Darvin Moon Joins ESPN Inside Deal
Darvin Moon, the chip leader of the 2009 World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event entering the final table in November, joined the ESPN.com poker show “Inside Deal.” Also appearing was Absolute Poker pro Lacey Jones.
“Inside Deal” is released every Tuesday on ESPN.com and aired its ninth episode this week. The poker franchise began with discussion of the Caesars Cup, which saw Annette Obrestad lead the European team to victory over Daniel Negreanu’s Team Americas. “Inside Deal” host Bernard Lee explained, “The Americans were no slouches. They had 45 WSOP bracelets among them. Overall, Europe got the best of it, but there was some luck involved as well.” The Caesars Cup featured a series of heads-up and two-on-two matches, with the European team trouncing the American squad by a final score of 4-1.
2010 will mark the first WSOP that Obrestad will be of legal age to play on U.S. soil. She took down the 2007 WSOP Europe Main Event and became a formidable force in the poker world long before her 21st birthday. Lee explained, “I think it’s safe to say Annette Obrestad will be the most anticipated 21 year-old ever to enter the WSOP.” Other news reviewed by “Inside Deal” included Paul Zimbler playing poker for nearly 75 straight hours in the name of charity and November Nine member Jeff Shulman receiving coaching from Phil Hellmuth to improve his short-handed game.
Jones joined the show donning an Absolute Poker logo and explained that WSOP Europe sponsor Betfair matched Zimbler’s fundraising efforts dollar for dollar, with ?28,000 being doubled. On her team’s win in the Dream Team Poker Media Event held during the 2009 WSOP, Jones told “Inside Deal” hosts Lee and Laura Lane, “When you’re playing on a team, you have friends to root on. If maybe you didn’t go far, they do, so you’re sitting there cheering them on.” Jones ultimately took 11th in the event.
Jones was a participant in the Ladies Event held during the Borgata Poker Open, where Abraham Korotki, a male, took down the tournament. Jones commented, “I don’t mind that there was a guy at the table,” but didn’t approve of his demeanor. Jones added that a transsexual was in the event as well, who felt more comfortable playing in a Ladies’ event than an open event. On being one of the male-dominated game’s most recognized females, Jones commented, “There are things I can do to trap these guys and let them keep trying to steal my blinds. Eventually, I’ll pop them and take their chips.”
A reticent Moon joined the show wearing a New Orleans Saints baseball cap. Moon will be present for the coin toss of the November 30th Monday Night Football game between the Saints and New England Patriots. Moon, a logger by trade, revealed he has no e-mail address or credit card and his trip to the WSOP Main Event was just his second time ever being on an airplane. During the course of a normal day, Moon wakes up at 6:00am, eats breakfast, works until 4:00pm, and then participates in family activities.
On his odds to defeat the rest of the final table in the WSOP Main Event, which includes poker pros Phil Ivey, Jeff Shulman, and James Akenhead, Moon told “Inside Deal” viewers, “I don’t feel my odds are good to win because everyone there is better than I am. I have the least experience of anyone there.” Moon does not plan to take lessons prior to the WSOP Main Event finale and instead will stick with his tight strategy.
Moon is the lone representative of the November Nine to lack a sponsorship deal. On what he’s looking for in a potential agreement, Moon told Lane and Lee, “A lot of money for being at that final table and then when I leave Las Vegas, the sponsorship is over.” He revealed that no company has come forward with an offer matching that description.
Check out ESPN “Inside Deal” every Tuesday on ESPN.com.
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Brett Radin Wins Commerce Casino Ironman Tournament
Move over, Robert Downey, Jr. There’s a new Ironman in town! Brett Radin scooped $51,000 for taking down the Commerce Casino’s first ever Ironman event, a no-break poker tournament.
Radin defeated Chris “Trips” Tyrba in the Ironman tournament, which ran for 19 hours and 21 minutes. A total of 64 players bought in for $1,600 each and three meals were served at the table given the no break structure. The Commerce Casino added $10,000 to the prize pool, which came in at $103,000. The Ironman concept was the brainchild of veteran tournament director Matt Savage, who told Poker News Daily, “The Ironman is an idea that I came up with in response to players always asking, ‘When is the break?’ and others asking why the breaks are so long. When you signed up for the Ironman, there was no guesswork.”
Bathroom breaks and other reasons to stand up from the table meant missed hands in the Ironman tournament. As such, Savage noted that the extra twist tested players’ mental toughness: “Players should know that missing a hand in a tournament is not the end of the world and that many successful tournament players take unscheduled breaks away from the table. It was a test of a player’s skill and willpower, as the structure was very good.” Ultimate Bet pro and 11-time World Series of Poker (WSOP) bracelet winner Phil Hellmuth, for example, often misses hours of major tournaments in an effort to woo the assembled field with his customary late entrance.
Here were the top six finishers in the Ironman tournament:
1st Place: Brett Radin – $51,160
2nd Place: Chris “Trips” Tyrba – $22,686
3rd Place: Farzin Akhtar – $11,859
4th Place: Tyler “Titan of Tulalip” Patterson – $7,218
5th Place: Brian Brubaker – $5,672
6th Place: Eric “Basebaldy” Baldwin – $4,125
Baldwin is a WSOP bracelet winner, having taken down a $1,500 buy-in No Limit Hold’em event during the 2009 tournament series. Baldwin promptly finished third in the World Championship of Pot Limit Hold’em, boosting his take from the 2009 WSOP to over $780,000. On the online felts, where he can be found under the “Basebaldy” moniker, Baldwin won the Bodog weekly $100,000 Guaranteed twice in May of 2008. Last December, he took down the Full Tilt Poker $750,000 Guaranteed for $132,000. Baldwin finished 54th in the Main Event of the 2009 PokerStars World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP) for $23,000.
Many who took to the felts in the Commerce Casino’s Ironman event were brand name players, including Shane “Shaniac” Schleger, Gavin Griffin, Matt “mattg1983” Graham, Joe Bartholdi, 2009 World Poker Tour (WPT) L.A. Poker Classic Champion Andrew Cimpan, and Adam “a_junglen” Junglen. Graham. Each entrant was given a stack of 10,000 chips and blinds began at 25-25. The price of poker increased every hour. On the structure, Radin commented in a press release distributed by the West Coast casino, “It was the truest poker tournament I have ever seen or played in. I love the fact that it played all the way down and no deals were allowed!”
The Commerce Casino plays host to the WPT L.A. Poker Classic every year, with its next installment slated for February 20th to 25th. In its last running, Cimpan defeated Binh Nguyen heads-up, with Mike “SowersUNCC” Sowers and Full Tilt pro Chris Ferguson also reaching the final table. Cimpan banked $1.6 million for his efforts and the tournament aired as part of Season VII of the WPT on Fox Sports Net. The $10,000 buy-in contest generated a field of 696 runners.
The Ironman event was part of the Commerce Casino’s Hold’em Series. Its inaugural event, a $220 buy-in No Limit Hold’em tournament, generated a field of 3,967 players, which the Commerce Casino claimed was the largest non-WSOP field in live poker history. Players could re-enter on another starting day if they busted out.
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Doyle Brunson Sixth in WSOP Europe Main Event
History may be in the making in one of the most historic cities in the world. Doyle Brunson is in search of his record-tying 11th bracelet in the World Series of Poker (WSOP) Europe Main Event and is sixth in chips with 92 players remaining.
Brunson holds a stack of 210,900 and is in pursuit of the £801,603 first place prize. “Texas Dolly” has 10 WSOP bracelets to his name, tied with Johnny Chan for second most all-time. He needs one more to move into the lead with 11, a record currently held by Ultimate Bet pro Phil Hellmuth. Brunson has been shut out since 2005, when he took down a $5,000 buy-in No Limit Hold’em Short-Handed event for $367,000, defeating a competitive final table that also included Minh Ly, Layne Flack, and Scotty Nguyen.
Brunson will captain Table 10 on Tuesday at the Casino at the Empire, where he’ll be joined by online poker players Justin “Boosted J” Smith and Christian Kruel. Smith is fresh off a third place effort in the Bellagio Cup, a stop on the World Poker Tour (WPT). He earned $464,000 at the Las Vegas casino back in July. Kruel can be found on the virtual felts of PokerStars under the screen name “C.K.” He won a $530 buy-in $80,000 Guaranteed High Roller tournament on PartyPoker in mid-August for $22,000.
Also in the Top 10 in London is Team PokerStars Pro member Jason Mercier. In May, he took down a tournament held during the Full Tilt Online Poker Series (FTOPS) for $86,000 and then followed up that performance with a bracelet win in a $1,500 buy-in Pot Limit Omaha event during the 2009 WSOP. Mercier recorded four cashes overall during the WSOP and was quickly scooped up by PokerStars to join their pro team. He also competed in the star-studded field of the Ante Up for Africa charity poker tournament, which aired on ESPN. Mercier owns the 10th largest stack at 202,300.
Liz Lieu doubled her stack holding pocket aces on Monday in the WSOP Europe Main Event. Entering play on Day 3, she sits at 16th in the chip counts with 184,400. Meanwhile, November Nine member James Akenhead also remains in contention. Akenhead, a Brit on his home turf, sent Nick Bleeker packing after coming out on the winning end of a race holding pocket jacks against A-K. The board ran out 9-7-Q-Q-7, pushing Akenhead to 250,000 in chips. He ended the day with 178,000, which was good for 17th overall. Fellow November Nine member Antoine Saout, who held a Top 10 stack entering Day 2 play on Monday, fell back to 50th on the leaderboard with 90,100.
Here are the Top 10 stacks in the 2009 WSOP Europe Main Event entering Day 3 on Tuesday:
1. Ian Munns – 528,300
2. Praz Bassi – 299,000
3. Oyvind Riisem – 255,300
4. Arron Eric Filippi – 216,500
5. David Docherty – 216,200
6. Doyle Brunson – 210,900
7. Shandoi Demjan – 209,000
8. Markus Ristola – 205,000
9. Ram Vaswarni – 202,500
10. Jason Mercier – 202,300
Other notable names remaining in the hunt for the £801,603 prize include:
12. Yevgeniy Timoshenko – 192,100
13. Steve Zolotow – 191,100
16. Liz Lieu – 184,400
17. James Akenhead – 178,000
18. Dave “Devilfish” Ulliott – 174,000
19. Antonio Esfadiari – 173,300
20. John Tabatabai – 160,100
38. Daniel Negreanu – 113,100
39. Barry Shulman – 111,200
49. Annette Obrestad – 90,500
50. Antoine Saout – 90,100
55. Teddy Sheringham – 74,800
65. Freddy Deeb – 61,200
67. Andre Akkari – 58,300
69. Todd Brunson – 51,600
70. Eric Liu – 51,100
79. John Juanda – 38,900
85. Men “The Master” Nguyen – 27,500
The top 36 players will finish in the money, with the minimum payout being £21,142. Every member of the nine-handed final table will walk away with at least £66,533. Stay tuned to Poker News Daily for the latest from the WSOP Europe Main Event.
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Olivier Busquet Interview with Poker News Daily
Poker pro Olivier Busquet, a high-stakes heads-up sit and go expert, recently took down the World Poker Tour’s (WPT) Borgata Poker Open, mounting a comeback of epic proportions after being down 20:1 in chips to Jeremy Brown with a $925,000 first place prize on the line. Busquet sat down with Poker News Daily to recap the comeback.
Poker News Daily: Talk about mounting a comeback of epic proportions at the WPT Borgata Poker Open over Jeremy Brown.
Busquet: Anytime you’re down 20:1 or anything like that, you have to won coin flips or cooler people in some sense. Chips are bound to get in the middle and your opponent will definitely have outs. I ran well in the all-in pots, which is critical when my chips are on the line. I tried to focus on keeping the pots relatively small pre-flop. I didn’t limp that much because there’s a lot of equity in the game to someone folding to a pre-flop raise. Jeremy had a tendency to polarize his ranges. I had to win with J-7 offsuit versus Q-9 all-in. I flopped the nuts against top pair. I had to avoid flush and straight draws on the last hand.
PND: Did you ever feel like winning the tournament was out of reach?
Busquet: If someone had pulled me aside and asked me if I was going to win, I would have said probably not. When I’m playing, though, I don’t think in those terms. I think of what I’m dealt and the situation I’m in. I was actually fortunate in that I play one-on-one tournaments all the time. In heads-up sit and gos, there are 3,000 chips in play and in the Borgata there were 30 million. Every kind of situation I encountered in terms of the number of chips and blinds, I had been in that situation tens of thousands of times before. Being down to 1.4 million was like being down to like 140 chips in a heads-up sit and go.
PND: You were a sizable chip leader entering the final table. Was it frustrating seeing Jeremy Brown eliminate three people and build his stack?
Busquet: I don’t have a ton of experience being a big chip leader in a tournament. When I wasn’t the chip leader, I was just adjusting to stack size changes. I wasn’t reacting emotionally to the sense that I could lose the tournament. Instead, I was thinking of how the change in stacks changes my optimal strategy. There are so many things out of your control. I didn’t have the illusion that I was going to stay the chip leader from wire to wire.
PND: How did you get started in poker?
Busquet: A friend of mine from high school brought me to an old friend’s house. I never really played and walked into a room with young 20 year-old, confident kids and was intimated. I ended up losing money and that piqued my interest a bit. A kid I was working with told me I could play online. My first account was on PartyPoker and then one of my doormen told me that Full Tilt was a better site. I made small deposit of $100 playing $1/$2 six-max cash. I played a bunch and read TwoPlusTwo a lot, especially the high-stakes No Limit threads. I essentially moved up in stakes from there.
PND: What were some of the biggest influences on your game coming up?
Busquet: TwoPlusTwo was probably the biggest. There was one kid who came to Full Tilt that I became friendly with, Dustin Dirksen. When he first started on Full Tilt, he played a style that threw a lot of people off. People were unsure whether he was a massive fish or crazy shark. We talked a little bit and I was more interested in the perception people had of him rather than the actual style he had. I also read “Super System” like other players did. The way that I came up was by trying to be my own player. I would try to think about situations in an original way. TwoPlusTwo allowed me to set a foundation. I learned the basic strategies and then, from that, I was able to leapfrog into my own way of playing.
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Sunday Night Football Dominates Amazing Race Premiere in Ratings
The National Football League (NFL) game between the Indianapolis Colts and Arizona Cardinals garnered an 8.2 rating on Sunday night during the 8:00pm ET hour to lead all programs. The CBS reality series Amazing Race, which features poker pros Tiffany Michelle and Maria Ho, premiered at 7.1.
Amazing Race began around 8:15pm ET as a result of a late finish of a football game that aired on CBS. During the 8:00pm ET hour, Sunday Night Football generated an 8.2 rating according to HitFix, Amazing Race came in at 7.1, ABC’s Extreme Makeover: Home Edition mustered a 6.4 rating, and Fox’s The Simpsons came in at 4.5. Another show that aired during the first of two hours for Amazing Race was The Cleveland Show (5.3 rating), which premiered on Sunday night at 8:30pm ET on Fox.
Amazing Race’s 15th season premiere featured a two-hour episode, seeing a 5.8 rating during its second hour, a sharp drop-off. Sunday Night Football, which was approaching halftime at 9:00pm ET, attracted a solid 9.7 rating during its second of three hours. Fox again ran two half-hour programs, with Family Guy grabbing a 5.7 rating and American Dad chiming in with a 4.1. Meanwhile, Desperate Housewives returned to score an 8.4 rating. The hour-long program airs on ABC and bumped Amazing Race to third in the ratings during the time slot.
The number of viewers of Sunday Night Football dwindled during the 10:00pm ET hour, when the game became a blowout, generating an 8.7 rating. Indianapolis won 31-10, with quarterback Peyton Manning tossing four touchdowns in primetime; the Colts led 21-3 at the intermission. The game generated additional interest given that Arizona is the defending National Football Conference (NFC) champions and narrowly defeated the Pittsburgh Steelers in January’s Super Bowl.
HitFix noted that NBC averaged 12.7 million viewers during the three-hour time period and mustered an 8.0 rating. CBS, which carries Amazing Race, was in second place with a 7.3 rating and 11.7 million viewers. Amazing Race is regularly one hour in length, but aired for 120 minutes over the weekend for its debut episode. Next week, Pittsburgh will host the San Diego Chargers on Sunday Night Football, which will surely lead to another ratings-rich affair for NBC.
Previously, ESPN held the rights to Sunday Night Football before the honor went to NBC in time for the 2006 season. The NBC version originally featured Al Michaels and John Madden in the broadcast booth. Madden retired before the start of the 2009 campaign and was replaced by Cris Collinsworth. Amazing Race has aired on Sunday nights since Season 10 in the 8:00pm ET hour. Previous versions have aired on Thursday night, Wednesday night, and Tuesday night. The latter has been the traditional evening for new episodes of the World Series of Poker (WSOP) on ESPN.
Amazing Race once again won an Emmy Award for Outstanding Reality-Competition Program in 2009. In fact, Amazing Race has won the honor every year the award has been given out and, this time around, it bested American Idol, Dancing with the Stars, Project Runway, and Top Chef. Amazing Race features Executive Producers Bertram van Munster, Jonathan Littman, and Jerry Bruckheimer, who has been behind movie blockbusters like Top Gun, The Rock, and the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise.
Michelle and Ho were nearly sent home from Tokyo on the season premiere of Amazing Race, but finished last in a non-elimination leg. Despite having to complete a Speed Bump, an extra task only they had to perform, Michelle and Ho rallied to finish seventh out of 11 teams. Now, 10 remain as the cast heads to Cambodia. Check out Amazing Race at 8:00pm ET on CBS every Sunday.
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Mike Matusow Calls Caesars Cup a Farce in Phil Hellmuth TwitVid
One of the most popular players in the game today, 11-time bracelet winner Phil Hellmuth, has given those who couldn’t make their way to the World Series of Poker (WSOP) Europe festivities the opportunity to tour the Casino at the Empire in Leicester Square in London and get personal with other poker pros through his Twitter account.
Hellmuth, who submits his tweets through the Twitter tag “Phil Hellmuth,” recently posted a four-minute twitvid that offers a look inside what has become one of London’s must-visit places for poker players. In the video, the “Poker Brat” serves as the travel guide for the viewer and, by the end, records two polarizing figures in the world of poker.
The video starts from his viewpoint in Leicester Square in London. Filmed before his triumphant entrance as Nero during the WSOP Europe Main Event, he points out that Leicester Square is the home of many historical statues, artists, and “stuff like that,” before strolling through the Square to the entrance of the Casino at the Empire. Strangely enough, and accurately pointed out by Hellmuth, the casino does not look out of place in a city that has been in existence for quite some time.
It takes approximately two minutes to get to the true meat of Hellmuth’s twitvid. As he strolls through the casino and reaches the poker arena of the Casino at the Empire, Hellmuth finds WSOP Media Director Nolan Dalla sitting with Men “The Master” Nguyen and Mike “The Mouth” Matusow. At this point, the twitvid takes off, as the duo espouse on some issues that are on their minds.
Hellmuth welcomes Nguyen to London, as “The Master” exhaustedly states that he just arrived in the U.K. after an 11-hour flight. The extremely jet-lagged poker veteran, who is one of the nominees for election into the Poker Hall of Fame, is hailed by Hellmuth as the “Vietnamese Godfather of Poker” and Hellmuth himself states that Nguyen will probably earn election into the Hall “within the next two to three years, if not this year.”
The conversation then turns to the always-entertaining Matusow, who definitely had some issues on his mind. Hellmuth notes that Matusow is upset that Team Americas captain Daniel Negreanu did not choose him for a spot on the Caesars Cup squad. “I’m not upset,” Matusow contends. “I can’t get upset over a f*****g farce.” Matusow continues on his rant when he notes, “When a 20 year-old is the captain of the European team and a 21 year-old Canadian is captain of an American team, why should I be upset?” Matusow is, in reality, good friends with Negreanu, who is actually 35.
The duo then continue their discussion when Hellmuth brings up the fact that Matusow had taken part in the Full Tilt Million Dollar Cash Game, a 24-hour ring game that was taped for television broadcast in Europe. Hellmuth says that Matusow walked away from the table – which included “November Nine” member Phil Ivey, former WSOP Player of the Year Allen Cunningham, former Main Event Champion Chris Ferguson, online legend Tom “durrrr” Dwan, Scandinavian superstar Patrik Antonius, and English poker star Andrew Feldman – with a $105,000 profit.
“It was without a doubt the toughest lineup I have ever played,” Matusow admitted. “I definitely brought my A+ game, not only because of the difficult table, but because no one would talk to me!” Hellmuth then reveals that he had been called on several occasions during the taping to provide a foil for Matusow, drawing laughter from all at the table.
Hellmuth has continued to post tweets during the run of the WSOP Europe. He can be found on Twitter under the moniker Phil Hellmuth.
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Steve Zolotow Tops WSOP Europe Main Event Day 1B Field
Two-time World Series of Poker (WSOP) bracelet winner Steve Zolotow paced the field in London on Day 1B of the 2009 WSOP Europe Main Event. A total of 178 players entered on Sunday for a combined starting grid of 334.
A total of 363 players turned out for the 2008 WSOP Europe Main Event, meaning that this year’s field represented a drop of 8% in attendance. Nevertheless, the action was fast and furious at the Casino at the Empire in London, where Zolotow prevailed over the pack on Day 1B. When the action ceased for the evening, Zolotow held 166,825 chips, trailing the top three stacks from Day 1A – Brian Powell (194,600), Jason Mercier (189,725), and Sami Kelopuro (168,925) – to claim fourth place on the leaderboard entering Day 2 on Monday. According to PokerNews, Zolotow doubled up late in the day after flopping a set of threes against an opponent with bottom two pair.
A familiar face was third in chips after Day 1B, 2009 WSOP November Nine member Antoine Saout. A sponsored pro of Everest Poker, Saout holds the ninth largest stack overall after Days 1A and 1B in London at 144,400. Saout will hold the eighth largest tally when play resumes in Las Vegas, where the entire field is looking up at Darvin Moon. Action in the 2009 WSOP Main Event resumes on November 7th.
Here are the Top 10 chip stacks in the 2009 WSOP Europe Main Event entering play on Monday:
1. Brian Powell – 194,600
2. Jason Mercier – 189,725
3. Sami Kelopuro – 168,925
4. Steve Zolotow – 166,825
5. Viktor Blom – 163,175
6. Jonathan Aguiar – 160,100
7. Praz Bassi – 155,450
8. Martin Hansen – 152,775
9. Antoine Saout – 144,400
10. Christian Harder – 134,125
Among those who were sent packing on Day 1B was WSOP bracelet winner Nenad Medic, who was all-in holding just Q-J on a board of 8-3-3. His opponent showed A-9, which held up to send the Canadian home. Vitaly Lunkin, the champion of the $40,000 buy-in tournament commemorating the 40th running of the WSOP, was also eliminated from the WSOP Europe Main Event. Lunkin held Q-10 on a board of 7-3-2-Q-A, but ran into pocket queens. J.C. Tran semi-bluffed all-in with A-8 on a board of 10-4-J-9, but ran into K-10. An eight on the river missed Tran’s straight and secured his elimination.
Others remaining in contention include:
17. Ram Vaswarni – 113,625
23. Doyle Brunson – 92,900
27. Brandon Cantu – 89,000
28. Daniel Negreanu – 88,925
29. Noah Boeken – 87,500
35. Barry Shulman – 80,250
36. Juha Helppi – 79,200
41. James Akenhead – 77,675
46. Antonio Esfadiari – 73,550
70. Freddy Deeb – 56,900
77. Annette Obrestad – 52,400
81. Dave “Devilfish” Ulliott – 49,800
88. Todd Brunson – 46,050
94. Terrence “Unassigned” Chan – 44,175
96. Men “The Master” Nguyen – 43,200
105. Sandra Naujoks – 40,225
112. Shaun Deeb – 37,500
125. Teddy Sheringham – 33,350
128. Marco Traniello – 33,000
134. David Oppenheim – 31,525
137. Alex Kravchenko – 31,100
141. Yevgeniy Timoshenko – 29,675
142. Mike Matusow – 28,900
144. Dennis Phillips – 28,800
145. John Juanda – 28,525
149. David Williams – 25,850
163. Phil Hellmuth – 18,450
164. Scott Montgomery – 18,225
171. Michael Binger – 10,000
172. Erik Seidel – 9,925
174. Howard Lederer – 7,675
176. Barry Greenstein – 6,925
One of the toughest tables to convene on Monday contains 2007 WSOP Europe Main Event Champion Annette Obrestad, online poker pro Jason “JCarver” Somerville, Ultimate Bet pro Brandon Cantu, and bracelet winner Philip Tom. The quartet will headline Table 8.
Play will get underway at 5:30pm local time on Monday in observance of the Yom Kippur holiday, one of the holiest days of the Jewish calendar. The observance runs from sundown on Sunday to sundown on Monday. Stay tuned to Poker News Daily for the latest from WSOP Europe.
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Amazing Race: Tiffany Michelle, Maria Ho Escape Elimination in Premiere
Poker pros Tiffany Michelle and Maria Ho were spared elimination on the premiere of the CBS reality show Amazing Race, which is entering its 15th season. Michelle and Ho arrived at the first pit stop in last place.
The 15th installment of the CBS franchise began in the L.A. River, the site of movies like “Grease.” Twelve teams arrived by bus, including Michelle and Ho, who told other teams that they worked for a non-profit instead of admitting they were wealthy poker players and the last women standing in the 2007 and 2008 World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Events.
In a new twist, the first challenge took place immediately, with the last team to complete it eliminated at the starting mat. In it, teams had to sort through 1,000 license plates for one of 11 from Shinagawa, Tokyo, their first destination. Despite confusing license plates, some with misleading Japanese symbols on them, Michelle and Ho finished the task first and headed to the airport to fly to Tokyo. On completing the task first, Michelle quipped, “We have our Asian lucky charm right here,” referring to Ho. In the end, married yoga teachers Eric and Lisa were eliminated in Los Angeles.
All teams flew to Japan, where they were told to head to the Tokyo Tower Television Studio. There, a live audience awaited a game of “Sushi Roulette,” which capitalized on the popularity of Japanese game shows. The Roadblock, which is a task that only one team member can perform, asked contestants to stand in front of a giant roulette wheel and eat the food that landed in front of them. The two players who received scorching hot wasabi bombs had to consume it in less than two minutes in order to receive their next clue. Play continued until each team had eaten a wasabi bomb.
On-screen graphics like an alligator breathing fire added flair to this task, which saw the wasabi land on Ho’s space on the third spin. However, she was unable to eat it within the two-minute time frame and had to play again. As luck would have it, the wasabi once again landed on her space on the fourth spin. Ho told Amazing Race cameras, “My hands were shaking. I was tearing up. It was just like one of those moments where people say it’s mind over matter.” Ho finished her wasabi with two seconds left on the clock.
After completing “Sushi Roulette,” the teams received a colored flag, which corresponded to the visors of 20 audience members. They had to lead their group to the Konno Hachimangu Shrine across town on foot navigating Tokyo’s congested streets. Dating couple Meghan and Cheyne arrived at the Shrine, the Pit Stop for the leg of the race, first and received trips to Aspen and Vail.
Michelle and Ho stopped at a hotel to get a map to the Shrine, sharing its location with brothers Sam and Dan. Michelle explained, “They’re both young, hot, 20-something guys who have become our friends.” Meanwhile, two members of Michelle and Ho’s group became separated in Tokyo’s maze of crowded streets. After hunting around, the poker players were unable to locate their lost crowd members and checked in at the first Amazing Race Pit Stop in last place. Michelle and Ho were assessed a two-hour time penalty for not completing the task, but were spared being sent home in a non-elimination leg. As punishment, they would be forced to complete a Speed Bump, which is a task that only Michelle and Ho would perform, in the upcoming leg.
The teams were then dispatched to Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, where they were taken by bus to Cai Be. Despite departing three hours behind other teams at 3:22am from the Pit Stop, Michelle and Ho were quickly able to catch up, as the first flight to Vietnam did not leave until 10:30am. Meanwhile, Lance Layne, an engaged lawyer from Massachusetts, lashed out at Michelle and Ho for not being eliminated on the previous leg: “I can’t believe they gave those two chicks a Speed Bump. Bastards should have been sent home.”
A person at the airport recognized Michelle and asked, “Did you get into the Top 15?” This generated doubt in Michelle and Ho’s stated profession as non-profit workers, eventually leading to other teams figuring out that they were actually poker players. Teams arrived at the Cai Be docks just before nightfall only to see that it did not open until 7:00am. In the morning, they proceeded to mud pits across the Mekong Delta and were tasked with scooping enough mud to fertilize a fruit tree by filling up its base to a designated red line.
Before completing the fruit tree task, Michelle and Ho served the Cai Be dock master soup for their Speed Bump. The poker-playing duo completed the extra challenge with ease before heading to the mud pits. Michelle and Ho were in last place leaving the pits due to the time lost while completing the Speed Bump, but gained ground in the leg’s Road Block, which consisted of herding 150 ducks across a bridge and back again in a fenced enclosure.
Michelle claimed that she had ducks growing up and “flew” through the task, leading to the team being in sixth place after finishing the Roadblock. The Pit Stop on the Vietnam leg was a boat, the Bassac III, and Michelle and Ho arrived in seventh place, surviving a chaotic two-hour episode. Father and son Gary and Matt came in first place and won kayaks.
Amazing Race airs every Sunday on CBS at 8:00pm ET. Next week will see Michelle, Ho, and the rest of the CBS reality show’s cast travel to Cambodia.
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Linda Johnson Goes to Camp
I recently returned from a 10-day trip to Indiana. The first part of the trip was spent at the Hollywood Casino (formerly Argosy Casino) in Lawrenceburg, Indiana. The new $336 million facility is more than twice the size of its former vessel. The two decks, each wider than an aircraft carrier and nearly as long as a football field, make it the largest riverboat in the country. It gives one the feel of being in a luxurious casino with all of the bells and whistles.
Hollywood Casino has more than 270,000 square feet of space, including 150,000 square feet for gaming with 88 tables, 3,200 slots, and electronic table games. The Hollywood décor and theme is flawlessly executed throughout. The casino brings classic Hollywood to life with a 60-foot serpentine video wall, nine large billboards, and more than 300 flat screen displays featuring first-run movie trailers, video shorts, entertainment programming, and sporting events. Among the casino’s major attractions is an exclusive VIP Producer’s Lounge and an expanded high-limit gaming area.
I’d been to Argosy a few times in the past three years and had always enjoyed the gaming and hospitality there, so decided that the opening of its brand new 41-table poker room (the largest in the Midwest) and the Indiana State Poker Championship would be two great reasons to return. My first mistake was booking a flight into Indianapolis instead of Cincinnati. This error resulted in a two-hour drive to the casino instead of 10 minutes. On the bright side, however, I got to spend the two hours getting to know the Hollywood Casino cardroom manager Thom “TK” Krauss and Tournament Director Kevin Dawn. TK is very much a hands-on manager and knows all of his regular patrons by name. He told me that he loves his job, which was obvious since I saw him there at all hours of the day and night. The poker staff and players were very hospitable and made me feel very welcome.
The poker room is very comfortable, with lots of space between tables, great chairs, and good lighting. Players’ hours are tracked so they can earn comps. By the way, the buffet at Hollywood Casino is as good as the best buffets in Las Vegas. The poker room is so impressive that it recently was selected to host a stop on the World Poker Tour.
Jan Fisher and I gave a poker seminar at the Hollywood on the Roof, a performance area with a panoramic screen resembling the Hollywood Bowl, where bands can entertain guests and video content can be projected in grand scale. Hollywood on the Roof features a high-energy circular bar that looks out onto the casino atrium. The seminar was well-attended and I thoroughly enjoyed meeting the locals.
After five days at Hollywood Casino, I went to Indianapolis to participate in Mickey’s Camp, a charity event held annually in a campground called Bradford Woods. There is a separate men’s camp and women’s camp and the attendees actually attend summer camp for adults. They sleep in the same bunks, 12 to a cabin, that kids sleep in during their camp. Each camper gets to choose 10 activities from about 35, including flyfishing, police training, backgammon, Alpine tower, pistol and rifle shooting, gourmet cooking, raft building, canoeing, wine tasting, billiards, table tennis, beer tasting, boxing, jewelry making, photography, yoga, painting, hiking, darts, orienteering, and swimming. I teach the poker class and then run a tournament for the men and women. After my classes, I get to be a camper. This year I chose the following activities: massage, magic, bridge, grilling, backgammon, medical myths, self-defense, sports dialogue, badminton, economics, rifle/pistol, and CPR.
From the $1,500 fee to attend the camp, at least two-thirds of it goes to Indiana charities. This can be done because most of the food is donated by local restaurants and the instructors donate their time as well. The founder, Mickey Maurer, is a great ambassador and philanthropist and has raised more than $1 million for charity through his camp.
Although the attendees are extremely successful in the business world (during the first evening of each camp, we sit under a tent, everyone introduces themselves and tells what they do, and I am always blown away by how accomplished they are), most of them are not the caliber of player I usually encounter in my classes. They sure do have fun though! I had to chuckle when I saw two of the players get up in the middle of the tournament and say, “Thanks, I think I’ve had enough.” Then, they just quit and left their chips on the table.
This was my fourth year at Mickey’s Camp. I love attending charity events and this is one of my favorites.
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Emilio Gomez Steps Down from Party Gaming Board of Directors
Party Gaming lost a member of its Board of Directors last week, when Non-Executive Directors Emilio Gomez stepped down from his post for personal reasons. The official statement from Party Gaming announcing his resignation made no mention of a future replacement and noted a balance between Executive and Non-Executive members of the Board in the wake of Gomez’s departure.
Now that Gomez has moved on, the Board consists of seven members, including Chief Executive Officer Jim Ryan, Non-Executive Chairman Rod Perry, and Finance Director Martin Weigold. Gomez first began his tenure as one of the group’s Non-Executive Directors in December of 2007 and served as the representative for Party Gaming co-founder Anurag Dikshit.
In December of 2008, Dikshit became the first online gambling mogul to face legal action in a U.S. Court when he agreed to forfeit $300 million in earnings from the company after admitting to breaking laws related to the Wire Act in conjunction with Party Gaming. In exchange for the monetary settlement, Dikshit avoided jail time until at least December of 2010 and continues to reside in Gibraltar, where Party Gaming is based. Dikshit stepped down from the Board of Directors in 2006 to serve as the company’s Head of Research and Special Projects. There has been no announcement as of yet as to how Gomez’s departure will influence Dikshit’s influence on the Board. Party Gaming can be found on the London Stock Exchange under the symbol “PRTY.” It is the parent company of the popular online poker site PartyPoker.
Gomez’s resignation is just the latest in a long list of changes for Party Gaming this year. The company’s purchase of World Poker Tour Enterprises (WPTE) in August as well as numerous business-to-business ventures like the purchase of the online bingo company Cashcade and the launch of an Italian online poker site in tandem with Intralot have headlined a busy 2009 for Party Gaming. In its mid-year financial report, Ryan said the company would continue to pursue these profitable business-to-business deals and invest more time and effort in Party Casino, its online casino business.
In the week following Gomez’s announcement, PRTY shares have seen a slight drop in value, falling from a high of $282 on September 23rd to a low of $263.80 towards the end of day on the 24th. At the close of the business day on Friday, shares were trading at $267.60. Despite the slight drop this week, Party Gaming stocks have been on a rise as a whole in 2009, increasing in value from $195 in January to a high of $283 in May to its current trading price of $267.60.
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