Poker News

Cake Poker Returning WSOP Bracelet to T.J. Cloutier

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Daniel Negreanu Comments on Phil Ivey Taking All-Time Money Lead

Over the weekend, Phil Ivey placed second to Dan Shak in the $100,000 Challenge at the 2010 Aussie Millions Poker Championship at the Crown Casino in Melbourne, Australia.  For his efforts, Ivey won $553,776 ($600,000 AUD), vaulting him into the top position on the all-time live tournament money list.  His total of $12,813,990 is now $381,623 ahead of Daniel Negreanu's $12,432,367.

For his part, Negreanu has been far from a sore "loser."  In fact, Negreanu expressed his admiration for Ivey in his poker journal on his website, FullContactPoker.com:

"It's my belief that Phil Ivey is the best poker player in the world, and that includes every format," wrote Negreanu.  "I've played live with him, and cash, Hold'em, Stud, Omaha, whatever, and he is just the most consistently good player at everything - include [sic] online based on what his results look like. I don't think anyone has won more money online, live play, or tournament poker, than Ivey. Pretty strong."

Fortunately, Negreanu does not feel like this turn of events diminishes his place in the poker world, nor should he.  Like any good competitor, Negreanu is using Ivey's success as an impetus to achieve even more in his career.

"It's actually kind of fun for me," Negreanu blogged after Day 1 of the 2010 WPT Southern Poker Championship at the Beau Rivage in Biloxi, Mississippi.  "I'm glad he did so well because it motivates me to try and pass him again. I was up about $200,000 so I think I'll need to finish 2nd or 1st to regain the lead. Should be a fun year from that perspective."

"Kid Poker" also commented on Ivey's mindset, saying, "Another misconception about Ivey is that he 'Doesn't really care.' He does. He definitely cares, because he is a competitor. It's not all about the money for him, otherwise he wouldn't bother. I think he's got something to prove in 2010. Not to the poker world, everyone with half a brain knows that Ivey is the best. I think he has something to prove to himself. 2010 could be a monster year for him."

In the last half year, Phil Ivey has won nearly $2,000,000 on the live tournament circuit, allowing him to overtake such players as Phil Hellmuth, Jamie Gold, Joe Hachem, and Scotty Nguyen on the all-time money list (based on current money standings), in addition to Negreanu.  While his Aussie Millions take was sizable, Ivey's rise on the leader board was aided primarily by his seventh place finish in the 2009 World Series of Poker Main Event, where he won $1,404,014.  He also won two bracelets during the 2009 WSOP, bringing his lifetime total to seven.

If it is any consolation for Negreanu, he remains ahead of Ivey on the inflation-adjusted money list (thanks to thehendonmob.com for this information), $13,816,957 to $13,305,078.  He is still second on that list, though, to Hellmuth, whose inflation-adjusted total is $13,876,255.

Pawn Shop Reacts to T.J. Cloutier WSOP Bracelets on eBay

With 24 hours left in the bidding, the two championship bracelets that were won by T.J. Cloutier have begun to draw bidding attention on eBay.

As reported yesterday here at Poker News Daily, the store that has ownership of Cloutier’s bracelets, the Plano Pawn Shop, placed the two championship bracelets on sale on eBay after they acquired the items. The bracelets, a 2005 World Series of Poker (WSOP) championship memento and the trophy from the 2007 Scotty Nguyen Poker Challenge IV, have been on the popular auction site since January 14th. Up until early Friday and with time running out on the auctions, no bids had been placed. Now, the action has picked up.

The 2005 WSOP bracelet, won by Cloutier in a $5,000 No Limit Hold’em tournament that year, was on eBay with a minimum asking price of $2,999. Since yesterday, three bids have been entered on the item. While it is unknown who the buyer might be due to eBay bidder privacy regulations, an original bid of $3,200 was entered at 1:13 Pacific Time on Friday. Soon after that, two bidders eclipsed that price with bids of $3,500 for the most prized trophy in poker. By eBay rules, the earlier $3,500 bid stands to pick up the 2005 WSOP bracelet, roughly valued at $2,350 by Poker News Daily.

The 2007 Scotty Nguyen Poker Challenge IV bracelet, which marked Cloutier’s last major championship victory, has garnered less attention, but is still in play. The Plano Pawn Shop offered the white gold and diamond championship bracelet through eBay for $2,499 and bidding on it will end simultaneously with the sale of the WSOP bracelet. At this point, only one bid has been entered that meets the original asking price.

Poker News Daily placed a call to the Plano Pawn Shop and was able to learn several details about the bracelets. An employee who would only state his name as Larry said that whomever places the highest bid on the eBay auctions would walk off with the bracelets. “We haven’t offered them for sale in the Plano area; it has strictly been something that we’ve done through eBay,” Larry said. “We really didn’t have a clue what they would be worth, but we knew what we needed to get out of the items to make a fair profit.”

Larry went on to imply that Cloutier sold the bracelets outright rather than accepting a loan against them. In addition, the original asking price on eBay was the bottom line of what they might be worth: “If you melt the bracelets down and pull the [gem] stones off, what we’re asking for is the scrap price of the items.” Larry would not state what Cloutier received in exchange for the two championship bracelets.

Astute Poker News Daily reader James Guill also contacted the Plano Pawn Shop on Friday and was able to confirm that the bracelets were indeed ones that Cloutier had won. In his post, he related that the attention the bracelets have received surpass other offerings: “They (Plano Pawn Shop) stated that they have received more attention on this item than even Super Bowl rings they have auctioned off in the past.”

The poker community continues to discuss the bracelets and what should be done with them. Some believe that one of the top professionals - the names of Phil Ivey and Daniel Negreanu have been bandied about - should buy the bracelets and return them to Cloutier. Others believe that this would be for naught and suggest that Cloutier would only sell them again. In the discussion have been Ted Forrest buying one of Hamid Dastmalchi’s WSOP bracelets for $1,500 and Cloutier’s propensity for the craps tables.

The bracelet sales on eBay end Sunday afternoon at approximately 1:30 Pacific Time, but it is unlikely that we will learn who bought them and why. Poker News Daily will continue to track this story to its conclusion tomorrow.

T. J. Cloutier’s Championship Bracelets Up For Sale On eBay

Awards in the poker world can range from plaques to large trophies to even the head of an alligator (the World Series of Poker (WSOP) Circuit’s Bayou Poker Classic trophy is the stuffed head of such an animal). One of the most cherished mementos of victory in poker is, of course, the WSOP bracelet that is awarded to each winner of an event in Las Vegas. For one of the most prized trophies in poker to appear for sale is almost unheard of.

This apparently is occurring at this moment and the former owner of the bracelet is none other than longtime poker veteran T.J. Cloutier. For sale on eBay, the popular online auction site, is a WSOP Bracelet won by Cloutier. The information on the site states that the bracelet is the last one that was won by the Texas road gambler in 2005. Information from the WSOP site shows that Cloutier won the last of his six bracelets in 2005 in the $5000 No Limit Hold’em event, where he defeated a final table that included Todd Brunson, John “World” Hennigan and the late John Bonetti to capture the championship.

On sale by the Plano Pawn Shop (which is approximately ten miles from T.J.’s hometown of Richardson, Texas), the auction on eBay has about two days left in the bidding. Asking for a minimum bid of $2999, the 2005 WSOP bracelet has yet to garner any interest from potential buyers. Perhaps anyone interested in the bracelet is wary of its authenticity (the Plano Pawn Shop has stated that the bracelet will come with a certificate of authenticity to prove it is real), but eBay sales are also notorious for not getting any action until the sale is almost over.

According to other details included in the sale information for the WSOP bracelet, the Plano Pawn Shop also has another championship bracelet from Cloutier. This has been confirmed by Poker News Daily as the bracelet from Cloutier’s last major poker championship, the 2007 Scotty Nguyen Poker Challenge IV, and the Plano Pawn Shop’s minimum bid for that bracelet is $2,499. Both of the items are not only for sale on eBay but are also being offered in the Plano Pawn Shop and can be viewed by appointment only.

The actual cash value of a WSOP bracelet is surprisingly easy to determine. From information provided by the Plano Pawn Shop about the Cloutier bracelet, Poker News Daily has determined an approximate value for such an item. With its 96 grams (3.38 ounces) of 14 karat gold (which is 58% gold, with 24K being solid gold) and 0.25 carats in diamonds, the cash value of the 2005 bracelet is roughly $2,350. The inherent value in a WSOP bracelet, of which only about 500 have been awarded, is priceless.

As far as what Cloutier may have received for the WSOP bracelet, an examination of the pawnshop industry would be necessary. When a pawnshop buys a piece of merchandise, it usually will pay anywhere from 30% to 50% of the actual value of an item to ensure that they get a significant return on their investment. With the Plano Pawn Shop putting a price tag of $2,999 on Cloutier’s 2005 WSOP bracelet, it can be logically assumed that the poker pro sold the bracelet for somewhere between $1,000 and $1,500.

The sale of the bracelet has the forums burning with questions about the bracelet and Cloutier’s current financial status. On TwoPlusTwo, players are assuming that Cloutier has gone broke and needs the finances to continue playing poker (at this time, Cloutier has no sponsorship deal) or, some posters imply, to take to the craps tables. Many, however, are lamenting that Cloutier would part with one of his six WSOP bracelets. Poster “Dan_Vincent” writes in his post, “That's sad. You know he didn't get anything close to $2K for this.”

Others, perhaps cruelly, are making jokes about the issue. Citing one of the currently popular reality television shows, poster “Tom Bayes” says, “TJ should have gone on 'Pawn Stars.' Then Corey and Chumlee could have drooled on the bracelet, Rick could call up one of his numerous 'buddies' to give an 'expert' appraisal and then lowball the hell out of TJ, and then the 'Old Man' could tell us how 'real' poker was played 'back in the day.'”

For whatever reason, Cloutier felt as though these two bracelets were items that he could live without. With slightly more than 48 hours left in the two auctions, it remains to be seen how many bids Cloutier’s bracelets will get or if they will even be sold through the eBay auctions at all.

Anibal Tacla Leads PokerStars Caribbean Adventure Day 1B Survivors

The 2010 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure (PCA) will go down as the largest in history, as 1,529 entrants took to the felts. Anibal Tacla from Curitiba, Brazil, the same hometown as Team PokerStars Pro member Alexandre Gomes, led Day 1B’s finishers.

Tacla, a shopping mall owner, amassed 166,000 chips during play on Wednesday to lead the way, although he is still well short of Wayne Bentley’s Day 1A total of 329,500. The prize pool of the 2010 PCA is around $15 million. Last year, 1,347 players took to the felts in what was the largest PCA ever held. In the end, Canadian Poorya Nazari defeated American Anthony Gregg to bank the $3 million top prize; Gregg earned a $1.7 million consolation prize and the top three finishers were instant poker-made millionaires.

2009 World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event champion Joe Cada gave the traditional “Shuffle Up and Deal” command to start play on Wednesday. A bevy of superstars took to the felts, including Full Tilt Poker’s Mike Matusow and Tom “durrrr” Dwan, along with Freddy Deeb, Scotty Nguyen, and former Playboy Playmate of the Year Jayde Nicole, who served as a celebrity player on the “PokerStars.net Million Dollar Challenge.”

Just after 2:30pm in the Bahamas, rapper Nelly was eliminated from the 2010 PCA Main Event. "If you wanna go and take a rid wit’ him," you can now find the St. Louis native on the beach after he shoved with A-K for top two pair on a board reading A-4-5-K. However, he was up against the stone cold nuts, 2-3. Needing to spike an ace or king on the river to stay alive, Nelly watched as the final card blanked out, sending him to the exits. Must be the money!

Speaking of money, “PokerStars.net Million Dollar Challenge” $1 million winner Mike Kosowski, a 9/11 first responder, also could be found on the felts on Wednesday. With his chip stack dwindling to 6,500, or roughly one-fifth of the starting amount, Kosowski told PokerStars officials, "I turned the nut flush and then this guy rivers a full house. That was pretty brutal and I've been playing a short stack as a result for the last three or four hours." Kosowski did not survive Day 1B, although his $1 million prize for besting PokerStars front man Daniel Negreanu and a once-in-a-lifetime trip to the Bahamas most likely helped ease his pain.

Also bounced prematurely were Cada, Gomes, Boris Becker, Leo Fernandez, and Lex Veldhuis. Fernandez went out in especially brutal fashion, getting it all-in with A-K of diamonds, but losing to A-K offsuit when his opponent made a spade flush. The flop came all spades and a fourth fell on the river.

Here are the top ten chip stacks entering a combined Day 2 field on Thursday. Play kicks off at Noon ET inside the Atlantis Resort and Casino in the Bahamas:

1. Wayne Bentley – 329,500
2. Amnon Filippi – 220,100
3. Kevin “BeL0WaB0Ve” Saul – 175,500
4. Mike Chappus – 168,700
5. Anibal Tacla – 166,000
6. Eric “EFro” Froehlich – 166,000
7. Dustin Dorrance-Bowman – 163,700
8. Eric Buchman – 159,100
9. Ryan “Ryanbluf” Karp – 147,600
10. Matt “mattg1983” Graham – 146,700

Notable names perched near the top of the chip counts, along with their totals heading into Day 2, include:

Annette “Annette_15” Obrestad – 124,900
Paul Wasicka – 116,300
Phil Ivey – 115,700
Craig Marquis – 114,300
Barry Shulman – 113,000
Dennis Phillips – 113,000
Justin “ZeeJustin” Bonomo – 111,200
Dario Minieri – 109,800
J.C. Alvarado – 109,600
Vivek “Psyduck” Rajkumar – 106,400

When play was halted for the night on Day 1A and Day 1B, the blinds were 400-800 with a 100 ante at the end of Level 8. The tournament will crown a champion on Monday. Although PokerStars has not released an official payout structure, first place will likely receive well over $3 million.

Stay tuned to Poker News Daily for the latest 2010 PCA coverage.

Mike Sexton Tall Tales by Linda Johnson

I’ve had lots of highlights in my poker career, but attending the dinner and ceremony during which Mike Sexton was inducted into the Poker Hall of Fame is certainly among the highest. By now, I’m sure you know that Sexton was the only one who got inducted this year. If I were a betting woman, I’d bet that he got the nod from 100% of the voting media and living Hall of Fame members.

I was thrilled for Mike and honored when he called to let me know that he was the 2009 Poker Hall of Fame inductee. The night before the induction, I went to a private party at Mike’s house. Tales from Mike’s earlier days were being tossed about and this one was my favorite. When Mike was fairly new to Las Vegas, his longtime relationship with Chip Reese and Danny Robinson led to him hang out with many of the high-limit players at that time.

He met Puggy Pearson through Chip and Danny. Puggy was a “hustler” and eventually Mike and he made arrangements to play backgammon at a local bar for some fairly high stakes. By the time they actually played, Mike was, as he said, “between bankrolls.” He was a bit concerned that there might be some trouble if he lost because he couldn’t pay Puggy that night, so he asked his brother Tom to go with him in case things got out of hand. Puggy won the first few matches and had Mike stuck about $1,000. Puggy then said, “Son, I think we should settle up every time the figure gets to be $1,000, so pay me now and then we can continue to play.” Uh-oh… bad beat for Mike!

He looked at Puggy and said, “Well, I hate to say this, but I didn’t bring any money with me tonight. You know I’m good for it though.” Puggy then glared at Mike for about two minutes before breaking out into laughter. “What’s so funny?” asked Mike. Puggy replied, “Well son, I didn’t know what to do if I lost. I didn’t bring any money either.”

We swapped Sexton stories. I recalled the most exciting bet I’d ever been involved in: In 1998, Sexton, Bonnie Damiano, Jan Fisher, and I made a $5,000 bet with Erik Seidel that we could pick the winner of the WSOP Main Event if we got to choose 60 players. Erik would get the field versus our 60 players. Additionally, he was allowed to select 10 players that would be considered neutral, so if any of those people won, the bet would be a push.

This was a huge bet for us at the time, so Bonnie, Mike, Jan, and I met every day during the WSOP to modify our list. We would add players based on who was playing well and delete names of those who were having personal problems, money problems, doing drugs, etc. The final list that we turned in to Erik on the morning before the Main Event started looked nothing like the list we had originally concocted. To our dismay, there was a large number of entrants that year, 350 to be exact, which meant that after ruling out ten neutral players, we had 60 players against Erik’s 280.

Our dismay turned to joy as the field narrowed. We were already counting our winnings because there was one spoiler for us, Kevin McBride, who no one had even heard of before the final event. T.J. Cloutier was at the final table, but was a neutral player, so if he won, the bet would be a push. We had Scotty Nguyen, Lee Salem, and Dewey Weum on our list. I give Mike extreme credit for such great handicapping since back in those days, no one would have picked those three guys. When we heard Scotty’s words, “Call this baby and it’s all over,” it was music to our ears!

The Rio hosted a first-class affair for Mike’s induction. The decorations and the food in the Brasilia Room were impressive. Mike’s wife, Karen, and his 16-month old, Ty, were there as well as a veritable "who’s who" of poker.

In Mike’s acceptance speech, he credited the eight other nominees and then thanked some people who had helped him along in his career. Mike acknowledged that I was the one who gave him his start when I hired him to write a column for CardPlayer. That gave him exposure to the world, which ended up in him getting a call from Ruth Parisol to come help to India to help get an online site off the ground. That company turned out to be Party Gaming, which eventually sold for about $9 billion when it went public.

What Mike didn’t mention on his special night was that in the beginning, PartyPoker wasn’t all roses. Mike had encouraged PartyPoker to hire me as one of its spokespeople to add credibility to the site. Party definitely needed that credibility since there were problems with the software in the early stages. Mike and I went on public forums to soothe the naysayers and encouraged everyone to trust the site and give it time to fix the glitches. The players hung in there and the software became the best at that time.

Next, Mike came up with the idea for the PartyPoker Million. He had a vision that called for players to qualify online in $22 buy-in tournaments and then those players would win a cabin on a cruise ship and a shot at a $1 million prize pool. The only problem was that he needed someone to guarantee the $1 million. Card Player Cruises stepped up to the plate and made the guarantee. My word that the money would be paid was good enough to get lots of players to qualify. Unfortunately, not enough players qualified, so Card Player Cruises had to make up the $400,000 deficit. The Party Poker Million cruise launched with Kathy Liebert winning the first event.

Mike told some great stories at his induction and as usual, the audience was mesmerized.  I’ve known Mike for 20 years and cherish our friendship. Way to go, Mike!

Poker2Nite Welcomes CardPlayer Player of the Year Eric Baldwin (basebaldy)

Poker players traveling home on Sunday night could finally catch the latest episode of the Fox Sports Net poker news show “Poker2Nite,” sponsored by UB.com. Poker News Daily fired up our DVR to watch last week’s installment.

Coverage of the World Poker Tour’s (WPT) Doyle Brunson Five Diamond World Poker Classic kicked off “Poker2Nite,” featuring interviews with Faraz “The-Toilet” Jaka, Scotty Nguyen, Josh Arieh, and eventual champion Daniel Alaei. The latter earned $1.4 million for his victory, but “Poker2Nite” focused on the allegedly inappropriate behavior of Nguyen.

In a hand where Chad “lilholdem954” Batista was eliminated after not hearing an all-in and a call before he acted because he had headphones on, Nguyen began to laugh. According to Jaka, Nguyen “laugh[ed] in his face,” but the former Expekt Poker pro defended himself: “He’s the one who made the mistake, not me. I laugh because he say all-in, but I didn’t know that he didn’t know.” “Poker2Nite” host Joe Sebok responded, “I’m not buying this from Scotty anymore. He’s out of line.” Nguyen famously berated Rio floor staff and fellow players on national television during the 2008 World Series of Poker’s (WSOP) $50,000 HORSE Championship.

Eric “basebaldy” Baldwin, the winner of the 2009 CardPlayer Player of the Year title, then joined the show. On whether luck or skill played a bigger part in his run during the calendar year, Baldwin told Sebok and “Poker2Nite” co-host Scott Huff, “Obviously, I ran above expectations, but you have to play well and have luck on your side.” Down the stretch, Baldwin admitted that he focused on the factors he could control: “I tried my best not to look at what the people behind me were doing because it’s not going to help me play my hand better.”

Baldwin inked a sponsorship agreement with UB.com last week and explained that his strengths include being a good judge of people, he takes a situation for what it is, and he is able to adapt with ease. On the importance of the latter trait, Baldwin remarked, “Adaptability is just huge in poker. The game has evolved so much and you have to stay on top of it and continue trying to learn.” Baldwin won a $1,500 buy-in No Limit Hold’em event during the 2009 WSOP for his first bracelet. A week later, he took third in the $10,000 buy-in World Championship of Pot Limit Hold’em. The two cashes were worth $780,000 combined.

A segment called “All-In Blind” pitted Sebok and Huff against each other in a debate over three unknown news topics. The first focused on Darvin Moon’s tournament series at the Wheeling Island Casino. The second dealt with the 2010 WSOP schedule, which was released in recent days. The final banter was whether Isildur1 or the XFL represented the bigger flash in the pan. After being taken for more than $4 million by Brian Hastings, Isildur1 has largely disappeared.

Dana Workman doled out the “Weekly Misdeal,” offering a satirical look at the biggest poker news headlines of the week. Then, attention turned to a variety of pros shaving their heads in support of Thuy Doan, who is in the midst of a health care crisis resulting from her battle with cancer. Those who went bald included Eli Elezra, Doyle Brunson, Tom “durrrr” Dwan, Sorel “Imper1um” Mizzi, and Doan’s boyfriend. Huff summed up the segment by saying, “We are all proud of you, Thuy.”

“Poker2Nite” airs on Wednesday nights at 11:00pm ET on Fox Sports Net. Because the show is often pre-empted for local sports and other programming, check your local listings for more information.

Daniel Alaei Wins at Bellagio, Captures First WPT Title

Alaei (pictured), a winner of two WSOP bracelets, added a WPT title to his resume after beating a strong final table at Bellagio, including former WPT winners Scotty Nguyen and Shawn Buchanan. At one point of the final Alaei was the short stack with only 8 big blinds, but managed to fight his way back to the heads-up against Josh Arieh and eventually to the victory.

First player of the final table was Steve O’Dwyer, who pushed his 19 big blind stack all in from the small blind with A-6 suited against Nguyen. Scotty quickly called with a pair of jacks in his hand and the flop of J-7-6 almost sealed the the fate of O’Dwyer. Ace on the turn gave him some more outs, but a four on the river meant that O’Dwyer was out in 6th Place winning $202,362.

Nguyen couldn’t keep up the pace though, as he was next player hitting the rail. After an under the gun raise by Josh Arieh, Scotty moved all in with 9-9 and Faraz Jaka repeated the move forcing Arieh to fold. Scotty was in a rough shape against a pair of kings Jaka had in his pocket. The board gave no help for “The Prince of Poker” and he was out in 5th place, pocketing $249,976 for his efforts.

A former WPT winner Shawn Buchanan couldn’t repeat the feat this time as he was ousted by future winner Alaei in 4th place. Buchanan moved all in with K-8, but was dominated by Alaei who had A-K in the pocket. Fourth place finish earned Buchanan respectable $333,302 in cash.

Three-handed play lasted only twelwe hands and the heads-up duo was set when Jaka moved all in with A-6 and Alaei woke up with K-K from the big blind. Alaei flopped a set and Jaka was out in 3rd place and $571,374 richer.

Josh Arieh started the heads-up play with a 2:1 chip lead, but Alaei turned the tide in just the second hand of the HU, when he won a coinflip with Q-Q against A-K. Alaei widened the cap between the two and almost had the victory in his hands when Arieh moved all in with A-7 against Alaei’s A-Q. Arieh luckboxed a seven on the turn and the pair was back in level.

But only three hands later Alaei got a revenge, when he flopped a top pair with T-8, on a T-5-2 board, against a pair of sevens. Arieh moved all in thinking his hand was good and the call from Alaei meant that Arieh was in a need of a miracle. Arieh couldn’t spike a seven on the turn or on the river though and Alaei was crowned the champion of the last WPT in 2009.

Here is the final payouts of the WPT Doyle Brunson Five Diamond World Poker Classic at Bellagio:

1. Daniel Alaei – $1,428,430
2. Josh Arieh – $952,290
3. Faraz Jaka – $571,374
4. Shawn Buchanan – $333,302
5. Scotty Nguyen – $249,976
6. Steve O’Dwyer - $202,362
7. Joe Cassidy – $154,747
8. Eric Hershler – $107,133
9. Curt Kohlberg – $76,183
10. Chad Batista – $57,137
11. John Juanda – $57,137
12. Lee Salem – $57,137
13. Mike Sowers – $47,615
14. Carter King – $47,615
15. Matt Waxman – $47,615
16. Joseph Elpayaa – $38,092
17. Brent Hanks - $38,092
18. Jamie Rosen - $38,092
19. Jeremy Brown - $28,569
20. Matt Stout - $28,569
21. Steven Landfish - $28,569
22. Farshad Fardad - $28,569
23. Antonio Esfandiari - $28,569
24. Joe Pulliam - $28,569
25. Steve Brecher - $28,569
26. Amit Makhija - $28,569
27. Michael McClain - $28,569

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Daniel Alaei Wins at Bellagio, Captures First WPT Title

Daniel Alaei Wins WPT Five Diamond World Poker Classic

Poker pro Daniel Alaei took down the World Poker Tour’s (WPT) Doyle Brunson Five Diamond World Poker Classic on Saturday night, earning $1.4 million and a $25,000 seat into the end-of-season WPT Championship.

On the 47th hand of final table play, online poker pro Stephen “MrTimCaum” O’Dwyer was sent packing from the Bellagio, the site of the WPT Five Diamond. O’Dwyer shoved his 19 big blind stack in with A-6 of diamonds, but ran into poker pro Scotty Nguyen’s wired pair of jacks. The flop came jack-high, giving Nguyen top set and O’Dwyer bottom pair. An ace on the turn left the at-risk O’Dwyer calling for another ace on the river, but a four fell to send him to the exits. O’Dwyer earned $202,000 for his efforts.

Sixty hands later, Nguyen departed after shoving over the top of a raise by Josh Arieh. Online poker star Faraz “The-Toilet” Jaka, who had entered the final table as the chip leader, moved all-in over the top of Nguyen and Arieh folded. At risk, Nguyen showed pocket nines, but Jaka turned over pocket kings for a 4:1 edge pre-flop. The board ran out A-J-8-2-8 and Jaka scooped the pot with kings-up. The Doyle Brunson Five Diamond World Poker Classic marked Nguyen’s eighth WPT final table and he earned $249,000.

The next to go was Shawn Buchanan, who pushed his 10 big blind stack into the middle with K-8, but Alaei’s A-K left him drawing thin. The board came 9-7-3-9-J, which was no help to Buchanan, and Alaei scooped the pot. Three-handed, Arieh held a commanding chip lead with an arsenal of 10.6 million, while Alaei’s second place stack totaled 5.4 million. Jaka, meanwhile, had a stack of 3.7 million entering three-handed play.

Jaka busted in third place after committing his chips pre-flop with A-6 and running into the pocket kings of Alaei. The flop came K-10-5, leaving Jaka calling for running straight cards, but an eight on the turn and four on the river sealed his fate. Jaka was the runner-up in the Bellagio Cup V in July, where he earned $774,000. On Saturday, he added another $571,000 to his bankroll.

Heading into heads-up play, Arieh held a 2:1 chip lead, but quickly doubled up Alaei after coming out on the short end of a race with A-K against Alaei’s pocket queens. The board came jack-high, giving Alaei the pot and a 3:1 chip lead just two hands into heads-up play. Arieh then doubled after sucking out on A-Q with A-7 when a seven hit on the turn. The two poker veterans were nearly even in chips at that point.

However, Alaei ultimately emerged victorious in the final WPT tournament of 2009. Arieh pushed all-in with pocket sevens on a flop of 10-5-2 and Alaei made the call with 10-8 for top pair. The turn came a six and Arieh needed one of two remaining sevens in the deck to stave off elimination. However, the river came an eight, giving Alaei two pair and his first WPT title. Arieh earned a $952,000 consolation prize, while Alaei boosted his bankroll by $1.4 in his first WPT final table appearance.

Here were the final table results from the WPT Doyle Brunson Five Diamond World Poker Classic:

1. Daniel Alaei - $1,428,430
2. Josh Arieh - $952,290
3. Faraz “The-Toilet” Jaka - $571,374
4. Shawn Buchanan - $333,302
5. Scotty Nguyen - $249,976
6. Stephen “MrTimCaum” O'Dwyer - $202,362

The first tournament for the WPT in 2010 is the Southern Poker Championship, which will emanate from the Beau Rivage Resort and Casino in Biloxi, Mississippi. The event kicks off on January 24th and crowns a champion three days later.

Alaei: Out of Bobby’s Room and Into a WPT Title

“This is great,” Alaei said moments after the win Saturday. “I’ve been wanting one of these for a while. I was basically the only one of my friends that didn’t have one, now I’ve got one and it feels great.”

The tournament began at Bellagio this past Monday with 329 players entering the fray by time registration closed.

But it did so without the eventual champion, who chose to spend Day 1 letting his stack be blinded off while he stuck it out in Bobby’s Room in a cash game with noted whale and Cirque du Soleil founder Guy Laliberté.

Alaei immediately went to work Tuesday building a big stack that put him contention before making a final six Friday pundits dubbed one of the toughest in tour history.

When play got going just after 4 p.m. Saturday, short staked online pro Steve O’Dwyer moved up the leader board with a few well timed shoves, but soon ran into Scotty Nguyen and a pair of jacks pushing with A♦ 6♦.

Nguyen flopped a set, and although O’Dwyer picked up two pair on the turn, the river bricked to bounce him sixth.

Nguyen could not hold on to those chips, however, falling below the two million mark before open shoving with nines.

WPT Bellagio Cup runner-up Faraz Jaka made the easy call with kings and after a board of blanks, the Prince of Poker was forced to settle for fifth place money in his sixth WPT final table appearance.

Shawn Buchanan then dropped out fourth in his attempt at a second WPT win, shoving short with K♥ 8♦ and running smack into Alaei’s A♣ K♦.

A short stacked Josh Arieh doubled up twice early to jump back into contention and scooped a more than 3 million chip pot calling down a naked Jaka bluff with just ace-high to move into the chip lead.

Despite not being involved in any of the bust-out hands, all the chips seemed to end up in Josh Arieh’s stack, and just after play went three-handed, he had an almost 3:1 chip lead on Alaei and Jaka combined.

Alaei moved on to heads-up with Arieh, calling Jaka’s A♠ 6♥ shove with kings and flopping a set to send Jaka home third in a hand the 26-year-old Santa Fe Springs, California native described as critical.

“That was extremely crucial,” he explained. “I knew I wanted to get heads-up with Josh, but if Josh would have busted him I would have only had 3 million to his 16 million and that would have been really tough.”

Arieh, a two-time WSOP bracelet winner making his second WPT final table appearance, still held an almost 2:1 chip lead when heads-up began, but it didn’t last long.

In just the second hand of heads-up play the two combatants found themselves in a classic race with Alaei all in holding queens and Arieh on big slick.

The queens held and suddenly Alaei was the one in charge.

“There was really nothing we could do - Two queens against ace-king,” he said. “It just kind of played out and I’m happy to be the one standing here.”

Alaei gave back some chips when Arieh sucked out with a dominated ace, but eventually made a huge call with top pair against Arieh’s under-pair to book the $1,428,430 win.

Alaei, who has two WSOP bracelets and is a regular in the Big Game and TV’s High Stakes Poker, said the experience he has playing in the world’s biggest cash games paid great dividends.

“I’m more used to the swings,” he said. “I’m used to big money changing hands. That makes you more comfortable and that definitely had to give me an advantage here.”

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Scotty Nguyen, Faraz Jaka Lead WPT Five Diamond Final Table

Poker pros Scotty Nguyen and Faraz “The-Toilet” Jaka lead the final table of the World Poker Tour’s (WPT) Doyle Brunson Five Diamond World Poker Classic playing out from the Bellagio in Las Vegas. The six-handed finale will begin at 4:00pm PT today.

Nguyen holds a stack of 4.9 million entering the six-handed televised final table, which will air as part of Season 8 of the WPT on Fox Sports Net. The Five Diamond will mark Nguyen’s eighth WPT final table. His only win of the seven previous appearances came during Season 4, when the pro took down the World Poker Open for $969,000. All told, Nguyen owns $2.1 million in WPT earnings and has been a staple of the tour ever since its first season. Jaka, an acclaimed online poker pro, leads the way at the Bellagio with 5.4 million chips.

Joe Cassidy was the final table bubble boy at the Bellagio. He shoved under the gun for 715,000 and Josh Arieh pushed over the top. Nguyen, in typical dramatic fashion, held his cards (A-Q) high in the air and, according to coverage found on WPT’s website, commented, “Oh baby, I would have called you if he didn't." Stephen “MrTimCaum” O’Dwyer grew frustrated with the situation, as players were still left to act in the hand, and stated, "How hard is it to keep your cards on the felt? And why am I the only one concerned about it?" Shawn Buchanan called as well, setting up a three-way all-in to determine the six-handed final table.

Arieh flipped over pocket tens, while Buchanan had him dominated with pocket queens. Cassidy, meanwhile, held live cards with K-J and watched as the flop came J-5-4. Buchanan’s wired pair of queens remained in the lead and a running 7-5 sent Cassidy to the rails. Buchanan scooped the massive pot, resulting in a stack of 2.8 million entering the final table. Here’s a look at the chip stacks of the members of the final table in the WPT Doyle Brunson Five Diamond World Poker Classic:

1. Faraz “The-Toilet” Jaka - 5,385,000
2. Scotty Nguyen - 4,900,000
3. Daniel Alaei - 3,925,000
4. Shawn Buchanan - 2,800,000
5. Josh Arieh - 1,710,000
6. Stephen “MrTimCaum” O’Dwyer - 1,050,000

Others eliminated on Friday included Chad “lilholdem954” Batista, who was sent to the rails in 10th place for $57,000. Batista open-shoved pre-flop with pocket fives and Nguyen made the call with K-J. The flop came king-high and Nguyen turned a third king for trips, sending Batista into the Las Vegas night. Batista recorded his second WPT cash in the process; he took 23rd in the Festa al Lago earlier this year for $24,000.

Carter “ckingusc” King, who chopped the 2008 PokerStars World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP) Main Event, was ousted from the WPT Five Diamond in 14th place. King pushed all-in over the top of a raise by 2008 World Series of Poker (WSOP) Europe Main Event Champion John Juanda, who made the call. King showed A-9 and Juanda flipped over pocket sixes, setting up a race situation. The board ran out J-8-4-4-3 and that was all she wrote for King, who earned $47,000 for his troubles.

Friday’s action saw the field trimmed from 16 players to six. Those who fell by the wayside over the course of the day, along with their paydays, were as follows:

7. Joe Cassidy - $154,747
8. Eric Hershler - $107,133
9. Curt Kohlberg - $76,183
10. Chad “lilholdem954” Batista - $57,137
11. John Juanda - $57,137
12. Lee Salem - $57,137
13. Mike “SowersUNCC” Sowers - $47,615
14. Carter “ckingusc” King - $47,615
15. Matt Waxman - $47,615
16. Joe “BigEgypt” Elpayaa - $38,092

When play paused for the night on Friday, the blinds were 30,000-60,000 with a 5,000-chip ante. The action kicks off at 4:00pm PT today from Las Vegas. We’ll have full WPT results right here on Poker News Daily.

World Poker Tour Five Diamond Classic: Faraz Jaka and Scotty Nguyen Lead Final Table

Day five of the Doyle Brunson Five Diamond World Poker Classic was a short one as thirty-six players took only six hours to reach a final table. When the day was complete, six top-notch players were left all led by Jaka Faraz who will go into the...

Faraz Jaka in the Lead, Scotty Nguyen Again Makes it to Final Table in WPT

Nguyen is used to do well at Doyle Brunson Five Diamond World Poker Classic in Bellagio, as he made to the final table of this exact tournament also on the first season of WPT. Nguyen started the day 5 with second smallest chip stack in the play, but in the end of the day he found himself second in chips.

First double-up of the day for Scotty came when he moced his 327k chips all in with a pair of fours. Faraz Jaka called with A-3 of spades and managed to pick up a spade flush draw on the flop. After two blanks on the turn and on the river Nguyen was still in the tournament, now with a healthier stack of 727k in chips.

Jaka tried hard to bust Nguyen out of the tournament, as the players collided later again. Scotty raised under the gun to 120,000, in which Jaka responded with a raise from the cutoff to 300,000. Nguyen called and the flop came A-K-4 rainbow. After a check, a bet and an all in call by Nguyen, cards was turned up and Scotty was well ahead with A-J against Q-J. A couple of fives completed the board and Nguyen was up over million chips.

The the most controversial hand went also Scotty, when he tripled up through John Juanda and Chad Batista. Juanda moved all in from the button, without moving any chips forward, only saying “all in”. Then Batista, who was wearing headphones and didn’t hear Juanda’s action, moves all in too. Nguyen makes the call all in and at some point Batista realizes Juanda was all in before him and wants to take his bet back.

Scotty is looking for a second win in WPT.

Batista is clearly pissed and Scotty openly laughing about the situation doesn’t make him feel any better. Finally the cards are turned over, A-6 for Juanda, a pair of deuces for Batista and the rockets for Nguyen. The board doesn’t bring any help for Juanda or Batista and Nguyen triples up over 3 million on chips.

After the remaining players gathered to the final 10-handed table, the game progressed quickly. It took only 26 hands to find out the last six who would make it to the televised final. Batista was out first after losing a flip against Scotty with a pair of fives agains K-J suited, when a king hit the flop.

Next victim Curt Kohlberg, who had lost a chip lead of over 5 million chips just a while ago. was busted out also by Scotty. Josh Arieh bust out Eric Hershler after winning a flip of K-J against A-T. The last hand of the day was between Arieh (T-T), Shawn Buchanan (Q-Q) and Joe Cassidy (K-J). Cassidy and Buchanan were both all in when Arieh got them covered, but Buchanan’s queens held up and Cassidy was sent to the rail in 7th place.

The winner of the WPT Doyle Brunson Five Diamond World Poker Classic will win a $1,428,430 first prize.

Here is the official chip count and the seating of the final table:

Seat 1: Daniel Alaei - 3,925,000
Seat 2: Faraz Jaka - 5,385,000
Seat 3: Josh Arieh - 1,710,000
Seat 4: Steve O’Dwyer - 1,050,000
Seat 5: Scotty Nguyen - 4,900,000
Seat 6: Shawn Buchanan - 2,800,000

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Faraz Jaka in the Lead, Scotty Nguyen Again Makes it to Final Table in WPT

Field down to six at the Doyle Brunson Classic

There was more controversy at the Bellagio overnight as the 16-man field for the Doyle Brunson Five Diamond Classic was whittled down to the final six. Faraz Jaka moved to the head of the chip counts but it was Scotty Nguyen who was again the centre of attention.

Big Names Fill WPT Final

The name on the marquee is Scotty Nguyen, making his sixth WPT final table in an attempt to book his second win.

Should he bank the $1.5 million for first, Nguyen would also become one of only four players in poker history to reach the $12 million career earnings mark, moving up to fourth on the all-time list.

Nguyen was among the tournament’s leaders in the late stages Wednesday before bleeding off the majority of his stack on an open–ended straight draw that missed.

However, the 1998 World Series of Poker Main Event champion made a miraculous comeback Friday to move into second on the leader board heading into Friday’s final.

“I’m not going to roll over and die because of one hand,” Nguyen told PokerListings. “Scotty’s not going to go away. I gave away two million yesterday, but I told them I was going to come back today and collect with interest. Now I have 4 million and I feel good, baby.”

The man in the lead going into the final six is also becoming a familiar face here on the WPT.

Faraz “The-Toilet” Jaka, who has earned over $1 million lifetime online, made second at the WPT Bellagio Cup this past July and finds himself in a similar spot going into the final – on top.

“It is a bit like déjà vu,” he said. “The experience will definitely help. I feel like I have a good handle on what’s going to happen, how people are going to react and how they’re going to play.”

Sitting third in chips is two-time WSOP bracelet winner Daniel Alaei.

Although Alaei is making his first WPT final table appearance, the high stakes cash-game pro, who was actually blinded out all of Day 1 here at Bellagio because he didn’t want to step away from a cash game that included noted whale Guy Laliberte, said he’s feeling confident.

“I’ve played lot of these so this feels great,” he said. “I’m feeling confident, fresh, healthy, well rested and focused.”

Thanks to a virtual triple-up that set the final six, eliminating Joe Cassidy seventh, 2007 WPT Mandalay Bay winner Shawn Buchanan will come into Saturday’s final table with a legitimate shot at his second title.

The Canadian said he’s as ready as ever to play in front of the cameras again.

“The first one I wasn’t even that nervous for some reason,” he said. “It’s just poker. Once the cards hit the air you have to do the same thing you always have.”

Currently fifth in chips heading into his second WPT final table is Full Tilt Pro Josh Arieh.

With two WSOP bracelets, numerous final tables and deep cashes, he’s feeling as confident as anyone could with a shorter stack.

“I feel like I’m playing as good as I ever have,” he said. “And I’m confident I’m going to make the best decisions I can with my stack.”

Finally, rounding out the final six is Steve O’Dwyer. The online pro has been around the World Poker Tour for a few years, but this is his first chance at a big score.

“Finally I did it,” he said. “This is actually my first WPT cash as well. I mean, I’ve played a lot of these and haven’t really had much success until now, so this feels pretty good.”

With a $1.5 million first-place prize on the line, one of these already storied pros will be adding something big to his resume Saturday.

To find out who will book the win at the WPT Doyle Brunson Five Diamond World Poker Classic, tune into PokerListings’ Live Updates beginning at 4 p.m. Saturday.

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Curt Kohlberg, Faraz Jaka Lead WPT Five Diamond Entering Play Down Day

The final six players in the World Poker Tour’s (WPT) Doyle Brunson Five Diamond World Poker Classic will be determined today from the Bellagio in Las Vegas. Leading the way with 16 to go are Curt Kohlberg and Faraz “The-Toilet” Jaka.

In one of the final pots of the evening on Thursday, Jaka battled against Season 7 L.A. Poker Classic third place finisher Mike “SowersUNCC” Sowers. After a flop of Q-7-3, Jaka bet out 90,000 and Sowers made the call to see a deuce hit the turn. Jaka once again fired at the pot, this time for 240,000, and Sowers came along. The action went check-check after a river king and Jaka exposed K-4 for top pair to scoop the pot. Earlier in the day, Jaka doubled up at the expense of Scotty Nguyen after flopping middle set against Nguyen’s open-ended straight draw. The turn and river blanked for Nguyen and Jaka boosted his stack to 2.2 million before ending at nearly 2.8 million.

Kohlberg, meanwhile, took down pot after pot on Thursday at the Bellagio to secure his spot atop the leaderboard entering the play down day. In one hand, he tangled with Lock Poker pro Matt “All In At 420” Stout. Kohlberg led out for 55,000 on a flop of 7-2-2 and Stout raised to 165,000. Kohlberg called to see a three hit the turn. The action went check-check to a river four and Kohlberg check-called a sizable 225,000-chip bet from Stout. Kohlberg flipped over pocket nines, which was enough to scoop the pot. He ended with nearly 2.9 million, tops in the Five Diamond field.

On his Day 4, Kohlberg told WPT Live Updates Hostess Amanda Leatherman after play had concluded, “It was a long day. There were a lot of really good players and I was just trying to pick my spots. Fortunately, it worked out.” In November at the WPT’s last tournament, Kohlberg made the final table of the Foxwoods World Poker Finals, taking fifth place for $199,000. He also made the final table of the Grand Prix de Paris in 2005, earning $112,000 for his fifth place showing in the European tournament.

Among those who hit the rails on Thursday after the money bubble burst in the $15,000 buy-in tournament were Stout (20th place for $28,569), Antonio Esfandiari (23rd place for $28,569), Steve Brecher (25th place for $28,569), and DoylesRoom Brunson 10 member Amit “amak316” Makhija (26th place for $28,569). As it stands now, 16 players remain and the average chip stack is 1.2 million. Here’s a look at the field as Day 5 kicks off on Friday:

1. Curt Kohlberg - 2,856,000
2. Faraz “The-Toilet” Jaka - 2,768,000
3. Daniel Alaei - 2,422,000
4. John Juanda - 1,851,000
5. Chad “lilholdem954” Batista - 1,550,000
6. Joe Cassidy - 1,445,000
7. Josh Arieh - 1,067,000
8. Shawn Buchanan - 1,007,000
9. Stephen “MrTimCaum” O’Dwyer - 826,000
10. Carter “ckingusc” King - 805,000
11. Eric Hershler - 796,000
12. Mike “SowersUNCC” Sowers - 661,000
13. Matthew Waxman - 641,000
14. Joseph “BigEgypt” Elpayaa - 446,000
15. Scotty Nguyen - 339,000
16. Lee Salem - 275,000

The final 16 represents a star-studded group on the WPT circuit, as 10 of them have made final tables before: Kohlberg, Jaka, Juanda, Cassidy, Arieh, Buchanan, Hershler, Sowers, Nguyen, and Salem. Each of the remaining players is assured at least a $38,092 payday. Here are the paydays up for grabs at the six-handed televised final table, which will air on Fox Sports Net:

1st Place: $1,428,430
2nd Place: $952,290
3rd Place: $571,374
4th Place: $333,302
5th Place: $249,976
6th Place: $202,362

We’ll have complete results of the WPT Doyle Brunson Five Diamond World Poker Classic right here on Poker News Daily.

Everest Poker Acquired by Mangas Gaming

While rumors are flying left and right about potential buyouts and mergers in the European online gaming market, news broke that Everest Poker and Mangas Gaming will join forces.  Mangas plans to buy out Everest in early 2010 as part of a deal worth in excess of $100 million.

The deal will be finalized in the first quarter of 2010.  Mangas Gaming will pay $100 million to Everest’s parent company, GigaMedia, in exchange for 60% of the shares of the company.  A Dow Jones article also stated that the final portion of the deal would be paid out after the company’s fair market value is reassessed in 2012.  There is also an option that allows GigaMedia to buy back Everest Gaming in 2013 should it see fit to do so.  GigaMedia is a publicly traded company on NASDAQ Stock Exchange, where it can be found under the symbol “GIGM.”

While the name Mangas may not sound familiar, the sites it owns and operates are well-known within the online gaming market: BetClic, Expekt Poker, and Bet-At-Home.  The French-based company appears to be taking more interest in poker as of late.  In addition to brokering the Everest deal, the company also signed World Series of Poker (WSOP) bracelet winner Scotty Nguyen as an Expekt spokesman earlier this year and debuted former Team PokerStars Pro Isabelle Mercier as a BetClic spokeswoman at the Doyle Brunson Five Diamond World Poker Classic at the Bellagio.

The increased efforts of Everest Poker to heighten its profile in the French marketplace make even more sense in light of this deal.  The company, which is the official on-felt sponsor of the WSOP, signed a deal with November Nine member Antoine Saout after he made the Main Event final table and added Fabrice Soulier to its roster of pros last month.

Mangas Gamings Chief Executive Officer Isabelle Parize commented on the deal in an official press release announcing the acquisition: “We are very proud that Everest is joining our group.  It is a great company; it is a brand with an outstanding awareness in the world of poker, well-known for its know-how, its platform reliability, and its strict policies. Mangas Gaming is reinforcing its position as a major European player in both the online poker and sports betting markets.”

GigaMedia’s CEO, Arthur Wang, expressed similar sentiments in his statement.  “We were looking for a reference partner with complementary activities to ours,” Wang explained.  “Our strategy is to participate in the growth of this innovative and dynamic industry in Europe. We are glad to do it alongside the French leading sports betting and online gaming group.”

Poker News Daily has learned that once the deal is complete, players on Mangas’ other online poker rooms will be shifted towards Everest.  Expekt is expected to disappear entirely before the end of 2010 and all of the company’s customers will be shifted over to Everest.

Since the announcement of the deal, shares of GigaMedia saw a spike in trading value.  After trading as low as $3.53 on December 11th, stock prices shot up as high as $4.24, an increase of 20%.

Going Deep on The WPT

Both Matt Stout and Soheil Shamseddin can attest to that.

While the fields are getting tougher than ever on tour, both players found themselves coming into the Doyle Brunson Five Diamond World Poker Classic this week on a serious heater.

After playing just about every big buy in event across America and beyond over the past two years, things simply started to click for Stout at Bellagio’s Festa al Lago this past October.

He ran deep finishing 13^th, but the best was yet to come.

The very next WPT event at Foxwoods, Stout made the final table finishing third for $265,710 – his career best score.

Just a few weeks removed from that, it now appears he’s up for another deep run, well stacked at the Five Diamond with just 36 people left heading into Day 4.

“A lot of things are falling into place at once,” Stout explained. “I think I’ve definitely improved my game to an extent, especially my deep stacked game - Which is obviously critical in these deep stacked main events.”

A new-found comfort level playing against the game’s biggest names is also to blame.

“You are playing for a ridiculous amount of money and you are playing against some of the best players in the world,” he said. “It does take some getting used to.

“You have to make some adjustments, you can’t just run these people over like they are fish.  You have to play hands completely differently and you know that these players are thinking about everything so you have to be focused and stay on top of your game to be on top of it.”

After making a final table at the 2009 Southern Poker Championship this past January, Shamseddin shipped his largest lifetime cash at that same Foxwoods final just weeks ago, banking $463,332 for second.

He built a big stack early on Day 3, but busted late in the day Wednesday to end his hot streak.

However, he still believes the key to running deep consistently against the tough WPT fields is staying true to your game and playing without fear, despite the quality of players around you.

“I’m comfortable playing against anybody,” he said “It’s just poker.”

His game is primarily based in psychology and the reads he gets off others and says the more you play the top players, the better your reads on them get.

“I’m not a mathematical player,” he explained. “To me the math does not apply to tournament poker. I’m more of feel player, a psychological type. I actually read players and that’s been the backbone and foundation to my game.”

In the end, Stout, who writes a blog for PL.com about his experiences on tour, says no matter how comfortable you get with the level of the competition, and how solid your reads have become, it takes a little bit of luck to go deep.

Something he’s definitely happy to be experiencing again.

“Things have to go your way, no matter how you get it in,” he said. “You really do need to run well no matter how good you are playing.”

With $2.3 million in career earnings, Daniel Alaei knows a thing or two about going deep in tournaments and holds a massive chip lead at the Five Diamond headed into Day 4.

To see if Stout’s string of deep cashes can continue and names like Scotty Nguyen, Antonio Esfandiari, Mike Sowers, Amit Makhija, Chad Batista, Faraz Jaka and a host of others can catch Alaei, tune into PokerListings’ Live Updates.

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Steven Landfish Leads WPT Five Diamond After Day 2, Doyle Brunson 15th

Two days of the World Poker Tour’s (WPT) Doyle Brunson Five Diamond World Poker Classic are in the books. As it stands entering Day 3 on Wednesday, Steve Landfish leads the way with a chip stack of 385,900, while tournament namesake Brunson is in 15th with 283,000.

Thirty-seven players registered on Day 2 for the Five Diamond, pushing the final field size to 329, well short of last year’s tally of 497. Contributing to the 34% slide were two poker “Phils” who were absent from the field, 2009 World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event November Nine member Phil Ivey and UB.com front man Phil Hellmuth. The latter told “Poker2Nite” hosts Joe Sebok and Scott Huff last week that he was taking the rest of 2009 off and would start anew in 2010. As for Ivey, coverage found on the official website of the WPT noted, “Ivey was here at Bellagio, but never took a seat.”

Landfish holds a minuscule lead over the second place tally of Brent “bhanks11” Hanks, who amassed an arsenal of 383,000 after Day 2. Landfish will head to Table 54 on Wednesday, where “Miami” John Cernuto, Full Tilt Poker pro Howard Lederer, DoylesRoom Brunson 10 member Dani “ansky451” Stern, and former WPT champion Steve Brecher will be waiting for him. Hanks, meanwhile, will join Vivek “Psyduck” Rajkumar, Tim “tmay420” West, Jared “TheWacoKidd” Hamby, and Noah Boeken at Table 59.

Among the 37 players who registered late was Brunson, the poker legend for whom the Five Diamond is named. Brunson built the 15th largest stack in the room after Day 2 at 283,000, joining a top 20 that includes Antonio Esfandiari, Matt “All In At 420” Stout, and Betfair pro Sorel “Imper1um” Mizzi. The latter sent WPT Festa al Lago winner Tommy Vedes to the rails late in the day on Tuesday after cracking aces with queens. The window card came a queen, sending Mizzi’s stack soaring to 270,000. The youngster finished the day with 348,000, good for fifth overall.

Here are the top ten chip stacks in the WPT Doyle Brunson Five Diamond World Poker Classic entering Day 3 on Wednesday:

1. Steven Landfish - 385,900
2. Brent “bhanks11” Hanks - 383,000
3. Matthew Waxman - 377,500
4. Chad “lilholdem954” Batista - 355,000
5. Sorel “Imper1um” Mizzi - 348,000
6. Alfredo Leonidas - 347,300
7. Faraz “The-Toilet” Jaka - 323,500
8. Yegor Tsurikov - 317,000
9. Eric Hershler - 314,800
10. Jean-Noel Thorel - 310,100

The winner will earn $1.4 million from the $15,000 buy-in event. Members of the six-handed final table will be assured at least $202,000 in spending money just in time for the holidays. A total of 130 players remain and others in the Top 50 include:

11. Kenna James – 305,200
12. Matt “All In At 420” Stout – 300,800
15. Doyle Brunson – 283,000
21. Hasan Habib – 254,300
22. David “Devilfish” Ulliott – 247,000
31. Barry Greenstein – 227,000
33. Cornel Andrew Cimpan – 216,500
34. “Miami” John Cernuto – 215,500
35. Scotty Nguyen – 211,900
36. Howard Lederer – 210,300
37. Josh Arieh – 209,700
38. Daniel Alaei – 205,800
43. Andrew “luckychewy” Lichtenberger – 193,700

Brunson eliminated fellow poker pro Eli Elezra with pocket queens against pocket fives. Later on in the day, the two filmed a segment for “Poker2Nite” and shaved their heads in support of Thuy Doan. The pro is battling cancer and is in the midst of a health insurance nightmare.

When play concluded for the evening, the blinds were at 1,000/2,000 with a 200 chip ante. The action continues today at Noon PT from Las Vegas. Stay tuned to Poker News Daily for the latest WPT coverage.

WPT Doyle Brunson Five Diamond World Poker Classic Kicks off Monday

The 2009 installment of the World Poker Tour (WPT) Doyle Brunson Five Diamond World Poker Classic will kick off on Monday from the Bellagio in Las Vegas. The tournament’s namesake told UB.com’s “Poker2Nite” that a field of 400 players is expected.

Only one Day 1 in the $15,000 buy-in WPT event will occur, with the six-handed final table taking place on the 19th. In 2008, original World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event November Nine member David “Chino” Rheem took down the Doyle Brunson Five Diamond World Poker Classic, besting Justin Young heads-up and earning $1.5 million. Young took $936,000 for his runner-up performance. Others who reached the feature table, which played out on cable station Fox Sports Net, included Evan McNiff (third place for $540,000), Steve Sung (fourth place for $396,000), Amnon Filippi (fifth place for $288,000), and DoylesRoom poker pro Hoyt Corkins (sixth place for $216,000).

The Five Diamond has been a staple of the WPT circuit and served as the series’ very first event back in May of 2002. That year, Full Tilt Poker pro Gus Hansen outlasted John Juanda heads-up in a talented final table that also featured Freddy Deeb, John “World” Hennigan, Chris Bigler, and Scotty Nguyen. A quaint field of 146 players turned out for the inaugural WPT tournament, creating a prize pool of $1.4 million.

In Season II of the WPT, Paul Phillips took down the Five Diamond in Las Vegas, besting Poker Hall of Fame member Dewey Tomko heads-up and banking $1.1 million. Hansen once again made the final table of the tournament and finished third this time around, while Mel Judah took sixth place and earned $101,000. The next season, a battle of PokerStars sponsored pros took place, as Daniel Negreanu trumped Costa Rican sensation Humberto Brenes heads-up in the event’s finale. The number of entrants jumped to 376 from 314.

In Season IV of the WPT, Rehne Pedersen earned over $2 million for his Five Diamond win and beat Patrik Antonius heads-up. Brunson made the final table of the event and finished third, while J.J. Liu took fourth place for $362,000. Also making waves were Darrell “Gigabet” Dicken and Phil “The Unabomber” Laak, who finished in fifth and sixth place, respectively.

In the December Bellagio tournament during Season V, Joe Hachem, winner of the 2005 WSOP Main Event, took down the title and its corresponding $2.2 million grand prize. Hachem and Negreanu made PokerStars proud by reaching the final table and the Aussie’s win solidified his name as one of the tops in the industry. In 2007, Eugene Katchalov banked $2.5 million for his WPT victory, outlasting a colossal field of 626 players. Also reaching the final table were Devilfish Poker namesake David Ulliott and former PokerStars Caribbean Adventure champion Ryan “Daut44” Daut.

After its annual Las Vegas stop, the WPT crew will break for the holidays and resume action in late January for the Southern Poker Championship. December’s Bellagio stop will mark the tournament series’ last trip to Sin City before the annual WPT Championship in April. Here’s a look at the remaining events in Season VIII:

Southern Poker Championship: January 24th to 27th
Beau Rivage (Biloxi, Mississippi)

WPT Celebrity Invitational: February 20th to 21st
Commerce Casino (Commerce, California)

L.A. Poker Classic: February 26th to March 4th
Commerce Casino (Commerce, California)

Bay 101 Shooting Star: March 8th to 12th
Bay 101 (San Jose, California)

Hollywood Poker Open: March 20th to 24th
Hollywood Casino (Lawrenceburg, Indiana)

WPT Championship: April 17th to 24th
Bellagio (Las Vegas, Nevada)

2010 WSOP Schedule Leaked, Features Eight $1,000 Events

In posts that appeared on the online poker forums PocketFives.com and TwoPlusTwo.com, a preliminary 2010 World Series of Poker (WSOP) schedule may have been leaked. The link to the schedule has since been removed.

A total of 57 events are on the docket for the festivities at the Rio in Las Vegas in 2010, the same number that panned out this year. In 2009, one open $1,000 buy-in event was held, the so-called “Stimulus Special.” The schedule leaked this week, however, includes six $1,000 buy-in open events, which, when combined with the Ladies’ and Seniors’ Championships, bring the grand total to eight.

Absent from the leaked schedule is the $50,000 buy-in HORSE Championship, which may instead come with a $10,000 price in 2010. Last year, David Bach defeated a field of 95 players in the $50,000 buy-in version to the tune of $1.2 million. The year before, Scotty Nguyen barreled through a 148 player field to come out on top in dubious fashion, as he was allegedly inebriated at the final table. The 2010 schedule instead features a yet-to-be-described $50,000 buy-in event called “The Player’s World Championship.” Some posters have speculated that this would take on the form of a seven or eight-game mix.

Following a trend that has appeared in events like the Full Tilt Online Poker Series (FTOPS) and PokerStars World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP), a high-stakes six-handed tournament may be on the docket for this year’s WSOP. The leaked schedule includes a $25,000 buy-in No Limit Hold’em Six-Handed event beginning on June 30th that would likely produce one of the most competitive fields of all-time.

Here is the schedule leaked to major online poker forums. Note that WSOP officials have released no official information; the 2009 slate of events was divulged in January:

Friday, May 28th
Event #1: Casino Employees No Limit Hold’em
No Rebuy/Add-ons $500

Friday, May 28th
Event #2: The Player’s World Championship
No Rebuy/Add-ons $50,000

Saturday, May 29th
Event #3: No Limit Hold’em
No Rebuy/Add-ons $1,000

Sunday, May 30th
Event #4: Omaha Hi-Low Split-8 or Better
No Rebuy/Add-ons $1,500

Monday, May 31st
Event #5: No Limit Hold’em
No Rebuy/Add-ons $1,500

Tuesday, June 1st
Event #7: 2-7 Triple Draw Lowball
No Rebuy/Add-ons $2,500

Tuesday, June 1st
Event #6: No Limit Hold’em Shootout
No Rebuy/Add-ons $5,000

Wednesday, June 2nd
Event #8: No Limit Hold’em
No Rebuy/Add-ons $1,500

Thursday, June 3rd
Event #9: Pot Limit Hold’em
No Rebuy/Add-ons $1,500

Thursday, June 3rd
Event #10: World Championship Seven Card Stud
No Rebuy/Add-ons $10,000

Friday, June 4th
Event #11: No Limit Hold’em
No Rebuy/Add-ons $1,500

Friday, June 4th
Event #12: Limit Hold’em
No Rebuy/Add-ons $1,500

Saturday, June 5th
Event #13: No Limit Hold’em
No Rebuy/Add-ons $1,000

Saturday, June 5th
Event #14: 2-7 Draw Lowball
No Rebuy/Add-ons $1,500

Sunday, June 6th
Event #15: World Championship Seven Card Stud Hi-Low Split
No Rebuy/Add-ons $10,000

Monday, June 7th
Event #16: No Limit Hold’em/Six-Handed
No Rebuy/Add-ons $1,500

Tuesday, June 8th
Event #17: No Limit Hold’em
No Rebuy/Add-ons $5,000

Wednesday, June 9th
Event #18: Limit Hold’em
No Rebuy/Add-ons $2,000

Wednesday, June 9th
Event #19: World Championship 2-7 Draw Lowball
No Rebuy/Add-ons $10,000

Thursday, June 10th
Event #20: Pot Limit Omaha
No Rebuy/Add-ons $1,500

Thursday, June 10th
Event #21: Seven Card Stud
No Rebuy/Add-ons $1,500

Friday, June 11th
Event #22: Ladies No Limit Hold’em World Championship
No Rebuy/Add-ons $1,000

Friday, June 11th
Event #23: Limit Hold’em/Six-Handed
No Rebuy/Add-ons $2,500

Saturday, June 12th
Event #24: No Limit Hold’em
No Rebuy/Add-ons $1,000

Saturday, June 12th
Event #25: World Championship Omaha Hi-Low Split-8 or Better
No Rebuy/Add-ons $10,000

Monday, June 14th
Event #26: No Limit Hold’em/Six-Handed
No Rebuy/Add-ons $2,500

Monday, June 14th
Event #27: Seven Card Stud Hi-Low 8 or Better
No Rebuy/Add-ons $1,500

Tuesday, June 15th
Event #28: Pot Limit Omaha
No Rebuy/Add-ons $2,500

Tuesday, June 15th
Event #29: World Championship Limit Hold’em
No Rebuy/Add-ons $10,000

Wednesday, June 16th
Event #30: No Limit Hold’em
No Rebuy/Add-ons $1,500

Wednesday, June 16th
Event #31: H.O.R.S.E.
No Rebuy/Add-ons $1,500

Thursday, June 17th
Event #32: No Limit Hold’em/Six-Handed
No Rebuy/Add-ons $5,000

Thursday, June 17th
Event #33: Pot Limit Hold’em/Omaha
No Rebuy/Add-ons $2,500

Friday, June 18th
Event #34: Seniors No Limit Hold’em Championship
No Rebuy/Add-ons $1,000

Friday, June 18th
Event #35: World Championship Heads-Up No Limit Hold’em
No Rebuy/Add-ons $10,000

Saturday, June 19th
Event #36: No Limit Hold’em
No Rebuy/Add-ons $1,000

Saturday, June 19th
Event #37: H.O.R.S.E.
No Rebuy/Add-ons $3,000

Sunday, June 20th
Event #38: World Championship Pot Limit Hold’em
No Rebuy/Add-ons $10,000

Monday, June 21st
Event #39: No Limit Hold’em Shootout
No Rebuy/Add-ons $1,500

Monday, June 21st
Event #40: Seven Card Razz
No Rebuy/Add-ons $2,500

Tuesday, June 22nd
Event #41: Pot Limit Omaha Hi-Low Split-8 or Better
No Rebuy/Add-ons $1,500

Wednesday, June 23rd
Event #42: No Limit Hold’em
No Rebuy/Add-ons $1,500

Wednesday, June 23rd
Event #43: World Championship H.O.R.S.E.
No Rebuy/Add-ons $10,000

Thursday, June 24th
Event #44: Mixed Hold’em (Limit/No Limit)
No Rebuy/Add-ons $2,500

Friday, June 25th
Event #45: No Limit Hold’em
No Rebuy/Add-ons $1,500

Friday, June 25th
Event #46: Pot Limit Omaha Hi-Low Split-8 or Better
No Rebuy/Add-ons $5,000

Saturday, June 26th
Event #47: No Limit Hold’em
No Rebuy/Add-ons $1,000

Saturday, June 26th
Event #48: Mixed Event
No Rebuy/Add-ons $2,500

Monday, June 28th
Event #49: No Limit Hold’em
No Rebuy/Add-ons $1,500

Monday, June 28th
Event #50: Pot Limit Omaha
No Rebuy/Add-ons $5,000

Tuesday, June 29th
Event #51: Triple Chance No Limit Hold’em
No Rebuy/Add-ons $3,000

Wednesday, June 30th
Event #52: No Limit Hold’em/Six-Handed
No Rebuy/Add-ons $25,000

Wednesday, June 30th
Event #53: Limit Hold’em Shootout
No Rebuy/Add-ons $1,500

Thursday, July 1st
Event #54: No Limit Hold’em
No Rebuy/Add-ons $1,000

Thursday, July 1st
Event #55: World Championship Pot Limit Omaha
No Rebuy/Add-ons $10,000

Friday, July 2nd
Event #56: No Limit Hold’em
No Rebuy/Add-ons $2,500

Monday, July 5th
Event #57: World Championship No Limit Hold’em
No Rebuy/Add-ons $10,000

Propping up the bar with… Scotty Nguyen… Part I

Have you ever had an epic conversation with some bloke at a bar, woken up the next day and then really wished you’d recorded it? Fortunately, we make a rule of always recording our bar conversations and that’s why we can bring you… Propping up the Bar with Scotty Nguyen.

Mike Sexton Relives Poker Hall of Fame Induction

It was a great honor for me to be inducted into the Poker Hall of Fame.  It really is the ultimate career achievement award.  To know that you’ll always be linked to the legends of poker – guys like Chip Reese, Stu Ungar, Doyle Brunson, Puggy Pearson, Johnny Moss, and Jack Binion – is an awesome feeling.

Several things made my induction into the Poker Hall of Fame extra special.  The first is that this year, for the first time, a process was used to determine who would get in.  This included being nominated by the fans and then being voted in by the media and living members of the Poker Hall of Fame.  It also makes me the answer to the trivia question, “Who is the first player to ever get inducted into the Poker Hall of Fame through a voting process?”  The most meaningful part to me was to be welcomed into this exclusive club by the Hall of Famers themselves.

Another thing that made my induction so special were the 2009 nominees I was up against, literally a “who’s who” of the poker world.  Their poker accomplishments are amazing.  The other nominees were Barry Greenstein, Erik Seidel, Phil Ivey, Daniel Negreanu, Tom McEvoy, Dan Harrinton, Scotty Nguyen, and Men “The Master” Nguyen.  I truly believe that most, if not all, of these guys will be joining me in the Poker Hall of Fame one day – and deservedly so.

The induction dinner was held at the Rio during the dinner break of the World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event final table on November 7th.  It was a first-class, two-hour affair that was put on by Harrah’s and the WSOP and was sponsored by JAQK Cellars.  A special thanks to all of those people.  For all of us that attended, it was an evening to remember.  I believe the process of getting elected and the Poker Hall of Fame dinner add a lot of prestige.  I hope the induction dinner becomes an annual event.

I provided a slide show during dinner that featured my family (especially my one year-old son, Ty), numerous Hall of Fame poker players, and me.  The World Poker Tour (WPT) was kind enough to provide some entertaining footage of Vince Van Patten and me as well as some clips of Doyle Brunson and the 2009 nominees when they won on the WPT.  My brother Tom had some collages of me as well as some terrific pictures that were put on display.  All of these things added a great deal to the event.

The speakers must have thought this was a Mike Sexton roast, but I must admit that they were quite entertaining.  They included Doyle Brunson, Jack Binion, T.J. Cloutier, and Tom McEvoy.  Jeffrey Pollack then gave a very warm welcome speech and my brother Tom was the person I chose to introduce me. He was terrific, as I knew he would be.  Thanks to everyone for their participation.

No one gets to the top of any profession without drive, dedication, being in the right place at the right time, help from some key people, and the love of family.  All of those things certainly apply to me.  I spoke, wove my way through my career, and thanked those who were extremely helpful to me along the way.  They included Linda Johnson (who hired me to write for Card Player), Doyle Brunson (who hosted my Tournament of Champions and has been a longtime friend), Ruth Parasol (who hired me for PartyPoker), and Steve Lipscomb (founder of the WPT).

I was recently asked by a reporter, “What’s the neatest thing about being inducted into the Poker Hall of Fame?”  I said, “The neatest thing about getting inducted into the Poker Hall of Fame is when I think about my son and when he gets to Junior High and High School.  The other kids will say, “Wow!  Ty’s old man is in the Poker Hall of Fame.’  That’s really cool!”  And it is.

Being inducted into the Poker Hall of Fame is an honor I’ll cherish forever.

Mike Sexton Relives Poker Hall of Fame Induction

It was a great honor for me to be inducted into the Poker Hall of Fame.  It really is the ultimate career achievement award.  To know that you’ll always be linked to the legends of poker – guys like Chip Reese, Stu Ungar, Doyle Brunson, Puggy Pearson, Johnny Moss, and Jack Binion – is an awesome feeling.

Several things made my induction into the Poker Hall of Fame extra special.  The first is that this year, for the first time, a process was used to determine who would get in.  This included being nominated by the fans and then being voted in by the media and living members of the Poker Hall of Fame.  It also makes me the answer to the trivia question, “Who is the first player to ever get inducted into the Poker Hall of Fame through a voting process?”  The most meaningful part to me was to be welcomed into this exclusive club by the Hall of Famers themselves.

Another thing that made my induction so special were the 2009 nominees I was up against, literally a “who’s who” of the poker world.  Their poker accomplishments are amazing.  The other nominees were Barry Greenstein, Erik Seidel, Phil Ivey, Daniel Negreanu, Tom McEvoy, Dan Harrinton, Scotty Nguyen, and Men “The Master” Nguyen.  I truly believe that most, if not all, of these guys will be joining me in the Poker Hall of Fame one day – and deservedly so.

The induction dinner was held at the Rio during the dinner break of the World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event final table on November 7th.  It was a first-class, two-hour affair that was put on by Harrah’s and the WSOP and was sponsored by JAQK Cellars.  A special thanks to all of those people.  For all of us that attended, it was an evening to remember.  I believe the process of getting elected and the Poker Hall of Fame dinner add a lot of prestige.  I hope the induction dinner becomes an annual event.

I provided a slide show during dinner that featured my family (especially my one year-old son, Ty), numerous Hall of Fame poker players, and me.  The World Poker Tour (WPT) was kind enough to provide some entertaining footage of Vince Van Patten and me as well as some clips of Doyle Brunson and the 2009 nominees when they won on the WPT.  My brother Tom had some collages of me as well as some terrific pictures that were put on display.  All of these things added a great deal to the event.

The speakers must have thought this was a Mike Sexton roast, but I must admit that they were quite entertaining.  They included Doyle Brunson, Jack Binion, T.J. Cloutier, and Tom McEvoy.  Jeffrey Pollack then gave a very warm welcome speech and my brother Tom was the person I chose to introduce me. He was terrific, as I knew he would be.  Thanks to everyone for their participation.

No one gets to the top of any profession without drive, dedication, being in the right place at the right time, help from some key people, and the love of family.  All of those things certainly apply to me.  I spoke, wove my way through my career, and thanked those who were extremely helpful to me along the way.  They included Linda Johnson (who hired me to write for Card Player), Doyle Brunson (who hosted my Tournament of Champions and has been a longtime friend), Ruth Parasol (who hired me for PartyPoker), and Steve Lipscomb (founder of the WPT).

I was recently asked by a reporter, “What’s the neatest thing about being inducted into the Poker Hall of Fame?”  I said, “The neatest thing about getting inducted into the Poker Hall of Fame is when I think about my son and when he gets to Junior High and High School.  The other kids will say, “Wow!  Ty’s old man is in the Poker Hall of Fame.’  That’s really cool!”  And it is.

Being inducted into the Poker Hall of Fame is an honor I’ll cherish forever.

Mike Sexton Relives Poker Hall of Fame Induction

It was a great honor for me to be inducted into the Poker Hall of Fame.  It really is the ultimate career achievement award.  To know that you’ll always be linked to the legends of poker – guys like Chip Reese, Stu Ungar, Doyle Brunson, Puggy Pearson, Johnny Moss, and Jack Binion – is an awesome feeling.

Several things made my induction into the Poker Hall of Fame extra special.  The first is that this year, for the first time, a process was used to determine who would get in.  This included being nominated by the fans and then being voted in by the media and living members of the Poker Hall of Fame.  It also makes me the answer to the trivia question, “Who is the first player to ever get inducted into the Poker Hall of Fame through a voting process?”  The most meaningful part to me was to be welcomed into this exclusive club by the Hall of Famers themselves.

Another thing that made my induction so special were the 2009 nominees I was up against, literally a “who’s who” of the poker world.  Their poker accomplishments are amazing.  The other nominees were Barry Greenstein, Erik Seidel, Phil Ivey, Daniel Negreanu, Tom McEvoy, Dan Harrinton, Scotty Nguyen, and Men “The Master” Nguyen.  I truly believe that most, if not all, of these guys will be joining me in the Poker Hall of Fame one day – and deservedly so.

The induction dinner was held at the Rio during the dinner break of the World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event final table on November 7th.  It was a first-class, two-hour affair that was put on by Harrah’s and the WSOP and was sponsored by JAQK Cellars.  A special thanks to all of those people.  For all of us that attended, it was an evening to remember.  I believe the process of getting elected and the Poker Hall of Fame dinner add a lot of prestige.  I hope the induction dinner becomes an annual event.

I provided a slide show during dinner that featured my family (especially my one year-old son, Ty), numerous Hall of Fame poker players, and me.  The World Poker Tour (WPT) was kind enough to provide some entertaining footage of Vince Van Patten and me as well as some clips of Doyle Brunson and the 2009 nominees when they won on the WPT.  My brother Tom had some collages of me as well as some terrific pictures that were put on display.  All of these things added a great deal to the event.

The speakers must have thought this was a Mike Sexton roast, but I must admit that they were quite entertaining.  They included Doyle Brunson, Jack Binion, T.J. Cloutier, and Tom McEvoy.  Jeffrey Pollack then gave a very warm welcome speech and my brother Tom was the person I chose to introduce me. He was terrific, as I knew he would be.  Thanks to everyone for their participation.

No one gets to the top of any profession without drive, dedication, being in the right place at the right time, help from some key people, and the love of family.  All of those things certainly apply to me.  I spoke, wove my way through my career, and thanked those who were extremely helpful to me along the way.  They included Linda Johnson (who hired me to write for Card Player), Doyle Brunson (who hosted my Tournament of Champions and has been a longtime friend), Ruth Parasol (who hired me for PartyPoker), and Steve Lipscomb (founder of the WPT).

I was recently asked by a reporter, “What’s the neatest thing about being inducted into the Poker Hall of Fame?”  I said, “The neatest thing about getting inducted into the Poker Hall of Fame is when I think about my son and when he gets to Junior High and High School.  The other kids will say, “Wow!  Ty’s old man is in the Poker Hall of Fame.’  That’s really cool!”  And it is.

Being inducted into the Poker Hall of Fame is an honor I’ll cherish forever.

Mike Sexton Relives Poker Hall of Fame Induction

It was a great honor for me to be inducted into the Poker Hall of Fame.  It really is the ultimate career achievement award.  To know that you’ll always be linked to the legends of poker – guys like Chip Reese, Stu Ungar, Doyle Brunson, Puggy Pearson, Johnny Moss, and Jack Binion – is an awesome feeling.

Several things made my induction into the Poker Hall of Fame extra special.  The first is that this year, for the first time, a process was used to determine who would get in.  This included being nominated by the fans and then being voted in by the media and living members of the Poker Hall of Fame.  It also makes me the answer to the trivia question, “Who is the first player to ever get inducted into the Poker Hall of Fame through a voting process?”  The most meaningful part to me was to be welcomed into this exclusive club by the Hall of Famers themselves.

Another thing that made my induction so special were the 2009 nominees I was up against, literally a “who’s who” of the poker world.  Their poker accomplishments are amazing.  The other nominees were Barry Greenstein, Erik Seidel, Phil Ivey, Daniel Negreanu, Tom McEvoy, Dan Harrinton, Scotty Nguyen, and Men “The Master” Nguyen.  I truly believe that most, if not all, of these guys will be joining me in the Poker Hall of Fame one day – and deservedly so.

The induction dinner was held at the Rio during the dinner break of the World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event final table on November 7th.  It was a first-class, two-hour affair that was put on by Harrah’s and the WSOP and was sponsored by JAQK Cellars.  A special thanks to all of those people.  For all of us that attended, it was an evening to remember.  I believe the process of getting elected and the Poker Hall of Fame dinner add a lot of prestige.  I hope the induction dinner becomes an annual event.

I provided a slide show during dinner that featured my family (especially my one year-old son, Ty), numerous Hall of Fame poker players, and me.  The World Poker Tour (WPT) was kind enough to provide some entertaining footage of Vince Van Patten and me as well as some clips of Doyle Brunson and the 2009 nominees when they won on the WPT.  My brother Tom had some collages of me as well as some terrific pictures that were put on display.  All of these things added a great deal to the event.

The speakers must have thought this was a Mike Sexton roast, but I must admit that they were quite entertaining.  They included Doyle Brunson, Jack Binion, T.J. Cloutier, and Tom McEvoy.  Jeffrey Pollack then gave a very warm welcome speech and my brother Tom was the person I chose to introduce me. He was terrific, as I knew he would be.  Thanks to everyone for their participation.

No one gets to the top of any profession without drive, dedication, being in the right place at the right time, help from some key people, and the love of family.  All of those things certainly apply to me.  I spoke, wove my way through my career, and thanked those who were extremely helpful to me along the way.  They included Linda Johnson (who hired me to write for Card Player), Doyle Brunson (who hosted my Tournament of Champions and has been a longtime friend), Ruth Parasol (who hired me for PartyPoker), and Steve Lipscomb (founder of the WPT).

I was recently asked by a reporter, “What’s the neatest thing about being inducted into the Poker Hall of Fame?”  I said, “The neatest thing about getting inducted into the Poker Hall of Fame is when I think about my son and when he gets to Junior High and High School.  The other kids will say, “Wow!  Ty’s old man is in the Poker Hall of Fame.’  That’s really cool!”  And it is.

Being inducted into the Poker Hall of Fame is an honor I’ll cherish forever.

Mike Sexton Relives Poker Hall of Fame Induction

It was a great honor for me to be inducted into the Poker Hall of Fame.  It really is the ultimate career achievement award.  To know that you’ll always be linked to the legends of poker – guys like Chip Reese, Stu Ungar, Doyle Brunson, Puggy Pearson, Johnny Moss, and Jack Binion – is an awesome feeling.

Several things made my induction into the Poker Hall of Fame extra special.  The first is that this year, for the first time, a process was used to determine who would get in.  This included being nominated by the fans and then being voted in by the media and living members of the Poker Hall of Fame.  It also makes me the answer to the trivia question, “Who is the first player to ever get inducted into the Poker Hall of Fame through a voting process?”  The most meaningful part to me was to be welcomed into this exclusive club by the Hall of Famers themselves.

Another thing that made my induction so special were the 2009 nominees I was up against, literally a “who’s who” of the poker world.  Their poker accomplishments are amazing.  The other nominees were Barry Greenstein, Erik Seidel, Phil Ivey, Daniel Negreanu, Tom McEvoy, Dan Harrinton, Scotty Nguyen, and Men “The Master” Nguyen.  I truly believe that most, if not all, of these guys will be joining me in the Poker Hall of Fame one day – and deservedly so.

The induction dinner was held at the Rio during the dinner break of the World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event final table on November 7th.  It was a first-class, two-hour affair that was put on by Harrah’s and the WSOP and was sponsored by JAQK Cellars.  A special thanks to all of those people.  For all of us that attended, it was an evening to remember.  I believe the process of getting elected and the Poker Hall of Fame dinner add a lot of prestige.  I hope the induction dinner becomes an annual event.

I provided a slide show during dinner that featured my family (especially my one year-old son, Ty), numerous Hall of Fame poker players, and me.  The World Poker Tour (WPT) was kind enough to provide some entertaining footage of Vince Van Patten and me as well as some clips of Doyle Brunson and the 2009 nominees when they won on the WPT.  My brother Tom had some collages of me as well as some terrific pictures that were put on display.  All of these things added a great deal to the event.

The speakers must have thought this was a Mike Sexton roast, but I must admit that they were quite entertaining.  They included Doyle Brunson, Jack Binion, T.J. Cloutier, and Tom McEvoy.  Jeffrey Pollack then gave a very warm welcome speech and my brother Tom was the person I chose to introduce me. He was terrific, as I knew he would be.  Thanks to everyone for their participation.

No one gets to the top of any profession without drive, dedication, being in the right place at the right time, help from some key people, and the love of family.  All of those things certainly apply to me.  I spoke, wove my way through my career, and thanked those who were extremely helpful to me along the way.  They included Linda Johnson (who hired me to write for Card Player), Doyle Brunson (who hosted my Tournament of Champions and has been a longtime friend), Ruth Parasol (who hired me for PartyPoker), and Steve Lipscomb (founder of the WPT).

I was recently asked by a reporter, “What’s the neatest thing about being inducted into the Poker Hall of Fame?”  I said, “The neatest thing about getting inducted into the Poker Hall of Fame is when I think about my son and when he gets to Junior High and High School.  The other kids will say, “Wow!  Ty’s old man is in the Poker Hall of Fame.’  That’s really cool!”  And it is.

Being inducted into the Poker Hall of Fame is an honor I’ll cherish forever.

Palms Casino Pays $100,000 Fine to Resolve Poker Complaint

The Palms Resort Casino in Las Vegas has agreed to pay $100,000 to settle a complaint after failing to correctly supervise a pair of poker tournaments in 2007. The resort will pay a $75,000 fine to the Nevada Gaming Commission (NGC) and another $25,000 to the Nevada Gaming Control Board (NGCB) for the cost of the investigation.

According to a complaint brought by the state’s attorney general’s office, which was picked up by media outlets like the Las Vegas Review-Journal, the tournaments were held by third parties that did not register with state gaming regulators prior to the events. By hosting the tournaments on their site, the Palms used its license to legitimize the two events. However, the NGCB stated that it doesn’t want outside operators using licensed Nevada casinos to “legitimize less-than-legitimate types of programs.”

The two tournaments were brought to the attention of the Board when it was learned that prize money was left unpaid following their completion.

“By allowing the poker tournament(s) to proceed without adequate planning and follow-up, the Palms failed to exercise the proper discretion and sound judgment to prevent a situation that might reflect negatively on the reputation of the State of Nevada and its gaming industry,” the complaint said.

One of the tournaments involved was the inaugural United States Poker League’s Poker Bowl, which was held in October of 2007. The team-based event was at first considered to be a giant success after attracting many of the game’s biggest names, such as Doyle Brunson, Kathy Liebert, Scotty Nguyen, Phil Laak, Antonio Esfandiari, Greg Raymer, and Paul Wasicka. Team Cincinnati, represented by former World Series of Poker (WSOP) runner-up Steve Dannenmann and five other players, won the event and $600,000.

However, Poker Bowl’s owner and founder John Nightingale had difficulty keeping the company breathing and was forced to sell off its assets shortly after the event took place. The winners were never paid and individuals who had a financial stake in the business were left up in the air.

Some speculated that the reason Nightingale could not come up with the prize money was that he allowed too many pros to play for free rather than making them buy into the tournament. The Palms disbursed $450,416 in unpaid prize money to the winners after checks from the Poker Bowl bounced.

The other incident in the complaint occurred in August of 2007 after a tournament organized by Michael Eakman and Associates was not registered with the NGCB. The tournament was set up to benefit the Jewish Community Center of Southern Nevada, but Michael Eakman and Associates waited four months to pay the Jewish Community Center its share of the earnings.

According to a Palms spokesperson, the resort paid all of the prizes as soon as it learned of the complaint.

Erik Seidel Appears on HBO’s Curb Your Enthusiasm

Normally, poker players are seen on television only within their element, in a poker tournament or cash game. Recently, however, a top pro took the time to appear on one of the most popular programs on cable television.

In last Sunday’s episode of the HBO comedy “Curb Your Enthusiasm” entitled “Officer Krupke,” Erik Seidel appeared in a non-speaking role on the show. Seidel was seated behind “Curb” star and creator Larry David and his on-screen wife, Cheryl Hines, as the couple dined in a restaurant. David and Hines discussed her auditioning for a role on the “Seinfeld” reunion, which has been a prominent part of this season’s storyline. Seidel’s prominence in the shot – he is framed by both David and Hines as they perform the scene – has led many to discuss how he got on the program.

On the poker forum TwoPlusTwo, some answers are given on how Seidel got his “moment in the sun.” A tweet from Seidel himself that was posted on the site admits, “Yes, that was my ugly mug on Curb. From a charity auction, I’m a huge fan of the show.” Also noted in the discussion on TwoPlusTwo were the appearance of actor/poker player Ben Affleck and that Daniel Negreanu will have a spin on another HBO program, “Entourage,” also because of a charitable cause.

Seidel’s charitable actions have been quite apparent over the past year. When poker pro and friend Annie Duke battled her way to the final two on the past season of the NBC reality series “Celebrity Apprentice,” Seidel was prominent in several of the tasks. Not only did he appear during the final episode pitting Duke against eventual winner Joan Rivers, but Seidel also contributed to one of the early tasks on the program. In that episode, Seidel was among several poker players that donated to Duke’s cupcake drive. Seidel purchased one of the cupcakes created by Duke’s Athena teammates for $5,000, helping the team to victory.

The latest sighting of Seidel on “Curb Your Enthusiasm” continues a long-running theme of poker players appearing in mainstream television, movies, and magazines. In addition to Duke’s “Celebrity Apprentice” appearance this year, the team of Tiffany Michelle and Maria Ho on the current run of “The Amazing Race” has drawn attention to poker personalities. After battling valiantly through several difficult physical stunts, the duo was eliminated two weeks ago, finishing in sixth place on the Emmy Award-winning program.

Negreanu has been able to parlay his poker stardom into a cameo role in one of the top films of this year, “X-Men Origins: Wolverine,” where he played poker against the character Gambit. Fellow poker players Scotty Nguyen, Jennifer Harman, and Phil Hellmuth joined Negreanu in the recent “Body Issue” of “ESPN: The Magazine.” In addition, popular recent poker films and television series such as “The Grand,” “Lucky You,” and the highly controversial ESPN series “Tilt” have featured some of the biggest names in the game such as Doyle Brunson and Antonio Esfandiari.

It is good to see poker players such as Seidel in an arena outside of the poker table and even better that Seidel was able to parlay his appearance on the program into a charitable cause. The “Curb Your Enthusiasm” episode with Seidel appears nine more times between now and November 15th, so there are plenty of opportunities for poker fans to check out his turn on one of the most popular programs on cable television.

Mike Sexton Inducted into Poker Hall of Fame

Doyle Brunson kicked off the Poker Hall of Fame induction ceremony dinner at the Brasilia Room at the Rio All-Suite Hotel and Casino. The festivities honoring Mike Sexton occurred during the dinner break of the 2009 World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event final table at 7:00pm PT.

The guest list read like a “who’s who” of the poker community, including Howard Lederer, Phil Hellmuth, Jack Binion, Ali Nejad, David Singer, and Dewey Tomko. Also in the house was World Poker Tour (WPT) Co-Host Vince Van Patten, who told Poker News Daily, “I couldn’t miss this. Mike is such a great champion and a great friend of mine. What we share together on the WPT is one of the most important parts of my life. So many laughs and Mike is such a great guy. He is the real thing.”

The WPT is currently filming its eighth season. In fact, The Foxwoods World Poker Finals, the November WPT stop, is currently playing out at the Connecticut casino. On Van Patten and Sexton’s chemistry after eight seasons, the Poker Hall of Fame nominee’s co-host told us, “We could go for 25 years. We don’t get bored with it, we love it, and we’re not faking it. We’d probably do it for no money. We love it that much and we enjoy each other’s company. He’s one of a kind, a great family man, and the real thing in poker.”

Those on stage were Brunson, Jack Binion, Poker Hall of Fame Class of 2009 candidate Tom McEvoy, and T.J. Cloutier. The latter told the assembled crowd of about 175, “We both went broke plenty of times… This man would bet on anything… Mike always thought he was the best split pot player of them all. He could always play those eight or better games.” In fact, Sexton’s lone WSOP bracelet came in 1989 in a Seven Card Stud High-Low Split tournament.

McEvoy then took to the podium and admitted, “This man holds a grudge,” referencing a story from the first WSOP Pot Limit tournament ever held. Binion, a Poker Hall of Fame member who helped popularize the WSOP, commented, “Mike was the one who got PartyPoker started, the one who got the software started. He’s the one who really made poker.” Sexton currently serves as the ambassador for PartyPoker, whose parent company, Party Gaming, recently completed the purchase of the WPT for $12.3 million plus a percent of future gaming revenues.

WSOP Commissioner Jeffrey Pollack formally presented Sexton’s trophy and his speech was preceded by an emotional speech from Tom Sexton. The new Poker Hall of Fame member’s brother stated, “Mike has the gift of vision, where he can see things that others can’t in the poker world.” Sexton’s brother also referenced the WPT host testifying in a poker court case in South Carolina and serving as the spokesperson for approximately 500 players shut out of Day 1D of the 2009 WSOP Main Event when the contest reached capacity.

One of Tom Sexton’s most memorable quotes came when referencing the “Daddy Hall of Fame,” which he revealed, “If there were a Daddy Hall of Fame, Mike would be in it.” Young Ty Sexton, whose nursery has overrun the Sexton home’s dance floor, is just 15 months; Mike is 62 years-old.

Sexton received a 30 second standing ovation upon being introduced and recognized each of the other eight candidates for the Poker Hall of Fame Class of 2009: Phil Ivey, Daniel Negreanu, Erik Seidel, McEvoy, Dan Harrington, Scotty Nguyen, Men “The Master” Nguyen, and Barry Greenstein. Ivey, who was one of seven players remaining in the WSOP Main Event at the time, even stopped by, flanked at the door to the Brasilia Room by Layne Flack, Lacey Jones, and Nejad.

Sexton took the time to recognize a bevy of individuals, including Linda Johnson, Steve Lipscomb, and Brunson. He also recalled a phone call received over Christmas in 2000 from Ruth Parisol, co-founder of Party Gaming, who asked him to fly to India to launch the then-nascent online poker site. After eight months, PartyPoker was born, quickly challenging Paradise Poker for tops in the industry.

JAQK Cellars presented the two-hour affair, which wrapped up at 9:00pm PT. The living Hall of Fame members then took to the stage of the Penn and Teller Theater to resume play in the WSOP Main Event final table, with Sexton issuing the evening session’s “Shuffle Up and Deal” command.