Doyle Brunson Answers High Stakes Poker Challenge From Patrik Antonious.
March 31, 2008
When people get older and have been in there career for years on end, there talent usually begins to waver, pitchers get hurt, NBA players knees go out, and football player’s deteriorate as a whole. Poker players face the mental battle of always staying sharp and acute, something that can take its toll on you over time. Doyle Brunson seems to have no issue whatsoever with this. Doyle has a heads up competition brewing with one of the brightest young stars in poker, Patrik Antonius.
Antonius challenged Brunson in a recent magazine article, and in his online blog, Texas Dolly seems to have accepted. In Antonius’ blog, he seems hopeful the event will happen in the near future. Antonius had this to say “I will try and talk to Doyle and iron out the details. No matter who wins, it will be an amazing experience playing Doyle, one of the great legends of all time, heads up for over a million dollars.” “I am getting excited just thinking about it.”
Doyle has his own take on the challenge, saying ‘I’ve got seven to ten different games, all of which I’ve played in Las Vegas casinos for high stakes, that I’m willing to commit to for at least a seven-figure match,’ Brunson writes. ‘There will be no animosity between us; we are both pros who love a good gamble. It will be interesting if he accepts, and I’m sure we will both have a great time playing.’
Regardless of how this match plays out, it will be thrilling to watch. Antonius is widely known for his aggressive play, but will he be at all intimidated by Doyle? We all know Doyle can battle the aggressive player, as he showed in the heads up championship against Sam Farha. This will truly be youth and aggression against age and knowledge.
Unknown High Stakes Poker Player Being Involved in Prostitution Solicitation?
March 31, 2008
The New York Daily News has published an article in which they claim a “well-known, high-stakes” poker star has been using the services of Kristin Davis. Kristin Davis, is being held on charges of money laundering and promoting prostitution. Davis allegedly ran several high-end call girl companies, three of which are Wicked Models, New York Body Miracle and Maison de L’Amour.
The New York Daily News apparently obtained a client list of Davis’. There were many names on the list which included doctors, lawyers, major money managers as well as the name of a well known high stakes poker pro. The player is not named in the article.
The article states that the “poker star” spent a grand total of $26,450 on eight separate occasions with two of the “sessions” lasting a total of seven hours. The article also states that the player was one of Davis’ biggest spenders.
When the daily news tried to reach the player for a comment, all that was said was “All I know is what I read in the papers”.
With this being the second big prostitution ring bust this year, I am sure the list of people utilizing the service will come out in public, and we will find out what poker pro is having some extra fun with his winnings.
Gambling “21″ Movie is Aces at Box Office
March 30, 2008
The behind the scenes word on the film “21” was that filmmakers wanted the movie to be more of a cautionary tale than just to glamorize the world of gambling, or Blackjack 21 to be exact. The movie features actors Jim Strugess, Kevin Spacey, Laurence Fishburne, Kate Bosworth and Aaron Yoo.
Loosely based on the New York Bestseller book, Bringing Down The House, written by Ben Mezrich, (I say loosely because the movie had to be “glamed” up a bit for Hollywood), it journals the travels of a select few of highly skilled blackjack players who were students from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and “took Vegas for millions”; one student imparticular, Ben Campbell played by Jim Strugess who was recruited by his MIT math professor, Mickey Rosa, played by Kevin Spacey. The premise begins with mathematical whiz Ben Campbell needing to raise tuition to the tune of $300 Grand, to attend Harvard University and reluctantly agreeing to become part of his professor’s student card counters. The movie portrays Strugess’ character turning into a celebrity phenom of sorts trying to deal with all that goes along with that image.
Real life in the early 90’s had a set of Boston College Club students, aka the MIT Blackjack Team, “counting their cards” close to their vest and projecting a “beat the dealer/bringing down the house” gambling terror from casino to casino around the globe. Absorbing all they could from strategies in a book written by MIT professor Edward O. Thorp, Beat The Dealer, the MIT Blackjack Team were quite successful at putting the theories and math computations of card counting and sometimes card steering and shuffle tracking into play. This elusive team remained under the radar for many years, unlike online casino whales (haha). Anyone familiar with the game of “21” knows what an important impact this had on blackjack history.
The film doesn’t go into detail about card counting but rather tries to be somewhat moralistic; kind of to the tune that “crime doesn’t pay” or at least not all of the time. Whether you like the movie or not, the fact remains that in the US and Canada alone, “21” was the top film in theaters this past weekend with $23.7 Million in ticket sales. This just attributes to how the majority of us along with Hollywood are intrigued with the clandestine world of gambling and the egocentric casino way of life.
Lee Markholt Captures 2008 WPT Reno World Poker Open
March 29, 2008
Friday night was Lee Markholt’s night - finally! After being knocked out a whopping fourteen times before making it to a final table in previous tournaments, Friday night began the journey into his final table seat destination in the 2008 WPT World Poker Challenge in Reno, Nevada.
The poker star-studded final table had Markholt going up against the likes of David “The Dragon” Pham, Jason Potter and Bryan “Devo” Devonshire. As skill would have it, Markholt defeated his opponents and was crowned victor of the sixth season of the World Poker Tour at the Reno Grand Sierra Resort and Casino. Pham, who ended up in third place in last year’s WPT came in fifth place this year. Devonshire took second place. This was Markholt’s first win since the 2005 Five Star Poker Classic on the Professional Poker Tour.
Not only did Lee Markholt come away with the coveted WPT bracelet, but he walked away with the first prize of $493,815 in this $7,500 buy-in tournament (which was an increased buy-in of fifty percent from last year). Up next for Markholt will be the season ending World Poker Tour championship that goes down in April.
Montel Williams to Represent Team USA in Poker Nations Cup
March 28, 2008
As one of the early on chip leader’s in last year’s 2007 WSOP, Montel Williams was strutting his poker stuff and earning legitimacy as a contender as a poker pro.
His poker playing had not gone unnoticed. PartyPoker.com announced yesterday that Montel Williams was invited (and personally picked by team captain and esteemed Omaha master, Robert Williamson, III) to partake as a member of Team USA in the Poker Nations Cup. Though relatively new to the professional poker scene, this former talk show legend hosts quite a few of his own poker tournaments for charity events he heads for Multiple Sclerosis and the Montel Williams MS Foundation.
The structure of this global tournament has five esteemed poker pros and one PartyPoker online poker qualifier playing on each of the six teams from the United States (headed by Williamson), Britain (headed by Roland De Wolfe), Germany (headed by Michael Keiner) Ireland (headed by Padraig Parkinson) Netherlands (headed by Marcel Luske) and Sweden (headed by Bo Sehlstedt). In light of PartyPoker not accepting US poker players due to the US Gambling Ban, Team USA was left without an online poker qualifier, so Williamson thought Montel Williams would be a good fit. Williams will also be playing alongside Chris “Jesus” Ferguson, Jamie Gold, Freddy Deeb and Chris Brown.
The Poker Nations Cup will be played in Cardiff, Wales from April 7th through April 10th. Featuring six heats, the $5,000 buy-in event will have players competing for points (which determine chip stacks for each team) to see who will be top-finishers in the heats and make it on to the final play. This tag team formatted tournament will have team captains making tactical decisions throughout and strategizing how and when they will use their most valuable players. The teams will compete for the team prize of $100,000. In addition to the team prize, each winner of the six heats will be awarded $20,000. Last year’s tournament had Team Sweden walking away with the illustrious title.
The PokerDB Reaches One Year Milestone as Part of Bluff Media.
March 25, 2008
The Poker DB, which was established by internet poker player and famed blogger Nat Arem several years ago, celebrated an impressive milestone today.
On March 25th, 2007, Nat sold the PokerDB to Bluff Media, which is of course the producer of the popular publication Bluff Magazine. The owners at Bluff tweaked the DB into what it is today - and that is being one of the most amazing resource tools in the world in regards to seeing and analyzing just how good online poker players around the globe really are. There are no celebrations in mind for the one-year anniversary of the PokerDB being controlled by Bluff, just something I thought I would write about real quick.
The popular database (DB) was first coded and launched by Nat as a resource for poker players as a way to easily check on tournament wins, ROI, cashes, and of course total profits. It started off as a free service, but eventually grew into such an essential tool that its owner then had to require players to subscribe to it to see a lot of the more in-depth details about everyday opponents and online adversaries.
This story is credited to Nat Arem, who’s blog I used as a source for my story above.
Sixth Season of the World Poker Tour Debuts Tonight on GSN.
March 24, 2008
Tonight marks the opening broadcast of the World Poker Tour’s sixth season.
It has a new home…and of course has new promises for its future.
After ending its television contract with the Travel Channel, Steve Lipscomb’s empire will have a fresh start on GSN - also known as the Game Show Network. Widespread rumors have been circulating about the poker industry about how successful the WPT might be after achieving such huge success during the “poker boom.” The company reported million dollar losses in 2007,and is hoping to recuperate strongly after renegotiating a lot of its marketing deals and sponsorships.
Here is a complete breakdown of the schedule for season six of the World Poker Tour:
March 24 - Mirage Poker Showdown
March 31 - Bellagio Cup III (Part 1)
April 7 - Bellagio Cup III (Part 2)
April 14 - Legends of Poker
April 21 - North American Poker Classic
April 28 - Mandalay Bay Poker Championship
May 5 - Borgata Poker Open & Spa
May 12 - WPT Ladies Night V
May 19 - Turks and Caicos Poker Classic
May 26 - Gulf Coast Poker Championship
June 2 - WPT Spanish Championship
June 9 - Foxwoods World Poker Finals
June 16 - Doyle Brunson Five Diamond Poker Classic
June 23 - World Poker Open (Part 1)
June 30 - World Poker Open (Part 2)
July 7 - Borgata Poker Classic
July 14 - L.A. Poker Classic
July 21 - WPT Celebrity Invitational
July 28 - Bay 101 Shooting Star
August 4 - World Poker Challenge
August 11 - Foxwoods Poker Classic
August 18 - WPT Ladies Championship
August 25 - WPT World Championship
Happy Easter From PokerOwnage!
March 23, 2008
Hope everyone has a great Easter holiday. As you’ve noticed, I’ve taken the last few days off to be with some family back in Arizona. I’ll be returning shortly to bring you all the most updated news stories in the world of gambling and poker. Take care and HAPPY EASTER again.
PINO
2008 Irish Poker Open Underway; Chris Moore Wins Wynn Poker Classic.
March 20, 2008
The 2008 Irish Poker Open has started play this week, with members of Team Bodog looking for a strong showing in the event. The tournament has a stronghold of both online pros (some of which aren’t of legal U.S. age of 21 to gamble) and live cash game/MTT specialists competing in it, with all of them focused on the near $1,000,000 first-place prize.
Last year’s winner, Marty Smyth, will be defending his crown against one of the toughest fields of this year’s tournament circuit. As of right now, the first day is near conclusion, with Europeans Ram Vaswani and Andy Black holding strong with above-average chip stacks. I’ll be back to report on the final table of this tournament when the time comes - so please stay tuned!
Also, in other news (this time it’s stateside in Las Vegas, Nevada), Chris Moore improved on his 3rd place finish in last year’s Wynn Poker Classic to take down 1st place in this year’s event. Moore battled Ryan Young heads-up for a decent amount of time before he would eventually dispatch of his opponent for the win and $692,286. Here are the final table results and payouts for the 2008 Wynn Poker Classic:
1. Chris Moore - $692,286
2. Ryan Young - $355,020
3. Blake Cahail - $177,510
4. Ardavan Yazdi - $95,855
5. Jace Markgraf - $71,004
6. Larry Wright - $53,253
7. Ricky Chow - $44,378
8. Alemu Tesema - $35,502
9. Eugene Todd - $31,952
Massachusetts Casino Bill Receives Negative Input From House Committee.
March 20, 2008
Governor Deval Patrick lobbied as best as he could before his proposed bill to build 3 land-based casinos in the state and make it illegal to gamble online goes to the state House of Representatives today. He spent a majority of his time Tuesday trying to influence lawmakers that his proposal would benefit the state and help bolster the economy.
However, the Massachusetts House Joint Committee on Economic Development and Emerging Technologies voted 10-8 to reject the proposal, which is an indication that the bill will most likely not pass when it goes to vote later today. Knowing full well that this is going to be the most likely end result, Governor Patrick had this to say:
“I have no illusions about the plans in the House for this legislation. I am simply asking that an open debate begin, rather than end, today.”
Reasoning behind the bill’s inevitable denial seem to be focused on how many jobs it truly can create, as well as how much revenue it will realistically bring the state. House speaker Salvatore DiMasi believes that Patrick’s outline is overly optimistic and is something that may have to be analyzed again in the future.
