Poker News

Online Poker Community Donates $1.5 Million to Haiti Earthquake Survivors

The online poker community has raised $1.5 million for victims of the magnitude 7.0 earthquake that rocked Haiti earlier this month, according to a press release distributed by the Poker Players Alliance (PPA).

Full Tilt Poker saw 22,785 donations come in from concerned members of the industry for total donations of $293,211. In a gracious showing, the world’s second largest online poker site doubled contributions from its patrons for a total donation of $586,423, or over one-third of the figure cited by the PPA. Aid for Haiti play and no-play tournaments were held on Full Tilt Poker and a special user account was created to accept incoming transfers benefiting the relief efforts.

As expected, PPA Chairman Alfonse D’Amato, a former three-term Republican Senator from New York, was elated to see the giving mood of the online poker community. In a press release distributed by the lobbying organization this week, D’Amato commented, “Like the rest of the world, the poker community is eager to do anything it can to aid Haiti in the wake of the devastating earthquake. I applaud PokerStars, Full Tilt Poker, and Cake Poker for providing poker players across the globe an easy way to make a contribution. The generosity online poker players are showing makes me even more proud to be part of this community.”

PPA Executive Director John Pappas echoed D’Amato’s sentiments in an interview with the online poker forum PocketFives.com, calling the massive effort “a tribute to the generosity of the poker community.” Pappas added that the seven-digit donation mark does not include private contributions made by poker pros and other members of the industry to organizations like the Red Cross and UNICEF, which hit the ground in Haiti shortly after the epic January 12th tremor.

The PPA revealed that 50,000 online poker players have donated a total of $760,000, an average of about $15 each. With online poker sites matching the funds dollar-for-dollar, the total amount generated surpasses $1.5 million. On PokerStars, donations are being accepted until January 31st at Noon ET. No-play Haiti Earthquake Relief tournaments have buy-ins ranging from $1 to $1,000. Text found on PokerStars’ website succinctly explains, “You will not need to play an actual tournament; instead, all of the 'entry fees' go straight to the fund.”

PokerStars, the world’s largest online poker site, also created a special player account called “Haiti Fund.” Users can transfer funds to the account and PokerStars will match all money raised for the relief effort. The website, which has campaigned for a variety of charitable causes like Ante Up for Africa over the years, reminded its clientele, “PokerStars has been quick to facilitate this after previous disasters, and once again it is giving you an easy way to donate cash.”

Meanwhile, Cake Poker, a USA-friendly site that features Lee Jones as its Poker Room Manager, is taking donations until Midnight ET on January 31st. Five “holding tanks” were created for players to donate to the cause in $5, $25, $100, $200, and $500 increments. Past charity efforts by Cake Poker include involvement in the Aces and Angels Celebrity Poker Tournament and Oregon’s West Side Poker Club.

Other sites, including RedKings, UB.com, Absolute Poker, and DoylesRoom held poker tournaments last week to raise money for the cause. On the CEREUS Network, 717 players turned out for a $5 rebuy benefiting earthquake victims. In addition, customers on the Network’s two sites, UB.com and Absolute Poker, can donate their player points in each room’s store. On DoylesRoom, a special Haiti Bounty saw Academy Award nominee Mickey Rourke hit the felts.

A magnitude 5.9 aftershock hit Haiti shortly after and the Red Cross noted that three million people may have been affected. We’d like to salute members of the poker community who donated.

Tiffany Michelle Comments on New Amazing Race Cast

The pairings for the 16th cycle of the Emmy Award winning reality series “Amazing Race” were released last week and, this time around, no poker players will make the journey. Competing last season was UB.com pro Tiffany Michelle, who hit the “Amazing Race” circuit with Maria Ho. Michelle sat down with Poker News Daily to preview the new season, which kicks off on February 14th on CBS.

Poker News Daily: This cycle’s cast list includes former housemates on CBS’ “Big Brother,” Miss Teen South Carolina 2007, and a Major League Baseball third base coach. Who’s your horse?

Tiffany Michelle: It’s interesting to see that there are three all-female teams this season. Last year, it was a really young, competitive bunch. The producers have to keep it to where everyone’s strengths, weaknesses, and abilities are on par with the others in that season. We thought it was weird that there wasn’t an old couple or a mom and daughter last year. This year, they opened it up again.

I’ve been watching the initial meet the cast videos and I think the cowboys (Jet and Cord) will be a fan favorite. The ones that stood out to me were the detectives (Louie and Michael). That’s an interesting type of person to put on the show.

PND: Were you surprised to see that no poker players will journey out for this season of “Amazing Race”?

Tiffany Michelle: Doing enough in the entertainment business, I have some insight into how casting works. You can’t exhaust one group of people. You want to keep it new and fresh every year and that’s why we were brought on last year. Each season, they’ll reach out to grab people from all walks of life. As hot of a topic as poker is, each of the poker players who have been on reality shows were there for a reason. I don’t think you’ll see a huge influx of poker players on reality shows.

PND: What about poker players gives them a leg up on the competition in a series like “Amazing Race”?

Tiffany Michelle: Your outlook on life, games, and competition is different than the everyday person’s. Poker encompasses psychology, mathematics, aggression, and observation. Poker is very similar to chess in that it requires a lot of mental stamina and gamesmanship. Poker players are used to approaching games from a different point of view.

PND: There has been a trend on the show to include racers who have already appeared in front of television cameras and in the public eye. Does that give anyone an edge?

Tiffany Michelle: After Phil [Keoghan] says go, you are not even aware of the cameras or audio guys. Within the first day, you’re oblivious to having a camera crew. They’re good at not getting in your way too.

PND: This installment’s cast is rumored to travel to places like Chile, Argentina, Singapore, and Seychelles. If you had the chance to run the “Amazing Race” again, where would you go?

Tiffany Michelle: Warm places like Australia, the Caribbean, and some lovely tropical destinations. This season, it’ll be a little bit colder and you won’t hit a lot of hot spots. A lot of our season’s cast wanted to go to Africa because it’d be an incredible experience. That was one place that I thought would be awesome. From a technical standpoint, it’s hard to pull that off, though. We went to Vietnam, which they said for years they had tried to do.

PND: How’d you fare at the L.A. Poker Classic?

Tiffany Michelle: I only played one event. Maria and I both played and it was nice to be back in the saddle. Now, I am off to Panama and I’ll be back at the Commerce Casino after that. I’m trying to decide between doing the North American Poker Tour (NAPT) or L.A. Poker Classic Main Events. In two weeks, I’m going to Las Vegas to do a show with the Harlem Globetrotters. We’re going to suit up and play against them. I’m pretty sporty, but basketball is my worst sport.

PND: We read on Twitter that you were reviewing movies for the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) Awards. What’s your involvement with them?

Tiffany Michelle: I’m a member of SAG, which is the union for acting, entertainment, film, and television. Every year, whereas the Emmys and Oscars are voting on by academies, actors vote on the SAG Awards. During awards season, they send you movies to watch and you vote. I always get a slew of current nominees.

I thought “Inglorious Basterds” was incredibly phenomenal. I thought it was an amazing movie. “Up in the Air” was cool too. I’m a girl, so of course I loved “It’s Complicated.” For television shows, I love “Glee” and Kevin McHale is a friend of mine.

PND: How have you been faring in the ongoing Ultimate Bet Online Championship (UBOC)?

Tiffany Michelle: Sunday was the $2,500 buy-in $1 million guaranteed. I played it even though I don’t play short-handed poker. I can play six-handed, but I know there are a lot of specific strategies with regards to starting hands.

Shak Shocks Ivey, Wins $100k Crown

“I try, in life, just in general, to keep the highs not too high and the lows not too low,” he said moments after defeating poker legend Phil Ivey heads up to take the title. “But believe me, I’m extremely excited.

“This is something I’ve been working towards for such a long time and I may not show the excitement, but inside I’m extremely excited.  I’m not going to jump up and down, but inside I probably already am.”

A total of 24 players ponied up the $100k buy-in to enter the world’s most expensive poker tournament and the field played down to a final table of eight in Melbourne Saturday.

When they returned to crown a winner Monday, a short stacked Howard Lederer was the first to exit, running ace-ten into Tony G’s aces.

Start-of-day chip leader Jonathan "xMONSTERxDONGx" Karamalikis was actually the next player out. The young Aussie online legend doubled up a few of the shorter stacks before eventually running ace-ten into Shak’s nines and failing to improve.

Barry Greenstein then had his kings cracked by Tony Bloom’s jacks and the Team PokerStars Pro bubbled the money a few hands later when Bloom’s own kings held against his queen-ten.

Tony G was the next to go, getting his buy-in back when his tens lost a race with Shak’s ace-king and it wasn’t long before 2009 $100k Challenge runner-up Bloom got it in dominated by Ivey and bowed out fourth cashing for AUD$200,000.

Local cash game pro Bill Jordanou hit the rail third, collecting AUD$300,000 when he got it in with top two against Ivey’s overpair, but Ivey turned a set and rivered a flush.

Heads up started with Ivey and Shak about even, but the day trader took the veteran pro to task, building a 3:1 chip lead through a series of aggressive pre and post flop plays.

Eventually Ivey got it in with ace-ten against ace-seven, but Shak flopped a seven to suck out and while the Team Full Tilt Pro and 2009 November Niner was forced to settle for the AUD$600,000 second-place prize, pushing him up to the top spot on poker’s all-time leading money winners list, Shak booked the AUD$1.2 million win.

“I think I played well the whole heads-up match,” Shak explained. “The last hand I got lucky, there is no doubt about that, but up until that last hand I feel like I played very well.

“These guys are the best in the world, but I’d rather play with good players. I always seem to play better with good players because they are more predictable. With Phil, there’s nothing you can really say. Today I got the better cards, obviously he is the better player.”

While Shak has been recording cashes on the high-stakes tournament poker scene since 2004, including a fourth-place finish in this very event last year, his biggest score before Monday’s win was a victory in the inaugural Ante Up for Africa charity event at the 2007 World Series of Poker.

Recently divorced from wife Beth, Shak said he felt like his game is much improved and went about proving it in Australia Monday.

“I’ve been working hard on my game and I’ve had some life changes that have given me more time to concentrate on my game,” he said. “I think I’ve taken my game to a new level and I feel like I’m really playing better.”

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Amazing Race 16 Cast Does Not Feature Poker Players

The cast for the 16th cycle of the Emmy Award winning CBS reality series “Amazing Race” does not include any poker players. In its last season, the show featured Maria Ho and UB.com pro Tiffany Michelle.

Ho and Michelle represented the last women standing in the 2007 and 2008 World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Events, respectively. The duo finished sixth in the around-the-world competition after their journey abruptly ended in the Netherlands, where a series of intense physical challenges proved to be too much for Ho and Michelle. A high striker, a common carnival game, proved fatal on one-half of the leg’s Detour, while windy conditions made a unique game of golf using wooden shoes unbearable on the other half.

A total of 11 teams will set out on the “Amazing Race” course for Season 16. Headlining the group are two “Big Brother” cast members from Season 11, Jordan Lloyd and Jeff Schroeder. The couple is “newly dating” according to CBS and will mark the latest pair to join “Amazing Race” after appearing on another CBS reality franchise. Schroeder is 31 years-old and from Norridge, Illinois, while Lloyd is nine years younger and hails from Charlotte, North Carolina. Lloyd lists her lifetime goals as, “to be a dental hygienist, and to get married and have kids.”

Also appearing on the 16th running of “Amazing Race” is Caitlin Upton, who will travel to the four corners of the Earth with her boyfriend, Brent Home. Upton was Miss Teen South Carolina USA 2007 and famously uttered the following response to a question about people being unable to locate the United States on a map: "I personally believe that U.S. Americans are unable to do so because some people out there in our nation don't have maps and I believe that our education like such as South Africa and the Iraq, everywhere like such as, and, I believe that they should, our education over here in the U.S. should help the U.S. or should help South Africa and should help the Iraq and the Asian countries, so we will be able to build up our future, for our children."

Upton’s phrases “the Iraq,” “U.S. Americans.” and “like such as” have become staples of modern lingo, although the beauty queen is now three years removed from her escapade. In a video posted on CBS.com, Upton commented, “I’m stubborn and I hate losing, probably more than he does, and I have a very short fuse, so if somebody gets in my way, there’s going to be some trouble and I’m going to need somebody there to calm me down.” The couple may soon be engaged; both are models.

Cleveland Indians third base coach Steve Smith, 57 years of age, will run the “Amazing Race” with his daughter, Allie Smith, who is 23 and works in marketing. Smith was a coach on the Philadelphia Phillies baseball team that won it all in 2008 and also worked with the Florida Marlins and Texas Rangers. The elder Smith lists his biggest challenge as “not getting lost because we tend to get lost in our own neighborhood.” “Amazing Race” requires a keen sense of direction, as racers travel to countries where English is not the primary language, so road signs and other markers can often be confusing.

Rumored locations that teams will travel to this season include Bariloche, Argentina; Puerto Varas, Chile; and Singapore. The rumored departure city is Los Angeles. The show premieres on Sunday, February 14th at 8:00pm ET on CBS, the same time slot as it held last season.

Dating couple Meghan and Cheyne took down the 15th installment of “Amazing Race,” whose finish line was ironically in Las Vegas. Besides Ho and Michelle, notable cast members vying for the $1 million top prize last time out included Harlem Globetrotters Flight Time and Big Easy and Miss America 2004 Ericka Dunlap, who ran the race with her husband, Brian.

Annie Duke Launches MyMixedNuts.com

Poker players looking for a last-minute present this Christmas season can check out MyMixedNuts.com, a custom, mail order trail mix company brought to life by Poker News Daily Guest Columnist and “Celebrity Apprentice” runner-up Annie Duke.

MyMixedNuts.com allows customers – poker players and non-poker players alike – to choose from a wide variety of fresh ingredients to create the ultimate bag of trail mix. Ingredients available in the “Seeds and Nuts” section of the site’s store include almonds, cashews, hazelnuts, macadamia nuts, peanuts, soy nuts, sunflower seeds, pistachios, pumpkin seeds, walnuts, and pecans. In the “Dry Goods” department, poker players craving foodstuffs like apples, apricots, bananas, blueberries, cherries, coconut, cranberries, dates, figs, ginger, goji berries, mango, orange peel, papaya, pineapple, and raisins will go home happy.

When Poker News Daily visited the site, we went straight to the “Goodies” section, where we could add “healthy” items like chocolate covered fruit, chocolate chips, malt balls, jelly beans, licorice, pretzels, M&Ms, Reese’s Pieces, and sesame seeds. Each trail mix ingredient varies in price and is measured by the ounce, ranging primarily between about $0.50 and $1.50. An easy-to-use front-end interface allows trail mix aficionados to create their ultimate concoction from the comfort of their couches.

A variety of pre-made mixes can be purchased for those who do not wish to create their own. “Annie’s Mix,” which includes raw cashews, raisins, semi-sweet chocolate chips, and banana chips, runs $12.99 for a 14-ounce bag, with $1 of every purchase going to Ante Up for Africa, a charity she founded along with actor Don Cheadle and Norman Epstein. Gummy fans can purchase a pre-made mix called “Gummy Delicious,” which contains sunny bears, dark chocolate chips, sour cherries, roasted and salted almonds, raw macadamia nuts, and golden raisins. This tasty treat will set you back $14.99. Sunny bears, by the way, are vegetarian and organic versions of the traditional junk food item.

Duke told Poker News Daily that when she used to purchase trail mix from the grocery store, she’d pick through it, tossing out components that did not sit well with her and leading to the idea to launch MyMixedNuts.com. Duke teamed up with “Apprentice” producer Ryan Simpkins and boyfriend Joe Reitman, with Simpkins’ mother handling the day-to-day operations of the site. Text found on MyMixedNuts.com explains, “You would understand that his mom must be supremely qualified to handle nutcases, so Annie and Joe were sold on the idea. Susan would handle each order with care and love.”

Free shipping is available for orders that surpass $40 and the site accepts PayPal, Visa, MasterCard, Discover, and American Express. It became a reality in recent days and will seek to make its mark on the made-to-order food world. Poker players looking for a memorable Christmas gift, New Years’ treat, or Valentine’s Day present can even get their loved ones a Mix of the Month Club subscription or a copy of the latest Land of Fruit and Nuts newsletter.

Duke is a sponsored pro of UB.com, joining top-tier names like 11-time World Series of Poker (WSOP) bracelet winner Phil Hellmuth, “Poker2Nite” host Joe Sebok, and 2009 CardPlayer Player of the Year winner Eric “basebaldy” Baldwin, who joined the site on Tuesday. UB.com happily accepts players from the United States and makes its home on the CEREUS Network along with its sister site, Absolute Poker.

Duke finished as the runner-up on “Celebrity Apprentice” to comedian Joan Rivers, who compared the poker pro to Hitler on several occasions. Nevertheless, Duke helped raise well over $700,000 for Refugees International and will now put her business acumen to good use with MyMixedNuts.com.

Happy Holidays from all of us at Poker News Daily.

Christmas Time with Annie Duke

Poker News Daily: We heard that you’ll be launching a new trail mix company, MyMixedNuts.com, just in time for the holidays. Can you tell us about it?

Duke: It’s a custom mixed nuts and trail mix company that I started with my boyfriend, Joe, and Ryan Sympkins. You have your choice of nuts and all sorts of dry fruits and candies. Ryan had this idea for a long time. Ryan is one of the producers on “The Apprentice” and we became very good friends during the show. Ever since, we’ve wanted to work together. I spend all of my time picking things I don’t want out of my trail mix, so I’ll go and buy individual ingredients from the store.

At MyMixedNuts.com, you add items into your cart. We’ll have personal and corporate gifting. There are also ready-to-go mixes where $1 goes to charity. If you buy my mix, for example, $1 goes to Ante Up for Africa. There’s one that goes to an AIDS hospice and one that goes to a rain forest preservation charity.

PND: That’s quite an undertaking. What kind of marketing are you doing for it?

Duke: Our marketing is through social media to start with. Once we get going and things are going smoothly, then we’ll do placements in health magazines and parenting magazines. It’s ironic that Ryan and I met on a show about fake business and now we’re doing a real business. Trail mixes run 14 ounces each and will be between $8 and $15.

PND: We noticed that you weren't at the World Poker Tour’s (WPT) Doyle Brunson Five Diamond World Poker Classic.

Duke: Christmas comes up on me and I have four kids. I literally looked at my schedule and said I can’t do it. Christmas won’t happen if I go to the tournament. This is the kind of decision I have to make a lot. Sometimes I have to choose my kids over poker. I’d rather make sure my family has a good holiday.

PND: What have your kids asked Santa for this year?

Duke: Nelly asked Santa for a computer and I think that’s totally appropriate. All of my kids have laptops except for her and she wants a netbook, which is inexpensive, and some earrings. Lucy asked for a hermit crab. Santa might consider whether he could transport a hermit crab from the North Pole. Lucy’s other big request was a Kindle. Leo, outside of a Kindle, is really interested in anything having to do with the Denver Broncos. Maud is into anime stuff, so maybe some sort of comic book or graphic novel would be good.

PND: What did you ask for?

Duke: I asked for a trip to Mexico for New Years Eve because Annie Duke hates New Years. I have never had a good New Years. How can you possibly have a good time when there’s a huge pressure to have a good time? There’s no spontaneity. My good times are unexpected. I don’t drink, either. The goal on New Years is to get so plastered that you vacate your body and that’s not fun. For someone who is not drinking to speak to someone who is really drunk is not fun. If we go to Mexico, there’s no pressure. The odds of that coming through are good since Santa was asking me for places to stay.

PND: Give us your thoughts on the UB.com-sponsored poker news show “Poker2Nite,” which airs on Fox Sports Net every Wednesday night.

Duke: It’s really good. I think that Joe Sebok is going to grow into it. Scott Huff is incredibly talented. The set is great and I was pleasantly surprised. I like it better than “ESPN Inside Deal.” Joe just needs to get off the prompter. He’s very good just going with the flow.

PND: How tough is it to balance providing a credible news show with accepting guests from other online poker sites besides UB.com?

Duke: You have to do it. It’s one of the things that Full Tilt was ahead of the market on. They’ve done this back to the “Learn from the Pros” days on Fox Sports Net. They didn’t let you wear a logo, but they gave you a shout out. What Full Tilt understood was that it’s their show, but it’s going to be more credible if it has pros from other brands. It’ll be a higher quality show if you open it up to the world. They’ve done it with “Poker After Dark” and that was a mistake they made with “Face the Ace.”

“Poker2Nite” is supposed to have quality coverage of the poker industry. If its guests are from PokerStars, that’s fine. If they’re from Full Tilt, that’s fine. If they’re from UB, that’s fine too.

PND: We understand you just had an interesting experience with eBay.

Duke: At UB, one person can’t make multiple accounts. As a policy across the industry, it’s one player to an account and there are strong reasons why you have to do that, which have to do with fraud.

On eBay, my ex-husband used to have an account associated with my e-mail. I went onto eBay to check on some things for Christmas and wrote in to get the User ID. I called up my ex-husband and he gave me some passwords that could have been right and couldn’t remember the security questions, so I got onto Live Chat and asked for help. They said that he was the owner of the account and asked that he get in touch with them.

Finally, they said, “What you need to do is create a new e-mail address and open a new account with it.” So, I could open up a new account even though they knew I had an account? I asked them if I could do that 20 times and they said yes. At that point, I started screaming into the chat. The policy of allowing someone to have more than one account is mind-boggling. This is one huge site that the Federal Government seems to be okay with, but they are concerned with online poker.

2010 World Series of Poker Schedule Announced

The schedule for the 2010 World Series of Poker (WSOP) was officially announced on Thursday and features a brand new $50,000 buy-in Player’s Championship that will play out in an Eight Game format. Fifty-seven bracelets will be on the line.

The Player’s Championship is the most expensive event ever to kick off the WSOP, which is now in its 41st year. The $50,000 buy-in Player’s Championship will award the Chip Reese Memorial Trophy to its victor and feature Limit Hold’em, Omaha High-Low Split-8 or Better, Seven Card Razz, Seven Card Stud, Seven Card Stud High-Low Split-8 or Better, No Limit Hold’em, Pot Limit Omaha, and 2-7 Triple Draw Lowball. The final table will be played solely in No Limit Hold’em and ESPN will provide television coverage of the event, which will likely bring out the very elite names in the poker community.

On the other end of the buy-in spectrum, six open $1,000 events will be held in addition to the traditional Ladies’ and Seniors’ Championships. The first five weekends of the 2010 WSOP, which begins on May 28th, will feature $1,000 buy-in tournaments. Last year, the Stimulus Special, which featured a $1,000 price tag, drew a record-setting crowd of 6,012 players to the Rio All-Suite Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas.

The 2010 WSOP Main Event will kick off on July 5th, bucking a trend of beginning before the Fourth of July. The final table will be determined on July 17th and the third installment of the November Nine will take to the felts at the Rio from November 6th to 9th in what will likely be a similar schedule to this year. Players will purportedly be assigned a starting day for the Main Event to avoid a fiasco like the one that unfolded on Day 1D in 2009, when more than 500 poker hopefuls were shut out after the tournament reached capacity.

Without further adieu, here is the schedule of events for the 2010 WSOP. All times are local:

Fri, May 28th at 12:00pm
Event #1: Casino Employees No Limit Hold'em
$500 buy-in

Fri, May 28th at 5:00pm
Event #2: The Player's Championship
$50,000 buy-in

Sat, May 29th at 12:00pm
Event #3: No Limit Hold'em
$1,000 buy-in

Sun, May 30th at 5:00pm
Event #4: Omaha High-Low Split-8 or Better
$1,500 buy-in

Mon, May 31st at 12:00pm
Event #5: No Limit Hold'em
$1,500 buy-in

Tue, Jun 1st at 12:00pm
Event #6: No Limit Hold'em Shootout (2,000 players max)
$5,000 buy-in

Tue, Jun 1st at 5:00pm
Event #7: 2-7 Triple Draw Lowball (Limit)
$2,500 buy-in

Wed, Jun 2nd at 12:00pm
Event #8: No Limit Hold’em
$1,500 buy-in

Thu, Jun 3rd at 12:00pm
Event #9: Pot Limit Hold'em
$1,500 buy-in

Thu, Jun 3rd at 5:00pm
Event #10: Seven Card Stud Championship
$10,000 buy-in

Fri, Jun 4th at 11:00am
Event #11: No Limit Hold'em
$1,500 buy-in

Fri, Jun 4th at 11:00am
Event #12: Limit Hold’em
$1,500 buy-in

Sat, Jun 5th at 11:00am
Event #13: No Limit Hold’em
$1,000 buy-in

Sat, Jun 5th at 5:00pm
Event #14: 2-7 Draw Lowball (No Limit)
$1,500 buy-in

Sun, Jun 6th at 5:00pm
Event #15: Seven Card Stud High-Low Split-8 or Better Championship
$10,000 buy-in

Mon, Jun 7th at 12:00pm
Event #16: No Limit Hold’em Six-Handed
$1,500 buy-in

Tue, Jun 8th at 12:00pm
Event #17: No Limit Hold'em
$5,000 buy-in

Wed, Jun 9th at 12:00pm
Event #18: Limit Hold'em
$2,000 buy-in

Wed, Jun 9th at 5:00pm
Event #19: 2-7 Draw Lowball Championship (No Limit)
$10,000 buy-in

Thu, Jun 10th at 12:00pm
Event #20: Pot Limit Omaha
$1,500 buy-in

Thu, Jun 10th at 5:00pm
Event #21: Seven Card Stud
$1,500 buy-in

Fri, Jun 11th at 12:00pm
Event #22: Ladies No Limit Hold’em Championship
$1,000 buy-in

Fri, Jun 11th at 5:00pm
Event #23: Limit Hold'em Six-Handed
$2,500 buy-in

Sat, Jun 12th at 12:00pm
Event #24: No Limit Hold’em
$1,000 buy-in

Sat, Jun 12th at 5:00pm
Event #25: Omaha High-Low Split-8 or Better Championship
$10,000 buy-in

Mon, Jun 14th at 12:00pm
Event #26: No Limit Hold'em Six-Handed
$2,500 buy-in

Mon, Jun 14th at 5:00pm
Event #27: Seven Card Stud High-Low-8 or Better
$1,500 buy-in

Tue, Jun 15th at 12:00pm
Event #28: Pot Limit Omaha
$2,500 buy-in

Tue, Jun 15th at 5:00pm
Event #29: Limit Hold'em Championship
$10,000 buy-in

Wed, Jun 16th at 12:00pm
Event #30: No Limit Hold’em
$1,500 buy-in

Wed, Jun 16th at 5:00pm
Event #31: HORSE
$1,500 buy-in

Thu, Jun 17th at 12:00pm
Event #32: No Limit Hold'em Six-Handed
$5,000 buy-in

Thu, Jun 17th at 5:00pm
Event #33: Pot Limit Hold'em/Omaha
$2,500 buy-in

Fri, Jun 18th at 12:00pm
Event #34: Seniors No Limit Hold’em Championship
$1,000 buy-in

Fri, Jun 18th at 5:00pm
Event #35: Heads-Up No Limit Hold'em Championship (256 player max)
$10,000 buy-in

Sat, Jun 19th at 12:00pm
Event #36: No Limit Hold’em
$1,000 buy-in

Sat, Jun 19th at 5:00pm
Event #37: HORSE
$3,000 buy-in

Sun, Jun 20th at 5:00pm
Event #38: Pot Limit Hold'em Championship
$10,000 buy-in

Mon, Jun 21st at 12:00pm
Event #39: No Limit Hold'em Shootout (2,000 player max)
$1,500 buy-in

Mon, Jun 21st at 5:00pm
Event #40: Seven Card Razz
$2,500 buy-in

Tue, Jun 22nd at 12:00pm
Event #41: Pot Limit Omaha High-Low Split-8 or Better
$1,500 buy-in

Wed, Jun 23rd at 12:00pm
Event #42: No Limit Hold’em
$1,500 buy-in

Wed, Jun 23rd at 5:00pm
Event #43: HORSE Championship
$10,000 buy-in

Thu, Jun 24th at 12:00pm
Event #44: Mixed Hold'em (Limit/No Limit)
$2,500 buy-in

Fri, Jun 25th at 12:00pm
Event #45: No Limit Hold’em
$1,500 buy-in

Fri, Jun 25th at 5:00pm
Event #46: Pot Limit Omaha High-Low Split-8 or Better
$5,000 buy-in

Sat, Jun 26th at 12:00pm
Event #47: No Limit Hold’em
$1,000 buy-in

Sat, Jun 26th at 5:00pm
Event #48: Mixed Event
$2,500 buy-in

Mon, Jun 28th at 12:00pm
Event #49: No Limit Hold'em
$1,500 buy-in

Mon, Jun 28th at 5:00pm
Event #50: Pot Limit Omaha
$5,000 buy-in

Tue, Jun 29th at 12:00pm
Event #51: Triple Chance No Limit Hold’em
$3,000 buy-in

Wed, Jun 30th at 12:00pm
Event #52: No Limit Hold’em Six-Handed
$25,000 buy-in

Wed, Jun 30th at 5:00pm
Event #53: Limit Hold’em Shootout
$1,500 buy-in

Thu, Jul 1st at 12:00pm
Event #54: No Limit Hold’em
$1,000 buy-in

Thu, Jul 1st at 5:00pm
Event #55: Pot Limit Omaha Championship
$10,000 buy-in

Fri, Jul 2nd at 5:00pm
Event #56: No Limit Hold’em
$2,500 buy-in

Sat, Jul 3rd at 2:00pm
Ante Up For Africa Poker Tournament
$5,000 buy-in

2010 WSOP Main Event:
July 5th: Day 1A
July 6th: Day 1B
July 7th: Day 1C
July 8th: Day 1D
July 9th: Day 2A
July 10th: Day 2B
July 11th: Media Event
July 12th: Day 3
July 13th: Day 4
July 14th: Day 5
July 15th: Day 6
July 16th: Day 7
July 17th: Day 8
November 6th to 9th: Final Table

Harrah’s Releases 2010 WSOP Schedule

The 41^st edition of the prestigious series will run May 27-July 17, 2010, at the Rio All-Suite Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas.

The number of events remains unchanged from last year with buy-ins ranging from $1,000 all the way up to $50,000 for the Player’s Championship.

“Whatever your game and whatever your bankroll, the 2010 WSOP schedule offers something for everyone,” said WSOP tournament director Jack Effel. “We are planning for the largest WSOP ever and look forward to welcoming all players to the Rio in Las Vegas this summer.”

The 2010 WSOP will culminate with the $10,000 No-Limit Hold’em World Championship, which begins July 5 and will reach a final table on July 17.

For the third consecutive year, the final nine players will take a four month long break before reconvening as the November Nine on Nov. 6-9 to play out the final table.

The series will begin with the $50k Player’s Championship on Friday, May 28^th, although players will also have the option of a two-day $1,000 Hold’em tournament that also begins that weekend. There will be a $1,000 two-day Hold’em event in every one of the series’ first five weekends and one more on July 1-2.

The $50K Player’s Championship will effectively replace the $50K H.O.R.S.E. event by adding 2-7 Triple Draw, No-Limit Hold’em and Pot-Limit Hold’em to the mix of games.

The winner will still receive the Chip Reese memorial trophy.

Meanwhile H.O.R.S.E. lovers will benefit from the addition of $10,000 Championship H.O.R.S.E. event in lieu of the former $50k event.

Also new for the year is a $25,000 No-Limit Hold’em Six-Max event, which should draw elite rounders from around the globe.

The rest of the schedule remains largely unchanged with notable tournaments like the Ladies event, Seniors event and Ante Up for Africa all returning.

For the first time ever, the entire convention center at the Rio will be used exclusively for the World Series of Poker with tournaments tables in the 58,000 square foot Pavilion and 38,000 square foot Amazon Room.

The food tent will also see changes as it now becomes an indoor food court in the Miranda Room.

In 2009, the WSOP drew 60,875 players from 115 different counties with $175 million up for grabs.

Pre-registration for the 2010 WSOP is now available on-site at the Main Cage in the Rio and online at WSOP.com.

Click here to see the complete 2010 WSOP schedule.

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Phil Hellmuth Joins UB.com Poker2Nite

The fourth installment of the UB.com-sponsored poker news show “Poker2Nite” aired on Wednesday night on Fox Sports Net. The series stars PokerRoad personalities Joe Sebok and Scott Huff. This week, UB.com poker pro Phil Hellmuth joined the show.

Next week, the World Poker Tour (WPT) Doyle Brunson Five Diamond World Poker Classic will kick off from the Bellagio in Las Vegas. Poker2Nite interviewed the tournament’s namesake, who told viewers, “The strength of this field will be stronger than anywhere else. The reason is that there is such a great structure and we don’t play those really long hours.” On the origins of lending his name to the $15,000 buy-in tournament, Brunson explained, “Lyle Berman, who is the founder of the WPT, asked me to do it. He owed me some money, so I told him if he paid me, I’d let him use my name.”

A segment called “In the Tank” featured David “Chino” Rheem battling against Justin Young in the Five Diamond last year. Rheem ultimately took down the tournament for $1.5 million, while Young finished in second place for $936,000. A total of 497 players entered last year, while Brunson told Poker2Nite that he expected around 400 to take the felts this time around.

Hellmuth joined Poker2Nite for a six-minute segment that began with a clip of the 11-time World Series of Poker (WSOP) bracelet winner arguing with fellow UB.com pro Annie Duke on the set of “Best Damn Poker Show.” Hellmuth explained, “Annie and I are really good friends. I emcee her charity tournament for Ante Up for Africa every year and we get along great.” Hellmuth added that Ben Affleck, Jim Harbaugh, Slash, and Anthrax’s Scott Ian have all solicited him for poker lessons.

Hellmuth is one of the poker players featured in “Deal Me In,” a book by Stephen John and Marvin Karlins. Hellmuth explained what readers can expect when they open poker’s newest periodical: “The strategy stuff that’s invaluable to people at home is the money management stuff. You’ll be shocked when you read Phil Ivey’s chapter about how he got in the game. The way he manages his money is shocking to me. All of these stories have the same blueprint on how to be successful in poker.” Others featured include Layne Flack, Brunson, Howard Lederer, and Chris “Jesus” Ferguson.

Hellmuth registered six cashes during the 2009 WSOP, capped off by a 436th place finish in the $10,000 buy-in Main Event for $25,000. Nevertheless, the successful No Limit Hold’em tournament player has called it quits for the 2009 calendar year: “There is some luck. That’s what people at home don’t understand. I just have to find a way to come back in 2010 and win one or two. That’s what it’s all about.” Hellmuth revealed that he will not enter the Five Diamond next week.

A segment called “Check, Raise, Fold” debated the status of Bertrand “Elky” Grospellier, Jason Mercier, and Ivey, among others, in the poker world. For each player, Huff and Sebok debated what poker term they would label each player, with Sebok explaining, “Elky is sick. I don’t know any other way to say it.” On Mercier, Huff characterized, “The guy is the best young player in poker.” Finally, on Ivey, Sebok commented on the Full Tilt Poker pro’s recent performance in the 2009 WSOP Main Event: “I think this is all about the ghost of the 2009 WSOP Main Event final table. [The Doyle Brunson Five Diamond World Poker Classic] is his first live Main Event since then and I think he’s looking to erase seventh place from everyone’s minds.”

Poker2Nite airs at 11:00pm ET on Wednesdays on Fox Sports Net. Check local listings for more details.

Soheil Shamseddin Atop WPT Foxwoods Leaderboard After Day 3

After three days of play at Foxwoods, poker professionals Soheil Shamseddin and Lee Markholt sit atop the 27 players remaining in the World Poker Tour (WPT) World Poker Finals.

Day Three began on Saturday afternoon with 68 players vying for one of the 36 cash positions that the event paid. Steven Merrifield led the action when the cards flew and was followed by Day One chip leader Todd Terry, Terrence Chan, and Shamseddin. With play being stopped at 27 players, it was figured that the day would be a short one, but the action was hectic nonetheless.

The final woman in the event, Lori Miller, was eliminated early in the day at the hands of Matt “All In At 420” Stout, ensuring the final table would not have a female combatant. World Series of Poker (WSOP) bracelet winner Matt “mattg1983” Graham and the final two ClubWPT.com qualifiers, Dean Meyer and Jesse Lopez, followed soon after.

Perhaps no one had a tougher dismissal from a tournament than top poker pro Alex Bolotin, however. Bolotin, who finished this event last year in 13th place and earlier this year won the Ante Up for Africa charity event at the WSOP, first got his chips to the center with Rodney Legendre’s tournament life on the line. Bolotin’s pocket kings had the edge over Legendre’s jacks, but on the turn, a jack fell. Moments later, Bolotin called off the remainder of his chips with pocket tens against Chris Dombrowski’s pocket fives. Irritatingly for Bolotin, a five hit the flop for Dombrowski, eliminating Bolotin after he had the 80/20 edge twice within minutes of each other.

After six hours of play, the money bubble burst with the elimination of Michael Farris. With only nine more players to bump off to end the day, the knockouts then came quickly. Eric “Sheets” Haber dropped in 34th place and, soon after that, Nenad Medic’s run at a second World Poker Finals championship ended with his elimination in 33rd. Merrifield’s run was cut short when he bumped his A-Q into Alexi Lammi’s Big Slick, sending Merrifield to the rail in 28th place.

Then, Markholt began to make his move up the leaderboard. He took a 300,000-plus pot from Cornel Cimpan when he hit trip aces on the flop and used that hand to move into the chip lead. Shamseddin, who admitted he was playing tight earlier in the day, doubled up through Cimpan soon afterwards to take away Markholt’s lead.

Markholt, with his cash in this event, now holds the record for most cashes in WPT history, breaking a tie with Barry Greenstein, who did not compete at Foxwoods. With the cards ready to hit the air on Sunday afternoon, the Top Ten looks like this:

1. Soheil Shamseddin – 945,000
2. Lee Markholt – 812,000
3. Terrence Chan – 764,000
4. Matthew Stout – 687,000
5. Steve Brecher – 592,500
6. Michael Mizrachi – 575,000
7. Frank Calo – 569,000
8. Jason Mercier – 490,000
9. Alexi Lammi – 473,000
10. Eric Froehlich – 425,000

Others who will walk away from Foxwoods with a cash, but have some work if they want to win this WPT title, include Christian “charder” Harder, Adam “Roothlus” Levy, and Kenna James, who will have the short stack as the day begins.

The plan on Sunday is to play down to ten players, who will come back on Monday to determine the WPT six-handed televised final table.

High Stakes Poker, GSN Officials Preview Season 6

Making waves in the poker world this week has been the announcement of the “High Stakes Poker” Season 6 cast. Set to debut in February on the cable station, “High Stakes Poker” will feature Gabe Kaplan alongside new co-host Kara Scott.

During the first five seasons of the high-dollar cash game show, A.J. Benza provided color commentary with Kaplan. Now, Scott, a television veteran, will furnish insight and interviews from the poker room floor. On the change from Benza to Scott, GSN Vice President of Programming and Development David Schiff told Poker News Daily, “We’re into the sixth season and we felt like it was time to freshen it up. Our feeling was that we wanted viewers to be in the room with the players. Gabe and A.J. did a good job, but they were disconnected from the action.”

Scott is one of only two women to cash in the World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event in back-to-back years and, as such, provides a unique level of insight. She’s fresh off bringing the PokerStars.net Ante Up for Africa charity tournament to life on CBS in the United States and serves as eye candy for ESPN announcer Norman Chad. Schiff explained the allure of hiring Scott, as opposed to other rumored co-hosts like Shana Hiatt and Vanessa Rousso: “Kara is really the full package. She’s a great player and has had deep runs in the Main Event the last two years. We think she can add a lot of insight to the broadcast.”

Seventeen players have been announced as part of the “High Stakes Poker” Season 6 cast, including newcomers Dennis Phillips, Yevgeniy “Jovial Gent” Timoshenko, Lex Veldhuis, Andreas Hoivold, and Sammy “Any Two” George. On the stable of pros lined up for Season 6, “High Stakes Poker” Executive Producer Mori Eskandani told Poker News Daily, We are going to have possibly the most colorful and strongest cast we’ve had to date.” The newcomers will take to the felts alongside regulars like Daniel Negreanu, Barry Greenstein, Doyle Brunson, and Antonio Esfandiari.

Also in the mix for Season 6 is WSOP November Nine member Phil Ivey, who has only appeared once in the show’s five previous seasons. Schiff examined the addition of Ivey to the impressive lineup of poker pros and recreational players: “Arguably, this is the best cast of players we have ever had. To have Phil Ivey off the November Nine and all of the other great players, I think it’ll be great poker action.” The series premieres on Sunday, February 14th at 8:00pm ET and replays twice each night.

“High Stakes Poker” features a $200,000 buy-in and, as such, includes a bevy of well-known tournament players battling it out in a cash game. Eskandani explained, “We’ve never seen Dennis Phillips in cash games, yet he’s done super in tournaments. Now, he’s coming out to the cash game world to throw punches with the best of them.” Last season’s broadcast featured recent WSOP Main Event winners Peter Eastgate and Joe Hachem; neither will take to the felts this time around.

Music mogul Allan Meltzer, who is among the regulars at Bobby’s Room at the Bellagio, will likely be one of the only so-called “recreational” players on the sixth season of “High Stakes Poker.” During Season 5, “The Notebook” Director Nick Cassavettes and “The Simpsons” Co-Creator Sam Simon were among those who challenged poker superstars like Tom Dwan and Patrik Antonius. Eskandani explained the dearth of recreational players this season: “This year, Meltzer will be playing, but we didn’t want to go to the same recreational players we always went to. Several that we went to ended up having cold feet.”

“High Stakes Poker” will film from November 11th to 13th at the Golden Nugget in Downtown Las Vegas.

Michelle, Ho bust out of <i>The Amazing Race</i>

The pair lasted a total of seven weeks on the hit CBS reality show and traveled half-way around the globe before running into two obstacles they simply couldn't overcome.

Despite their elimination the pair was upbeat when they talked to PokerListings this week.

"I'm incredibly pleased with how we did," said Ho. "We aren't the most physical people and we were totally out of our element."

"Amazing is the perfect way to describe our experience," said Michelle. "It was the most challenging thing I have done and it was perspective and life changing."

Despite their deep run on the show, the pair might be best remembered for a controversial move in the very first episode. Michelle and Ho decided to inform the teams they were competing against that they were non-profit workers instead of poker players.

The ruse didn't work as they were quickly identified by a poker fan at an airport later in the first episode. Several teams were miffed at the misrepresentation.

Both Michelle and Ho insisted they weren't doing it for sympathy, but were instead trying to hide the fact they were successful poker players.

"We were coming from a strategic point of view and we just wanted to highlight another part of our lives," said Michelle. "It wasn't anything that wasn't truthful."

"Nobody wants to help people that do alright for themselves," added Ho.

Michelle mentioned she does work with the L.A. Youth Network and both have played numerous charity tournaments including Ante Up for Africa.

Ho and Michelle were the only all-female team competing in this season of The Amazing Race and it proved to be a serious challenge.

"It was 10 million times harder than I thought it would be," said Michelle. "Just from a muscle point of view we were at a disadvantage."

No female team has ever won the race.

In their final episode, Michelle and Ho couldn't perform either one of the detour challenges they attempted and were forced to eventually take a 24-hour penalty, thus eliminating them from the show. Both challenges were physical in nature.

"I have no regrets about how we went out," said Ho. "We gave it all we had, but at a certain point you just have to accept there are things you just can't do."

With the show behind them both, Ho and Michelle have plans to return to the poker circuit at the British Columbia Poker Championship in Vancouver and then the WPT Doyle Brunson Five Diamond at Bellagio in Las Vegas.

"I think for the first time we just want to go play poker," said Michelle. "It will be exciting to get back out there and see all the faces."

The mainstream exposure they received on The Amazing Race seems here to stay and Ho appeared on Anderson Cooper 360 this week in a panel on women breaking into the male-dominated world of business.

Meanwhile, Michelle recently launched a clothing line and plans on continuing her acting career by auditioning for roles in both television and film.

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Shana Hiatt Will Not Be Next High Stakes Poker Host

Poker News Daily can independently confirm that former World Poker Tour (WPT) and “Poker After Dark” hostess Shana Hiatt will not reprise her role on GSN’s “High Stakes Poker.” Instead, it appears that Kara Scott will be signed.

According to Hiatt’s publicist, Creative Management Entertainment Group, the former WPT hostess will not join the cast of “High Stakes Poker.” Hiatt has been taking care of her one year-old child and traveling the world with her husband, Todd Garner. Hiatt was one of the original voices of the game for much of today’s poker playing population, joining Mike Sexton and Vince Van Patten on Travel Channel broadcasts. Hiatt departed the WPT scene in 2005.

Hiatt formerly appeared on NBC’s “Poker After Dark” and “National Heads-Up Poker Championship.” Both are franchises of Poker PROductions, the Mori Eskandani-led outfit that also produces “High Stakes Poker.” Consequently, many in the industry believed that Hiatt would sit alongside former “Welcome Back, Kotter” star Gabe Kaplan in the Season 6 “High Stakes Poker” broadcast booth. Poker PROductions is in the midst of preparing the World Series of Poker (WSOP) Europe Main Event for airing on cable station ESPN in early 2010.

Former host A.J. Benza, whose dismissal by GSN executives sparked a considerable amount of controversy, noted in a blog post that the next “High Stakes Poker” host would actually be a hostess. In a post authored by Kaplan on Friday, the ousted host explained, “I hope the chick they get to do some table interviews during the three-days of play at the Golden Nugget really, truly compliments and adds a great dose of comedy that was apparently lacking up in the booth manned by Gabe Kaplan. Does GSN realize they have apparently copied ‘Poker After Dark,’ the show that feels like a marriage between a Xanax and a Valium?”

On a Mediocre Poker Show podcast, Benza fingered Scott as his replacement. Scott is a sponsored PokerStars player and has taken on commentary duties for European Poker Tour (EPT) events. She finished in the top 250 in both the 2008 and 2009 World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Events and won the PartyPoker Sports Stars Challenge in early 2008 for £26,000. She is fresh off hosting the PokerStars.net Ante Up for Africa tournament that aired on CBS and was filmed during April’s EPT Monte Carlo Grand Final in Monaco.

Poker PROductions and GSN officials could not comment on who would be the next host of “High Stakes Poker” because contract negotiations are ongoing. A GSN representative told Poker News Daily, “We can’t announce the new co-host until his/her deal has been signed and finalized, which hasn’t happened yet.”

In threads on Full Contact Poker, site front man Daniel Negreanu, a member of Team PokerStars Pro, commented, “I like how a guy says he’s 99% sure it’s Vanessa [Rousso] when I’m actually 100% sure it’s not! It’s not Amanda [Leatherman] or Lacey [Jones] or Tiffany [Michelle] either. It’s not an actress either. I can tell you who it isn’t but can’t tell you who it is. Fun game for me!” Negreanu also reinforced that the next hostess is not Hiatt, Sabina Gadecki, Kimberly Lansing, or Jennifer Harman. Poker News Daily can also independently confirm that Leatherman will not be the considered, although she told us she’s love the opportunity.  PokerStars will sponsor “High Stakes Poker” for Season 6.

The show is set to begin filming its next cycle in November from Las Vegas. Stay tuned to Poker News Daily for the latest on the search for the next “High Stakes Poker” host.

Celebrity Apprentice 3 Cast May Not Feature Poker Players

In 2010, the third installment of the NBC reality franchise “Celebrity Apprentice” will hit television airwaves. The show, which featured comedian Joan Rivers best poker pro Annie Duke in the finale last time out, will likely not include a poker player this time around.

Ever since Duke finished as the runner-up to Rivers in May, the poker community has been abuzz that one of its own may appear in the third edition of the popular series. However, according to Huliq.com and the New York Post, the ensemble cast, which will likely once again pit men against women, does not appear to include a poker player. No official cast list has been released by NBC. The show is hosted by real estate mogul Donald Trump and raises money for charity.

Last season, Duke played for Refugees International, an organization that she worked closely with as part of her own charity, Ante Up for Africa. In the process, the poker community was instrumental in raising $730,000 for the charity. Poker players who made cameos throughout the season included Ultimate Bet front man Phil Hellmuth, Andy Bloch, Howard Lederer, 2009 Poker Hall of Fame nominee Erik Seidel, and Perry Friedman.

Embattled politician Rod Blagojevich headlines the “Celebrity Apprentice” cast in Season 3. His wife, Patty Blagojevich, appeared on NBC’s “I’m a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here” when Rod was unable to attend due to ongoing legal action. Blagojevich is the former Governor of Illinois and was impeached in January for, among other misgivings, allegedly trying to sell the Senate seat vacated by current U.S. President Barack Obama.

Joining Blagojevich on the men’s team will be another controversial celebrity, former baseball great Darryl Strawberry, a member of the New York Mets, Los Angeles Dodgers, San Francisco Giants, and New York Yankees. Strawberry exited the league in 1999 and was the National League Rookie of the Year 16 years earlier. Chef Curtis Stone will join the “Celebrity Apprentice” cast, as will popular comedian Sinbad, whose credits include “A Different World” and “The Sinbad Show.” He has also appeared in movies such as “First Kid” and “Jingle All the Way.”

Former professional wrestler Bill Goldberg, who stormed onto World Championship Wrestling (WCW) scene with an undefeated streak in the late 1990s, will be a part of the new “Celebrity Apprentice” cast. Rounding out the men’s team is “Rock of Love” star Bret Michaels, who is also known for his work with the band Poison.

The women’s team features “America’s Got Talent” judge Sharon Osborne, whose fellow judge on the show, Piers Morgan, was the winner of Season 1 of “Celebrity Apprentice.” “Girls Just Want to Have Fun” and “Time After Time” signer Cyndi Lauper will join the squad. Olympic gold medalist Summer Sanders, who took down hardware in swimming in 1992, will also make her way to New York City to film “Celebrity Apprentice.” There, actress Holly Robinson Peete, wife of former NFL great Rodney Peete, will join her.

World Wrestling Entertainment’s (WWE) Maria Kanellis will also be a part of “Celebrity Apprentice,” as will comedian Carol Leifer, who has written scripts for hits like “Seinfeld” and “The Larry Sanders Show.” Finally, Selita Ebanks, a model, will round out the new cast.

The names of more cast members may be released, but for the meantime, it appears that the poker community will not be a part of the upcoming season of “Celebrity Apprentice.” Over on CBS, Tiffany Michelle and Maria Ho, the last women standing in the 2008 and 2007 World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Events, respectively, are competing as part of the Emmy Award winning reality series “Amazing Race.” The show airs at 8:00pm ET on Sundays and viewers will see the poker playing duo race around Dubai, United Arab Emirates on this week’s edition.

The Post reported that the “Celebrity Apprentice” cast was seen recording the opening credits in the Meatpacking District of New York City and that the show would begin airing in March.

PokerStars EPT Warsaw Main Event Begins Today

We’ve got EPTs, WPTs and every other kind of PT coming out of our ears this month. Recently we’ve seen the APPT Auckland conclude with a $209,000 win as well as Africa’s largest ever tournament in the shape of the WPT Marrakech. Now, PokerStars are going to Warsaw for the EPT.

World Poker Tour Marrakech: Christophe Savary is Crowned Champion

The final 17 players returned to the Casino de Marrakech this afternoon to slug it out for the World Poker Tour Marrakech title, the first ever on the African continent. At the end of a marathon day, Christophe Savary of France emerged victorious...

Christophe Savary wins WPT Marrakech Main Event

Christophe Savary has become the first man to win a major poker title on African soil after winning the WPT event in Marrakech, Morocco. The Frenchman outlasted a field of 416 runners to claim the first prize of €377,262.

World Poker Tour Marrakech: Over 400 Players Take the Felt in Africa

The World Poker Tour and ChiliPoker have teamed up to bring major tournament poker to Africa, and the response has been overwhelmingly positive. Day 1 of the WPT Marrakech saw the soft cap of entrants exceeded with 416 runners taking to the felt for...

Poker Community Speculates on High Stakes Poker’s Next Host

With the news that A.J. Benza will not be returning for Season 6 of GSN’s “High Stakes Poker,” gossip waves have hit the poker community about who the next host of the highly popular cash game program will be.

Benza, who hosted “High Stakes Poker” for the show’s first five seasons, made an appearance on the “Miserable Men” show on Sirius Satellite Radio last month and claimed that he was being replaced by a female to join Gabe Kaplan in the commentary booth. He later confirmed in his blog that he was being dropped for a “chick” in the upcoming season.

“I hope you like the female they toss in front of you,” said Benza. “And I hope the repartee between she and Gabe works likes ours did.”

Several members of the TwoPlusTwo online poker forum were infuriated by the decision and put together a petition to bring Benza back to the show. At the same time, rumors involving the next host have been circling the discussion boards and several names are being thrown around.

PokerStars will be the new sponsor of the show for Season 6, so early rumors of the new host included PokerStars Team Pro members Vanessa Rousso and Vicky Coren. Rousso, however, denied any likelihood of that happening, telling Poker News Daily, “I’m not sure where the rumor started, but I’m not the new co-host of HSP.”

Fellow PokerStars Team Pro member Daniel Negreanu commented on the subject yesterday at FullContactPoker: “Guess who KNOWS the answer to this? YES ME!!!! LOL. Relax people, Gabe will be doing the commentary alone, but there will be a female addition to the crew, not for strategy discussion, and you all know her and everyone likes her.”

Several poker buffs feel that former World Poker Tour (WPT) host Shana Hiatt is the favorite for the job. Hiatt worked for three seasons on the WPT and also hosted NBC’s “Poker After Dark” and “National Heads Up Poker Championship.” An avid poker enthusiast, Hiatt left the show in 2008 due to pregnancy.

One particular poster on TwoPlusTwo went into depth in their logic behind GSN’s potential decision to hire Hiatt: “From Negreanu’s comments it looks like they’re bringing in the PAD format, a hostess on the floor with only Gabe in the commentary booth. This sounds like an improvement to me. Gabe’s been the voice of the show all along, he’s funny by himself and he can explain things in layman terms for the novices… I’m going to guess that the host is Shana. She’s had the baby, Leeann (Tweeden) has settled on Poker After Dark, so (producer Mori Eskandani) is giving her HSP.

Poster “blink20″ agreed with his assessment: “If they booted (Benza) and somehow get Shana Hiatt on this show, then it would be the greatest move ever! SHANA FTW one time!”

Another female being mentioned as a possible replacement is television personality, journalist, and poker pro Kara Scott. Her selection would make sense on multiple levels, as Scott worked with PokerStars as a host for the European Poker Tour (EPT) in 2007 and 2008. More recently, Scott hosted the PokerStars Ante Up for Africa event, which aired on CBS earlier this month. She is also an accomplished professional at the tables. She was the only woman who cashed in both the 2008 and 2009 World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Events, taking 104th in 2008 and 238th in 2009. She also finished second at the 2009 Irish Open, winning €312,600.

Many in the online poker community feel as though Scott would be perfect for the position, filling both the “eye candy” and poker knowledge requirements that regular viewers are looking for.

Other potential fill-ins being mentioned include WPT host Amanda Leatherman, model and Absolute Poker spokesperson Lacey Jones, and actress and poker player Shannon Elizabeth.

GSN is expected to make an official announcement by Friday. Season 6 of “High Stakes Poker” is scheduled to begin filming in November and will air in February.

Sportingbet Reports 28% Increase in Earnings for FY 2009

The yearly fiscal report is out for Sportingbet PLC and the results for the publicly traded gaming company were generally positive.  Sportingbet, the parent company of online poker room Paradise Poker, saw growth in net revenue, earnings, money wagered, and profit thanks in part to a focus on emerging online gambling markets.  While the sports betting and casino ventures have been on the rise for the company, it appears as though it is paying less attention to its poker holdings, which saw a decline in earnings from 2008 to 2009.

Sportingbet, which is publicly traded on the London Stock Exchange under the symbol “SBT,” saw its net gaming revenue jump to £163.6 million from £144.3 in 2008, an increase of 13%.  Profits saw a 26% increase as well, coming in at £31.1 million thanks to more than £1.5 billion wagered on the site over the course of the year.  Last year, the company received a total of £1.35 billion in wagers.  The company’s Chief Executive, Andrew McIver, commented on Sportingbet’s performance in the official audited results through July 31st, 2009:

“This has been a very solid year for the Sportingbet Group. We are now seeing consistent profitable growth resulting from the structural changes made following our withdrawal from the U.S.  Our focus on sports betting and geographical diversification is helping to support earnings in these troubled economic times. Additionally, our commitment to offer industry-leading sports betting products and excellent customer service has helped us to recruit and retain core customers.”

The diversification McIvan spoke of includes launching versions of the site in Romania and South Africa as well as moving into other emerging markets like Canada and Brazil.  While the company continues to struggle against stiff competition in Britain, its efforts in Eastern Europe have been much more successful.  Sportingbet blamed the global recession and an expensive and over-saturated media market for its performance in the U.K., but its results in Eastern Europe more than compensated for its 21% decline in the British Isles.  The Eastern European revenue for Sportingbet grew by 26% and now accounts for more than 15% of the company’s total revenues—more than the entirety of its online poker operation.  The company attributed some of its success in that region to a launch of more than 90 Flash-based casino games.

The company saw several other changes this year as a number of national governments addressed the issue of online gambling via new laws, regulation, and licensing. The company noted, “Regulation continues to define the internet gambling industry across Europe and the rest of the world.  In general, we continue to see pressure on European countries to justify their national gambling regimes in light of the free-trade requirements of international law.”

Sportingbet took a pro-regulation stance on the issue and representatives of the firm are continuing to meet with a number of national regulatory bodies, including the U.S. Department of Justice, to discuss Sportingbet’s legal standing.  Sportingbet and Paradise Poker do not accept U.S. customers, which has resulted in a steady decline in revenue for its online poker venture since the site’s withdrawal from the American market following the 2006 Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA).

In Europe, Paradise Poker’s revenue is down 7.6% from last year, bringing in only £22 million of the company’s total earnings.  The poker branch of Sportingbet used to be a major component of the company’s holdings, but it now represents only 12% of total revenue.  The company attributed its struggle in the online poker market to a high level of competition, “with certain large U.S.-focused poker companies using their significant cash flows and high liquidity to continue to attract customers from existing European only companies.”  This is a similar complaint to the one voiced by Party Gaming executives in its mid-year report, which was released last month.

Sportingbet is currently traded on the Alternative Investment Market (AIM) of the London Stock Exchange, but the recent report revealed that the company would try to move to the General Equity Market in the near future.  At the close of trading on October 14th, Sportingbet stock was fetching $76 per share.

WSOP on ESPN Ratings up 11% in 2009

On Tuesday night, action from the 2009 World Series of Poker (WSOP) will continue on cable station ESPN. “The Worldwide Leader in Sports” has seen a ratings boom in 2009 down the stretch, with the Main Event final table on tap for November 10th.

According to ESPN officials, through 11 weeks of coverage of the 2009 WSOP, its broadcasts have delivered a 0.91 average household coverage rating, up 11% from last year, when the average rating was 0.82. ESPN coverage of the 2009 WSOP began on July 28th, when the network aired the brand new $40,000 buy-in No Limit Hold’em tournament commemorating the 40th running of the WSOP. ESPN then went on to feature the WSOP Champions Invitational, a 20-person freeroll consisting of former Main Event winners, and the Ante Up for Africa charity gala, which included actors Matt Damon and Ben Affleck.

Last week, coverage of Day 5 of the Main Event was featured during the 9:00pm ET hour, followed by Day 6 at 10:00pm ET. Each episode lasted for one hour and the first garnered a 0.88 rating. The second hour began with a rap by Prahlad Friedman and had a feature table that included 2007 WSOP Player of the Year Tom Schneider. That episode generated a 1.17 rating, the second highest of the season. Last Tuesday marked the first week that the WSOP on ESPN moved to a 9:00pm ET kickoff, as it had previously started one hour earlier at 8:00pm ET. The Main Event final table will air on Tuesday, November 10th at 9:00pm ET and run for two-and-a-half hours.

Key for ESPN’s advertisers, which include online poker rooms PokerStars and Full Tilt Poker as well as Jack Link’s Beef Jerky, are two demographics. Males age 18 to 49 have tuned into the 2009 WSOP on ESPN in droves, rising 12% from the number that watched the 2008 broadcast. Among males age 25 to 54, the number of viewers is up 16% in 2009. PokerStars sponsors the “Straight from the Pros” segment as well as the program’s on-screen chip counts, while Full Tilt Poker sponsors the “Deal Me In” strategy segment during WSOP on ESPN broadcasts. Ultimate Bet has also been spotted airing commercials on the cable station. The site is fresh off the conclusion of its annual Aruba Poker Classic, which saw Brandon Hall and Robert Mizrachi chop heads-up.

Last year marked the first that the final table of the prestigious $10,000 buy-in Main Event was delayed until November in order to coincide with its broadcast on ESPN. As a result, ratings mushroomed by 50% for the final table airing. At the end of the day, Peter Eastgate bested Ivan Demidov in front of a packed house at the Penn and Teller Theater at the Rio and banked $9.1 million.

This year, another schedule change has the poker world talking. Play will resume in the Main Event final table on November 7th at 12:00 Noon PT and continue until two players remain. Then, the pair will play heads-up beginning on November 9th at 10:00pm PT to determine a winner. The gap in between will allow time for media interviews and further study by the heads-up participants of each other’s tendencies.

While WSOP on ESPN coverage has focused on players like Eastgate, Joe Hachem, Dennis Phillips, and Betrand “Elky” Grospellier, the following nine players will take to the felts in November:

1. Darvin Moon (Oakland, Maryland) – 58,930,000
2. Eric Buchman (Valley Stream, New York) – 34,800,000
3. Steven Begleiter (Chappaqua, New York) – 29,885,000
4. Jeff Shulman (Las Vegas, Nevada) – 19,580,000
5. Joe Cada (Shelby Township, Michigan) – 13,215,000
6. Kevin Schaffel (Coral Springs, Florida) – 12,390,000
7. Phil Ivey (Las Vegas, Nevada) – 9,765,000
8. Antoine Saout (Paris, France) – 9,500,000
9. James Akenhead (London, England) – 6,800,000

Check out the WSOP on ESPN every Tuesday at 9:00pm ET.

HORSE is HORSE

I was cruising around the internet this week reading a number of poker blogs, as I am apt to do, when I queued up Daniel Negreanu’s. Never one to shy away from giving his opinion, he was adamant that No Limit Hold’em should be the only game played at the final table of the $50,000 HORSE event at the World Series of Poker, just as it was when Chip Reese won the first edition of it in 2006. As much as I am a fan of Negreanu’s, and as much as I respect him, I must disagree.

First, let me say that I completely understand where he is coming from on this issue. For the first three years of the event, almost 150 players entered the tournament each time. This year, only 95 runners competed. Negreanu believes that the reason for this is that HORSE doesn’t deliver television ratings, so ESPN is not broadcasting the event. In turn, many of the players who would have played can no longer afford to, as their online poker room sponsors don’t want to pony up the buy-in if there is no chance for the players, and the poker room logos they would be wearing, to appear on the small screen. The prestige of the event would shrink along with its size as would the “EV [for] the grinders who play mixed cash games for a living.”

It all makes sense. If the general poker watching public doesn’t want it, the network doesn’t want it. If the network doesn’t want it, the sponsors don’t want it. And if the sponsors don’t want it, the players can’t afford to play.

But I still don’t think the final table should be No-Limit Hold’em. Why? Because it’s a HORSE tournament. It doesn’t make sense to change the final table to a game that wasn’t even a part of the previous several days of the event. Why should a player work hard at five different limit games only to make the final table and have it all taken away on one unfortunate hand? It’s not that it’s “not fair”, because, after all, everybody would know what the structure was going into the tournament. It is just silly. Why not make the final table of every WSOP event No-Limit Hold’em? Then ESPN could film them all and then select the most exciting ones for broadcast.

Personally, while I can see some truth in Negreanu’s belief that the no-No-Limit Hold’em format is why ESPN is not airing the HORSE tourney, I don’t feel that that’s really the main reason why it’s not going to be on television. The popularity of poker on television is on the downswing. For the last few years, we’ve been bombarded with poker programming and it has become old. Even for the casual fan, the all-in fests that make up the majority of poker telecasts have become boring. ESPN is now only showing four WSOP events and only two are “real” tournaments – the $40,000 Special Anniversary Tournament and the $10,000 Main Event. The other two – the WSOP Champions Cup Invitational and the Ante Up for Africa Charity event – are being shown for their novelty and for their star power (the former for poker celebrities and the latter for likely appearance of entertainment celebrities).

Really, the $40,000 No-Limit Hold’em event is taking the place of the $50,000 HORSE event in the ESPN lineup. It’s a high buy-in event, which creates a field densely populated with recognizable faces and it’s No-Limit, which ESPN likes. I would not be surprised if the WSOP finds a way to keep an ultra-high buy-in No-Limit event next year to satisfy the desire for an elite tourney.

In the end, the problem might be able to be solved by a simple name change. If it wasn’t called a HORSE tournament, then many people, including myself, would not be so averse to having a “non-HORSE” game played at the final table. The lack of logic would not longer be a problem. Name it “The All-Around Championship” or something and mix several different formats, including No-Limit Hold’em. Now you have an event where players can compete to see who is the best all-around poker player (not that the “best” can be determined through one tournament) and the final table is attractive for television. Make the buy-in high enough to limit the field and you will likely have a final table with a significant proportion of “name” poker pros.

If it sounds like it’s just a semantics issue, it is. But seriously, how can it be a HORSE tournament when the final table isn’t in HORSE format? Would it make sense to have the championship game of the NCAA basketball tournament be a football contest because football gets better television ratings than basketball? Of course not. Sure, the final table was No-Limit when the venerable Chip Reese won it in 2006, but that doesn’t mean it should have been.

Doyle Brunson Sixth in WSOP Europe Main Event

History may be in the making in one of the most historic cities in the world. Doyle Brunson is in search of his record-tying 11th bracelet in the World Series of Poker (WSOP) Europe Main Event and is sixth in chips with 92 players remaining.

Brunson holds a stack of 210,900 and is in pursuit of the £801,603 first place prize. “Texas Dolly” has 10 WSOP bracelets to his name, tied with Johnny Chan for second most all-time. He needs one more to move into the lead with 11, a record currently held by Ultimate Bet pro Phil Hellmuth. Brunson has been shut out since 2005, when he took down a $5,000 buy-in No Limit Hold’em Short-Handed event for $367,000, defeating a competitive final table that also included Minh Ly, Layne Flack, and Scotty Nguyen.

Brunson will captain Table 10 on Tuesday at the Casino at the Empire, where he’ll be joined by online poker players Justin “Boosted J” Smith and Christian Kruel. Smith is fresh off a third place effort in the Bellagio Cup, a stop on the World Poker Tour (WPT). He earned $464,000 at the Las Vegas casino back in July. Kruel can be found on the virtual felts of PokerStars under the screen name “C.K.” He won a $530 buy-in $80,000 Guaranteed High Roller tournament on PartyPoker in mid-August for $22,000.

Also in the Top 10 in London is Team PokerStars Pro member Jason Mercier. In May, he took down a tournament held during the Full Tilt Online Poker Series (FTOPS) for $86,000 and then followed up that performance with a bracelet win in a $1,500 buy-in Pot Limit Omaha event during the 2009 WSOP. Mercier recorded four cashes overall during the WSOP and was quickly scooped up by PokerStars to join their pro team. He also competed in the star-studded field of the Ante Up for Africa charity poker tournament, which aired on ESPN. Mercier owns the 10th largest stack at 202,300.

Liz Lieu doubled her stack holding pocket aces on Monday in the WSOP Europe Main Event. Entering play on Day 3, she sits at 16th in the chip counts with 184,400. Meanwhile, November Nine member James Akenhead also remains in contention. Akenhead, a Brit on his home turf, sent Nick Bleeker packing after coming out on the winning end of a race holding pocket jacks against A-K. The board ran out 9-7-Q-Q-7, pushing Akenhead to 250,000 in chips. He ended the day with 178,000, which was good for 17th overall. Fellow November Nine member Antoine Saout, who held a Top 10 stack entering Day 2 play on Monday, fell back to 50th on the leaderboard with 90,100.

Here are the Top 10 stacks in the 2009 WSOP Europe Main Event entering Day 3 on Tuesday:

1. Ian Munns - 528,300
2. Praz Bassi - 299,000
3. Oyvind Riisem - 255,300
4. Arron Eric Filippi - 216,500
5. David Docherty - 216,200
6. Doyle Brunson - 210,900
7. Shandoi Demjan - 209,000
8. Markus Ristola - 205,000
9. Ram Vaswarni - 202,500
10. Jason Mercier - 202,300

Other notable names remaining in the hunt for the £801,603 prize include:

12. Yevgeniy Timoshenko - 192,100
13. Steve Zolotow - 191,100
16. Liz Lieu - 184,400
17. James Akenhead - 178,000
18. Dave “Devilfish” Ulliott - 174,000
19. Antonio Esfadiari - 173,300
20. John Tabatabai - 160,100
38. Daniel Negreanu - 113,100
39. Barry Shulman - 111,200
49. Annette Obrestad - 90,500
50. Antoine Saout - 90,100
55. Teddy Sheringham - 74,800
65. Freddy Deeb - 61,200
67. Andre Akkari – 58,300
69. Todd Brunson - 51,600
70. Eric Liu - 51,100
79. John Juanda - 38,900
85. Men “The Master” Nguyen - 27,500

The top 36 players will finish in the money, with the minimum payout being £21,142. Every member of the nine-handed final table will walk away with at least £66,533. Stay tuned to Poker News Daily for the latest from the WSOP Europe Main Event.

PokerStars Ante Up for Africa Airs on CBS Sports

On Saturday afternoon, CBS Sports aired the second of two episodes of the PokerStars.net Ante Up for Africa tournament that played out during the European Poker Tour (EPT) Monte Carlo festivities.

Kara Scott served as the host of the event as it played out on the CBS Sports Spectacular broadcast. The nine-handed final table began with Daniel Negreanu holding a commanding chip lead with 151,100, well ahead of the 49,000 stack of EPT founder John Duthie. Alexander Armstrong and David Tuckman had the call of the event, which featured on-screen card backs with Ante Up for Africa logos and player names shown alongside their native country’s flag.

In the night’s first elimination, Teddy Sheringham raised with K-Q of clubs and rugby player Sebastien Chabal shoved with A-9. Team PokerStars Pro member Luca Pagano pushed over the top and Sheringham quickly folded. The flop came 4-J-2 and a running 10-8 gave Pagano a flush in the hand. Chabal was out in ninth and told Scott, “I’m disappointed because I wanted to win the whole thing. I’m happy, had a great time, and made some great friends.”

Meanwhile, Duthie hit the rails in eighth place after shoving pre-flop with A-K. Poker pro Tony G made the call with pocket jacks and turned a third jack. Duthie was drawing dead to the river and hit the exits. French journalist, writer, and presenter Patrick Chene was eliminated in seventh place at the hands of Dario Minieri’s A-J. Despite having a new arsenal of chips, Minieri folded to a re-raise by new Betclick pro Isabelle Mercier holding pocket eights. Minieri was getting 2:1 to call and Mercier held A-J for what would have been a coin flip situation.

Pagano was ousted after pushing pre-flop for 23,000 chips. Minieri called from the big blind at a discount holding J-3. The board ran out 2-A-3-J-J, giving Minieri a boat. The hand moved Minieri to second on the PokerStars.net Ante Up for Africa leaderboard, with Negreanu now the tournament’s short stack. Negreanu was sent to the rails at the hands of Mercier, who won a coin flip with pocket eights against K-Q. Negreanu told CBS cameras, “I was the chip leader and I seemed to be dominating and all of a sudden, the blinds went up and I folded and folded like a little wimp.”

Tony G was ousted in fourth place holding Q-6 against A-8 after an eight-high flop. Observing the action was “Heroes” star James Kyson Lee, who told Scott, “There are a lot of people here from all different fields. It’s great that we’re able to come together, do something fun, and raise awareness for Ante Up for Africa.” Norman Epstein, Full Tilt Poker pro Don Cheadle, and Poker News Daily Guest Columnist Annie Duke founded the charity in 2006. It is the centerpiece of an annual $5,000 buy-in gala during the World Series of Poker (WSOP), which aired in 2009 on ESPN.

Mercier and Sheringham both doubled up at the expense of Minieri, who was ultimately eliminated after running pocket tens into Mercier’s pocket queens. Mercier promptly doubled up with K-4 against Sheringham’s A-5 after the flop came 4-J-J. Then, the former member of Team PokerStars Pro called Sheringham’s all-in with A-2. Sheringham turned over 10-4 and the board ran out 6-8-Q-J-10 with four diamonds. Mercier’s deuce of diamonds was the only card of the suit held by either player and Mercier took down the inaugural Ante Up for Africa event in Monte Carlo.

Over €250,000 was raised for the Ante Up for Africa charity in Monte Carlo and no prize money was doled out to players. Instead, Mercier, who battled through a field of 43 runners, claimed a crystal trophy in the shape of a PokerStars logo.

PokerStars Loses Isabelle Mercier, Gains Field Hockey Star Fatima Moreira De Melo

The roster of sponsored pros at the online poker room PokerStars continues to change, as the company both parted ways with players and signed on new faces during the month of September.  Longtime PokerStars representative Isabelle Mercier of Canada ended her relationship with the site a few weeks ago, but another woman has already been added to the roster.  PokerStars recently announced the signing of Fatima Moreira de Melo, an Olympic gold medal winning field hockey player from Denmark, to its Team PokerStars SportsStars.

News first broke of Mercier’s departure during the European Poker Tour (EPT) Barcelona stop.  The live reporting team and television commentators reported that Mercier, who worked with the online site for five years, was moving on to pursue other projects.  At the time, it was not clear what those projects would entail, but the mystery would be revealed in just a matter of days following the announcement that she was moving on.

On September 18th, the European gambling site Betclick announced Mercier would be serving as its new spokeswoman.  The site, which is primarily known for its sports betting, is aiming to expand its online poker brand and turned to the well-known Mercier to help them do so.  “We are very strong on betting, but poker is not the strongest part of our offering,” said a spokesman in Betclick’s official press release. “The signing of Isabelle Mercier means we will be putting in place a strategy to develop and improve our offering, but this will not be put into action for a few months yet. It is part of our overall project to enhance our poker platform.”

Mercier first rose to poker notoriety when she won Ladies Night II of the World Poker Tour (WPT) in 2004.  On her road to victory, WPT commentator Mike Sexton first referred to her as “No Mercy,” a nickname that has stuck with her to this day.  Prior to her WPT victory, Mercier got her start in poker on the other side of the table.  The French-Canadian law school graduate began as a poker dealer before working her way up to poker room manager and eventually giving it a shot at being a pro herself.  She found success as a pro and, in addition to her Ladies Night win, she has also more recently made an appearance at the EPT London High Roller final table and won the Ante Up for Africa charity event held in conjunction with the EPT Grand Final in Monte Carlo.

Team PokerStars’ newest face did not start out as a poker player either.  The field hockey star made her claim to fame serving as a striker on the Dutch national team in the 2000, 2004, and 2008 Olympic Games.  She helped lead her team to a gold medal in Beijing, adding to her bronze medal in 2000 and silver medal in 2004.  In addition to her athletic ability, De Melo is known in Denmark for her singing and has performed at several athletic events around Europe.

De Melo will be a part of Team PokerStars SportsStars, an elite group of five athletes who have a passion for card playing.  She is the first female to join the team, which already consists of tennis star Boris Becker, hockey player Mats Sundin, rugby player Sebastien Chabal, and powerboat racer Sami Selio.  In addition to representing PokerStars at live tournaments around the world, De Melo will also play on the online site under the screen name “FatimaDeMelo.”

The room’s official Twitter account recently revealed that it is looking for a group of strictly online players to serve as Team PokerStars Online Pros.  PokerStars will be accepting online applications through October 31st.

Olivier Busquet Wins WPT Borgata Poker Open

Down 20:1 in chips heads-up, Olivier Busquet mounted the comeback of the century and won the 2009 World Poker Tour (WPT) Borgata Poker Open. Busquet entered the six-handed televised final table as the chip leader.

Beginning the day with just five big blinds to his name, Kenny Nguyen was the first to go, exiting on the third hand of final table play. Nguyen pushed with pocket eights pre-flop only to run into Busquet’s pocket kings. The board ran out A-J-2-10-7 and Busquet scooped the pot, sending Nguyen packing $156,000 richer for his efforts.

Fifteen hands later in a battle of the blinds, Keith Crowder hit the skids in fifth place, earning $188,000. Prior to Crowder moving all-in, Jeremy Brown told him, “I will felt you if you move all-in.” Crowder shoved from the small blind with a scant 10-4 of spades and Brown called from the big blind with pocket eights. The board came 4-2-2-5-J and Brown boosted his chip stack to nearly eight million.

Yanick Brodeur’s run through the WPT Borgata Poker Open came to an end on the 53rd hand of final table play. Brodeur went out on a bad beat, calling Brown’s all-in pre-flop with A-K. Brown turned over A-Q and found himself way behind. The flop came 9-8-6, keeping Brodeur in the lead, but a queen on the turn would be his demise. No king hit the river and Brodeur was shown the door in fourth place for $216,000, not a bad return on investment for his $3,500 buy-in.

Ivan Mamuzic was ousted in third place for $251,000. Brown raised from the button and Mamuzic pushed all-in over the top. Mamuzic flipped over pocket threes, while Brown showed pocket sixes, a 4:1 favorite pre-flop. Brown spiked another six on the flop and running tens secured his victory in the hand, setting up a heads-up showdown with Busquet. Having eliminated Mamuzic, Brodeur, and Crowder, Brown held a 3:1 edge in chips entering heads-up play.

By 20 hands into heads-up action, Brown had improved his edge to 20:1, holding 29.2 million chips to Busquet’s 1.4 million. Then, Busquet mounted a comeback of epic proportions. Busquet doubled up with pocket queens against 9-7 after Brown’s straight and flush draws failed to hit to narrow the lead to 5:1. On a flop of 8-7-6, Brown pushed all-in over the top of a raise by Busquet, who called for his tournament life with 9-10 for the nuts. Brown showed J-8 for top pair and Busquet was suddenly just a 3:2 underdog in chips.

Busquet took the chip lead after picking off Brown’s bluff with Q-2 on a board of A-K-6. Then, Brown struck back. On a board of Q-9-10-K-Q, Busquet bet out 1.5 million and Brown raised to 4.5 million. Busquet called the three million chip raise only to see Brown table K-Q for a boat. The hand sent Brown back into the chip lead by a 3:2 margin. The two were nearly even in chips until Busquet made top pair on a J-9-5-9-4 board with J-10, enough to rake the six million chip pot and reclaim the chip lead for good.

On the final hand of the Borgata Poker Open, Brown raised to 1.2 million pre-flop and Busquet called to see a flop of 4-4-3. The chips quickly found their way into the middle, with Brown showing 5-2 for an open-ended straight draw and Busquet revealing A-4 for trips. The turn came a seven and, calling for an ace or six, Brown watched as the river was a five, shipping the $925,000 first place prize to Busquet. Second place was worth $453,000.

Here is how the final table shook out at the WPT Borgata Poker Open:

1st Place: Olivier Busquet - $925,514
2nd Place: Jeremy Brown - $453,519
3rd Place: Ivan Mamuzic - $251,955
4th Place: Yanick Brodeur - $216,681
5th Place: Keith Crowder - $188,126
6th Place: Kenny Nguyen - $156,212

Next up for the WPT on U.S. soil is the Festa al Lago, which kicks off on October 21st from the Bellagio in Las Vegas. In the interim, WPT Marrakech will take place from October 11th through 18th. The non-televised event brings the WPT brand to the African continent for the first time.

Playing the sympathetic listener…

Out on a quick ciggy break and i am joined by South African Raymond Rahme (3rd in 2007 WSOP Main Event) and Belgian player Matthias De Meulder (who cashed in this year's WSOP Main Event) who both recount the tales of their demise.

Ante Up for Africa Monte Carlo Event to Air on CBS Sports

For the next two weekends, CBS will air the PokerStars Ante Up for Africa Monte Carlo tournament. The show will air on Saturday, September 19th from 1:30pm to 2:30pm ET and on Saturday, September 26th from 2:00pm to 3:00pm ET.

Both shows will air prior to college football. Vanessa Rousso, a member of Team PokerStars Pro, commented in a press release distributed by the online poker site on Friday, “Each year at the World Series of Poker, I make it a point to play in Ante Up for Africa. It’s amazing that PokerStars hosted the event in Monte Carlo to help a worthy cause and bring some fun to the table during one of their biggest events of the year.” In this author’s home market, the show does not air on September 19th, but rather only the 26th. Viewers are encouraged to check their local listings for details, as college football dates, times, and channels vary by market.

The tournament took place in April in the storied European principality during the Monte Carlo Grand Final festivities. The casino is the host venue for the end-of-season European Poker Tour (EPT) event and attracted a star-studded lineup of celebrities and poker players for the Ante Up for Africa contest. Among those in attendance were St. Louis rapper Nelly, singer Christina Milian, The Dream, “Heroes” actor James Kyson Lee, “Sex in the City” actor Jason Lewis, Good Charlotte band member Joel Madden, U.K. presenter Kirsty Gallacher, rapper Bruno “Kool Shen” Lopes, F1 racer Nico Rosberg, Liverpool goalkeeper Pepe Reina, and rugby players Sebastien Chabal and Mike Tindall.

Representing Team PokerStars Pro were Rousso, 2004 World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event Champion Greg Raymer, 2005 Champion Joe Hachem, 2008 Champion Peter Eastgate, Italian poker pro Dario Minieri, Victor Ramdin, and Caesars Cup Captain Daniel Negreanu. The €4,000 buy-in tournament generated more than €260,000 for the Ante Up for Africa charity, which raises money and awareness for victims of the crisis in Darfur. A total of €160,000 was raised through tournament buy-ins, while PokerStars generously kicked in an additional €100,000.

Among those prizes awarded were a trip to the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure in 2010. The tournament, which is held annually in the Bahamas, serves as the lone Western Hemisphere stop on the EPT circuit. A tournament summary distributed by the world’s largest online poker site offered the following insight into the ongoing Darfur crisis: “More than 400,000 people have died and more than four million have lost their homes in Darfur since the conflict began. To date, Ante Up For Africa has raised close to $2 million for the cause.”

Ante Up for Africa was founded in 2006 by “Celebrity Apprentice” runner-up Annie Duke, Full Tilt Poker pro Don Cheadle, and Norman Epstein. An annual $5,000 buy-in tournament is held to benefit the charity during the WSOP in Las Vegas. This year, the spectacle came to life on cable station ESPN and featured Matt Damon, Ben Affleck, Sarah Silverman, Charles Barkley, and Jason Alexander. Representing the poker world were the likes of Chris Ferguson, Howard Lederer, and Phil Hellmuth, who served as the event’s emcee. This year’s gala raised more than $600,000.

In August, the Full Tilt Online Poker Series (FTOPS) featured a fundraiser for Ante Up for Africa in the form of a $120 buy-in tournament. A total of 2,367 players bought into the event, which was won by “warren_ace1.” Full Tilt donated the entire $20 entry fee to Ante Up for Africa.

CBS to air Ante Up For Africa Monte Carlo

Two one-hour shows featuring action from the star-studded event to benefit Darfur are set to air on the US network Today [Sept. 19] at 1:30 p.m. EST and Saturday, Sept. 26 at 2 p.m. EST, leading into its popular college football coverage.

Modelled on the World Series of Poker's Ante Up For Africa event created by Don Cheadle, Annie Duke and Norman Epstein, the $6,000 buy-in event saw stars from the worlds of television, sports and music take on a host top poker professionals.

Celebrities including Christina Milian, Nelly, Joel Madden, Jason Lewis, James Lee, and Boris Becker were joined by Team PokerStars Pros Daniel Negreanu, Joe Hachem and Vanessa Rousso on the felt.

Former Team PokerStars Pro Isabelle Mercier actually won the tournament defeating English football legend Teddy Sheringham heads-up.

All of the prize money was donated to help fund the work of charities that provide aid and assistance to the humanitarian efforts in Darfur.

"Each year at the World Series of Poker, I make a point to play in Ante Up for Africa," said Rousso.

"It's amazing that PokerStars hosted the event in Monte Carlo to help a worthy cause and bring some fun to the table during one of their biggest events of the year."

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Isabelle Mercier quits Team PokerStars

After five years as a member of Team PokerStars Pro, the French-Canadian poker superstar said she is saying goodbye to one of the most lucrative sponsorship deals in the poker industry to "take on new projects."

Following a series of emails back and forth with PokerListings, Mercier sent out a press release claiming she "currently has extensive projects, both nationally and internationally, in the world of poker," and, "is not about to give up her life's passion."

No specific details regarding the projects were included.

However, after the French-language release of her autobiography Profession: Bluffer in 2008, Mercier did tell PokerListings she was seeking an English publisher and interested in selling the film rights.

A law school graduate from the University of Montréal, Mercier's first foray into the poker world was a night shift job at the Aviation Club de France where she quickly ascended to the position of poker room manager.

Eventually, Mercier sold everything she owned to bankroll herself as a professional player, stepping into the spotlight when she won the World Poker Tour Ladies Night II event in 2004.

Since then, Mercier has amassed more than $1 million in career live tournament earnings, most recently following up a final table appearance at last year's EPT London High Roller tournament with a win at the EPT Monte Carlo Ante Up for Africa event to benefit Darfur, where she donated the entire €250,000 first-place prize to the cause.

Her biggest online score is a third place finish in the PokerStars Sunday Million this past July for $115k.

Mercier had lived out of a suitcase the past four years before finally buying homes in both Monaco and Montreal this past year. She remained absent from most of the 2009 WSOP turning up only to play in the Ante Up For Africa charity tournament and the Main Event.

A representative from PokerStars said it was Mercier's decision not to renew her sponsorship contract with the site and the organization wishes her the best.

Team PokerStars Pro Vicky Coren said she would wager this isn't the last the poker world will see of Mercier.

"I'm sad that Isabelle has left Team Pro, but I do understand it," Coren said. "The International tournament circuit is pretty relentless, but Isabelle has embraced the full-on romantic poker life, always on the road, living out of a suitcase for months at a time.

"In that same romantic spirit, she's now jumping off to try new things and have fresh adventures. Having said that, I would bet good money that we'll still see Isabelle cropping up in the bigger tournaments, like Monte Carlo and the PCA. I hope so, because she's one of my favorite people in poker."

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