WORLDWIDE NEWS ROUNDUP

02.16.10

POKER DOMAIN WORTH A MILLION.  Poker.org was recently sold for the small price of 1 MILLION dollars.  Pokercompany.com bought the domain address.  The previous record for .org sale was 198k (engineering.org).  Sex.com sold for 14 million and holds the record for any domain address.  Poker, Sex, and engineering like three peas in a pod.

POKERSTARS 40 BILLION HAND CELEBRATION CONTINUES.  Like the federal deficit, the millions of hands dealt at Pokerstars just keep multiplying upward.  To honor the fact they are about to deal their 40 Billionth hand they are having a promotion or two.  Read about it here.

IRISH POKER OPEN.  How to get there?  Plenty of ways on bwin according to their poker blog.  Try your hand at the Bounty Hunter, the Lucky Steps, and the Winter Sit 'n Go decatholn.

DOYLE BRUNSON ANSWERS HIS CHEATING CHARGES.  And by charges we mean the vitriol that followed a Cardplayer article in the comments section.  Doyle also discusses his recent 25 to 30 hours in a dental chair.  He doesn't say which is worse, but we'd imagine it was the attack on his character rather than the reworking of his pearly whites.  Read Doyle's blog here.

CHAINSAW KESSLER CALLS OUT HOLLYWOOD DAVE FOR MULTI-ACCOUNTING.  2+2 is aflutter with the comings and goings of two of their favorite targets aiming their sights at one another.  For the thread go here.

SAINTS LINKS

02.14.10

JUST ANOTHER INTERLUDE IN THE WAKE OF FAT TUESDAY AND LOMBARDI GRAS...

DREW BREES HAS A BIRTHMARK ON HIS FACE.  Somebody forgot to tell Oprah Winfrey.  Watch the extremely, gruesome and uncomfortable video here.  Don't blink it's right when he walks on stage.  Maybe a producer or stage hand or one of her thousands of employees could have tipped the Big O off.

A BUFFET FOR THE SAINTS.  Did anybody think Jimmy Buffet had turned traitor when he bought a piece of the Dolphins?  Well he hadn't.  Now Miami is calling the Saints fan a traitor to that team for donning the Black and Gold at the Superbowl.  Read here for more.

TOURNAMENT  UPDATE

02.12.10

TIM "MISSIPPIMACHINE" BURT TAKES DOWN AN OMAHA HI/LO EVENT AT THE VENETIAN:  Missippimachine is running good out in Vegas with a win in the $550.00 buy-in Omaha H/L for over $15k. A solid mixed game player...he bested right at 100 runners last week. Way to go Tim!!!

DARRYLL "FISH" FISH MAKES A FINAL TABLE AT THE LA POKER CLASSIC : Fish finishes 7th place in a $1k buy-in NLH out in Los Angeles at the LA Poker Classic. He takes home almost right at $7k in a tourney with over 200 runners...and was at a tough final table with Jacob "Bazeman" Baseley who takes 2nd place for over $32k...Mike Leah takes gets 4th for close to $15k...Sorel "Imper1um" Mizzi takes 6th place for over $9k. Good Luck in the rest of the tourney Fish!!!!

BACK TO POKER UPDATE

02.11.10

PAUL WASICKA BEATS A STACKED FINAL TABLE IN TUNICA.  Wasicka, best remembered for being the guy Jaime Gold goaded last as well as being the far better player in that World Series of Poker Main Event added another tournament win to his resume.  You may remember he's also won the NBC Heads Up Challenge. 

Wasicka  (pictured right from WSOP TwitPics) entered the final table with 25% of the chips and then proceeded to outlast Carter Phillips, Matt Stout, and Dwyte Pilgrim.  Wasicka has recently undergone some poker coaching from positive thinker and mind-set coach Sam Chauhan who has helped out Antonio Esfandiari, Gavin Smith and Josh Arieh.

JEFF MADSEN WON A TOURNAMENT TOO.  We can't compete with Wicked Chops write up so why try.  Read about Madsen's victory here.  Like Wasicka, Madsen also had a decent showing at the PCA so it's only natural they followed their victories up with a win back on the homeland.

TOM DWAN EXPANDS LEAD IN DURRRR CHALLENGE.  Stop yawning, stop rubbing your eyes in disbelief, the Challenge isn't dead yet, it's only mortally wounded.  Patrik Antonius is now 1.3 million behind with 64% of the challenge completed.  Is there time enough for him to catch Dwan?  Read all about it at the Bet and Win Poker Blog.

SPEAKING OF ANTONIUS.  The big guy has a sit down with Cardplayer magazine.  Read it here.

ALABAMA HOME GAME RAIDED.  AL.com has the news here.  Sounds like it was a little more than a home game with 72 players present and the location rumored to be an Elks lodge.

HAVING TROUBLE GETTING MONEY ONLINE?  Seems Visa and Mastercard are making things a little more difficult as far as depositing money goes.  PokerNewsDaily has the nitty gritty details here.

SAINTS SUPERBOWL SUNDAY INTERLUDE

02.07.10

OUR APOLOGIES TO COWBOYS, FALCONS, TITANS, TEXANS, DOLPHINS, BUCS, RAMS, AND OTHER FANS (INCLUDING POKER PURISTS) FOR THIS LINK DUMP TO THE SAINTS BUT....   it is Superbowl Sunday and half of Who Dat Nation is in Miami (the other half in the quarter) so we have to address the New Orleans Saints a little bit back to Poker ONLY tomorrow... okay?  Let's do one better than Saints super fan Darvin Moon's (pictured) second place finish at the main event.

HERE'S A NIBLET OR TWO ABOUT POKER FIRST.  Have to stay true to our website...  ESPN recap of Hoyt Corkins championship here also final tabler Dan O'Brien's Sleepless in Biloxi blog on Pokerroad here.  Also, a tale of Mel Gibson at the poker table.  Sounds like he'd be a better online poker player than live.

NOW ONTO THE SAINTS...

-Can the Saints save New Orleans?  Newsweek states that the Saints deep run puts $100 in every fan's wallet and heals mental wounds from five years ago.  Believe it or not, right chere.

-Last time the Saints fans felt like they were going to win no matter the foe or the spectacle was the Post Katrina game.  In honor of that no way we can be defeated spirit lyrics to the Green Day and U2 collaboration "The Saints are Coming," right chere.

-Wall Street Journal's take on the region taking a week off in honor of the Super Bowl right chere.

-Bet the Superbowl lines, moneyline, prop bets, half time, punts whatever at bwin where any all sports betting can be made.

-ESPN's Rick Reilly's Saints and the Mannings article right chere.  Good thing Rick knows who to pull for even if Cooper and Archie have to pull for the bad guys.

-Do you care Who is playing at halftime.  Us neither.  Care about halftime at all?  Not this year, huh.  Well, here's a half-time article right chere with some tips for today.

-Unlike say overtime vs. the Vikings, it's better to lose the opening coin toss than to win.  That and some other stats right chere on Yahoo!

-This guy didn't know what he was talking about.  Super bowl between the Saints and the Colts highly unlikely.  Really?  Read CBS's take in November right chere.

-There would be no Saints if there was no Superbowl.  Finally, the Saints are in it, read the Washington Times interesting NFL history lesson right chere and the role of Louisiana congressmen in the creation of the world's biggest sporting event.

LADIES NIGHT

02.03.10

TWITTERIN' ABOUT POKER.  A good recap at Pokernewsdaily including Doyle Brunson suggesting English food isn't fit for his dog, Rafe Furst offering a 10k donation to charity to anybody that can help him get his hands on an iPad, and mentions two Florida girls; Vanessa Ruosso and our own blogger Jena Delk.  Oh yeah, the Brunson tweet gets some heat from Daniel Negreanu and a war of words ensues.  Read here for more.

LADIES OF POKER NOW FACES OF POKER AND POKER FACE SUCCESS.  First off Lady Gaga's poker face won a couple of Grammies and inspired Rush Limbaugh to dance (or convulse like an addict short on pills) that has to be seen to be believed.  CNN reports:  Lacy Jones new face of a Poker Tour.  Eric Shoenberg is called sey by a gambling site (newsflash huh?).  UB Poker Pro Liv Boeree has a Maxim photo shoot (pic above, google is your friend for the rest)..

WORLDWIDE NEWS ROUNDUP

02.02.10

MAN ROBS LOCAL CASINO POKER ROOM.  In Coconut Creek Seminole Casino poker room players got a little more than they expected last Friday when a man walked in with a gun and walked out with a couple thousand dollars in cash.  He wasn't wearing a mask and got into a Cadillac.  It's probably pretty likely they have some cameras you think.  Read here for complete details.  This guy is probably already caught if not he will be in a couple of days.

ALABAMA GAMBLING ISSUES.  Blogger Brian Heptinstall covers the situation much better in his blog, which can be read at FLOPPIN' ACES.  For another perspective also from the Gambling Times, like the robbery story above, go here.  

DURRRR CHALLENGE LIKE GROUNDHOGS DAY SEEMS TO POP UP ONCE A YEAR.  At one point it looked like the Doyle Death prop bet would be settled before the challenge, now it looks a Tom Dwan death bet might be realized before Patrik Antonius and Durrrr finish things.  However, after two successive days of play Dwan has eked out a million dollar lead.  With almost 32,000 hands out of the 50,000 played that's 64% folks, Patrik probably needs to cut into the wunderkind's lead a bit.  Cardplayer has hand specifics here.

MICHAEL PHELPS DIPS HIS TOE IN FOR ANOTHER RUN AT POKER.  The swimmer showed up in Atlantic City and played in the 2k heads up championship.  Along the way he lost to Jeff Madsen and beat Paul Wasicka, more details here.

WSOP TO GO HOLLYWOOD.  Carbonpoker blog is reporting that the World Series of Poker is considering moving from the Rio to the newly purchased (by Harrahs) Planet Hollywood Casino.  Read here for more.

EURO POKER CONSOLIDATION IN ADVANCE OF U.S. LIFTING ONLINE POKER BAN.  The supposed merger between Party and bwin could set off a chain effect of mergers.  European online poker sites are certainly gearing up for competing with the American giants and part of that means having a massive player list.   Last year was a banner year for bwin with shares rising by over 300%.  For more information go to Reuters.

TOURNAMENTS TODAY

01.29.10

CHAD BROWN TOURNAMENT IN NORTH FLORIDA.  50k guaranteed at the Orange Park Kennel Club.  Buy in is $880.  They expect 120 players.  Deep stacks for the two day event.  Brown, his wife Vanessa Ruosso, and other pros will be there too.  For more information go here.

ACADIANA POKER SERIES TONIGHT!  It's the other way on the Gulf Coast in Lafayette, LA.  Scroll down for details in this column.  You should have one of our emails in your inbox with all the info (and for those of you not on the list email Wild Bill to get on there).  You can check out their site here:  Acadiana Series of Poker. 

POKER AND SAINTS UPDATE

01.29.10

HOYT CORKINS WINS ANOTHER WPT TITLE.  He might have been the most feared player at the table, he also came in with the big stack and despite some hiccups he was able to justify those fears and prevail as the WPT champion in Biloxi.  The Alabama cowboy took down the title outlasting GCP Magazine cover boy Tyler Smith.  Congrats Hoyt.

 The first place finish takes him to just under 5 million in lifetime winnings.  Hoyt won 713k.  Tyler Smith had a bad run of 18 hands and despite coming to the final table number two in chips was the first player eliminated.

Jonathan Kantor of Tulsa Oklahoma made 366k for 2nd.  Jerry Van Strydonck almost 200k for 3rd, Jared Jaffee over 135k for 4th, James Reed of Newnan GA 106k for 5th, and Tyler Smith pulled down 86k.

LAST MINUTE REMINDER.   Folks if you haven't had the chance to try out the Acadiana Series of Poker make sure you do this year.  The Small Town Poker Tour does a great job organizing the event and the United Way has run a first class charity event for four years running.  Anyway, details on their page... tournament is tomorrow. 

Get down to the CajunDome in Lafayette, LA and play a little poker for a good cause.  Look for our email blasts with more details (and for those of you not on the list email Wild Bill to get on there).  Also, check out their site here:  Acadiana Series of Poker. 

CAKE POKER ADMITS TO BEING THE OWNERS OF TJ CLOUTIER'S BRACELET.  Not sure why Cake Poker wanted the bracelet but it does appear they've done the decent thing and returned it to TJ.

RUSH POKER.  Sofa King We Todd Did, Baton Rouge blogger did play some Rush Poker and despite some early downs ended up being a fan, a big, big fan.  Read his thoughts here.

UNFORTUNATELY NAMED ANURAG DIKSHIT SELLS REMAINDER OF HIS PARTYGAMING SHARES.  That's PartyPoker for those not in the know.  They are in the middle of talks, allegedly, of a merger with bwin to set up a European Poker/Gambling juggernaut.  Competition is a good thing so let's get some of these Euro sites open for American online poker players to try.  Lawmakers are you listening?

GOTTA HAVE SOME SUPER BOWL/SAINTS /SPORTS LINKS.  First off check out the video on Reid G's blog and take a gander at some of these other articles below: 

*The NFL is claiming they own the phrase "Who Dat" and essentially any Fleur-de-Lis paired with it.  As both predate the existence of the league and as you know we have a modified fleur-de-lis as our logo, the Acadiana Series of Poker too, and many local business use a fleur-de-lis we basically think the No Fun League can go No Fun itself.  Houma Today has a story here.

*Reggie Bush's lady friend Kim Kardashian will be traveling in a pimped out Brinks truck to the Super Bowl parties in Miami.  Wonder if it's the same truck USC backed up to his house when he signed his first pro contract (er... commitment) to play there.  Go here to see it.

*The internet is also abuzz about this Saints fan and another shot also here. 

*This isn't Saints related but it is sportsy so we'll stick it here.  We recently told you about Angelina Jolie's anti-New Orleans comments but this former NBA stiff and now fired ESPN writer goes a tad bit further.  After trashing Haiti and its people he uses Katrina and New Orleans as an equally bad comparison.  He says...

 "We did the same after Hurricane Katrina,  We were quick to vilify humans who were too slow to respond to the needs of victims, forgetting that the victims had built and maintained a major city below sea level in a known target zone for hurricanes. Our response: Make the same mistake again. Rebuild a doomed city, putting aside logic as we did."  Read the idiot's full thoughts at Fox Sports.

*Speaking of the NBA, and some players who are not idiots, friends of GCP, reported a private game between Hornets and Bulls players last night at Harrahs.  No word on who the big winner was, we imagine it was a Hornet though..

NEW BLOGGERS QUICK UPDATE

01.28.10

GULF COAST POKER.NET WOULD LIKE TO WELCOME BOBBY TOYE AND BRIAN HEPTINSTALL TO THE BLOGGER ROSTER.  Toye is an up and coming poker pro and Brian Heptinstall is one of the industry's up and coming writers.  You've probably seen Bobby winning an event at a Gulf Coast casino and probably seen Brian covering it.  They are to the left in our columns section.  Give them a try they are both excellent writers who bring new points of view to the table.

WORLD OF POKER UPDATE

SOUTHERN POKER CHAMPIONSHIP

01.27.10

GCP MAGAZINE COVER BOY TYLER SMITH A CHIP LEADER AT THE SPC'S MAIN EVENT.  Smith after day 2 sits behind the 2nd largest chip stack.  Will his run catapult him to his 2nd Gulf Coast Poker Magazine cover?  Go here for WPT video of Tyler winning the Blue Diamond Player of the Day.  He talks about a big pot he won from GCP blogger Jonathan Little.  We put the guy on the cover on our magazine and he starts coming after our bloggers?  That's not very nice.  Just for that, reading public if you ever get the hankering for some almonds ask Tyler he's got a year's supply of them now.

The young gun's 467k is second only to Jared Jaffee (Brooklyn, NY) who is the only player over the half million mark with 546k.  Third in chips is Jonathan Kantor (Tulsa, OK) who has 412.5k.    James Mackey of Columbia, Mo is 4th with 380.5k.  Rounding out the top 5 is Tommy Vedes, another New Yorker, with 336k. 

Locals still alive include Ken Perry of Ocean Springs, MS at 70.5k, James Blackmon of Columbia, MS at 95.5k, Brian Hawkins of Fort Myers, FL at 70k, Hoyt Corkins of Alabama, 276k, Sam Rashid of Brandon, FL 319.5k, Ken Harbaugh of Atlanta, GA 244k, James Reed of Newnan, GA 221.5k, Andy Philchack of Garland, TX at 120k, Ayaz Mahmood of Houston, TX at 199k, and Ben Tollerene of Mansfield, TX at 86.5k.

CHESS AND POKER COMPUTER PROGRAMMERS UNITE.  Dawn of the age of Bots, or is it noon in the age of bots.  Gary Kasparov, grandmaster chess player and deep thinker (and Deep Blue conqueror) thinks poker playing will be a good tool for artificial intelligence.  Your friendly conspiracy theorist thinks artificial intelligence is a good tool for winning money at poker.  Are the bots already here?  Are they coming?  Or are they the short-stacking champs kicking butt on your favorite online site.  Head over to the New York Times for more.

RUSH POKER LATEST RUSH, LATEST FAD ONLINE.  You've probably played FullTilt's new "Rush" poker by now and enjoyed the graphics, movement, and feel to the game.  Not surprisingly, early results indicate early winners like the game and people that lost to start off are not so in favor of the game.  Rush gets the beats going in quick order and gives you a ton of hands to play especially with the quick fold button.  Poker News Daily talks about the impact of Rush poker at PokerStars and the elimination of short stacking at FT. 

AUSSIE MILLIONS PACKAGE WINNERS ENJOYING LIFE.  Over at bwin's poker blog the online poker qualifiers are enjoying the good life taking day 1c off.  A sumptuous meal and some wine tasting at one of Australia's finest vineyards?  Sign me up.  This comes on the heels of impressive run on day 1a and day 1b.  12 qualifiers advanced to day 2 with one of bwin's players second in chips.  

WORLD OF POKER UPDATE

SOUTHERN POKER CHAMPIONSHIP

01.26.10

AT THE END OF DAY ONE YOUR CHIP LEADER IS DWYTE PILGRIM.  Not since Big Easy Lou Esposito came down and took the Harrahs New Orleans tournament by storm has a player so easily had his way on the Gulf Coast.  Pilgrim continues his solid run (two firstss and a second so far) with the chip lead in the main event at 175k.  Right behind him is GCP Blogger Jonathan Little with 155k (pictured in his new lucky GCP hoodie) who won a big late pot vs. Charder to get a lot of his chips.  Obviously we are pulling for the guy who likes to Float the Turn.

Other notable Gulf Coasters include, Hoyt Corkins siting over 115k, Tyler Smith at 86k, and Jeremy Gaubert at 29k.  Some of the bigger names still alive include Kathy Liebert at 53k, Paul Wasicka at 107.5k, JJ Liu 67.8k, Gavin Smith 106k, David Singer 34k, Allen Kesssler 17.6k and Daniel Negreanu at 81.2k. 

UPDATE:  Jonathan Little out in disgusting fashion.  AQ ran into AK and QQ into JJ (ouch!).

HELL FREEZETH OVER NEW ORLEANS NEWS.  You might have heard the Saints are Superbowl bound.  Darvin Moon wrangled tickets to the game with in a Box with Jimmy Buffet, Avery Johnson, Ronnie Lott and Kenny Chesney.  Read PokerNewsDaily for more. 

Speaking of stars New Orleans transplant Brad Pitt is also a Saints fan.  His son Maddox was spotted in  a Jeremy Shockey jersey.  Though according to US News and World report Angelina Jolie hates New Orleans.  What's this got to do with poker?  Not much

Kai Landry has more on the Saints winning, and a Subway experience to forget in his latest  YOU'RE ENTERING A WORLD OF PAIN entry.

TJ CLOUTIER CHAMPIONSHIP BRACELET ON EBAY.  Almost wish somebody would buy it and give it back to the old legend.  Maybe someone did, the bracelet has sold for $4,006.  If you run into somebody with the 2005 5k No Limit Bracelet and they claim they won it, tell them they only won it on ebay not at the Rio.

ANETTE15, THE HUNTRESS OR ANETTE OBRESTAD HAS WON AN AUSSIE MILLIONS EVENT.  One of the worlds best and youngest Texas No Limit Hold'em players is also a great Pot Limit Omaha player.  Uh oh.  The world's youngest backer who was staking people left and right at the WSOP a couple of years ago, may soon set every record for men and women.  She's a player.  For more on Anette go here.

GULF COAST POKER UPDATE

SOUTHERN POKER CHAMPIONSHIP

01.24.10

NORTH CAROLINA POKER PRO, CHRIS BELL, WINS EVENT #31:  One of the more likable guys on the tour these days, Chris Bell (pic) takes home over $117k in the $3k buyin by besting a tough final table. Bell had to fade the likes of Michael Binger (Who is having a great tournament series in his own right with this being his 3rd cash...with one win) who took 4th for $26k...One the most feared up and coming young Texas pros, Jonathan Tamayo takes 5th place for 23k...Nick Cici, who won the Main Event in New Orleans a year or so ago, gets 7th place for over $16k...and the always dangerous and aggressive Christian Harder gets $13k for getting 8th place

WPT $10K MAIN EVENT STARTS TODAY: Vince and Mike will be in Biloxi this week to film the WPT Final Table...Look for lots of your favorite poker pros lurking around the coast.

GCP.Net wants to say GL to to Jonathan Little who links his blog to GCP.Net. Jonathan's blog is off to the left...and please visit he websites at www.jonathanlittlesecrets.com and www.floattheturn.com

One of the more popular pros that will be looking for some down home country "vegan" cooking with be Danny Boy....Kid Poker...Daniel Negreanu. If anyone can point Daniel to some good Vegan food...please do. You can read all about his thoughts on what he likes to eat while on the road...as well as his "somewhat" disappointment in the structure being tooooo fast. Although in the first sentence he is sure to let everyone know that he is not complaining...but will adapt. You can find his blog here...KID POKER BLOG...and below is a quote:

"I predict that from 45 players until the final table, the play will resemble an online tournament in the late stages, where the average stack has no choice but to either re-raise all in before the flop, or fold. It's going to be tough to call raises in position, because the blinds will be so high"

CHARITY AND GREED UPDATE

01.19.09

ITS THAT TIME OF THE YEAR.  Let's all get charitable and play some poker.  Hopefully, everybody has dug into their pockets and sent a little money to the Hades on Earth that is now Haiti.  They've got a long way to go.  Let's not stop the giving there, because the United Way in Lafayette is hosting their annual event the Acadiana Poker Series.  There are rebuys, add-ons and a huge field at the Cajun Dome, this January 29th. 

One of our former contributors David Spicer won over a grand just by making the final table.  Look for our email blasts with more details (and for those of you not on the list email Wild Bill to get on there).  Also, check out their site here:  Acadiana Series of Poker.  Don't forget to visit their sponsors which include Broussard Brothers, Hilton, TubeTech, Superior & Chevron.  Small Town Poker Tour is again putting on the event.

OUR THOUGHTS GO OUT TO MONKEY.  GCP's Monkey is going through a tough time after having his house robbed.  There is a scumbag out there somewhere that is hopefully too overmatched to open the safe. We hope the burglar(s) are apprehended soon and wish bad things on them.  On Facebook it looks like they are gathering a bounty for information that leads to the capture of the perps.  Read Monkey's blog for more details: THE POKER MONKEY. 

HELP HAITI VIA POKER.  If you haven't dug into your pockets for Haiti here is some more information on how you can help via poker.  Pokerati as always has some top rate information:  here.

ONLINE ODDS AND ENDS. 

-As the European gaming players wait for the U.S. markets to open and for us as players to get a ton of new options, some are already making plans.  There is new boss, Peter Bertilsson, at one of our favorite places that offers online poker yes, it's bwin.  Sounds like a great fit.

-Alec Torelli is jumping ship from Doyle's Room.  He was one of the youngsters on Doyles team of 10 sponsored players. 

-Charlie Melancon (D-LA) has signed on to the Internet Gambling Regulation, Consumer Protection and Enforcement Act.  The guy that created the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act is acting a bit like a two year old.  John Kyl, not our favorite Senator.  More details here.

GULF COAST POKER UPDATE

SOUTHERN POKER CHAMPIONSHIP

01.18.09

NEW YORK POKER PRO, DWYTE PILGRAM, TAKES HOME TWO 1ST PLACE TROPHIES:  Dwyte Pilgrim (pic) must love to come down to Biloxi and the Beau Rivage as he has taken down 2 events so far. On 1/9/10 Dwyte picked up 1st place and over $52k in a $550 buy-in event...then a few days later on 1/13/09 in the $345 No Limit Hold em "Deep Stack" event...Pilgrim wins 1st place and over $28k. He is rockin the Beau this series

MEMPHIS TRANSPLANT AND LOCAL POKER PRO DAVID "LEFTY" DIAZ IS ALSO ON FIRE: Always in action at every tournament series on the coast...Diaz (pic) started his heater off with a 3rd place finish in event #3...a $550.00 event that attracted 345 runners for over $15k. 460 players turned out for the 14th event ...a $345 NLH "Deep Stack" with a prize pool of $123,860...where Diaz took home 2nd place for over $17k...Congrats Diaz

OTHER NEWS: GCP blogger Kia Landry breaks out of the NLH world with a min-cash in event #17...$340 7 card stud event...it attracted 110 players with a prize pool of a little over $11k

OLDISH NEWS UPDATE

01.16.09

HARRISON GIMBEL, UNIVERSITY OF ALABAMA YOUNGSTER, WINS PCA.  Move over Shannon Shorr there is another member of Crimson Tide nation making waves in the online and live tournament poker world.  Gimbel is merely 19 years old but that didn't stop him from winning 2.2 million for first place in the Bahamas.   Barry Shulman, Cardplayer publisher, continued his strong run coming in third and winning another million. 

AMIR VAHEDI PASSED AWAY.   Last week the iconic poker pro always seen with the stogey in mouth and smile holding in place died of complications with diabetes.  Vahedi memorably etched his place in the poker world at Chris Moneymaker's epic final table at the World Series of Poker.  You will be missed Amir.

WSOP TWEAKS RULES.  Stinky players beware, from rule 37:  "Any individual who encounters behavior that is not civil or courteous — or is abusive in any way — is encouraged to immediately contact a Tournament official. This shall include, but is not limited to, any player whose personal hygiene has become disruptive to the other players seated at their table."  The floor's job just got harder.  Wonder if they will have showers and spray deodorant on hand.

GULF COAST POKER UPDATE

SOUTHERN POKER CLASSIC

01.14.09

QUICK UPDATE ON SOME BATON ROUGE PLAYERS.  Coming off a couple of several good results recently...looks like Baton Rouges Walter Chambers (pic) continues on a nice heater as it looks like he chopped the $340 PLO/Rebuys ...event #10...heads up for over a cool 11k. Way to go Walter!!!

Another Red Stick poker player...Ben Thomas...takes 4th place in event #9 which was a $340 buy-in NLH event for close to 7k. This event was won by a Metairie, La player Joe Hebert (pic) who took home close to 30k...Nice job Joe and Ben!!!

GCP wants to ...again...give props to a "Killer" job by Brian Heptinstall for his pro coverage of the SPC event.

GULF COAST POKER UPDATE

01.12.09

NEW LOCAL BLOG.  Have you heard of Bobby Toye?  If you haven't you will.  Check our archives... the kid is an up and coming poker player who makes his home in New Orleans (for now). "Grandmaster Tuby" has started a blog to chronicle his poker exploits and exercise his writing chops.  He does both well.  Read Fade Everything  here.  He'll soon join one of our twin outer walls of text as a GCP blogger.

IP POKER CLASSIC.  As many of ya'll know a big local event going on the coast right now is at the IP.  Running nightly tournaments with cash added, their guarantees have led to some juicy prize pools.  Winner of two events so far is the man pictured at right.  Nice hat by the way Monkey!.

SOUTHERN POKER CLASSIC UPDATES.  Killer job by Brian Heptinstall, the Nolan Dalla of the Gulf Coast, with the updates from the event.  Running concurrently to the IP's events there have been a lot of locals in the money.  Congrats to Jacob "Nocko" Naquin for winning around 11k coming in 5th in the huge Sunday event which Dwyte Pilgrim won. 

Other notables include Ryan Lenaghan (pictured left) who won event 7 and Tim "MissippiMachine" Burt who won event 2.  Dan Walsh, Captain Ron Hope, and Michael Carwash Schneider got on the board with deep runs of their own.

GULF COASTERS KILLING IT IN THE BAHAMAS

01.08.09

LEADERS FROM THE PCA DAY1A:

1. Wayne Bentley - 335,000
2. Kevin Saul - 170,000
3. Eric Froehlich - 165,000
4. Vivek Rajkumar - 112,000
5. Ben Lamb - 105,000
6. James Mackey - 104,000
7. Barry Greenstein - 98,000
8. Daniel Negreanu - 91,500
9. Dennis Phillips - 90,000
10. Dave 'Doc Sands' Sands - 80,000

For those who aren't adept at disseminating information in a top ten format, you'll notice Barry Greenstein, Daniel Negreanu, trucker Dennis Phillips are all near the top.  First in chips, Wayne Bently has almost twice as much as 2nd in chips Kevin Saul, but don't be fooled by the name he isn't good at improv, hosting a game show like "Let's Make a Deal" or staring in one of the funnier Dave Chappelle sketches ever.  That would be Wayne Brady.

Kevin Saul is below Bentley and above Eric Froehlich.  Just where he likes to be.  Vivek Rajkumar is dangerous with chips and he has chips. so be forewarned.

LEADERS FROM THE PCA DAY 1B:

(BTW, you know PCA means Pokerstars Caribbean Adventure right?  An adventure is even more exciting name for a poker tournament than a Challenge.   Expedition satellites and Endeavors Sit 'n Gos surely to come.  Anyway, this adventure takes place in the Bahamas.  Why aren't we there?  Adventures scare us).

Didn't we say something about Gulf Coasters?  Take a gander at this leader board....

Matt Graham — 146,700 (pictured right)
Annette Obrestad — 124,900
Darryll Fish — 120,000 (pictured left)
Paul Wasicka — 116,300
Phil Ivey — 115,700
Shane Schleger — 110,000
Robert Mizrachi — 105,000
Chad Batista — 100,000
Glen Chorny — 92,000
Vanessa Rousso — 82,200

Former roomies Matt Graham (New Orleans) and Darryll Fish (one time Biloxi area pro) are 1st and 2nd in chips.  Okay, maybe it's just us that can't disseminate information in a top ten format.  They are 1st and 3rd in chips. 

This leader board is star studded with Anette Obrestad the gooey Nordic marshmallow between the Fish-Graham... smore? (Fish smores--ugh).  Paul Wasicka, little known pro Phil Ivey (a guy we have a feeling you'll be hearing a lot about soon), Shane Schleger,  and Robert Mizrachi are right on their heels.  Vanessa Ruosso, a Florida girl is 10th in chips.  Chad Batista and Glen Chorny are no slouches either.

MORE PCA GOODNESS GRACIOUS.  This tournament which is definitely on the cusp of becoming a "major" if not already there had a paltry 1,529 players.  First place will earn more than $3 million dollars.  So there is a long way to go as 386 players survived Day1A and 498 players made it through Day 1B, meaning...  a lot of players will be back for day 2. 

Pokerstars also announced this was one of the stops on their new North American Poker Tour, with a Venetian Deep Stack and a Foxwoods tournament to follow.  Remember when PartyPoker bought the WPT?  Apparently the NAPT is Pokerstars rebuttal.  BTW, PartyPoker is also rumored to be in talks of merging with bwin.  Speaking of bwin check out their new Mad Tilt tournaments here.  What's the cure for tilt?  Apparently an all-in fest with others on tilt... not a bad concept.

JONATHAN LITTLE TO HOST CHARITY POKER TOURNAMENT IN PENSACOLA.  Sounds like a potentially great event.  Coming this May.  Read his blog for more.  You can either look to your left and click there or if you are really lazy just click here to get there.

WORLD SERIES OF POKER DECADE IN REVIEW:  This was poker's biggest decade, a 10 year span where ESPN mainstreamed the game, made it cool to be good at math and wear sunglasses indoors (not attempted since an ill fated Head of the Class episode in the 80s), and infiltrated everyday life with an aboundance of poker cliches that had even George Will talking about pot odds and going all in. 

At some point or another just about every B-List star attached themselves to the fad with Paris Hilton, superman himself Dean Cain, Pamela Anderson all sniffing around the game.  Jennifer Tilly even won a bracelet.  We have Chris Moneymaker to thank for every TV show doing a poker episode in boring, predictable unfunny fashion, but he also kickstarted an industry.  Anyway, this look back at 00s doesn't mention any of that stuff but it does trace the Champions of the 2000s and analyzes the progression of the game to today.  Go here to read more.

HAPPY NEWS YEARS!!!!

01.01.09

GILBERT ARENAS, AKA AGENT ZERO, ONLINE POKER PLAYER AND NBA ALL STAR, DRAW GUN IN NBA LOCKERROOM.  Why?  Over a gambling debt.  Arenas, who is one of the most unique NBA stars, has admitted to playing online poker during halftimes of his games.  On Christmas Eve, apparently, he was challenged by teammate Javaris Crittendon to make good on a gambling debt.  Then they both pulled guns on each other.   How soon until this turns into another negative story about poker?

PHIL IVEY'S DIVORCE FINALIZED.  The Tiger Woods of poker will not be taking a three iron to his face or to his Escalade for infidelity because he's not married any more.  Ivey, who makes a little less than Woods in sponsorship money, will also probably not lose his endorsement money any time soon either for crashing his car.  Anyway, poker has been Ivey's mistress for a long time despite what this picture with Michael Phelps might imply. 

PHIL IVEY CHOPPING UP LOTS OF ONLINE WINNINGS WITH FORMER WIFE.  The divorce settlement probably took into account, Ivey's deep Main Event run and that Ivey finished second to Patrik Antonius for most money won in online poker cash games in '09.  Ivey won over 6 million on Full Tilt, Antonius over 9 million including a 1.35 million dollar hand vs. Isildur1.  Brian Hastings who smoked Isildur1 for most of the anonymous players recent windfall finished third up 4.7 million. 

Gus Hansen's loss of 5.7 million made the Great Dane the Great Donator for the year.  Tom Dwan durrrr-ed off 4.34 million.  If not for a December where he won 2 million he would have been the biggest loser.  The mercurial Isildur1, who is off somewhere on a European poker site rebuilding his online poker bankroll, ended up being the fifth biggest loser down 2.2 million.

***ONLINE POKER ADD-ON***

12.30.09

1SICKDISEASE UPDATE:   He continues to feed his disease as he has "BROKEN INTO THE TOP TEN" of Pocket 5's ranking...coming in at #9. Not only did he win the Cake Poker Sunday Major (see below)...he also got 2nd place in the 150k-G re-buy tournament on Stars for over $32k...on the same day. He totaled 6 cashes on Sunday for a combined win of over $83k.

LOCAL POKER PLAYER AND GCP BLOGGER TAKES 5TH IN THE 32K-G ON FTP SATURDAY NIGHT: We all know him around the Southeast as Davey(pic)...P5's knows him as "Davey16"...GCPers know him as "Southpawrounder" (SPR)...Stars has him listed as "db16"...and we know him on FullTilt as "Hasmo16". It was on Tilt playing as Hasmo16 that he takes 5th place for a little over $2500.00. Hopefullly... we will get a blog about how he rocked it to the Final Table.

LOCAL POKER PLAYER TAKES 5TH IN THE 20K-G ON ABSOLUTE POKER AROUND THANKSGIVING: Known as "Bigsike1982" on P5's...Ruttley also finishes in 5th place on AP for over $1800.00. These 2 local poker players are also friends as they were both running around the latest Harrahs circuit event celebrating Ruttleys Bachelor Party. We pulled the above pic from the archives of the "barroom tournament" era...in the pic above...SPR on Left and Bigsike on right...also notice the perfectly...in unison...Chip shuffling.
 

ONLINE POKER UPDATE

12.29.09

SUNDAY RECAP FOR 12/27/09

ABSOLUTE POKER $100k GUARANTEED $500+30...259 ENTRANTS - $129,500 PAID OUT TO 27 SPOTS: UB sponsored poker pro, Matt "Mattg1983" Graham (pic below left), snaps off a Sunday Major with a nice score on UB's "sister site" Absolute Poker to take home over a cool $33k....while Billy "patrolman35" Kopp (pic below right) took home 7th place for around $5800.

CAKE POKER"$250k GUARANTEE" $250+18
953 ENTRANTS - $250,000 PAID OUT TO 130 PLACES WITH OVERLAY OF 4.7% = $11,750 ADDED: There once was a sicko online poker player from Lafayette, LA called "1sickdisease". He disappeared from the Louisiana radar only to resurface in Colorado. He continues to feed his disease as he is now on the cusp of breaking into the Pocket 5's "Top Ten" as he sits as #11 behind this list of sickos:   1) djk123 ...2) moorman1 ...3) Doc Sands ...4) rock3656...5) gboro780

He wins the Cake 250k-G last Sunday for over $50k...Here is a little write up on his other accomplishments from P5's below...not bad for Cajun from South Louisiana...The sickest of the sick

"He took down the PokerStars Daily Eighty Grand twice in October '09 for $31,700 and $19,900. He also has a victory in the Full Tilt Poker Friday Night Fight for $30,500 (Aug '09) and debuted in the Top 100 at #71 in October '09. Since then, he has a victory in the Full Tilt Poker $200k Guarantee (Nov '09) for $81,000 along with a win in the Cake Poker $250k Guaranteed for $50,500 in December '09. He also placed 2nd in the Stars $200 Sunday rebuy in December '09 for another $32,200"