RED SCARE POKER NEWS  (10/02/08)

THE RUSSIANS ARE COMING.   We know that's their old flag, but on a day when Russia announced it's building new nukes, capable of bursting through missile defense systems and pouring 3.1 billion into its military, they are kicking a little ass in poker too.  November Niner, Ivan Demidov is still alive at the WSOP-E but has fallen to second in chips, as play has gotten to five handed. 

Stanislav Alekhin is now the chip leader at 2.3 million.  Guess where he is from.  Canadian-American Daniel Negreanu is the shortest just shy of a million and John Juanda is third with 1.2 million.   Bengt Sonnert, a scandi, sits appropriately enough in the middle of this micro cold war with almost 1.1 million. 

For those interesting in intercontinental weapons, the new warhead, the Topol missile, traversed the distance of the Russian Empire, sorry, the Russian Federation, and hit its target on the Kamchatka peninsula.  Accuracy over 3730 miles ain't bad.  Putin, we imagine was pleased, Kamchatka---not so much.            -WB

EURO-ONLINE POKER NEWS  (10/02/08)

DEMIDOV GOING OFF.  The November Niner is in contention to be the first player to win his first bracelet before his first final table has started.  Think about it.  Ivan Demidov is the early chipleader of the WSOP-E with 8 players left having taken a massive pot off of John Juanda.  Daniel Negreanu and Scott Fischman are still circling and nobody is counting former Bible salesman Juanda out just yet.  This is Demidov's second final table, (but he first one he's played remember the Main Event is on a three month long dinner break) but he also has an 11th place finish this year for over 38k at the World Series.  Probably the new favorite. 

SENATOR ROBERT MENENDEZ HAS A PRO POKER BILL BEFORE THE SENATE.  Two important highlights of the bill include standards to prevent fraud and abuse of customers (finally) and thorough screening of online sites.  Pokerati has more here.

GENERAL POKER NEWS  (10/01/08)

NOVEMBER NINER IVAN 'DRAGO' DEMIDOV IN CONTENTION AT THE WSOPE WITH 13 PLAYERS LEFT.  John Juanda, Daniel Negreanu, and Scott Fischmen are also in the thick of things.  Juanda is the leader with only one player close.  Brandon Adams, Mike Matasow, Brian Townsend and Eric Seidel are recent busts in an end game full of Yanks.

GAMBLING911 KIND OF ARGUES THE OBVIOUS.  Still it needs to be said until our lawmakers get it.  Barney Frank, who has been a bit of a polarizing figure in the bailout discussions, continues to be a friend to poker.  He's gotten a bill to recognize online poker as legal through the House.  There is a lot of money circulating through companies coming from the wallets of Americans that is untaxed and unregulated.  Just a piece of this billion dollar industry would be a profitable portion for our federal government.  And while, we may argue over the merit of regulations or oversight, the Ultimate Mess is proof that these rogue companies have to answer to someone.   Read their take here.                      -WB

"I'M THE UNKNOWN STUNTMAN" CHEATING SCANDAL NEWS  (09/30/08)

RUSS IS ULTIMATE MESS.  Lee Majors played the Fall Guy on TV, Russ Hamilton may be playing him in real life.  Ultimate Bet is pinning everything on him.  The result of an investigation led by a former federal agent says Russ Hamilton, in his capacity as advisor to the software company that designed their platform, gave himself an ability to see his opponents' hole cards.  Russ Hamilton is a past Main Event champion.  Pictured to the left at a much heavier time, oddly enough when he got paid his weight in silver plus a million dollars for winning the Main Event in 1994 (the silver anniversary).  Wonder if anyone checked him for a lead vest.

According to this piece in Wicked Chops Hamilton is "a true piece of s**t" who bilked gamblers for over 6.1 million.  Though it is interesting to note Hamilton "advises against telling bad beat stories, dwelling on bad losses, and most of all, discounting luck as a factor (Tournament Monitor)." Yes, one should never discount luck as a factor especially if your opponent can see what you are holding.  You are just having a tough session and running bad. 

We will not be surprised if Hamilton played a very active and instrumental role in this scandal, but it seems a little too neat.  At every step during the exposure of the Cereus scandals the powers-that-be have sought to compartmentalize it to one rogue employee and deny a corporate responsibility.  This despite the report admitting Absolute Poker itself tried to cover up evidence of cheating.  Don't be surprised if the hefty Hamilton is just the tip of the iceberg.  Also, don't be surprised if you never see the rest of the iceberg.

Ultimate Bet, as you should remember, in a pre-emptive move, perhaps, is suing the software company, which may or not be owned by the same people that own Ultimate Bet.  Sue yourself before anybody else does?  Sorry for the confusion but check out our archives for a link to an article that tries to make sense of the corporate three card monte shell game that makes up the Cereus businesses.  Bob Pajich of Cardplayer has another great piece on the matter and perhaps the most informative here.  Also, 2+2er Michael Josem who helped exposed the scandal gets his due here.  Wild Bill offers his thoughts on the mess in his blog: DINE ON THE WHALES.

GENERAL POKER NEWS  (09/29/08)

DALLAS TEXAS, CHARITY TOURNAMENT FOR CANCER.    It brings out the stars like Kenna James, Kido Pham, TJ Cloutier and our favorite Pham, Young Pham, for a good cause.  Pokerpages has Kenna's take on the event: here.

YUVAL BRONSTEIN OF ATLANTA IS A STUD.  This guy has been on a tear this year.  At the WSOPE Main Event he and a ton of Americans are at the top of the leader board after day 1B. 

POKER GROWING IN EUROPE?  In an era of diminishing fields, the WSOP-E can say it's growing.  One player more than last year signed up and put 10k on themselves.  This refutes a study that says poker is no longer hip.  I wonder what killed the hip factor?  Humberto Brenes, Robert Varkoni reruns on ESPN Classic, or spelling bee champions that are homeschooled prodigies?  Got to be one of those things right?

TEXAS DOLLY TELLS ANNETTE 15 TO KEEP IT AND TO START LOOKING AT HER CARDS.  The king won their heads up battle 2-0.  Though he didn't say it, he surely thought to himself, "My daddy would be rolling over in his grave if I lost money to a 13 year old girl." 

WE ARE ALSO CHECKING OUT A STORY OUT OF LAKE CHARLES SUBMITTED BY ONE OF OUR READERS.  More to come on that.       -WB

WORLD SERIES OF POKER EUROPE UPDATE (09/25/08)

JESUS HAS NO LIMITS EXCEPT POT LIMIT.    Chris Ferguson headlines the Pot Limit final table that includes Max "The Italian Pirate" Pescatori and Sorel Mizzi. 

THE PROFESSOR HORSES AROUND AND BUSTS IN THIRD.  Despite a chip lead, a better nickname than the Italian Pirate, and some name recogniton, Howard Lederer didn't get it done in the Horse Tournament.  Phil Ivy vying for a bracelet that may or may not satisfy his prop bet (that he'd win a bracelet this year) depending who you ask also fell short at the final table. 

ANDY BLOCH IS THE NAME PRO THAT WENT DEEPEST IN EVENT ONE.  He went out 15th.  Kid Poker Daniel Negreanu was 24th.  Oddly the Euros are DOMINATING this event.  They are all over the money and the entrant lists.  It's a UK and Scandi party over there.  We'll try and figure out why they are crushing it as we also wrestle with the thought that the cut-off is the new button.  Poker makes our heads hurt. 

***This just in reader IMISSTHEOBVIOUS1066 points out, it's being held in Europe. 

Jesper Hougaard of Demark won Event 1 and Sherkhan Farnood of Afghanistan won Event 2.  We are guessing Sherkhan was never a member of the Taliban.  Call it a hunch.                -WB

Gulf Coast Poker.NET SITE UPDATE (09/25/08)

DOING A LITTLE HOUSEKEEPING TODAY. 

-We've updated the local Who's Who to include a couple  familiar faces that should be on there, but weren't.  Such as Rodney "Coach" Shows (pictured) check it out at: WHO'S WHO. 

If you are from the area and would like to be recognized please email us a picture and a list  of your accomplishments.  Send it to Wild Bill.

 -We are premiering the Tiltin' Texan's new blog YOU CAN'T ALWAYS GET WHAT YOU WANT and giving him a slot in our columns.  Welcome to Team GCP, Tex.  Here's our proper introduction as promised.  Tiltin' Texan has a great sense of humor and a sick streak in his game that will make his blog a fun ride.

His first story about the Punisher is an epic for anybody playing for hours with a maniac who has a ton of chips and keeps sending the rest of the players to the rail (in a cash game).  Did he finally snap the guy off or did he get punished?  Read The Tiltin Texan here.  We also plan to unveil a couple more blogs from local players, soon.  If you want a sneak peak check some of the guys linked off of the Southpaw Rounder's blog.

 -We've moved the blogs of Philly Tom and the Spice Rack down into tournament features.  They both have good takes on one time events: The Main Event and Coushatta's 7 Clans Cup, but haven't done much updating since then.  You can still find them there if you'd like to track their progress as poker players and to review their journeys.  And please contact us, if you have a blog you'd like us to link to that focuses on Gulf Coast Poker.  We might even make you a columnist.     -WB

BACK TO NORMALCY UPDATE (09/25/08)

POKERSTARS INTERNAL SECURITY HAS ESSENTIALLY  CLEARED POKER MONKEY'S INVOLVEMENT IN THE SCAM.  Jonathan Little and Shannon Shorr have also offered their support to him and this matter seems to be laid to rest.  It was a tough day for Will and we are glad this is behind him.  Go down one row for the link to the 2+2 thread.

ANNETTE_15 OR ANNETTE OLBRESTAD, AS HER PARENTS NAMED HER, IS TO FACE DOYLE BRUNSON IN A HEADS UP MATCH TOMORROW.  Olbrestad the youngest ever bracelet winner, taking the WSOPE last year, is considered a prodigy and maybe the best player in Europe already.  She claims to have never deposited a cent online yet is a millionaire.  She's also won a tournament without ever looking at her cards.  If you haven't heard of her, you will.  They will play two out of three heads up. 

DUPLICATE POKER, WHICH IS SOMEHOW LEGAL IN THE U.S. HAS. . .  DUPLICATED.  Carlyle Gamming has announced a launch date for their "twin" poker site.   Read the details here.  Going out on a limb, it's probably safe to say lawsuit to follow.          -WB

SCAMMERS SUCK UPDATE (09/24/08)

****MONKEY'S WESTERN UNION RECEIPT: WU Receipt

 LAST NIGHT A S**TSTORM BLEW OVER THE GULF COAST INVOLVING SEVERAL NOTABLE PLAYERS FROM OUR REGION AND MONKEY.   Actually the header should read, it involved several notable players including Monkey.   Apparently Jonathan Little, pictured, got hacked via AIM, and a fake Little, using that AIM account, got Monkey to wire him some money for a recently robbed friend in Peru.  Then that fake Little went about trying to get other people to transfer money on FullTilt or Stars to Monkey. 

We surmise the plan was for Monkey to take the fall and maybe once on the hook wire and forward the incoming money on to the scammer's friend in Peru.  It appears consensus is starting to think Monkey innocent and non-complicit in this scam.  His thought are on his blog with a review of the situation  THE POKER MONKEY.  Wild Bill also offered some support when there was still the thought Monkey was more than a victim at DINE ON THE WHALES.  There are a couple of threads on 2+2 about this, linking the longest one here.         -WB

EURO-KENTUCKY POKER UPDATE (09/24/08)

GOVERNOR OF KENTUCKY A DOMAIN SQUATTER?   In a heretofore unprecedented move, the Gov, a democrat with Chavez like leanings, wants to bar gambling domains like Pokerstars and FullTilt from the great state of Kenutcky. Forbes magazine breaks it down here. It's a head scratcher.  At this moment, it's rumored, an inspired Governor of West Virginia is considering hoarding the public school and library computers to keep his citizens from gambling online.  Sources say they don't know what happened to the computer but the governor will find it.  Sorry West Virginia.  Just joking.  It's Kenutcky that really deserves our wrath.

WSOP-E HORSE IS DOWN TO 13 PLAYERS.  There are some big names still alive including Hellmuth, Ivy, Lissandro, and Lederer.  Lissandro is the chip leader.  No word if he threatened any bad poker rappers on his way to the final table.            -WB

U.S. AMERICAN POKER UPDATE (09/23/08)

GOOD NEWS IN DC FOR ONLINE PLAYERS.   Casino City Times has a piece that includes the following: "With the congressional session winding down in Washington, some gamblers and online poker advocates were caught off guard when the House Financial Services Committee recently introduced, then passed, a bill that would overturn much of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act."  Read more here.

THE TILTIN' TEXAN HAS A BLOG.  We'll get him up on the columns soon enough and give him a proper introduction but for now check it out here.

THIS WEEK'S POKER AFTER DARK TO INCLUDE THE BRAT, THE MOUTH, CLONIE GOWEN, GAVIN SMITH, DAVID WILLIAMS AND PHIL LAAK.  Four out of six of those pros promise to be entertaining, three will be annoying, and one will look good.  The good looking one of course is Gavin Smith.        -WB

WORLDWIDE POKER UPDATE (09/18/08)

ONE OF THE SHELL COMPANIES THAT OWNS ULTIMATE BET IS GETTING SUED FOR $75 MILLION.  Apparently, "Cereus" is not the only terrible name for a company as Absolute Poker and Ultimate Bet seemed to be owned by a series of poorly named shell companies.  The mouthful that is Excapsa is one.  Blast-Off Limited another, as well as the more well known Tokwiro Enterprises, ieLogic, Iovation, and eWorld Holdings Limited.  These names are as suspiciously bad as the names of the Superusers including NioNio that stole thousands if not millions from UB and Absolute's customers. 

MSNBC has a pretty good article on the matter but good luck with the second half as they try to explain exactly who owns Ultimate Bet.  A matter of importance as the current owners blame the cheating scandal on the previous owners... who appear to be... the current owners.  As we can't understand who owns what or who is associated with the scandal some of the poorly named companies above may have nothing to do with this.  We think that was the point of their corporate three card monte.  MSNBC article by Mike Brunker, here.

CHEATING SITES BE DAMNED, ONLINE POKER IS SURGING IN POPULARITY.  Led by PokerStars and Full Tilt, this past month has been a record breaker for the two biggest US sites and the minnows.  Peak sessions during the sweet spot at 4 to 6 pm eastern, or after school for the high-schoolers before Mom and Dad get home from work, gets 80,000 players online at the same time.  Wow.

FORT MYERS UNITED WAY HOLDING A POKER TOURNAMENT FOR CHARITY.  Details here.

DAVE CAIN ,THE ENGLISH ZOMBIE, HAS BROKEN THE WORLD RECORD FOR CONSECUTIVE HOURS OF NONSTOP POKER.  Just as America ignored David Blaine standing on things for a week at a time, most of England has ignored David Cain.  Though it is a record esteemed as highly as most goldfish swallowed at a Gulp-a-Guppy party and twins playing consecutive hours of Duplicate Bridge... it is still a record.  Slightly less esteemed is Phil Gordon's record of 40 years of a boring infatuation with a way of deciding who rides shotgun when two people call it out at the same time, Rock, Paper, Scissors.  Nonetheless it was for charity so good job Dave.  I'll tell the zombies at Harrahs, who do it to get back to even, their record's been broken.

WORLDWIDE POKER UPDATE (09/17/08)

JJPRODIGY  IS A MULTI-TASKER, AND GETS CAUGHT (AGAIN) MULTI-ACCOUNTING (AGAIN), AND APOLOGIZES (AGAIN), ALSO REVEALS HE'S MULTI-TABLED AGAINST HIMSELF ON A FINAL TABLE.  Ignoring for a second the difficulty of multi-tabling a singular final table, Josh "JJProdigy" Field and many of his friends were caught and banned (again) by Stars for doing just that.  Pokerking has a good write up with the gory details: here.

TIFFANY 'HOT CHIPS' MICHELLE AND STEVE 'EVERY-MAN' DANNEMANN PROVE THEY ARE NOT FLUKES BY CASHING (AGAIN).  Dannemann made the final 27 and Tiff, as we know her, took 46th for 15k at the WPT Borgota Open.  Mark Seif, Nam Le, Ted Forrest, Big Little Nickie Frangos, and Chris Bell are also still alive.  Wicked Chops, a bastion of anti-ginger venom, has an update: Dan Heimiller is a strawberry shortcake.

ONLINE POKER UPDATE (09/16/08)

DUPLICATE POKER GETS 250,000th CUSTOMER, LOOKS SUSPICIOUSLY LIKE 249,999th CUSTOMER.  Taking all the best aspects of duplicate Bridge, which is apparently duplicating, Duplicate Poker offers a unique way to play Poker.  For more information, actually a straight up press release, head to Business-Wire.

NEW ONLINE RECORD POT SET, THIS ONE INVOLVING PATATINO, THE RUMORED ALIAS OF GUY LALIBERTE, FAMOUS FOR BEING THE FISH ON HIGH STAKES POKER AND FOR OWNING CIRCE DU SOLEIL (A SHOW TERRIFIED OF THE IMPENDING COMPETITION FROM THE REAL DEAL).  Laliberte won with a pair of twos.  Yes.  You read that correctly, over 600k with quack, quack.  Of course it involved draws that didn't get there.  More info at: Part Time Poker News.  

POKER UPDATE (09/15/08)

KYLE LEBLANC, THE BABYFACED THRILLER, WINS HIS SECOND BAD BEAT JACKPOT AT HARRAHS.  Holding QQ with a board of AA47A LeBlance was delighted to see his opponent turn over the case Ace (A9).  LeBlanc's bad beat netted him almost 12k.  Harrahs carded the kid probably 10 times but he turned 21 a while ago, and was able to leave the casino with his profit.

ALSO, JUST WANTED TO SAY THANKS FOR ALL THE WELL WISHES DURING THE STORMS THIS WEEK AND TO EXTEND OUR THOUGHTS TO WESTERN LA AND TEXAS RIGHT NOW.  We apologize for the lack of updates as we have had some computer and power issues but we are back running smoothly again.

MID SOUTH POKER OPEN MAIN EVENT RESULTS (09/15/08)

WE'RE FIRST WITH THESE RESULTS.  24 players bought in the $2500 +100 for the main event.  Soundgarden's Chris Cornell, or more probably a guy from Clarksville, TN with the same name as Soundgarden's Chris Cornell, too first.  Second was Will Recktor of little Rock, AR, third Gary Rouse of Gilmer, TX, followed by Rory Monahan of Carbondale, IL. 

That's only half the story though.  We have it on good  authority they chopped with Cornell getting about 18 k, Recktor, Rouse and Monahan getting 9+k a piece.  Don Nicholson of Oak Ridge, TN but not of the Oak Ridge Boys came in 5th and went out before the chop.  Therefore he got exactly $2,910.

WORLD OF POKER (AND ENTERTAINMENT) UPDATES (09/09/08)

THE REAL DEAL, A REAL DUD?  Even the positive articles don't sound all that promising.  Not really grasping the interactive appeal of this.  Pay to Play with the Pros at a Vegas show?  Cirque Du Soleil or Scotty Ngyun?

JAIME GOLD GETS BLUFFED.  Kind of an interesting thought process going on here.   KJ beats rags anyway.

JOHNNY DEPP TAKES $800K OFF OF ORLANDO BLOOM IN POKER?  This article is about some band owing him 28k in poker losses but it also suggest Depp fleeced his co-star Bloom for 800 large.  Wow.  Maybe Bloom won't be able to afford another Pirates of The Caribbean sequel:  Depppp channels Durrrr in his trailer.

DEVILFISH ULLIOT HAS A REALITY TV SHOW.  No it's not him singing chocolate rain (Yeah that's him singing ) but he teaches a pupil how to be a successful poker player.  No word yet if he lends the winner any of his mojo so they too can date girls his granddaughter's age.  WHO WANTS TO BE A BRIT POKER PRO?  And he's not the only one, a show focused on online high limit players is also in the pipe:  Pokernews.

WORLD OF POKER UPDATES (09/08/08)

DOYLE BRUNSON BREAKS BREAD WITH MICHAEL PHELPS.  Insert Dolphin, fish, shark, water puns and jokes here.  Doyle's blog is a pretty good read.  After dinner, he says Michael wanted to try and out-drink Doyle's son Todd Brunson which is a bad idea.  Todd wearing an Affliction shirt in the photo is probably a bad idea too.  Granted it's not like he's wearing a Miley Cyrus shirt but it's probably a brand that is a little too young for the guy. Go to :   Doyle on Pokerroad for all the details. 

Virge also has a post up where he too spotted the Olympian in Vegas:  THE LONELY ROAD.  And for those that prefer their news to be more salacious gambling911.com has a report of Phelps in a Vegas strip club.  In another article they suggest Phelps may join Doyle's room and that's the real reason for all the hobknobbing and if Michael was lucky the knobhobbing.  One of the gambling911 articles has a picture of Phelps and lady stripper.  No word if he got his SuperMicheal on or not during his Vegas vacation but it appears he had a lot of fun.

ONLINE LEGALIZATIONS EFFORTS CONTINUE.  An update on poker pages  has a quote which I think boils down the argument for legalizing the game as succinctly as possible.  Joe Brennan Chairman and CEO of iMega said, "You have a law that criminalizes an activity that's illegal online, but perfectly legal offline. The rights that we have as Americans should translate to the online world; there should be no inconsistencies. We should have the same rights online as we have offline."  Yay, First Amendment rights, the constitution and all that legal jargon.  Read more at Poker Pages.

ONLINE POKER UPDATES (09/06/08)

DURRRRRR DOES IT BIG.  Pink Flamingo Kid has a Wednesday to remember.   Tom "Durrrr" Dwan played in four $400k + pots and won three of them.  Try these numbers on for size $447,785, $474,949, $476,305 and finally $499,037.  For complete details Poker-King has it covered.  You might remember Dwan when Wild Bill was hypercritical of him a few weeks ago, The future of poker is bleak but for a better profile of him, the talented Nicole Gordon gets it done for Pokernews here.  Pic from pocketfives.com.

WORLD SERIES OF ONLINE POKER COMMENCES. TODAY.  18 days of action.  Ending on September 22nd and including a 25 k high rollers heads up event there will be a lot to railbird on Pokerstars the next couple of weeks

ACTION AUSTIN MARTIN IS ALIVE.  He's got a blog post up and promises more.  Since he's gotten a partner to help him out  we'll believe him, for now.  Martin, who once owned an online poker room is getting back into playing online. 

MATT 'CUB' CULBERSON WON THE FOURTH EVENT AT THE GULF COAST POKER CHAMIONSHIP.  That's not really online news but we still wanted to recognize him, Philip Totty of Albany Georgia (event 3 winner), William Jarret of Cartersville, Georgia (event 2 winner and do yourself a favor and check out his mug shot on pokerpages) and Houston's own Jeff Timms (you guessed it he won event 1).   Actually since the GCPC has been called off you can probably find all these guys online anyway.

WORLD OF POKER UPDATES (09/04/08)

POKER  PLAYERS, WELL DUPLICATE POKER PLAYERS, HAVE SPOKEN ABOUT WHO THEY ARE BACKING IN THIS YEARS PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION.  The Wall Street Journal has the details:  Duplicate poker players speak.

TJ CLOUTIER IS SAD HE ISN'T GOING TO THE GCPC.  Read all the details here at pokerpages:  Angry at Gustave.  By the way TJ has a myspace page.  Weird.  Make him your buddy here:  Social Network with TJ.

PHIL HELMUTH SPEAKS OUT ON THE IMPENDING ABSOLUTE ULTIMATE BET MERGER.  He also touches on the cheating.  Here's some spin: 

"The people in charge were so impressed with the level headed way that Leggett handled the scandals that they began to consider him for COO.  They knew that UB needed someone strong, with an impeccable record, to carry the torch forward and clean up the sites.  They knew they needed someone who had a huge commitment to security and integrity, so that UB could win back the players that they lost, and grow the combined UB and AP site into one of the top two or three sites in the world.  They watched as Leggett personally took almost a thousand phone calls to the affected players, and committed himself--and the site--to giving players a safe and secure environment to play online poker."

Hmm, being a phone jockey qualifies you for COO?  There's more to Phil's thoughts, also on pokerpages: Phil's Rantings and snubbed by Serinda Swan

GULF COAST UPDATES (09/03/08)

GULF COAST POKER CHAMPIONSHIP HAS BEEN CANCELED, FOR NOW.  Pokerpages has reported the tournament is canceled, for now.  We hope to get in touch with Johnny Grooms to get a more in-depth statement.

However, the Gulf Coast Casinos have been cleared to reopen by Mississippi.  We will have info on the Louisiana casinos as it becomes available to us.  If you still have power we understand that none of the online casinos went down for the count, though there are a couple of sites we wished got hammered (the servers not the people). 

DENNIS PHILLIPS HIRES THE ORACLE ROY WINSOTN AS A POKER COACH.   This is bad news for the chip leader of the WSOP Main Event.  Here's why:  Wild Bill's take on the November Nine.  In short, cameras will be trained on the guys that did the training and not the truck driver with a mound of chips at the final table.

OUR THOUGHTS GO OUT TO OUR FRIENDS IN HOUMA, GRAND ISLE AND THE LOWER PARISHES. As many of you know GeneD, Southpaw Rounder and several friends/contributors of the site are Houma natives.  We hope when they get back they find things as they left them.  Also, with all the foul weather Gustave brought in-land our thoughts and prayers are also going out to our friends in Baton Rouge and points north. 

HURRICANE REPRIEVE UPDATES (09/02/08)

GUSTAVE DRENCHES MOST OF THE COAST.  We hope that everybody made it out alright and that your families and homes are safe and sound.   The Gulf Coast Poker Championship is on hold.  Stay tuned to the Beau for the latest updates.  They have a letter from their President George Corchis up on their site right now at:  THE BEAU.

EVACUATED AND BORED, WILD BILL LOOKS AT NEW POKER PRODUCTS THAT ARE GAG GIFTS AT BEST.  Check it out at DINE ON THE WHALES.

CHEATERS SUCK, ABSOLUTE MESS.  Interesting read at Gambling 911: Better Ways to Spend Ill Gotten Gains .  Staying with Gambling 911 BoDog is unraveling a bit, too.  You might know them as Cake Poker: Calvin Ayre is a Millionaire.