LOCAL NEWS UPDATE

06.02.10

FRONT PAGE NEWS.  We have moved a couple of bloggers, Ross Leitz and Joey Gross up to the front page in our effort to bring ya'll fresh content.  Ross is an invaluable supporter of our facebook page and a great writer.  BTW, please use that page for some of the quicker updates about tournament results and feel free to post there if we are missing out on a story.  Joey is a up and coming pro with a style that is an up front and honest depiction of life on the Poker Road.  Welcome guys.  We'll be adding another blogger or two in the coming weeks.

ALSO, OUR HEARTS AND MINDS ARE WITH EVERYONE ON THE GULF AFFECTED BY THE SPILL.  It almost goes without saying, but it needs to be said.  In fact, we are remiss in not saying something earlier.  A ton of ya'll, if not all of us, are impacted by the oil spill.  For some readers and their families they are feeling it right now in their wallets and in their lives... our thoughts are with you.  For the rest of us, it will be a slower impact but we'll feel it.  The oil spill near Mexico in the 70s (that was never contained and just lasted until the well emptied) and the Exxon Valdez have some scary lessons and are harbingers of a pretty serious future for all us.  Anyway, we apologize for not saying something earlier but hang in there guys.  Let us know if there are any events to help out the cause that we can publicize.

WORLD SERIES OF POKER UPDATE

06.01.10

OH BROTHER WHERE ART THOU?  Right next to me at the final table of the 50k Players Championship?  Michael "The Grinder" Mizrachi is behind on his taxes, but that hasn't stopped the Florida pro from finding the kind of scratch to take a shot at a 50k buy-in.   Nor his bro Robert Mizrachi (pictured) and now they find themselves at the final table. 

After early action they are down to six.  Michael is the chip leader with a little over 5 million.  Robert is the shortest stack with two million.  In between them David Oppeneim 4 million, Vladimir Schmelev 3.95 million and John Juanda with 2.3 million.  Good news for the next guy to go bust... payout is 341k.  First is 1.55 million.

Already knocked out:  Daniel Alaei (7th 221k), Nick Schulman (9th 152k), Lyle berman (12th 129k), Andy Bloch (16th 98k).  Yes, Bloch Chainsawed the min-cash which was just under double the buy-in (50k).  116 players entered the tournament.  It looked like 114 but Howard Lederer and Jesus Ferguson got in just under the wire when nobody was looking maybe the media were too busy playing in an online poker room during the action (can you blame them?).  The Mizrachis are the first pair of brothers to final table the same event since a couple of Boatmen (from England) did it in the early 2000s.  Here's a pic of the clan. 

JACOB NAQUIN STILL ALIVE AND IN THE MONEY.  We hoped his final table at the Bayou Classic was just a warmup for a bracelet in Vegas.  He's cleared the first hurdle by making the cash in event Event #5 (1.5k NL Hold'em).  Dwyte Pilgrim who crushes Donkaments is in the Top 10.  So too Adam Levy, Lars Bonding, and Chris Moorman.  Shaun Deeb recently busted, so too GCP blogger Shannon Shorr who doubled his buy-in with his cash.  A mere 2099 players bought in and 84 remain at the time of this writing.

LETS GO GABE!  Gabe Costner is mixing it up in Event 1.  With 18 players left Gabe has outlasted 4327 players (yes, 4327 players) and is battling recent Cardplayer player of the year Eric Baldwin, Dash Dudley, and Jeremiah "Good" DeGreef.  Gabe just lost a big pot to go from one of the chip leaders to a middle stack.  Great to see Gabe back in the money.  Keep it up Gabe! 

WORLD OF POKER UPDATE

05.27.10

NEW ORLEANS MAIN EVENT WRAP UP.  We should have gotten this up earlier.  Pretty decent read of the Main Event over at Bet & Win Poker Blog.  Congrats again to Fred Berger and everyone that made the money.  Also, once again thanks to the staff, dealers and tournament officials who made it such a great event.

BEER PONG PLAYING POKER PROS.  Doyle Brunson every year has a beer pong challenge and this year the brackets were even bigger as his site sponsored the event.  How long until they are running online poker satellites for this? Shaun Deeb, Allie Prescott, Trishelle Canatella, Adam Levy, Erick Lindgren, Hoyt Corkins, and Chad Brown all played.  Video and and a recap here.

WORLD SERIES OF POKER IS UPON US.  Need a schedule?  Planning to play every event there is only 57 of them?  Just hitting the 1ks or the 10ks or the 50k?  Go here for the schedule.  Want to know who the best player since the Moneymaker boom, Cardplayer has an interesting article here.

NEED A NEW CAREER.  If poker or the lucrative beer pong professional isn't getting you to where you need to be quickly enough Wall Street may like you and might hire you.  Want to know more go here.  

WSOP CIRCUIT EVENT HARRAHS NEW ORLEANS UPDATE

05.22.10

BERGER TIME!  Winning the title was the easy part, decapitating the alligator and wrestling back the cash he swallowed was the true test of Fred Berger's abilities.  We said Fred Berger and Michael Beasley might be the favorites if chip counts didn't matter.  We should have just stopped after "favorites."  Those two overcame large chip deficits and got down to heads up play.

Fred Berger, a Slidell businessman, and a WSOP bracelet winner bested Beasley when it was just the two.  Beasley was recently on an NAPT episode coming up just short to "Nessy" Selbst and Berger repeated the finale.  Our local favorite, Jacob Naquin got back into the thick of things only to have pocket queens best his top pair top kicker (AJ on a jack high board).  Jared Ingles got it all in on the first hand and unfortunately got out of there moments later.

WSOP CIRCUIT EVENT HARRAHS NEW ORLEANS UPDATE

05.19.10

A NEW CHAMPION?  The final table is yet to  be played and there are many things we don't know yet.  We do know one thing, when action completed EARLY this morning we learned there will be new champion. 

Jean "Prince" Gaspard went out in 10th place, bubbling the final table, and despite making a great run in an attempt to defend his title will give way to a new champion.  Friend of the site, Jacob Naquin (pictured) has some climbing to do but is our sentimental horse.

1 Keiley, Benjamin (Missoula, MT) 889,500 Harrah's NOR / 1 / 4
2 Corrado, Edward (Naples, FL) 576,000 Harrah's NOR / 1 / 6
3 Jain, Chander (Houston, TX) 522,000 Harrah's NOR / 1 / 2
4 Beasley, (Hollywood, FL, USA) 446,500 Harrah's NOR / 1 / 9
5 Berger, Fred (Las Vegas, NV) 298,500 Harrah's NOR / 1 / 1
6 Merwick, Joel (Omaha, NE) 262,000 Harrah's NOR / 1 / 3
7 Naquin, Jacob (New Orleans, LA) 183,500 Harrah's NOR / 1 / 5
8 Perez, Fernando (Mexico City, Mexico) 127,500 Harrah's NOR / 1 / 7
9 Ingles, Jared (Baton Rouge, LA) 126,000 Harrah's NOR / 1 / 8

Obviously, the Main Event is heavy in players with local ties to New Orleans and the region as a whole.  Fred Berger is a bracelet winner originally from New Orleans and Michael Beasley was recently on a televised episode of the NAPTV and might be the favorites if chip counts didn't matter.  Unfortunately, for everybody not named Benjamin Keiley chip-counts do matter and he's got a big lead on most of the table.

GCP BLOGS COVER THE CIRCUIT.  Again a shout out to Ross Leitz who did an awesome job covering the Main Event in his blog The Nuts.   Brian Heptinstall has touched on the history making event that many of us may have missed at this years circuit in his blog.   Go ladies!

Also, The Flip Side of Poker does a feature on the quasi-new rage in poker.  Rush Poker, a different perspective, read it here.

WSOP CIRCUIT EVENT HARRAHS NEW ORLEANS UPDATE
 

05.18.10

MOST OF FIELD TO COME BACK ON DAY TWO:

TOP TEN IN CHIPS:

OTHER NOTABLES:

ROSS LEITZ FROM THE FLOOR:

Field included Dan Walsh, Will Souther, Dwyte Pilgrim, Allen Kessler, Matt Graham, TJ Cloutier, TK Miles, Jeremy Gaubert, Tyler Smith, Kenny Miliam, Ben Mintz, Paul Prudhomme, Capt Tom Franklin, & Shannon Shorr.

-Tyler and Monkey busted in level 3.
-Shannon was eliminated just before dinner break. He had actually late registered after flying in late from Alabama.
-Kenny Miliam also busted just before dinner break

-Dan Walsh had to sit at a table with TK Miles & Eric Cloutier to his left all day.

Approximate chip counts before dinner break Another 4 levels after dinner.

-Dan Walsh 39k
-TK Miles 34k
-Eric Cloutier 33k
-Dwyte Pilgrim 32k
-Jeremy Gaubert 16k
-Matt Graham 12k
-Paul Prudhomme 43k
-TJ Cloutier 33k

Started with 22k. Play first 9 levels @ 75 min levels, 4 15 min breaks and a 75 min dinner break. Play will end at 2 am and resume Tuesday at 12.

Ross will have more on his blog later today, go to THE NUTS to check it out.

WSOP CIRCUIT EVENT HARRAHS NEW ORLEANS UPDATE (and online news)

05.16.10

"THUNDER" DAN  WALSH TAKES 3RD FOR A 5 DIGIT SCORE: Congrats to Dan Wash for weeding through that huge crowd they had last Friday to take down 3rd place. They had close to 500 runners that ponied up the $340.00...Thunder took down over $12k with John McNeal coming in 5th place for over $8k

ONLINE CHEATING SCANDAL AT UB/ABSOLUTE POKER: HEATS BACK UP  WOW!!!!! ...What a slap in the face to UB...I can here Greenstein lecturing Sebok, "Now Joe...I told you not get involved here and to be very careful not to dive in head first" see link http://www.skydivewithsebok.com/

Well...the UB encryption code has been hacked again and I am sure all the UB'ers are a little upset by it. The security folks decided NOT to use the SSL encryption that is used by all the other sites...as well as banks...and all other online security entities. This is the de-facto standard ...rudimentary encryption cods...as basic as it gets...and UB and their security people decided to use something else...beyond incompetent.

The folks over at Poker Table Ratings have it broken down for you here at this link...and we "Cut and Pasted" the risk levels below....SEE FULL ARTICLE

Risks Levels for Players
The below chart attempts to quantify the level of risk a player has of being victimized in each type of networking scenario.

Network Type Risk Level
Public Unsecured Wireless                   Severe
Public Secured Wireless                       Moderate-High
Public Wired                                           Moderate
Home Unsecured Wireless                   Moderate
Home Secured Wireless                       Moderate-Low
Home Wired                                            Low

Examples:

Unknown wireless network in college dorm called “Linksys”

Public Unsecured Wireless

Severe Risk
Starbucks or airport wireless, requiring login

Public Secured Wireless

Moderate-High Risk
School computer lab, plugged in

Public Wired

Moderate Risk
Home wireless network called “Linksys” or “netgear” not requiring key or using WEP key (10, 26, or 58 digit hexadecimal number sometimes generated from a user passphrase)

Home Unsecured Wireless

Moderate Risk
Home wireless network requiring WPA2 key

Home Secured Wireless

Moderate-Low Risk
Home wired network

Low risk
*It is worth mentioning here that a player who can be specifically targeted is at an unquantifiable but elevated level of risk.

 WSOP CIRCUIT EVENT HARRAHS NEW ORLEANS UPDATE

05.14.10

THUNDER DAN BESTED BY HUNGARIAN LIGHTNING.  Richard Toth of Hungary (Miskolc to be exact for you Hungarian geography buffs) bested friend of GCP, Dan Walsh to win the Heads-Up Poker Championship Title ($340 buy-in).  Notice in the video below, the GCP Hat (Mach II version) Thunder Dan was kind enough to wear.  It was best out of three with Toth winning the first, Dan the second and the third being decided by a heads-up cooler.  Watch the video for details.

Toth,  Hungarian Lightning, is quietly one of the best players in the casino at any given moment with over 1 million in live winnings.  He just missed a bracelet in 2006 finishing second for over 330k.  He won the WPT championship in Slovakia and took third in the EPT Copenhagen Championship recently.  The video below was by Nolan Dalla and posted on our facebook page by Ross L (thanks again) whose blog can be found on our blogs page.

LOCALS WIN ONE, STEVE GRANT TAKES DOWN $500+$50 EVENT.  It would have been hard for a local not to win as the 24 year old Grant played Joe Hebert of New Orleans heads up for the title.  They both outlasted Dwyte Pilgrim the most on fire tournament player on the planet not named Mercier or nicknamed the Toliet (Faraz Jaka--not a city in Hungary you Hungary geography buffs).  Pilgrim is also not more on fire than any poker player currently, literally on fire. 

Steve "Snackie" Danos went out 8th.  Danos, a Marrero, LA native is not be confused with reality TV star Snookie or recreational drug side effect Munchies.  In Sixth place J.R. Bailey, another New Orleans native, couldn't get his AQ to overcome AK postflop.  James "Red" Miller of Nostaluga, AL went out 4th for 7k. 

OFFICE PARTY FOR MICHAEL SCOTT?  Dwyte Shrute and Dunder Mifflin are probably ecstatic for their boss.   Actually this Michael Scott is not from Scranton but Tampa, FL and he doesn't manage a paper office rather he is a commercial real esate developer.   He beat Nancy Birnbaum of Atlanta, GA, in heads up play, who was seeking to be the first woman to win two Gold Rings in open Circuit events.  Gary Sixkiller (3rd, 8,5k) of Wylie, TX, Thai K. Tran (2.7k) of Houston, TX, Johnathan Westra (6th, 4.3k) of Gainesville, FL and Toan Trinh (4th, 6.9k) of St. Petersburg FL.

WSOP CIRCUIT EVENT HARRAHS NEW ORLEANS UPDATE (and online news)

05.13.10

JEAN-SEBASTIAN LAURENT WINS POT LIMIT OMAHA TOURNAMENT.  The Naples, FL man outlasted Trey Babham of Mississippi, five Texans, a Nebraskan and a New Yorker.   Chris Gamboa who had already won an event went out fourth.   His fellow Texans, Tony "Tekk" Seunsom, Denis Crowley, Peja Niyati, and Bruno Abechi-Arani also went out a mite too soon.

ANETTE OBRESTAD SIGNED WITH FULL TILT AND OTHER ONLINE NEWS.  This is old news but for some reason we didn't mention it when it happened.  Now that she is 21 and headed to the World Series for the first time we are confident she'll represent the online poker room well. 

-More recently Phil Galfond started a website with the "Sport Junkies" which is kind of like Poker Road.  It's called Pokerstatic.  Since Joe Seebok's dad and Poker Road backer (?) Barry Greenstein calls his venture basically a nonprofit doing a service to the industry it's nice to see Galfond is just as altruistic.

-Isildur1 made a comeback of sorts to Full Tilt's nosebleed games.  Just long enough to drop 215k.

-PTR has video showing it's unsafe to play on Absolute and Ultimate Bet.  Not sure if software has been fixed yet.  Story here.

-Shaun Deeb comes out of retirement to win a title.   Jennifer Leigh also won one.  No word if Deeb will follow Leigh into the pages of Playboy.  Both won during Pokerstars SCOOP (Spring Championship of Online Poker).

-Forbes Magazine continues to focus on online poker.  Pokerati has the story here.

WSOP CIRCUIT EVENT HARRAHS NEW ORLEANS UPDATE

05.11.10

WHERE DID THE TIME GO?  Or the updates.  Our apologies, we've been way too busy playing, handing out T-Shirts and participating in the event to cover it as we should.  Thanks to everybody that signed up for a T-Shirt and for those that have been wearing them.  We appreciate ya'll spreading the word about the site.  We will do one more day of free t-shirts and then announce our winners via email. 

Anyway, our round-up is overdue but here's the first edition.  Actually, you'll have to wait a little bit longer because we want to give a special thanks to Steve Frezer, the WSOP's incredible structures, and the fine staff at Harrahs, (especially the dealers, floor people of the poker room and tournament area) for making this one of the most enjoyable events on the local calender.

Okay let's get to it, and special thanks to the entertaining write-ups by Nolan Dalla that provide us with most of the background information below.  Nolan does a tireless, and at times thankless job, so if you get the chance give thanks to the the guy hard at work on his laptop in the theatre bringing life to the recaps:

EVENT 1:  CONNECTICUT YANKEE CHAINSAWS THE FIELD.  Ryan Eriquezzo of Danbury, CT won first place and almost 35k.  He bested 547 players en route to the title.  The final table included Morris "The Moose" Lewis of New Orleans (3rd place 13.4k), John Nguyen of Harvey, LA (7th 5k) and Allen "Chainsaw" Kessler (6th 7k).  A number of locals made the money, like Alex Wood and Philip "Quartersack" Walsh but didn't make the final table.  Good run fellas.

EVENT 2:  GAMBOA NO GAMBLE.  Houston native Chris Gamboa won 35k for first place in the $500 buy-in event.  314 entries fell by the wayside as the first time tournament player took down the entire event.  Paul Distefano of Plaquemine, LA went out in 9th place when his pocket jacks ran into pocket aces.  He  won 4.4k.    Two other Houstonians John Honeycutt (6th 6.9k) and Mark Gallagher (5th 8.8k) made the final table.  Gallagher has now passed the 100k mark in career earnings.

Vien Le, an accountant from Baton Rouge, made it all the way to 4th place winning 11k for his time.  Pocket deuces did hold in his final hand of his first cash in a circuit event.  David Moyer from Luling, LA was second best to Gamboa.  Moyer won 21k but lost his final hand when a flush completing heart hit the river for Gamboa.

EVENT 3:  NICKING THE SIX-HANDED EVENT.  140 players contested the six-handed tournament but only Jimmy Nickens was able to go home with the Gold Circuit win.  The Magnolia, TX native won the event and the 18k first place prize.  He beat Bobby Binsky of Hollywood, FL (2nd 11k), Kevin Hercules of Nashville, TN (3rd 7k), Larry Hirons of Arlington TX (5th 3.7k), and Elmo Mariathason (6th 2.6k) at the final table.  Local favorite and New Orleans native Tim Martin, wearing his well known Fedora, came in fourth for 5.3k.  

EVENT 4:  HUSTOFT HOLDS-OFF POT LIMIT ALSO RANS.  We didn't get much on this event other than the fact Steven Hustoff won for 8k and New Orleans native Quy "JJ" Hoang made the final table first in chips.  Hustoft is from Washington (the state... not the city, the district, the schools, or streets).

WSOP UPDATE

05.06.10

PHIL HELLMUTH GETS REVENGE ON ANNIE DUKE IN HEADS UP PLAY TO WIN TOURNAMENT.  Remember the prestigious World Series of Poker Event Champions event where Duke won two million by beating Phil Hellmuth heads up?  Phil finally got his revenge winning the Good Morning America sit 'n go and winning... a trophy.

SPEAKING OF THE TOURNAMENT OF CHAMPIONS...  Annie Duke, by virtue of that heads up win over Hellmuth, Mike Matusow, and Mike Sexton are all auto-bids to this years 20 person T.O.C. field.  So too is Joe Cada and Barry Shulman by virtue of winning the WSOP and WSOP-E Main Events.  WSOP is also giving away two seats, one to the Brits via WSOP.com and one rumored to be released to North American players some time soon.  They realeased the top vote getters, though voting still continues, and it's like time stood still when the poker boom hit.  Only guy missing Chris Moneymaker.

Doyle, Chan, Cloutier, Alan Cunningham, Sam Farha, Dan Harrington, Greenstein, Ivey, Harman, Hachem, Hellmuth, Nguyen (Scotty), Juanda, Lederer, Negreanu, Seidel, Huck, with Raymer and Hachem crashing the party.  No Phil Laak is a bit of a surprise considering the Magician also made the early list and the likes of the others taking part. 

CINCO DE MAYO POKER UPDATE

05.05.10

IP OLD SCHOOL WRAP-UP:

Event 30:  Bert earns it.  Local poker icon Bert Ladner took down the $200+$30 No Limit Hold'em event.    Ladner won 5.2k.  The next day he won one of the 10k seats in the freeroll.  He confirmed the 5.2k was traveling and gambling money for the WSOP trip to Vegas.  Take it down Bertel! 

 Josh Palmer of Daphne, AL won 2.2k for third.  William Holman of Headland, AL 1.5k for fourth.  David McCarty of Lagrange, GA won 1.2k for fifth.

MAIN EVENT:  Elliott Eludes Captain Tom.  Charles Elliot of Theodore, AL won the $2000 + $100 No Limit Hold'Em Main Event.  Elliot pockets 37.5k for first.  Linda Fredericks of Baton Rouge, LA won 12.5k for third and Kimberly Stone of St. Louis went deep again, this time winning 8.3k for fourth.

Captain Tom Franklin probably won the unofficial Player of the Series with his second place finish.  GCP's Poker Monkey had the most final tables but Franklin had the biggest scores.  He won a 10K first place prize plus a 10K WSOP seat, 5.6k for first in a smaller event, 7.5k for second in the 1k event, and 25k for his second in the Main Event.   All told about 57k in prizes and seats, headed to the good Captain.  Great job Tom!

IN OTHER NEWS:

TOM DWAN DROPS 2.5 MILLION.  He didn't buy a mansion just had a little run bad for the last week or so.  When Dwan decides to play online poker that's just a fact of life sometimes for the.  Dwan did log some more hours in the Durrrr Challenge (and the challenge of it now seems to be to complete it before the kid turns 40) with some positive results but got crushed in heads up play against Phil Ivey and others.  He's still up on the year, and finished up in April despite his recent swoon.

QUATRO DE MAYO POKER UPDATE

05.04.10

IP WRAP-UP:

Event 24:  Gulfporters win.  Ronald Schauer and richard Dodge of Gulfport win first and second in the No Limit Hold'em Tournament.  Timmy Blanchard of Pierre, Part, LA took third and Kevin Fazzio of Saucier, MS cashed again.

Event 26:  Moorer for Moore.  Rusty Moorer of Crestview, FL won 6.3k for first int the $500 + $50 event.   Tim "The third Wilson Brother" Burt won 3.7k for second and Donald Norman 2.5k for third.

Event 29:  Wendall Wins.  Leesburg, GA 'sWendell Arrington overcame Captain Tom Franklin to take down the $100 + $80 No Limit Hold 'Em event.  Wendell won $12.6k for first.  Tom Franklin 7.5k for second and "Everybody Loves" Ronald Romano won 5k for third.

IP POKER UPDATE

05.03.10

IP WRAP-UP:

Event 17:  Rad Win for Radford.  Richard "Rit" Radford of Ocean Springs, MS prevailed in the 200 No Limit Hold'em tournament.  Friends of GCP, Pamela Cobb of Panama City, FL won 1.3 for 4th, Kenny Milam was back in the money winning 1k for fifth, and New Orleans detective Bruce Little finished in the money in sixth.  Pamela seemed to be at a final table every time we walked in the room.  Same with Kenny.

Event 18:  Min Monkey.  In the Limit Omaha High Low, Arthur Mitchell of Pasadena, TX grabbed first and the 2k with it.  Christopher Hice took second and 1.2k.  GCP's Poker Monkey was third.

Event 19:  Chopping up the GCP Magazine Home Game.  Owners of GCP Magazine John Price "Is Right,"  Gene D and Wild Bill finished in the top seven.  Ricky King of Biloxi, MS was his usually dominating self and joined in the chop with Robert Dye of Ocean Springs, MS (and the Hard Rock Casino--great job Robert), and Ronny Sharpe of Dadeville AL.

Event 20:  Captain Tom Again.  Tom Franklin of Gulfport, MS won 5.6k for first.  Kimberly Stone, of St. Louis, MO continued her strong tournament (she also crushed some cash games) series taking second for 3.4k.  Harold Lockwood of Weatherford, TX enjoyed 2.2k for third.

Event 21:  Monkey Win.  Poker Monkey Will "Corey" Souther of Pensacola, FL took down the Pot Limit Omaha High Low event.  Bill Gladden of Ocean, Springs Florida took second and David Diaz took third.

Event 23:   Mounger over Monkey.  Rex Mounger of Wimberley, TX wins the $400 No Limit Hold'em tournament and pockets 5.8k.  Poker Monkey wins 3.4k for second and And William McBride of Florida grabs 2.3k for third.

ONLINE POKER UPDATE

05.02.10

FTOPS WINNERS BELOW:

SHANNON SHORR TAKES IT TO THE BANK: The victory was his in the $322 No Limit Hold’em ...Six-Max with Rebuys event that scored him close to $213,000. Looks like the largest prize so far...and the first with an overlay...CONGRATS SHANNON!!!! (You can read his blog bottom left)

THE DESTOYEEEEEEERRRRRRRRRRRRRRR:  Ben "The Destroyer" Mintz does a heads up chop in the $216 NLH Turbo event for a cool $76,000. The Destroyer is originally from Monroe, LA but is currently living in New Orleans. I am sure we will see him looking to "Destroy" a few of the upcoming Harrahs events

JEREMY "THECHEMIST83" GAUBERT OPENS UP HIS MIXED GAME SKILLS IN H.O.R.S.E: You "know the name"...and you "know the game"...or do you?

Yea...probably got bored winning NLH events and decided to show the world that he is in fact...a "complete" poker poker. The Chemist wins the $535 H.O.R.S.E event for $46,000...which was FTOPS event #15

EPT POKER UPDATE

04.29.10

FORMER LAFAYETTE, LA NATIVE KEVIN EYSTER, BETTER KNOWN AS 1SICKDISEASE ONLINE, IS CHIP LEADER.  Chris Moneymaker used to be the big stack and then went busto, now Eyster has the target on his back.  David Sesso and Nick Schulman are the only other Americans in contention.  Special thanks to Matt Stroud for the heads up about Eyster.

IP POKER UPDATE

04.28.10

MORE RESULTS...

Event One Wrap-Up:  Chop Suey.  Tammer Illcafas of Pensacola Florida wins sweet chop deal.  Sometimes it's better to negotiate well than do anything else.  Event 1?  Yeah, somehow we missed this one...  Kevin Fazzo of Saucier, MS, Wild Bill of GCP, and Ricky King, Biloxi MS chopped with Tammer.  Marvin Corzine of Denham Springs, Robert Gorman of Largo, FL and hometowner Evans John of Biloxi, MS also cashed.

Event 8:  Moorer Moolah for Moorer.  Rusty Moorer (Crestview, FL), James Ray (Pensacola, FL) and Poker Monkey of GCP (pictured with a rascal driver) went 1st thru 3rd.   Moore pocketed a little over 9k, 6k to Ray and 3k to Monkey.  Monkey is having the type of run GCP blogger and Harrahs dealer Darrell did a few years back at the IP.  More final tables to come in our recaps for Mr. Souther...

Event 9:  An Alabama Affair.  Sydney Farrell  of Kenner LA kept it from an all 'Bama medal stand winning the tournament and 4k.  Bj McBrayer took second (Duncanville, AL), Dustin Skarra (Mobile, AL) 3rd.  Oran Calton of Daphne Al was fifth.  Tyler Dixon of Baton Rouge 6th.

Event 10:  Peterson makes short work of field.  Joshua Peterson of Diberville, MS wrestles 2,8k from the 100 runners for first place.  Gerald Sullivan of Saraland, AL 2nd place with 1.8k.  David Jorgensen of Luling, LA 3rd with 1.2k.  Rodney Crosby of River Ridge, 4th.  Ronald King of Biloxi, MS 7th. 

Event 11:  Everybody had a senior moment.  Jerry Wise won the seniors tournament besting 63 other Buick aficionados.  J/K some of the seniors are some of the regions best players.  James Wampol of Wetumpka, AL came in 2nd.  James Berry of Braxton, MS third.  Robert Moore of Gulfport, MS, Rodney Reagan of Lake City, FL and Clifford Mathews Odenville finished in fourth, fifth, and sixth. 

Event 12:  All Ladies final table.  Almost from the start of the 14 player tournament.  Jodi Westendorf won 1.3k for first.   Sheryl Page of MS, and Romana Szmurlo came in 2nd and 3rd.

Event 13:  Fountain reigns in the cash.  David Fountain of Senoi, GA won 2.5k for first.  Eric Dogu of Gretna, LA 1.7k for 2nd, Arthur Craig, Jr. of Pass Christian, MS 1.2k for third.  Kim Stone out of St. Louis grabbed 805 for fourth.  James Miller (Auburn, AL), Rachel Boudreaux (Slidell, LA), Rusty Moorer (again) and John Landman (Chelsea, AL) also cashed.

IP POKER UPDATE

04.27.10

PHILIP WALSH, KENNY MILAM, RODNEY SHOWS, CAPTAIN TOM, AND BARRON WHIPPLE ALL WINNERS.

Event Two Wrap-Up:  Captain Tom Franklin won the WSOP seat and 10k in cash.  Pamela Cobb of Panama City, FL won a little over 6k for second.  Mohammad Moeini of Gulfport, MS third for 4.3k.

Event Three:  Barron Whipple doesn't know how to lose.  He took down event three the Limit Omaha High Low event.  Houma's own pocket 1843 for first.  Alan Roberts of Diamondhead, MS came in third.

Event Four:  Philip Walsh fresh off his profile in Gulf Coast Poker Magazine (pick up your copy today), beat Hiep Nguyen in of Hattiesburg, MS in heads up action.  Kenneth Carter, Dianne McKnight, Kenneth Rowell, Kimberly Stone, Randall Bloch, and Eunice Mitchell rounded out the pay outs.

Event Five:  Mitchell Franks of Tupelo, MS wins.  Poker Monkey bags fourth.  Chris Jones, Chip Ervin, and Dwayne Clation were 2nd, 3rd, and 5th respectively.

Event Six.  Kenny Milam and Rodney Shows both on our Who's Who page teamed up to win the partners event.  Milam fresh off his addition to our Who's Who page also managed to get a cash at the Louisiana State Poker Championship.  Busy poker player.  Hiep Nguyen and Thu Tran took second.  Rodney Bergeron and Kenneth Carter (Denham Springs) were third.  Chris Goodson (of Biloxi ) and  Kerri Dorsey (Gautier, MS) bagged 4th.

NEW BLOG UP ON THE BLOGS PAGE.  Joey Gross brings it straight up.  He is a dash of Monkey with a splash of Brandon Jarrett, yet altogether different. Give Making Moves a shot.  Welcome to the Blog Roll Joey!  If you'd like to join the best poker bloggers on the Gulf Coast and beyond shot Wild Bill an email.

DAVID WILLIAMS WINS.  This wasn't some toe-sucking competition, or some Magic gathering at the back of a comic book store, David Williams won the WPT World Championship which is kind of a big deal.  Eric Baldwin came in second, followed by Shaw Buchanan, David Benyamine, Billy Baxter and John O'Shea.   

IP POKER UPDATE

04.25.10

GCP BLOGGERS DON'T WIN WSOP SEAT.  With three of the final nine of event 2 of the IP's WSOP Satellite event, Team GCP couldn't pull it off.  Monkey and Reid G were unlucky in critical showdowns.  Wild Bill sucked out on Reid to stay around, he entered the hand with the worst it, they both hit a pair on the flop but Wild Bill turned another one.  Reid played brilliantly all tournament long and got his money in good as usual.  Earlier Bill wasn't so lucky when he crashed his car and almost missed the start of the final table.   He also crashed out in 4th. 

When he left it was three handed with Captain Tom Franklin sitting on the big stack.  Brandon Jarrett also went deep into the night on day one.  Monkey would cash later that same day in an event he was playing at the same time as the final table.  Once again, a great event thrown by Jimmy Sommerfeld and Bill Bruce.

LIV BOEREE WINS EPT TOURNAMENT.  Good for her, she's an underrated player, and though a Brit who probably doesn't appreciate Jan Hammer TV show theme songs, it's hard not to root for her.  She's not just a pretty face, and yes, we are not trying to be funny, she's also a pretty face.

WPT FINAL TABLE SET.  Scotty Nguyen and Phil Hellmuth just miss out.  The Toilet Faraz Jaka was also flushed away.  Shawn Buchanan is the second shortest stack but has a chance to win WPT player of the year if he wins the tournament.  David Williams and David Benyamine are separated by one 5k chip at the top, with Williams at 4.7 million and Benyamine 4.705.  Eric Baseballdy Baldwin, good friend of both Shannon Shorr and Jonathan Little is in the thick of things too.

POKER AROUND THE STATES

04.21.10

NEW MAGAZINE COMING... With a new look.  Just a taste to your left.  Go to our Facebook page, say you like us, and check out the full cover.  Ask for it in your favorite casino, dog track, poker room, salon, grocery, where things with the "As Seen on TV logo" are sold, airport duty free store, and/or a drive thru daiquiri stores. 

Big thanks to our sponsors, including Jonathan Little's www.pokerprochallenge.com, Cheap Smokes (huge selection of herbal incense), Uptown Computer, Rickochet Billiards, and Hardracks Sports Bar.  Frequent them frequently!

LOTS OF LOCAL NAMES STILL KICKING IN THE WPT $25,000 CHAMPIONSIP.  Issue two cover boy, Jonathan Little, hopes to duplicate issue one cover boy Tyler Smith's follow-up to his cover with a championship of his own.  Little has entered day 3 with 278k.  Little already won the 100k rebuy.  Read his blog for details.

New Orlean's Herbie Montalbano is at just under 200k.  Bossier LA's, Keith Lehr is at 190k.  Alabama Cowboy, Hoyt Corkins is at 90k.  Atlanta's Josh Arieh at 230k.  Soheil "The Maniac" Shamseddin from Houston is in the top five with a healthy and scary stack.   For current chip counts go here.

Faraz "The Toilet" Jaka entered the day in first, continuing his likely Player of the Year run, but has been recently eclipsed by Brandon Cantu.  Tons of big names are still in the thick of it, with live pros and internet pros equally represented.  Phil Hellmuth, Scotty Nguyen, Carlos Mortensen are a few of the live guys while Justin Bonomo, Todd Terry, and Yevgeniy Timoshenko represent the new blood.  Has the potential for a great final table.

The numbers are down for the event with only 195 runners playing.  Last year there were 338 and the year before 545.  Meanwhile Liv Boeree went to her home continent and found herself with a shot at the money in the EPT San Remo event.  There were 1,240 players to start.  That's almost 6 times as many but the entry fee is only 1/5th the WPT buy-in but in Euros.  Hard for us to compare the two because math is idiotic.

HARRY REID TO ENDEAR HIMSELF TO CONSERVATIVE ONLINE POKER PLAYERS?  Pokerati reports that someone else is reporting that, and we are reporting Pokerati's report.  Is that too tangential?  Get one step closer to the story by going to Pokerati right now.

ONLINE POKER UPDATE

04.19.10

BWIN TO BEGIN IN THE AMERICAS AGAIN?  The rumor mill is rife with a purchase, a merger, and or an expansion with our favorite European Poker site.  Looks like Bwin is poised to reenter our hemisphere with four South American countries on the near term expansion list and maybe even our country in the near future.  Online poker games will soon be more plentiful. 

BATTLE OF THE BLOGGER TOURNAMENTS ON FULL TILT.  BBT5 is a six week series of poker tournament freerolls.  They started on the 18th.  If you are a blogger and interested in playing go here.  Also, if you are a local blogger let us know and we'll get you up on the site on our updated bloggers page.  

FEEL GOOD RUBBING BENJAMIN'S ON YOUR CHEST?  Turns out people get pain relief from handling money.   Cash can make you feel better.  Does that mean if you win an online poker tournaments the virtual money will make you feel better?  Not sure on that, would we do know is negative experiences, physical and emotional, can be mitigated by handling real cash.  Don't believe us, read Discovery.com for more.  

SHANNON SHORR GETS SOME PRESS FROM THE SCHOOL PAPER.  Good profile on our latest blogger.  Read Spencer White's article The Cautious Gambler from the Crimson White here.

IF YOU AREN'T READING BOBBY TOYE'S BACKPACK THROUGH EUROPE ON HIS BLOG YOU SHOULD BE.  Latest update to an interesting and vivid journey through Europe for the local poker lover is over here.  Read and enjoy, kid might have a future as a travel writer if the poker thing doesn't work out.

JASON MERCIER RIVER STAR

04.16.10

JASON MERCIER WINS NAPT HIGH ROLLER BOUNTY SHOOTOUT.  He adds just short of a 1/2 Million to his lifetime winnings.  Besting two tables of six with some incredible river luck was the difference for Florida native Mercier.  Faraz Jaka, aka the Toilet, continues to be the second hottest player in poker, finishing third runner-up to the hottest player, Mercier.  Mercier had three miracle river cards in heads up play alone to take the winner take all prize.  Bet and Win Poker Blog has the complete recap starting with part one.

FLORIDA POKER THE FOCUS OF CARDPLAYER ARTICLE.  After the relative success of the Florida Millions (at least it was a success for Derby Lane's players), there is a lot on the horizon for poker players on the panhandle and below.  Read the article here and plan your vacation accordingly.

LITTLE LATE WITH THIS BUT AN ILLEGAL GAMBLING RING BUSTED.  Includes and an employee of the New Orleans Hornets as well as other residents of Florida and Louisiana.  Millions of dollars in cash and property have been seized.  Read here for more info. 

SPRING BREAK POKER CLASSIC MAIN EVENT UPDATE

04.14.10

DON'T F*&K WITH TYLER SMITH ON HIS HOME TURF.  Tyler Smith or is he Tyler Durden?  Whoever he is, he's a bad-ass at the Beau.  The kid wins the event and the seat, though a partial chop was agreed to before playing for the title, seat, and trophy. 

He's got two WPT TV tables under his belt at the Beau and a first and a second place at the Spring Break Classic Main Events.  It's his world, and you are just living in it. 

Don't let his Ed Norton nice guy act fool you either, one minute he is unassuming the next minute he's taking you to the woodshed like Brad Pitt. 

Oops, forgot...  don't talk about Fight Club.

MICHAEL BENTON OF LAFAYETTE FINISHED IN THIRD FOR $33,636.  Benton (pictured left) was bested by Chris Conrad, of Tallahassee, when Benton's AK did not improve vs. Conrad's pocket threes.  Ignoring the chop, the payouts were Smith 111k and Conrad 61k.  Probably closer to 86k for both. 

Pyke Babin of Gonzalez, LA (pictured right) took 4th for 26.9k.  Rusty Moorer of Crest View, FL 5th for 20k.  Ben Mintz  of New Orleans, LA won 6.7k for 9th.  Natasha Barbour, pictured yesterday, earned 4.7k for 10th.  Our man, Kenny Milam just missed the money.

ALSO, A BIG THANK YOU TO OUR MAN BRIAN HEPTINSTALL WHO KEPT US IN THE KNOW AT THE BEAU.  Brian does a thankless job so it was nice to see he took down first place in the nightly the night before the Main Event.  Congrats Brian!

POKER AROUND THE STATES

04.13.10

FLORIDA MILLIONS MEANS VICTORY LANE FOR DERBY LANE POKER ROOM.  This multi-venue tournament had a top five, all from one venue the Derby Lane (.. weird ...).  Congrats to Charlie Miller who finished first for 137k.  His buddies Alexander Gregory (does he go by Alex Greg), Toan Trinh, David Bennet, and Joseph Parish, all got over 60k for finishing 2nd thru 5th.  Read more here.

VANESSA "NESSY" SELBST WINS NAPT.  This is old news but it's worth reporting.  Other funnier poker sites have mentioned she likes girls, we wouldn't do that but good for her.  She did win 750k in the $5,000 buy-in Main Event.  Cliff Josephy, Scott Seiver, Mike Beasley, and Jonathan Aguiar all made the top 8.  Did we mention she likes girls.   

IN LITHUANIA ITS A SPORT IN AMERICA ITS BUMPED OFF THE DOCKET.  Lithuanians are now going to fund poker like they do other sports.  It's no longer a gamble.  In the U.S.  Hearings on online poker have been postponed.  Meanwhile, that hasn't stopped a couple of internet entrepreneurs fighting over who owns Mac Poker.  You would have thought Apple would have beat them both there.  Do you want to play poker on a mac?

RUSSIANS HOCKEY PLAYERS AREN'T THE BEST POKER PLAYERS.  They do gamble it up on the private plane of the Washington Capitals.  Alexander Ovechkin may be the best hockey player in the world but apparently one of the worst poker players on his team.  "The Russians kind of go all-in whenever."  He also cheats by speaking Russian.  Go here to watch the video

DON'T FORGET TO CHECK OUT OUR BLOGS PAGE.  We've added Benton Blakeman's "Tales of a Roving Gambler."  The Houston native and former Thibodeaux rounder has found success on the virtual felt as well as in the home game.  Check out his and other Gulf Coast blogs here.

SPRING BREAK POKER CLASSIC MAIN EVENT UPDATE

04.11.10

LOCAL PROS LEAD THE PACK : There are 20 left out of the 147 runners that jumped out yesterday. The chip leader is the Gulf Coast's own Tyler "Tydean" Smith with over $200k.

Not far behind is Ben "TheDestroyer" Mintz with $100k and WPT Champion Adeeb Harb, who hails from Long Beach, MS, with $118k  (left).  The Destroyer has continued his onslaught of destruction that he destroyed in New Orleans.  He is an up and comer, one of the last guys we said that about was Tyler, so that means something. 

(Destroying going on to the left).  Darryll Fish went deep only to have a sick beat laid on him.  The only female left in the field is Tampa's Natasha Barbour (right) with $63k.  Natasha recently took down a tournament in Iowa. 

We assume she was in Iowa for the tournament...  and not just in Iowa and heard about a poker tournament.  That would be weird.