Posts Tagged ‘Todd-Brunson’

June 29, 2010

(Way) Outside the WSOP – Day 33

A look back at Monday night’s action, with another WSOP bracelet winner determined earlier today:

Eskeland stops Sung, wins Mixed Event bracelet

The only bracelet awarded Monday went to Norway’s Sigrud Eskeland, as he defeated Steve Sung heads-up to win the $2,500 Mixed Event, earning $260,497 and the prized WSOP bracelet. Scott Seiver finished in 6th for $40,175, while Todd Brunson finished in 10th for $18,045. Full results and Nolan Dalla’s tournament report at wsop.com.

Davidian branches out into lead for 1k day 3

Manuel Davidian holds the chip lead (889,000) when day 3 of the $1,000 No-Limit Holdem resumes with the final 33 players playing down to a final table. Among the notables returning: Owen Crowe (610,000), Shawn Busse (432,000), Olivier Busquet (377,000), EPT winner Allan Baekke (274,000) and Scott Montgomery, winner of the previous 1k NL WSOP event (151,000). As noted in the comments, Richard Ferro finished 182nd for $2,589. Chip counts and updates starting at 2:30pm PT at wsop.com.

Zarbo leads after day 1 of $1500 NL

Day two of the final $1,500 No-Limit Holdem tournament of the WSOP will have 290 players returning to the Rio at 2:30pm with Giuseppe Zarbo leading the field with 156,500 in chips. Other notables returning include George Lind (96,400), David Pham (83,300), John Myung (66,300), Shane Schleger (54,800), Liv Boeree (43,400) and Matt Matros (36,600). The day 2 table draw and chip counts are available at PokerNews.

Schaffel leads 5k PLO

Day 2 of the $5,000 Pot-Limit Omaha resumes at 3pm with 2009 November Nine participant Kevin Schaffel leading the 172 who had chips at the end of level 8 with 178,900. Some of the returning players include Dan Shak (100,800), Annette Obrestad (73,600), Nam Le (63,000), Lex Veldhuis (52,800), Ben Grundy (48,000), Jonathan Little (41,000) and John Juanda (28,300). Full chip counts and table draw now at PokerNews.

Tuesday’s tournament

Only one tournament on today’s schedule, the $3,000 Triple Chance No-Limit Holdem event. Players start with 3,000 in chips, then get two additional “rebuy” chips, each good for another 3,000 chips to be added to their stack during the first four levels of play. Last year was the debut of this event, won last year by Jorg Peisert in defeating a field of 854 for $506,800.

Posted by at 4:30 am

June 28, 2010

(Way) Outside the WSOP – Day 32 Evening Update

Recapping Monday afternoon’s WSOP action:

Matusow leads TOC, resumes Saturday night

Another four hours of play in the WSOP Tournament of Champions Monday afternoon, with 17 players still remaining after eight levels have been played. Since ESPN wants a final table of nine on Sunday July 4, another day of play has been scheduled for Saturday, July 3 at 7pm. However, those plans get scrapped if one or more of the 17 are still involved in the $25,000 6-max event or the $5,000 Ante Up for Africa tournament. Whenever play resumes, Mike Matusow (85,500) will hold the chip lead, followed by Huck Seed (73,000) and Johnny Chan (68,600). The full list of chip counts is available over at wsop.com.

Sung slips into lead at Mixed Event final day

Ten players remain as the $2,500 Mixed Event went to dinner break with Steve Sung leading the field with 581,000 in chips. Other notables returning include Matt Vengrin (522,000), Scott Seiver (218,000) and Todd Brunson (145,000). Full chip counts and updates available at wsop.com.

Busquet leads 1k NL into the money

Day two of the $1,000 No-Limit Holdem is now deep into the money with around 200 players remaining with WPT winner Olivier Busquet leading the field with 185,000 in chips. Team Pokerati member John Harris unfortunately fell just short of the money, while veteran poker tournament reporter Mike Paulle squeaked into the money, finishing in 318th for a mincash. Among the players still with chips: Andre Akkari (132,000), Scott Montgomery (83,000), Antonio Esfandiari (65,000) and Carter King (42,500). The other person who Pokerati may be following Richard Ferro, there has not been any updates or in the results at wsop.com so he’s probably still in the field.

JP Kelly leading 1500 NL day 1

A field of 2,543 started in the $1,500 No-Limit Holdem, with less than 900 returning after their dinner break with Vegas/Europe WSOP bracelet winner JP Kelly holding the lead with 48,000 in chips. Some other notables: Roland de Wolfe (39,000), Theo Tran (23,000), Amnon Filippi (21,000) and David Pham (13,500). The money will be reached with 270 players remaining, with the winner earning over $600,000. More updates and chip counts over the final four hours of action over at wsop.com.

5k PLO underway

The 50th event of the WSOP, $5,000 Pot-Limit Omaha, drew a field of 460 players, an increase of nearly 100 from last year took the felt this afternoon. The very early leader is Michael Mizrachi with 35,000 in chips, with plenty of big names in contention. Some of those names: Greg Raymer (26,000), David Singer (22,000), Ville Wahlbeck (19,000) and JC Tran (14,000). The field still has four levels of play as well as their dinner break so catch the proceedings at wsop.com.

Posted by at 8:31 pm

May 29, 2010

(Way) Outside the WSOP – Day 2 Evening Edition

Here’s some of what’s been happening on Saturday:

Donkament Disappointing?

Day 1a of the Event #3 – $1,000 No-limit Holdem tournament drew a field of 2,601 entries today, a disappointment for those expecting a field of over 7,000 battling for this bracelet over the weekend. The 788 players who made it to the dinner break are returning shortly for another four levels of play. The unofficial chip leader is PokerRoad’s Joe Sebok with 27,000 chips. Other notable chip counts: Amarillo Slim (21,000), Chris Bjorin (20,000) and Bryan Devonshire, (17,500). Track the action for this event over at PokerNews.

First bracelet winner to be determined tonight

Just 18 players remain in the first WSOP bracelet event the $500 Casino Employees Event have returned from their dinner break, with Kent Washington maintaining the chip lead at 332,000 in chips. You can follow the action for this event over at PokerNews.com.

Players’ Championship Day 2

The $50,000 Players’ Championship field is currently on their one-hour dinner break at the conclusion of level eight with 90 players remaining. The current chip leader appears to be Steve Zolotow, with 420,000 in chips. Some of the fallen who may be looking to watch UFC 114 include: Phil Galfond, Tony G, and Todd Brunson. When play resumes, the field will play another three levels before the bag up their chips, sign their name, and hopefully don’t be recorded as busted when they decided not to report their chip counts. To catch the action of this event over at PokerNews, head here.

Posted by at 8:40 pm

October 4, 2009

P-List Celebs

It’s always generally amusing when poker pros semi-catch the attention of those charged with letting us know about celebrities showing up at various locales around town. Yesterday, at the Palms:

Former MLB athlete and manager, Pete Rose dined at N9NE Steakhouse inside Palms Casino Resort Saturday night (10.3.09). Wearing a white dress shirt, blue jeans and white alligator boots, he joined his friends Mike Bertolini (sports memorabilia agent), Todd Brunson (professional poker legend) and Brunson’s son Doyle. They gathered for a short while to enjoy some cappuccino, leaving a little after 10 p.m.

Todd really is a legend when you think about it … but didn’t realize he had a coffee-drinking squirt named Doyle, LOL. A little curious what they musta been talking about with Pete Rose and a sports memorabilia agent. Perhaps Rose is thinking about making a go at the Poker Hall of Fame?

Posted by at 3:09 pm

August 28, 2009

The First through Ninth Families of Poker?

Watching the latest episode of ESPN’s Inside Deal … Laura Lane had a question for Howard Lederer, about who would win between him and his sister vs. the Brunson clan. Though Howard’s non-committal answer shows he is definitely learnin’ himself some politics, it got me thinking … really, who are the biggest poker families?

Though naturally I see yet another Dream Team tourney possibility, there could be other ways to quantify the “first family” of poker. Off the top of my head — based on people who play at least semi-regularly and have had some semblance of decent results in biggish events — you have, in no particular order:

The Brunsons
Doyle
Todd
Pam

The Lederers
Howard
Annie (Duke)

The Greensteins
Barry
Joe (Sebok)

The Mizrachis
Eric
Robert
Michael

The Williams
David
Shirley

The Schneiders
Tom
Julie

The Nguyens (Master)
Men
Van

The Heimowitzs
Jay
Lonnie

The (Belcore) Zogmans
Dan
Mary Jo

More…

Posted by at 4:01 am

August 18, 2009

Operation: All In

MMA Fighters playing in charity tourney this weekend

MMA bad-asses Randy Couture, Frank Trigg, Phil Baroni, and others will be joining poker pros Todd Brunson, Lee Watkinson, Chip Jett, David Williams, and others to raise money for wounded vets this Sunday at the Golden Nugget. It’s a $330 buy-in (w/ $100 rebuys) … first prize is a $10k seat (+$2k travel) to the upcoming Sports Legends Challenge in the Bahamas. Karina Jett is the hostess — and if we’re lucky, we’ll get to hear Todd Brunson talk politics.

Come play if you’re in town. Good times, good cause, all that stuff … open to the public and no funky, disputable, optional-donation prize pool — just charitable poker the way it’s supposed to be. Click the image to enlarge the flyer, and below for official details.

More…

Posted by at 11:01 am

June 28, 2009

(Way) Outside the WSOP – Day 33 Evening Update

Recapping Sunday afternoon’s activities:

Mueller Muscling His Way to Bracelet #2

The final table of the $1,500 Limit Holdem Shootout has 6 players remaining after returning from their dinner break. Greg Mueller is the current chip leader (950,000), followed by Marc Naalden, Millie Shiu, David Williams, Flaminio Malaguti and Matt Sterling.

Erik Looking to put the 123 on the HORSE Field

Erik Sagstrom, an early Internet poker sensation, is the current chip leader (1,280,000) of the $50,000 HORSE with 31 players remaining. Ville Wahlbeck (775,000) is in 2nd place, followed by Vitaly Lunkin (735,000) in 3rd as the players take their dinner break. Day 2 chip leader Gus Hansen (670,000) is still in the top 10, along with Todd Brunson (610,000) and Freddy Deeb (560,000).

Hedler Ahead of the Field in $1,500 NL

Jason Helder (440,000) is the current chip leader in the $1,500 NL Holdem with about 120 players remaining as they try to play down to 9 before the 3am deadline. Notables with chips left include Men Nguyen, Cody Slaubaugh, Jason Potter, Owen Crowe and Vinny Pahuja.

Triple Chance NL Holdem

A field of 854 started today’s debut of the $3,000 NL Holdem Triple Chance event, with a field of approximately 400 remaining. No chip leader has been named yet, but the updates say that there’s a few players with stacks of 70,000 from their starting stacks of 9,000.

Stud 8 or Better

A field of 467 showed up for the $1,500 Stud 8 or Better event that started at 5pm, they have eight levels of play today, with the only notable casualty so far being Perry Friedman.

Check out www.wsop.com for more updates, and some stuff overnight from Pokerati.

Posted by at 8:28 pm

June 26, 2009

(Way) Outside the WSOP – Day 31 Evening Update

Recapping the Friday afternoon action…

Vallo Valuable in $50k HORSE

As the players return from the dinner break, Martin Vallo is the unofficial chip leader (245,000) in the $50k HORSE event with all 95 players who registered remaining. The players are now on level four, with three more levels of play scheduled before play ends for the day. Among the early leaders, Daniel Negreanu (200,000), Jeff Lisandro, (188,000), Patrik Antonius (175,000) and Todd Brunson (168,000).

Letting Ylon’s Be Bygones

Ylon Schwartz is the current chip leader (2,000,000) with three players remaining in the $2,500 Mixed Holdem event as they return from their dinner break. John McGuiness (1,200,000) and Bahador Ahmadi (750,000) round out the field. Barry Greenstein finished in 5th before heading off to join the $50k HORSE field.

Cantu Crushing PLO8

With 36 players remaining in the $1,500 Pot-Limit Omaha 8 or Better event, Brandon Cantu (525,000) is the dominant chip leader, with Tommy Vedes (225,000) a distant second. Other notables remaining: Lee Watkinson (70,000), Noah Boeken (62,000), Phil Hellmuth (58,000), and Randy Holland (46,000).

Limited Field in Limit Holdem Shootout

The late afternoon tournament, $1,500 Limit Holdem Shootout drew a field of nearly 600, seated at 64 tables. The round one winners play at eight eight-handed tables, and those winners will return on Sunday to determine the winner. No table winners have been determined yet, but expect some notable winners included in the morning update.

Catch up with all the updates over at www.wsop.com and more stuff from Team Pokerati during the evening.

Posted by at 7:50 pm

June 6, 2009

(Way) Outside the WSOP – Day 10 Evening Version

Here’s tonight’s action in brief:

Four left in $2k NL on ESPN360: 4 left, currently on dinner break until 9:40pm Anthony Harb and Peter Rho chip leaders.
Nine left in $10k Mixed Event: Doyle out 13th, Scott Dorin leader, Huck Seed 2nd, Todd Brunson 9th

81 left in $2.5k NL holdem, Alex Keating chip leader.
39 left in $2.5k Limit holdem 6-max, 36 get paid. Shawn Buchanan chip leader.

366 return from dinner break in $5k NL, starting field was 655, down about 80 from last year.
359 entries in 1.5k 7 Card Stud, Mark Seif and Tom Schneider among very early chip leaders.

More updates at www.worldseriesofpoker.com and Pokerati (maybe) during the evening.

Posted by at 8:19 pm

(Way) Outside the WSOP – Day 11

$2k NL and 10k Mixed Game conclusion, $2,500 NL and $2,500 Limit 6-max day 2, and $5k NL and $1,500 Stud Day 1

Another day, another two final tables delayed at the WSOP yesterday. Starting with the $2,000 No Limit Holdem event, 25 players return at noon on Saturday to play down to the winner. The reason for the early start is in the hopes that a final table will be reached around the scheduled 2pm time that the final table would air on ESPN360 (http://wsop.pkr.com for those outside the US). The chip leader when play resumes will be Mike Carlson with 858,000 in chips. Others people may have heard of include Jim Geary (511,000), and Jose Rosenkrantz (187,000).

The other event will definitely have a more intriguing final table, as the $10,000 Mixed Event World Championship is down to its final 20 players, all of whom are in the money. Huck Seed will be the chip leader at 645,500. In a father-son battle, it’s Todd Brunson (374,500) with a slight chip lead over Doyle Brunson (335,000). Other notables remaining include Mark Gregorich (266,000), Mike Wattel (210,000), Michael Binger (132,000), Eric Froehlich (102,000) and a mystery person who name and chip count wasn’t reported. They’ll get to return at 1pm, and with the average stack having just 10 big bets, a final table may not be that long in the offing.

In the two final tables that concluded earlier this morning, Ken “Teach” Aldridge schooled the final table to win the $1,500 NL Holdem 6-max event for $428,259, and Rami Boukai took down the $2,500 PLO/PLH (HA) event, which was worth $244,862.

More tournament news after the jump:

More…

Posted by at 6:51 am

June 2, 2009

(Way) Outside the WSOP – Day 7

Stimulus Special Conclusion, Day 2 $1,500 PLO and $10k Stud, $1,500 NL Holdem, $2,500 NL 2-7 Lowball

Finishing up business from Monday night before moving on…

The $1,000 NL Holdem Stimulus Special finished at 3am today with 50 players returning at 1pm to play down to a winner. The chip leader is Robert Comegys from Grand Prairie, TX with nearly 1.2m million in chips. Danny Fuhs is close behind, with notables such as Eric Mizrachi, Lee Watkinson, Dan Heimiller, and Jonathan Aguiar far down the leaderboard. More details will be available in my PokerNews recap later today. Today’s event is scheduled to be the first of over 20 WSOP final tables to be streamed online this year. The scheduled 2pm final table will be pushed back at least a few hours, depending on how fast play is today. Updates on Pokerati during the day today.

The $1,500 Pot Limit Omaha event finished their Day 1 with 81 players remaining, the exact amount needed to reach the money. Jason Mercier, best known for his success on the European Poker Tour, is the chip leader with 227,000 in chips, over 60,000 more than second placed Matt Humphrey. Other notables who’ve made the money include Eric Froehlich,, Dario Alioto, Josh Arieh, An Tran, Warren Karp, Shannon Shorr, Robert Mizrachi, and Kirill Gerasimov. Those players and many more return at 2pm today to play down to a final table.

The $10,000 Seven Card Stud World Championship ended after eight levels with 101 of its remaining 142 entrants remaining. High-stakes cash game player David Oppenheim emerged as the chip leader, with veterans “Miami John” Cernuto, Nick Frangos, Danny Robison, and Steve Zolotow helping make up the top 10. Others who’ll be looking to work their way up include Eli Elezra, Todd Brunson, Eric Drache, Erick Lindgren, Andy Bloch, Cory Zeidman and Phil Ivey. They also return at 2pm to play down to their final table.

The one event that was able to conclude Monday was the WSOP Champions Invitational as Tom McEvoy, the 1983 Main Event winner, knocked off Robert Varkonyi, the 2002 Main Event champion to win the first Binion Cup along with a 1970 red Corvette.

The preview for today’s events:
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Posted by at 6:47 am

May 30, 2009

(Way) Outside the WSOP – Day 4 Evening Update

First, some advice from the Poker Shrink to those in the poker media during the WSOP.

Day 1a of the $1,000 NL Holdem Stimulus Special drew a full field of entries today as the WSOP tournament staff issued a press release declaring the event a sellout at 6,000 entrants, although official numbers are slightly below the 6000 total. There have been rumors that a few spots are still available on Sunday to select individuals who wish to register. An earlier rumor that alternates were being allowed to enter the event turned out to be incorrect. The players will be returning from their dinner break shortly, with less than 1000 players remaining to play the final 2 to 4 levels today. Among the notables that have already came and went: Kevin Saul, Shannon Shorr, and PokerRoad’s Joe Sebok, Joe Stapleton and Barry Greenstein.

The 40th Annual $40,000 NL Holdem event almost has its final table in place, as they’re now 10-handed and return from their dinner break shortly. Alec Torelli leads a stacked table with 5,375,000 in chips. The remainder of the table features Greg Raymer, Tony G, Ted Forrest, Justin Bonomo, Dani Stern, Vitaly Lunkin, Isaac Haxton, Noah Schwartz and Lex Valdhuis (with his girlfriend, Evelyn Ng, sweating the action on the rail).

The size of the Stimulus Special caused a one-hour delay in the start of day 2 of the $1,500 Omaha 8 or Better event. The players reached the money just before their dinner break. Notables who won’t be heading to the pay window include Phil Hellmuth, Andy Bloch, “Hollywood” Dave Stann, Scott Clements and Tony Cousineau. Defending champion in this event Thang Luu is near the top of the leaderboard, with Layne Flack, Freddy Deeb, Todd Brunson and Pat Poels all still in the fight. Special congratulations goes to former WSOP TD Matt Savage for his first WSOP cash. With about 85 players left, the goal is to play down to a final table for Sunday, but don’t be too surprised if there’s a couple of tables who’ll get to return tomorrow afternoon. Check out www.worldseriesofpoker.com for more updates during the evening, and here for players to follow.

Posted by at 8:30 pm

(Way) Outside the WSOP – Day 4

Stimulus Special, 40K NL, OHL

The $1,000 NL Hold’em Stimulus Special looks to be a huge success, as day 1a appears to be sold out with at least 2,800 entered. There’s still some room for tomorrow’s day 1b, but it looks like that field will also be maxed out before play gets underway at 12 noon today. The WSOP Staff Guide projected 5,305 entrants and that has already been exceeded, so I’ll take the cheap win and take the over with a field of 5700 who will eventually play this weekend as the WSOP staff finds a few additional tables to put on the floor to accommodate the field.

The 40th Annual $40,000 NL Hold’em event returns for day 3 action today at 2pm with 23 players playing down to Sunday’s ESPN final table. Justin Bonomo will start action as the chip leader with 2,678,000 in chips, Ted Forrest in 2nd with 2,586,000, and David “WhoooKidd” Baker in 3rd with 2,367,000. Greg Raymer is the last remaining World Champion in the field, in 4th place with 2,287,000. Other notable names include Alec Torelli, Dani Stern, Matt Glantz, Isaac Haxton, David Chiu, Neil Channing, Andy Black, and Andrew Robl.

The $1,500 Omaha Eight or Better also comes back at 2pm today with 197 players remaining from their record field of 918. 2008 winner Thang Luu appears to have returned to his winning form, as he’ll start play today as the chip leader with 73,600 in chips. Other notable names remaining in the field include Phil Hellmuth, Annie Duke, Todd Brunson, and Brandon Cantu. Their final table is also scheduled for Sunday, although with much less exposure than what will be a mix of live and online stars of the 40k event or the WSOP Champions Invitational event, which also starts on Sunday. More to come today, with an update soon (?) if the Stimulus Special has sold out.

8am Update: Under 80 seats left for Sunday.
10:30am Update: 5,839 registered from Da Commish’s Twitter

Posted by at 6:25 am

December 21, 2008

RE: High Stakes Poker Line-up Changes

Day 3 set

Playing today are:

Tom Dwan
Doyle Brunson
Eli Elezra
Peter Eastgate
David Benyamine
Barry Greenstein
Ilari Sahamies
Daniel Negreanu

Posted by at 2:27 pm

October 23, 2008

The Real Deal: McCain or Obama

Poker pros make their endorsements known

I attended the grand opening/premiere/LV poker mixer for The Real Deal at the Venetian on Tuesday. I’m still processing what I witnessed — but I am pretty sure it was the official jumping of the shark for poker, as some 500 poker fans (including Tim Conway, Robert Wagner, Bob Newhart, multiple poker agents, WSOP officials, and the owner of the Venetian and president of the Sands, who walked out after 25 minutes) witnessed painfully how getting lots of airtime on ESPN, GSN, and Fox Sports comes nowhere close to making you a Vegas entertainer worthy of a $100 ticket twice a night, let alone twice a lifetime.*

*Exceptions: Lacey Jones and Vinnie Favorito were great.

Wicked Chops and RawVegas were there, too. And they took advantage of the red carpet to poll a few well known poker players on who they’re backing in the presidential election:

The breakdown:

Daniel Negreanu — Obama
Scotty Nguyen — McCain
Doyle Brunson — Diplomatic: likes McCain but “Obama is better for poker” (?)
Todd Brunson — McCain
Lacey Jones — Undecided: Worked in previous McCain campaigns, but “on the fence”
Eli Elezra — Filibuster: Obama “right guy for poker … but I’m a businessman also”
Gavin Smith — Obama
Dennis Phillips — Diplomatic Filibuster: House and Senate elections matter more

Posted by at 2:59 pm

October 1, 2008

Sci-Fi Poker

In a move that may or may not say anything about the state of poker on TV (or even just the state of TV for that matter), the show Stargate Atlantis is doing a little filming in Vegas today … at Planet Hollywood. Something about looking for a serial killer at a high-stakes poker game visited by aliens who hold the fate of the planet security in their hands. The Las Vegas pros at the table — Todd Brunson and Roy Winston(?).

Airs January 2 on the Sci-Fi Channel.

ALT HED: Extra, Extra!

Click below for the episode descrip:
More…

Posted by at 2:26 pm

September 8, 2008

Olympian Michael Phelps Asks to Meet With Doyle Brunson

Can we talk, legend to legend?

Michael Phelps made history at the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics by winning a record eight gold medals. And his comments to the press about wanting to play some poker in the future garnered much attention from the poker community, as in offers from the Asian Poker Tour and Betfair regarding the WSOP Europe. Neither offer was accepted.

It seems that the swimming legend does things on his own terms. Phelps recently traveled to Las Vegas with some friends as guests of the Palms, and one of his wishes was to meet Doyle and Todd Brunson and Hoyt Corkins.

Photo courtesy of DoylesRoom.com

According to the most recent post on Doyle’s blog, he received a call and brought his son and Corkins, along with Jennifer Harman and Marco Traniello, to meet Phelps for a dinner at Nine Steakhouse at the Palms. “What a nice kid!” Doyle wrote. “Phelps and some of his friends wanted books so I took Super System 1 and 2 to them and they asked all kinds of poker questions. Michael said all he wanted to do in life, was to eat, swim and play poker.”

Oh yeah… I can already see Phelps with a Doyle’s Room cowboy hat at the WSOP in 2009. Obviously, no deals have been signed at this point and Phelps has not accepted any invitations to play in tournaments thus far, but I can see an NBC National Heads-Up Championship and World Series in the kid’s future. Just a personal prediction…

Posted by at 4:45 pm

July 21, 2008

Cirque du Poker?

The poker shark just can’t seem to be jumped. While I don’t expect to see All In: The Musical on broadway any time soon, apparently some people believe that poker players actually go see shows, or at least that they are more likely to if the show is about poker. The Real Deal is gonna be part poker theatre, part poker tourney, part poker game show, with audience members interacting with various pros on stage via wi-fi at The Venetian. Poker thespians will include Doyle Brunson, Daniel Negreanu, Phil Hellmuth, Jr., Antonio Esfandiari, Gavin Smith, Eli Elezra, Jennifer Harman, Phil Laak, Scotty Nguyen, and Todd Brunson — guess they’ve got nothing better to do with High Stakes Poker gone — and surely it is only a matter of time before Hellmuth wins a Tony and/or The Producers will be brought to you by FullTiltPoker.net. No word on whether or not they plan to add hypnosis to the mix (“I will find inner peace and fold these pocket 10s”), but just to let the poker entertainmentpreneurs out there know, poker still has yet to be translated into any of the following:

Poker: the Topless Revue
Poker: the Pool
Poker: the Mechanical Bull Ride
Poker: the Buffet
Poker: the Surgery

Who says there still isn’t room for growth in this industry? Click below to read the full press release, and for more info about a show that will be sure to dazzle us in frightening ways before the end of the year:

More…

Posted by at 1:22 pm

June 13, 2008

(Way) Outside the WSOP (Day 15)

Happenings from yesterday with a preview of today’s action::

The two final tables yesterday have been covered enough here so on to the day 2 action. The $5,000 NL Holdem final table is now set for this afternoon under the ESPN360 cameras shortly after 2pm.

Seat 1: Anders Henriksson 311,000
Seat 2: Jacobo Fernandez 848,000
Seat 3: Rajesh Vohra 1,040,000
Seat 4: Ben Sprengers 441,000
Seat 5: Adam Geyer 645,000
Seat 6: Scott Freeman 423,000
Seat 7: Scott Seiver 2,512,000
Seat 8: Chuck Sklar 439,000
Seat 9: Dave Seidman 653,000

More after the jump:

More…

Posted by at 6:44 am

June 12, 2008

(Way) Outside the WSOP (Day 14)

What’s happening at the WSOP while I wonder if the new boss is as same as the old boss…

The only final table yesterday concluded early Thursday, and we finally got a bracelet winner that had won one previously. The $5,000 NL 2-7 KC Lowball w/rebuys event saw Mike Matusow outlasted Jeff Lisandro and the rest of a talented final table, featuring Tom Schneider. Matusow was down to 405,000 in chips with Lisandro and Barry Greenstein had the other 3,100,000 in chips when the dinner break began. Returning from the break definitely appeared to rejuvenate him, as he was on the attack early and often. Eventually, Lisandro eliminated Greenstein, but headsup was mostly controlled by Matusow, until he eventually won when his Q-8 hand beat Lisandro’s Q-9 and Matusow wins his 3rd WSOP bracelet and the $537,000 that came with it.

Final tables for today and other action after the jump:

More…

Posted by at 7:21 am