GENE D A POKER MACHINE

CONGRATS TO GENED:  The co-owner of the site, and not the guy writing this so don’t think he’s patting himself on the back, has been on a bit of a Texas Hold’em poker heater.  Gene has been assaulting  the Harrahs Bayou Poker Classic Tournament Challenge MidWinter World Series of Poker Satellite Whatever The Name of It In New Orleans poker tournaments Tournament Challenge fields.  Gene won one of three Main Event seats in the opening Mega-Satellite and then cashed in his very next tournament in Event one.  GeneD just missed the final table coming in 12th and Southpaw Rounder also enjoyed a deep run. 

Like all of us Gene has endured some heartache on a lot of bubbles so it’s nice to see the cards hold up for once, the bluffs prevail, and the better hands get paid off.  Continued good luck to Gene.  By the way, in that mega the Honest Player, J. Parfait took a break from dodging the minefields in online poker, also bagged a seat by being Johnny on the Spot and getting a more than 50% discount on the seat.  Lots of ways to win in and around poker.  We’ll have more coverage of the Harrahs events as the information comes to us in the coming days

ALSO CONGRATS TO SOFA KING WE TODD DID:  He enjoyed a chop at the nightly.  Go to his blog to read the details.  Apparently, the Baton Rouge native is makng a habit of winning the nightlies.  A habit of winning, no matter the event, is a good thing.

ISILDUR1 SIGNED BY POKERSTARS:  The masked (by the Internet) man, who made his name battling Durrrr in high-stakes action is going to Pokerstars.  It’s almost consensus that Isildur1 is Viktor Blom, a young Swede, but Pokerstars is going to make a show of announcing his true identity.  Which is smart because they basically get to do two rounds of PR for one guy.  Question is will people flock to Stars to play high stakes cash games or tangle with Durrrr on our favorite American online poker room Full Tilt.  

WILL SOUTHER GETS A SMALL STEP CLOSER TO WSOP CIRCUIT NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP FREEROLL WITH AC CASH:  Monkey finished 19th and in the money to gain some more WSOP satellite points in his quest to join blogger Shannon Shorr in the National Championship.  Considering the field was 1250 players it’s another monumental accomplishment for the Biloxi, native.  Think he’d have a shot in the swollen WSOP Main Event?  We do too.  Hopefully, we’ll see him there this year.

JONATHAN LITTLE 12th IN CHIPS AT WPT 5 DIAMOND CLASSIC:  After Day three at the WPT No Limit Hold’em Championship at the Bellagio,  the ;eaderboard is a Who’s Who of tournament poker with Antonio Esfandiari the chipleader, 2+2’s favorite toolbox (their name for him, not ours) Doug Lee in second, Vanessa Rousso third, and Freddy Deeb fourth.  Little is just ahead of Doyle Brunson, Sorel Mizzi, Andrew Lichtenberger, and Kirk Morrision.  John Racener and Allen Kessler are on the short side of things with 54 players left.  Friend of GCP, Dwyte Pilgrim, regional “locals” Keith Lehr, Hoyt Corkins and Jason Mercier finished in the money but are out of the tournament.

THANKSGIVING POKER MURDER IN FLORIDA:  Two brothers were killed playing poker on the front porch of their friend’s house.  A man who identified himself as a police officer and was wearing a sheriff’s T-shirt told everybody to lie on the ground.  Then he started shooting.  Read here for more.

IF YOU NAME YOUR BOOK “DON’T LISTEN TO PHIL HELLMUTH”  CAN YOU SELL IT FOR $50?  Apparently if you are Dusty “Leatherass” Schmidt you can.  Well at least you can list it on your website for $50, not sure how many copies he’s actually peddled.  Does sound interesting though.  Go here for more.

THE CHEMIST AND OTHER POKER KINGS

 JEREMY “THECHEMIST83” GAUBERT CASHES IN USA COOP:  Gaubert, an Online Texas Holdem savant
finished 6th and won 5.9k.  The $50_$5 Buy-in over-reached the guarantee of 150k buy almost 50k.  Not that there weren’t overlays in other USA COOP events on PokerStars.  John Racener and Shaun Deeb were busy cashing again with Racener winning 3k for 19th and Deeb 2.6k for 32nd in the USA COOP $320 NLHE event.  The guarantee wasn’t met in that prize pool, and Christina Lindley who came in first reaped the benefits.

Noah Schwartz and Matt Graham both cashed in the USA COOP $320 PL Omaha poker 1R1A.  Graham pocketed 2.6k for 12th and Schwartz took home 9k for 5th.

WELCOME BACK TO SOME GCP BLOGGERS THAT HAVEN’T POSTED IN A WHILE:  Fresh goodness from Shannon Shorr, Bobby Toye, and Brandon Jarrett.  Lots of interesting reads.

POKERNEWS DECLARES A NOREASTER OF POKER EVENTS:  Likely with the Jersey Shore and up fragmented with the Harrahs WSOP Circuit Regional Championship, the Borgota December Mini-Series, and the Foxwoods Mega Stack Challenge all overlapping, we won’t have too many visitors down from the frozen Northeast to our little Harrahs satellite event.

Go here for those tournament structures, but why when you should just go to the Harrahs New Orleans event (but don’t start comparing the “juice” because it’s a lot cheaper elsewhere).  You won’t see Darvin Moon (pictured) despite his fondness for New Orleans  as he is hosting one of the Norester’s event. 

BTW, weigh in on your favorite dealer at Harrahs, or your least favorite as some have chosen, on our facebook page.  One of our bloggers (former blogger?  future blogger?) had some interesting (surely tongue-in-cheek) ideas about dealers.  Maybe he’s just mad they banned whipped cream there.  Wonder if he’s heard of this new alcoholic whipped cream–sounds perfect for Irish coffee.

OLD NEWS, YOUNG HARRISON GIMBEL TOOK DOWN HIS SECOND MAJOR TOURNAMENT:  He’s not even 21 yet and can’t play the WSOP until 2012.  Don’t you feel old and unaccomplished?  Gimble adds another 500k to the 2.2 million he won at the PCA.  No telling how much he wins when he sits down to play online poker too.  This was the tournament that Shannon Shorr and Allie Prescott also went deep in at the Seminole Hard Rock (WPT Regional Series).   

WANT A BRUSH UP ON ONLINE GAMING LAW?  First step head to Pokerati, they consistently have the best updates about where the industry is headed.  Recently they steered us to this Motley Fool article which was a worthwhile read. 

DURRRR CHALLENGE REBOOTS:  Durrrr made some headway on Daniel “jungleman12” Cates.  Hand of the night was Durrrr cracking Cates’ pocket kings with 36.  Must be fun to flop 366 with that.  Go to Bet and Win Poker for more on the challenge.

DOLAN AND EYSTER JUST MISS SUNDAY MILLION GLORY:  November Niner John “JRD312” Dolan was 10th in the PokerStars Sunday Million winning 9.1k.  The $200 +$15 tournament (imagine that a 7.5% juice, if only live poker was anywhere close to that) had 8,653 entrants and a prize pool of 1.73 million.  Kevin “1$ickDisea$E”  Eyster finished 18th for 4.4k.

DEEB DEEP AGAIN:  What a way to come out of young retirement.  Shaun Deeb has lost none of the magic.  Another top ten finish, this time in the PokerStars $215+R NL Hold’em event.  Deeb finished seventh for 6.8k in a field of 231.  Jason Mercier 25th for 1.7k.

RACENER WINNING MORE RACES:  November Niner and Main Event runner-up John Racener cashed in the PokerStars Sunday 500 winning almost 1.9k for 32nd.  1,081 entrants created a prize pool of over half a million.

LOCKDOWNTEX CASHES IN UB $200K GTD:  Justin Allen (pictured) finished 33rd out of 1,022 players to win about $900.  Congrats to Justin, and all the Gulf Coasters making a splash online this past weekend.

MORE IP POKER RESULTS

 CONGRATS TO TRAVIS LUTES THE IP MAIN EVENT CHAMPION:  Lutes along with the Casino champion (tbd? but also listed as Travis Lutes) qualifies for the National Championship freeroll at the end of the season.  Lutes also won a little over 95k.  We think the Casino Champion honor goes to third place Main Event finisher Bobbie Talbot (42k) who is second on the local leaderboard (behind Lutes).  But if we could figure out that for sure, we’d probably know  how to bet on horses too. And we don’t. Talbot is from Hernando, MS. 

Aaron Brant and Will “Our favorite Monkey” Souther were passed by the top three finishers in the Main Event on the local leaderboard in the Casino Champion race.  That also includes second place finisher (good for 58k) Farid Nasserazad.  Nazzerazad of Atlanta ended up third in the series points leaderboard behind Lutes and Talbot.  Talbot jumped him on the strength of his earlier performances and to think we were giving out online betting tips on the outcome of this a couple of posts ago. 

Souther finished 12th for 7k.  Dan Walsh took a couple of harrowing back to back beats to just miss the money.  Yair Alon of Panama City, FL finished 5th for 23k.  Robert Gunter of Salem, AL 6th for 17k.  John Holley of Destin, FL grabbed 8.7k for 9th.  Two more Alabama boys Robert Harris (15th for 5.8k) and David Barrow of Guntersville (16th for 4.8k) came up just short of the final table.  Congrats also to Mike Flowers of Baton Rouge who cashed in the  23rd spot.

 IP LEADERBOARD:  Quick correction Monkey did not qualify for National Championship (free roll) only players who win the Main Event or the Regional Championship auto qualify.  Top 36 nationally qualify too (which right now includes two GCP bloggers Scotty Clark and Monkey), and for some analysis of that process go here.  GCP blogger Shannon Shorr has already qualified by making the final table of a regional championship. 

Locally, Monkey is in contention for the Casino Champion (or the best points earner at a Circuit stop) at the IP.  Here’s the leader-board for that, with all the ring winners currently tied for first.  Tiebreaker is earnings so:

Name	Pts	Rings	Cashes	Earn
Aaron Brant	50	1	1	$19,585
Rob Quin	50	1	1	$18,722
William Souther	50	1	1	$6,583
Justin Gates	37.5	0	1	$12,102
Daniel Seiver	37.5	0	1	$11,567
Brettt Alello	37.5	0	1	$4,068
Jeff bell	30	0	1	$8,781
David Nicholson	30	0	1	$8,357
Robert West	30	0	1	$2,698
Willey Lee	27.5	0	1	$6,479
Greg Harkinson	27.5	0	1	$6,150
Wendall Sally	27.5	0	1	$1,190

*You’ll notice they haven’t updated to include the HORSE event won by…

TIM BURT A MACHINE IN MISSISSIPPI WITH HORSE POWER TO SPARE:  We were pulling hard for Scotty Clark and the MississippiMachine (pictured) Tim Burt as he’s better known at his favorite online poker room.  When it got down to three players in the HORSE Championship,  Scotty seized the chip lead for a moment but ended up out third.  Burt took the title, the ring, and the 7.7k for first.  Scott won 2.9k for third and Gulfport’s Kirk Flom cashed in seventh.  Congrats guys.  Burt winnings have him edging out Monkey in the third spot when they update the standings.

GENE D A NIGHTLY EVENT:  GCP’s own GeneD cashed in another nightly going back to back.  Congrats to Gene for another top 10 finish.   Michael Flowers of Baton Rouge, grabbed 2k for second.  Tim Burt fresh off his title also squeaked in a min-cash. 

SOME OTHER NOTABLE CASHES:  Also big ups to Jackson Niolet of Gulf Port for finishing second in the $235 Horse event.  Congrats also to Guy Turner of Mobile who got a cash on the 30th in the $235 buy-in.  He joined Linda Fredericks of Baton Rouge, Michael Clary of Mandeville, Medric Lemenager of Denham Springs, and Hank Merqist of Lafayette, in turning a profit on the event.

GENE D CASHES AGAIN:  GCP blogger and co-owner GeneD played great poker in the $235 buy-in 4 pm tournament to take 5th place and $1.3k.  Bruce Soileau of Lafayette took second for $3.4k, Carol Farley of Ocean Springs (and self named Pokergoodess) finished 10th for $386 with local fedora legend Bertel Ladner of Biloxi right behind in 11th also for $386.

IP POKER RESULTS AND MORE

MONKEY WINS SECOND IP TOURNAMENT:  WMonkey has already proven his worth by being a Texas Hold em poker master. He might take greater pleasure in winning the Omaha Hi/Lo 8 or Better tournament gave Monkey his first Circuit ring and an invite to the million dollar freeroll to take place at the start of next years World Series.  It also added 6.5k to his bankroll and bragging rights as the guy having the best series at the IP. 

Brett Alello of Baton Rouge couldn’t overcome his chip deficit in heads up play but won 4k for his trouble.  Robert West of Abbeville, AL won 2.6k for third and Wendell Salley of Mobile 1.9k for fourth.  Yong Chen and John Demarco both of Ocean Springs finished 5th and 6th for 1.4k and 1.1k.  Barry Levy of Brooklyn, NY won 966 for finishing 7th and played spoiler to keeping it an all local affair.

THE GERM TAKES OUT THE FIELD:  Ron Germany, not to be confused with Ron Burgundy, from Covington, GA won the nightly for 3.5k.    James McCardle of Hattiesburg, MS (4th $1.1k), Fred Gooodson of Biloxi (5th $874), Kenny Milam of LaPlace (9th for $322), and Michael Hare of Tallahassee, FL (11th $261) also were in the thick of things.

THEODORE GARNER OF BILOXI ALSO WINS A $235:  Garner’s tournament had 120 other players and paid him 6.3k for first.  Should we mention it was a senior event?  Okay it was, and it was also a Mississippi affair as David Kennedy of Olive Branch and Larry Williamson of Brookhaven finished two-three.  Kennedy won a touch under 4k and Williamson a hair under 3k.  Congrats to Debra Wilburn from Vidor, TX for 5th (1.5k) and Charles Morris of Harahan, LA for 4th (2k). 

TOM MARCHESE BIG CHEESE AT FOXWOODS WPT:  Jason Mercier and Hoyt Corkins were the first two players eliminated as they played down to the final table.  Sorel Mizzi comiserated with Besnik Ziba for going out 7th and 8th on the TV table bubble.ed as they played down to the final table.  Sorel Mizzi comiserated with Bbble.

MONKEY WINS ANOTHER ONE AT THE IP:  This time it’s a nightly for a touch under 4k.  Well done, Is at another final table right now.  Go get ’em Will.  Congrats also to friend of GCP Matt Stroud for taking down the mega along with Wild Bill and six others.

FIRST NOONER BRACELET EVENT AT IP TAKEN BY AARON BRANT:  the Mobile native pocketed almost 20k for first place in the 345 buy-in Texas No Limit Hold’em Event.  He outlasted Justin Gates of Praireville, LA (12k), Willey Lee of Perkinston, MS (6.4k for 4th), Byron Hiqueros of New Orleans (3.7k for 6th), Bobby Mayfield of Lafitte, LA (2..8k for 7th), John Durio of New Orleans (1.7k for 9th), Daniel Brown of Biloxi (1.45k for 11th), Michael Clary of Mandeville, LA (12th 1.45k), friend of GCP Craig Gullung of Marrero, LA (PICTURED, 13th 1.1k), Gary Holcomb of Mandeville, LA (14th 1.1k), Herbie Crook of Pascagoula, MS (15th 1.1k), Thomas Ballow of Denham Springs, LA (16th a hair under 1k), 

ROB QUIN OF METAIRIE WINS 2ND RING EVENT:  The 56 year old land surveyor outlasted the other 269 runners to win 187k.  Theodore Garner won the seniors event by staying alive longer than the others more details tomorrow.

HOYT CORKINS AND JASON MERCIER ARE STILL ALIVE IN WPT EVENT:  They’ve both made the money but are under the chi average with 12 of 242 returning to play down to the TV table final six.  Sorel Mizzi, Tom Marchese (chipleader), and Besnik Ziba are still alive.  We once drinked a soda called Besnik Ziba in the former Yugoslavia.

Poker News and Views and More

 
 CANATELLA TALKS WICKED CHOPS LISTENS:  Trishelle Canatella was on Wicked Chops “This Week in Poker” Podcast… this week, monkeying around talking about online poker games.  Okay, that’s not fair implying she’s a monkey, although to be fair, we do like some monkeys, especially poker monkeys.  However, let’s just say the editorial staff at GCP is split over Trishelle as a face for poker.  She’s a local and good for the game says half of us, she’s a local and good for nothing says the other half of us.  Then the other half says who’s she?  Then that other other half says Canatella my least favorite kind of pasta, a wet noodle. The way we figured those odds you know we kill when we play Omaha poker online.

Anyway, she’s allied with Absolute Poker and UB who is going through a cheating scandal of their own right now, but like her or not Wicked Chops puts on a pretty decent video podcast.

NO MONKEY AROUND, RANDAL FLOWERS BLOSSOMS IN FESTA AL LAGO:  Never gave you the winner of this event, it was a party by the lake for Flowers who took down his second WPT title.  The Chainsaw Allen Kessler bubbled the final table.  Noah Schwartz came in third.  Flowers took down 831k and Schwartz 344k.

JONATHAN LITTLE WINS 5K EVENT AT BELLAGIO FOR 150K.  After chopping the 1k PLO tournament Little kept all the spoils for himself in the 5k No Limit Hold’Em tournament.  He finished the first day as the chipleader (90 something runners) and managed to hold on until the final table.  There he bested four guys who like to play online poker and four older amateurs.  Congrats to Jonathan!  Check out his blog for the recap

WILL “POKER MONKEY” SOUTHER WINS IN NIGHTLY IN CHICAGO.  With a Seahawks victory over the Bears, that he watched in person, things started off on the right foot.  Then the bad beat came.  You’d think as tall as Monkey is, he wouldn’t be a target but it sounds like somebody went through his bag during the tournament.  Not a bag, I’d think, you want your hands rifling through when he returned.  Read his blog for the stories.

DISCOVER MAGAZINE DOES WRITE UP ON POKER:  Called the Big Game Theory.  Go here to read it, it’s not that bad, considering it’s from Discover Magazine and they talk about science and facts and that kind of stuff.

CONGRATS TO ADAM ROSS WHO WON THE 500 BUY-IN CANTERBURY FALL CLASSIC FOR 20K.

FESTA AL LAGO MAIN EVENT UPDATE:  Things went upside-down for all 13 remaining players.  Chipleader Annette Obrestad was the first one out.  Of the top five chip-leaders only Andy Frankenberger made it to the final table.  Just envisioning a Frankenberger Halloween costume right now. 

Somewhat local, and member of our Who’s Who, Kick-Ass Noah Scwartz (pictured) is McLovin his second largest stack.  Totals follow:

1. Randal Flowers – 3,215,000
2. Noah Schwartz – 3,135,000
3. Jason Koon – 2,555,000
4. Andy Frankenberger – 1,935,000
5. Michael Benvenuti – 1,390,000
6. Skip Wilson – 1,200,000

HARRINGTON AND SEIDEL MAKE POKER HALL OF FAME:  The other eight candidates included Jen Harman, Daniel Negreanu, Phil Ivey, Scotty Nguyen, Jesus Ferguson, Linda Johnson, Tom McEvoy, and Barry Greenstein.  Likely they’ll all make it one day, but it is interesting the Hall of Fame limits it to two inductees a year.

ANNETTE OBRESTAD PURSUING WPT TITLE:  13 Players left.  Annette ended day 4 as the chip leader with Jeff Madsen close behind.  Allen Kessler is in the thick of things as is Noah Schwartz.

TWENTY-THREE PERSON CHOP AT FOXWOODS:  Bad structures cause one player to get browbeaten until he agreed to a chop (sound familiar?).  Hope this doesn’t continue to be a trend.  Read Cardplayer for one player’s account for more.  Two + Two reacts as they usually do here

WORLD OF POKER UPDATE, EPT, ISLE OF CAPRIS AND MORE…

 JOHN JUANDA DOES NOT WIN EPT LONDON:  David Vamplew does.  Vamplew at one point was all-in versus Juanda in heads up play in the Texas Hold em poker tournament.  Junada held a Broadway straight and Vamplew had a flush draw with one card to come.  It came and so did he.  Vamplew later had Juanda all-in to win and his hand held.  Vamplew won £900k.  Juanda won £545k and is now fifth all time on the career live tournament winnings list with over 11.3 million.  November Niner John Dolan and Kevin Eyster cashed.  Shannon Shorr bubbled.

DURRRR CHALLENGE RETURNS WITH PROMISE OF MORE TO COME:  Durrrr cut into Dan JungleMan12 Cates lead in a brief 582 hand session by 1400.  Watching them is like a trip to poker school every time they play. Cates is still up by a huge number with the bulk of the challenge still to be played.  Cates and Durrrr have also been multi-tabling heads up with Isildur1 recently.

FULL TILT CHANGES THE WAY IT AWARDS RAKEBACK.  It also releases a new Full Tilt Black Card system.  Pokerati does a fine job of explaining it here.  

STALLING IS ANGLING OR IS IT?  Recently a WCOOP Event at Pokerstars was the epicenter of a debate amongst name pros about proper behavior in a tournament.  One player, kirbynator, was burning up his timebank in a discipline he basically opted not to play, Limit Triple Draw 2 – 7.  With Daniel Negreanu at his table things got heated the live pro saw his actions as a transparent anglesoot.  Debates on the forums ranged from what’s wrong with using your timebank the way you want to suggestions that knowing you are going to fold but maxing out your time is an angleshoot in any tournament (especially on the bubble).  There is no question that kirbyanator’s actions were legal but were they ethical or shady. 

JAMES BORD TO THE END:  There is a new WSOP-E champion, a man who starts off the day in perpetual ennui… No?  Okay, if only second place Fabrizio Baldassari had won.  We know a few baldass-aris.  No, again?  Yeah.  Alright,  two whiffs… we’ll play it straight from here on out, Roland De Wolfe finished 4th, and Dan Fleyshman (Victory Poker CEO) 7th.  Native son James Bord won 830 pounds which is a lot of dollars.  The other guys won not as much but still more in American dollars than in English pounds. 

LIV BOEREE SIGNS WITH POKER STARS:  The girl has almost 2 million in tournament winnings.  She also can box.  She’s a pretty face, has a brilliant poker mind, and is somebody you will probably see a lot of in the near future and she’d be a great representative for any poker room.

SOME GOOD STUFF FROM THE BLOGGERS:  Thanks to Scotty Clark for the shout-out and a good quick read on Heptinstall’s blog about rising star Dwyte Pilgrim. 

MORE RESULTS FROM THE ISLE IN LAKE CHARLES:

Event #6 September 22, 2010
$200 + $25 No Limit Hold Em
$10,000 Guaranteed
Players: 68 Pool: $13,600

1. Eusebio Hernandez $4,352
2. Chris Gamboa $2,584
3. Stephen Buttieri $1,768
4. Hung Nguyen $1,224
5. Douglas Justus $884
6. Matthew Stroud $748
7. Leslie Conn $680
8. Winston Bloodworth $544
9. Ada Lang $476
10. Phuoc Ton $340

Event #7 September 23, 2010
$300 + $35 Pot Limit Omaha
Players: 26 Pool: $7,800

1. William Benton $3,120
2. Patrick Bell $2,340
3. Robert Schwen Jr. $1,560
4. Christopher Gamboa $780

Event #8 September 24, 2010
$300 + $35 No Limit Hold Em
$15,000 Guaranteed
Players: 69 Pool: $20,700

1. Jody Boren $6,624
2. William Benton Jr. $3,933
3. Jacob Seale $2,691
4. Patrick Holmes $1,863
5. Stephen Buttieri $1,345
6. Clint Whitman $1,138
7. Daniel Carroll $1,035
8. Eric Mata $828
9. Jerry Stroope $724
10. Long Nguyen $517

Event #9 September 25, 2010
$500 + $40 No Limit Hold Em
Louisiana Fall Poker Classic
Players: 67 Pool: $33,500

1. Jeremy Tinsley $10,720
2. Kinsey Pitts $6,365
3. Eric Yates $4,355
4. Soren Jensen $3,015
5. Ada Lang $2,177
6. Ronnie Lamb $1,842
7. Stephen Shugart $1,675
8. Jacob Phillips $1,340
9. Quynh Ho $1,172
10. Joe Zauala $837

Event #10 September 26, 2010
$100 + $20 No Limit Hold Em
$5,000 Guaranteed
Players: 55 Pool: $5,500

1. Daryl Huff $1,760
2. Leslie Eitel $1,045
3. James MacManus $715
4. Bryan Poole $495
5. Gail Centanni $357
6. Edward Smith $302
7. Thanhlu Quachi $275
8. Ryan Cappello $220
9. Michael Lenander $192
10. Loi Danh $137

POKER NEWS, ODDS AND ENDS

 HALL OF FAME VOTING TO CHANGE:  Across all sports Hall of Fames take pride in being exclusive clubs.  However, when there are a large number of worthy candidates and borderline onerous restrictions to entry sometimes you have to change things up.  The Poker Hall of Fame is doing just.  Now the sixteen living Poker Hall of Fame members and the 17 members of the media that do the voting will cast up to 10 points on as many as three candidates (no more than three but 10 points could be cast on one, but all 10 points must be used). 

From there the top two candidates of live and online poker players who have the majority of votes get in.  Unlike Mike Sexton (pictured), last year, who needed 75% of the votes, this years class will only need 50%.  Candidates include:  Chris Ferguson, Jennifer Harman, Dan Harrington, Linda Johnson, Daniel Negreanu, Phil Ivey, Barry Greenstein, Erik Seidel,  Tom McEvoy, and Scotty Nguyen all Texas Holdem poker greats.  Hard not to think that one day almost all of these folks will make the Hall of Fame.

OLD-ISH ONLINE NEWS:  

–GCP Blogger Shannon Shorr who likes to “BLUFFforRENT” won the Full Tilt Poker 1k poker tournament last Monday.  Shorr added another 122.5k to his account.  Josh Arieh finished third for 56.35k and Jared -“TheWacoKidd” Hambey was fourth for 44.1k. 

–Jeremy Gaubert (pictured) has a new website.  Go here for a looksie.  Have to say we like the logo.

–Deliverance Poker which promises to make sure you don’t get screwed on the river is suing Michael Mizrachi.  Mizrachi was wearing Deliverance Poker gear at the World Series and then he wasn’t.  They too have a cool logo although it’s a little UB-ish.    

–Good article on Shaun “Don’t Call it a Comeback” Deeb.  After winning Full Tilt Poker’s 750k Guarantee Deeb talked about online poker with Elaine Chaivarlis and what it meant to get back into the winner’s circle.

DECENT STORY ON THE 2003 MAIN EVENT THAT FUELED THE POKER BOOM:  Good story on where are the final talbers now and what have they been up to by Pokernews.  Some interesting numbers that reflect the poker boom in there.  Chris Moneymaker has won over 500k since he won the 2003 WSOP Main Event.  David Grey only 886k.  Granted Grey is more thought of as a cash game player but that was interesting, even moreso that Grey only had 627k in lifetime winnings coming into the event.  

When you count in the Main Event earnings Moneymaker has almost twice as much lifetime as Grey.  Likely Grey dwarfs that number in cash games, but considering how many poker telecasts he made after the World Series, it’s interesting people are so harsh on Moneymaker but give Grey a pass.  Ninth place finisher David Singer trails only Dan Harrington in tournament winnings since 2003.  The only players to earn less than Moneymaker since then are Young Pak and Tomer Benvenisti (7th and 6th place respectively).

DON’T THINK WE GAVE THE MAN HIS DUE:  As excited as we were for two of our bloggers to chop it up three ways, we never got a photo up of the winner of the Gulf Coast Poker Championship Mark Rose.  Have to admit we like the hat on the Poker Monkey far better (just kidding… uh, actually, not really).  Congrats to Mark, the Orlando pro who, according to Bluff Magazine’s player database, has almost 500k in live cashes.  This was his first outright win.  PIctured above, isn’t Mark but fellow chopper Kai Landry.

ANOTHER ONE WE MISSED.  Congrats to Justin Allen AKA “Lockdowntex” who took first place in the 1k Winstar “The River Poker Series” recently.  Allen is a fixture on the regional circuit so congrats to him for adding another 60k to his bankroll.

HE CHEMIST TOP 25 IN CHIPS IN EVENT 9 WCOOP:  The World Championship of Online Poker’s first two day event of this series has some local flavor with Jeremy Gaubert in the mix.  With players already in the money only 93 are left to vie for the title.  Joe Cada, who you might have heard of, is 13th with over 200k in chips.  Jonathan Little endured another cooler in a recent series of them having his set run into a higher one.  Play resumes at 5 est.

MAN WINS BIG IN CASINO GETS RUN OVER AND KILLED IN ROBBERY AFTERWARDS:  Ever stand at the cage and watch some deviant cashing a ticket for pennies watching you pocket 1000s?  Ever get the feeling he’s watching you a little too closely?  Well, be careful folks, sometimes they are read the l.a. times blog here.

PETER EASTGATE GONE FROM POKERSTARS?  Just saw a new commercial last night on the WSOP telecast bragging about him being a Pokerstars WSOP champion.  Now he’s gone?  The guy did retire, or semi-retire, but seems strange to feature him in a new advertising campaign only to quietly usher him out of the fold (so too, Hevad Kahn and Gavin Griffin).

MORE GULF COAST POKER CHAMPIONSHIP GOODNESS

  MAIN EVENT MORE MOORER:  Rusty Moorer of Crestview, MS returns to day two as the chip leader of the Texas Hold em poker tournament with 117k.  Neal harding of Louisville, KY is second with 116k.  Three from Florida follow them up with Mark Rose of Orlando in third with 103k, Jonathan Stanton of St. Pete in 4th with 101k and Michael Ferrell of Tallahassee, FL 5th with 99k. 

Kai Landry, (pictured and look for his newest blog coming here soon), is just outside the top 10 with 65k but certainly has the poker strategy know-how to make a splash.  Chad Brown is still in the thick of things with 54k.  David Rozas of baton Rouge, LA has 51k and is in a virtual tie with Captain Tom Franklin of Gulfport, MS.  GCP blogger Jonathan Little is sitting a little over 41k.  Mohammed Moeini of Biloxi is at 34k.

Lots of rooting interests for us here as Ricky King of Bilxoi is also still alive at 27k.  Tim Kramer of Ocean Springs, MS is at 23k.  Curtis Terry of Metairie, LA has 18.6k and is just ahead of Bilxoians Larry Toncrey and The Poker Moneky each at 14k.  Jankiel Dychtwald of Covington, LA and Ronald Hines of D’Iberville, MS are also in the mix.

  CONGRATS TO GCP BLOGGERS WILL SOUTHER AND KAI LANDRY! 

MARK ROSE OF ORLANDO, FL WON THE EVENT BUT A THREE WAY CHOP WAS AGREED TO THAT WAS FAIR TO ALL INVOLVED.  We were rooting from afar as we had some server issues again.  Kai ended up officially 2nd and Poker Monkey (pictured) 3rd as they played it out for the seat, the sailboat, jewelry, pride and having nothing better to do.  Monkey lost with a straight to a bigger straight and Mark knocked out Kai when he won the coinflip with over cards to Kai’s pocket sevens.  Chad Brown finished in the 4th place.  John Stanton of St. Petersburg, FL was fifth.  Mike Bradford, Jonathan Stanton, Ben Chan, and Ron Romano rounded out the final table in that order. 

The rest of the events…

EVENT 9 QUICK WINS THE PLAYED OUT TOURNAMENT.  Fairly certain there was no chop in this event.  Jim “Sarge” Quick won just under 22k for first.  John Riola of Biloxi, MS 5k for fourth.  GCPer Jason Lipscomb of Ponchatoula, LA won 3.6k for 6th (great run Jason).  Tim Louie of Metaire, Briant Fontana of Slidell and Peter Barrell of Mandeville, were the three Lousianians first out at th final table.  Danny Doucet, Clint Schaffer, our own Gene D, and Bert Ladner were some of the big local names that cashed in this event.  Brian Heptinstall was THE bubble boy losing QQ to AJ all-in preflop. 

EVENT 10 YEAGER SHOTS.  Grady Yeager of Cape Coral, FL won the Seven Card Stud/Seven Card 8 or Better Mix.  Daniel Prejean of Port Allen, LA was second.  Soon to be a GCPer again Kai Landry of Biloxi, MS was third.  Kirk Flom of Gulfport, MS finished in the money in fourth.

EVENT 11 BLAND VICTORY:  Gary Bland of Edwardsville, Il won 23k for first place.  He bested Henry Gill of Baton Rouge (4th), Cronelius O’Sullivan of New Orleans (6th), Richard Woodward of Baton Rouge (7th), and Ron Lee of Long Beach, MS (8th) at the final table. 

EVENT 12 PLO BILL:  William Bryant of Bossier City, LA took first place and the nearly 10k that went with it.  Matthew Landson of Montgomery, AL and Galen Kester of Senatobia, MS finished second and third for almost 6k and almost 4k respectively.

EVENT 13 BARRY BLAZES TO VICTORY:

 

Barry Washington (pictured, way up top and you’d never guess he’s from Oregon) beat Mohammed Moeini of Gulfport, MS (5th), Judy Rhodes of Houma, LA (6th pictured), and Tom Darce of Prairieville, LA (8th, also pictured) to win the event 13 sailboat and almost 20k.

Gulf Coast Poker Championship Update 1

  09.08.10

CONTINUING WITH OUR UPDATES OF THE WINNERS OF THE GCPC.  This go round a number of GCP.NET guys showed up in the results and on the bubble.  Great job guys.

EVENT 5 CHOPPING BROCCOLI:  Okay, so there was no Broccoli but we know from Will “The Poker Monkey” Souther’s blog this tournament was also chopped.  Steven Marshall of Cumming, GA, who took a break from Texas Hold em poker online and is credited for first place and a 22k payout. 

Herbie Crook of Pascagoula, MS credited for third place and 6.7k.  Robert Habisreitinger of Covington, LA was credited for 5th.  Barron Whipple and Poker Monkey also cashed (and chopped?). Clearly none of these winners needs to enroll in a poker school even one as good as bwin poker school.

EVENT 6 CHAMBERS LIMIT CHAMPION:  Walter Chambers won the Limit Hold’Em event.  The former circuit event champion added a limit title to his resume and 5.6k for first.  Two Houstonians Kevin Kaylor and Joey Carlson came in second and third.  Douglas Saab of Trussville, AL and Daniel Carney of Long Beach, MS rounded out the top five.

EVENT 8 OMAHA HIGH LOW:  Jacob Viccellio of Pride,LA was credited with first place.  “Thunder Dan” Daniel Walsh of Powder Springs, GA credited for second.  Mark Wilds of Biloxi, MS made his obligatory appearance in the money in 4th.  Phillip Cornell of D’Iberville, MS was 6th and James Alello of Baton Rouge, LA 9th.

SORRY WE ARE A LITTLE LATE WITH THE RESULTS OF THE GULF COAST POKER CHAMPIONSHIP.  With all the chopping going on it’s been hard to tell who has won what.  This year the Beau added a survivor tournament to the mix but it turned out almost every tournament became a survivor tournament. We saw nooners being chopped not just at the final two or three players, or even at the final table, but at the final tableS.

We’ve received a number of complaints about the structure turning the tournaments into “craps fests” in the later stages and had a couple of players complain about being “harassed and hotboxed” into chops they didn’t want to make.   So bare with us, the scores of the top few players in any of these events may not actually be as large as they won.

EVENT 1 NO HICK-UP:  Thomas Hicks of Bluffton, SC was credited for first place.   There was a chop of the 85k prize pool and it inovled Todd Skinner of Youngsville, LA, Frank Alpandinar of Baton Rouge, Brandon Spencer of Slidell, Rusty Moorer and Philip Walsh.

EVENT 2 RAMONA ROMPS IN FLORIDA TRIFECTA:  Ramona Szmurlo of Milton, FL was credited with victory and 6.8k in the ladies tournament.  Michelle Rusoo of Panama City Beach, FL was second and Chantale Cote of Destin, FL third.  Faith Giordano of New Orleans, LA and Maria Lopez of Biloxi, MS made the money and the final table.

EVENT 3 MORGAN TRIUMPHANT:  Timothy Morgan of Pompano Beach, FL was credited with the almost 35k first place prize.  Blake Pool of Mobile, AL second for just under 19k.  Cameron Ainsworth of Frogmore, LA 3rd for a little over 10k.  Denis Devenport of Kennner, LA 5th for almost 7.5k.  Leslie Roussell of Laurel, MS, Ed Bridges of Spanish Fort, AL, Kristen Deardoff, and Walter Chambers also cashed.

EVENT 4 CHARITY CASE:  John Robinson of Brookhaven, MS (pictured by Eric Harkins of Imagemasters) won the Gulf Coast Community Foundation Charity Event which donated proceeds to help Gulf Coasters.  We commend the Beau, Johnny Grooms, and the rest of the fine tournament staff for making room on their schedule for a charity event.  Other tournament directors should follow their lead.  Robert Ray of Hurley, MS, Eric Kaplan of Biloxi, MS finished 3rd and 4th respectively with John Riola creeping into the money.

POKER IN MINES, POKER IN THE PAST

  POKER UPDATE

08.30.10

CHILEAN MINERS CHECKING IN THE DARK.  Surviving on food rations and poker games trapped Chilean gold miners hope they will have enough mental and physical stimulation to make it through.  A daughter of one of the miners said, “It will be difficult, I’m sure, but I’m not worried about him.  I know he is happy and content down there because he is playing lots of Texas Holdem poker and cards.  It is good for his mind.”  The question is how much in the hole will losers go by the end of four months.  There is no ATM down there, but then again they are in a gold mine, so their next Sit and go buy-in is just a pick axe away.   

MIDDLE TENNESSEE STATE QUARTERBACK TOOK A LOAN OUT FOR A POKER BANKROLL.  Dwight Dasher is learning that apparently, the NCAA frowns on this kind of thing.  The $1,500 loan was given to him by Oliver Donnell.  In short order, that money was lost in a local game or two.  Dasher rushed for 201 yards in the New Orleans Bowl against Southern Miss last year and is now in a dash of trouble.

DEVILFISH ULLIOT WRITES A BOOK.  David “Devilfish” Ulliot (devil fish pictured), not to be confused with Darryll Fish, has penned a book. His a man who describes his opponents as “pale as Dracula’s feet,” so he should be an entertaining and interesting author.  Devilfish, who once burglarized an auction house to steal a grandfather clock so he could play in the home game of an antiques dealer, is definitely an old school character.  Victoria Coren reviews his book here.

DURRRR CHALLENGE TWO BEGINS.  Durrrr already down over 500k after quickly playing over 10% of the challenge.  Daniel “Jungleman12” Cates started slowly then reversed fields and has been crushing Dwan ever since when the two play online poker.  Durrrr started hot and got up almost 250k after just short of 1000 hands. 

By 2000 hands they were battling near even.  Just short of 3500 hands after a large pot, Jungleman12 hasn’t looked back.  The closest Durrrr got to even was down a little over 50k near the 5000 hand mark.  Since then he’s lost almost 500k. 

2009 SOUTHERN POKER CHAMPIONSHIPS RESULTS

08.29.10

Yeah we said 2009.  With no 2010 results yet reported here’s the first half of last year’s tournament.  Enjoy a scroll down memory lane.

EVENT 1: BY GEORGE:  Ronnie George of Douglasville, GA won 65k for first.  Larry Alexander of Grand Bay, AL took second for almost 24k.  Tom Becnel of Belle Chase, LA won 18k for 4th. 

EVENT 2 :CHUCK NORRIS AND AN ESKIMO:  Dan Clemente of Hernando, MS won 65k for first but all eyes were on the Texas Ranger and an Eskimo from New Orleans.  Eskimo Clark took 5th for 14k.  Chuck Norris won 6th for 12k.  Chuck Norris was a welcome tablemate throughout the tournament because nothing escapes Chuck Norris, therefore he doesn’t fart.  Jacob Tyler, Birmingham, AL 8th for almost 7k.

EVENT 3: WILD-ING OUT.  Mark Wilds did what he usually does and that’s win an event.  He bagged 50k for first.  Paul Distefano of Plaquemine, LA took almost 17k for third.  Jack Miller of Pass Christian, MS won almost 9k for 6th.  And GCP got on the board as blogger Brandon Jarrett won a little over 5k for 8th.

EVENT 4: FESKE 2ND BEST.  Michael Benvenuti of California won 63k for first.  Ron Feske of Folsom, LA took second for 35k.  Gabe Costner won 9k for 6th.

EVENT 5: BOSS BOSTICK.  Bill Bostick of St. Clair, MI won 12k for first.  Art Young of Biloxi, MS took just shy of 3k for 5th.

EVENT 6: TOYE-ING AROUND.  GCP blogger Bobby Toye won almost 9k for 3rd.  “Detroit Al” Green of Florida (Detroit is in Florida?) won almost 30k for first.  Thuy “TD” Djedjos of Jackson, MS won a little over 5k for 5th.

EVENT 7: LOCALS MUSCLED OUT.  No locals made the final table as Russell “The Muscle” Salzer of NY, NY won 16k for first.  Yebin Guo of Brooklyn took silver for 9k. 

EVENT 8: PULLEN IN POTS.  Picayune Mississippi’s Thomas “Eddy” Pullens won 33k for first place.  Annie Lu got on the final table for the ladies. 

EVENT 9: DO CALL ME BUDDY.  New Orleans, LA native Thomas “Buddy” Rouzan was the runner-up winning 36k.  Tony Lay of OK City, OK won 70k for first and felt okay about it.