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Springtime in Las Vegas

[Content Disclosure: 110% Poker]

Well the spring poker season has started here in Las Vegas. The World Poker Tour (WPT) Championship has already begun preliminary events at the Bellagio. The $25,000 Main Event that will wrap up Season Five of the WPT will be held April 21st - April 27th.

Less than two weeks after WPT Season Five crowns its chamption, Season Six launches just a couple of doors north of Bellagio at The Mirage. May 7th - May 23rd will be the 2007 Mirage Poker Showdown with its $10K Main Event May 19th - 23rd.

Even before the Mirage event is done, the second tournament of the 2007 WPT season will begin preliminary play at Mandalay Bay. May 21st - June 2nd are the dates for the Mandalay Bay Poker Championship with another $10K Main Event running May 29th - June 2nd.

But wait there's more:

The World Series of Poker Circuit (WSOP) comes to Caesar's Palace from April 22nd - May 2nd with a $5K Main Event scheduled for April 30th - May 2nd.

This, of course, does not take into account the scores of tournaments held every day in greater Las Vegas starting at $30 and going up to regularly scheduled $550 and $1050 weekly events.

Oh and then there is one more little event starting on June 1st at the Rio.

I am going to be covering many of these events in one capacity or another for a variety of media outlets. Stay tuned for that schedule and welcome to Springtime in Las Vegas, it was 90 and sunny today.
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An Invitation to a Resurrection

[Content Disclosure: 100% Poker; 43% Shameless Self Promotion]

If you are reading this blog entry you know all you need to know today about UIGEA [Unlawful Internet Gaming Enforcement Act]. Unless you are one of my non-poker buddies and you are here to see what I have been doing the last few years, in which case you should give me a call and we can catch up.

The transitory governmental restrictions of freedom and in particular the freedom to play poker have made it difficult for many poker websites to stay in business. Not just the actual gambling sites but all of the support sites. Most of those online operations employ or employed writers. I was and am one of those writers.

So I am happy to announce that one of my former poker gigs/sites is coming back to life and I will be the chief blogger again over at PokerBlog.com. That does not mean I will be abandoning this space. I like "Keeping Your Head in the Game" and I will be staying right here. But please come on over to PokerBlog and let me share with you a few of my other inner demons, angels, angles and directions; all directed at poker of course. PokerBlog will be "all poker all the time" which means this space might find a bit more room for the other sides of my life and maybe even some "other" cards.

Stay Tuned--A Seasoned Witch will call you from the Depths of your Disgrace.
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Best Laid Plans

I am really a very private person. Despite all my opinions that I toss out here and in other places on the big olde world wide web, I like to keep my private life private. As my good friend Amy might say: "The bear really doesn't like coming out of the cave all that often and he almost never likes it when someone visits and tries to open up the blinds."

But the more things change, the more things change.

UIGEA + Facet Joints + eye of newt + several muscle relaxants - five days in Monte Carlo + one big writing deal - one woman + ten days in San Francisco + that other deal that just won't go away or get signed = the current state of the shrink dot dot dot

Tomorrow I will have another announcement here on my little blog. For now, I apologize to Dr. Pauly and Tiffany and Shronk who are battling through the fog of frog in Monte Carlo down one team member. Great job guys.

The more things change the more things reorganize, reinvent, recatalyze, reinvigorate and reiterate.

Poker-wise, I sense a slow turning of the wheel; the chariot has entered the town square and who knows what the parade will bring. Remember always look behind the wagon before you look inside.

Tomorrow, more clarity, more direction and even a fact or two. For tonight--Welcome Back My Friends to the Show that Never Ends, We're So Glad You Could Attend...
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Linkfest & EPT Monte Carlo

I was sitting in a Omaha8 game at Red Rock late last night, when Dr. Pauly came by and said:

"You know I may never get to say this to anyone again......."

"See you in Monte Carlo!"

Yes, Pauly and I are taking our Dr./Dr. act on the road again for PokerNews.com. This is our third joint reporting gig after Aussie Millions and the LA Poker Classic. We will add one more next month when we cover the WPT Championships at Bellagio. After that there is a small tournament this summer we might cover. But for now its off to shores of the Mediterranean for the EPT Championship. You, of course, are invited to follow the live coverage on the PokerNewsLiveTournament link.

Just to wrap up this little pre-pond jumping link-fest, for my geographically challenged friends and family:
The country of Monaco and the city of Monte Carlo are located on the Mediterranean coast of France, just a few miles from the Italian border. Monaco is the second smallest independent state in Europe (The smallest is Vatican). Yes, this is the Princess Grace place.

Finally, our silly but fun internet tip of the week GoogleFight. Enjoy.
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10,000 Bad WSOP Stories

If you want reliable news about poker do NOT go to the mainstream press.

Two days ago the WSOP top staff held a little teleconference and somewhere in there the number 10,000 was mentioned. I have now seen over two dozens press stories about that little 45 minutes of words and only one of those stories does not lead with the number 10,000. Despite the fact that WSOP commissioner Jeffery Pollack was clear and clear again that 10,000 was a high-end working number, that it was not a prediction, that numbers may indeed be down, that they measure their success by something other than numbers. Didn't matter, all the stories but one, blasted out the number 10,000!

Why?

First, none of these were news reports (save one) they were sensation pieces worthy only of the Enquirer or Hollywood Tonight. They were headlines for a toss-off filler story.

Second, very few of the "mainstream media" who asked the majority of the questions knew anything about poker, they had no experience and no context for the game and in particular for the World Series of Poker.

Three, the WSOP staff goofed. The number 10,000 never should have been mentioned. All the coverage they hoped to get from the teleconference was washed away by the mention of 10,000.

Four, to the rest of the world, poker is a game that fills up late night TV on some of those high-numbered cable channels.

Too often we think what is important to us is important to everyone else. It isn't.

Too often we think that news is reported to inform us. It isn't. News is a commodity that is used by various media outlets to fill-in between their advertising and political agenda.

If anyone cares. There will be less than 5,000 players in the Main Event of the 2007 World Series of Poker. If someone offers you an over/under bet at 4500, take the under.
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Shooting Star @ Bay 101, San Jose

OK, I admit it. I like Bay 101, I like the Shooting Star tournament format and so do most of the other media.
The Shooting Star tournament is one of the first events with a “non-traditional” format and perhaps the most successful of these. The 11th Annual Shooting Star main event began today (Monday March 12th). What makes this event so unique is the Shooting Star bounty format, which is anything but just another gimmick.
The Shooting Star is limited to 500 players with 250 players taking to the felt on each of the two Day Ones. Twenty-five tables at the Bay 101 are ten seated but each table will has a designated “Star” in seat five. The Stars are fifty of the biggest professional players (25 each day), each with a cool $5,000 bounty on their head. When a Shooting Star goes down during this event, the floor staff comes to the table with a Bay 101 Shooting Star T-Shirt that reads: “I knocked out (Professional Player’s Name) at the Bay 101 2007 Shooting Star.” The shirt has a picture of the Star and they sign it for you at the table. A very cool, one-of-a-kind prize. Then the floor counts out fifty one hundred dollar bills right at the table. The bounty is paid immediately in cash!

Now mind you these stars are not exactly easy marks. Take a look at the some Shooting Stars from Day One this year:

Josh Arieh
Miami John Cernuto
Hoyt Corkins
Allen Cunningham
Freddy Deeb
Liz Lieu
Eli Elezra
John Hennigan
Kenna James
Nam Le
Tuan Le
Kathy Liebert
Tom McEvoy
Daniel Negreanu
Scotty Nguyen
Gavin Smith
J.C. Tran
Cyndy Violette
JJ Liu
David Williams
Robert Williamson III

Of course, with that list of “Stars”, tables are going to break before the “Star” is eliminated so slowly the number of bounties at the remaining tables will go up from one to two and even to three. This happened almost immediately today when Liz Lieu was moved to the same table with Eli Elezra and then Nam Le was moved onto another table with Alan Cunningham.

Should one of the Shooting Stars win the event the $5,000 bounty is added to their 1st place prize, which last year was won by Nam Le for a very cool $1,172,800. This year the first place prize is capped at $1,000,000 plus a $25,500 seat in the World Poker Tour Championship being played April 21st to 25th at the Bellagio in Las Vegas.
The Bay 101 Shooting Star is a very unique tournament and it offers some good viewing for the railbirds. If you are in the San Jose area, you might want to check out the Star-studded first two days. The cards are in the air each day at 11:15 AM and they will play ten one hour rounds each day. This year the tournament structure has been adjusted to a 20,000 chip starting stack, so the tournament is now twice as deep, which should provide for even more “Star Sightings” throughout the first two days.

If you can only make it for one day, here is a partial Shooting Star list for Day Two:

Patrik Antonius
T.J. Cloutier
Paul Darden
Scott Fischman
Layne Flack
Chau Giang
Barry Greenstein
Gus Hansen
Chip Jett
John Juanda
Phil Laak
Erick Lindgren
Jeff Madsen
Isabelle Mercier
Mike Mizrachi
Carlos Mortensen
Chip Reese
Erik Seidel
Jennifer Harman-Traniello
Jennifer Tilly
Mimi Tran
Amir Vahedi
-also confirmed but not Shooting Stars
Johnny Chan
John Phan
Evelyn Ng
Jason Strasser
Greg Mueller
Kevin O’Donnell
Nenad Medic
Alan Goering
Gabe Thaler
Richard Tatalovich
Jason Stern
Noah Jefferson
Michael Binger
Randy Gill
Allen Kessler
Shane Schleger
Anahit Galajian
Chad Brown
Vanessa Rousso
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Beyond the Angry UIGEA Conversation

There is an interesting debate going on over at Jay Greenspan's Blog. The topic is "beyond the rage at UIGEA". Bill Rini has weighed in and so, of course, has Jay. Some other wild haired radical has joined the noize, you might want to take a look and please join the conversation.
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