Poker News

Sydney PartyPoker Qualifier Wins Aussie Millions

23-year-old Tyron Krost won a $640 online satellite to get into the main event at the Crown Casino and walked away AUD$2 million richer after besting a field of 746 this week.

"It feels like a dream and I don't want to wake up," he said moments after the win. "$2 million, it's amazing."

After a fairly lengthy feeling-out process, fellow Aussie Steven Shelley was the first player to get his walking papers from the final eight Saturday, running sevens into Krost's jacks.

But it wasn't long before he was joined on the rail by online superstar and 2007 World Series of Poker Europe champ Annette Obrestad.

The Betfair pro got into a flip for her stack with ace-jack against the PartyPoker qualifier's sevens and would have liked the straight draw she picked up on the flop if that same flop didn't give Krost a set.

The turn and river bricked out and Obrestad was sent back to Norway seventh.

Strangely, pocket sevens were involved in the next elimination as well, with Reno, Nevada's Steve Friedlander running them into Aussie Kostas Varoxis' big slick.

A king on the flop and another on the turn did the lone American at the final table in and play went five handed.

It stayed five-handed for quite a while until Canadian Peter Jetten appeared to implode, shipping it in with K♦ 5♦ against Krost's tens on a move and failing to improve.

Once the massive chip leader, Sorel Mizzi's downfall began soon after when he doubled up Frederik Jensen and before the Betfair Poker pro knew what had hit him, Krost had suddenly moved into the lead.

A few desperations shoves from Varoxis were next on the agenda, and although the first couple worked, his luck eventually ran out when he couldn't beat Jensen's deuces with A♥ 6♣.

Mizzi's downfall ended three-handed when he ran pocket sevens into Krost's ace-king and could not hold, leaving the two PartyPoker qualifiers to battle it out heads up.

Krost began heads up with better than 2:1 chip lead over Jensen and the Aussie began applying pressure on the Dane right from the outset, pounding him into submission before getting him all in dominated to book the win.

A humble Krost seemed to have the all big hands when he needed them throughout the final, beating some of the best young players in the game while following up Stewart Scott's 2009 win to become only the second Aussie to keep the title on home soil in Aussie Millions history.

"I just ran really well and got really lucky," he said. "I had a lot of big hands."

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Sydney PartyPoker Qualifier Wins Aussie Millions

23-year-old Tyron Krost won a $640 online satellite to get into the main event at the Crown Casino and walked away AUD$2 million richer after besting a field of 746 this week.

"It feels like a dream and I don't want to wake up," he said moments after the win. "$2 million, it's amazing."

After a fairly lengthy feeling-out process, fellow Aussie Steven Shelley was the first player to get his walking papers from the final eight Saturday, running sevens into Krost's jacks.

But it wasn't long before he was joined on the rail by online superstar and 2007 World Series of Poker Europe champ Annette Obrestad.

The Betfair pro got into a flip for her stack with ace-jack against the PartyPoker qualifier's sevens and would have liked the straight draw she picked up on the flop if that same flop didn't give Krost a set.

The turn and river bricked out and Obrestad was sent back to Norway seventh.

Strangely, pocket sevens were involved in the next elimination as well, with Reno, Nevada's Steve Friedlander running them into Aussie Kostas Varoxis' big slick.

A king on the flop and another on the turn did the lone American at the final table in and play went five handed.

It stayed five-handed for quite a while until Canadian Peter Jetten appeared to implode, shipping it in with K♦ 5♦ against Krost's tens on a move and failing to improve.

Once the massive chip leader, Sorel Mizzi's downfall began soon after when he doubled up Frederik Jensen and before the Betfair Poker pro knew what had hit him, Krost had suddenly moved into the lead.

A few desperations shoves from Varoxis were next on the agenda, and although the first couple worked, his luck eventually ran out when he couldn't beat Jensen's deuces with A♥ 6♣.

Mizzi's downfall ended three-handed when he ran pocket sevens into Krost's ace-king and could not hold, leaving the two PartyPoker qualifiers to battle it out heads up.

Krost began heads up with better than 2:1 chip lead over Jensen and the Aussie began applying pressure on the Dane right from the outset, pounding him into submission before getting him all in dominated to book the win.

A humble Krost seemed to have the all big hands when he needed them throughout the final, beating some of the best young players in the game while following up Stewart Scott's 2009 win to become only the second Aussie to keep the title on home soil in Aussie Millions history.

"I just ran really well and got really lucky," he said. "I had a lot of big hands."

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PartyPoker Starts New Hit Or Run Promotions

One thing PartyPoker has done extremely well in its history is provide some of the best promotions for its customers. With its popular Cash Machine set to end on January 31st, PartyPoker had to come up with another promotion that would continue to capture the interest of its players. That new promotion, called Hit Or Run, will start on February 1st.

The Hit Or Run promotion gives players an opportunity to earn over $10,000 per day throughout the month of February. Players on PartyPoker already earn PartyPoker points that can be used to enter tournaments, buy items in the PartyPoker Store, and turn the points into cash. The Hit Or Run promotion is offered as another way that players can use their PartyPoker points.

For every 20 PartyPoker points a player earns on their real money tables, PartyPoker will give players $1 that they can take to play Hit Or Run. Once a player enters into the Hit Or Run arena, they are dealt two hole cards to play heads-up against the PartyPoker system. If a player wins the first hand, that $1 is doubled and the player is given the option of playing again, or taking another “Hit.” The game continues until the player is beaten in the game or the player decides to “Run” with what they have won.

Players can earn up to ten entries per day to play the PartyPoker Hit Or Run game. If a player is able to win ten straight heads-up hands, they will take away $1,024. If a player does this ten times per day and wins every hand, that player would walk away with $10,240. Of course, a player can, at any time, opt to take whatever money they have earned by hitting the “Run” button.

The new Hit Or Run promotion is simply the latest offering that PartyPoker has for its players. Currently, PartyPoker is also running satellites for entries into February’s World Poker Tour (WPT) L. A. Poker Classic and Celebrity Invitational. PartyPoker also offers its popular $1 million Guaranteed the first Sunday of each month and has a $300,000 Guaranteed every other Sunday when the Million Guaranteed isn’t running.

PartyPoker continues to reign among one of the leaders in the online poker industry. Up until 2006, it was the largest poker room in the industry, but the passage of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA) in 2006 forced the parent company of PartyPoker, Party Gaming, to pull the plug on players from the United States. Since that time - and catering to players outside of the U. S. only - PartyPoker has slipped behind such sites as PokerStars and Full Tilt Poker, which still continue to accept American action. PartyPoker vies against the iPoker Network for third place in the online poker industry, according to PokerScout.com.

Phil Bellante is “All In” With Poker Themed Song

"You got to know when to hold 'em, know when to fold 'em." Thanks to Kenny Rogers and his hit song, "The Gambler," those words will forever be ingrained in the game of poker. The song is more than 30 years old, but its popularity has maintained throughout the years as a staple in the ever-expanding poker community.

Phil Bellante hopes his new poker-themed song will have the same impact on the new crowd of poker players. The musician, songwriter, and producer from Cleveland released a new album in 2009 and on it is the track "All In," a catchy tune that he's attempting to market as the new theme song of poker. He's already receiving rave reviews from the poker media. (The song can be heard at http://philbellante.com/)

Bellante has been busy promoting "All In" and Poker News Daily had a chance to speak with him about the song, his poker history, and his friendship with a well-known poker pro.

Poker News Daily: So Phil, can we assume that you're a poker player and fan?

Phil Bellante: Absolutely, a poker player and a huge fan!

Poker News Daily: How long have you been playing and what game(s) do you prefer?

Phil Bellante: I have been playing for at least 10 years and I would have to say that No Limit Texas Hold'em is my game of choice.

Poker News Daily: You recently did an interview with your friend and Full Tilt Pro Phil Gordon on ESPN Radio's "Poker Edge". How did you become close with Phil?

Phil Bellante: Phil is my good friend’s brother-in-law, so every year for the past several years, we all get together at their place for Thanksgiving and have a poker tournament. It’s a lot of fun, especially when Phil doesn’t win and somebody that hardly knows what they are doing wins the whole thing. Part of the mass appeal, I think, of the game is the ability for anyone to win at any time because of the luck factor and getting dealt the right hand.

Poker News Daily: Are there any other poker players you like or admire?

Phil Bellante: I admire people like Annie Duke, who has also heard the song and given it a nice review on my site. She is a forerunner for women poker players who are now becoming more involved in the game. That takes some fortitude and guts when it’s a male-dominated sport. I also think the old timers like Doyle Brunson are to be admired, as they started playing the game when very few people could make a living at it like they do today. I think now the appeal is more the big winnings for people rather than a true love for the game.

Poker News Daily: What was your influence for creating the song "All In" and what are your aspirations for it?

Phil Bellante: To be honest, it wasn’t planned, which is usually the underlying ingredient to a great song because it comes from something beyond the intellect and usually connects with people on a deeper level. I was sitting around watching a tournament one afternoon and just put myself in the mind of one of the players who went all-in with his hand and then managed to write the song in less than 10 minutes. I then produced the song with a Grammy Award winning engineer a few months later.

While writing the song, I just pictured myself at a tournament performing it. It would be great to be the entertainment for some of these upcoming poker tournaments and really see it catching fire. I have many people working around the clock in various capacities to get maximum exposure for this song. We are looking at movies, video games, TV programs, Poker Tournaments, etc. I guess you can say, I am going “All In” with this song.

Poker News Daily: Is this going to be "the" poker song for the next generation of poker players to latch onto?

Phil Bellante: “All In” has great potential due to the size of the poker market and its very catchy chorus. Andrew Feldman said during my recent ESPN Poker Radio show interview that the song had been stuck in his head all day. I just received the same comment from some of the top people in Nashville who are very interested in it and choose hit songs for the platinum country artists.

I really feel the song speaks to the poker community. It has that emotional and intense build leading up to a huge swelling chorus that kind of releases all the tension. Every player knows what that adrenaline rush feels like, so they can definitely relate. That is why I think it would be so perfect to sing at a poker tournament.

In the end, only time and the fans/players will be able to determine whether this is the case. The last generation had Kenny Rogers’s song’ “The Gambler,” so I wouldn’t mind him passing the torch to me for the next generation. I think I am holding a good hand with this song and so do a lot of the higher ups in the music world so time will tell.

The song can be downloaded at www.thepokersong.com

Pam Brunson to Oversee DoylesRoom Brunson 10

Like father, like daughter. Doyle Brunson’s daughter, Pam Brunson, will manage the Brunson 10, according to officials from DoylesRoom. The stable of up-and-coming poker pros numbers four, with six men and two women yet to be named.

A press release distributed by DoylesRoom in recent days notes, “As Manager of the Brunson 10, Pam Brunson will be responsible for overseeing PR requests, handling scheduling and managing the Brunson 10 internally. As the world's biggest poker legend continues to fill spots on his team of poker professionals, Pam Brunson will be tasked with managing their relationship with one of the fastest growing online poker sites and its players.” The younger Brunson is a regular in the online poker site’s weekly Bounty tournament, which offers a refund of the $27.50 buy-in for first-time players.

Amit “amak316” Makhija, Dani “ansky451” Stern, Zachary “CrazyZachary” Clark, and top online poker pro Chris “moorman1” Moorman currently comprise the Brunson 10. Stern is the group’s newest addition, having joined the clan during final table play in the 2009 World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event in Las Vegas. A press conference was held at the Wynn for Stern’s introduction, with “2 Months, $2 Million” housemate Jay Rosenkrantz on-hand to witness the festivities.

Meanwhile, former Brunson 10 member Alec “traheho” Torelli departed the online poker site to join Victory Poker, whose roster of pro players includes Antonio Esfandiari, Andrew “good2cu” Robl, and Full Tilt Poker defects Paul Wasicka and Lee Markholt. The site is set to debut on February 1st on the merged Everleaf/UPN network, with a launch party to occur after the Trash Talk Championship of the World Straddle Tournament at the Hard Rock on February 6th.

On replacing Torelli, DoylesRoom officials told Poker News Daily that a fifth member of the Brunson 10 will be named no later than mid-March. In addition, the forthcoming announcement may include the introduction of two new faces to the Cake Poker Network site that welcomes action from the United States. The newest additions will fall under Pam Brunson’s wings.

According to the traffic ranking site PokerScout.com, the Cake Poker Network is the 10th largest worldwide, offering a seven-day running average of 2,100 real money ring game players. During its peak hours, which occur in the evening across North America, nearly 3,000 cash game players call the network home. Besides DoylesRoom and Cake Poker, other sites on the network include City Poker, Lock Poker, PlayersOnly, Poker Host, Red Star Poker, Stryyke, and Phil Laak’s Unabomber Poker, which was added to the family this week.

The 2010 calendar year also saw DoylesRoom unveil its very own online store, which offers unique items like a limited edition Doyle Resitol Cowboy Hat. Other goods available in the DoylesRoom Store include DoylesRoom apparel, laptop bags, Brunson autographed merchandise, GPS systems, iPod accessories, digital cameras, Nintendo Wiis, and “the hottest lifestyle enhancing accessories.” Gold Chips are the currency of the DoylesRoom Store, which can be accessed from the online poker room’s website.

The recent World Poker Tour (WPT) Southern Poker Championship featured DoylesRoom pro Hoyt Corkins coming out on top to claim his second WPT title. Corkins earned $739,000 for his efforts and defeated a final table that also included Jonathan Kantor (second place for $366,00), Jerry Vanstrydonck (third place for $197,000), Jared Jaffee (fourth place for $135,000), James Reed (fifth place for $106,000), and Tyler “Tydean” Smith (sixth place for $87,000). The Southern Poker Championship marked Corkins’ sixth WPT final table appearance. The tournament will air as part of Season 8 on Fox Sports Net.

Pam Brunson finished 364th in the 2007 WSOP Main Event for $34,000. That year, she won a ladies’ event held during the Legends of Poker for the same amount.

durrrr Challenge: Dwan Reaches $1 Million

Although it had been over a month since the durrrr Challenge was active, the pair managed to log 2,112 hands against each other.

If Dwan and Antonius continue to play roughly 2,000 hands a month it’s likely there will finally be a conclusion to the Challenge before the end of 2010.

The first session of the year actually occurred late Wednesday night with the pair putting in 1,230 hands.

Despite the large number of hands Antonius was only able to make back $6k, leaving him close to $900k short of even.

The more exciting session of the Challenge happened very early this morning, and although it was only 882 hands long, Dwan managed to walk away with $209k.

The session was action packed with both players taking hundred thousand dollar swings.

At 1:31 a.m. ET Antonius won the second largest pot of the night worth $192,800. Just one minute later at 1:32 a.m. ET Dwan took down an almost identical pot on another table, his worth $192,830.

By the time the guys called it quits, Dwan's $209k profit pushed his total lead in the challenge to $1,077,932. Although there are still over 18,000 hands left to be played, Antonius is going to need to catch a heater before long to put himself back in the running.

durrrr Challenge by the numbers:

• 260,476,997: Total amount wagered
• 1,077,932: Amount durrrr is ahead
• 1,000,000: Net worth needed to own fancy Dijon Ketchups
• 192,830: Biggest pot of the session
• 31,912: Hands played overall
• 7,212: Amount of rake made by Full Tilt from the Challenge
• 101: Hours played in the challenge
• 99: Problems Jay-Z claims to have
• 63: Percentage of challenge completed

Below are the three largest pots from the Challenge match. You can see more hands by heading to MarketPulse.

 

 

 

 

 

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Poker2Nite Welcomes Mike Matusow

The Fox Sports Net poker news show “Poker2Nite” welcomed the always outspoken Mike “The Mouth” Matusow this week. The franchise airs at 11:00pm ET every Wednesday night and can also be seen on The Score at 3:00pm ET on Sundays.

This week’s installment began with a discussion of the $335 buy-in re-entry event that kicked off the L.A. Poker Classic. The tournament was the brainchild of Matt Savage and allowed players to buy back in on a later starting day should they be knocked out. On top of the unique formula, the tournament also guaranteed $1 million. Interviews were shown with David “Chino” Rheem, Amnon Filippi, Thor Hanson, and Andreas Hoivold. Filippi commented, “It’s so hard to get so many people in one place at one time. You have to have a 100-table room and you have to have the players. L.A. has both.” Darrell Cain ultimately took down the kickoff event for over $300,000.

Attention then turned to Betfair front woman Annette “Annette_15” Obrestad, who won an Omaha event held during the Aussie Millions this month for $40,000. Obrestad, who won the inaugural World Series of Poker (WSOP) Europe Main Event, became the first female ever to win an Aussie Millions tournament. “Poker2Nite’ co-host Joe Sebok explained, “She’s an absolute beast. She’s going to be a force at the Rio.” The 2010 WSOP will mark Obrestad’s debut in the annual U.S. series.

Matusow then joined the show and explained that his fortunes turned for the worst last year: “2007 and 2008 were the best years of poker I’ve ever had in my life. It spiraled downward starting with the $40,000 event in the WSOP [last year]. That beat led to another beat and another beat and the next thing you know, I was catching no cards and [recording] no cashes.” Matusow admitted that he made just $2,200 off of poker in 2009 after recording seven-figure years in 2007 and 2008.

As to what led to his dramatic downfall, Matusow explained that not working out every day and stiff competition contributed. His goal is to drop back to 185 pounds and run eight miles per day by the time the 2010 WSOP rolls around. He added, “Players have gotten better. There are so many great players.” One of those top minds in the game is its all-time money leader, Phil Ivey. Matusow commented on his fellow Full Tilt Poker pro: “I think that Phil Ivey, when he’s playing well, is probably the best all-around poker player I’ve ever played with.”

A new segment called “Mikey’s Meltdowns” featured Matusow against UB.com’s Phil Hellmuth during a taping of GSN’s “High Stakes Poker.” A 7-2 rule was in effect and any player who scooped the pot with the worst starting hand in Hold’em was paid $500 by each of their opponents. Hellmuth led out for a pot-sized bet of $40,000 on the river with 7-2 for air against Matusow, who had pocket kings. After much deliberation and a “This sucks,” Matusow folded his overpair face up. Hellmuth turned over 7-2 and the table exploded in commentary.

“All in Blind” featured Sebok and co-host Scott Huff debating a series of topics, including the aforementioned L.A. Poker Classic re-entry event, U.S. President Barack Obama being invited to play in the Irish Poker Open, and UB.com pro Eric "basebaldy" Baldwin donating $200,000 to his alma mater’s baseball program. Then, Dana Workman’s “Weekly Misdeal,” which provides a satirical look at the week’s headlines, poked fun at a topless home game raid, the Rio’s 20th birthday celebration, T.J. Cloutier selling a WSOP bracelet on eBay, and the popular video game system Sega entering the online poker marketplace.

Finally, “Poker2Nite” saluted Mike Hofer, the winner of the Absolute Poker College Challenge. Hofer earned $10,000 in college tuition and told “Poker2Nite” cameras, “The competition surprised me. They were all very competent players. Hats off to them. They played a great game.”

Catch “Poker2Nite” next Wednesday at 11:00pm ET on Fox Sports Net. Check your local listings for more information.

The iPad and its Potential With Online Poker

Although most online poker players use Windows PCs, there has been a growing swell of players using Apple Mac computers like MacBook Pros and iMacs.  The Mac-centric poker niche is growing, with four major sites having native software clients: PokerStars, Full Tilt Poker, UB.com, and Absolute Poker. The popular hand history tracking utility PokerTracker 3 came out recently with a Mac OS X beta edition of its software.  With the release of Apple’s tablet computer, the iPad, there has been plenty of speculation about the machine's future with online poker.

When thinking about the iPad and its potential for being used for online poker, we need to keep the following questions in mind:

• What are the hardware specs of the iPad?
• Is the interface going to be applicable to an online poker software program?
• Will the screen quality and resolution level make online poker practical?
• Does the iPad have enough bandwidth to have a lag-free online poker experience?
• Is the iPad OS something that a poker site can work with to create an App?
• Will the legal environment allow a poker site to release an App?

The iPad is a high-resolution 9.7-inch LED-backlit computer that weighs just 1.5 pounds.  It’s touted as being perfect for web browsing, watching movies, and viewing photos.  The unit works in either portrait or landscape mode, very similarly to an iPod Touch or iPhone.  The multi-touch screen on the iPad is based on the current iPhone technology, but has been totally re-engineered for the larger surface to be more precise and responsive.  The battery life is said to last up to 10 hours by using a special lithium-polymer technology.  The iPad uses an A4 chip that was custom designed by Apple engineers to be extremely powerful, but at the same time very power efficient.  Units will have an option for 16, 32, or 64 GB of internal flash storage.

All iPad units will have built-in WiFi with 802.11n, which is currently the fastest wireless protocol available.  In addition, there will be 3G models with data speeds up to 7.2 MB per second on the AT&T network for coverage anywhere without a WiFi network, but with a 3G signal.  Units are expected to start shipping at the end of March and the base version costs just $499.

The iPad interface is the multi-touch screen that has been made more precise and responsive to help counter the potential problems it would face with a much larger screen.  The resolution of the iPad’s 9.7-inch screen is 1024x768, which is a bit inferior to what most experts predicted it would be.

With all the glitz and glamor of the iPad now out in the open, as poker players, we’re wondering about its capabilities for online poker.  The unit, on the surface, seems like a great little online poker machine.  The touch screen appears to be perfect for interfacing with a poker table.  You could use the bet slider with the flick of a finger, fold or check by tapping the appropriate button, and even muck your cards by flicking them into the middle of the table.  Interface-wise, there’s no question that the touch-screen of the unit will work splendidly.

The next question for whether or not the iPad would be feasible for an online poker player is how a table would look on the screen.  There’s plenty of screen available for a single poker table to load up in the 1024x768 space.  In fact, it’s probably feasible to have four tables load up at the same time.  The graphics capabilities of the unit were rather impressive during Apple CEO Steve Jobs’ presentation with a few video games, so we know it can handle the minimal graphics required by many of the poker rooms.

Another question we have to answer is about the iPad bringing the necessary bandwidth to play one or even four tables at the same time.  Since most poker rooms only require a dial-up connection, which is surpassed in spades by both WiFi and 3G connections, there’s absolutely no concern about the unit not having enough bandwidth to handle the rigors of playing online poker.

The iPad uses a new operating system that works very similar to the iPhone OS, with more capabilities to take advantage of the unit’s more robust power.  Because the development kit is already available to software developers, there wouldn’t be much of a stumbling block to developing a solid iPad version of the software.

With the all of the questions answered fairly positively when asking the question whether or not the iPad will work with online poker, we’re down to our final one: Will the current legal environment allow it?  Since Apple is based in California and controls the App Store, the worldwide distribution of Apps for the iPad will be based on U.S. laws.  The legal environment in the United States is murky at best with online poker, with virtually no chance of Apple approving an App created by a major poker site for real money poker play.  With that being the case, it would seem foolish to expect a poker site to invest money and resources toward a project that would only meet failure.

The potential future of the iPad and real money online poker is bright.  The unit is perfect for those who want to sit on their couch, relax, and play a few hands of poker.  Maybe you’re stuck at the airport or who knows where and you want to log on and play a few hands.  The iPad certainly has the technological power to handle the task.  The only stumbling block is left up to the legal environment.  For now, we’ll probably just enjoy whatever random Texas Hold’em video games Apple approves in the iPad App Store to satisfy our poker craving.

PokerStars Sunday Million: $2m guaranteed

Remember when the Sunday Million was just that? A million dollar guarantee? Those days are long gone as the $1,500,000 guarantee is regularly shattered but now PokerStars are taking another step up, whacking a huge $2,000,000 guaranteed prize pool on this Sunday’s edition.

PokerStars Sunday Million: $2m guaranteed

Remember when the Sunday Million was just that? A million dollar guarantee? Those days are long gone as the $1,500,000 guarantee is regularly shattered but now PokerStars are taking another step up, whacking a huge $2,000,000 guaranteed prize pool on this Sunday’s edition.

Young Stars Lead Aussie Millions Final

Betfair Poker pro Sorel Mizzi will come in to the final eight with a massive chip lead and all the confidence that comes with it following a day where it appeared he could do no wrong on the felt.

"Confident is definitely the one word to describe how I'm feeling right now," the 23-year-old Canadian said. "Everything is just going my way. I'm getting hands, I'm making the correct reads. I feel like I'm playing the most perfect poker I know how.

"I might not be playing perfectly, but it's the best that I know how to play and things are working out for me right now."

Using the screen names Imper1um and zangbezan24, Mizzi is one of the most feared tournament players in online poker history.

While he has also amassed more than $1.6 million in career earnings in live tournaments, a major title has escaped his clutches to date, making this shot at Aussie Millions glory even more desirable to him.

"How badly do I want this?" he asked. "On a scale from zero to ten, it's a ten."  

Mizzi holds close to half of the chips in play with eight players remaining, but said he has no plans to bully the table tomorrow.

"I'm just going to adjust to the situations when I see what they are," he said. "I don't really know my strategy going into tomorrow, but I'm really good at just feeling things out. Hopefully I feel things right and hopefully I keep hitting the cards I was hitting today."

In Mizzi's way stands fellow Betfair Poker pro and 2007 World Series of Poker Europe champ Annette Obrestad.

Considering she currently sits fifth in chips, Obrestad is being cautiously optimistic about her chances.

"I can't say I'm too confident, considering Sorel has six times the amount of chips I do," she said.

No less than an online poker legend, Obrestad, otherwise known as Annette_15, is hoping the experience of playing on a big stage in the past will pay off in Australia Saturday.

"I think it helps a lot because I'm not really nervous when I play," she said. "For me it's just another game of poker, just for a lot more money."

She's also banking on the deep structure here at the Aussie Millions allowing her to remain patient despite her stack size.

"I think people are going to be way too aggressive and try to outplay each other," the 21-year-old Norwegian said. "I don't really see the point in that because with my image, people think I'm nuts anyway, so I'll just wait for a hand and probably get it in good."

Also posing a major threat to Mizzi's lead is 24-year-old fellow Canadian Peter "Apathy" Jetten.

With a European Poker Tour High Roller and two World Series of Poker final tables on his resume, including a runner up finish in the 2008 WSOP $10k Pot-Limit Omaha, Jetten is another player hoping experience will help him get over the hump Down Under.

"I think that experience just helps so much, if not in my play then at least in making me more comfortable," he said. "The PLO event eluding me heads-up hurt a lot. It's really nice to be back with a shot at winning again and I want to win this one very badly."

Rounding out the final eight are PartyPoker qualifier's Tyron Krost and Fred Jensen, both of whom have a couple of small WSOP cashes on their sheets.

Plus Aussie Hold'em Poker group qualifier Steven Shelly, fellow local Kosta Varoxis and Reno Nevada's Steve Friedlander.

To follow all the action until the AUD$2 million first-place prize and 2010 Aussie Millions title is handed out, tune in to PokerListings' Live Updates beginning at 2 p.m. Melbourne time Saturday.

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Victory Poker Launches February 1st

One day prior to Super Bowl XLIV between the Indianapolis Colts and New Orleans Saints, officials from Victory Poker will celebrate the site’s launch at a party at the Hard Rock in Las Vegas. The online poker room will open for business on February 1st.

Victory Poker will make its home on the merged Everleaf/UPN network, which has yet to take on an official name. According to PokerScout.com, the newly created network will boast traffic similar to that of Betfair, which has a seven-day running average of 610 real money ring game players. A press release announcing the Trash Talk Championship of the World Straddle Tournament at the Hard Rock in Las Vegas on February 6th revealed that the Victory Poker launch party would occur at 10:00pm following the festivities.

UFC’s Randy Couture will be sporting a Victory Poker logo when he takes to the ring in UFC 109 against Mark Coleman. The bout emanates from the Mandalay Bay Events Center near the Hard Rock and will also feature Nate Marquardt facing off against Chael Sonnen and Matt Serra fighting Frank Trigg. The first brawl takes place at 4:45pm, while televised matches start at 7:00pm. Couture will don a dot-net logo for the new online poker room.

Antonio Esfandiari headlines the Victory Poker stable of pros. A World Series of Poker (WSOP) bracelet winner, Esfandiari has become widely known for his insatiable appetite for prop bets. He even co-starred with his close friend Phil Laak on the MOJO show “I Bet You,” which ran for two seasons on the cable station. Esfandiari has three WPT final tables to his credit and one title, which came in the Season 2 L.A. Poker Classic. At the tender age of 31, Esfandiari is one of the veterans of the game.

Jumping over from DoylesRoom to be a part of Victory Poker is Alec “traheho” Torelli. The Cake Poker Network site and Torelli severed ties two weeks ago. Torelli has made two WPT final tables, finishing fourth in both the Bellagio Cup V and Solvakia events. The former will air its finale at 11:00pm ET on Fox Sports Net this Sunday in a one-hour episode. Poker Hall of Fame member Mike Sexton and actor Vince Van Patten will once again provide commentary for Season 8 of the WPT.

Coming over from Full Tilt Poker are Paul Wasicka and Lee Markholt. The latter was removed in recent days as a Full Tilt Red Pro and finished fourth in the WSOP Circuit Championship in Tunica four years ago for $183,000. In addition, Markholt won the WPT Season 6 World Poker Challenge in Reno for $493,000 and owns $1.3 million in career earnings from the roving tournament series. Wasicka was the runner-up to Jamie Gold in the 2006 WSOP Main Event, earning a colossal $6.1 million.

Also appearing in the Victory Poker pro lineup is Chinese Poker sensation Danny Wong. Owning the moniker “Chinese Poker Wizard,” Wong learned to play the game’s variation at age five. Despite his success in Chinese Poker, he’s also excelled in No Limit Texas Hold’em, making three WPT final tables. Joining Wong will be online poker pro Brian “tsarrast” Rast.

Those who watched the 2009 WSOP Main Event on ESPN will recall the deep run of the “Flying” Bilzerian brothers. Dan Bilzerian, who finished 180th, will become part of the Victory Poker cast. In his final hand of the $10,000 buy-in feature tournament, Bilzerian committed his stack with A-6, but could not best Jonathan “driverseati” Tamayo’s pocket tens. His brother, Adam Bilzerian, renounced his U.S. citizenship and is now a passport holder of St. Kitts and Nevis.

Other Victory Poker pros include Andrew "good2cu" Robl, Keith Gipson, David “The Maven” Chicotsky, Sander Lylloff., and 2007 Playboy Playmate of the Year Sara Underwood. The site is scheduled to launch on February 1st and will accept players from the United States.

The Trash Talk Championship is a $1,000 buy-in charity poker tournament benefiting the Sharon Osbourne Colon Cancer Program and Cedars-Sinai.

Hoyt Corkins Wins WPT Southern Poker Championship

With his win in the World Poker Tour’s (WPT) Southern Poker Championship, "The Alabama Cowboy" Hoyt Corkins claimed his second WPT title. The DoylesRoom pro banked $739,000 for his efforts at the Beau Rivage in Biloxi, Mississippi.

Donning an all-black outfit with a bright green DoylesRoom patch, Corkins told WPT Live Updates Hostess Amanda Leatherman following the win in the Deep South, “It’s been so frustrating. I’ve finished second twice, third once. It is frustrating to get down there and finish second or third.” Corkins’ last WPT title came during Season 2, when he brought home the bacon in the Foxwoods World Poker Finals for $1.1 million. He was the runner-up in the Season 2 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure and Season 6 Gold Strike World Poker Open.

Tyler “Tydean” Smith was the first casualty of the WPT Southern Poker Championship final table. After doubling up Jonathan Kantor, Smith committed the rest of his chips with J-3 and was up against Jonathan Jaffee’s A-Q. With the hometown favorite on the cusp of elimination, the crowd watched as the flop fell K-10-6, keeping Jaffee out in front. The turn came a four and, needing to catch a three on the river, Smith saw a six instead fall. He earned $86,000 for his second straight final table appearance in the $10,000 buy-in tournament. Smith lives ten minutes from the casino, an easy commute.

James Reed hit the skids in fifth place for $106,000. Reed shoved with 7-5 pre-flop and received a call from Jaffee, who held pocket eights. The flop of A-Q-5 paired Reed, but a running 6-4 sent him packing. Jaffee pushed his way to third in chips as a result, with Corkins, who had entered as a massive chip leader, continuing to pace the field. The WPT Southern Poker Championship marked Reed’s first WPT in the money finish.

Twenty-two hands later, Jaffee was eliminated in fourth place. Jaffee pushed with K-Q pre-flop over the top of a raise by Corkins, who came along with pocket jacks to set up a race. The flop came a benign 7-6-3, while a four on the turn left Jaffee calling for a king or queen on the river to stay alive. However, the final card was a nine, dashing his WPT Southern Poker Championship title hopes.

In a key pot three-handed, Corkins doubled up with A-J against Jerry Vanstrydonck’s pocket kings. The board of 9-8-8-5 was looking grim until Corkins spiked a three-outer on the river to stay alive and the pot once again made him the chip leader. Vanstrydonck could not withstand the blow to his stack and was ousted shortly thereafter. Vanstrydonck’s 9-8 was up against Corkins’ K-Q pre-flop and the board blanked out for both players. Corkins was a 3:2 chip leader entering heads-up play against Kantor.

Kantor battled to even after shoving on the river on a board reading 8-5-3-4-3. Corkins tanked before folding and Kantor turned over 10-6 for “nuclear squadoosh,” as the legendary ESPN announcer Norman Chad would say. Corkins then won a 1.7-million chip pot before the final hand of the WPT Southern Poker Championship occurred. Kantor pushed with K-10 and Corkins made the call with A-7. The flop came ace-high, preserving Corkins’ lead in the hand. By the river, Kantor was rooting for a club to remain in the hunt for the $739,000 first place prize, but the five of hearts hit to give Corkins his second WPT title. Here are the payouts from the final table in Biloxi:

1. Hoyt Corkins - $739,486
2. Jonathan Kantor - $366,643
3. Jerry Vanstrydonck - $196,829
4. Jared Jaffee - $135,079
5. James Reed - $106,134
6. Tyler Smith - $86,837

The WPT Southern Poker Championship will air as part of Season 8 on Fox Sports Net. Next up for the WPT is a cross-country flight to Los Angeles, site of the WPT Celebrity Invitational and L.A. Poker Classic. The tournaments kick off on February 20th and 26th, respectively, from the Commerce Casino.

Inside Gaming: Las Vegas Sands Looks To Miami; Isle of Man Changes e-Gaming Policies

Today's Inside Gaming brings you the Las Vegas Sands move to open a venue in Miami and new changes in the e-Gaming policies for the Isle of Man. Las Vegas Sands Looks to Miami According to the Miami Herald, Las Vegas Sands is looking to get...

Corkins Cashes in with Second WPT Title

He outlasted all 208 entries and beat up-and-comer Jonathan Kantor heads-up to claim the first place prize of $739,486 at the Beau Rivage in Biloxi, Mississippi.

Corkins, who won his first WPT title at the World Poker Finals in 2003, now finds himself as one of the 12 players that have won two WPT titles. It’s an elite group that includes players like Erick Lindgren, Howard Lederer and Barry Greenstein.

“It’s wonderful,” said Corkins about his win. “It’s been so frustrating coming in second twice, third once and sixth at another final table.”

Corkins cruised to three-handed play but after losing a series of hands became the short-stack. He had to get extremely lucky to win an all-in situation with A-J versus Jerry Vanstrydonck’s pocket kings.

He went on to bust Vanstrydonck and take back the chip lead, carrying it into heads-up play against Kantor. It took Corkins just 19 hands to end the match.

With his victory Corkins also topped 4,000 WPT points, which puts him in a very select group of players that includes just Gus Hansen, Phil Ivey and Daniel Negreanu. Corkins now has over $5 million in lifetime tournament earnings.

The WPT will now head to sunny L.A. for both the WPT Celebrity Invitational on Feb. 20-21 and the L.A.P.C., which takes place Feb. 26-March 4.

The complete final table results from the Southern Poker Championship are as follows:

1. Hoyt Corkins - $739,486
2. Jonathan Kantor - $366,643
3. Jerry Vanstrydonck - $196,829
4. Jared Jaffee - $135,079
5. James Reed - $106,134
6. Tyler Smith - $86,837

 

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Your next step is the WSOP 2010 Promotion!

Soon after you have claimed your bonus, the second phase starts and you’re eligible for the great WSOP promotion as well: 8 ways to the WSOP, which is launched at February 8th! 8 ways to win 1 of 88 seats to WSOP 2010!

WSOP 2010 promotion is open to all depositors!

Note that players from the following countries are not eligible for the bonus offer: Argentina, Albania, Bosnia, Brazil, Serbia, China, Croatia, Georgia, Hong Kong, Hungary, Iceland, North Korea, Lithuania, Mexico, Moldova, Montenegro, Philippines, Romania, Singapore, Slovenia, Vietnam, Columbia and South Korea.

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Pacific Poker offers a great $8 free Campaign for the first 50.000 new players - and more!

War of words between Tony G and ‘_FullFlush_’ hots up

Let’s face it, Luke Schwartz and Tony G are never going to be mistaken for monks undertaking a vow of silence so it should come as no surprise then that the pair have clashed in the run up to next month’s Party Poker Premier League.

Ilari Sahamies and Alexander “PostflopAction” Kostritsyn chats up

Ilari “Ziigmund” Sahamies is currently in Australia, but he is still dominating the Full Tilt Poker high stakes games and making huge profit.

Ziigmund

The exact results will arrive a bit later, but it looks like Sahamies has won about 1,6 million dollars in January already.

The Finn dominated the Aussie Million 2008 winner Alexander “PostflopAction” Kostritsyn along with others.

Alexander “PostflopAction” Kostritsyn

They chatted a lot during their play:

Ziigmund: u r f amazing sick lucky
PostflopAction: fu
Ziigmund: f
Ziigmund: u
Ziigmund: its f omg
Ziigmund: never seen as lucky as u
PostflopAction: ur winning 120k
Ziigmund: i doesn maer
Ziigmund: i should be 400k
PostflopAction: its how big your bankroll should be
Ziigmund: lers go 1,5k 3k
PostflopAction: nah, need to win first
Ziigmund: sry was a phone
PostflopAction: fu
Ziigmund: room service
PostflopAction: die
Ziigmund: 1,5k 3k?
PostflopAction: yes in 10 min
Ziigmund: ok
Ziigmund: cool
PostflopAction: play now
PostflopAction: its sick how u play so bad and run so good
Ziigmund: stop whining
Ziigmund: and take more money

Also David Oppenheim seemed to be in a chatty mood:

David Oppenheim: are you gonna runaway when the limit games come
David Oppenheim: hey zigg
David Oppenheim: are you man enough to play all the games

Ziigmund: i have to play 2 tables postflop action
Ziigmund: lets play later
David Oppenheim: your a &%!!%
David Oppenheim: b itch
Ziigmund: ok lets play
David Oppenheim: now you r a man
Ziigmund:

Tommy_devito77 (Observer): i seen a video of david opp on cardplayer
Tommy_devito77 (Observer): he was checking out his daughters tits
Tommy_devito77 (Observer): weird 4 sure
David Oppenheim: saw a video of tommy s mom on porn tune
David Oppenheim: she was definately a freak
Tommy_devito77 (Observer): was she good
David Oppenheim: ask your brother

Source: 2+2, Highstakesdb

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Ilari Sahamies and Alexander “PostflopAction” Kostritsyn chats up

Cake Poker Returning WSOP Bracelet to T.J. Cloutier

This afternoon, rumors spread around the poker industry that Cake Poker, which had purchased T.J. Cloutier’s 2005 World Series of Poker (WSOP) bracelet, was planning to return the piece to its rightful owners. Poker News Daily can now confirm those rumblings.

In a post found on Cake Poker that was created on Wednesday night, it was confirmed that the USA-friendly online poker site was indeed the new owner of the bracelet that Cloutier won in a $5,000 No Limit Hold’em event five years ago. The tournament saw the poker veteran defeat Steven Zoine heads-up in a final table that also included John “World” Hennigan, Dustin “Neverwin” Woolf, and DoylesRoom pro Todd Brunson. Text found on Cake Poker’s blog explains, “Our initial impulse upon seeing the auction was to say, ‘Hey this is a cool piece of poker history. We love poker. We should buy a WSOP bracelet!’ So we did.”

The final selling price for the WSOP keepsake was just over $4,000; Cloutier’s prize money for winning it was 165 times that amount. However, the online poker site and flagship room on the Cake Poker Network plans to return it to Cloutier: “We can’t, in good conscience, keep it from the man who rightfully won it; which is why we’ve decided to return it to T.J. Cloutier… just as soon as we’re done having some fun with it.” No specific plans for the bracelet were given, although Cake Poker officials tossed out “photo shoots” and “wearing it to a buddy’s home game” as several possibilities. The auction closed on Sunday on eBay and the hardware is currently on its way to Cake Poker’s headquarters.

An article that appeared on Wicked Chops Poker explained what might have led to Cloutier unloading his memorabilia: "We called T.J. He didn’t want to come on the air… but told our producer the following: 'I don’t want to talk about it… yeah it's mine… I was short… I pawned it… I tried to get it back with my ticket but I was too late.'" On Monday, Cake Poker officials teased that they may have purchased Cloutier’s bracelet.

The topic has spread around the online poker community like wildfire. On the TwoPlusTwo forums, posters speculated as to why Cloutier, who has nearly $10 million in career earnings, would contemplate selling one of his six bracelets. One member chimed in, “With the recent interest in poker and his name becoming more recognized, any memorabilia he has accumulated becomes more valuable. Bracelets don't exactly do much but collect dust so why not get some value out of them.” Others have hypothesized that Cloutier’s love of craps may have caught up with him.

The other bracelet for sale, which Cloutier procured after taking down the 2007 Scotty Nguyen Poker Challenge IV, sold for $2,500. The Plano Pawn Shop saw a flurry of activity surrounding the two charms and Poker News Daily’s Earl Burton estimated that the WSOP jewelry was probably worth somewhere around $2,350. The bracelet contains 96 grams of 14 karat gold and 0.25 karats of diamonds. The high bid was submitted at 1:34pm PT on Sunday of $3,956 and stood for nearly six hours until the winning entry of $4,006 was introduced at 7:30pm PT.

Cake Poker is the flagship site of a network that also includes DoylesRoom, Lock Poker, PlayersOnly, PokerHost, Red Star Poker, and Stryyke. It happily accepts players from the United States and features former PokerStars icon Lee Jones as its Card Room Manager. The site is busy following its players in the 2010 Aussie Millions, taking place down under in Melbourne.

Stay tuned to Poker News Daily for the latest twists and turns in Cloutier’s bracelet sale.

Obrestad Avoiding Aussie Millions Déjà Vu

Among the chip leaders with 21 people left in the 2009 Aussie Millions, holding ace-ten, she pushed all in for around 350k over Canadian Zach Fellows' raise, expecting him to fold all but premium cards.

However, Fellows made the rather loose call with just pocket fives.

The fives held and an angry Obrestad had a few choice words for Fellows before running nines into jacks to bow out 21^st.

"It was a terrible call," she said. "It was really frustrating."

Thursday, a year later, she finds herself deep-stacked late in the 2010 Aussie Millions again and hoping this won't be a case of déjà vu.

"I hope not," she laughed. "I want to do well in every tournament I play. It doesn't really matter which one it is, but because I got deep here last year and I was so close to final tabling, I want to know what that feeling is like."

The Norwegian-born Betfair Poker pro says there's really no secret to why she's deep in the Aussie Millions main event in back-to-back years.

The tournament just sets up well for her game.

"I think the structure is just really good," she said. "And I've been running good too."

It certainly doesn't hurt that the 2007 World Series of Poker Europe main event champ has cultivated an image as a tremendously loose-aggressive player. Apparently no one ever puts her on a hand.

"They never think I have anything, no matter how I play a hand," she explained. "Even when I have the nuts and that's the only hand I could possibly have, they still don't believe me.

"It's really annoying at times, because I like to play a lot of pots. So getting involved without a hand is not a good idea. But why would I? They never believe me anyway. I don't have to. So I'm trying to tighten up a little and take advantage."

Like most of the new generation of Internet whiz kids taking over the poker world these days, Obrestad was weaned on No-Limit Hold'em.

But drawn in by its alluring action, she recently expanded her repertoire to include Pot-Limit Omaha and actually took down the $1k PLO prelim in Australia just days before the start of the main event.

"I was really excited," she said. "I've been playing a lot online. That's usually what I play if I play online these days, so I feel like I've been really improving my game.

"You can play a lot of pots. You can play really aggressively and you can bluff a lot in that game. There's a lot of action. I like it."

But for now, she's got a little Hold'em and the remainder of the Aussie Millions to contend with.

"I really want to do well here this year," she said. "And put last year in the past."

To follow Obrestad's progress and the rest of the 2010 Aussie Millions main event, tune in to PokerListings' Live Updates through the Jan. 30 final table.

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Poker Site Haiti Donations Top $2m

Currently PokerStars players have donated $670,000 with five days left to participate while Full Tilt is up to $307,721 and still taking donations.

Both rooms will match the amount their players donate meaning more than $1.9 million from just those two rooms alone will be going toward relief efforts in Haiti.

The smaller rooms are getting in on the cause as well with Absolute Poker and UB Poker hosting a $5 rebuy event that drew 717 players last week.

Cake Poker and RedKings Poker will also be taking donations in their lobbies all this week. Bodog founder Calvin Ayre has committed to matching up to $1 million of the donations made to the cause.

The Poker Players Alliance publicly commended the online rooms' efforts.

“Like the rest of the world, the poker community is eager to do anything it can to aid Haiti in the wake of the devastating earthquake,” said PPA chairman Alfonse D’Amato.

“I applaud PokerStars, Full Tilt Poker and Cake Poker for providing poker players across the globe an easy way to make a contribution.”

The PPA estimated that over 50,000 players had donated with proceeds going to organizations like the Red Cross, Doctors Without Borders or UNICEF.

Haitians are still dealing with the catastrophic effects of a 7.0 magnitude earthquake that hit Jan. 12. More than 150,000 people have been reported dead and millions are homeless.

Players can still make donations with most of the major online poker rooms until Jan. 31.

 

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PartyGaming Co-Founder Anurag Dikshit Severs Ties With Stock Sale

Ending a relationship that dates back to the beginning of the online poker industry, Party Gaming co-founder Anurag Dikshit has divested himself of any ownership in the company with the sale of his remaining stock on Tuesday.

According to the London Stock Exchange and the British newspaper The Telegraph, Dikshit owned slightly more than 38.8 million shares of Party Gaming PLC, which is traded in London under the symbol PRTY. Because of his ownership of the stock, Dikshit held voting rights that would have continued to hold a significant influence on the company’s track. With the sale, however, Dikshit has fully divested himself of any connection with the company he helped start back in the late 1990s.

The 38.8 million shares of Party Gaming stock held by Dikshit amount to £114 million and helped to drive the price of Party Gaming PLC up during trading on Tuesday and Wednesday. Opening at 277.10p at the start of trading Wednesday, Party Gaming PLC trended up 14.2p over the course of the day, finishing at 292p.

It is estimated that Dikshit has cashed out stock in the company that eclipses £700m in value. Through his involvement with Party Gaming, Dikshit has also become one of India’s wealthiest citizens. With the sale of his remaining ownership in the company complete, Dikshit is expected to return to the many philanthropic trusts that he oversees, including those that fund medical and educational interests in India.

Since the creation of Party Gaming in the late 1990s, Dikshit had been a formative figure in the company. Along with husband and wife Russ DeLeon and Ruth Parasol as well as Vikrant Bhargava, Dikshit – who was the creator of the Party Gaming software that the company uses – drove the company to reach the pinnacle of the online poker industry with PartyPoker. By 2005, when the foursome took Party Gaming public on the London Stock Exchange, PartyPoker had even become a force in the live poker world with a sponsorship deal at the World Series of Poker (WSOP).

2006 proved to be a pivotal point for the company, however. With the passage of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA) by the American government, Party Gaming was forced to prohibit American players from participating on PartyPoker (as a publicly traded entity, it could not violate the laws of another country and remain on the LSE). Since that time, Party Gaming has been passed in the online poker industry by two rooms that still accept American players, PokerStars and Full Tilt Poker, and battles for the third spot consistently with another non-U.S. facing entity, the iPoker Network.

Dikshit has been the only founder of Party Gaming to ever face American authorities as far as their gaming actions are concerned. After the passage of the UIGEA, The Telegraph reports that Dikshit was “increasingly worried about the ramifications of the company’s operations being declared illegal in America” and stepped down as the director of Party Gaming. This led to his admission of guilt in December 2008 in a U. S. court to violating laws regarding online gaming. Still facing the possibility of two years in jail for his guilty plea, Dikshit has paid $300 million in fines and, according to Justice Department officials, has been assisting them in their ongoing investigations. Whether Dikshit will face any jail time when the case is reviewed in December 2010 is still unknown.

The sale of Dikshit’s remaining stake in PartyGaming comes at a time when the company is looking at several merger options, according to The Telegraph. The outlet states that PartyGaming is “continuing to hold discussions with a number of companies in the gaming sector regarding potential consolidation opportunities” and speculates that industry competitor bwin is a possible merger partner.

Tiffany Michelle Talks Politics on Fox Business Network

If someone would have asked you who you thought would be a good person to appear on a national news program to discuss politics, we're guessing that UB.com's Tiffany Michelle would have been way down your list.  Sure enough, however, Michelle was Neil Cavuto's guest Tuesday on his Fox Business Network show, "Cavuto," comparing President Barack Obama's persistence with his health care plan to a poker player playing bad cards.

In the five-minute conversation, titled "Obama Making a Bad Bet?" on the Fox Business website, there was no debate on whether the proposed health care reform plan was good; it was simply assumed it was bad and that the majority of Americans are against it.  Cavuto's interview consisted of repeatedly asking Michelle to compare the President's health care efforts to playing poor hands.  For her part, Michelle came off fairly well, indulging Cavuto by using poker metaphor after poker metaphor to describe Obama's health care reform strategy.

Some tidbits:

Neil Cavuto: Taking a look at what the President's doing… a good gambler, I understand, or someone who bets a lot, understands, or thinks, that he or she has a good hand.  Am I right?
Tiffany Michelle: Yeah, generally you have a good hand, or you know if you have a bad hand, how to maneuver with that hand and take advantage of your opponent's weaknesses.

Cavuto: Now, the President, fairly or not Tiffany, is viewed to have a bad hand right now because prior cards he's dealt have turned out to be, you know, threes and fours.  They haven't really worked out.  Yet he continues playing the same hand.  What is the strategy behind that?
Michelle: [Preceding portion of answer snipped] What often happens for some players is you continue to push the issues, you continue to play the bad hands, you continue to get in sticky situations, and what really needs to happen is you need to step away from the table, you need to clear your head.

Tiffany Michelle laid it on thick, inserting poker comparisons at every turn.  Some of her best lines included:

"Here we are, let's say we're deep in the World Series, we're coming close to the bubble, you can taste that final table and the money and it's not looking like it's going to happen."

"Not only did Barack Obama in his first year in office decide to tackle one of the toughest issues in U.S. politics… it would be like me approaching Phil Hellmuth on my first day of my poker game and saying, 'Hey, Phil Hellmuth, you have 11 bracelets.  I want to challenge you heads-up.'"

"Talk about Scott Brown, that was a really bad beat for Barack Obama and the Democrats, who really thought they had a good chip lead there.  You know, they thought they had a lock on this tournament."

Members of the poker community universally panned the interview.  The reactions, however, were split between those who detested the fact that Michelle was chosen as the poker representative and those who simply thought that the interview itself was horrible.

He added, "I thought it was evenly presented, the gambling expert knew as much about gambling as the politics expert new abt politics," as well as, "I think it was more shady that TM passed herself off as a gambling expert with a clue abt politics to promote herself."

"Hollywood" Dave Stann, one of Tiffany Michelle's fellow UB.com pros, was more disgusted with Fox Business, Cavuto, and the interview itself, Tweeting, "WTF FoxNews? Generic gambling terms dissing Obama, then using pro gamblers as pawns 2 back it up? I dodged their invite 2day, thank fuck!"

Summing it up for someone who asked what the interview was all about, Stann tweeted, "fucking Fox presenting right-wing editorial talking points as 'news' then interviewing pros as 'evidence' of Obama ineptitude."

Some of the more entertaining comments on the interview came from the Two Plus Two forums.  Forum poster "TheTruthSpeaks" wrote, "While I was watching it I kept waiting to wake up as this certainly must be a dream or something. I mean surely I didn't really just see Tiffany Michelle on a news channel talking about politics while using horrible poker analogies to do it.  This has got to be the first sign of the Apocalypse."

"Randomness28" may have had two of the best quotes on how ridiculous the interview concept was, first saying, "Funny that the Q is 'How is Obama playing his hand?' .... so they decide to bring in a poker player for analysis. Someone should tell the staff of Cavuto's that 'playing his hand' is just a figure of speech.  Next on Cavuto: 'Are Republicans a move ahead of Democrats in setting up for 2012? We bring in chess GM to discuss this.'"

He later added, "Equivalent of this would be for Fox to pose the Q: How is the Obama administration going to kick off its second term in office? And to bring in a third string kicker of a Junior College to answer the Q."

Judge the Tiffany Michelle Fox Business interview for yourself.

Tiffany Michelle got her start in the poker world in 2006, when she served as an on-air host for the World Series of Poker (WSOP) coverage on Sirius Satellite Radio.  In 2007, she appeared on-camera, hosting various segments and conducting interviews for PokerNews.com.  Michelle officially turned heads the following year when she was the last woman remaining in the WSOP Main Event, eventually bowing out in 17th place and earning $334,534.  She was exposed to a nationwide audience in 2009 when she and fellow poker pro, Maria Ho, competed on the hit CBS show, "The Amazing Race."

Patrik Antonius Dumps $826k

Antonius' session started at $300/$600 Pot-Limit Omaha against Tom "durrrr" Dwan and Ilari "Ziigmund" Sahamies.

Dwan, who had been at the table for 30 minutes prior to Antonius taking a seat, left just a few hands after Antonius's arrival.

Just 20 minutes later, Dwan's spot at the table was taken by Cole South, setting the cast for the remainder of the session.

Despite his best efforts, and multiple re-loads, Antonius seemed doomed to end up on the short end of the stick, dumping over $800k in just two and a half hours.

Fellow Finn Sahamies took the largest chunk of profit from Antonius, thanks in part to winning the biggest pot of the session – worth just over $281k. In total, Sahamies won just over $436k.

Including another $252k profit mostly from a heads-up session against South and a $14k loss on another table earlier this morning, Sahamies earned a massive $674k for the day, making him the most profitable player on the year with over $1.5 million.

After making over $257k from Antonius and an additional $118k from $100/$200 PLO, it was looking like a big session for South until he sat down at $300/$600 PLO to play Sahamies heads-up again. The $252 loss left him with just over $165k profit on the day.

Dwan, who has been busy playing live poker at the Aussie Millions, added $164k to his comeback by playing a mix of PLO and No-Limit Hold'em. This latest profit leaves Dwan down only $240k on the year.

Below you can see the three largest pots from the day, or you can head to MarketPulse to see the rest.

 

 

 

 

 

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ESPN Inside Deal Airs First Show of 2010

The ESPN poker franchise “Inside Deal” returned on Tuesday with the first episode of 2010. Joining the series, which emanated from a new set, were Poker Players Alliance (PPA) Executive Director John Pappas and 2009 World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event Champion Joe Cada.

The show began with a discussion of the CardPlayer and Bluff Player of the Year awards for 2009. CardPlayer named UB.com pro Eric “basebaldy” Baldwin as its winner, while Bluff crowned PokerStars’ Jason Mercier. On which publication was more accurate, “Inside Deal” host Bernard Lee explained, “Understand that this is not apples to apples. These are two completely different Player of the Year formulas. If you had to look at it, I think CardPlayer has it a little more open for most players.”

Lee noted that poker pro Amnon Filippi bumped him from the 2010 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure (PCA) Main Event, while Cada staked co-host Laura Lane into the ladies’ event. Now, Lee and the rest of the poker world have their sights set on the PokerStars-backed North American Poker Tour (NAPT), which resumes on February 20th at the Venetian: “I’ve said from the beginning that being able to qualify online is going to increase registration, prize pools, and interest in any tournaments. So far, over 160 players have qualified for the Venetian event. That’s more than some of the WSOP Circuit Events had all last year.”

Pappas joined “Inside Deal” via phone to catch listeners up on the good word from Capitol Hill. The Executive Director of the one-million member lobbying group explained the biggest challenge of 2010: “There is this continuing cloud of grayness as to what is legal and what is not legal. We have a six-month reprieve to get that Congressional clarification to make sure that it is clear that playing poker over the internet is not an unlawful internet gambling transaction.” The PPA is pushing for a markup of Congressman Barney Frank’s (D-MA) HR 2267 in February.

Cada, donning a festive array of PokerStars logos, told “Inside Deal” viewers that the pressure for him to perform has ramped up dramatically: “There is definitely more pressure now, especially because of the way I won my final table.” Cada hit the deck hard during the final table of the 2009 WSOP Main Event and defeated Maryland logger Darvin Moon heads-up.

One of the rumors flying around the poker world during the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure was that Cada was dating former Playboy Playmate of the Year Jayde Nicole. The rumors ultimately proved false, but Cada is still trying to wrap his head around his celebrity status: “I am still trying to get used to everything. The rumors are not so great. All my friends back home asked me about it and there are so many rumors going on.”

A comprehensive breakdown of a hand between Moon and Cada heads-up aired featuring Lee and ESPN.com Poker Editor Andrew Feldman dishing out strategy. The crew then asked Cada to reveal his mentality headed into heads-up play in poker tournaments: “I start off slow when I start heads-up because I don’t know how they play. A lot is their frequency of calls pre-flop and stack sizes. If the stack sizes are deeper, then you’re able to raise more from the button.” Cada was an online heads-up specialist prior to his win last November to become the youngest WSOP Main Event champion ever.

A new segment called “Snap Calls” featured discussion of Huck Seed’s chances to make it eight cashes in a row in the National Heads-Up Poker Championship, the number of new girlfriends Cada will have this year (Cada said under 1.5), the future of online poker legalization, whether Bernard Lee would claim a title in 2010, and whether Cada would win another bracelet in this year’s WSOP.

Hoyt Corkins Leads WPT Southern Poker Championship Final Table

DoylesRoom pro Hoyt Corkins will take a commanding chip lead into the final table of the World Poker Tour’s (WPT) Southern Poker Championship. The tournament marks Corkins’ sixth WPT final table.

Corkins sent Andy Philachack packing on the final table bubble. Philachack pushed his chips in with A-K and found himself ahead of Corkins’ A-Q. However, the flop came A-Q-4, giving Corkins top two pair and leaving Philachack rooting for a king or running cards for a straight. It was not meant to be, as the board ran out 6-10 to set up this afternoon’s televised six-handed final table, which will air as part of Season 8 of the WPT on Fox Sports Net. Philachack took home $67,000 for his seventh place showing at the Beau Rivage in Biloxi, Mississippi, the site of the Southern Poker Championship.

Corkins won the Season 2 Foxwoods World Poker Finals and was also the runner-up in the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure. Three seasons later, Corkins returned to a final table at the Bicycle Casino’s Legends of Poker and, during Season 6, Corkins claimed second in the Gold Strike World Poker Open in Tunica. His most recent final table appearance came in December 2008, when Corkins finished sixth in the prestigious Doyle Brunson Five Diamond World Poker Classic.

Corkins, decked out in DoylesRoom attire following Tuesday’s play, told WPT Live Updates Hostess Amanda Leatherman, “I want to get first or second because that would give me 4,000 WPT Points. There are only three people in that club – Daniel Negreanu, Phil Ivey, and Gus Hansen.” Corkins has $2.6 million in career WPT earnings and is one of the most recognizable faces in the game today.

Knocked out in eighth place was top female pro J.J. Liu. In her final hand, Liu moved all-in over the top of a raise by Jonathan Kantor. James Reed called, Kantor re-shoved, and Reed got out of the way. Kantor flipped up pocket aces, while Liu showed pocket eights. The board ran out 9-6-4-K-J and that was all she wrote for Liu, who has two WPT final tables to her credit. Liu finished fourth in the Season 4 Bellagio Five Diamond World Poker Classic and took second in the Season 5 Bay 101 Shooting Star event.

The top 18 players in the WPT tournament finished in the money and the title of Bubble Boy went to Sam Rashid. As has been a theme in the Southern Poker Championship, Rashid ran into a higher pocket pair, as his kings could not draw out on Narinder Khasria’s aces. The board came 9-3-2-Q-10 and the field rejoiced as Rashid exited empty-handed in 19th place.

Players were jolted awake in the early morning hours today by the hotel’s fire alarm after smoke was reported on the ninth floor. Jared Jaffee, who made Wednesday’s final table, commented to the WPT’s B.J. Nemeth, "I knew the world would end if I ever made a final table." The Beau Rivage is the tallest building in Mississippi at 32 floors and features 1,740 guest rooms.

Among those still remaining in the WPT Southern Poker Championship is Mississippi native Tyler “Tydean” Smith. He was the executioner of James Guinther, who was eliminated in 10th place for $25,000. Guinther was all-in pre-flop with pocket tens, but ran into Smith’s pocket jacks. He couldn’t dig himself out of the 4:1 hole and Smith boosted his chip stack to 750,000 as a result. Smith reached the final table of the Southern Poker Championship for the second straight year; he took fifth in 2009.

Heading into today’s finale in Biloxi, Smith sits in second place on the leaderboard with a stack of 1.17 million, trailing Corkins’ pile of 2.07 million:

1. Hoyt Corkins - 2,069,000
2. Tyler Smith - 1,169,000
3. Jerry Vanstrydonck - 1,044,000
4. Jonathan Kantor - 894,000
5. Jared Jaffee - 762,000
6. James Reed -377,000

The six remaining players are competing for a top prize of $739,000, while each is assured an $86,000 payday for making the final table:

1st Place: $739,486
2nd Place: $366,643
3rd Place: $196,829
4th Place: $135,079
5th Place: $106,134
6th Place: $86,837

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

Online Poker Community Donates $1.5 Million to Haiti Earthquake Survivors

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Poker in Twitter: Deauville, Football, Kat von D and Victoria Coren’s duck.

Poker News Daily scours the Twitter feeds of hundreds of poker players to bring you the funniest, most interesting, weirdest Tweets of the last few days. This weekend saw many players tweeting about the tournaments they were in, which included the UBOC, the LAPC and the EPT Deauville. Other popular topics this week were football (the poker world seems to support the Saints almost unanimously) and other sports, as well as new houses, tattoos by Kat von D, and a river card made to measure for Eric Mizrachi.
The online cards were good for some and cruel to others: while Dave “Hollywood_Dave” Stann challenged players to face him at Ultimate Bet: “Rockin UBOC on UB right now...come join so I can felt you, too ”, Liv Boeree was not having such a great day: “finished 42nd in UBOC 8 for $6300. Set of 33s get it all in on turn... he rivers 9 for higher set. Laptop across the room time.” Eric Mizrachi could have shared some of his luck with her, as he boasted a screenshot from a spectacular river card in Poker Stars:  “Deliver the nice river, Ty @pokerstars_com http://twitpic.com/zmlrd”

Tournament manager supreme Matt Savage kept the world informed of the progress of the LAPC, starting with a comment on his famously grueling schedules: “We have completed days 1A/1B or .5 of the 51 events at this years @LAPokerClassic! Not sure what I was thinking when I made this schedule?” Apparently Mr. Savage is superstitious, since he made Dave Stann back off from certain comments that might bring the tournament ill luck: “@Hollywood_Dave please do NOT mention LAPC = Going Well and Obama Presidency = F'ing Up Country in same tweet! You may jinx us here in LA.” No jinx was apparent to Rob Perelman, who tweeted in delight: “Heads up pot. Final board A4444. Check check. Then 2nd guy tries to muck. This is why I love the @LAPokerClassic!” Some of poker’s hottest ladies were in attendance after trotting the globe in The Amazing Race last year; Tiffany Michelle posted a picture of her view from the table: “http://twitpic.com/z4bfu - Playin the 1st LAPC event, nice view - this girl follows me everywhere ”

The poker world followed the NFC very closely last weekend, and the general feeling seemed to favor the Saints, although Doyle Brunson voiced his admiration for the Vikings’ legendary quarterback: “Brett Favre has balls the size of basketballs.” Favre was the man of the day, with praise and heckles piled on him via Twitter. Gene Bromberg tried to be fair: “I gleefully join in on Favrebashing, but that should've been a flag. Low, late hit, gotta call that”, Justin “BoostedJ” Smith blamed it on the team: “@shannonelizab The vikings aren't even giving Favre a chance to win”, and Joe Sebok cheered and booed: “yes, saints! boo favre & vikings. city of new orleans deserves this... ” Shannon Elizabeth, who tweeted throughout the game, was a happy fan when the fat lady sang: “Congrats Saints! GREAT GAME!!”

The EPT Deauville had two excellent commentators in Vicky Coren and Isabelle Mercier, both of whom tweeted frequently with updates on their own performance and those of friends and team members. Coren had never been able to survive Deauville’s Day 1, and was hoping this year would be it: “It's Day 1 of the Deauville EPT. I've played this three times before and never survived Day One. Let's see if I can break my duck” (“Breaking one’s duck” is a British expression, originally from cricket, that means doing something for the first time.) Coren tried hard, and kept updating on her status to add to the suspense: “We started with 30k in chips. I went down to 4k, now up to 20k, tiptoeing between the outdraws. Two more levels and the duck gets it...” The duck, however, remains unbroken, as she got busted out in Day 1 once more. Fellow Brit Matthew Grant commiserated with some historic consolation: “@VictoriaCoren Nevermind, the only victory that matters near Deauville happened in 1944 ” Coren marveled at Mercier’s youthful looks when they sat together: “Ex Team Pro Isabelle Mercier is on my table, looking incredible. She just doesn't age, that woman. Is it a French thing?” It may have been Mercier’s joy at playing in Deauville, which she tweeted happily about: “Deauville Deauville! Always loved this French little piece of paradise... Especially when it's GAME DAY !!!! ... http://bit.ly/5V41EV” Mercier’s joie de vivre did not last very long, however, as she tweeted from her Facebook account: “Busted out few hours ago holding pocket 10's against poker Jacks and pocket Aces!!! Turned blue and slowly getting... http://bit.ly/4sN0Rb”

Celebrity tattoo artist Kat von D, from the TV show LA Ink, has been leaving her mark on the poker world. First she tattooed Tiffany Michelle, who shared a photo of her tattoo: “Pics of my tatt that Kat did on her show are on my website www.tiffanymichelle.com under the 'Film, TV, Shows' Gallery ” and more recently on Pearl Aday, as tweeted by heavy metal poker star Scott Ian: “Kat Von D shooting Pearl right now.” If he does not shape up to his crazy prop bet, Joe Sebok could be next.

Sebok got some unflattering tweets regarding his stunning new LA home – @DougLeePoker remarked acidly: “@JoeSebok Wow, sick place! and all you had to do was align yourself with a company that has stolen millions from their customers. Well Done!” Sebok’s affiliation with Ultimate Bet is evidently not well accepted by the poker world.

There were many random tweets on off topics that seemed too interesting to pass by, so here is a brief overview of the weird and wonderful tweets of this weekend. There is the cheerful but always cryptic Marcel Luske: “Just an other day,,, more news ,, more twitters , more closely 2 Our goalls & destiny,so enjoin the day & feel great & help others . {;”, a very happy tweet from Eric Mizrachi: “Got some GREAT NEWS today, my friend Myrielle "Meeyu" Pierre survived the earthquake. C U tomm Meeyu! http://twitpic.com/y267b”, some naughtiness from Gavin Griffin: “We just backed into someone's driver's side door and left an 8 square inch dent. Gave em 100 bucks. Win”, and a recognition of friendship from Daniel Negreanu: “I just counted. The number of good friends of mine that are unabashed media whores: zero! All my friends are so normal”, while Doyle Brunson experienced new things: “Got back from a recording session. I'm just a West Texas hillbilly, all that chit amazes me.”

The Tweet of the day is a tie between Jeff Madsen and Howard Lederer. Madsen quipped: “Tiger woods supposedly in Mississippi for sex Rehab. I'll b in Biloxi soon, maybe I need to check myself in?”, while Lederer pointed out: “Went to see Nadal tonight at Aussie Open and saw the best homemade fan sign ever at the match. It read "Go Nad." LOL”
If you are as addicted to Twitter as we are, be sure to follow us @PokerNewsDaily so you can stay up to date on all the breaking news in the poker world and be a part of some PND Twitter exclusives in the coming weeks.

UB Poker Event Tops Record Books

The Deepstack No-Limit Hold’em Six-Max tournament drew 628 players, creating a prize pool of $1.57 million – the richest in UB’s 10-year history.

Online player SEBBAU was the biggest winner taking down the tournament and the $330,900 that came attached to first place.

Celebrated UB player DOOSHDOTCOM1 also made an appearance at the final table but ended up finishing in fifth for $86,350.

"Despite going out just before the money in UBOC 8, the tournament still left me with an incredible feeling as we ended up building the richest prize pool in the history of UB," said Joe Sebok.

"I think it sets the tone for what I think will be the best UBOC ever for our players. 2010 is just the beginning of great things to come for UB and our community."

Team UB was out in full force with Phil Hellmuth, Sebok and Liv Boeree all playing the tournament.

Boeree was the only UB pro to cash, coming in 42^nd place for $6,280.

UBOC 4 continues all week with the $1 million-guaranteed $1,050 buy-in main event scheduled for this Sunday.

Click here to learn more about the UBOC schedule or sign up for an account.

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Brandon McSmith Claims to have Rights to Face the Ace

A man called Brandon McSmith claims that “Face the Ace” is based in an idea he created. He says that he created a show called the “All Star Poker Challenge” and pitched it to Mori Eskandani at Poker PROductions. Mori took a look at it and rejected the concept, saying that a contestant risking everything to play on was a flawed concept.

McSmith contacted Poker PROductions after he found out it was the creator of “Face the Ace”, but they responded that NBC was behind the show. However, NBC informed him that Full Tilt Poker was actually behind the idea of the show.

The concept of “Face the Ace” and “All Star Poker Challenge” are almost the same, with few minor differences. The original idea included five doors and five matches. In “Face the Ace” there are four doors and three matches.

Also the prize structure is different, as every match was worth of $2,000 in the original idea and if the contestant would win the fifth match, he would also get an entry to the World Series of Poker Main Event .

McSmith has a suit pending in the Eighth District Court in Nevada. He is hoping to get a fair compensation. He don’t want to say anything about dollar values, but he says the “created by” would mean a lot to him, as he has several other projects he would like to get produced.

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Brandon McSmith Claims to have Rights to Face the Ace