Week in Review for 10.31.04
Might as well start off with a response to a J. Santos cartoon from Call Raise or Muckit! I think he put more thought into this cartoon then anyone. The blogger tournaments are getting bigger, PokerGurb has a dedicated page for the upcoming PokerGrub Calssic and Maudie of Poker Perspectives has designed a catchy logo for the WPBT. I noticed an interesting post by Doubles A’s on smooth calling a pre-flop raise with a big pair. To close be sure to read the ever entertaining tales from Linda at Pokerworks and check out Quite Lion’s Festa al Lago trip report.
Today is Nevada Day here in the Battle Born State. The anniversary of Nevada joining the Union in 1864. Amazingly enough, it is also Halloween. We have always wondered if there is some significance to the coinciding dates. Happy birthday Nevada and Happy Halloween to our readers. Stay safe so we will see you tomorrow.
The Ultimate Poker Challenge is now down to a final Championship table. The roster of seven players was determined this afternoon when Matt Russel was eliminated in eight position. The seven finalist will return on Sunday at 1:00 pm to decide the Ultimate Poker Challenge’s first season Champion. The remaining players are David Pastik, Jeff Shulman, Scotty Nguyen, Jeff Stoff, Jason Buckley, Chip Lightman and Minneapolis Jim. The winner of the event will receive $100,000 in first place money, $50,000 for second and third will take away $25,000. The final table will be filmed for the TV season finale of Ultimate Poker Challenge. A reliable source tells us the series will return for another season with changes that should improve the viewer’s experience. The production company, 
The Tournament Director is well known poker industry professional, Matt Savage. Matt handled the TD duties at the 2004 WSOP. The on-air host Chad Brown is a former soap opera star and a noted professional poker player. The female co-host is Brandi Williams. During the event today some notable professional players were watching from the rail. Miami John Cernuto, Evelyn Ng, and one of our favorite poker celebrities, Charlie Shoten. Most of the professional players are now off to the WPT sanctioned 
The Ultimate Poker Challenge is the only major tournament happening in Las Vegas this weekend. Today, Friday 10/29/04, was the first day of the Ultimate Poker Challenge semi-final event with many known professionals included in the group of 100 qualified players. Some of the early eliminations included yesterday’s qualifying tournament winner, Joe Awada. Another well known pro, Andy Bloch, was knocked out when Minnesota Jim’s Ad-Qd made high pair with a Q on the river and beat Andy’s pocket Jacks. Eric Seidel made an early exit and so did Mel Judah. The play will continue tomorrow when the twenty-seven remaining players from today return to the Plaza tournament area for the noon start. Tomorrow the tournament will play down to the final table; which will be held on Sunday starting at 2:00 pm. The final table event will be filmed and shown on the finale of this season’s Ultimate Poker Challenge series on national TV.
Actor Tobey Maguire finally wins a major tournament. I got a press release today providing the details of Tobey Maguire’s first place finish in the “Phil Hellmuth Poker Invitational” at the 
The Ultimate Poker Challenge played the last of the 23 qualifying event final tables this afternoon at the Plaza Hotel and Casino. We pick up the action four handed with Nick Bouyea, John Phan, Barry Greenstein and Joe Awada. Within the first hour of play Barry Greenstein pushes all in with his pocket sixes and after a few moments Joe Awada calls with his pocket eights. Neither player improves with the flop, turn or river and Joe’s higher pocket pair eliminates Barry Greenstein in fourth place. Within minutes Nicholas Bouyea goes all in with his K-blank suited and again, after thinking over the play Joe calls with Q-Jo. Nick flops a King high flush and Joe is second with his two pair. The flop offers Joe no help, but the river brings him a full house and he severly cripples Nick's stack. A few hands later Joe again calls Nick’s all in and yet again comes from behind to win on the river and eliminate Nick Bouyea in third place. Joe and John play heads up trading chips with Joe slowly taking away John’s stack until finally John goes all in with A-9 and Joe calls with his K-Qo. The flop shows a nine giving John the lead. The turn is no help and the river is a Queen giving Joe the higher pair and the tournament win.
Tomorrow one hundred qualified players will begin the semi-final event at noon. They will play down to 27 and then resume play on Saturday and go until the final nine are left. The final table will be on Sunday and the first Ultimate Poker Challenge Champion will be determined. All of the UPC final tables are filmed and the series is shown on national television. The Poker Prof will compile all the photos and present the best in an Ultimate Poker Challenge Photo Gallery.
The 
Play will begin on Friday and continue Saturday until nine players remain. The final nine players from the semi-final tournament will play on Sunday at noon in the final table. All of the final tables are filmed and shown on national television. The Ultimate Poker challenge will be back for a second season according to sources close to the production company. The Ultimate Poker Challenge second season will incorporate changes that will improve the series and provide the viewers with quality tournament poker. Matt Savage, veteran tournament director, and Chad Brown, on-air host, are slated to remain with the show. The Ultimate Poker Challenge provides the tournament player with an opportunity to play in a big time tournament for a $1000 buy-in; and, as an added bonus, making the final table guarantees you a spot on national television. Continue to play well and win through the semi-final and final event gives you a shot at a share of the large prize money. 
Today’s final table included well known Las Vegan, Bob Stupak, along with Steve Simmons, Sean Rice, Jeff Bine, Mickey Seagle, John Phan and Dan Pugliese. Mickey Seagle won the event. Other notable professional players that started today’s play included Joe Awada, Jesse Jones, Tahoe Andrew, Max Pescatori, Paul Malgriel and Barry Greenstein. The final table for event 23 will play tomorrow, Thursday, at 3:00 pm at the Plaza. The semi-final will include well known professionals Andy Bloch, Kenna James, Chad Layne, Mel Judah, Chris Ferguson, Kristy Gazes, Jeffrey Shulman, Erik Seidel, Kathy Liebert, Miami John Cernuto, Thor Hansen, Minneapolis Jim, Evelyn Ng, Karina Jett and Chip Jett. The Friday semi-final event promises to be some great poker with all the noted players and characters that are qualified. I will be there with the camera to provide photos of all the action. This is a great opportunity to watch major poker action from close range.
The overnight standings were as follows:
Ask fellow poker blogger 
Max started in the $15-30 games at the Mirage and Bellagio in 1999, but will be concentrating on tournaments next year. I asked Max if he had a mentor and he replied, "Not really, but meeting Jennifer Harmon through Marco Traniello allowed me to talk poker with someone who was at a higher level. I was able to learn from her knowledge of situations."
The Ultimate Poker Challenge at the Plaza Hotel in downtown Las Vegas is down to the final qualifying tournaments. Play began today at noon in the $1000 buy-in No-Limit Hold’em event. Thirty-six entrants played for some cash and a seat in the semi-final event on Friday, 10/29/04, starting at noon. Qualifying tournaments will be held everyday at noon through Thursday. If you plan to play in the Ultimate Poker Challenge then head to the Plaza for one of the three remaining qualifying events. The final table of each day’s tournament is filmed and will be shown on national TV. Matt savage is the Tournament Director for the Ultimate Poker Challenge; while, Chad Brown handles the on camera hosting with a different color commentator each week. Today’s action included Andy Bloch, Karina Jett, Max Pescatori and Jim Miller.
The first accident a few months ago resulted in the death of the octogenarian couple after their car broke through the concrete barrier on the fourth level and landed upside down in the parking lot below. Today’s accident was from the second level and although the couple survived they are in critical condition in a local hospital. I guess the two accidents make a case for more handicapped parking on the ground level of these structures. Handicap parking spaces are usually quite rare in Vegas casino parking areas and are always taken since Las Vegas has a relatively high ratio of retirees, many of whom suffer some physical handicap.
If you are unfamiliar with this spectacle of justice a brief explanation is in order. Ted Binion, son of Benny Binion and lifelong druggie, died at his Las Vegas home of a drug overdose (at least, the county coroner originally ruled his death as an accidental drug overdose); then, the Binion money machine fired up and not only got the ruling overturned but also managed to have Ted’s long time live–in girlfriend, Sandy Murphy; along with a former employee, Rick Tabish, charged with Ted’s murder. A long and sometimes dramatic trial ensued with both being found guilty and sent to prison. The Nevada Supreme Court overturned the verdict and granted them a new trial which is in full swing. Although the prosecution witnesses are mostly the same ole people we are now learning that some of them collected large rewards from the money machine for a conviction. Some of them 
The big poker blog news this week is, of course, the poker blogger/reader tournament, hosted by now 
The World Poker Tour is now gone from Las Vegas until the 
Television series, such as the Travel Channel’s “World Poker Tour” and ESPN’s “World Series of Poker,” combined with the weekly proliferation of Internet poker casinos are responsible for the phenomenal increase in interest and popularity of all things poker. Poker tournaments fill hundreds of TV viewing hours, major tournaments are national news, poker logo clothing is everywhere, poker stars are household names and poker instruction books are best sellers. With the holiday season rapidly approaching, retailers are betting on poker related items to be high on most everyone’s gift buying list. Poker chip sets, table tops, logo clothing and, of course, poker books. We will be offering our “Poker Christmas Gift List” with suggestions for all the poker players on your list. This week’s Top Nine list offers the reason’s the cheap poker book you just bought should have been left on the bargain table.
All the young bulls were in the Fountain room at the Bellagio last night to watch the Spanish "Matador,” Carlos Mortensen, kill off five opponents.
The Festa al Lago III tournament is now history when the last hand was dealt a few minutes before 1:00 am. I decided to put the order of finish of tonight’s Doyle Brunson North America Poker Championship final table in the extended text so those that do not want to know the winner prior to watching the televised show will not have it spoiled for them. If you want to know the winner and the order of finish then click the continue reading link at the bottom of this post. The photo of the set shows the pregame activity just prior to the players coming in. Linda Johnson is warming up the crowd and the fog generators are providing the set with a soft focus touch. 
The 
The crowds of fans, sometimes five and six deep, strained against the ropes throughout today’s play to get a better view of the table or a close up of one of the poker stars. Many of poker's best known names were in the area watching and encouraging the players. Annie Duke, winner of $2 million at the recent WSOP Championship tour event, was watching the action. David Williams, 2nd at the 2004 WSOP Champiobnship, posed for our camera. Men “the Master” Nguyen also stopped by to watch. Dutch Boyd was on hand with his media credentials covering the event. Ron Rose was there with his new book, “Poker Aces.” Mike Sexton took time away from the WPT hosting duties to visit with some of the fans. First Lady of Poker and WPT play-by-play announcer, Linda Johnson, also was seen working the crowd and visiting with many of the fans. Friday’s final table promises to be a classic showdown between six tough professional poker players. The Prof will add today’s photos to the Festa al Lago III gallery later this evening
The Festa al Lago III tournament at the Bellagio here in Las Vegas continued today starting at noon. The second day of play saw many of the popular poker pros out of the action and watching. Many have moved to the Bellagio poker room and are playing high stakes ring games. Conspicuous by their absence are Doyle Brunson, Chris Ferguson, Gus Hansen, Dutch Boyd, Phil Laak, Barry Greenstein, Karina Jett, Ron Rose and more. Remaining in the tournament late today with large stacks of chips: Chip Reese, Kathy Liebert, Kenna James, Carlos Mortensen, Ted Forrest, Eric Seidel. The tournament is still a possibility for those with a chip and a chair; although, allowing many of these tough pros to build a substantial chip lead makes the journey to the final table almost impossible.
Many of poker’s most notable names were in the tournament area late this afternoon. Phil Hellmuth was doing an on-camera interview along with Mike Sexton. Puggy Pearson was visiting with friends playing in one of the satellites. Antonio Esfandiari was chatting with friends. Dutch Boyd was wearing a Media badge and taking photos of crew members remaining in the tournament. The WPT sanctioned events are class affairs and typically bring out poker’s royalty and the Festa al Lago III is no exception. I have not seen some former WSOP Champions; notably, Moneymaker or Raymer. Greg Raymer did indicate in our interview shortly after his $5 million WSOP win that he would be taking a few months away from the tournament circuit.