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Tilt

Sunday, July 24, 2005

I saw ESPN's TILT for the first time this weekend. (things take a little while to make it down under sometimes)

I can't say I loved it. Even though it was all about poker and based in Vegas etc, it was a little too dark and sinister for my liking. Cheats, guns, punch ups and generally just overall shadiness seemed to be the focus of the whole episode I saw.

Maybe it's not always like that, but I can't see it creating a loyal following among the current crop of crazed poker fans who love the fun & happy atmosphere of the WPT on TV and playing online at sites like Poker.com. It was just too depressing...


Posted at 4:07 AM Permalink | 1 comments | Talk on the Poker Forum


The new Poker.com R0cks!

Tuesday, July 19, 2005

I just saw the final version of the new Poker.com lobby. Oh my is it special.

We have some great ideas for new features, but it just seems to take soooo long to get them developed and tested. We're hopefully doing a major software update later this week and it will make a big difference to the client's feel & usability.

We're not going to stop until we have the hands down best poker software around, and this update will be a nice big step towards that.

And for all of you US based poker fans ESPN is starting the 2005 WSOP coverage tonight! Check yor local TV guides.

kris @ poker.com


Posted at 12:58 AM Permalink | 6 comments | Talk on the Poker Forum


WSOP aftermath

Monday, July 18, 2005

Well Joe Hachem has been in every newspaper and on all the news tv shows down under over the past two days. Poker.com was even interviewed by The Australian, our national newspaper to see what our thoughts were on Joe winning and the effect it will have on Poker's popularity.

The rest of the poker blogging scene seems to have gone into a summer hibernation though, with virtually no updates over the past couple of days anywhere since the WSOP finished. I guess they are all nursing killer Vegas induced hangovers....

I missed the final few hours of the WSOP final table (I was losing a real poker game at Liam's place!) and just read through the hand transcripts. It was a truly amazing effort to hang in there and win like he did.

Whereas I can't even win with Aces... Just got dealt AA in a sneaky little tournament I'm playing at home while working and got beaten on the river when a 10 came to turn my only caller's pair of 10s into a set... Dammit...

kris @ poker.com


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Reflections on WSOP!

Saturday, July 16, 2005

I've never seen so much cash in my life, or shotguns.


Good on you Joe, I am still amazed.


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Aussie Joseph Hachem Wins 2005 WSOP!

AUSSIE AUSSIE AUSSIE, OI OI OI!

Joe Hachem won the world series! I can hardly believe it....

Hand 232 - Steve Dannenmann has the button, he raises to $700,000, and Hachem calls. The flop comes 6h-5d-4d, Hachem checks, Dannenmann bets $700,000, Hachem raises to $1,700,000, and Dannenmann calls. The turn card is the As, Hachem bets $2,000,000, and Dannenmann slowly raises to $5,000,000, Hachem reraises all in, and Dannenmann immediately calls. Hachem shows 7c-3s (seven-high straight), while Dannenman has Ad-3c (top pair). Dannenmann needs to catch a seven on the river to chop the pot with equal straights.

The entire crowd is on their feet as the river card comes. There are only three cards that can keep Hachem from becoming champion.

The river card is the 4c! Joseph Hachem has just become the 2005 World Series of Poker champion!

Congratulations Joe from Poker.com and all of Australia!


Posted at 9:49 AM Permalink | 1 comments | Talk on the Poker Forum


Day 9, WSOP Main Event Update 3:00AM

On a 15 minute break, the chip counts are:

1. Steve Dannenmann - $24,670,000
2. Tex Barch - $14,000,000
3. Aaron Kanter - $10,560,000
4. Joseph Hachem - $7,020,000


I think Joe is restarting on the button, with 120,000/240,000 blinds, with 40,000 antes.

4 handed, thats almost half a million per orbit.

paul @ poker.com


Posted at 5:45 AM Permalink | 0 comments | Talk on the Poker Forum


Day 9, WSOP Main Event Update 2:00AM

It's around 2AM now and we have had another bust out.

Andrew Black has been eliminated. Only 3 hours earlier Black was chip leader with 20 million, but after a few bad beats and wrong moves he is gone.

That means our Aussie mate Joseph Hachem is now in 4th place (short stacked at the moment) but will come home to Australia with at least 2 million USD.

The Aussies keep cheering as he takes down pots, even if it is just blinds and antes.

It's 2AM, they have been playing for almost 12 hours again tonight, but this is far too exciting not to play this right through till they have a winner. It looks like they might.

Go Joe!


paul @ poker.com


Posted at 5:36 AM Permalink | 0 comments | Talk on the Poker Forum


Day 9, WSOP Main Event Update

About 1 hour after the dinner break now and another 2 players have been eliminated already.

There are 5 left:

1. Andrew Black - $21,750,000 (seat 2)
2. Tex Barch - $12,560,000 (seat 3)
3. Aaron Kanter - $10,300,000 (seat 6)
4. Steve Dannenmann - $6,550,000 (seat 8)
5. Joseph Hachem - $5,100,000 (seat 1)

The top 5 payouts are:

1st $7,500,000
2nd $4,250,000
3rd $2,500,000
4th $2,000,000
5th $1,750,000

I am listening live to Phil Hellmuth on the CardPlayer.com live audio feed, it's great. Phil just said they have "twice as many listeners as Big Brother" apparently some BB audio feed that is concurrently running online. Good work guys.

paul @ poker.com


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We have a Final Table! And Joe is there!

Friday, July 15, 2005

Final Table Chip Counts
1. Aaron Kanter $10.7M
2. Tex Barch $9.33M
3. Andrew Black $8.14M
4. Mike Matusow $7.41M
5. Steve Dannenmann $5.46M
6. Joseph Hachem $5.42M
7. Daniel Bergsdorf $5.27M
8. Scott Lazar $3.37M
9. Brad Kondracki $1.18M

And in the 'Bust Poker.com Staff tourney held today, BKWiseguy took down the coveted 1st prize, and two bounties. Shouts of 'The Sky is falling!' & 'Someone save our flat planet from this rigged tourney' were heard from those amazed at BKwiseguy being able to suggest a tourney idea & then also win it!

Now we just have to organise some Poker Bloggers tournies....

kris @ poker.com


Posted at 12:05 PM Permalink | 0 comments | Talk on the Poker Forum


Go Joe! WSOP update from Tao of Poker

Thursday, July 14, 2005

Cut and pasted from Tao of Poker - thanks for the updates Pauly.

6:17pm... Featured Table update: The biggest hand of the Main Event just happened... $5.5M pot. The flop was all clubs... Q-7-9. Andy Black flopped a set with the Hilton Sisters and Joe Hachem flopped the nut flush. The river and turn were blanks and the Aussies on the rail began their chant "Aussie, Aussie, Aussie! Oy, oy, oy!" I like them better than Kantor's Klowns. Andy Black doubled up Hachem.

And Greg Raymer has been outed in 25th place. His A9 lost to the speed limit, 55 in an all in situation. There'll be no repeat WSOP champ this year but he still takes home over $300k for his troubles.

The first 'Bust Poker.com' freeroll tournament is taking place right now. Tina, the Poker.com queen of hearts busted first to a pair of pocket Aces. Current chip leader is 'BKwiseguy' followed by Dparrot. Poker.com designer, Helen has a double bounty on her head after busting out Paulie the developer and is chip leader of remaining bountees. (think I just made a new word)

Check out the Poker Forum for info on our special events. Very soon we'll be holding a monthly Poker Blogger's freeroll.

kris @ poker.com


Posted at 9:34 PM Permalink | 0 comments | Talk on the Poker Forum


Aussie Aussie Aussie!

Quote of the day over at Las Vegas and poker blog;

"Aussie, Aussie, Aussie! Oy, Oy, Oy! Aussie, Aussie, Aussie! Oy, Oy, Oy!" was loudly chanted continuously by the numerous railbirds for Joe Hachem, a Melbourne native whenever he won a pot.

I love it! (except you spell it Oi! not Oy Pauly ;)

kris @ poker.com


Posted at 7:27 AM Permalink | 1 comments | Talk on the Poker Forum


27 players left!

With two days play remaining, both at Binions Horseshoe Casino, there are 27 players still in the 2005 World Series of Poker.

Here's the current chip counts;

Mike Matusow $5,140,000
Phil Ivey $4,635,000
Steven Dannenmann $4,300,000
Tex Barch $3,900,00
Greg "Fossil Man" Raymer $3,840,000
Brad Koudrachi $3,160,000
Joseph Hachem $3,125,000
Scott Lazar $3,025,000
Michael Kessler $2,700,000
Daniel Bergsdorf $2,550,000
Andrew Black $2,090,000
Minh Ly $2,050,000
Aaron Kanter $1,925,000
Tuan Vu $1,870,000
Tim Phan $1,575,000
Oskar Silow $1,440,000
Bryant King $1,440,000
Conor Tate $1,265,000
Tiffany Williamsen $1,125,000
Joe Connor $1,065,000
Tom Sartorv $805,000
Johnny Howard $730,000
Bernard Lee $710,000
Per Hildebrand $645,000
John McGrane $575,000
Shahram Shublem $310,000
Ayhan Alsancak $225,000

The sole Aussie, Joseph Hachem, from Melbourne, is the guy that Poker.com will be cheering for, but everyone still has a long road ahead of them if they want to be the champ.

If Joseph doesn't win it I guess I'd like to se Phil Ivey get his first Main Event bracelet (& his 7th overall) or maybe see Greg Raymer pull off the incredible feat of back to back world titles in the 2 biggest fields ever. That would be pretty special....

kris @ poker.com


Posted at 3:34 AM Permalink | 1 comments | Talk on the Poker Forum


WSOP payout structure

Monday, July 11, 2005

WSOPThere's a good video over at CardPlayer with the WSOP tournament director explaining how they came up with this year's payout structure.

I like the fact that they decided to make everyone at the table a millionaire, and how they pay 1/10 players. It's also great that if you make the bubble you make some money, you don't just get your buy-in back.

You can view the video here.

kris @ poker.com


Posted at 5:05 AM Permalink | 1 comments | Talk on the Poker Forum


Poker.com WSOP player update

Sunday, July 10, 2005

Just had a quick chat with Bullitpete live from the Rio in Vegas. Him and Antonella both made it through the first day of the main event. Pete has 26K and Antonella has 10k, with 1800 players left.

They played through to 3:30am, and have to get up to play again at 12pm. Tomorrow they play down to 550, which is the money bubble.

Our thoughts are with you - good luck boys!

kris @ poker.com


Posted at 6:37 AM Permalink | 0 comments | Talk on the Poker Forum


$1million for 9th ain't bad....

2004 WSOP Winner, Greg RaymerEven if you bust out first from the final table at this year's WSOP you will earn yourself a tidy 1 million dollars. Ninth place and you're a millionaire. That's amazing....

Last year Greg 'Fossilman' Raymer and his backers walked away with $5million for first prize, this year it will be $7.5 million to first place.

The total prize pool is $52.8 million, minus the house cut of $3.37 million. According to tournament officials, 560 players will finish in the money. 2nd place will collect $4.25 million; 3rd $2.5 million; 4th $2 million; 5th $1.75 million; 6th $1.5 million;7th $1.3 million; and 8th $1.15 million.

The high profile bust outs continued in the main event, with Phil Hellmuth, Doyle Brunson, Daniel Negreanu, Annie Duke, T.J. Cloutier, Mark Seif, Hoyt Corkins, Mel Judah, Erik Lingdren, Evelyn Ng, Phil Gordon, David Williams, Erin Ness, Men the Master, Todd Brunson, Andy Bloch & Ram Vaswani all going out on their first day of play.

Phil Hellmuth provided a great quote after his Ace King hand was trumped by King Jack, when a Jack appeared at the river -"I lost a pot to a guy who can't even spell the game P-O-K-E-R!" A few minutes later he lost his remaining chips and was eliminated by Quack-Quack, aka Paul Maigrel.

In other somewhat disappointing news, it looks like the Flying Dutchman, Marcl Luske has signed a new deal with another online poker room. We met Marcel in Melbourne at the Crown Aussie Millions in January and he was a classy, funny guy and great poker ambassador. He's one of a couple of pros I had my eye on as a possible Poker.com endorsee, but we should have spoke up sooner I guess. Good luck Marcel, but you coulda been Mr Poker.com!

kris @ poker.com


Posted at 4:49 AM Permalink | 1 comments | Talk on the Poker Forum


Where are the big name pros?

Saturday, July 09, 2005

Where's Bill Filmaff?One thing I've noticed about this year's WSOP is that although the 'big names' feature prominently in all of the media pics and party news there haven't been too many featured at final tables.

Of the top 50 2005 WSOP money winners with only the main event to come, there is probably only about 15-20 players that I had heard of beforehand, and I work in the business!

Of the countless pros that represent online poker sites, only about half a dozen have made the top 50. And of them 2 have their own poker sites and I know one other is a part owner of the site he endorses.

That leaves about 3 or 4 players that have really earned their endorsement salary and figured well amongst the world's top players. Sure many others have made a few feature stories, been in a swag of pics and signed a thousand autographs, but how long will this last if they can't produce results? They may have made the money a couple of times and maybe even broke even for the whole WSOP, but if they don't make final tables, make news highlights, and turn a healthy profit as a player, then how long will their poker gravy train last?

Poker.com dosn't have a pro player as the Poker.com pro.... yet..... We've looked into it, but to be honest we thought that for the players available to us, their services were grossly overpriced compared to the guaranteed results and exposure they could offer. If / when we do enter into a relationship with a professional player to represent the site they will have to be one of THE most recognisable and successful players of all time or I just don't think it is worth it.

Maybe we'll find the best ONLINE players and get them to endorse our site as I think their opinion and endorsement could even count for more than a real life casino dwelling poker pro. (although I didn't see Bill Filmaff - pictured - in the top 50 either)

I think pro poker stars have a much tougher time delivering on their end of the bargain when it comes to providing value for their endorsement dollars. They are not like NBA or NFL stars where it is guaranteed that they will be on TV in a game or on sportscenter a couple of times a week at least. It is almost like they have to achieve the equivalent of making the NBA finals every month in order to be guaranteed some decent exposure.

Anyway, that is my thoughts on this lazy Saturday. I was just amazed that I didn't recognise more names in the money winners list.

Maybe one of the pros will win the big one this year and do his site proud! That's as long as he can get through our own Bullitpete!

Have a good weekend.

kris @ poker.com


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Ocean's 2, Brad and George to Open Vegas Casino

Friday, July 08, 2005

I just read that George Clooney and Brad Pitt have signed a deal with Cindy Crawford's nightclub owner husband Rande Gerber to build a new Las Vegas hotel and casino.

It is reported that George and Brad are not putting in any money, but they will be getting a percentage of the profits.

Brad will design the hotel and be the face of it with George. After 'Ocean's Eleven,' this makes perfect sense and the three of them are very good friends."

Pitt and Gerber have apparently been talking about it for 2 years and have just brought Clooney in on the deal.

The deal will be formally announced in November and building work is due to begin in January.

paul @ poker.com


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Main Event Update

The 2005 WSOP main event has begun with just over 5600 entrants. It's a little short of the anticipated maximum field of 6600, but I think that's good - it leaves space for 1000 Poker.com players next year!

Around 1885 players started play on the first day. The starting day for players had to be staggered to allow everyone to enter. About 650 players survived day one.

Here's some of some notable 1st day bustees...

Josh Arieh
Erik Seidel
Chris Bigler
Scott Fischman
Jesus Ferguson
Ted Forrest
Johnny Chan
Mike Sexton
Humerto Brenes
The Devilfish
Barry Greenstein
Phil Laak
Carlos Mortenson
Jennifer Tilly
Brett Jungblut
Jen Harman

As far as I know the friends of Poker.com are still going. Good luck boys!
---------------
In Poker.com news - we have added a range of daily guaranteed tournaments to our schedule. Check them out and start practicing for the satellites we'll be holding for next years WSOP.

kris @ poker.com


Posted at 6:26 PM Permalink | 0 comments | Talk on the Poker Forum


We have a Poker Table!

Thursday, July 07, 2005

The Poker.com company poker table arrived today & I don't think the office will ever be the same. It's a nice red felt, black rail table from CardShark, our local poker table supplier. (Thanks Jase!)

There'll be plenty of after work sit & go tournaments happening in the next few weeks. I'll keep you posted on who takes out the 'PSWSOP" (Poker.com Staff World Series Of Poker)

Anyway I've gotta run. Emma & Liam (pictured) have just informed me that there's some fools playing online now at Poker.com saying that they work here and that they designed our software! I have find out who these imposters are!


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Our first Magazine Ad!

Wednesday, July 06, 2005

Have you seen the latest issue of CardPlayer magazine yet? It has hit some casinos already, and has a newstand cover date of July 12 - it's the 2005 World Series of Poker Collector's edition.

The very first Poker.com magazine advertisement can be found somewhere in the pages of this edition of CardPlayer!

Our copy came via courier today and we're going to frame it and hang it in the office to remember this exciting day. I can see t now. One day we'll be playing a little office sit'n'go and someone will buy some thinking time by saying "remember back in July '05, when we first ran a magazine ad..... there it is hanging on the wall..." Or something like that!

There'll be more to come, so keep your eyes peeled for Poker.com in your favorite Poker publications on a newstand or in a casino near you. If you have an advertising idea for us - let us know about it. If we use your idea we'll be sure to say thank you with a nice bonus in your Poker.com account.


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In the WSOP main event by accident?

Monday, July 04, 2005

Robert Guinther from Texas entered what he thought was a $10 online poker tournament, but midway through he realized that he had accidentally clicked on a World Series of Poker satellite tournament with a $100 entry fee and it was too late to back out. He went on to win, defeating 180 other competitors and earning a spot in the WSOP $10,000 no-limit championship.

How lucky is he! Now all he has to do is defeat 6,600 others and he will be the next world champion.

I know of a couple of Poker.com players that are going to the WSOP. Bullitpete & Antonella, both regulars on the Poker.com tables are in Vegas this week to try their luck at the Rio and have a shot at becoming millionaires.

Are there any other Poker.com players out there going to Vegas for the holy grail of Poker?

Next year we'll be holding satellite tournaments and I'll bet Poker.com will be represented by hundreds of our players, but for now good luck to Bullitpete & Antonella. May the cards be with you.


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Texas Dolly wins # 10!

Saturday, July 02, 2005

Doyle Brunson, the legend of all poker legends, won his 10th WSOP bracelet in the short handed no limit, event # 31. He is now even with Johnny Chan on 10 career bracelets.

It got down to a star studded final table, with Scotty Nguyen, Layne Flack, Minh Ly & Jason Lester all on closely matched chip stacks. But Doyle outlasted them all, using every ounce of stamina left in his 72 year old body as the match went on past 4am.

In Poker.com news, we had our first guaranteed tournament today, a $3+30c buy in event that saw 195 people enter which was awesome! Most things worked okay once the Tourney Director ironed them out and 'FRANCK' ended up being our winner - congratulations on your $537 win!

We're looking forward to running more guaranteed tournaments and making them the best on the www. Send us through any tournament ideas you'd like to see on the site.


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