Randy Couture

Randy Couture, the Ultimate Fighting (UFC) Legend and poker ambassador, is hosting a Charity Poker Run by motorcycle to raise money and awareness  for the veterans of America’s armed forces.

In aid of his own Xtreme Couture GI Foundation, the fighter will lead the “Motorcycle Charity Poker Run” on Saturday, 7th May and has sent out an open invitation to riders to meet up at O School Choppers in Las Vegas to then ride alongside him and several other celebrities.

Jason Statham and Mickey Rourke are amongst the celebrities who are rumoured to attend, as well as actor Kevin James, NFL reporter Jay Glazer and magician Chris Angel. As at his other charity events, Couture is expected is to invite numerous UFC and Mix Martial Arts (MMA) stars.

The Charity Poker Run will involve the participants riding to different checkpoints where they will draw a card at each. The riders must attempt to make the best five-card poker hand they can in order to win. The prize pool will include cash, signed memorabilia, Xtreme Couture clothing and and Affliction leather Jacket, amongst other goodies.

Xtreme Couture GI Foundation was founded by Couture to honor for the veterans of America’s armed forces. The foundation was especially formed to raise money and awareness for those wounded in action and their families. To date, more than 24,000 U.S. troops have been wounded in the war against terrorism, which doesn’t include the many more suffering the mental effects. Many of the injuries are traumatic amputations, gunshot wounds, burns and blast injuries that will retire these brave men and woman from the armed forces. Even though some of these men and woman are severely injured, they have the courage, strength and determination to win this battle.Foundation’s aims to help these vets fulfil any of their unmet needs as they return back to civilian life.

Poker Riders can sign up for the event on the day (May 7) at the start point, O School Choppers, Las Vegas. Registration starts at 9 a.m. that morning, will costs $25 per rider and $10 per passenger.

Zynga Poker

The largest poker site in the world is not PokerStars or Full Tilt but Facebook-based Zynga Poker that has 38 million registered users; 500 of them bought tickets to bring their play money skills to the real world in Las Vegas last week.

The inaugural Zynga PokerCon was held at the Palms Casino from the 18th to 19th of March and was the company’s first foray into organizing tournaments offline and could be the start of a major trend. Considering that 7.6 million players participate in Zynga-based action every day, the opportunities are endless for a global brand that is based on the ease and visit-length statistics that users give to Facebook applications.

Lo Toney, Zynga Poker’s general manager commented: “So many fans are so passionate about Zynga Poker and we wanted to reward them and give something back to their community … [It's a way to] have our fans meet and interact with us; interact with each other. A lot of our fans are serious poker players, but for a lot of people, this is new.” UK-based 3-D poker site, PKR.com, has also created a series of events of this type, proving Toney pretty much wrong in this respect.

PokerCon featured a tournament with $125 buy-in tickets online and a $100,000 prize pool. The price of the tickets included a poker clinic led by Annie Duke, a party with pros Mike Sexton and David Williams and a star-studded party.

“Our first focus is to provide the best experience as we have the largest audience,” remarked Toney. “Give back to the fans, get feedback and … incorporate their feedback into the game. [PokerCon is a] great way for Zynga Poker to reach out and embrace the poker community. Many people who have played against each other [online] haven’t had the opportunity to meet. This will be an opportunity for them to meet in person at [the tables] and some of our exclusive parties.”

Zynga offered satellites online for PokerCon and most of the winners got free entry into the event with one lucky champion earning a spot that meant he flew past the early action and sat right down at the final table. .

“We created an environment that is very welcoming, not intimidating, fun and social,” said Toney. “We have a lot of people playing who don’t have to feel that they need to know that much about poker. All the other sites are intimidating. … It’s really important for us that we keep our games social and fun. That’s what keeps people coming back. That’s retention, the ability to retain our users and come back to the game.”

Aaron Alawen from Phoenix won the event and waltzed home with the $15,000 first prize after negotiating a pact with four other final table players.

Viktor Blom

It took Viktor “Isildur1” Blom less than four hours and only 1,500 hands to relieve Daniel “KidPoker” Negreanu of $150,000 in the latest SuperStar Showdown.

The online, over-hyped challenge that was the meeting of the old and the new of world poker, the face-off between Blom and Negreanu that took place last Sunday night, was not the epic battle most expected, or hoped, it would be.

The series of Showdowns that are organized online by these two players’ sponsor, PokerStars, usually consists of a heads-up match consisting of a single session of 2,500 hands that is played across four tables of No Limit Hold’em and Pot Limit Omaha with high stakes – at stakes no lower than $50/$100. The winner is the player that shows either a profit after 2,500 hands, or wins all of their opponent’s match bankroll. The Blom-Negreanu affair is to be played across two occasions, presumably for maximum exposure for the ‘site.

Blom only needed 1,500 hands to walk away with Negreanu’s $150,000 in the first session and never really let the old guard warrior get any headway in the match. The Swede dominated the confrontation, taking no prisoners with a number of huge hands and an even larger number of “sick” (in his words) hands that ran all the way to the river or threw him help on the turn. All who witnessed it, including Blom himself, had to admit that Negreanu ran a very bad line during the match.

The bad news for Daniel Negreanu is that he has agreed to return to the same spot this coming Sunday in the second and final round of this special face-off between the two high-stakes pros. The 1,439 hands the first sit-down took made up the shortest of these Showdowns to date. Blom lost the first to Isaac Haxton but then defeated Tony G, Daniel Cates and Eugene Katchalov before accepting Negreanu’s challenge.

Negreanu practised extensively his multi-tabling skills against some of these former Blom oppenents but his online training didn’t count for much.

The Internet gaming bill, that would allow residents and non-residents to play online poker, has been presented by Assembly Majority Whip William Horne, D-Las Vegas. The Las Vegas Review reports that this action was performed at the request of former Speaker Richard Perkins who was hired by PokerStars to lobby for the company.

The recent approval, by the Nevada Gaming Control Board, of the partnership between Caesars Entertainment and online giant 888 Holdings, is more evidence that local opinion, as well as federal leanings, may be focusing on eliminating online gambling prohibition.

The bill in question outlines strong criteria in relation to age, fraud, cheating and the license and fee-structure for operators.

Legislation of this type in Nevada would provide a benchmark for the sector due to Las Vegas’s reputation a world leader in the gambling industry. It would potentially permit players in other states to play on Nevada-based sites and this in turn who incur a further fee structure for operators: namely: “the licensee shall pay the license fee based on gross revenue at the rate of 4 percent on the gross revenue resulting from the play of players located in such other jurisdictions.” Nevada Gaming Commission has the power to adopt regulations in amendment to the provisions of the act, on or before 31 December, 2011.

It is believed that the legislation is aimed to aid Nevada casinos after losing a record $3.4 billion last year.

John Racener

John Racener, the runner-up in last year’s WSOP Main Event, has revealed more details and also retracted some of the more personal aspects of an alleged cheating scandal that surrounds Sorel Mizzi in a telephone interview released  by Marco Valerio of QuadJacks.com.

The incident first came to light after PokerStars Caribbean Adventure held last January. Racener gave permission to Shaun Deeb, seemingly a one-man sounding board for scandals on forum central, TwoPlusTwo.com, to publish the story of the incident back then in January.

A poker challenge between Racener and Mizzi during their stay in the Bahamas provides the background for the tale and is best-described by Deeb’s forum post version of Racener’s primary material: “Sorel and John during PCA were doing lots of gambling towards the end of the trip Sorel says let’s play Chinese and says we should also play with a joker. They also did some weird scoring when whoever won most pts/hands every 10 hands the winner gets $5k, Sorel had tried to bump up the stakes a few times as well to might higher. So, they are rotating the deal and the dealer gets the 14th card in 1 of their hands.”

The post continued, “Racener has played a ton of live poker, so he tends to know procedure and what to look for. He notices Sorel’s shuffling is leaving the 2 bottom cards in place they haven’t moved from the deck. As he starts to deal, he notices the first card he deals himself is the bottom card of the deck. He keeps watching Sorel and once he’s done dealing, John says he’s going take the hand with 14 cards in it Sorel goes into a tantrum saying it’s his hand his deal. … John says I know what you were doing picks up the 14 card pile and shows the bottom card, which is the joker. He tells Sorel he’s not paying him whatever amount he’s down $5-$20k and that he’s a scumbag etc.”

Mizzi, a player with a reputation oft-blighted by cheating scandals, later responded to the thread and negated his perceived role as cheater. Further mud had been slung in the aftermath as Racener is alleged to have claimed that Mizzi had initially blamed the incident on the effects of prescription drugs he had been taking after a death in the family. Racener has more recently played down this aspect of the “debate” but has revealed details of other occasions on which he believes Mizzi had played unfairly or looked for an exaggerated advantage.

“Since this episode, (Mizzi) cryingly begged me over phone calls and text messaging not to say anything… I just had no interest in hiding this. For him to continue doing it to other people is just unfair.” Wrote Racener.

The new approach to online poker gives users the chance to play against the pros at arranged times and “places”. PPN gives its users the opportunity to select one pro as your home poker room from from 35 different professionals. That pro will then be your link to invitations to private games and special events. Joining the the PPN main site also gives you access to all 35 pros.

Six-time World Series Of Poker (WSOP) bracelet-winner, T.J. Cloutier, a member of the Poker Hall of Fame is PPN’s most famous contracted professional. Ha has career earnings of over $4 million. PPN’s other professionals include Jennifer Leigh, James Worth, Charlie Marchese, Josh Brikis, Michael Schuerpf, Vincent “Diamond8” Gabel, Kevin “Civell” Vandermissen, Jonathan Tamayo, actress Jennifer Elise Cox, Matias Gabrenja, Young Phan, Chris “Fox” Wallace, Jena Delk, and WSOP bracelet-winner Chris Reslock.

At the time of writing, Argentine Matias Gabrenja was the online pro. Gabrenja has lifetime winnings of $419,027.47 that include one title: the $10,300 NL Hold’em High Roller $2M guaranteed event of the WCOOP-10 in 2009.
“We are proud to team with Cake Poker Network, a proven world class organization, to bring this unique PPN experience to the poker world. We have currently signed top online pro players, as well as brick-and-mortar pros, to play at the PPN. The allure of playing against the world’s best online poker players has already been proven. At PPN, we make it easy to interact with the PPN pro players of your choice on your schedule and within your budget.” Commented Chuck Kidd, CEO of Poker Pros Network, in a press release,

PPN has reached into its feminine side and hired Women in Poker Hall of Fame members Barbara Enright and Marsha Waggoner. Enright and Waggoner were inducted into the Women in Poker Hall of fame in 2008 – the inaugural year for the ladies’ version of the institution,

Since losing the business brought in by Doyle Brunson’s onlie poker room, Doyle’s Room, the Cake Network is anxious to push this new point of sale. “We are very excited to have the Poker Pros Network and their pros join the Cake Network. They are a great partner for us, as they bring a strong brand and continue to expand our growing network of professional online poker players who strive for online poker excellence.”  Gushed the press release quote in the name of Cake’s Marketing Director, Andrew Turner.

Patrik Antonius

The 821 starters in the Main Event of the 2011 Aussie Millions at the Crown Casino in Melbourne, Australia, had been whittled down to only eight to decide this year’s final table.

American Randy Dorfman lead the pack at the start as the chip leader with a stack of 3,895,000 – approximately a quarter of the chips on the table.

The remaining gang of thieves at the final table includes three Englishmen in Chris Moorman, James Keys and actor Sam Razavi. They will take on a equivalent-sized team of Australians int the form of Jeff Rossiter, David Gorr and Michael Ryan.

The biggest name of the last eight was the first to be eliminated with Finn Patrick Antonius being expelled just at the time of writing to burst the eight-man bubble after only an hour. Limping-in with kings against two cute, I mean two Q-T pairs flopped by David Gorr has sent Antonius back to the hotel.

Thirty minutes later, with this blogger being sucked-in to the action, (albeit virtually thanks to some great online commentary all the way from the other side of world), the action sees Englishman Chris Moorman also going out after a risky all-in against now-chip leader James Keys. As Keys predicted in some pre-match video interviews, it is likely that a number of players will fall early on. Moorman held on though, and managed to double up.

There’ll be more to follow in a few hours as this game will surely go in to the early hours or even further down under. If we get a quick result, read back here later to see how it went down. There are $2 million dollars up for grabs for first place and that is certainly a reason to play aggressive but we all have to time our runs, a bluff can win it, as this year’s “Shuffle up and deal” local star, Joe Hachem, proved at the WSOP.

The advancement of the bill to the Senate floor is highly newsworthy after the recent arrest of five men for playing a home game in the town of Mount Pleasant, S.C. Such a bill would oust strict gambling laws that have banned home games with cards or dice for over 100 years. The recent case, heard in October 2010, found the men guilty of gambling for playing Texas Hold’em in a private residence.

John Pappas, executive director of the Poker Players Alliance, the player and aficionado watchdog for the poker indusrtry, commented through a press release: “We are encouraged by the Senate’s overwhelming vote to replace the antiquated law restricting South Carolina’s basic citizen’s rights to enjoy a friendly game of poker in their home. Though the debate is far from over, this step represents a significant opportunity for lawmakers to fix misguided legislation on behalf of the individual rights of their constituents.”

Attempting to prove that Texas Hold’em poker has the necessary elements to be considered a game of skill and not chance, potentially proving it not to be an act of gambling under S.C. law means the case has gone as far as the sending of an appeal to the State Supreme Court.

615 players participated in the event to create a prize pool that went over $120,000. The first- and second-place finishers made a pact and both took away around $24,000.

Soctt Ian has been an Online Team UB player for a number of years since getting a taste for poker in 2007, growing from a self-confessed terrible player: “[I had] no idea what I was doing. My first tournament win was mostly because I had amazing cards. My instinct was all I had.” Ian’s poker career began to spark after securing his spot in the 2007 Aruba Poker Classic by winning VH1′s Rock Stars of Poker charity Texas Hold’em tournament.

11-time World Series of Poker bracelet winner Phil Hellmuth and world poker champion Annie Duke spent a week with Ian in Aruba to teach him hot to truly play poker and hone his skills online.

Born in New York on New Year’s Eve in 1963, and a current resident of Los Angeles, Scott Ian has spent the better part of three decades as the guitarist for a little heavy metal band he formed in 1981 called Anthrax. As he toured the world entertaining his fans, a poker career was the last thing on Scott’s mind.

In 2010, UB.com sponsored Anthrax, the rock band that Ian formed in 1981, and their tour bus as it careened around the United States during September and October. The poker room gave away concert tickets to loyal players who completed certain tasks posted on the online poker room’s Wesbite on the day of each concert. For example, on the day of the New Orleans tour stop, players were asked to take a picture of the Anthrax website and a UB.com table together and post it to the UB wall on Facebook.

Paddy Power Poker today announces Paddy’s Cashpoint promotion, with unlimited cash awards available to players during March.  Players need to accumulate at least one hundred Paddy Points (player points) on 10 separate days during the promotion to earn a cash prize, while players who accumulate at least one Paddy Point on 10 days will gain entry into a $2,000 Freeroll.

The more Paddy Points earned during Paddy’s Cashpoint the better, with the size of the cash prize directly proportional to the amount of points accumulated and no limit placed on the maximum amount awarded.

The promotion runs from midnight on March 3rd through to midnight on March 31st, giving players a full 28 days to accumulate Paddy Points, earn a cash reward and gain entry to the freeroll tournament.

“We’re gonna break the bank on this one; during Paddy’s Cashpoint we are going to hand out more cash to our players than ever before”, said Paddy Power, Communications Manager for Paddy Power Poker.  “I’ve been busy loading up Paddy’s Cashpoint with crisp new bills, so there is no chance it will run out of cash this month; remember, the more you play, the more we pay!”

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