The biggest on-line poker news to come along in a while is happening at PokerStars.com. The online poker site is holding a free Online Poker Blogger Championship on October 23rd '05 at 4:00pm EST. The big news about this online freeroll No-limit Hold'em Championship Tournament is the prize structure. The winner will receive a $12,000 package to the 2006 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure, a WPT sanctioned event. Now's your chance for a shot at poker stardom, all filmed for later TV broadcast and the best thing about winning this one is you are the latest WPT millionaire. Not a bad deal for a freeroll tournament. The entrants into the October online event are limited to active bloggers that have maintained a blog for at least sixty days. Complete details for this tournament are available at PokerStars.com.

So even if you don't win the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure you still have a chance at some nice stuff. Maybe one of the 24" Dell Flatpanel LCD Displays going to the next five finishers, or be one of the next ten finishers and get your own XBox 360. The next twenty players will receive one of the new 4 gig iPod nanos. If you're a blogger and want to play in an online freeroll Championship tournament with fellow bloggers for some nice prizes, then stop by PokerStars.com.

Back to the real world, a LIPS (Ladies International Poker Series) Tournament is scheduled for this weekend at Sam's Town Las Vegas beginning at 10:00am on Saturday and Sunday morning. The entries are limited to a maximum of seventy players. Details are available at LipsTour.com.

Did you know an all-new, robust interactive coming tournament scheldule has been released and is available at PokerPlayerNewspaper.com. Users have the ability to input data into the tournament schedule for the convenience of everyone. Poker Player Newspaper is your single source of data for details of poker tournaments complete with a calendar that is populated by the users.

An interesting article about the World Poker Tour was in the MSN news Thursday. The WPT has entered into negotiations with the Travel Channel to broadcast the Professional Poker Tour (PPT) event series. The Travel Channel already broadcast the WPT regular tournament series. The WPT organization recently sued the Travel Channel and its parent, the Discovery TV network, for interfering with negotiations between WPT and a Cable Network other than the Discovery Network. Apparently the "other company" backed out of the deal. When will the PPT find a home? A note about the WPT and the PPT events; we, the media, are forbidden to photograph the final table after the first player has been eliminated and we cannot photograph the winner. Now, you know why we don't offer our trademark champion's photograph of WPT event winners with all of their loot.

Posted by flipchipro at 4:50 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Post to follow... in the mean time... massive prizes await.

I have registered to play in the
Online Poker Blogger Championship!

This event is powered by PokerStars.

Registration code: 4228852

Posted by pokerprof at 10:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Texas based Landry's Restaurants, Inc. closed the deal Tuesday for the purchase of the Golden Nugget properties in Las Vegas and Laughlin, Nevada. The reported purchase price of $325 million was paid to the Poster Finacial Group, Golden Nugget owners of record for the last two years. The Nevada Gaming Commission approved the sale after less than an hour of questioning Laundry's Chairman, Tilman Fertitta.

During the Commission meeting, Tilman outlined the company's plan to revitalize downtown Las Vegas by adding a high rise hotel tower to the existing 1900 room hotel, an oft heard promise from previous visionaries. He also said the casino will be remodeled and enlarged, the entertainment will be expanded to include more offerings and the number of restaurants would be increased. I don’t find the addition of more restaurants much of a surprise; I’m thinking they will add something along the lines of steak and seafood, maybe.

I see this as a good move for downtown. Maybe the restaurant chain can pull off a little miracle and reinvent downtown Las Vegas. They certainly have the deep pockets to undertake a project of this magnitude. To breathe life back into downtown will require a great deal more than a tall stack of hotel rooms, some more slot machines and food joints. The Landry's Restaurant people have taken on a daunting challenge; but, they are probably up to the task. Some of the commission members appeared to agree that the optimistic plan was doable. Probably because of Landry's Chairman, Tilman Fertitta.

Does the Tilman Fertitta's name ring a bell with you? No?...Well, he's that "Fertitta," he's a cousin to the Las Vegas Fertitta family, owners of Station Casinos; so Tilman comes into the deal with considerable Las Vegas knowledge at his disposal. He knows enough arithmetic of casino ownership that he said one successful casino operation requires 40 successful restaurants to produce the same profit.

Fertitta said the Laughlin Golden Nugget on the Colorado River in Southern Nevada will get an additional hotel tower, an increase in casino floor space and overall remodel of the property. The plan calls for dramatic improvements in the downtown Las Vegas Golden Nugget to be completed in 2006. The new Golden Nugget owners plan to market their casino properties through their database of more than fifty million restaurant customers. Fertitta said the company has a perfect track record of growing every business they have purchased.

The daily operation of the two properties will continue under the existing management teams. The Landry people coming to downtown Las Vegas can be a good thing, a very good thing.

Posted by flipchipro at 6:28 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Located on the Boulder Strip, Sam's Town Hotel & Gambling Hall offers a full complement of games, shopping and services. The off-strip signature property belongs to Boyd Gaming Corporation (Boyd Gaming owns 18 properties including the Borgata), and represents the first major Las Vegas casino project to be directed toward the local Las Vegas market. Tourist quickly found and liked Sam's Town old style air of friendliness and hospitatility; so, Sam's Town on Boulder Highway has been expanding almost continuously since it opened in 1978. The latest on-going project includes the recently completed remodel of all of the hotel guest rooms. The 646 room hotel offers oversized standard rooms outfitted in early 19th century Southwest decor. Three levels of suite up to a luxury apartment style two bedroom complete the accommodations. The hotel tower surrounds a fully enclosed, glass roofed atrium that features a live tree forest, meandering brook and a dynamic waterfall. Aptly named the Mystic Falls Indoor Park, it is a great place to enjoy a drink or just some quiet time away from the gaming. A free laser light and water show, Sunset Stampede, begins every evening at 6:00 pm and goes hourly until 10:00 pm.

Sam's Town includes shops sure to please everyone. A full service salon and day spa, Jon Ric International, offers guests a range of services from a simple hair cut to a complete makeover. Sheplers Western Wear is considered to be the place to find everything in southwest clothing and accessories. Whether you need a pair of Levis' or some alligator boots, Sheplers is the place. The Logo Shop and Ethyl M Candies are also located around the glass-roofed atrium.

An eighteen screen theater provides all the latest from Hollywood in state-of-the-art luxurious surroundings with full THX certified digital sound systems. Live entertainment is offered in the Sam's Town Live! Showroom. Nightly entertainment is offered at Roxy's Saloon with live bands and a dance floor. The basement houses the Bowling Center with 55 modern lanes, automatic scoring, separate snack bar, cocktail lounge, childcare center and meeting rooms.

Sam's Town restaurants offering steaks and seafood, traditional Mexican and Italian menus provide the guest with a choice of fine dining. The Firelight Buffet features rotisserie specialties in an open, spacious dining room. Standard coffee shop fare is available twenty-four hours at the Fresh Harvest Cafe. A food court provides a selection of fast food burgers, pizza and oriental specialties.

The casino is full service with all of your favorite table games, bingo, keno and one of the world's largest collections of modern slot machines. A player's club offers the frequent visitor discounts on rooms, food and merchandise. The race and sports book is a spacious operation offering the sports bettor a full range of proposition wagers, personal viewing screens and a convenient snack bar.

Sam's Town Poker Room is a comfortable, non-smoking nine table room located just outside the Race and Sports Book. The poker operations are under the direction of Dick Gatewood, long-time Poker Room Manager at Sam's Town. Dick has more than twenty years in the poker industry and he is a poker player, too. He understands the details of the business and the needs of the players. Dick listens and responds to player's wants and comforts.

Easy parking and a short walk from the parking garage make access to the room very convenient. $4 food comps are offered for 3 hours of play and they may be used at most food outlets in Sam's Town. A bad beat jackpot promotion is offered with details available in the room.

The room is currently spreading $2-$4 Seven Card Stud. $4-$8 Texas Hold'em, $4-$8 Hi/Lo Omaha and $1-$2 blinds $100-$300 buy-in No-limit Texas Hold'em. The room is known for offering action at the lower limit levels. No-limit Texas Hold'em tournaments are offered Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday evenings at 7:00 pm. The buy-in is $40 + $5 with $20 rebuys the first hour and a $20 add-on at the end of the hour. Registration begins at 4:00 pm and seating is limited. A $6000 freeroll tournament is held every month for players qualifying by playing fifty hours during the month. Additional tournaments are offered throughout the year and some include a free poker cruise going to the winner. Check with the poker room for all the details of upcoming tournaments.

Frequent room promotions offer poker players an opportunity to collect merchandise. A poker room jacket promotion is planned for October, with players receiving a logo jacket just for playing in the room. Complete details are available at the poker room.

The poker room at Sam's Town has a long history of offering fast action low-limit games to please everyone from the novice to the local pro. The poker room will spread most any game if there are enough players. It is not unusual to glance around the room and see the "Big Game," Doyle's game, at the back corner table. The players will all be well known professionals and the pots will be more money than your house cost.

Sam's Town Poker Room offers poker players a friendly atmosphere in a comfortable setting designed to make your poker playing experience pleasurable. Take some time and visit the best poker room off the Las Vegas Strip. You can telephone the room direct at 702.454.8092.

Sam's Town Poker Room is very poker blogger friendly, the first ever 2004 WPBT Annual Holiday Tournament was held at Sam's Town with poker professional Max Pescatori finishing second to blogger, Felicia Lee, the winner of the event.

Posted by flipchipro at 12:10 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Another Tuesday night with two hours of the 2005 World Series of Poker on ESPN television. Tonight we get to see the final table of the $2,500 buy-in No-limit Hold'em event #24 in the first hour and then we return to the action at Rio Resorts in Las Vegas for the final table of the $5,000 buy-in w/rebuys Pot-limit Omaha. Two hours of big league poker from the mother of all tournaments, the WSOP.

The No-limit Hold'em event #24 attracted a crowd of 1056 players and built a prize pool of $2,428,800. The final table nine are listed with seat number, hometown and chip count:

Seat 1: Joe Zappia (Woodbridge, Ontario, Canada) $247,000
Seat 2: Larry Watson (Las Vegas, NV) $59,000
Seat 3: Glynn Beebe (Austin, TX) $242,000
Seat 4: Mayen Grigorian (Northridge, CA) $112,000
Seat 5: K.J. Jordan (Myrtle Beach, SC) $368,000
Seat 6: Lars Bonding (Aarhus, Denmark) $818,000
Seat 7: Jason "Chip Burner" Tate (Brentwood, TN) $391,000
Seat 8: Farzad Bonyadi (Los Angeles, CA) $315,000
Seat 9: Robert Doyle (W. Palm Beach, FL) $87,000

Read Dr. Pauly's wrap up of the final table for event #24 at LasVegasVegas.com. Check out Dr. Pauly's live blogged final table action at Tao of Poker and get all the details of event #24 as it happened including all the stuff you won't see in the allotted hour of television. A complete list of finishers in the event are available at Poker Player Newspaper.

The evening's second hour of the 2005 WSOP features event #27, a $5,000 buy-in w/rebuys Pot-limit Omaha. The event attracted 134 players buying an additional 224 rebuys to create a prize pool of $1,765,568. Read Dr. Pauly's wrap up of the star studded final table for event #27 at LasVegasVegas.com. Check out Dr. Pauly's live blogged final table action at Tao of Poker and get all the details of event #27 as it happened including all the stuff you won't see in the allotted hour of television. A complete list of finishers in the event are available at Poker Player Newspaper.

The nine players making the final table for event #27 includes Phil Hellmuth going for his tenth WSOP gold bracelet and Phil Ivey seeking WSOP bracelet #5. Robert Williamson III and Allen Cunningham made the final table. The players are listed by seat number with hometowns and chip counts:

Seat 1: E.C. Cohen (Paris, France) $130,000
Seat 2: Robert Williamson III (Dallas, TX) $153,000
Seat 3: Allen Cunningham (Marina Del Ray, CA) $202,000
Seat 4: Davood Mehrmand (Germany) $125,000
Seat 5: Surinder Sunar (Wolver Hampton, England) $96,000
Seat 6: Phil Ivey (Las Vegas, NV) $494,000
Seat 7: Phil Hellmuth (Palo Alto, CA) $114,000
Seat 8: Eddy Scharf (Cologne) $150,000
Seat 9: Richard St. Peter (Sault Ste. Marie, MI) $162,000
Seat 10: Sigi Stockinger (Linz, Austria) $213,000

The first hour is listed as beginning at 8:00 pm East Coast time but check your TV listings for times in your area. Some great poker of the biggest poker tournament ever from the poker capitol of the world, Las Vegas, Nevada.

Posted by flipchipro at 12:46 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

A quiet week...guess everyone was conserving energy for the Boathouse! Be sure to check out DoubleAs on bluffing with the best hand, HDouble on poker mastery, and Bill's post on why online poker is definitely not rigged.

Posted by at 11:19 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Posted by flipchipro at 3:57 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I have been spending the last few days reading the backlog of poker related books. The Poker Prof has also been going through the stacks of books authored by well known and not so well known poker players, dealers and almost anyone that has ever played a hand of poker. He recently completed Tales from the Tilt Boys and posted the book review below. Every week we get another poker book to review.

I thought about writing a book on the game and getting my piece of the profits; but, I am having trouble coming up with a suitable title. Maybe I should leave the writing to the professionals. This week's Nines covers some of the rejected titles for my as-yet unwritten poker book. This week's Nines...

9. The Big Book of Five Card Draw
8. Play Poker, Lose Weight.
7. War and Poker.
6. Honest Poker Players I Have Known.
5. The Complete Children's Guide to Poker.
4. Don't Quit Your Day Job.
3. Lassie Eats Cheaters.
2. Become a Poker Pro in Ten Easy Minutes.
1. Debbie Does Poker!

Posted by flipchipro at 4:01 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I'm sure many are familier with the Tiltboys. If you're not their site is a must read. They are indeed experts on Tilt. In a nutshell if you enjoy their site you'll enjoy the book.

"Tales From the Tiltboys" is an edited version The book is basically divided into two sections, the first 13 chapters introducing the cast of characters though poster-board snippet's of e-mail's, conversations and forum (RPG) posts. The result is a somewhat fun-house mirror slanted view of the Tiltboys that accentuates their most intriguing traits: Diceboy's luck and Space Man's memory are all painted with a caricature stoke. These portraits of life-in-the-fast-lane gamblers are mostly entertaining. The latter half of the book's chapters are various trips and group experiences, including a Las Vegas trip.

It's funny...laugh. Out loud funny in some cases and humor ranges from the slap-stick circle game to the sarcasm of a ticked off math guru explaining why the solution (which worked) was vastly inferior to his elegent equations (which also worked). There is plenty of good material even the most demanding of critics will appreciate.

As a whole these glimpses chronicle the stories and shared experience of a group of very smart, very wild and very close friends. For an instant the reader is made a part of the always entertaining world of the Tiltboys where the religion is Roshambo [see also: Sex Stigmas Out].

It's a permanent addition to my collection and a recommended read for anyone looking for some great humor, all centered around gambling and poker.

As a side note to this, I do believe some bloggers might give some Tiltboys a run for their money when it comes to wild times.

You should be reading:
Pokerati: The Texas Hold'em Blog
Joe Speaker - Obituarium
Bill Rini - Poker Cheating expert.
April - This Is Not a Poker Blog

Posted by pokerprof at 7:28 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Complete the story with all the details on Dr. Pauly's Online Poker blog. Read his trademark play by play account of the final table.

The final table of the Borgata Open concluded today at the exquisite Borgata Casino and Spa in Atlantic City, New Jersey. It was a special moment for me because I finally got to cover a World Poker Tour final table. After four days the field of 515 players was dwindled down to six players after a brutal 18 hour session to end Day 3. Last year's winner Daniel Negreanu was eliminated on the first day.

Here's who made the final table including chip counts:

Seat 1: Robert "Action Bob" Hwang (Clark, NJ) $1,795,000
Seat 2: David Singer (Mamaroneck, NY) $3,200,000
Seat 3: Al Ardebili (Jersey City, NJ) $1,425,000
Seat 4: Kathy Liebert (Las Vegas, NV) $1,045,000
Seat 5: John D'Agostino (Seymour, CT) $2,295,000
Seat 6: Richard Festejo (Margate, NJ) $540,000

Kathy Liebert has won one WSOP bracelet and made two WPT final tables (not including Ladies' Night). She's looking for her first WPT victory. More importantly, no female has ever won a regular WPT event. Also making the final table were pros John D'Agostino and David Singer. In 2003, David Singer made the final table in the main event at the WSOP and made one final table at this year's WSOP. Plus any table is going to be fun if you have a guy named Action Bob at it! Robert "Action Bob" Hwang from RGP fame had plenty of railbirds. Richard Festejo is the local favorite and lives in nearby Margate, New Jersey.

The prize pool was over $5 million. Here are the final table payouts:

1st: $1,498,650
2nd: $799,280
3rd: $427,115
4th: $349,685
5th: $299,730
6th: $249,775

John D'Agostino was involved in an early pot with Ricardo Festejo. D'Agostino raised and Festejo moved all in over the top. John reluctantly called with K-10. Ricardo Festejo showed A-K and led the entire way. An ace fell on the river and Festejo picked up a $1 million pot.

In the first hour, Kathy Liebert had two big hands, A-A and K-K, but no one paid her off.

David Singer flopped a set with 10-10. However, Ricardo Festejo had a straight and a flush draw on a board of 10d-Jd-3h-9h with Qh-Jh. Both players were all in. The river was an 8 and Ricardo Festejo doubled up again when he caught his straight. At the end of the first hour of play, John D'Agostino was the chip leader with over $ 2.2 million in chips. David Singer was not far behind with $2.1 and Kathy Liebert was the shortstack with $1 million.

The second hour of play slowed down until Kathy Liebert moved all in with A-Q. John D'Agostino called with J-J. Al Ardebili said he folded a Queen, but it didn't matter because Kathy flopped an ace. The turn and river didn't help John D'Agostino and Kathy doubled up. Her stack grew to $1.4 million.

By the end of the second hour, Robert "Action Bob" Hwang was the chipleader with $2.5 million. Richard Festejo was not far behind with $2.3 million. Al Ardebili was the short stack with $1 million. He moved all in with 3c-3s and David Singer called with Js-9h. Al flopped a set. On the turn David picked up a straight draw but the river didn't help him. The case 3 fell and Al Ardebili hit quad 3s. He doubled up and David Singer became the short stack.

On Hand 73, David Singer was eliminated in 6th place by Action Bob. Singer had A-8 and Action Bob showed 6-6. David Singer could catch any of his over cards and he was knocked out. He won $249,775. A new WPT record was set for the most hands played before the first elimination. The previous record was 52 hands which occurred at the Legends of Poker at the Bicycle Casino in Los Angeles last month.

Kathy Liebert moved all in with A-8. John D'Agostino called with K-Q. Kathy flopped an ace and turned two pair when an 8 hit. She doubled up and had $1.5 million in chips. Al Ardebili and Action Bob both had $2.4 million in chips.

Richard Festejo doubled up against Action Bob. Festejo had 5-5 and Action Bob showed Qs-Js. Both players moved all in on the flop of 4c-4s-8s. Action Bob didn't catch a flush or an over card and Festejo doubled up. Action Bob and John D'Agostino were all in preflop. Action Bob was short stacked and had 10h-9s while John D'Agostino showed 10-10. They both flopped straight draws on a board of J-9-8. The turn and river didn't help Robert "Action Bob" Hwang. He was knocked out in 5th place and won $299,730. Ricardo Festejo emerged as the clear chip leader with over $4 million. Kathy Liebert was the short stack with $1.5 million.

John D'Agostino was knocked out in 4th place by Ricardo Festejo. Both players were all in on a flop of Q-3-4. Festejo had Q-8 and D'Agostino had Q-2. The turn and river didn't help D'Agostino and he won $349,685. Festejo amassed a huge chip lead. He had over 85% of the chips in play.

Al Ardebili doubled up against Ricardo Festejo. Ardebili had Q-Q and his Hilton Sisters held up against A-J. Kathy Liebert said she folded A-J. With a short stack, Kathy Liebert moved all in with A-7. Al Ardebili called with Qs-10s. He flopped a ten and a flush draw. Kathy's hand did not improve and she was eliminated in 3rd place. She played excellent poker for four days and held on with a short stack at the final table. She won $427,115 for third place.

Both players were about even in chips. On the first hand of heads up play, Al Ardebili raised to $600K. Richard Festejo did not hesitate and he pushed all in. Ardebili eventually folded and Festejo took the chip lead. Then I witnessed one of the craziest hands since I started covering poker tournaments. On a board of K-7-2, Ardebili checked, Festejo bet $1 million, and Ardebelli moved all in. Festejo thought for several minutes and called with A-2. It was an unbelievable call! Ardebelli showed 3d-2s and was dominated until a 3 spiked on the turn to give him two pair. Festejo still had outs but the river didn't help him. He doubled up Ardebelli. Festego's stack dropped to $1.1 million to Ardebelli's $9.2 million.

After four hands of heads up play, we had a new WPT champion. Al Ardebelli won $1,498,650 and a seat in the WPT Championships at the Bellagio. Richardo Festejo won $799,280 for second place. Richardo Festejo moved all in with 8h-7h. Al Ardebili showed Ah-9c. The flop was: K-5-2. The turn was a 5 and the river was 6. Al Ardebili won the WPT Borgata Open win Ace high. Congrats to Al and Ricardo! Both players won satellites to get into this event. And Kathy Liebert made history with the highest finish ever by a female on the WPT.

Complete the story with all the details on Dr. Pauly's Online Poker blog, his special take on the play by play and the stories you won't see on the TV version of the final table action.

Posted by Dr. Pauly at 1:56 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Follow all the action on Dr. Pauly's Online Poker blog with play by play updates and on the spot photos from the World Poker Tour Borgata Open.

Day Three of the World Poker Tour Borgata Open in Atlantic City began with 62 players. The top 45 players would win prize money. Franklin Caldwell started the day as the chipleader with over $485K in chips. Several top pros were still in the hunt for the $1.5 million first place prize including Barry Greenstien, Josh Arieh, Kathy Liebert, Evelyn Ng, Erick Lindgren, Clonie Gowen, Mike Matusow, John D'Agostino, David "The Dragon" Pham, Surinder Sunar, David Singer, Denis Ethier, David Levi, and Chris "Armenian Express" Grigorian. In addition, Tex Barch and Steve Dannemann both survived Day Two, which meant that three players who made the final table at the 2005 WSOP main event were all still alive.

Mike "The Mouth" Matusow started jawing with players before the cards were in the air. He walked over to WSOP main event runner-up Steve Dannemann and yelled, "You ruined my life!" That got a chuckle from all anyone within earshot.

A couple of pros doubled up early. Erick Lindgren survived an all in with J-J versus Wooying Lin's 9-9. And Kathy Liebert's A-A held up against A-J. The big story for Day Three involved the excellent play from the remaining female pros which I nicknamed the Three Queens. At one point, Kathy Liebert, Evelyn Ng, and Clonie Gowen all were seated at the same table.

Kathy Liebert doubled up and her stack hovered around $500K. She continued to play excellent poker. Unfortunately, Clonie Gowen was knocked out in 31st place when her A-10 lost to A-Q. Tex Barch, who took third at this year's WSOP Main Event, busted out in 30th place. Tex had A-Q but lost to Wooying's K-9 when two Kings flopped. Erick Lindgren was eliminated in 29th place by Greg Fondacaro when his A-J could not win against 8-8. David Singer passed the million mark in chips when he knocked out Luke Chung in 25th place. He joined John D'Agostino as one of the chip leaders.

After dinner break, a bunch of players went out. Steve Rosen was eliminated in 22nd place. Schreiber busted in 21st place. Robert Chasen was knocked out in 20th place when his A-K lost a coinflip to Richard Festejo's 8-8. John D'Agastino knocked out Dee Franklin Caldwell in 19th place while his stack grew to over $2 million.

Kathy Liebert continued her stellar play while she was seeking her third appearance at a WPT TV table. She busted Tom Coan in 18th place. Coan won $34,969. Surinder Sunar doubled up twice with a short stack to stay alive. With A-9, he caught a lucky card on the river to double up against David Singer's 8-8. Sunar doubled up again a few hands later when his J-J held up against 8-8.

Tom Martelli's Q-J was knocked out in 17th place by Evelyn Ng's K-5. David The Dragon Pham busted out in 16th place by Wooying Lin. Pham had 7-6s against Lin's A-J. Pham won $34,969. Surinder Sunar and his A-K were eliminated in 15th place by Al Ardebili's K-K. Karlo Lopez was knocked out in 14th place by John D'Agostino. With K-J, Lopez flopped top pair and moved all in but D'Agastino flopped a set. Both Sunar and Lopez won $49,955.

Evelyn Ng had a severe shortstack and doubled up against Al Ardebili with K-K. She then doubled up with A-K against Greg Fandacaro's Q-Q and moved out of the basement. John D'Agastino went on a rush and increased his stack to over $3 million in chips after he knocked out Carmine Tirone in 13th place. Trione flopped top pair, top kicker with A-10, but D'Agastino had the Hilton Sisters. Tirone won $49,955.

Posted by Dr. Pauly at 4:50 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I'm currently at the Borgata Casino in lovely Atlantic City, NJ and I'll be here over the next few days covering the World Poker Tour Borgata Open. Buy-in is $10,000 and players start with $20K in chips. That structure is great for the entrants because it gives them more ammo to play with. The first two days of the Borgata Poker Open were held upstairs in the ballroom. 515 players filled the room and they were competing for a prize pool worth over $1.5 million. The top 45 players will get paid. Last year, Daniel Negreanu won this event. He didn't play long enough to defend his title. He was eliminated on the first day.

Here's the payouts:
1st: $1,498,650
2nd: $799,280
3rd: $427,115
4th: $349,685
5th: $299,730
6th: $249,775
7th: $199,820
8th: $149,865
9th: $99,910
10th-12th: $64,942
13th-15th: $49,955
16th-18th: $34,969
19th-27th: $24,978
28th-36th: $14,987
37th-45th: $12,489

Over half the field was eliminated on Day One which included a ton of big names: Johnny World Hennigan, Mel Judah, Daniel Negreanu, Chris Bigler, Liz Lieu, T.J. Cloutier, Edward Moncada, David Williams, My Main Man Freddy Deeb, Johnny Bax, Paul Darden, Andrew Black, John Myung, Miami John Cerruto, Antonio Esfandiari, Jennifer Tilly, Harry Demitriou, Mike Wattel, Phil Ivey, Toto Leonidas, Mimi Tran, Hoyt Corkins, Padraig Parkinson, Brad Kondracki, Dan Heimiller, Phil Unabomber Laak, Andy Bloch and Amnon Filippi were all busted on Day One.

At the end of Day One, only 285 players survived out of the 515 who started. Tom Coan emerged as the early chip leader with over $280K in chips. Frenchman David Benyamine was a close second along with 2005 WSOP main event runner-up Steve Dannemann, who was among the chipleaders with Chip Jett and David Pham.

Early on Day Two Chris Jesus Ferguson was knocked out when his Big Slick lost to A-9. Also eliminated were: Tim Phan, Mike Gracz, Quinn Do, Tony Cousineau, David Benyamine, Erik Seidel, Bob Stupak, Chip Jett, Carlos Mortensen, Cyndy Violette, Steve Brecher, Allen Cunningham, Minh Nguyen, Mickey Appleman, JC Tran, Farzad Bonyadi, Jean-Robert Bellande, Alan Goehring, Steve Zolotow, Blair Rodman, Russell Rosenbloom, Kristy Gazes, Bill Gazes, and Layne Flack.

Action ended with about 62 players remaining. Mike Matusow and John D'Agastino were among the chipleaders. There were some other notable players still left including Clonie Gowen, Kathy Liebert, Evelyn Ng, Tex Barch, Josh Arieh, Erick Lindgren, David Pham, JC Tran, Barry Greenstien, David SInger, Steve Dannemann, and Chris Grigorian. Play will resume at 11 am on Wednesday and will not stop until six players remain. The final table is scheduled to tape at 5pm on Thursday.

Posted by Dr. Pauly at 3:24 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Posted by flipchipro at 3:11 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Tonight brings us a couple of installments of the 2005 WSOP broadcast on the ESPN network. The first hour will be event #22, a $1,500 buy-in No-limit Hold'em tournament. The final table players listed with their hometown, seat assignment and chip count follow:

1 Minh Nguyen (Lake Elsinore) $378K
2 Devilfish Ulliot (Hull, England) $338K
3 Steve Rassi (Morton, IL) $325K
4 Webber Kang (Dallas, TX) $166K
5 James Carter (Frisco, TX) $263K
6 Bill Gazes (181K) $181K
7 Peter Lee (Queens, NY) $461K
8 Greg Raymer (Stonington, CT) $613K
9 Mark Seif (Incline Village, NV) $305K

Read Dr. Pauly's wrap up of the final table for event #22 at LasVegasVegas.com. Check out Dr. Pauly's live blogged final table action at Tao of Poker and get all the details of event #22 you won't see in the allotted hour of television. Pauly was just a few feet from the final table blogging all the action first hand. A complete list of finishers in the event are available at Poker Player Newspaper. The event set a record for entrants when 2013 players showed up to build a prize pool of $2,777,940 with $611,145 going to the winner. The 2004 WSOP Champion, Greg Raymer, makes this final table along with well known professional David "Devilfish" Ulliott.

The second hour is event #23, the $5,000 buy-in Seven Card Stud world championship. Another record set with 192 entrants paying into the prize pool of $902,400. The winner received $293,275 plus one of the coveted gold 2005 WSOP champion's bracelets. Again, Dr. Pauly was ringside with his laptop live blogging the championship event so you can read all the details that you won't see on tonight's show by clicking over to Tao of Poker. Read Pauly's Event #23 Wrap Up at LasVegasVegas.com The final table players listed with their hometown, seat assignment and chip count follow:

1 John Phan (Los Angeles, CA) $198K
2 Gerard Rechnitzer (Beverly Hills, CA) $71K
3 Keith Sexton (Dayton, Ohio) $135K
4 Joe Awada (Las Vegas, NV) $126.5K
5 Steven S. Diano (Las Vegas, NV) $58.5K
6 Chip Jett (Las Vegas, NV) $206K
7 Jan Sorensen (Odewse, Denmark) $140K
8 Tom McCormick (Fargo, ND) $25K

Click over to Poker Player Newspaper for all the results from event #23. Don't forget to visit the 2005 WSOP Photo Gallery now with a more powerful, easy to use search function and relive all the action in the more than a thousand photos presented. We are adding photos daily to the gallery from the WSOP Circuit event happening now at Harrah's here in Las Vegas so stop by often.

Posted by flipchipro at 12:15 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Las Vegas offers visitors many flavors of pleasure. Shopping in ultimate luxury, prime rib dinners at four in the morning, slot machines by the thousands, table games for every level of gambler and poker games guaranteed to send you home broke if you can't play an "A" game. That's just a short list of what the city offers. A ready fix for most of the seven deadly sins can be found right here and in abundance. All you need is money.

Trying to remember the days when I would spend hours in a car rocketing through the desert night just to bask for a few hours in the excitement of Vegas. Sometimes, just the sights and sounds were enough to make it all worth while. Even the tobacco smoke and Estee Lauder smell of the casinos would provide an adrenalin rush. The hundreds of scantly clad young women giving away free booze, cigarettes and smiles kept the rush going. Most of the time I returned to college dead broke; but, I had learned my lesson once again and I would be motivated and determined to study hard, get the degree and a good job making lots of money so I could go to Las Vegas and stay even longer.

Today's question, "How do you know if you had great trip to Las Vegas?" Of course, every Las Vegas visitor probably has different ideas about what makes a trip a success. This week's Nines provides a list of basic ways to know your Vegas vacation was great. This week's Nines...

1. Unpacking at home, you find your suitcase is stuffed with bundles of hundred dollar bills!

Posted by flipchipro at 7:19 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Pauly continues to live a poker blogger's dream by jetting off to Spain to cover the European Poker Tour event in Barcelona. With his new announcing duties as well, it's only a matter of time before we see him sitting there with Vince VanPatten and Mike Sexton. Otis remained at home for this event, instead covering all the action in the WCOOP, which has now declared a champion.

Excellent writing this week - Absinthe on telling a story through poker, and GameC continuing the discussion on the "blink" reponse in poker. (For G-Rob to be inspiration for anything other than drinking is notable itself).

Finally, don't forget about the next WPBT event, and head on over to Pokerati and congratulate my new favorite blogger, Dan, on his recent win in the Empire $10,000. Grubby would be proud.

Posted by at 7:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The European Poker Tour crowned it's first champion of their second season. Jan Boubli, a former dentist from France, ended up winning the largest tournament in the brief history of the EPT. He outlasted 325 other players in the $4,000 Euro buy-in event. They were all gunning for a prize pool that was worth over $1.3 million Euros. Jan Boubli won $416,000 Euros and a seat in the $10,000 Euro buy-in Grand Finale event that will be held in Monte Carlo in March of 2006. Along with Pascal Perrault, Jan Boubli is considered one of the best poker players of all time to come from France.

Action was completed tonight at the quaint Casino de Barcelona located in the Port Olimpic district. You can't miss the casino. It' s located directly underneath the infamous golden lights of the fish which was designed by architect Frank Gehry. The cramped and smokey poker room is located downstairs. That's where some of the best players in Europe congregated for two days to find out who would win the Barcelona Open. Last year the event buy-in was $1,000 Euros and 227 players entered. Alexander Stevic won the first EPT event. Unfortunately the Swede was eliminated on Day One.

There were several notable bust outs on Day One including Isabelle Mercier, Tony G, Marcel Luske, Devilfish Ulliot, Barny Boatman, and Noah "Exclusive" Boeken. Last year's rising star on the EPT was American Brandon Schaefer. He took first place at Deauville and was the runner up at Monte Carlo. Unfortunately he was assigned to the featured TV table on day one that included several tough players including Gus Hansen, Pascal Perrault, Christer Johannson, Daniel Larrson, and the "Finish Kamikaze" Ilari Sahamies who seemed to be playing and raising almost every pot.

At the end of Day One, Gus Hansen held the chip lead with over $219K after he amassed a huge stack at the featured TV table. Other notable pros who survived Day One included Kirill Gerasimov, former WSOP champion Carlos Mortensen, Christer Johansson, Luca Pagano, and Liam Flood.

Day Two began with 43 players. With the top 27 players making the money, I expected the play to slow down as it reached the bubble. The opposite occurred. The play was fast and several players were knocked out due to the rapidly increasing blind structures. Players started Day One with $10,000 in chips, but the levels were only 45 minutes in length. Sadly, Carlos Mortensen bubbled out in 28th place.

And the rest:
9. 26,000 Euros
10-12th 15,600 Euros
13-15th 13,000 Euros
16-18th 10,400 Euros
19-27th 7,800 Euros

Gus Hansen used his big stack and bullied around everyone at his table. Christer Johannson made several big moves. He went from $47K to $137K to $260K over the course of Day Two and played excellent poker. Luca Pagano was trying to make EPT history. He was tied with Brandon Schaefer for most EPT final table appearance with two. Alas, Luca failed in his quest. Mika Puro bubbled out of the TV table and finished in 9th place. EPT final tables are 8-handed.

Here's who made the final table including chip counts:

Seat 1: Gus Hansen (Copenhagen, Denmark) $743K
Seat 2: Patrick Mortensson (Stockholm, Sweden) $281K
Seat 3: Jan Boubli (France) $292K
Seat 4: Romain Feriolo (Marabella, Spain) $282K
Seat 5: Christer Johansson (Hollivken, Sweden) $885K = Chipleader
Seat 6: Patrick Antonius (Helsinki, Finland) $331K
Seat 7: Anton Bergstrom (Lund, Sweden) $338,500
Seat 8: Dario Alioto (Palermo, Italy) $87,500

Here are some interesting facts about our final table players:

* Gus Hansen is a 3 time WPT Champion.

* Patrik Mortensson is still a teenager. The 19 year-old also played in Deauville last year.

* Jan Boubli is a former dentist who turned to professional poker after his retirement. He's regarded as one of the greatest French players.

* Romain Feriolo took 4th at the 2004 EPT Grande Final in Monte Carlo. The interior decorator is a relative newcomer to the game.

* Christer Johansson is one of Sweden's best players. Although he's a cash game specialist, he's a savvy tournament player. He won $500,000 Euros in a World Poker Tour event at the Aviation Club in Paris two years ago.

* Patrik Antonius won the Scandinavian Championships last month and has been playing professionally for three years.

* Anton Bergstroem is a twenty-year old student who bares a resemblance to "Doogie Howser."

* Dario Alioto is a pharmacy student in Budapest.

Romain Feriolo was the first player eliminated from the final table. He was knocked out in 8th place by Christer Johansson. On a flop of K-10-9, Feriolo moved all in with 10-2. Johansson called with 10-9 and turned a full house. Romain Feriolo won $39,000 Euros for 8th place.

Dario Alioto was shortstacked and moved all in with K-Q. Patrik Antonius called with A-10 and it held up. Dario Alioto was eliminated in 7th place. He won 52,000 Euros.

Gus Hansen had been getting beat up by the three Swedes at the final table. Hansen lost a majority of his stack to them in three big pots. Hansen made a move and pushed all in with A-8 versus Patrik Antonius's pocket threes. He caught his ace and doubled up.

Anton Bergstrom was knocked out in 6th place by Gus Hansen. Anton had Q-10 and Gus had A-4. Gus caught trip 4s and Anton was eliminated. He won $65,000 Euros for 6th place.

Gus Hansen lost a big pot with Ks-7s to Patrick Mortensson's A-Q. Patrick Mortensson was the short stack and moved all in. Gus called. Both players caught a runner runner straight but Patrick's was higher. Gus Hansen's stack took a big hit. He eventually was eliminated in 5th place when his Ks-Qs lost to Jan Boulbi's J-J. Gus Hansen won $78,000 for fifth place.

In the battle of the Patricks... Patrick Mortensson was eliminated in 4th place when his 8-8 ran into Patrik Antonius' Q-Q. The young Patrick Mortensson won $91,000.

Jan Boubli won a huge pot against Patrik Antonius. The flop was Js-5s-Jx. Antonius bet out on the flop. Boubli raised all in and Antonius called. Boubli showed As-3s and Antonius showed Ks-2s. The turn was the 10s and Boubli doubled up after he won a $1 million pot. Boubli closed the gap between him a Christer Johansson and nearly pulled even.

Patrik Antonius was eliminated in 3rd place when he missed a flush draw with Ks-3s on a board with As-4s-Ah. Jan Boubli flopped two pair with 3h-4h and it held up when Patrik failed to catch his flush. Patrik Antonius won $117,000 for third place. Antonius pretty much gave Boubli all of his chips.

After a half hour of heads up play, Jan Boubli from France won the Barcelona Open! With K-Q he caught a Queen on the river to beat Christer Johansson's As-2s. Christer flopped two pair on a board of 8-2-8. Bother players got their money all in on the flop. The turn was a rag and the river gave Jan Boubli the win. He thrust his arms into the air to celebrate his come from behind victory. Christer Johansson won $228,000 Euros for second place. Jan Boubli won $416,000 Euros for first place and a seat to the EPT Grand Finale in Monte Carlo in March of 2006.

Posted by Dr. Pauly at 7:43 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Harrah's 2005 World Series of Poker Circuit Tournament Championship goes to Chris "Jesus" Ferguson. The one-time table shortstack made a steady come back, patiently trading chips back and forth then winning the pots he played. The final six players were all eliminated by Chris Ferguson except An Tran.

Ferguson sent Gregg Fund back to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina in sixth place with $60,348. Fifth place went to Las Vegan, An Tran, after his all-in Big Slick didn't improve and Kevin Song's diamond suited Duece, Trey turned into a straight. An Tran adds $70,406 to his bankroll. Tom Pniak raised all-in with a K,Jo and was called by Chris Ferguson's A,Qo. Jesus was never behind in the hand, catching an Ace on the flop. Tom Pniak of Las Vegas, Nevada was drawing dead after the turn. He left with $80,464 for fourth place.

Ferguson's next victim was Kevin Song. The table's storyteller and jokester called a preflop Chris Ferguson raise with 10,8o. The flop showed 10,8,5 giving him the top two pair. The Five gave Chris the underpair. Kevin checked when he probably should have bet his hand because the turn came a King giving Chris two bigger pair. Chris put Kevin all-in before the Ace came on the river sending Kevin away in third place with $110,638. Kevin Song is from Pacific Palisades, California. The two remaining players, Chris Ferguson and Chad Layne, went heads-up after an approximate half hour break when the cash and championship ring was brought to the table.

Heads-up play began at 6:15 pm complete with lots of cash money piled up between the two players. Chris Ferguson, the chip leader with $764,000, had more than a two to one lead over Chad Layne's $306,000 in play money. The two players traded blinds and antes for more than two hours before a dinner break was called. The chip count after almost two hours was Ferguson $762,000; Layne $308,000.

Following an exact one hour dinner break the players began to take measure of each other and the battle of the raised blinds began. The 2000 WSOP Champion, Chris Ferguson, appeared to have the advantage. Chad's chips were down to about $150K following the run by Chris. Chad had one bright spot when he went all-in, caught a miracle Eight on the river for the straight and Ferguson doubled him up to $260,000; but, the extra chips had little bearing on the outcome. Ferguson came over the top of a Layne raise, Layne folded and Ferguson took back the previous double up. A few minutes later Chad raised with his A, Ko and Chris re-raised his A,Jo to put Chad all-in. The flop was 8,J,6 giving Chris a pair of Jacks. The Five on the turn gave Chad no help. The river seven served to end the tournament and crown Chris "Jesus" Ferguson the 2005 WSOPC Harrah's Las Vegas Champion. Chris receives $362,088 plus the diamond and gold WSOPC Championship Ring and entry into the 2006 WSOPC Championship Event. Chris Ferguson is from Pacific Palisades, California and he is one of the most recognizable of all the professional poker players.

Posted by flipchipro at 6:29 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

[Be sure to check Pauly's Online Poker Blog for even more updates -Prof

The second season of the European Poker Tour began today with the Barcelona Open. It was held at the Casino de Barcelona in Spain. One year ago, EPT creator John Duthie took a huge gamble. He knew that there was a market for a poker tour in Europe to rival the WPT and the WSOP. His vision became a reality with the EPT and last year's inaugural season was a huge success. This year, the EPT is back and bigger than ever and is sponsored by Poker Stars. From what I have witnessed so far, it's going to get bigger and will be around for a long time to come. Barcelona is just the first stop in a seven country tour. Next up is London, Baden, Dublin, Copenhagen, Deauville, and the Grand Finale is in Monte Carlo.

Europeans are passionate about poker. The proof is the 324 players who signed up for an event that was supposed to be maxed out at 250. That is the largest number of players to ever play in an EPT event. There were over 90 players on a waiting list.

The Barcelona Open is a $4000 Euro buy-in event. The top 27 players will make the prize money and first place will win $416,000 Euros. Some of the top names in Europe entered the Barcelona Open including Marcel Luske, Isabelle Mercier, Carlos Mortensen, Devilfish Ulliot, Gus Hansen, Tony G, John Gale, Barny Boatman, and Peter Roche. A few Americans were playing too including Brandon Schaefer. He won an EPT event last year and was the runner up at the Grand Finale in Monte Carlo. Because the EPT is not broadcast in the United States, not too many people know who he is. However in Europe he's regarded as one of the better younger players on the circuit.

The poker room at the Casino de Barcelona is located downstairs where a thick veil of smoke hangs throughout the room. This season, they are airing a feature table on the first day of the event. In some sort of fluke, I was asked to help announce the featured table. Tournament Director Thomas Kresmer had his hands full trying to run the event and finding table assignments for the lengthy list of alternates. Normally, he would announce the featured table but instead I took turns with Howard Swains from Poker Stars in calling the featured table. Of course, that table would have a few big names including Gus Hansen, Brandon Schaefer, Daniel Larrson, Pascal Perrault, and Carlos Moretensen.

Early on at the feature table, I witnessed Gus Hansen's pocket Aces hold up against Daniel Murelius' K-K. Who said Gus only plays bad cards? Ironically, the Great Dane would crack Daniel Larrson's pocket aces a few orbits later with Q-10. Gus flopped top pair and he caught running Queens to catch his quads.

Isabelle Mercier had an up and down day. On the brink of elimination with a short stack, she moved all in with A-5. She flopped two pair and tripled up. Unfortunately she would get knocked out when her K-K lost to 9-9 when her opponent caught a four flush.

Brandon Schaefer was busted out when his 7-7 lost to Gus Hansen's J-10. Brandon played well all day and night. He endured a difficult table including Gus Hansen to his right and the super loose Ilari Sahamies from Finland to his left, who was raising and playing every pot.

Some other notable bustouts included Devilfish, Marcel Luske, Noah Boeken, Tony G, and Barny Boatman.

American Dan Roth from Seattle, WA is still alive and has chips. He's trying to make the final table in his first ever major tournament appearance. Carlos Mortensen and Gus Hansen are among the chip leaders. Last time I checked, Hansen had over $100K in chips. Play was finally suspended at 4:30am with 44 players remaining. Action will resume at 3:30pm local time and won't stop until a winner is declared. So who's going to win this year's Barcelona Open? Stay tuned to find out.

Posted by Dr. Pauly at 1:25 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The stage is set for the main event final table finish to the 2005 Harrah's WSOP Circuit Tournament in Las Vegas. A little before 9:00 pm the 106 entrant field had been trimmed to the final table nine after An Tran eliminated John Phan on the bubble. Going into Friday's final table with the chip lead will be Chad Layne with $197,000. Chad is followed by Kevin Song holding $154,500. An Tran sits in the third chip position after accumulating $140,000. Even the table's short stack, Michael Fetter, goes into the finals with $58,000 in play money. The nine players making the main event final table with seat assignments and chip counts follow:

Chad Layne (7) $197,000
Kevin Song (8) $154,500
An Tran (9) $140,000
Tom Pniak (2) $139,000
Chris Ferguson (4) $129,500
Tom Foley (1) $95,000
Gregg Fund (3) $80,500
James McCrink (5) $78,500
Michael Fetter (6) $58,000

The action begins at 2:00 pm today, Friday, September 15, 2005 and continues until we have a Champion. WSPN will not be formally filming the event with production set and TV final table complete with hole card cameras. The word is a film crew from ESPN will be on-hand to record the deciding plays. The table includes one WSOP World Champion, Chris "Jesus" Ferguson. Chris won the 2000 World Series of Poker main event at Binion's Horseshoe located in downtown Las Vegas and he comes into the action in great position for a finish line dash.

Posted by flipchipro at 2:02 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

One hundred and six players turned out for the final ten thousand dollar Championship main event of Harrah's 2005 WSOP Circuit stop at the Las Vegas Strip resort. This genuine World Series of Poker produced $10,000 BUY-IN Main Event is a full stop, 10 day long show of tournaments staged in the heart of THE poker capitol of the world, Las Vegas, Nevada. Don't let the dismal entry numbers fool you into believing this is a forgettable happening filled with poker light-weights; when, in fact, it's quite the opposite. Yes, definitely a small field; except, it's loaded with poker heavyweights. A high percentage of known professional poker players turned out to add their $10K to the $1,005,800 Prize pool to have a shot at the $362,088 going to the winner.

The group played down to 27 players before calling it a night. The 27 returning players for Thursday's semi-final round includes enough poker talent to field an all-star final table. Chris Ferguson, Max Pescatori, An Tran, Chad Layne, Martin de Knijff, Andy Bloch and John Phan could make this final table one to remember. The chip leader going into day #2 is Tom Foley with $109,750 followed by Greg Fund with $91,525. Andy Bloch is among the leaders holding $58,900. The short stack is Minneapolis Jim with $7,375; but, don't count Jim and his unpredictable, aggressive play style out yet.

Professional poker player Chad Brown went out on the bubble late this evening when he flopped Tens, the top pair with a Queen kicker, only to lose to Gregg Fund's set of dueces.

I don't believe this championship event's final Table will filmed for later broadcast. Maybe just a single camera shooting location and background stuff. It would not be surprising, if a pro loaded final table does happen, for the winner to go on to win the WSOP Circuit Tournament of Champions event next summer at the Rio Resorts Las Vegas.

One final thought from the vast wisdom of Minneapolis Jim Meehan. While covering the tables tonight I was there when Jim explained what's happened to his game. He said, "I was a lot better player before I lost the $14 million." Yea, sounds about right to me.

Posted by flipchipro at 6:26 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

The WSOP Circuit at Harrah's Las Vegas completed event #11. (If you're wondering what happened to events 8, 9 and 10, they were satellites for the main event, two Supers and one Mega.) Event #11, was a $1,500 buy-in No-limit Hold'em contest, attracted 79 players and offered a prize pool of $114,945 plus a 2005 WSOP Circuit champion's gold ring.

The two day event ended after end of first day chip leader, Men "Master" Nguyen of Bell Gardens, California, sat down with his lead and never gave ground. Men won his second WSOP Circuit gold ring for this tournament. He also won event #2 and collected $41,591 and a ring. Men went heads-up with Douglass Carli of Alliance, Ohio before finally finding a big slick that held up for the victory. Douglass received $22,980 for second. Robert Dreyfuss of Carrolton, Texas completed the top three taking third place of $12,644.

The event paid nine places. This was Men's third final table of the meet. One event remains, the $10,000 Championship Event. The last $10,000 WSOP Championship I covered drew a World Record 5,619 entrants.

Posted by flipchipro at 12:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The newly opened Las Vegas Hilton poker room occupies the same space as the room of old. Even the hammered copper sheets depicting the four different suits of face cards remain on the columns marking the entrance to the room. My anticipated nostalgia for the old room was soon forgotten. The 11 table room is state of the art, ultra modern with Shufflemasters on every table and a digitized player waiting list displayed on large plasma monitors. Waiting players can check their progress on the waiting lists from the comfort of their hotel room. The well lighted room is enticing with its colorful decor and lingering elegance. The original ceiling from the first room remains.

The Las Vegas Hilton was sold to Colony Resorts International in July, 2004. Colony also owns other properties in Tunica, Atlantic City and Chicago. The Colony owners are continually upgrading and enhancing the property to reflect the wants of today's casino visitor. The rise in the popularity of poker made the opening the poker room an easy step in the evolution of the property. The Las Vegas Hilton offers guests acres of modern slots, every conceivable table game, Keno and an one of the World's greatest Race and Sports Books, the SuperBook. The Hilton has all the amenities one would expect from a major Las Vegas resort. In addition to the gaming, the Hilton is noted for shopping, health spas, restaurants to please any palate and big name entertainment in the Hilton's legendary showrooms, the same showrooms that housed Elvis for his comeback. The hotel features 3,000 luxurious rooms and suites complete with all the conveniences of the digital age. A rider station for the Las Vegas monorail is conveniently located at the front of the casino. Combine all the Las Vegas Hilton's features with the superb service afforded guest and the Hilton becomes a world class destination resort.

Park in the back parking lot and use the entrance into the Hilton's Superbook, a pleasant stroll through the cavernous sports book and you've arrived at the Hilton's reincarnated poker room. The Hilton's poker operations are overseen by Poker Manager, Ari Mizrachi. Ari has been working in the poker industry for five years having began his carrer as a poker dealer in Hollywood, Florida. Additionally, Ari is a professional hai-lai player with nine years of experience. Also interesting is his background. He grew up in the same hometown as the the Mizrachi brothers, Michael "the Grinder" and older brother, Robert, both accomplished professional poker players. Even though they share the same last name and background Ari is not related to the brothers. Ari said he has been involved in the game of poker most of his life having grown up in a family of poker players. His credentials for managing the Hilton's poker room are solid, and being a player himself, he knows what the player expects and strives to provide the most comfortable, accommodating poker room anywhere.

The Hilton poker room currently spreads $3-$6, $4-$8 with a 1/2 kill and $1-$2 no-limit with a $50-$300 buy-in. All Texas hold'em. Comps are earned at the standard Vegas rate of $1 per hour of play and they can be used at any of the food outlets in the hotel. The poker room has a full time self-serve coffee bar and the coffee is supplemented every morning with pastries beginning at 6:00 am. The room has a progressive Royal Flush Jackpot that currently stands at $8,000. Details are available at the poker room

Tournaments are scheduled every morning at 10:30, Monday thru Thursday. The $60 buy-in with one $5 dollar add-on event is No-limit Hold'em. Players begin the event with $1,500 in chips and a $25, $25 blind which increases every 15 minutes. Alternates are not accepted for the daily tournaments. You must be in your seat when the cards are dealt. Ari recently added $60 sit-n-go's with $5 in house juice + another $2 going to the dealers. The remainder of the buy-in money is returned to the players with first place paying $400 and the runner-up receiving $130. The SnG's are available when ten paid players are there.

The Hilton is currently exploring its' options for hosting a major tournament on the property. Whatever tournament lands at the hotel, the casual and professional players will be provided with a first class venue that has the experience to accommodate the large crowds drawn to major poker tournaments.

Poker players looking for a poker room that offers one of the lowest rakes ($3 max) in Las Vegas, comfortable surroundings, the latest in poker table evolution, convenient ground level parking and easy access, all housed within the exciting domain of the Hilton's Superbook. And remember, there's a glaring error in the deep relief cards embossed the copper plates.

Posted by flipchipro at 5:08 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Plans are underway for the next WPBT Vegas trip so get all the details from Bill, and then book your flight! Bad Blood gives us thought about black boxes in poker, while ScurvyDog looks at the best way to play drawing hands in LHE. HDouble is back with another installment in his popular HDouble at the Movies series, this time finding the poker wisdom in The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly. Finally, it's WCOOP time and Wil Wheaton brings you all the action as he live blogs the events for Card Squad.

You Should Be Reading:
Pauly's Online Poker Blog.
Pokerati: Dan's Texas Hold'em Poker Site
You should be listening to Card Club on Lord Admiral Radio.

Posted by pokerprof at 2:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Another Tuesday, another installment from the 2005 World Series of Poker. Tonight we only get one hour, one event; but, it's a great one, event #13, a $5,000 buy-in No-limit Hold'em tournament played on the 14th of June at the Rio Resort. The record field of 466 entrants built a prize pool of $2,190,200 with $657,100 slated for the winner. Event #13 paid 45 spots; a complete list of all winners is available at PokerPlayerNewspaper.com. The surviving nine players making the final table follow with seat assignment, hometown and chip count.

Seat 1. Dustin Woolf (Los Angeles, CA) $233,000
Seat 2. Todd Brunson (Las Vegas, NV) $16,000
Seat 3. Jason "Doc" Berilgen (Houston, TX) $159,000
Seat 4. Gavin Smith (Las Vegas, NV) $142,000
Seat 5. Neal Wang (Los Angeles, CA) $630,500
Seat 6. T.J. Cloutier (Richardson, TX) $281,500
Seat 7. John Hennigan (Philadelphia, PA) $363,500
Seat 8. Hieu Tony Ma (South El Monte) $61,000
Seat 9. John Bonetti (Houston, TX) $248,000
Seat 10. Steven Zoine (Merrick, NY) $194,500

Visit Dr. Pauly's blog, Tao of Poker, for a complete accounting of all the action as live blogged from his ringside seat. Many of the details and player interactions that are edited out to make the event fit into the one hour broadcast time slot are only available on the blog. Read Pauly's complete event #13 wrap up here on LasVegasVegas.com.

The ESPN broadcast is scheduled for 9:00 pm Eastern Time, but check the local TV listings for times in your area. With the likes of poker legends John Bonetti and T.J. Cloutier combined with professionals Tony Ma and Todd Brunson this is one great final table. They are playing for a gold WSOP Championship bracelet and all that cash.

Remember to visit our 2005 WSOP Photo Gallery to relive all the action captured by our cameras every one of the 45 days of the 2005 WSOP. More than a thousand photos are available.

Posted by flipchipro at 2:15 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Event #7 of Harrah's WSOP Circuit tournament completed the final table in record time today. The $2,000 + $80 event began on Sunday with 48 paying customers hoping for a piece of the $93,120 prize pool. The five returning players begin play today at 2:00 pm and it was all over before 4:00 pm. The event paid five places with the winner collecting $37,248.

Ward Crane from Berea, Ohio is the first to be eliminated and received $8,381 for fifth place. He was soon followed by professional Jeff Rine of Las Vegas going home with fourth place money amounting to $10,243. Marc Aubin is the next victim leaving with $13,968 for third place. This left Ben Bright and Greg Merkow to battle heads-up for the title and ring. Greg is coming off a big win in Tunica where he pocketed $561,950 after winning the $10,000 Championship of the WSOP Circuit stop at Harrah's Grand Casino. He also came into today's final table as the chip leader with almost half of the chips in play.

Bob Bright of Las Vegas has only been playing poker for a couple of years. The last time I was taking photos of him he was playing in the Ultimate poker Challenge $50,000 buy-in No-limit Hold'em tournament at the Plaza. Today proved to be his day after he cracked Greg's all-in pocket Aces with his Q,8o after the flop came 10,J,6 and the turn gave him a straight; which, he checked. Greg went all-in and Bob immediately called. The river was a 3 and Bob's straight ends the event. Bob collects $37,248 for the win while Greg goes back to Plano, Texas with the $23,280 collected for second place.

No winner's photo of Bob today since the WSOP Circuit ring was locked up somewhere and nobody could find the key. Bob is scheduled to return on Wednesday for a photo shoot, complete with the ring.

Today's event #8, a $1,500 + $70 buy-in No-limit Hold'em tournament was down to three players late this afternoon and should complete the final table tomorrow. Also on the agenda tomorrow are three Satellites offering seats in the $10,000 main event #12. The buy-ins for the satellites are two $200 + $25 w/rebuys and one $1,000 + $60 Mega satellite.

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The sixth event of the WSOP Circuit at Harrah's Las Vegas played out the final table this evening. The two players going heads-up were Michael "the Grinder" Mizrachi and Max "the Italian Pirate" Pescatori. The $2,000 + $80 buy-in No-limit Hold'em tournament began on Saturday with 68 players building a prize pool of $131,920. The Grinder came to the final table an overwhelming favorite with $102,050 in chips giving him an almost 4 to 1 lead over Max in the second play money spot with $26,725. The two professionals played heads-up trading blinds until Max went all-in and was called by Michael. Max doubled up when his pocket Tens turned into trips with another Ten on the flop. Max then went on a blind stealing rush and continued until he had about $160,000 to the Grinder's $80,000 in chips. The end came when Michael went all-in with his 8,6o after he caught another 6 on the flop of A,6,4. Max called with his A,9o showing top pair. The turn was a Queen and the river brought another Four. Max had won his second WSOP Circuit title and ring. He also gets to take $47,491 home to Milano, Italy. The Grinder returns to his Hollywood, Florida home with $26,384. Dallas Wottlin of Dallas, Texas completed the top three and received $14,511.

The seventh event of the tournament got under way today at noon with 48 players competing for the $93,120 prize pool. I certainly expected the turnout for the weekend events to be more than the 68 and 48 players that showed up. Listening to the talk around the room let me know that everyone else is wondering why a World Series of Poker event isn't drawing numbers even close to some of the regularly scheduled weekly tournaments. Of course, the fact that this event wasn't well promoted or advertised didn't help and one of the well known pros who is staying away from this one said that he doesn't bother with the WSOP Circuit events because Harrah's has no idea how to treat poker players. He went on to say that I should ask some of the other pros that are absent from the event and I'll hear the same complaint.

Monday's offering, event #8, is a $1,500 + $70 buy-in No-limit Hold'em contest that should have more entrants than today's five table event.

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Las Vegas has more Elvis' per square mile than any other place in the known universe. Unfortunately, none of them are real since the real Elvis is working in a hamburger joint outside of Bean Station, Tennessee. At least that was his last known location as of a week according to a conversation I overheard in the waiting room of the Jiffy Lube. Even though we all know they are phonies we still love them and especially when they gather into gaggles of Elvi.

Saturday in downtown Las Vegas at the Fremont Street Experience was a very lucky day for Elvis lovers. Many of the black haired, long sideburns, sparkly costumed impersonators was there for group sing or photo op or something. I never really found out what the occasion was and no one associated with the event had time to talk to a casual photographer.

I watched the group preen and strut for awhile and even listened to some rather bad Presley songs and got to thinking that maybe being an Elvis impersonator would not be such a bad gig. I made a list of the advantages of assuming the King's persona and look. This week's Nines...

9. You get to meet a bunch of over fifty-something fans.
8. Now you have to gain that extra two hundred pounds you've always dreamed about.
7. Colonel Tom Parker.
6. You support an entire village in Pakistan making your costumes.
5. You get to drive around in a really cool '63 Caddy.
4. You don't have to act weird like the Michael Jackson impersonator.
3. Taking care of business means sitting around with friends shooting holes in the ceiling.
2. You look really good in blue suede.
1. Fried peanut butter, bacon and banana sandwiches.

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The fifth event of the lightly attended Harrah's WSOP Circuit Tournament complete the final table on Saturday. The $1,500 + $70 buy-in No-limit Hold'em tournament attracted a filed of 107 and offered a prize pool of $155, 685. A couple of players making the final table are notable for their accomplishments. The first being Dushia Suresh who won event #3 earlier this week and Howard "Tahoe" Andrews who has made many final tables including some at the Ultimate Poker Challenge.

The Chip leader coming into the final table was Dorshi Suresh with $61,900 in play money followed by Salim Karrab holding $44,400 in chips. Ironically, Salim was the first player eliminated from the final table. Play continued through the afternoon with players going all-in and all-out. The heads-up was determined after less than four hours of play when Tahoe eliminates Bob Quick in third place. Bob receives $17,125 for his efforts. The final two players squaring off for the win and title are James Bradley, a long haul trucker from las Vegas, and Tahoe. The action ends rather quickly after Tahoe wisely folds a second best hand in a large pot and then next hand goes all in with Q,6o after the flop gives him top pair. James calls and shows pocket Kings. The turn and river are no help and Tahoe finishes second taking $31,137 back home to Walnut Creek, California, not bad for a guy that is well over seventy and came into the day as the table short stack. James Bradley will find his trucking job a lot easier knowing he has a WSOP Circuit gold champion's ring and an extra $56,047 in the bank. That's almost enough to fill his Kenworth big rig twice.

Saturday's event #6, a $2,000 + $80 buy-in No-limit Hold'em affair had 68 players vying for the prize pool $131, 920. The final table will be contested on Sunday. Sunday's event is another $2,000 + $80 buy-in No-limit Hold'em tournament.

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The WSOP Circuit tournament completed event #4, a $1,000 buy-in No-limit Hold'em tournament. The contest attracted 119 players and offered a prize pool of $135,800. The final table nine returned on Friday to crown a champion in the event. John Napoli came into the table as the chip leader with $60,750 followed by Thomas Wilson holding $32,825. Men "the Master" Nguyen had $23,650 in play money. The action got under way at 2:00 pm and the elimination began on the first hand dealt when the table's short stack, Paul Kornig, went all in and was eliminated. He was soon followed by Jason Eakes going out in eight and David Daneshgar finishing seventh. Patrick Smith is eliminated in the six spot and we are down to five.

The remaining five players continued trading chips until the dinner break a little after 6:00 pm. The only female player to make the final table, Nikki Cabellero, is the first casualty following the return to play. Chip leader, John Napoli, was the next victim to leave after losing the largest pot of the night. Men went out in third place collecting $12,697, his second cash in the WSOP Circuit at Harrah's. The Master won event #2. Heads up play between Derek Harrington of Las Vegas and Thomas Wilson from Chicago ended quickly when Thomas went all-in showing pocket Jacks and Derek called with pocket Tens. John's advantage and tournament only lasted to the flop which came 10,A,A giving Derek a full house. John called for a Jack but it wasn't to be and he finished second taking down $23,086. Derek Harrington plays poker professionally and this is his first major score. He received $41,555 plus his first WSOP Circuit event winner's ring.

Event #5, $1,500 + 70 buy-n No-limit Hold'em, began play on Friday with 119 players and a prize pool of $115,430. The group was down to three tables early in the evening. Max Pescatori remained in the hunt trying to make his second final table of the tournament while event #3 winner, Doshi Suresh, had built a commanding chip lead. The final table will play on Saturday at 2:00 pm. Event #6, another $1,500 + $70 buy-in No-limit Hold'em tournament is scheduled for Saturday with a noon start time.

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Harrah's World Seriers of Poker Circuit Event #3 played the final table today with a champion being crowned early this evening. Today's event #3 began on Wednesday with 140 players and a prize pool of $135,800. The final table nine returned on Thursday to began play at 2:00 pm in the tournament area located in the convention area on the second level of Harrah's. Our friend and rising poker star, Max Pescatori, made the final table in the fifth chip count spot. Las Vegas player Doshi Suresh came into the finals today as the chip leader with an almost 2 to 1 lead over George Tallas in the second spot. Doshi cautiously guarded his chip stacks and never relinquished the lead, finally going heads up with John Harris of Staley, North Carolina for the money, ring and title. The heads up action had barely begun when John went all-in and was immediately called by Doshi. John showed pocket Fours while Doshi turned over his pocket Kings. The suspense was short-lived when the flop was 5,K,K giving Doshi quad Kings and John no outs. Doshi becomes a WSOP Circuit champion, picking up $48,888 to go with the WSOP Circuit gold ring. John takes home $27,160 while Stan Jablonski of Henderson, Nevada finished third and received $14,938. Max goes away counting the $9,506 for his fifth place finish.

Event #4 began play at noon today with 119 entrants wanting a piece of the $115,430 prize pool. The winner will collect $41,555 and everyone at the final table gets a part of the money. Late this afternoon with three table remaining the mix included Tuesday's event #2 champion, Men "the Master" Nguyen and the 1983 WSOP Champion, Tom McEvoy. The participation of players and fans for this WSOP Circuit stop has been rather light. A quick analysis of what's going on in the world of tournament poker may reveal why the players are not here. Many of the European players, along with some of the US pros, are headed to Barcelona, Spain for the Barcelona Open at the Gran Casino de Barcelona on September 16th and 17th. Many of the US professional tournament players are at the Commerce Casino in Commerce, California playing in the California State Championship that runs thru September 25th. The remainder of players will be in Atlantic City, New Jersey for the September 11th thru 22nd, WPT sanctioned Borgata Poker Open. Some of the players I listened to today believe the tournament schedule is too crowded, forcing players to choose between multiple events scheduled for the same time slots. This lack of coordination in scheduling tournaments dilutes all of the different events. As I was told repeatedly, you can only play in so many events.

Back to Harrah's Las Vegas, the buy-in goes up on Friday to $1,500 + $70 for the No-limit Hold'em event #5. Hopefully the number of entrants will go up with the increased buy-ins and the weekend crowds. Saturday's event #6 and Sunday's event #7 are both $2,000 + $80 buy-in No-limit Hold'em tournaments. Considering that Harrah's WSOP Circuit tournament was not well advertised; and then, combine this with Harrah's reputation for being tight-fisted to the extreme in providing players with reduced room rates or food comps makes the light turn out no big surprise.

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The second event of the 2005 WSOP Circuit at Harrah's Las Vegas is history after the final table was played and we have a winner. The tournament, a $500 + $50 buy-in No-limit Hold'em event, begin on Tuesday with 268 players vying for some of the $129,980 prize pool. The final table nine included Chad Layne and An Tran, both professional players from Las Vegas. When the dust cleared and the final table was down to two players going heads-up it was Chad Layne against the ever formidable Men "the Master" Nguyen from Bell Gardens, California. The final hand came when Men pushed all-in with K,Qo and Chad called with the better hand of A,10o giving him the lead and a slight edge. The flop showed 3,Q,3 giving Men top pair and a big advantage. The turn was a 9, the river was another 9, and Chad was eliminated in second place and collected $22,876. Men Nguyen goes home with the top prize of $41,591 and his first WSOP Circuit Championship ring. Las Vegan Jeffery Robson was chip leader coming into the final table but had to settle for third place money of $11,698. An Tran went out in the fourth spot taking $9,099.

Event #3 began at noon Wednesday. The $1,000 + $60 buy-in No-limit Hold'em event attracted a field of 140 players and posted a prize pool of $135,800. The winner of the event will receive $48,888. Everyone at the final table will get paid with ninth receiving $4,074.

Max "the Italian Pirate" Pescatori continued in the thick of it with eighteen players remaining. Max just returned from the UK where he took some R&R following the 2005 WSOP. While there he played tournaments and sharpened his game. Max won a WSOP Circuit event in 2005 and already owns one of the WSOP Circuit gold championship rings; but adding another would double the size of his collection.

Thursday's event #4 is a repeat of today, another $1,000 + $60 buy-in No-Limit Hold'em tournament played over two days. The action begins at noon and continues until a final table is reached. The final table for today's event #3 will begin on Thursday at 2:00 pm and continue until a champion is crowned.

Posted by flipchipro at 3:16 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

While catching up on some of the back reading I couldn't ignore the press release from Partygaming concerning their predictions that the growth of online gaming will slow over the next months. Partygaming (LSE: PRTY) is traded on the London Stock Exchange and the stock lost about $4 billion dollars of its value. The press release only states that the company expects to see slower growth in the future as the exponential growth enjoyed through the start-up period begins to plateau. All is as expected and the industry is in great health and will continue to produce substantial future revenues.

The company issued a statement that offered some highly speculative reasons for the slow down including the televised broadcast of the 2005 WSOP on ESPN. People watching the shows aren't playing on Party or something like that. I think it quite likely that the poker fans watching the WSOP are soon sitting in front of their computer trying to emulate the live poker action they just witnessed. Of course, everything I've said about this is also highly speculative and should be taken as the word of a fool. Should I ever figure out the intricacies of the habits of the masses toward the stock market I will hang up the camera and laptop and enjoy the rest of my days on a warm beach somewhere.

Is this the end of the poker boom? Hardly. Triple digit growth for any Internet gaming site will probably soon history. Today's announcement may be Partygaming's acknowledgment of the new Internet kid on the block, WPT (World Poker Tour) Enterprises (Nasdaq: WPTE) and Sportingbet (LSE: SBT), which controls Paradise Poker. The increased competition from the dozens of pop-up poker sites has diluted the market. Land based poker players are a fickle bunch that will quickly replace one brand with another for the slightest reason, they're not noted for long-term brand loyalty. They also tend toward congregating in large crowds, in other words, they like to play in full games in large rooms. I believe the Internet poker players have similar traits; so, why would the biggest poker room ever fire off a press release with the grim news that their growth will be reduced to rates closer to other legitimate businesses? Do they want the investors to hunker down and weather the storm or sell out and head for the hills? Should I be worried about any of this? What if poker is here to stay and home computers are the fad?

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The first day back after the big Labor day weekend is the perfect time to set back and watch the sport on TV. ESPN presents two more hours of the 2005 World Series of Poker played at the Rio Hotel here in Las Vegas. The first hour brings the $2,000 buy-in Pot-limit Hold'em tournament. The final table players listed with their hometown, seat assignment and chip count follow:

1. Steve Hudak (Baltimore, MD) $125K
2. Edward "Bolivia" Moncada (No known residence) $125K.
3. Yoshitaka Oku (Tokyo, Japan) $155K
4. Elia Ahmadian (Washington, DC) $74K
5. Marco Traniello (Las Vegas, NC) $120KSeat
6. Freddy Deeb (Las Vegas, NV) $127K
7. Shah Ajay (Belgium) $207K
8. Shargel Koumi (Birmingham, England)
9. David Cossio (El Paso, TX) $166K

Read Dr. Pauly's wrap up of the final table for event #11 at LasVegasVegas.com. Check out Dr. Pauly's live blogged final table action at Tao of Poker and get all the details of event #11 you won't see in the allotted hour of television. Pauly was just a few feet from the final table blogging all the action first hand. A complete list of finishers in the event is available at Poker Player Newspaper. The event set a record for entrants when 2013 players showed up to build a prize pool of $2,777,940 with $611,145 going to the winner. Watch for Freedy Deeb wearing his crazy lucky shirt.

The second hour is event #12, $2,000 buy-in Pot Limit Omaha with rebuys. All the excitement of big stakes tournament poker, Omaha style. The final table line up has some of the up and comers we have been watching and photographing for months. Again, Dr. Pauly was ringside with his laptop live blogging the championship event so you can read all the details that you won't see on tonight's show by clicking over to Tao of Poker. Read Pauly's Event #12 Wrap Up at LasVegasVegas.com. The final table players listed with their hometown, seat assignment and chip count follow:

1. Erik Seidel (Las Vegas, NV) $67K
2. Josh Arieh (Atlanta, GA) $229K
3. Max Pescatori (Milan, Italy) $62K
4. Tony Sevnsom (Houston, TX) $171K
5. Ron Graham (Tacoma, WA) $90K
6. Chris "Jesus" Ferguson (Pacific Palisades, CA) $109K
7. Doug Lee (Calgary, Alberta) $160K
8. Arturo Diaz (San Diego, CA) $279K
9. Dave Colclough (Birmingham, England)

Watch for European player, Max "The Italian Pirate" Pescatori and Canadian, Doug Lee. Both have been featured in photos and articles here on the Poker Prof's Blog. We see Eric Seidel again this week and former WSOP world champion, Chris "Jesus" Ferguson makes the final table adding his dramatic riverboat flair to modern tournament poker.
Click over to Poker Player Newspaper for all the results from event #12. Don't forget to visit the 2005 WSOP Photo Gallery now with a more powerful, easy to use search function and relive all the action in the more than a thousand photos presented. We are adding photos daily to the gallery from the WSOP Circuit event happening now at Harrah's here in Las Vegas so stop by often.

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Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman announced today he has put together a deal with some of the local resorts that will provide free R&R for Hurricane Katrina relief workers. Even though the room occupancy rates here in Las Vegas generally run around 98%, the Mayor believes the city can accommodate many of the overstressed workers needing some Rest & Relaxation far away from the grim scenes left behind by Katrina. Las Vegas hotels participating in the Mayor's plan include the Palms and Harrah's Resorts with more expecteed to follow. We will provide additional details as they become available.

A family of twelve arrived today to their new home here in Las Vegas. A touching scene as one of the children talked about how blessed they were that they all survived the calamity of new Orleans even though they lost everything to the storm. The descriptions of conditions at the shelters was almost too painful to hear.

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The 2005 version of the World Series of Poker Circuit Tournament kicked off today at Harrah's Las Vegas in the center of the Strip. Event #1 was an added LIPS No-limit Hold'em tournament limited to ladies only. The buy-in was $200 + $30 for this event which attracted 126 players ponying up enough to fill a prize pool with $22,944. The final table quickly eliminated most of the players until Dorothy Canada and Kim Austin were heads up for the title, money and trophy. Dorothy had made a miraculous comeback after going all in with a stack so short she couldn't pay two revs of blinds, and very early on when the table was six handed.

The event paid nine places with the winner receiving $8,260. Dorothy continued her comeback right into the heads up play with Kim, then patiently played a blinds trading game. She went all in and hit giving her the chip lead for the first time. Soon after returning from a short break the now short stacked Kim went all in with her pocket 7's and Dorothy called with her Kh,Qs. The flop came 8,4,10 all spades, then the turn brought the King of spades giving Dorothy the nut flush and the win. The river was a meaningless Ten. Dorothy raised her arms in triumph. Kim Austin of Beaufort, South Carolina received $4,589 for her second place finish. Tricia Tequide from Sacramento, California completed the top three and goes away with $2,524. Complete results for this tournamnet can be found at Poker Player Newspaper.

Tomorrow's event #2 will be a $500 + $50 No-limit Hold'em tournament that should attract a good crowd. I am curious about the number of entrants in the events since this tournament received very little in the way of promotion and advertising. The only real crowd I saw today in the tournament area was a long line of people waiting to register in a promotional slot tournament. The registration for the tournament appeared to be very slow with few players pre-registering. I'm sure that the registration people will be doing a brisk business in the morning before the event begins. I didn't see any professional players today, but that's not really a surprise. The low $500 buy-in makes the tournament easy to by-pass. The professional players will drift into Harrah's as the buy-ins for the events increase.

Posted by flipchipro at 3:07 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Im midway through the Labor Day weekend, on the eve of the World Series of Poker Circuit tournament beginning Monday, September 5, 2005, at Harrah's Las Vegas. Monday's event #1 will be a $200 buy-in LIPS no-limit tournament limited to the ladies. Satellites also begin Monday for the WSOP Circuit at Harrah's 10 events. The WSOP Circuit will be stopped at Harrah's on the Las Vegas Strip through September 16th when the final table for the $10,000 buy-in No-limit Hold'em Championship will be played and filmed for broadcast on the ESPN Sports Network. All of the events are No-limit Hold'em with the buy-ins ranging from $500 for Tuesday's event #3 up to the $2,000 buy-in for events #6 & #7. Events #10 & #11 are Super and Mega satellites for the $10,000 Championship event.

In other news, Jennifer Tilly wins another final table and captures her second title of the summer at the World Poker Tour Ladies Night III at the Bicycle Casino in LA. The actress turned professional poker player is proving her ability to play the game and win tournaments. Jennifer's interest in poker was originally sparked by her chance meeting with Phil "Unabomber" Laak at the Hard Rock's 2004 Pro-Am Celebrity Tournament. Apparently, the Unabomber is one great playing coach. He brought Jennifer along rather quickly; attesting to his ability to teach poker's winning fine points while Jennifer's "quick read" talents allowed her to rapidly grasp and master advanced elements of the game. Her acting experience plays perfectly at the poker table, where the art of deception is an essential element of winning. I was there when she won her 2005 WSOP championship and received the gold 2005 WSOP bracelet. She was the perfect champion for the camera toting media, patiently posing so everyone had an opportunity to get the picture and the story.

I watched Cyndy Violette go at it with Eric Seidel in the ESPN WSOP Series on cable. Both wanted the 2005 WSOP bracelet for their collection. Eric caught a miracle eight for the win when his full house was bigger than Cyndy's full house. This was Eric's 7th bracelet making him a close contender, only three behind the leaders for the record WSOP bracelets. Cyndy got heads up with Eric after going toe to toe with Morgan Machina. Every face off found one of them all-in and doubling thru the other until Cyndy finally got the KO blow, Morgan got chipless and was out. I was there live when the event was played but I have to wait until the broadcast to see what the hole cam sees.

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The first wave of effects from Hurricane Katrina to reach Las Vegas is sky rocketing gasoline prices. I carefully listened to the g-man economic expert analyze and explain how the Port of New Orleans is responsible for accepting and processing 30% of America's total crude oil requirements and the sudden loss of this gasoline manufacturing capacity is the main reason for the rapid rise in gasoline's price at the pump. Next, I took note of the press release announcing the release of 60 million barrels of crude to help stabilize and control the price of gasoline.

Now, I'm really confused. If the reason for the daily gasoline price hikes is the lack of the New Orleans manufacturing capacity then how will adding another 60 million barrels of crude into a system already clogged by the destruction of the hurricane make the price go down. I would think that sending all this additional oil, which will just sit around running up storage bills, will add to the price at the pump. I tend to oversimplify involved situations because they are far to complicated for me to grasp. Maybe I'm doing that with the gasoline thing. I do know that my friend's Mobile Oil stock surged ahead.

I believe the price of gasoline will continue to rise and not stabilize until Americans are paying about the same for a gallon of gas as the rest of the world. If you are one of those lucky folks that have one or two of those faddish SUV's parked in the garage and you don't own an oil well, you may want to consider getting rid of that two ton pile of gas gobbling cast iron. I compiled a list of reasons for moving the SUV out. This week's Nines...

1. SUV's are so yesterday!

Posted by flipchipro at 4:36 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Labor Day Weekend began today. Town will be full of tourist celebrating the three days in the land of gambling, entertainment, neon and live poker. The poker rooms are always crowded but the list will be even longer for the next three days. The sports books will be doing a brisk business with the start of regular season NLF games almost here. College football has already started and continues tonight and all day Saturday. Baseball games now mean something in the waning days of the 2005 season.

I have a free room at one of the Vegas resorts and should be spending the time enjoying one of my favorite times of the year, but I'm not. Instead I'm voluntarily locked down with the drapes drawn watching the news channels full time. The images of the devastation from Katrina have affected me much more than I would ever have believed possible. I am accustomed to seeing the world through a camera's unblinking viewfinder and sometimes the images are almost too painful bring into focus. The years of recording a world that is not always at its' best had me believing that I've become too callused to be personally affected, especially about something I do not control. September 11th was the day I realized that regardless of your sense of detachment some things demand your full attention and emotional involvement. I watched helplessly on 9/11 as the world I knew changed forever, a change that has not been for the better. I am now going through a second realization that I am seeing the world change forever. Even from the safety and comfort of a resort in Las Vegas, I have become a victim of Katrina.

Saturday, I began watching the progress of the storm when it was regaining strength in the Gulf. Having lived on the Gulf Coast and experienced first hand the power and water associated with a major storm I thought Katrina could create problems for a few days or weeks.

Sunday, I got genuinely upset because the learned g-man insisted on searching everyone's meager belongings for contraband even as they patiently stood outside in driving rain waiting to get into the "Superdome, shelter of Last Resort."

Monday, I then watched the hurricane hit New Orleans almost dead center and it was then I felt the same feelings of a world changing catastrophy I had only known once before, on 9/11. The next couple of days I watched in morbid fascination as the city, already laid to waste by the hurricane's winds, became a part of Lake Pontchartrain.

Wednesday, I watched people staggering out of the flood waters onto the first land they encountred since the storm. People that had been without food, drinking water or anything dry sloughing up onto dry land for the first time since the storm was so haunting I will never forget those images.

Thursday, I watched the aerial shots of the homes flooded up to their roof lines knowing that in many of those dark attics down below there are people living out their last few hours. I cannot imagine the depths of despair that exists there.

Today, I have tried to explain away the disaster in terms that my engineering side accepts. Build a city beside a great lake on land that has sunk below the level of that lake on one side and the mighty river on the other. Erode and eradicate the delta lands that shield the city from the powers of the open ocean and then locate this city in an area known for the world's most powerful storms. Why would I expect results any different than what happened? I wouldn't. I just never imagined it with the thousands of people that lived through the fury only to be trapped in the devastation. I tried to reason away the trapped victims by saying, "They choose to stay, maybe now when told to leave they will pay heed." Wrong again. They could not evacuate, there was no viable mechanism to allow them to escape the doomed city. I'm sure some stayed behind voluntarily, but why not? For years they have been told to leave and they couldn't and they and the city survived; so what's the problem with staying if I can't leave anyway. There truly does exist a group of Americans that do not enjoy the freedom of mobility, adequate shelter or food. Through no fault of their own they get left behind and now down in New Orleans some of these very people have spent the last five days walking through waist deep water carrying a young child or two, then finally reaching some dry land and before the sun goes down they are told at the point of a riot gun to, "Drop that food and those blankets." I know, I watched it live on the full time reports coming from the delta. I don't know if New Orleans will ever recover from this mighty blow. I do know that I never will.

Today and Tomorrow, some of the online poker sites are hosting tournaments to raise money for the victims of the storm. A complete listing with all the details of the events has already been compiled by Dr.Pauly at Tao of Poker so click on over and join with the poker blogging/playing community in doing something good for the survival of victims. Read Dr.Pauly's piece on Katrina.

Posted by flipchipro at 5:24 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

The Hilton will open its' new poker room this Friday, September 2nd. The perfect start of the big Labor Day weekend here in Las Vegas. The town will be jammed with thousands of visitors having one final fling before school starts, fall arrives, vacations are over and it's time to plan for the upcoming holidays. Of course, with the current number one reason to come to Vegas being shopping, maybe some of the visitors will be here to kick off their 2005 holiday shopping. Without leaving the Las Vegas Strip one can find more malls and shops than you can cruise in a week. The Vegas Strip has become one of the world's premier shopping destinations. Buy everything from a shiny new Ferrari to the latest digital dice clock on your way to a few hours of the quality time in the poker room. It's really that simple and convenient to enjoy all the attractions Las Vegas has always offered with the newest in upscale marketing.

The MAGIC show is here in Las Vegas this week. This is now the big one, especially since the Comdex convention outlived its usefulness and shriveled up. All of the garment industry comes to Las Vegas and the MAGIC Show to display their clothing lines and styles for the upcoming fashion year. This bunch likes the Las Vegas style of entertainment more than the geeks from the Comdex Show so it's a good time to check out the Vegas poker rooms for some great action.

I will go by the Hilton this weekend just to compare the current digs and customers to the long closed poker room of old. The crowd back then is best described, for the most part, as the gentry set. Middle age, well heeled patrons often wearing suits and ties. Of course, the room had its cadre of locals that dressed like retired gentry. There were not a lot of young players back then. Occasionally a group of twenty-somethings would try to win back all the money they had lost in the casino by playing poker, a game they always beat back at the dorm. Unfortunately, most had never sat down with players of the skill level found here in Las Vegas and more than once I watched them leave the table broke and absolutely certain they had been cheated. They couldn't have been more wrong. Cheat someone so careless with their cards you see them every hand? Cheat someone that came straight to the poker table from a tequila shot drinking contest? Cheat someone that can't remember if a straight beats a flush , or is it the other way around?

The kids still continue to play in the poker rooms, except now they make up a large percentage of the patrons. They have also taken the game seriously and today's dorm champions are cashing in the WPT, WSOP and all the other major tournaments. No longer are the naive college kids automatically classed as dead money. Many of them have as much or more experience playing mid to high-limit poker than many of the local Vegas rocks. They not only read the how-to poker books; but, some of these young players are rewriting the poker books. Times have changed, even in poker. The game has evolved as a result of the masses of players now crowding into the poker rooms. Being a winning poker player in today's casino poker room requires an overall higher skill level and the addition of some entirely new skills. Today's successful poker pro has a complex set of skills, natural talents and desirable personality traits that work to produce livelihood revenues. Considering the millions that play the game, the consistent winners are quite rare and usually turn pro. Those in school considering a professional poker career should finish school while they are honing all the talents necessary to take some money out of a pile being watched over by the likes of Brunson, Ferguson, Seidel, Hellmuth, Harman, Chan, Nguyen, Negreanu, Matusow, Ivey and a few others, just as tough. These people can read your mind, predict the future, see through your cards, levitate and move your chips, turn into a block of cold stone and draw cards like a magnet. If you can't do this or even get close then keep practicing while you finish school.

Guess I've had my say for today. I now off to enjoy a few days at one of the local resorts (only George gets more slack time than me). I will stop by the Las Vegas Hilton's Poker Room and check out the 2005 version. It'll probably just be a bunch of kids with a fist full of Franklins collecting more Franklins. Not quite like old times, but better.

Posted by flipchipro at 12:51 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)