WPT Festa al Lago Kicks Off at Bellagio

Day 1 of the World Poker Tour’s (WPT) Festa al Lago took place on Friday, with 294 players coming to the felts at the Bellagio in Las Vegas. Registration remains open until around 5:00pm PT today and, this year, the tournament saw its buy-in shaved from $15,000 to $10,000.

The day began with Tony “Bond18” Dunst being introduced as the WPT “Raw Deal” host. Dunst will become a regular part of WPT programming during Season 9, which will air on Fox Sports Net, and analyze hands in an edgy manner. Dunst defeated poker pros like Joe Sebok and Clonie Gowen for the “Raw Deal” position.

Last year, Tommy Vedes trumped a field of 275 players in the Festa al Lago, meaning that the lower price tag has already resulted in attendance growing by 7%. Vedes departed during the last level of play on Friday, continuing the tradition of no player repeating in a WPT event. Also exiting near the tail end of the day was Unabomber Poker pro Phil Laak, who moved all-in on a board of 5-4-2-9-6 holding A-K of clubs for ace-high. Arnaud Mattern ultimately tanked for several minutes before calling and tabling pocket tens.

Former November Niner and WPT champ Chino Rheem hit the rail after running K-J offsuit into a wired pair of aces. Rheem was all-in before the flop and watched as his opponent promptly hit a set. Rheem took down the 2008 Doyle Brunson Five Diamond World Poker Classic for $1.5 million.

Propelling up the leaderboard at the WPT Festa al Lago was Faraz “The-Toilet” Jaka. The Illinois native called all-in on a board of 8-4-2-Q-7 and showed pocket tens. His opponent muttered “Good call” and flipped up pocket threes, resulting in a critical double up for Jaka. He owns the 91st largest stack in the room entering Day 2 at 56,475 and his competition at Table 55 today will include Randall Flowers, former WPT champ Todd Terry, Frank “Frank1The1Tank” Calo, and WPT Legends of Poker winner Andy Frankenberger.

WPT host Mike Sexton, a member of the Poker Hall of Fame and Guest Columnist for Poker News Daily, was eliminated after pocket queens cracked his pocket aces. Jae Sik spiked a two-outer on the river and Sexton hit the rail. Fellow PartyPoker pro Kara Scott, who was playing in her very first WPT tournament, also failed to survive to see Day 2.

Payman Arjang leads the field with a stack of 217,875 and a bevy of well-known poker pros appear in the top 10. Others near the top of the leaderboard include online poker pro David “Davidp18” Peters, prankster Jeff Madsen, DoylesRoom Brunson 10 member Amit “amak316” Makhija, and Sorel “Imper1um” Mizzi:

1. Payman Arjang – 217,875
2. Peter Braglia – 160,100
3. David “Davidp18” Peters – 141,425
4. Jeff Madsen – 139,375
5. Alexander Shogren – 125,625
6. Amit “amak316” Makhija – 125,500
7. Josef Monro – 124,775
8. Sorel “Imper1um” Mizzi – 119,400
9. Brandon Novena – 118,975
10. Ryan Young – 115,900

Also making Day 2 was UB.com pro Joe Sebok, who Tweeted on his way home last night, “Bit of an up and downer, started with 40k, up to 90k, down to 60k, up to 108k, but settled at 92k to end the day. Satisfied.” He added, “There are few things as interesting as walking through casinos sober on Friday & Saturday nights.” Sebok can be found at #30 on the leaderboard with a stack of 91,900.

Brand name pros who walked away on Friday with top 50 chip stacks include:

12. Annette “Annette_15” Obrestad – 113,950
19. Men “The Master” Nguyen – 102,625
24. John “World” Hennigan – 98,975
27. David Williams – 94,750
28. John Juanda – 92,525
30. Joe Sebok – 91,900
32. Jimmy “gobboboy” Fricke – 88,600
33. Jeff Shulman – 87,100
37. Barry Greenstein – 84,150
43. Brandon Cantu – 81,000
44. Jennifer Tilly – 79,100
47. Vanessa Selbst – 78,700

The action picks back up today at Noon PT and the final payouts will be posted once registration closes after Level 8.

WPT Festa al Lago Draws Poker’s Best

As always, the cream of the poker crop returned to poker's mecca for what is now a $10k event, including Daniel Negreanu, Barry Greenstein, John Juanda, Annette Obrestad and, fresh out of Bobby's Room, Doyle Brunson and Eli Elezra.

A total of 294 registered for play on Day 1, already surpassing the 275 who entered the $15k Festa main event in 2009.

However, the unique Bellagio structure allows players to register all the way up until the end of the eighth 90-minute level on Day 2 and even more are expected.

Payman Arjang holds the overnight lead with a host of poker greats close, including Obrestad, Amit Makhija, John "The World" Hennigan, Men Nguyen, Arnaud Mattern, Ryan Young, and David Peters.

215 players moved through to Day 2 with Negreanu, Juanda, Greenstein, Sorel Mizzi, Erica Schoenberg, Scott Clements, CardPlayer 2010 POY contender Thomas Marchese and Kara Scott among those sitting above the average stack.

Day 2 begins at 12 p.m. PT Saturday. The Festa al Lago main event runs through Oct. 20.

For live coverage of the event tune in to PokerListings' WPT Live Updates.

Daniel Negreanu Drops $200,000 on Monday’s Big Game Episode

After ending up $16,000 last week, Russell Harlow became the first “Loose Cannon” to return for a second go-around on the PokerStars-sponsored “Big Game.” To start this week’s festivities, $700,000 was spread across the six-handed table and Harlow told “Big Game” hostess Amanda Leatherman that it was time to “go big or go home.” You can catch the “Big Game” late night every day this week on FOX.

The “Big Game” boasts blinds of $200/$400 and a $100 ante paid entirely by the player on the button. The action is Pot Limit before the flop and No Limit thereafter and the maximum buy-in is $500,000. The “Loose Cannon” qualifier with the highest earnings total at the end of the season takes home a $50,000 PokerStars North American Poker Tour (NAPT) prize package.

In the first major pot of the night, PokerStars pro Barry Greenstein led out for $10,000 with A-Q of diamonds on a flop of Q-2-3 with one diamond for top pair. Daniel Negreanu, holding pocket kings, came along, as did DoylesRoom namesake Doyle Brunson, who spiked a pair of threes. The turn was the three of diamonds, giving Brunson trips, and the “Godfather of Poker” led out for $21,000. Greenstein and Negreanu both called to see a four of diamonds on the river, filling Greenstein’s flush.

Greenstein moved all-in for $60,000, Negreanu tanked before folding, and Brunson called to send the $232,800 pot to Greenstein. Negreanu and Brunson each added $100,000 to their dwindling stacks.

Negreanu continued to bleed chips, calling Brunson’s $86,100 all-in on a board reading 10-7-10-5 with 7-4 for tens-up. Brunson turned over pocket rockets for aces-up and the pair agreed to run the river twice. Both final cards favored Brunson, who raked in a $223,800 pot. Brunson quipped, “I love to play small ball,” and Negreanu was down $141,000 after just nine hands.

Harlow continued to prove that he was anything but timid by 3betting to $22,000 with A-8 of diamonds on a flop of 10-7-9 for a two-way straight draw. Lex Veldhuis, the original bettor on the flop with A-J of spades, abandoned ship, as did Justin “ZeeJustin” Bonomo, who held K-Q of the suit. The pot boosted Harlow’s “Big Game” profits to $35,000.

The big pots kept coming on an electrifying episode of the PokerStars “Big Game.” After missing straight and flush draws on the turn and river against Greenstein’s top pair, Negreanu fired out a bet of $32,500 on a board reading 6-10-Q-5-4 with K-J of clubs for king-high. Greenstein called behind with Q-8 and scooped a $111,200 pot, pushing “Kid Poker” even further into the red.

In the final hand of Monday’s kickoff episode, Bonomo, holding A-J of spades, checked a flop of 8-7-Q with two spades. With 10-6 of spades, Veldhuis bet $6,700 and Bonomo made it $18,000. Veldhuis moved all-in for $107,000 and Bonomo called quickly to build a $223,000 pot. Veldhuis elected to run it only once and an ace on the turn and three on the river sent the $223,000 bounty to Bonomo. By the time the hour-long show had wrapped up, every person at the table sans Harlow had played a pot worth at least $200,000. Brunson actually played two and won one.

At the end of 29 hands, Greenstein and Bonomo were each up over $100,000, while Negreanu was $201,000 in the hole. Harlow was up $18,000, adding about $2,000 to his stack during the episode. Watch “Big Game” nightly on FOX. Check your local listings for station and channel information.

Doyle Brunson Comments on Poker Hall of Fame Balloting

One of the many activities during the upcoming World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event final table is the Poker Hall of Fame induction ceremony. Who makes it in this year remains to be seen, but one of the most valued members of the poker community, Poker Hall of Fame member Doyle Brunson, has given his thoughts on the matter.

Coming back after a long hiatus from his blog, Doyle opined this week about who he felt would be the best players to elect into the Hall. “I’m primarily a cash game player and perhaps I put too much emphasis on the cash games, but I don’t see how it can’t be the most important landmark,” Brunson states when it comes to the considerations. “I consider all of the nominees to be friends and, for what it’s worth, here are my thoughts.”

Brunson reiterates the criteria for election to the Poker Hall of Fame quite succinctly, which every poker fan knows by heart: “The criteria for being in the Hall are simple. A player must have played against top competition, played for high stakes and played consistently well, gaining the respect of their peers. (The player must have) stood the test of time and contributed to the overall growth and success to the game of poker.”

Brunson views a few players as not quite ready for their entry into the Hall. For the two female nominees, Jennifer Harman and Linda Johnson, Brunson feels that both are qualified, but not quite yet worthy of entry. For Harman, Brunson states, “Jen meets all the requirements. I’ve always considered her to be the all-time best female player. However, her sex doesn’t matter here and she will probably need a few more years before she goes in.” For Johnson, Brunson says, “Loved by everyone, but probably isn’t a strong candidate this year.”

Two former Main Event champions in the mix, Chris “Jesus” Ferguson and Scotty Nguyen, also have their issues, according to Brunson. “Chris is a worthy candidate even though he doesn’t meet (the first two) criteria for entry,” Brunson notes. “Even though he hasn’t played much outside tournaments, he is so strong in the other three that he has to be considered. Probably not yet though.” For Nguyen, Brunson says, “(He) needs to live up to his nickname, ‘The Prince of Poker.’ He meets all five criteria, but is going to have to wait until his behavior in his win in the $50K H.O.R.S.E tournament fades from people’s memory.”

Of the six remaining nominees – Barry Greenstein, Dan Harrington, Phil Ivey, Tom McEvoy, Daniel Negreanu, and Erik Seidel – Brunson leans in favor of the induction of Seidel to the Poker Hall of Fame. “I gave almost all of my votes to Erik,” Brunson says in his blog. “Most people don’t remember his cash game play, but he was in all of the games in his early career. He meets all the requirements and his exemplary conduct deserves a special accolade.” Perhaps the greatest accolade that Brunson could lay out is in his final comment about Seidel: “He reminds me of Chip Reese.”

As to his second choice, Brunson seems torn between Greenstein and Ivey. “You can’t find a criteria Barry doesn’t meet,” he writes. “If not this year, next year for sure.” As for Ivey, Doyle simply says, “Who,” jovially indicating his approval of one of the most feared players in the game.

In the end, Brunson says that Seidel should be inducted a few weeks from now. “If Seidel isn’t one of the inductees, I’ll be very surprised,” Brunson says. “I think the second choice will be Greenstein or Ivey. I feel it should be Barry but, if Phil is the one, I’ll have no objection, even though I feel he should wait until he is older.”

The 17 living members of the Hall and a selected committee of poker journalists, which includes Poker News Daily’s Dan Cypra, vote for the Poker Hall of Fame finalists. Each voter is given 10 points to hand out in any way they deem appropriate; the top two vote getters will earn induction into the Hall. This is a change from past voting, where a nominee had to be selected on 75% of the ballots to be enshrined.

On November 7th, as a part of the 2010 WSOP November Nine festivities, the top two in the voting will be inducted into the Poker Hall of Fame in a special ceremony.

Joe Sebok Rappelling Down Rio for Special Olympics Nevada

On Friday, UB.com poker pro Joe Sebok will rappel down the Masquerade Tower at the Rio All-Suite Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas to raise money for Special Olympics Nevada. Whereas much of Sebok’s experience at the Rio has been inside the convention center for the annual World Series of Poker (WSOP), his Spiderman-like abilities will be showcased on the building’s exterior tomorrow.

The Over the Edge fundraiser allows participants to rappel 51 stories in exchange for raising a minimum of $1,000 for charity. For Sebok, dropping over 500 feet in a sturdy harness is child’s play. This month, the former “Poker2Nite” host and current PokerRoad personality will jump out of an airplane with a qualifier from UB.com. The tournament, which was dubbed “Leap of Faith” and took place as part of UB.com’s Pro Freeroll Challenge in February, had a $2,000 prize pool and its winner would jump alongside Sebok.

At the time of writing, Sebok has raised nearly $1,200 for the Special Olympics Nevada. You can add to the cause by clicking here and visiting Sebok’s personal fundraising page. This year, the Over the Edge event has raised nearly $40,000.

The Rio is no small hotel to tackle. According to its website, the Rio weighs in at over 2,500 suites, each of which encompasses over 600 square feet. The Masquerade tower features larger suites that offer 180-degree views of Sin City and its outlying areas. The Harrah’s property is located off the famed Las Vegas Strip on Flamingo and opened for business in 1990.

Despite jumping out of airplanes and being the general life of the party, Sebok told Poker News Daily on Thursday that he’s a tad apprehensive about rappelling down the Rio: “I’m actually scared of heights, so I am a little nervous, but it ends up being a no-brainer to come out and help people. I’m not going to sit out because I’m scared.” Sebok added that he’s more comfortable jumping out of a plane than doing low-to-the-ground stunts like bungee jumping: “I think bungee jumping is scarier than skydiving. When you’re in a plane and you look out, it’s like a cartoon. It’s not really real.”

Fundraising runs deep in Sebok’s family. Take his stepfather, Barry Greenstein, for example. Greenstein is a 2010 Poker Hall of Fame nominee that may earn his nod into the prestigious club in part due to his fundraising efforts away from the felts (not to mention his three WSOP bracelets). Sebok noted, “All of us are heavily involved in fundraising in my family. We feel lucky and I have the most incredible life. Whenever people need help, you should help them out. The Rio rappel is a no-brainer. I get to do something cool and raise money.”

Sebok recently returned from a trip to Costa Rica, where UB.com is located. While there, an earthquake struck, but Sebok, a San Francisco native, remained calm. “It wasn’t that big of a deal, but it was a decent-sized earthquake,” admitted Sebok. “We were on the fourth floor of the UB offices and I was with a few people who worked in Toronto. Those people were pretty panicky.” He added that if you ever find yourself in an earthquake, head for the nearest doorway.

The 2010 WSOP Main Event is exactly one month away from resuming at the Penn and Teller Theater at the Rio. Sebok told Poker News Daily that his pick to win the nearly $9 million first place prize is John Racener. The man they call “$JMONEY$” will enter the November Nine with the fourth largest stack at 19.1 million, although he’s still a ways off chip leader Jonathan Duhamel’s 65.9 million. Sebok argued, “’The Grinder’ is a popular pick too, but all of us who have played with John Racener know he has a lot of game. He has a nice chip stack and knows what he’s doing.”

Play with Sebok at UB.com, which happily takes action from the United States.

2010 Poker Hall of Fame Nominations by Lee Jones

Poker News Daily asked me for my thoughts about the ten finalists for this year’s Poker Hall of Fame. This caused me some angst as I decided what criteria I should use in giving my input.

I mean, let’s consider the Baseball Hall of Fame. Back in my youth, I lived and breathed baseball, so I know a little about the game. There are some interesting problems that come up in selecting candidates there.  For instance, people still argue whether Pete Rose should be in the Hall of Fame. His results on the field are beyond dispute, but then he sullied the entire game with his subsequent gambling problems.

As I thought about that, I decided that if I had a vote (which I don’t), I would have to include a component that I wasn’t embarrassed to see that person in the Hall of Fame, no matter what his or her accomplishments were on the felt. If it helps gauge my attitude about this, in my record book, Hank Aaron is the home run leader.

So here are this year’s candidates, broken into a few groups.

Ship them this year, please

Chris Ferguson: Chris is arguably the most recognizable poker player in the world (who doesn’t live at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue). He helped develop the software for Full Tilt and via his sponsorship by them has appeared on what seems like virtually every poker TV show in history. And he’s got five bracelets. Chris is soft-spoken and a bit of an introvert, but he is always pleasant and polite with the fans that surround him begging for autographs.

Dan Harrington: Another guy who has been around forever and has made himself relevant at the tables and as a writer. It is strong enough that he won the 1995 WSOP Main Event. However, his back-to-back final tables in the 2003 and 2004 Main Events, the latter of which had a post-boom field of 2,576 players, may make him the “Johnny Vander Meer of Poker.”

While many others had reached consecutive final tables in the sub-100 player fields of the early days, Harrington may well be the only person who will ever do it when the average field of the two consecutive events was over 1,500. Away from the tables, Dan has been a prolific and highly influential writer, perhaps best known for quantifying the “M” value of stack size in a tournament.

Linda Johnson: Linda isn’t a regular participant in the tournament tour (she’s too busy running poker cruises), so you’re not going to see her racking up a room full of tournament trophies, her bracelet in Razz notwithstanding. But her true value to the game has been twofold:

1. She nurtured the game through its dark times and never slowed down after the boom. Even with her busy schedule, she hosts poker meetings, answers e-mail questions about poker, makes appearances, teaches classes, and acts as the ultimate poker ambassador.

2. Her generosity, both through poker and outside of it, is unimaginable. Linda and I are friends and much of what she does is under the radar. She has shared her good fortune with more people than anybody (including her) could count.

Tom McEvoy: Tom won the WSOP Main Event 27 years ago. And then last year he won a made-for-TV tournament of former champions. He still cashes in major events and made himself relevant in the online poker world early with his representation of PokerStars. On the ambassador front, he is unfailingly polite and gracious (and in fact was one of the first people to push for non-smoking poker tournaments).

Erik Seidel: Erik is my sleeper. He is one of those folks (along with Barry Greenstein) who truly understands poker’s place in the greater world. He’s got a family and spends enough time away from them with his Full Tilt duties as it is. So, he doesn’t choose to play in every cash game and TV show that he could. In short, if Erik Seidel devoted every waking minute to poker and promoting himself, the writers would be climbing all over each other to vote for him.

His famous battle with Johnny Chan was in the 1988 WSOP Main Event – 22 years ago – and he’s won eight bracelets since. In short, I suspect that poker Hall of Famedom is not high on Erik’s list of life priorities. Sort of the “Cal Ripken of Poker,” Erik has simply gone out and done his job, incredibly well, for over two decades. Oh, and he’s been a gentleman throughout, from the baseball cap right down to the running shoes. I’d stand up and cheer at his Hall of Fame induction.

Just wait, they’ll be in

Phil Ivey, Barry Greenstein, and Jennifer Harman: These three are getting in – it may just take a little time. The internet has made time compress, but remember we’re talking the Hall of Fame, not All-Star, balloting here. For instance, unless a meteor strikes the Earth and envelops the planet in a two-year smoke cloud that destroys life as we know it, Phil Ivey is going into the Poker Hall of Fame at some point. But another five years won’t change that and will likely only add to his already near-immortal resume.

Greenstein and Harman have been mixing it up in the biggest poker games in the world for the last decade or so; they have no difficulty there. And Harman was the go-to person when the big game denizens needed help in their match against Andy Beal. Furthermore, both have recently turned their attention to charitable work – that’s huge in my book. I just want to let their cakes bake a little while longer.

Honorable mention

Scotty Nguyen: Forgive me, but his antics take him off my list (as they did for fellow PND writer Dan Cypra). Scotty certainly has the poker (and crowd-attracting) chops to get into the Hall of Fame, but until he gets his behavior under control, he’s not on my list.

Daniel Negreanu: So I really like Daniel. He’s a great guy and fun to talk to. And given another few years, his tournament and cash game record would almost certainly merit Hall of Fame consideration. But he needs to learn to control his rants. Maybe that means realizing that he doesn’t really have “off the record” as an option when he’s standing around a reporter. Perhaps it’s just letting some old stuff fade out of his life and fully embracing the extraordinary fortune that the game of poker has brought him. I’m not sure, but I hope he’ll find whatever it is.

Lee Jones is the Card Room Manager for Cake Poker and has been in the online poker business since 2003. He is also the author of “Winning Low Limit Hold’em,” which is still in publication over 15 years after its first printing.

EPT London Breaks British Poker Attendance Records

The largest live poker tournament ever held on British soil is taking place in London. The European Poker Tour’s (EPT) London Main Event clocked in at 848 players earlier today and a prize pool of over £4 million is up for grabs. Text found on the PokerStars Blog accurately assesses, “That will be a large wedge of cheese for the winner.”

Among those hitting the rails today on Day 1B were Dario Minieri and original November Niner Dennis Phillips, who ran pocket kings into pocket aces on his final hand. Phillips won’t be fleeing London anytime soon, however. PokerStars expects its sponsored pro to play in the £20,000 High Roller Event, which he cashed in last year for three times his buy-in.

Viktor Blom, the man many believe to be “Isildur1,” is in action today. However, his stack of 19,000 was abandoned midway through the day, leaving some to wonder if the mystery Swede will be returning to the tables anytime soon. Blom is fresh off a 16th place finish in the World Series of Poker (WSOP) Europe Main Event for £33,000.

Also motoring through Day 1B is PokerStars pro Jason Mercier, who Tweeted, “Have 33k at first break. EPT London Main Event. Table seems pretty soft, we shall see what develops.” Mercier might not be in the best condition health-wise, however, as six hours prior to updating his Twitter followers about his chip count, Mercier posted, “Guess I’m just bound to get no sleep this trip. Still feeling sick and getting worse.”

American Soheb Porbandarwala ended Day 1A as the chip leader at 218,600 on Wednesday. The PokerStars online qualifier was the only player to cross the 200,000-chip mark and is well ahead of Konstantin Bucherl’s second place tally of 187,900. Others in the top 25 after Day 1A included former WSOP Europe Main Event champion Barry Shulman, Sweden’s William Thorson, and PokerStars sponsored pro Alex Kravchenko. Yesterday’s attendance was 339, an increase of 10% year over year.

Among those ousted on Day 1A was poker Triple Crown winner Roland de Wolfe, who doubled up through Shulman with pocket tens against pocket nines before meeting his demise. In de Wolfe’s final hand, his A-J could not out-race an opponent’s pocket tens when the board came five cards nine or lower. The U.K. poker pro took fourth in the WSOP Europe Main Event just days ago for £278,000.

Young guns David “Davidp18” Peters and DoylesRoom Brunson 10 member Chris “moorman1” Moorman were also both casualties of Wednesday’s play in London. Here were the top 10 in chips after Day 1A in the EPT London Main Event. Indicative of the EPT’s global reach, eight countries are represented in the top 10:

1. Soheb Porbandarwala (USA) – 218,600
2. Konstantin Bucherl (Germany) – 187,900
3. Thomas Bichon (France) – 185,000
4. John O’Shea (Ireland) – 184,400
5. Joep van den Bijgaart (Netherlands) – 167,600
6. Dominique Franchi (France) – 152,800
7. Adrian Bussman (Sweden) – 152,700
8. Craig Stevens (UK) – 149,300
9. Steven Levy (USA) – 145,400
10. Daniel Da Silva Pacheco (Portugal) – 144,900

Other notable names that survived the day, along with their chip counts, include:

Barry Shulman (USA) – 129,200
William Thorson (Sweden) – 125,600
Alex Kravchenko (Russia) – 111,000
Tom Marchese (USA) – 110,200
Greg Raymer (USA) – 105,200
McLean Karr (USA) – 90,700
Kevin “ImaLuckSac” MacPhee (USA) – 88,900
John Juanda (USA) – 71,400
Ivan Demidov (Russia) – 65,000
Teddy Sheringham (UK) – 56,400
Jim “Mr_BigQueso” Collopy (USA) – 56,000
Jason “PBJaxx” Senti (USA) – 51,000
Scott Fischman (USA) – 32,700
Nick Binger (USA) – 30,700
Barry Greenstein (USA) – 15,800
Vanessa Rousso (USA) – 14,300

The £5,000 buy-in tournament will crown a champion on October 4th. Also playing out in recent days in London was the EPT’s £5,000 Heads-Up Event, which attracted a sold out field of 64 players. When the smoke cleared, Full Tilt Poker pro Annette Obrestad claimed victory for £120,000. Stay tuned to Poker News Daily for the latest updates from EPT London.

EPT London Poker Festival Begins

The £5,250 EPT 7 London Heads-Up event got things rolling selling out the 64 spots available.

Names like Jason Mercier, Barry Greenstein, John Juanda, Erik Seidel, Praz Bansi, Scott Seiver, Melanie Weisner, and Sorel Mizzi all got in on the best-of-three heads-up action.

Just eight players remain heading into the event’s second and final day Wednesday, including Bernd Gleissner, Ville Haavisto, Andrew Pantling, Sam Iola, Will Molson, Santeri Valikoski, Richard Gryko and Annette Obrestad.

All eight players are guaranteed £17,600 with £120K set aside for first.

Later in the day, the European 8-Game Championships saw a total of 78 players creating a £151,320 prize pool.

The Day ended with 22 players remaining and Canadian Ami Barer on top.

Notables still in contention include Justin Young, Jason Mercier, Richard Ashby and Scott Seiver.

Last year's debut 8-Game event drew 60 players with Team PokerStars Pro Joe Hachem claiming a £42,400 win.

With the side events already in full swing, Day 1a of the EPT London Main Event started Wednesday afternoon with 346 players, including at least 80 who won their seats on PokerStars.

November Niner Jason Senti and Team PokerStars Pros including Vanessa Rousso, Barry Greenstein, Greg Raymer, Arnaud Mattern, Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier, John Duthie and Vanessa Selbst all joined the action there.

Ivey, Isildur1 in WSOPE ME Final 22

Day 3 began Sunday in London with 66 players remaining and Swedish online high-stakes phenom Viktor “Isildur1” Blom holding the lead.

The 36-player money bubble broke in the first half of the day and the field went to dinner with just 28 remaining.

When they returned, Canadian Andrew Pantling jumped into the lead becoming the first player past the one million chip mark, but a few hits late saw him dip below, allowing online pro Ronald Lee to take control before play was halted with 22 remaining.

Pantling, who made runner-up in the WSOPE’s £2,500 Six-Max event last week, also saw online pro David Peters push past him on the leader board.

Peters made fourth in that very same event.

Phil Ivey remains in the thick of it, sitting with a top ten stack, as does the aforementioned Blom, Hoyt Corkins, Nicolas Levi and Arnaud Mattern.

The UK’s Barney Boatman, Roland de Wolfe and Canadian two-time WSOP bracelet winner Greg Mueller are also still in the hunt for the £830,401 first place prize.

Well known pros including Freddy Deeb, Barry Greenstein, Yevgeniy Timoshenko and Bryn Kenney were among those that cashed, but failed to progress to the final 22.

Play will resume inside the Casino at the Empire in Leicester Square at 12 p.m. London time Monday with plans to play down to the final nine.

To follow the action, click through to PokerListings’ WSOPE Live Updates.

Here are the top ten chip counts heading into Day 4:

1 Ronald Lee 947,000

2 David Peters 829,000

3 Andrew Pantling 821,000

4 Daniel Steinberg 768,000

5 Viktor Blom 705,000

6 Phil Ivey 657,000

7 Hoyt Corkins 566,000

8 Nicolas Levi 515,000

9 Bojan Gledovic 500,000

10 Arnaud Mattern 468,000

Isildur1 Leads WSOPE Main Event

Since Isildur1 broke into the high-stakes scene last fall, becoming the first person to lose a seven-figure pot online against Patrik Antonius, beating Phil Ivey out of the second largest pot all time a few days later to make him the only player to have both won and lost a million dollar pot online and playing seven of the ten largest pots in online poker history, several sources have claimed he is Viktor Blom.

While PokerListings can confirm Viktor Blom is Blom90, a player who burst onto the high-stakes Euro-site scene in early 2009 building a massive bankroll before virtually disappearing, Blom has neither confirmed nor denied the rumor he is Isildur1, again refusing an interview with PokerListings Saturday after moving into the chip lead in the WSOPE main event.

Serbian Team 888VIP pro Bojan Gledovic is in a dead heat with Blom for the lead while tournament Poker’s all time leading money winner Ivey also built a stack on Day 2 and sits in a pack close behind including Nick Schulman, Arnaud Mattern, Nicolas Levi, Barry Greenstein, Dan Shak and Yevgeniy Timoshenko.

Heading into Sunday’s Day 3 just 66 players remain with Daniel Negreanu, Hoyt Corkins, Almira Skripchenko, Freddy Deeb, Greg Mueller, Nam Le, JP Kelly and November Niner John Dolan also still in contention.

Jennifer Tilly, Phil Laak, Eric Baldwin, Eric Baldwin, Praz Bansi, Chris Moorman, Allen Cunningham, J.C. Tran, Leo Margets, Liv Boeree, Carlos Mortensen, Chris Ferguson, November Niners Filippo Candio and John Racener, Jason Mercier and last year’s champ Barry Shulman all busted Saturday.

The £10,350 WSOPE Championship drew a total of 346 players to the Casino at the Empire in London’s Leicester Square creating a £3,460,000 prize pool with £830,401 set aside for first.

The event will play down to a winner Oct. 28. Action continues on Day 3 beginning at 12 p.m. London time with plans to play to the final 27.

Since both players are out of the main event, the final heads-up match between Gus Hansen and Jim Collopy to settle the £10k Heads-Up High Roller event has also been set for 6 p.m. Sunday.

For a slice of the action, click through to PokerListings’ WSOPE Live Updates.

Winner winner chicken dinner

Weekly News Update

Hello, I’m Sean Gibson and welcome to the Poker News Daily Weekly Update. We are moving to this new weekly format for now as we have a ton of great poker lifestyle pieces heading your way and didn’t want you to miss out on those. However, I’ll still be back bringing the news every Friday.

Our first topic covers the Prince of Poker, larger than life Poker Hall of Fame nominee Scotty Nguyen, who is offering his fans the chance to play against him in small regional tournaments. According to his official blog, Nguyen will skip the World Series of Poker Europe this year to play in smaller buy-in events all over the United States. Nguyen’s first stop will be in Durant, Oklahoma at the Choctaw Casino for the T.J. Cloutier Classic. The nineteen ninety-eight WSOP Main Event champ was enthused over his decision on Twitter:

“Don’t forget baby! Gonna skip WSOPE and instead travel for my fans baby!”

In a decision filed on September fourteenth, United States District Judge James Nowlin denied a motion for a Temporary Restraining Order filed by Deliverance Poker, which is suingNovember Nine member Michael “The Grinder” Mizrachi for allegedly jumping ship to be sponsored by Full Tilt Poker in the middle of the Main Event. If the motion had been successful, Mizrachi may have been forbidden from wearing Full Tilt logos until the legal process was finished. Fortunately for him – and Full Tilt – Judge Nowlin dismissed it, and went as far as to say there is no “substantial likelihood” that Deliverance would win the case.

In more online poker news, the sale of the CEREUS Network to Blanca Games has “violated and/or triggered the application of certain rights under the agreements between Excapsa and Blast Off and its related entities” according to XMT Liquidations.

Potentially referring to the UltimateBet.com domain, “Blast Off intended to wind-up [end] any and all operations related to assets over which Excapsa has been granted a security interest.”

The situation remains murky at best, but as one member of the Two Plus two Forum put it,

“Looks like Blast Off’s (AP/UB) lawyers are going to try to get the hundred Million dollar note reduced or canceled due to players cheated in two thousand and four and two thousand and five.”

On Friday, members of the Poker Hall of Fame voting committee received their ballots in an e-mail from Harrah’s officials. Noticeably different this year is a “10-point must system” that asks each member of the panel to allocate ten points among the candidates of their choosing. The 10 finalists that the panel must choose from are:

Chris Ferguson, Barry Greenstein, Jennifer Harman, “Action” Dan Harrington, Phil Ivey, Erik Seidel, Linda Johnson, Tom McEvoy, Daniel Negreanu, and Scotty Nguyen.

After the votes are tabulated, the top two players receiving the majority of the vote will be enshrined as part of the Class of two thousand and ten. PND’s own Dan Cypra has the privilege of being on the panel for the second straight year.

The Poker Players Alliance struck back at the Commerce Casino and other gambling establishments in California by launching PlayersBeforeProfits.com, an online petition designed to encourage support of H-R Two-Two-Six-Seven, the Internet Gambling Regulation, Consumer Protection, and Enforcement Act. At the time of taping, the petition at PlayersBeforeProfits.com has well over ten thousand signatures, including the support of pros such as Tom Dwan, Howard Lederer, and Jennifer Tilly.

Twenty-four year-old Brit Sam Trickett took down the sixth PartyPoker World Open, banking two hundred thousand dollars. The tournament played out last week from the Palm Beach Casino in London.

Trickett has been on a tear in two-thousand ten. In June, he was the runner-up in a No Limit Hold’em event held during the World Series of Poker and took over half a million dollars. Then, Trickett bubbled the final table of the twenty-five thousand dollar No Limit Hold’em Six-Handed event, also at the WSOP. In August, Trickett did it again, finishing fourth in the European Poker Tour Main Event in Vilamoura, Portugal. His win at the PartyPoker World Open VI gives Trickett four six-figure cashes in the last three months.

Finally, Poker News Daily congratulates Phil Laak on yet another achievement. This time, “The Unabomber” took down his first gold World Series of Poker bracelet across “The Pond” in London. Laak won a twenty-five hundred Pound Six-Handed No Limit Hold’em tournament during WSOP Europe for one-hundred seventy thousand Pounds.

Laak’s bracelet was in the kickoff event of WSOP Europe, which sold out at 244 entrants. The final table also featured bracelet winners Chris [BEE-OR-IN] Bjorin and Willie Tann.

That does it for this week’s top headlines here at Poker News Daily. Don’t miss us next Friday for another executive recap of the week in Poker. Until next time, here’s to hoping you run great at the tables – I’m Sean Gibson for Poker News Daily.

PokerStars Million Dollar Challenge Returns To Fox Television This Sunday

One of the most popular made for television poker shows, the PokerStars.net Million Dollar Challenge, will return with new episodes this Sunday, according to an announcement from the number one site in the online poker industry.

Fox Television will once again air the Million Dollar Challenge as companion programming to its coverage of the National Football League (NFL). On weeks that Fox does not have the doubleheader coverage of the NFL for its viewers (the weekly doubleheader is shared between Fox and CBS on alternating weekends), the PokerStars Million Dollar Challenge will either be seen prior to or at the conclusion of the Fox NFL football game in a viewer’s area. Several amateur players – who have qualified for the program through special tournaments at PokerStars.net – will attempt to take down the $1 million top prize.

Seven weeks of broadcasting are planned. The show will premiere this Sunday and will have its second broadcast the next Sunday (September 26th). The show will then fall into its two week plan in October (10th and 24th) and November (7th and 21st). The grand finale, where one contestant will face poker pro Daniel Negreanu heads-up for the chance at the $1 million grand prize, will air on Sunday, December 12th.

For this year’s version of the program, PokerStars has lined up several celebrities to take part in the Round One action against the amateurs. These “celebrity defenders” include “Dancing With The Stars” hostess Brooke Burke, former two-time Super Bowl champion and Pro Football Hall of Famer John Elway, legendary Detroit Lions running back and member of the Hall of Fame Barry Sanders, Playboy Magazine 2007 Playmate of the Year Sara Jean Underwood, and future National Basketball Association Hall of Fame guard Gary Payton.

The format for the Million Dollar Challenge is the same as in its first season. The amateur faces one of the “celebrity defenders” in an attempt to move onto Round Two. For the first round of competition, Negreanu sits at the table with the player offering advice and reading their opponent.

In Round Two, Negreanu is sent to an “isolation booth,” where only the amateur can hear his advice. The competence of the opponents picks up as well, with members of Team PokerStars stepping to the felt. Such Team PokerStars pros as World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event winner Chris Moneymaker, Barry Greenstein, Jason Mercier, and Vanessa Rousso are the potential combatants for Round Two.

If the amateur is able to defeat one of the Team PokerStars pros in Round Two, they then face a difficult choice: walk away from the game with $25,000 or take on Negreanu – who has been helping them to this point – with $100,000 and a seat at the Tournament of Champions on the line. By defeating “Kid Poker,” the amateur player moves on to the Tournament of Champions and, if they win that, will once again face Negreanu for a shot at $1 million.

The show has proven to be quite successful for Fox and PokerStars. Hosted by Fox’s Chris Rose and reporter Michelle Nunes, the first season of the PokerStars.net Million Dollar Challenge was the highest rated network broadcast poker program in U.S. history, averaging nearly four million viewers per episode. For those that may not remember last year’s conclusion, retired NYPD officer and 9/11 first responder Mike Kosowski shockingly beat Negreanu to take home the $1 million grand prize.

2010 WSOPE: £5k PLO Draws 120

Among them were some of the most recognizable names in the game, including Phil Ivey, Tom Dwan, Michael Mizrachi, Annette Obrestad, Chris Ferguson and Phil Hellmuth.

The unique format of the event gave players 3,000 in chips and three lammers, which could be turned in immediately for another 12k or used as rebuy chips worth 4,000 each until the end of the fourth level.

The 120 players created a £600,000 prize pool that will pay 18 places with £159,514 set aside for first.

Play wrapped on Day 1 with 49 players remaining after eight levels and NAPT and WPT final tablist Sam Stein in the lead.

Local London pro Karl Mahrenholz was close, along with Scott Fischman, Jeff Madsen, Joe Serock, Barry Greenstein and coming off his record fifth WSOPE cash placing third in the £2,500 Six-Max final earlier in the day, Chris Bjorin.

They will play down to a final nine in London Friday.

Scotty Nguyen Skips WSOP Europe to Play Small Poker Events in USA

2010 Poker Hall of Fame nominee Scotty Nguyen is offering his fans the chance of a lifetime to play against him in the coming months. According to Nguyen’s official blog, the “Prince of Poker” will be skipping the World Series of Poker (WSOP) Europe this year in order to play smaller buy-in events all over the United States. The 1998 WSOP Main Event champ made his eagerness to meet his fans from all over public, saying on Twitter this week, “Don’t forget baby! gonna skip wsope and instead travel for my fans baby!”

Nguyen hasn’t announced an official travel schedule just yet, but his first stop will be in Durant, Oklahoma at the Choctaw Casino for the T.J. Cloutier Classic. Nguyen and his wife Julie will arrive on September 23rd and stay through the $1,650 Main Event, which gets underway on September 25th. The Choctaw Casino, which is located about an hour from Dallas, Texas, will also be hosting its first-ever WSOP Circuit Event in January, giving Midwest poker players a lot to look forward to in the near future.

Nguyen’s appearance at the T.J. Cloutier Classic should attract a solid field for the Main Event, as it gives locals an opportunity to play with a world-class player near their hometown. He’s likely to visit several more casinos and will make announcements when schedule decisions are finalized.

Nguyen has been reaching out to his fans with even more regularity than usual lately, becoming an avid user of social networks like Twitter and even hosting live chats with fans on his official website. Nguyen has always been one of the more approachable players on the tour, signing autographs and chatting with anyone watching him from the rail.

Some might feel his upcoming poker excursion with fans is a ploy to clear himself from his belligerent behavior at the 2008 WSOP $50,000 HORSE final table, but Nguyen has normally been very generous and charitable with those on and away from the table.

Nguyen is one of ten finalists for the Poker Hall of Fame Class of 2010, which will be voted on by a 33-person panel. He’s up against poker luminaries such as Chris “Jesus” Ferguson, Barry Greenstein, Jennifer Harman, Dan Harrington, Phil Ivey, Linda Johnson, Tom McEvoy, Daniel Negreanu, and Erik Seidel. Nguyen’s poker resume speaks for itself: five WSOP bracelets, including Main Event and $50,000 HORSE titles; a World Poker Tour victory; and more than $11 million in tournament earnings, which is good for fifth all time.

His actions at the $50,000 HORSE Championship, during which he drunkenly berated poker pros Erick Lindgren and Michael DeMichele at the televised final table, will certainly be on the minds of the panelists for years to come. However, his rapport with the general poker public is hard to ignore, and skipping one of the year’s biggest poker events to give back to his fans only further shows his bighearted nature.

If he doesn’t receive a nod into the Hall of Fame this year, it will only be a matter of time before we see Nguyen enshrined with the rest of the legends of the game, baby.

Poker Hall of Fame Voting Committee Receives 2010 Ballots

On Friday, members of the Poker Hall of Fame voting committee received their ballots in an e-mail from Harrah’s officials. Noticeably different this year is a “10-point must system” that asks each member of the 33-person panel to allocate 10 points apiece among the candidates of their choosing. Then, when the final points are tabulated, the top two players who have received the majority of the votes will be enshrined as part of the Class of 2010. This author has the privilege of being on the panel for the second straight year.

Each of the 33 voters can select no more than three of the 10 finalists on the ballot, meaning that we can opt for zero, one, two, or three players. Text found on the ballot explains this year’s election procedures: “This year, we are using a 10-point must system in the voting. You must cast your vote(s) and ensure the total of those votes equals 10, and exactly 10.” If the points don’t add to 10, the ballot is voided.

Two examples of how to vote are given in the ballot. In the first, if we believe two players are equally qualified to become part of the Poker Hall of Fame in 2010, then we’d allocate five points to each. If we felt that Dan Harrington, for example, was especially worthy of enshrinement, then we could toss seven points his way. However, in each case, the total number of points allotted must equal 10 and no more than three finalists can be selected.

Last year, World Poker Tour (WPT) host and World Series of Poker (WSOP) bracelet winner Mike Sexton was the lone entrant into the Poker Hall of Fame after 75% of the vote was needed. This year, it’s possible that two players could get in considering only 50% is required. The votes from the 16 living Poker Hall of Fame members and 17 members of the media will not be publicly disclosed.

This year, the Poker Hall of Fame induction ceremony will take place on Sunday, November 7th from Las Vegas. Further details other than a date were not available at press time. Among the members of the media who have publicly acknowledged that they are part of the voting committee are ESPN.com Poker Editor Andrew Feldman and the International Federation of Poker’s Anthony Holden.

The 10 finalists from the public vote received the green light from the Poker Hall of Fame Nominating Committee to be considered for the Hall. The group consists of Full Tilt Poker software developer Chris Ferguson, charity worker extraordinaire Barry Greenstein, top female pro Jennifer Harman, and the man who quite literally wrote the book on poker, “Action” Dan Harrington.

Other nominees for the Poker Hall of Fame Class of 2010 include eight-time bracelet winners Phil Ivey and Erik Seidel, Tournament Directors Association co-founder Linda Johnson, 1983 WSOP Main Event champ Tom McEvoy, PokerStars front man Daniel Negreanu, and Scotty Nguyen, the only player ever to win the WSOP Main Event and $50,000 HORSE Championship.

Last year, Harrington, Greenstein, Ivey, McEvoy, Nguyen, Negreanu, and Seidel all made the ballot along with Men “The Master” Nguyen, who is not among the top 10 finalists in 2010. The induction ceremony took place on the first day of November Nine play at the Rio and featured comments from Sexton’s brother Tom Sexton, 10-time WSOP bracelet winner Doyle Brunson, gaming legend Jack Binion, Poker Hall of Famer T.J. Cloutier, and McEvoy. Sexton received a hearty 30-second standing ovation upon being introduced to the crowd in a touching moment.

Thirty-seven players have been inducted into the Poker Hall of Fame since 1979 and the ballots from the voting panel are due back on October 1st. Stay tuned to Poker News Daily to learn who will become the Hall’s newest inductees.

Players Before Profits Petition Nears 10,000 Signatures

In late August, the Poker Players Alliance (PPA), the main lobbying voice for poker players in the United States, struck back at the Commerce Casino and other gambling establishments in California by launching PlayersBeforeProfits.com. The online petition was designed to encourage support of HR 2267, the Internet Gambling Regulation, Consumer Protection, and Enforcement Act. Now, the vehicle is nearing 10,000 signatures.

At the time of writing, the petition at PlayersBeforeProfits.com has garnered 9,018 signatures, having passed 9,000 during the day on Friday. In addition to a wealth of “Average Joes” signing it, a plethora of pros have joined in the fray. Players like Patrik Antonius, Doyle Brunson, Tom Dwan, Barry Greenstein, John Juanda, Huck Seed, and Erik Seidel have all lent their name to the PPA’s cause.

Tom Malkasian, who introduced himself in a July House Financial Services Committee hearing as an “owner, board member, and the Director of Strategic Planning for the Commerce Casino,” came out in strong opposition to HR 2267. Malkasian called the bill, introduced by Congressman Barney Frank (D-MA) “fundamentally flawed and unsound.”

Malkasian added that HR 2267 and its revenue counterpart, HR 4976, are “based on false revenue assumptions that would require the removal of the right of any state or tribe to opt out of the bill in order to achieve the advertised tax revenues of $42 billion over 10 years.” HR 4976, introduced by Congressman Jim McDermott (D-WA), has yet to be marked up in the House Ways and Means Committee. Contrastingly, the House Financial Services Committee approved HR 2267 six weeks ago and the bill boasts 70 co-sponsors.

PPA Executive Director John Pappas told the PocketFives.com Podcast this week that the California casinos are merely seeking a monopoly by opposing HR 2267: “When you peel back the onion, you realize that they’re not opposed to internet gaming; they just want a monopoly on it. From a consumer perspective, we all know that monopolies don’t work and they don’t provide the best player experience. What Commerce is looking for is a poker-only bill that will only serve the California marketplace.”

PlayersBeforeProfits.com also provides avenues for concerned Americans to Tweet, call, and e-mail the Commerce with one click. Its petition reminds casino officials, “It is important to note that with the rise of online poker, many individuals hone their skills online before they enter establishments such as the Commerce Casino – increasing traffic to poker rooms nationwide.” The Commerce has gone so far as to invite poker home games to play within its walls.

The Bicycle Casino, Hawaiian Gardens, and Hollywood Park have all come out in support of the Commerce Casino’s position. The coalition’s Waltona Manion told Poker News Daily in an interview on September 1st that, among other aspects of the bill, the group believes that the opt-out provision will not hold water if faced with a World Trade Organization challenge. In addition, Manion claimed that HR 2267 and HR 4976 would impose lower taxes on offshore internet casinos compared to what land-based casinos pay.

Congress has a target adjournment of October 8th, one month ahead of general elections in the United States. Then, following elections, a so-called “lame duck” session will likely occur. With the nation’s highest legislative body needing to pass critical appropriations bills, the possibility exists that HR 2267 could be attached to an unrelated piece of legislation, as was the case with the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act four years ago.

Although members of the poker community have called for a formal boycott of the Commerce Casino and its partners, the PPA has not yet taken that route. The Commerce Casino bills itself as the “largest card casino on Earth” with nearly 250 tables. Across town at the Bicycle Casino, Andrew Frankenberger was crowned the champion of the recently completed World Poker Tour Legends of Poker, whose lowered $5,000 buy-in resulted in a field of 462 players.

My 2010 Poker Hall of Fame Vote

For the second straight year, I’ll have the privilege of voting for the Poker Hall of Fame. This prestigious award is given to deserving candidates who meet four criteria: “Played poker against acknowledged top competition; played for high stakes; played consistently well, gaining the respect of peers; stood the test of time; or, for non-players, contributed to the overall growth and success of the game of poker, with indelible positive and lasting results.”

The 33-member panel, which consists of the 16 living Poker Hall of Fame members and 17 media representatives, can select as many of the 10 final candidates as they deem worthy of admission. Here are my thoughts on each of the 10 finalists as they appear in alphabetical order:

Chris Ferguson: There’s something to be said for a man who was influential in developing the software for one of the world’s largest online poker sites, Full Tilt. The former World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event champ has five bracelets and over $5 million in career WSOP earnings. He’s one of the game’s most recognizable faces due to his “Jesus” persona and, at 47, also has a National Heads-Up Poker Championship title under his belt. He’s worthy of consideration to the Poker Hall of Fame and would be my fourth favorite selection among the finalists.

Barry Greenstein: Despite having more than $2 million in WSOP earnings and three bracelets, Greenstein may best be known for igniting the move for generosity away from the felts. Greenstein has become known as the “Robin Hood of Poker,” but lacks the sparkling poker resume that the other nine Poker Hall of Fame candidates hold. However, I have little doubt that Greenstein, like Ferguson, will be inducted as part of a future class.

Jennifer Harman: Fresh off an induction into the Women in Poker Hall of Fame, Harman owns two WSOP bracelets, neither of which came in a Ladies event. She’s made two World Poker Tour (WPT) final tables and is approaching the $1 million mark in earnings on the WPT. Harman is a perfect fit for the Women in Poker Hall of Fame and her charity work will undoubtedly earn her a nod in the future, but she is not among my top choices for the Poker Hall of Fame Class of 2010.

Dan Harrington: The man who quite literally wrote the book on poker, Harrington’s “Hold’em” series can be found on the bookshelves of serious players around the world. Despite massive fields, Harrington made the final table of the Main Event in back-to-back years in 2003 and 2004 and won it all in 1995. He’s my top pick for this year’s Poker Hall of Fame class and was a nominee last year.

Phil Ivey: He’s pretty good at poker. Millions upon millions of dollars earned in cash games, eight WSOP bracelets, and a final table in last year’s Main Event are just a few of the reasons that Ivey will eventually receive a Poker Hall of Fame nod. However, “No Home Jerome,” at 34, isn’t yet old enough to run for President of the United States and didn’t record a WSOP in the money finish prior to 2000. While he’ll be a favorite of many members of the voting panel, Ivey has not yet “stood the test of time.”

Linda Johnson: How do you not elect “The First Lady of Poker” to the Poker Hall of Fame? A founding member of the Tournament Directors Association and inaugural inductee to the Women in Poker Hall of Fame, Johnson has made an indelible impact on the game in several different areas. From encouraging more women to play to co-founding Poker Gives and urging players to give back, Johnson epitomizes what a Poker Hall of Fame inductee should be. She’ll be receiving my vote this year as my second favorite candidate.

Tom McEvoy: In my opinion, McEvoy is the poster child for standing the test of time. In his third career WSOP in the money finish, he won the Main Event in 1983. He’s racked up a total of four bracelets and then promptly took down last year’s Champions Invitational, a made-for-television event that awarded a sleek new ride to its winner. McEvoy has authored a bounty of poker books including his “Championship” series and “How to Win No Limit Hold’em Tournaments.” McEvoy also lacks any character questions and will be marked on my ballot.

Daniel Negreanu: The same argument I used as to why Ivey does not warrant a nod for the Poker Hall of Fame this year holds water for Negreanu, who is 36 years old. “Kid Poker” has become one of the main faces of the entire industry through his marketable persona and owns the second largest earnings total in WPT history. He also has four bracelets, but a recent high-profile run-in with Annie Duke that included the use of the “C” word has me questioning whether he’s worthy of being an ambassador for the game.

Scotty Nguyen: Sadly, I can’t bring myself to vote for Nguyen. The only player to have won the $50,000 HORSE Championship and WSOP Main Event, Nguyen’s expertise on the felt is in a league of its own. He has eight WPT final tables and one title, but his demeanor at the HORSE Championship in 2008 remains a major black eye for the industry given the game’s precarious online legality in the United States and the tournament’s national exposure on ESPN. The fact that Nguyen still orders beer at tournaments, albeit non-alcoholic brands like O’Doul’s, continues to confound me after what happened in 2008. If Nguyen wants anyone’s vote, he’ll need to shape up.

Erik Seidel: Duke’s choice for the Poker Hall of Fame, Seidel has been the epitome of class. As she told Poker News Daily, “The guy behaves with such grace in a sport where grace is really needed. He’s always so graceful and so sportsmanlike.” I’m on the fence about Seidel’s accomplishments away from the game, as his dominance on the felts is obvious.

Barry Greenstein and Chad Brown Interview

Barry Greenstein and Chad Brown were together at the PokerStars Champions Reception cocktail party and joined us for a quick chat. The two are good friends and while the interview originally started as just being with Greenstein, a jovial Chad Brown decided to crash the party for some good natured ribbing.

One of the first topics of the conversation turned to health as the various weight-loss prop bets came up and both talked about how some people do them to lose weight even though they do not need to. Brown insisted during the interview, in a humorous way, that if Greenstein were to gain 30 pounds of muscle that he would become “a better partner” for his wife Alex. While that remains to be seen both joked about what gaining some weight or muscle tone might do.

That topic led to more discussion about being in shape and how that actually might help you at the poker tables. Brown retold a story about a time he was talking to Dan Harrington about going deep in tournaments and how out-of-shape poker players usually fail to keep their edge because of fatigue. Brown insists that maintaining a healthy body will allow players to keep focus and a healthy mind when they need it the most.

Barry Greenstein is one of the most popular poker pros in the world and has been an icon of the industry for many years. He authored the popular book “Ace on the River” which retells his poker story and also gives his tips to success in becoming a professional poker player. Chad Brown is a former model (which he unashamedly will admit to during this interview) who is now also a member of Team PokerStars Pro. Greenstein is also one of the featured members of this exclusive group.

Poker News in Brief: Aug. 30- Sep. 5, 2010

A few stories slipped through the cracks, but we caught them all and neatly organized them into our regular Poker News in Brief feature below.

This week we’ll take a look at the 2010 Poker Hall of Fame nominees, a new WPT TV deal, WSOPE qualifiers on UB, WCOOP kicking off and more.

Hall of Fame nominees announced

Ten nominees have been named for the 2010 class of the Poker Hall of Fame after a two-month voting process on WSOP.com.

The ten players under consideration include Chris Ferguson, Barry Greenstein, Jennifer Harman-Traniello, Dan Harrington, Phil Ivey, Linda Johnson, Tom McEvoy, Daniel Negreanu, Scotty Nguyen and Erik Seidel.

These names will be vetted by the Poker Hall of Fame Governing Council, who will then select the final list of candidates.

The 16 living Hall of Fame members and a 17-person media panel will then determine who will enter the Hall at an induction ceremony held as part of the World Series of Poker Main Event final table festivities in November.

The Poker Hall of Fame, established in 1979, traditionally elects one or two members annually.

High Heels Heads South

The High Heels Poker Tour, the first all women’s poker tour on the U.S. East Coast, is planning a big Fall all over Florida.

The HHPT 2010 Fall schedule will stops at Mardi Gras in Hallandale, Ebro Greyhound Park in Ebro, Orange Park Kennel Club in Jacksonville, The Isle in Pompano, and The Silks Poker Room in Tampa.

For additional information, including dates, times and buy-ins go to www.highheelspokertour.com. 

WPT Inks TV Deal

The World Poker Tour and Fox Sports Net announced a multi-season broadcast and promotional agreement for the distribution of WPT Seasons 9, 10, and 11 this week.

The new agreement features prime time national premiere airtimes on Sunday nights, as well as repeat airings throughout the week. Plus, the two have agreed to extensive promotional advertising that will keep viewers up-to-date on new airings.

WPT’s Season 9 will premiere with its 179th episode in January 2011.

"This season promises to be unlike any previous incarnations of the WPT," said Steve Heller, CEO of WPT.

"The shows will be faster-paced and edgier, featuring the biggest names in poker mixing it up with more up-and-coming stars, pre-final table action and, as always, poker’s greatest and most recognizable play-by-play commentary team of Mike Sexton and Vince Van Patten."

Have Your Cake

Cake Poker is running a number of promotions this September, including the debut of a Monday Night Football tournament series.

Debuting Sep. 13 and running for four weeks, Cake Poker will offer Money Night Football tournaments during the NFL broadcasts.

Plus, players who change their screen name to reference their favorite NFL team and cash in one of the tournaments will be entered into a weekly $500 Kamikaze tournament.

WSOPE Qualifiers on UB.com

The World Series of Poker Europe main event is returning to London’s Casino at The Empire Sep. 23-28 and UB wants to send you there. From Sep. 1-12 UB is offering players the chance to earn a seat for as little as $10.

Players can qualify through $10 Ultra Turbo Rebuy and $55 Freezeout feeders, or buy-in directly to the $500+$30 3-Seat Guaranteed WSOPE Super Satellite scheduled for Sep. 12 at 2:30 p.m. ET.

PKR Offers New Poker Fest

PKR and The Fox Poker Club are teaming up to present a new breed of poker festival with dealer dealt tournaments at affordable buy-ins in London this fall. Running for a full 28 days between Oct. 11 and Nov. 7, the PKR.com 'London Calling' festival will consist of 57 tournaments with buy-ins ranging from £20 to £300.

The festival will conclude with a £300 buy-in main event.

“With regular buy-ins ranging from £20 'London Calling' is for the huge number of people who'd love to play a high-quality, dealer-dealt tournament but find most poker tours and festivals are too high for their bankroll," said PKR Marketing Director Simon Prodger.

Further details can be found at www.pkr.com/londoncalling.

William Hill Revamps Software

William Hill Poker has made a few improvements aimed at making the player experience more enjoyable.

The poker tables on the site now have a new look. Players can adjust table-sizing to tile and cascade multiple tables and now have the ability to play on more than one monitor at a time. The site has also introduced flashing avatars to indicate when a player is on the clock, new backgrounds, borders and shading.

The player's chat functionality has been improved and incorporated in a side toolbar to access the chat commentary, player's notes, relevant statistics, hand history and settings. Check out PokerListings’ William Hill Poker review for more.

WCOOP Kicks Off

PokerStars’ World Championship of Online Poker begins today.

The richest online poker series in the world, WCOOP will consist of 62 events over 23 days, with tournaments in every poker discipline and $50 million in guaranteed cash.

Last year, 43,973 players from 140 countries took part in WCOOP with Yevgeniy “Jovial Gent” Timoshenko winning the main event and more than $1.7 million.

PokerStars is offering a 20% WCOOP Reload Bonus to help bankroll your run at a WCOOP title.

Make a deposit before 11:59 p.m. ET on Sep. 11 using the code WCOOP to take advantage.

For more details, go to the WCOOP website.

WSOP on ESPN Ratings Down 16%

After the first six weeks of coverage of the World Series of Poker (WSOP) on cable sports giant ESPN, the ratings are down slightly in comparison to last year’s numbers.

The overall ratings for the first six weeks of WSOP coverage on ESPN have garnered a 0.67 rating, with a rating of 1.0 meaning that approximately 1.1 million viewers were watching a program. This would give the WSOP on ESPN an average of 737,000 viewers over the first six weeks of broadcasting. Compared to 2009, when the first six weeks pulled in a 0.79 rating (869,000 viewers), the ratings have dropped approximately 16%.

Among the demographics, only one ratings group showed improvement over its 2009 numbers. For men above the age of 55, the ratings have gone up to 0.80 from their 2009 average of 0.74. All other demographics have either remained steady or fallen.

After ESPN aired its special WSOP preview episode on July 20th, the Poker Player’s Championship drew two hours of coverage the next week. The battle, which featured brothers Robert and eventual champion Michael Mizrachi, improved the first week ratings over 2009. Those numbers – 0.7 in 2010 versus the 0.6 average in 2009 – were a 15% increase year-over-year.

The next week, the revival of the Tournament of Champions that included some of the top names in the game was featured. Players involved in this final table included former victor Annie Duke, Howard Lederer, Barry Greenstein, and T.J. Cloutier alongside former World Champions Johnny Chan and Joe Hachem. Former World Champion Huck Seed would go on to take the title at one of the most star-studded final tables in recent WSOP history.

The broadcasts of the 2010 WSOP Main Event began on August 10th featuring the second largest field in Main Event history. 7,319 players came to the tables to battle it out for an $8.9 million first place prize and one of the most cherished bracelets a player can earn. Over the last month, Mike Matusow, 2003 WSOP Main Event champion Chris Moneymaker, 2004 WSOP Main Event winner Greg Raymer, inaugural WSOP Europe Main Event champion Annette Obrestad, and 2008 WSOP Player of the Year Erick Lindgren have been featured as part of ESPN’s coverage.

Last week’s of coverage of the WSOP on ESPN featured some of the most volatile action of the 2010 schedule. The two hours of coverage were from Day 2B of this year’s tournament, with much of that time spent on a feature table that included 1995 World Champion Dan Harrington, 2009 November Nine member Jeff Shulman, top poker pro Josh Arieh. The real highlight of the latest coverage by ESPN, however, was a disputed hand on an outer table between Ted Bort and noted pro Prahlad Friedman.

In one of the most memorable moments caught on a WSOP broadcast, Bort, who is the CEO of Allied Network Solutions, and Friedman were on the river in a hotly contested hand. After Bort pushed his stack to the center, Friedman pondered his decision while Bort annoyingly barked like a dog.

The clock was called on Friedman and, once Rio staff announced the count of one, Friedman made the call. The floor, however, ruled the hand dead because Friedman didn’t make the call in time, saving him from elimination. Although several players protested the decision, it stood and Friedman stayed in the $10,000 buy-in tournament.

The WSOP Main Event will continue to be the focus on ESPN over the next ten weeks. The broadcasts, which come in two-hour blocks on Tuesdays from 9:00pm to 11:00pm Eastern Time, will continue to track the most prestigious tournament in poker to its end.

September 2nd – Daily Deal

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

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

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

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

Manion argued,

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

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

We’ll keep you posted as this story develops.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Poker Hall of Fame 2010 nominees

Now, after a two-month of open voting the list of nominees for the Poker Hall of Fame is ready. There was no women in the last year’s final 10, but this year there’s two, which is really great.

Ivey on the road to Hall of Fame?

As you could have guessed, all the nominees are familiar names. The actual inductees will be chosen by the 16 alive Hall of Fame Members and 17 media delegates. The chosen inductees will be presented at the November Nine weekend, just before the closing moments of WSOP Main Event.

Hall of Fame 2010 nominees are:

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

Source: PokerNewsDaily

You just read Poker News from HighStakesNews.com

Poker Hall of Fame 2010 nominees

Poker Hall of Fame Class of 2010 Nominees Revealed

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Jonathan “FieryJustice” Little – Poker Player Profile

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

GSN Airing High Stakes Poker Labor Day Marathon

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Commerce Casino Board Member Responds To Players’ Outrage Over Position

Amid the furor of poker players regarding his testimony in front of a Congressional committee, Commerce Casino board member Tom Malkasian responded late yesterday to Poker News Daily about the brewing controversy.

In the statement, Malkasian defended the position he made during testimony by saying, “The Poker Players Alliance is ignoring the grave threat that the federal and state legislation poses to everyday poker players. America’s poker industry should be united in opposing the Frank and McDermott legislation and keeping American dollars at home.”

Malkasian, who testified in front of the House Financial Services Committee in July during hearings for HR 2267 (the Internet Gambling Regulation, Consumer Protection, and Enforcement Act), continued to defend his stance by saying in the statement, “Federal and state regulation of online poker is coming and we can either fight to ensure that poker players’ interests are protected or allow illegal foreign operators, who are siphoning millions of American dollars out of this country, to dominate the U.S. market. We support the passage of federal and state legislation that will provide California poker players with a safe, secure, and well-regulated online playing environment.”

Malkasian said in closing. “If domestic card casinos do not defend themselves from offshore interests, we stand to lose not only revenue but also the loss of jobs. We are against the Frank and McDermott bills. (The) Poker Players Alliance should be against this, too.”

In his testimony in July, Malkasian said the position of the Commerce Casino was against the introduced legislation for several reasons. The proposed revenues of the new law, which have been quoted as high as $42 billion over a ten year period, are based on “false assumptions and conflicting representations,” according to Malkasian’s testimony in Congress. There are also questions over the regulatory nature of the bill as well as the opt in/out language that would set what states would be a part of the law if passed.

Poker players, backed by the Poker Players Alliance and several top pros, acted quickly to counteract Malkasian’s stance – and, by extension, the Commerce Casino’s position. A website called Players Before Profits sprung up offering an open letter to the Commerce Casino that decries their stance against the legislation. This letter has been endorsed by over 5,000 people, including several top poker professionals and hundreds of recreational players.

Twitter has also been an active battleground in the discussion, with many issuing Tweets spawned by the Players Before Profits site. As reported yesterday here on Poker News Daily, some players have even talked about the potential for a boycott of the games at one of California’s most popular (and largest) card room. Although he has signed the open letter to the Commerce Casino regarding its position, poker professional Barry Greenstein has used Twitter to clearly explain both sides of the issue.

Over the span of several Tweets, Greenstein discusses the issue fairly: “Commerce Casino management feels they are being unfairly singled out as the bad guys. Many CA casinos are against online (gambling). They seemed ok (with the proposed regulatory laws) if regulators will be as strict with shareholders of online casinos as with them.”

Greenstein also notes the positives of online play by Tweeting, “We can’t accurately measure the effect online poker has on the land based casinos, but I think it has been positive.” He finishes his Tweet series by saying, “Especially if we keep the trend of online qualifying for live tournaments. Online (poker) produces new players.”

The eventual outcome of the current rift between players and the Commerce Casino is, as of yet, unknown. Poker News Daily will continue to monitor the situation and provide updates as news comes available.

Phil Collins Rocks The Bike: WPT Legends Wraps Day 2

The field was pared down from 241 to some 61 and at least one big stack has emerged as a contender for the $750k first-place prize and prestigious Legends title.

Phil "USCphildo" Collins was up all night with some kind of food poisoning but returned today to bust big stacked WPT final tablist Raymond Dolan and Justin Young on the way to a massive overnight lead.

JC Alvarado built a big stack, but it still doesn't amount to half the clay Collins collected.

Among the notables to bust on Day 2 were Erick Lindgren, Jared Hamby, Jeff Madsen, Barry Greenstein, Chad Batista, Allen Cunningham, and Phil Hellmuth.

However, a number of big names remain in contention, including Vinny Vinh, David "Doc" Sands, Tim Phan, Marco Johnson, Darryl Fish, Erica Schoenberg, November Niner Soi Nguyen and Amit Makhija, who made runner-up here in 2008.

With three more days of play before a winner emerges, there's still a ton of poker to be played in Los Angeles.

Click through to PokerListings' WPT Live Updates to follow it all; check below for the top 10 chip counts heading into Day 3.

WPT Legends of Poker Attracts 462 Players

After its buy-in was slashed from $10,000 to $5,000, the 2010 installment of the World Poker Tour (WPT) Legends of Poker attracted 462 players. Last year, a total of 279 entered, meaning that the field grew by 66%. However, the total prize pool of the marquee WPT event dipped from $2.63 million to $2.15 million, a fall of 18%.

The top 45 poker players will finish in the money, with the top spot scheduled to pay out $750,000. Last year, poker rapper Prahlad Friedman banked a little over $1 million after besting World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event November Niner Kevin Schaffel heads-up. Todd Terry, Toto Leonidas, Sam “KingKobeMVP” Stein, and Mike Krescanko also made the final table in 2009.

Nearly 300 players – including 16 former WPT champs – took to the felts on Saturday for the second of two starting days in the Legends of Poker, which emanates from the Bicycle Casino in Los Angeles. The day began with WPT officials honoring Kathy Liebert, who was playing in her 100th WPT tournament. According to the WPT’s website, Liebert is the female record-holder for most final tables made with six, most cashes logged with 15, and most money won with $1.75 million. However, she lacks a WPT title.

Despite the fanfare, Liebert was eliminated late in the day, as was Lock Poker’s Matt “All In At 420” Stout. The internet player dropped his stack with A-J of diamonds against Shawn Buchanan’s pocket sevens to hit the rails. UB.com pro Phil Hellmuth, meanwhile, took a three-hour dinner break on Saturday and returned to chat it up with fans rather than play cards. He finished the day with a stack of 66,850, or 167 big blinds, good for the 50th largest tally in the room entering Day 2.

PokerStars pro Daniel Negreanu lodged a particularly memorable Day 1B. Negreanu dropped to 10,000 in chips after running into a royal flush and eventually hit the rails after his A-J fell to 8-2. On the latter hand, the flop came A-2-3, giving his opponent bottom pair, but another deuce on the turn and an eight on the river didn’t help matters.

Joe Sebok and stepfather Barry Greenstein have both made waves in the WPT Legends of Poker, entering Day 2 in 17th and 19th places, respectively. Also vaulting up the leaderboard on Saturday was Allen Cunningham, who tripled up to 90,000 after cracking pocket aces and pocket kings by flopping a boat. Cunningham candidly Tweeted following the monster pot, “Holy Macintosh, I just flopped a full house vs AA and KK to triple from 30K to 90K.”

Here are the top 10 players in the WPT Legends of Poker entering Day 2 on Sunday:

1. Manuel Reyes – 205,350
2. Vinny Vinh – 180,000
3. Raymond Dolan – 165,500
4. Justin Young – 138,950
5. Max Casal – 138,500
6. Micah Raskin – 135,000
7. Philip Stark – 132,575
8. Ari Goott – 129,000
9. Ken Michelman – 125,200
10. C. Zadfar – 125,000

Other players remaining in the top 50, including their chip counts, include:

17. Joe Sebok – 108,650
19. Barry Greenstein – 100,675
32. Jonathan “FatalError” Aguiar – 78,125
33. Soi Nguyen – 77,250
36. Allen Cunningham – 76,500
37. Tom “Kingsofcards” Marchese – 76,350
39. Marco “CrazyMarco” Johnson – 75,225
45. Jeff Madsen – 70,800
47. J.J. Liu – 70,700
50. Phil Hellmuth – 66,850

Day 2 kicks off at 1:00pm PT on Sunday from The Bike, with 241 players remaining in the hunt for the WPT title. The Legends of Poker will crown a winner on Wednesday.

WPT Legends of Poker Attracts 462 Players

After its buy-in was slashed from $10,000 to $5,000, the 2010 installment of the World Poker Tour (WPT) Legends of Poker attracted 462 players. Last year, a total of 279 entered, meaning that the field grew by 66%. However, the total prize pool of the marquee WPT event dipped from $2.63 million to $2.15 million, a fall of 18%.

The top 45 poker players will finish in the money, with the top spot scheduled to pay out $750,000. Last year, poker rapper Prahlad Friedman banked a little over $1 million after besting World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event November Niner Kevin Schaffel heads-up. Todd Terry, Toto Leonidas, Sam “KingKobeMVP” Stein, and Mike Krescanko also made the final table in 2009.

Nearly 300 players – including 16 former WPT champs – took to the felts on Saturday for the second of two starting days in the Legends of Poker, which emanates from the Bicycle Casino in Los Angeles. The day began with WPT officials honoring Kathy Liebert, who was playing in her 100th WPT tournament. According to the WPT’s website, Liebert is the female record-holder for most final tables made with six, most cashes logged with 15, and most money won with $1.75 million. However, she lacks a WPT title.

Despite the fanfare, Liebert was eliminated late in the day, as was Lock Poker’s Matt “All In At 420” Stout. The internet player dropped his stack with A-J of diamonds against Shawn Buchanan’s pocket sevens to hit the rails. UB.com pro Phil Hellmuth, meanwhile, took a three-hour dinner break on Saturday and returned to chat it up with fans rather than play cards. He finished the day with a stack of 66,850, or 167 big blinds, good for the 50th largest tally in the room entering Day 2.

PokerStars pro Daniel Negreanu lodged a particularly memorable Day 1B. Negreanu dropped to 10,000 in chips after running into a royal flush and eventually hit the rails after his A-J fell to 8-2. On the latter hand, the flop came A-2-3, giving his opponent bottom pair, but another deuce on the turn and an eight on the river didn’t help matters.

Joe Sebok and stepfather Barry Greenstein have both made waves in the WPT Legends of Poker, entering Day 2 in 17th and 19th places, respectively. Also vaulting up the leaderboard on Saturday was Allen Cunningham, who tripled up to 90,000 after cracking pocket aces and pocket kings by flopping a boat. Cunningham candidly Tweeted following the monster pot, “Holy Macintosh, I just flopped a full house vs AA and KK to triple from 30K to 90K.”

Here are the top 10 players in the WPT Legends of Poker entering Day 2 on Sunday:

1. Manuel Reyes – 205,350
2. Vinny Vinh – 180,000
3. Raymond Dolan – 165,500
4. Justin Young – 138,950
5. Max Casal – 138,500
6. Micah Raskin – 135,000
7. Philip Stark – 132,575
8. Ari Goott – 129,000
9. Ken Michelman – 125,200
10. C. Zadfar – 125,000

Other players remaining in the top 50, including their chip counts, include:

17. Joe Sebok – 108,650
19. Barry Greenstein – 100,675
32. Jonathan “FatalError” Aguiar – 78,125
33. Soi Nguyen – 77,250
36. Allen Cunningham – 76,500
37. Tom “Kingsofcards” Marchese – 76,350
39. Marco “CrazyMarco” Johnson – 75,225
45. Jeff Madsen – 70,800
47. J.J. Liu – 70,700
50. Phil Hellmuth – 66,850

Day 2 kicks off at 1:00pm PT on Sunday from The Bike, with 241 players remaining in the hunt for the WPT title. The Legends of Poker will crown a winner on Wednesday.