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WPTE Notified of Possible NASDAQ Delisting
On July 8, 2005, over ten million shares of World Poker Tour Enterprise, Inc. (WPTE) stock traded at a high of $29.50 as news circulated that Doyle Brunson had made a $700 million unsolicited bid for the company. Exactly three years later, the stock opened the trading day at $1.00, with only 22,000 shares trading by the day's close. And since July 1st, the stock has not closed above $1.00, which has run afoul with the NASDAQ Stock Exchange, where WPTE is listed for trading. To meet NASDAQ's listing rule, a stock cannot close below $1.00 for 30 consecutive business days, as WPTE now has done. Tuesday, WPTE acknowledged that they had received a NASDAQ Staff Determination Letter on August 14, 2008,notifying the company that it was not in compliance with the minimum stock listing price requirements. WPTE has 180 days to demonstrate compliance, which requires that the stock trade above $1.00 for ten consecutive business days. If WPTE fails to do so, it will be delisted from the stock exchange. A number of things could happen at this point. The company could eventually be delisted, but still trade Over-the-Counter (OTC), also known as the Pink Sheets. The Pink Sheets is a quotation service, not a stock exchange, and has no listing requirements of any kind. Because of the lack of requirements, including no requirement for filing financial statements or meeting any standard accounting practices, Pink Sheet stocks are viewed as risky. As such, far fewer investors are willing to trade in Pink Sheet stocks. WPTE could also execute a reverse stock split, effectively reducing the number of shares while increasing the value of each share. For instance if WPTE executed a 1-for-2 split, shareholders would be issued 50% less shares, but each share would be worth twice as much. At its current price of $0.84, each new share would be worth $1.68, thus meeting the threshold for NASDAQ listing. Or WPTE could hope that their new strategy, as outlined in their second-quarter earnings report, brings them profitability, or at least enough investor confidence to boost the stock price back over $1.00. And it appears this might be the path that WPTE is taking. In their press release WPTE stated, "The Company will continue to execute its business plan to provide an opportunity to demonstrate value to the investment community and regain NASDAQ compliance."
Large Online Poker Sites Unite
The third-largest poker network in the world was created yesterday as two major sites under the same parent company, AbsolutePoker and UltimateBet, formed CEREUS, which is expected to launch in August.Chief Operating Officer Paul Leggert said: “I’m confident that Absolute Poker and UltimateBet customers will be thrilled by the new platform and we look forward to welcoming many new players from around the world.”This move means much larger playing fields on both UltimateBet and AbsolutePoker and very possibly a larger weekly guarantee than the $150k and $200k offered on AbsolutePoker and UltimateBet respectively.Leggert added, “Our goal is to provide poker players with the ultimate online experience. The launch of CEREUS is a major step for us in achieving our goal and we look forward to making many more exciting announcements very soon.”A full tournament schedule and redesign plans are not yet known, however the poker world anticipates the launch of CEREUS as these two giants put their heads together.
2008 WSOP $50,000 H.O.R.S.E. Event #45 Final: Scotty Nguyen Claims Trophy
It took five days and an amazing final-table performance to do it, but Scotty Nguyen claimed his fifth World Series of Poker bracelet with his victory in Event #45, the $50,000 H.O.R.S.E. World Championship. He outlasted a final table featuring several other bracelet winners, Player of the Year candidates and some of the biggest cash-game players in the world on the way to the bracelet, the $1,989,120 first prize, and the Chip Reese Memorial Trophy. Nguyen started the final table just slightly behind Erick Lindgren in chips, with the seating assignments and chip stacks as follows: Seat 1: Matt Glantz — 1,445,000 Seat 2: Huck Seed — 1,200,000 Seat 3: Patrick Bueno —695,000 Seat 4: Lyle Berman — 1,430,000 Seat 5: Scotty Nguyen — 3,535,000 Seat 6: Barry Greenstein — 1,955,000 Seat 7: Michael DeMichele — 905,000 Seat 8: Erick Lindgren — 3,680,000 Patrick Bueno started the final table on the short stack after hovering near the top of the leader board for several days. He busted early in the final table when he got the last of his chips in the middle in a razz hand against Erick Lindgren. Lindgren started with 8-7-2, and Bueno held 4-K-A on third street. Lindgren made an 8-low by the end of the hand, while Bueno paired his four on fourth street and bricked out the rest of the way to finish in eighth place ($230,880). Play was deliberate and the stacks were deep, so significant time passed between each elimination. Huck Seed was next to fall when he and Michael DeMichele tangled in a hand of stud hi/lo. DeMichele had the bring-in, and Seed called. DeMichele led out on fourth, and Seed called again. Seed had a pair of nines showing on fifth street when he led out, and DeMichele called. DeMichele called on every subsequent street, and tabled a flush and a low to send Seed to the rail in seventh place ($284,160). Barry Greenstein and Erick Lindgren went into this tournament in heavy contention for the Player of the Year title, and Greenstein took the lead when he was eliminated in sixth place ($355,200). Greenstein, who cashed in this event all three times it was played while making the final table twice, busted to Scotty Nguyen in a stud hi/lo hand that saw action on every street. Nguyen completed with [x-x] , and Greenstein called with the in the door. Greenstein led out on every street, and Nguyen called him all the way down to seventh street, when Greenstein fired out the last of his chips with a board of . Nguyen called and tabled [7-7] [6] for trip sevens. Greenstein held two pair, aces and fours, but no low. Nguyen's trips were good enough to send Greenstein to the rail in sixth. It took a while for the next elimination to take place, and it was multiple bracelet winner and "Big Game" regular Lyle Berman who busted in fifth place ($444,000). The action was capped on third street in razz when Berman, Scotty Nguyen and Michael DeMichele engaged in a raising frenzy. Berman was all in on the last bet, and DeMichele fired on every street. Nguyen called, and both players checked seventh street. DeMichele tabled 8-7-5-4-3, and both opponents mucked. Nguyen still had a healthy stack, but Berman was eliminated. Matt Glantz got all his chips in on the flop in Omaha hi/lo against Scotty Nguyen holding . Nguyen tabled on a flop of , for the nut low draw and a naked A-K to Glantz' pair of tens. The on the turn gave Nguyen a pair of aces and a flush draw, and Glantz was in trouble. The river made Nguyen's flush, and he scooped the pot as Glantz was eliminated in fourth place ($568,320). After Glantz was eliminated, the tournament entered marathon mode. The pace of eliminations had been fairly steady to that point, with 20 or 30 hands going by between bustouts. Here, nearly six hours passed between Glantz' elimination in fourth place and Erick Lindgren's third-place bustout. It took nearly 200 hands of three-way action before Lindgren and Scotty Nguyen tangled for the final time. In his final hand, Lindgren completed on third street with the in the door. Scotty Nguyen raised, showing the , and Lindgren called. Nguyen fired again on fourth street with showing. Lindgren had up and called. The on fifth street gave Lindgren the high board, and he bet out. Nguyen, with showing, raised and Lindgren called all in. Lindgren showed []- for a pair of eights, and Nguyen tabled a pair of nines. Lindgren caught no help on sixth or seventh street, and was eliminated in third place for $781,440. Lindgren also vaulted past Barry Greenstein on the Player of the Year points list with his third-place finish. Scotty Nguyen took more than a 4:1 chip lead into heads-up play with the young Michael DeMichele. The 22-year-old Connecticut native was playing his second WSOP final table, and was guaranteed his largest cash ever just by locking up second place. In fact, his cash in Event #45 was greater than the sum total of his live winnings up to that point. The chip stacks looked like this as heads-up play began: Scotty Nguyen: 12,140,000 Michael DeMichele: 2,660,000 It didn't take long for Scotty Nguyen to put his big stack to use and bust his final opponent to claim bracelet #5. After about ten hands of heads-up play, DeMichele raised preflop in hold'em with . Nguyen thought for a moment before saying, in inimitable fashion, "It's gonna be all over, baby." Nguyen raised with , and DeMichele called all in. The flop came down , and Nguyen was in a dominating lead. The came on the turn, and DeMichele could only win with a three on the river. The showed instead, and Michael DeMichele was eliminated in second place ($1,243,200). Scotty Nguyen earned $1,989,120 for his victory, and the right to call himself the world's greatest poker player… for a year, at least. The Prince of Poker beat one of the toughest fields in poker on his way to his fifth WSOP bracelet and the trophy honoring one of the true legends of the game, Chip Reese.
Catgirl banned from Nudity at the PartyPoker World Open
The poker world slowly seems to be becoming more and more associated with scantily clad attractive young women (See this month's item on Abi Titmuss for example) so it didn't come as too big a surprise when our good friend Catman sent us a press release featuring his better half Catgirl wearing little more than a smile. He assures us he would be more than happy to do the same to redress the balance. Up and coming player 'Catgirl' is used to setting tongues wagging in the poker world. Ask anyone who saw the 23 year old Russian contortionist when she met Doyle Brunson last year at the WSOPE. In celebration of her birthday this week, she had planned on playing in the Party Poker World Open in her'birthday suit'. Unfortunately Channel 5 enforced a 'no nudity' policy at the final hour and instead it was to be a full body paint outfit for her heat. It was probably a good thing in retrospect, her heat included Surinder Sunar, Liam Flood, World Series of Poker Europe Runner Up John Tabatabai, and Ian Woodley, all of whom we are sure would have acted perfect gents. We are not sure, however, about the Devilfish, who is also in the heat. In the words of Catman "This heat is going to bring a new dimension of glamour to TV poker, which can often be dominated by not quite so attractive male poker faces. Who wouldn't want to watch the flushing face of the Devilfish as he tries to get a read on Catgirl's body language, then tries to bluff this lady in the buff, this will be must watch TV Poker." Catgirl said, "I've played poker for two years now and have had a lot of success in high stakes cash. Poker is about entertainment as well being a very serious business, I want to go forward as a professional player, so why not give the world something to talk about - There is a lot at stake, but I want to have some fun and if it is my lucky day, then the sky's the limit. I am grateful to my sponsors Poker Trillion for giving me this opportunity, I am playing to win." We are yet to see if the Catgirl's choice of attire is the ace up her sleeve she needs or if the Devilfish will literally explode trying to control himself. Poker Trillion CEO Andy Pryah commented "Catgirls heat is like a who's who of poker, she's going to need to have all her talent on display if she's going to take down this table", Pyrah continued to comment, "Let's just hope the likes of Flood and Devilfish don't decide to go topless!"
The UK's first super casino
Manchester has been chosen as the surprise location of the UK's first "super-casino". But what are super-casinos, and why are they so controversial?What are super-casinos?The Gambling Act 2005 allows for three new types of casino, the most controversial of which is the regional or "super-casino".The main variation between the three types - the super-casino, large casino and small casino - is the size of the customer area allowed, the number of slot machines and size of the jackpot.The super-casino will have a minimum customer area of 5,000 sq m and up to 1,250 unlimited-jackpot slot machines.The government also expects the super-casino to have hotels, conference facilities, restaurants, bars and areas for live entertainment.Las Vegas, in the US - the gambling capital of the world - has 30 such casino and hotel complexes, according to the Good Gambling guide website.How many UK super casinos will there be?Originally, the government said there would be up to 40 super-casinos but this number was cut - firstly to eight, and then to just one - in the face of heavy opposition.Some 27 local authorities applied for the right to play host to the super-casino.The independent Casino Advisory Panel (CAP) whittled the applicants down to a shortlist of eight, announced in May.On the shortlist were Blackpool, Wembley Stadium, Cardiff, Glasgow, the former Millennium Dome in the London borough of Greenwich, Manchester, Newcastle and Sheffield.But the Wembley bid was later withdrawn after local opposition.Why was the Dome's application so controversial?There were a series of rows about the Dome's application.Firstly, it emerged that the Dome's redevelopers - Anschutz Entertainment Group (AEG) - had already started building work on a super-casino ahead of the licence being awarded.And in August 2006 AEG was accused of distorting what local religious groups thought of plans for a Dome casino.The bid also attracted controversy after it emerged that Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott had been a guest of AEG boss Philip Anschutz at his ranch in the US. Mr Prescott insisted he was not involved in the casino application process.How was the contract for the successful super-casino decided?The Casino Advisory Panel - whose five members include experts in planning and regeneration - had to take several factors into account before giving its final recommendations.The casino had to address a need for regeneration in the area, which was likely to have high levels of unemployment and social deprivation.The panel also had to take account of the new casino's social impact and ensure that it was not harmful, following concerns that people living close to proposed sites may have been vulnerable to gambling addiction.The panel said they were particularly impressed with the way Manchester had put its bid together and met the criteria of social impact, regeneration, benefits and willingness to have a licence.It also promised the "highest standards of social responsibility", with an independent Community Trust overseeing its workings.What about the large and small casinos?The CAP made recommendations for eight large and eight small casinos, from an original shortlist of 31, taking into consideration social impact and regeneration issues.Large casinos will have a minimum area of 1,000 sq m and up to 150 slot machines with a maximum jackpot of £4,000.The small casinos will have a minimum customer area of 750 sq m, up to 80 slot machines and a jackpot of £4,000.Why is the Gambling Act 2005 so controversial?Campaigners have warned that more Britons are getting into difficulties with gambling, particularly with the explosion in online casinos. They worry the new casinos will make the problem worse.But Culture Secretary Tessa Jowell has defended the introduction of new casinos, saying the government has modernised and tightened the laws on gambling, which would now be "the most protective legislation in the world".She says she does not think the casinos will increase problem gambling, but says she is prepared to close them down if they do.
Former WSOP Champions Represent
In the movie Rounders, Matt Damon's character asks, "Why do you think the same five guys make it to the final table of the World Series of Poker EVERY YEAR? What, are they the luckiest guys in Las Vegas?" With the huge expansion of the WSOP Main Event field, we may never see the same five guys make the final table again, but five former WSOP Champions have made the money this year. Scotty Nguyen, Carlos Mortensen, Berry Johnston, Huck Seed, and Robert Varkonyi not only survived the bubble, but all will have chips when Day Four of the 2007 WSOP Championship event begins today. The WSOP Championship draws former champions back like a family reunion. According to Harrah's preliminary entrylists, nineteen former WSOP Champions were among the 2007 WSOP Championship starting field. Along with those mentioned above, they included Amarillo Slim Preston, Jim Bechtel, Doyle Brunson, Tom McEvoy, Johnny Chan, Phil Hellmuth, Brad Daugherty, Dan Harrington, Chris Ferguson, Bobby Baldwin, Chris Moneymaker, Greg Raymer, Joe Hachem and Jamie Gold. As a whole, former champions represented less than 0.3% of the starting field, but their relative representation has been growing as the field has been dwindling. As Day Four begins they now represent almost 1.5% of the field. Over all, 26% of the starting former champs have now made it to the top 5.3% of the field. In other words, being a former WSOP Champion gave you almost a 5-to-1 edge on the rest of the starting field in 2007. While it is no longer an era where the "same five guys" make it to the final table, this year poker is well represented by its former champions.
Florida Poker Bill Becomes Law
A bill passed by the Florida legislature allowing casinos to raise stakes offered in poker ring games and tournaments has become law. The law will go into effect on July 1. After being passed by both the Florida House and Senate in late April, Florida Senate Bill 752 was forwarded to Governor Charlie Crist on June 1. Gov. Crist had the option to sign the bill, to veto it, or to leave it without a signature in which case the bill would automatically become law after a designated period. According to the official website of the Florida House of Representatives, SB 752 "Became Law without Governor's Signature" late Wednesday. Florida does not allow the governor a pocket veto. Pokerhas been legal in Florida for years, although with restricted betting limits. In 1996, legislation was passed allowing cardrooms to spread poker games with a $10 maximum pot per hand. Then in 2003, new legislation was passed eliminating the $10-per-hand rule, but introducing a new maximum of $2 per betting round, thus ensuring $1/$2 limit hold 'em would become the most prevalent game spread in Florida casinos. The new law allows single bet limits to be raised to $5. Perhaps most significantly, the law also allows for no limit Texas Hold'em games with a maximum buy-in of $100. Tournaments may be offered with increased buy-ins. Cardrooms have also been given new freedoms when it comes to scheduling their hours of operation. While they still can only operate a maximum of 12 hours per day, they no longer are restricted to the noon-to-midnight window. Additionally, cardrooms associated with live racing are now allowed to open at times when racing is not being offered. "With Bill 752 becoming law . . . the possibilites are nearly endless for Florida poker rooms," said Christopher Cosenza, co-host of a poker podcast produced by the St. Petersburg (FL) Times. "In the past, cardroom managers were handcuffed by miniscule maximum bets, making the cash tables a mockery of skill and turning any given hand into a mini-lottery. Now, with the increase in betting limits, truly skilled players will have a better shot at plying their craft while the recreational player will have an even bigger thrill to brag about to their friends."
And the New World Poker Tour Hostess is ... Layla Kayleigh
Rumors recently surfaced that Season V WPT Hostess Sabina Gadecki would not be returning for Season VI. For whatever reason, the World Poker Tour would be turning to its fourth hostess in four years. So far neither Courtney Friel or Sabina Gadecki have been able to fill the high-heeled shoes of Shana Hiatt. The poker world would have to wait until the final table of the Mirage Poker Showdown before seeing the new hostess, but PokerNews caught up with her a day early as she taped her first segments for the WPT. We are pleased to announce that the new hostess is -- drumroll, please -- Layla Kayleigh. The first question on the minds of most fans -- how does Kayleigh compare to thosewho came before her? Shana Hiatt (Seasons I-III) was the incredibly-hot-but-seemingly-accessible girl next door. Courtney Friel (Season IV) was the attractive broadcast journalist. And Sabina Gadecki (Season V) was our sweet and innocent younger sister. Layla Kayleigh (Season VI) creates a new category of WPT hostess -- one that radiates sex appeal. Not just with her looks, but with her attitude and personality. Born and raised in London to parents with a diverse ethnic background (she is a mix of Caucasian, African, Mediterranean, and Middle Eastern ancestry), this beautiful brunette will bring a bit of international flair to the World Poker Tour. While Layla is young (23 years old) and petite (5'3" tall), she's not innocent or naive -- this is a girl who knows who she is and can take care of herself. She can be sexy without going too far, and vivacious without being an airhead. She also has plenty of on-camera experience, serving as a host on MTV2 in Britain, and as a correspondent for ABC Football and "The Best Damn Sports Show Period." Layla currently hosts a segment called "The Feed" on the G4 network, where she reports on the latest tech news, and she can be heard weekly on the "Covino and Rich Show," which broadcasts on Sirius Maxim Radio. If that's not enough, she has a role in the upcoming film, "A Simple Promise," set to be released later this year. In late 2005, she was tapped to be a political correspondent on Al Gore's fledgling cable network, Current TV. But when Current TV learned she had posed for a sexy spread in Maxim magazine, she was promptly fired. She later told Maxim that she had no regrets, pointing out that the network wasn't as progressive as it claimed, and that hers was "the voice of women who can be sexy, smart, and intelligent while posing in lingerie." Layla's introduction to the poker world came in the summer of 2006, when she was invited to play in (and report on) a charity tournament sponsored by Stuff Magazine. She was a true poker rookie at that point, but after interviewing Jennifer Tilly, the actress/WSOP bracelet winner would spend three hours teaching Layla the basics of the game. Once the tournament began, Layla found herself seated next to the legendary Johnny Chan, and he took her under his wing that night and taught her some of the finer points of the game. The Tilly-Chan system served her well, and Layla played her way to the final table. The World Poker Tour recently contacted her about potentially hosting their sixth season, and Layla went through five separate auditions, feeling less confident about her chances each time. To her surprise, she was offered the job, and she happily accepted. WPT Executive Vice President Robyn Moder calls Layla "energetic, intelligent and strikingly beautiful -- the perfect combination to engage WPT fans." Taping her first segments out in front of the Mirage Tuesday night, Layla is definitely comfortable in front of a camera. She thinks quickly on her feet, and seems to have a bit of an edge to her. If Sabina had a flaw at all, it was that she exuded purity and innocence -- and poker isn't an innocent game. It's dark, and it has an edgy quality that makes it much cooler than games like chess or backgammon. Layla can tap into that edginess. Tonight will be her first test as the new hostess, presiding over the first WPT final table of Season VI. Will she be able to crack Phil Ivey's media-proof shell? Can she get online pros Cory Carroll and Darrell Dicken to open up? Will she draw more viewers to the show when it switches to GSN? Ultimately, we won't know the answers until her episodes air, sometime in 2008. Layla knows that the previous two hostesses were let go after a single season, and she plans to work hard so she'll be asked back for Season VII. Nobody will ever be able to fill Shana's shoes -- she was one of a kind. But Shana has moved on to another show, so it's time we moved on as well. If we let Layla be herself, she could potentially do more for the show than even the return of Shana Hiatt.
Cory Carroll Wins Caesar's Palace WSOP Circuit Main Event
Not too many people have heard of Cory Carroll. Those that know him, like Gavin Smith, have tremendous respect for his game. "He's the best player you've never heard of," said Shane 'Shaniac' Schleger. Maybe Carroll will finally get the recognition he deserves after winning the WSOP Circuit event at Caesar's Palace. He won $506,176 along with a seat into the WSOP Main Event in July at the Rio. The $5,000 buy-in event drew over 336 players and featured a prize pool of over $1.6 million. Some of the biggest names in poker were in the field such as Greg Raymer, Chris Jesus Ferguson, Scotty Nguyen, Men the Master, Erick Lindgren, Barry Greenstein, David Williams, MaxPescatori, and two time Circuit event winner Peter "Nordberg" Feldman. After thee days of poker Cory Carroll emerged as the winner. Chad Brown and David "The Dragon" Pham were the two biggest named pros remaining in the tournament when the final table began on Wednesday. For the majority of the tournament, Carroll flew under the radar was a virtual unknown to everyone in Las Vegas, even though he entered the day as the chipleader.
Greece Looms as Next EU Online Gaming Battleground
While it probably wasn't the European Union's intent to serve as defenders of online gambling, the international organization's stated free- and open-trade purposes have turned out to have exactly that effect. EU member nations across the continent are finding to their dismay that free trade really means free trade, and the fact that the impacted party is often the government itself doesn't change the basic issue. Not long after a landmark decision was handed down against Italy by the European Court in a similar case, Greece has now been placed squarely in the EU's crosshairs. This time, a British-licensed online gambling firm, William Hill, forced the matter. William Hill applied for a licenselast week in Greece to open betting shops in that country, which would place it in direct competition with OPAP, the gambling concern granted monopoly status by the Greek government. William Hill made its application knowing full well that Greece was likely to deny it; William Hill's chief executive, David Harding, was quoted in several reports as saying he believed that Greece was in violation of European law, and that if the application was rejected, William Hill planned on pursuing the matter through the European Court. Not only did initial Greek media reports indicate that William Hill's application was likely to be rejected, the Greek government upped the stakes by arresting nine people in western Greece for unauthorized gambling. Three of the nine operated Internet cafes while the other six were customers, and all nine were cited for using an unnamed British bookmaking service (perhaps but not necessarily William Hill) instead of OPAP for their gambling service. This follows the arrest of an Athens man last month on similar charges. OPAP's president, Sotiris Kostakos, was reported as saying, "The only company with the right to operate betting in Greece is OPAP." Kostakos also suggested that the EU refer such complaints to the courts of the member countries, which is exactly what these countries seeking to protect their monopolistic revenue streams want to see happen. However, the EU has shown an interest in online gambling and ruled it to be a class of trade that should be available on an equal basis throughout all member countries. The European Union's impact on international trade agreements remains the brightest hope for all forms of online gambling, including poker.
Size Matters – WSOP Increases Starting Stacks Across All Events
One bit of news from last week's World Series of Poker media teleconference emerged with a bit of a twist: The WSOP will be doubling the starting chip stacks for all 55 events listed on the current schedule. In response to a question posed during the conference, WSOP Tournament Director Jack Effel announced that the starting chip stacks would be doubled in all events, and in the days after the conference, the new structures were added in to the content on the official worldseriesofpoker.com site. Interested parties can review the structures for any of the events by first clicking into the '07 WSOP schedule, and then by clicking on the title of any event, which is a hyperlink to a page containingthe blind structure and other event specifics. Effel explained that the doubling of chips was necessary to add a couple of extra levels of play to the intermediate levels of early, low buy-in events; these events have been cited in earlier years as not offering much real poker play. In turn, the WSOP seems to have decided that doubling chip stacks across the board was the best way to provide uniformity, even if in some events such as the Main Event, the higher chip stacks do not necessarily mean more play. The Main Event's move to $20,000 in starting chips brought notice in several discussion forums. Early conjecture that the reason for doubling the chip stacks across the board centered on the need to prevent the surreptitious theft and reintroduction of chips from smaller events into the Main Event. However, those thoughts are not born out by the facts; as reported by Pokernews.com's own Tim Lavalli a few weeks ago, the WSOP will introduce many distinct chip sets for this year's WSOP. Three of the sets will be used for actual event play, while the other three are reserved for varying satellite formats. In addition, one of the three 'live event' patterns will be used only in the Main Event and nowhere else. It should not be possible for a rogue player to introduce chips into the ME that have been extracted from earlier events. Opinions vary as to how much of the changes in starting stacks and blind structures will add to play, and how much is cosmetic. Lower buy-in events clearly make a marginal gain in terms of added play, while examinations of the Main Event structures show that the new structure mirrors the old quite closely, bouncing up and down in comparative measure with many of the minor differences accounted for by rounding and chip-denomination needs. One emerging tournament force, Joe Sebok, sees them as "cosmetic, albeit good cosmetic changes." "The added levels are nice," said Sebok, "but really don't drastically change much in terms of play. The bottom line is that it will make players feel better regardless of much change in play, and that is a good thing." Sebok continued by noting, "The WSOP is really stuck in a tough spot with this issue, though, as they have to compete with so many different events in an extremely finite amount of time. It's simply the nature of the beast at such a massive event as the WSOP." On whole, of course, Sebok's thoughts echo the general player sentiment that the adjustments are a good and necessary thing. Or, as Sebok put it, "I applaud [WSOP Commissioner Jeffrey] Pollack and the boys for those changes."
It's East vs West at Party Poker's European Challenge
The cold war may be over but that won't stop Tony G. and The Devilfish doing battle across the felt during Party Poker's European Challenge tournament, at the Concorde Card Casino, Vienna, this spring. In four days time the PartyPoker.net European Challenge in Vienna, Austria will be getting underway. The event will be at the heart of the 2007 Spring Poker Festival. A team of online qualifiers from Eastern Europe take on a team of Western European online qualifiers in the PartyPoker.net East versus West Cup, a €100,000 freeroll at the Concord Card Casino. Just to spice things up, Party Poker have brought in two of the highest profile namesin poker as team captains. Tony G. will head the team from the East. Tony, who is no stranger to controversy, caused a stir in last year's Intercontinental Poker Championship at the Palms Hotel and Casino, Las Vegas (also a Party Poker event). After an interesting hand involving Russian Ralph Perry, which many readers will have seen on the YouTube web site, commentator Gabe Kaplan said, "Tony G is single handedly trying to reignite the cold war". Tony, who is of Lithuanian descent, will be leading a number of Russian players in this challenge! Meanwhile the West will be captained by UK favourite, Dave "Devilfish" Ulliot. The Devilfish has already tangled with Tony G. in the last week. Both of these big guns were firing at the Party Poker Premier League in Maidstone, which was covered exclusively on UK PokerNews. The Devilfish started the war of words early with Guoga when he said, "Tony G is like a puppy dog, lots of bark but no bite." Never one to take a shot across the bows lying down, Tony G. retorted, "Devilfish lost it at Premier League Poker – it should be easy because he is not on his game." A PartyPoker.net spokesman said: "Something has got to give here. They've been in each others faces so much in the last week or so and it wasn't all smiles when they failed to say goodbye to each other at the Poker Den. Phil Hellmuth really stirred the pot too. We'll definitely need to draw an iron curtain between them now. I think we've done a good job in making them both insane! It was deliberate, of course!" The final table of 10 for the PartyPoker.net East versus West Cup will share €50,000, while the winning team will get €50,000 split between them. PartyBets, which can be accessed by PartyPoker account holders, cannot split the two teams when it comes to pricing up this event. Both teams are 5/6 currently with the online betting site.
L.A. Poker Classic - Day 4 Recap - Down to 18
54 players returned to the Commerce Casino for the fourth day of action at the L.A. Poker Classic main event. By Midnight, only 18 players remained and JC Tran leaped out in front of the pack with a massive $3.46 million stack, which was almost as much as second, third and fourth places… combined. In less than eight hours of play, Tran started with 636K and amassed almost three million in chips. The money bubble burst late on Day 3, and every returning player was guaranteed at least $22,780 in prize money. You figured that the entrants would be thrilled to make the money, but several players including pros complained at the top-heavy structure, where first place and second place will take home acombined 44% of the total prize pool. The final TV table's combined cut is almost two-third of the total $7.9 million prize pool. In a top-heavy tournament such as the L.A. Poker Classic, players tweak their strategy a little knowing that there's very little difference between 54th and 24th place's prize money. As soon as the money bubble burst, there was a series of quick bustouts. Smaller stacks who had been hanging on hoping to squeak into the money finally loosen up and made moves. Since play ended last night just as the bubble broke, the first level of Day 4 featured a series of rapid fire eliminations. 21 players began Day 4 above the average stack of 293K. The remaining 33 were below average with ten players under 100K in chips. The short stacks had no choice but to aggressively pick and hand and move all-in. Bill Edler entered the Day 4 as the chipleader with Jason Strasser not far behind in second place. Edler has a reputation of being one of the nicest guys on the tournament circuit. He's a patient player with solid fundamentals. He admits that his biggest leak is that he has issues with mathematics. Edler is meticulous about keeping his stacks in a specific order and size, and can often seen trading chips with other players to maintain a uniformity of chip stacks and colors. When asked about this behavior he answered, "I'm not very good at math. Earlier today I forget whether I had 260,000 or 360,000. The well ordered stacks are because I can't count." Jason Strasser was the first player to pass the $1 million chip mark on Day 4 after he busted Gary Kainer in 44th place. Bill Edler soon followed suit and joined the $1 million club after he scooped one of the biggest pots of the tournament off of Isaac Haxton. Haxton had trip Queens, but Edler had flopped a set, then turned a full house with . JC Tran slowly built up his stack to $1 million when he rivered a runner-runner flush against Chris Bell. He busted Sung Yi in 24th place, and with 21 players left in the field, he had $1.3 million and a slight lead over Jason Strasser. Tran became the first player to rush past the $2 million as he took advantage of the short-handed tables and bullied everyone in his path. With a series of well-timed re-raises in position, Tran accumulated chips by winning several pots pre-flop. With a big stack, he was able to see plenty of flops and outplayed everyone at his table post-flop. "Everything I've been doing has been working out," Tran explained. "I go with the flow and whatever is working, I stick with it. I've hit some flops and I'm running good." Tran surpassed the $3 million mark when he eliminated Hans "Tuna" Lund in 20th place. Lund had Tran dominated when he flopped a King with Big Slick. With , Tran flopped an 8 and smooth called Lund's flop bet of 150K. The turn was another 8 and Tran bet out 250K. Lund quickly pushed all in and Tran could not have called faster with trip 8s. The river did not help Lund as he headed to the rail. At that point, no one at Tran's table wanted to tangle with his monster stack. Kristy Gazes cashed in her sixth straight event. She had been limiting her tournament play which she credited to her recent run. She picked up chips early when she busted Greg "FTB" Mueller with against his . She was never near the top of the leaderboard and hovered around average for most of Day 4. Her tight image allowed her to occasionally pick up chips against her opponents to stay alive. Gazes avoided slipping into tiltdom when she became the short-stack at her six-handed table. On a board of , Gazes faced a 100K bet from Ben Johnson and went into the tank. After only two minutes, Johnson called the clock on Gazes. She folded, but was visibly unhappy about having the clock called on her when so many players, including a few at her table, had been stalling in later stages of the evening. "I'm a professional," she sternly said to Johnson. "Have you ever seen me stall in this tournament? We're playing for $2 million here, how about you let me make a decision?" Gazes eventually regained her composure and survived Day 4. She ended up 16th in chips with a little over 300K. CK Hua busted out in 19th place as play was suspended for the day. The final 18 players will return on Day 5 and play down to the final six. Here are the end of Day 4 chipcounts: 1 JC Tran $3,461,000 2 Jacobo Fernandez $1,334,000 3 Jason Strasser $1,196,000 4 Bill Edler $1,160,000 5 Tad Jurgens $1,059,000 6 Benjamin Johnson $1,055,000 7 David Bach $985,000 8 Chau Giang $813,000 9 Paul Wasicka $806,000 10 Eric Hershler $745,000 11 Chris Bell $636,000 12 Vincent Procopio $512,000 13 Joseph Cordi $512,000 14 Richard Munro $371,000 15 Jay Chang $333,000 16 Kristy Gazes $307,000 17 Juan Alvarado $282,000 18 Shan Jing $266,000 Here's a current list of Day 4 money winners: 19 CK Hua $45,560 20 Hans "Tuna" Lund $45,560 21 Suk Sung $45,560 22 Nam Le $45,560 23 Nick Schulman $45,560 24 Sung Yi $45,560 25 Isaac Haxton $45,560 26 Jeff Cabanillas $45,560 27 Babak Razi $45,560 28 Matthew Gianetti $35,690 29 Lee Markholt $35,690 30 Markus Stranzinger $35,690 31 Ted Lawson $35,690 32 Sean McCabe $35,690 33 Joe Awada $35,690 34 John Galbraith $35,690 35 John Little $35,690 36 Michael Carson $35,690 37 Roland Weedon $28,855 38 Daniel Idema $28,855 39 Avdo Djokovic $28,855 40 Lester Naquin $28,855 41 Robert Nehorayan $28,855 42 Greg "FTB"Mueller $28,855 43 Edward "Bolivia" Moncada $28,855 44 Gary Kainer $28,855 45 Richard Tatalovich $28,855 46 Jeffrey Anderson $22,780 47 Nhut Minh Tran $22,780 48 Dan Harmetz $22,780 49 Alan 'Bodog Ari' Engel $22,780 50 Peter Getten $22,780 51 Stan Jablonski $22,780 52 Steve Yoon $22,780 53 Daniel Woodward $22,780 54 Nick Binger $22,780 The average stack is $659,166. Action for Day 5 at the L.A. Poker Classic resumes at 3:30 P.M. local time in the ballroom at the Commerce Casino.
World Poker Tour Inks PartyGaming to International Sponsorship Deal
Two poker entities sharing a stated goal of aggressively expanding into non-U.S. markets have joined forces, as WPT Enterprises, Inc., has signed a multi-year sponsorship deal with PartyGaming Plc. The deal means that PartyPoker.com will be visible during international telecasts of WPT Enterprises shows now airing or planned to air in these worldwide venues. The series included in the agreement are Seasons IV, V and VI of the World Poker Tour®, and Seasons I, II and III of the Professional Poker Tour(TM). Financial specifics were not provided, although the deal's overall value will depend on how many markets receive the programming, how many total episodes are aired,and the amount of in-show brand integration that occurs. WPT Enterprises-produced shows currently air in more than 150 global markets and broadcast systems. Given that some of the series mentioned in the agreement are already 'in the can,' the announcement's reference to planned 'in-show branded integration' implies that a form of electronic retrofitting will occur; these episodes may well be re-engineered with a PartyPoker.com graphic embedded into the shot, perhaps on a corner of the felt. Such virtual ads are a widespread marketing practice within televised sporting events, as with the electronic billboards that appear on TV on an otherwise blank area of a baseball stadium's outfield wall. As for the deal itself, both companies seek to gain through the combined use of international marketing resources, leveraging each other into a position of increased overall international market visibility. PartyGaming has also made commitments concerning online satellites to WPT events and will help to promote the WPT Academy, an online teaching and reference tool built around hands and situations extracted from WPT play.
Poker Book Review: 'The Poker Tournament Formula'
We've all been in the position, whether in an online poker tournament or a live tournament in a casino. We've sat and nursed our starting chip stack, never growing it significantly, while those around us have chip stacks that dominate the felt in front of them. What if you were told that there was a method so that you could be one of those mountainous stacks on a fast track to the final table rather than the one nursing their chips to a middle of the pack finish? Noted gaming author Arnold Snyder, whose work in the field of blackjack is considered by many to be unparalleled, now brings his strategic and mathematical analysis to the world of poker with "The Poker Tournament Formula". The book, published by Cardoza Publishingand available at all bookstores, through Amazon.com or on cardozapub.com for roughly $19.95 U. S. ($25.99 Canadian and 13.95 British pounds), is a very exacting and thought provoking work that will bring some new strategies to the poker tables, especially those with short time blind structures and smaller starting stack sizes. At the minimum, "The Poker Tournament Formula" can be used as a method of "changing gears" that some players seem to have problems with at the tables. The crux of Snyder's work is put into a breakdown of the structure of poker tournaments, which Arnold accurately points out should dictate the style of play that you employ at the tables. By using a formulaic outcome he calls the "patience factor", Snyder breaks tournaments down into six categories, ranging from zero (a crapshoot, in his views) to six (slow, skillful play should be the determinate). Through the determination of what type of tournament you are playing, whether live or online, Snyder then proposes a very simple strategy (which we will get to in a moment). It comes as no surprise that most online tournaments fall into the first two levels of Snyder's formula, requiring a more freewheeling style of play. Arnold suggests that, in these types of tournaments, more often than not you should be betting that your opponents DON'T have the cards rather than that they do. Because you will get premium hands very infrequently, Snyder suggests to play this gambling style in later position which (unless you run into an opponent's monster hand or another gambling style player) should earn you more pots and, thus, allow you to run deeper into tournaments. Arnold points out that this freewheeling, gambling style doesn't work quite as well in deep stack or slower blind structure tournaments (those that fall in the four to six range of his scale). Because of the plentitude of chips and the slower level structure, you can play the strategic and patient game that is employed in major tournaments such as those put on by the World Poker Tour. Snyder also points out that these slow structure events can even extend to the high dollar online tournaments and, surprisingly, to some of the low level buy in tournaments that you can find weekly in the Las Vegas casinos. There were several good points to Arnold's book that I have seen executed in the smaller buy-in events online. The gambling style will be effective if you are at a table that has solid, "rock" style players that won't challenge you back. His theory of "betting the players behind you don't have hands" is a solid one and, if you are played back at, Snyder does offer thorough strategy for handling such situations. These practices overall, if employed judiciously through a tournament, can offer a tremendous ability to make strong runs in fast structure events. The theories that Arnold provides in the book could be revolutionary for tournament poker in this day and age. The gambling mentality that he proposes have been seen, by this writer in live tournaments and by many on ESPN's broadcasts of the World Series events (especially in 2006), and have been highly useful in their psychological effectiveness and their problematic player categorization at the tables. While many might not be able to pull off the entirety of the strategy over a whole tournament, it can be useful as a "gear change," even in a slower structured tournament. "The Poker Tournament Formula" is a highly interesting book that will make people rethink their strategies, especially in fast structured tournaments. While some of the book's content after the presentation of Snyder's theories don't reveal anything new, the basis of the "patience factor" and the strategies themselves are well thought out and can be beneficial to many tournament poker players. If you're looking for a new way to consider how to play tournament poker, "The Poker Tournament Formula" could be the book that you are looking for.

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