For illustrative purposes only

Today marks Super Bowl XLVI (46, for the non-Roman-numeral-inclined), the de facto U.S. national holiday that celebrates far more than just the championship NFL game. As every poker fan knows, the poker equivalent of this is each summer’s World Series of Poker Main Event, which incidentally has been running for almost as long! Many new fans to the game, however, aren’t aware that poker used to have a Super Bowl of its own: Amarillo Slim’s Super Bowl of Poker.

The outspoken winner of the 1972 World Series of Poker Main Event, Amarillo Slim, saw that the professional poker players of his day were hungry for more high-limit tournament action. He created the Super Bowl of Poker partly as a response to this, but also as a means of promoting the game of poker itself. Only 30 players entered the first year, but that number soon skyrocketed, as more events were added in the coming years to make the Super Bowl of Poker a bona fida tournament series.

Amarillo Slim Preston

The Super Bowl of Poker ran for 13 years between 1979 and 1991 and took place in a number of different Nevada venues, including Las Vegas, Lake Tahoe, Reno, and Laughlin. During that time, it rose to prominence as the second-most-important poker event of the calendar year; in effect the only $10,000 buy-in poker event besides the WSOP Main Event. The fact that it moved around multiple times, however, was one of the things that contributed to its instability and eventual demise.

Notable Winners

Gabe Kaplan won the Super Bowl of Poker’s main event in 1980. The Welcome Back Kotter star actually did quite well at this tournament series throughout the eighties, making 4 final tables. Other big name winners included 3-time WSOP Main Event champion Stu Unger (he also won the SBOP main event 3 times!), as well as fellow Poker Hall of Famers T.J. Cloutier and Jack Keller.

Conclusion

During the rest of the year, we poker players stack our chips. Today, we dip our chips; but let us never forget the good old “chips off the old block” like Amarillo Slim Preston who have helped make poker the great national pastime it is today.

For illustrative purposes only

The attorney for the Bernard Tapie Group, Benham Dayanim, has publically stated that among the issues holding up final settlement of Full Tilt player payments are the debts of a few high-profile poker pros. Dayanim claims that Phil Ivey, Layne Flack, David Benyamine, Mike Matusow, Barry Greenstein, and Erik Lindgren owe the now-defunct Full Tilt Poker between $10 to $20 million combined. That these monies haven’t yet been repaid is apparently a main factor preventing the Bernard Tapie Group from moving forward with their plans.

Cardplayer reports that Benyamine and Flack have owed more than $2 million apiece since 2007, while Ivey and Lindgren each owe the former online poker site about twice as much. The amount Matusow owes was believed to be less than $2 million, while Barry Greenstein’s debt amounts to $400,000. The site goes on to report that these monies represent direct loans from Full Tilt to these players as tournament buy-ins as well as direct transfers to their online accounts for cash game play.

Even if Dayanim’s claims are true, approximately $15 million will barely make a dent in the $150 million owed to U.S. players, to say nothing of the hundreds of millions also owed to non-U.S. players. This poker blogger finds it strange that a relatively small amount of money is causing delays, and issues a call for players to begin getting their money back now! Chris Ferguson and Howard Lederer are the ones Dayanim should be setting his sights on if you ask us.

The Phil Ivey Conundrum

Based on Ivey’s recent success at the Aussie Millions, it appears as though he might be in better shape than the rest of the pros named to pay up on his debt. At least for him though there might be more than meets the eye to this story. Many readers recall how Ivey boycotted last year’s World Series of Poker in protest of Full Tilt not paying their players. At the time we applauded Ivey’s move, but all the details that have come to light over these intervening months simply leave us in a state of not knowing whether to believe him or not. In principle, Ivey is innocent of any wrongdoing here until proven otherwise, but his relative silence on the matter isn’t exactly endearing him to the poker playing public (or us). The same could also be said about Matusow, Lindgren, Benyamine and Flack, who we also haven’t heard much from in quite a while… I guess time will tell and eventually the whole truth will (hopefully) finally come out.

Isn’t Barry Greenstein a Sponsored PokerStars Pro?

There’s a fascinating interview with Barry Greenstein that was published a couple days ago on PokerNews. Specifically interesting about Greenstein owing money is that he’s officially contract bound to PokerStars. In Greenstein’s interview, he expressly admits that he owes Full Tilt Poker $400,000 but says that he has purposely refrained from repaying the money until now and does not want to pay his debt back to the Tapie Group for fears that it would only benefit non-U.S. players. Cardplayer Lifestyle readers may recall that a deal was reached between the Tapie Group and the Department of Justice back in November of last year whereby the Department of Justice themselves assumed responsibility for reimbursing U.S. players, while the Tapie Group promised to pay back non-U.S. players.

Barry Greenstein has always been one of poker’s “good guys”. We feel that his honesty and straightforwardness about his involvements should be commended. Nobody questions his ability to pay back the money he owes and we don’t doubt that he surely has the best interests of U.S. players in mind by holding out thus far.

Casino Copenhagen is situated connected to the Radisson Blu Scandinavia business hotel at 70 Amager Blvd.  One can access the casino either directly from the outside or from within the hotel.  The casino charges a 90DKK ($15) entrance fee and a picture id is required.  They have 4 active roulette tables, 3 active blackjack tables and one active Ultimate Texas Hold’em table (you play against the house).  When there are significantly more visitors to the casino they can double that amount of table games, but when I was there they kept to the tables listed above.

photo courtesy of Hank_AK

Casino Copenhagen’s Poker Offerings

Every night they have a different style Texas Hold’em tournament.  For example, on Mondays, they play a 400DKK ($70) buy-in bounty tournament (each bounty worth 100DKK) with a maximum of 30 players on 3 tables and minimum of 10 players on one table.  On Tuesdays, they play a rebuy tournament with a buy-in of 250DKK ($45) and rebuys until the first break (maximum 20 players and minimum 10 players).  The poker tournaments all start at 8 pm and there’s a 15-minute break every 75-80 minutes.  Cash tables open at 8:15 pm and the lower stakes table featured a minimum buy-in of 1000DKK ($175) with a maximum buy-in of 10,000DKK ($1,750). Most poker tournaments at Casino Copenhagen end by 1:00 am.

Tips to Improve Your Poker Experience in Copenhagen

If you’re sensitive to smoke, be advised that the casino has open-sided smoking booths inside the casino; in general, smoke stays inside the booth but if you wander past the booth you’ll probably get a whiff.  It being Denmark, the language spoken at the tables is Danish, but chips and cards talk best and if one doesn’t understand something, the dealer and players will respond in English, which is widely spoken in the country. Some dealers are better than others and a couple of them made small mistakes at my table that would’ve influenced the action had I not spoken up, so be sure to pay close attention to everything going on at your table.

All in all, since this is pretty much the only game in town, if you’re a poker player and find yourself in Copenhagen, it’s well worth a visit for a fun night of Texas Hold’em.

If you would like to submit a poker room review or other poker blog content for publication on Cardplayer Lifestyle, please contact us.

The World Series of Poker has issued the schedule of events for this summer’s 43rd annual tournament series and a number of changes have been made. First and foremost, there will still be a delayed final table of players in the Main Event but action will resume and a champion will be crowned at the end of October, instead of November. The reason for this change is that the U.S. presidential election will be taking place in the first week of November, so WSOP organizers wanted to avoid a conflict. Thus, no November Nine in 2012…

More Bracelet Events, More Space, More Poker Tables

A record number of events are scheduled, with 61 gold bracelets to be awarded over 50 days of poker tournament play. Furthermore, tournament officials have decided to expand the World Series into a third room at the Rio, the Brasilia Room, which can accommodate an additional 92 poker tables. The Brasilia Room will thus join the Amazon Room and Pavilion Room in providing a grand total of 470 tables and an astounding 114,000 feet of gaming space during poker’s richest tournament series.

The increased capacity also means there’s less of a need to stretch out events over multiple days. Thus, the Main Event will only feature three starting days instead of four and players will play down to the final table on Day 7 instead of Day 8. A day off before the start of Day 3 has also been removed from the schedule.

Other Changes

One of the most unique events scheduled this year is the Big One for One Drop, which will feature a $1 million buy in. Other events have seen their buy-ins shrink; a nod to the sagging worldwide economy which has clearly also affected the poker economy. To that end, the WSOP schedule features only seven $10,000 buy-in events, as opposed to 10 last year.

Click here to pre-register and reserve your seat for any of the 61 World Series of Poker Events.

According to the terms of the deal, Dragonfish, a subsidiary of 888 Holdings, will power Caesars Entertainment online poker brands, such as the World Series of Poker, in the United States upon eventual legalization. The press release issued by 888 further stated that “…the agreement will allow the launch of a real money offering immediately as either federal or state based regulation is finalized and upon licensing by gaming authorities.” [Ed. note: Italics added] This statement is especially noteworthy since, up until now, the main talk of Caesars Entertainment moving into U.S. online gaming has been on the federal level.

It appears to this poker blogger that this partnership is indeed built to last. Caesars Entertainment is a literal giant as far as its land-based gaming and casino marketing experience in the U.S., while 888 has been a known big name in the online casino industry almost since its inception.

 Stay at Caesars Palace Las Vegas: Rates starting from $70 per night

Thus, the two companies’ strengths appear to complement each other perfectly. This has proven true for about 3 years thus far in the U.K. and there’s no reason why this success shouldn’t extend to future online gaming promotional activities in the United States when laws and regulations are finally passed at either the state or federal level.

It should be noted that 888 already applied for the appropriate online gaming licenses in the state of Nevada back in December of last year.

Along with a few well-heeled businessmen, Ivey took his seat along the biggest names in poker, including John Juanda, Gus Hansen, Jason Mercier, Patrik Antonus, Tom Dwan, Daniel Negreanu, and last year’s winner and runner up, Erik Seidel and Sam Trickett, respectively. Only 16 entrants meant that just 3 spots would pay. Dwan was the first to bust, while the rest of the pack were eliminated over the next few hours, leaving Negreanu, Ivey, Hansen, and Antonius to play for the win. Negreanu bubbled after his A 8 offsuit failed to improve against Antonius’ jacks. Hansen was next to fall, but at least collected AUD 800,000 for his efforts.

Ivey took a 2.2 million to 1.8 million chip lead into heads-up play against Antonius and locked up the victory in just about one hour. The Finn’s runner-up finish netted him a cool AUD 1.2 million, while Ivey walked away with his largest payday ever: a cool AUD 2,000,000!

Welcome to the opening poker blog post from a regular guy playing poker at WPT, WSOP, and HPT (Heartland Poker Tour) events around the country. My blog posts will be about players like us – not high profile pros telling stories about private jets. First, a little more about myself and what my blog posts will be about… I jokingly refer to myself as the greatest player in the world that no one knows about.

I’m Victor Luebker and I decided to take 2012 and live my dream of playing professional poker on tour. As I travel around over the next year making stops at all the major tour events I’m going to share my successes and failures with Cardplayer Lifestyle readers, as well as what it’s really like to travel and play poker on the top three tours in the country. We all have read about people who have cashed big and now are bankrolled and staked in the game. However, retail poker is still about the 95% of us that are recreational players and guys and gals just starting out or playing one event a year in your local area. I’m going to give you the ups and downs of the game behind the scenes and open you up to the real world of tournament poker.

Here is what to expect from my poker blog posts. First, no bad beat stories or long-winded tales of hands that played out at the table. I may share a final hand story from all final tables I (hopefully) make but that’s it. This is about the lifestyle of poker; the cardplayer lifestyle! That said, I’ll be discussing the travel, the locations, the meals, and rooms – all the things that lead up to and are part of being on tour. I’ll share reviews of poker rooms and casinos as well as the best and worst places to shop, eat, sleep, and how I’m treated on tour by staff at the locations we play. It’s easy to have your ass kissed as a major poker celebrity when you show up, but what about us? You’ll find out firsthand!

I’ll talk about the people I meet and share posts about behind-the-scenes conversations with the pros and also all the “off-felt” things I do while on tour, so you’ll know firsthand what it’s REALLY like to tour as a poker pro. Stay tuned and have fun! Until next time, play hard or go home!

More at http://victorluebker.com

Winner - Dan Smith

This year’s Aussie Millions $100,000 challenge was entered by 22 players, hoping to score big bucks to start of 2012 with a bang. Entrants included Daniel Negreanu, Phil Ivey, Tom Dwan, Patrik Antonius, Tony G., former Aussie Millions Main Event Champion Gus Hansen, and Australia’s own Joe Hachem. Erik Seidel and Sam Trickett also participated, each hoping to repeat last year’s Aussie Millions successes, with Trickett the event’s defending champion, and Seidel having won the $250,000 Super High Roller to start off a year for the ages. From a purely poker perspective, it was good to see that Ivey still has plenty of bankroll to splash around on high buy-in events, this despite a nasty divorce suit.

The 22 players created a prize pool of AUD 2.2 million, with 4 players slated to cash and over AUD 1 million for the winner. After 10 hours of play on day 1, Hansen eliminated Ivey on the final table bubble and went into day 2 as the chip leader. Also making the final table was Trickett, who did his best to defend his title but eventually fell in 7th place. Hansen experienced a fall from grace as well, being eliminated in 5th, just short of the money. Tony G. was somewhat more fortunate, earning AUD 242,000 for his 4th place finish, while Hachem earned his largest ever payday on home soil, finishing 3rd for AUD 330,000.

All these big names notwithstanding, the final two players battling it out for the title were the relatively unknown Mikhail Smirnov and Dan Smith. For 3.5 hours after Hachem’s elimination, Smirnov and Smith challenged each other, with the lead changing multiple times until Smith’s pocket 2s held up all in versus Smirnov’s Q6 suited for the win. Smirnov will take home 616,000 for his runner-up performance while Smith’s name will go into the history books and will no longer be “unknown”.

The progressive jackpot meter read $307,482 when the Total Bad Beat Jackpot was finally hit. On average, it has been hit just over once a month since it debuted about 1.5 years ago. In accordance with the rules of the special pooled bad beat jackpot, after the winner and loser of the hand got paid, the remaining 50% of the prize pool was split among the other 140+ players lucky enough to be seated at an eligible Atlantic City poker table at 3:45 am. The Total Bad Beat Jackpot was immediately reset to $100,000 with 4 queens as the qualifying hand to be beaten. From my own unlucky experience of just missing a bad beat payout, in all likelihood the 4 poker rooms all but emptied out after everyone was paid their winnings.

How Do I Get In On This Amazing Atlantic City Poker Action?

If you are planning a poker vacation to Atlantic City, I can’t stress this enough: you should be playing at one of the 4 Total Rewards-affiliated poker rooms! Aside from the Total Bad Beat Jackpot that could pad your wallet just for being in the right place at the right time, these 4 poker rooms usually feature an excellent list of promotions not to be missed. To book your stay at one of these excellent casino hotels, click on one of the banners below.

BOGOF Deal – Book Tues or Weds Night, Get 1 Night Free

Indeed, thousands of recreational players and professionals now flock to the Aussie Millions in Melbourne each January, where beautiful summer weather complements one of the richest poker tournament series in the world. The largest such gathering in the Southern Hemisphere, the Aussie Millions has announced a special Tournament of Champions event to mark their 10th anniversary.

Who’s Playing?

The past 9 Aussie Millions Main Event Champions have been invited to take part in a single table tournament that will award the winner a “lifetime entry” to this year’s and all future Aussie Millions Main Events. Alexander Kostritsyn, the 2008 champion, will not be in attendance, so the 8 tournament entrants will be:

• Peter Costa (2003)
• Tony Bloom (2004)
• Jamil Dia (2005)
• Lee Nelson (2006)
• Gus Hansen (2007)
• Stewart Scott (2009)
• Tyron Krost (2010)
• David Gorr (2011)

The winner of the special Tournament of Champions will be able to “cash in” on his prize right away, as this year’s Aussie Millions Main Event is scheduled to begin the following day, Sunday January 22nd. Younger past champions, such as Australia’s Tyron Krost, naturally have the most to potentially win if they’re victorious, as longer expected life spans mean many more potential free annual entries into one of the most lucrative tournaments in all of poker.

And the Winner Is…?

The Cardplayer Lifestyle poker blog will go on the record as picking the “Great Dane”, Gus Hansen, to win it all. Check back with us next week on Facebook or Twitter to find out if we’ve guessed right.