Tatjana “TattyTats” Pasalic Renews Sponsorship Deal With Bodog
With the 2012 World Series of Poker on the horizon, poker professional Tatjana “TattyTats” Pasalic and Bodog announced earlier this week that they have renewed their sponsorship deal until at least 2013.
The excitement of the renewed deal might have been a bit much for Pasalic, who Tweeted the news even prior to the announcement of the signing. “Very proud and happy to announce that I have renewed my Bodog contract,” she chirped to her followers. “Bring on the party and more poker videos!”
Pasalic has been a part of the poker community for quite some time, albeit not in the traditional manner. She spent much of the past eight years working as a television announcer, with PartyPoker and the World Poker Tour Europe, before stepping to the felt in 2009 to become a poker professional. She was rewarded for her tenacity in the business by earning a precious sponsorship deal through Bodog in May of last year.
Pasalic’s renewal brings Team Bodog Pro to a roster of four, joining Canada’s Evelyn Ng (a member of the squad since 2006), the United States’ Amanda Musumeci (who joined in 2010) and recently signed member Jennette “Jay” Tan. The four femme fatales of the felt also might lead some to ask what it takes to get sponsored by a major online poker room, especially following the travails of the past year.
Over her career, Ng has been able to rack up an impressive $377,191 in tournament earnings, including her second place finish in the WPT’s Ladies’ Night event back in 2003, but times have been a bit tough on Ng recently. She did make a nice run at the 2011 WSOP Championship Event, but that made up the majority of her over $36K in earnings for the year and it was her first cash in a tournament since 2008 (admittedly, Ng also has cash games skills to alleviate some of those tournament pressures).
Pasalic has found the transition from media member to active player a bit more difficult. After making a nice score in 2010 at the PartyPoker.com Women’s World Open, the tables have been unkind to the Croatian. She has yet to see a tournament finish since the PartyPoker event.
Carrying the load for Team Bodog Pro has been Musumeci. In 2011, Musumeci earned ten cashes, including a deep run in the WSOP Championship Event and a championship in a preliminary event at the Borgata Fall Poker Open, on her way to making a neat $208,675 over the year. 2012 has also been kind to Musumeci as she has already earned ten cashes for the year and is looking to increase that total during this year’s WSOP.
Tan has been a terror in the Asian poker world, earning five cashes over the past two years in Macau and one in Manila, but she has yet to step into the “ring of fire” of major tournament poker (European Poker Tour, WPT, WSOP). Tan has earned a total of slightly more than $64,000 from her exploits in Macau and Manila.
It has never been about the tournament success for the folks at Bodog, however (remember, they could not come to terms with former WPT Championship winner David Williams, even after he won the title). Prior to the signing of Tan, Bodog stated the criteria they were looking at when it comes to filling out the team. “Bodog is looking for an attractive female poker player who is a fresh face in the industry,” the spokesman stated. “Bodog is not looking to teach a Playboy model how to play poker, so poker experience is necessary.”
It is also necessary to look at the locations that Bodog is targeting as far as their sponsored pros. Ng covers the Canadian market; while Musumeci is from the United States, she has a wealth of international support. Tan covers the Asian gaming arena, while Pasalic picks up the Eastern European contingent.
The ladies of Team Bodog Pro will be on hand to attack the WSOP later this week, so there are great opportunities on the horizon. It sounds as though Pasalic is ready to step up to the challenge, however, stating during the announcement, “The WSOP is around the corner and I can confirm I will definitely be on that plane. I love working with Bodog and they seem to like me…here’s to another great year.”
2012 World Poker Tour World Championship Day 1: Steve O’Dwyer Leading the Way
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WPT Championship Day One: Steve O’Dwyer Takes Early Lead In Difficult Field
The tsunami of poker that is descending on Las Vegas for the next three months has kicked off with the start of the World Poker Tour’s World Championship event at the Bellagio on Saturday.
The WPT Championship features an extremely deep stacked format and late registration that kept the first day numbers down but, even with that said, it was still an impressive field. Playing four 90 minute levels for Day One and starting with 100,000 chips, 103 players stepped to the green baize to compete for the final title of the WPT Season Ten schedule. Among those who would step forward on Day One to take their shot at the championship were some of the top professionals in the game, vying for not only the WPT Championship honors but also other awards as well.
Each of the 21 events prior to the WPT Championship awarded its victor with a seat to this particular tournament and nearly every winner has turned up to compete. Of those who earned their $25K seat for free, only WPT Ireland champion Dave Shallow and WPT Grand Prix de Paris victor Matt Waxman had not made an appearance yet at the Bellagio (WPT Barcelona winner Lukas Berglund is under 21 and thus unable to play in Las Vegas). With Waxman Tweeting that he will be registering on Sunday, only Shallow has yet to step into the fray.
Besides the Season Ten champions of the WPT, the field was replete with top names. In the early going, Daniel Negreanu, Daniel Santoro and Cliff Josephy entered into a pot after a raise from Josephy and calls from the other two gentlemen. The big blind came along as well and, four handed, they saw an A-J-8 flop. This was enough to get the gamble going for the men on the felt as the chips began to fly.
After a Negreanu check, the big blind pushed out a 1300 chip bet. Josephy made the call, only to see former WPT champion Santoro popped the action to 5500. Back to Negreanu, “Kid Poker” flung some chips of his own, four betting the proceedings up to 14K. The big blind decided that discretion was the better part of valor and ducked out, but Josephy made a strong statement by making it 40K.
Santoro now decided that he had enough, folding his hand, but Negreanu agonized over the decision. After some deliberation, Negreanu showed his pocket Jacks for middle set and mucked his cards. Josephy was kind enough to show Negreanu one Ace and later admitted on Twitter that he did, indeed, have pocket Aces for the top set. To be honest, it was an amazing laydown by one of the best players in the game.
Two players with a great deal on the line at the WPT Championship did well during their opening day of play. Joe Serock, who held the lead in the WPT Player of the Year race for all of a week, moved up the leaderboard early by cutting out a sizeable chunk of chips from Heather Sue Mercer and would finish the day in the Top Ten. Another player with POY aspirations, Vanessa Selbst, bested Serock by finishing one spot above him in fifth place on the Day One table. It was Steve O’Dwyer, however, who would walk away with the day’s chip lead after staying out of major attention throughout the day:
1. Steve O’Dwyer, 231,750
2. Masa Kagawa, 228,675
3. Tyler Smith, 221,600
4. Guillaume Darcourt, 215,250
5. Vanessa Selbst, 207,425
6. Joe Serock, 197,000
7. Michael Mizrachi, 194,875
8. Justin Young, 190,000
9. Isaac Haxton, 189,500
10. Farzad Bonyadi, 185,000
Of the original 103 starters, 98 of them will come back to do battle on Sunday afternoon. With the late registration period lasting until the start of play Monday, there will be no accurate count as to the players or the first place prize they will play for until sometime that afternoon. If the quality of players that come out on Sunday is as good as what was seen yesterday, the 2012 WPT Championship could go down as one to remember.
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North Carolina Senate Votes To Make Poker Live At Cherokee Casino
Earlier this week, the North Carolina Senate took up discussion on whether to allow the only casino located in the state, Harrah’s Cherokee Casino in Cherokee, NC, to have live dealers for their table games, such as poker and blackjack.
After the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, who operate the Cherokee Casino, and Governor Beverly Perdue came to an agreement back in November 2011 to open up for “live” gaming, the North Carolina General Assembly still had to pass legislation that would allow for the changes to take place. On Wednesday, the Senate introduced the appropriate legislation and passed it by a 33-14 vote, taking the next step to ratify the gaming agreement between the tribe and the state by sending the bill to the House.
The major part of the legislation was to allow for the Cherokee Casino to utilize live dealers rather than video tables that were authorized under the previous legislation. For both poker and blackjack, the video tables made by the Matthews, NC, based company PokerTek had been long used by the Cherokee Casino. The PokerPro tables, in particular, have had a love/hate relationship by players who miss the essence of a “live” dealer and chips but like the factor of a speeded up game.
The new legislation has been something that has been discussed by the tribe and the state since 2006, but it hasn’t come to fruition until now. It would more than likely end the usage of the PokerTek tables and create new jobs in the casino. Approximately 400 jobs would be created under the new guidelines, something that would help out in the current economy. It would also help out both the Cherokee Indians and the state through new revenues.
The agreement, which is a 30-year compact, would have the Cherokee Casino share revenues from the live games with the state. The initial revenue sharing would start at four percent and eventually go up to eight percent. The $1.2 million dollars per year that the early years of the deal would bring to the state wouldn’t have much effect on their $20 billion budget, the additional revenues from employment would add to their take.
Unfortunately, there have been opponents of the proposal to go live at the Cherokee Casino. Reverend Mark Creech, the director of the Christian Action League, stated to the Columbus Republic, “When the government seeks to profit from gambling, it becomes the house, which means it has a vested interest against its own people…It was wrong when we did it with the lottery and now we are compounding our sins (by increasing casino gaming).”
One of the elected officials for the area, Senator Tom Apodaca of Henderson, didn’t see any issues with the new legislation. “What the bill simply does is allow the Cherokee Indians to use live dealers where they use machines now,” he said. As to those who are against the new gaming options due to their allegations of problem gaming and other factors, Apodaca put his position firmly on the map by saying, “Human beings should be allowed to make their own choices in life.”
The new live option at the Cherokee Casino could increase revenues at the facility. After the casino opened in 1998, gambling revenues were $128 million and continually climbed from there to a high of $449 million in 2008. After the economic downturn of that year, the Cherokee Casino has seen their revenues fall to about $378 million in 2010. And it is the gambling that drives the Cherokee Casino; revenues for 2010 from non-gaming segments of the casino (food, hotel and retail) only totaled $13 million.
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Big Weekend Ahead As WPT Championship, Super High Roller Take Center Stage
The penultimate event of the Season Ten schedule of the World Poker Tour, the WPT Championship at the Bellagio in Las Vegas, kicks off this Saturday, with the additional thrills of a Super High Roller tournament joining it next week.
The WPT Championship, the $25,000 buy in event that has traditionally closed each year of the WPT schedule, is getting a bit later start this year than in the past. Formerly held in April of each year, the WPT may have made the move to the later start date in May to take advantage of the hordes of players that will be descending on the desert oasis for the World Series of Poker that begins at the end of this month. Regardless of the reason, the 2012 WPT Championship promises to be an exciting week of poker.
“The prestige of this event is unmatched as whoever is left standing will have defeated what many consider to be the toughest field in all of poker,” Steve Heller, the WPT Chief Executive Officer, stated leading up to the tournament. “Earning the right to be called WPT World Champion is poker’s crowning achievement and a career-defining moment.”
The list of prior victors at the WPT Championship demonstrates the factor of its difficulty. Alan Goehring won the inaugural champion back in 2003, with champions Martin De Knijff, Tuan Le, Joe Bartholdi, Carlos Mortensen, David Chen, Yevgeniy Timoshenko, David Williams and defending champion Scott Seiver following in his path. Others such as Hasan Habib, Matt Matros, Phil Ivey, Doyle Brunson, Gus Hansen, Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier, Eric “basebaldy” Baldwin, Shawn Buchanan and Galen Hall (among others) have made at least one appearance at the final table of this tournament.
Adding to the pressure of the tournament will be the race for the WPT Player of the Year honors. The eventual winner of the WPT Championship will take down 1400 points for the effort and, as such, there are a host of players that are in contention for the prestigious honor of WPT POY.
After leading the POY race for much of Season Ten, Will “The Thrill” Failla was unceremoniously dumped from the top slot by Joe Serock at the WPT Seminole Hard Rock Showdown during the WPT’s swing through the state of Florida. Undaunted, Failla climbed right back to the top of the table by finishing in sixth place at the WPT Jacksonville BestBet Open.
With 2050 points, Failla’s lead is far from secure. Other than Serock (who holds 1800 points in second place), there are 76 other players that are within the 1400 points that earning the WPT Championship would give them. Some of the players who could rise up to snatch the POY award (if none of the players in front of them make the money) include Season Ten champions James Dempsey, Tommy Vedes and Sean Jazayeri, Vanessa Selbst and Andrew Lichtenberger.
For those who find themselves on the rail after the WPT Championship is in full swing – and if they have deep enough pockets – the WPT will also be bringing back its Super High Roller tournament, beginning on May 23. The $100,000 buy in tournament (which will actually be a rebuy tournament), which first played last year, drew the crème of the poker playing world to battle it out for a $2.8 million prize pool. 29 players went to the felt in 2011, with Erik Seidel outlasting Erick Lindgren for the $1.09 million first place prize, and it is expected that this field will once again pull in several high profile names to compete for the Super High Roller title.
Late registration for the WPT Championship will last well into Day Three of the tournament, so the actual prize pool for the tournament will not be known until early next week. As the finale of the Season Ten schedule for the WPT, though, it is expected that the field will be replete with big name pros and the amateurs that are looking to take them down.
PokerNews Weekly: May 18, 2012
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Women In Poker Hall Of Fame Nominations Open
In a short time, the Women in Poker Hall of Fame has become the preeminent group recognizing the contributions of women to the game of poker. With their 2012 induction ceremonies fast approaching in August, the Hall has opened up their nomination process for those ladies who have given their all for the game of poker. The actual induction ceremony is currently set for August 31 at the Golden Nugget Casino in downtown Las Vegas.
The criteria for potential nominees for the Hall are quite rigid, as entry into any Hall of Fame should be. A potential candidate will have had to have been active in the poker industry (either as a player or “behind the scenes”) for a minimum of ten years and be over the age of 35. Naturally, all potential nominees will have to be a proponent of women in poker. All nominees will also have to be approved by the Board of Directors of the organization.
After the public nomination period ends, the list of potential new members of the Hall will be put in front of the Screening Committee, comprised of the Board of Directors and the members of the Hall. After the reviewing process has been completed, those eligible candidates are voted on by the Hall of Fame members, the Board and selected members of the media. Using a system similar to that of the Poker Hall of Fame (ten votes to each voting member, to be put towards whichever candidate or candidates deemed worthy), the top vote getters then earn their way into the Hall.
The list of potential nominees that can be suggested to the WiPHoF are plentiful, to say the least (that is if they are over 35). From the industry side, Dianna Donofrio-Trigatzi has been a longtime proponent of charitable poker endeavors across the nation. Former World Poker Tour Ladies’ Champion Nancy Todd currently is leading the efforts to bring live poker and casinos to the state of Arkansas. Kathy Raymond has been the poker room director at two of the major casinos in the United States, Foxwoods in Connecticut and the Venetian in Las Vegas, while Lisa Wheeler has had a long career behind the scenes of the poker industry in virtually all aspects of media and promotion.
When it comes to players, there are a plethora of qualified potential nominees. To get an international feel, such players as Victoria Coren, Lucy Rokach and Maureen Feduniak would be excellent choices. The United States could provide potential nominees such as Annie Duke, Joanne “J. J.” Liu and the legendary Betty Carey.
Past ceremonies to the Hall have inducted some of the best women in the game of poker. During last year’s ceremonies, Phyllis Caro, Margie Heintz and poker player Kristy Gazes all were honored before a packed house at the Golden Nugget. In 2010, industry pro Billie Brown and longtime professional players Jennifer Harman and Kathy Liebert were given the highly respected slots in the Hall. The other members of the Hall are June Field, Jan Fisher and Cyndy Violette (from 2009′s ceremonies) and the tremendously solid inaugural class of Barbara Enright, Marsha Waggoner, Susie Isaacs and Linda Johnson (2008).
If this year’s process holds as it has in years past, the nomination period should end around the end of June. After the review, the potential nominees will then move on to the election process, with a minimum of two and potentially as many as four earning the honor of moving into the Hall alongside other greats of the game. To nominate a player for the exclusive honor of being in the Women in Poker Hall of Fame, head to womeninpokerhalloffame.com to make your voice heard.
Tapie Tournament Series Pushed Off To 2013
Although they might have failed in their attempts to purchase the shuttered Full Tilt Poker, the French investment company Groupe Bernard Tapie is moving on with their plans for one of the largest poker tournaments ever, albeit at a later date than they imagined.
The International Stadiums Poker Tour (ISPT) was slated to have their inaugural tournament in Wembley Stadium in London, the United Kingdom, between August and October of 2012. The tournament, which would feature a €600 buy in, would have originally played out through online satellites before determining the final 30,000 players. At that point, the plan was to have the survivors meet at the hallowed grounds of Wembley and continue the tournament, playing through tablet computers in the stands. Once the field was worked down to a manageable 3000 or so, the players would then hit the pitch at Wembley to play out the remainder of the tournament.
Many were intrigued by the concept of the ISPT but, without an online poker room to provide the satellites for the tournament, finding the requisite number of players was thought to be a challenge. This was allegedly the reasoning for the pursuit by Groupe Bernard Tapie to purchase Full Tilt Poker over the last half of 2011 and into this year. With those plans now scuttled due to the inability for Groupe Bernard Tapie to work out a deal with the U. S. Department of Justice for the purchase of the site, the organization is now faced with the challenge of moving forward with the ISPT without an online operation to funnel the players.
According to an interview with CardPlayer Magazine, the ISPT will be postponing their new endeavor until May 31, 2013. All of the potential of the tournament, such as player numbers and the plans for playing down to a champion, are still expected, with a prize pool estimated to be around €20 million and first place expected to pay out somewhere in the neighborhood of around €10 million. “We hope that this event will be fondly remembered by the participants and that it breaks all records,” Laurent Tapie stated to CardPlayer.
While they are moving forward, there are several areas for concern. The website for the inaugural tournament, ispt.com, features very little information for potential players. For many of the tabs on the site, all that is listed is a method for registering your name and e-mail address which will allow the ISPT to notify players “when registration opens.” Other critical bits, such as potential partners for the tournament series and hotel options for players, also do not list any such offerings.
There are also the logistical pitfalls that may derail the ISPT before it even gets off the ground. Without the online satellites to provide players, reaching the 30K mark of players might be unattainable (rumors are that Groupe Bernard Tapie, having failed in procuring Full Tilt, might be looking to create their own online site). Furthermore, having players inside a football stadium such as Wembley presents computer server issues, not to mention the factor of the elements in the United Kingdom during the month of May (for example, today’s high is expected to be 61° with a 50% chance of rain in London, not necessarily the type of weather you want to do much in, including poker).
For now, however, those issues and many others can be tabled. Over the span of the remainder of this year, it will be interesting to see if Groupe Bernard Tapie can pull off the audacious task of bringing the International Stadiums Poker Tour to life and usher in what might be a new era of poker tournaments for the world.