Poker News
Poker News

Blackjack anyone?

Tuesday, February 28, 2006

Poker.com's blackjack side game is going live for real money in a small update to the software Thursday morning. After a long beta testing period we're finally going to flick the switch and let everyone play for real cash.

I love the auto-play feature. You can test your strategies by inputing what you want to do in each possible situation and then just let it play for up to 100 hands.

You set your strategy via the matrix screen shown to the left. It's great fun deciding what to do with each possible hand combination then letting it rip on auto-pilot for 20 hands or so. I just won $187.50 of totally imaginary money!

For beginner blackjack players it may be a a more profitable way of playing with a set recommended strategy. And for good players who already have their own favourite strategy that they stick to, it allows you to play without having to sit there actually clicking buttons, or run it in the background whilst you play poker.

You'll be able to get to blackjack, by clicking the 'side games' button from the lobby once the software updates early Thursday morning. There'll be more side games in the future too such as video poker, carribean stud & three card poker.

Good luck!

Kris @ Poker.com


Posted at 11:20 PM Permalink | 0 comments | Talk on the Poker Forum


Robin Hood has struck at the WTP LA Poker Classic Invitational

Monday, February 27, 2006

Barry “Robin Hood" Greenstein took the win outlasting more than 300 stars of screen and felt, including Phil Hellmuth, Hoyt Corkins, Scott Fischman, Daniel Negreanu, Mike “The Mouth" Matusow, Jennifer Tilly, Jason Alexander, and Norm McDonald.

Having earned the nickname Robin Hood because he donates all tournament winnings to charity (cash games are for keeps) some lucky charity should shortly be receiving $100,000 thanks to this latest win.

Greenstein also won the $25,000 buy-in to the World Poker Tour Championship, which he has decided to keep.

Greenstein took the title when his A-K dominated Blair Rodman's A-10, but the hand of the day came earlier. After Greenstein raised, Jesse Jones reraised all in. Greenstein called and showed pocket nines. Jones and his Q-J would have to improve. The flop came 10-9-2, giving Greenstein a set and Jones an open ended straight draw. Jones completed his straight on the turn when a king fell. However, the case nine came on the river and Barry Greenstein made quad nines to eliminate Jesse Jones in fourth place.

Shane @ Poker.com


Posted at 9:42 PM Permalink | 1 comments | Talk on the Poker Forum


Beal gives up Poker - again!

Friday, February 24, 2006

Andy Beal ran into a what is probably a lot of players' worst poker nightmare - Phil Ivey heads up - and subsequently has given up playing poker for the second time this year.

Phil and Andy played for three days at the Wynn Casino, Las Vegas. When they started playing, Beal had just completed a $10 million winning streak against 'The Corporation', defeating Jennifer Harmon, Todd Brunson & Ted Forrest putting him up roughly $7million in total play. (they reportedly won about $3m in a previous playing session before the superbowl)

Down a fair chunk of change, the corporation then brought in their heaviest hitter, Phil 'Ice in his veins' Ivey. Playing 50k/100k heads up limit holdem, Ivey proceeded to win back the corporation's $7 million, plus another $9 million in profit over a three day period.

Beal, the texas billionaire then said he is through with poker again! He seems like a smart guy, so maybe he means it, and won't come back for more this time.

There'll no doubt be some happy corporation members partying hard in Vegas this weekend with their share of the windfall thanks to Mr Ivey.

Why didn't they bring him in earlier?


Posted at 8:48 PM Permalink | 0 comments | Talk on the Poker Forum


Goerhing wins LA Poker CLassic

Wednesday, February 22, 2006

Alan Goehring has won $2,391,550 and a seat at the WPT Championship for winning the LA Poker Classic WPT event at the Commerce Casino.

The final 6 consisted of Per Ummer, Steven Simmons, Daniel Quach, Michael Wood, JC Tran and Goehring who was short stacked in the early stages of TV table play.

The last hand eventuated when Daniel Quach moved all in pre flop and Alan Goehring called. Quach showed Ad-Jh. Goehring had Kd-8h, needing help. The flop came Qc-Jd-9c. The turn is the Kh and Goehring took the lead. The river card was the 7c and Alan Goehring won the hand. There was some confusion at the end of the hand as to whether Goehring had Quach covered. When the chips were finally counted, Alan Goehring barely had Quach covered and was declared the winner of the tournament.

Congratulations Alan!


Posted at 8:14 PM Permalink | 0 comments | Talk on the Poker Forum


Sunday's Tournament day at Poker.com

Monday, February 20, 2006

Sunday is fast becoming the one day you can’t afford to miss playing at Poker.com.

With the WSOP Grand Finals and our biggest tournaments showcasing on Sunday’s, it could be just the end to the week you needed…

Today’s WSOP Grand Final

Congratulations to Mazzawi & Dragons, who placed 1st and 2nd respectively, in today's WSOP Grand Final.

With 107 entrants taking the challenge, it was a terrific effort by both players to win their $10,000 WSOP Main Event Seat.

Both players will be joining our 4 previous winners:
1. Brian41683
2. Dmac0023
3. Marsman
4. Edmunda

Be sure not to miss your chance to join our 6 Poker.com representatives in Vegas:
WSOP Grand Final Sunday 5 March 15:00 EST

Poker.com $20,000 Weekly Freeroll

For as long as I can remember the poor pocket Jack’s have been subject to much criticism and are always getting a bad reputation.

Well, after watching today’s final table in the $20,000 weekly freeroll… Pocket JJ’s can hold up.

After chip leader Octagon had established his sizable stack, thanks to his K7c hitting a King on the flop to beat Sycotik’s pocket 10’s, the JJ would deliver the knock out blow.

After becoming short stacked Sycotik was forced to fold his blinds to Octagon as he played the role of chip bully. With the blinds threatening the end of the game, Sycotik went all-in with A5d and the straight draw. When the river revealed a 6 and Sycotik had missed his wheel, the pocket J’s did what I don’t usually see…. They held up!

Congratulations to all:

1st Octagon $4000
2nd Sycotik $2500
3rd Nugsalot $1500
4th Megasss $1250
5th TKedge $1000


$10K Guaranteed

Today’s $10k was an absolute poker marathon lasting just under 6 hours until the eventual winner could be crowned. With only 110 entrants, everyone wanted to get their hands on the $3k for first place.

If you had the opportunity to watch the final table today, you may have noticed some Poker.com regulars all placing in the money.

Final Placings:
1st Zorro57 - Represented Poker.com @ 2006 Aussie Millions
2nd llGatorll
3rd JayNYC - Forum Moderator
4th Tennesseekid
5th Edmunda - 2006 WSOP Seat Winner

Liam @ Poker.com


Posted at 1:09 AM Permalink | 0 comments | Talk on the Poker Forum


Bullitpete Gets Slapped at French EPT

Sunday, February 19, 2006

Last week 435 of Europe’s best players turned up to Casino Barriere de Deauville to compete for $1,600,000 Euro prize pool. Taking up the challenge was myself and fellow poker.com player, FoxyUK.

With the EPT becoming ever more popular it looked a daunting task to get through such a large field. We both set out the day with 10,000 chips, foxy with his aggressive style set out to attack his table. Myself, on the other hand found myself with the worst seat draw in the tournament, Patrick Antonius (Finland) was sitting directly on my left.

If your haven’t heard of him check the front cover of Card Player magazine. He’s a very successful high stakes internet player and has had two outstanding results in the EPT this season including 3rd place at Barcelona and a win in Baden, Austria.

The guy seemed to want to play every pot so it meant I was out of position to him in all pots except my button. For three hours I was given a lesson in poker. Every time I raised he just flat called behind me, nightmare.

He would try and outplay me on the flop, turn and then the river , most times he did.

I think it might have been easier sitting next to Phil Ivey. After playing a short stack for a while I found myself with pocket eights with two limpers (the limpers are in for 300 each) in the pot and Patrick on the big blind.. So with 5k left I raise to 1800 to try and get Patrick, my nemesis, out of the pot. No surprise that he called the 1800 as he liked to play any two cards. With ten-ten-three flop I pushed the rest of my chips in; only to find Patrick with jack ten. Lesson over.

It was a different story for foxy, another great performance finishing 11th for 20,000 Euros. I’m sure foxy is going to win a big tournament soon. I just hope I’m in it so I get my 10%...

Foxy just missed out on a televised final table featuring England’s Ram Vaswani, Isabella 'No Mercy' Mercier and Krill Gerasimov from Russia. The 480,000 Euros 1st prize went to....... yes you guess it, another under 25 from Sweden.

Congratulations to Mats Iremark for coming through such a difficult field.

Next stop for myself and FoxyUK will be Monte Carlo for the 10,000 Euro buy-in grand final.

By Bullitpete


Posted at 11:52 PM Permalink | 1 comments | Talk on the Poker Forum


LA Poker Classic - Day 2

Saturday, February 18, 2006

Commerce Casino, home of the LA Poker ClassicThe LA Poker Classic, a WPT event, is in full swing at the Commerce Casino in Los Angeles.

Fabrice Soulier is the chip leader at the end of day two. As I type, day 3 play has just begun. There's 97 players left, playing for a top prize of $2,391,550, with the top 45 claiming cash.

Here was the top 45 chip counts at the end of day two play.

1 Fabrice Soulier $ 462,000
2 JC Tran $ 426,300
3 Luis Sanchez $ 383,000
4 Alan Goehring $ 368,200
5 Mike Carson $ 343,800
6 Can Kim Hua $ 329,200
7 Danny Alaei $ 317,300
8 Jim Bechtel $ 310,000
9 Stephen Giufre $ 301,200
10 Jim Miller $ 298,000
11 Amir Vahedi $ 297,600
12 Chris Bigler $ 290,800
13 Jose Tavares $ 277,500
14 David Chiu $ 265,800
15 Rodeen Talebi $ 264,400
16 Edward Moncada $ 255,000
17 Ayaz Mahmood $ 234,900
18 Orlando Maldonado $ 217,300
19 Ben Roberts $ 210,200
20 Per Ummer $ 209,700
21 Lin Ho $ 202,600
22 Luis Velador $ 200,000
23 Jeff Rine $ 197,000
24 Daniel Fuhs $ 194,100
25 Brian McCann $ 184,900
26 Chip Jett $ 180,400
27 Jason Lester $ 175,500
28 Julian Hart $ 174,200
29 Matt Matros $ 169,800
30 Paul Darden $ 157,500
31 Ugur Marangoz $ 151,700
32 Kelly Kim $ 150,200
33 Hasan Habib $ 147,400
34 Chuck Doumitt $ 147,000
35 Michael McClain $ 145,300
36 John Gale $ 143,700
37 David Plastik $ 143,500
38 John Villanueva $ 142,500
39 Emil Patel $ 141,400
40 Allen Cunningham $ 140,000
41 Raed Abukartomy $ 138,100
42 Chip Reese $ 134,400
43 Yao "Mike" Shi $ 133,200
44 Jon Luu $ 133,100
45 Daniel Quach $ 132,500

Bustouts in early Day 3 action include Phil Laak, who was sent home by Matt Matros, Chip Jett, who had his 88 busted by the Hilton sisters, and Shawn 'The Sheik' Sheikhan lost out to quad 3s.

They're playing down to the cash bubble of 45 players today, we'll give some updates tomorrow.


Posted at 7:52 PM Permalink | 0 comments | Talk on the Poker Forum


Liberty doesn't extend online?

Friday, February 17, 2006

America & Australia are supposedly two of the 'most free living' and 'lucky' nations in the world. Why is it that Australia is one of the few countries with anti-online gaming legislation and lawmakers in the USA are also trying to follow suit? Why does liberty & the idealistic nature of freedom not extend to the online world?

Bob Goodlatte is an idiot. He is trying to outlaw online gaming. Again... He's already failed once.

Every argument that these transparently selfish politicians have is fatally flawed.

Argument #1 - It is immoral to gamble online
What the hell? How ridiculous is that. People can go to a dog track, buy a lottery ticket or go to an Indian owned casino and that is somehow better for your soul? Or how about the fact that any American can just jump on a flight to Las Vegas and within hours be gambling 24/7 with a hooker hanging off each arm, chugging down Jack Daniels and inhaling tar filled smoke. That is morally beneficial behaviour? Give me a break..... We don't want the citizens of our two great nations to be in the comfort of their home enjoying a 5c/10c game of poker whilst their children sleep soundly in the next room? No we want them destroying their lungs and livers whilst playing $25 minimum blackjack in a Casino 2 hours away so when little Johnny wakes up after having a nightmare he has no idea where Daddy is......

Argument #2 - Minors are at Risk
If any lawmaker wants to help minors, then there a million things they can do before they should even look at the problem of minors possibly playing online. How about doing something to improve the parenting skills of the nation so people can control their children a little better. Mum and Dad are too busy at the track or playing slots to know what their kids are doing....

Argument #3 - It's already illegal to gamble online
If online gambling is already illegal, then what is the point of your proposed law? The IRS allows US citizens to claim online gambling losses on their tax returns. To me that pretty much says that that the federal government has no problem with online gaming. A law written before the internet was even invented aimed at preventing the mob from running sportsbooks over telephone lines does not make online gaming illegal.

That's just a few ridiculous reasons I have seen. No politician ever seems to try and publicly address the real reason that they want to outlaw online gaming.

The real reason is that a bunch of money is heading offshore and there is nothing that they can currently do about it. They want every single cent that the American people spend to remain within the country, which is fair enough and I wholeheartedly agree that citizens should be able to benefit from their leisure spending in the form of tax money returning to the economy. If Poker.com was able to be set up as an American company, have US bank accounts, advertise to US citizens easily and pay a boatload of taxes to the US government, we would do it in an instant. But we're not allowed to do any of those things due to the continued backward thinking of some decision makers.

The guy in North Dakota had the right idea with his proposal to regulate online gaming. Of course he was still thinking too much with his wallet as most politicians do, and ultimately that probably made his ideas seem less palatable. He wanted to funnel all the revenue from licensing gaming companies into North Dakota's coffers. Right idea, wrong scope. It needs to be at the federal level.

The real answer is to regulate online gaming, but any conservative politician that suggests that his governement should regulate gambling rather than prohibit it would probably outrage a segment of his voters and lose millions of dollars in funding. Plus it is a huge and expensive job that nobody is yet willing to take on.

These politicians are largely looking out for their own interests, not the best interests of their electorate. Who sponsors these bills in the form of government donations and kickbacks? I know here in Australia it was the horse racing industry and the companies controlling Australia's lotteries that provided the funds to lauch the smear campaign against online gaming many years ago. I haven't done any thourough reasearch, but suspect it would be a very similar scenario in the USA. Anyone benefiting directly or indirectly from the current gambling revenue streams in the USA would be the major lobbyists against online gaming as it threatens their outdated and less convenient forms of gambling. They know that when given the option, people would much rather sit in their home and play for a few dollars and cents than drive to a smokey casino and be forced to play for 10s or 100s of dollars to pay for inflated infrastructure costs of a bricks and mortar casino or track.

Here in Australia the TAB (Company that takes the bets on horse racing) pulls 15% from the pool of funds bet on any race. 15%! That is a huge margin. These people and polticians have so much at risk if their ancient money making machines suffer a decline in interest.

Not only are the reasons for outlawing online gaming flawed and their motives suspect, but the actual laws they are proposing to introduce are ridiculously ineffective anyway. In Virginia they are planning to ban online gaming by stopping credit cards etc being used. Any American online poker player that has tried to use their credit card will know that this already happens due to credit card company rules! Not only are these politicians making laws for the wrong reasons, but their proposed laws are useless anyway! What a waste of time and money.....

And it is not like they are up against a few random websites that set up shop in the back of a van in Barbados. Online gaming companies are now publicly listed giants with massive resources at their disposal to fight any proposed laws that are not created for the right reasons or with the wrong implementation guidelines.

I have heard rumours from Australia's legal community that some of the politicians have wised up and realised that banning online gaming is not working and they instead need to regulate it sooner rather than later to ensure that the tax dollars and advertising dollars are not forever lost overseas. Hopefully soon there will be a revision of the Australian anti-gaming legislation as it is not working - there has never been a single person charged or case prosecuted because of it. It was a tremendous waste of money and time.

Don't let the same waste of time and money happen in the USA. Speak up and tell these idiots they need to regulate the industry at a federal level, not waste everyone's time incompetently trying to ban it state by state for ingenuous reasons. People have been gambling since the beginning of time and Poker is one of America's favorite pastimes and those facts are not going to change due to a clueless politician in Virginia who is not brave enough to tackle the real problems he is elected to solve.

People should be free to make their own choices. If gambling is immoral and harms minors, then try to ban every form of gambling and see how many votes you get at the next election. Shut down Las Vegas, close the horse racing tracks and turn off the lottery. It is not right to single out online gaming as an evil or lesser gambling form, when it is obvious to most people that it is actually the most convenient and best entertainment option for the majority of the community.

Anyway, that's just my opinion. Have a nice weekend.

Kris @ Poker.com


Posted at 3:34 AM Permalink | 8 comments | Talk on the Poker Forum


Beal is Back & Up

Wednesday, February 15, 2006

Andy Beal's office had said that he was giving up poker, but it looks like he didn't last long on the sidelines. News is that he was back at the Wynn this week playing against 'The Corporation' and took them for $10million.

Bluff Magazine and some of their readers have been providing coverage of the Beal Vs Corporation heads up games on their forum.

To quote Deadblind's recent post;

I have the very inside track on all the play, and here are the results:

Day 1 Andy vs. Jennifer (Harmon) = Andy +$5 million

Day 2 Andy vs. Todd (Brunson) = Andy +$1.5 million

Day 3 Andy vs. Ted (Forrest) = Andy +$3.5 million

Game Over. Pros lose $10 million. Andy heading home. Pros tail between their legs.

Just as well you didn't quit hey Mr Beal?



Posted at 1:30 AM Permalink | 0 comments | Talk on the Poker Forum


What's been going on at Poker.com?

Tuesday, February 14, 2006

It's half way through February already. Summer is nearly over, or Winter for those of you in the northern hemisphere, and the 2006 is flying past as quickly as 2005 did.

I thought it was time I gave a Poker.com update on the blog.

Tomorrow we move our game servers onto machines in the Kahnawake Gaming Commission facility as a part of our gaming license terms.
There'll be a 2-4 hour downtime to allow us to complete this move and to the outsider this probably just seems like a minor annoyance, not worth a second look. But to us here at Poker.com it has involved A LOT of work and preparation. Our new server setup will allow us to really grow the site and makes a lot of our day to day work quicker and easier. We've been waiting months for this move! C'mon at least get a little excited with me!

Once we are sure the game environment is stable on the new servers, a few days after the move we are planning to release the next Poker.com software upgrade - Version 2.7.

Poker.com 2.7 introduces a lot of invisible backend & system changes that players will not really notice too much, but there are also some cool features that players have been looking forward to.

Here's a brief rundown of some new features that are a part of 2.7.

  • New Player Admin look and functionality
  • Live Chat Support introduced for all real money players
  • Sit & Go levels run by number of hands or time. (10 hands per level)
  • Bonuses can be released incrementally instead of just in a lump sum
  • Custom Backgrounds can be used for any tournament or cash game
  • New WSOP Satellite table backgrounds
  • New WPT Satellite Table Backgrounds
  • New Heads Up Tables & Backgrounds
  • New 6 handed table setup
  • New accolades for WSOP, WPT, BPT & other tournies
  • Poker.com Tournament XML Feed
  • Improved payment fraud detection & security features
  • Ability to delete deposit method details from cashier
  • Comp Point store released, but may not yet be functional due to some planned changes to the comp points system. At the least you will be able to see the items that will be available, but players may not be able to claim them yet.

It should be a good update, but the one we are really looking forward to is Poker.com Version 3.0. Work has started on some of the features to be included in 3.0, the main new additions being much better multi-table functionality and a facelift for the lobby.

Everything is still in development and nothing is finalised yet, but our multi-table options are looking pretty good. It's looking like there'll be a variety of multi-tabling options to allow our players to compete at more than one poker table, or even some poker tables and a video poker or blackjack screen simultaneously, either via multiple windows or a funky full screen interface.

We'll also be tying up the stars accolades to every player's lifetime comp point balance and rewarding players that have already accumulated the stars accolades with a special accolade as a part of our first birthday celebration.

Yes the Poker.com software officially turned one year old this month and we had a small staff party last Friday night. But seeing as we didn't really fire things up until March 2005, March is going to be our birthday month. Look out for some new birthday promotions & announcements soon.

And please keep the suggestions coming. A lot of our changes & upgrades are due to player feedback. At Poker.com we'll always listen to our players as we strive to become the most enjoyable place to play poker online.

Kris @ Poker.com


Posted at 9:51 PM Permalink | 1 comments | Talk on the Poker Forum


Sunday Tournament Updates

Sunday, February 12, 2006

Sunday is tournament day at Poker.com and right now we have the $20,000 freeroll and the $10,000 guaranteed running. I don't have to time to fully blog these tournies, but will post some updates as I get a chance.

19:28 : There's a good turnout of 1325 in the $20k and we're down to two tables with the blnds at level 20 - 8000/16,000. o0XXX0o is the runaway chip leader with 407, 546 chips.

The $10k is still at 5 tables, so we'll get to it later.

19:30 : We're down to the final table of the $20k and smudger1001 just busted out 10th with J,T vs Cefellone's QT.

19:36 : Caroon was all in with 88 against chip leader, o0XXX0o's big slick. An 8 hits on the turn and Caroon lives to fight another day with a healthy 182k stack. They're on break now. I'll check back in a few minutes to see how the actions is going. Apart from o0XXX0o's 344k it's a pretty evenly matched final table.

20:04 : Caroon has continued his good form in the last 30 mins to be the chip leader with 4 players remaining on an impressive stack of $564,336.

20:07 : In the $10k, we're down to 3 tables and StevenRL is chip leader.

20:09 : Jammm123 busted in 4th place in the $20k freeroll. Well done! The blinds are at 15,000/30,000 now and Cefellone is all in! No callers though......

20:11 : Cefellone is all in again and steals the blinds. They've done well to build up their short stack. Cefellone is all in AGAIN with no callers. They are having their way at this table at the moment.

20:15 : Take a guess what just happened. Cefellone steals the blinds with an all in....
And now it's o0XXX0o's turn with a few all-ins in a row to take down pots. Not much post flop poker being played at all with this final three and Caroon has built his stack up to over $734k with some solid betting.

20:20 : Finally a call and Cefellone doubles up with AT aainst K7 diamonds. o0XXX0o doesn't last long after that beat and is out in 3rd place. Congrats!


20:25 : Caroon has a big chip lead, but Cefellone is battling hard with a lot of strong all in bets. Caroon finally calls with JJ against Cefellone's KK and hits a jack on the turn to take out the win. Unlucky on that one Cefellone.... Well played both of you, and congratulations on your prizes.


22:25 : I got a little sidetacked with the updates, but we are down to 3 players in the Sunday $10k guaranteed. Rchnlzs just scored a duble up with pocket 8s to take a big chip lead. Mikeda bows out in 3rd place - well done! It's heads up between Rchnlzs and RuinYourLife.

22:30 : Congratulations Rchnlzs, the $3000 first prize is yours!

We had 108 players in the $10,000 tournament today which is an improvement on last week, and hopefully it will continue to grow so we can guarantee more money.


Posted at 7:16 PM Permalink | 0 comments | Talk on the Poker Forum


Billionaire Beal Quits Poker

According to the Public Relations Department of Beal Banks, Andy Beal will no longer be playing poker. In a phone call to the Texas billionaire’s office this afternoon, Beal’s PR representative stated for the record: “Andy Beal will not be participating in the 2006 NBC National Heads-Up Poker Championship (NHUPC) and he’s done with poker for good.”

Beal is the banker, real estate developer, and mathematical theorist who established fame, but not fortune, when he repeatedly challenged the elite of the poker world. Last week he appeared at the Wynn in Las Vegas for a five-day session of heads-up matches against the Corporation; a team of professional poker players who aggregate their money and match it against his in a spirited game of limit Texas hold’em.

The Corporation put $10 million up against Beal’s $20 million and the game was a $50,000-$100,000 limit hold’em, heads-up challenge. After five days the match ended -- apparently for good -- only moments before the Superbowl.

The burgeoning aerospace entrepreneur suffered a loss to his bankroll, and possibly his ego, during the 2005 match, but Beal appeared confident and ready for a new challenge in 2006. He was ahead approximately $2 million, until Ted Forrest went up to bat and brought his team back for a win of over $3 million in the end.

That must have been the last straw for Beal. He had already accepted his invitation to participate in the NBC event, even before he returned to Las Vegas to face off with The Corporation. Upon returning home to Dallas, Texas he apparently changed his mind.


Posted at 6:07 PM Permalink | 1 comments | Talk on the Poker Forum


Phil has a W at the W

Thursday, February 09, 2006

Throughout the 2006 film festival in Park City, Utah, celebrities were given a sneak peek of the highly anticipated W Las Vegas Hotel, Casino and Residences, due to go on sale to the public in Spring 2006.

Utah played host to the first-ever W Las Vegas Poker Invitational, where 50 celebrities and professional poker players battled until the wee hours of the morning all in an effort to snag the top prize, a fully furnished condo worth $700,000.

The coveted spots were filled by Dave Navarro (who was cheered on by wife Carmen Electra), Anne Heche, Gina Gershon, Shannon Elizabeth, Danny and Chris Masterson, Laura Prepon, Lance Bass, DJ AM, Joe Reitman, Gregory Smith, Justin Baldoni, Kevin Smith, Emile Hirsch, Joel and Benji Madden and more as they competed against poker pros including Phil Hellmuth, Antonio Esfandiari, Annie Duke, Phil Gordon and Phil Laak.

World Poker Champion Phil Hellmuth won the tournament in dramatic fashion, ultimately beating out the host of the event, Reagan Silber, at a final table that included Annie Duke (finishing 4th), Shannon Elizabeth (5th), Gina Gershon (6th), Julie Yorn (7th) and Chris Masterson, who placed 3rd.

Hellmuth celebrated his victory by immediately applying his studio condo grand prize as a down payment on a $2 million penthouse at the W Las Vegas.

It seems Phil is keen to dispell rumours about his losses at cash games too by detailing all of his 2006 poker exploits on his newly created blog. I'm looking forward to reading some Hellmuth gems on his blog this year if he keeps it updated. Maybe he's not such a "jpoke" after all.


Posted at 12:07 AM Permalink | 1 comments | Talk on the Poker Forum


WSOP 2006 Changes for the Better

Sunday, February 05, 2006

It's good to see that Harrah's is continuing to listen to the players and are making some good changes to the setup of the World Series of Poker in 2006.

They have named Rio poker room manager Robert Daily the tournament director of the 2006 event. He brings 30 years of casino gaming experience to the tables.

There are also a number of changes being made to how the event is run after concerns raised by players & spectators during and after last years tournaments.

1. In order to reduce the long lines at the restrooms during breaks, Harrah's is planning to install high-end portable restrooms, equipped with air conditioning and carpeting. The tournament room will be divided into multiple sections so that restroom breaks for players seated in different sections will be staggered.

2. A designated smoking area will be provided to smokers in order to keep cigarette smoke from polluting the air in the hallways of the Rio Pavilion Convention Center, which will now be non-smoking.

3. A players' lounge will be provided with food and beverage service.

4. One of the restaurants at the Rio All-Suites Hotel and Casino with the shortest walking distance from the Amazon Room will be open at least 20 hours each day.

5. Harrah's has made a proposal to television broadcast partner ESPN to hold the final two days of the 2006 WSOP Main Event at one of the showrooms of the Rio All-Suites Hotel, with theater-style seating for spectators.

6. The WSOP media relations staff will be expanded to serve the needs of the growing media contingent covering each WSOP event.

Looking ahead to 2007, Thompson said that Harrah's is planning to move the WSOP to a time slot that will be closer to the traditional April-May time frame in response to a request by ESPN, which wants to conclude its 2007 WSOP broadcasts prior to the start of the 2007-2008 season for the major over-the-air broadcast TV networks in mid-September.

Win yourself a seat in the 2006 main event by playing in the Poker.com satellite events which run every day. Click Here for more information.

--------------------------------

And congratulations to IntelCowboy for winning today's 20,000 freeroll, and to Haknoman who won the $10k guaranteed. Great work guys.

I can't believe the $10k is still giving away over $4000 in added guaranteed money every week. I thought it would grow a lot quicker and we'd be upping the guaranteed prize pool more often. For a $50 buy in, $4k of free cash is +ev! Or get in and play the satellites for just $5. Once more people start playing regulalry we can up that prize pool to $15 - 20k!


Posted at 10:05 PM Permalink | 0 comments | Talk on the Poker Forum


You know what I hate....

Saturday, February 04, 2006

The most annoying thing I come across in my day to day to work at Poker.com is ignorance. It amazes me how many people in this world are too stupid or too lazy to do some research or try and learn something for themselves when faced with a problem or unknown situation.

Instead of trying to teach themselves something or learn more about something they know little about, the most common reaction to an unknown situation is anger. Anger and Vengeance.... It's no wonder there are so many wars etc going on - 99% of the world's population seem to be idiots when faced with adversity!

A very common problem we experience with the Poker.com domain name is that integrity lacking blog comment spammers often mistype a domain in one of their automated comment or forum post scripts. Their aim is to proliferate links to their websites to try and trick the search engines into thinking their site has good link popularity. It doesn't usually work, but that is beside the point, they are not the kind of idiot I am referring to in this rant.

The real idiots are the owners of the website that;

1. Allow this to happen
2. Blame the wrong people for it.
3. Try to get some petty revenge by attempting to spam back the wrong people.

There is one particular blog spammer doing the rounds at the moment that has accidentally mistyped one of their URLs and is spamming blogs and forums with a url that begins with the sub-domain online.poker.com.

Even though they include numerous other links in the same spammy posts, that sub-domain does not resolve, and they it very obviously has nothing to do with Poker.com - often we get the blame from clueless website owners that do not know what is actually going on.

Sometimes the people are rational and interested to find out what is actually happening. I estimate about 1% will email and politely ask us not to post such comments on their blog. I explain what is actually happening and suggest how they can stop it. These people learn something and are ultimately happier and better off afterwards.

But 99% go nuts. Anger is always a stupid person's instantaneous response apparently.

Take today's example for instance. This is a particularly sadistic half-wit.

My email is still downloading, but I'd estimate there's 1000+ emails that have come in so far from the same lunatic. None of them actually explain what has happened in any detail, nor do they ever provide any contact information. All this person has done is swear, threaten and generally carry on like a pyscho 1000s of times, over and over again. All these emails have been submitted through an online contact form, so they must have been sitting there for hours!

If only they had provided a valid email just once... I could nicely let them know how stupid they are and how they can prevent themselves from experiencing the problem in the future. And probably prevent them from bursting a blod vessel or having a heart attack. How crazy angry would you have to be to carry on like this?!

I really hope that they read this. It's my only chance to get through to them and stop the insanity.

Please people, before you get angry in future, educate yourselves, and at least try to be reasonable before you go crazy with attempted revenge.

They say ignorance is bliss to those afflicted. It's a pity the rest of us have to put up with them.


Posted at 11:23 PM Permalink | 0 comments | Talk on the Poker Forum


Grinding at Borgata

Thursday, February 02, 2006

Michael "The Grinder" Mizrachi has won the Borgata Winter Poker Open in Atlantic City.

There was a star studded final table of Erick Lindgren, Josh Spiegelman, John D'Agostino, Stu Thedonator Paterson, Amnon Filippi and "The Grinder".

To say that John D’Agostino went on a rush at the final table would be an understatement. “Dags” single handedly knocked out Josh Spiegelman in fifth place, Amnon Filippi in fourth place and Erick Lindgren, our beginning of the day chip leader, in third place. The final table eliminations led to a heads up match between two of the best young players around.

Mizrachi started with a small chip lead and picked up some key pots that enabled him to lean on D’Agostino until the final hand where his 2 pair held up against D’Agostino's gutshot draw.

With the victory, “The Grinder” picks up $1,173,373, a $25,000 entry into the WPT Championship and a new 2006 Cadillac Escalade. This was Mizrachi’s second victory on the World Poker Tour, and the next stop is Commerce Casino where he is the defending champion.


Posted at 12:53 AM Permalink | 0 comments | Talk on the Poker Forum

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