Casino Planet Cash

So here’s the skinny. I’m signed up to play in this here initial event of the 2009 World Blogger Championship of Online Poker thingy over on PokerStars this afternoon, for which I’m gonna try to live blog while I play. Hell, I got two hands.

Am askin’ for trouble, I’m sure, given the limited capacities of my jingle brain, not to mention the fact that it has been a couple of months since I last played no-limit hold’em (or a tourney, for that matter).

All of which is to say, don’t be comin’ around expecting pokery greatness from yr humble gumshoe.

Looks like with a little over a half-hour until the first hands are dealt there are already over 1,500 scribblers registered for the sucker. Top 153 finishers win tickets of varying amounts into the upcoming Spring Championship of Online Poker (SCOOP), with a total prize pool of $5,096.50 having been set aside for today’s event.

Click here for more info on the WBCOOP series. I’ll be back here shortly after five o’clock ET with the first report. (And hopefully not the last!)

5:01 p.m. ET
Tourney is underway. 1,690 runners all told at the moment, but late registration is still open. Looks like at least two-thirds of my starting table is sitting out.

5:06 p.m. ET
Okay, there are five of us playing, with four sitting out. The sitters are all to my left, and the players to my right. At least one of the four other players is raising preflop each hand before it gets to me, so I have yet to be able to take the sitters’ blinds uncontested. Biding my time for now, but will probably have to start reraising to get involved.

5:08 p.m. ET
Just took my first hand, a standard PF raise with one caller, followed by c-bet on ace-high flop. (No, I didn’t have an ace.) Shortly after, I see an all-in confrontation between 8-7 offsuit and A-10 offsuit. It’s a freeroll, all right.

5:11 p.m. ET
I am seeing on Twitter my buddy the Poker Grump is already out. Must have picked up deuce-four and went with it, I am assuming.

5:15 p.m. ET
Just lost few chips getting a little reckless with the bloggers’ favorite, the hammer, but got it back very next next hand. Back to starting stack of 2,000.

5:21 p.m. ET
Pocket kings in early position. Both blinds call my standard raise. A king flops, both check, I make a smallish c-bet, and both go away. Might’ve milked it for more, I guess, but I’ll take it. Little over 2,400 now.

5:26 p.m. ET
First elimination at my table, about 25 minutes into the proceedings. Looks like 1,730 runners or so at the moment.

5:30 p.m. ET
Okay, just won first big pot of the tourney. Player raises to 120 (3x) in front of me from early position, I reraise to 420 with pocket kings, it folds around and my opponent calls. Flop comes Q-J-T. He checks, I shove (about 1,800), and he instacalls with A-J. Turn and river both nines, giving me straight and 4,670-chip pot (my new stack).

5:37 p.m. ET
EP preflop raiser gets one caller to his left, then I call, too, from cutoff with K-Q. Flop comes Q-4-2 with two hearts, and both check to me. I bet three-quarter pot (475), preflop raiser thinks, then raises to 1,400. I immediately shove (what do I know?), raiser goes into time bank for 30 seconds, then folds. At 6,170 now.

5:42 p.m. ET
Sheesh we are already at Level 5 (ten-minute levels). I don’t need to consult Arnold Snyder to conclude this here is a fast-structured tourney.

5:47 p.m. ET
Pick up another pot (1,135) with pocket queens. (Yes, I am getting some decent starting hands so far, no doubt.) Both an ace and king come by the river, but my opponent had neither (was chasing draws). At 6,965 now.

Party Poker is delighted to announce that professional poker player Antanas Guoga, more commonly known as Tony G, has been added to the roster of ‘Team Party.’  Tony will make his debut as part of Party Poker Team at the Aussie Millions, and will also take part in the annual  PartyPoker.com Premier League IV in Las Vegas in February. PartyPoker’s Premier League IV line up also includes WSOP Champ Phil Hellmuth, JC Tran, Yevgeniy Timoshenko, Luke ‘FullFlush’ Schwartz and Roland De Wolfe.

“I cannot wait to start playing for Team Party on the circuit. I’ve always loved Party and what better way to kick off than at the Aussie Millions. I am also really excited about the Premier League in February - it is the best event in poker in my eyes. After finishing runner-up and third in the last two years the title has to be mine! I just hope my rivals have the heart and commitment to the game to stop me!” said Tony.

As a professional poker player, Tony has won over $4,000,000 in live tournament winnings, which includes 15 World Series of Poker cash outs, a first place at the World Poker Tour Bad Boys of Poker II in 2006, and a second place at the 2006 PartyPoker Intercontinental Poker Championship in Las Vegas. Tony also won the inaugural Asian Poker Tour event in Singapore in 2006, giving half of his prize money to charity and donated the $205,000 he won at a big tournament in Moscow in November 2007.

Tony G will join Team Party members Mike Sexton, Kara Scott, Ian Frazer, Bodo Sbrzesny, Remy Biechel, Stewart Scott and Felipe ‘Mojave’ Ramos.

“We’re delighted to welcome Tony to Team Party. Tony is undoubtedly one of poker’s biggest characters in the game – a personal deal for him made huge sense. We are also happy to have acquired the assets of TonyGPoker.com and look forward to welcoming his players on board.” commented a  PartyGaming spokesman.

Discuss this article in our forum

PartyPoker.com is glad to inform that Canadian TV personality, journalist and poker player, Kara Scott has signed a deal to represent the site as the newest member of ‘Team Party’. Scott will join 2009 Poker Hall of Fame inductee Mike Sexton, Remy Biechel, Ian Frazer, Felipe ‘Mojave’ Ramos, Stewart Scott and Bodo Sbrzesny.  Kara will represent Party Poker in the some of the most popular tournaments around the world and will serve as host for the Party Poker Premier League IV in Las Vegas.

“It is fantastic to have signed a deal to join Team Party. It works perfectly for me as I get the opportunity to further improve my game on the live circuit as well as carrying on presenting. I’m so excited about the future.” commented Scott.

Born in Alberta, Canada, Kara Scott has been working in the media since 2002, starting in kick-boxing programming before moving to present poker related programming. Scott was recently installed and continues to be a presenter on GSN’s High Stakes Poker. Her professional poker player record includes a final table at the PartyPoker Women’s World Open I in 2007, first place at the PartyPoker.com Sports Stars Challenge III in 2008 and a second place at the Irish Open in 2009. Kara is also the only woman to have cashed in both the 2008 and 2009 World Series of Poker Main Events and only the second ever in history to have cashed in two WSOP Main Events. Her live earnings are over $550,000.

“Kara is a great signing and we are really looking forward to working with her. She has historic links with PartyPoker.com after taking down the Sports Stars Challenge III and we have been super impressed by her progress since then. As well as being a great presenter, Kara is also a fantastic player with great results and the potential to go even further. We are excited about this new relationship.” said a PartyPoker spokesman.

Discuss this article in our forum

PartyPoker.com is glad to inform that Canadian TV personality, journalist and poker player, Kara Scott has signed a deal to represent the site as the newest member of ‘Team Party’. Scott will join 2009 Poker Hall of Fame inductee Mike Sexton, Remy Biechel, Ian Frazer, Felipe ‘Mojave’ Ramos, Stewart Scott and Bodo Sbrzesny.  Kara will represent Party Poker in the some of the most popular tournaments around the world and will serve as host for the Party Poker Premier League IV in Las Vegas.

“It is fantastic to have signed a deal to join Team Party. It works perfectly for me as I get the opportunity to further improve my game on the live circuit as well as carrying on presenting. I’m so excited about the future.” commented Scott.

Born in Alberta, Canada, Kara Scott has been working in the media since 2002, starting in kick-boxing programming before moving to present poker related programming. Scott was recently installed and continues to be a presenter on GSN’s High Stakes Poker. Her professional poker player record includes a final table at the PartyPoker Women’s World Open I in 2007, first place at the PartyPoker.com Sports Stars Challenge III in 2008 and a second place at the Irish Open in 2009. Kara is also the only woman to have cashed in both the 2008 and 2009 World Series of Poker Main Events and only the second ever in history to have cashed in two WSOP Main Events. Her live earnings are over $550,000.

“Kara is a great signing and we are really looking forward to working with her. She has historic links with PartyPoker.com after taking down the Sports Stars Challenge III and we have been super impressed by her progress since then. As well as being a great presenter, Kara is also a fantastic player with great results and the potential to go even further. We are excited about this new relationship.” said a PartyPoker spokesman.

Discuss this article in our forum

PartyPoker.com is glad to inform that Canadian TV personality, journalist and poker player, Kara Scott has signed a deal to represent the site as the newest member of ‘Team Party’. Scott will join 2009 Poker Hall of Fame inductee Mike Sexton, Remy Biechel, Ian Frazer, Felipe ‘Mojave’ Ramos, Stewart Scott and Bodo Sbrzesny.  Kara will represent Party Poker in the some of the most popular tournaments around the world and will serve as host for the Party Poker Premier League IV in Las Vegas.

“It is fantastic to have signed a deal to join Team Party. It works perfectly for me as I get the opportunity to further improve my game on the live circuit as well as carrying on presenting. I’m so excited about the future.” commented Scott.

Born in Alberta, Canada, Kara Scott has been working in the media since 2002, starting in kick-boxing programming before moving to present poker related programming. Scott was recently installed and continues to be a presenter on GSN’s High Stakes Poker. Her professional poker player record includes a final table at the PartyPoker Women’s World Open I in 2007, first place at the PartyPoker.com Sports Stars Challenge III in 2008 and a second place at the Irish Open in 2009. Kara is also the only woman to have cashed in both the 2008 and 2009 World Series of Poker Main Events and only the second ever in history to have cashed in two WSOP Main Events. Her live earnings are over $550,000.

“Kara is a great signing and we are really looking forward to working with her. She has historic links with PartyPoker.com after taking down the Sports Stars Challenge III and we have been super impressed by her progress since then. As well as being a great presenter, Kara is also a fantastic player with great results and the potential to go even further. We are excited about this new relationship.” said a PartyPoker spokesman.

Discuss this article in our forum

Phil ‘The Unabomber’ Laak is the new PartyPoker.com World Open V champion after outlasting one of the toughest final tables in the event’s history. The final table featured Poker Hall of Fame inductee and PartyPoker.com ambassador Mike Sexton, former Premier League champion Andy Black, Luke ‘Full Flush’ Schwartz, PartyPoker.com team member Bodo Sbrzesny, Austrian online qualifier Jan Veit and actress and World Series of Poker bracelet winner Jennifer Tilly.

“This was a wild roller coaster ride and I am proud to have shared it with this amazing cast of characters. They were a tough bunch. Wow – what an honor. Coming back from one and a half big blinds is about as crazy as it gets. So sick, just so sick,” said Laak.

First out on the final table was chip leader Andy Black, followed  by Mike Sexton. Next to go was Jennifer Tilly when her A-J failed to hit against Veit’s pocket nines. Fourth place belonged to PartyPoker.com team member Bodo Sbrzesny. After a long period of three handed play,  Luke ‘FullFlush’ Schwartz was busted in third place when 26-year-old online qualifier Jan Veit, from Salzburg, Austria hit a  flush.

The heads-up battle began with Veit holding a 1,190,000/910,000 advantage over Laak. On the final hand, Laak raised with Q-9 and Jan moved all-in with J-7. Phil called and nothing hit on the board, giving him the title and the $250.000 first prize.

“Congratulations to Phil for his deserved victory. We’re delighted with how the tournament has gone this week and we had a fantastic final table. We got great feedback on the new triple stack structure and casino atmosphere and are convinced this tournament has introduced a new high standard for single table satellite events of this nature.” commented a PartyPoker spokesman.

Coverage of Party Poker’s World Open V will begin on Five in the UK on October 28th and will be presented by Kara Scott. Commentary for the final table will be provided by Jesse May, Neil Channing and Ian Frazer.

Phil ‘The Unabomber’ Laak is the new PartyPoker.com World Open V champion after outlasting one of the toughest final tables in the event’s history. The final table featured Poker Hall of Fame inductee and PartyPoker.com ambassador Mike Sexton, former Premier League champion Andy Black, Luke ‘Full Flush’ Schwartz, PartyPoker.com team member Bodo Sbrzesny, Austrian online qualifier Jan Veit and actress and World Series of Poker bracelet winner Jennifer Tilly.

“This was a wild roller coaster ride and I am proud to have shared it with this amazing cast of characters. They were a tough bunch. Wow – what an honor. Coming back from one and a half big blinds is about as crazy as it gets. So sick, just so sick,” said Laak.

First out on the final table was chip leader Andy Black, followed  by Mike Sexton. Next to go was Jennifer Tilly when her A-J failed to hit against Veit’s pocket nines. Fourth place belonged to PartyPoker.com team member Bodo Sbrzesny. After a long period of three handed play,  Luke ‘FullFlush’ Schwartz was busted in third place when 26-year-old online qualifier Jan Veit, from Salzburg, Austria hit a  flush.

The heads-up battle began with Veit holding a 1,190,000/910,000 advantage over Laak. On the final hand, Laak raised with Q-9 and Jan moved all-in with J-7. Phil called and nothing hit on the board, giving him the title and the $250.000 first prize.

“Congratulations to Phil for his deserved victory. We’re delighted with how the tournament has gone this week and we had a fantastic final table. We got great feedback on the new triple stack structure and casino atmosphere and are convinced this tournament has introduced a new high standard for single table satellite events of this nature.” commented a PartyPoker spokesman.

Coverage of Party Poker’s World Open V will begin on Five in the UK on October 28th and will be presented by Kara Scott. Commentary for the final table will be provided by Jesse May, Neil Channing and Ian Frazer.

Phil ‘The Unabomber’ Laak is the new PartyPoker.com World Open V champion after outlasting one of the toughest final tables in the event’s history. The final table featured Poker Hall of Fame inductee and PartyPoker.com ambassador Mike Sexton, former Premier League champion Andy Black, Luke ‘Full Flush’ Schwartz, PartyPoker.com team member Bodo Sbrzesny, Austrian online qualifier Jan Veit and actress and World Series of Poker bracelet winner Jennifer Tilly.

“This was a wild roller coaster ride and I am proud to have shared it with this amazing cast of characters. They were a tough bunch. Wow – what an honor. Coming back from one and a half big blinds is about as crazy as it gets. So sick, just so sick,” said Laak.

First out on the final table was chip leader Andy Black, followed  by Mike Sexton. Next to go was Jennifer Tilly when her A-J failed to hit against Veit’s pocket nines. Fourth place belonged to PartyPoker.com team member Bodo Sbrzesny. After a long period of three handed play,  Luke ‘FullFlush’ Schwartz was busted in third place when 26-year-old online qualifier Jan Veit, from Salzburg, Austria hit a  flush.

The heads-up battle began with Veit holding a 1,190,000/910,000 advantage over Laak. On the final hand, Laak raised with Q-9 and Jan moved all-in with J-7. Phil called and nothing hit on the board, giving him the title and the $250.000 first prize.

“Congratulations to Phil for his deserved victory. We’re delighted with how the tournament has gone this week and we had a fantastic final table. We got great feedback on the new triple stack structure and casino atmosphere and are convinced this tournament has introduced a new high standard for single table satellite events of this nature.” commented a PartyPoker spokesman.

Coverage of Party Poker’s World Open V will begin on Five in the UK on October 28th and will be presented by Kara Scott. Commentary for the final table will be provided by Jesse May, Neil Channing and Ian Frazer.

Been listening to some cool stuff on the iPod these days. A few new things, including the latest Tortoise album, called Beacons of Ancestorship. Released over the summer, but I’m just now getting to it. Awesome grooves, soundscapes. The instrumental outfit’s 1996 album Millions Now Living Will Never Die is probably one of my all-time-top-ten-most-listened-to records — a “desert island” disc, for sure — and this one might be their best since that one.

Also have Metric’s latest (from the spring, I think), called Fantasies, which is pretty hard not to dial up again and again, especially thanks to the start of that gripping opening track “Help I’m Alive” (“I tremble… tremble… tremble… tremble…”). Not as stunningly satisfying as Old World Underground, Where Are You Now?, their 2003 debut, which I go back to repeatedly, but a nifty collection of idiosyncratic pop, nonetheless. (Can you tell I’ve been thinking of starting a music blog?)

Mixed in there, too, as usual, has been Frank Zappa, for whom I noticed the other day I have exactly 600 songs loaded on the little music player. Some might think that obsessive, but FZ fans understand the requirements for uncovering conceptual continuity. Have been once more working through the You Can’t Do This On Stage Anymore discs here lately. Up to the start of Volume 4 and that cool sequence at the start that moves from “My Guitar Wants to Kill Your Mama” to “Willie the Pimp” to “Montana.”

Have also worked in a few poker podcasts of late, and had a few shows to recommend to you.

The latest installment of The Poker Beat (10/8/09) featured an interesting discussion of the marketing of the November Nine, now less than a month away. Had a lot of good comments on my post on the subject earlier in the week, and the discussion on the show added still further insight. Definitely appears as though we’re going to see more “mainstream” attention this time around. The show also featured a visit with Amy Calistri to talk about the demise of PokerPages (for which she once wrote/edited).

Daniel Negreanu was the guest on this week’s Hardcore Poker Show (10/7/09). Interesting as always, was Kid Poker, as he discussed his near miss at the World Series of Poker Europe Main Event. He was additionally asked about Phil Hellmuth’s speculations — first aired on the 9/23/09 episode of the Hardcore Poker Show — concerning Harrah’s new online site and the possibility of the other sites teaming up to compete with Harrah’s. Negreanu roundly dismissed the Poker Brat’s idea as wayward fantasy, particularly the notion that a site like PokerStars, which he represents, would ever enter an alliance with Hellmuth’s site, UltimateBet. “I want nothing to do with that company,” says Negreanu, adding that “personally, I don’t think they should exist anymore… we don’t owe them any favors.” Run over to Pokerati to hear the UB-related stuff, which Kevmath excerpted out for your listening convenience.

During the middle portion of this week’s Two Plus Two Pokercast (10/6/09) there’s lengthy interview with Neil Channing in which the British poker pro talks about the current state of poker in the U.K. as well as his own interesting path through sports betting, backing, and poker. As always, hosts Mike Johnson and Adam Schwartz do a great job with the interview, and the result is both compelling and at times laugh out loud funny.

Going back a little bit… they’ve been successively interviewing the various members of the November Nine over on Phil Gordon and Andrew Feldman’s podcast The Poker Edge. I think they’ve had six of the nine on thus far. For more on your favorite logger Darvin Moon, check out the 9/25/09 episode. (Moon should really start a blog and thus become the first poker-logger blogger.) Finally, a while back Howard Schwartz had poker author Arnold Snyder on his Gamblers Book Club Podcast (the 9/3/09 episode). I’m a big fan of Snyder’s Poker Tournament Formula books, and he made for a great guest on Schwartz’s show.

Speaking of podcasts, I do have a new episode of The Hard-Boiled Poker Radio Show in the works (I know it has been a while). Hopefully it will not be too long before Episode 19 of that makes it onto your iPod or iPod-like device.

Meanwhile, I think it’s gonna be more Zappa this morning for me. Actually received a spammy e-mail today with the subject line “Montana Investment Property” that included this picture. No shinola! Looks like a nice place to raise a crop of dental floss, yes? Yippie-Yi-O-Ti-Yay!

PartyPoker.com has confirmed new names for the upcoming Party Poker World Open V event running from Sunday, October 11th to  Thursday, October 15th  at the Palm Beach Casino in London, England.

Newly confirmed players include man of the moment Yevgeniy Timoshenko, World Series of Poker and WSOPE bracelet holder JP Kelly, Layne Flack, Teddy Sheringham, Andrew Feldman, Roland De Wolfe, Paul Zimbler, Sammy George and Bruno Fitoussi. Also new to the line-up is the WSOP November Nine players Antoine Saout and James Akenhead.

The 48 player field also includes PartyPoker’s ambassador Mike Sexton and PartyPoker.com’s newly sponsored  players Remy Biechel from France, Felipe ‘Mojave’ Ramos from Brazil, the UK’s Ian Frazer, Germany’s Bodo Sbrzesny, as well as online poker pro Tom ‘Durrrr’ Dwan, Luke ‘Fullflush’ Schwartz, JC Tran, Steve Sung, actress Jennifer Tilly, Phil Laak, Scott Fischman, Neil Channing, European Open V winner Roberto Romanello, defending World Open champion Marty Smyth, Andy Black, Neil Channing and Liam Flood. Danish journalist Johannes Nord Jorgensen, who secured his package by winning the recent PartyPoker.com in the Sky event in Copenhagen, will also join the field of poker pros and celebrities invited to this event.

“The early money is for Durrrr, which isn’t really a surprise, but favourites do not have a good record in this competition. We’re delighted with the field. Every heat features a super strong line-up. For example, two online qualifiers have to deal with the likes of Yevgeniy Timoshenko, James Akenhead, Luke ‘FullFlush’ Schwartz and Ian Frazer and that is only in heat one!” commented a spokesman from PartyPoker.com.

The main changes this year are that the starting stacks have been tripled, with the tables now being eight seat in the heats and seven players in the final. The buy-in is $10,000, with a total prize pool of $480,000, including a $250,000 first prize. Commentary will be provided by Jesse May and the action will be first broadcast on Five in the UK later this year and then distributed internationally.

Online poker players still have the chance to qualify for the prestigious tournament through the online tournaments running on PartyPoker. Players can win a Party Poker World Open V dream package to join the poker elite from around the globe through the triple starting stack tournament taking place from 11th to 15th October and guaranteeing 10 packages worth $13,000 were won which include the buy-in, seven night’s accommodation and $1,000 spending money.

For more information, please visit PartyPoker.com.