Tom “durrrr” Dwan up against Phil Hellmuth once again. There is love lost between these two poker players. This hand takes has a little different outcome than some of the other classic poker hands that they have played.

Nothing excites young poker fans more than an unknown player emerging from nowhere to take on the big guns.

The classic example of such a player is Phil Hellmuth, who was a new name for many when he became world champion in 1989.

But the rise of internet poker has added a new dimension to the journey of the challenger – complete anonymity, save for a screen name.

The daily grind

As soon as a new name sits down at the same online table as Phil Ivey, Patrik Antonius or one of the many other high-stakes pros, speculation begins as to his or her identity.

Occasionally it will emerge that the player in question is a regular in mid-stakes cash games who has decided to ‘take a shot’ at the big time.

Of course, such a decision is a huge gamble for most players, but they could do worse than taking a leaf out of Tom Dwan’s book.

Despite appearances, Tom Dwan is one of the most successful poker players around

Dwan, known online as ‘durrrr’, started out with a bankroll of $50 and played $6 tournaments to build this up to an amount which he could take to the cash tables.

He patiently decided to grind his way up the stakes, before taking on the big names only after attaining plenty of cash-game experience.

And look at him now. At just 23 years of age, durrrr is the newest member of Team Full Tilt, entitling him to a percentage of the lucrative Full Tilt Poker company and ensuring he will probably never have to worry about money again in his life.

But how much did you lose?

Dwan claims that he has never gone broke in all his time playing poker, despite reported seven-figure downswings, but who knows if the same can be said for some of the other youngsters who flirt with celebrity and poker immortality.

Within weeks of sitting down with $250,000 at a high-stakes online cash table, even a few days’ absence from the tables can lead to an online ‘superstar’ being ‘confirmed busto’ by the often-unforgiving Two Plus Two forums.

The latest to try their luck goes by the name of ‘Isildur1’, but who knows how long he (or she) will last before being replaced by another magnet for applause and abuse.

Online poker is a fickle business.

Danger is my middle name

It seems as though the gamble doesn’t pay off for a number of young pretenders, but the few who succeed are in line for huge rewards and even greater acclaim.

One prime example is Di ‘Urindanger’ Dang, who won the biggest pot in the history of online poker when his pocket aces defeated the pocket kings of none other than durrrr.

Di Dang (right) and his brother Hac (middle) are two online pros who have proven to be no flash in the pan

And many other online whizzkids have adapted their skills to the live game, with Matt Graham and Matt Hawrilenko winning bracelets at this year’s World Series of Poker and Joe Cada taking down the Main Event title.

With all these success stories, no wonder they keep coming back.

Young star Tom Dwan goes up against pokers bad boy Phil Hellmuth in a 100k$ pot.

So, after a marathon final table, the World Series of Poker 2009 has come to a close.

Congratulations to Joe Cada, who – at 21 – has become the youngest player to claim the world title.

But it was not easy for Cada to break Peter Eastgate’s record. He had to survive 17-and-a-half hours of play just to reach the final two.

And, despite holding a dominant lead over Darvin Moon after eliminating Antoine Saout in 3^rd, the pendulum swung back and forth over the 86 hands of heads-up play before Joe’s pocket nines held against Darvin’s queen-jack of diamonds.

World champion Joe Cada is mobbed by his team of supporters

It marked the end of a remarkable comeback for Cada, who was down to under 2.3 million in chips at one stage during the final table.

But the 21-year-old managed to fight back with a lot of nerve and a bit of luck to take the crown.

A long and winding road

In the lead-up to the final table, all the talk was of Phil Ivey, and whether he could reaffirm his tag as the best player in the world by taking the title.

It was not to be, however, as Moon got lucky when his ace-queen outdrew Ivey’s ace-king to send the Vegas pro packing in seventh place.

Phil Ivey hoped to be celebrating an eighth WSOP bracelet, but at 32 his chance will surely come again

Before Ivey’s exit, two other players had hit the rail after two very different aces-vs-kings encounters.

First out was James Akenhead. After having his chip-stack decimated when his kings ran into Kevin Schaffel’s aces, Cada finished him off to send the Londoner home $1.2million richer.

The next to follow was Schaffel himself. He looked to have put himself back in contention to win the event when he moved all-in with aces again and got a call from Eric Buchman’s kings.

But if the king on the flop wasn’t demoralising enough, Buchman made four of a kind on the turn to end the 52-year-old Floridian’s dream of Main Event success.

And then there were six

Following Ivey out of the door was Steve Begleiter. The former Bear Stearns exec was few people’s favourite to win after making some questionable plays en route to the November Nine, but he seemed to have improved his game after receiving coaching from multiple WPT champion Jonathan Little.

And ‘Begs’ was hugely unlucky in a hand against Saout, where he made a wonderful call on the flop with second pair against the Frenchman’s flush draw only for Saout to leave the New Yorker drawing dead after a third heart hit the turn.

To compound his ill-fortune, he got the last of his chips in with pocket queens against Moon’s ace-queen, but gt outdrawn once again.

Jeff Shulman was unable to emulate his father Barry's success, but he should be pleased with his performance

Next out the door was Jeff Shulman. The 34-year-old pro, who had finished 7th in 2000, didn’t really put a foot wrong throughout the final table. He played a patient game, no doubt influenced by the coaching of former world champion Phil Hellmuth, but it was not his day.

Shulman still managed to get his chips in with the best of it when his pocket sevens led against Saout’s ace-9, but a 9 on the flop ended his main event agonisingly short of the $8.5million first prize.

Crunch time

Eric Buchman must have thought the bracelet was his to lose after his elimination of Schaffel early on, and the New Yorker continued to bide his time and stay out of trouble throughout the early proceedings.

But he opened up his game when the tournament got four-handed, and lost a monster pot with ace-queen against Saout’s ace-king and exited soon after.

Yet again it was a questionable call from Moon which ended a player’s tournament, after the logger’s king-jack outdrew Buchman’s ace-five to send the 30-year-old back to New York with over $2.5million.

With three players left, Saout was most onlookers’ favourite to claim the crown, but two pivotal hands sent the chip-leader crashing out in third place. Who knows what would have happened if the Frenchman’s pocket queens had held against Cada’s pocket twos, or if his eights had held against Cada’s ace-king?

Antoine Saout probably deserved better than third place for his play

The final countdown

But in the end that coinflip ended Saout’s main event. He had turned an original stake of $50 into $3.5million, but still had cause to feel disappointed.

And his exit left Moon and Cada to fight it out for the bracelet. At the start of heads-up play Moon’s stack had barely deviated from the $58.93million with which he started the final table, while the chips of the other eight players had somehow all found their way to Cada.

Despite being less than half the age of his opponent, Cada’s greater experience of heads-up play (as well as his chip advantage) made him a strong favourite to defeat Moon, but it was far from easy.

The chip-lead swung back and forth over nearly three hours of play between the two rivals, but in the end Cada edged across the finish line and stepped into poker history.

A 21-year-old Michigan poker professional who chose cards over college won the World Series of Poker main event in Las Vegas early today, winning $8.55 million and becoming the youngest player to win the tournament in its 40-year history. 

Joe Cada of Shelby Township, Mich., turned over a pair of nines early after 46-year old Darvin Moon called his all-in wager with a suited queen-jack, setting up an about-even race for most of the chips on the table. 

But a board of two sevens, a king, an eight and a deuce didn’t connect with either player’s cards and gave Cada the win. 

“I ran really well and I never really thought this was possible,” Cada said. “It was one of those dreams and I’m thankful it came true.” 

The hand abruptly ended a final table that saw Moon, a logger from western Maryland, bounce back to a dominant chip lead after being down 2-1 in chips to start the night. 

“I knew if I could catch, I got him,” Moon said of the final hand. “I just took a shot.”

 Cada broke a record for the tournament’s youngest winner set last year by Peter Eastgate of Denmark. Cada is 340 days younger than Eastgate. 

The record was previously held for two decades by 11-time gold bracelet winner Phil Hellmuth, who posed for pictures with Cada after the win. 

When asked what’s next for him after reaching the pinnacle for poker so early in his career, Cada said: “To win it back-to-back.” 

Moon and Cada traded the lead several times in 88 hands spanning nearly three hours of play, with one 20-minute break. 

Moon won $5.18 million for second place. 

“I only play good when my back’s against the wall,” said Cada, who was nearly ousted from the tournament on Saturday when he held about 1 percent of the chips in play after 123 hands. 

The players traded chips atop a table with a stack of cash and a gold bracelet on its felt, and in front of nearly 1,500 screaming fans in a capacity crowd at the Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas. 

Their tug-of-war ended an epic tournament that began with 6,494 players in July. 

Unlike Cada, who said he regularly plays about a dozen tournaments at a time online or three at a time in heads-up cash games, Moon hasn’t played a single hand of online poker. He doesn’t even own a computer or have an e-mail address.

“We’re Cylons. And we have been from the start.”
- Chief Galen Tyrol (Crossroads, Part II)

I think I had a religious experience. The thing is, I’m not religious. Spiritual, yes, but just never responded to any specific doctrine of faith. So maybe it’s just ‘the lightbulb went off’, or ‘a switch goes off’. Though from the overwhelming testimony my mother has given me, I hardly think I’m a synthetically generated machine, or toaster.

For those of you who have been following me for some time, I’ve had a rough go of it for some time. Or at least to factor in my perspective, I’ve handled the challenges of my life less than admirably in the last little while. My poker game went right on tilt, I got into fights with my wife over nothing consequential, and I’ve been quite down, figuring I’ve gotten stuck in a dead-end situation, and beaten up over the futility of it. Pretty sad, huh?

Well, this week, something changed. I have absolutely no idea what. Or how. Or why. I just felt something suddenly change, while at work. Like a switch went off, and I stopped feeling so shitty. Like the world is about to open up for me. Very strange, yes? Odder even, it’s in conjunction with my Yankees winning the World Series. Oddly enough, the last time the Yankees won, everything in my life seemed on the rise at that time too.

I could spend loads of time analyzing why, but I feel it’s redundant. Why? I really feel that this change is a gift, something that should be used effectively. A reminder of why I’m here. And it’s not to mindfuck why changes of luck and fortune swing, but rather engage in film, photography and media based pursuits. So I’m going to take this time and run with it.

Though if this wave of fortune isn’t sign enough, this might clinch it for me. Spent most of yesterday relaxing (I know I have a great wave of positivity, but I still need some down time), and I was listening to Bluff Magazine’s feed of the 2009 WSOP Main Event final table, which had both Phil Hellmuth and Annie Duke providing colour commentary. Annie delved into her Twitter messages and read one aloud, mocking Phil Hellmuth as to how he has no fans [supposedly]. It was clever and funny. And I was immediately motivated to tweet this:

@realannieduke I’m proof there’s at least one Phil Hellmuth fan. There might even be five of us. Somewhere. Maybe.

I don’t know why, but I thought amongst the thousands of reply tweets Annie must get, I had a strange feeling she’d actually read this. This is quite against the grain as I’ve messaged The Jeff O’Neil Show ad naseum to virtually no reply (though they claim they reply to everything).

Well, to once again go against my expected grain, around 15 minutes later, Annie read my tweet aloud during the webcast. It was quite obvious she found it funny.

I repeat.

Annie Duke read my tweet aloud during the broadcast.

Wow. I was (okay, still am) estatic. I’ve worked with Hugh Jackman, Halle Berry, Ian McKellan, Isla Fisher, but it’s rare I get so excited over this. But I am.

A definite sign things are looking up in my life. And thanks Annie, you so made my day yesterday.

Interdum vos ut volvo ferrus six.

WHO & WHAT:   A host of top-ranked Major League Eaters, including #1-ranked Joey “Jaws” Chestnut, will meet at Martorano’s inside Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino for the first-ever Martorano’s Masters Meatball Eating Championship. The winner will be distinguished as a world meatball-eating champion and take home the lion’s share of a $3,000 total cash purse. 

Rich “The Locust” LeFevre, the 65-year old MLE legend and Henderson resident, will be coming out of retirement in hopes of claiming the inaugural Martorano’s Masters title.

Playboy cover model and new starlet of FANTASY at Luxor , Angelica Bridges, will also be representing Las Vegas in her competitive eating debut. Maxim recently named Bridges one of the “50 Sexiest Women in the World.”

Rounding out the field of eaters is poker legend Phil Hellmuth. His 2007 World Series of Poker win was his 11th career WSOP title. Having amassed an unsurpassed record 11 World Series of Poker championships, he will try his hand at becoming the Martorano’s Masters Meatball Eating Champion.

WHEN: Sunday, November 8—12:00 pm
WHERE: Martorano’s, on the 2nd floor of Masquerade Village at the Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino

It has been eight long years since a big name poker player could call himself world champion, when Ecuadorian pro Carlos Mortensen was victorious, but many feel that now is the best chance in a while for a top pro to take down the title.

After Carlos Mortensen's win in 2001, seven successive amateurs were crowned world champion

Sure, Peter Eastgate was a pro with a couple of impressive live cashes when he won it all last year, and Greg Raymer and Joe Hachem have since gone on to achieve great things in the game, but no one had really heard of them at the time.

It’s a different story now, however, with two of the bigger names in poker sitting across from each other on Saturday: Phil Ivey and Jeff Shulman.

Like father, like son?

Jeff Shulman (left) will hope to follow in his father Barry's footsteps and win a World Series bracelet

Some of you may be too young to remember it happening, but Shulman has been here before, reaching the final table in 2000 when he finished 7^th behind Chris ‘Jesus’ Ferguson and scooped a $146,700 prize for his efforts.

And the normally shy and reclusive editor of CardPlayer magazine has changed tack this year, putting his name in the news with his decision to hire former world champion Phil Hellmuth Jr. as his coach.

But neither this, nor his father Barry’s victory at the World Series of Poker Europe, have helped detract attention from Ivey, regarded by many as the best poker player in the world.

The 33-year-old Ivey has already won two WSOP bracelets this year, and this is his fourth top-30 finish in the Main Event since Mortensen’s win in 2001.

He is also a big player on the world tournament and cash game circuits. His brilliant reads and unique style have earned him over $12million in tournament earnings, while he regularly plays for hundreds of thousands of dollars at a time in the ‘big game’ in Bobby’s Room in Las Vegas.

Take a look at this clip for a great example of Ivey’s talent:

you see, there is a reason why he is the 3^rd-favourite with most bookmakers despite only holding just over 5% of the chips in play.

If there was no luck, I’d win every time

If either Ivey or Shulman takes home the gold bracelet at the end of the weekend, then it will potentially do a lot to silence some of poker’s critics.

Many of those opposed to the game see it as gambling and nothing more, grouping it together with games such as blackjack, roulette and craps.

But I hope you will agree that clips such as the one earlier in the thread demonstrate the great level of skill involved in playing poker at the highest level.

If someone like Darvin Moon wins the tournament, after admitting to getting lucky throughout, it will only add fuel to the critics’ fire.

But if either of these two is the last man standing then some may have to swallow their pride a little.

In an interview with Pokertube.com, Phil Hellmuth discusses the importance of managing your money as a poker player.

It comes as a surprise to me that such a big-name poker player has to cut himself off at some point. Hellmuth draws a line at a certain amount and when he loses enough money to get to that line then he starts to “respect” his money.

He says that he didn’t play in the $100,000 Full Tilt tournament. How does Phil Hellmuth not play in that tournament? He’s one of the biggest names in poker, yet he doesn’t fork out that “chump change” to play, I don’t get it.

But I believe that the “Poker Brat” is setting a good example for young poker players.

Most of us believe that we have to be a little crazy with our money in order to get our bankroll where we need it to be so we can make a profession out of the game.

But Hellmuth makes us realize that the way to do it is through smart money management. If you can’t afford to gamble the money, then don’t.

And if you play well and you don’t take “too many” chances, then your bankroll will slowly, yet steadily increase.

Last Friday was the inaugural Body Issue of “ESPN: The Magazine.“ The periodical profiles athletes and their “physiques” (you get the picture right?) But who did we not expect to see gracing the pages of this visual smorgasbord? Well… none other than the “Brat”, the “Prince”, the “Kid”, and Jennifer Harman! I’ll avoid all the obvious jokes and just say… I think it’s great!

Phil Hellmuth, Scotty Nguyen, Daniel Negreanu, and Jennifer Harman playing poker in the nude.

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Winning at poker is as much about skill as it is about luck

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I had not been to the local used bookstore in a while and since I leave for my first tournament of the season to-morrow I decided it was a good time to hit up the clearance section (no title was more than $2).

Scott Turow, editor.  The Best American Mystery Stories, 2006.

I am a sucker for this series.  I am also a Scott Turow fan.  Most law school graduates that write turn to legal writing, but he didn’t.  Of those, he is easily the best.  I am not a huge mystery fan, so much so that when my beloved Cold War fictions are placed in the mystery section I tend to find employees and lecture them as though I am an old man and they have some ability to care.  If it had not been in clearance then I would have never seen it and never have paid the money for it.

Iain Pears.  An Instance of the Fingerpost.

I remember this book being hot hot hot when I was working at Barnes & Noble.  A mystery (sigh) set in Victorian England (I think) and yet not a mystery but more a tour of theory and the history and thought.  Or so I remember one of my managers telling me as a reason why she thought I’d be perfect to read it.  Looking back, she wanted me to read it and review it for the Staff Recommendations section.  Maybe if it was free.  But, alas, modern businesses require their employees to spend their wages for their own marketing.

Ursula K. Le Guin.  The Eye of the Heron.

I have never read any Le Guin, but I am constantly coming across her name as an important literary figure.  And not just in science fiction circles.  I had never even heard of this book, but: 1. the author is important,  2. it is a tiny thing, I can get through something this size in less than a week, and 3. I have been on a science fiction kick lately.

Speaking of which, I am currently working on season 1 of Mad Men so I can see what all the hype is about.  Episode 4 and Draper is revealed to have been someone else before the war.  Now I am really intrigued as the story turns to be more inline with sci-fi circles than just a cultural criticism.  A TIRED cultural criticism, at that.

Duncan Heath & Judy Boreham.  Introducing Romanticism.

I am also a sucker for the precise genre.  Complex ideas simplified and then put into comic book form.  How can it not be worth a few bucks?

David Zane Mairowitz & Alain Korkos.  Introducing Camus.

I probably would not have bought this book had I not turned to the Camus chapter in the Sturrock book earlier to-day.  I am still not too sure that I care about him, but I am curious enough to drop a few bucks to find out.  And, it is also a precise book.  One of these days I will get some scratch together and commission my friends to write a precise pour moi.  Ursa can do some Spinoza.  I am not too sure what Nate would do, but I do not doubt I would learn something.

Philip Roth.  The Plot Against America.

Philip Roth.  Alternate history.  Philip Roth.  I almost bought this book several times when it was a hardcover on the bestseller list.  How this ever made it to the clearance rack I will never know.  I know Minnesotans read the wrong stuff, but this is ridiculous.

Phil Hellmuth, Jr.  Play Poker Like the Pros.

This is his serious book.  It was not on clearance, but I am curious to see what he has to say.  Poker writing fascinates me because the players are often engaging in some rather sophisticated communications theory without even knowing it.  The pain of reading these books is seeing them skate around methodologies and terminology.  They are almost quite there but I suspect there are editors or publishers delimiting the thought so the book remains available to the masses.  To the future poker writers out there: be brave, the audience will come along and appreciate it if the writing is good!

So, what’s been on my mind recently? Firstly my mid-month results, for which I’ll post graphs in the next entry. Not as good as I’d hoped but the latter half (2nd quarter) I feel was better for numerous reasons including a few extra patterns I’ve picked up on. Other things have included some wording in my mission statement. Namely the “innovation of my pursuits” part which is absolutely something I aspire to, part of my vision if you like. So, I’ve been reading up on how I can improve my profiling skills. As Phil Hellmuth puts it, “Reading your soul”. He may joke about it (or not!) but what if? Surely there is some truth in the gravity of that statement that belies it’s real importance. To that end, I’ve increased my exploration of pattern recognition techniques, understanding deception, micro-expressions, and systemizing these methods to make them usable in real world scenarios. Similar to Simon Bakers ‘The Mentalist’ but less dramatized and more attainable to us mere, non-Hollywood mortals. The very thought of that expertise gives me a warm, deviously sensational exuberance. I can almost hear a world domination-esque laugh coming on!

MUUUUHHAAAAHAAAA. (cough). Excuse me.

I have a little Forex (currency) trading experience and can see parallels between this skill set and what I deem a heightened intuition when applying psychological smarts. Most ‘astounding’ actions of people who are experts at what they do come from hard-wired practice, yet the general public see only the unusual brilliance and attribute such actions to ‘natural talent’. Mental acuity is undoubtedly the same, yet a little more ethereal, as there are ways to measure muscles & depths of physical acumen but not so much with the neurological sciences. I said in the previous post about trusting your feel which is relevant here also. As a result, my appetite for investing has been rekindled and I’ll be doing my best to find time to look at some financial data to make some moves with. As behavioural psychologist Dr. Paul Ekman notes, training novices to focus on ‘Hot-Spots’ of telling actions regarding facial expressions is a sound way to increase accuracy when detecting deception. Certainly the methodology is an effective starting point when building a habit in almost any field of study. Mine being the study of truth, by way of people, market, or any other value based system that catches my intellectual arousal.

See you later.

With the holiday over, the fireworks were confined to the inside of the Rio as Day 1c of the 2009 World Series of Poker Main Event drew the biggest field yet of the Day 1 flights. 1,697 players signed up for Day 1c, prompting tournament officials to shift the schedule to five levels on Days 1c and 1d, as opposed to the four levels played on Days 1a and 1b. Among the poker superstars taking the field on Day 1c were Scotty Nguyen, Jamie Gold, Dennis Phillips, Joe Hachem, Matt Savage, Daniel Negreanu, and John Juanda. Antonio “Magic Man” Tarver brought out the athletic star power, as the former light heavyweight champ took to the felt. At the close of play, Joe Cada led Day 1c survivors.

Phil Hellmuth made his customary Main Event grand entrance, coming in on a Roman sedan chair as multitudes of toga-wearing and body-painted models escorted the 11-time bracelet winner to his seat. Also in the field was “Miami” John Cernuto, who returned to WSOP action, after collapsing during a preliminary event this summer.

The larger field meant more big names busting out, and some of the early eliminations included David Saab, David “Chino” Rheem, Evelyn Ng, and Daniel Negreanu. Negreanu’s stay at the featured table was much shorter than he had hoped, as he was sent home well before dinner break. All the money went in on the    flop, and Negreanu opened   for two pair. He was in deep trouble when his opponent made the call and tabled   for the bigger two pair, and when the turn brought the  Negreanu was left with only two outs. The  on the river wasn’t one of them, and Kid Poker was finished.

Jamie Gold was another Day 1c casualty, busting later in the afternoon when he got it all in with   to an opponent’s pocket jacks. Gold missed the    flop entirely, and when the turn brought the  , he was drawing dead. Other Day 1c eliminations included John Caldwell, Al “Sugar Bear” Barbieri, and Annie Duke.

One thing players didn’t want to see at their table at any point during this WSOP was the trademark fedora of triple bracelet winner Jeff Lisandro. Lisandro’s winning ways continued all through Day 1c, as he racked up an impressive stack to finish the day among chip leaders. In an early pot, Lisandro checked his big blind to see the flop. Lisandro bet out and the small blind called. The   hit the turn, and both players checked. The small blind fired a bet when the   hit the river, and Lisandro quickly raised. After a moment’s hesitation the small blind called and showed   for eights full of aces. Lisandro tabled   for jacks full of eights, and scooped yet another big pot.

1983 Main Event champ Tom McEvoy won the Champions’ Invitational event earlier this summer, but couldn’t make it through the minefield of Day 1c. He made his exit after the dinner break and was soon joined on the rail by late eliminations Brandon Cantu, David Singer, and recent “Rumble Nowhere Near the Rio” winner, Liv Boeree.

Joe Cada

As play drew to a close, WSOP Media Director Nolan Dalla took a moment to recognize one player in particular who would move on to Day 2. Kent Senter was diagnosed in March with multiple myleoma, a rare cancer of the plasma cells, and given anywhere from six months to two years to live. Senter, a father of four, had always dreamed of playing in the WSOP Main Event, and with his diagnosis and the expensive treatments, that dream seemed unlikely to ever come true until Bluff Magazine publisher Eric Morris contacted PokerStars, who put up the USD 10,000 entry fee, so that Senter could live out his dream. Senter made it through Day 1c with a medium stack and received an ovation from the entire room when Dalla introduced him.

Joe Cada was the man sitting with the most chips when the final pot was pushed, his stack of 187,225 establishing him as the overall chip leader of all the Day 1 flights so far. Tyler Patterson, Sebastian Stier, and Chance Kornuth also finished with hefty stacks. Other notable Day 1c survivors included Phil Hellmuth, Joe Hachem, Terrence “Not Johnny” Chan, Marc Naalden, Justin Bonomo, Hevad Khan, Isabelle Mercier, Dennis Phillips, and Howard Lederer.

The latest amusing anecdote comes straight from the WSOP in Las Vegas. It is about the no-limit Texas Hold ‘em champion, Phil Hellmuth who

Phillip J. Hellmuth AKA “Poker Brat”

dressed up as Julius Caesar and paraded through the entrance to the World Series of Poker last Sunday. He arrived in a car outside the Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas, and was accompanied by dozens of women and trumpeters, which drove the fans into frenzy.

11-time gold bracelet winner Hellmuth had won the WSOP main event 20 years ago and now appears again at the event’s poker table. Female gladiators with body paint and muses carrying rose petals in bags accompanied him throughout. “When you dress as Caesar you actually feel more powerful. Kiss my ring!” Hellmuth’s said while speaking to the AP, and continued “Hail Caesar!”

The television cameras showed how Phil was rolled in, greeted Jeffrey Pollack, the World Series of Poker Commissioner, and then had a quick change into standard attire for the tournament start.

During last year’s WSOP, Hellmuth surprised everyone with his Gen. George S. Patton attire, and this year it’s Caesar, and so the guess is that this annual dress up will become a tradition. “It’s a kind of fun. I think it’s great for poker” were his words.

Compared to Hellmuth, the other players had everyday attire without a bombastic entry but some players did have some gimmicks up their sleeve during the tournament of 2008, trying to draw attention to themselves and may be distract competition. Such as last year’s number three, Dennis Phillips, who won USD 4.5 million at the series’ final table and had a dozen supporters dressed in a white collared shirt and a St. Louis Cardinals hat.

Meanwhile, the WSOP sell-outs are looking great this year with almost 1,700 players entering this year’s tournament last Sunday. Many are expecting a bigger sale by today, one to reach a record of 2,600 players. In fact, July 6 is the last day and entries to the tournament are accepted with hopefuls guessing on an additional 800 new tournament applicants. Last year it was the turn of Peter Eastgate to win the event with a prize of USD 9.15 million. Eastgate had entered the event through a USD 10,000 buy-in tournament contested by another 6,844 players.

O Phil Hellmuth έκανε ακόμα μια  εμφάνιση στο Main Event του WSOP 2009 για την οποία τα σχόλια είναι περιττά! (διαβάστε το άρθρο εδώ)

According to Lex Veldhuis, today’s $5,000 No Limit Hold’em shootout might as well be a different sport. The game is so different from a

Lex Veldhuis

standard NLHE tournament that the Dutch pro says, “comparing it to a No Limit Hold’em tournament is like comparing Texas Hold’em to Omaha.”  The key difference, Veldhuis says, is the table draw.

In a shootout format, players compete in a series of single-table tournaments, with the winner of each table advancing to the next round. The WSOP’s $5k event features three rounds in total, with the starting field slated to be distilled to a five-handed final table by Day 3.

Since players don’t move tables as in a normal tournament, avoiding the big name pros and SNG icons while registering can be key. “Your table matters more in a tournament like this,” Veldhuis told to leading online site. “It’s so much more important.” Beyond table draw, which is uncontrollable, the pros point to the importance of adaptability as a key to success.

“I noticed in this tournament a lot of people were going wild preflop, so I’m sitting back and waiting for hands,” said 2007 WSOP bracelet winner Ryan Young. “At the same time, people have been noticing that I’m playing tight so I’ve been able to get away with a couple of big bluffs.”

Veldhuis, meanwhile, took the opposite tack on his Day 1 table. “You have to adjust for going from full-ring to shorthanded play,” he said. “I try to pick on people who switch gears too late. “I try to double my stack early by putting pressure on people who are playing too tight. If I get to four-handed play I usually have the chip lead.

“I’ve made plenty of blow-ups with eight or nine people left too,” he said. “But it’s all about pressure.” Young told that he found the shootout format easier than a normal freezeout-format tournament. “I like it,” he said. “You’ve got to know how to play from ten players down to heads-up. For every player that you lose it’s a different game. “It’s also good because you’re at the same table the whole time, so you can adapt to the players’ different strategies.”

In Day 1 action, Veldhuis emerged victorious at a table that included Philippe Rouas and Jerrod Ankenman. He’ll return to action on Monday for Round 2 guaranteed $16,740 in prize money. Also advancing to the second round were Phil Ivey, Davidi Kitai, Danny Wong and Joe Serock.

A total of 280 players bought-in to the Shootout event, including poker icons Ivey, Phil Hellmuth, Jennifer Harman and Chris “Jesus” Ferguson. Hellmuth was eliminated after a sometimes testy heads-up battle with Andrea Bonelli, while Ferguson, J.C. Tran, Isaac Baron and Jonathan Little also numbered among the eliminated.

Move over, “Titanic,” there’s a new sheriff in town. Hollywood heartthrob Leonardo DiCaprio will star in an untitled film about internet

Leonardo DiCaprio

gambling outfits in Costa Rica, according to the Hollywood Reporter and Entertainment Weekly.

The screenplay will be written by Brian Koppelman and David Levien, who both served in the same capacity in the 1998 film “Rounders,” which drew many of today’s poker prodigies to the game. According to the Internet Movie Database (IMDB), “Rounders” marked the first official writing credits for Koppelman and Levien. The duo has also teamed up with DiCaprio to bring “Beat the Reaper” to the big screen. The film, which will be released next year, has the following plot according to IMDB: “ER doctor Peter Brown’s life is turned upside down when he crosses paths with a mobster who appears to know him from his former life as a hitman.”

No release date has been given for DiCaprio’s online poker movie. An article on MTV.com noted that DiCaprio’s plate is quite full: “DiCaprio has an enormous list of films in pre-production. For the time being, at least, he’ll be working on Christopher Nolan’s ‘Inception.’ Whenever he’s finished with that, he will probably have developed five more projects.” IMDB notes that DiCaprio has 21 films in development.

Whether the film will focus on online poker, casinos, or sports betting remains to be seen and various websites pitch the movie in several different ways. Tokwiro-owned online poker rooms Ultimate Bet and Absolute Poker are both based in San Jose, the Central American country’s capital city. A report by CBS News program “60 Minutes” identified the offices of the sites as being located in a “strip mall.” Both Ultimate Bet and Absolute Poker comprise the CEREUS Network, which was formed in November.

Action Poker, the flagship site of the network of the same name, has offices in Costa Rica. Joining the site in the tropical nation is Doyle’s Room, which opened the 2009 calendar year by jumping to the USA-friendly Cake Poker Network. Ten-time World Series of Poker (WSOP) bracelet winner Doyle Brunson, whose “Texas Dolly” moniker has made him one of the industry’s foremost faces, is the site’s namesake. Also holding a presence in Costa Rica is PokerStars, the world’s largest online poker site. According to PokerScout.com, which ranks online poker site traffic, PokerStars has a seven-day running average of 22,000 cash game players. It happily accepts customers from the United States.

“Rounders” starred Edward Norton and Matt Damon. The movie was released five years before Chris Moneymaker became a household after the Tennessee accountant defeated Sammy Farha in the 2003 WSOP Main Event. Since then, Koppelman and Levien have kept their love for poker alive, teaming up for ESPN’s short-lived series “Tilt,” which starred Michael Madsen as Don “The Matador” Everest. “Tilt” premiered in 2005, ran for one season, and featured appearances by poker superstars including Phil Hellmuth, Daniel Negreanu, Erik Seidel, and T.J. Cloutier. Negreanu is fresh off a cameo in “X-Men Origins: Wolverine.”

Finally, Koppelman and Levien wrote “Oceans Thirteen,” which came out in 2007. It was the third installment of the franchise, which stars Damon, Brad Pitt, George Clooney, Andy Garcia, and Julia Roberts. “Oceans Thirteen” returned to its roots in Las Vegas as the team sought revenge on casino owner Willy Blank (played by Al Pacino). The movie also stars Don Cheadle, who founded Ante Up for Africa along with Norman Epstein and “Celebrity Apprentice” runner-up Annie Duke.

Anyone see comedian Artie Lange takeover and destroy broadcaster Joe Buck’s new HBO show a few days ago? Joe Buck seemed to have forgotten that HBO is LIVE and CABLE. Artie went exponential Artie, and Buck suddenly looked like someone over their skis, and naked.

Here

Here

Some video here (HBO, Buck’s lawyers removed the earlier material from the web, but here is a bit still online, and very Artie Lange, as in purposely offensive)

Artie, kicking it…

Afterward, Job Buck acts all disingenuous, all self-righteous, claiming Artie wrecked his opening show, blah, blah, as if he didn’t know Artie Lange’s humor, that Artie is a PERSONA, dumb-ass, a heroin addict homophobic fat guy drunk, another in the long line of “slob as out-sized outsider” comedians [fill in obese comedian who uses their image as material here].

[Fill in the ones who bought so much into their image they couldn't separate id and ego/superego, and died young here]

And HBO sports executive Ross Greenburg is clearly full of shit. He says:

“Frankly, we were stunned.”

And

“I think most people realized we were blindsided.”

Right…LISTEN:

Artie has made millions (and lost millions) being Artie. And if you book him on your HBO show, he will arrive as Artie. Just like Marilyn Manson will arrive in his persona (vampire/Goth/whatever) and David Letterman will arrive in his (Ah shucks, I’m just a Midwestern middle American, d-uh) and on and on.

Both will arrive via limo, BTW…

And so–assuming Buck isn’t playing me right now, and wasn’t in on the whole thing–how does Joe Buck’s awkwardness during Artie’s rants, then sad and phony “shock” afterward at Artie’s behavior relate to lit mags?

Good question.

One of the last class sessions of every semester I hold a “How to Get published” class. This is an opportunity for the students to gain some insights I’ve gleamed from years of this funny, funny world of publishing. I have many tips, and naturally, the best thing to do is revise/revise/revise and have a quality piece of writing, but there are also other things.

Persona Dennis Rodman kicking it in my office…

My number one tip: KNOW YOUR MAGAZINE.

If you are going to “book” a magazine for your show (submission), then know something about the magazine. If you don’t you are going to get rejected, rightly so, like when Artie Lange looks right at Joe Buck and says, “Your show sucks. You should have stuck to broadcasting.”

Read the magazine. Several issues. Visit the magazine’s website. Look at the authors in the magazine. Read the contributor notes. Read every piece in the magazine. If you don’t like the magazine’s content, why in the hell are you sending your work there? Look at the language, structure, themes, tone. Look at the cover. The spine. Does the paper smell good? Sniff the magazine. (Online–just press your nose to the screen)

Is this excellent magazine like this excellent magazine??

Uh, no.

When I worked at Black Warrior Review, we would get thousands of poems. All types and shapes and skiing with brothers. So maybe one day a packet of Christian poetry arrives, rhyming evangelical work….

Is there anything wrong with that work? No. Plenty of magazines out there would adore and publish the poems.

NOT BWR!!

Obviously, the poet had not even read our magazine. That’s an insult to itself.

A few years back, writers would have to subscribe to every lit mag, or find them in the library. Not all writers had the cash to do this, or if they had the cash, they spent it on weed or veggie corn dogs or palm readers or golden dragon charms or loutish crowd activities, etc. . No worries now. Almost any magazine (and obviously online ones) have a web presence, with excerpts, with opportunities and images and words to get to know the magazine.

BTW, you should subscribe now to what you can afford. If you don’t support lit mags, as a writer, who will?

Artie Lange?

Uh, no.

On the same subject, Kyle Minor told a funny story a while back. He was visiting BSU, and we had him meet with some students and one of them asked, “How do I get published?”

Kyle told the students about the years he spent sending stories in and all his rejections, the usual writer/rejection path of badness/goodness. But then he told a hilarious story about editors not only rejecting him with the usual canned form letters, but then adding in handwriting “Never send here again” or “This story is so bad, you should quit writing.”

I have no idea if Kyle was using hyperbole, but it was a funny story.

The point of the story was that one year Kyle broke through; he started publishing. Consistently. Why? Well, obviously, after years of honing his craft, he was a better writer.

But he said this: “I started putting conflict in the first sentence, on the first page. That was the difference.”

If you read Any Kyle Minor, you will know this is true. His stories start hot, then turn up the heat. And you should also know most editors read your FIRST PAGE, then nothing more (I don’t blame them. They have, uh, lives, and more submissions than you would know.)….unless you give them a reason to read more, as in conflict.

Throw a fit.

Arrive late.

Dress in black…

Blow something up.

Persona Phil Hellmuth kicking it in my office…

S