NBC National Heads-Up Poker Day 1
Day #1 of the 3 day NBC National Heads-Up Poker Championship brought some surprises in the first round of elimination. The mighty Phil Hellmuth will not be back on Saturday after his Aces were cracked by Internet phenom Tom 'durrrr' Dwan. Three hands into the match Dwan and Hellmuth were all-in with Phil showing pocket Aces to Dwan's pocket Tens. The 'durrrr' spiked a Ten on the turn for a set and the lead, the river was no help and the Poker Brat headed for the gate.
In another surprising elimination Baseball's Orel Hershiser outlasted 2006 Heads-Up Champion Ted Forrest while Freddy Deeb sent 2007 heads-up champion Paul Wasicka home. Check out the complete updated bracket's list of the 32 remaining players returning on Saturday for rounds 2 and 3.
NBC National Heads-UP Red Carpet Poker Stars Pics
A mini-gallery of Flipchip photos of poker stars on the red carpet at PURE nightclub for the NBC National Heads-Up Poker Championship Draw Party at Caesars Palace last night. An 11 AM start time today for three days of heads-up poker single elimination play that will reduce the crowd of 64 starters down to one champion with a half million cash in the backpack.
Check out the pairings for the matches here. Flipchip photos of invited poker stars after the jump...
Poker Tournament Conflict
A real conflict between poker tournaments is happening as we speak. Tonight at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas they will draw for the pairings in the NBC Heads Up Championship and tomorrow the Day One couples will square off. The dates for the Heads Up are February 29th through March 2nd.
Meanwhile, just down the road in Los Angeles, the LA Poker Classic is wrapping up today with a really interesting final table, including Phi Ivey Phil Hellmuth and Nam Le. After the winner is crowned tonight, there is an off day before the WPT (LA Poker Classic) Celebrity Invitational begins on Saturday March 1st.
See the problem!
Sixty-four (OK really Fifty-Seven with qualifiers and a few celebrities) but a lot of professionals and the biggest names are going to be playing in Las Vegas for the big deal, lots of television Heads Up title. Meanwhile, the formerly big, big deal WPT Celebrity Invitational will be down several dozen big names.
You gotta wonder how many last minute plane reservations will be made on a cell phone by a player who has just busted out of the Heads Up event. The Commerce Casino in Los Angeles is only an hour away by plane and five hours by car from Caesars Palace in Las Vegas. There will be more then a few pros making the quick dash to LA once they lose their heads, Heads Up.
There Is a Pot of Gold Waiting for You
The Irish are the descendants of great fighters and invaders: the Celts and Vikings. They have a natural fighting ability which is world-renowned and are notorious for being the victorious underdog. Hence the truly famous saying "The Luck of the Irish."
The last Bodog Semifinal for the Irish Open is taking place this Sunday, March 2 at 3:15 p.m. EST. And to sweeten the pot two seats will be guaranteed. Win one of the seats and you'll receive a $9,000 prize package - $6,750 for the buy-in and $2,250 for travel expenses. Qualifiers with buy-ins starting as low as $1 are running now.
For complete details on how you can qualify follow this link: http://www.bodoglife.com/promotions/poker/irish-open-qualifiers/
NBC National Heads-Up Plays Friday
Caesars Palace Thursday evening at 9:00 PM on the red carpet outside of PURE nightclub will be the parade of the chosen 64 made up of professional poker players, three lucky qualifiers and a generous sprinkling of celebrity players. Paul Wasicka, last year's NBC Heads-Up champion will be there to defend his lofty title. So will 2006 winner Ted Forrest and the original heads-up champion from the 2005 inaugural tournament, Phil Hellmuth. Twice runner-up Chris 'Jesus' Ferguson will bring his charisma to the mix as he pursues the elusive title...oh-so-close, but for the turn of a card.
Players ante up the $20,000 buy-in for the single elimination one-on-one No-Limit Hold'Em matches played over three days until only one remains with chips to collect the winners half million dollar purse. Major poker tournaments with $500K first place money is not very impressive in today's multi-million dollar card arenas, so what's the draw? Must be the prestige that comes from holding the title of best heads-up poker player on the continent plus all that face time on a major TV network.
Who will go home with a year's worth of bragging rights? Personally, I'd like to see the the Jesus guy from Galilee California in the black cowboy hat get a card break and garner a win. Could Shannon Elizabeth go all the way or will she be too preoccupied for her upcoming Dancing with the Stars gig to concentrate on the cards? How about WSOP bracelet winner Jennifer Tilly, does she still have the stuff? Will 2007 WSOP winner and spiritualist Jerry Yang pray his way to victory?
Regardless of the outcome its a blue ribbon panel of players performing in front of the NBC cameras for a seven installment mini-series of some of the best televised poker of the year.
Update: Politics and Poker
Ten years ago we could have gone a year or more without finding any legislation or regulation that pertained to how we entertain ourselves in our spare time with our money by playing poker. Now you can't go a day without some governmental agency cranking up a new regulation to restrict what free people do with their lives.
Whether fueled by greed (taxes) or political morality (getting elected by imagined "morals" voters), the various governmental regulators continue to act as only out-of-touch bureaucrats can by proposing extreme regulations that address fictional issues around gaming in general and poker in specific.
Here is the latest on the "Poker as Political Punching Bag" watch.
United Kingdom: The UK Office of Communication has announced plans to reclassify gambling channels to the category of teleshopping and advertising.The proposed changes are said to be in the interest of protecting consumers.
The gambling channels would be covered by an advertising code, which is designed to protect consumers against misleading practices. The new proposed rules should have very little to no impact on what the channels are currently broadcasting; regulators will just be making sure they are offered in a socially responsible fashion.
California: The long rumored bill to make online poker legal in California has been introduced in the State Legislature. While the bill would not officially overturn the provisions of either UIGEA nor the much older Wire Act. The measure would provide cover for banks and other financial institutions by giving them another argument that the vague federal regulations are unenforceable and uninterpretatble.
Back in the UK: The Super Casino issue is still hot on the poltical agenda. Prime Minister Gordon Brown and his government are likely to be sued by Manchester, the city who a year ago was awarded the super casino site, when ministers this week confirm that neither Manchester nor Blackpool will be allowed to open a Las Vegas-style gambling resort. Manchester will seek to recover over 250 million pounds spent on the Super Casino previously approve my the UK authorities.
Back in the U.S.: The Poker Players Alliance spent $900,000 in 2007 to lobby the federal government on online gambling legislation.
The PPA, with 800,000 members, lobbied on a bill that would exempt poker from a law that restricts online gambling, and for legislation that would regulate or re-regualte the Internet gaming industry. Since all funds for PPA activities come from members, who we must assume are poker players; this means that $900,000 was taken out of the poker economy to lobby the U.S. government to leave law abiding citizens alone. Land of the free and home of the over-regulated.
Las Vegas Poker This Week
Single table satellites for the Wynn Classic begin Tuesday, February 26. The Wynn Classic gets under way at Noon on Wednesday, February 27, with Day 1A of event #1, a 3-day $540 buy-in No-Limit Hold'Em tournament. Day 2A is slated for Noon on Thursday with a Noon start time. Event #2, $1060 buy-in No-Limit Hold'Em is set for Friday; event #3, $1570 buy-in No-Limit Hold'Em goes on Saturday at Noon and Sunday's Noon event #4, $2080 buy-in No-Limit Hold'Em completes the first week of the 2nd Annual Wynn Classic at the Wynn Las Vegas. Check out the complete February 26 - March 19, 2008 Wynn Classic event schedule here. Ultimate action and classic style poker in one of the world's outstanding poker rooms is open to all players.
NBC National Heads-Up Poker Championship begins later this week with a Draw party at PURE nightclub in Caesars Palace. All of the 64 slots for this invitational event have been filled but this is no reason to stop by and watch the match play live in the tournament area of Caesars poker complex located next to the sports book. Seating is on a first come, first serve basis so consider an early arrival for the three days of events leading up to the crowning of the 2008 Heads-Up Poker Champion. Previous NBC National Heads-Up Champions are Phil Hellmuth 2005, Ted Forrest 2006, and Paul Wasicka 2007. A list of 63 entrants for 2008 is available here.
Venetian's Deep Stack Extravaganza, first of four for 2008, began the final championship event, a $2,600 buy-in No-Limit Hold'Em contest, on Sunday. The 2nd Deep Stack Extravaganza Second Chance is scheduled for April 2008.
With all of this major poker tournament action in Las Vegas why are you still sitting there reading this? Get busy booking your journey to the poker capitol of the planet, Las Vegas.
Freeroll Entry Wins European Poker Tour Copenhagen
I love these kind of stories! EPT Copenhagen was won by a player who earned his seat in an online freeroll.
Tim Vance, a 46-year-old American construction company boss from near St Louis, won the EPT Copenhagen and a record first prize of 6,220,488 Danish kroner. Vance didn’t pay anything to enter the 50,000 DKK No Limit Hold’em event – instead he qualified online in a satellite.
Filled with emotion as he picked up his EPT champion’s trophy, father of one Tim Vance said:
“Winning the title was at least as important to me as the money but I knew I was going to win today– I was the best player and I wanted it the most. It was a tough competition though – as tough as anywhere I’ve ever played and now I just can’t wait to call my daughter Nancy. She’s been watching it back home with her grandmother.â€
New Poker Spokespersons
Two new poker spokespersons were named this week and both were a bit of a surprise.
First, the World Poker Tour announced at the L.A. Poker Classic that Antonio Esfandiari would be their first every poker player representative. Duties and responsibilities for this first time ever move by WPT are unclear but there is now a professional face to the WPT other than the corporate image of Steve Lipscomb. Antonio is, of course, well know in the poker world and has fair well in WPT events. Using a professional player as the spokesperson is a new concept for WPT and one has to wonder how Antonio's responsibilities will meld with long time WPT announcers Mike Sexton and Vince Van Patten; not to mention the revolving door of WPT spokes model/eye candy of the past several years.
In an even more interesting move, Absolute Poker has added Liv Boeree to their line-up of players/spokespersonalities. Liz is a 23 year old astrophysics graduate (their idea to include that resume item),as well as a recent player on the European scene. More than just a pretty face or a pretty face who plays poker, Liz has previous experience covering poker. Since August 2005, the London-based model has worked as a TV presenter, writer and interviewer on some of the most popular poker broadcasts including Ultimatepoker.com Showdown, Gutshot TV, Daily Express, Challenge TV, Gala UK Poker Tour, Sky Poker TV, Poker Verdict, Ladies' World Poker Open, and the WSOPE.
Oh and one more item of note. Doyle Brunson, a lifelong Republican has switched parties to endorse Barack Obama for U.S. President, citing Obama's support for free market poker legislation.
Poker Profits in Nevada
As of December 31, 2007 there were 907 permanent poker tables in card rooms in Nevada. This includes, of course, all of the tables in Las Vegas. This does not include any of the temporary poker setups for tournaments; these are tables used in daily poker play as enumerated by the Nevada Gaming Commission.
When players and media speculate about the profits from poker, there are always several "factors of influence", dependent variables if you will, like:
"How much revenue do poker players generate in other areas of the casino and hotel properties?"
"Would poker players go to other casinos with all of their spending (gaming and otherwise) if their base casino did not maintain a poker room?"
"Are more locals attracted to quality poker rooms then say to more slot machines or better buffets?"
While these questions remain in the realm of speculative economic forecasting. There are some hard numbers worth considering, when making any argument about casino profits and poker.
As of December 2007:
Total # of Poker Tables in Nevada: 907
Total # of Table Games in Nevada: 5,801
Total # of Slot Machines in Nevada: 174,677
Total Casino "Win" from Poker Tables: $168,000,000
Total Casino "Win" from Table Games: $4,200,000,000
Total Casino "Win" from Slot Machines: $8,500,000,000
The zeroes are correct. Slot machines bring in $8.5 Billion and poker brings in $168 Million. Think about that next time at the table when the argument starts up about how casinos don't do enough for poker players. I mean why do they even bother for a mere $168 Million?
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WSOP Info is your source to online poker news and information regarding the WSOP 2008. The World Series Of Poker is the largest Poker event in the world.
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