Cichocki  currently holds a slim chip lead over Cantu, with Kelly and Trickett also arranged on the upper reaches of the leaderboard. Poker News Daily will bring you all the latest from the battle at the EPT Portugal, including the crowning of the champion on Thursday.

CHAZ_MAN_C Wins UBOC 5 Championship Event

In the grand finale of the fifth Ultimate Bet Online Championship (UBOC) on Sunday, Charlie “CHAZ_MAN_C” Combes came out on top of the pack following a four-way chop and banked $136,000. A total of 1,032 players coughed up the UBOC 5 Championship Event’s $1,050 buy-in or won a satellite to get in and the top 99 finished in the money.

Combes hails from the United Kingdom and, on the final hand of the tournament, shoved all-in with Q-2. UB.com member “TOOCURIOUSSO” made the call for his tournament life with K-9 and was in prime position to double up. The flop of 3-J-6 didn’t change matters, but a queen on the turn paired Combes and sealed his UBOC 5 title. Combes claimed a championship watch to boot. In March, he won both the Full Tilt Poker $1K Monday for $93,000 and the Titan Poker $250,000 Guaranteed for $59,000.

TOOCURIOUSSO finished with the smallest payout of the four dealmakers at $95,000. Pamela “VENUSIGNA” Quesada, who calls the Latin American nation of Costa Rica home, landed in third place and walked away with $152,000, the largest payday of the UBOC 5 Championship. In her final hand, Quesada was all-in before the flop with pocket sixes and up against Combes’ A-K of hearts. The board blanked out until an ace hit on the river, sending Quesada home in devastating fashion.

“WALLABAER” dropped a sizable pot with A-K against Quesada’s pocket nines to cripple his stack. On the next hand, WALLABAER’s 4-3 could not draw out on Combes’ 7-6 and he was relegated to the rails. Here’s a look at how the final table cashed out in the UBOC 5 Championship Event:

1. CHAZ_MAN_C – $136,178
2. TOOCURIOUSSO – $95,000
3. VENUSIGNA – $152,000
4. WALLABAER – $145,000
5. APATHY123 – $56,244
6. WAMMERMOUTH – $45,924
7. MST_MORPHEUS – $35,604
8. 1GENERAL_TAO – $25,284
9. DONRIKY – $17,544

Like you’d expect in a tournament with a $1,050 buy-in, a variety of brand name pros made deep runs. Joshua “PBDRUNKS” Van Duyn, who won the very first tournament of UBOC 5, took 50th in the Championship Event. Faraz “The-Toilet” Jaka, who had been in the running as part of a leaderboard competition to be a sponsored pro of DoylesRoom, hit the rail in 22nd place.

UB.com sponsored pro Billy “Patrolman35” Kopp bubbled the final table and finished in 12th in what likely would have been a coup of sorts for members of Team UB. Players who knocked out members of Team UB throughout UBOC 5 received 200 Tournament Dollars and a swank UBOC shirt. The tournament stretched for 12 hours, ending around 4:30am ET.

In the MiniUBOC Championship Event, “JLC123” banked $17,000 and came away with the win. The field of the $55 buy-in tournament numbered 1,684 and JLC123 bested fellow online poker player “BOOJIW” heads-up; BOOJIW grabbed a $10,000 consolation prize. The MiniUBOC 5 schedule offered the same slate of events as its high-stakes counterpart, but with more affordable buy-ins.

If you’re itching for more tournament series, don’t fear. The 2010 PokerStars World Championship of Online Poker, or WCOOP, will begin on Sunday, September 5th. The schedule offers a ridiculous $50 million in guaranteed prize money, including a $10 million guaranteed Main Event on September 26th. Every 2010 WCOOP tournament is open to online poker players from the United States.

Check out UB.com or Absolute Poker for full UBOC 5 results.

PokerGives: A Bright Side to Poker by Mike Sexton

We’ve seen that poker is a great platform to raise money for charitable events throughout the country.  I salute those players who help organize, put on, and participate in charitable poker tournaments.  I believe the time has come, however, to parlay those efforts where the “outside world” will see that poker can be a large contributor to worthwhile charities.  Thus, Linda Johnson, Jan Fisher, Lisa Tenner, and I created PokerGives in an effort to unify the poker community in this effort.

PokerGives is a charitable organization set up to benefit worthwhile charities and it’s done through the poker community.  The founders don’t make a dime and we expect 95% of all contributions to go directly to the charities we support.  Right now, we are supporting four charities, all very special to our hearts:  Paralyzed Veterans of America, Special Olympics, Intrepid Fallen Heroes Fund, and Step by Step Foundation.

With the support of players, card rooms, industry leaders, and the poker media, the poker world has an opportunity to make a significant difference to the lives of many and bring a well-deserved positive outlook on poker and the poker world.  Even those who oppose gambling and/or poker will take a step back and say, “Hey, those poker people are all right.  They’re contributing a lot of money to worthwhile charities.”

Most of us take our health and our freedoms for granted.  I wish every person, young and old, could go to a VA Hospital such as Walter Reed and see the paralyzed veterans, those who have been paralyzed as a result of serving in the Armed Forces to protect our freedoms.  I promise you that visit will impact you forever, change your thinking about life, and make you a better person.  The Intrepid Fallen Heroes have made the ultimate sacrifice for us, and their families have suffered. We can help them.

If you’ve never gotten involved or been to a Special Olympics event, do so.  It’s something you should put on your “bucket list,” especially those blessed with healthy children.  It truly is a moving experience.  Step by Step is an organization providing for the underprivileged children of the world.  Think how lucky you were to be born where you were.

The people who volunteer their time and money and those who work with these charities are special people.  To me, they are walking angels.  Through PokerGives, the poker world now has an opportunity to get involved, help these wonderful charities, and do it by doing what we love to do, playing poker.

September has been designated as PokerGives month.  Card rooms from across the country are holding PokerGives charity events where 50% of the prize money goes to PokerGives.  This is the first-ever PokerGives month and about 25 card rooms have signed up!  Please go to PokerGives.org to see when and where you can play in a PokerGives charity event.

We are so grateful for the card rooms that are supporting PokerGives and we’re hopeful that poker players everywhere come out and play in these events.  In addition, Poker Nation is hosting an online PokerGives tournament on Full Tilt on September 19th.  I guarantee you that if you play in a PokerGives event and get knocked out, you’ll still feel good because you helped out one of these worthwhile charities.

Winners of all PokerGives events will be put into a drawing and could win a number of prizes.  And the card room that hosted whoever wins the drawing will get a free seminar at their card room from Linda, Jan, and me.

We’re off to a good start with PokerGives and are excited about September, PokerGives Month.  A sincere “thank you” to all of the supporting card rooms and the players who play.  The potential of what we can do as an industry in charitable contributions through PokerGives is awesome.

Looking down the road, my dream would be to see all tournament players contribute 1% of their prize money to PokerGives and every card room and online site host PokerGives tournaments.  Can you imagine how much money we could raise for these charities if that happened?  By supporting Poker Gives, you’ve got the chance to make a Royal Flush in the game of life.

Pot Limit Omaha Theory with CardRunners

Pot Limit Omaha is one of the most exciting and action-packed poker games you can possibly play. However, the game involves four cards and not just two like in Texas Hold’em, so many players find difficulty adjusting to new table dynamics. Our latest CardRunners strategy video dives into Pot Limit Omaha play and theory, by looking at some hands using Hold’em Manager.

The official CardRunners teaser:

Mindcirkus is here to analyze his own mind. Tune in as he goes over hands from his database and determines whether his play was optimal or if he changed his mind.

Comments from Mindcirkus about the video:

In some of my past videos I tried to speed things up and people told me not to, but I’m learning and getting better with each video. I think I’m going to do my next video at 2/4, either 4 or 6 tables. I was thinking about doing 20-50bb tables this time since my other vids have all been deepstacked, but if you guys prefer normal/deep tables just let me know.

I have always personally preferred to watch live play videos myself, but I wanted to show some hands in a replayer with the intent of showing some creative lines that would help players add some new things to their game beyond the basics and the standard lines that so many players take over and over again.

Round 2 Matches Begin on Full Tilt Doubles Poker Championship

On Saturday night, the second round of regular season matches kicked off on the Full Tilt Doubles Poker Championship, which airs on GSN. Each of the 32 players in the field bought in for $50,000 and had already played out one match.

In Match #5, which spanned the first 30 minutes of the one-hour GSN show, Howard Lederer paired with Phil “OMGClayAiken” Galfond, Mike Matusow teamed with Phil Laak, Andy Bloch teamed with Annie Duke, and Erick Lindgren teamed with former World Poker Tour Championship winner David Chiu. Players alternate action by street and each team is allowed one time out to talk strategy.

Matusow and Laak, by far the most talkative pair at the table, were all-in with K-10 against Lederer and Galfond’s A-9 of spades. The latter team flopped top pair on an ace-high board and never looked back, leaving Matusow and Laak with zero points towards the end-of-season standings. Matusow proceeded to exit stage left and then chucked a water bottle at his partner.

Bloch and Duke hit the rails in third place after the reigning National Heads-Up Poker Championship victor open-shoved all-in pre-flop with Q-8. Galfond peeked down at A-6 of diamonds and called for time to consult with Lederer, claiming, “You’re going to know better than me.” Lederer, Duke’s brother, told Galfond to make the call and the door card was an ace. The board eventually ran out 5-2-A-7-10 and Duke and Bloch hit the rail in third place, netting four points.

Lederer committed his team’s chips with J-5 pre-flop and Lindgren called all-in with A-6 in prime position to double up. The board blanked out until a six hit on the turn, leaving Lederer and Galfond with 11 outs heading to the river. Sure enough, a three came, giving the team a straight, the title in Match #5, and 20 points towards the regular season. Lindgren and Chiu each received 11 points.

On his 31 points after two regular season matches, Lederer told Full Tilt Doubles Poker Championship hostess Lacey Jones, “Obviously, after two rounds, it’s a great spot for us.” Galfond gave viewers a peek inside his chemistry with Lederer: “We have somewhat different styles, more on the early streets, but when it comes down to it, poker’s still poker.” The top 16 players from the regular season will advance to the postseason.

In Match #6, Huck Seed paired with Annette Obrestad, David Oppenheim paired with Gavin Smith, Vivek “Psyduck” Rajkumar paired with PartyPoker’s Tony G, and Justin “Boosted J” Smith paired with Tom Dwan. The second match covered the second half-hour of the one-hour GSN show.

After dropping a 46,000-chip pot by calling with ace-high, Dwan and “Boosted J” were all-in with Q-8 against Oppenheim and Smith’s 9-6 of diamonds. Oppenheim and Smith flopped middle pair, but faced a flush draw heading to the river. However, the final card was a brick and “Boosted J” and Dwan were the first casualty of Match #6. Dwan has yet to record a point towards the regular season standings.

Oppenheim and Gavin Smith ran 9-7 of hearts into pocket aces to double up Seed and Obrestad. Moments earlier, the latter pair had bickered after Seed put in a raise on a board reading 6-3-4-5 holding 5-4. Obrestad argued that Seed should have simply called behind. The two ultimately righted the ship after hitting a runner-runner straight to bust Oppenheim and Gavin Smith and set up heads-up play.

Obrestad and Seed continued to struggle to work as a team, receiving a one-round penalty after Obrestad talked strategy with Seed without holding cards. Nevertheless, they came out on top after spiking a flush on the river when Rajkumar and Tony G were all-in with pocket eights. Seed recorded his second straight Full Tilt Doubles Poker Championship win and has 40 regular season points. Obrestad and Rajkumar each have 31 points.

The action continues this Saturday at 9:00pm ET on GSN.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid Supports Online Poker Legislation

U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) had long been on the fence regarding the legalization of online poker in the States. But when Reid sent a letter to Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and Federal Reserve Board Chairman Ben Bernanke asking for a delay for the enforcement of Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA) regulations in November of last year, it became clear that the influential politician was becoming more favorable toward poker on the internet.

This week, Reid showed even more support of online poker in the state of Nevada. According to the Reno Gazette-Journal newspaper, Reid claimed he would support the legalization of online poker in the United States during an August 16 meeting at the Atlantis Casino Resort Spa. Reid also stated he would not support any other form of online gaming, including sports betting.

The news was disconcerting to Nevada gaming executives, who fear that the legalization of online poker will result in a major loss of customers in brick-and-mortar casinos.

“It (online poker) is just the tip of the iceberg and could open up this state to more online gaming,” said Bill Hughes, the Marketing Director of Peppermill, to the Reno Gazette-Journal. “It will only draw more money out of this state, from our poker rooms and eventually other facilities.”

Reid has stated that he would not support anything that hurts Nevada jobs, but the Senate Majority Leader will play a huge role in whether online poker is legalized. The House Financial Services Committee passed HR 2267, the Internet Gambling Regulation, Consumer Protection, and Enforcement Act, in July and the bill is currently waiting on a vote by the full House. HR 2267 would effectively legalize online poker, overturning a 2006 law that bars offshore sites from accepting money from U.S. bettors.

Congress is on summer recess until September 8, at which point Congressman Barney Frank (D-MA) hopes the House Ways and Means Committee will mark up their tax companion bill, HR 4976, and bring both measures to the floor.

Meanwhile, gaming properties in Nevada, such as Harrah’s Entertainment and MGM Resorts International, are in the process of developing strategies to monetize the legalization of internet gaming. With the future of sites like PokerStars, UB.com, and Full Tilt Poker up in the air following the markup amendments of HR 2267, people like Jan Jones, Harrah’s Senior Vice President for Communications and Government Relations, seem to think online poker would improve Nevada’s gaming market.

“If you look at the businesses that are surviving today, they approach their customers in three ways,” Jones told the Gazette-Journal. “One is brick and mortar. One is direct marketing sales, and the other is the internet.

“The businesses that have not done that have gone out of business. Look at record stores. Look at newspapers. In the gaming industry, we need to realize, where are the X-Y generation customers? They are all on the internet. That is where they play. That is where they congregate, and if we don’t leverage the internet, then we run the risk of becoming an old person’s entertainment.”

Stay tuned to Poker News Daily for the latest news on Capitol Hill.

Daniel Negreanu Fires Insults at Annie Duke

Team PokerStars Pro member Daniel Negreanu‘s hurtful remarks about UB.com‘s Annie Duke during interview with PokerPlayer.co.uk have sent the poker community taking sides between the two superstars. Negreanu called Duke a “f***ing c***” during what Negreanu thought to be an “off the record” conversation with writer Mark Stuart last week. His comments were published, however, and a verbal spat between the two sides followed.

In the article, titled “The Evolution of Daniel Negreanu,” Negreanu was asked what irked him about the 2010 World Series of Poker Ladies Event in which more than a dozen men played. Negreanu voiced his disgust at the whole situation and then went on a tirade about Duke, who has never been an advocate of the Ladies Event as a believer of sexual equality at the poker table. “What irked me is that this woman has the audacity on her website to call herself ‘the best female poker player in the world.’ So I’m like ‘how offensive are you, you f***ing c***? You want to say you’re speaking for women, yet you claim superiority over all of them.’”

The article was quickly passed through forums and other social media networks and eventually made its way to Duke, who was astounded by the comments made about her. Responding to the verbal assault, Duke wrote on Twitter, “Thank you for the support. I was certainly shocked at the language myself. I welcome criticism, but not abuse.”

PokerStars received word of the remarks made by Negreanu, the site’s most famous spokesperson, and one member of the PokerStars support team replied to an e-mail sent by a player on the site: “Although Daniel Negreanu is a Team PokerStars Pro, he is an entity to himself and as such will always be encouraged to express his views and speak his mind as he would otherwise do so, PokerStars Pro or not.”

Needless to say, Duke wasn’t satisfied with that response. She fired back with an “Open Letter to PokerStars” on her website demanding some sort of reprimand: “I am not offended by Daniel’s opinion. He has a right to disagree with me and dislike me. And I, just like PokerStars, would encourage him to express his views and opinions. This is not about his views. It is about a particular word he chose to express those views. The word “c**t” is not an opinion, it is an abusive epithet, and PokerStars is completely ignoring the use of that term in their response.”

Duke continues, “But more distressing is the use of the word ‘encouraged’ here. So, PokerStars, you are encouraging Daniel to continue to express views in this manner, to conduct these public attacks using offensive slurs and inappropriate language? I am more than dismayed that PokerStars is making a statement here that they encourage this kind of behavior, this kind of language use. According to PokerStars, this kind of behavior enriches our community.”

PokerStars then answered with an official statement in response to Duke’s letter, saying that the first e-mail was not PokerStars’ official statement on the issue: “PokerStars does not support the use of derogatory or hurtful language directed at any other player. While this was a personal matter between two players, we wish that better judgment had been used in the choice of words.”

Several high profile poker players have weighed in on the conflict, including Duke’s brother and Full Tilt Poker pro Howard Lederer, who came to her defense with a Twitter update shortly after the article was posted. “Hey Daniel, nice job representing poker and reinforcing that our attitude towards women is still Neanderthal,” Lederer said. “I understand some agree w DN on the ladies poker event issue. Many do. But abusing those you disagree with is never cool.”

Even the brazen Tony G offered to act as a mediator. “Let’s smooth over this situation, let’s try and forget that it ever happened. I know this fantastic place in Utah where you can get away from the world and I will pay for you to both go there and relax and chill out,” the PartyPoker pro said in his blog Wednesday. “You are both important ambassadors for the game we love – please let’s resolve this in a diplomatic manner otherwise someone is going to get really hurt.”

Negreanu has yet to offer an apology to Duke, which will certainly cause even more tension at the tables in the future. It’s public knowledge that the two haven’t gotten along since even before the poker boom of 2003 and it’s certainly keeping the community talking. Stay tuned to Poker News Daily for more high-stakes drama.

Poker Players Alliance Comments on Commerce Casino HR 2267 Stance

Recently, the Poker Players Alliance (PPA), the main lobbying force for the poker industry, launched a petition at PlayersBeforeProfits.com to reverse the Commerce Casino’s stance on critical internet gambling legislation. HR 2267, dubbed the Internet Gambling Regulation, Consumer Protection, and Enforcement Act, was successfully marked up in the House Financial Services Committee last month and now waits for its time to be debated in Congress.

Nearly 7,000 players had signed the online petition at the time of writing and the PPA was shooting for 10,000. The push came as a result of an action alert sent by the PPA to its members and followed testimony in the House Financial Services Committee from the Commerce Casino’s Tom Malkasian. His testimony claimed in part that HR 2267 is “based on false revenue assumptions that would require removal of the right of any state or tribe to opt out of the bill in order to achieve the advertised tax revenue of $42 billion over ten years.”

Malkasian also highlighted that allowing illegal operators to receive licenses under HR 2267 equates to “locking in unprecedented market advantages that can undermine and destabilize the land-based casino gaming industry.” He also voiced concerns over HR 2267 conflicting with tribal compacts and allowing internet gambling sites to be located outside of the United States. The latter three concerns were each addressed during markup as part of a dozen amendments tacked onto the bill.

PPA Executive Director John Pappas told Poker News Daily, “They don’t want to compete with existing online operators or Harrah’s or Wynn or Google or anyone else who may get involved in internet gambling. They prefer to have their own fiefdom in California… A lot of lawmakers went out of their way to address their concerns via amendments, yet they still continue to oppose the bill.”

The PPA’s action alert merely called for players to contact the Commerce and express their disappointment with the casino’s stance towards the sweeping internet gambling legislation. Players took it upon themselves to suggest a boycott, which the PPA did not initially ask for. Pappas explained, “We felt that poker players can make those types of decisions on their own. We want to reserve a boycott and I don’t think it’s something we intended to call for. Should the Commerce continue to be obstinate, then we might revise our stance there.”

Pappas questioned why the Commerce wouldn’t be content to apply for a license under HR 2267 if the bill were to become law. The PPA’s main face speculated, “For a long time, they dominated the poker scene in California and they feel entitled to California’s online poker players’ money. Maybe they don’t feel that they’re as strong and won’t be able to compete.” On Friday night, Commerce Casino officials distributed a press release claiming support from the Bicycle Casino, Hawaiian Gardens Casino, and Hollywood Park Casino in opposition to Congressman Barney Frank’s bill.

As part of his House Financial Services Committee testimony, Malkasian likened legalizing internet gambling to legalizing marijuana, a comparison Pappas did not look kindly upon: “In essence, they’re calling the pro players endorsing sites drug dealers. That would offend me, especially when it comes from our purported friends. It wouldn’t have been shocking if it were from Focus on the Family or Congressman Bob Goodlatte, but when it’s coming from a supposed friend of poker because it doesn’t fit their business model, of course we’ll voice our concern.”

After an internal debate on the proper course of action, the PPA launched PlayersBeforeProfits.com. “We came to a decision after hearing from so many of our members,” Pappas told Poker News Daily. “We felt obligated to inform our members about it. Our goal is to get 10,000 signatures. We’ll go back to the Commerce and see if they’ve revaluated their position after we do.”

Stay tuned to Poker News Daily for the latest legislative developments.