Poker News

Poker Players Ring in the New Year

Over the past few days, poker’s most prolific Tweeters have been actively preparing for the New Year. Whether they were traveling or reflecting on the year that passed, it provided a great deal of entertainment.

The New Year’s celebrations got off to a start as early as Wednesday, with model and poker player Christina Lindley Tweeting, “Beginning an absurdly fun Vegas week w some troublemakers right… now.” As New Year’s Eve came, Lindley sent out a Twitpic of a shiny silver mini and Tweeted, “Picking up the NYE dress from the tailor.” Also journeying to Las Vegas was PokerStars “Big Game” hostess Amanda Leatherman, who fired off, “Goodbye North Carolina! It’s time to go to Vegas and forget about all the things I did here.”

Other poker players had not quite decided what to do to celebrate the New Year. DoylesRoom Brunson 10 member Amit Makhija admitted to his followers, “Last minute before New Year’s and I’ve been slacking on making plans. Anyone less lazy than me have New Year’s plans that Tara & I can crash?” For their part, both Antonio Esfandiari (“Gearing up for my annual NY Eve party. It’s going to b a madhouse.”) and Alec Torelli (“Off to Atlanta for New Year’s.”) seemed a little better prepared to usher in 2011.

Daniel Negreanu, Jennifer Harman, and Marco Traniello were celebrating New Year’s with each other. After Traniello Tweeted at the others, “r u guys ready to party ?,” Negreanu responded, “the house is full and we all got spray tans, so yeah, we are ready.” Fresh off of his departure from UB.com, Phil Hellmuth’s plans for New Year’s Eve included, “sit(ting) in Jerry Buss’ box for Lakers game, then we hit Drai’s!”

The last few days of 2010 also led to some experimentation by “High Stakes Poker” hostess and PartyPoker pro Kara Scott. She Tweeted, “Bleurgh. Spent much of tonight trying to perfect a rum/coconut drink for tomorrow and am now completely sick of it. Margaritas for everyone!” Tiffany Michelle will be celebrating New Year’s Eve in Hawaii, but took time to chirp, “Counting my blessings today. Some people are stuck in snow storms, rain, & freezing weather while I’m surfing in the warm waters of Hawaii.”

The New Year brings those pesky resolutions along with it and poker players were no different in putting their thoughts for 2011 on Twitter. “This year I wish @philnolimits places 2nd to me in WSOP Main Event,” Rafe Furst jabbed at his buddy Phil Gordon. Allen Bari took the New Year as a chance to change his table demeanor, Tweeting on Friday, “This time tomorrow I will be a really nice and respectful guy at the poker table, I will smile and not berate at the table.” This prompted World Poker Tour Tour Director Matt Savage to fire back, “@allenbari it is January 1st not April 1st. You know that right?”

Adam “Roothlus” Levy vowed through Twitter, “My 2011 resolution is to get more Main Event coverage by doing far worse.” Meanwhile, Lex “RaSZi” Veldhuis was not feeling well as the New Year approached, Tweeting, “Is this really the day to get sick? Woke up sneezing and I feel cold and weak. Hope it’s gonna be better during the day.”

Some poker players were also glad to see the previous year fade to the past. “Oh, 2010, you crafty little bitch,” UB.com’s Joe Sebok Tweeted. “You’re good, I’ll give you that. Quite good. Only 14 more hours of you though and then poof, gone.” Full Tilt’s Justin “Boosted J” Smith also took time to look at the year gone by: “I want everyone to think about all the great things that happened to them in 2010… even if it was a rough year… small laughs to big things.”

Perhaps the venerable Kevin “Kevmath” Mathers summed up everyone’s thoughts for the New Year: “This year had its share of good and bad times. Hoping 2011 will have more of those good times for myself and everyone else!”

With 2011 off to a roaring start, Poker News Daily would like to take the time to wish all of our readers a happy and prosperous New Year.

PartyPoker Reviving Million Dollar Hand in January

In January, PartyPoker will be bringing back one of its most popular promotions ever, the Million Dollar Hand. All you have to do is make a pair in a five-card poker hand to be awarded a prize, and a $1 million jackpot is on the line.

Accumulating cards is quite simple. You’ll get one for every 15 PartyPoints you rack up between January 5th and January 30th. When you’ve amassed five cards, you’ll have a hand. If it contains a pair, then $3 will be coming your way. If it contains two pair, then your prize will be upped to $10. If you manage to score three of a kind, then you’ll get a $20 cash prize. That’s pretty simple, right?

Players who land a straight in the Million Dollar Hand will take home $50, while those who pick up a flush will see $100 come their way. Players who make a boat will get $150, while anyone who hits quads will receive a $1,000 cash prize. Now, we’re into the big money, as straight flushes are worth $10,000. Finally, anyone who manages to score a Royal Flush will divide a $1 million prize pool, which means if two players hit it, each person will actually take home $500,000. If only one person makes a Royal Flush, they’ll take home the seven-figure jackpot.

The best part about the Million Dollar Hand is that PartyPoker is awarding every player his or her first card for free. No play is required! Just log into your PartyPoker account to see what your first card is.

Now, let’s review some of the terms and conditions of the PartyPoker Million Dollar Hand. First, you’ll only be able to acquire 10 cards per day for a total of two five-card poker hands. Second, if you fall short of 15 points, PartyPoker will carry them over to the next day. Third, you have to reveal your cards manually. In order to do so, log into your PartyPoker account and see what you’ve amassed. If you don’t reveal your cards, they won’t count.

PartyPoker players will have until the end of the day Eastern Time on January 31st to reveal any cards they’ve received and only points accumulated at cash game tables will count. Finally, as text found on PartyPoker’s website notes, “Cash prizes will be paid to players within an hour of them revealing their hand apart from Royal Flush winners, who will be paid on February 1st.”

PartyPoker is one of the industry leaders when it comes to unique promotions like the Million Dollar Hand. In fact, the site is concurrently running a Million Dollar Hand VIP Points Race for Palladium Lounge members. Players will earn the same cash prizes as in the Million Dollar Hand and also rack up points based on their hand’s value. The top two spots on the leaderboard pay out a World Poker Tour (WPT) L.A. Poker Classic prize package worth $14,000.

The top 200 spots in the Million Dollar Hand VIP Points Race pay out, with a minimum prize of $100 up for grabs. The top 30 spots award four-figures and everyone who reaches the top 500 scores a seat into the Million Dollar Hand VIP Freeroll, which doles out a WPT prize package to its winner. Palladium Lounge members will receive extra race points for accumulating over 300 PartyPoints in a single day.

According to the traffic ranking site PokerScout.com, PartyPoker is the third largest site worldwide in terms of real money ring game volume with a seven-day running average of 3,600 players. It just edges out the iPoker Network, but is well behind PokerStars and Full Tilt Poker, which rank first and second worldwide, respectively. PartyPoker’s team of sponsored pros includes Poker News Daily Guest Columnist Mike Sexton, poker bad boy Tony G, and “High Stakes Poker” hostess Kara Scott.

Visit PartyPoker today for more details.

High Stakes Poker Season 7 Taping at Bellagio This Week

This week, the seventh season of the GSN cash game franchise “High Stakes Poker” will begin taping at the Bellagio on the Las Vegas Strip. Last year, the action emanated from the Golden Nugget in Downtown Las Vegas and a source close to GSN told Poker News Daily that the change in venue was due to a “production decision.”

No members of the media are allowed inside the “High Stakes Poker” suite for Season 7. Instead, what happens in the small makeshift poker room will remain a closely guarded secret until the seventh cycle of the show airs beginning in February on GSN. “High Stakes Poker” will return to its Sunday night time slot and feature with the same faces as last year: PartyPoker pro Kara Scott conducting interviews from tableside and former “Welcome Back, Kotter” star Gabe Kaplan flying solo in the booth.

The constantly-changing list of pros scheduled to turn out over the next three days includes Barry Greenstein, Doyle Brunson, recent World Poker Tour (WPT) Five Diamond World Poker Classic winner Antonio Esfandiari, David “Viffer” Peat, Phil Laak, Jason Mercier, Phil Galfond, and former World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event champ Scotty Nguyen, who will be making his “High Stakes Poker” debut. The same source also relayed that several amateurs will join the fray.

One player who won’t be gracing the “High Stakes Poker” felts this year is Daniel Negreanu, one of only a handful of players who have competed in every season to this point. Negreanu explained via Twitter why he wouldn’t be able to make it to Las Vegas in time: “Sad news: At airport headed home, which means the trip is over. Have a commercial shoot when I land, which means no HSP for me this year.” Negreanu had been in Sydney for the PokerStars Asia Pacific Poker Tour Grand Final, where he made the final table and finished ninth.

Lex Veldhuis will also be a no-show for “High Stakes Poker” at the Bellagio. Veldhuis Tweeted earlier today, “Crazy busy week. Leaving for Vegas on Monday. Have to get all my shit done. Had to cancel for High Stakes Poker.”

Also potentially absent from the “High Stakes Poker” felts this season will be Full Tilt pros, although our source could not confirm or deny their attendance. Greenstein, a PokerStars pro, explained the dilemma on TwoPlusTwo: “Full Tilt has two major concerns. First is they don’t like their players playing when PokerStars is the sponsor of the show… Secondly, they were unhappy that PokerStars bought the HSP archives. In the early seasons of HSP, the players didn’t wear logos, so FTP is concerned that viewers will be able to go to PokerStars.tv and see the FTP players without logos and be confused by their affiliation.”

In previous years, the press was invited for interviews prior to the action. In fact, when the filming of Season 7 was scheduled to take place last month, Poker News Daily was invited to watch the action unfold. However, due to the change in location to the Bellagio this month, a source close to GSN told Poker News Daily, “We have all of these new players, a new venue, and new elements. It’s a small space. It’s super tight and we just want to focus on the game play.”

“High Stakes Poker” will once again boast a $200,000 buy-in for Season 7 and, unlike NBC’s “Poker After Dark,” no change to Pot Limit Omaha is expected. Instead, the GSN series will continue spreading high-stakes No Limit Hold’em. One-hour episodes will once again grace the small screen next year, as has been the case in years’ past.

No Dwan, Ivey or Antonius on High Stakes Poker Season 7?

High Stakes Poker didn’t get too many praises in last season when A.J. Benza was replaced by Kara Scott. The upcoming season doesn’t look that promising either.

Full Tilt Poker might forbid their players to participate on the show. The reason for the ban is that the show is sponsored by PokerStars, which is the biggest rival to FTP.

Barry Greenstein writes about it on 2+2 forums:

“I talked to Howard Lederer and Mori.

However, Full Tilt has two major concerns. First is they don’t like their players playing when PokerStars is the sponsor of the show. (I assume Full Tilt can buy ad time but I didn’t check this out with GSN or PokerStars.) Secondly, they were unhappy that PokerStars bought the HSP archives.

In the early seasons of HSP, the players didn’t wear logos, so FTP is concerned that viewers will be able to go to pokerstars.tv and see the FTP players without logos and be confused by their affiliation,” Greenstein writes.

Greenstein doesn’t like the current policy, because everyone would like to see Patrik Antonius, Phil Ivey and Tom “durrrr” Dwan on the show.

“Most of us would like to see the three top FTP cash game players on the show along with some of the other characters we have had in previous seasons. If they don’t play, they’ll be replaced by some new young stars of the game, some affiliated and some not,” Greenstein concludes his post.

Only time will tell what happens. Let’s hope that the policy will change, so HSP would get a season waht the fans deserve.

Source: Pokerista.net

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No Dwan, Ivey or Antonius on High Stakes Poker Season 7?

The Nightly Turbo: Kara Scott Discusses Anonymous Tables, USA COOP Starts This Weekend, and More

The Nightly Turbo is bringing you the day's top poker news stories including Kara Scott's thoughts on anonymous tables, USA COOP beginning this weekend, and more.

Peter Eastgate’s Bracelet on eBay and NAPT Los Angeles from Poker in Twitter

While the PokerStars North American Poker Tour (NAPT) stop at the Bicycle Casino in Los Angeles is winding down to its final table, it was announced yesterday that the final day of the tournament – as well as the Bounty Shootout – will be held at the Crystal Casino. All one needed to do was to peruse the world of poker through Twitter to learn the reason why.

In a Twitter discussion, noted poker journalists B.J. Nemeth and Kevin “Kevmath” Mathers detailed the reason for the move. Nemeth explained in a Tweet, “The Bike’s contract w/ the WPT doesn’t allow them to run any other televised poker tournaments.” Mathers replied, “Maybe that’s why it (the Bounty Shootout) wasn’t originally scheduled to be filmed for TV.”

As for the players at the Main Event of the NAPT, the final two tables are shaping up to be quite a battle. “2.15 million to end the night!,” Tweeted Jason Mercier on Monday evening. “2nd or 3rd in chips. 19 left. Avg is 1.1 mill.” Joining him for the festivities on Tuesday will be Matt Affleck, who chirped to his followers, “Bagged 447000 blinds going to 12/24000. 19 left. lot of work to do tomorrow.”

A player who won’t be heading on to action on Tuesday will be Victor Ramdin. The PokerStars sponsored pro Tweeted his demise:  “Very sick way to exit napt main event at the bike. A blind spec… flop aa10 check around… turn 8 I have a8 all in… I was drawing  almost dead… my op had a10.”

On Monday, 2008 World Series of Poker Main Event winner Peter Eastgate decided to auction his bracelet. According to the auction on eBay, the WSOP Main Event bracelet is being sold to raise money for UNICEF, the worldwide charity benefiting children’s causes around the world. The buzz through the Twitterverse has been mixed, though.

“So sick that Peter Eastgate is selling his WSOP ME bracelet,” Rob Perelman Tweeted to his followers early Tuesday morning. “Quit poker, sure, but don’t sell the bracelet, man. LAME!” Canadian poker pro Terrence “Unassigned” Chan, however, took a difference approach, Tweeting, “Peter Eastgate to auction WSOP bracelet for UNICEF… This man just might be the most ego-free person to ever play poker.” The auction has been dividing for others in the poker world, including Eric Mizrachi (“That’s sick, wtf?”) and Ari Engel (“I think it’s awesome that former WSOP world Champion Peter Eastgate is selling his bracelet for UNICEF.”)

The NFL’s latest Monday Night Football game, featuring the Philadelphia Eagles and Washington Redskins, drew attention from some of poker’s top names because of Eagles quarterback Michael Vick’s historic night. Pleased about his fantasy football team, Scott Huff Tweeted, “And that completes the greatest comeback in fantasy history.” Yuval Bronshtein Tweeted, “Best overall performance by a quarterback in NFL history tonight from Michael Vick? Pretty sure I just witnessed MNF history.”

Other sporting events also drew the attention of poker players. The NBA’s Los Angeles Lakers and the Phoenix Suns drew out Jean-Robert Bellande, who Tweeted, “Usher concert was cool but Lakers/Suns game w @Efropoker and Nacho was amazing. Wish the Lakers won.” Eric “EFro” Froehlich was a little more irritated by the Lakers’ loss, Tweeting to his followers, “First time I’ve ever gotten to see a ref attempt to fix a game live (whoever #63 is, 8 phantom calls). at staples courtesy of @BrokeLivingJRB.”

For the best Tweets of the past few days, we’ll start with Kevin “BeL0WaB0Ve” Saul, who Tweeted on Sunday during NAPT Los Angeles, “Just called clock on John Phan for 1st time today, if he folds it prolly won’t be the last time I call it.” Linda Johnson showed her patriotism and Tweeted, “Worked my first volunteer shift at the USO Lounge at McCarren tonight. Met lots of awesome young military men. Heard ‘Yes mam’ a lot.”

There were thoughts on being a professional poker player from Jonathan Little, who Tweeted, “Every time I get the least bit sad, I take a look around and realize my life is the absolute nuts. Playing $5,000 bounty shootout tomorrow.” Alec Torelli, on the other hand, took a different look: “Being a poker player is so tilting because you forget what day it is and end up wasting hours going to appointments u don’t have.” Leave it to PartyPoker‘s Kara Scott, however, to see the conspiracy in life: “Is it weird that every time a massive corporation/government agency schedules a big announcement, I immediately think it’ll be aliens?”

BLOG – GSN’s High Stakes Poker season 7

All we know is that it’s happening. Gabe Kaplan and Kara Scott will be returning to our screens but, more importantly, so will the best players in the world. High Stakes Poker season seven will begin filming in November which means that by March we should be watching new episodes. Tom “durrrr” Dwan will probably run all over the table again, unless Phil Ivey is there to stop him.

High Stakes Poker Season 7 Announced, Will Tape November 18th

In breaking news from Las Vegas, the seventh season of “High Stakes Poker” will tape from November 18th to 20th, as GSN has given the green light for the newest installment of the cash game poker franchise. The location, time, air date on GSN, and players involved have not yet been announced, but poker fans can rest easy tonight knowing that “High Stakes Poker” has been renewed for another cycle.

On the fleet of poker pros that could assemble for the show, a representative from GSN told Poker News Daily on Friday that the network expects to have “another great cast of world-class players this year.” Five players have appeared on each season of “High Stakes Poker” to date: DoylesRoom front man Doyle Brunson, Eli Elezra, Victory Poker’s Antonio Esfandiari, PokerStars front man Barry Greenstein, and “Million Dollar Challenge” icon Daniel Negreanu.

Season 6 brought major changes to “High Stakes Poker.” Longtime co-host A.J. Benza was axed in favor of PartyPoker pro Kara Scott, who conducted interviews from the floor of the “High Stakes Poker” suite at the Golden Nugget in Downtown Las Vegas. The new season began airing on Valentine’s Day this year and featured players like Dennis Phillips and Lex Veldhuis making their “High Stakes Poker” debuts. The sixth cycle also hosted the usual suspects from the world of high-stakes cash games like Phil Ivey, Tom “durrrr” Dwan, and Patrik Antonius.

The premiere of “High Stakes Poker” Season 6 was quite buzz worthy, as UB.com pro and 11-time World Series of Poker bracelet winner Phil Hellmuth went broke after dropping $200,000 in the blink of an eye. Hellmuth quickly shipped $50,000 to Ivey before committing his remaining stack on a board of 6-4-7-K with two hearts holding J-5 of hearts for an open-ended straight draw and a flush draw. Ivey held K-9 of hearts for top pair and a better flush draw and declined to run the river more than once. The final card filled the eight-time bracelet winner’s king-high flush and, just like that, Hellmuth was broke.

Prop bets were also discouraged last season. Prior to taping Season 6 of “High Stakes Poker,” Esfandiari, the ringleader of prop betting on the show, told Poker News Daily that he had been asked to curb his pastime: “The prop bets where people would guess cards, for example, they’ve been trying to get rid of that. [Executive Producer Mori Eskandani] is trying to steer towards less betting at all. The bottom line is that he doesn’t want viewers at home to be bogged down with players prop betting in addition to poker.”

The PokerStars-powered “Big Game” has recently filled the void between seasons of “High Stakes Poker.” The “Big Game” airs late nights on FOX and features a variety of pros battling with an online qualifier dubbed the “Loose Cannon.” The “Big Game” has a $500,000 maximum buy-in and has featured a variety of pros including Negreanu, Justin Bonomo, David “Viffer” Peat, David Williams, and 2005 Main Event champ Joe Hachem. It’s played in a ring game format with $100/$200 blinds.

Actor turned poker pro Gabe Kaplan serves as the primary face of “High Stakes Poker.” Stay tuned for the latest on this breaking story right here on Poker News Daily.

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Party Gaming Revenue Up 9% in Q3 2010

According to financial information released on Friday by Party Gaming, the parent company of PartyPoker, overall revenues were up 9% to €85.3 million in the third quarter of 2010 compared to the same period last year “with growth in all products except poker.” The company is in the midst of a merger with rival bwin.

Jim Ryan, CEO of Party Gaming, commented in a statement distributed today, “Total revenue was up by 9% year-on-year with growth in all products except poker despite the impact of having closed our French casino business at the end of June 2010. Excluding the French casino, total revenue would have been up by 12% year-on-year driven by casino growth in other markets, acquisitions, and a strong performance in sports betting.”

Speaking of poker, the group’s revenue in that department sank by 5% to €29.6 million in the third quarter of 2010 compared to the third quarter of 2009. The company cited “continued pressure from U.S.-facing sites [but] partially mitigated by growth in newly regulated markets” as reason for its struggles in the poker arena. According to the traffic ranking site PokerScout.com, cash game activity on PartyPoker is down 17% year-over-year, perhaps contributing to the company’s 5% overall decline in online poker revenues. PartyPoker’s team of sponsored pros includes Kara Scott, Mike Sexton, and Tony G.

Party Gaming’s casino revenues rose modestly at 2% to €34.9 million in the third quarter year-over-year. Why the reason for increased activity in Party Gaming’s virtual casino? The company explained that “content and jackpot improvements on PartyCasino” likely contributed to the gain.

Also trending upward in the third quarter of 2010 was Party Gaming’s bingo revenues, which shot up 36% to €13.1 million as a result of the company’s acquisition of Cashcade. Given increases in areas like the virtual casino and bingo parlor, Ryan told investors that he expects Party Gaming’s 2010 financial figures to fall in line with expectations: “In respect of current trading since the end of September, we have begun to see the normal seasonal upturn, in line with the Board’s expectations, and we remain confident about the full year outlook.”

The company added 212,500 real money accounts during Q3 2010, which is up 2% year-over-year. Party Gaming’s sites hosted 79,400 daily average players during the third quarter who provided a yield per active player day of €11.40. The latter figure represented a growth of 7% compared to last year’s third quarter.

Despite Party Gaming’s overall struggles in the online poker industry, it reported strong results from its new French-facing site, whose average daily player count has increased every month since launching in July. PartyPoker’s French poker site currently hosts nearly 10,000 players daily. According to PokerScout.com, PartyPoker.fr weighs in as the 21st largest site worldwide with a seven-day running average of 800 real money ring game players. It’s the fourth largest French-facing site behind outlets belonging to PokerStars, Winamax, and Everest Poker.

Ryan also updated shareholders on the pending merger with bwin, giving the timeline for the two massive internet gaming companies to become one: “I am also pleased to report that the proposed merger with bwin remains on track to complete at the end of Q1 2011, subject to regulatory and shareholder approvals.”

Also announced today was that Simon Duffy will become the Non-Executive Chairman of the merged company upon its completion. Prior to his post with Party Gaming and bwin, Duffy worked with online retailer Tradus, which is now part of Virgin Media Group. Read more here.

Party Gaming’s stock, which can be found on the London Stock Exchange under the symbol “PRTY,” was fetching 270.60 pence at the close of trading on Friday, down 0.33% on the day. Stay tuned to Poker News Daily for the latest poker stock headlines.

Michael Mizrachi’s Training Regimen and Randal Flowers Wins WPT Festa al Lago From Poker In Twitter

The World Poker Tour’s (WPT) Festa al Lago wrapped up action on Wednesday night, with Randal Flowers becoming the youngest player ever to capture two WPT titles. Following his victory, the poker world erupted in congratulations over Twitter.

“There are some ppl in poker that just deserve everything that comes to them,” UB.com’s Adam “Roothlus” Levy Tweeted after Flowers’ victory. “Tonight @RandALLin finally got his due and as did @benvo123.” Christian “charder30″ Harder issued the challenge to those looking to unseat Flowers from his position as the youngest ever two-time WPT winner by Tweeting, “Holy s**t @RandALLin won!!! Much deserved. Good luck trying to break the his record for youngest person to win 2 WPTs!”

Bryan Micon offered his congratulations by Tweeting, “Sick win, please teach me. lolz 22 yrs old – so you were what, 15 when we started battling?” Scott Seiver remarked on the good streak that the 22 year old Flowers is on by chirping, “That @RandALLin is so hot right now he could s**t in tinfoil, put fishhooks in it and sell it to the queen of England as earrings.”

Michael Mizrachi is prepping for the upcoming battle with the November Nine at the World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event final table by getting into better shape. The athletic Mizrachi is looking to drop some pounds prior to the WSOP festivities, Tweeting yesterday, “Just waking up! Going to get those crunches, push up and calf raises. Supposed to do it before bed but passed out. Can’t forget to stretch!”

Mizrachi is restricting his diet during his attempt (“Lost 2lbs already on pace!! All I drank was water. Ate turkey, tuna, and bahamian dolphin… great sleeping schedule… tennis class”), but he is also feeling the pangs known by those who are working on losing weight. He tweeted earlier today, “Tennis@11. Personal trainer @2. Hopefully I can make it thru the day. Nutrition is the hard part. I need a burger.”

Travel seems to be a part of many poker players’ schedules, with the international jet-setter Lacey Jones leading the way. “Shoot is wrapped and I have a beautiful sunny day in Paris to enjoy,” Jones Tweeted from the French capital. “Must fight the urge to take a long nap.” Full Tilt Poker’s John Juanda joked about his travel schedule when he Tweeted, “Couldn’t decide whether to go to WSOPC Hammond or EPT Vienna, so I took the middle road and came to Tokyo instead!” Another player on the road was Maria Ho, who was remarkably perky regarding her schedule: “LAX–>ATL to rendezvous w/@VanessaRousso for our trip to South Africa! I’m so excited that even the 24 hour travel day doesn’t faze me… yet!”

Of note over the past few days was the anniversary of Jennifer Harman and Marco Traniello. “Celebrated my 10 year anniversary with @marcopoker by getting married again by Elvis,” Harman Tweeted on Wednesday to her followers. In attendance for the ceremony was Daniel Negreanu, who Tweeted, “Headed to Little White Chapel to watch @RealJenHarman and @marcopoker get married again after 10 years.” Leave it to Negreanu to have set a prop bet on it when the twosome first married: “I had over 7.5 years and got 30-1!”

For the best Tweets of the past few days, we’ll start with Annie Duke, who apparently wasn’t happy with some of the ramifications of business. “I have discovered that networking makes me feel dirty,” Duke observed in a Tweet to her fans. “Sometimes you have to get down in the mud to do great things. Like pottery.” “High Stakes Poker” hostess Kara Scott chose this week to get some work done, Tweeting, “I’m listening to Barry Manilow and doing my taxes. And neither of those is a euphemism for anything cooler. Of course, I mean my British taxes, which means I’m actually months early. God, I am so rock and roll.” Finally, Alec Torelli has decided what he wants to do with his life, Tweeting to his followers, “I love Boardwalk Empire. When I grow up I wanna be like Nucky Thompson!”

Dates Set for 2011 Irish Open

The €3,200+€300 2011 Irish Open will take place from Apr. 22-25 inside the Burlington Hotel in Dublin.

This year things get even deeper with the starting stack up from 10,000 to 20,000 chips.

Plus, the event will once again feature a €100,000 Sole Survivor promotion, meaning that the longest lasting PaddyPowerPoker qualifier in the event will win €100,000 in addition to any prize money.

The Irish Open is the longest running poker tournament in Europe and second longest in the world after the World Series of Poker.

First organized in 1981 by a well known Irish bookmaker Terry Rogers, the tournament has seen a ton of growth. Last year a record 708 players turned up to see the UK's James Mitchell take down the title and €600,000 first prize.

The fieldwas filled with top pros including Dan Harrington, Sandra Naujoks, Brian Townsend, Kara Scott, and former Irish open winners Marty Smyth and Neil Channing.

"It was a pleasure to see so many people turn out for the Irish Open 2010 and in these challenging times," said PaddyPowerPoker communications manager Paddy Power.

"To beat the record for main event entries was a testament to the loyalty of our players and the ever improving reputation of the event. Next year's Irish Open will be bigger and better than ever before and we have already started the preparations to make sure of this. Many of our players sought an increased starting stack and we are delighted to deliver on this for 2011. We are also working on a side event schedule that will provide more variety for our players throughout the weekend."

Players can qualify for the 2011 Irish Open PaddyPowerPoker beginning Oct. 31.

A full schedule of side events for the event is coming soon.

Full details can be found at the event's website.

Visit PokerListings.com

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.

Visit PokerListings.com

Victory Poker CEO Dan Fleyshman Makes WSOPE Final Table And EPT London Begins From Poker In Twitter

This morning marked the start of play at the final table for the World Series of Poker (WSOP) Europe’s Main Event. Of the nine players who ran the gauntlet of some of the best poker players in the world, perhaps no one was happier about the achievement than chip leader and Victory Poker CEO Dan Fleyshman.

“For 3 days I told friends that I envisioned ending up at final table w/Ivey & Isildur,” Fleyshman Tweeted as the tournament played down to the final table last night. “Scratch that, I’m so glad they’re freaking gone!” Once he actually reached the final table, Fleyshman was looking to take the achievement one step further, Tweeting, “The only thing that sounds cooler then the WSOP Europe Main Event Final Table Chip leader is the WSOP Europe CHAMPION!”

Many in the poker world seem to be behind the Victory Poker CEO, with tournament director Matt Savage offering his congratulations by Tweeting, “Good Luck @DanFleyshman! You are a Playa now!” Victory Poker sponsored pro Antonio Esfandiari summed up the feelings of the stable by chirping, “Go @DanFleyshman wsope main event today… ONE time for the Victorypoker ceo.”

Giving some great insight into the inner workings of the tournament poker world were top poker journalists Benjo DiMeo and B.J. Nemeth. DiMeo has been in London for the WSOP Europe and observed from the sidelines over Twitter, “Full Tilt bounty hunter lurking in the shadows to stick logos on un-sponsored players. $$$ amount dependent on the stack size, obviously.”

Nemeth, fresh off his work at the World Poker Tour (WPT) Borgata Poker Open, gave his Twitter peeps a feel for the atmosphere prior to the start of final table play: “There is a surprisingly small crowd here to watch the #WSOPE final table. There isn’t a lot of room, but there is free space on the balcony. If Phil Ivey made it, I imagine the crowd would be at least twice as big. But I’m not sure Viktor Blom would have been much of a live draw.” Action will continue at the WSOP Europe Main Event today until a champion is crowned.

For those not involved with the WSOP Europe Main Event final table, the European Poker Tour (EPT) has taken center stage in London. “Playing the £5K HU EPT event at Hilton tomorrow at noon,” Tweeted Full Tilt Poker pro Annette Obrestad, although she wasn’t truly happy about it. “Gotta pack all my s**t and move hotels in the morning… yuck @ getting up early.” Scott Montgomery seemed to have a better outlook than his girlfriend, Tweeting, “First event of EPT London on Tuesday, 5k heads-up. Sweet!”

The recent record heat wave in California caught many poker pros by surprise as temperatures crept into the low 110s. “Los Angeles is on fire,” Joe Reitman observed over Twitter on Monday. “My band just had a rehearsal and my drummer burst into flames.” Former “Poker2Nite” host Scott Huff joked about the heat, Tweeting, “It is now 106 degrees in Beverly Hills. That’s 6 degrees from frying Kevin Bacon.” “Hollywood” Dave Stann enunciated his thoughts on the heat: “Thought I moved back here from Vegas to get away from this s**t. 113 degrees?” Then, “High Stakes Poker” hostess Kara Scott summed up the burst of heat with an accurate Tweet:  “It’s too hot for any decision bigger than ‘mojitos or margaritas?’”

For the best Tweets of the past few days, we have to give Esfandiari props for his ruminations over Twitter. “Sitting in a park solo, people watching, thinking about life,” he opined. “Its an interesting thing this ‘life.’ Does it really end one day? Lights out?” In preparation for his trip to London for the EPT, David Williams wondered, “Downloaded the new Lil Wayne Album, I Am Not A Human Being, for the journey. How do you release new stuff when you’re in prison?” Finally, PokerStars pro Lex Veldhuis took up the job of movie critic in Tweeting, “Watched Clash of The Titans. Way to take an awesome myth and rape it into a new story that makes people want to stab their eyes out.”

Kara Scott Interview

Poker pro and TV host Kara Scott joins us from the CardRunners party in Las Vegas right on the strip. Site editor Dan Cypra, armed with camera and microphone, ran down Scott in the street before she could leave to get this exclusive interview which goes into depth about her professional poker life, her television career and her romantic relationship with Brian Townsend.

Scott has appeared and played in many different poker tournament broadcasts both in the United States and in Europe where she is more well known. She appeared on PartyPoker.net’s World Woman’s Open in 2007 and won the first event and eventually finishing 6th in the final. The next year she won the PartyPoker Sports Star Challenge and then finished second in the Irish Open for €312,600.

According to Wikipedia, her total live tournament winnings are in excess of $550,000. She had a great run at the 2008 World Series of Poker Main Event where she finished in 104th place out of the total 6,844 players, which earned her $41,816 for the $10,000 buy-in. Scott is the only woman who cashed in both the 2008 and 2009 World Series of Poker Main Event and only the second woman to cash in back-to-back Main Events after finishing in 238th place in 2009.

In January of 2009, PartyPoker announced that Kara Scott would join team Party to join Mike Sexton and Tony G on their list of sponsored pros.

PartyPoker World Open VI Begins September 6th

Starting on Monday from the Palm Beach Casino in London is the sixth incarnation of the PartyPoker World Open. Last October, Phil Laak took down the title of PartyPoker World Open V champ after defeating a final table that included Luke “FullFlush” Schwartz, Laak’s girlfriend Jennifer Tilly, and World Poker Tour (WPT) host and Poker Hall of Fame member Mike Sexton.

This year, Laak will return to defend his title. A total prize pool of $480,000 is up for grabs in the $10,000 buy-in tournament. Forty-eight players will be in action across eight heats, the first of which features Victory Poker CEO Dan Fleyshman taking on Marty Smyth, Sam Trickett, 2009 World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event November Niner James Akenhead, Neil Channing, Lee Atherton, Peter Jetten, and U.K. poker pro Ian Frazer.

The second heat, which will be played on September 6th and 7th, features three of North America’s hottest players in Andrew “good2cu” Robl, UB.com’s Brandon Cantu, and former National Heads-Up Poker Championship winner Huck Seed. The group’s opposition in Heat #2 includes James Mitchell, Matt Perrins, Josh Gould, Dragan Galic, and Felipe “Mojave” Ramos.

The third heat of the PartyPoker World Open VI, which will pan out on September 7th, features young guns Schwartz and Full Tilt pro Annette Obrestad taking to the felts together. European Poker Tour (EPT) founder John Duthie and high-stakes cash game pro David “Viffer” Peat will join them, as will Liam Flood, John Eames, Barny Boatman, and Giovanni Safina.

That’s a lot of pros already and we’re only halfway through the opening seat of heats in the annual PartyPoker tournament. Former WPT Championship winner Yevgeniy Timoshenko will be part of Heat #4 on September 8th. His competition includes “Dixie,” 2010 bracelet winner Praz Bansi, Simon Zach, recent WPT London winner Jake Cody, Fabrice Souiler, and 2010 Aussie Millions Main Event champ Tyron Krost. This heat also has an open seat.

Laak will defend his title as part of Heat #5 on September 8th and 9th. However, he’ll have to get past Tom “durrrr” Dwan, who is in the midst of completing a pair of online Million Dollar Challenges against Patrik Antonius and Dan “JungleMan12” Cates. Others in the eight-player field will include John Tabatabai, Toby Lewis, Roland De Wolfe, Dale Hoy, Heather Mercer, and Jason Grey.

The final heat of the PartyPoker World Open VI will kick off on September 9th and feature some of the top talent Europe has to offer. Juha Helppi, David “Devilfish” Ulliott, Sandra Naujoks, Roberto Romanello, and Bruno Fitoussi will be a part of the Heat #6 field. Sexton, a sponsored pro of PartyPoker, will also be in the running, as will Titan Poker pro Sorel “Imper1um” Mizzi and Tilly.

The starting stacks in the PartyPoker World Open VI have been tripled and the final table, which is set to occur on September 10th, will be played seven-handed. The top seven players made the money during the fifth World Open, which also featured a field of 48. Heading into his title defense, Laak told PartyPoker officials, “Last year was a wild roller coaster ride. This year, I am looking forward to coming back to defend my title – it is ideal that it comes straight off the back off the WPT London Poker Classic – hopefully I can win both!”

Jesse May and PartyPoker’s Kara Scott will front the event’s broadcast, which can be seen on Five in the U.K. in late 2010. Spectators are welcome.

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.

PartyPoker Announces September Snowball Promotion

In September, PartyPoker, an independent online poker site, will hold the Snowball promotion, dishing out up to $5,000 in cash and $100,000 in freeroll entries per person. Why is it called the Snowball, you ask, when winter in many parts of the globe has not yet set in? Text found on PartyPoker’s website explains the wintry name: “The Snowball gives you the chance to pick up a huge amount of prizes as you gather momentum.”

PartyPoker officials have established 15 different points levels for play between September 1st and 30th. As PartyPoker players move up in levels, they’ll keep everything they’ve earned in previous levels, making for a potentially lucrative payday. The minimum point level is five, which will earn its achievers a $5,000 freeroll entry. When a player hits 25 Party Points, they’ll leap to a $10,000 freeroll entry; plus, they’ll still be able to vie for $5,000.

Point levels exist at five, 25, 50, 100, 200, 500, 1,000, 2,000, 5,000, 10,000, 15,000, 20,000, 30,000, 40,000, and 50,000. The granddaddy of prizes – given out to players who can accrue 50,000 Party Points in September – is $5,000 in cash plus entries into $100,000 worth of freerolls. Cash prizes kick in at the 500-point level, with a minimum payout of $20 up for grabs. Palladium Lounge players are more than welcome to participate in the Snowball promotion.

The $5,000 Snowball freeroll will take place on October 4th. The next day, a $10,000 freebie will play out. On October 6th, a $15,000 freeroll will be held, while on October 7th, the prize pool will jump to $20,000. The largest freeroll, totaling $50,000, will take place on October 8th. Each freeroll will issue its starting command at 14:30 ET.

Also on the horizon for PartyPoker is the September running of the Monthly Million, which is slated to occur on the 5th. The tournament marks the first Monthly Million held since July 18th as part of a revamped schedule in July and August. Qualifiers for the Monthly Million start as low as $1 and the marquee PartyPoker event comes with a $640 price tag. You can find it in the site’s lobby on the first Sunday of every month.

Every day, PartyPoker hosts a $70 buy-in Monthly Million qualifier that offers up at least 19 seats. On Fridays, look for a $55 Mega Friday Satellite that guarantees 20 seats to the $640 spectacular. Two other qualifiers, each with a $35 buy-in, take place on Saturdays, one at 09:00 ET and the other 14:30 ET. Combined, the Saturday qualifiers guarantee 18 seats.

Daily points qualifiers and country-specific freerolls can also stamp your ticket to the Monthly Million on PartyPoker. The tournament offers a Championship blind structure and its field boasts some of the top players that Europe and other areas outside of the United States have to offer.

PartyPoker, once the largest site in the industry, features a team of sponsored pros that includes World Poker Tour host and Poker Hall of Fame Class of 2009 inductee Mike Sexton, bad boy Tony G, and “High Stakes Poker” hostess Kara Scott. Its parent company, Party Gaming, is publicly traded on the London Stock Exchange and will likely merge with rival site bwin.

Snowball your way to $5,000 in cash plus $100,000 in freeroll entries in September. Visit PartyPoker to learn more.

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Kentucky Internet Gambling Lawsuit Amended to Include Party Gaming

In late March, the Commonwealth of Kentucky filed suit against Pocket Kings, the purported operators of Full Tilt Poker, seeking the amount of money lost by state residents between March 2005 and September 2009. Now, the complaint has been amended to include Party Gaming, which recently announced a merger with bwin.

Reacting to the news that Party Gaming, whose online poker site PartyPoker hasn’t accepted real money wagers from U.S. residents since 2006, was singled out was Interactive Media Entertainment and Gaming Association (iMEGA) Chairman Joe Brennan. iMEGA has been at the forefront of the fight to protect 141 internet gambling domain names that were seized two years ago in a separate legal battle and may ultimately face forfeiture. The case is pending in the Kentucky Supreme Court.

Brennan told Poker News Daily on Thursday, “This is a last minute ploy by the Commonwealth to try to force a settlement. I think they named Party because the company is engaged in a merger and they’re trying to use that to get money out of them. They’re probably trying to get Party to pay out some cash settlement. Party has been around for a while and nothing has changed other than they’re trying to undergo a merger.” Gambling911 reported that Kentucky attorneys are seeking funds lost by state residents between August 2005 and October 2006.

PartyPoker, whose parent company is publicly traded on the London Stock Exchange, vacated the U.S. market in 2006 after the passage of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA). Attorney Jeff Ifrah speculated, “It’s unclear how long the Commonwealth has been researching the viability of claims against anyone. They may have been looking at Party for a while now, even before the merger announcement. They were certainly looking at them last year when they started thinking about putting a complaint together.”

Party Gaming has already signed a non-prosecution agreement with the U.S. Department of Justice and one of its co-founders, Anurag Dikshit, faces sentencing later this year after admitting Wire Act violations. Doubting the success of Kentucky’s case against Party Gaming was Ifrah, who told Poker News Daily, “In their complaint against Party, they continue to omit any reference to any specific loser. They’ve made broad references to losers and broad references to Kentucky residents, but there’s still no proof. They’re hoping a judge will grant them discovery.”

PartyPoker was once the largest online poker site in the world and, when it departed the U.S. market in 2006, was in the midst of its Monster promotion. According to PokerScout.com, PartyPoker boasts a seven-day running average of 3,350 real money ring game players and is the third largest site worldwide behind PokerStars and Full Tilt. PartyPoker ranks just ahead of Playtech’s iPoker Network and features World Poker Tour host Mike Sexton, “High Stakes Poker” hostess Kara Scott, and bad boy Tony G as its sponsored pros.

Brennan summed up the news by calling out Kentucky’s attorneys, who are allegedly working on a contingency basis: “It is the plaintiff’s attorneys who have now used the name of the Commonwealth of Kentucky to try to blackmail Party Gaming and use the occasion of their merger as an opportunity to get some sort of settlement out of them. It’s about as contemptible and reprehensible as anything I can imagine.”

Curiously, PartyPoker was not named in the original lawsuit seeking the forfeiture of 141 domain names, including those belonging to PokerStars, Absolute Poker, UB.com, and Full Tilt.

Party Gaming likely won’t reenter the U.S. market until a full licensing and regulatory framework is in place. A bill proposed by Congressman Barney Frank (D-MA) would do just that and passed out of the House Financial Services Committee two weeks ago. However, with the current Congressional session quickly coming to an end, its future appears to be in doubt. The bill, numbered HR 2267, boasts 70 co-sponsors.

New Entries to Women in Poker Hall of Fame and Phil Laak Returns Home from Poker in Twitter

The Twitterverse was abuzz this morning with the announcements of the two most recent nominees for the Women In Poker Hall of Fame, with poker professional Kathy Liebert breaking the news to her followers over Twitter.

“Was nominated in to the Women’s Poker Hall of Fame along with Jennifer Harman,” Liebert Tweeted to her followers before being flooded with congratulations from across the poker community. “Both well deserving. Congrats,” Matthew Glantz Tweeted following the announcement, with Jennifer “Jennicide” Leigh adding her congratulations in through Twitter. Kara Scott summed up Liebert’s achievements, chirping, “Congratulations! Having long term poker success with so little site support – who else has accomplished close to that?! Incredible!”

As previously reported by Poker News Daily, Phil Laak suffered a serious accident involving an ATV while on vacation in Oregon. Laak Tweeted throughout the incident, the resulting trip to the hospital, and on his way home to Los Angeles on Friday, sending a Twitpic of a badly bruised eye and broken arm: “This one is in Vegas airport two days into my recovery. Will be in my bed in LA in a few hrs.” Sure enough, “The Unabomber” was in the City of Angels a few hours later with a great remedy for his injuries: “Jennifer is the best. Cuddling w/her is better for the pain than even my Percocet pain medicine.”

Several players took time to Tweet about Laak’s injuries and wish him well. 2010 World Series of Poker (WSOP) November Niner Michael “The Grinder” Mizrachi was among those: “Hey Phil, Stay strong man and fast recovery!! Very sorry to hear the news. If you can stay up for days playing poker u can handle anything!” Chad Brown (“I want to wish my friend Phil Laak a speedy recovery”) and Jeff Madsen (“A moment of silence for unabomber’s elbow”) also Tweeted their good wishes.

One player looking to get into better shape is Daniel Negreanu. The PokerStars sponsored pro tweeted to his followers on Sunday, “Withering away! Lost 4 lbs in the last two days and I’m at 146. Haven’t been that low in like 12 years. No carbs no booze=no tummy.” Later on during the day, Negreanu noted the down side of weight loss when he said, “Wow I’m officially unable to digest alcohol. One glass of wine and I’m done. Losing 11 lbs and not drinking for months will do that I guess.” Liebert offered her suggestion for countering the effects of alcohol on Daniel by simply tweeting, “Eat meat be a real man.”

Several of the top players were taking part in the newly unveiled tournaments through the French sites that have recently been licensed by the French gaming authority ARJEL. Greg “FBT” Mueller Tweeted prior to a tournament, “It’s time to play my first tourney on FULL TILT POKER.FR. Come and sign up late or just sweat me and check out FTP.FR style.” PokerStars’ Victoria Coren took the opportunity to step to the French felt as well, Tweeting, “Playing the Sunday Special on PokerStars.fr. There’s a bounty on the pros, but I’m chip leader now so I can’t help greedily wanting to win.” No word on Mueller’s day, but Coren was able to Tweet after a five-hour run, “Grrr. All in with 66, out in 19th place. Won €480. Very unlucky at the end, so close to the final, but never mind.”

Amit “amak316″ Makhija and Shannon Shorr entered into a Twitter discussion on how successful people remain that way. “I read a study that it takes 10k hrs of hard work to master any field, it broke down the hrs of many of the great successful people,” Makhija, a DoylesRoom pro, Tweeted. Shorr asked, “Very interesting. Have a link to the study?” In his reply, Makhija Tweeted, “It was in the book ‘Outliers,’ very interesting read. Breaks down the common traits of super successful people.”

The best Tweets of the weekend ran the gamut from philosophical to funny. “If you don’t plan for a rainy day you end up drenched,” Daniel Negreanu opined from the philosophical side. “Spontaneity makes life fun, but certain things need to be planned ahead or its chaos.” Maria Ho went for psychologically therapeutic and funny when she Tweeted, “Lost $$ playing poker online and now trying to make myself feel better with some retail therapy (shopping). Somehow I think this is counter productive.” Finally, Tatjana Pasalic went for the outright funny when she Tweeted, “Summer sure is my favorite week in Scotland. Bring on the 15 degrees and rain.”

Liv Boeree Officially Departs Team UB

While having the finest year of her young poker career, Liv Boeree has officially left the Team UB stable, making her a highly prized free agent for other online poker rooms.

Back on July 8th, Poker News Daily first reported during coverage of the World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event that Boeree was not wearing any UB branding while playing in the $10,000 buy-in tournament. Additionally, official press releases from UB.com representatives did not have her on their list of players. At that time, Poker News Daily was able to confirm that there were negotiations in place for the online room and Boeree to remain partners, leading to speculation that a deal was forthcoming and she would remain a member of Team UB. Further investigation has revealed that those talks have broken down.

At UB.com, any mention of Boeree on the site has been removed, including photos, blogs, and her place on the Team UB roster. The extent of the site cleaning house has gone to the point of “tags” (aids to find certain subject matter) on the blog section of UB.com not listing Boeree’s name, her EPT San Remo victory, or any of her activities of late.

If Boeree has truly left the UB fold, several appealing options present themselves. There is a great likelihood that she could end up with one of the two major players in the online poker industry, PokerStars or Full Tilt Poker, helping to advance her career through their U.S.-friendly practices and deep pockets. It is also possible that Boeree – who calls London, the United Kingdom, home – could sign with a European-friendly poker room, much like PartyPoker’s Kara Scott or BetClic’s Isabelle Mercier. The opportunities are endless for a lady who has broken out of the shadows in 2010.

At the start of the year, Boeree was known more for her electric approach to life than her achievements on the poker table. Her passion for hard rock – including most things metal – and her passionate pursuit of a breakneck lifestyle seemed to keep her from hitting her full stride in the poker world. That ended back in April, however, when Boeree achieved her breakthrough poker moment in winning the championship of the European Poker Tour’s San Remo stop. The first place prize in the largest event ever held in Europe, €1,250,000 (slightly over $1.8 million at the time), demonstrated her skills in the game and marked her as one of the potential stars for 2010 and the future.

On another UB.com front, the 2010 WSOP November Nine is shaping up to be quite a battle. There is one question that many in the online world have hotly discussed since the final table of the Main Event was determined over two weeks ago. With the new rules by Harrah’s and WSOP officials that an online site can only have three representatives at the final table, who will PokerStars and Full Tilt pick and what place will UB.com have in the race to patch up players?

When the WSOP Main Event stopped for the November Nine on July 18th, seven of the nine players at the table were adorned with the Full Tilt Poker colors. Because of the rule, however, Full Tilt is going to have to cut four of them (or make other arrangements) to abide by the guideline. PokerStars has two of the players at the November Nine final table, chip leader Jonathan Duhamel and short stacked Jason Senti, leaving the site with one slot to fill by the time chips fly in November.

Where this leaves UB.com is up in the air. With no players wearing their colors at the final table, there is some speculation that they might swoop in to pick up three sponsorships. It is also possible, however, that other online rooms could pick up the slack and take the three remaining players.

Last Chance to Win WPT London Seats

The site is running a series of online satellites until Sunday Aug. 8 starting at just $1, with a number of $12,000 packages on the line.

The package includes $2,000 in spending money, seven night's luxury five-star accommodation and the $8,000 buy-in for the event, set to take place at the Palm Beach Casino, Mayfair between Aug. 30 and Sept. 4.

One final $600+$40 online satellite will go off Aug. 8 on PartyPoker at 2:15 p.m. ET with one in 20 players winning a WPT London Poker Classic seat.

Already confirmed to play in the main event are Phil Ivey, Tony G, Alexander Kravchenko, Annette Obrestad, Sorel Mizzi, Barry Shulman and James Akenhead.

The event will be filmed for TV with coverage presented by Kara Scott, Mike Sexton and Jesse May. 

"I am looking forward to joining Jesse in the commentary box in London," said Sexton.

"We have never properly been in the box together before which seems remarkable considering the amount of years both he and I have been calling the action at tournaments around the world!"

To get in on the action, click through to PokerListings' PartyPoker room review.

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PartyPoker Offers Last Chance To Qualify For WPT London This Weekend

The World Poker Tour will make its first ever stop in London, England later this month and PartyPoker is offering its players the last opportunities to win a seat to the inaugural event.

As the presenting sponsor of the first ever WPT stop in England, PartyPoker will be offering a “last chance” for players to qualify for the event. Satellites will be running over the coming weekend, ranging from freerolls to a $600 multi-table tournament that will take place on Sunday. These tournaments have a variety of ways to put players in the position to be in London for all of the action.

The daily freerolls put the top 50 players from the event into a special $1 “sub qualifier,” a speed tournament with rebuys that also plays daily. The next step, the speed “sub qualifier,” will award a seat into the London Satellite Qualifier for each $70 in the prize pool. This speed tournament will advance one of every 10 players into the final $600 +$40 London Satellite Event, which will play out on Sunday at 2:15pm ET and award a prize package for one player out of every 20.

For those who have a bit of a bankroll on PartyPoker, there is another route to making the field for the WPT London. An $8 speed tournament is held daily, with one of every 10 players moving on to the London Satellite Qualifier. The process for moving on to the $600 buy-in satellite is exactly like that provided through the freeroll process. On the line for those who qualify for WPT London will be a $12,000 prize package that includes the $8,000 buy-in, $2,000 in spending money, and seven nights’ accommodation.

The WPT London Poker Classic will take place from August 30th to September 5th at the Palm Beach Casino in Mayfair, with a buy in of £5,000 ($8,000 U. S.). A High Roller tournament is also a part of the festivities, with a £15,000 buy-in that should draw a powerful field. Players who have been confirmed for the WPT London Poker Classic include PartyPoker sponsored pro Antanas “Tony G” Guoga, Full Tilt Poker’s Phil Ivey and Annette “Annette_15” Obrestad, Alexander Kravchenko, defending WSOP Europe champion Barry Shulman, 2009 WSOP Main Event/WSOP Europe Main Event final table player James Akenhead, and Titan Poker pro Sorel “Imper1um” Mizzi.

The broadcast team for the WPT London Poker Classic will have a slightly different look for those who have viewed WPT telecasts previously. While Poker News Daily Guest Columnist Mike Sexton and floor commentator/hostess Kara Scott will be on-hand for their respective duties, Vince Van Patten will not make the trip to London for the show. In his stead is the highly respected poker announcer Jesse May, who will team with Sexton for the first time. May has broadcast such made for television events as the seminal “Late Night Poker” in England and such tournaments as the Irish Poker Open and the Poker Nations Cup.

Commenting on his upcoming trip to England, Sexton sounded as if he were ready for the adventure: “I am looking forward to joining Jesse in the commentary box in London. We have never properly been in the box together before, which seems remarkable considering the amount of years both he and I have been calling the action at tournaments around the world!”

July 13th – Daily Deal

Topics: WSOP Main Event Update, Poker Hall of Fame Voting and the Aussie Millions Heads-Up Championship.

On today’s Daily Deal, the public vote is open for the two-thousand ten Poker Hall of Fame, the Aussie Millions continues airing on GSN, and we bring you the latest news from the WSOP Main Event.

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

Well – Are you ready to vote? Harrah’s and WSOP officials have opened up the process of public voting for the 2010 Poker Hall of Fame. The public will vote on who they think is most deserving and the top ten players will be evaluated by a panel including the sixteen living Poker Hall of Fame members and a similar number of respected members of the media. Poker News Daily’s Dan Cypra was part of the panel last year, and explained that this year he would like to see Tom McEvoy, Erik Seidel, Barry Greenstein, Huck Seed, and Carlos Mortensen inducted. Only two players will be voted this year so head over to wsop.com to vote today.

The Heads-Up Championship at the Aussie Millions aired on GSN on Saturday night. Each match-up was played in a best of three format. Celebrating the Year of Women in Poker, the event featured many female pros, including newly signed PokerStars proVanessa Selbst along with Leo Margets and Women in Poker Hall of Famer Marsha Waggoner. In the finals of the Aussie Millions Heads-Up Championship, Barry Woods faced off against Canadian Kyle McMurphy – and McMurphy took the $69,000 first prize.

The World Series of Poker‘s Main Event rolls on and yesterday saw the first time that both fields of play were put together into one room at the same time. Day 3, which saw four levels of play, is now concluded and is led by PokerStars qualifier James Carroll who has just over eight hundred thousand in chips. In the top ten we have Andrew Brown, Johnny Lodden and legendary bracelet winner Johnny Chan.

Players that didn’t survive day three included Phil Laak, Jen Harman, Chris Moneymaker and David Williams. Others that went busto include Kara Scott, Daniel Negreanu, Vanessa Russo and Erik Seidel. Also, Joe Cada‘s run in the Main Event has officially ended as he too busted on Day 3.

The Mizrachi brothers – all FOUR of them – are still in the hunt, with Robert enjoying a healthy stack at just over 342,000. Other players still alive include Vanessa Selbst, Jason Mercier and Barry Greenstein. You might remember that both Phil Ivey and Doyle Brunson were sent to the rail back on Day 2B.

Today play will resume for Day four which is a huge day for the field as the money bubble will be burst TODAY. Obviously much of the buzz has been around Johnny Chan, but we’ll make sure to give you a complete recap of today’s play on tomorrow’s Daily Deal.

Thanks for joining me on The Daily Deal. Don’t forget to visit PokerNewsDaily.com and be sure to follow us at Twitter.com/PokerNewsDaily for the latest in poker news. This is Sean Gibson, and we’ll see you back here tomorrow for another edition of The Daily Deal!

Poker All Around Las Vegas and Heading Home from Poker in Twitter

The Twitterverse has been blowing up with poker players chirping about their activities around Las Vegas. With the World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event in full swing and  the World Poker Tour’s (WPT) Bellagio Cup beginning, many in the poker community are looking for their last bit of action before taking a few weeks off.

At the WSOP, the biggest story has been the drive of the Mizrachi clan towards the money. After playing in Day 3 on Monday, Michael “The Grinder” Mizrachi took the time to Tweet to his followers, “Have 91,700 Eric around 100k. Donny 128k. And the big brother Robbie 340k. Alex (Prendes) 171k… Good luck to all my brothers tomorrow and one of my closest friends Alex Prendes!! Let’s do this guys… Let’s get in the cash tom… day by day.” Adding his congratulations in was 2009 WSOP Europe champion Barry Shulman: “Congrats on an unprecedented family performance so far from team Shulman. Hope to see you at the final.”

Other players at the WSOP had tumultuous days on their way through the Day 3 demolition. Defending CardPlayer Magazine Player of the Year Eric “basebaldy” Baldwin seemed to have the best day of those poker players on Twitter when he Tweeted, “499k to end day 3 at my peak. Fun and toys.” Fellow UB.com pro Adam “Roothlus” Levy also was finding cards on Day 3 at the WSOP: “Finished the day with 323,700. I’m prob double avg right now. Crossing my fingers for another great table draw tomorrow.”

Court Harrington experienced the highs and lows of poker within a 24-hour span. After Tweeting “174,600 to end day 3. Guy went nuts with AT, my QQ held up to bust him & win a big pot for my table at least,” Harrington then learned about his Day 4 table to his dismay: “Really? Steve Billirakis, Eric Baldwin, and Paul Lieu (comeonfish) all at my day 4 table?”

Others at the WSOP Main Event are looking to make the money on Day 4. “I have never played this well before,” Juha Helppi Tweeted following the conclusion of Day 3. “Making correct decisions all the time. Should have gone bust many times, but instead going to day4 in WSOP main event with 231,200 in chips! avg about 180k.” PokerStars pro Jason Mercier called his Day 3 “one of the wildest days of poker I have ever witnessed,” but was able to inform his followers, “Finished w 160,300.” On the other side of the equation, both Allie Prescott (“Finished day3 right around 100k. Lost some chips but think I made mostly good decisions today. Hoping for a little bit more luck tomorrow.”) and Kathy Liebert (“Ended day with 43k. Need good Luck tomorrow.”) are looking for intervention from the poker gods.

For those that have been eliminated from the WSOP Main Event, the Bellagio Cup was just the cure for their blues. Kimberly Lansing jumped right back into her duties at the WPT as if she had never left, interviewing players in action at the Bellagio. “The camera battery died halfway thru our interview w Annette Obrestad!,” Lansing lamented through Twitter. “SUX. It was a gr8 invu but hopefully we’ll get her again.”

Justin “Boosted J” Smith had an interesting day of play during the Bellagio Cup. In an extensive series of Tweets, Smith recounted an occurrence at his table: “Just called three streets after calling a UTG raise with AJ high. He bet the river for all of my chips all in. I called, he had king high.” Then, the fun started, as he Tweeted, “The table erupted it was a 97252 board. The guy went on complete deranged animal tilt and started yelling and screaming saying my play was bad, then some young internet player I don’t know told the guy he should stop complaining and it was a nice call and he will cross book him against me for the next 5 years and then they started talking about going outside to fight… lol… all I could do was smile the entire time.”

Some players have been doing very well at the Bellagio Cup, but also know that the final numbers on the event aren’t in yet. “Ended the day at WPT Bellagio Cup with 80,500,” Maria Ho Tweeted to her fans. “Average stack is 109,735. 113 players left from 310 but registration is still open tomorrow!” Coming off a less than impressive WSOP, Full Tilt‘s Annette “Annette_15” Obrestad was up the leaderboard, Tweeting, “was down to 65 then Ks vs Qs. Board Qxx x K lol. Then flopped a set and got paid. 167.7k.” On the other side of the equation, Liv Boeree was less than happy with the Bellagio Cup: “Frustrating day at the wpt. Huge allin with top two against chipleader’s straight draw and they got there. Sad game.”

With registration open until later this afternoon, many players are waiting to the last minute to get in. Phil Hellmuth looks to be up to something when he Tweeted, “I am coming into the WPT event at the Bellagio Tues at 1:30 in a costume dressed as a surprise, flanked by the ‘Royal Flush’ girls!” He also reported, “C Ferguson + Ivey coming in 1:30 Tues to Bellagio WPT event.”

Although there is action in Vegas, some are calling it a year and heading away from Sin City’s bright lights. “Disappointing end to the summer but at least I will be home soon to my awesome wife and sweet baby boy,” Lee Childs Tweeted on Tuesday. “Such a fantastic end to my Vegas trip,” PartyPoker‘s Kara Scott chirped. “Dinner old school style, pointless (winning) gambling at the Wynn with lovely Brits.” Bryan Devonshire Tweeted, “I’m getting out of Dodge. Prepping: new laptop, new droid…(I’m) laying out gear to spend the next five weeks in Colorado.”

Joe Reitman had the best Tweet of the weekend while in action at the WSOP: “Worst beat of the day. I moved all in & my table wanted to wait for the ESPN cameras to come over. ESPN saw it was me & said, ‘not interested.’ Finally, Erik Seidel capped off what has been an interesting time in Las Vegas by Tweeting, “Thanks everyone in Twitterland for msgs the last 6 weeks. Made the WSOP much more entertaining. Good luck all!”

James Carroll Leads WSOP Main Event After Day 3; Johnny Chan Lurking

After the day of rest on Sunday, the 2010 World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event got back underway on Monday, as for the first time in a week, the entire tournament field played at the same time.  2,559 players began Day 3 with high hopes, but with the knowledge that even if they made it through the day, they would still be a long way from making the money.

Henderson, Nevada’s James Carroll leads the way after Day 3 with 803,000 chips, 62,000 more than Chicago’s Imari Love, who has 741,100.  Gerasimos Deres, who hails from Helsingborg, Sweden, is the highest ranking non-U.S. player, sitting in third place with 733,700 chips.  Rounding out the top five are Italy’s Filippo Candio (727,300) and Max Casal from Burbank, California (687,200).

The talk of the tournament so far, and something that must have ESPN giddy with anticipation, is the emergence of the legendary Johnny Chan.  Currently sitting in ninth place with 636,000, the ten-time WSOP bracelet winner looked strong all day and was actually the chip leader for a while.  Like much of poker’s “old guard,” Chan has not been as prolific a tournament player in recent years, with his last WSOP bracelet coming in 2005 when he won the $2,500 Pot Limit Hold’em event.  What cashes he has had in recent years at the WSOP have been solid, though.  In 2008, he cashed three times with one final table, one top-15 finish, and a cash in the Main Event.  He cashed once last year, making the quarterfinals of the $10,000 Heads-Up event.  And this year, while it was not an official bracelet event, he banked $100,000 in the Tournament of Champions.

Other notable names near the top of the standings include Cole South (40th place), Theo Jorgensen (47th), Scott Clements (48th), Fabrice Soulier (68th), Dragan Galic (87th), Shannon Shorr (88th), J.P. Kelly (120th), Vanessa Selbst (164th), Jay Rosenkrantz (168th), Sammy Farha (225th), Karina Jett (247th), Matt Matros (260th), Vince Van Patten (269th), and Barry Shulman (276th).  Annie Duke, Phil Galfond, Dan Harrington, Mori Eskandani, Humberto Brenes, Bernard Lee, Patrik Antonius, Adam Junglen, and Hoyt Corkins are also among the “name” players who have advanced to Day 4.

Falling into the “wait ’til next year” category were the defending Main Event champ Joe Cada, legendary gambler Archie Karas, Kenny Tran, David “Devilfish” Ulliott, Bill Chen, Dan Heimiller, 2003 Main Event champ Chris Moneymaker, Kara Scott, Erik Seidel, Paul Wasicka, David Williams, Barbara Enright, Prahlad Friedman, Phil Laak, Lacey Jones, Jennifer Harman, Tom Franklin, David Singer, and Daniel Negreanu, just to name a few.

In addition to Chan, perhaps the most intriguing player story is not about one player, but four.  The four Mizrachi brothers – Michael, Robert, Donny, and Eric – are all still in the running for the 2010 Main Event title.  Robert leads the family with 342,800 chips, followed by Donny with 128,600, Eric with 95,800, and Michael with 91,700.  The brothers have already made the 2010 WSOP a family affair, as both Michael and Robert made the final table of the $50,000 Player’s Championship, with Michael knocking out Robert in third place en route to his first bracelet.

And from the odd news department comes Belgium’s Philip Goossens.  Goossens was doing quite nicely in the Main Event, sitting on a healthy 92,400 chip stack going into Monday’s Day 3.  But therein lied the problem.  Goossen had qualified through Bwin, which paid for his buy-in, hotel accommodations, and travel expenses until July 12th.  Since Goossens made it to July 12th, Bwin paid to extend his hotel stay, but any expenses incurred for rescheduling his flight home were up to him.

He didn’t have the money to foot the €1,000 bill to change his ticket, so he appealed to Bwin to help him out.  The poker room did not honor his request and so rather than spend the money without being guaranteed to cash in the tournament, Goossen elected to go home as scheduled.  His chip stack sat in front of an empty seat Monday and Goossen was finally blinded out of the tournament late in the day.

Just over 1,200 players will return to the Rio on Tuesday for Day 4 of the 2010 WSOP Main Event, hoping to find themselves on the right side of the money bubble when it likely bursts at some point today.  Cards will be in air at Noon PT.

Chan Still Among Leaders After Day 3 of WSOP Main Event

The cash is drawing nearer as the eliminations pick up and the celebrations become more intense. Only 747 will emerge with a payday and that bubble is expected to burst tomorrow.

Some of the players who had their Main Event dreams dashed today include former champs Joe Cada and Chris Moneymaker. Also sent to the rail were Kara Scott, David "Devilfish" Ulliott, Jen Harman, Daniel Negreanu, Vanessa Rousso, David Williams and Erik Seidel.

Surprisingly, all four of the Mizrachi brothers are still alive and The Grinder is the only person who can run down Frank Kassela for WSOP Player of the Year. He has to win in order to secure that feat.

Some of the other big names remaining include Jason Mercier, John Robert Bellande, Johnny Lodden, Barry Greenstein, Eric Baldwin, Sammy Farha, David Grey and Patrik Antonius.

Johnny Chan once again ended the day among the chip leaders. Chan said he was happy and tired as he bagged up his chips to end the day.

"I'm glad we're changing tables because the player to the left of me was probably the only one to win a lot of chips off of me," Chan said.

When asked to compare the 2010 competition to the fields he defeated back in 1987 and 1988, Chan chuckled. "Let's just say this; the players are a lot better nowadays."

Chan is confident that he can win a third Main Event title and record 11th bracelet. "I absolutely think I can win, otherwise I wouldn't be here," he said. "All those chips help give me confidence too."

Chan finished with 636k and found himself 9th on the leader board heading into day 4.

Tomorrow's action will once again start at noon in the Amazon Room and promises to be one of the most exciting and intense days on the entire WSOP calendar. As always, keep checking in here at PokerListings for all the latest news and live updates.

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World Poker Tour Brings Back Kimberly Lansing for Season 9

In an overhaul of sorts for Season 9, the World Poker Tour (WPT) has brought back Kimberly Lansing. Her role, you ask? According to a press statement released on Saturday, Lansing will “provide show opens, breaks, commentary, and perspective, including player interviews that will serve to bring out the human interest side of playing for high stakes.”

Sunday marks the first day of play in the Bellagio Cup VI, the kickoff U.S.-based event of Season 9 of the WPT. With buy-ins for several upcoming tournaments slashed to encourage more participation, Season 9 may mark a rebirth of sorts for the age-old series that first appeared on the Travel Channel back in 2003.

Lansing last appeared on WPT programming in Season 6. On why she will rejoin the tour’s ranks for the forthcoming cycle, WPT President Adam Pliska commented in the same press release, “We believe the WPT anchor represents a significant step forward in poker programming and Kimberly is a natural fit for the position. Her charisma, style, professionalism, and knowledge of the sport have earned her the respect and attention of players throughout the poker community.”

Party Gaming purchased the WPT late last year, leading some to believe that PartyPoker pro Kara Scott may make her way to the small screen. However, Lansing will become a mainstay at live tournaments located at casinos around the United States. Also receiving more exposure during Season 9 will be WPT hosts Mike Sexton and Vince Van Patten, who will now attend the starting day of every U.S. event. Despite the Bellagio Cup starting on Sunday, Van Patten sits in 101st after Day 2A of the World Series of Poker Main Event holding a stack of 174,200.

The WPT held a press conference on Saturday morning to announce the changes for Season 9 and also officially introduced Matt Savage as its Executive Tour Director. Savage, a co-founder of the Tournament Directors of America, will work hand in hand with players, casinos, and tournament staff to provide a seamless experience for WPT players. Savage added, “There are so many exciting changes at the World Poker Tour and I’m looking forward to having a big role in the WPT’s continued success. This is an amazing team and I’m proud to be working with them.”

Also debuting during Season 9 will be the Royal Flush Girls, who include 2007 Miss Kentucky USA Michelle Banzer, “FHM Singapore” cover girl Sunisa Kim, and Formula Drift car builder Melyssa Grace. All told, six Royal Flush Girls will film vignettes for WPT programming, including a behind-the-scenes tour at the host venue. The Royal Flush Girls will be on-hand this weekend at the Bellagio on the Las Vegas Strip.

The WPT last held an event on U.S. soil in April, when newly signed PokerStars pro David Williams took down the $25,000 Championship event. Williams defeated UB.com pro Eric “basebaldy” Baldwin heads-up in a final table that also included Shawn Buchanan, David Benyamine, Billy Baxter, and John O’Shea. Attendance for the 2010 WPT Championship was down over 40% from 2009, when 338 players took to the felts in a tournament won by Yevgeniy “Jovial Gent” Timoshenko.

The seventh and eighth seasons of the WPT appeared on Fox Sports Net. However, no official announcement has been given as to whether the ninth season will also air on the cable station, although a statement is expected in the near future. Seasons 1 through 5 of the WPT aired on the Travel Channel, followed by a brief hiatus to GSN for Season 6. GSN officials opted not to air Season 7, leading to WPT landing on Fox Sports Net.

Stay tuned to Poker News Daily for the latest WPT news.

Independence Day Weekend In Las Vegas From Poker In Twitter

Whether it was for the various parties going on, the fireworks or the start of the World Series of Poker Championship Event on Monday, the Independence Day weekend brought all the pros to Las Vegas. The Twitterverse was abuzz with their activities as they worked towards the biggest day of the poker year.

One of the big events over the weekend was the Doyle’s Room party held at the Blush nightclub. UB.com’s Bryan Devonshire had an adventure prior to arriving at the Blush bash, tweeting, “Last night on my way to Doyle’s party I set my phone in a margarita. It doesn’t work anymore.” The Brunson family turned out to be great hosts for the party as Pamela Brunson chirped Sunday morning, “Got in @ 6am from Doyle’s room Blush party and after party @Surrender. I don’t remember WHY I used to enjoy doing that! I’m POOPED!” Even Doyle was stung by the party atmosphere when he recounted his night:  “I’m trying to recover from the Doyle’s Room party at Blush. I’m not going to drink anymore except for an occasional beer until New Years Eve!”

The Fourth of July celebrations saw many of the players hitting various spots around Sin City. “Happy Fourth of July,” Justin “BoostedJ” Smith tweeted on Sunday. “Steak dinner at aria then going to club bank at Bellagio. Should be awesome night…Vegas is packed for the weekend!” Allen Kessler seemingly made a tour of the city when he Tweeted his schedule for the day:  “3 parties tonite. First @fkassela bbq, then @twoplustwoforum forum party at aria, now at bluff party at sapphire.”

Some went for a more low-key Independence Day celebration. Tiffany Michelle included a Twitpic of her activities, adding, “What better way to spend the 4th than in the pool with your girlfriends?” Lacey Jones was reflective when she tweeted her thoughts to her followers, “If there is anything I love w my whole heart it’s our Troops. Thank you to all the men & women who have served our country proud. Happy 4th!” Finally, Kara Scott missed some of the action when she tweeted, “Watching fireworks in a cab. Can juuuuust about see through the gaps in the buildings as we drive past.”

For some over the Independence Day weekend, poker took center stage over the parties and fireworks. The “Ante Up For Africa” charity poker tournament at the WSOP had many on Twitter talking, including eventual champion Phil Gordon. “129,000 in prize money going to a worthy cause,” Phil tweeted after his win and his donation of the first place bounty. “That and a big hug from runner up Shannon Elizabeth made this a great day!” For her part, Shannon Elizabeth was pleased with her performance when she chirped, “So happy! I just got 2nd in Ante Up For Africa! I had lots of lucky hands today-& was so fun!” Annie Duke issued her heartfelt thanks to those who participated when she tweeted, “Great day for @Anteupforafrica. Raised nearly $300K. Thank you so much to everyone who played.”

In one of the more comical exchanges following Gordon’s win in the charity event, fellow Full Tilt Poker members Rafe Furst and Andy Bloch took turns razzing Gordon. After Furst offered his congratulations (“Congrats @PhilNoLimits in your first WSOP tournament win at Ante Up for Africa!”), Bloch jabbed at Gordon’s WSOP record by tweeting, “Does it count as a bracelet?” Furst stuck the knife in a bit deeper when he replied, “I think we should make him an honorary one.”

The WSOP Tournament of Champions wrapped up play on Sunday night and the Twitterscape was buzzing with activity. “Gave it my best in the TOC,” Duke tweeted upon finishing ninth. “Short stacked all day and got my money in as good as I could hope for. Thanks @WSOP for the freeroll.” Jennifer Harman was playful with her exit Tweet, saying, “I’m out 7th. The last hour I feel like I played like a goof ball. Next tourney Main Event.” Daniel Negreanu enjoyed his stay at the TOC final table, although he reported, “Just busted to Hachem. AA vs 55 flop came 652. Oh well, it was a fun tournament but in the end my cards ran out of gas.”

Once Huck Seed and Howard Lederer reached heads up play, Duke began to pay more attention to the play. Although she tried to stick with the action (“Still rooting @HowardHLederer on in TOC. No sleep till he wins!”), Duke eventually gave up, tweeting, “I’m giving up. I need to sleep. Hoping I wake up to find that @HowardHLederer won the TOC. If not Huck is a great back up! Go Bub and Huck!”

Lederer was quite prolific with his tweets as he reported the action. “Just got head up with Huck,” tweeted Howard. “I have 468 to his 342. Given his HU record, I feel like a small dog.” Howard did well for himself, forcing the action for almost two hours before busting out in second place. “Disappointed,” Lederer tweeted at the conclusion. “Huck played great and deserved to win. Thanks much to Harrah’s for the freeroll and the voters for opportunity.”

One of the things that was going on outside of the tables was players noticing the structure of this year’s Championship Event. Andy Bloch was on the case when he chirped, “Warning: when choosing main event starting day, day 1b plays on 2b and day 1c plays on 2a. WSOP has done an appalling job getting word out.” After reviewing the structure of play for the early part of the Main Event, Bloch noted, “Just looked at the main event structure sheet. Playing only 4 levels days 1-5 with a 90 minute dinner break after level 2? Seriously? To the people who decided to have dinner breaks at 4:20: what were you smoking?”

This launched further discussion from Allen Kessler and Pamela Brunson. “Wow I just found out day1a main event players can be in the event 10 days and still not cash,” Kessler tweeted. “Only playing 4 levels/day should be looked at.” Brunson thanked Bloch for his warning, tweeting, “Wow…..that’s stupid! Thanks for tweeting to let us know. I need to recheck my appointments!”

On the lighter side of poker in Twitter, it seems that Joe Reitman might need to start wearing a name tag around the Rio. “Guy on a rascal said ‘Jeff can u sign my hat?,” Reitman tweeted after once again being confused with Jeff Shulman. “Had to tell him ‘I’m not Jeff.’ He was disappointed. Could have lied. But he was on a rascal.” The always endearing Vicky Coren noted upon her arrival in Las Vegas, “Passing the blackjack area, I’d know I was in Vegas with my eyes shut. ‘Please translate for Mr. Wong: the cards must STAY ON THE TABLE.’” Finally, Eric “basebaldy” Baldwin reminisced about his Fourth of July memories:  “Next year I want lawn chairs, coolers, and fireworks in the front yard. Some of my best memories are running around trees with sparklers.”

Home Stretch - Day 35 WSOP Recap

We saw a slew of poker's greats surround the halls of the Rio Pavilion, with both the $25k Six-Handed No-Limit Championship and $10k PLO Championships in play.

The $1.5k Limit Shootout also played down to the final table and the final eight are set to play for the bracelet tomorrow.

Here's a look around Day 35 at the WSOP:

Event 51 - $3k Triple Chance

The heads-up finale came down to two online wizards battling it out for a bracelet in a big-time live poker event.

Ryan Welch defeated fellow online pro Jon Eaton to take down the bracelet and first-place cash of $559,371.

The win gives Welch the first WSOP bracelet of his career to add to his numerous big online scores.

Other notable money finishers included Will "The Thrill" Failla (fourth), Tommy Vedes (seventh) and James Akenhead (17th).

Event 52 - $25k No-Limit Hold'em Six-Max

As expected, the WSOP's newest high buy-in event is playing out as a showcase for poker's best and wealthiest.

Daniel Negreanu, Carlos Mortensen, Heather Sue Mercer, Eugene Katchalov, Justin Bonomo and Bryn Kenney are among the 18 players still in contention heading into Day 3.

John Juanda was the unfortunate bubble boy, busting in 19th place. Juanda's elimination may have lasting implications for the WSOP Player of the Year race as Frank Kassela survived in this event and will get at least five POY points tomorrow.

Play resumes at 3 p.m. Friday. It's a four-day event and the final table is scheduled for Saturday. First place will pay out an epic $1.3 million.

Event 53 - $1.5k Limit Shootout

The final eight is set for this Limit Shootout event, which comes back at 2:30 p.m. Friday to determine a champion.

Canada's Terrence Chan is in the mix as is Jonathan "FieryJustice" Little as the players vie for the first-place prize of $184,950.

Notable cash finishers busted out on Day 2 included Theo Tran and Marcel Luske.

Event 54 - $1k No-Limit Hold'em

A huge turnout filled the Pavilion Room, as 2,340 players came out for Day 1A.

There were a few familiar faces amongst the mass chaos, as Allen "Chainsaw" Kessler, Liv Boeree, Shannon Shorr and Kara Scott all made it through to Day 2.

Day 1b of this event commences at noon Friday.

Event 55 - $10k Pot-Limit Omaha Championship

The final $10k event before the Main Event, the $10k PLO World Championship began Thursday with 346 players.

The roster of players in the field reads like a poker who's who, with David Benyamine, Greg Raymer, Chris "Jesus" Ferguson and Men "The Master" Nguyen all still in the game.

None other than Tom "durrrr" Dwan is also among the chip leaders along with former November Niner James Akenhead and Annette Obrestad.

Day 2 resumes at 3 p.m. Friday.

To view how the day played out in more detail as well as see blogs, news and videos from the Series, click through to PokerListings WSOP 2010 coverage.

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