My good friend Joyce de Haas is staging a charity poker tournament in the Las Vegas area in late July which I hope you’ll consider playing in if you’re in that neck of the woods then.

Joyce’s “Forget-Me-Not” tournament will raise money to buy a handicapped-accessible van to transport Alzheimer’s residents at the Homestead at Boulder City, an assisted living and memory care community that’s part of the national, non-profit Volunteers of America. Joyce is residence director at The Homestead.

“Our residents are respected leaders of the community who have paved the way for our future and have never asked for anything from anyone, so we are asking for them,” Joyce said in announcing the tournament.

The tournament is set for July 23 at the M Casino in Henderson, NV. The buy-in is $220, with an optional $25 add-on. $100 of each buy-in goes to the charity and $100 goes into the prize pool. Players should register by July 10 to guarantee their seat in the event. (Registration form included below.)

“We were hoping for at least 100 players, but now that the word is getting out into the poker world, the M Casino is thinking we need the ballroom for a much larger crowd,” said Joyce, whose brother, Jim Thornton (formerly of Geneseo, IL, now living in Vegas), is a long-time golf and poker buddy of mine.

Joyce’s e-mail continued:

“We’re very excited. Justin Young, an up-and-coming pro player, has committed and is our spokesperson. We went down to the WSOP at the Rio and met with him and watched him play. The word is that he is a very good candidate to win the tournament this year. He’s really a nice young man and is excited about working with us on this event.

“We are also working with many other pros to play, too. Jennifer Harman and Annie Duke are going to get back to us and see if they can commit, and Bluff Magazine is sending the information out to all of their subscribers. They are also going to cover the event and do a spread on it for their magazine.”

If you follow poker at all, you know that raising money for charity through tournaments is a really hot thing these days. Millions of dollars are being generated for all kinds of worthy organizations, demonstrating that the generosity of poker players is amazing.

I hope you’ll be able to join the fun and help a good cause!

Click “Read the rest” for the tournament news release, registration form and contact info.
Read the rest of this entry »

Uncategorized | 2 Comments »

If you’ve been looking for a different experience playing poker online, joining a new site that offers league and social play among specific opponents may be of interest to you. I spent some time on the site, just exploring, and think it could appeal to some players. Here’s the full news release they sent me. — luckydogruss

NEWS RELEASE
June 2009

HogWildPokerLeagues.com launches first online Texas Hold’em site designed for league and social play; “The next generation of online poker is here”

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – It’s hard to believe that no one has developed a good way to play poker online with their friends. The key phrase here is with their friends. Despite all the sophisticated social networking offered in our Facebook-LinkedIn-Twitter world, there’s still not a Web site that lets you really say, “I call your 10 and raise you 20.”

No one has developed this type of interpersonal way of playing poker using the Internet – until now.

After years of development, Amber Holdings, LLC, is introducing HogWildPokerLeagues.com, an online Texas Hold’em platform that mimics the home poker experience and caters to regular games and poker league play in a way that is personal and realistic.
Read the rest of this entry »

Uncategorized | 1 Comment »

‘Ambassador of Poker’ Mike Sexton will deserve a toast himself if he is inducted into the Poker Hall of Fame.

HOF NOMINATION PROCESS OPEN TO PUBLIC UNTIL JULY 2

For the first time ever, you now have a voice in deciding who should be elected this year into the Poker Hall of Fame.

Nominations from poker fans — and everybody else, too — are being accepted until July 2. To make your nomination, just click here. You’ll be asked to give your name and e-mail, plus an explanation of why your nominee should be chosen.

Here’s the criteria for entry into the Poker Hall of Fame:

* A player must have played poker against acknowledged top competition.
* Played for high stakes.
* Played consistently well, gaining the respect of peers.
* Stood the test of time.
* Or, for non-players, contributed to the overall growth and success of the game of poker, with indelible positive and lasting results.

The top 10 names being considered will be announced during the World Series Main Event, which starts July 3. After that, the Hall of Fame committee determines the final list of nominees in August. Then, in September, the 16 surviving HOF members and select members of the media rank the nominees. The top two (or possibly three) will be announced as the Hall’s newest members during the Main Event final table in November.

Don’t know the 37 members already in the HOF? Click here for a full rundown, including the year of induction and a brief description of their connection and contribution to the game.

There are some great choices out there — Barry Greenstein, Phil Ivey, Daniel Negreanu, Allen Cunningham, Tom McEvoy — but I’ll be nominating Mike Sexton, a long-time gentleman pro and TV poker announcer who has had a tremendous impact on the game and is widely considered the “Ambassador of Poker.”

Who do YOU think should get elected into the HOF?

Uncategorized | No Comments »

Casino Royale, the action-packed 2006 film highlighting Ian Fleming’s famous spy character James Bond, premiered on USA last night. If you missed it, don’t fret. The movie has a prime-time spot on that channel tonight through Sunday, as well.

Poker — not baccarat, as in previous Bond flicks — plays a key role in the plot. And although the movie deserves its good reviews for cinematic excitement, it gets a C-minus from me for its poker scenes.

For some reason, the directors had Bond (Daniel Craig) and others at the table violate some very basic poker rules. I suppose they wanted to add flair to the game, but was it necessary?

Knowledgeable poker players in a card room wouldn’t pull the crap shown in the movie, and beginning players unfortunately may be swayed to think it’s OK to splash your chips all over the place and slow-roll your opponent.

Here’s a review of the flick I wrote when it was showing in theaters…

Uncategorized | No Comments »

Annie Duke is all decked out on the Game Show Awards red carpet on May 16 with her guest, Joseph Reitman. The awards spectacular will air on GSN this Saturday (June 6) at 8 p.m. ET. For a “pokah playah” (as Joan Rivers would say), Annie cleans up pretty nice, don’t ya’ think?

POKER PRO HITS RED CARPET INSTEAD OF GREEN FELT

Fresh from her runner-up performance on Celebrity Apprentice, poker pro Annie Duke will be one of the presenters when the first-ever awards show exclusively aimed at celebrating excellence in the genre of game shows hits the tube Saturday night (June 6).

The two-and-a-half-hour extravaganza will premiere on the Game Show Network (GSN) at 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT with Howie Mandel as host.

Taped on May 16 at the Wilshire Theatre in Beverly Hills, the star-studded show will honor classic and contemporary game shows, with special tributes to pioneers Bob Barker (”The Price is Right”), legendary game show producer Mark Goodson, and host/producer Monty Hall (”Let’s Make a Deal”).

(Now that I think about it, how many times have we poker players decided “the price is right” to make a call at the felt. And, for sure, it’s nice to go deep enough in a tournament to hear the words “let’s make a deal”!)

GSN publicist Crystal Williams said the Game Show Awards “was definitely a fun event. There was a great turnout on the red carpet with TV icons of today and yesterday.” She said having Annie at the event was exciting since she showed her game-show chops by finishing second to comedienne Joan Rivers on Celebrity Apprentice.

Sounds like fun to me! (I wonder if Annie tried to get a poker game fired up after the party?!)

Here’s a rundown of the award recipients, the presenters, celebs making special appearances, plus attendees and nominees:

Read the rest of this entry »

Uncategorized | 2 Comments »

Tom McEvoy, shown in action at the 2008 PCA, proved he still has plenty of game by winning the first-ever Champions Invitational Monday night at the 2009 WSOP! At the Champions event, Tom sported a full gray beard and moustache and a wide-brimmed PopkerStars cowboy hat.

Tom McEvoy was one of the first pros to befriend me and my poker traveling mate, Scott Reed. So it’s way cool for us that McEvoy bested the field of 20 main-event champs Monday night in the first-ever Champions Invitational at the World Series.

We first ran into Tom perhaps 12 years ago at a tournament in Vegas or L.A. (can’t remember which), and it didn’t take long before we were always saying hello and chatting when we’d see each other at events.

Scotty discovered that Tom had a sweet tooth, so on our trips he would always bring along a bag of candy and suckers to give to Tom during a tournament. He always seemed to appreciate it, and rewarded us one time by inviting us to dinner at a cool restaurant near the ocean at Marina del Ray, Calif., close to his home. What a treat that was!

The last time I saw Tom was at the media tournament held at the 2008 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure, held at the Atlantis resort in the Bahamas. The field of 90 or so players included big-name pros sprinkled around the tables, and it was cool when I found Tom sitting at the far end of my table.

Here’s the story of my encounter at the felt against McEvoy at the PCA. It tells of a key pot I won against Tom en route to a second-place finish in the media event!

Monday night, Tom bested surprise heads-up finalist Robert Varkonyi to claim the title, the Binion Cup, and a restored 1970 red Corvette marking the year the WSOP began.

He told PokerListings: “The car was just the frosting on the cake. Beating all my colleagues that were talented enough to win the Main Event was what it was really about.”

This article from CardPlayer describes Tom’s victory. And here’s a neat video from pokernews.com featuring interviews with some of the final-table players, including McEvoy. Finally, check out this post-victory interview by pokernews.com with Tom, which includes some great views of the Corvette.

Tom McEvoy, champion of champions! Has a nice ring to it, pardner! Congrats, man!

Uncategorized | No Comments »

NOTE: THURSDAY UPDATE INCLUDES STIMULUS SPECIAL RESULTS

Records are being shattered right and left at the 2009 World Series of Poker in Las Vegas — and the poker festival hasn’t even been running for a week yet! Check this out:

* The first open event Thursday offered the largest buy-in ever for a no-limit hold’em tournament — $40,000, commemorating the WSOP’s 40th year. A startling 201 players forked over the cash to play, creating the largest non-main-event prize pool ($8 million) in history. The champ will get $1.9 million!

An hour into Sunday’s final day of action, these were the chip counts of the remaining 8 players with blinds at 30K-60K and a 5K ante:

1. Isaac Haxton — 5,945,000
2. Vitaly Lunkin — 4,545,000
3. Dani Stern — 3,155,000
4. Justin Bonomo — 2,950,000
5. Lex Veldhuis — 2,455,000
6. Alec Torelli — 2,405,000
7. Greg Raymer — 1,690,000
8. Noah Schwartz — 955,000

UPDATE: FINAL STANDINGS & PRIZE MONEY:

1. Vitaly Lunkin — $1,891,012
2. Isaac Haxton — $1,168,566
3. Greg Raymer — $774,927
4. Dani Stern — $548,315
5. Justin Bonomo — $413,166
6. Alec Torelli — $329,730
7. Lex Veldhuis — $277,940
8. Noah Schwartz — $246,834
9. Ted Forrest — $230,317

* On Friday, the Omaha/8 or better event set the all-time record for most players in an Omaha tournament. A whopping 918 players paid $1,500 each to do battle for the $263,000 first-place prize.

By mid-afternoon Sunday, 13 players remained. Here are the top ten in chips with 6K-12K blinds:

1. Robert Price — 580,000
2. Jordan Rich — 465,000
3. Thang Luu — 420,000 (defending champ!)
4. Richard Toth — 360,000
5. Ed Smith — 320,000
6. Freddy Deeb — 300,000
7. Micah Brooks — 300,000
8. Lee Mougos — 250,000
9. Sebastian Ruthnberg — 250,000
10. Senovio Ramirez — 240,000

UPDATE: FINAL STANDINGS & PRIZE MONEY:

1. Thang Luu — $263,135 (Defends his title in this event!)
2. Ed Smith — $162,110
3. Ming Reslock — $106,373
4. Robet Price — $73,405
5. Pascal Leyo — $53,293
6. Jordan Rich — $40,612
7. Jim Geary — $32,404
8. Freddy Deeb — $27,029
9. Senovio Ramirez — $23,520

* Then, all hell broke loose on the weekend! The $1,000 Stimulus Special exploded into a sellout — 6,000 players, with half the field starting Saturday and the rest on Sunday. First place: A whopping $750,000, give or take.

Drawing 6,000 runners easily topped the previous largest-ever, non-main-event field set last year at 3,929 players in a $1,500 NLH event.

Recession! What Recession?

Indeed, Seth Palansky, WSOP communications director, was quoted as saying that if a third starting day had been set aside for the event, “We would’ve had 9,000 players and we would’ve had the largest live tournament ever.” The all-time record for entries was 8,773, set at the 2006 WSOP main event won by Jamie Gold.

The Stimulus Special doesn’t wrap up until Tuesday (extended to Wednesday), but already there is talk of scheduling additional $1,000 buy-in events at the 2010 WSOP. The lowest buy-in for an open bracelet event typically is $1,500.

MONDAY UPDATE: J.C. Tran was in a dominating chip position as action resumed today. By mid-afternoon, about 650 players remained out of the 6,012 starting field.

THURSDAY UPDATE: Steve Sung, a young pro from Torrance, Calif., emerged with victory Wednesday night in the $1,000 Stimulus Special, which drew a record 6,012 players — the largest non-main-event field ever. It was his first WSOP bracelet and he put $771,106 in his pocket!

1. Steve Sung — $771,106
2. Panayote Vilandos — $473,283
3. James Matz — $313,826
4. Larry Sidebotham — $227,254
5. Nathan Mullen — $175,851
6. Daniel Heimiller — $145,009
7. Jeff Oakes — $126,613
8. Phong Huynh — $117,414
9. Danny Fuhs — $114,168

CHAMPIONS INVITATIONAL UPDATE

Day 2 of the Champions Invitational is starting about right now, with 10 of the 20 competing former main-event champs still in the hunt for the Binion Trophy, a vintage Corvette, and bragging rights.

They are (with chip totals):

Carlos Mortensen — 42,375
Tom McEvoy — 31,000
Jim Bechtel — 30,475
Doyle Brunson — 20,250
Dan Harrington — 19,975
Peter Eastgate — 18,425
Huck Seed — 15,400
Robert Varkonyi — 13,450
Berry Johnston — 7,625
Phil Hellmuth — 1,125

Uncategorized | No Comments »

UPDATE: Preston and 9 other former main-event champs failed to survive Day 1 of the Champions Invitational. Please see the survivors’ list in the next posting.

“Amarillo Slim” Preston, arguably the first media-friendly “ambassador” of poker going back 30 years or so, returns to the felt Sunday, May 31, at the 2009 World Series of Poker for a special Champions Invitational tournament in Las Vegas.

As the following press release notes, most of the main-event champs from the past 40 years will be competing. Conspicuously missing, however, will be Russ Hamilton, who is the target of a massive online poker cheating scandal involving Ultimate Bet and Absolute Poker.

I don’t give Slim much of a chance to win this event, but it’s a, hmmm, slim field and anything can happen in poker!

PRESS RELEASE:

“When it comes to poker players, there is a fine line between genius and insanity,” said Doyle Brunson in a recent blog. He may have been referring to long-time traveling and poker playing companion Thomas Austin Preston, Jr., better known in the industry as “Amarillo Slim.”

Once called “the worlds greatest gambler,” Amarillo Slim was one of the first to combine side action with gambling. He beat Minnesota Fats at pool with a broom, hit a golf ball a mile across a frozen lake, and won $300,000 from country music legend Willie Nelson playing dominoes. He has played poker with presidents Lyndon Johnson and Richard Nixon, drug lords Pablo Escobar and Jimmy Chagra, and played the highly publicized poker game with porn king Larry Flint, in which Mr. Flint lost a whopping $1,700,000.

As a poker player, Amarillo Slim rides on the edge of sheer brilliance, winning five WSOP bracelets, including the main event in 1972, forever leaving his mark in poker history. Much more than just a poker player, he’s is a Texas treasure, and folk hero known the world over as a man who will bet on just about anything.

His life story is not without controversy, though Texas Dolly stands tall for Amarillo Slim. “I spent 10 years traveling and playing poker with Slim, and I never saw one thing that I thought was wrong in that area,” Brunson stated in a recent blog. “Poker owes Slim a lot and he should be recognized for that. I don’t know how many years I’ve got left, but I would like to bet double or nothing Slim Preston is [… innocent].”

Amarillo Slim will be participating in this year’s WSOP Champions Invitational, also know as the Tournament of Champions, taking place on Sunday, 31 May, in the Amazon Room at the Rio All Suites Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas.

Among the 33 invited legends, Slim will be joined by industry icons Phil Hellmuth, Johnny Chan, Huckleberry Seed, Greg Raymer, Chris Moneymaker, Jamie Gold, and last year’s champion and youngest main event winner Peter Eastgate. Not competing this year will be controversial figure Russ Hamilton.

Uncategorized | No Comments »

Got back last night from a golf/family vacation — in one piece, thankfully, after a right rear-tire blowout going 73 mph in the left lane on I-64 in heavy traffic just east of Louisville.

My thanks to the Jefferson County sheriff’s deputy who responded to my 9-1-1 call, kept 3 lanes of high-speed west-bound traffic away from my disabled and smoking (for a while, anyway) vehicle, and made several phone calls seeking help for me.

Also, a big thank-you to Toby Davidson of the Trimarc Freeway Service Patrol. The young man pulled up in a state-marked service van just before the deputy needed to leave on an emergency call. Toby took off the shredded Eagle RSA, put on the dink spare, and gave me directions to the nearest Goodyear store.

I don’t know how many states have such an operation, but TRIMARC is a completely free-of-charge service provided by the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet, the Indiana Department of Transportation, the Federal Highway Administration, and TRIMARC (www.trimarc.org.) — which stands for Traffic Response and Incident Management Assisting the River Cities. The vans patrol highways to assist motorists and public safety officers.

Toby was simply outstanding, yet he politely declined a tip because accepting it was against TRIMARC rules. All he asked was that I fill out a postage-paid comment card, sign it and mail it to TRIMARC.

How can you beat that?!

– LuckyDog Russ

p.s. — Sorry about the lack of updates on the site while I was gone. I only had an Internet signal for a brief time while on the trip, and just enough time to check e-mail once. It was kinda nice being off the machine for 10 days!

p.p.s. — I know Annie lost on Celebrity Apprentice, Huck got good air time winning the Heads-Up title, and Adam battles Kris on Idol tonight. Anything else cookin’?

Uncategorized | 4 Comments »

Yikes! We’re down to the Celebrity Apprentice finale already! Get set for some fireworks between poker pro Annie Duke and Hollywood celeb Joan Rivers!

(Click here for a great interview with Annie about the CA endgame against Rivers, compiled by Dan Cypra for Poker News Daily. And here for Cypra’s interview with Phil Hellmuth talking about Annie’s showing. And here to read what Joan Rivers had to say.)

On Sunday night’s show — which my DVR failed to record, probably due to operator error…lol — country music songwriter/singer Clint Black was booted by Donald Trump after failing as project manager in producing a new jingle for Chicken of the Sea tuna. Annie and Brande Roderick’s jingle was deemed better, even though the word is you could put their musical talents in a thimble.

Then Piers Morgan, last year’s winner on the show, interviewed the four remaining players — Annie, Joan, Brande and Jesse James. Next thing you know, Brande and Jesse are out and the final — a 3-hour special — is on for next Sunday night.

I think both players have a ton of fans, but in the end the decision will be all Trump’s.

Uncategorized | 1 Comment »