Poker News

Poker2Nite Welcomes Poker Hall of Famer Mike Sexton

The UB.net sponsored poker news program “Poker2Nite,” which makes its home on Fox Sports Net, welcomed Mike Sexton this week. The World Poker Tour (WPT) host is also a member of the Poker Hall of Fame after being inducted one month ago.

“Poker2Nite” began with Absolute Poker pro Lacey Jones interviewing players at the WPT Doyle Brunson Five Diamond World Poker Classic in Las Vegas. Among those to appear on-camera was dual World Series of Poker (WSOP) bracelet winner Jeff Madsen, who told Jones, “What it comes down to is the skill level of the players, the structure is good, and the Bellagio atmosphere is good to players in general.” Jones also spoke with Robert Mizrachi and 2009 WSOP November Nine member Kevin Schaffel. The $15,000 buy-in tournament crowns a champion on Saturday.

Next up was UB.net pro Phil Hellmuth presenting Phil’s Best Blow-Ups. There are a multitude of meltdowns to choose from, but Hellmuth recapped his explosion against Cristian Dragomir during the 2008 WSOP Main Event. Dragomir called Hellmuth’s raise pre-flop with 10-4, only to flop top pair. Hellmuth explained, “Of course, this joker gets rewarded for his donkey play and that just did not sit well with me.” His tirade against Dragomir featured lines such as “He’s the worst player in history and they’re cheering” and “To you, it’s poker. To me, this is my life.”

After recapping Sexton’s Poker Hall of Fame induction ceremony, which took place during the dinner break of the 2009 WSOP Main Event, the bracelet winner joined the “Poker2Nite” crew. On being elected to the Poker Hall of Fame, Sexton told “Poker2Nite” hosts Joe Sebok and Scott Huff, “To me, it’s the ultimate career achievement award. To reach this level, it’s a pretty big honor.” Sexton was the only member of the Class of 2009 and, in order to be elected, had to receive 75% of the vote of a panel of media members and current Hall of Famers.

So-called “Sextonisms” have become a staple of modern poker lingo, but the WPT host noted that one of his favorites is, “You can only slide so far on barbed wire.” This author would have preferred “Bingo, bango, bongo,” but laughed nonetheless. Sexton also discussed PokerGives.org, which he founded along with Poker News Daily Guest Columnist Linda Johnson, Jan Fisher, and Lisa Tenner. Sexton commented, “It’ll be a way the poker world can give back to worthwhile charities.”

A new segment called Coin Flipping aired, pitting Sebok and Huff against each other to see what option had a slight mathematical edge. First up was who was the better No Limit Hold’em cash game player, Phil Ivey or Patrik Antonius. Sebok remarked, “I’m going with Phil because he looks scarier.” Also discussed was whether winning the $50,000 HORSE Championship or WSOP Main Event was more prestigious, as was whether Eric “basebaldy” Baldwin or Cornel Andrew Cimpan should be the Player of the Year. On the latter, Sebok gave his two cents: “I don’t think this one is really that close” and chose Baldwin, who effectively has already taken down the CardPlayer Player of the Year title for 2009.

Dana Workman dished out the Bluff Magazine sponsored Weekly Misdeal segment, poking fun at WSOP Main Event runner-up Darvin Moon’s conspiracy theory about ESPN crews sharing information, champion Joe Cada taking to Capitol Hill in support of the Poker Players Alliance (PPA), Montel Williams facing a lawsuit from the International Team Poker League, and Marcel Luske’s new album.

“Poker2Nite” airs on Wednesdays at 11:00pm in each market on Fox Sports Net. However, the show is often pre-empted for local sporting events, so viewers are advised to check their local listings for airtime and channel information.

The Deeper The Better!

Our plane to Dublin was delayed by four hours due to ice on the runway and this meant that we arrived two hours late for the start of the Green Joker Poker European Deepstack tournament. The game began quite well for me, however, in that I managed to take down a decent pot by check-raising with an inside straight draw against a player who, as Mick McCool informed me shortly after I took my seat, had been extremely active.

Raymond Beytrison wins Green Joker Poker Shorthanded Championship

While Vegas may be the focus of tournament attention at the moment there’s still plenty of action to be found elsewhere. The Ballsbridge Inn in Dublin hosted the inaugural European Shorthanded Championship over the weekend and attracted a field of 141 players for their €1,100 buy-in Main Event.

Daniel Negreanu Appears in X-Men Origins: Wolverine

In the upcoming release of X-Men Origins: Wolverine, poker players may be able to catch a glimpse of one of the game's top stars. According to various sources that have viewed a pirated copy of the movie, there is a scene involving a game of Texas Hold'em featuring Wolverine, Gambit, and Daniel Negreanu.

X-Men Origins: Wolverine officially premieres on May 1st in the United States and Canada. In the meantime, editors in Hollywood will be busy paring down the film from its length of two and a half hours. The scene lasts for less than one minute and Negreanu is featured twice. While he offers no dialogue, the member of Team PokerStars Pro is seated a table playing a game of poker with the film's namesake and Gambit. The scene has been described to Poker News Daily as “nothing more than a quick cameo” and whether it will make the final cut upon its opening in the United States is unknown.

According to the Internet Movie Database (IMDB), X-Men Origins: Wolverine is described as follows: “Wolverine lives a mutant life, seeks revenge against Victor Creed (who will later become Sabertooth) for the death of his girlfriend, and ultimately ends up going through the mutant Weapon X program.” The film stars Hugh Jackman as Wolverine, Ryan Reynolds as Deadpool, and Liev Schreiber as Sabretooth. Negreanu appears uncredited.

This isn't Negreanu's first trip to the big screen. In 2007, he appeared in the movie Lucky You, which featured Eric Bana, Robert Duvall, and Drew Barrymore. The movie contained a wealth of poker players, although IMDB users graded it just 5.9 out of a possible score of 10. In addition to Negreanu, other members of the industry appearing in Lucky You included Sam Farha, Chau Giang, Barry Greenstein, Ted Forrest, Minh Ly, and Erick Lindgren. Poker icons Jack Binion, Doyle Brunson, and Johnny Chan also had cameos and are all officially credited in the movie.

Negreanu and the poker playing community also appeared in ESPN's short-lived series “Tilt,” which aired in 2005. ESPN World Series of Poker announcers Lon McEachern and Norman Chad were featured during the show, which starred Michael Madsen as Don “The Matador” Everest. Negreanu also took to the silver screen in the 2007 movie “The Grand,” which was released exactly two years ago on April 4th. The movie was described as an “improv comedy” and featured Woody Harrelson, Shannon Elizabeth, Mike Epps, Chris Parnell, and Ray Romano, among others. Three poker “Phils” – Laak, Gordon, and Hellmuth – also appeared in the movie.

X-Men Origins: Wolverine is one of the most anticipated movies of the 2009 calendar year and the newest installment of the comic book franchise. The movie is directed by Gavin Hood, who was behind such films as Rendition and Tsotsi. It's written by the man who brought The Kite Runner, Troy, and 25th Hour to life. An article released by Reuters on Thursday noted that the pirated copy had been released online one month prior to its official release. However, “it included temporary sound and music and was missing effects and some scenes, with other scenes unedited.” The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) are seeking to uncover the source of the unauthorized copy.

TorrentFreak noted that X-Men Origins: Wolverine had been downloaded 75,000 times on BitTorrent, which the website equated to the release of The Dark Knight, which won an Academy Award for the late Heath Ledger as The Joker. The pirated version references Rising Sun Pictures, an Australian company. TorrentFreak speculated that the reason for the high number of downloads may be because “X-Men’s target audience are tech-savvy people who are likely to have heard about BitTorrent.”

Lindgren looking for WSOP action

However, a win in the $5k Mixed Hold 'em event, just the fourth tournament of the series, changed that rather quickly.

The Full Tilt Pro then went on to make fourth at the $5k No-Limit 2-7 Draw w/Rebuys, 18th in the $10k Heads-Up World Championship, and third in the $50k H.O.R.S.E. World Championship to capture 2008 WSOP Player of the Year honors.

So with the monkey off E-Dog's back, he's not quite sure what kind of goals he's setting for this summer.

"I guess it depends on if I make some side bets," Lindgren told PokerListings.com. "That will be my goal again, to win my side bets. The rest will just take care of itself."

With very little action on the go right now, Lindgren said he's also not sure how motivated he'll be to repeat his stellar 2008 performance.

"It really depends on my frame of mind," he said. "Maybe I'll be playing really bad golf and I'll be in a really bad mood. If I'm losing all my money to Daniel [Negreanu] on the golf course, I've got to bet more on poker and that should motivate me."

Always the joker, Lindgren said he was happy to grab his first bracelet in 2008, but the chance to join the multiple bracelet club isn't really driving him these days.

"Obviously you want to win," he said. "But now it's just more fun to tease guys like Gavin [Smith] that don't have one."

All bets and jokes aside, Lindgren is looking forward to the pro-friendly structure changes at the WSOP this year, including deeper stacks.

"Daniel was bragging about them a little bit to me," he said. "He says they're good. I know there's no rebuys, which I don't care either way. I guess it'll be cheaper, so that's good.

"I think everybody felt they did a good job over the last couple of years listening to us and making things better, so I expect good things now."

Well rested from a little time off the felt, Lindgren said he's ready for the true grind the World Series of Poker can be.

"I've taken so much time off; I haven't played a lot of poker," he said. "When [the WSOP] comes I just like clocking in every day at noon and playing until three in the morning for like 40 days straight."

 

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