Jordan Crawford dunk over Lebron James

I thought they destroyed all the videos of Lebron James getting dunked on, but it looks like someone smuggled out a copy. The guys at Nike didn't want this video to get out because they thought it would ruin King James' reputation. All they did was cause a big hoopla about it and brought more attention to the situation. If they would've just let the video out, it wouldn't be that big of a deal. After watching the video, it wasn't even that big of a deal. It wasn't like Jordan Crawford served up a facial to Lebron.

My Son’s Gamble: By LUCY FERRISS

Here's a great article published in the New York Times. It's a bit lengthy, but a very nice read. It talks about the mindset of online poker addicts -- how the normal human being cannot imagine what goes on in their heads. It also brings attention to the UIGEA or Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act, which is great, considering this is a national newspaper column.

I don't play online poker that often anymore, but during the hay-day, I could spend all night playing online poker. If they had online poker when I was in college, this could have been my story. I could've been the guy who spent all night play poker and eventually doing it for a living. I imagine that there are thousands of "Dan's" out there today who have very similar stories. Here's an excerpt from the column by Lucy Ferriss:

“And in life, I don’t wonder if I have two aces,” he agrees. “But the deeper processes apply. Like, what do I want this person to do, or what am I going to do because they’re thinking this or that? When I’m dealing in real life with something I want to accomplish, I focus on what the other person’s thinking and try to react positively to get what I want. Plus my whole outlook has matured. I keep better control of my emotions. I know how to combine factors to make the most levelheaded decision. That’s what life is, isn’t it? Using pros and cons to make the best decision you can?”

Well, no, I think. That isn’t life. Life is more than winning, more than manipulating others. I remember another opinion Dan has ventured — that young men find poker more exciting and successful than young women because women think, Do I have cards that can win? whereas men think, How can I get this person to think I have the best cards? Not knowing anything about my cards, I step onto land-mined turf. What about relationships? I ask Dan. What about people you care about, people you don’t want to beat?

He thinks a minute. Then he says: “Playing poker does help you focus more on what other people might need from you. You might not be right all the time, but that’s where your thought process goes. If you care about someone else’s goal, then you can help them.”

"durrrr" Challenge update: A Marathon Session

Pokernews has a great recap of the Durrrr Challenge. Dwan plays in the highest limit online poker games and he usually plays multiple high limit tables against multiple opponents. Here's a brief recap of one of the biggest hands between Tom Durrrr Dwan and Patrik Antonius. To read more about Durrrr's night, check out the post from Pokernews.

"If you thought that pot was huge, the one that unfolded only minutes later was even more of a monster, at over 1000 BB. Sitting on a $204,000 stack, Antonius opened for $1,200 from the button, Dwan, with over $310,000 behind, three-bet to $3,600, and Antonius called. Dwan led out for $4,800 on the {9-Clubs}{8-Diamonds}{2-Diamonds} flop, Antonius raised to $21,600 and Dwan called. The turn fell the {5-Spades} and Dwan checked. After a bit of a think, Antonius settled on a bet of $50,400. Dwan came over the top, re-potting to $201,600 and Antonius called all in for $128,597. Dwan held {8-Hearts}{7-Hearts}{7-Clubs}{6-Spades} for a nine-high straight while Antonius needed the board to pair on the river with {A-Diamonds}{10-Hearts}{9-Spades}{9-Hearts} for a set of nines. The {10-Clubs}, however, fell on the river, Dwan improving to a ten-high straight and earning the $408,394 pot in the process."

Leo DiCaprio's New Online Gambling Concern

This could be a good follow up to the movie Rounders. There have been many poker movies in the past few years that just couldn't compare to Rounders. However, if Leo DiCaprio is in it, you can bet that it's going to be a decent movie. I'm particularly interested in this movie because I know folks from the poker world down in Costa Rica. Some are hiding from the US government and some are just making money from poker down there. Hopefully this movie sheds some new light how they are living large down there.

Leo DiCaprio's New Online Gambling Concern - Yahoo! News:
"Erik Pedersen Erik Pedersen – Tue Jun 16, 10:28 am ET

Los Angeles (E! Online) – As celebrities go, Leonardo DiCaprio seems a safe bet.

So while you're still shuddering over the scary Shutter Island trailer, Variety reports that DiCaprio has doubled down to produce and star in a new project: a film about online casinos based in Costa Rica.

OK, maybe online gamblers—often unfairly characterized as PJs-wearing shlubs tapping away at their PCs—don't sound as sexy as the guys in Oceans Eleven. But with Leo and the writing team behind Rounders and—hello!—Ocean's Thirteen, the odds look good on this one."

150 seats to the WSOP Main Event

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‘durrrr Challenge’ Update: Antonius Up by Nearly a Half Million | PokerNews.com

‘durrrr Challenge’ Update: Antonius Up by Nearly a Half Million | PokerNews.com: "It took less than an hour of play for the “durrrr Challenge” to take its biggest turn to date. Patrik Antonius booked a $328,406 win over Tom “durrrr” Dwan to take the lead in the $200/400 heads-up pot-limit Omaha match, by a $488,133 margin."

This is a good battle between two very good live players. "Durrrr" Dwan still has about 37,000 hands to make his comeback.

Lawmakers Bet on Internet Gambling Legislation - Presidential Politics | Political News - FOXNews.com

Lawmakers Bet on Internet Gambling Legislation - Presidential Politics | Political News - FOXNews.com: "Reps. Barney Frank, D-Mass., chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, and Peter King, R-N.Y., unveiled legislation Wednesday that would enable Americans to legally gamble online."

Barney Frank is the chairman of the House Financial Services Committee. His dirty hands was all over the financial meltdown but you have to praise him for trying to pass this legislation.

High Stakes Poker

I finally had a chance to catch up on some old High Stakes Poker episodes. This season appears to be somewhat different than the past seasons. They brought in some new online internet pros like Tom "Durrrr" Dwan, the young WSOP winner, Peter Eastgate, and "Zig" Sahamies - some Finnish poker pro. Dwan is clearly one of the better players at the table even with the likes of Doyle, Kid Poker and Barry Greenstein. Without Dwan, there really wouldn't be a season 5. He brings action to the table and he is not afraid to dump $100k into the pot. On the other hand, you can tell Eastgate is not a great cash game player. He looks scared at times. He is read easily by some of the other players and he seems to be afraid to lose his money. You can't sit at a $500/$1000 NL table with all pros and be afraid to lose your money. Most WSOP winners aren't great cash players but they got lucky on the way to winning the main event... ala Moneymaker, Gold, Raymer.

As for Zig, he's like the guy you want at your table. He would chase several hands and then lay it down on the river when he didn't hit his draw. He would put $20k, 30k 50k into the pot on a bluff and then take his foot off the pedal on the river and just check it down. He's a pro Pot Limit Ohama player but i think he needs a few lessons in NL hold'em.

Doyle Brunson has gotten tighter than ever. I think as you get older, you are not as loose and you just play smarter. Doyle probably has the most money of anyone at the table but when he laid down his pocket 10s after a $20k bet, i realized he's just there to win money. He's been through it all over the years and I don't blame him for just being there for the money.

Kid Poker, Daniel Negreanu, has just gotten worse and worse every season. He's constantly making bad plays, bad calls and just giving his money away. The hand in season 5, episode 3, where he lost to quad 4s was a very bad call. Benyamin hit his quads and took like $200k+ from Daniel. Not only is he making bad calls, but his etiquette at the table is terrible. He was called out by Gabe Kaplan after laughing when Eastgate accidentally put in a $25k chip. Eli Elezra picked up on it and bet like $140k... which led Eastgate to fold. That was $25k down the drain.

Anyways, I still believe this is the best poker show on TV. Some guys I enjoyed watching in the past seasons include Brian Townsend, Phil Laak, Hellmuth, Mike Matusow (for entertainment purposes only) and Farha. They have to bring some of those guys back.

Ultimate Bet Bad Beat Jackpot

Here was a typical hand from one of Ultimate Bet's Bad Beat Jackpot (BBJ) tables. You can read more about the Bad Beat jackpot at Ultimate Bet's website. It's a ongoing promotion that they run that awards players a portion of a jackpot when one player gets beat by quad 8s or better. Go to Ultimate Bet's webpage and read the qualifications carefully. I will tell you why later on. See the hand below:

Stage #1324603887: Holdem No Limit $0.50 - 2009-03-20 23:56:45 (ET)
Table: BATTLEFORD DR (Real Money) Seat #2 is the dealer
Seat 2 - OWPTOUR ($34.50 in chips)
Seat 3 - WUHAAA ($60.05 in chips)
Seat 4 - XMAN9 ($28.05 in chips)
Seat 5 - DANIELMARIO ($49.82 in chips)
Seat 6 - RELOADNGO ($57.82 in chips)
Seat 8 - MITZU ($32.55 in chips)
Seat 9 - THE_TAZZ ($51 in chips)
Seat 1 - ROCNRON ($17.50 in chips)
WUHAAA - Posts small blind $0.25
XMAN9 - Posts big blind $0.50
*** POCKET CARDS ***
Dealt to THE_TAZZ [10c 2s]
DANIELMARIO - Calls $0.50
RELOADNGO - Raises $2 to $2
MITZU - Folds
THE_TAZZ - Folds
ROCNRON - Folds
OWPTOUR - Folds
WUHAAA - Folds
XMAN9 - Folds
DANIELMARIO - Calls $1.50
*** FLOP *** [7c Qh Jh]
DANIELMARIO - Checks
RELOADNGO - Checks
*** TURN *** [7c Qh Jh] [10h]
DANIELMARIO - Checks
RELOADNGO - Checks
*** RIVER *** [7c Qh Jh 10h] [8c]
DANIELMARIO - Checks
RELOADNGO - Checks
*** SHOW DOWN ***
DANIELMARIO - Shows [9h 8h] (Straight flush, queen)
RELOADNGO - Shows [Kh Ah] (Royal flush)
RELOADNGO Collects $4.55 from main pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total Pot($4.75) | Rake ($0.20)
Board [7c Qh Jh 10h 8c]
Seat 1: ROCNRON Folded on the POCKET CARDS
Seat 2: OWPTOUR (dealer) Folded on the POCKET CARDS
Seat 3: WUHAAA (small blind) Folded on the POCKET CARDS
Seat 4: XMAN9 (big blind) Folded on the POCKET CARDS
Seat 5: DANIELMARIO HI:lost with Straight flush, queen [9h 8h - B:Qh,B:Jh,B:10h,P:9h,P:8h]
Seat 6: RELOADNGO won Total ($4.55) HI:($4.55) with Royal flush [Kh Ah - P:Ah,P:Kh,B:Qh,B:Jh,B:10h]
Seat 8: MITZU Folded on the POCKET CARDS
Seat 9: THE_TAZZ Folded on the POCKET CARDS

Now that you've read the hand and the Bad Beat Jackpot qualifications, what is it missing? At the time when these two players were in this hand, the BBJ was at $350,000. Yes, that's correct, $350K. DANIELMARIO missed out on approximately $114,000 and RELOADNGO lost out on $57,000. DANIELMARIO, who had a straight flush was beat by RELOADNGO, with a royal flush. He ended up taking home $4.55 from the pot.

Why did they miss out on the BBJ?

If you look at the hand above carefully, the total pot was only at $4.75. They were a $0.25 short of the jackpot qualified pot which is $5. If the pot does not get to $5, it does not qualify. DAGGER! Because these two donkeys didn't put another quarter into the pot, they each missed out on a lot of money. If you play at Ultimate Bet, make sure you check out the Bad Beat Jackpot tables. You can make some good coin.

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Good college prank at College Park Maryland

This is pretty funny stuff. It's cruel when 25,000+ people are in on a prank and you are the one being pranked. This was a prank put together by College Humor.

See more funny videos and funny pictures at CollegeHumor.

Beckham to stay at AC Milan until the end of the season

Milan, Galaxy near deal to let Becks stay in Italy - Soccer- nbcsports.msnbc.com: "Milan, Galaxy near deal to let Becks stay in Italy"

It looks like David Beckham is going to stay with AC Milan until the end of the Serie A season. He's going to miss at least the first 17 games of the MLS. This obviously will be a big blow to crowds attending LA Galaxy games. He draws a huge crowd whenever he plays so the MLS will be taking a hit.

When I watch him play with Milan and with Galaxy, it's like night and day. With Milan, it's like a true, world class team. With the LA Galaxy, it's more like playing on a JV practice squad.

High Stakes Poker Season 5 Episode 1 on Youtube

If were like me, you missed High Stakes Poker last night because you called Cox at 8:55pm and tried to order the GSN channel. I realized it was in one of those packages that I didn't have. I already pay $150+ for cable but I didn't have the Game Show Network. I turned to GSN and it said "If you want to order GSN, please call xxx-xxx-xxxx. I called the number at 8:55pm. I went through 5 minutes of automated prompts and got nowhere. Then I called back and kept saying "Agent, agent, agent, agent..." Apparently if you are going through prompts, keep saying "agent" or "customer service" and eventually you will reach someone with a pulse. I finally got some slumming CSR working on a Sunday night and she said, I can't help you. SHOCKER! She said "let me forward you to the billing department." I'm like, "I know and YOU know there's no one in that department on a Sunday night, so why would you forward me there." There was a 30 second pause. She said, "hold on one second. Ok, I checked and you're right, there's no one there." What a joke. She wanted to forward me to someone else and let me wait on hold for hours. I know bad customer service when I hear it.

I pleaded with her to give me access to no avail so I missed last nights episode. Luckily, I check YouTube today and the entire season 5 episode 1 is on there.

It's a 4 parter:

Part 1:


Part 2:


Part 3:


Part 4:

High Stakes Poker is back on the Game Show Network (GSN)

GSN: The Network For Games - watch. play. win.: "HIGH STAKES POKER™'s fifth season minimum buy-in of $200,000 is the largest for an entire run of a television series"

Don't sleep on the best poker show on television. High Stakes Poker is back on TV tonight at 9pm on The GSN (Game Show Network). Some of the usual suspects are back including Doyle, Eli Elezra, Kid Poker Negreanu, the Unabomber - Phil Laak and the magician, Esfandiari. Some new folks this year that I will be looking out for are Tom "Durrrrr" Dwan, Joe Hachem and the professor, Howard Lederer. Dwan is the online high stakes player that makes millions playing online. I'd be interested to see how he handles playing the pros in live poker. The last guy that did fairly well in high statkes poker was SBRugby aka Brian Townsend. He made the game interesting a few seasons ago. he played good poker and wasn't afraid to put big money in the pot. As I recall, he was the first to buy-in for one million dollars.

Howard Lederer will also be interesting since I consider him a fairly tight player. He's a smart player and it will be interesting to see how many hands he plays.

I always thought Joe Hachem was one of those true internet era WSOP winners. What I mean by that is that he's actually had great success in other tournaments after his win in the 2005 World Series of Poker. Some of the other donkeys who have won haven't done much after their win including Robert Varkonyi, Moneymaker, Raymer and Jamie Gold.

Make sure to tune in tonight as this is the best poker show on tv. Here's a clip from the biggest hand in High Stakes Poker history.

Matusow Admits Losing Millions to Hamilton on UltimateBet

Matusow Admits Losing Millions to Hamilton on UltimateBet - Poker News: "“Now I play so tight and solid and I’m afraid to pull the trigger because I’m always afraid of getting called because of the fact that every time I made those moves I got called by bottom pair or no pair and all that stuff while I was getting cheated out of all that money. With the mental aspect … it’s basically a lot of what my lawsuit is possibly going to be about.”"

It looks like Mike Matusow got duped big time by the infamous Russ Hamilton. He's the donkey that cheated tons of Ultimate Bet players by spying on their hole cards. Ultimate Bet paid some of the players back but it still caused a lot of harm to Ultimate Bet's business and to the players that got cheated. According to Matusow, now only did he get cheated in thousands of dollars but his poker skills were diminished at the same time. He's saying that his calls and reads were screwed up.

I have to agree with Matusow. If you catch a few bad beats and make a few bad calls, it can really set you back. Can you imagine getting cheated in all the big hands? It would really affect your game.

One thing I have to point out is that Matusow only comes out with this info at the same time he's promoting his new book. Why didn't he come out with this stuff when it happened, when they caught the cheat Russ Hamilton? So I wouldn't be surprised if he exaggerated some stuff.

Bernard Madoff Scammed Professional Poker Player

Bernard Madoff Scammed Professional Poker Player | Gambling911.com

News just came out that Lyle Berman, a known poker professional, was one of those unlucky ones who got scammed by Bernie Madoff. As you recall Madoff ran a ponzi scam that bilked an estimated $50 billion (BILLLION) from investors. These included many once wealthy individuals and many charities.

If you remember Lyle, he appeared on several episodes of WPT and also has won 3 WSOP bracelets. He's the co-owner of the Stratosphere Casino in Las Vegas and is also the co-founder of Grand Casinos and Lakes Entertainment.

ESPN to broadcast WSOP Europe

ESPN to broadcast WSOP Europe - Poker - ESPN: "ESPN's coverage of the World Series of Poker-Europe will debut on February 1 with the first four episodes beginning at 6 p.m. ET. There will be an encore presentation of the first two episodes on ESPN2 at 10 p.m."

Make sure to set your Tivo and DVRs for this one. This is the first time ESPN will be broadcasting the European event. It should be interesting seeing how different it is from WSOP Europe and WSOP USA. There should be some key differences including a smaller, cozier, playing area and the use of a mobile hole card camera. I'm surprised that the mobile webcam hasn't been introduced in the USA. First place is only $1.5 million while in the US, the winner of the last main event earned a little over $9 million.

Tournament play - Bad Beat

Recently I played in a sit and go tourney on Full Tilt Poker, about 75 players. It was down to about 16 players and I was in the middle of the pack somewhere. I was playing fairly tight with about 8000 chips behind me. The chip leader had around 30k chips. Here's how the dagger hand went down:

At this point of the tournament, there was a $50 ante and blinds were 50/100. So preflop, there's about $550 on the table. I was holding pocket 5s in the small blind. One player before me raises the pot to $300, I call the additional $250. Two other players between us are in the pot. The flop comes out at 3s 5h Jc. I hit my trips and I check the flop, and it goes back to the raiser. His stack is at $25000. he bets out 1500. I raised him to $3k. I'm laying out the sticks for him to fall right in. He pushes me all in. I call him instantly. He flips over Kh Jh. Jack high with a possible back door flush. I'm still feeling really good at this point with my trip 5's. Turn is a 8h. River is a Qh. I'm like, "oh shit". He hits his flush and I'm finished. I bust out in 16th place.

What a joke. I haven't played many sit 'n gos lately but this stuff happens all the time. When stuff like this happens, I feel like the online poker room just wants to move things along. I always feel like I played the hand 100% correct. I would probably play it like this every time. I'm sure some would disagree but those folks are usually the ones who give me all their money.

How much does Full Tilt Poker pay professional poker spokespeople?

Have you ever wondered how much poker pros get paid for representing the big online poker sites? I was always interested in what sites like Full Tilt Poker and PokerStars pay the poker pros. I've always noticed a few things. Poker pros seem to have tons of money. I could never figure out how some of these people play in million dollar games or how they can basically throw money away gambling. How much does Chris Moneymaker get paid for being the face of Pokerstars? Or how much does Phil Ivey make from Full Tilt poker? How much does Phil Hellmuth get for representing Ultimate Bet?

Anyways, I read this article recently in Poker News Daily and I couldn't believe what these guys get paid. My guess is that the poker pros have to appear in a few commercials, wear the gear during their public appearances and play a certain amount of hands online -- at the very low limit tables.

From this article, it appears that some pros for Full Tilt get paid 1% of the site's online revenues. According to the article, Full Tilt made $4 billion last year. You know what 1% of $4 BILLION is? That's $40 million for each of these poker pros. And Full Tilt has a lot of them like Phil Ivey, John Juanda, Howard Lederer, Erick Lindgren, Jennifer Harman, Gus Hansen and several others. They have a bunch of people on the payroll. Now I know how these guys can play in some of these high limit games. I don't care how good you are, but if you play like Gus Hansen, you are bound to be on the losing end in the long run.

I'm pretty sure Chris Moneymaker doesn't make that much from PokerStars. From what I've read, you can find him at the $2/5 NL Hold'em tables. Now that's slumming for a past WSOP winner.

Full Tilt Files Motion for Dismissal in Clonie Gowen Case: "After she was summarily dismissed from Full Tilt as a professional representative for the site on November 11th, Gowen filed the suit, seeking up to $40 million (the 1% of the estimated $4 billion that Full Tilt and its relative entities are worth, according to Gowen and her attorneys) in compensation."

Gnuf Casino - Cashback: Play Mon to Weds Risk-Free!

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High Stakes Poker Season 5 Will Premiere March 1

High Stakes Poker Will Premiere March 1: "“This is the real thing,” said Eskandani. “This is what poker is all about.”"

There was a lot of talk about High Stakes Poker not coming back. I always thought it would've been a big mistake since this is the show I tune in to watch every week. This past year, I didn't make the World Series of Poker or World Poker Tour, Must See TV. One show I always made an effort to watch was HSP on the GSN network. This show is where the pros play with their real money.

The first four seasons were great. You saw all the top guys in action like Doyle Brunson, Phil Ivey, Poker Brat Phil Hellmuth, Dan Negreanu, Brian Townsend, and Barry Greenstein, amongst many other great professional poker players.

Nevada Jacks Poker Chips

I've heard of Nevada Jacks poker chips before, but I've never actually seen or used them. Our competitor PokerSource.com offers them in their store. It's listed as the number 1 seller on their "Top 10 Free Poker Gifts" list.

Anyways, I was asked to review their chips, which I should be receiving soon. I can't tell you much about them right now, but I do know that they've received very good reviews from the various poker forums.

I will have a full review after I receive the Nevada Jacks Skulls 300 piece chip set.

Secret Santa Random Name Generator

Boogspace.com offers a free Secret Santa random name generator. It's pretty simple to use. All you have to do is enter your name, email address, then enter the names of all of the participants in the Secret Santa gift exchange. The name picker will automatically pick the names of your secret santas, and email the recipients their picks.



Boogspace.com is the "Ultimate Gift Exchange Website" for Secret Santa, Christmas, birthdays, Secret Santa, graduations, weddings, baby showers, Bar/Bat Mitzvahs, Hanukkah, housewarming parties, Yankee Swap, White Elephant, etc. Create your own groups, and never give or receive a bad present ever again!

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New England Patriots: The Bigger The Hands, The Larger The ... Wristband

New England Patriots: The Bigger The Hands, The Larger The ... Wristband

This is a funny image of the New England Patriot's back up QB, Kevin O'Connell.

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Brian Townsend "SBrugby" admits to playing under multiple accounts at FTP and Pokerstars

Brian “SBrugby” Townsend, a well respected Full Tilt red pro, has admitted to using multiple accounts on both PokerStars and Full Tilt. Full Tilt has already suspended Brian from Red Pro status over the next six months. PokerStars has yet to make a decision as to what course of action to take.

Brian Townsend, a CardRunners.com instructor and one of the most popular young internet poker pros around, admitted last week to playing under multiple accounts at both Full Tilt Poker and PokerStars. At PokerStars, he played under his most well known screen name, “aba20,” as well as “makersmark66.” At Full Tilt, he played under his own name, “Brian Townsend,” as well as “Stellarnebula.”

Townsend, who is a very well known poker pro, has had tremendous success playing online and in large cash games. He's appeared in High Stakes Poker and played well against some of the best cash players around. I thought he dominated at times and clearly showed that he had the stacks of high society to show for it. He always started with a million dollars and always had bricks of $100 bills in front of him.

It's hard to imagine why Townsend had to "cheat" to get by in online poker. He made his name by making tons of money playing online. I guess even the best players hit losing streaks while playing and needs something to mend the holes in their pockets. Multi-accounting is clearly outlawed in the terms of service for all of the major sites. It’s puzzling that he would even attempt this considering he has a lot more to lose than to gain from making such a dumb decision. To his credit Townsend did come out with an apology and alleges that he never used the accounts for collusion. Obviously that is up to those that play with him whether that is true or not. The following is a brief excerpt from Brians public apology:

“I hope that people can not only look to me for poker education but also for the way to live their lives. I made a mistake and I am willing to take responsibility for it. I am willing to stand up and face the music. I apologize to entire the online community. I will never partake in this type of activity in the future. This post should act as a full admission of my guilt, and I sincerely apologize to anyone that I’ve wronged.”

Pokerstars' WCOOP - World Championship of Online Poker

PokerStars’ seventh annual World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP) kicked off Friday with the first of thirty-three events, the $215 buy-in six-handed no-limit hold’em tournament. A gigantic field of 7,217 began play at 2:30pm ET, making the prize pool over $1.4 million. First place will win $212,179.81 and nobody at the final table will bow out with less than $23,686.20. All told, the 2008 WCOOP will hand out $30 million in guaranteed prize money, but if this first event is any indication, the total prize pool across all of the tournaments may easily eclipse that mark. Last year, PokerStars guaranteed $15,000,000 across twenty-three events, but the total prize pools soared to over $24,000,000. A player who goes by the screen name “ka$ino” won the Main Event and more than $1,378,330.50, the first prize to top the million dollar mark in WCOOP history.

If you are interested in making poker history and couldn't make it to the main event in Vegas, here's your chance.

PokerStars

Ultimate Bet and Absolute Poker combine into ONE

The management of the two most controversial online poker rooms, Absolute Poker and Ultimate Bet, announced Thursday that the sites will be joining forces in August, forming the Cereus poker network. These two sites have been downward spiraling for several years now after being on top for a short while. The deal have been in the works for over a year now and will remain separately branded.

A press release from the companies states that Cereus will instantly become the internet’s third largest poker network, although it is not known exactly how this number was determined. According to PokerScout.com, Cereus would barely rank in the top six for cash game traffic. Regardless of the rankings, however, there is no doubt that the combined network will have more player traffic than the two rooms have on their own.

Both Ultimate Bet and Absolute have been rocked by major cheating scandals over the last several months and because the cheaters were company insiders (although, according to both sites, the cheaters were not executives or primary owners), the sites have become pariahs in the online poker community. There has been talk about new management and the possibility of change, so hopefully this is the start of something positive for the two rooms and online poker in general. Said Chipleader Vice President of Affiliates, John Adams, in a communication to PocketFives.com, “Cereus…enables our company to improve our operations and deliver significantly better value, service and security to our customers and affiliates.”

Incentivized Poker Affiliate Program

Have a poker / sportsbook / gambling related website, blog, or forum?

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Earn up to $200 CPA per signup!

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Site	Default Commission	Boogster Affiliate Program
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	$75	$150 CPA
	10% Rev Share	$130 CPA

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Earn up to $200 CPA (Cost per acquisition) for each player that signs up through your links. The rates that we offer are much better than the standard rates that you'll get and the best thing is that you won't have to deal with a dozen different affiliate managers. We do all of the work for you. Click on the register button above to see all of our commission plans.

If you are interested in joining Boogster's Affiliate Program, then please visit boogster.com and fill out the registration form. We will evaluate your registration and respond back within 24-48 hours. Please, serious inquiries only. We will take into consideration the google page rank of your website along with the quality of the content and your potential to generate income.

Boogster.com - Bodog Tourney Saturday, August 15, 2008 @ 4:35PM ET - $327 Added!

• Where: Bodoglife.com - Boogster's $100k Qualifier


• Time: Saturday, August 15, 2008 @ 4:35PM ET


• Buy-in: $10 + $1 NL Hold'em


• Prize Pool: All Buy-ins + 3 free seats to the $100,000 guaranteed on Sunday at 4PM EST ($109 value)


• Password: boogst100k

Don't forget that we offer 9,000 boogster points for signing up to Bodog Poker. All you have to do is deposit a minimum of $20 and earn 400 bodog points. Click here if you are interested.

Boogster.com - Bodog Tourney Saturday, August 2nd @ 4:35PM ET - $327 Added!

• Where: Bodoglife.com - Boogster's $100k Qualifier


• Time: Every Saturday @ 4:35PM ET


• Buy-in: $10 + $1 NL Hold'em


• Prize Pool: All Buy-ins + 3 free seats to the $100,000 guaranteed on Sunday at 4PM EST ($109 value)


• Password: boogst100k

Don't forget that we offer 9,000 boogster points for signing up to Bodog Poker. All you have to do is deposit a minimum of $20 and earn 400 bodog points. Click here if you are interested.

Stinky poker player kicked out of the Borgata casino

This is no surprise to me at all. The Borgata in Atlantic City is my "home court" for LIVE poker and I've seen people there for 24+ hour sessions. These folks have no where to go. Most of them just drive up for the day and play until they lose their bankroll or they fall asleep. The Borgata should have a shower built into their poker room... sort of like those you see at the pool. That should help clean up the place.

If you've never been to the Borgata poker room, you should check it out. It's probably the largest on the east coast. There's good competition and always full of players. There's only one thing about it that bothers me - it's like 60 degrees in there. They keep that place like an ice box. You gotta go in with a parka and some earmuffs. It's great when the girls walk around but awful when you are trying to bluff at a pot.

Stinky poker player kicked out of the casino Michael Wax, a Brooklyn limousine company owner, has filed a complaint against the Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa in Atlantic City for kicking him out due to body odor. Wax, 54 years old and weighting in 440 pounds, is the first to admit that he stunk after playing poker for 17 hours at the Borgata Casino, but he did not think twice to file a complaint against the AC casino for kicking him out.

According to reports, Wax spent over 17 hours at the poker table and patrons began to complain about his body odor. The gambler asked the casino management for a free room to freshen up, after the long day of gambling, but the casino not only refused, but escorted Wax out of the gambling hall. Wax has since filed a formal complaint with the Casino Control Commission, which will be reviewed to determine whether any state gambling laws or regulations were violated."

Poker After Dark, Heads up Challenge

Don't miss Poker After Dark this week. The past four champions battle each other in a heads up double elimination tournament for $200,000. Each champ puts up $50k of their own money and they battle each other for winner takes all.

Competing are the 2005 winner Phil Hellmuth, 2006 champion Ted Forrest, 2007 victor Paul Wasicka, and 2008 champ Chris Ferguson. These four players are extremely well-known in the poker community, have huge fan bases, are among the top 31 live tournament money winners of all time, and possess extraordinary abilities to put their opponents on hands.

The match will begin airing on NBC late night Monday at 2:05 a.m., July 28, and will continue for five consecutive nights in the same time slot. A special program called the “Director’s Cut” will air late night Saturday, August 2, at 1:00 a.m., right after Saturday Night Live. This show will feature Leeann with a behind-the-scenes look at the week with highlights and insightful player interviews.

Viewers can also watch the match at www.nbcsports/msnbc.com/poker, which has recently undergone an upgrade that visitors are sure to enjoy. Be sure to bookmark this link and check back often for the latest updates on the players, including all those scheduled to play this season which are now posted with pictures.

My prediction is that Chris "Jesus" Ferguson will take the $200,000. He was runner up in the first two tournaments and won it this year. It's hard enough to make it past the first round but this guy made it to the finals 3 of the 4 years. He has a great read on people and no one seems to be able to read him. Wasicka has become a great player and is like a brick wall, but he's still a bit of a rookie amongst these four goliaths. Hellmuth will be great for TV and he has a great shot of winning this thing. But for some reason, he rarely seals the deal in these big events. My money is on Jesus.

WNBA Brawl between Candice Parker and Detroit Shock

There's not much news these days in sports so I'm posting something about the WNBA. Yes, there is such a basketball league. It's the woman's version of the NBA. Take a look at this brawl between rookie all-star Candice Parker and several members of the Detroit Shock.

A few things to look for:
1) Cheryl Ford going down with knee injury
2) Bad Boy Rick Mahorn shoves Lisa Leslie to the ground
3) the entire LA Sparks team attacking Rick Mahorn (but could only reach his shoulder)

Danica Patrick and Milka Duno argue in Pits

Danica and Milka argue in Pits

What is this world coming to? Two lady drivers fighting over driving. If you haven't seen this, take a look. It would've been much better if they were both fighting in bikinis though.

ESPN TV Shedule for the 2008 World Series of Poker

Below is the TV schedule for the 2008 WSOP. I'll definitely put the Aug. 19th H.O.R.S.E event on my schedule along with the $10,000 main event. I believe this will be the first time they broadcast the H.O.R.S.E event which is the premiere event amongst the poker professionals.

July 22 -- 8-10 p.m.
$10,000 pot-limit hold 'em

July 29 -- 8-10 p.m.
$1,500 no-limit hold 'em

Aug. 5 -- 8-10 p.m.
$5,000 mixed hold 'em

Aug. 12 -- 8-10 p.m.
$1,000 no-limit hold 'em with rebuys

Aug. 19 -- 8-10 p.m.
$50,000 HORSE

Aug. 26 -- 8-10 p.m.
$10,000 pot-limit Omaha

Sept. 2 -- 8-10 p.m.
$10,000 no-limit hold 'em main event

Sept. 9 to Oct. 28 -- 9-11 p.m.
$10,000 no-limit hold 'em main event

Nov. 4 -- 8-10 p.m.
WSOP main event final table preview show

Nov. 11 -- 9-11 p.m.
WSOP main event final table"

Phil Hellmuth eliminated from WSOP main event

Phil "Poker Brat" Hellmuth eliminated

Sunday, July 13, 2008

You gotta give it to Phil, lasting this long is a huge feat. Whenever he's in a big tournament, his head is on everyone's target the moment he arrives late and sits down. I mean, who wouldn't want to tell their buddy that he knocked out the poker brat from the WSOP main event? It's probably just one step down from actually the event itself.

Phil Hellmuth finishes in 45th place for his best result since finishing 27th in 2003.

Phil Hellmuth moved all-in from under the gun for $405,000. The action folded around to Andrew Rosskamm, who then made the call.

The final hand was a coin flip: Hellmuth flipped over Ah-Qd vs Rosskamm's Jh-Jc. Hellmuth got up and turned away from the table to talk to his wife. With the TV cameras in place, Hellmuth barely flinched when the Tournament Director announced the flop of Kd-4h-3h. Hellmuth was dejected, turned around and chants for the 10 of hearts came from his fans who wanted to make sure the river counted. Amazing, the 10h did spike on the turn, giving Hellmuth a flush draw, a gut-shot straight draw and two overcards. Hellmuth had a total of 16 outs and still had some life in the main event. The dealer turned over the river and the 2s is flipped over. Phil's tournament is over and the execs at ESPN were crying.

Hellmuth earned $154,400 for his 45th place finish.

You can say what you want about Phil, but he's one of the best tournament players of all time. Rarely does he make bad calls and his knack for reading other players are a rare skill. He still has eleven bracelets and I'd put money on it that he gets a few more before his time is up at the tables.

Bodog tourney this Saturday, July 12th at 4:35pm EDT. Password is boogst100k.

• Where: Bodoglife.com - Boogster's $100k Qualifier


• Time: Saturday, July 12th @ 4:35PM ET


• Buy-in: $10 + $1 NL Hold'em


• Prize Pool: All Buy-ins + 3 free seats to the $100,000 guaranteed on Sunday at 4PM EST ($109 value)


• Password: boogst100k

Boogster.com - Bodog Tourney Saturday, July 5th @ 4:35PM ET - $327 Added!

Happy July 4th! There were only 16 players in this tournament last week:

• Where: Bodoglife.com


• Time: Saturday, July 5th @ 4:35PM EST


• Buy-in: $10 + $1 NL Hold'em


• Prize Pool: All Buy-ins + 3 free seats to the $100,000 guaranteed on Sunday at 4PM EST ($109 value)


• Password: boogst100k

Our Bodog account rep is adding $327 ($109 x 3) to the prize pool in the form of tournaments credits to the $100k guaranteed on Sunday, so $327 overlay for this tournament. Only 16 players last week, so chances are pretty good of winning $109 tournament credit, so long as you place in the top three.



Don't forget that we're giving away 9,000 boogster points for signing up to Bodog Poker. If you or any of your friends don't have an account yet, now is the time to start it up! Good luck everyone!

Scotty Nguyen takes $50,000 HORSE WSOP event

Scotty Nguyen, one of the greatest tournament poker players of all time, took the most coveted event of the 2008 World Series of Poker. He took down the $50,000 H.O.R.S.E event and took home close to $2 million. The H.O.R.S.E. tournament is named after the late Chip Reese, who won the inaugural event. It's considered the most coveted, even more so than the Main event because it's mainly played by pros and it's $50,000 buy in weeds out the common folks, including those from online poker sites. The professional poker players consider this the top tournament because it requires skills in many different poker games, including Hold'em, Omaha, Stud, and Razz.

Scotty outplayed a star-studded final table beating out guys like Huck Seed, Matt Glantz, Erick Lindgren, Greenstein, Lyle Berman, Patrick Bueno, and Michael DeMichele. Scotty went heads up with Michael DeMichele holding onto a 4 to 1 chip lead. Scotty had 12,140,000 in chips and DeMichele had only 2,660,000. On the final hand, DeMichele raised pre-flop with A-3 and Nguyen quickly put him all in with his A-10. Scotty, said "It's going to be all over baby" and DeMichelle put all his chips in the pot. Scotty took the pot and it was game over.

"Keep the Michelob coming"

Bodog $10 + $1 Tournament on Saturday, June 28th at 4:35pm

Here are the details:

• Where: Bodoglife.com


• Time: Saturday, June 28th @ 4:35PM EST


• Buy-in: $10 + $1 NL Hold'em


• Prize Pool: All Buy-ins + 3 free seats to the $100,000 guaranteed on Sunday at 4PM EST ($109 value)


• Password: boogst100k

Basically, our Bodog account rep is adding $327 ($109 x 3) to the prize pool in the form of tournaments credits to the $100k guaranteed on Sunday.

Last time, we only had 14 players, so chances were pretty good of taking home a $109 tournament credit. That'll give you an entry into the big overlay Sunday $100k guaranteed. Winner of that tournament gets about $30,000 to $40,000.

World Series of Golf

I'm not sure if this will ever take off, but the first time I heard about it, I said no chance. Now that it's on CBS, it might have a slight chance. Full Tilt Poker is sponsored the 2nd annual World Series of Golf. There's a $10,000 entry fee in this tournament. Players make bets on each hole and the player who wins all the group's money, wins the round. Guys like Phil Gordon, Phil Ivey, Daniel Negreanu, and Chris Ferguson are all participating. Other stars participating are Ray Romano and Penn Jillette.

Darren Rovell's SportsBiz: Laker Vujacic’s Meaningless Shot Costs Bettors $100 million? - Sports Biz with Darren Rovell - CNBC.com

Darren Rovell's SportsBiz: Laker Vujacic’s Meaningless Shot Costs Bettors $100 million? - Sports Biz with Darren Rovell - CNBC.com

This is a little off topic but it talks about gambling. Anything related to gambling is related to poker. I remember that shot by Chris Duhon back in college. I think college kids have an excuse because they don't know better but if you are a professional player, you should never do something meaningless like this to affect bettors. Anyone remember Escobar's own goal for Columbia's national soccer team?

ESPN - Poker's Power 20 - Poker

ESPN - Poker's Power 20 - Poker

Here's a list of the power poker 20 put together by bluff magazine. In my opinion, there's no chance I'd put Chris Moneymaker on the list. He got lucky winning the WSOP and he's not a very good poker player. He's not even in my top 100. I know his win in the WSOP created the internet poker wave but he doesn't belong on this list. One big omission is the movie Rounders. At the time, most people didn't even know what Hold'em was but it's arguably the greater poker movie ever made. Other omissions include Johnny Chan and CardPlayer magazine. It's funny how Bluff made it but CardPlayer didn't.

Also, www.boogster.com should've been on there. They filled the online poker rooms by sending them tens of thousands of customers. :)

Don't Waste Time on Online Poker Lawmakers tell Treasury

Don't Waste Time on Online Poker Lawmakers tell Treasury
Fri, Apr 25th, 2008 @ 12:00am

A bipartisan group of House Financial Services Committee members have warned U.S. Treasury and Federal Reserve officials not to waste any more time trying to implement a ban on online poker and online gambling.

Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.), the chairman of the panel, along with Reps. Luis Gutierrez (D-Ill.), Ron Paul (R-Texas) and Pete King (R-N.Y.), sent a letter Tuesday to Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke requesting them not to waste any more time trying to implement the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA), because the house financial services committee hearing on 2 April "made it clear that the regulations are unworkable.".

As reported in Tuesday's edition of The Hill, which reports on legislative issues in Washington, DC, the letter says, "The regulations, like the underlying legislation, fail to define the term 'unlawful internet gambling', leaving it to each financial institution to reconcile conflicting state and federal laws, court decisions and inconsistent Department of Justice interpretations when determining whether to process a transaction."

The letter adds that at least some of the information would be "likely unavailable to banks because customers or financial institutions in foreign jurisdictions will likely be unwilling or unable to provide it."

"We believe it would be imprudent for you to devote additional agency resources to this Sisyphean task, especially as we intend to vigorously pursue legislation to prevent the implementation of these regulations," members said in the letter.

Referring to the legislation that Frank and Paul introduced to prohibit the implementation of the law's regulations, the letter concludes by urging readers to co-sponsor the prevention of UIGEA regulation implementation.

The letter was sent the same day that the Poker Players Alliance announced that its membership had reached 1 million. The group also announced the launch of a voter registration program and a political action committee.

Article originally published by The Hill authored by Susan Crabtree.

Calvin Ayre Leaves BODOG, MMA arm is finished

For those of you who know who Calvin Ayre is, it looks like he's resigning from Bodog. He's got tons of money and use to be a big name in the poker world. A few years back, he was wanted by US law just like the other sportsbetting CEOs. Those other CEOs were unlucky and got caught on flight layovers. Ayre was smart enough to stay in Costa Rica. My guess is that he waited for the dust to settle and that he's sick of life in Costa Rica and wants to come back to the United States. Although, I don't know if resigning from his company will make him immune from getting arrested.

- CALVIN AYRE LEAVES BODOG, MMA ARM FINISHED - MMA WEEKLY - Mixed Martial Arts & UFC News, Photos, Rankings & more: "Bodog on Monday announced the retirement of Calvin Ayre from the company. In recent years, Ayre served in large part as the face of the company and reportedly was not all that involved in the day-to-day operations.

“You’ve likely heard the rumblings and rumors… and for once…. it’s true… I’m packing it in! Well, who am I kidding?” said Ayre in a blog entry on his web site on Monday. “…I was really more of a brand ambassador for Bodog the past while anyway – but it was fun while it lasted.”

Operationally speaking, Ayre’s exodus is expected to have little effect on the company, which is now under the ownership of the Morris Mohawk Gaming Group based in Canada. The company is, however, undergoing a restructuring, returning its focus to gaming.

Although no official word has yet emerged from Bodog, most sources indicate that Bodog Fight – the arm of the company that was involved in sponsoring and promoting mixed martial arts events – is all but defunct.

One executive, when asked recently what Bodog Fight was currently working on, told MMAWeekly.com, “I’m sitting in an empty office.”"

ePassporte is done in the US --- similar to Neteller

ePassporte No Longer an option for Online Poker Transfers in US

In recent days, news has been traveling online that the third party broker, ePassporte, is out of business in the United States. ePassporte was a way for online players to transfer money back and forth to their poker operator without breaking the rules of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act. With the passing of this act players have found it extremely difficult to get money to their online operators and receive money since the UIGEA stops all money transactions from online gambling sites. A letter has been making its way around the online world that was written by ePassporte to online poker site Pitbull Poker. Gregory Elias from ePassporte states in the letter that Pitbull Poker’s account has been suspended and the agreement the Company had with ePassporte has been terminated. The letter goes on to state that they (ePassporte) does not believe that the transactions they receive and process are illegal but they are not going to take a chance with the US Government. Elias also says that the New York Office of the United States District Attorney is investigating the Company.

The termination happened on Friday April 11th at 1:00 PM PDT and the letter was signed by the Managing Director, Gregory Elias, and the United International Trust, NV Managing Director. It is really unclear of why ePassporte quickly exited the US market. It could be because the “just” found out about the investigation but I do not believe this is true. The Company had been handling Netellers ex-customers for a while so they had to know eventually something would be coming their way.

It could be other reasons but with the recent testimonies made by people from the Federal Reserve and the Treasury Department as well as the Banking sector that claimed their was a lack of definition of the UIGEA not to mention the movement being made by Barney Frank and other representatives that would overturn the UIGEA. Hopefully this whole mess will be resolved soon and all types of money transfers will be available for United States players to play on any internet gambling site.

Those who used ePassporte to deposit money into Full Tilt Poker will need to find other options. This could be a big hit to FTP's business. We'll have to wait and see what kind of hit it takes in the next few months.

Taj Poker Argument Results in Stabbing Death

From Pokernews.com:

April 07, 2008
Haley Hintze

An argument between two players in the Atlantic City Trump Taj Mahal Casino Resort poker room continued after the players left the game, escalating into violence in the nearby valet area outside the casino that left one of the players dead from a stabbing wound and the other player under arrest. Unofficial reports suggest that the argument started over a seat in a $1/2 no-limit game in the 70-table room at the Taj; the seat had been occupied by one player and then was given to the other when the first player departed momentarily to obtain more money.

The confrontation continued outside where one of the two players had gone for a break, with the stabbing incident, according to police reports, taking place at 2:46 pm on Saturday. The stabbing victim, who has yet to be named pending notification of kin by authorities, was pronounced dead at 4:05 pm at Atlantic City's AtlantiCare Medical Center.

Vicente (some reports list 'Vincente') Perez, 57, of Georgia, now faces three felony charges: aggravated manslaughter; unlawful possession of a weapon; and possession of a weapon for an unlawful purpose. Perez is now being held on $500,000 bond as the investigation into the incident continues.

Take a look at Eli Elezra's house

I just watched this on CardPlayer TV. It shows you the inside of Eli Elezra's house. It's sick. His house is over 10,000 square feet with 10 bedrooms and 9 baths. He's got a 74" TV and a special TV room that's built like one of those sportsbooks in Vegas. Or if you've seen Two for the Money, it's just like that. One big television in the center with 6 TVs all around it.

I've seen Eli on High Stakes poker and other tournaments but I never thought he was a great player. He was definitely a good player with big money but he was also aggressive and reckless at times. I guess when you have money, you can play like that but in my opinion he's an above average player, not in the same category as players like Hellmuth, Negraneau or Esfandiari. Although, I guarantee you he has more money than all those guys combined. Eli has over 20 retail businesses in Vegas and owns a night club in Vegas called Seven. So I don't think his house is from his poker winnings but from his business ventures.

Take a look at the video of his house here.

Phil Ivey Smashes "Seda1" On Full Tilt Poker; Wins At Least $600k

Phil Ivey Smashes "Seda1" On Full Tilt Poker; Wins At Least $600k: "Before today, Ivey was down approximately $473k in the high stakes NLHE games on FTP so far in February. 'seda1', an opponent he has tangled with quite regularly recently, was up approximately $220k. This was all about to change.

The two played a couple of sessions on Tuesday. Phil Ivey completely dominated, and when the game was over, he left with a stack of over $800k. He bought in for $200k total ($100k to start, $100k reload), and took the other $600k off of 'seda1'. The two were battling on their usual $500/$1000 'Ivey Deathmatch' Table on Full Tilt Poker."

Here's a recap from Poker King of Phil Ivey's high limit poker game against an online player by the name of "seda1".

If you want to sit down and battle with Ivey, sign up to Full Tilt Poker here.

Shawn Sheiky Sheikhan faces deportation

ReviewJournal.com - News - Iran immigrant faces deportation

You probably remember Shawn Sheikhan from WSOP 2005 or from his appearances on High Stakes Poker. He was the loud mouth who sparred with Mike the Mouth at the final table of the main event in WSOP 2005. He also appeared on NBC's Heads up championship and Poker After Dark. On TV, he's always a cocky son of a bitch but that's what makes him great for TV poker along with guys like Mike Matusow and Phil Hellmuth.

Gambling911.com has some additional details regarding his molestation case with underaged girls.

SI.com - The Models - 2008 Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Photo Gallery

SI.com - The Models - 2008 Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Photo Gallery

Those of you who haven't seen the new Sports Illustrated swimsuit edition, take a look online.

Bodog Poker Open Schedule

Below is the schedule for the upcoming Bodog Poker Open. These look like some reasonable tournaments - by reasonable, I mean it's affordable to the lower limit players (.50/1, 1/2, 2/4 NL). This is their inaugural tournament. This schedule of preliminary tournaments lead up to the series' championship, the $500 buy-in BPO Main Event, held on Sunday, March 9.

The tournament schedule for the BPO is as follows:

Date Event Type Buy-In Added
Mon., March 3 Event #1 No Limit $250 + 20 $10k
Tues., March 4 Event #2 No Limit 6-Handed $300 + 25 $10k
Wed., March 5 Event #3 Rebuy $100 + 10 $10k
Thurs., March 6 Event #4 Pot Limit $200 + 15 $10k
Fri., March 7 Event #5 Limit $150 + 10 $10k
Sat., March 8 N/A Satellite Day Various N/A
Sun., March 9 Event #6 Main Event (NL) $470 + 30 $25k

To sign up for Bodog Poker and enter this tournament, click here.

World Poker Tour Announces season 6 on GSN

(Los Angeles, CA) – Tuesday, February 12, 2008 – WPT Enterprises, Inc. and its new network partner, GSN, announced today the sixth season television schedule featuring 23 two-hour World Poker Tour® (WPT) episodes. The season premieres in its new timeslot on GSN Monday, March 24 at 9 PM ET/PT kicking off with the Mirage Poker Showdown.

The new season features three new tour stops, more than 20 new WPT Poker-Made Millionaires and new hostess, Layla Kayleigh. Making Monday nights the ultimate destination for poker entertainment, the WPT will follow GSN’s popular HIGH STAKES POKER “cash game” series.

“We couldn’t be more thrilled to have GSN as our partner and the new home of WPT,” said WPTE President, Founder and CEO, Steve Lipscomb. “GSN and WPT are dedicated to collectively broadening the poker experience for fans and viewers and cannot wait to kick off our best season yet.”

“The WPT is one of the strongest brands on television, and poker fans will enjoy the action every Monday night on GSN,” said Jamie Roberts, Senior Vice President of Programming, GSN. “With the popularity of our original cash game HIGH STAKES POKER and the WORLD POKER TOUR, there is no better place to watch poker on television.”

As the new home of the WPT, GSN will televise tournaments from the most prestigious casinos and locations around the world including Barcelona, Spain; Turks and Caicos Islands in the British West Indies; and Niagara Falls, Canada. The WPT schedule begins with two events from Las Vegas and continues to feature popular stops at The Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa in Atlantic City, Bellagio in Las Vegas, Commerce Casino in Los Angeles, Foxwoods Casino Resort in Mashantucket, Conn. and many others.

Returning for their sixth season is the popular announcing team of Mike Sexton and Vince Van Patten. Joining them this season is new hostess, Layla Kayleigh, who is making her poker debut and will be reporting from the sidelines with updates and player interviews. Layla has previously appeared on G4 and Fox Sports Net. WPT live update online hostess, Kimberly Lansing, will also make her debut on GSN providing a behind-the-scenes look at the tournament action that led up to the final tables.

Other highlights from the WPT on GSN this season include Barry Greenstein and contender for WPT Season VI Player of the Year, Jonathan Little, colliding at the final table of the North American Poker Classic, WPT Ladies Night following Mother’s Day in May, the Foxwoods World Poker Finals in June, the Doyle Brunson Five Diamond Poker Classic at the Bellagio, the popular WPT Celebrity Invitational at Commerce Casino in Los Angeles and the season ending WPT World Championship airing August 25.

The WPT on GSN will feature encore showings Monday nights at Midnight ET/PT and the following Sunday nights from 7 to 9 PM.

World Poker Tour Season VI Television Schedule

Date	Event
March 24, 2008	Mirage Poker Showdown
March 31, 2008	Bellagio Cup III – Part 1
April 7, 2008	Bellagio Cup III – Part 2
April 14, 2008	Legends of Poker
April 21, 2008	North American Poker Classic
April 28, 2008	Mandalay Bay Poker Championship
May 5, 2008	Borgata Poker Open
May 12, 2008	WPT Ladies Night V
May 19, 2008	Turks and Caicos Poker Classic
May 26, 2008	Gulf Coast Poker Championship
June 2, 2008	WPT Spanish Championship
June 9, 2008	Foxwoods World Poker Finals
June 16, 2008	Doyle Brunson Five Diamond Poker Classic
June 23, 2008	World Poker Open - Part 1
June 30, 2008	World Poker Open - Part 2
July 7, 2008	Borgata Poker Classic
July 14, 2008	L.A. Poker Classic
July 21, 2008	WPT Celebrity Invitational
July 28, 2008	Bay 101 Shooting Star
August 4, 2008	World Poker Challenge
August 11, 2008	Foxwoods Poker Classic
August 18, 2008	WPT Ladies Championship
August 25, 2008	WPT World Championship

Did I make the right play in 1/2NL?

I played a home game this past week. It's been a while since I've played a home game, probably 1 - 1.5 years. I definitely had some rusty moments. Not raising when I should have and giving others free looks at free cards when I'm ahead.

But I am certain I played this hand correctly. This hand caused about an hour of debate after the hand ended. Some thought it was the right play and some disagreed. This hand was the turning point of my entire night.

This was a 1/2 No Limit game with 8 players.

Here's how it went down:
Preflop: I am holding A9os. The player to my immediate right raises preflop to $8. I call. Two other players call. (pot $50 = $48+BB)

Flop: A-9-5 rainbow. Player to my right checks, I bet out $15. Player to my left calls. One guy folds. Player to my right check raises to $45. I just call the $30. Player to my left folds so it's just heads up now. Me and the aggressive player to my right. (pot $155)

My thought process after the Flop:
I have this guy right where I want him. I've got two pairs, As and 9s and I know for sure he doesn't have AA. With an $8 preflop raise, he's NOT holding AA or AK, but something like AQ or AJ.

Turn: K comes on the turn. A-9-5-K on the board. He checks to me. I have $88 behind me and I bet out $50. If my read is right, I have a 85%/15% advantage at this point and all I want to do is maximize my winnings. He calls me and reraises all in. I call. (pot: $331)

My thought process during the Turn:
My read hasn't changed. I still put him on AQ or AJ. No chance he has AA, AK or KK. I already have an Ace and I don't see him reraising the pot after the flop with either of those three hands. I figure that a $50 bet would get the call and I would push my remaining stack of $38 on the river (he would be priced in).

River: K comes on the river. A-9-5-K-K DAMN!. My two pairs now became worthless. I now have two pairs, Aces up with a 9 kicker. At this point, I knew I had lost it. He had 6 outs and he hit the River. He flips over AQ and takes down the $331 pot.

I still think I made the right move by betting $50 on the turn. I had a huge advantage and took my chances on winning more. My $50 bet enticed a call and it worked. I wanted to maximize the pot with the best hand. Every now and then it will backfire but I would take that 85/15 odds anytime.

Let me know your thoughts.

Annie Duke & Phil Hellmuth Poker show starts tonight

UltimateBet.net today announced that its much talked about reality poker series, Best Damn Poker Show, will begin airing on Monday, February 11th at 9pm, 11pm and 12:30am local time on Fox Sports Net. The ultimate poker reality series follows 18 poker players on two teams led by world poker champions Phil Hellmuth and Annie Duke as they battle it out over seven weeks. More than just money is at stake in this televised battle. Egos are on the line as the two poker pros try to prove who’s the better poker professor.

Despite the endless heads-up Texas Hold’em battles between Phil Hellmuth and Annie Duke at UltimateBet.net’s online poker tables, it’s unlikely that the age-old debate regarding which pro is the better poker player will ever be settled. Best Damn Poker Show aims to discover who can better teach the game and mold ordinary poker players into champions.

Online poker players at UltimateBet.net fought for a spot in the L.A. audition process by creating and submitting an audition video that demonstrated why they deserved to be on the innovative poker reality series. The online poker site also invited Texas Hold’em fans to take part in a series of qualifiers where spots in the televised audition process were up for grabs.

Phil Hellmuth and Annie Duke each handpick.



For more poker rooms, check out Boogster.com

The Canadian Press: 18-year-old from Waterloo, Ont., pockets $1.4-million poker jackpot

The Canadian Press: 18-year-old from Waterloo, Ont., pockets $1.4-million poker jackpot

The young pro - who is still sporting braces and hasn't finished his post-secondary schooling yet - has parlayed countless hours of playing poker online into two major payouts.

It's pretty amazing that an 18 year old Canadian kid can win a big tournament. This kid won $1.4 million in a European poker tournament. It's even more amazing considering you can't gamble legally in the United States until you are 21.

American poker player loses $30,000 win to mugger | The Australian

American poker player loses $30,000 win to mugger | The Australian: "A YOUNG American poker professional has been fleeced of $30,000 in cash - not playing high stakes cards inside Crown casino, but walking home."

Read more about Jason Potter here

The 2008 Borgata Poker Open is under way

[Press Release]ATLANTIC CITY, NJ (January 16, 2008) – The 2008 Borgata Winter Poker Open (WPO) kicked off yesterday with the start of Event #1, the $300 +$50 No-Limit Hold’em tournament. Building on the success of the last year’s event, which featured the biggest poker tournament in Atlantic City history, the 2008 WPO is set to break last year’s Championship Event record of 571 players and top the monstrous prize pool of $5.5 million.

In a unique twist to the traditional Borgata WPO-WPT Main Event first-place cash, Borgata has upped the ante of this year’s WPO Championship Tournament by giving the first-place winner a custom-built Harley Davidson Street Glide motorcycle from Harley-Davidson Millville/Wildwood.

Featuring a 17-day tournament, the Borgata WPO runs January 15 to 31, 2008, when it culminates with the Borgata Poker Classic, a WORLD POKER TOUR® (WPT) $10,000 buy-in Main Event. In addition to the 17 Main Event tournaments, this year’s WPO tournament features a new line-up of tournaments, created to give players more opportunities to get in on the action. Featuring 75 tournaments, including No-Limit Hold’em, Limit Hold’em, super satellites, and single table tournaments, this 2008 WPT event offers players plenty of action.

Enhancements to this year’s WPO include Borgata’s Modified Shoot-Out, which provides players with a chance to enjoy single-table play, while participating in a traditional tournament setting. The Borgata Ladies No-Limit Hold’em tournament on Sunday, January 20, which will debut a new WPT Ladies League, and the addition of 20 revamped poker tables in the Borgata Event Center , offer players a further elevated gaming experience.

Televised nationally on the Game Show Network (GSN), the Borgata Poker Classic is one of the premier stops on WORLD POKER TOUR's 17-tournament tour. Featuring the world's top poker players and local fan favorites, this year’s WPO championship event will provide fans with plenty of fireworks.

On-site registration for all events is available until January 29 at 2 p.m. Special hotel room rates are available to tournament players Sunday through Thursday at $129, Friday at $199 and Saturday at $239. Call 1.866.MYBORGATA for more details. For the complete tournament schedule, blogs and more, visit theborgata.com.

About Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa

Borgata is a joint venture of Boyd Gaming Corporation (NYSE: BYD) and MGM MIRAGE (NYSE: MGM). Located at Renaissance Pointe in Atlantic City, it features 2,000 guest rooms and suites, 161,000 square feet of gaming, 200 gaming tables, 4,100 slot machines, 14 destination restaurants, 11 retail boutiques, a 54,000 square foot spa, 70,000 square feet of event space, and parking for 7,100 cars.

For more information on Borgata or to obtain a copy of this press release, please visit theborgata.com or use AOL keyword: borgata. Additional news and information on Boyd Gaming can be found at boydgaming.com; additional information on MGM MIRAGE can be found at mgmmirage.com.

What happened to Party Poker?

PartyPoker Continues to Struggle in the online poker market

It's incredible how PartyPoker fell from the top of the world in online poker to pay dirt. Back in June of 2005, Party Gaming went public and immediately made the founders instant millionaires. The company was valued around 8 billion dollars. It had the most online poker players and it was way ahead of the competition. They were making companies like PokerStars, Full Tilt and Ultimate Bet each their dust. You would see PartyPoker ads everywhere. It was on ESPN on the World Series of Poker, the World Poker Tour, any televised tournament and even at B&M poker rooms. All it took was one dumb stinking piece of legislation to ruin the empire. What a turnaround.

Party Gaming is now the #3 online poker room, below Pokerstars and Full Tilt Poker. Full Tilt has about 1000 more real money platers per week than Party Poker. Pokerstars is the leader of the pack with almost double the size of Full Tilt, with an average of 14,000 real cash players on average. Not to mention that the iPoker network is creeping on the #3 spot. The iPoker network includes poker rooms like Fair Poker, CD Poker, Noble Poker, Titan Poker and Tony G Poker. It'll probably be only a matter of time before they overtake Party Gaming.

I think the main problem was with PartyPoker's main reliance on the US market. Once that legislation passed, US players flocked and Party banned US players from playing on their site.

It's going to be interesting to see what Party will do to fix this problem before it goes under. The key about online poker rooms is that if you have players, then you make money. As the tables start getting empty, it'll be harder to find good games and players will just move on to the bigger sites.

What Proposed UIGEA Regulations Mean For Poker Players

The Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act is such a joke. The basically destroyed online poker. Online poker was one of the largest movements on the internet and just because one Congressman thought that it was helping fund terrorist activity, the entire sport of poker came to a halt. This not only affected US players but all players around the globe; not to mention a bunch of great online poker rooms.

Poker Player :: Articles :: What Proposed UIGEA Regulations Mean For Poker Players:
"What Proposed UIGEA Regulations Mean For Poker Players
by I. Nelson Rose filed under Poker News on 2008-01-06 [Originally appeared in the January 7, 2008 issue of Poker Player]

Last October, Congress passed the unworkable Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act, which I call Prohibition 2.0. It required federal regulators to write regulations requiring money transferors, including banks, credit card companies and e-wallets, to identify and block funds for illegal Internet gambling. Faced with an impossible task, the regulators punted: They issued proposed regulations that tell the banks, etc., 'It's your problem. You shouldn't block legal online gambling transactions. But if you transfer funds for an illegal bet, you will be fined, or worse.' The immediate impact of these proposed regulations for poker players is ... nothing. Nothing has changed, and nothing will change, for many, many months.

The long-run impact is not as rosy. There will be plenty of ways to get around whatever procedures are eventually put into place to identify and block funds transfers for unlawful gambling. But all American financial institutions, and their large counterparts overseas, are not going to take chances: They will block all gambling transactions, even legal ones.
So poker players will be forced to open foreign bank accounts, use foreign credit cards and e-wallets, or use slower and sometimes even less reliable means, such as snail-mailing paper checks or using phone cards. The Act had been rammed through Congress by the failed politician, then Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R.-TN). Frist attached it to the SAFE PORTS Act and told Democrats that if they didn't like it, they could vote against it, and be seen as being soft on Islamist terrorism. Although Prohibition 2.0 scared the bejesus out of publicly traded poker companies, it actually does only two things: It creates one new crime, being a gambling business that accepts money for unlawful Internet gambling transactions, and requires new regulations for payment processors.

What it doesn't do is make it a crime to play poker on the Internet. It doesn't directly restrict players from sending or receiving money. It doesn't spell out what forms of gambling are "unlawful." Specifically, it does not do what the federal Department of Justice ("DOJ") wanted, which was to "clarify" that the Wire Act covers Internet casinos, lotteries and poker.

The new felony it creates is greatly limited. Only gambling businesses can be convicted, not players. Bizarrely, for a law designed to prevent money transfers, the financial institutions involved in those transfers, including e-wallets, are expressly defined as not being gambling businesses and so cannot be convicted of this new crime. The proposed regulations have finally been issued, four months late. The general public now has until December 12 to make comments. The agencies will then make changes in the proposed regulations. The final versions will then be published, supposedly giving everyone six months to set up their procedures.

This is not going to happen.

The proposed regulations put the burden entirely on the payment processors to come up with procedures for identifying and blocking restricted money transfers. But this can't be done in six months. In fact, it can't be done at all.

The problem is defining "unlawful Internet gambling." Take, for example, poker.

It is unclear whether online poker violates any federal law. Some states, like California, do have specific prohibitions on unlicensed commercial poker, but it is unclear whether these apply to foreign operators.

And 157 years of bad cases and obscure statutes make it a crime to participate, as a player, in any poker game where the pot is raked more than four times. How many payment processors even know what it means to rake a pot four times?

The problem for players is there is no law forcing U.S. banks to transmit funds for legal gambling, while there will be penalties for transmitting funds for what turns out to be an unlawful bet.

Germany bans online gambling

Bloomberg.com: Germany: "Online gambling will be banned in Germany as of Jan. 1 after German states ratified an accord that preserves the country's state monopoly for lotteries and most forms of betting."

It looks like Germany is jumping on the "Ban online gambling" bandwagon. First the USA, now Germany. It's only a matter of time before other European nations follow suit. Off the top of my head, I don't know any famous professional poker players so you likely won't miss seeing any players at the WSOP.


Full Article Here

37 Invites to 2008 National Heads-Up Poker Championship

NBC has sent out 17 more invites to join the 20 already invited to the 2008 National Heads-Up Poker Championship that begins Feb 28th at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas.

The tournament is a $20,000 buy-in invitation only event that runs a bracket style system (like NCAA basketball tournament) and will be contested over a span of three days. The overall winner will claim $500,000 and the heads up title that proves they bested one of the most difficult fields of professional poker players assembled into one tournament.

So far, first time invites are 2007 Bluff magazine’s Player of the Year, Bill Edler, Card Player magazine’s Player of the Year, David “The Dragon” Pham and Kenny Tran who had great runs at the WSOPE Event and the $50,000 H.O.R.S.E. WSOP Main Event.

The 37 invitees so far are: (these players have received invites but none have yet to be confirmed)

Doyle Brunson
Shannon Elizabeth
Annie Duke
Johnny Chan
Chris Ferguson
Antonio Esfandiari
Jamie Gold
Ted Forrest
Jennifer Harman
Barry Greenstein
Howard Lederer
Phil Ivey
Jonathan Little
Erick Lindgren
Scotty Nguyen
Mike Matusow
Brian Townsend
Gavin Smith
Jerry Yang
Paul Wasicka
Chad Brown
David Benyamine
Freddy Deeb
Todd Brunson
Eli Elezra
Bill Edler
John Juanda
Clonie Gowen
Daniel Negreanu
Phil Laak
Greg Raymer
David Pham
Erik Seidel
Kenny Tran
David Williams
Vanessa Rousso
Shawn Sheikhan

Some notable guys missing from this list include: Phil Gordon, Sammy Farha, Chris Moneymaker.

There are 24 more invites that should be sent by the end of the month. The final three spots will go to players from online and Caesars Palace qualifiers.

Cheating Scandal Investigation at Absolute Poker Coming to an End

When Absolute Poker conducted an internal investigation, it found that an employee had breached the security system to play unfairly on the site for a period of 40 days.

PokerListings article

A while back a user account at Absolute Poker cheated other players by being able to see the other players hole cards. It was determined that this user account was from within Absolute. So someone was using this account to swindle other players. The Kahnawake Gaming Commission checked into this and reviewed hand histories from this player. The investigation is done and the commission will be issuing a ruling soon.

Major search engines settle with DoJ over Gambling Advertising

Article from Pokernews.com

Online Portals Settle with DOJ over Gambling Ads
December 20, 2007
Amy Calistri

In 2004, Microsoft, Yahoo and Google stopped running advertisements for online casinos under pressure from the US Department of Justice, but apparently that didn't go far enough to quell the DOJ's ire. Yesterday the DOJ announced that the three search engine companies had agreed to pay a total of $31.5 million to settle allegations that they "aided and abetted" illegal gambling under their former ad policies. Under the terms of their settlements, the companies neither admit nor contest any charges.

Microsoft has agreed to pay a total of $21 million, $4.5 million of which is a direct forfeiture to the government. The International Center for Missing and Exploited Children will receive $7.5 million from Microsoft, and the remaining $9 million will go to a public-service advertising campaign aimed at college-level or younger people, with the message that online-gambling enterprises are illegal. Yahoo will forfeit $3 million to Uncle Sam and contribute $4.5 million to the public service ads. Google's share of the settlement is $3 million.

These settlements are not the first time media companies have settled with the US relative to online gambling advertising. In 2003, the Disney Channel forfeited millions of advertising dollars associated with dot-com online gambling companies. In 2006, The Sporting News agreed to a $7.2 million settlement with the DOJ relative to their print, web, and radio gambling advertisements.

The recent deal with the three internet companies was announced by Catherine Hanaway, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Missouri. Hanaway is fast becoming the Department of Justice's poster girl in its battle against online gambling. Hanaway represented the DOJ during last month's House Judiciary Hearing on Online Gambling. It was also Hanaway's office that settled a civil case against BetOnSports last year whereby the company agreed to stop accepting bets from US residents.

Card Player launching a new poker room - Spade Club

It looks like Card Player is finally getting into the online poker market. They appear to be a few years late. Although, they have a new concept. Pay $19.99 a month to join and play in as many freerolls as you can to win $100,000 prize money. I'm not sure if this will work considering if you don't play $20 in tournaments a month, it won't be worth it. It's tough enough to get people to play at your poker room, how are you going to make them pay $20 a month and play?

I'm going to guess that they'll need at least a year to build up their client base, but they better have deep pockets to last that long. The main goal of these poker rooms is to build that base so you can make money off the rake. They must be banking on their reader base to sign up for this service. I personally don't like it and it'll be interesting to see how this business model will last.


Card Player Launches SpadeClub Beta Today

Full Article Here

BY: BOB PAJICH | bob.pajich@cardplayer.com

Players Can Win Their Share of $20,000 Over the Course of the Beta Period
Screenshot of a SpadeClub tableToday, Card Player is launching a beta version of its new online poker room SpadeClub, which, once out of the beta phase, will be a subscription-based poker community wherein members will play for $100,000 in cash prizes each month.

Sign-up is free during the approximately two-month-long beta phase. During this phase, we invite Card Player readers to sign-up for free, play in any of the weekday and weekend freerolls, and win their share of the $20,000 that will be given away during this period. The only thing we ask the beta players to do is give feedback about the site and the software.

Click here or visit www.SpadeClub.com to sign up.

The freerolls are scheduled to take place each and every day. A $75 daily freeroll runs each weekday at 6 p.m. PT. The winner of each one receives $25, and the top nine entrants get paid.

A $500 freeroll takes place every Saturday at 3 p.m. PT. The winner of this event receives $200, and the top 50 entrants receive money.

And on each Sunday during the beta-testing period, a $1,000 freeroll is scheduled wherein $300 goes to the winner and the top 50 entrants also get paid.

After beta testing is over, membership to SpadeClub costs $19.99 a month. Members will have access to a monthly slate of tournaments where they’ll play for their share of $100,000. SpadeClub is different from a typical online site in that all of the tournaments are freerolls with no cash buy-ins.

Again, visit SpadeClub.com, sign-up, and get in on the ground floor of this exciting new poker site. There’s free money to be won out there, so go and get it.

Don't forget to check out Boogster for great online poker deals and promotions.

PokerStars now supports MAC users!

Mac users can now play at PokerStars!

PokerStars are trying to jump on the increasing MAC user base. They now offer MAC users the opportunity to play at this online poker room. The software is still in the beta test stage, but it is almost fully functional.

To download the new Mac software, simply go to PokerStars.com, click on “Poker Room” and then “Getting Started.”

Make sure to use the Boogster.com link so you get rewarded for it.

Software Requirements: Mac OS X 10.4.10 or later

Hardware Requirements:

Minimum system configuration
· PowerPC G4 or G5 or Intel Mac
· 512MB RAM
· 1024x768 screen resolution or higher
· 60MB free disk space
· 56k dial-up Internet connection

Recommended system configuration
· PowerPC G4 1Ghz or faster, PowerPC G5 or Intel Mac
· 1024MB RAM
· 1024x768 screen resolution or higher
· 100MB free disk space
· 128kbps or faster DSL or Cable Internet connection

The Associated Press: Poker Player Reese Dies at 56

The Associated Press: Poker Player Reese Dies at 56

Chip Reese wasn't see on television a lot but he's regarded as one of the best cash game players by a lot of his poker peers.

Brian Townsend aka sbrugby

Brian Townsend, aka sbrugby (online screen name), is probably one of the best known online poker players. He isn't known by everyone because he doesn't usually play in the WSOP. In my opinion, those games are usually too low limit for him and he's probably a much better no-limit hold'em cash game or omaha player. He was on the third season on High Stakes Poker and I thought he was one of the best players there. He would show up with $1 million in cash, while the rest of the table has $500k or less. He would intimidate the table because he really didn't care about losing money. He made a lot of good bluffs, good tough calls and made good laydowns against top players like Negreanu, Brunson, and Farha.

Here's a good excerpt from an interview on Cardplayer about him:

BT: You know, people always talk about that, and I really haven’t noticed it, yet. I’ve made more money since the Act was passed than before. So, I didn’t really notice that; there are still tons of terrible players playing poker, and I always think there will be. It just kind of draws them in. People have that petrifying fear that, “Oh, the games are drying up, they’re so much tougher.” That’s just not the case, in my opinion.

Full Interview from CardPlayer here

Atlantic City's Taj Mahal offers online poker registration

Atlantic City's Taj Mahal offers online poker registration -- Newsday.com

Interesting new concept. As much as I hate ticketmaster, this isn't a bad idea. I've had to get to the poker room early before to register for tournaments. I've at times had to gain my seat off the waiting list.

On another note, I always wondered who invented that poker room queuing system that you see on the LCDs across every poker room. I figure that guy must be loaded at this point. Whenever I stare at the LCD waiting for my name to pop up on the waiting list... I ask myself why couldn't I have thought of this?

"The Unabomber" Phil Laak Rumors

This is a crazy story about Phil Laak, one of the more popular professional poker players on the circuit. I don't believe it but this guy Tom Grant sure makes it convincing. Although I think it's just a publicity stunt.

The story involved Laak supposedly hitting two children while riding a motorcycle in Thailand. Grant helped Laak out with the police and afterwards the two went into an import/export business together. One variation of the story says it was actually drug trafficking. A deal went sour and Grant ended up with $15,000 of Laak's money. One month later Grant heard that Laak had paid $15,000 to have him and his wife killed. Grant in turn worked out a deal with the contract killer to preserve his and his wife's lives.

Full story here

Jean-Robert Bellande Competes on Survivor: China

Poker pro Jean-Robert Bellande will compete in Survivor China. If you remember WSOP 2005, this guy was at several final tables. He was great for TV. He made it entertaining and spoke his mind. Now he will compete in Survivor China. I'm a big fan of that show and I'm not sure if Jean-Robert can make it. I'm not sure if a guy who sits at the poker tables 16 hrs a day can survive the heat and nature of the outdoors. Over/Under for his stay in China is 13 days.

Jean-Robert Bellande Competes on Survivor: China

On September 20, poker players around the world will get to see one of their own hit the mainstream. Professional poker player Jean-Robert Bellande will appear as a competitor on Survivor: China, the fifteenth season of the hit television program.

In an interview for the show, Bellande recalled being approached about the show. “Initially, when it was suggested to me to consider doing Survivor, I thought no way. I’m used to comfortable hotels and casinos with air conditioning. I’m not really the outdoors type,” he said. “I just started thinking about it. I thought you know, this is a great challenge. This is a great opportunity. Sixteen players and a chance for a million dollars. That’s as good of any odds as you can expect in any kind of game situation.”

Bellande went on to say that while he is not in very good shape, something that may put him behind the eight ball for some of the physical challenges, he does feel that his poker skills will give him an advantage in the contest. He feels he is good at identifying the strong and weak players, and can make adjustments to his strategy as the game progresses.

Bellande has accumulated almost three quarters of a million dollars in poker tournament winnings. His biggest score came in 2005 when he placed third in the $10,000 WSOP Circuit event at the Rio, cashing for $210,900.

Great day of soccer tomorrow

For those of you who are soccer fans, tomorrow is a FIFA international soccer day... meaning all club teams take the day off to let their top players play in international friendlies.

Here are some of the great soccer matches for Aug. 22nd.

Fox Sports Channel (FSC)
12:30 PM EST - Brazil vs Algeria - how can you not like watching Ronaldinho and Kaka
2:30 PM EST - United States vs Sweden - Landon Donovan will try to be the all time leading scorer for the US
5:00 PM EST - England vs Germany - best matchup of the day... England has a full squad and we'll have to wait and see if Beckham gets the nod at midfield

Rattlesnakes used as hit men to collect on a gambling debt

"Why hire hitmen when you can just use rattlesnakes." Here's a crazy story about two men trying to collect money owed to them from the owner of the Amateur Poker Tour using rattlesnakes.

LAKEWOOD, Colo. —
Two Lakewood men have been arrested on suspicion of trying to use rattlesnakes as hit men to collect on a gambling debt.

The men were allegedly trying to kill Matthew Sowash, owner of Amateur Poker Tour in Wheat Ridge because he owed them $60,000, the Rocky Mountain News reported. Arrest affidavits say Sowash's company stages Texas Hold'em-style poker games in Denver area bars.

Jim Shires of the Jefferson County Sheriff's office confirmed the arrests.

An investigation by the Colorado Bureau of Investigation led to the arrest of Herbert Paul Beck, 56, Thursday night in Raton, N.M., and Christopher Lee Steelman, 34, Wednesday night in Lakewood.

Bail for each suspect was set at $500,000 on suspicion of conspiracy to commit murder, conspiracy to commit kidnapping and extortion. Beck is being held in Raton and Steelman in the Jefferson County Jail in Golden.

Investigators said Steelman told them the two men discussed ways to kill Sowash and Beck suggested rattlesnakes. Beck allegedly told investigators he invested $36,000 in the company last December, and with interest was due $60,000.

The plan was to build a wooden box for Sowash to stand in that would hold the snakes, and "the lid was to be built to allow Sowash's legs to be put inside but not pulled out." The plan was to leave the rattlesnake-bitten Sowash on a hiking trail.

"The final and most disturbing method to Steelman was Beck wanting to kidnap Sowash's children and use them as leverage to get the money from Sowash," according to the affidavits.

Sowash contacted the CBI after getting threatening e-mails.

Both defendants have extensive arrest records.

888.com - The World's Number One Online Casino

With the expanding horizons of Internet technology and changing trends of life styles, the entertainment grounds have also undergone a wide range of development in the form of online games and other activities. When it comes to online gaming, one of the first names that comes to mind is 888.com, world’s number one online casino, offering a variety of games including Poker, Roulette, Blackjack, Caribbean Poker, Baccarat and many more. 888.com’s lead in online casinos is the ultimate outcome of it’s vision and efforts to make the online gaming arena more player oriented. The terms are very clear, with easiest process either to download the Casino or play on the no download version.

With a growing network of affiliates and over 25 million registered poker and casino players, 888.com has become a trademark in the Online Gaming Industry, which requires it to keep consistency in its future performance in order to maintain the market.

PartyGaming and 888.com About to Write Blank Checks to US Government?

PartyGaming and 888.com About to Write Blank Checks to US Government?: "ThisIsMoney.co.uk claimed Monday that sources claim the US Department of Justice could try to recoup all profits made by the two companies in America. This would amount to nearly $900m (£445m) in the case of PartyGaming and $120m for 888."

Phil Hellmuth's million dollar golf game

Here's are some excerpts from Hellmuth's blog.

"The match I play August 14th—to be shown on ESPN--is for $9 million total, $3 million a team, and $1million a man. It is $500,000 a hole, with three teams consisting of three players apiece."

I'm a big golf fan so I'll be watching this when it comes on ESPN. I doubt Phil can break 100 though. He doesn't see like the athletic type.

"I lost $350 in the no limit in 100 seconds, then we started a $150-$300 with online poker legend "Piejay." I won about $3,500, then I had to take a phone call. I came back later and won $10,000 more. Then Rolande de Wolfe pinged me on "AIM" and challenged me to play Chinese poker. I agreed to play for $500 a point, and when the smoke cleared I was up $25,500, or 51 points."

I have to admit that Phil probably makes a lot of money gambling. Not only in hold'em tournaments but any type of gambling. He has the discipline and patience to be a good gambler. He doesn't make a lot of stupid moves like most gamblers do.

"And how about Ivey being in the right place at the right time and beating me out of $109,000 while WATCHING the final table!!"

I guess I was wrong my my last post. It wasn't $89K. It was more like $109K. That's funny considering he only made a little more than half of that for placing 6th in that $3k NL Hold'em WSOP event. I always knew Ivey was a big gambler but it was good to actually see the action during the broadcast on ESPN the other night.

http://www.philhellmuth.com/phil-hellmuth-poker-blog.html

Phil Hellmuth is great for poker

Anyone watch the WSOP $3,000 NL hold'em event on ESPN the other night? Hellmuth was at the final table with a bunch of nobodies. There was one lady, Beth Shak, at the final table and the rest were 20 yr olds. It's amazing how this was Hellmuth's 39th final table. I don't care how much you hate the guy or how much you disrespect the guy, he's a great poker player. He's a great player because he can lay down a hand. He made several moves on players that night but he was able to lay his hand down when those folks came over the top. He ended up placing 6th in the tournament and made $76,000. That's like pocket change for him. I think he lost like $89K to Phil Ivey while Ivey was giving Hellmuth insurance on his hands. Hellmuth got screwed b/c he didn't have a side bet with Ivey on the hand he lost.

Anyways, if this was a regular WSOP event on TV, I'd probably watch bits and pieces of it. But when Hellmuth is at the table, he makes the game interesting for TV. His rants are great and his brat-like attitude makes you want to punch him in the face. But it's entertaining. He's marketed himself very well and in my opinion, he's the most successful poker player in the history of poker... on and off the table.

Results of the $3K NL Hold'em Event
1. Shankar Pillai, $527,829
2. Beth Shak, $328,683
3. Jason Song, $212,274
4. Dustin Holmes, $141,516
5. Benjamin Fineman, $100,431
6. Phil Hellmuth, $76,464
7. Perry Friedman, $57,063
8. Brett Richey, $42,227
9. Daniel Corbin, $30,814

Phil Hellmuth WSOP Profile

Quick facts
Name: Phillip J. Hellmuth Jr.
Born: July 16, 1964 - Madison, Wisconsin
Resides: Palo Alto, California
WSOP Bracelets: 10
WSOP Winnings: Over 4.7 million
Nickname: Poker Brat

WSOP Titles

1989: $10,000 No-Limit Hold'em World Championship
1992: $5,000 Limit Hold'em
1993: $1,500 Limit Hold'em
1993: $2,500 No-Limit Hold'em
1993: $5,000 No-Limit Hold'em
1997: $3,000 Pot Limit Hold'em
2001: $2,000 No-Limit Hold'em
2003: $2,500 Limit Hold'em
2003: $3,000 No-Limit Hold'em
2006: $1,000 No-Limit Hold'em w/ Rebuys

Phil Hellmuth is known for many things in the world of poker. Sometimes referred to as "Hell Mouth," and known as "The Poker Brat," he is at the very least a verbal straight-shooter. At best, he is perhaps the best that's ever been. There's really no way in judging a poker player's skill beyond what they can do at the table, and in regards to the chatty Hellmuth, he has consistently put his money where his mouth is. He sits atop the rest of the poker world with only two other players who have won 10 World Series of Poker bracelets; poker legends Doyle Brunson and Johnny Chan. Phil Hellmuth is truly one of the best Texas Hold'em players ever.

Hellmuth was the youngest player (24) to win the $10,000 no limit texas holdem Championship, when he defeated Johnny Chan head to head in 1989; spoiling Chan's attempt to make poker history with a main event 3-peat. Over the next 15 years, Hellmuth continued to enjoy success at the WSOP, amass stories he would later publish and a reputation that proceeds him. Hellmuth hates to lose; he hates losing even more if it comes at the expense of a bad beat. He's not shy about speaking his mind, and at times has been known to be quite offensive. Regardless, it's this mix of slight arrogance, cockiness and Midwestern charm that has created a table image that has become iconoclastic and earned him his appropriate nickname.

Hellmuth has published three books on the game of poker; offering advice to the player as well as sharing several stories from his personal experiences of playing with the world's best. He is also presently at work on another book; an autobiography entitled, Poker Brat. His fan base enjoys him as a commentator as much as they do watching him in action at a table. In 2006 he became a commentator on Celebrity Poker Showdown, where he offers his expertise as well as a few low blows to celebrities who are playing poorly. He is a walking texas holdem calculator, and he spouts out poker fact and opinion so quickly that viewers can also enjoy the show as poker education.

Beyond the world of poker, Phil enjoys spending time with his wife Kathy, and two sons Phillip III and Nicholas.

AGLOCO.com Update...

I'm over 1000 members now:

The greatest thing about this site is that I have spent very little time in promoting it and I am risking absolutely nothing. The reward is yet to be seen, but if my risk is zero, then any reward is a good one.

AGLOCO - Get paid to surf the net!

So, the AGLOCO viewbar comes out in a few weeks here. I don't know exactly how much money can be made on this thing, but if it does explode, then it could potentially be a huge money maker for those who got in early. From what I've read, 30,000 people have already signed up for this thing...that's nothing...they're expecting over 2 million by July. Also, there are over 1,000,000 pages on the internet that talk about AGLOCO already. And guess what...I don't think they've spent a dime on marketing. This "thing" is spreading by word of mouth, which is the most cost effective type of marketing. I mean, look at myspace.com, youtube.com, and facebook.com. All of these sites did very little marketing early on and all of them are worth over 500 million a piece. AGLOCO is a simple idea that could be next "new thing".

If you haven't already gone to the website, here's the basic idea behind the company. You sign up, download this software called a Viewbar, which is an addon to your browser, and then refer your friends to do the same. Ad companies pay for text links on this Viewbar and any search that is performed through the Viewbar, google pays them for that search. It's a pretty simple idea. Companies similar to this is Mozilla Firefox. They offer their software for free, but do you know how they make money? Well, there's a google toolbar installed by default and every search that is performed through the google toolbar is a paid search. Firefox makes the majority of their money through google's adsense program! They made over 52 million in 2005. That's right...$52 million! Pretty sick if you ask me.

So, John Chow has about 455 direct referrals right now, with over 6000 users in his network. I signed up through him. Apparently there's a guy out there that has over 12000 users in his network. The greatest thing about AGLOCO is that once you get started, there's really no work involved. That's the beauty of viral marketing. Very little work, much money.

Here's what the Viewbar looks like:

Anyways, if you're interested in signing up, please do so through my link:

http://www.agloco.com/r/BBBL8267

Everything that I make from this thing will be used to bet on sports via a sidebar poll. And the amount of money that I make will be posted on my blog. I'm very curious to see how this actually works out.

Here's an updated on the amount of users in my network. I'm in the top 4% baby!

How to Handle Aggressive Opponents in No Limit Hold'em

If you are relatively new to no limit holdem, (make sure you know the Texas Holdem rules properly) one concern you may have is what to do against a very aggressive player. One of the exciting aspects of no limit Texas holdem is that any player can put you at risk for all their chips at any given time, which is an extreme amount of pressure. Many players, especially new ones, prefer not to put all their chips at risk, but there are certainly many players who move chips in with seemingly reckless abandon. What can you do against such an opponent?

First, it is possible to determine how aggressive a table is before you ever sit down. If one or two players at a table have very large stacks, it is likely that it is an aggressive table. The big stacks are not necessarily the aggressive ones, although they could be. It is possible that one or more players have rebought several times. Tables with smaller overall stacks are likely to be less aggressive, although the game may have just started or the composition of the table may have changed. You can also determine how aggressive a table is by observing it for several hands before you sit down.

If you are at a table with an aggressive player, try to make sure that player is on your right. If this is the case, they will act before you almost every hand. Your having position on them, and knowing what they are doing before you act, will counteract some of the effects of their aggression. If you combine that with only playing premium hands, you will be in a good position to combat this player. When you have a strong hand, it is often correct to slow play against a player like this, checking and calling their bets. While it is possible this may allow them to draw out on you, many more times they will simply bluff off all or most of their chips to you. If you have a drawing hand, you should bet “on the come” less often, because reopening the betting may invite them to move you all in and force you to fold. On the other hand, if you appear weak, they may try to represent the hand that you in fact have if your card comes.

Be sure to have a bankroll that supports the game you are in. You will probably be in an all-in situation some time over the course of your no limit holdem session. Make sure you have enough money that you can comfortably rebuy if you lose. Aggressive players will pick up on the fact that you are overly protective of your stack if you cannot afford to lose it and take advantage of this very quickly. For more articles andonline poker reviews, check out PokerShopping.com

Texas Hold'em Rules and Online Poker Reviews!

Here are some good links to online poker reviews and Texas Holdem rules! Check them out!

I've moved!!

I decided to switch over to the wordpress software because I was sick and tired of being at the mercy of blogger.com. Here's the new link to my blog:

http://www.boogster.com/blog/

For those of you who are linked to me, please update your links.

Thanks!

College Picks

A little late, but I'll post all of the ones that I've taken so far:

Statfox picks:
Tulsa vs BYU under 53, $110 to win $100 @ Betcris.com
Missouri -6.5 1st half, $105 to win $100 @ Betcris.com
South Carolina +3 over Georgia, $110 to win $100 @ Mansion.com

My picks:
Virginia Tech -4 2nd half, $115 to win $100 & Betcris.com

I'll probably put a bet on tonight's big game as well. I'll post it when I make the bet.

NFL Picks

Here's who I'm taking for the 1pm games:

Philadelphia -4.5 over Houston, $330 to win $300 @ Mansion.com
Denver -3.5 over St. Louis, $220 to win $200 @ Betcris.com
Seattle vs. Detroit Under 45, $110 to win $100 @ Sports Interaction

I went 2-2 yesterday for -$20. Now you see why the bookies always win?

NFL Super Locks - 5 STAR PLAYS

Here are my picks for Sunday:

Philadelphia -4.5 over Houston (Bet the farm)
Denver -3.5 over St. Louis (2 units)
Seattle vs. Detroit Under 45 (1 unit)

That's all I have folks.

Done for the week...+$817.35

Done for the day...+$0

Boring day today. I didn't make one single trade. I guess I wanted to end the week on a good note. It also had to do with the fact that there was absolutely no volume in today's market. I'm watching and waiting. I actually did some work on NFL Challenge today as well. I've a stats page up now that tells me how many people are betting on each game. Hopefully, I'll be able to use this information to help me with my wagers.

Anyways, I'm done with trading of the week. Have a good weekend.

NFL Opener- Oddsmakers in vulnerable position

Article

I was wrong about the stats on the first game of the returning superbowl champs. Here were the real stats:

"In the last five years the Super Bowls winners are 12-3 SU and 10-4-1 ATS the first three games of the season. With the adjusted Total, Miami falls into a trend that shows them at 1-8 ATS in all games where the total is 35 or less over the last 3 seasons."

BTW...if any of you are into sportsbetting, make sure you check out Statfox.com. They offer stats and trends for every game known to man. I actually paid for a one year subscription to their stats service. I think it cost me like $275. Yeah, not cheap, but I did it last year just as a trial. I actually don't find myself using it that much, so I won't do their subscription again.

Also, make sure you check out their Statfox Super Situations picks on college football.

link

Those picks have done a lot better than I have. I can't pick games to save my life. I just hope to break even in sportsbetting every year...hah.

Friday Morning Update...

I've got nothing this morning. I'm still holding onto my RIMM short, YM short, and DIA puts. I'll most likely get rid of my DIA september puts soon. I should've exited the $112 puts a while ago. I gotta stop playing options until I read a book on how to trade them. I still don't really understand which options have the best value yet. I know how much risk I'm willing to take and I know my target price, but I don't really know how to analyze which options contain the best value for my money. Anyways, I definately need to start reading up on my options trading.

BTW...I did that Mansion.com free bet last night. I decided to hedge my bet over at betcris.com. I put down $550 to win $500 on Miami +1.5 over at betcris and put $1100 to win $1000 on Pitt pickem over at Mansion.com, so I ended up winning $450. I was going to let it ride on Pitt, but I really wasn't sure if they were going to cover or not, so I took the safe route.

Done for the day...+$2,222.45

Got my money back from Tuesday. It sure does feel good to have all of this effort that I put into reading and analyzing charts pay off. If you guys only knew how much time I spend studying and reading and obsessing about the stock market, then you would understand the desire that I have to win at this game. I probably spend more time learning about the stock market than most people do sleeping on a daily basis. It's sick. I may lack "discipline" and "patience" at times and I am most definately "reckless", but when it comes to "hard work", it kills me when I read someone comment about my lack of "hard work". Kills me because you have no idea.

It's kinda funny how people are so eager to kick me when I'm down, but yet so reluctant to offer praise when I'm up. Yeah, I admit, I probably bring a lot of this onto myself because I am sometimes "cocky" and "arrogant" in my blogs, but it's the crazy competitor in me that writes all of that stuff. 15 comments on Tuesday when I lost $1,400...all bashing the crap out of me, where are all of you mofos now, huh? I'm sorry, that was the crazy competitor in me writing again. Seriously though, if I were reading my own blog, I wouldn't blame myself for wanting me to lose either...I'm sooooo cocky sometimes...hah. At least I admit it, right? How fun would reading this blog be if I didn't show my true emotions?

Anyways, good day today. I like how we closed near the lows of the day with VOLUME....the most important thing. I want to see what Tim Knight has to say about today's action. He seems like a man who knows his technical analysis. So, what's in store for us tomorrow? Well, I want to see one more big gap down below today's lows and hopefully another big red bar. Things are definately looking good for us bears today though....

Have a good evening.

DIE YM, DIE BEATCH!!!

Hah...F the YM. I have way too much fun writing this damn blog, but only on days in which I'm making money.

August Trading Results...

Despite the awful loss in my daytrading account last month, I still eeked out a small gain across all portfolios for the month of August. I seriously thought that I was in the red for last month because it sure felt like I was in the red. I guess that HANS swing trade saved me big time.

Daytrading: -$3,815.55
Swing #1: +$4,116.89
Swing #2: -$47.41

Total: +$253.93

You can see my results listed in my Monthly Totals spreadsheet. I don't have all of my trades for my IB account posted yet because they haven't updated their stats yet. It usually takes about 5 to 6 days, but it looks like they've got some issues this month.

Looking at my stats, perhaps I should stick to swing trading as that seems to be what I'm best at. I still don't have enough stats to make an accurate judgement of my results though. I think that by January of next year, I should be able to figure out what works best for me. That doesn't mean that I'll stop daytrading though because I can't imagine doing anything else. Not only that, but I enjoy daytrading a lot.

Man, I really don't know how Charles Kirk of the Kirk Report consistently makes over $100k a year from doing this shit. I guess he does play with a lot more money than me, but still...I don't think I'd have a $100k profit even if I did have more money. Not right now, at least. That's the thing about trading...as long as there's someone better than me, I don't think that I'll ever stop doing it, unless I get to the point where I don't think I'll ever become any better. It's like boogster.com, having competitors like PSO & VegasPokerPro makes doing my job so much more exciting because right now, these guys are bigger than us and it's like I'm competing with them day in and day out to become the best. I love battling it out.

Okay...enough ranting. Another hour and a half of trading. I haven't done jack today, mainly because I'm still holding onto my short positions and I don't feel as though I should be entering more. Not now at least. It'd be nice to see the DOW close at it's low today....

Trading Station...

Since everybody is posting pictures of their trading stations, I figured that I'd post a picture of my own. It's fun seeing what kind of setup other traders have. Look how ghetto mine is compared to Glenn's and Hubert's. Theirs look like war rooms, mine looks like something you'd find at walmart. Hah.

My Trading Station

Hubert's Trading Station

Glenn's Trading Station

I hope these guys don't mind me posting pictures of their trading stations. BTW...can someone tell me why you would need 6 monitors for trading?? WTF? I wouldn't even know which one to look at. One of these days, I'm going to get a 10 monitor trading system just because...

DIA

Notice the heavy volume on DIA, which means the big guys are finally starting to sell. We're at 2.2million shares right now. Yesterday, we only traded 4.3 million shares the entire day! We're only an hour and 20 minutes into the trading day! It's a lock that my man Tim Knight is loving today's action.

RIMM

Okay, let's revisit RIMM, since I need to figure out when to exit my short position. I put fibonacci lines on the chart below to give me some reference points. If you don't know what fibonacci lines are, then I suggest that you learn about them and quick because they are essential for traders.



RIMM has run so hard and so fast to the upside, that it's left very little support below. Usually, stocks that fly up like this usually drop just as fast. Eventually, I think that RIMM will retrace 100% of its move up. From a swing trading perspective, I think that a good exit target point would probably be around its 50% retracement level, which would put my target just below $74. Notice how there's a little bit of support there as well. So, that's what I'll be looking for.

Covered 5 YM at 11366 for +$2225

Alright, I'm taking half of my profits off of the table here. I feel a lot more comfortable holding only 5 contracts even though I have absolutely no reason for selling here. I mean, my technical analysis hasn't changed a bit. I'm still expecting us to take out the multi-month lows in one fast quick move down. My only reason for selling here is for my own comfort. That's a legitimate reason right? You know, the pros say that not letting profits run is just as bad as not taking a stop loss on a losing position....oh well, all I know is that I'm $2.225k richer right now and it feels good.

Thursday Morning Update...

Alright, so I'm currently up about $4k on my YM trade. Now, how in the world do I manage this trade so that I don't miss out on the potential further downside and at the same time, make sure that I don't lose back a chunk of my profits? I've been asking myself that question for the past 24 hours. Obviously, I think that we're going much lower, but what if we go up to 11400 before going lower? I'd be kicking myself for not locking in more than $2k in profits. I could always reshort higher, right? I was considering just walking away from my computer for the entire day, but there's no chance that I could do that. If I were sitting at my computer yesterday, it's a lock that I would've probably have sold half of my short position after we broke the morning highs. Luckily I was in my car.

You know, I think the best idea is to lock in at least half of the profits and then let the other half run and put a stop loss on it. I'm so torn right now. It's just seems so easy for me to sell here and take profits. Too easy, which means that it's probably the wrong decision. If this trade was in my swing portfolio where I wasn't watching every tick, then there's no way that I would be selling right here. Oh man... I guess, at least I'm not on the other side trying to figure out when to take a loss on a losing position. This is just as agonizing though. Maybe not "just as agonizing", but definately still very painful....in a good way.

Alright...let's do some quick analysis on the market. The TICK has traded between 400 and -500 this morning, which puts us in neutral territory. The TRIN is trending slightly higher and is above 1, which is slightly bearish. And the VIX is trending higher, which is slightly bearish.

As far as price action goes...we had another big gap down this morning. If you look at the daily chart of QQQQ, you'll notice that we closed at the high of the day on Tuesday and then gapped down big yestday, leaving all of those longs who bought the breakout sitting on big losing positions. This was exactly what I was expecting to happen. I've been talking about this shit for the past 2-3 weeks. Only time will tell whether we tank big from here or not. I'm still expecting a lot of downside action...

Done for the day...$0

Needless to say, I didn't trade at all today. I was on the road for most of the day. I left AC at 11:00am and got home around 3:30pm. I'm still holding my 10 YM contracts right now. I'm certain that market is headed lower, but what I'm not certain about is whether we're going to make new highs one last time before we go down or not. The next two days will tell us more. If we go higher one last time, then we could do 100 to 150 ticks easily. I may end up selling my YM contracts in after hours today and just wait to see what develops tomorrow morning. At worst, I will lose 10-20 ticks, right?