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Archive for February, 2010
Despite an ongoing court battle to rid the state of 141 internet gambling sites, Kentucky’s House passed a bill taxing online and phone “advanced deposit wagers” on horse racing by an 85-8 margin. Now, the measure will be discussed in the Kentucky Senate.
Sites like TwinSpires.com, which is owned by the parent company of the Churchill Downs racetrack, operate legally in the state and allow residents to wager on the ponies online and over the phone. On Friday, Kentucky House Bill 368 passed by a 10:1 margin after Democratic Speaker Pro Tem Larry Clark brought the legislation to life. According to an newspaper, Clark asserts that up to $400,000 per year could be pulled down as a result of taxing online and phone bets just 0.5%.
One-third of the tax would go to the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission, one-third would go to the track the bet was placed with, and the final portion would supplement the track’s cash prizes. Clark told the Louisville media outlet, “I think that it’s a way for us to advance the tracks as far as adding more purse money… so I think it’s something the Senate would look at. They talked about last session, when they did not want to do slots, finding more revenue for (tracks). This is one avenue that would find more revenue for them.”
The Commonwealth of Kentucky is two months away from hosting the annual Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs in Louisville. The “Fastest Two Minutes in Sports” plays out on the first Saturday in May every year and attracts celebrities and high rollers from around the world. In the past, online poker rooms like UB.com have held promotions in conjunction with the gala.
TwinSpires.com caps online and phone bets at $2,500 per transaction and a minimum deposit of $25 is required. The site has a mailing address in Kentucky, but is licensed in Oregon. Last year, the Kentucky legislature ultimately failed to approve a similar measure, which would have taxed internet and phone bets at a rate of 3.5%, or seven times the amount of the current version of the bill.
The Kentucky Justice and Public Safety Cabinet, led by J. Michael Brown, has been on an 18-month witch hunt against the owners of 141 internet gambling domain names, including those belonging to industry giants and . In September 2008, the State seized the rights to the domain names and sought their forfeiture before members of the internet gambling industry stepped in. The Interactive Media Entertainment and Gaming Association (iMEGA) has led the charge on behalf of the 141 sites in jeopardy.
In October 2009, lawyers representing iMEGA, the Interactive Gaming Council (IGC), and several of the sites at risk pleaded their case in front of the Kentucky Supreme Court. A ruling cannot be handed down until March 18th at the earliest. Other possible release dates for the Supreme Court’s verdict are April 22nd, May 20th, June 17th, August 26th, September 23rd, October 21st, November 18th, and December 16th.
The Commonwealth charged that the 141 domains constituted “gambling devices,” a term that is traditionally reserved for physical objects like slot machines and roulette wheels that you’d find in an illegal underground casino. Judge Thomas Wingate upheld the State’s actions in an October 2008 ruling before the Kentucky Court of Appeals overturned it by a two-to-one margin in January 2009. During October’s Supreme Court hearing, State officials repeatedly noted that Kentucky’s legislature had not yet acted on the legality of internet gambling outside of horse racing.
The Courier-Journal added that Illinois and Virginia had taken similar approaches to taxing online wagers on horse racing.
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Online poker player Taylor “tramp$d0pray” Paur and Team Pro member lead the ’s () L.A. Poker Classic after two days of play. The $10,000 buy-in tournament wraps up on Thursday.
Negreanu committed his chips with 3-4 of clubs in a major hand after a flop of 5-3-2 with two clubs. William Jesse James, who won his seat to the L.A. Poker Classic Main Event through the WPT’s subscription-based online poker site ClubWPT, held 3-8 in the hand for a better kicker, but a four on the turn improved Negreanu to two pair. The river was a king, crippling James and sending Negreanu barreling up the chip counts. In the waning moments of Saturday’s action, Negreanu scooped a pot at the expense of Benjamin Zamani with quad eights to move to 319,000 in chips.
Paur ended Day 2 with a mountain of 318,400 chips, while Negreanu was hot on his heels at 316,500. They are the only players in the WPT event to have crossed the 280,000-chip plateau. Paur’s company at Table 44 on Sunday will include Shawn Buchanan, Bryan “badbeatninja” Devonshire, and Victory Poker pro Paul Wasicka. A total of 186 players remain and the field will likely burst the money bubble at 72 sometime during play on Sunday. The event’s six-handed finale will be filmed for television and air on Fox Sports Net as part of Season 8 of the WPT.
Sitting in fifth on the leaderboard entering Day 3 is another PokerStars sponsored big gun, . The GoDaddy Girl owns a stack of 221,700 and crossed the 200,000-chip threshold late in the day despite being seated a talented table alongside UB.com poker pro and two-time () bracelet winner . Of the 186 players left in the hunt for the $1.8 million top prize, 14 are women.
2005 WSOP Main Event champ was sent packing during Saturday’s action, as was Faraz “The-Toilet” Jaka, who is fresh off a final table appearance in the PokerStars North American Poker Tour’s (NAPT) $25,000 High-Roller Bounty Shootout. Jaka came out on the losing end of a race with pocket sevens against Q-J of spades when a jack hit on the flop. Fellow online poker pro Mike “SowersUNCC” Sowers was eliminated after running 10-8 of diamonds into pocket kings. His girlfriend, Lauren Kling, remains in the hunt and holds the 51st largest stack in the room.
pro , who finished second in chips after Day 1, currently owns the 10th spot in the chip counts. The Day 1 leader, Masa Kagawa, is right behind Seif in 11th place. Here’s a look at the top 10 on the leaderboard entering Day 3 of the L.A. Poker Classic at the Commerce Casino in Los Angeles:
1. Taylor Paur - 318,400
2. Daniel Negreanu - 316,500
3. Eugene Katchalov - 279,000
4. Michael Woo - 250,000
5. Vanessa Rousso - 221,700
6. Danny Fuhs - 218,300
7. Paul Niemela - 216,000
8. John Cautela - 198,500
9. Gevork Kasabyan - 197,400
10. Mark Seif - 187,000
Other notable names in the top 50 include:
19. Steve Sung - 155,800
24. Vivek “Psyduck” Rajkumar - 137,400
26. - 128,700
35. Shawn Buchanan - 116,300
36. - 113,800
37. Lisa Hamilton - 107,400
38. Erica Schoenberg - 107,000
39. Steve Zolotow - 106,500
42. Surinder Sunar - 105,500
43. Robert Mizrachi - 104,600
All players who reach the money will take home at least $18,000 and the top nine players will collect a six-figure payday. Stay tuned to Poker News Daily for the latest WPT coverage.
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If you missed anything that happened this week, never fear, we’re bringing you the top poker news stories of the week, all bundled into one, making it easier on you to read while you wait for all your tournaments to start.
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Another day was wrapped at the Commerce Casino for the World Poker Tour LA Poker Classic as the field worked its way from over 400 down to 186. Although, Salvatore Deluca is the chip leader with 431,000, two Team PokerStars Pros are the ones…
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02 28th, 2010
But sitting among the leaders on the event’s third day, that’s not at the forefront of his mind.
“The thing is, it’s a lifetime thing,” said 35-year-old Kid Poker. “It’s not really a pressing thing.”
The pressing business was for both he and Ivey to get past 2006 WSOP Main Event champ Jamie Gold, who edged out him for the top spot with that single $12 million win four years ago.
But when Negreanu passed Gold finishing second at the WSOP Europe main event this past September and Ivey’s November Nine appearance pushed him even further ahead, two of poker’s best were left to spend the rest of their careers vying for top spot.
The only problem is, continuing to collect big scores from tournaments isn’t getting easier.
Negreanu says everybody is getting better and every year, fresh faced kids rising from the online ranks continue to display an unmatched fundamental talent for the game.
He says he’s been forced to change his game, unlike another player named Phil, who still sits behind Gold in fourth on the all-time list with a little more than $11 million in earnings.
“The biggest difference with Phil Hellmuth and I is that I watch the way the game changes and I understand I need to tweak my game in order to compete,” he said. “He thinks if he brushes his teeth, does yoga and eats right he’s just going to win.
“He really thinks you just need to have a positive attitude. You just need to learn how to play poker better.”
The way Negreanu sees it, the old-school way just isn’t going to cut it anymore.
“Years ago there was a way to play. It was easy and it worked,” he said. “These young kids have found a way to exploit it. It’s like a bacteria mutating to become resistant to the medication you’ve been giving it. You have to find a way to attack the problem.
“There are weaknesses in every strategy to some degree. So I go after their weaknesses and the way they perceive me, which opens up a whole new group of opportunities that I can use against them.”
His willingness to adapt is where he finds the consistency.
“Right now I’m getting back to basics,” he said. “Which is paying attention to a lot of physical tells that I’m seeing in the young guys. Paying attention to who is the wild man, what they’re doing and that sort of thing.
“In the old days I didn’t even have to do as much of that, because people just played the game so fundamentally poorly.”
But as he goes about trying to make poker history as one of the leaders in L.A. Sunday afternoon with an eye on the big screen inside Commerce and the Canadian Olympic Hockey Team Winning gold on home soil to make hockey history, Negreanu sounds ready for business.
“It takes a lot of concentration. It’s not easy anymore,” he said. “It’s not like I can just sit there and wait for them to make mistakes like we used to.”
The World Poker Tour’s L.A. Poker Classic continues through March 4. For comprehensive coverage, tune in to PokerListings’ and .
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The final eight players returned to the Mantra Resort on Saturday afternoon to play for the title of champion at the PokerStars.net LAPT Punta del Este. The battle was not for the faint of heart or the deep of stack, and Team PokerStars Pro Jose…
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02 28th, 2010
The NAPT held its first exclusive event at the Venetian and more than 800 players paid the $5,000 buy-in.
Meanwhile the stars were indeed shining bright at the WPT Invitational with Tia Carrera, Trishelle Cannatella, and Marlon Wayans coming out to play.
With all the excitement over the competing poker tours there were several poker stories that were almost forgotten.
Fortunately as part of our ongoing Poker News in Brief we’ve compiled a list of the lesser-known stories below.
This week we’ll take a look at PartyPoker running an endurance promo, new schedules for two PokerStars tournaments, a training seminar by Mike “The Mouth” Matusow and more.
Class in Session for Mike “The Mouth” Matusow
When The Mouth talks you’d better listen.
That’s what organizers are hoping participants will take out of the upcoming Mike “The Mouth” Matusow poker training session in California.
Matusow, who is the dean of DeepStacks University, will teach a special five-hour session that covers winning strategies for tournament and cash game poker in addition to giving one-on-one poker analysis at the tables.
The training session will cost $495 to attend and every contestant will receive a copy of the Team Full Tilt Pro’s new book Check Raising the Devil.
The event will take place March 12 at the Palo Casino Spa and Resort.
Big Names Headline The Poker Show Live
One of the poker’s most popular radio shows is returning with Phil Hellmuth, Daniel Negreanu, Phil Galfond, Tony G, David Benyamine and Luke “FullFlush” Schwartz all coming along for the ride.
The Poker Show Live, sponsored by Boylepoker, will feature all the aforementioned poker players in new episodes for the show’s third season beginning March 2.
Hosted by Jesse May, The Poker Show Live has interviewed almost every well-known poker player over the span of its first two seasons.
Tom Dwan, Vicky Coren, Andrew Feldman, Huck Seed, Neil Channing, Erik Seidel have all taken their turn on The Poker Show Live microphone.
The show is available on ThePokerShowLive.com, BoylePoker.com and iTunes.
Ontario Considers Online Gaming
The Canadian province of Ontario is taking a serious look at running its own official online gambling service that could potentially include poker.
Ontario Lottery and Gambling chairman Paul Godfrey and Premier Dalton McGuinty want the province to provide Internet gambling instead of letting potential revenue go to offshore gambling sites.
In Canada, British Columbia and Atlantic Lottery Corporations already officially allow online gambling. The BC Lottery Corporation offers a limited poker game called Pacific Hold’em Poker, which is played against the house.
Loto-Quebec’s poker site is set to launch this fall and analysts are estimating it could potentially net $50 million in revenue for the government over the next three years.
Gladiator Promo Returns to PartyPoker
One of the most popular promotions on PartyPoker is returning this March.
The Gladiator promo rewards players who generate at least 10 PartyPoints every day for a minimum of five days. There are potentially bigger rewards available for players who earn up to 2,000 PartyPoints.
“The Gladiator is back and the rewards are greater than ever before,” said a PartyPoker spokesman.
“This promotion is about spreading play over a period of time for maximus rewards! It is simple and offers great value and we encourage players to challenge themselves and take a closer look.”
If a player manages to earn 2,000 PartyPoints a day from March 3 to April 1 they will instantly earn a $12,500 package to the 2010 WSOP Main Event.
To learn more about The Gladiator check the PartyPoker
PokerStars Releases SCOOP, NAPT Mohegan Sun Schedules
PokerStars announced the dates for one of its biggest online series and its burgeoning North American tour this week.
The PokerStars Spring Championship of Online Poker will take place over 14 days from May 3-16 with 33 events. Like last year, each event will have a low, medium and high buy-in variant.
The series will culminate with the Main Event on May 16, with guarantees of $1 million, $3 million and $5 million for each buy-in level.
Meanwhile the PokerStars.net North American Poker Tour’s next stop, at the Mohegan Sun in Connecticut, will take place April 7-11. The main event carries a $5,000 buy-in and there will be a $10k High Roller Bounty Shootout.
To see the complete schedules for the upcoming SCOOP or NAPT check the PokerStars .
Versus Picks Up Season 2 of Poker2Nite
Poker news show Poker2Nite is returning for another season, but leaving Fox Sports Net behind for Versus.
Poker2Nite follows an informal news format with UB Poker pro Joe Sebok and poker personality Scott Huff acting as hosts. Dana Workman also produces the satirical Weekly Misdeal for the program.
All 13 episodes of the first season were shown on Fox Sports Net. The second season will kick off this Wednesday at 11 p.m. ET on Versus, which was formerly OLN.
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02 27th, 2010
In fact, as a crew of barely legal pros turned on to the game by Chris Moneymaker’s 2003 World Series win when they were just teens dominate poker tournaments across the globe, you are more likely to hear a player at the L.A. Poker Classic this week complaining about the difficulty of his table draw if it includes half a dozen 21 to 23-year-old online pros than a stable of veteran gamblers.
“I think even I would fear the youngsters more, to be perfectly honest with you,” said Hoyt Corkins, a 50-year-old veteran of the game who just won his second WPT title at the Southern Poker Championships in Biloxi last month.
“I mean, I just made a final table and everyone was in their 20’s and here I am 50 years old. I think these kids are going to dominate in the years to come.
“It’s a different style. The kids are tough. Their technique is good.”
At just 23-years-old, Jason Mercier already has more than $4 million in live tournament earnings.
But the South Florida native says his success has very little to do with youthful exuberance.
For a young man who watched Moneymaker win the World Series of Poker Main Event when he was just 16 and has dedicated his life to the game ever since, it’s all about the valuable experience of an adolescence spent grinding online.
“That kind of experience you will never get live,” the Team Pro said. “You just can’t play millions of hands live. I think that definitely contributed to my success. In 2007, I played over two million hands online. You just can’t do that live.”
But is the experience gained playing online poker the same as playing live? Corkin’s doesn’t think so.
“You can’t discount 32 years of watching people’s faces and watching the way they put their money in the pot,” said the Alabama born Corkins. “When you’ve played that much online you may be more experienced as far as the technical side goes, but poker is more than just that. It’s got a human element to it.”
Mercier sees his point.
“Of course experience helps and playing tons and tons of hands online helps,” he said. “But the more you play live, the more you pick up on as well. That’s why so many of these big online guys have yet to have a big score live. A lot of it has to do with variance, but a lot of them also haven’t grasped how live poker is played.
“There’s just so much more to it. It’s so much more complex. There’s only so many things that you can learn online and there are so many more things you get live that you don’t get playing online.”
At just 21-years old, Yevgeniy Timoshenko won the WPT Championship last season. Like Mercier, he is another baby of the Moneymaker boom.
However, the Ukranian-born Timoshenko says what makes a table full of young online players something to fear isn’t just youth, or the number of hands they’ve played online.
It’s the studious approach to the game taken by a group of players who seem to have grown up treating poker like another subject in high school as much as a form of entertainment.
“I don’t think being young necessarily makes you good at poker,” he said. “And I think even though you play more hands online it doesn’t necessarily give you the same amount of experience as you would get playing in a casino.
“But for me, it’s not just about hands. What’s more important is reviewing your sessions. If you don’t do that, it doesn’t matter if you play a million hands. If you don’t study and try to improve, you are not necessarily going to get a lot of experience out of those million hands.”
According to Timoshenko, a player that takes the right approach and studies the game as much as he plays online can gain experience about four times as fast as one playing strictly live.
“It’s hard to quantify,” he said. “The biggest factor is how many tables you play and how many hours a day that you play. But you can get better at poker online in like one fourth of the time it would take you strictly playing live. It’s like a factor of three or four I would say.”
Considering those numbers, it’s no wonder fresh faced young players born from the Moneymaker boom are having so much success.
They have almost the same experience as 30-year pros like Corkins.
“I mean, I definitely don’t feel like a guy who has been sitting here for 20 years,” Timoshenko said. “But I feel comfortable enough.”
The World Poker Tour’s L.A. Poker Classic continues through March 2. For comprehensive coverage, tune in to PokerListings’ and .
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Why tattoo the face of one fellow poker player on your body when you can tattoo two? UB.com pro Joe Sebok will ask himself that question after losing a last longer prop bet during the ’s () L.A. Poker Classic on Friday.
The three-way prop bet featured Sebok, Poker pro , and young gun . Whoever was eliminated first from the $10,000 buy-in L.A. Poker Classic would tattoo the faces of the other two players on his body. That honor went to Sebok, whose aces were cracked during the third level of play on Friday to come out on the short end of the bet. On the wager, Sebok told new WPT Live Updates Hostess Jacque, “It is so stupid. I am so embarrassed to even admit it. I feel like one of the scientists who worked on the Manhattan Project and now I’ve done something so awful that it’s going to torment the world for so long.”
Madsen was the next player out and now must tattoo Smith’s face on his body. Smith, meanwhile, reached Day 2 of the L.A. Poker Classic at the Commerce Casino, but sits with the second smallest stack in the room as play begins. Sebok’s Twitter feed was full of prop bet-related 140-character outbursts on Friday. He honorably admitted defeat, saying, “fair victory for @olegsmith, w/ @jeffmadsenobv’s bust. 1 thing is certain; i shall never drink alcohol w/ EITHER of these clowns again…”
The rumor mill at the WPT tournament indicated that Smith would accept a $20,000 buyout of the bet, while Madsen may take $15,000. However, Sebok stated on Twitter that buying out of the unique bet was not an option: “btw all, the ONLY thing worse than losing this bet and getting these fool’s ugly faces on my body is PAYING them to not do it. hell no…” Sebok let Madsen buy out of a prop bet during a previous running of the () for $15,000, hence Madsen’s offer.
When Madsen busted from the L.A. Poker Classic, his Twitter feed was equally lively Madsen sought user suggestions for the pending tattoo: “Its ok, i will happily memorialize gavin forever… Any suggestions on the theme of the tat?” During play, he added, “I’m trying not to remind myself that I’m in the middle of the most retarded prop bet ever.” Madsen is a two-time WSOP bracelet winner. Smith already owns a tattoo immortalizing Sebok, as the initials “J.S.” appear on his back.
The poker community weighed in on the bet, which panned out at the Commerce Casino. Tournament Director Matt Savage chimed in, “@joesebok: @SavagePoker jeez, don’t sound so happy, jerkus… Not Happy but at least you can do radio shows this week?” Sebok co-anchors the UB.com poker news show “Poker2Nite” alongside Scott Huff. The series’ second season will kick off on Versus on Wednesday at 11:00pm ET. Meanwhile, Smith trumpeted his victory for all of cyberspace to see: “No tattie’s for ole GSmith, Madsen and Sebok can’t say the same!”
Upon hearing that Sebok had lost the bet and now has two new sets of ink coming his way, actress Shannon Elizabeth exclaimed via a Tweet, “@joesebok LOL-you LOST??? NO WAY! That’s huge! LOL-nice work! Haha 
” Poker publicist Lara Miller offered her own advice: “Can you get the tatts super super small? Like the head of a pin?” No indication has been given on the size of the tattoos.
Smith has been involved in some of the industry’s most memorable prop bets, including a wager with Allie Prescott during the 2006 WSOP Circuit Championship at Harrah’s New Orleans. Prescott could have been out $700,000 if Smith won the tournament, while Smith would have owed Prescott $1 million if Prescott won. In the end, Peter “Nordberg” Feldman defeated Smith heads-up in the $10,000 buy-in Circuit Championship; Prescott finished seventh.
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Day 1 of the World Poker Tour LA Poker Classic main event got underway Friday afternoon, and although he is second to last in chips after the day, Gavin Smith was the day’s biggest winner. Smith, along with Joe Sebok and Jeff Madsen had a prop bet…
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