Posts Tagged ‘ladies’
WSOP Circuit Invades Dallas
The WSOP Circuit heads to the Dallas and Ft. Worth area for the first time today when the Choctaw Casino Resort hosts the tour's first stop of 2011.
The resort, one hour north of Dallas in Durant, Oklahoma, will host a total of 51 events over 18 days, including a $1,600 buy-in No-Limit Hold’em main event beginning Jan. 22.
“This is a huge poker market that has clamored for high stakes tournament poker and we’re ecstatic to be hosting a WSOP Circuit in this gorgeous property in Durant,” said WSOP vice president Ty Stewart.
The schedule features a broad selection of games, including PLO, PLO/2-7 triple draw mixed, H.O.R.S.E., Omaha 8 and Hold’em.
There is both a senior's and ladies event as well.
WSOP Circuit leader board points will be awarded, with the player earning the most points and the main event winner earning entry to the $1 million WSOPC National Championship at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas this May.
Visit www.pokerlistings.com
2010 Poker Memories by Linda Johnson
Time is passing too quickly. We just said goodbye to 2010, but memories of my favorite (and not so favorite) poker moments from the year are still vivid in my mind. I’d like to share a few of my personal 2010 poker memories with you.
Proudest 2010 Poker Memory
Without a doubt, being nominated for the Poker Hall of Fame is the answer to this category. What a thrill it was to learn that I had been nominated along with such a prestigious group as Erik Seidel, Dan Harrington, Tom McEvoy, Phil Ivey, Chris Ferguson, Scotty Nguyen, Daniel Negreanu, Jennifer Harman, and Barry Greenstein. Congratulations to the 2010 inductees Erik Seidel and Dan Harrington.
Favorite Poker News Story
I loved the coverage given to the Mizrachi family during the WSOP. It seemed like every poker magazine had Michael Mizrachi on the cover. Even mainstream Las Vegas entertainment magazines featured Michael and his family.
Favorite Poker Vacation
The 12-night Card Player Cruises poker trip to the Mediterranean wins in this category. The poker room was a lot of fun as usual, but the highlight was seeing all of the magnificent European ports. We stopped at Cannes/Monte Carlo, Pisa, Rome, Naples, Corfu, Dubrovnik, and Barcelona and had great weather in each.
Favorite Charity Event
Of all of the charity events I was fortunate to participate in during 2010, the fundraiser for MickeysCamp.org was my favorite. Mickey’s Camp was started by Mickey Maurer and is held in Indianapolis, Indiana every August. There is a three-day camp for men and a three-day camp for women. The participants sleep in the same cabins the kids stay at during summer and participate in a variety of activities including fishing, camping, wine tasting, cooking, self-defense, magic, and swimming.
I had the honor of teaching the poker sessions and running the poker tournaments for both camps. Mickey’s Camp has raised more than $1 million dollars for charity since its inception 10 years ago. Honorable mention in this category goes to fundraising events for Poker Gives and Child Rescue.
Most Disappointing Poker News
I am still angry and annoyed that we haven’t been able to overturn the UIGEA, although I think we are getting close. The news that the Washington State courts upheld the ruling making online poker illegal is just plain gross! After the ruling, Full Tilt Poker and PokerStars shut down service to Washington residents, a move that should have been met with much more fury and protest from the state’s players.
Favorite Whirlwind Trip
My quick trip to Golden, Colorado for a Poker Players Alliance event qualifies in this category. In less than 24 hours, I flew in and out of Denver and participated in a poker tournament to help Senator Michael Bennett’s campaign. Bennett was elected by a very small margin and I believe he was the victor due to the support of Colorado poker players.
Most Prestigious Poker Event
The winner in this category was easily the Women in Poker Hall of Fame banquet held at the Golden Nugget in Las Vegas. The Grand Ballroom, decorated by a group of volunteers headed by Lupe Soto and her Board of Directors, took on the look of an elegant bistro/nightclub. Jan Fisher did a great job as the emcee and Jeffrey Pollack and Nolan Dalla delivered passionate speeches. After a delicious dinner, awards were presented, followed by a dance. Congratulations to the 2010 inductees Jennifer Harman, Kathy Liebert, and Billie Brown.
Favorite New Poker Procedure
I love the new rule established at the Commerce Casino that penalizes players who are gone too long from the table. Players who miss several rounds in $20-$40 and higher Hold’em games have $5 taken from their stacks and put into the pot. Note that this rule was just about to go into effect the last time I played there and so may have been refined since.
Favorite New Poker Social Media Source
I admit it… I am a Twitter addict! I read it as often as I can and follow many of the top poker celebrities’ Tweets. I hate that it takes up so much of my time and makes me feel like a voyeur, but I can’t seem to give it up. Perhaps they will start a Twitters Anonymous in 2011 and I will be a charter member.
Favorite Tournament Series
Few would argue that the World Series of Poker wins in this category. The series expanded into even more square footage at the Rio and saw an increase in total participants. I had three deep runs (16th, 29th, and 31st) out of the five tournaments I entered, yet am not sporting a new bracelet. Congratulations to all of the bracelet winners, but especially to Gavin Smith, who won his first bracelet after many close efforts.
The runner-up award in this category goes to Wild Horse Casino in Pendleton, Oregon. Roland Waters directs a great tournament series with huge player fields. Entrants get rewarded with $75,000 in added money and free dinner buffets every night.
Other favorite poker memories from 2010 include delivering the “Shuffle Up and Deal” opening speech for the WSOP Ladies Event, teaching WPT Boot Camp at many locations around the country, playing in the WPT Celebrity Invitational at the Commerce, and hosting tournaments at the Eureka Open in Mesquite, Nevada, the Rainbow Spectrum of Poker at the Rainbow Hotel in Wendover, Nevada, and the Wild Horse Resort Casino Poker Roundup in Pendleton, Oregon.
I am extremely blessed to be part of this wonderful poker world and am grateful for the opportunities it has provided me. In 2010, I met many wonderful people who share my passion for poker and was thrilled to have so many chances to give back to our community.
Our country is facing tough economic times ahead. I hope 2011 is a prosperous and happy year for Poker News Daily readers. In closing, I am happy to offer our readers a discount on any 2011 Card Player Cruises trip. Mention Poker News Daily when you book your cabin by January 15th and you will get a $50 per person discount. For more information, go to CardPlayerCruises.com.
Editor’s Note: Linda Johnson is available for poker functions, seminars, corporate events, and charity fundraisers. You can contact her through her website at CardPlayerCruises.com.
Top Poker News Story of 2010
We’re nearing the end of the 2010 calendar year and, as such, we’d like to take a moment to reflect on the past 365 days. There were plenty of headlines in 2010, but which one stole the show for our esteemed panel of writers? Poker News Daily asked our staff which poker headline of 2010 stood out.
Dan Cypra: Splintering of Online Poker
2010 saw the continued splintering of the online poker market worldwide. France and Italy now have their very own online poker fiefdoms, while legislation in New Jersey to create the very first intrastate internet gambling framework in the United States is gaining steam. In fact, the measure will be one of the first topics that the New Jersey Assembly tackles in the New Year.
Whether the division of the online poker market is detrimental to the player experience remains to be seen. Many of the FR and IT sites tracked by PokerScout.com hold strong in the top 20 worldwide in terms of cash game volume, but players cannot compete as part of the worldwide pool. Expect this trend to continue in 2011 and beyond, especially in the United States, where a state-by-state legalization of internet gambling appears to be in the cards.
Annie Duke: Year of the Woman
I think the biggest news story of 2010 is the breakout of women in poker, and that is not just because I am one of them. Vanessa Selbst winning two majors was a huge step forward for women in poker and, of course, an incredible accomplishment for her. Leading into that, Liv Boeree’s stellar performance in San Remo was a breakout for her and for women in poker. I guess my win has to get a mention here, too. Women have had a hard time getting true traction in this game and 2010 put an exclamation point on the quality of the women who play.
Linda Johnson: Washington Online Poker Law Upheld
I think the biggest poker news story involved the Washington State courts upholding the 2006 state law saying that playing online poker is a Class C felony, a crime on the same level as child molestation. This prompted Full Tilt Poker and PokerStars to pull out of that market. What a travesty it is for people in that state, many of whom will have to relocate. I think it is also very hypocritical of the government; after all, Washington State residents still can buy lottery tickets online.
Lee Jones: Year of the Near Miss
2010 will be remembered as the “Year of the Near Miss”. We will probably never know how close we got to overt legalization of online poker in the United States towards the end of 2010. Harry Reid tried every possible maneuver to get his bill passed that would have legalized and regulated online poker in the USA. Had it not been for Jon Kyl, the bill almost certainly would have passed and been signed by President Obama.
Despite poker pros’ concerns about the 15-month blackout prior to actual regulated play, I believe that legalization would have (and will eventually) produce a second renaissance of poker that will completely overshadow 2003, the year of Chris Moneymaker and the WPT. It will only be in the light of that second renaissance that we realize how unfortunate the “Near Miss” of 2010 was.
John “JimmyLegs” Wray: Harry Reid Online Poker Bill
Certainly the biggest almost-story was the Harry Reid online poker bill. But it looks like regulated online poker in the States will have to wait. Maybe it’ll be the biggest news story of 2011? Fingers crossed!
Chris “Fox” Wallace: Full Tilt Rush Poker Mobile
I think we will eventually realize that Rush Poker Mobile is the biggest poker news story of 2010. It might not be the biggest story right now, but it will probably bring about some significant legal changes. Seeing people playing poker on the bus, in the halls at work, at the bar, or anywhere that people congregate – and seeing all of those people playing online poker for real money on their phones – will change public perception.
What direction the public perception goes and how the legal aspects work out will have a huge effect on the future of our freedom to play our favorite game. I think Michael Mizrachi‘s trip to the WSOP final table was talked about a lot more at the tables, but Rush Poker Mobile will have a bigger splash in the long-run.
Brett Collson: WSOP Ladies Event
When I first saw Shaun Deeb seated wearing lipstick, makeup, and a cowboy hat at the WSOP Ladies Event, I knew the poker world was about to erupt. Deeb and more than a dozen male players crashed what was supposed to be an enjoyable tournament for female poker players. Instead, it turned into a media circus.
Some of the men claimed they were taking a “gender equality” stance by playing in the $1,000 event; others had lost prop bets. Regardless, all of the women were upset by it, as evident by the standing ovation that occurred each time a male player was eliminated. The unfortunate episode also fueled one of the biggest feuds of the year between Annie Duke and Daniel Negreanu, which is another of the most memorable stories of 2010.
Bernard Lee: Michael Mizrachi
For me, it would be Michael Mizrachi. At the beginning of 2010, not many people put Michael Mizrachi in the forefront of poker, but as he arrived at the WSOP, he definitely wanted to make his mark. Mizrachi came out of the gates winning the $50,000 Player’s Championship. In addition to that, he made two other final tables and, of course, who could forget him almost winning the improbable double-double of the $10,000 Main Event as well? Michael Mizrachi had a phenomenal year and has put himself back in the forefront of the world of poker.
Sean Gibson: Michael Mizrachi
For me, the biggest news story of 2010 was the resurrection of Michael “The Grinder” Mizrachi’s poker career. Count me in as one of the guys who wrote him off for good, especially when all of the financial trouble started cropping up. He proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that he’s one of the world’s best players; his run to the November Nine was every bit as magical as Phil Ivey‘s in 2009. Mizrachi is a player we can respect for his past accomplishments and track as one of the big names in the poker industry.
Earl Burton: Harry Reid Online Poker Bill and Jonathan Duhamel
As far as the biggest stories of the year in poker, I am torn between two. The four-year-long battle to overturn the UIGEA, which heated up even more over the past 12 months, seemed to get the hopes up of many of us in the poker community. I was always pessimistic about the passage of any legislation that would allow Americans to play poker online and, in the end, my pessimism proved to be correct.
The second story is Jonathan Duhamel’s victory in the WSOP Main Event. He became the first ever Canadian World Champion, capturing the attention of his country and the world. He was even nominated for Canadian Athlete of the Year alongside such big names as Sidney Crosby and Joey Votto. When you think of players from Canada who came before Duhamel, such as Daniel Negreanu and Gavin Smith, for him to become the first Canadian champion of the Main Event was a truly significant feat.
Tags: 2009, 2010, 2011, Annie Duke, Canada, canadian, Daniel Negreanu, full tilt poker, ladies, legal, Online Poker, Phil Ivey, poker player, pokerstars, tournament, usa, woman, women, WSOP
Top Poker News Story of 2010
We’re nearing the end of the 2010 calendar year and, as such, we’d like to take a moment to reflect on the past 365 days. There were plenty of headlines in 2010, but which one stole the show for our esteemed panel of writers? Poker News Daily asked our staff which poker headline of 2010 stood out.
Dan Cypra: Splintering of Online Poker
2010 saw the continued splintering of the online poker market worldwide. France and Italy now have their very own online poker fiefdoms, while legislation in New Jersey to create the very first intrastate internet gambling framework in the United States is gaining steam. In fact, the measure will be one of the first topics that the New Jersey Assembly tackles in the New Year.
Whether the division of the online poker market is detrimental to the player experience remains to be seen. Many of the FR and IT sites tracked by PokerScout.com hold strong in the top 20 worldwide in terms of cash game volume, but players cannot compete as part of the worldwide pool. Expect this trend to continue in 2011 and beyond, especially in the United States, where a state-by-state legalization of internet gambling appears to be in the cards.
Annie Duke: Year of the Woman
I think the biggest news story of 2010 is the breakout of women in poker, and that is not just because I am one of them. Vanessa Selbst winning two majors was a huge step forward for women in poker and, of course, an incredible accomplishment for her. Leading into that, Liv Boeree’s stellar performance in San Remo was a breakout for her and for women in poker. I guess my win has to get a mention here, too. Women have had a hard time getting true traction in this game and 2010 put an exclamation point on the quality of the women who play.
Linda Johnson: Washington Online Poker Law Upheld
I think the biggest poker news story involved the Washington State courts upholding the 2006 state law saying that playing online poker is a Class C felony, a crime on the same level as child molestation. This prompted Full Tilt Poker and PokerStars to pull out of that market. What a travesty it is for people in that state, many of whom will have to relocate. I think it is also very hypocritical of the government; after all, Washington State residents still can buy lottery tickets online.
Lee Jones: Year of the Near Miss
2010 will be remembered as the “Year of the Near Miss”. We will probably never know how close we got to overt legalization of online poker in the United States towards the end of 2010. Harry Reid tried every possible maneuver to get his bill passed that would have legalized and regulated online poker in the USA. Had it not been for Jon Kyl, the bill almost certainly would have passed and been signed by President Obama.
Despite poker pros’ concerns about the 15-month blackout prior to actual regulated play, I believe that legalization would have (and will eventually) produce a second renaissance of poker that will completely overshadow 2003, the year of Chris Moneymaker and the WPT. It will only be in the light of that second renaissance that we realize how unfortunate the “Near Miss” of 2010 was.
John “JimmyLegs” Wray: Harry Reid Online Poker Bill
Certainly the biggest almost-story was the Harry Reid online poker bill. But it looks like regulated online poker in the States will have to wait. Maybe it’ll be the biggest news story of 2011? Fingers crossed!
Chris “Fox” Wallace: Full Tilt Rush Poker Mobile
I think we will eventually realize that Rush Poker Mobile is the biggest poker news story of 2010. It might not be the biggest story right now, but it will probably bring about some significant legal changes. Seeing people playing poker on the bus, in the halls at work, at the bar, or anywhere that people congregate – and seeing all of those people playing online poker for real money on their phones – will change public perception.
What direction the public perception goes and how the legal aspects work out will have a huge effect on the future of our freedom to play our favorite game. I think Michael Mizrachi‘s trip to the WSOP final table was talked about a lot more at the tables, but Rush Poker Mobile will have a bigger splash in the long-run.
Brett Collson: WSOP Ladies Event
When I first saw Shaun Deeb seated wearing lipstick, makeup, and a cowboy hat at the WSOP Ladies Event, I knew the poker world was about to erupt. Deeb and more than a dozen male players crashed what was supposed to be an enjoyable tournament for female poker players. Instead, it turned into a media circus.
Some of the men claimed they were taking a “gender equality” stance by playing in the $1,000 event; others had lost prop bets. Regardless, all of the women were upset by it, as evident by the standing ovation that occurred each time a male player was eliminated. The unfortunate episode also fueled one of the biggest feuds of the year between Annie Duke and Daniel Negreanu, which is another of the most memorable stories of 2010.
Bernard Lee: Michael Mizrachi
For me, it would be Michael Mizrachi. At the beginning of 2010, not many people put Michael Mizrachi in the forefront of poker, but as he arrived at the WSOP, he definitely wanted to make his mark. Mizrachi came out of the gates winning the $50,000 Player’s Championship. In addition to that, he made two other final tables and, of course, who could forget him almost winning the improbable double-double of the $10,000 Main Event as well? Michael Mizrachi had a phenomenal year and has put himself back in the forefront of the world of poker.
Sean Gibson: Michael Mizrachi
For me, the biggest news story of 2010 was the resurrection of Michael “The Grinder” Mizrachi’s poker career. Count me in as one of the guys who wrote him off for good, especially when all of the financial trouble started cropping up. He proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that he’s one of the world’s best players; his run to the November Nine was every bit as magical as Phil Ivey‘s in 2009. Mizrachi is a player we can respect for his past accomplishments and track as one of the big names in the poker industry.
Earl Burton: Harry Reid Online Poker Bill and Jonathan Duhamel
As far as the biggest stories of the year in poker, I am torn between two. The four-year-long battle to overturn the UIGEA, which heated up even more over the past 12 months, seemed to get the hopes up of many of us in the poker community. I was always pessimistic about the passage of any legislation that would allow Americans to play poker online and, in the end, my pessimism proved to be correct.
The second story is Jonathan Duhamel’s victory in the WSOP Main Event. He became the first ever Canadian World Champion, capturing the attention of his country and the world. He was even nominated for Canadian Athlete of the Year alongside such big names as Sidney Crosby and Joey Votto. When you think of players from Canada who came before Duhamel, such as Daniel Negreanu and Gavin Smith, for him to become the first Canadian champion of the Main Event was a truly significant feat.
Tags: 2009, 2010, 2011, Annie Duke, Canada, canadian, Daniel Negreanu, ladies, legal, Online Poker, Phil Ivey, poker player, pokerstars, tournament, usa, woman, women, WSOP
Top Poker News Story of 2010
We’re nearing the end of the 2010 calendar year and, as such, we’d like to take a moment to reflect on the past 365 days. There were plenty of headlines in 2010, but which one stole the show for our esteemed panel of writers? Poker News Daily asked our staff which poker headline of 2010 stood out.
Dan Cypra: Splintering of Online Poker
2010 saw the continued splintering of the online poker market worldwide. France and Italy now have their very own online poker fiefdoms, while legislation in New Jersey to create the very first intrastate internet gambling framework in the United States is gaining steam. In fact, the measure will be one of the first topics that the New Jersey Assembly tackles in the New Year.
Whether the division of the online poker market is detrimental to the player experience remains to be seen. Many of the FR and IT sites tracked by PokerScout.com hold strong in the top 20 worldwide in terms of cash game volume, but players cannot compete as part of the worldwide pool. Expect this trend to continue in 2011 and beyond, especially in the United States, where a state-by-state legalization of internet gambling appears to be in the cards.
Annie Duke: Year of the Woman
I think the biggest news story of 2010 is the breakout of women in poker, and that is not just because I am one of them. Vanessa Selbst winning two majors was a huge step forward for women in poker and, of course, an incredible accomplishment for her. Leading into that, Liv Boeree’s stellar performance in San Remo was a breakout for her and for women in poker. I guess my win has to get a mention here, too. Women have had a hard time getting true traction in this game and 2010 put an exclamation point on the quality of the women who play.
Linda Johnson: Washington Online Poker Law Upheld
I think the biggest poker news story involved the Washington State courts upholding the 2006 state law saying that playing online poker is a Class C felony, a crime on the same level as child molestation. This prompted Full Tilt Poker and PokerStars to pull out of that market. What a travesty it is for people in that state, many of whom will have to relocate. I think it is also very hypocritical of the government; after all, Washington State residents still can buy lottery tickets online.
Lee Jones: Year of the Near Miss
2010 will be remembered as the “Year of the Near Miss”. We will probably never know how close we got to overt legalization of online poker in the United States towards the end of 2010. Harry Reid tried every possible maneuver to get his bill passed that would have legalized and regulated online poker in the USA. Had it not been for Jon Kyl, the bill almost certainly would have passed and been signed by President Obama.
Despite poker pros’ concerns about the 15-month blackout prior to actual regulated play, I believe that legalization would have (and will eventually) produce a second renaissance of poker that will completely overshadow 2003, the year of Chris Moneymaker and the WPT. It will only be in the light of that second renaissance that we realize how unfortunate the “Near Miss” of 2010 was.
John “JimmyLegs” Wray: Harry Reid Online Poker Bill
Certainly the biggest almost-story was the Harry Reid online poker bill. But it looks like regulated online poker in the States will have to wait. Maybe it’ll be the biggest news story of 2011? Fingers crossed!
Chris “Fox” Wallace: Full Tilt Rush Poker Mobile
I think we will eventually realize that Rush Poker Mobile is the biggest poker news story of 2010. It might not be the biggest story right now, but it will probably bring about some significant legal changes. Seeing people playing poker on the bus, in the halls at work, at the bar, or anywhere that people congregate – and seeing all of those people playing online poker for real money on their phones – will change public perception.
What direction the public perception goes and how the legal aspects work out will have a huge effect on the future of our freedom to play our favorite game. I think Michael Mizrachi‘s trip to the WSOP final table was talked about a lot more at the tables, but Rush Poker Mobile will have a bigger splash in the long-run.
Brett Collson: WSOP Ladies Event
When I first saw Shaun Deeb seated wearing lipstick, makeup, and a cowboy hat at the WSOP Ladies Event, I knew the poker world was about to erupt. Deeb and more than a dozen male players crashed what was supposed to be an enjoyable tournament for female poker players. Instead, it turned into a media circus.
Some of the men claimed they were taking a “gender equality” stance by playing in the $1,000 event; others had lost prop bets. Regardless, all of the women were upset by it, as evident by the standing ovation that occurred each time a male player was eliminated. The unfortunate episode also fueled one of the biggest feuds of the year between Annie Duke and Daniel Negreanu, which is another of the most memorable stories of 2010.
Bernard Lee: Michael Mizrachi
For me, it would be Michael Mizrachi. At the beginning of 2010, not many people put Michael Mizrachi in the forefront of poker, but as he arrived at the WSOP, he definitely wanted to make his mark. Mizrachi came out of the gates winning the $50,000 Player’s Championship. In addition to that, he made two other final tables and, of course, who could forget him almost winning the improbable double-double of the $10,000 Main Event as well? Michael Mizrachi had a phenomenal year and has put himself back in the forefront of the world of poker.
Sean Gibson: Michael Mizrachi
For me, the biggest news story of 2010 was the resurrection of Michael “The Grinder” Mizrachi’s poker career. Count me in as one of the guys who wrote him off for good, especially when all of the financial trouble started cropping up. He proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that he’s one of the world’s best players; his run to the November Nine was every bit as magical as Phil Ivey‘s in 2009. Mizrachi is a player we can respect for his past accomplishments and track as one of the big names in the poker industry.
Earl Burton: Harry Reid Online Poker Bill and Jonathan Duhamel
As far as the biggest stories of the year in poker, I am torn between two. The four-year-long battle to overturn the UIGEA, which heated up even more over the past 12 months, seemed to get the hopes up of many of us in the poker community. I was always pessimistic about the passage of any legislation that would allow Americans to play poker online and, in the end, my pessimism proved to be correct.
The second story is Jonathan Duhamel’s victory in the WSOP Main Event. He became the first ever Canadian World Champion, capturing the attention of his country and the world. He was even nominated for Canadian Athlete of the Year alongside such big names as Sidney Crosby and Joey Votto. When you think of players from Canada who came before Duhamel, such as Daniel Negreanu and Gavin Smith, for him to become the first Canadian champion of the Main Event was a truly significant feat.
Tags: 2009, 2010, 2011, Annie Duke, Canada, canadian, Daniel Negreanu, ladies, legal, Online Poker, Phil Ivey, poker player, pokerstars, tournament, usa, woman, women, WSOP
Poker News in Brief: Nov. 29- Dec. 5
Fortunately, we've found a place for them in our weekly Poker News in Brief feature.
This week the WSOPC heads to Atlantic City, Fernando Brito takes a big lead in the EPT's POY race, the LAPC schedule is released and a whole lot more.
WSOPC Hits AC
The World Series of Poker Circuit series kicked off at Harrah's Resort Atlantic City Dec. 4.
The full schedule, running through Dec. 22, includes ten official ring events.
The three-day $1,650 main event begins Dec. 12 and the second of four nationally-televised $10k WSOPC Regional Championships is scheduled for four days beginning Dec. 19.
Ladies Love The Big Easy
The High Heels Poker Tour is winding down it's 2010 schedule at Harrah's New Orleans.
The first all women’s poker tour is hosting a $175 Ladies event at the annual 2010 Bayou Poker Challenge Dec. 12.
January is also full of HHPT events with from the PCA to the Southern Poker Championship and the Chad Brown Poker Invitational Ladies Event.
For additional information, including dates, times and buy-in’s, go to www.highheelspokertour.com.
Brito Leads EPT POY Race
Fernando Brito, the 51-year-old businessman from Portugal who made the final of the EPT London Main Event, has a massive lead in the PokerStars EPT Player of the Year race.
After winning a €10,000 event at EPT Barcelona, Brito is now 660 points ahead of his nearest rivals.
So far this season, Brito has won €466,000 on the EPT.
EPT Vilamoura winner Toby Lewis is currently tied for second place with EPT Barcelona winner Kent Lundmark.
LAPC Schedule Released
The Commerce Casino in Los Angeles has unveiled its lineup of tournaments for the 2011 LA Poker Classic with $2 million in guarantees.
The schedule features 53 events running Jan. 19- Mar. 3 including the $10k WPT LA Poker Classic main event beginning Feb. 25 and the hugely popular WPT Celebrity Invitational starting Feb. 19.
There will also be a $25,100 High Roller tournament and $5,100 heads-up and 8-game events.
The full event schedule can be found at www.CommerceCasino.com.
UB, AP Launch Security Token
UB and Absolute Poker have launched a new Security Token program.
Players can now add an extra layer of user authentication preventing unauthorized account use.
The token is a small electronic device require to be at hand when a player logs in to their account.
Visit http://www.ub.com/support/security/additional-authentication for further information and to opt in to the Security Token program.
All-In Winter at Titan
Titan Poker is offering $220,000 in total prizes during the months of December and January as a part of its All-In Winter Poker Promotion.
Cash game, MTT, and Sit & Go players on the site will be eligible for different weekly and monthly prizes during December and January.
Plus, all Titan players can qualify for two All-In Winter $10,000 Freeroll tournaments by generating 100 Titan Poker Points each month.
PKR Wins E-Gaming Award
PKR picked up Poker Operator of the Year honors at the 2010 E-Gaming Review Awards in London this week.
Judges praised PKR for demonstrating how originality and constant innovation could build a successful business in the face of liquidity challenges.
"It is a fantastic achievement for PKR to have won this prestigious award," said PKR CEO Malcolm Graham. "2010 has been an astounding year for us."
Visit www.pokerlistings.com
Tags: 2010, 2011, absolute poker, freeroll, ladies, pokerstars, titan poker, tournament, women, WSOP
Dusty Schmidt Releases “Don’t Listen to Phil Hellmuth”
Just in time for the holiday season is a brand new book from Drag the Bar instructor Dusty Schmidt called “Don’t Listen to Phil Hellmuth: Correcting the 50 Worst Pieces of Poker Advice You’ve Ever Heard.” The book, the first for Schmidt since “Treat Your Poker Like a Business,” will be available in e-book format on December 6th at DustySchmidt.net.
Poker News Daily: Can you give us the background to your new book?
Dusty Schmidt: It started at the WSOP this year. I was talking with friend and we were going over all of these ideas. He has been a live player for years and is infatuated with the online game and the way we arrive at our decisions. I started thinking about all of these things you hear people say on TV and got an idea to do a book based on correcting misconceptions. We start each chapter with a misconception and move on to things loosely related to that. As we were going though the misconceptions we had, we realized that Phil Hellmuth dominated the list.
PND: How is the book structured?
Dusty Schmidt: It’s divided into three parts. The first part has the 50 misconceptions. We start off every chapter with the misconception and go through those. The second part is taking 25 really interesting hands I’ve played online and going through my thought process. We know that’s been a popular way to learn, so we incorporated that into the book as well. The final part of the book is a quiz.
PND: How can interested readers get a copy?
Dusty Schmidt: It’s only available on DustySchmidt.net right now. We’re releasing it as an e-book; the hard copy is at the printer right now and will be out in three weeks.
PND: Give us one of your most memorable misconceptions from the book.
Dusty Schmidt: One main misconception that sticks out is “Bring your big guns to the big war.” This is a Phil Hellmuth quote, but a large percentage of poker players believe that you want to save your big hands for when you win a big pot. I think an online poker player might approach it as, “Are the plays I’m making profitable?” If a player feels strongly that an opponent can’t call a bet on the flop, call a raise on the turn, and call an all-in on the river, then I’m all for playing a humungous pot without a good hand. That chapter also has good situations to run big bluffs – what types of cards, what types of opponents, and other possibilities.
One of the misconceptions we talk about was my own advice. I’ve always said in my videos, “Punish the limpers,” but I have not found that play to be too successful anymore. So, one of the chapters is on punishing the limpers. Some of these weren’t misconceptions 15 years ago, or even two years ago, but they’ve evolved over time. People are still hanging on to that old advice. We’re not opposed to picking on anyone, even ourselves.
PND: What kind of feedback do you expect to receive once the book is fully released?
Dusty Schmidt: I think it’ll be mixed. The title itself is probably going to turn people on or off. The focus is going to be so much on the title that at the end of the day when people have a chance to read it, we hope they’ll think the content is positive. With the last book, we got excellent feedback and I put as much or more effort into this one.
PND: From suing the USGA to calling out Hellmuth in a book, you tend to go against the grain. Talk a little bit about your persona.
Dusty Schmidt: I think that’s part of who I am. I’m a rebel spirit in a lot of ways. I like to examine accepted norms and look into them more to find the truth.
PND: Finally, what was the most notable poker story of 2010, in your opinion?
Dusty Schmidt: One of the most shocking things to me was all of the guys playing in the Ladies Event at the WSOP. That was pretty incredible. That one blew my mind and made me scratch my head.
Helena Brett wins Betfred Ladies’ Grand Final
Liv Boeree Video Interview
Liv Boeree one of the hot names in the world of poker right now. She’s worked in the industry as an interviewer and at the same time gained respect as a live tournament player.
In this interview, Boeree talks about her perspective of winning the EPT San Remo event and how that has fueled her desire to win more poker tournaments. For her efforts in San Remo, Beoree won €1,250,000 and became the third woman to win an EPT title. She also discusses her passion for rock music and how she expresses that through her fashion sense and mentions Pantera as one of her favorite bands of all time.
Boeree originally came into poker by being a guest contestant on a reality TV show back in 2005. She was coached by Phil Hellmuth and impressed so much that she took up the game seriously. In 2006 she worked for various internet and television shows covering poker and covered the World Series of Poker Europe. She is originally from Kent, England.
She was sponsored previously by UB.com but recently inked a deal to move over to PokerStars. He other successes in poker, outside of the EPT win, was a seventh place finish at the Welsh Poker Championship and a win at a Caesars Palace (Las Vegas, NV) tournament that gave her a $19,000 prize package to the 2007 WPT Five Diamond Poker Classic at the Bellagio. She also was on the Gala UK Poker Tour Season One as a featured player. In 2008 she won the Ladbrokes European Ladies Championship title for $30,000. She has cashed twice at WSOP events, first in the 2008 Event 38 field, which was a $2,000 Pot Limit Hold’em tournament. In that event she finished in 49th place for $4,074. Her other cash at the World Series of Poker was the same year in Event 41 at the $1,500 Mixed Limit Hold’em tournament where she finished 64th for $2,793.
Tags: 2008, bellagio, european, interview, ladies, Phil Hellmuth, pokerstars, tournament, vegas, woman, WSOP
WSOP Main Event Final Table Airs on ESPN
On Tuesday night, the final table of the 2010 World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event aired on ESPN. As ESPN announcer Norman Chad described, the group of nine had five pairs of sunglasses, five baseball caps, one visor, three hoodies, and two sets of earnings.
Matt Jarvis dropped 50% of his stack early after a failed bluff with A-J on a board of 2-5-10-7-8. Joseph Cheong held 10-6 in the hand for top pair and Jarvis’ rocky 2010 WSOP Main Event final table began. Soi Nguyen, the lone amateur at the final table, was bumped in ninth place after his A-K could not outrace Jason Senti’s pocket queens. Nguyen earned $811,000 for his storybook run in poker’s most prestigious tournament.
After bleeding half of his stack, Jarvis hit the rail in eighth place when his pocket nines fell short of Michael Mizrachi’s A-Q of diamonds. “The Grinder” flopped trip queens, but Jarvis turned a boat when a nine fell. However, the Canuck came up short on the river, which was an ace. Chad quipped, “It’s not possible” and Mizrachi, who had half of his chips at risk, shot up to third on the leaderboard with a better full house. Jarvis’ final hand was nearly identical to one played between Chris Moneymaker and Phil Ivey in the 2003 Main Event.
Cheong claimed a pot worth 30 million to become the chip leader at the Penn and Teller Theater, one of over 20 lead changes that occurred at the final table. Then, Senti moved all-in for his last 16 big blinds with K-7 and received a taker in Cheong, who turned over A-9 of clubs. Senti remarked, “That’s bad,” but watched as a four-diamond board gave him a flush.
Holding K-7 of spades for a flush draw on a flop of Q-5-Q with two of the suit, Filippo Candio raised all-in for 18 million, prompting Jonathan Duhamel to muck pocket aces and John Racener to fold pocket tens. Then, Senti was eliminated at the hands of Cheong with A-K against the eventual third place finisher’s wired pair of tens. Cheong spiked a straight on the river to seal Senti’s respectable seventh place showing.
John Dolan was ousted in sixth place after running Q-5 of diamonds into pocket fours. Treading in the opposite direction was Racener, who doubled up through Mizrachi with A-K against A-8 of diamonds.
The defining pot of five-handed play saw Racener raise to 2.3 million with A-Q of spades and Duhamel 3bet all-in with Big Slick. Racener called all-in and found a queen on the flop to double up. After entering final table play as the overwhelming chip leader, Duhamel was now nursing the short stack. ESPN commentator Lon McEachern gave his take on Racener’s double up: “For the hockey playing Duhamel, that was like a cross-check to the teeth.”
On the very next hand, Duhamel, seemingly on tilt, got his chips in with A-9 against Mizrachi’s pocket threes. The Canadian turned trips to double up and Mizrachi hit the rail shortly thereafter in fifth place. Mizrachi ran top pair into Duhamel’s overpair in his final hand, sending the Full Tilt Poker pro and 2010 bracelet winner into the Las Vegas night. The Mizrachi crew would later celebrate their phenomenal WSOP run at the Wynn.
Candio, who was completely silent following the Main Event’s dinner break, was ousted in fourth place. Candio was all-in pre-flop with K-Q of diamonds and Cheong asked for a count before looking him up with A-3 of clubs. Cheong spiked an ace on the flop and had the Italian drawing dead to the river.
Duhamel picked up a pot worth 57 million after rivering a pair of kings and then the hand of the night occurred. Cheong 6bet all-in before the flop with A-7 and Duhamel called all-in with two ladies to set up the largest pot in WSOP history at 176 million. The board came 3-9-2-6-8 and Duhamel stacked 80% of the chips in play. Cheong’s stack dove to just five big blinds and he was eliminated a few minutes later.
Two hands from heads-up play were shown on ESPN, but Racener’s lone double up did not make it to air. In the final hand of the 2010 WSOP Main Event, Racener called all-in before the flop with K-8 of diamonds and could not draw out on Duhamel’s A-J. Reigning champ Joe Cada and Tournament Director Jack Effel presented Duhamel with the bracelet and confetti flew onto the Penn and Teller Theater stage as the WSOP crowned its first Canadian Main Event winner.
The entire final table, which took about 17 hours of real time, aired on ESPN for two hours and five minutes. If you missed it, you can catch a replay in primetime this Sunday at 8:00pm ET on ESPN2.
Tags: 2010, canadian, full tilt poker, ladies, Phil Ivey, poker player, tournament, trips, vegas, WSOP
NAPT Los Angeles Adds Bounty Shootout Event
Festivities at the PokerStars North American Poker Tour’s (NAPT) Los Angeles stop may have already begun, but that doesn’t mean that the schedule is set in stone. Tournament organizers announced this week that a new event – a $5,250 Bounty Shootout (BSO) – has been added to the docket and will be inserted into the lineup next week.
While the rest of the NAPT Los Angeles is being held at the famous Bicycle Casino, the $5,250 BSO will take place at the Crystal Casino, just a short drive south from “The Bike.” It will also be televised on ESPN2 in December. The first day will be split into two flights on Tuesday, November 16th, the first at 11:00am and the second at 6:00pm. The final table players will reconvene on Thursday, November 18th at 2:00pm to battle it out for the title.
For those unfamiliar with Shootout tournaments, they are essentially a series of single-table tournaments. At first, play looks like any other multi-table tournament, but as players are eliminated, the tables are not rebalanced. Instead, each table plays down to a single winner. Once every table has its champ, those winners combine to form new tables and they once again play down to one survivor. This continues for as many rounds as necessary until just one player remains in the entire event. In the case of the $5,250 BSO, there will only be one round before the final table, as the event has a maximum capacity of 81 players. Thus, play will begin with nine tables of nine, with the nine winners meeting at Thursday’s final table.
And, of course, since it is a Bounty tournament, each time a player eliminates an opponent, he receives a cash prize.
Wednesday, November 10th marks the first day at the NAPT Los Angeles during which a non-satellite tournament – the $645 No Limit Hold’em Bounty event – will be contested. The $5,000 No Limit Hold’em Main Event begins on Friday, November 12th with Day 1A. Day 1B will be held on Saturday and the remaining field will combine on Sunday for Day 2. The final table of the Main Event is scheduled for Wednesday, November 17th at 1:00pm.
All told, there are 20 non-satellite events at the NAPT Los Angeles stop through Sunday, November 21st, including Omaha, Heads-Up, and Mixed Game tournaments. There will also be a Ladies International Poker Series (LIPS) event and other bounty tournaments. Additionally, on the final day of the NAPT Los Angeles, there will be a super satellite to the 2011 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure (PCA) at the Atlantis Resort and Casino in the Bahamas. The PCA will begin on January 4th, 2011 and will feature more than 50 events over 10 days.
After Los Angeles, there are no more stops currently on the schedule for the NAPT. Unless an event is added in December, it appears that the new season will start with the PCA in January.
The NAPT was launched by PokerStars in January with its inaugural stop at the PCA. 1,529 players turned out for the $10,300 Main Event, the majority of whom (974) were PokerStars qualifiers. Harrison Gimbel put his name in the record books as the first NAPT Main Event winner ever, taking home $2.2 million. In February, 872 players turned out for the $5,000 Main Event at NAPT Venetian, with Tom Marchese winning the $827,648 first prize. The latest NAPT Main Event winner was Vanessa Selbst, who won the NAPT Mohegan Sun Main Event and $750,000.
Rita Gilroy wins latest Betfred Ladies event
Tags: ladies
Poker News in Brief: Nov. 1-7
But as the November Nine played down to heads-up in Las Vegas this weekend, there were a few other stories happening in the poker world.
Since we didn't have the time or space to put many of them on the front page, we've compiled them below in our weekly Poker News in Brief feature.
This week the PCA sets a date for its Ladies Event, the USPC kicks off, a German wins in Macau and more.
PKR Reaches 4 Million
Four-year-old poker site PKR reached the 4 million customer milestone this week.
"This is a great accomplishment for us and a real achievement considering we don't take players from America," Marketing Director Simon Prodger said. "2010 has been a great year for PKR and we look forward to many more milestones in the future."
PokerStars Women's Caribbean Adventure
PokerStars is hosting another $1,100 Women's event at the 2011 PokerStars Carinbbean Adventure Jan. 14-15.
Team PokerStars Pro Vanessa Rousso won the event in January 2010 for $25,000, besting a field of 91 players that created an $88,270 prize pool.
Online satellite buy-ins start from as little as $2 or 500 Frequent Player Points on PokerStars.
German Wins Macau Poker Cup
Germany's Julian Hasse took down the Macau Poker Cup Championship at Casino Grand Lisboa this weekend.
Hasse bested a record field of 254 players to book the win and HKD $1,064,000 first prize.
"I still can't believe it, I'm speechless!" Hasse said.
Here's how the final table finished up:
1 Julian Hasse HKD $1,064,000
2 Kelly Flynn HKD $729,000
3 Wee Yee Tan HKD $440,000
4 Chi Chen HKD $347,000
5 Takashi Ogura HKD $278,000
6 Nathanael Seet HKD $231,000
7 Kristian Lunardi HKD $185,000
8 Renyong "Richard" Hu HKD $139,000
9 William Pastout HKD $116,000
Jack Links Inks WSOP Sponsor Deal
Jack Link’s Beef Jerky and the WSOP have signed a new multi-year sponsorship agreement that will keep the jerky king as presenting sponsor of the event.
The tournament will continue to be known as the World Series of Poker Presented by Jack Link’s Beef Jerky.
The deal begins at the 42nd Annual World Series of Poker Presented by Jack Link’s slated to get underway at the Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas May 30, 2011.
“This remains a great fit between two category-leading brands,” said WSOP Vice President Ty Stewart. “We couldn’t ask for a better organization to be our lead sponsor. We love being with a market dominator that shares our sense of fun and irreverence.”
U.S. Poker Championship Kicks Off
The 2010 United States Poker Championship began at the Trump Taj Mahal Casino and Resort in Atlantic City Nov. 1.
The tournament series runs through Nov. 22 and the USPC main event will be filmed for television.
Betfair Goes Canadian
Beginning Monday Betfair Poker will be localized for all Canadians.
Customers visiting the site from Canada will see global promotions but also have exclusive visibility to Canadian specific poker promotions.
To celebrate the launch of the Canadian poker website, Betfair Poker has planned a week of promotions, featuring freerolls, guaranteed tournaments, U.S Sports merchandise giveaways, and sports events packages.
The O Canada Series will consist of 16 freerolls and small buy-in tournaments.
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Doyle Brunson: Who is the hottest poker babe?
Doyle Brunson writes really awesome Twitter messages, or “tweets” as they say. Just recently the poker’s greatest legend created a list of questions to his twitter followers and the results are now here.
Doyle asked three poker related questions: 1) Which poker player would you like to have sex with, 2) Which poker player would you like to hang out with and 3) Poker payer you would like to kill?
Top three ladies to have sex with:
Number 1: Shannon Elizabeth
Number 2: Vanessa Rousso
Number 3: Jennifer Tilly
The editorial staff is just asking: hey guys, where’s Liv Boeree?
The men’s top 3 to have sex with were 1) Gus Hansen, 2) Patrik Antonius and 3) Phil Ivey. What seems a bit awkward is that Jen Tilly got some votes in the men’s category as well.
Doyle fans would like to hang out with Phil Laak and if the “Unabomber” isn’t around, Gavin Smith and/or Daniel Negreanu were the next favorable buddies.
The top 3 “kill list” was: 1) Phil Hellmuth, 2) Russ Hamilton and 3) PartyPoker’s Tony G.
Check out Doyle’s Twitter page for more.
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David Sesso Discusses WCOOP Win, Life After WSOP Ladies Event
In the 60th event of the recently completed PokerStars World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP), David “Blue Knight1” Sesso came away with the bracelet and a massive $299,000 bankroll boost following a four-way deal. In June, Sesso entered the Ladies Event of the 2010 World Series of Poker (WSOP) after a prop bet much to the ire of the women in attendance. Now, he’s in the spotlight for a completely different reason.
Just before a trip to Hammond, Indiana for the WSOP Circuit stop at the Horseshoe Casino, Sesso, a member of Team Bustout Poker, sat down with Poker News Daily to recap his latest accomplishment.
Poker News Daily: Congratulations on pulling down nearly $300,000 following the four-way chop in the $215 No Limit Hold’em WCOOP event. Tell us how you’re feeling.
David Sesso: It’s an amazing feeling. When it first happened, it was so unreal and rewarding after everything I’ve gone through this year. A lot of things fell apart this year for me and then this happened after I had been on my own for a month. I’ve worked hard, but the luck involved in winning this just as I got started on my own is huge. Now, I just hope I can take this gift and turn it into more.
PND: How has the $300,000 cash windfall affected your life since you earned it in late September?
David Sesso: It’s definitely had a big impact. Career-wise, it’s given me a chance to play high-stakes online MTTs on my own dime, which is not what I was expecting to have happen this soon. I’ve actually come back to Chicago for a bit to re-asses what’s next for me. I think as far as my image goes, I’ll just say that some players who doubted me before seem to be giving me a second look.
My confidence is through the roof now. During my heater in 2009, however, I let my ego take control and I think I got way too cocky, which wound up costing me in the end. This win came only after I put my ego in check and really took a closer look at my game. I found so many things I needed to improve upon. I’m actually very happy that I nearly went broke. I’m glad I was humbled because I think that’s what is going to make me stronger. I’m going to try to stay humble and realize that this is only the beginning.
PND: Did entering the WSOP Ladies Event change how others viewed you or acted towards you?
David Sesso: I’m not really sure what people think. I can only hope that people will see that I felt badly about it and admitted that I was wrong. While I meant no disrespect, it was an act of immaturity and I just hope people can forgive me for it. Maybe the fact that I have a WCOOP title will help with that, but maybe not. I guess it really just comes down to whether or not people believe I can change and grow as a person. Either way, my plan is to just keep working and getting better at this great game, whether people want to be behind me or not.
PND: You’re an ambassador for Bustout Poker, a popular line of poker gear. Can you remind us how you became involved with the company?
David Sesso: At Mohegan Sun, I was playing a $2,000 side event and happened to notice Jeff Griffith (the founder of Bustout) showing some t-shirts to a poker agent who was at my table. I liked the shirts and struck up a conversation with him. He told me about how he really loves MMA fighting and poker, which is what inspired him to build the company. The shirts have the look of many popular MMA clothing brands with a poker twist that I, along with many other top pros, find to be very cool.
I told Jeff a little about myself and I think he liked what he saw. Jeff is assembling a team of top players to represent Bustout Poker and I am quite impressed with the lineup so far, which includes internet stars such as Ben “Kid Cardiff” Warrington, Matt “All In At 420″ Stout, and Chris “Big_Huni” Hunichen. We also have accomplished PokerStars pro Chad Brown and more big names in the works. Don’t be surprised to see a lot of Team Bustout members reaching final tables both online and live. I really believe that these players are going to put a sting on the competition.
Scott Montgomery Rolled, Doyle Brunson Polls and Fall Sports Start From Poker In Twitter
This weekend from poker players on Twitter was a jambalaya of interests, but by far the most concerning one came from Scott Montgomery while at the Bellagio for the last few preliminary events prior to the World Poker Tour‘s (WPT) Festa al Lago event.
While in the facilities at the Bellagio, it appears that Montgomery was robbed. “Got mugged today at Bellagio,” Montgomery Tweeted to his followers on Sunday evening. “Black guy pulled a knife on me in the restroom. I gave him the $2k in my wallet and he left.”
According to Montgomery, the staff at the Bellagio were less than helpful. “I called security, but they took like 15 mins so they didn’t catch him. They are useless twits. Didn’t even ask me to look at camera footage.” Montgomery finished off his Tweet series by saying, “Security pretty much just said oh well, life sucks, have a nice day. I’m pretty annoyed.” His girlfriend, Annette Obrestad, was outraged, Tweeting, “@scotmont got just got robbed at Bellagio restroom… Security didn’t give a s**t… how does this even happen?”
The news over Twitter of Montgomery’s situation was made a bit lighter by a poll that Doyle Brunson set up late last week. “The Godfather of Poker” asked his Twitter followers to respond to him about several categories regarding people in the poker community. These subjects included which poker player would be best to sleep with, which poker player would be the best to hang out with, and which poker player inspired thoughts of homicide. As usual with Doyle, the responses were handed out with a bit of fun.
“OK, enough. Thousands want the results,” Brunson Tweeted. “Poker player you want to have sex with. 1.Shannon Elizabeth 2. Vanessa Rousso 3. Jennifer Tilly.” Brunson even went as far as to indicate who the ladies were most interested in, Tweeting, “The girls voted best I could tell 1. Gus Hanson 2. Patrik Antonius 3. Phil Ivey.” In what may be a bit of a surprise, Brunson said, “Jen Tilly made both lists for the sex!”
As far as the player who earned the votes for hanging out, Brunson chirped, “Poker player you want to hang out with. 1.Phil Laak 2.Gavin Smith 3. Daniel Negreanu.” Brunson then finished off his informal poll by Tweeting, “Poker player you want to kill. 1. Phil Hellmuth 2. Russ Hamilton 3.Tony G. Looks like most of the voters were guys.”
Fall is the prime time for professional sports in the United States, with the NFL season reaching full throttle, the MLB playoffs beginning, and other sports opening up their seasons. Joe Sebok Tweeted the displeasure of Cubs fans when, as he was watching the opening credits of the MLB playoffs, he Tweeted, “Really? Have to put the Mo Alou/Steve Bartman foul drop in the baseball playoffs promo vid? Really?! As if we cubs fans don’t suffer enough.”
A few of poker’s family had teams to cheer for in the MLB playoffs, though. UB.com sponsored player/adult entertainer Samantha Ryan chirped at WPT reporter B.J. Nemeth, “So sorry bout ur Braves, k, not really, go Giants! What a game! So sick! My heart was racing and my hands and throat hurt!” Nemeth talked some Twitter trash back at Ryan, saying, “Maybe the Braves (in the next game) will score a lot of runs early to protect your frail body from the stress of a close game.”
The fifth week of the NFL season was “must see” television for some, with Negreanu settling in to watch on the road. “Watching the game and have to deal with this genius wearing a Vick jersey,” Negreanu Tweeted along with a picture. “I’d like to burn it (the jersey) personally,” Negreanu finished, referencing Eagles quarterback Michael Vick’s prior transgressions.
From the action on the field, it appeared as though Lee Childs and David Williams were cheering for opposing sides. “Let’s go Titans, “ Childs Tweeted as the Tennessee squad held on to defeat the Dallas Cowboys. Williams was disillusioned with the performance of “America’s Team” to the point of Tweeting, “Romo is so awful, sucks cause I’m a Cowboys fan.” Eugene Todd was also down about the Cowboys’ performance, although he placed the blame on another source: “Dallas will never win anything because their coach is a moron. They make more mistakes than everyone in NFL.”
For the funniest Tweets from the past few days, we have to start with the always entertaining Erik Seidel, who decided to make a stand by Tweeting, “To protest Nobel prize winner Liu Xiaobo’s incarceration in China, I’m boycotting Panda Express until he’s freed.” Jennifer Harman finally found some limitations in her vast array of talents when she Tweeted, “I wish I could sing. I was singing to my son and he said, “No mommy, please, no mommy.” I guess I can’t be a rock star.” Finally, Joe Reitman pointed out while dining the other night, “At a new store opening on Melrose. They have a naked girl you can eat sushi off. I’m sorry, but something tells me that just isn’t sanitary.”
Kyle Bowker Leads EPT London with 16 Players Remaining
A payday of ?900,000 is on the line for the winner of the PokerStars European Poker Tour (EPT) London Main Event, which is currently taking place in the British city. Sixteen runners remain at the time of writing, led by online poker pro Kyle “kwob20” Bowker, who owns a stack of 3.8 million.
Who is Bowker, you ask? The New Yorker has two PokerStars World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP) titles and is a former winner of the PartyPoker $500,000 Guaranteed. His breakthrough moment in the live arena came after he finished 37th in the 2006 World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event for $247,000. In December 2009, Bowker played second fiddle to fellow young gun Chris “SLOPPYKLOD” Klodnicki in the Harrah’s Atlantic City WSOP Circuit Championship.
John O’Shea busted in 17th place from EPT London. The youngster called all-in pre-flop with A-J of spades and found himself up against the A-5 of Artur Wasek. O’Shea, who hails from nearby Ireland, hit top pair on an all-club flop, but Wasek held the ace of the suit to pick up the nut flush draw. The turn put a fourth club on board and gave Wasek the win; O’Shea picked up £21,000 for his deep run.
WSOP bracelet winner Chance “Chances Cards” Kornuth, who started the day as the chip leader in London, 4bet all-in pre-flop with J-9 of diamonds only to run into Bowker’s wired pair of kings. Neither player improved, so Kornuth hit the skids in 18th place for the same £21,000. Bowker surged to over four million chips after the hand, but fell back somewhat after dropping a pot with jacks versus queens against Tom Marchese.
Allen Bari was ousted on Sunday in 19th place. He ran pocket nines head on into Marchese’s wired pair of ladies and no help came on the flop, turn, or river. Marchese sits in third on the EPT London leaderboard at the time of writing with a stack of 2.5 million, but is still 1.3 million behind Bowker.
PokerStars pro Chad Brown finished in 23rd after 3betting all-in before the flop with J-10 of spades. Robert Nulli called with A-K and promptly flopped an ace to take a commanding lead. A running 4-Q sealed Brown’s face and the longtime veteran hit the exit of the Hilton Metropole in London.
The field of 16 players remaining includes former WSOP Europe Main Event winner John Juanda, a sponsored pro of Full Tilt Poker. Juanda last cashed in an EPT tournament one year ago, placing 40th in the 2009 EPT London Main Event. He’s fresh off a quartet of final tables at the 2010 WSOP, including a fourth place effort in the $50,000 Player’s Championship for well over $400,000. 2010 WSOP November Nine member Michael “The Grinder” Mizrachi took down the latter event for his first bracelet.
Also still alive is 2005 WSOP Main Event champ Joe Hachem. The PokerStars pro, who is quite literally on the other side of the world from his home in Australia, is the low man on the totem pole with a stack of 530,000. Hachem’s last EPT cash came in 2008 at the Monte Carlo Grand Final.
Here’s how the field of 16 stacks up in EPT London:
1. Kyle Bowker – 3,800,000
2. Per Ummer – 3,077,000
3. Tom Marchese – 2,550,000
4. Rumit Somaiya – 1,973,000
5. Kayvan Payman – 1,700,000
6. Artur Wasek – 1,500,000
7. David Vamplew – 1,500,000
8. Thomas Bichon – 1,436,000
9. John Juanda – 1,385,000
10. Fernando Brito – 1,300,000
11. Steven Levy – 1,300,000
12. John Hall – 1,200,000
13. Robert Nulli – 830,000
14. Matt Perrins – 700,000
15. Jannick Wrang – 597,000
16. Joe Hachem – 530,000
Stay tuned to Poker News Daily for the latest from EPT London.
PokerStars Picks Up Liv Boeree
Boeree was officially announced as a member of Team PokerStars Pro at the launch of the EPT London festival this week.
The 26-year-old will join poker superstars like Daniel Negreanu, Chris Moneymaker and Vanessa Rousso in representing the brand around the world.
“It’s what I’ve been working towards for the last five years,” said Boeree.
“When I decided I wanted to become a pro poker player I wanted to become as well-known and successful as I could be. One of my goals was to become a member of Team PokerStars Pro – and now I’ve done it.”
Before getting into poker Boeree studied physics and astrophysics at the University of Manchester before moving to London.
Since then Boeree has taken the poker world by storm, initially working as a TV presenter and journalist for various poker media outlets.
Boeree started to raise eyebrows as a player when she won the Ladbrokes Ladies Championship for $42,000 in 2008.
After winning that event Boeree was able to put together a string of wins at the WSOP but it was in 2010 that she would score he first major tournament win.
Boeree outlasted 1,239 players to win EPT San Remo and take down a first-place prize of $1.6 million. She joined fellow Brit Vicky Coren and German Sandra Naujoks as the only women with EPT titles.
“Liv is the whole package,” said Daniel Negreanu.
“She has a great résumé after winning EPT San Remo, is likeable, well spoken, attractive and hard-working. There is no question she was the top free agent and I’m ecstatic that she is now part of the team.”
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Liv Boeree Joins Team PokerStars Pro
Fresh off another successful cycle of the World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP), PokerStars made another big announcement on Tuesday. U.K. poker pro Liv Boeree was named the newest member of Team PokerStars Pro a few months after leaving UB.com.
Boeree became one of the game’s hottest commodities after winning the PokerStars European Poker Tour (EPT) San Remo Main Event in April for $1,698,000. Media and fans have become taken by not only her stunning looks, but also her academic background. Boeree earned a degree in astrophysics from the University of Manchester before committing to poker full-time.
Her poker career got started when she was selected as one of five contestants in the reality TV show “Ultimatepoker.com Showdown” and she has since worked as a presenter at the World Series of Poker (WSOP), WSOP Europe, and European Poker Tour (EPT). On the felt, Boeree’s biggest accomplishments aside from her San Remo title include a victory at the 2008 Ladbrokes European Ladies Championships for $30,000 and a 37th place finish at the 2009 World Poker Tour (WPT) Championship.
Boeree represented UB.com at the 2010 WSOP, wearing patches for the majority of the schedule. But, those patches were visibly absent during the Main Event, leaving many wondering if she had left the company looking for greener pastures. Sure enough, Boeree officially parted ways with UB.com in August and it was only a matter of time before one of the major online poker sites grabbed the rising star off the free agent market.
“It’s more of an honor than I can really describe,” Boeree said about joining Team PokerStars Pro. “It’s something I’ve been aspiring towards ever since I learned about the world of poker and I am over the moon to be achieving such a huge personal goal!”
Boeree will make her first appearance as a Team PokerStars Pro at this week’s PokerStars EPT London event, which takes place at the Hilton Metropole Hotel from September 29th to October 4th. She’s had a busy month at the tables already, taking 12th at the English Poker Open and then participating in the WSOP Europe Main Event. Boeree took 184th in the PokerStars WCOOP Main Event for $12,800. She trusts that hard work will help take her career to the next level.
“I hope to grow my game as far as possible by studying and playing as much as I can,” Boeree said. “I’ll also hopefully get to use the wonderful resource of the other Team Pros – some of the greatest poker minds in the game! Hopefully, I’ll use this to produce further results and make the Team proud!”
Boeree joins Vicky Coren, John Duthie, Jude “j.thaddeus” Ainsworth, J.P. Kelly, and Julian Thew as members of Team PokerStars UK and Ireland. All are expected to be on hand for the EPT London festivities.
Mattern survives a pre-flop cooler… just. Bord new chip leader.
Tags: ladies
Lorraine Firth wins Betfred Ladies Leeds
PokerStars Announces Schedule for APPT Cebu
PokerStars, the world’s largest online poker room and sponsor of the Asia Pacific Poker Tour (APPT), has announced the return of a stop in Cebu, Philippines for its fourth season. The series will take place at Shangri-La’s Mactan Resort and Spa for a five-day Main Event from November 12 to 16, along with a string of side events.
“We’re delighted to be taking the APPT back to the Philippines, and Cebu in particular,” said Jeffrey Haas, President of the APPT. “The Tour has gone from strength to strength in its relatively short life and fields are growing all the time. Last year’s event in Cebu was a definite highlight and offered further evidence of the continued passion for poker in the Asia Pacific region.”
The tour had a hugely successful debut in Cebu last year, drawing 319 players for the 100,000 Pesos (approximately $2,165 USD) Main Event to create a prize pool of more than $630,000. The tournament was won by Korea’s Dong-bin Han, who collected $156,722 and became only the second Asia-based player to win an APPT Main Event. The 37-year-old bested a tough field that included PokerStars Team Pros Bryan Huang, Tae Jun Noh, Raymond Wu, Tony Hachem, and Celina Lin.
Lin, who won the Red Dragon event at the Macau Poker Cup in July 2009, is excited to return to Cebu for another year: “The five-star resort, with wonderful beaches, spas, and restaurants, is one of the most idyllic places I’ve ever played poker. Cebu is a beautiful destination and the poker tournament itself was also fierce and fun. It will be even better this time!”
The APPT has already held the first three legs of Season 4. APPT Manila took place in the Philippines in March and was followed by APPT Macau at Casino Grand Lisboa in May. APPT Auckland in New Zealand panned out earlier this month. The APPT Grand Final in Sydney, Australia will take place at the Star City Casino from December 7 to 12.
APPT Cebu kicks off Wednesday, November 11 with a PHP 5,000 No Limit Hold’em event. Here’s a look at the full 2010 PokerStars APPT Cebu Cup Schedule (buy-ins in Philippine Pesos):
Wednesday, November 11: PHP 5,000 Cebu Cup Day 1A (PHP 1,000,000 Guarantee)
Thursday, November 12: PHP 5,000 Cebu Cup Day 1B
Friday, November 12: PHP 100,000 APPT Main Event Day 1A
Friday, November 12: PHP 20,000 No Limit Hold’em
Saturday, November 13: PHP 100,000 APPT Main Event Day 1B
Saturday, November 13: PHP 20,000 No Limit Hold’em KO Bounty
Saturday, November 13: PHP 5,000 Ladies No Limit Hold’em
Sunday, November 14: PHP 10,000 No Limit Hold’em Six-Handed
Sunday, November 14: PHP 30,000 Pot Limit Omaha
Monday, November 15: PHP 40,000 No Limit Hold’em Six-Handed
Monday, November 15: PHP 200,000 High Roller Event (Two-Day)
Tuesday, November 16: PHP 20,000 No Limit Hold’em Deep Stack
Visit PokerStars for full details.
2010 Women in Poker Hall of Fame Induction by Linda Johnson
I’ve been traveling constantly for the past six weeks. First, I went on an exploratory two-week cruise on the biggest ship in the world. Next, I hosted a week-long poker tournament at the Eureka Casino in Mesquite, Nevada. After stopping home overnight to watch some TIVO and do laundry, I flew to Indianapolis for one of my favorite charity events, the annual benefit for Mickey’s Camp (Mickeyscamp.com), to teach poker and run two poker tournaments.
When camp was over, I actually got to spend two days at home before leaving for the Card Player Cruises Alaska poker trip. I got back from the Alaska cruise just three hours prior to the start of the third annual Women in Poker Hall of Fame induction ceremony, which will be the focus of this blog.
The voters did a great job with the choice of inductees for the 2010 Women in Poker Hall of Fame class: Jennifer Harman, Kathy Liebert, and Billie Brown. The Golden Nugget was the venue for year three and they did it right! The tournament pavilion was transformed into a supper club/bistro environment through the hard work of the committee spearheaded by Suzie Lederer and Suzanne Carter along with some awesome volunteers.
Lupe Soto, creator of the Women in Poker Hall of Fame and founder of the Ladies International Poker Series, brought in NASA special events coordinator Gyla Whitlow to produce the induction ceremony. Gyla composed an amazing video montage that played throughout the evening featuring the history in pictures of each of the present and past inductees.
Throughout the evening, there was a silent auction to benefit Poker Gives, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization started by Mike Sexton, Jan Fisher, Lisa Tenner, and me as a way for poker players to give back to charity. The evening’s emcee was Jan, who should consider becoming a standup comedian. She did an amazing job of keeping everyone on schedule and coming up with some very funny adlibbed lines. After opening the evening, Jan brought Lupe up to the stage to thank the event sponsors: Lord Griffon Jewelry, Full Tilt Poker, Ocean’s 11 Casino, the Golden Nugget, GreasieWheels.com, and Legacy Alliance.
The keynote speaker was Jeffrey Pollack, the former World Series of Poker (WSOP) Commissioner who now serves as the Executive Chairman of the Professional Bull Riders (PBR) and a member of its Board of Directors. He spoke about the similarities between the PBR and the poker world and the importance of women’s-only events in poker. Next, the WSOP Media Director Nolan Dalla took the stage and gave an impassioned speech about the WSOP’s commitment to women in poker. He reminded us of its history with the Ladies Event and assured the crowd that the Ladies Event shall remain a prominent part of their schedule going forward.
The ceremony began with Helen Hartley, marketing director at Oceans 11 Casino, and Bob Moyer, managing partner of Oceans 11, paying tribute to the first inductee, Billie Brown. Many of today’s players have never heard of Billie Brown since she passed away in 2004, but her contributions to poker live on.
She was an innovator and created exciting tournaments and promotions that changed the face of poker. In the early 80s, Billie was the first person to create a guaranteed purse in a major poker tournament. She committed a major casino, the Riviera Hotel, to be the tournament venue. The “Draw for the Gold Tournament” guaranteed $350,000 in its first year. The second and third years guaranteed $450,000 and the fourth year had the first $1,000,000 guarantee. That promotion built a player base of 2,500, which was unheard of in those days.
She liked being a host and started a business of bringing players from New York and Los Angeles to Las Vegas. Other poker-related work included creating promotions with Commerce Casino, including “Play for the Gold,” and working with several of the Indian casinos in San Diego assisting them in building their poker rooms and Asian games.
She served as the marketing director for Ocean’s 11 Casino during the last decade of her life. It was there that she created and hosted the beloved California State Ladies Poker Championship, an event that still draws women from all over the country. Billie always made sure that the ladies had a good time and that everything was perfect for them, from the gifts she personally chose and meticulously wrapped to the banquet decorations and the entertainment. Her tournament wasn’t just about poker; it was an opportunity for women in the industry to bond.
I had the good fortune of being Billie’s friend for 25 years and am pleased to see her get recognition for her achievements in poker. Her daughter, Kelley O’Hara, who is the marketing director for the Bicycle Casino, gave an eloquent acceptance speech on Billie’s behalf.
Next, Jan Fisher introduced Jennifer Harman and talked about her many poker achievements, including winning two gold bracelets in open events at the WSOP. Jennifer has more than $2.2 million in career tournament winnings and plays in the highest limit cash games in the world. She also wrote the Limit Hold’em section in “Super System 2.” Jennifer took the stage and graciously congratulated Kathy Liebert on her induction and thanked everyone for attending the ceremony.
Last but not least, Fisher introduced Kathy Liebert to the crowd. Kathy has more than $5.7 million in career tournament winnings and a gold WSOP bracelet. She was the first person to win a $1,000,000 guaranteed first place prize tournament and ranks in the top 40 in winnings among all poker players. She has played in 100 WPT events and made a WPT final table six times.
Kathy gave a great speech and told us about how she had been a business executive with Dun and Bradstreet and decided that she would not be happy in the business world, so she moved to Colorado and took a job as a prop and played $5 Limit poker while she perfected her skills. She also talked about how she likes seeing more women at the poker tables in these times than ever in the past.
Congratulation Kathy, Jennifer, and Billie! You are all deserving members of the prestigious Women in Poker Hall of Fame. The evening ended with a dance, which meant that I was the last one to leave and turn out the lights.
Johnny Chan Perfect on Full Tilt Doubles Poker Championship
On Saturday at 9:00pm ET, the Full Tilt Doubles Poker Championship continued airing on GSN. The third round of regular season matches began with Phil Hellmuth teaming with Toto Leonidas, Annette Obrestad teaming with Annie Duke, Phil Laak teaming with Phil Ivey, and Phil Gordon teaming with Jennifer Harman. The unique match boasted four players named Phil and the first all-female team.
Each pair received 50,000 in starting chips and players alternated action by street. Each team is randomly assigned and, out of the 32 players that entered, 16 will make the post-season after four preliminary matches. Players are not allowed to talk strategy at the table while their team has cards. Instead, teams are allotted one 30-second time out to confer.
Harman and Gordon doubled up through Obrestad and Duke after flopping a king-high flush against the nut straight. Then, the contingent of ladies was out in fourth place after running Q-10 into the pocket tens of Gordon and Harman. They received zero points for the regular season standings and Duke, a UB.com pro, was nearly assured to miss the playoffs.
Laak committed his team’s chips pre-flop with A-Q and ran into Hellmuth’s Big Slick. Hellmuth called all-in and watched in agony as Laak’s team flopped two pair. Hellmuth and Leonidas headed for the exit in third place and received four points apiece.
In the match’s final hand, Ivey moved all-in before the flop with a wired pair of threes and Gordon made the call with pocket jacks. The board ran out 10-5-6-7-8 and Gordon and Harman claimed the title and 20 points. Through three regular season matches, Gordon has racked up 44 points, with Doubles Poker Championship commentator Brandon Adams speculating that 35 will be needed to make the playoffs. Ivey and Obrestad each stood at 31 points with one match to go in the regular season.
The second set of matches to unfold on Saturday night featured Huck Seed pairing with Carlos Mortensen, Mike Matusow teaming with Allen Cunningham, PartyPoker front man Tony G teaming with Johnny Chan, and Tom “durrrr” Dwan teaming with Victory Poker’s Antonio Esfandiari.
Doubles Poker Championship viewers were able to see Seed and Mortensen deliberate in a time out speaking only Spanish, although the team was the first to depart. Seed and Mortensen were all-in with K-3 and up against the pocket eights of Matusow and Cunningham. The flop came 3-8-3, giving Matusow and Cunningham a boat against trips and the better hand held for the win when the case three failed to come.
Chan raised to 8,500 pre-flop with pocket nines and Esfandiari made the call with J-10 of diamonds. The flop came 8-8-4 with two diamonds and Tony G led out for 8,000. Dwan pushed all-in and Tony G called. The percentages showed a virtual coin flip until a nine fell on the turn to give Tony G and Chan a boat, leaving Dwan and Esfandiari drawing dead. Dwan tossed a $5,000 casino chip to Matusow, presumably as payment for a last longer bet, and his team was eliminated in third place.
The final hand of the night saw Matusow open-shove with K-2 and Tony G call with pocket sixes. The board ran out five cards seven or lower and Tony G and Chan claimed victory. For Chan, it marked his third straight title. The former back-to-back World Series of Poker Main Event champ is the lone player to have 60 regular season points through three matches, while Seed owns 40.
Chan told Full Tilt Doubles Poker Championship host Lacey Jones why he’s been so successful: “The secret is patience, discipline, just watching the other players play, pick up a little bit here, pick up a little bit there, and just finish the hand.” You can catch new episodes every Saturday at 9:00pm ET on GSN.
Poker News in Brief: Sep. 6-12
Add in some high stakes action, the UKIPT heading to Ireland and the Partouche Poker Tour setting its own November Nine and it was a busy week in the PokerListings news room.
A few stories may have slipped through the cracks, but we've gathered them below in our regular Poker News in Brief feature.
This week, the WCOOP main event gets the biggest guarantee ever, Boxing legend Evander Holyfield hits the felt, UB's bad beat jackpot is claimed and more.
$2 Million for WCOOP Champ
PokerStars is now offering a record-breaking guaranteed payout to the winner of this year’s World Championship of Online Poker main event.
The 2010 WCOOP main event champion will walk away with a guaranteed $2 million payday, the largest first-place prize for an online poker tournament in history.
The $5,200 two-day main event begins Sep. 26.
Last year Yevgeniy “Jovial Gent” Timoshenko won the title and $1,715,200 first-place prize.
High Heels Heads West
The first all women’s poker tour launched on the East Coast, is headed west.
The High Heels Poker Tour will hit the Wildhorse Resort Casino in Pendleton, Oregon. The Nov. 8 for its $165 Fall Round Up Ladies No-Limit Hold’em event.
For more information, including dates, times and buy-ins go to www.highheelspokertour.com.
Still The Champ
Evander Holyfield won the celebrity 'Beat the Champ' poker tournament live at Poker in the Park in London this week.
London's Leicester Square played host to thousands of fans attending Europe's largest poker festival including one Midlands man who got the chance to take on the former Heavyweight Boxing Champion of the World on the felt.
"It's like fighting," Holyfield explained. "If you want to win you have to focus and prepare and that's exactly what I did for this tournament, just like I do for any challenge." Leif G. won his way into the tournament through RealDealPoker.com.
Bad Beat?
A Ferris, Texas woman lost with quads, but won $218,115 in Bad Beat Jackpot money on UB this week.
KAPPIT saw her four nines crushed by CJBV’s quad queens at a $0.25/0.50 table, triggering the payday.
For his part, CJBV picked up $109,057.85 while the seven other players banked at least $1,000 just for being there.
Plus 610 others grabbed $89.36 because they were playing the same limit.
"I've been playing Poker for 45 years now, mostly live poker, and I hit a jackpot once in a land-based Casino, but this is the biggest prize I've ever got,” she said. “Keep those jackpots coming UB... Dreams do come true."
Full Tilt Sponsors MMA Series
Full Tilt Poker is putting its name on the Bellator Fighting Championships.
Now in its third season, the Bellator Fighting Championships is a continuing series of televised World Class Mixed Martial Arts presented in a tournament format.
This week marked the first of eight nationally and internationally televised Bellator events sponsored by Full Tilt.
Visit PokerListings.com
Tags: 2010, bad beat, buy-ins, full tilt poker, high stakes, jackpot, ladies, no-limit, Online Poker, pokerstars, tournament, usa, woman, women
Lady Luck
Tags: ladies
Sisters are doing it for themselves
Tags: ladies
My 2010 Poker Hall of Fame Vote
For the second straight year, I’ll have the privilege of voting for the Poker Hall of Fame. This prestigious award is given to deserving candidates who meet four criteria: “Played poker against acknowledged top competition; played for high stakes; played consistently well, gaining the respect of peers; stood the test of time; or, for non-players, contributed to the overall growth and success of the game of poker, with indelible positive and lasting results.”
The 33-member panel, which consists of the 16 living Poker Hall of Fame members and 17 media representatives, can select as many of the 10 final candidates as they deem worthy of admission. Here are my thoughts on each of the 10 finalists as they appear in alphabetical order:
Chris Ferguson: There’s something to be said for a man who was influential in developing the software for one of the world’s largest online poker sites, Full Tilt. The former World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event champ has five bracelets and over $5 million in career WSOP earnings. He’s one of the game’s most recognizable faces due to his “Jesus” persona and, at 47, also has a National Heads-Up Poker Championship title under his belt. He’s worthy of consideration to the Poker Hall of Fame and would be my fourth favorite selection among the finalists.
Barry Greenstein: Despite having more than $2 million in WSOP earnings and three bracelets, Greenstein may best be known for igniting the move for generosity away from the felts. Greenstein has become known as the “Robin Hood of Poker,” but lacks the sparkling poker resume that the other nine Poker Hall of Fame candidates hold. However, I have little doubt that Greenstein, like Ferguson, will be inducted as part of a future class.
Jennifer Harman: Fresh off an induction into the Women in Poker Hall of Fame, Harman owns two WSOP bracelets, neither of which came in a Ladies event. She’s made two World Poker Tour (WPT) final tables and is approaching the $1 million mark in earnings on the WPT. Harman is a perfect fit for the Women in Poker Hall of Fame and her charity work will undoubtedly earn her a nod in the future, but she is not among my top choices for the Poker Hall of Fame Class of 2010.
Dan Harrington: The man who quite literally wrote the book on poker, Harrington’s “Hold’em” series can be found on the bookshelves of serious players around the world. Despite massive fields, Harrington made the final table of the Main Event in back-to-back years in 2003 and 2004 and won it all in 1995. He’s my top pick for this year’s Poker Hall of Fame class and was a nominee last year.
Phil Ivey: He’s pretty good at poker. Millions upon millions of dollars earned in cash games, eight WSOP bracelets, and a final table in last year’s Main Event are just a few of the reasons that Ivey will eventually receive a Poker Hall of Fame nod. However, “No Home Jerome,” at 34, isn’t yet old enough to run for President of the United States and didn’t record a WSOP in the money finish prior to 2000. While he’ll be a favorite of many members of the voting panel, Ivey has not yet “stood the test of time.”
Linda Johnson: How do you not elect “The First Lady of Poker” to the Poker Hall of Fame? A founding member of the Tournament Directors Association and inaugural inductee to the Women in Poker Hall of Fame, Johnson has made an indelible impact on the game in several different areas. From encouraging more women to play to co-founding Poker Gives and urging players to give back, Johnson epitomizes what a Poker Hall of Fame inductee should be. She’ll be receiving my vote this year as my second favorite candidate.
Tom McEvoy: In my opinion, McEvoy is the poster child for standing the test of time. In his third career WSOP in the money finish, he won the Main Event in 1983. He’s racked up a total of four bracelets and then promptly took down last year’s Champions Invitational, a made-for-television event that awarded a sleek new ride to its winner. McEvoy has authored a bounty of poker books including his “Championship” series and “How to Win No Limit Hold’em Tournaments.” McEvoy also lacks any character questions and will be marked on my ballot.
Daniel Negreanu: The same argument I used as to why Ivey does not warrant a nod for the Poker Hall of Fame this year holds water for Negreanu, who is 36 years old. “Kid Poker” has become one of the main faces of the entire industry through his marketable persona and owns the second largest earnings total in WPT history. He also has four bracelets, but a recent high-profile run-in with Annie Duke that included the use of the “C” word has me questioning whether he’s worthy of being an ambassador for the game.
Scotty Nguyen: Sadly, I can’t bring myself to vote for Nguyen. The only player to have won the $50,000 HORSE Championship and WSOP Main Event, Nguyen’s expertise on the felt is in a league of its own. He has eight WPT final tables and one title, but his demeanor at the HORSE Championship in 2008 remains a major black eye for the industry given the game’s precarious online legality in the United States and the tournament’s national exposure on ESPN. The fact that Nguyen still orders beer at tournaments, albeit non-alcoholic brands like O’Doul’s, continues to confound me after what happened in 2008. If Nguyen wants anyone’s vote, he’ll need to shape up.
Erik Seidel: Duke’s choice for the Poker Hall of Fame, Seidel has been the epitome of class. As she told Poker News Daily, “The guy behaves with such grace in a sport where grace is really needed. He’s always so graceful and so sportsmanlike.” I’m on the fence about Seidel’s accomplishments away from the game, as his dominance on the felts is obvious.
Tags: 2008, 2010, Annie Duke, Barry Greenstein, charity, Daniel Negreanu, high stakes, Jennifer Harman, ladies, legal, Online Poker, Phil Ivey, tournament, women, WSOP
Julian Thew’s Ladies
Cat’s got the cream
Tags: ladies