Archive for June, 2010
06 30th, 2010
Welcome back to the Daily Deal by Poker News Daily. Today, we’ll catch you up on the latest news and notes from the two thousand ten , take a look at California possibly legalizing internet gambling, and go over brand new promotions from and .
Hello, I’m Sean Gibson and welcome to the Daily Deal by Poker News Daily.
To kick things off, we’ll go back to the Rio in Las Vegas once again to recap the action from the two thousand and ten World Series of Poker. Event number forty five was a fifteen hundred dollar no limit holdem tournament and was won by American Jesse Rockowitz for just over seven hundred and twenty thousand dollars. Event number forty-six was a five thousand dollar Omaha high low tournament which was won by Chris Bell who bested both Dan Shak, who finished second, and David “” Ulliott who finished third. For his efforts, Bell rung in three hundred and twenty-seven thousand dollars.
Meanwhile, a non-bracelet event took place amid huge fanfare from the Rio in the Tournament of Champions. Players in this event had to either previously have won it or be voted in through a fan poll. There were five huge casualties on Day 1 of the event, starting with legend . Other players busting include two thousand nine world series of poker champion , Andrew Barton and . The other casualty turned out to be defending champ and host , leaving seventeen players remaining. Mike “the mouth” matusow is your chip leader, being followed by , and .
Today, lawmakers in the California Senate Governmental Organization Committee will debate the merits of legalizing and regulating online poker. Senate Bill 1485, introduced by Inglewood Democrat Rod Wright, could help shrink major budget shortfalls in the west coast state. Among those not in favor of the proposed legislation is the .
The PPA takes issue with the bill granting licenses to only three internet gambling “hubs.” In addition, the one million member strong organization disagrees with the bill’s criminalization of those who play on sites not granted licenses. In a letter sent to Wright in late June, the PPA cautioned,
“The measure as drafted would immediately criminalize online poker play well before any of the hubs are operational. It could easily be a year or more before online players could play legally.”
PPA California State Director Steve Miller is testifying at Tuesday’s hearing. As more develops in California, we’ll be reporting the latest as it breaks.
Starting this week, PartyPoker is bringing back its popular Card Rush Instant Win promotion, only this time, it’s super sized. Card Rush XL offers one-point-eight million prizes up for grabs, including cash, freeroll entries, and special leaderboard points. The promotion, which is sure to cause a massive traffic boost on PartyPoker, ends when every card has been given away or July thirty-first, whichever comes first. To claim a card, all you have to do is rack up fifteen Party Points.
Meanwhile, players in the United States can head to , which is dishing out trips to the upcoming WPT Bellagio Cup in Las Vegas. Three direct qualifiers will be held on Full Tilt Poker, the first of which takes place today at twenty-one hundred Eastern Time. In addition, Step Seven sit and gos, which have a buy-in of twenty-one hundred dollars, will award WPT Bellagio Cup prize packages. The tournament has a $10,000 buy-in and begins on July 11th.
Thanks for joining me on the Daily Deal. Don’t forget to visit PokerNewsDaily.com and be sure to follow us at Twitter.com/PokerNewsDaily for the latest in poker news. This is Sean Gibson, wishing you deep runs in all your tournaments!
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On Tuesday night, the Golf Channel program “Golf in America” profiled the life and times of Walters Golf CEO Bill Walters. The seven-minute segment on the prolific businessman and nosebleed-stakes gambler featured vignettes with several popular poker icons.
The Golf Channel piece opened with host and Poker News Daily Guest Columnist giving Walters’ relevant background: “Bill was a big-time gambler. I mean he was the biggest gambler in the country, betting on sports, betting on golf, betting on pool, and doing anything.” Sexton was the lone inductee into the 2009 Poker Hall of Fame.
Three-time bracelet winner and old time gambler Dewey Tomko chimed in, “He might win $100,000 or $200,000 that day at golf and then lose it at blackjack.” Tomko was voted into the Poker Hall of Fame two years ago alongside hole card camera inventor and bracelet winner Henry Orenstein. Also sharing his memories of Walters was namesake : “He’s legendary for being the best sports bettor in the world.”
Seven-time bracelet winner Billy Baxter noted that no one has “ever beaten sports in the history of the world like [Walters] has.” Meanwhile, Walters shared why he’s grown fond of gambling on anything under the sun: “Risk taking of any kind is what makes you feel alive.” His grandmother raised him in Munfordville, Kentucky, where his uncle owned a pool hall. Walters began playing pool at the ripe old age of four and moved to Las Vegas in 1982.
One man who knows a considerable amount about gambling is the legendary Jack Binion, who told Golf Channel cameras, “Gambling is just manufactured emotion, manufactured thrill.” Sexton then added that Brunson, Baxter, and the late were known to gamble for plenty of money on the links, with Brunson revealing that the group “formed a friendship and a bond that lasted for 20 years.”
A three-man scramble was held featuring Tomko, Sexton, and Brunson taking on three other players who hit off the back tees. Binion served as the event’s emcee and remarked, “People love to gamble when they golf because, if you bet on a ball game or even poker, there’s some fate to it. In golf, I feel like it’s you – you either win the money or lose the money.” Walters added that $1 million could be won or lost in a single afternoon of golf, adding to the drama of the sport.
Walters helped start the Desert Pines Golf Club in Las Vegas in 1996, but allegations arose that political ties helped him acquire other properties. Nevertheless, Las Vegas mayor Oscar Goodman told “Golf in America” viewers that Walters’ success was simply due to his business acumen. The company now owns and operates three golf courses in Las Vegas: Desert Pines, Bali Hai, and Royal Links.
Sexton summed up why Walters received a seven-minute feature on the Golf Channel’s “Golf in America” last night: “He’s absolutely the most phenomenal, successful businessman [there is]. He made the transition from the gambling world and hustling to the business side of things. He’s the smartest hillbilly that there ever was.”
“Golf in America” airs every Tuesday at 9:00pm ET on the Golf Channel.
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Players returned to Day 3 of Event #47 in hopes of playing down to a winner, but around 8:30 p.m. Tuesday night, after the final nine were reached, tournament staff made the decision that the tournament would be extended to a fourth day. Event #50…
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06 30th, 2010
John Juanda and Frank Kassela are tied at the top of the leaderboard with 225 points, and Juanda has incredibly got there without winning a bracelet, courtesy of making four World Series final tables in 2010.
“[If I win Player of The Year]…it will make me feel a bit better about not winning a bracelet. But every year I go without a bracelet, it’s disappointing,” said Juanda.
Kassela on the other hand has stormed to the top of the “Player of the Year” rankings on the back of victories in the $10k Stud and $2.5k Razz and is only too aware of how tight it is at the top.
“I’ve been playing in a ton of events since I won that last one, just because I knew I had a decent chance at Player of the Year,” said Kassela following his second bracelet win.
“It’s going to be close.”
Neither player can rest on their laurels though. There are a group of players bunched just behind them who can overtake them at a single stroke should they win a bracelet.
Here are the current standings:
Player Name
06 30th, 2010
John Juanda and Frank Kassela are tied at the top of the leaderboard with 225 points, and Juanda has incredibly got there without winning a bracelet, courtesy of making four World Series final tables in 2010.
“[If I win Player of The Year]…it will make me feel a bit better about not winning a bracelet. But every year I go without a bracelet, it’s disappointing,” said Juanda.
Kassela on the other hand has stormed to the top of the “Player of the Year” rankings on the back of victories in the $10k Stud and $2.5k Razz and is only too aware of how tight it is at the top.
“I’ve been playing in a ton of events since I won that last one, just because I knew I had a decent chance at Player of the Year,” said Kassela following his second bracelet win.
“It’s going to be close.”
Neither player can rest on their laurels though. There are a group of players bunched just behind them who can overtake them at a single stroke should they win a bracelet.
Here are the current standings:
Player Name
While the 2010 () Tournament of Champions (TOC) takes a break until July 3rd, the leaders of Team , and , find themselves right in the thick of things.
With 17 of the original 27 players remaining, Hellmuth and Duke are back-to-back in the middle of the pack. With 44,100 chips, Hellmuth is in eighth place, while Duke is right behind him in ninth with 42,600. If they hold those same positions throughout the rest of the tournament, they will both earn $25,000. Undoubtedly, though, they each have their eyes trained on the $500,000 grand prize.
Duke has not had any success at this year’s WSOP, as she is still without a cash, so a win in the TOC would be a great boost for the 2009 “Celebrity Apprentice” runner-up. It will also be quite an accomplishment to beat such a stacked, albeit small, field after recently winning the similarly challenging National Heads-Up Poker Championship. Duke was one of five automatic qualifiers for the TOC, earning her spot by winning the inaugural Tournament of Champions back in 2004. Coincidentally, she defeated Hellmuth heads-up in that event to win the $2 million purse.
While Hellmuth prides himself on holding the most WSOP bracelets of anyone in the history of poker, he would still love to win the TOC, even though it would not technically count as his 12th bracelet. Hellmuth has had a disappointing run at the WSOP so far, with just three cashes for $70,622. He does have two top-15 finishes, including a final table, but for Hellmuth, also the all-time leader in number of cashes at the WSOP, it has been frustrating. Last night, he Tweeted, “Feeling so TORTURED right now!! Busted on level 15, in 59th place… 45 get paid. Four times I played till level 14 or later, and didn’t cash.”
Hellmuth earned his seat in the Tournament of Champions through the online fan vote. He was the fourth-leading vote getter of the 20 players who qualified via balloting, garnering 12,673 votes. Ahead of him were (16,267), (16,239), and (13,796).
The TOC has a dash of past UB flavor, as well, as ex-UB pro (now with Victory Poker) is 16th place and , who was once sponsored by UB, is in fourth place.
The TOC is slated to pick back up on July 3rd and play down to a final table, which will be contested the following day. If any player is still alive in events happening on July 3rd, however, the TOC will not resume at all until July 4th, when it will start bright and early at 9:00am local time.
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06 30th, 2010
The Hijack Seat with hosts , who is asked some great questions from none other than Bernard Lee. Greenstein is one of the most popular professional poker players around and addresses that fact when asked about the upcoming Tournament of Champions event. He also answers hot-button questions like who he’d like to go toe-to-toe with for the Main Event if he ever got heads-up and which poker games he feels like he has the biggest edge in.
Greenstein is known as the “Robin Hood of Poker” and also signs over a copy of his book “Ace on the River” to anyone that busts him from a tournament. His work for charity is well documented throughout his career and is considered one of the best all around poker players in the game, whether it be in a tournament or cash game across many different poker disciplines.
Bernard Lee is the host of “The Hijack Seat” and guest columnist here at Poker News Daily. He is also co-host of ESPN’s Inside Deal and the official spokesperson for Foxwoods Casino.
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06 30th, 2010
If last week’s “Loose Cannon” Ernest Wiggins was off the charts when it came to wit and personality, this week’s guest on the PokerStars.net Big Game did the same when it came to pure poker skill. 29 year-old Will Davis hasn’t held a…
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06 30th, 2010
PokerNews and Absolute Poker are bringing you an exciting freeroll series. The PokerNews $1,500 Freeroll will see $1,500 added to the prize pool and distributed as per Absolute Poker’s standard payout structure.
This is a private tournament…
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If you were to read an item of poker strategy before 2003, or even as
little as four years ago, you would find a plethora of what can now only be described as “Hellmuth-esque” tactics for beating the game: play super-tight, value bet well and time your - rare - bluffs wisely.
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