Unofficial World Poker Tour blog

2005-12-24T18:40:00.000-08:00

It's been a year:

That's a long, long time. I may try to start updating this again.

2004-12-26T01:53:00.000-08:00

Want to be on the World Poker Tour?
The next tournament is the Jack Binion World Poker Open in Tunica, Miss. The tourney starts January 24 and ends January 27th.

And Shana Hiatt should be there.

2004-10-10T01:45:00.000-07:00

October 13th show:
Right before the WPT Poker corner show (see immediately below) will be the reairing of the WPT Championship at the Bellagio. It features:

Martin de Knijff $4,375,000
Hasan Habib $2,605,000
Matt Matros $3,860,000
Richard Grijalva $2,995,000
Russell Rosenblum $1,780,000
Steve Brecher $1,460,000

To the right of each player is their starting chip count.

2004-10-09T01:38:00.000-07:00

New World Poker Tour show:
October 13 will see the debut of a new show by the World Poker Tour -- the WPT Poker Corner. It will be a strategy show with 3 respected pros and Phil Hellmuth. Immediately after the show, they will analyze the WPT tournament that just aired.

The pros will be Daniel Negreanu, Annie Duke, WPT commentator Mike Sexton, and Phil Hellmuth. Sexton is an excellent poker player, and was a touring pro for years before trying to help the WPT get off the ground. Negreanu is known as one of the best in the game. Annie Duke recently won ESPN's made-for-tv WSOP Tournament of Champions, and is one of the best female players. And Phil Hellmuth -- well, he's best self-promoter in the game of poker.

2004-09-19T22:06:00.000-07:00

Buy a piece of the World Poker Tour:
You can now buy stock in the WPT, under ticker symbol WPTE.

2004-09-18T22:08:00.000-07:00

test

2004-07-20T10:42:00.000-07:00

This week's WPT: It is a replay of what was shown back in early March. See post on the Borgata tournament here.

Here's what I wrote at the time:

Tonight is the first episode of the second season of the World Poker Tour. It's not exactly an all star lineup, but I'm sure they are all solid poker players in their own right. After all, they made the final table

Carlos Mortensen $799,000
David Oppenheim $419,000
Randy Burger $219,000
Charlie Shoten $427,000
Noli Francisco $391,000
Mickey Seagle $98,000

The event is the Borgata Poker Open. Borgata is a new casino in Atlantic City, with a big poker room. The Borgata has done very well, and the addition of the Borgata has been a very welcome addition to the East Coast poker scene. Perhaps because this event is on the East Coast may explain the lack of the famous poker players at the final table. Burger won a $12 internet satellite tournament to be here.

And there'll be some Shana Hiatt tonight too.

2004-07-20T02:46:00.000-07:00

Posting: posting should resume. I moved and got out of the habit of watching the WPT...and hence, I also stopped posting about it.

2004-04-06T11:46:00.000-07:00

This week's WPT:
Fred Bonyadi $150,500
Phil Laak $176,000
T.J. Cloutier $323,500
Chip Jett $84,500
Paul Phillips $657,000
Mel Judah $143,500

This is a rerun. I won't spoil it for you if you haven't seen it already.

2004-04-01T00:14:00.000-08:00

Phil Gordon:
I watched the UltimateBet Aruba World Poker Tour on TV tonight. Juha Helppi, the winner, played some pretty good poker.

Helppi absolutely owned Phil Gordon. Owned him. And Gordon had just beat Scotty Nguyen, Hellmuth, and Harman.

Why did Gordon ("tallphil" on ultimatebet) lose so badly? HE WAS DRUNK!

If Gordon wasn't drunk, then I don't know what drug he was taking. Must be nice to be so rich that you can get drunk during a highstakes poker game because money doesn't matter to you.

2004-03-29T11:18:00.000-08:00

This week on the World Poker Tour:
This is actually a replay of last year's UB Aruba tournament. Wednesday at 9pm EST on the Travel Channel.

Here's the final table:

Phil Hellmuth $30,000
Phil Gordon $20,000
Scotty Nguyen $15,000
Jennifer Harman $14,000
Juha Helppi $274,000
Woody Moore $43,000
Kathy Liebert $253,000
Anssi Tuulivirda $181,000

2004-03-23T19:53:00.000-08:00

This week's WPT:
This week is the Grand Prix de Paris, and as usual is on Wednesday at 9pm EST on the Travel Channel.

Lee Salem $39,900
Erick Lindgren $123,700
David Benyamine $366,600
Jamie Posner $123,600
Jan Boubli $233,100
George Paravoliasakis $77,500

2004-03-16T08:04:00.000-08:00

This week's WPT:
Bellagio's Five Diamond World Poker Classic at 9pm EST Wednesday on the Travel Channel.

Here's the final table lineup:
Tino Lechich $811,000
Gustav Hansen $1,484,000
Paul Phillips $1,220,000
Mel Judah $655,000
Abraham Mosseri $1,347,000
Dewey Tomko $767,000

Two Australians are playing: Lechich and Judah. Lechich is a former backgammon player who learned the game from Judah.

Mosseri is apparently another backgammon pro, but this is his first tournament ever. And he's survived to the final table against the best in the world.

Paul Phillips (here is his blog) was CFO of a company that hit it big in the dot com boom. He apparently made a ton of money, so now he plays poker as a way to kill time. Apparently, this is what people do when they are rich enough. Unlike your average rich guy playing poker, Phillips actually knows enough to win. At least when he isn't making a stupid call against Mel Judah to give away a tournament title -- though, in his defense, Phillips claims to have made a deal to chop up the money with Judah, and thus wasn't so concerned about his play.

Judah has won before on the WPT, when he beat Phillips. In that event, he was allin several times at the final table as a big underdog but managed to come away with the win. He gave new meaning to the phrase "a chip and a chair."

Tomko is a pretty well known tournament player who's been at it for decades. Before being a poker pro, he taught kindergarten. He's come in second in the WSOP twice.

Hansen won several times in the WPT's first season. He's already back at the final table, hungry for more. Right now, he's on top of his game, and is tough to beat.

2004-03-10T21:49:00.000-08:00

Profile of Hoyt Corkins:
The winner of tonight's WPT episode is profiled by the Birmingham News.

2004-03-10T21:45:00.000-08:00

Tonight's WPT episode at Foxwoods:
(Written while I play the 15/30 at Empire)

Hoyt Corkins, "Mr. All in", won tonight's episode to win over 1 million dollars.

Haveson went out in 6th place, taking a bad beat from Ibrahim on the river after being a 93% favorite before the last card.

Kumar went out next when he got all in pre-flop with KK. But he lost to Ibrahim when an ace spiked the river.

Ackerman went out next to Hellmuth, when he got KT in preflop against Hellmuth's AQ.

Hellmuth went out next when he went all in preflop with A6 to Ibrhaim's JT. In my opinion, based on payouts and chip stacks, this was an incredibly stupid call for Hellmuth. Even though he got his money in as a favorite, it was a bad call.

So it was just Ibrahim vs Corkins. Corkins -- a big chip leader over Ibrahim -- kept going all in preflop, with everything. Perhaps he only went all in a few times with rags, but the WPT showed us every one of those times.

This was a very unwise move, in my opinion. For such a big chip lead, the last thing he wants to do is give Ibrahim a chance to double up and make a game of it.

Hellmuth was an ass, as is his wont. Yes, he got some bad cards...but that's poker. And if you want to be a great poker player, you have to be able to extract yourself from situations when you get bad cards. Hellmuth didn't, but he whined about his bad luck alot.

If Hellmuth were as good as he thinks he is, then he wouldn't have to worry about bad cards. Instead, he said something incredibly rude to each remaining player when he was eliminated. He was exposed as the jerk that he is.

Congrats to Hoyt Corkins though. He made some good reads and caught a few breaks, but had the skill to turn those breaks into a million dollars.

2004-03-09T15:19:00.000-08:00

This week's WPT episode:
As usual, it's on the Travel Channel at 9pm EST.

Here's the lineup:
Hoyt Corkins $1,207,500
Mohamed Ibrahim $376,500
Brian Haveson $135,000
Christopher Ackerman $333,000
Senthil Kumar $245,000
Phil Hellmuth Jr. $840,000

Haveson is the former CEO of Nutrisystem. Ibrahim, Corkins are pros, while Ackerman is a college student at Quinnipiac. Kumar is a software programmer, and Hellmuth is the biggest self-promoter in the game of poker.

Top prize is over a million, while the total prize pool is over 3 million. The event is at Foxwoods, and the entry fee was $10,000.

2004-03-04T15:50:00.000-08:00

Pictures of Shana Hiatt:
There are new pictures of Shana Hiatt up. One is a topless nude picture of Shana on the beach. She's hot!

2004-03-04T11:43:00.000-08:00

The Borgata:
Here's an article about the Borgata, where last night's televised WPT epsiode was held.

2004-03-04T11:08:00.000-08:00

Binion's Horseshoe to reopen next month:
Binion's will reopen in time for the World Series of Poker.

As a reminder, you can win a seat to the World Series of Poker for as little as $10 at EmpirePoker. Chris Moneymaker turned $40 into $2.5 million last year at the World Series by winning his seat online. Will you be next?

2004-03-03T17:37:00.000-08:00

Lineup for tonight:
Tonight is the first episode of the second season of the World Poker Tour.

It's not exactly an all star lineup, but I'm sure they are all solid poker players in their own right. After all, they made the final table of a

Carlos Mortensen $799,000
David Oppenheim $419,000
Randy Burger $219,000
Charlie Shoten $427,000
Noli Francisco $391,000
Mickey Seagle $98,000

The event is the Borgata Poker Open. Borgata is a new casino in Atlantic City, with a big poker room. The Borgata has done very well, and the addition of the Borgata has been a very welcome addition to the East Coast poker scene. Perhaps because this event is on the East Coast may explain the lack of the famous poker players at the final table.

Burger won a $12 internet satellite tournament to be here.

And there'll be some Shana Hiatt tonight too.

2004-03-02T11:36:00.000-08:00

NIPR.mil:
Someone from the domain nipr.mil and the domain disa.mil visited this blog last night via Cardplayer's Journal. After a little bit of google research, it appears there is a certain paranoia in the online community about being visited by the nipr.mil. Some think that nipr.mil is just the domain under which much of the Defense Department websurfs at the office. Others think that the nipr.mil is the secret (though not top secret, as that is a different domain) surveillance domain by which the Defense Department keeps tabs on people.

I don't know, frankly. It freaked me out a little last night. If I am under surveillance, I'd be more than willing to cease and desist if the Department of Defense thinks I am breaking the law. Please contact me if this is so.

Other poker bloggers ought to be aware of this possibility as well. There seems to be some possibility that the poker blogger community is under surveillance.

Anyone with info on nipr.mil or disa.mil is encouraged to email me. If I receive any interesting information, I will post it on this blog -- unless you ask me not to.

UPDATE: This seems to indicate that perhaps it really is just bored government employees surfing the web. And in fact, most of the people who seemed to think that the nipr.mil visits were part of a government surveillance conspiracy...well, let's just say they are the sort of people who think the government tracks our every move via the PATRIOT Act (and have never read the PATRIOT Act because they like their conspiracy idea).

2004-03-02T11:20:00.000-08:00

Paul Phillips and Shana Hiatt:
Many people have visited this blog via a Google search for "paul phillips blog."

World Poker Tour player Paul Phillips' blog is here.

Also, many visit looking for Shana Hiatt, "Shanna Hiatt", "Shana Hyatt", or something of the sort. There are pictures of Shana Hiatt on the link.

2004-02-26T10:15:00.000-08:00

My favorite moment of last night's broadcast:
"One of the reasons I started playing poker is because I thought it would help with my job." -- Alan Goehring

Goehring is a former junk bond analyst, but his quote is relevant regardless of his specific occupation.

Becoming a better poker player sharpens skills likely to help anyone in business, relationships, and life.

2004-02-25T16:51:00.000-08:00

Tonight's episode:
The WPT is on tonight on the Travel Channel at 8pm Eastern.

The table tonight:
Alan Goehring $2,597,000
Kirill Gerasimov $784,000
Phil Ivey $637,000
James Hoeppner $568,000
Doyle Brunson $522,000
Ted Forrest $445,000

These are all solid and aggressive players. This should be a good episode. Doyle is a legend. Goehring has has incredible results the past few years. Ivey is one of the best right now. Gerasimov is a hyperaggressive, tough-to-read player. And Forrest is possibly the best poker player you've never heard of.

And of course, we're sure to get some Shana Hiatt.

2004-02-22T00:18:00.000-08:00

Now YOU can be part owner of the World Poker Tour:
Here's the press release:

Lakes Entertainment, Inc. (Lakes) (Nasdaq:LACO) World Poker Tour, LLC announced today that it will seek to raise approximately $20 million through a newly formed corporation pursuant to an underwritten initial public offering of common stock at a price to be determined. It is expected that proceeds from the offering will be used to expand World Poker Tour's entertainment production business and for its working capital. There will be no selling shareholders participating in the offering.
This announcement does not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy securities. No registration statement relating to the securities proposed to be issued has been filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission and any offer to sell such securities will be made only by the prospectus to be included in the registration statement. This press release is being issued pursuant to and in accordance with Rule 135 under the Securities Act of 1933.