Poker News

Ty Reiman Wins UBOC 4 Kickoff Tournament

The kickoff event of the fourth Ultimate Bet Online Championship (UBOC) saw recent PokerStars Caribbean Adventure (PCA) runner-up Ty “KEEFKING420” Reiman take down the $320 buy-in No Limit Hold’em Sniper contest for $65,000.

Reiman has been on a tear in recent months. His second place showing in the 2010 PCA Main Event 10 days ago was worth a colossal $1.75 million and Reiman outlasted all but Harrison Gimbel in the record-setting field of 1,529 players. In December, the Illinois native tasted victory in both the $150,000 Guaranteed on UB.com and the Full Tilt Poker $30K Super Turbo Knockout for a combined $50,000. Reiman’s breakthrough happened last July, when he won the $1K Monday on Full Tilt for $100,000.

Reiman told UB.com officials following the $320 buy-in kickoff event, “It was a great structured tournament and I really enjoyed playing it. I started off going into the final table in second and, with how deep we were, it allowed us a lot of play. I picked up a few hands and we got down to short-handed pretty quickly. Then, it took quite some time before it was over.” Heads-up, Reiman defeated PEENAR7, who banked $38,000.

On the battle against PEENAR7 for the title of UBOC Event #1 Champion, Reiman recalled, “The heads-up was back at forth, but by the end, luck must have been on my side. I really enjoyed UBOC and can't wait to play the rest of the events. I think they have a great structure and are a great series of tournaments.” Reiman and company will have 18 total UBOC events to compete in along with a MiniUBOC tournament series, which offers buy-ins that are one-tenth as large.

Also at the final table of UBOC Event #1 was Scott “stsitron” Siton, who earned $16,000 for his fifth place showing. Sitron has excelled in the live poker world, turning in a 32nd place showing in the 2009 World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event for $253,000 in a tournament ultimately won by Team PokerStars Pro member Joe Cada. In 2008, he finished in second in a $1,500 buy-in No Limit Hold’em event at the WSOP for $385,000. Sitron has nearly $700,000 in career WSOP and Circuit Event cashes to his name.

So who else made the final table of the UBOC 4 kickoff event? Here were the results; 108 players finished in the money:

1. KEEFKING420 - $65,488
2. PEENAR7 - $38,626
3. SCHUEY995 - $26,654
4. AUTOBOT7 - $19,209
5. SCOTTYTHEFISH - $15,933
6. DOUBLEDAVE22 - $12,955
7. ANTONFS - $9,977
8. COOKIELULU2 - $7,147
9. DEGORD2 - $5,063

Event #2 of UBOC 4, a $162 buy-in Eight Game Mixed tournament, drew a crowd of 386 players. The event surpassed its $50,000 guarantee, with CYBERCOW defeating Justin Scott heads-up to earn $15,000. A total of 40 players walked away with cash, with notable online poker pros Dan “djk123” Kelly and James “croll103” Carroll reaching the talented final table. Both sit in the top 25 of the PocketFives.com Online Poker Rankings and are among the game’s elite. Here’s how the final table shook out:

1. CYBERCOW - $15,633
2. JUSTIN SCOTT - $9,814
3. CHETSTEADMAN - $6,369
4. WORTHLESNUTS - $4,632
5. JEFFGRESSARD - $3,474
6. CROLL103 - $2,461
7. TWOLIP69 - $1,882
8. ZESTFULYCLEAN - $1,303

The Main Event of UBOC 4 kicks off on Sunday, January 31st and is a $1,050 buy-in No Limit Hold’em Two-Day contest. At least $1 million will be on the line. Stay tuned to Poker News Daily for the latest UBOC 4 coverage.

Conan O’Brien, Jay Leno Fiasco Debated in Poker Community

If Facebook is any indication, the youth of America stand in strong support of comedian Conan O’Brien in his continued battle with former “The Tonight Show” host Jay Leno and the suits at NBC.  Not only are there almost 20,000 followers spread across the various “Team Coco” fan pages and Facebook groups, but also their members have hijacked Leno’s fan page and refuse to give it back until NBC leaves O’Brien alone.

The online poker community is a young one, so it is no wonder that when Poker News Daily inquired about their thoughts on the Leno-O’Brien debate, they all came out on the side of “Coco.”  Justin “jurollo” Rollo and Jason “JP OSU” Potter both proclaimed themselves to be members of Team Conan, as did World Poker Tour (WPT) Live Updates Hostess Amanda Leatherman.  During last night’s broadcast of “The Tonight Show,” Leatherman Tweeted about the comedian on @mandaLeatherman: “Conan is f***king amazing.#teamconan.”  Potter claimed his allegiance to O’Brien on Twitter (@JPOSU) as well and added, “doubt you'll find many young people who disagree.”

Potter seems to be on to something.  Jonathan “FatalError” Aguiar took a break from playing in the Main Event of the European Poker Tour (EPT) stop in Deauville to discuss his distaste for Leno with Poker News Daily.  “Jay Leno sucks,” claimed Aguiar.  “He's out of material and his only followers are old and dying.  NBC is being results-oriented and doesn't realize that the long-term success of ‘The Tonight Show’ is based on attracting loyal young viewers who will watch Conan for the next decade, not people who will be dead in a decade and somehow still find Jay funny.”

Aguiar makes a point that a number of people have cited when discussing NBC’s decision to buy O’Brien out of his contract for a reported $45 million.  O’Brien has always drawn a much younger audience than Leno, thanks, in part, to sketches and characters like In the Year 2000, Triumph the Insult Comic Dog, and the Masturbating Bear, who made an appearance on last night’s show.

Also making an appearance on Wednesday’s installment of the program was a Bugatti Veyron, supposedly the most expensive car in the world.  The vehicle was dressed up as a mouse and as the cameras panned over it, the Rolling Stones’ “Satisfaction” played.  O’Brien strolled over to the vehicle and said, “Is this appropriate music for a car that looks like a mouse? No! Does it add anything at all to this comedy bit? No, it doesn't! Is it crazy expensive to play on the air - not to mention the rights to re-air this clip on the internet? Yep.”

Despite stunts like these, none of the poker players we chatted with seemed to think that O’Brien was doing anything wrong.  Poker reporter B.J. Nemeth shed some light on why he thinks Leno is coming out looking like the villain in this situation.  “[Leno] went back on his word,” Nemeth said, referring to Leno’s presumed retirement when O’Brien took over “The Tonight Show” helm in the summer of 2009.  “Obviously, going back on your word in Hollywood is not the same as going back on your word in poker, but it still has an impact.”

Nemeth asserts that he has been a loyal member of Team Conan since 1993 and said he had hoped Leno’s longtime competitor, David Letterman, would take over for Johnny Carson when the television legend retired.  Even though Nemeth is no Leno fan, he felt a little sorry for the talk show host when fellow comedian Jimmy Kimmel appeared on Leno’s program and openly mocked the host during a “10 @ 10” segment last Tuesday.  “I enjoyed watching, but it was painful to see Leno crucified on his own show,” Nemeth admitted.

That is the most sympathy anyone Poker News Daily spoke with offered.  The 20-somethings that make up the bulk of the online poker world essentially grew up with O’Brien on their televisions and are remaining loyal to their comedic hero.  Brent “BHanks11” Hanks is one such example, telling Poker News Daily, “Put the babyboomer to the curb, bring back the ginger!”

Antanas “Tony G” Guoga Joins Team PartyPoker

Continuing to add to an already impressive lineup, it was announced early Thursday that top poker professional Antanas “Tony G” Guoga has signed a sponsorship deal with PartyPoker.

Guoga, who has been at the forefront of the international poker scene for the past decade, will make his first showing for Team PartyPoker at the Aussie Millions, which began today and is one of the top non-U.S. tournaments on the poker schedule. According to Guoga’s new blog at PartyPoker, he will be participating in the $100,000 Challenge tournament scheduled to start on January 23rd, which draws some of the toughest competition in the game today and features defending champion Howard Lederer. Tony G will also join fellow Team PartyPoker members Bodo Sbrzesny and defending Aussie Millions champion Stewart Scott along with 43 qualifiers from PartyPoker for the Aussie Millions Main Event. The AUD $10,000 tournament will feature three starting days that begin on January 24th and will be broadcasted on Fox Sports Net.

As a part of the new sponsorship deal, Guoga will also be part of one of PartyPoker’s upcoming special events, the PartyPoker.com Premier League IV. This invitation-only tournament is scheduled to take place in February in Las Vegas and includes a formidable lineup. Such players as former World Champion and 11-time World Series of Poker (WSOP) bracelet winner Phil Hellmuth, current World Poker Tour (WPT) Championship winner Yevgeniy “Jovial Gent” Timoshenko, poker Triple Crown winner Roland De Wolfe, noted poker “bad boy” Luke ‘FullFlush’ Schwartz, and dangerous tournament pro J. C. Tran are scheduled to take to the felt, presenting Tony G with tremendously difficult opposition.

Guoga’s own online poker site, TonyGPoker.com, has been merged into the PartyPoker family. Those players who are a part of TonyGPoker.com will be moved to Noble Poker. Guoga will continue to be an integral part of his online promotions, such as the Sunday Bike Ride (moving to Noble Poker), and will play on PartyPoker under the name “TonyG.”

“We’re delighted to welcome Tony to Team PartyPoker,” a PartyGaming spokesman commented about the newest arrival to the organization. “Tony is undoubtedly one of poker’s biggest characters in the game and a personal deal for him made huge sense. We are also happy to have acquired the assets of TonyGPoker.com and look forward to welcoming his players on board.”

Guoga isn’t called “The Mouth From Down Under” for nothing. Known to dismiss his beaten opponents from the table with a curt “On Yer Bike!” Guoga has already issued a challenge for those PartyPoker members playing in the Aussie Millions. “If one of the Party qualifiers knocks me out of the Main Event, I will buy them a bike,” Guoga stated. “First of all, however, I will ride it out myself… I know when it is bike time!”

In his first blog entry on PartyPoker, Guoga also throws down the gauntlet against one of his Premier League IV foes. After speaking glowingly of Poker Hall of Fame member Mike Sexton and “High Stakes Poker” announcer Kara Scott, Tony G dropped the hammer on Luke “FullFlush” Schwartz: “He’s rude, obnoxious and I cannot wait to bust him up. This kid is not the kind of player you feel you can learn from – you just want to bust him.”

Guoga certainly has the ability to bust up many players at the table. His lifetime earnings at the tournament poker tables total nearly $4 million and include the WPT Bad Boys of Poker II championship in 2006. He was also the runner-up in the 2006 PartyPoker Intercontinental Poker Championship in Las Vegas and has cashed 15 times at the WSOP.

Famous for his mouth, it is Guoga’s philanthropic efforts that have earned him a great deal of respect from players and fans. After he won the first ever Asian Poker Tour (APT) event in Singapore in 2006, Tony G donated half the prize money to charity and, after taking down over $200,000 in a Moscow poker tournament in 2007, he turned over the entirety of his winnings to Russian orphanages.

With the addition of Guoga, Team PartyPoker is becoming a formidable challenge in the tournament poker world. After not sponsoring pros for much of its existence, PartyPoker has certainly drawn top talent to its roster. Along with Guoga, Sexton, Sbrzesny, and the two Scotts, other members of Team PartyPoker include France’s Remy Biechel, England’s Ian “The Raiser” Frazer, and Brazil’s Felipe "Mojave" Ramos.

Poker in Twitter: Biloxi, Aussie Millions and the MA Senate Race

Now that the poker community has returned from the Bahamas and are no longer racking up expensive roaming charges on their cell phones, they have been posting on the social networking website Twitter with a newfound dedication.  In the past couple of days, players have been dropping Tweets about the Massachusetts Senate race, Biloxi and Australia prelims, their latest big scores and, of course, current events ranging from politics to television.  With so many Tweets and so little time, we know you might be feeling a little twitterpated, so Poker News Daily has taken the time to cull the best Tweets from the past few days for your reading pleasure:

The PokerStars Caribbean Adventure (PCA) may be over and done with, but the poker community never rests.  Players have already arrived at both the Beau Rivage in Biloxi, Mississippi and the Crown Casino in Melbourne Australia for the Southern Poker Championship and Aussie Millions, respectively.  Some of the players who headed South for the winter and some action at the tables are Team PokerStars Pro Jason Mercier, Brent “Astrolux85” Roberts, Full Tilt’s Gavin Smith and Allen “The Chainsaw” Kessler.

According to Mercier’s Twitter feed (@JasonMercier), his hot streak has continued into 2010, as he already made not one, but two final tables so far in Biloxi.  Mercier filled in his followers on his progress on the 19th, writing, “Beau Rivage event 24 final table 5th place finish.” He followed up his impressive showing in the $500 Pot Limit Omaha with rebuys event with another final table run in the $1,000 No Limit Hold’em event.  When Mercier last posted late Wednesday afternoon, he was poised to book his first win of 2010: “Goin to heads up. I have 1.3 vs guys 900k 68k for first!!!”

Another player who notched their first victory of the year is Annette “Annette_15” Obrestad. The Norwegian online poker sensation headed down under following the PCA and was rewarded with a win in the Aussie Millions Pot Limit Omaha event.  Obrestad posted her tournament progress throughout the event on her Twitter feed (@Annette_15) and let everyone know the event was over with a simple, “yayyyyy i won!!!!” Jon "pokertrip" Friedberg had an idea about one way Obrestad could spend her tournament winnings: “are u playing in the 100k...assuming they r running if this yr? Glgl.” Friedberg is referring to the High Rollers event at the Aussie Millions, which boasts an entry fee of AUD $100,000.

While many players had poker on the brain, a number of pros had their attention fixed on the Massachusetts Senate race.  The election determined which Senator would fill the seat previously occupied by the late Ted Kennedy and many poker players expressed frustration and disappointment over the contest’s results.  The always outspoken Alex Outhred (@alexpokerguy) was quick to post his thoughts on Republican Senator Scott Brown’s victory: “Congrats to Dems for putting in a complete scrub. Well done. Idiots. Congrats to Repub's for beating a complete scrub. Well done. Idiots.”

Annie Duke (@RealAnnieDuke), on the other hand, took the win with a grain of salt and could not resist injecting some humor into her Twitter post reacting to the news: “Upon learning that Mass elected a republican senator I glanced out my window and saw 4 scary looking characters riding in on 4 horses.”

A number of members of the poker community seemed more concerned with another battle taking place, namely for control of “The Tonight Show.” Poker Twitterers seem to be loyal members of Team Conan and several of them have Tweeted about how much they enjoy the redheaded funnyman’s treatment of what is a very awkward, uncomfortable and sensitive situation.  World Poker Tour’s (WPT) Live Updates Hostess Amanda Leatherman made it very clear whose side she is on in a post on her @mandaLeatherman Twitter account Wednesday evening: “Conan is f***king amazing. #teamconan.”

Finally, we will leave you on a positive note with a Tweet that just might be the most random thing we’ve seen the past few days.  Online poker player Shannon Shorr previously tweeted that he was skipping out on the PCA in order to support his alma mater, the University of Alabama, and its football team.  Shorr was one of the thousands of people in attendance at the BCS National Championship game at the Rose Bowl during which the Alabama Crimson Tide bested the University of Texas Longhorns to win the title.  While that may give you some inkling as to how loyal a fan Shorr may be, his most recent Tweet on his @shannonshorr feed revealed his dedication as a fan is on a whole different level: “Impulse bought an Alabama Snuggie from CVS Pharmacy.”

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.

Poker2Nite Previews WPT Season 8 on Fox Sports Net

On Wednesday’s installment of the Fox Sports Net poker news show “Poker2Nite,” Faraz “The-Toilet” Jaka and Justin “Boosted J” Smith recapped a hand from the Bellagio Cup V. The tournament will kick off the eighth season of the World Poker Tour (WPT) on Fox Sports Net.

The WPT premieres on Sunday night at 11:00pm ET on Fox Sports Net, with Poker Hall of Fame member Mike Sexton and former actor Vince Van Patten once again having the call from the Bellagio in Las Vegas. Jaka and Smith finished second and third, respectively, in the event and tangled in a hand where Jaka held A-J and Smith had pocket deuces.

The duo broke down the hand over the course of a five-minute segment, with Jaka noting, “There’s so much information out there. People can figure it out just by studying it, but when you do something new that hasn’t been talked about over and over again, they don’t know what to do.” For example, Jaka led out with the best hand on the flop, electing not to check despite flopping a monster. Team PokerStars Pro member Alexandre Gomes ultimately took down the Bellagio Cup V Main Event to the tune of $1.2 million.

A new segment called “This Week in Side Action” recapped cross-booking between 2009 World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event November Nine member Phil Ivey and Team Full Tilt’s Tom “durrrr” Dwan. The “Poker2Nite Dictionary” defined cross-booking as, “When two players bet against each other by offering a percentage of any winnings.” Essentially, one player would have to pay the other half of what they cashed for. In this case, Dwan came up empty-handed after busting on Day 2 of the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure Main Event, while Ivey cashed for $23,500. Consequently, Dwan paid “The Tiger Woods of Poker” $11,750. “Poker2Nite” host Joe Sebok added that the $23,500 payday did not cover Ivey’s 10-day stay in a suite at Atlantis.

“Poker2Nite” roving reporter and Absolute Poker pro Lacey Jones scoped out the brand new 18-table poker room at Aria, which is part of Las Vegas’ CityCenter. Aria Poker Room Manager Adam Altweis, who previously sat down with Poker News Daily in an exclusive interview, told Jones, “Our high-level executives really put forth a big effort. The room was made for the player.” The Aria poker room features direct access to the poker cage and may soon sport Ivey’s Room, a nosebleed-stakes table surrounded by glass similar to Bobby’s Room at the Bellagio.

Sebok had already had a chance to check out the brand new digs at Aria and told his “Poker2Nite” co-host Scott Huff, “I was there on opening night and it’s spectacular.” On the prospect of Ivey’s Room coming to fruition, Sebok speculated, “I don’t even think those talks happened.” Only time will tell. Following the Aria segment was Isaac Haxton discussing a hand against Ryan Daut during the 2007 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure. Daut won $1.5 million for taking down the WPT tournament.

Dana Workman dished out the “Weekly Misdeal” sponsored by Bluff Magazine, which offers a satirical look at the week’s poker headlines. This week, Workman poked fun at the proposed New Jersey intrastate internet gambling bill, the 2010 WSOP rules governing Twitter use and player hygiene, and 2009 WSOP Main Event winner Joe Cada playing in the same celebrity basketball game as “To Catch a Predator” host Chris Hansen.

Finally, “Poker2Nite” previewed the finale of the Absolute Poker College Challenge, which will see players vie for $10,000 in college tuition. The final table will be streamed live online. Highlights will be shown next Wednesday at 11:00pm ET, when the next new episode of UB.com’s “Poker2Nite” will air on Fox Sports Net.

Poker2Nite Previews WPT Season 8 on Fox Sports Net

On Wednesday’s installment of the Fox Sports Net poker news show “Poker2Nite,” Faraz “The-Toilet” Jaka and Justin “Boosted J” Smith recapped a hand from the Bellagio Cup V. The tournament will kick off the eighth season of the World Poker Tour (WPT) on Fox Sports Net.

The WPT premieres on Sunday night at 11:00pm ET on Fox Sports Net, with Poker Hall of Fame member Mike Sexton and former actor Vince Van Patten once again having the call from the Bellagio in Las Vegas. Jaka and Smith finished second and third, respectively, in the event and tangled in a hand where Jaka held A-J and Smith had pocket deuces.

The duo broke down the hand over the course of a five-minute segment, with Jaka noting, “There’s so much information out there. People can figure it out just by studying it, but when you do something new that hasn’t been talked about over and over again, they don’t know what to do.” For example, Jaka led out with the best hand on the flop, electing not to check despite flopping a monster. Team PokerStars Pro member Alexandre Gomes ultimately took down the Bellagio Cup V Main Event to the tune of $1.2 million.

A new segment called “This Week in Side Action” recapped cross-booking between 2009 World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event November Nine member Phil Ivey and Team Full Tilt’s Tom “durrrr” Dwan. The “Poker2Nite Dictionary” defined cross-booking as, “When two players bet against each other by offering a percentage of any winnings.” Essentially, one player would have to pay the other half of what they cashed for. In this case, Dwan came up empty-handed after busting on Day 2 of the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure Main Event, while Ivey cashed for $23,500. Consequently, Dwan paid “The Tiger Woods of Poker” $11,750. “Poker2Nite” host Joe Sebok added that the $23,500 payday did not cover Ivey’s 10-day stay in a suite at Atlantis.

“Poker2Nite” roving reporter and Absolute Poker pro Lacey Jones scoped out the brand new 18-table poker room at Aria, which is part of Las Vegas’ CityCenter. Aria Poker Room Manager Adam Altweis, who previously sat down with Poker News Daily in an exclusive interview, told Jones, “Our high-level executives really put forth a big effort. The room was made for the player.” The Aria poker room features direct access to the poker cage and may soon sport Ivey’s Room, a nosebleed-stakes table surrounded by glass similar to Bobby’s Room at the Bellagio.

Sebok had already had a chance to check out the brand new digs at Aria and told his “Poker2Nite” co-host Scott Huff, “I was there on opening night and it’s spectacular.” On the prospect of Ivey’s Room coming to fruition, Sebok speculated, “I don’t even think those talks happened.” Only time will tell. Following the Aria segment was Isaac Haxton discussing a hand against Ryan Daut during the 2007 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure. Daut won $1.5 million for taking down the WPT tournament.

Dana Workman dished out the “Weekly Misdeal” sponsored by Bluff Magazine, which offers a satirical look at the week’s poker headlines. This week, Workman poked fun at the proposed New Jersey intrastate internet gambling bill, the 2010 WSOP rules governing Twitter use and player hygiene, and 2009 WSOP Main Event winner Joe Cada playing in the same celebrity basketball game as “To Catch a Predator” host Chris Hansen.

Finally, “Poker2Nite” previewed the finale of the Absolute Poker College Challenge, which will see players vie for $10,000 in college tuition. The final table will be streamed live online. Highlights will be shown next Wednesday at 11:00pm ET, when the next new episode of UB.com’s “Poker2Nite” will air on Fox Sports Net.

Poker2Nite Previews WPT Season 8 on Fox Sports Net

On Wednesday’s installment of the Fox Sports Net poker news show “Poker2Nite,” Faraz “The-Toilet” Jaka and Justin “Boosted J” Smith recapped a hand from the Bellagio Cup V. The tournament will kick off the eighth season of the World Poker Tour (WPT) on Fox Sports Net.

The WPT premieres on Sunday night at 11:00pm ET on Fox Sports Net, with Poker Hall of Fame member Mike Sexton and former actor Vince Van Patten once again having the call from the Bellagio in Las Vegas. Jaka and Smith finished second and third, respectively, in the event and tangled in a hand where Jaka held A-J and Smith had pocket deuces.

The duo broke down the hand over the course of a five-minute segment, with Jaka noting, “There’s so much information out there. People can figure it out just by studying it, but when you do something new that hasn’t been talked about over and over again, they don’t know what to do.” For example, Jaka led out with the best hand on the flop, electing not to check despite flopping a monster. Team PokerStars Pro member Alexandre Gomes ultimately took down the Bellagio Cup V Main Event to the tune of $1.2 million.

A new segment called “This Week in Side Action” recapped cross-booking between 2009 World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event November Nine member Phil Ivey and Team Full Tilt’s Tom “durrrr” Dwan. The “Poker2Nite Dictionary” defined cross-booking as, “When two players bet against each other by offering a percentage of any winnings.” Essentially, one player would have to pay the other half of what they cashed for. In this case, Dwan came up empty-handed after busting on Day 2 of the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure Main Event, while Ivey cashed for $23,500. Consequently, Dwan paid “The Tiger Woods of Poker” $11,750. “Poker2Nite” host Joe Sebok added that the $23,500 payday did not cover Ivey’s 10-day stay in a suite at Atlantis.

“Poker2Nite” roving reporter and Absolute Poker pro Lacey Jones scoped out the brand new 18-table poker room at Aria, which is part of Las Vegas’ CityCenter. Aria Poker Room Manager Adam Altweis, who previously sat down with Poker News Daily in an exclusive interview, told Jones, “Our high-level executives really put forth a big effort. The room was made for the player.” The Aria poker room features direct access to the poker cage and may soon sport Ivey’s Room, a nosebleed-stakes table surrounded by glass similar to Bobby’s Room at the Bellagio.

Sebok had already had a chance to check out the brand new digs at Aria and told his “Poker2Nite” co-host Scott Huff, “I was there on opening night and it’s spectacular.” On the prospect of Ivey’s Room coming to fruition, Sebok speculated, “I don’t even think those talks happened.” Only time will tell. Following the Aria segment was Isaac Haxton discussing a hand against Ryan Daut during the 2007 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure. Daut won $1.5 million for taking down the WPT tournament.

Dana Workman dished out the “Weekly Misdeal” sponsored by Bluff Magazine, which offers a satirical look at the week’s poker headlines. This week, Workman poked fun at the proposed New Jersey intrastate internet gambling bill, the 2010 WSOP rules governing Twitter use and player hygiene, and 2009 WSOP Main Event winner Joe Cada playing in the same celebrity basketball game as “To Catch a Predator” host Chris Hansen.

Finally, “Poker2Nite” previewed the finale of the Absolute Poker College Challenge, which will see players vie for $10,000 in college tuition. The final table will be streamed live online. Highlights will be shown next Wednesday at 11:00pm ET, when the next new episode of UB.com’s “Poker2Nite” will air on Fox Sports Net.

Poker2Nite Previews WPT Season 8 on Fox Sports Net

On Wednesday’s installment of the Fox Sports Net poker news show “Poker2Nite,” Faraz “The-Toilet” Jaka and Justin “Boosted J” Smith recapped a hand from the Bellagio Cup V. The tournament will kick off the eighth season of the World Poker Tour (WPT) on Fox Sports Net.

The WPT premieres on Sunday night at 11:00pm ET on Fox Sports Net, with Poker Hall of Fame member Mike Sexton and former actor Vince Van Patten once again having the call from the Bellagio in Las Vegas. Jaka and Smith finished second and third, respectively, in the event and tangled in a hand where Jaka held A-J and Smith had pocket deuces.

The duo broke down the hand over the course of a five-minute segment, with Jaka noting, “There’s so much information out there. People can figure it out just by studying it, but when you do something new that hasn’t been talked about over and over again, they don’t know what to do.” For example, Jaka led out with the best hand on the flop, electing not to check despite flopping a monster. Team PokerStars Pro member Alexandre Gomes ultimately took down the Bellagio Cup V Main Event to the tune of $1.2 million.

A new segment called “This Week in Side Action” recapped cross-booking between 2009 World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event November Nine member Phil Ivey and Team Full Tilt’s Tom “durrrr” Dwan. The “Poker2Nite Dictionary” defined cross-booking as, “When two players bet against each other by offering a percentage of any winnings.” Essentially, one player would have to pay the other half of what they cashed for. In this case, Dwan came up empty-handed after busting on Day 2 of the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure Main Event, while Ivey cashed for $23,500. Consequently, Dwan paid “The Tiger Woods of Poker” $11,750. “Poker2Nite” host Joe Sebok added that the $23,500 payday did not cover Ivey’s 10-day stay in a suite at Atlantis.

“Poker2Nite” roving reporter and Absolute Poker pro Lacey Jones scoped out the brand new 18-table poker room at Aria, which is part of Las Vegas’ CityCenter. Aria Poker Room Manager Adam Altweis, who previously sat down with Poker News Daily in an exclusive interview, told Jones, “Our high-level executives really put forth a big effort. The room was made for the player.” The Aria poker room features direct access to the poker cage and may soon sport Ivey’s Room, a nosebleed-stakes table surrounded by glass similar to Bobby’s Room at the Bellagio.

Sebok had already had a chance to check out the brand new digs at Aria and told his “Poker2Nite” co-host Scott Huff, “I was there on opening night and it’s spectacular.” On the prospect of Ivey’s Room coming to fruition, Sebok speculated, “I don’t even think those talks happened.” Only time will tell. Following the Aria segment was Isaac Haxton discussing a hand against Ryan Daut during the 2007 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure. Daut won $1.5 million for taking down the WPT tournament.

Dana Workman dished out the “Weekly Misdeal” sponsored by Bluff Magazine, which offers a satirical look at the week’s poker headlines. This week, Workman poked fun at the proposed New Jersey intrastate internet gambling bill, the 2010 WSOP rules governing Twitter use and player hygiene, and 2009 WSOP Main Event winner Joe Cada playing in the same celebrity basketball game as “To Catch a Predator” host Chris Hansen.

Finally, “Poker2Nite” previewed the finale of the Absolute Poker College Challenge, which will see players vie for $10,000 in college tuition. The final table will be streamed live online. Highlights will be shown next Wednesday at 11:00pm ET, when the next new episode of UB.com’s “Poker2Nite” will air on Fox Sports Net.

Andy Bloch Discusses Rush Poker Strategy

Recently, Rush Poker made its debut on Full Tilt Poker. The fast-paced style of cash game allows players to move from one table to another as soon as their action in a hand is finished. As such, players have been able to see upwards of 300 hands per hour. Poker News Daily sat down with Full Tilt Poker pro Andy Bloch to get his take on the new addition to the site’s already impressive lineup, his goals for 2010, and his thoughts on the online poker phenomenon known as Isildur1.

Poker News Daily: Thanks for joining us. What were your first impressions of Rush Poker?

Andy Bloch: I think it’s great and it’s had a great reception so far. Sure, there were people who found fault with it at first, but once you get used to it, it’s great. I tried it out a couple of months ago and thought it was amazing. Back when I first started playing, I remember training software that was like this. When you folded, a new hand started right away, so you’re always making decisions. This is how poker really should be.

PND: Some players we’ve talked to critiqued that Rush Poker creates ABC poker players. Is there a different overarching strategy to it?

Andy Bloch: To some degree, it’ll train people more to play ABC poker. You’ll have less of a reason to play speculative hands because you can fold and get a new hand right away, but that creates more opportunities. There will be a lot of people taking advantage of the tight play and playing a lot more hands pre-flop. There’s no need to worry about getting a reckless image.

You can raise every hand on the button, for example, whereas at a regular cash game table, you wouldn’t do that because people would pick up on it. You could also just raise pre-flop in Rush Poker every time the action folds to you. In Rush Poker, therefore, taking notes becomes really important. If you see any unusual play, you’ll want to make a note and tag a player. It might come in handy later on.

PND: How have you fared so far and what stakes did you play?

Andy Bloch: It seems like my opponents have been hitting sets on me after we get the money in, but I don’t know if I’m up or down. I’ve played all of the stakes they offer, including play money. It seems like people play better at the Rush Poker play money tables than at the normal play money tables. They are less likely to play every hand because they know they can just fold, so they’re marginally more selective.

PND: Would you like to see Rush Poker added for MTTs and sit and gos?

Andy Bloch: I’d love to see Rush Poker added for heads-up play, tournaments, sit and gos, and different forms of poker like Stud. You have to pay attention to the up-cards in Stud, so it’s hard to multi-table.

PND: What poker goals do you have for 2010?

Andy Bloch: I’m going to the L.A. Poker Classic and hopefully playing some of the earlier events. They have a HORSE tournament and a Chinese Poker tournament. They also have a heads-up event and an Ironman no-break tournament.  I’ll probably play about the same number of tournaments as last year, but I want to play more online. I had a bad year last year. Whenever I have a bad year, I just try to work on my game and go over my strategy. My goal is to win a bracelet on June 1st. That is the end of the $50,000 Player’s Championship and the final day of the first three open events at the World Series of Poker (WSOP).

PND: Are you still planning to be involved with organizations like the Poker Players Alliance (PPA) this year?

Andy Bloch: Absolutely. This year coming up is an important year. It looks like we can finally get a law passed, get rid of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA), and get online poker regulated. If we can get that done, it’d be great for everyone in the poker world, from the grinder to the recreational player to someone who has dreams of being sponsored by a site.

PND: Talk about the rise and fall of Isildur1 on Full Tilt’s nosebleed cash game tables.

Andy Bloch: That story is crazy in a lot of ways. It happens from time to time in poker and in other games too. Unless Isildur1 follows it up with another run, you can chalk it up to luck. He’s a good player, but he jumped into the high-stakes games too quickly, not realizing the type of talent that’s out there. He made himself a target and wasn’t willing to back down. It’s a great story and I hope he comes back and shows people that it wasn’t a fluke.

PND: Was there any possibility of Andy Bloch facing off against Isildur1?

Andy Bloch: I don’t have much experience in Pot Limit Omaha. I need to work on that too and that’s another one of my goals for 2010. I need to get into a position where I can feel comfortable sitting down in any limit game.

Calvin Ayre Aims to Raise $1 Million for Haiti

Over the past week, a number of poker pros and rooms have reached out to the victims of the devastating earthquake in Haiti.  Poker rooms like PokerStars and Full Tilt Poker promised to match donations from patrons, pros pledged a percentage of their winnings to the cause, and there was an outpouring of generosity and concern towards the millions affected by the natural disaster.

Bodog founder Calvin Ayre is upping the stakes when it comes to raising money for those in Haiti by promising to match the earnings of the online gaming industry up to $1 million and donate it to the charitable group Oxfam International, a collection of 14 service and charitable organizations dedicated to fighting poverty and injustice around the world.

Ayre originally made the pledge to match donations on his personal website shortly after the quake hit.  He made an initial donation of £10,000 to the U.K. branch of Oxfam, but also encouraged others in the gaming community to reach out and help.  He offered to match any Oxfam donations by online gaming groups and later agreed to open up his charitable efforts to other organizations.  He explained why he wanted to center his efforts on Oxfam in the comments section of his blog post: “We would consider matching confirmed funds to qualified organizations other than Oxfam. We chose Oxfam because it is a well known reputable organization and I like focusing as much money as I can through one organization as this maximizes impact on the ground.”

Ayre is making the contribution via the foundation bearing his name.  The charitable organization has previously undertaken projects like giving underprivileged teens opportunities to attend college in Canada and the Philippines. The publication iGaming Business is helping to spread the word about Ayre’s pledge.  Bodog Poker pros Evelyn Ng and David Williams also got the word out via their respective Twitter accounts.  There is a special page on Oxfam’s website set up to track donations that will be matched by Ayre.  Interested parties can also make donations in person at the upcoming London Affiliate Conference (LAC), which is sponsored by iGaming Review.

The total amount of money donated to Oxfam on behalf of the online gaming industry will be announced at the LAC awards dinner in London on January 28th.  Over 500 members of the online gaming community are expected to be in attendance.  In addition to announcing the total amount of money raised for Oxfam, the dinner will also serve as a chance to honor the winners in categories like Best Affiliate, Best iGaming Software, and Best Affiliate Manager.  The dinner will take place at The Grange St Paul’s Hotel.

The people at Oxfam have been most impressed with Ayre’s generosity and the outpouring from the gaming community in the wake of the disaster.  “We are truly impressed by the iGaming communities’ effort and drive for the survivors of the Haiti earthquake,” said Chris Ashworth, Oxfam’s Corporate Partnership Manager.  “Access to safe water is one of the most immediate problems to resolve now and with this phenomenal support, we will be able to save lives immediately, by providing clean water and sanitation, as well as shelter for the people who have lost their homes and family…We cannot thank the gaming community enough for this act of generosity at a time of such enormous need.”

Those interested in making a donation to Oxfam that will be matched by Ayre’s foundation can do so by visiting the following web page: https://www.oxfam.org.uk/donate/haiti-earthquake/calvin-ayre.

Calvin Ayre Aims to Raise $1 Million for Haiti

Over the past week, a number of poker pros and rooms have reached out to the victims of the devastating earthquake in Haiti.  Poker rooms like PokerStars and Full Tilt Poker promised to match donations from patrons, pros pledged a percentage of their winnings to the cause, and there was an outpouring of generosity and concern towards the millions affected by the natural disaster.

Bodog founder Calvin Ayre is upping the stakes when it comes to raising money for those in Haiti by promising to match the earnings of the online gaming industry up to $1 million and donate it to the charitable group Oxfam International, a collection of 14 service and charitable organizations dedicated to fighting poverty and injustice around the world.

Ayre originally made the pledge to match donations on his personal website shortly after the quake hit.  He made an initial donation of £10,000 to the U.K. branch of Oxfam, but also encouraged others in the gaming community to reach out and help.  He offered to match any Oxfam donations by online gaming groups and later agreed to open up his charitable efforts to other organizations.  He explained why he wanted to center his efforts on Oxfam in the comments section of his blog post: “We would consider matching confirmed funds to qualified organizations other than Oxfam. We chose Oxfam because it is a well known reputable organization and I like focusing as much money as I can through one organization as this maximizes impact on the ground.”

Ayre is making the contribution via the foundation bearing his name.  The charitable organization has previously undertaken projects like giving underprivileged teens opportunities to attend college in Canada and the Philippines. The publication iGaming Business is helping to spread the word about Ayre’s pledge.  Bodog Poker pros Evelyn Ng and David Williams also got the word out via their respective Twitter accounts.  There is a special page on Oxfam’s website set up to track donations that will be matched by Ayre.  Interested parties can also make donations in person at the upcoming London Affiliate Conference (LAC), which is sponsored by iGaming Review.

The total amount of money donated to Oxfam on behalf of the online gaming industry will be announced at the LAC awards dinner in London on January 28th.  Over 500 members of the online gaming community are expected to be in attendance.  In addition to announcing the total amount of money raised for Oxfam, the dinner will also serve as a chance to honor the winners in categories like Best Affiliate, Best iGaming Software, and Best Affiliate Manager.  The dinner will take place at The Grange St Paul’s Hotel.

The people at Oxfam have been most impressed with Ayre’s generosity and the outpouring from the gaming community in the wake of the disaster.  “We are truly impressed by the iGaming communities’ effort and drive for the survivors of the Haiti earthquake,” said Chris Ashworth, Oxfam’s Corporate Partnership Manager.  “Access to safe water is one of the most immediate problems to resolve now and with this phenomenal support, we will be able to save lives immediately, by providing clean water and sanitation, as well as shelter for the people who have lost their homes and family…We cannot thank the gaming community enough for this act of generosity at a time of such enormous need.”

Those interested in making a donation to Oxfam that will be matched by Ayre’s foundation can do so by visiting the following web page: https://www.oxfam.org.uk/donate/haiti-earthquake/calvin-ayre.

Rush Poker Player Reactions

"Online poker on steroids." That's how one TwoPlusTwo poster described Rush Poker, the newest spectacle introduced by Full Tilt Poker that has action junkies drooling over a fast-paced format we've never seen before.

Full Tilt, the world's second largest online poker site, launched Rush Poker in its latest software update on Tuesday. The concept is this: Players join a large player pool in a ring game and face a different table of players every hand they play. As soon as they fold their hand, they'll be moved to another table for their next hand.

The player response thus far has been overwhelming.

"Hats off to Full Tilt, the update is awesome," said TwoPlusTwo forum poster Robusto1. "PokerStars should take notes. FTP has taken a risk deviating away from the norm and I'm sure it will pay off. Now that the two sites aren't as homogeneous they might start competing on price (rake)."

"I think it's amazing," added another TwoPlusTwo member. "It's like FTP found a way to turn what would be semi competent players and turn them into complete donkaholics. I played $25NL and it felt like I was playing on PartyPoker back in the day. I never got paid off more with my big hands. Villains were pushing all-in on complete bluffs when I had full houses, calling me down with mid pair. Plus I get rakeback so it's like a wet dream."

Rakeback seems to be a leading reason as to the popularity of the new concept. Both rakeback and Full Tilt Points (FTPs) are calculated the same as they would in a regular ring game, but players will play far more hands at a table of Rush Poker. On average, players will see around 300 hands per hour.

In a poll on TwoPlusTwo asking if members like FTP's Rush Poker, 72% of poll takers said "Yes" through 700 votes. While most agreed that the new concept is enjoyable, many questioned whether it is good for the game.

"It's more like video poker in my view than normal poker," said TheGaussBeast. "No reads, no table dynamic. Furthermore, playing you get into gambling mode. I am susceptible to this as I suppose many, but not all players are. You are clicking away getting that mental stimulation that is akin to slots. You can take your time, but will you?"

"I don't like it for these reasons. Moreover, I am concerned that this is exactly where the fish will go. To the rush tables to gamble it up, leaving a bunch of regulars to fight and grind it out at the normal tables."

TwoPlusTwo member StoneRoses agreed: "What good is finding a read on a player if you don't seem him for another 20 minutes? This, if anything, promotes ABC poker in my opinion, no player specific plays just standard lines non-stop."

Full Tilt Red Pro and CardRunners instructor Taylor "Green Plastic" Caby weighed in with his opinions, addressing both ends of the spectrum: "I actually think the Rush games will benefit thinking players. The 35 big blind buy-in makes short stacking harder, the lack of HUD (heads up display) might even more than make up for the fact that you can't get 'traditional' reads on players."

"Yeah, I don't know if a guy historically opens light on the cutoff or what his cold-four-betting range is," Caby continued, "but I do know he's from Spain, bought in for 41 big blinds, and his FTP name is FelipeIvey1948 -- I'd like to think I have a pretty good idea what he's all about."

"In sum, I don't think these games will become more popular than regular poker, but there are a lot of reasons why I think it's good for sites to experiment with stuff like this in order to offer a more options for their customers."

Rush Poker Player Reactions

"Online poker on steroids." That's how one TwoPlusTwo poster described Rush Poker, the newest spectacle introduced by Full Tilt Poker that has action junkies drooling over a fast-paced format we've never seen before.

Full Tilt, the world's second largest online poker site, launched Rush Poker in its latest software update on Tuesday. The concept is this: Players join a large player pool in a ring game and face a different table of players every hand they play. As soon as they fold their hand, they'll be moved to another table for their next hand.

The player response thus far has been overwhelming.

"Hats off to Full Tilt, the update is awesome," said TwoPlusTwo forum poster Robusto1. "PokerStars should take notes. FTP has taken a risk deviating away from the norm and I'm sure it will pay off. Now that the two sites aren't as homogeneous they might start competing on price (rake)."

"I think it's amazing," added another TwoPlusTwo member. "It's like FTP found a way to turn what would be semi competent players and turn them into complete donkaholics. I played $25NL and it felt like I was playing on PartyPoker back in the day. I never got paid off more with my big hands. Villains were pushing all-in on complete bluffs when I had full houses, calling me down with mid pair. Plus I get rakeback so it's like a wet dream."

Rakeback seems to be a leading reason as to the popularity of the new concept. Both rakeback and Full Tilt Points (FTPs) are calculated the same as they would in a regular ring game, but players will play far more hands at a table of Rush Poker. On average, players will see around 300 hands per hour.

In a poll on TwoPlusTwo asking if members like FTP's Rush Poker, 72% of poll takers said "Yes" through 700 votes. While most agreed that the new concept is enjoyable, many questioned whether it is good for the game.

"It's more like video poker in my view than normal poker," said TheGaussBeast. "No reads, no table dynamic. Furthermore, playing you get into gambling mode. I am susceptible to this as I suppose many, but not all players are. You are clicking away getting that mental stimulation that is akin to slots. You can take your time, but will you?"

"I don't like it for these reasons. Moreover, I am concerned that this is exactly where the fish will go. To the rush tables to gamble it up, leaving a bunch of regulars to fight and grind it out at the normal tables."

TwoPlusTwo member StoneRoses agreed: "What good is finding a read on a player if you don't seem him for another 20 minutes? This, if anything, promotes ABC poker in my opinion, no player specific plays just standard lines non-stop."

Full Tilt Red Pro and CardRunners instructor Taylor "Green Plastic" Caby weighed in with his opinions, addressing both ends of the spectrum: "I actually think the Rush games will benefit thinking players. The 35 big blind buy-in makes short stacking harder, the lack of HUD (heads up display) might even more than make up for the fact that you can't get 'traditional' reads on players."

"Yeah, I don't know if a guy historically opens light on the cutoff or what his cold-four-betting range is," Caby continued, "but I do know he's from Spain, bought in for 41 big blinds, and his FTP name is FelipeIvey1948 -- I'd like to think I have a pretty good idea what he's all about."

"In sum, I don't think these games will become more popular than regular poker, but there are a lot of reasons why I think it's good for sites to experiment with stuff like this in order to offer a more options for their customers."

Additional Haiti Earthquake Relief Online Poker Tournaments Announced

This week, members of the online poker community wishing to donate to victims of the magnitude 7.0 earthquake that struck Haiti last week can take advantage of several tournaments being held across cyberspace.

Today, a magnitude 6.1 earthquake shook Haiti, the strongest aftershock to date according to the Associated Press. Roughly 200,000 people may have died due to the original quake last week and 1.5 million people, or nearly 20% of the country’s population, are now homeless. The Associated Press reported that 40 aftershocks have rumbled through the island nation. On the magnitude 6.1 tremor that hit on Wednesday, a geophysicist told the American news service, "Aftershocks sometimes die out very quickly. In other cases they can go on for weeks, or if we're really unlucky it could go on for months."

On Wednesday, UB.com, which makes its home on the CEREUS Network, will host a $5 rebuy online poker tournament to raise funds for the victims. The event gets underway at 20:30 ET and the field is capped at 750 players. In a generous gesture, UB.com officials will match the entirety of the prize pool and then donate the sum to the Red Cross Haiti Disaster Relief Fund. In addition, $10,000 in prizes will be on the line, consisting of entries to Ultimate Bet Online Championship (UBOC) tournaments and satellites. The charity poker tournament is dubbed “Play for Haiti” and can be found in the UB.com lobby. The site happily accepts players from the United States.

Also hosting a charity event on Wednesday night is DoylesRoom, which resides on the USA-facing Cake Poker Network. DoylesRoom is running the “Haiti Relief Celebrity Bounty,” taking the place of its regularly scheduled Bounty tournament. Those in the field will include site namesake Doyle Brunson, “The Wrestler” actor Mickey Rourke, Brunson 10 member Zachary “CrazyZachary” Clark, and “The Mad Genius of Poker” Mike Caro. The tournament kicks off at 9:30pm ET and DoylesRoom is matching all bounty money won and donating the total to relief efforts. In addition, DoylesRoom will ship any first-time player’s $27.50 buy-in to charity.

Ongame Network site Betsafe is offering a $5 tournament called “Help Haiti” on Wednesday at 20:45 CET. Unlimited rebuys will be permitted during the first hour and Betsafe will donate the funds to charity. A press release distributed by the site explains, “Betsafe will match the fee generated and we guarantee to give a minimum of $1,000. There is no maximum of the amount that we will match, so make sure to register for the tournament and help the victims of Haiti!” To sweeten the pot, Betsafe officials have added three $200 Grand Series of Poker (GSOP) event tickets to the prize pool, or $600 total. Other online poker rooms on the mammoth Ongame Network include Hollywood Poker, PokerLoco, and RedKings.

Finally, the Microgaming Network, which has recently tried to curb datamining by not allowing observed hand histories to be stored on a player’s computer, is holding a €10 + €10 buy-in tournament on Friday, January 22nd. The €10 juice will be donated to the Haitian Health Foundation and players can sign up for the event by visiting any Microgaming Network site like Betway, GNUF, Ladbrokes, Nordic Bet, PokerTime, and Unibet. The event issues its virtual “Shuffle up and deal” command at 6:30pm GMT. A press release distributed by Microgaming notes, “Over 92 percent of funds collected by Haitian Health Foundation go directly towards services for the poor, so players can be assured that donations generated from the tournament will be used to maximum benefit.” Neither the Microgaming nor Ongame Networks accept players from the United States.

These tournaments have complimented efforts at other major online poker sites like Full Tilt, PokerStars, and Cake Poker, each of which has reached into its database of players to give to the cause. Play in the Haiti relief tournaments taking place this week across some of the world’s largest sites.

Luke “FullFlush” Schwartz Added to PartyPoker.com Premier League IV Roster

As the PartyPoker.com Premier League IV draws closer, the field of 12 continues to take shape.  On Tuesday, PartyPoker.com announced that poker's newest bad boy, Luke "FullFlush" Schwartz, has been confirmed as the fifth player for the February contest.  Schwartz joins Premier League III winner J.C. Tran, 11-time World Series of Poker (WSOP) bracelet winner Phil Hellmuth, World Poker Tour (WPT) Season 7 world champion Yevgeniy "Jovial Gent" Timoshenko, and "Triple Crown" winner Roland de Wolfe in the exclusive event, which will take place February 11th to 18th in Las Vegas.

Schwartz caught the attention of the poker world in 2009 by racking up seven-figure profits online, all the while beating an impressive list of players.  Phil "OMGClayAiken" Galfond, Brad Booth, Tom "durrrr" Dwan, and David "Raptor" Benefield were among his victims.  Perhaps more than his poker skill, it was his "in your face" personality that really turned heads.  Known to trash talk to his heart's content, Schwartz cemented himself as one of online poker's most controversial figures when he called Dwan and Di "Urindanger" Dang "gay" in a public interview.

In October 2009, Schwartz took his behavior to another level, stealing a sandwich from a food stand after busting out of the European Poker Tour (EPT) London event.  Having been previously banned from Grosvenor Casino properties for not obeying the dress code only to have the ban lifted in time for EPT London, he was banned once again for his actions.

Schwartz may be young, but he is far from intimidated by the already strong field.  "For sure there are some big names playing but I have to be a huge favorite," he told PartyPoker.com.  "They need to know that I’m coming with my sharky hat on and it's gonna be a whole week of soul owning from Full Flush."

"He is poker's new villain, no question about that," Daniel Negreanu once wrote in his blog.

Seven players are yet to be determined and all but one will be hand picked by PartyPoker.com.  The final competitor will be a PartyPoker.com online qualifier.  A total of 16 qualifiers will square off in Las Vegas, battling it out in a series of sit and go tournaments to determine which skilled player will receive the final (and free) seat in the PartyPoker.com Premier League IV.  In addition, PartyPoker.com will evaluate each of the 16 qualifiers and select one to receive a $100,000 sponsorship deal from the site.  While one would assume that the winner will have a leg up on the competition, PartyPoker.com will also consider personality and marketability in addition to poker skill, so even those who do not win the 12th seat will have a chance at the sponsorship deal.

The PartyPoker.com Premier League has a unique format.  The 12 players will compete in a series of six-handed sit and gos, or "heats," with points awarded based on the order of finish.  Once all the heats are completed, the top four point winners will advance to the six-handed Grand Final.  The next four players will face off in heads-up matches to determine the fifth and sixth members of the final table.

With a $100,000 buy-in and $300,000 added by PartyPoker.com, the prize pool for the Premier League IV will be a whopping $1.5 million.  The action, including the battle for the 12th seat, will be televised in Europe, with Team Party's newest member, Kara Scott, serving as host.

Darvin Moon to Attend NFC Championship with Jimmy Buffet, Kenny Chesney

This weekend, the New Orleans Saints will host the Minnesota Vikings in the NFC Championship Game. Kickoff is scheduled for 6:40pm ET on Sunday and the game will air on Fox. Among those in attendance will be 2009 World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event runner-up Darvin Moon.

Moon will be seated in a luxury box in the Louisiana Superdome, home of the Saints, alongside several top-tier names. Headlining the list is singer Jimmy Buffet, whose bevy of hit singles include "Margaritaville," "Changes in Latitude, Changes in Attitude," "Cheeseburger in Paradise," and "It's Five O'Clock Somewhere," which he recorded with country superstar Alan Jackson. Buffet’s career has spanned 40 years and resulted in a bevy of chart-topping hits. He even has his own restaurant chain, Margaritaville, which has a location inside the Flamingo on the Las Vegas Strip.

Speaking of country music, Kenny Chesney will also be seated in the same suite as Moon, according to Saints officials. Chesney, from East Tennessee, has been cranking out hits since 1993. He struck it big in the late 1990s with "She's Got It All" and then released two more hit singles before the decade was through, "How Forever Feels" and "You Had Me from Hello.” In the 2000s, Chesney became a staple of the country music scene, pumping out memorable tunes like "Young," "The Good Stuff," "No Shoes, No Shirt, No Problems,” and "Living in Fast Forward." His 2009 hit "Out Last Night" hit number one on the U.S. country charts.

Not all of Moon’s new pals hail from the world of music. Joining Moon, Buffet, and Chesney will be Avery Johnson, the head coach of the NBA’s Dallas Mavericks since 2004. Johnson, the NBA Coach of the Year in 2006, saw his team fall to the Miami Heat in that year’s NBA Finals. Johnson won a championship ring in 1999 as a member of the San Antonio Spurs. In fact, the Spurs retired his number in 2007 and the current Mavericks coach became a member of the San Antonio Sports Hall of Fame one year ago.

Wrapping up Moon’s star-studded company is Ronnie Lott. A standout from the University of Southern California (USC), Lott was drafted in 1981 and spent most of his career with the San Francisco 49ers. Lott is a four-time Super Bowl Champion and became a member of the illustrious Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio in 2000. He briefly joined the broadcast team of the “NFL on Fox” in the mid-1990s and currently resides in California. Lott is one of the top defensive players in NFL history and rounds out Moon’s cheering section during Sunday’s encounter.

The Saints received a first-round bye in the NFL playoffs and pummeled Kurt Warner and the defending NFC champion Arizona Cardinals last weekend by a final score of 45-14. Saints quarterback Drew Brees threw for 247 yards and three touchdowns as the team cruised to victory. Brees led the NFL in touchdowns during the 16-game regular season with 34, one more than Minnesota Vikings signal caller Brett Favre and Indianapolis Colts gunslinger Peyton Manning. Joe Buck and Troy Aikman will likely have the call for Fox from New Orleans.

The Saints’ opponent, the Minnesota Vikings, flattened the Dallas Cowboys last week and also received a first-round bye in the post-season. Favre, whose decision whether to retire or play has dominated off-season headlines for the last half-decade, threw for 4,202 yards and 33 touchdowns during the NFL regular season. He hasn’t tossed an interception since December 20th and has just nine turnovers all season. Favre is 40 years-old and played college ball at Southern Mississippi.

No in game or on air recognition of Moon is planned, according to Saints media relations staff.

Full Tilt Poker Introduces Rush Poker

At most online sites, the hands in a ring game are dealt at nearly twice the speed of what would occur during a live session. This isn’t quick enough for some players, who prefer playing at multiple tables to earn more money for their bankroll and satisfy their desire for action. A new innovation at Full Tilt Poker has responded to the call for faster play on the virtual felt.

Called Rush Poker, Full Tilt Poker has come up with a game that could draw a great deal of attention from those with the need for speed. If a player at a table is dealt a hand – for example, J-2 offsuit – and doesn’t want to play the hand, the player can click the "Fold" button (once in action, there is a “Quick Fold” button that can be used at any time instead of waiting for your turn). Instead of sticking around to watch the remaining players at the table battle it out, the player is immediately jetted off to another table, with a completely new batch of players, and a new hand is dealt. The only time a player stays at the table is when they are actually in action with a hand; once a player folds, the player is gone to another table with a new group of players. This leads to a monumental number of hands during any given session.

Team Full Tilt is firmly behind the Rush Poker variation and they will step in to the fray along with their regular players. Howard Lederer commented on his Twitter account, “Had fun giving Rush poker a try on FTP. 300 hands per hour at one table. Cool.” Fellow Team Full Tilt member Andy Bloch was equally impressed when he stated on Twitter, “Playing new Rush Poker on Full Tilt Poker. Online poker may never be the same!”

Be prepared for a tremendous amount of action if you approach the Rush Poker tables, however. Poker News Daily examined the lobby at the Rush Poker tables for this article and, at the time, only No Limit Hold’em had action, with three Six-Handed tables ($0.25/$0.50, $0.10/$0.25 and $0.05/$0.10) and three nine-handed ring games (same levels). Among the six groups that were in action, the low count for players was around 420 players and the high was approximately 1,550 players.

The average number of hands dealt during an hour of play fluctuated between 277 to 318, negating the need for multi-tabling. Average pot sizes were quite similar to what happens at the regular speed tables. It did seem, however, that players played a bit tighter on the Rush Poker tables, with the “players seeing the flop” percentages ranging from 19% to 25%.

At the tables, the action runs very smoothly. Whether you wait until your action to fold or use the “Quick Fold” option, as soon as you make your decision, an entirely different table of players loads up for action. When you move, you can land in any position at the table. In the span of less than ten minutes, this author played 50 hands, making for a rough average of 300 hands per hour.

There is a downside to the quick action, however. Players who prefer to learn their opponents’ tendencies will not have that luxury, as each different hand is played with a different group of opponents. Checking the previous hand history is useless as you are no longer playing the same opponents with the table change. Using any type of poker software is nearly impossible; with the quick table changes, the software cannot keep up. If a player receives a few bad beats, the quick action can also rapidly burn through the stakes a player brings to the table.

Whether Full Tilt Poker’s new Rush Poker will catch on is up to the players to decide. At the time of writing, the Rush Poker tables accounted for only about 10% of the total action on the site. Full Tilt Poker has also applied for a patent on this variation of online poker, making it highly unlikely that other sites will pick up on this new phenomenon.

Dusty Schmidt (Leatherass) Recaps Drag the Bar Signing

Poker News Daily: Congratulations on signing with Drag the Bar. Give us the background to joining the site after leaving StoxPoker.

Dusty Schmidt: I started as a member at StoxPoker, got promoted to coach, and they made me an equity holder. It was exciting, we had a good group of guys, and post-merger with CardRunners, they sometimes lost sight of what got them there. I did my best to stick in there, but StoxPoker wasn’t headed in the same direction as it was before. I wanted to go with a newer and more enthusiastic company that was similar to the product that StoxPoker was a few years ago.

PND: In your opinion, how was StoxPoker changing for the worse?

Dusty Schmidt: It’s more or less the commitment to the product. I didn’t feel like the site was getting the tender love and care it needed to be successful. StoxPoker didn’t have the flashiest players, but we had a solid group of guys who put out some killer content. I tend to be pretty enthusiastic and making coaching videos is typically not the best thing financially for a high-stakes player. If I am going to be taking time away from doing something that’s more profitable for me, I want to be enthusiastic about it.

PND: Tell us about your new role at Drag the Bar.

Dusty Schmidt: Basically the same thing as at StoxPoker. At StoxPoker before we merged with CardRunners, I was involved in the decision-making and a lot of the direction of the site. I didn’t have the ability to do that post-merger. At Drag the Bar, I’m producing content, writing blogs, and helping people’s games out.

PND: Who is Drag the Bar best suited for?

Dusty Schmidt: It’s well-suited for the grinder. I pride myself on making money through hard work. People who are willing to put in the hard work and surround themselves with good people can be a great source of inspiration.

PND: What poker training videos have you produced so far?

Dusty Schmidt: We’re just getting going. I have a video up there of a mid-stakes game and there are low- and high-stakes videos by me coming out soon. Drag the Bar most certainly aims to perform as well as or better than other coaching sites. We’re going to start with humble beginnings and build from there.

PND: Can Drag the Bar compete with sites like CardRunners and PokerXFactor?

Dusty Schmidt: I think we can. We’re going to take a few people by surprise.

PND: How can poker training sites differentiate themselves nowadays given that the industry is pretty saturated?

Dusty Schmidt: What CardRunners did with TrulyFreePokerTraining was definitely an angle that no one had taken before and it worked out really well for them. We'll look at some of the things that the successful training sites do and try to do everything as well as them.

PND: Does it feel good, in a sense, to get back to your roots?

Dusty Schmidt: I love being a part of something. I don’t want to be #1682 with the company. I like to be part of a smaller group and root each other on. That’s what it’s all about. I’m not thumbing my nose at money from coaching videos, but I do this because I want to interact with members, teach, and get messages from people thanking me for videos. That type of stuff is really rewarding. I don’t do this because it pays me better than poker.

PND: You’re in the midst of a one-year suspension of your amateur status by the United States Golf Association (USGA). How excited are you to get back into the game?

Dusty Schmidt: I am really excited. It’s definitely one of my true loves. I always wonder whether I should be playing poker or playing golf.

Poker Players Alliance Pushing for February Markup of HR 2267

The Poker Players Alliance (PPA), the industry’s one-million member strong lobbying organization, is ramping up for what could be a monumental 2010 legislative year. At stake is the future of online poker in the United States.

As the industry treks into the new decade, Congressman Barney Frank’s (D-MA) HR 2267, the Internet Gambling Regulation, Consumer Protection, and Enforcement Act, is up to 65 co-sponsors. In the first two weeks of January, the measure saw two new lawmakers lend their names in support, Congressmen Eliot Engel (D-NY) and Charlie Melancon (D-LA). HR 2267 was introduced in May and, in the beginning of December, was discussed in the House Financial Services Committee.

No markup of HR 2267 occurred during the December 3rd hearing, which took place one week following officials from the U.S. Treasury and Federal Reserve delaying mandatory compliance with the regulations of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA) by six months to June 1st, 2010. However, according to PPA Executive Director John Pappas, a markup may be in the offing: “The big next step for us is the markup. We’ve built out who our targets are for that committee and are pursuing them. We think it might happen in February, but there are no guarantees.”

According to Pappas, Frank expressed his desire to hold a markup hearing next month, which could lead to discussion of HR 2267 on the floor of the House of Representatives later this year. From there, Frank and the PPA could elect to attach the measure to another piece of legislation, similar to how the UIGEA became a part of an unrelated port security bill in 2006. Pappas noted, “One of our biggest challenges will be to make the vote in the committee bipartisan. That’s going to be our challenge and I think we can do it. Winning big in the Financial Services Committee will help us advance the bill in any other capacity.”

In the next month, the PPA also expects information to be released concerning the amount of money that could be raised should Senator Robert Menendez’s (D-NJ) S 1597 be approved. The bill, dubbed the Internet Poker and Game of Skill Regulation, Consumer Protection, and Enforcement Act, regulates online skill games. S 1597 was introduced in August, but has yet to garner any co-sponsors.

On the difficult road that lies ahead in the U.S. Senate, Pappas commented, “The Senate has been a tougher ground for us to plow so far, so we’re trying to do what we can there. It’s not because the topic isn’t of interest or important, but rather because they operate differently. The House operates quickly, whereas the Senate is more deliberate.”

The UIGEA was not discussed in the Senate four years ago; instead, it was approved by unanimous consent. Then, the PPA was in its infancy, boasting around 50,000 members during the 2006 World Series of Poker (WSOP). Now, it has grown into the seven-figures and seen players like UB.com pro Annie Duke and 2004 WSOP Main Event winner Greg Raymer champion its cause. In 2010, the PPA expects to work with a variety of organizations in the industry for membership drives, following the blueprint of its recent promotion with Card Player Cruises that awarded one player a trip for two to the Caribbean.

Finally, Pappas gave his take on the proposed intrastate internet gambling bill introduced in New Jersey by State Senator Raymond Lesniak. On the model for other states to follow to legalize online wagering, Pappas told Poker News Daily, “For poker players in New Jersey, it presents an interesting opportunity to play on a licensed site. The issue is what sites they’ll be able to play on. Will it be on the brands they know? Having Atlantic City casinos undertake building their own software and player bases will take quite a long time.” According to PokerScout.com, PokerStars, the largest online poker site in the industry, boasts a seven-day running average of 33,200 real money ring game players.

Stay tuned for the latest news from the PPA right here on Poker News Daily.

PocketFives Members Win for Haiti

Last Thursday, David "Doc Sands" Sands, currently the number one ranked player on the PocketFives.com Online Poker Rankings, put a call out to his fellow tournament players on the PocketFives forum to help the victims of the Haiti earthquake.  He encouraged everybody to donate a percentage of their Sunday winnings to relief efforts in the impoverished nation.  Leading the charge, Sands pledged 10% of his profits up to $10,000, with a minimum of $250.

Approximately 80 PocketFivers posted their pledges on the message board, with the total minimum donations adding up to more than $8,000.  Once the results of Sunday’s big tourneys were in, forum members returned to announce their results.

The biggest donator was "JLizard," who placed second in the $1,000 Heartland Poker Tour event at the Red Rock in Las Vegas.  Winning $62,000 and having pledged 10 percent of his profits, he gave $6,100 to the cause, splitting his donations evenly between PokerStars and Full Tilt Poker. Both sites, in turn, matched JLizard's donation.

Kevin "kice32" Iacofano, promised to give 5% of his profits to Haitian relief efforts. After winning $54,000 in the Full Tilt Poker $1 Million Guaranteed tournament, his donation amounted to $2,650.  Mike "SowersUNCC" Sowers pledged 10% of his profits and ended up donating $2,300.  Steve "gboro780" Gross, who is fourth in the PocketFives.com Rankings, profited enough to donate $800.

Ironically, Sands, the organizer of the movement and the top man in the rankings, failed to profit on Sunday.  He did, however, increase his minimum pledge to $500.

All told, only counting the donations made by those who reported back to the message board, members of PocketFives.com donated just over $13,000 of their Sunday profits to Haitian aid charities.  With about another $8,000 pledged from players even if they did not make any money, that brings the total to $21,000.  But it doesn't stop there.  Factoring in that most of the donations were likely made through Full Tilt Poker, PokerStars, or Cake Poker, all of which matched all donations, players on PocketFives.com accounted for approximately $40,000 in contributions to Haitian relief, and that's just what players reported publicly.

For those who would still like to help, several online poker rooms are still providing vehicles for donations.  Cake Poker has five "holding tank" tournaments for which players can register.  No tournaments will actually take place, but Cake will match every donation dollar for dollar and will accept funds through the end of the month.  Full Tilt players can still transfer funds to the account "Aid for Haiti," and PokerStars players can transfer to "Haiti Fund."  PokerStars has "holding tank" tournaments set up as well.  UB.com and Absolute Poker, both members of the CEREUS Network, will host a $10 re-buy tournament on January 20th in which the poker rooms will match 100% of the prize pool and donate that matching portion to charity.

Of course, those who wish to donate can also make contributions to charities directly.

Party Poker signs Kara Scott

Poker in Twitter: PCA Bahamas, Haiti Relief, and the Brunson NFL Jinx

Twitter has revolutionized social networking, and the poker world was not immune to its 140-character charms. Poker News Daily has been following poker’s hot young stars such as Maria Ho and Jennifer "Jennicide" Leigh along with more established players including Annie Duke and Andy Bloch, and even some of poker’s greatest legends – septuagenarian Doyle Brunson tweets on a daily basis,– to offer our readership an overview of what the most popular poker players are up to on Twitter.

These have been the most interesting Tweets since last Friday, encompassing players’ parting impressions from the Bahamas, their last goodbyes to the late Amir Vahedi, the drives to raise funds for Haiti relief and some NFL quandaries.

The end of the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure (PCA) involved many players complaining about the Bahamas prices, while others complained about the weather and a few even complained about customs on the way out. Vicky Coren had a late departure, and she tried to make the most of it: “Mmm, sunshine and cocktails. And who needs a book when you can listen to the on-hold music at Nassau Airport for only $200 a minute?" Fellow Brit Liv Boeree shared a sunny beach picture: “http://twitpic.com/yk7dh - photo from Bahamas... on the one good day of the whole trip.”

Vahedi was present in many poker player’s minds and Twitters as his funeral took place last Friday. Tournament director supreme Matt Savage summed everyone’s feelings in a poignant Tweet: “Spent the short fight to Burbank thinking about Amir and how his BIG personality will be missed! Hoping to say a few words today.”

The NFL kept a number of players glued to the television, especially those who had money on the line like Phil Hellmuth: “I liked Colts & Saints, but didn't bet, then Vikings (what poker player gets up that early?), finally bet $500 on Jets money line 3.15 to 1”. DoylesRoom Brunson 10 member Amit "amak316" Makhija had a hard time choosing his allegiances: “Done working out, goin to grind Sundays and watch football! Do I root for the jets (love underdogs) or chargers (love awesomeness)?” Alex Outhred enjoyed a last laugh: “#fondmemories of the Cowboy fan last night who scoffed at my purpotion that the Vikes had 'a chance' today”.  And Brunson bemoaned his wife jinxing his favorite team: “it happened again. my wife walks in the room....BOOM, touchdown for the team i'm betting aganist... geeeez”

The humanitarian disaster in Haiti brought up many initiatives to raise awareness and funds. Shannon Elizabeth made a heartfelt appeal to remind all of the tragedy: “Good morning guys-we made it to the end of the week, but not everyone was so lucky-take a moment 2 remember those who didn't....” Adam “Roothlus” Levy voiced a more ambiguous opinion: “It's remarkable how the average American is facing financial hard times but yet, there's an outpouring of donations to #Haiti. Just awesome!” Andy Bloch donated time and money and played a lot of poker to aid the cause: “Just registered for the last 11 Aid for Haiti tournaments on FTP... may need a lot of caffeine. Sending autographed DVDs as extra bounty.”

Some players used Twitter for its original purpose of keeping friends and family informed of what they were up to. Beth Shak commented on her recent move: “Haha my decorator said no large men in my bedroom in NY..I wntd a king bed!!thnk gd my bf is small”, while Ho complained of health issues: “Dear Immune System, Why do you insist on taking days off without notifying me first? Please come back soon. *cough* Thanks.” Justin “BoostedJ” Smith revisited an old hobby: “Going to the gun range..something I haven't done in a long time and is so much fun,” and Leigh introduced her new love: “I'm SO in love.... Here's her picture! http://tinyurl.com/ygk7jpm =)” Liz Lieu enjoyed stirring up some suspense with the cryptic remark “I've just said "I WILL" ”

Some Tweets remain unclassifiable and they are arguably the most fun of all. Anthrax's Scott Ian talked about music: “Song of the day: Pussy don't fail me now. Any one know who that is?” Kevin Smith talked about religion (and several other unpublishable topics): “I never cram my religion down anybody's throat, so I ask you don't cram atheism down mine. My life's so blessed I GOTTA believe in God.” Meanwhile, Duke's boyfriend, Joe Reitman, complained about his phone service: “Dear AT&T...if u are going to have huge billboards in a stadium my iPhone should get a signal in said stadium” "Poker2Nite" host Scott Huff takes the prize for the most random Tweet of this edition, with: “This morning NASA found cocaine near the space shuttle Discovery. Come on, guys, space isn't high enough?”

Visit Poker News Daily every Monday and Thursday for an overview of the best Tweets in the poker world.

2010 WSOP Rules Permit Twittering at the Table

The official rules for the 2010 World Series of Poker (WSOP) were handed down this week, with tournament organizers adopting a cell phone rule that permits text messaging and Twittering at the table.

All cell phones must be turned off during play. However, as the WSOP regulations note, “Players not involved in a hand (cards in muck) shall be permitted to text/email at the table, but shall not be permitted to text/email any other player at the table.” Twittering of chip counts and memorable hands were staples of the 2009 WSOP, when the social media outlet exploded in popularity. Even poker legends like 10-time bracelet winner Doyle Brunson have become engulfed in Twitter, with “Texas Dolly” now able to spit out additional blonde jokes while seated at the table of any 2010 WSOP event.

Any players who wish to talk on their cell phones must be at least one table length away from their seats while gabbing. Meanwhile, the WSOP logo policy in 2010 will remain the same as it was in 2009. No logo will be permitted that promotes drugs, handguns, lotteries, obscene material, pornography, libel, or “advertises any online gaming site that conducts business with U.S. residents.” Nearly every logo shown on ESPN television cameras in 2009 featured the dot-net version of the site’s URL. Meanwhile, Everest Poker, which had sponsored pro Antoine Saout at the final table of the 2009 Main Event, served as the on-felt sponsor of the tournament series. Everest Poker does not accept players from the United States.

Posters on TwoPlusTwo were quick to critique the 2010 WSOP rules, which incorporated revisions made by the Tournament Directors Association. One point of contention concerned late registration. The rule reads, “Any player registering for an event after all initial tables allocated for that tournament have been filled will begin play at the start of the subsequent level.” In the WSOP Main Event, for example, that could mean a player sitting out as long as two hours, the length of one blind level.

Fans of UB.com poker bad boy Phil Hellmuth may see the 11-time bracelet winner show up on time in 2010 thanks to a rule that governs “no shows,” players who fail to show up by the start of the third level of play. The rule mandates, “These players will have their chips removed from play and will not be eligible to participate in that event. The buy-ins for ‘no shows’ will be removed from the prize pool and placed on safekeeping in that player’s name at the main WSOP registration cage after the second level of play.”

Some posters on TwoPlusTwo questioned whether the “no show” clause meant that if a player saw they had a tough table draw, they could simply un-register by not showing up. Member “pineapple888” explained the dilemma: “It seems like you can register, wander by your table an hour into the event, and if there are too many pros/tough players for your liking, or there aren't enough chips on the table, or whatever (no hot chicks at the table or railbirding), just wander away and claim your refund later without penalty.”

The action gets underway in the 2010 WSOP with the annual $500 buy-in Casino Employees No Limit Hold’em event on May 28th. Also to be held on that date is the brand new $50,000 buy-in Player’s Championship, an Eight-Game mix of Limit Hold'em, Omaha High-Low Split Eight or Better, Seven Card Razz, Seven Card Stud, Seven Card Stud High-Low Split Eight or Better, No Limit Hold'em, Pot Limit Omaha, and 2-7 Triple Draw Lowball. It takes the place of the $50,000 HORSE Championship, which drew a meager 95 players in 2009 after having 148 in 2008.

Also new on the docket in 2010 is a $25,000 buy-in No Limit Hold’em Six-Handed event that starts on June 30th. Many in the industry have questioned WSOP officials introducing a richer No Limit Hold’em tournament than the Main Event, whose buy-in is only $10,000. Nevertheless, the $25,000 Six-Handed contest is sure to attract some of the top names in the worlds of live and online poker.

Check out the official 2010 WSOP rules.

Poker News in Brief: Jan. 11-17, 2010

But there was plenty of poker news that didn’t make the front page of PokerListings.com, and as part of our ongoing Poker News in Brief feature, we’ve compiled a list below.

This week we’ll take a look at Gavin Smith crushing Canadian tournaments, the HPT going to Vegas, a dominant online player quitting poker and more:

Two Final Tables for Smith at Fallsview

Canadian Gavin Smith was dominant at the 2010 Fallsview Poker Classic in Niagara Falls this week.

Fresh off a plane from the Bahamas, Smith outlasted 275 players to win $188,743 in the $2,500 event and then three days later finished fourth in the $5,000 main event.

Smith has historically done very well at tournaments in Canada. In 2008, he finished second at the Fallsview-hosted WPT North American Poker Championship for $542,129. He also made the final table of the 2008 Canadian Open Poker Championship in Calgary the same year.

Heartland Poker Tour Heads to Vegas

The Heartland Poker Tour kicked off its sixth season at Red Rock Resort and Casino in Las Vegas this week.

It was just the second time the lower buy-in poker tour has made a stop in Las Vegas, as it usually sticks to venues in Midwest. In the past, the tour has hosted tournaments in Indiana, Colorado, Minnesota, New York, Michigan and Iowa.

The $1,100 buy-in event drew poker pros Dennis Phillips, Layne Flack, John Vorhaus and Tiffany Michelle.

The final table of the tournament is scheduled to play out later today.

Jonas "Nebuchad" Danielsson Quits Poker

Online grinder Jonas “Nebuchad” Danielsson, perhaps most well-known for making a verbal slip at the 2008 Scandinavian Poker Awards, has apparently decided to leave poker for the time being.

Danielsson made the announcement on his blog where he wrote that his passion for poker was gone and he was looking forward to experiencing new things. He did not mention how long his self-imposed retirement would last.

The young Swedish pro started playing poker full time in 2005 and in roughly five years of playing made over $3 million in profit.

Danielsson won Online Player of the Year at the Scandinavian Poker Awards in 2008, but was better remembered for accidentally referring to King Nebuchadnezzar as the first king to “deal with the Jewish problem” when explaining the origin of his screen name to host Daniel Negreanu.

English is not Danielson’s first language and he explained afterwards he was deeply sorry about the miscommunication.

Tennis Star John Isner Plays Poker

Apparently Boris Becker isn’t the only tennis celebrity that enjoys playing a little poker.

The New Zealand Herald reported this week that American John Isner can often be found at the poker table when he’s not playing tennis.

The 6’9 giant was making headlines all week in Auckland at the Heineken Open and even pulled off an upset against top seeded Spanish player Tommy Robredo.

Isner joins the aforementioned Becker as well as former tennis world #1 Yvegeny Kafelnikov as tennis players who are also poker enthusiasts.

Borgata Announces 2010 Winter Poker Open

The Borgata in Atlantic City released a schedule for its fifth annual Borgata Winter Poker Open this week.

The tournament series will take place Jan. 20-Feb. 5 with 16 events in a wide range of poker variants including No-Limit Hold’em, Pot-Limit Omaha, Seven-Card Stud and more.

The $3,500 buy-in main event is scheduled for Jan. 31-Feb. 5 and it will offer a guaranteed prize pool of $2 million.

The Borgata Winter Open used to be a part of the World Poker Tour and in the past crowned champions like Michael Mizrachi, Gavin Griffin and John Hennigan.

Visit the Borgata website for the complete schedule.

Poker News in Brief: Jan. 11-17, 2010

But there was plenty of poker news that didn’t make the front page of PokerListings.com, and as part of our ongoing Poker News in Brief feature, we’ve compiled a list below.

This week we’ll take a look at Gavin Smith crushing Canadian tournaments, the HPT going to Vegas, a dominant online player quitting poker and more:

Two Final Tables for Smith at Fallsview

Canadian Gavin Smith was dominant at the 2010 Fallsview Poker Classic in Niagara Falls this week.

Fresh off a plane from the Bahamas, Smith outlasted 275 players to win $188,743 in the $2,500 event and then three days later finished fourth in the $5,000 main event.

Smith has historically done very well at tournaments in Canada. In 2008, he finished second at the Fallsview-hosted WPT North American Poker Championship for $542,129. He also made the final table of the 2008 Canadian Open Poker Championship in Calgary the same year.

Heartland Poker Tour Heads to Vegas

The Heartland Poker Tour kicked off its sixth season at Red Rock Resort and Casino in Las Vegas this week.

It was just the second time the lower buy-in poker tour has made a stop in Las Vegas, as it usually sticks to venues in Midwest. In the past, the tour has hosted tournaments in Indiana, Colorado, Minnesota, New York, Michigan and Iowa.

The $1,100 buy-in event drew poker pros Dennis Phillips, Layne Flack, John Vorhaus and Tiffany Michelle.

The final table of the tournament is scheduled to play out later today.

Jonas "Nebuchad" Danielsson Quits Poker

Online grinder Jonas “Nebuchad” Danielsson, perhaps most well-known for making a verbal slip at the 2008 Scandinavian Poker Awards, has apparently decided to leave poker for the time being.

Danielsson made the announcement on his blog where he wrote that his passion for poker was gone and he was looking forward to experiencing new things. He did not mention how long his self-imposed retirement would last.

The young Swedish pro started playing poker full time in 2005 and in roughly five years of playing made over $3 million in profit.

Danielsson won Online Player of the Year at the Scandinavian Poker Awards in 2008, but was better remembered for accidentally referring to King Nebuchadnezzar as the first king to “deal with the Jewish problem” when explaining the origin of his screen name to host Daniel Negreanu.

English is not Danielson’s first language and he explained afterwards he was deeply sorry about the miscommunication.

Tennis Star John Isner Plays Poker

Apparently Boris Becker isn’t the only tennis celebrity that enjoys playing a little poker.

The New Zealand Herald reported this week that American John Isner can often be found at the poker table when he’s not playing tennis.

The 6’9 giant was making headlines all week in Auckland at the Heineken Open and even pulled off an upset against top seeded Spanish player Tommy Robredo.

Isner joins the aforementioned Becker as well as former tennis world #1 Yvegeny Kafelnikov as tennis players who are also poker enthusiasts.

Borgata Announces 2010 Winter Poker Open

The Borgata in Atlantic City released a schedule for its fifth annual Borgata Winter Poker Open this week.

The tournament series will take place Jan. 20-Feb. 5 with 16 events in a wide range of poker variants including No-Limit Hold’em, Pot-Limit Omaha, Seven-Card Stud and more.

The $3,500 buy-in main event is scheduled for Jan. 31-Feb. 5 and it will offer a guaranteed prize pool of $2 million.

The Borgata Winter Open used to be a part of the World Poker Tour and in the past crowned champions like Michael Mizrachi, Gavin Griffin and John Hennigan.

Visit the Borgata website for the complete schedule.

Full Tilt Poker Launches Double Guarantees Week

From January 25th to 31st, Full Tilt Poker, the world’s second largest site, is doubling the prize pools of its guaranteed tournaments. A total of $25 million will be on the line throughout the week, leading up to a special $1.5 million purse for the site’s marquee $750,000 Guaranteed on Sunday. Full Tilt happily accepts players from the United States.

The $750,000 Guaranteed, which will sport a seven-figure prize pool on the final day of January, is a $216 buy-in poker tournament that kicks off at 18:00 ET. The $256 buy-in Sunday Brawl, the industry’s largest bounty tournament, will see its guarantee boosted from $400,000 to $800,000. In the event, $200 of each player’s buy-in becomes part of the prize pool, $40 is placed on their head as a bounty, and the remaining $16 goes to Full Tilt Poker as juice. Last week, bounties totaling $109,000 were up for grabs.

The final chance for Full Tilt Poker members to get in on high-stakes action each weekend is the Sunday Mulligan, which issues its “Shuffle Up and Deal” command at 19:05 ET. On January 31st, a total of $400,000 will be up for grabs in it, an increase from the regular $200,000 prize pool. Overall, $2.7 million out of the $25.3 million in guarantees will be on the line in the three aforementioned Sunday majors.

A bevy of more affordable tournaments will also have their guarantees doubled between January 25th and 31st. The site’s $1K Monday, which drew 315 players last week in a tournament ultimately won by IStakeU.com poker coach Will “imahustla1” Givens, will sport a $600,000 purse on January 25th. Givens pocketed $78,000 and the top 36 players finished in the money in the $1,060 buy-in affair.

Full Tilt Poker’s Daily Dollar, a $1 buy-in tournament, will boast a $20,000 guaranteed prize pool. This tournament runs twice daily at 15:15 ET and 20:15 ET and offers unlimited rebuys during the first hour and one add-on. Its first place prize is regularly around $1,500. The daily $75,000 Guaranteed, which comes with a $163 buy-in, will see a purse of $150,000 up for grabs as part of Double Guarantees Week.

The $55 buy-in Fifty-Fifty will not sport a $50,000 guarantee during Full Tilt’s promotional week. Instead, the spoils will be bumped to $100,000. The Fifty-Fifty runs nightly at 21:30 ET and first place usually pays around $9,500. Other highlights of Double Guarantees Week include the Double Deuce, which will come complete with a $400,000 guaranteed prize pool. The affordable $22 buy-in tournament kicks off, appropriately, at 16:22 ET on Sundays.

Double Guarantees Week rounds out the month of January on Full Tilt Poker. Beginning on February 10th is the 15th Full Tilt Online Poker Series (FTOPS). The quarterly event makes its debut in the new decade with more than $17 million in guaranteed prize money. The kickoff event is a $216 buy-in No Limit Hold’em tournament with at least $1 million on the line. FTOPS XV culminates in a $535 buy-in Main Event with at least $2.5 million up for grabs. Last time out, The FTOPS XIV Main Event drew 5,471 players and surpassed its guarantee by $235,000.

Following February’s running of the FTOPS is the MiniFTOPS in March. The series features buy-ins that are one-tenth the size of their high-stakes counterparts and will take place between the 10th and 21st of the month. Full Tilt’s roster of pros include 2009 World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event November Nine member Phil Ivey, five-time bracelet winner Allen Cunningham, former MIT Blackjack Team member Andy Bloch, and high-stakes cash game specialist Tom “durrrr” Dwan, who is Team Full Tilt’s newest face.

Visit Full Tilt Poker for more information on Double Guarantees Week.

Poker Tournament Scene in 1980 by Linda Johnson

I hope you all are enjoying the new year! 2009 ended incredibly well for me at a party at the Spinetti house in Las Vegas. In addition to some top-notch entertainment, hanging out with great friends, and enjoying some delicious food, there was a poker tournament. I managed to hang in long enough to be part of a final table chop and still make it to the rooftop in time to watch the fireworks launched from many of the Strip hotels at the stroke of Midnight.

A post-Midnight conversation among some of the party attendees who are poker dinosaurs like I am had us reminiscing about the differences in poker tournaments from 1980 to 2010. I’m sure some of today’s young players would scoff at the conditions 30 years ago. First of all, we didn’t have all of the conveniences of modern technology such as a tournament clock. Instead of being able to look on a screen and see how much time was left in the round, time was kept on a small timer worn on the tournament director’s lapel. If you wanted to know when the limit was going to go up, you had to hunt down the tournament director and glance at his kitchen timer.

Another big difference in tournaments over the past 30 years is the specific poker game of choice. Many of the tournaments in 1980 were Seven Card Stud or Draw Poker events. Hold’em became popular in the early 1980s and quickly became the favorite tournament game, but of course I’m talking about Limit Hold’em. Other than at the World Series of Poker (WSOP), one could not find a No Limit Hold’em tournament. Around the mid-1980s, Omaha/8 was introduced to Las Vegas and became a popular form of tournament poker, but when I first started playing, Omaha was only known as a city in Nebraska.

In 1980, there weren’t nearly as many tournaments to choose from as there are today. Card rooms in Las Vegas usually spread one or two tournaments a week and the buy-ins were low - $22, $33, $44, or occasionally $55. There was only one $10,000 buy-in a year and it was the Main Event of the WSOP. There was no World Poker Tour (WPT). There were no such things as what I call “tournament mills” – card rooms that offer four or more tournaments in a day.

Today’s youngsters would laugh to learn how few chips we used to get in tournaments. There was no such thing as “deep-stack” events; if you paid $400 to enter a WSOP event, for example, you would start with $400 in tournament chips.

Tournament conditions have changed quite a bit in the past 30 years. If you couldn’t tolerate smoke, you couldn’t play, since every card room allowed smoking. I can remember how brutal it was to be stuck between two smokers for hours at a time. The atmosphere wasn’t nearly as pleasant 30 years ago as it is today. There was no penalty system for abuse, so you had to have thick skin to play. Some players didn’t respect dealers and they had to get used to bobbing and weaving as cards were thrown at them.

All of this contributed to having very few women play in the old days. Today, of course, almost every card room in the world is non-smoking, abuse has been greatly curtailed, and there are lots of women who enjoy a very non-threatening poker environment.

There was no such thing as the Tournament Director’s Association (TDA) in 1980. Tournament rules were far from standard, so every time you went to a different locale, you had to ask how many raises were permitted, whether they used a forward-moving or a dead button, etc. Players were allowed to expose cards to get a read on their opponents. They could even discuss the contents of their hands. You didn’t have to table your cards when you were all-in with no more action possible. Today’s players take for granted that TDA rules apply in almost every tournament venue in the country.

One of the rules that I was instrumental in changing through the power of the pen as publisher of CardPlayer was in regards to the chip race. In the 1980s, when it was time to color up, players received one card for each odd chip, just like they do today. However, instead of coloring up the odd chips into higher denomination chips and then giving a maximum of one chip per player, the player who ended up with the highest card at the table received all of the new higher value chips.

Getting the high card could affect the outcome of the event since it was such a huge win. For example, if they were coloring up 23 $100 chips, one player would get $2,500, which often was more than the starting chip stack. In today’s events, five players would each get one $500 chip instead of one player getting all five $500 chips.

In 1980, we played poker. There was no tweeting at the table, no iPods, and no cell phones. Sometimes I miss the good old days. Happy 2010!

Begleiter Hosts Poker Benefit for Troops

The Intrepid Fallen Heroes Fund Charity Poker Tournament will take place at the Intrepid Sea, Air, & Space Museum in New York on Jan. 27.

“I feel very strongly about supporting the brave men and women who sacrifice for our nation,” said Begleiter. “This is a heartfelt cause that truly affects all of us as Americans.”

Drawing on his connections in the poker world Begleiter will have several high-profile poker players on hand including Dennis Phillips, Kevin Schaffel, Eric Buchman and Victor Ramdin.

The winner of the charity event will receive a $10,000 seat into the 2010 WSOP Main Event.

The buy-in is $750 although those looking to support the cause can pay $250 for spectator entry and take part in the cocktail reception, dinner and entertainment.

All proceeds will go towards the construction of the National Intrepid Center of Excellence, a state-of-the-art facility for treating wounded soldiers suffering from traumatic brain injury.

The Intrepid Fallen Heroes Fund assists both service men and women who have been injured in the line of duty and dependents of U.S. military members that lost their lives in Iraq or Afghanistan.

To learn more or register for the charity event go the Intrepid Fallen Heroes Fund’s website.

Begleiter Hosts Poker Benefit for Troops

The Intrepid Fallen Heroes Fund Charity Poker Tournament will take place at the Intrepid Sea, Air, & Space Museum in New York on Jan. 27.

“I feel very strongly about supporting the brave men and women who sacrifice for our nation,” said Begleiter. “This is a heartfelt cause that truly affects all of us as Americans.”

Drawing on his connections in the poker world Begleiter will have several high-profile poker players on hand including Dennis Phillips, Kevin Schaffel, Eric Buchman and Victor Ramdin.

The winner of the charity event will receive a $10,000 seat into the 2010 WSOP Main Event.

The buy-in is $750 although those looking to support the cause can pay $250 for spectator entry and take part in the cocktail reception, dinner and entertainment.

All proceeds will go towards the construction of the National Intrepid Center of Excellence, a state-of-the-art facility for treating wounded soldiers suffering from traumatic brain injury.

The Intrepid Fallen Heroes Fund assists both service men and women who have been injured in the line of duty and dependents of U.S. military members that lost their lives in Iraq or Afghanistan.

To learn more or register for the charity event go the Intrepid Fallen Heroes Fund’s website.

Kara Scott Joins PartyPoker

The Canadian will join Mike Sexton, Remy Biechel, Ian Frazer, Felipe “Mojave” Ramos, Stewart Scott and Bodo Sbrzesny as a full-fledged member of Team Party.

“I’ve had such a positive experience in poker and have been incredibly lucky as well,” she said. “Being asked to be a part of Team Party is a real rush and I’m so honored. I just hope I can do them proud.”

Although she was born in Alberta, Canada, Scott rose to fame in England where she became one of the main hosts of the award-winning show Poker Night Live.

She went on to host the popular PokerStars European Poker Tour and most recently provided the commentary on the latest season of High Stakes Poker on GSN, which is set to air later this year.

While she will play tournaments patched by PartyPoker, Scott will continue her television work as well.

“They understand that while I absolutely love playing poker and am really stoked about playing more big live events and working on improving my game, my actual job is TV presenting,” she explained. “It was really gratifying that they feel I’ll bring value to their team as both a player and a TV presenter.”

Ironically, it was a PartyPoker event that gave Scott one of her first big breaks when it came to actually playing the game.

“When I started playing poker a few years ago I was lucky to get asked to be on a couple of Party Poker’s UK TV tournaments and had my first big cash, and win, with their Sports Stars Challenge III,” she said. “It seemed like a natural progression for me to get involved with them now, particularly as I’ll be spending a lot of time in Canada.”

After winning the Sports Star Challenge III, Scott went on to make deep runs at the WSOP Main Event in back to back years. She finished 104^th for $41,816 in 2008 and 238^th for $32,963 in 2009.

In 2009, she also had her biggest score ever at the Irish Open where she outlasted 798 players before eventually falling to Christer Johansson heads-up. She earned €312,600 for second place.

In her relatively short span of playing high buy-in events, Scott has won $557,902, which places her 24^th on the all-time women’s tournament money list.

“Kara is a great signing and we are really looking forward to working with her,” said a PartyPoker spokesman.

“She has historic links with PartyPoker.com after taking down the Sports Stars Challenge III and we have been super impressed by her progress since then. As well as being a great presenter, Kara is also a fantastic player with great results and the potential to go even further. We are excited about this new relationship.”

As part of the deal, Scott will play tournaments around the world and act as a presenter for the Premier League when it moves to Vegas for the first time in February. She will also represent PartyPoker at a number of Canadian Poker Tour events.