Good News and Bad News for Poker Players
Date: Wed, Aug 20, 2008
Our favorite power poker dame, Wendeen H. Eolis, is the CEO of New York based Eolis International Group a legal/business consultancy. She can just as easily be found conferring with world leaders or sitting with the boys at a high stakes poker table. The last few years she has generously given many hours of her valuable time to the tournament poker industry and has shared her considerable political expertise in the continuing pursuit of legalizing online poker for US poker players. Now for the good news.
Eolis is a charter member of the World Series of Poker Players Advisory Counsel (PAC). PAC was established by WSOP Commissioner Jeffrey Pollack in January 2006 with the goal of providing WSOP participants with a continuously upgraded tournament poker playing experience. Many of the PAC goals were accomplished in part through Pollack's undivided attention and subsequent rapid response to PAC's suggestions and player complaints. He also promised the PAC participants, "No topics will be off limits."
Evidence of the success of Pollack's PAC was easily found at the 2008 WSOP. Most everyone at the 2008 WSOP agreed it was, hands down, the best WSOP to date. Improved food, well thought out physical layout, record crowds but no long lines, separate satellite areas, isolated smoking areas, great fan access and improved event scheduling were just a few of the enhancements.
And now the bad news. About the same time during 2006 poker professional Jesse Jones decided to establish an organization, World Poker Association (WPA), of poker players that could present a united front and empower players with control of the worldwide tournament poker industry. Unfortunately, Jones insisted that the organization strictly adhere to his personal agenda with long range goals of bringing every poker tournament under the control of his WPA.
The details of the WPA's up and down existence is detailed in the second and concluding installment of Wendeen H. Eolis' article, Inside Scoop on Poker Player Activism Part 2 of 2, now running as the feature on Poker Player Newspaper. If you missed Part 1 it is conveniently included with the article. Everyone with an interest in the behind the scenes of poker politics should give this a read, especially if you're considering contributing to or joining a poker player organization.
FYI: Power Poker Dameis the title of Wendeen H. Eolis' upcoming book.
2008 WSOP Poker Faces Part II
Date: Tue, Aug 19, 2008
If two hours of poker on ESPN tonight isn't enough to get the adrenalin flowing then maybe these images will help. More of Flipchip's favorite poker faces from the 2008 WSOP. The second installment of views from the tournament floor, up close and personal. I hope to replicate the views a player has from a seat in the Big Poker Show, so whether you were at the Rio Resort in Las Vegas, or not, you can experience a few photos of the view.
All of today's poker faces were photographed on day 1 of the 2008 WSOP Event #1. A dozen photos after the jump...
Poker After Dark returns at Golden Nugget
Date: Tue, Aug 19, 2008
The late-night NBC show "Poker After Dark" returns for a 5th season at the Golden Nugget.
Shooting will take place Oct. 26 through Nov. 5, with 60 new shows beginning air Dec. 29. The schedule will stay the same and 2:05 a.m. Tuesday through Friday and a one-hour "Director's Cut" wrapup after "Saturday Night Live" on Saturdays.
Staying true to the original format, tables will be six-handed with a $20,000 buy-in with winner-take-all.
Leeann Tweeden will host, with expected players including Daniel Negreanu, Doyle Brunson, Chris Ferguson, Jennifer Harman, Phil Hellmuth, Howard Lederer, and Phil Ivey.
WSOP Tueday Night Poker $50K H.O.R.S.E. on ESPN
Date: Mon, Aug 18, 2008
When does a world championship poker event not determine the best poker player in the world? When its the WSOP $50,000 H.O.R.S.E. World Championship. Of course, we all know this is the true race for the best poker player in the world and you don't have to go much farther than the roll call of previous H.O.R.S.E. champions for proof. In the inaugural 2006 event the player considered by many to be the best all-around poke player was winner Chip Reese. The 2007 event crowned poker professional Freddy Deeb as the champion.
Even though the two hours of coverage for $50K H.O.R.S.E. event is over shadowed by the $10K Main Event's twenty-two hours of television it remains the event that the pros consider the most difficult to win. As the name "H.O.R.S.E." implies players must be masters of five vastly different poker games - Hold'em, Omaha, Razz, Stud and Eight or better. To survive the five grueling days of intense competition requires in-depth multi-game knowledge combined with endurance. This is especially true when considering the field is composed of professional poker's who's who. The final table seat roster and chip counts with the number of WSOP bracelets each player has won shown in parenthesis:
Seat 1: Matt Glantz 1,445,000
Seat 2: Huck Seed 1,200,000 (4)
Seat 3: Patrick Bueno 695,000
Seat 4: Lyle Berman 1,430,000 (3)
Seat 5: Scotty Nguyen 3,535,000 (5)
Seat 6: Barry Greenstein 1,955,000 (3)
Seat 7: Michael DeMichele 905,000
Seat 8: Erick Lindgren 3,680,000 (1)
A blue ribbon panel of poker players take a seat Tuesday night on ESPN at 8 PM EST. This bunch has a collection of 16 WSOP bracelets (includes the one Scotty wins for this event). Be sure to check local listing in your area for exact times of Tuesday's two hours of WSOP poker from ESPN Sports.
H.O.R.S.E.is one of my favorites to photograph with the star studded fields and a high dollar prize pool guaranteeing a prevailing air of excitement. One hundred forty-eight players began the event vying for a massive $7,104,000 prize pool. Tuesday's final table eight are playing for more than $5.25 million of the purse with the winner taking home $1,989,120 and the very special gold bracelet. This final table took 314 hands spread out over 13 hours of play to complete. You'll be seeing two hours gleaned from the actual 13 hours of the marathon final table.
A selection of Flipchip photos from the five days of the event are waiting after the jump...
Bodog Poker Open II Announced
Date: Fri, Aug 15, 2008
With their biggest poker tournament ever, the $250,000 Guaranteed, having just finished, Bodog is keeping the steam up with the announcement of the Bodog Poker Open II and it's even bigger guaranteed prize pool of $300,000.
The BPO II Main Event will have a $470 + $30 buy-in and happens October 5 at 4 p.m. ET.
BPO II qualifiers are now running daily with buy-ins starting at as low as 50 Bodog Poker Points.
Last March saw the inaugural BPO won by phatcat who walked away with the main event's first place prize of $76,280 and an Omega Speed Master watch valued at $4,400. The 596 player field got a great value as Bodog added $25,000 to the prize pool.
Similarly to last year there will also be a week of preliminary events preceding the Main Event with buy-ins ranging from $44 - $350. Preliminary event can be expected in early September.
You won't want to miss this tournament series as it's shaping up to be a classic. Get more information on the BPO II to find out how to win your seat to it.
Bodog Poker Software Update Officially Released
Date: Thu, Aug 14, 2008
There has been a lot of time and lot of love poured into the latest incarnation of the Bodog Poker Software. And now, after months of beta-testing, the software is officially live and ready for download.
The main feature that they worked on for this latest poker software upgrade is the resizable tables.
You can also resize and remove features like the chat window, statistics, notes, profiles, game details, etc. which opens up the view of the table.
There are rumored to be more updates in the works so expect to see the limit to the number of tables that can be played at once increase.
You can download the Bodog Poker client yourself and tell us what you think.
Venetian Poker Room Announces Deep Stack Extravaganza IV
Date: Wed, Aug 13, 2008
Venetian resort's wildly popular Deep Stack Extravaganza poker tournament series has announced the fourth and final tournament for 2008. Scheduled for November 1 - 25, the Deep Stack Extravaganza IV (DSE) will feature 25 No-Limit Hold'em events with Buy-ins from $330 up to $2,500 for the Championship final.
The best part of these events is the very reason they named them "Deep Stack." Its all about the number of starting chips and the extended time of play levels. Even the $330 buy-in events start players with $10,000 in play money, plus an optional staff bonus add-on will get you even more bullets. Players in the $1,060 and $2,500 final event begin with $12, 500. Playing in the DSE is no different than entering one of the big major poker tournaments, with one big major exception, you don't need to take out a second mortgage to cover the buy-ins.
Kathy Raymond, director of poker operations for The Venetian, best sums up the Deep Stack Series.
"We are thrilled with the amount of excitement our Deep Stack Extravaganza series creates on the casino floor and throughout the poker community. The quality and experience of our staff along with the high starting chip counts and structure of the tournaments continues to draw players from different skill levels and from all over the world."
Make your plans now to become a part of poker history as a player and champion of the the Deep Stack Extravaganza IV. The poker world will be focused on the luxurious Venetian poker room during the 25 days of big time Deep Stack poker. The final table of the championship event will take place 2 days before Thanksgiving, so what better way to start your holidays than a trip to the most copied poker tournament format anywhere, the Venetian's Deep Stack Extravaganza.
