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Posted by PokerPop on 29th August 2011

Jamie Gold hasn’t exactly lit the poker world on fire over the past five years since he has just $134k in live tournament cashes since 2006. However, this hasn’t stopped the 2006 WSOP Main Event champion from landing several sponsorship deals – the latest of which includes having his own poker site.

The site is called FreeGoldPoker.com, and it’s the latest “free” room we’ve seen spawn lately. Much like the Larry Flynt-owned Hustler Casino, Free Gold Poker charges players a subscription fee to play, rather than taking rake from poker hands and tournaments. Of course, this also means that players aren’t actually playing for real money, but novelty prizes and non-cash rewards instead.

Basically, Free Gold Poker is akin to pumping your money into carnival games in hopes of winning stuffed animals and other cheap thrills. Okay, so maybe the prizes aren’t that bad since cameras, electronics, UFC gear and event trips are on the line, but this site isn’t a whole lot better than Zynga Poker. And if you’ve ever read through our blog much, you know that we don’t exactly think Zynga Poker is the best form of entertainment when you can compete in real money poker games.

In any case, it will be interesting to see how this poker room does since Jamie Gold still has some mainstream appeal to poker players. After all, he holds the record for the largest cash in a poker tournament at $12 million, which is certainly impressive to some of the newer players out there.

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Jimmy Fricke claims Bellagio has Marked Poker Cards

Posted by PokerPop on 24th August 2011

It’s been a while since the poker world has heard any news from Jimmy Fricke. The plus-sized poker pro shot to stardom in 2007 after he took the Aussie Millions Main Event title and the $795k top prize. He made more news later in the same year after possibly becoming the first player to beg for a major sponsorship deal; Full Tilt Poker’s Howard Lederer subsequently turned Fricke down, and called him a “freak” and a “weird dude.”

Since those crazy days of 2007, we haven’t really seen much from Fricke, until he recently popped up in the news again for claiming that the Bellagio Casino in Las Vegas is using marked poker cards. Fricke explained his wild accusation through twitter by writing:

Every single ace of spades is marked at Bellagio and no one gives a shit at all. I’ve pointed it out in 10ks and big cash and no one cares.

They’re all warped because of the way they’re stored.

Screw this. I get into a pot where I know my opponent has the As after I’ve told the table they’re all marked. I feel like a cheater.

While Fricke may have initially failed in getting the Bellagio to switch their poker card decks, perhaps the casino will be more willing to listen now that word is starting to spread throughout the poker community.

Of course, one has to wonder why Fricke would be so quick to point out this problem seeing as how he hasn’t had much success on the poker tables lately. Since 2008, the Illinois native has only made $89k in live poker tournament winnings, after earning almost $1.27 million in his first three years as a pro.

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Daniel Negreanu has Hot New Girlfriend

Posted by PokerPop on 22nd August 2011

For such a weaselly, squirrely guy, Daniel Negreanu sure seems to pull in a lot of hot women. Some of his past dating conquests include Evelyn Ng and reporter Amanda Leatherman, which are a couple of the hottest poker personalities in the game today. Surprisingly enough, Negreanu’s luck in the hot women department continues after he recently landed Miss Earth Hungary 2008 Krisztina Polgár.

Negreanu, who has had no problem in the past touting his lovers, dropped the news on an episode of QuadJacks Radio. After being ribbed by Mike Matusow and Matt Savage about persistent gay rumors, the crazy Canadian did his best to dispel the rumors by saying, “I met my new girlfriend at the World Series. She plays poker too. She just came up; she was just saying ‘Hi’ cause she knew some friends and stuff. So, we just started, you know, hitting it off, and she’s super cool. She lives in Budapest, Hungary. She was Miss Earth Hungary in 2008. She’s there now, but I’m gonna go visit in a bit.”

Unfortunately, there’s no solid confirmation on what Negreanu said, and it almost sounds like he’s the dateless high school kid lying to everybody about some hot girl he’s banging from another town. But looking back on his history with women, maybe Negreanu is telling the truth.

Assuming the latter is true, he definitely landed a fairly prestigious beauty in Krisztina Polgár since Miss Earth is one of the biggest beauty pageants in the world. It’s also worth mentioning that, unless Negreanu is the biggest player ever, his relationship with poker sideline reporter Amanda Leatherman must officially be over.

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Malta welcomes Justin Bonomo

Posted by PokerPop on 21st August 2011

The poker news headlines have been rife with stories about online poker stars moving out of the US so they can continue playing at their favorite sites. And the latest big name to bolt from the United States is Justin Bonomo, who plans to move to Malta of all places.

While many US online poker pros are busy making plans to move to Canada and bigger countries, Bonomo’s choice is pretty interesting considering how Malta is a very small place. To put this into perspective, consider that Malta’s population of 417,600 people isn’t even close to the smallest state in the US – Wyoming – which has around 533,000 residents.

Bonomo normally plays under the name “ZeeJustin” so people should be seeing this moniker on poker sites once again. And this should definitely be good news for those who play high stakes cash games since Bonomo has been somewhat of a fish. In fact, over the last year and a half, he has lost around $600k in high stakes cash games. Luckily, he’s made $3 million in online poker tournament winnings to make up for the losses.

Wins or losses, the country of Malta is definitely welcoming Bonomo as can be seen by a recent article that the Times of Malta ran. The short article was entitled “Online poker star moving to Malta,” and it basically christened the arrival of ZeeJustin. Now obviously it’s not like Gus Hansen or Patrik Antonius moving to the island nation, but for a country with less than 500,000 residents, I guess Bonomo’s move is pretty big news.

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Dan “Jungleman12″ Cates is a Cheater

Posted by PokerPop on 17th August 2011

2010 was a banner year for Dan “Jungleman12″ Cates after his meteoric rise from hamburger flipper at McDonald’s to online poker champion. He absolutely dominated the high stakes poker scene by earning over $5 million in 2010 cash game profits. And the $5 million that Cates made put him at the top of the earnings list, and made him a poker household name.

Unfortunately for Cates, 2011 has been an entirely different story from last year. For one thing, he was forced to quit playing online poker at some of the sites he used to after Black Friday, and his bankroll was reportedly tied up on Full Tilt Poker. This being said, he’s had little chance to defend his unofficial online poker crown from last year.

But this is only the tip of the iceberg since Cates has now admitted to a multi-accounting scandal. Cates confessed to the serious allegation of multi-accounting while talking to SubjectPoker. At first, Cates flat-out denied being involved in this activity; however, his publicist, Noah Stephens-Davidowit, called the people at SubjectPoker to tell them that Cates lied.

So a second interview took place, and Cates told the site that he did engage in multi-accounting, thus admitting to an initial lie. Then he proceeded to admit that he played through his colleague Jose Macedo’s account. Getting into the specifics, Jungleman12 played $25/$50 PLO games for several sessions on Macedo’s account.

As many people know, multi-accounting is illegal at online poker sites. However, the lines have become pretty blurred with multi-accounting and poker coaching often becoming indistinguishable. Seeing as how Cates previously coached Macedo, it’s difficult to say how severe this instance of multi-accounting was. However, it is clear that many people are already labeling him a cheater no matter what the circumstances may be.

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David “Chino” Rheem the Thief

Posted by PokerPop on 11th August 2011

The nickname “Chino” doesn’t exactly inspire confidence and trustworthiness, so it should come as no surprise that David “Chino” Rheem stands accused of cheating another player out of $40,000. Interestingly enough, the alleged cheating didn’t even occur on the tables, and happened in a much more unique and twisted way.

The saga begins with a Canadian poker pro by the name of Will Molson, who says that he hung out with Rheem and some others at the 2010 EPT London event. After the two started talking, Chino eventually asked if Molson could transfer him and Michael “The Grinder” Mizrachi enough money to buy into the EPT London tournament; Mizrachi would then send $80k back to Molson. Unfortunately for Molson, he accidentally transferred Rheem and Mizrachi both $40k through an online poker site, rather than the £17k that was actually needed.

Of course, this wouldn’t have been such a big problem had Molson received his money back right away. Fortunately, Mizrachi sent his $40k back, but said he never agreed to pay Rheem’s way. This being the case, Molson attempted to get his money back from Rheem, only to be met with silence as Chino was dodging him. When Rheem finally did get back to Molson, he said that he was totally broke and couldn’t pay the money back.

Now this excuse might work in other circumstances, but the fact of the matter is that Rheem ended up placing third in the EPT London £10,000 High Roller, which earned him $148,290. Somehow though, he was unable to give back the $40k that Molson sent him in the first place.

Taking all of this a step further, how does a guy who’s earned over $4.1 million in the last three years alone not have the cash to pay back $40k? Has the former 2008 WSOP Main Event final tablist seriously blown through all of his money already? After looking at his picture for a little bit, maybe this is a reasonable thought.

Who couldn’t trust this Face?

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Gus Hansen is a God in Poland

Posted by PokerPop on 8th August 2011

Things really seem to be looking up for Gus Hansen these days since he’s collected $4 million in online poker winnings in 2011, and he was rumored to be dating 19-year-old tennis hottie Caroline Wozniacki. And according to a story by Danish poker pro Theo Jorgensen, these kinds of accomplishments earn you a lot of clout with Polish-based Indian restaurant owners.

To expand on this last line, Jorgensen appeared on PokerRadio.dk to talk about a funny story involving his and Hansen’s trip to Poland. During the excursion, they stopped at an Indian restaurant in Warsaw where the owner recognized Hansen and freaked out, spouting off lines like “Gus Hansen in my restuarant” and “Gus Hansen, I’ve seen you, and I cannot believe it.”

Later on, Hansen moseyed on over to the bar so he could hit on the female bartenders. Perhaps these women knew about the fact that Hansen was once down over $5.4 million in online poker because they weren’t having any of his weak game. Fortunately, the Indiana restaurant owner proved to be the ultimate wingman as he yelled, “Stupid, stupid Polish girls, this is Gus Hansen!”

One final part worth discussing about the story is how 2009 WSOP Main Event champion Peter Eastgate came to the restaurant the following day with Hansen and Jorgensen. Interestingly enough, he was much less recognizable to the Indian owner, who only had eyes for Gus. In fact, the poker pros had to tell the restaurant owner who Eastgate was before he had any clue.

If you’re interested in hearing Jorgensen tell the whole story, you can see it below in this Pokernyhederne video:

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Huck Seed the Video Poker Shark

Posted by PokerPop on 5th August 2011

By most accounts, Huck Seed has had one of the most successful poker careers of all-time with $7.1 million in winnings, the 1996 WSOP Main Event title, and several other huge poker tournament victories. And it appears as if he might be on his way towards another successful career after hitting a $670,665 video poker jackpot.

An excited Seed tweeted about the huge $670k win by typing, “Internet poker is down in the US, but I’m still pressing buttons!” People honestly had no idea what the laid-back Californian was talking about in this tweet, and some may have wondered if he was slipping back into drugs and alcohol. Fortunately, Seed cleared up the tweet with a picture of his big-time win.

Aside from the massive amount of cash that Huck Seed hauled in, another cool thing about this story is how much money the 42-year-old was spending on each hand. Apparently, he was betting $500 per hand, and had put a total of $50,000 into the video poker machine. Luckily for him, the big investment paid off in the end.

Maybe Seed will be able to cover his massive WSOP losses with the video poker jackpot. After all, poor Huck entered 23 WSOP tournaments, and failed to cash in a single event. Who knows…perhaps this bad streak will convince Seed to switch to video poker full-time.

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Brad Daugherty Baffling WSOP Bracelet Sales

Posted by PokerPop on 2nd August 2011

1991 was a good year for the Brad Daugherty’s. On one side, you had Brad Daugherty of the Cleveland Cavaliers, who was averaging 20 points and 11 rebounds per game, en route to the NBA All Star game. As for poker’s Brad Daugherty, he was busy winning the 1991 WSOP Main Event, and the first $1 million prize offered in the tournament.

Both Brad Daugherty’s should have gotten together for a major celebration that year because neither one would ever see as much success in the future. The basketball Daugherty’s points and rebounds dipped over the following three years, and he retired after the 93-94 season due to back troubles. Interestingly enough, he is now a NASCAR announcer for ESPN, which is an odd turn for a former NBA All Star.

The poker Daugherty has spent the last 20 years collecting an unparalleled amount of mini-cashes in live tournaments, and has never had quite a finish like his 1991 WSOP Main Event win. Even worse, he’s resorted to overvaluing his 1991 WSOP bracelet on eBay after unsuccessfully attempting to sell it twice. In the latest fiasco, there were 54 bids with a top bid of $28,100; however, not even this bid was enough to meet his lofty reserve price, which has people wondering just how much Daugherty expects for a toned-down version of the current WSOP bracelets.

According to Daugherty, he is selling the bracelet for charity since he’s living in the Philippines, and sees a lot of impoverished kids there. He said so in as many words by stating, “I have had many people ask, ‘Why are you selling your bracelet?’ Last year, when I saw that Peter Eastgate’s bracelet sold on Ebay for about $147,000 for charity, it got me to thinking, my bracelet has just been sitting in a safety deposit box for about 20 years, occasionally taking it out to wear to a tournament. I have been in the Philippines a lot over the last few years, and as anyone that has been here knows, there are lot’s of homeless kids, many sleeping on the sidewalks, and lots of other people living in poverty.”

It’s certainly admirable that Daugherty would sell his bracelet on eBay to help out the struggling kids of the Philippines. But if he’s selling it to help the poor, why place the price so high? Furthermore, has Daugherty seen the bracelets that are given away today? There’s quite a discrepancy between his and Peter Eastgate’s, which you can see below:

Peter Eastgate’s Bracelet = Worth $147,000

Brad Daugherty’s Bracelet = Not worth $147,000…or even $30,000

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Beth Shak has Crazy Shoe Collection

Posted by PokerPop on 1st August 2011

By most accounts, Beth Shak is one of those pretty faces that has success in a poker tournament or two, gets a sponsorship deal, and is suddenly classified as a poker pro. And while some might despite the latter (she has just seven live tournament cashes in the last four years), the Today Show had no problem referring to Shak as a pro when they featured her massive shoe collection.

Unbeknownst to everybody outside of a few Beth Shak stalkers, she has over 1,200 pairs of shoes. And as the video states, some of these are expensive designer pairs that cost $4,000 or more! In all, the shoes are said to be worth over $500,000.

This being said, some people might wonder how Shak would acquire a shoe collection that’s worth more than her combined live poker tournament winnings ($479,698). Well it can’t hurt that Shak was once married to poker pro/big-time hedge fund manager Dan Shak.

Following her divorce to Dan, Beth is supposedly worth over $30 million. Of course, it also doesn’t hurt her cause that she’s a successful fashion entrepreneur. Moving past the whole ‘where did she get the money for 1,200 pairs of shoes’ issue, here is one of Shak’s favorite songs for you to check out:

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