Gold and Eastgate Will Host Unique Charity Poker Tournament
Posted by CarbonPoker on 13th August 2009

jamie-gold2006 World Series of Poker Main Event champion Jamie Gold and 2008 WSOP Main Event champ Peter Eastgate will be hosting a unique charity tournament at Europe’s largest poker festival.

The event is called Poker in the Park, and will be held in London’s world-famous Leicester Square for a third straight year.  Gold and Eastgate’s charity tournament will headline Poker in the Park while poker lessons, heads-up games, and lectures from professional players will also be held during this poker extravaganza; Poker in the Park takes place on August 13th and 14th.

The buy-in for the tournament is ₤500 and all of the money made from the ₤500 will go to the Jamie Gold Foundation.  This Foundation covers numerous charitable organizations including the Muscular Dystrophy Association and the Fallen Heroes Fund.

There is a 50 player cap on the tournament and top prize will be a ₤5,200 European Poker Tour prize package.

The main host, Jamie Gold, gained international poker fame after winning the 2006 WSOP Main Event.  The $12 million that Gold won in the 2006 Main Event gave him the world record for most live poker tournaments winnings; he still holds the record to this day.

Gold has also been involved in other charitable organizations and tournaments including Ante Up for Africa which is an annual event at the WSOP.  His other accolades include appearing on seasons 3 and 4 of High Stakes Poker and episodes of Poker After Dark as well.

Peter Eastgate earned worldwide recognition after capturing the 2008 Main Event title which earned him over $9.1 million.  At age 22, Eastgate also broke Phil Hellmuth’s record as the youngest person ever to win the WSOP Main Event.  Eastgate valiantly defended his 2008 title in the 2009 Main Event before busting out in 78th place.

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Jeremy Gaubert plays Spoiler to Chris Moneymaker
Posted by CarbonPoker on 12th August 2009

moneymaker chrisThe World Poker Open Championship is not one of the most high profile tournaments in the world, but it is significant enough to attract some attention.  And the WPOC attracted extra attention this year since 2003 World Series of Poker Main Event champion Chris Moneymaker jumped out to a huge chip lead heading into the final table.

Out of the 2.5 million chips that were in play, Moneymaker held over 1 million of them with fellow poker pro Chad Brown sitting well behind him in second with 433,000 chips.  Due to his large lead, many people were discussing the possibility of Moneymaker grabbing his first tournament win since taking the WSOP Main Event title back in ’03.

But 25 year-old player Jeremy Gaubert was able to make a big comeback and eventually bounce Chris Moneymaker from the tournament when Gaubert rivered a flush.  Moneymaker finished 3rd in the event and took home $60,110 for his efforts.

With Moneymaker gone, heads-up play came down to Gaubert (1.5 million chips) and Steve Hammontree (1 million chips).  The two played for about 75 minutes before Gaubert’s pocket aces held up as Hammontree got no help from the board when trying to improve his T-8 hand.

With the World Poker Open Championship title, Jeremy Gaubert earned his first big tournament victory along with $192,953; Hammontree earned $109,440 for taking second place.  Last year’s WPOC champion was noted female player Clonie Gowen who won $183,000; she did not return to defend her title in 2009.

Chris Moneymaker’s 3rd place finish in this tournament marked the biggest cash for him since he earned $200,000 for placing 2nd in the WPT Shooting Star event.  Since that cash, Moneymaker’s career had steadily declined with him failing to garner any more significant tournament finishes until the recent 3rd place showing at the WPOC.

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MMA Star Randy Couture to Host Poker Tournament
Posted by CarbonPoker on 12th August 2009

coutureFor the second straight year, mixed martial arts star Randy Couture will be holding a charity poker tournament to help U.S. military veterans.  The tournament is called “Operation All In” and it will be held on August 22nd at the Golden Nugget Casino in Las Vegas.

Operation All In, which is staged by Couture’s Xtreme Couture G.I. foundation, will feature celebrity players and allow the public to join in on the action too.  Some of the celebrities involved include poker players Todd Brunson, Lee Watkinson, David Williams, Adam Schoenfeld, Chip Jett, and Robert Williamson III as well as MMA stars Dan Henderson, Frank Trigg, Phil Baroni, and Stephan Bonnar.

Those who wish to participate in Operation All In can buy into the tournament for $330 with $100 rebuys being offered too.  The first place prize in this tourney will be a $10,000 Main Event seat in the PokerNews Sports Legends Challenge which is held at Atlantis Paradise Island in the Bahamas.

Randy Couture is extremely excited about the second annual Operation All In tournament and said, “We’re thrilled to welcome everyone back for our second annual charity event.  It’s sure to be an amazing time, while raising awareness and a lot of money for an unbelievable cause.”  The cause that Couture is referring will be helping wounded U.S. military veterans as well as their families.

Couture, who is a U.S. army veteran himself, expanded on the charitable cause of Operation All In by saying, “Having spent time in a uniform it became a personal goal of mine to find a way to give back to the brave men and women of our Armed Forces for the sacrifices they make defending our freedoms.  The Xtreme Couture G.I. Foundation was born out of that desire.  We hope you’ll come join us for a great night and rub elbows with some of the best fighters and poker players on the planet all in the name of our troops.”

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When an Opponent Has Pocket Aces
Posted by CarbonPoker on 12th August 2009

acesThere is no argument that, out of all the starting hands you can receive in poker, pocket aces is statistically the best.  Unfortunately, there will be many times when you aren’t the one holding the pocket aces and must find a way to crack them.  But if you’re going to attempt to beat pocket aces, you have to keep several things in mind.

The first thing is putting an opponent with pocket aces.  This is next to impossible with loose/aggressive players and maniacs, but it is very possible when you’re up against a rock who has just raised from early position.  In this scenario, you can almost be assured that they have pocket aces.  Once you’ve identified this, you’ll need to keep one thing in mind when trying to crack aces: win big or get out of the hand cheap.

When going up against pocket aces, chances are that your hand will have less than a 20% chance of winning over 5 streets.  With this being the case, you want to see flops, turns, and rivers as cheaply as possible while trying to put together a hand that can win big.  Make sure you are going up against a rock who is willing to bet big with their pocket aces as well if you want to win major chips.

Once you know this, you’ll need to recognize the hands which can win big.  Small pocket pairs, and suited connectors are definitely the best hands to crack aces with since they go under the radar and work well on weak boards.  For instance, pocket 3’s on a board of 4h-3s-9d are going to be good since an opponent with pocket aces will likely still bet big in this scenario.

On the other hand, stay away from using hands such as K-Q and J-10 to crack aces since they’re only good on boards where you’re highly unlikely to make a big profit because other players will fold on these boards.

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APT Macau Invites Michael Phelps for Second Straight Year
Posted by CarbonPoker on 11th August 2009

phelpsAsian Poker Tour officials have invited Olympic record-breaking swimmer Michael Phelps to their APT Macau event for the second straight year.  Phelps, who recently won 5 gold medals and 1 silver medal at the World Championships, has yet to respond to the APT’s open letter.

An excerpt of the open letter that was sent to Phelps read, “Last year you were in Beijing for the Olympics and we encouraged you to head down to the Asian Poker Tour Macau event at the StarWorld.  We heard positive noises, but there was no sign of the human dolphin when they called ‘shuffle up and deal.’  We would like to extend this invite once again for you to come, all expenses paid, and take part in this showpiece poker event.”

APT Macau is a 12 day-long poker event held at the StarWorld Hotel and Casino in Macau, and is complete with festivities and poker tournaments.  The Main Event, which Michael Phelps is invited to, takes place on August 20th and runs until August 23rd.  Yevgeniy Timoshenko was the champion of the Main Event last year and he won the $500,000 first place prize.  Timoshenko had to outlast a stacked field of pros before going against Steve Yea in the heads-up final.

In addition to the returning champion Timoshenko, the APT Macau field will also included noted players like Steve Sung, J.C. Tran, Nam Le, David “Chino” Rheem, Quinn Do, Kwang Soo Lee, and Johnny Chan who holds 10 WSOP gold bracelets.  The participation of Michael Phelps would add one more star to the mix.

Phelps first achieved world-wide fame after winning 6 gold medals and 2 bronze medals in the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, Greece.  Phelps followed that performance up with a record 8 gold medals at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, China.

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Face the Ace Debuts with Low Ratings
Posted by CarbonPoker on 10th August 2009

face-the-aceIn an already saturated market of poker shows, Face the Ace officially threw its hat into the ring at the beginning of August.  Unfortunately, Face the Ace has failed to gather a significant amount of viewers during its first two weeks on NBC.

Face the Ace is an hour-long show that runs from 9:00 to 10:00 pm ET on Saturday night.  Its debut aired on August 3rd and was met with less than desirable ratings in comparison with other network shows in the same time slot.  Out of the 4 major networks (ABC, FOX, NBC, and CBS), Face the Ace finished with the lowest ratings at .04 which equates to 1.59 million viewers.  FOX took top honors here with an episode of America’s Most Wanted which had a 1.5 rating, or 4.43 million viewers.

The second week was even worse for Face the Ace ratings-wise since it managed just a 0.3 rating, or 1.46 million viewers.  With its 0.3 rating, the show was last among all shows that ran on Saturday night, and it even finished behind reruns of Finding Nemo and 48 Hours Mystery.

As part of a pre-determined plan by NBC, Face the Ace will be moved to a different time slot, and possibly a different network.  Program guides indicate that some upcoming episodes will be shown on CNBC while other episodes may run on Saturday afternoons on NBC.

Face the Ace is a reality poker show which sees a contestant attempt to survive 3 rounds of heads-up play against professional poker players.  Winning the first rounds pays a contestant $40,000, winning the second round pays out $200,000, and a third round win will pay out $1 million.  At the end of round 1 and round 2, contestants can quit the game and walk away with their winnings.

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Golf Lawsuit Dropped by Pro Poker Player
Posted by CarbonPoker on 10th August 2009

dusty schmidtOnline poker pro Dusty Schmidt, who plays under the screen name “Leatherass”, has decided to drop his lawsuit against the Unites States Golf Association.  After having meetings with several lawyers, Schmidt decided that his case wasn’t strong enough to hold up in court.

Schmidt’s lawsuit was raised because the USGA revoked his amateur golfing status after he issued a $1 million golf/poker challenge on his website.  The challenge was issued to anybody in the golf or poker world who thought that they could defeat Dusty over the course of 72 holes of golf and 10 heads-up poker matches.  Unfortunately for Schmidt, nobody took him up on the challenge, and the USGA revoked his amateur status after hearing of his challenge.

Dusty Schmidt was surprised that the USGA repealed his amateur status since he said they initially only threatened to take it away if he actually went through with the contest.  So Schmidt went ahead and issued the challenge while waiting to see if there would be any takers.  But the United States Golf Association eventually changed its mind and said that Schmidt would lose his amateur status despite their initial ruling.

This is the second time that Schmidt has lost his amateur status over the course of his golfing career.  The first time he lost amateur status was when he suffered a heart attack at the age of 23.  While recovering from his heart attack, Schmidt began playing online poker heavily and eventually became a top player.  Dusty admits to making well over $3 million in his online poker career, and even cashed for over $100,000 during his best months.

After a full recovery from his heart attack, Schmidt reapplied for his amateur status and had it granted by the USGA.  However, after the controversy arose from his $1 million challenge Schmidt once again lost his amateur billing.

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Switching Poker Variations
Posted by CarbonPoker on 10th August 2009

acesFor most people, their poker journey begins with the good ole’ Texas Hold’em.  And people begin with Hold’em for good reason too – since it’s not only one of the easiest versions to learn, but it is what we see on TV all of the time as well.  However, with the popularity of Texas Hold’em also comes an army of talented players, making it very hard for people to make money with this poker variation.

That’s why many players decide to try their hand at another poker game at some point in their poker career.  But making the transition to another poker variation can be a little harder than one might expect since there is plenty of work ahead with such a move.

One thing that will definitely be a lot of work when making this transition is the studying that is involved.  Whenever you start playing a new poker game, you’ll have to learn a new set of strategy in order to be successful.  And while knowing Texas Hold’em might be a good base, you’ll definitely need to know specific strategy for the variation you wish to play.

Another thing you’ll want to do when switching poker variations is drop down a couple of limits (or more).  This should be a no-brainer, but some players insist on staying at the same limit when they make the switch.  But if you don’t have the experience in a certain variation then you should definitely be dropping down limits until you have this experience.

One more element to making a seamless transition to a new poker limit is reviewing every session you play.  This is very important because you need to know your results and what areas you can improve in.  As you start to experience more success, you won’t have to review your sessions as intensely which definitely helps provide more time to play.

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Moneymaker Appears on New ESPN.com Poker Show
Posted by CarbonPoker on 7th August 2009

espnA new poker show called the Inside Deal had its first episode Tuesday on ESPN.com.  The 30 minute show is hosted by ESPN the Magazine writer Laura Lane and poker personality Bernard Lee and it takes a look inside the world of poker.  Inside Deal is also held in the same Bristol, Connecticut studio as SportsCenter and is broadcast in similar fashion to the hit sports show.

The first episode of Inside Deal centered on a preview of the 2009 WSOP Main Event final table.  2003 WSOP Main Event champion Chris Moneymaker joined both Lane and Lee to talk about the final table as well.  Phil Ivey’s legacy and Jeff Shulman’s disdain for WSOP gold bracelets were two of the main topics discussed during this segment.

Another topic of heavy interest that was touched upon was the Day 1D sellout where over 500 players were denied entry into the Main Event.  While the obvious explanation for this incident was that WSOP officials wanted to keep a cap on each segment of the first day, Bernard Lee also offered the explanation that, “Poker players are known procrastinators.”  The trio ended the Day 1D segment by discussing possible solutions for how this problem could be avoided in the future.

Much of the show’s focus switched towards Moneymaker in the second half of the show as the co-hosts talked about Moneymaker’s Omaha success.  Moneymaker also made it clear that he’s all but done with Texas Hold’em as he stated, “It’s hard to find myself playing Hold’em anymore.”  The show ended with Moneymaker answering a quick series of questions and talking about how he had lost his WSOP Main Event bracelet at one point before finding it.

Those who are interested in catching the Inside Deal can do so by checking out ESPN.com’s poker section every Tuesday.

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Johnny Chan says “Poker King” Movie Could Be Bigger than “Rounders”
Posted by CarbonPoker on 7th August 2009

johnny-chanThe 1998 film “Rounders”, which starred Matt Damon and Edward Norton, is quite possibly the biggest poker movie of all-time.  But poker legend Johnny Chan, who had a guest starring role in Rounders, believes that the new Chinese-language movie entitled “Poker King” could be an even bigger hit than Rounders.

Chan was quoted as saying, “Poker King has the potential to be much, much bigger than Rounders ever was.”  Chan continued his reasoning on why Poker King could be a bigger hit by stating, “Say there are over one billion Chinese speaking people in the world, and compare this to the US and its 300 million people and you can see that this could be huge.  Rounders gave poker a new lease of life in the western world and this could kick start a new poker boom in Asia.”

Poker King is set to be filmed at the Asian Poker Tour Macau Festival which is held at the Galaxy StarWorld Hotel and Casino.  Chan, who is originally from China, is hoping to land a spot in the new movie which includes some of China’s biggest film stars.  Sean Lau Chin-Wan, Louis Koo, Stephy Tang, Josie Ho, and Cherrie In are some of the big name Chinese actors who will be appearing in Poker King.

Regardless of whether or not Chan ends up in Poker King, he will still fondly remember his Rounders days as he said, “I had a fantastic time filming Rounders back in the 90’s.”  He went on about his involvement by mentioning, “A big part of my involvement was behind the scenes where I helped teach Matt Damon, Edward Norton and John Malkovich how to play poker. I also played myself in the film and to this day it gives me recognition in the mainstream outside of poker circles.”  Chan will be hoping for a similar role when Poker King starts filming next week.

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