Sit N Go Decathlon at Bwin

The good poker folks over at bwin put together an great idea for a poker promotion. A decathlon awarding (rewarding?) success for their top sit ‘n go players. The premise was pretty simple. Offering a $50,000 guaranteed prize pool with a 10k live event package for the winner the prizes were rewarded in bwin tickets for positions 2 through 200.

2nd place won a ton of tickets, two $500 tickets, a $300 ticket, a $200 ticket, five $100 tickets and five $50 tickets. The great part of this promotion was even spots 151 to 200 won tickets (a $50 ticket to each). 61 to 100 won two tickets. And above that each player was assured of at least 3 tickets.

Still, the best part of the promotion was the fact it was completely free. To qualify all you had to do was have a bwin account and take part in their free sit n gos. There were 10 different freeroll sit n go formats and the first sitting of each counted toward the leaderboard.

The player who achieved the most success over the ten different formats by accumulating points who the top prize. Not only that, you could play as many sit n gos as you liked afterward, for free, and of course your success could stymie somebody else’s. So you still had something to play for. Not sure if any players adopted that strategy to prevent oppponents from pointing in a particular format but they certainly had that option.

Perhaps, the winner will take the 10k package and turn it into an Aussie Millions buy-in and win Millions off a freeroll. This format is the first of its kind and allows for even a beginning player to build their bankroll by tackling the challenge. The prizes are so good that top players will vie with newcomers and players that normally couldn’t afford that kind of action get a chance to hone their skills with the best.

Look for results from the decathlon here.

Real Madrid and Bwin together again…

In a tough economic climate many of the world’s biggest clubs, those that regularly pepper Champions League broadcasts with star-studded rosters and highlight film worthy plays are actually improving their bottom line. Perhaps, none more impressive than the renewal of the partnership of bwin, a global betting and eGaming provider, and Real Madrid.
The new Galaticos which boast a roster of the world’s finest players including Christiano Ronaldo, Kaka, and Karim Benzama also have the world’s biggest payroll when it comes to football. The money has to come from somewhere.

Fortunately, bwin which views it’s deal as necassary to their bottom line as Real Madrid does to theirs, came through again with a lucrative sponsorship deal. Florentino Perez, President for Real Madrid commented stating that ‘International football needs partners like Bwin’.

The sponsorship deal between Bwin and nine times European champions Real Madrid continues their partnership until the end of the 2012 / 2013 season. Bwin, has over 20 million registered users, and will work hard with Real Madrid to promote both Football and the club.

Bwin was equally effusive saying that they were very proud to sponsor the worlds biggest football club and that they are linked together with far more than just a sponsorship deal. Their current Magic Moments of Poker tour is proof of that. Working with Real Madrid bwin was able to offer it’s poker players the rare opportunity to win a chance to train with the team as well as win their own sponsorship.

Football and bwin are a natural pair, as the world’s most popular sport football is the tentpole sport of all sports gambling. It’s been a good season for Real Madrid, as they forecasted a 3.5 percent increase in sales to 421.7 million euros ($621 million) because of ticket sales and other stadium-related income.

Meet the Stars of Real Madrid.

Bwin’s Magic Moments of Poker Tour is about to get a tad bit ridiculous. Maybe you’ve heard of Ronaldo or Kaka or Karim or Raul or Ruud… wouldn’t it be fun to train with them.

The Galacticos, some of the greatest soccer (football) players in the world don’t just wear bwin on the jerseys they are also going to be a part of bwin’s Magic Moments of Poker Tour, by hosting a meet and training session.

Jet off to Madrid, see the sites, take in some Real Madrid activities and then head over to a televised poker table to battle it out for the last ticket for the Magic Moments of Poker final. That’s a valuable ticket, and despite all the fun and enchantment Madrid might bring the ticket is the real prize.

Win that and you get to join back up with bwin at the Grand Final in Vienna. All that is up for grabs is a bwin Poker team sponsorship and a deal worth $100,000.

Here’s all the Magic Moments in Madrid:

Train at the Real Madrid training ground and meet the stars of the Spanish break the bank team. Perhaps, no bigger team in the world. Then, take a tour of the Santiago Bernabéu stadium and the Real Madrid museum. Oh yeah, you’ll also be able to venture out at night in Madrid. There are bad places to go out at night like: Baghdad or Mogadishu, and there are great places like Vegas or Madrid. After all that, you also get to experience a televised semi-final table.

The best par of the whole deal is you can register for freerolls and climb the ladder all the way to the Grand Prize final table having never wagered a dime. Or play a sit & go for as little as $4.40 for a chance to win a seat in the online final. The online final can also be bought into for $44.

How They Running?

Saw the Pokerbat has been running bad. Feel bad for the guy. Somebody not running bad is Chad Brown.

Vanessa Ruosso’s better half (of late in a purely poker sense) came to the Gulf Coast and beat up on the locals. He took down a Pot Limit Omaha title and then promptly bested local kid Tyler Smith heads up in the Main Event Championship.

Brown overcame a massive chip deficit to climb back into contention and from an early point at the final table it was pretty clear those two would be locking horns at the end.

Also running hot has been Phil Ivey. After crushing the World Series, and he’s still at it, in that event, Ivey has gone on to crush Poker After Dark’s cash game. Ivey is simply the stone cold nuts.

Running bad like the Poker Bat is Face the Ace. That show was simply terrible. Piss-poor in application, concept and entertainment. The fact that somebody is suing the producers of the show for stealing his idea is a bit like somebody suiing the Titanic for playing his song while the ship sunk.

Runningbad? Former NFL football players. 78 per cent of NFL players are bankrupt or in financial trouble within two years of retirement. They aren’t the only ones as all professional athletes face similar startling bloodletting of their cash. That mirrors the poor uneducated powerball winners or poker players that hit their big score too young to know what to do with the money.

Running bad? Gus Hansen. It appears the Great Dane has been spewing money online every since Peter Eastgate won the Main Event last year. Coincidence? Maybe not. Hansen got pushed off the pedestal of best Danish player for the moment and has been on tilt since. Eastgate won his Main Event at younger age than anybody before him and it might have affected his pysche. He’s bleeding money like a NFLer.

New Durrrr Challenge

Recently reignited is the Durrrr Challenge pitting Patrik Antonius and Tom Dwan in heads up online poker action. Featuring No Limit Hold ‘Em and Omaha Poker (Pot Limit). It fizzled for a little bit but came back with a vengence when Patrik cut into Durrrr’s lead this week.

That’s not the only challenge for Durrrr. It seems now, with the aid and money of a TV station, Durrrr is offering another to the entire world of poker. Players just have to join him in a made for television event. For those don’t get English TV don’t worry, there is always the internet.

Instead of an online challenge this one will be head to head, face to face in live play. We can only hope it is more like High Stakes Poker than Face the Ace.

The first contender Dwan travels to London to play is European Sammy George. George is a regular on poker TV in Europe. George and Dwan will both buy-in for 500k. No rebuys. The blinds will be static at $500/$1000.

The match will be broken into segments. Probably TV friendly is the reasoning behind the breakdown. The segments will each be 500 hands long. The match ends when one player wins all the money. Segments be damned. We suppose.

If after 2,000 hands there isn’t a winner, the chip stacks will determine who prevails. Just like the old challenge, Durrrr is offering his opponent a choice of Pot Limit Omaha or No Limit Hold ‘Em. Supposedly the chink in internet phenoms armors is their ample tells in live play. Wonder if George is skilled like a Daniel Negreanu in picking up on those.

Sammy “any two” George will certainly offer a great counter balance to Dwan. They both like to play “any two” cards and will be going multiple levels deep on any hand. Course this matchup might play better on a multi-table as heads up play kind of nessitates an any two card strategy and aggression. ,

George isn’t bashful about hyping the match up either. While he is quick to praise other pros, such as Dwan he’s been quoted as saying said “Guys like Durrrr … are normal … nothing special.” Wonder if Sammy George will say it to Durrrr’s face.

Floor Decisions Can Motivate a Player to Play Online

In live play, there is a huge factor of human error that can impact your poker career. Dealer errors are common, angle shooting players are almost as common, and floor people without a clue can all be problems. I know a player that sat down in a game in Atlantic City after a long night of gambling. There was a problem with an angle shooter mucking and then pulling his chips from the pot.

The floor had to be called. The floor ruled for the local guy. Later the exact same situation occured only problem there had been a shift change and there was a new guy in charge. Sure enough this guy ruled the opposite way. Course this time my friend was on the other side of things to. Despite his protests and the table joining him in saying the other guy had ruled a different way, the floor could not be swayed. So, effectively the floor ruled against him twice even if they had to contradcit themselves to do so.

In online play, there are no floor people contradicting other floor people. There are no dealer mistakes (sure there are software glitches but that’s far less common then a dealer delivering you pocket aces and then misdealing a second later invalidating the hand by pitching one of the table.) Also, there is not hiearchy of poker players with clout. The computer deals the cards and human error is minimized.

In live play some players have a little more clout than others. Some know the poker room well, and become more than table captains, they become pseudo-floor men. Dealers even defer to their decisions. My same friend was in a situation where a name player was seated at the table, and “ruled” one way. The dealer agreed with him, the floor agreed with him, despite the name player’s ruling being wrong and helping himself.

The name player declared a misdeal. This decision was made well after action had been completed by 6 other players. As soon as he said it. The button and small blind insta-mucked. Sure enough my friend was in the Big Blind and stared down at pocket aces.

In the online world this is a moot point. The dealer doesn’t misdeal, and the floormen don’t misrule because they aren’t there. Players don’t lord influence they don’t deserve (at least on the virtual felt) because computers don’t care who they are.

Daniel Negreanu Says Mike Sexton Not Me…

No, he wasn’t confused for the guy, even if both are great ambassadors of poker. Negreanu was answering his fans who are clamoring for him to be inducted in an early ballot for the hall of fame. Danny believes he’ll make the hall of fame one day, but for now the honor should be all Sexton’s.

Mike, the world renonwed voice of the WPT has done the impossible more than once. One he’s the expert but instead of burying the viewer in minutia he’s the one who kicks up the excitement. Two, Vince Van Patten now sounds like a competent Texas Hold ‘em poker player. Surely, his time in the booth with Sexton is reason why. Three, Sexton who was a shill for an online poker site, and has been recently resigned again by the same site, managed to both carry the broadcast and do ads without making the viewer feel inundated by one guy.

He’s also a pretty good poker player. He’s excelled in his era, the moneymaker era, and now the online era. Sexton can just as easily spin a yarn about Stu Unger, Phil Ivey, or Jonathan Little. He’s been there and seen it all. If anybody meets the criteria for the Hall of Fame it’s Sexton.

Negreanu makes many of the same points, and simply says he’s probably too young. As there is a clause in the Hall of Fame voting that puts a premium on experience Sexton does have that advantage on the talented Canadian. Negreanu, however, is an even bigger “poker” star without carrying a broadcast.

He’s a flame and the cameras are moths. He brings entertaining poker thought to televised hands that give insight many analysts can’t meet. Sexton probably can, but not many others. As Doyle Brunson also recently blogged his endorsement of Sexton it’s clear who the players think belong in their hall of fame. It’s Mike Sexton.

Watch Out for Cold Decks

Cool video about poker cheating.

In it there are a couple of factors that everybody that plays a home game or a bar game or any game where the players deal themselves should be aware of and I’m going to review them.

1. Who is dealing?

Usually players deal themselves so know your opponents. If you don’t know somebody and fishy things are happening on their deals beware. If a guy winning acts like he doesn’t know the guy who’s dealing him his winners yet drags big hand after big hand that doesn’t mean you are safe.

2. Cold Decks.

The term cold deck comes from inserting a presorted deck into the action. When this scam was done way back on the riverboat casinos people might catch on to the scam because the deck is genuinely colder. The non presorted deck heats up from being shuffled and dealt and the cards being in hands. The new deck is noticealbly colder.

3. The Switch.

Having a cold deck is one thing. Getting those presorted cards into play is another entirely. A vital element to cold decking is switching the new deck in. Most times it involves an accomplice, like in the video, a girl brought in a deck while waitressing.

In a real scam, they’d also need to get the old deck out. They could easily transfer out at the same time they put the new one in. The video loses some credibility a bit when the hustler is content to sit on a deck. At some point he’s got to get up and do something with the old deck.

4. The Mechanic

The truly worrisome part about poker cheating is the guy who can manipulate the cards. Cold decking is one thing, but mechanics are capable of false cuts, false shuffles, and a ton of tricks most amateurs can’t catch.

5. The Solution

Play poker online. Online poker under the engine of a reputable company is a safe place to learn. There are no cold decks, no mechanics, and no grifters playing at you. If you play online poker you don’t have to worry about the waitress smuggling something or the other guys sizing you up.

Bellagio Cup…

Six players raised, called, folded and shoved for over five hours, an nobody was eliminated in the Bellagio Cup. The final table dubbed by Eric “The Clown Prince of Poker” Seidel as one of the toughest ever, acted that way as nobody headed for the exits.

Sometimes when the first guy falls it turns on the spigot and the players drop like flies. Not so much for this year’s Bellagio Cup, as the players trickled away. Unfortunately to those watching in person that didn’t have a vested interest in the stakes, and didn’t know they were allowed to leave it took another five hours for Alexandre Gomes, a Brazilian pro, to win the Bellagio Cup V.

Gomes might have had some final table experience but he came in as underdog with the short stack. Gomes, specifically of Curitiba, Brazil, had 1,586,000 chips. Joining him as short stacks were the aforementioned Seidel, and Chirstoffer Sonesson, a Swede.

Above them in the chip standing were three relative new stars, Faraz Jaka, Justin Smith and Alec Torelli in the chip counts. Justin Smith, might have taken Seidel’s proclamation literally as he injured himself prior to busting out. Tough to do at a poker table but Smith did it.

Seidel left first, as his flush draw never came against Smith’s overpair to the board. Seidel pocketed 6th place money of 164k, surely not the amount he was after.

Later, the Swede, Sonesson’s pocket fours didn’t last against Gomes. The Brazilian’s AQ, sent Sonesson back to Lund, Sweden with 203k.

Jaka, came in as the chip leader in fact, was so for three days, and except a moment where he slipped to Gomes he was the chip leader for most of the final table. The slip up was short as Gomes doubled him again and Jaka had the big stack at the table anew.

Alec Torelli envied Jaka as his race with Gomes ended differently. AQ for Torelli stayed Ace high and lost to the Gomes’ pocket tens.

Justin Smith was the next to fall, literally and figuratively. As previously mentioned he blew out his knee, and he did so after some crazy ups and downs. He doubled twice in short order and took the chip lead. Foreboding was his fall in the celebration, as he tumbled to the ground in agony, BoostedJ having a BustedKnee. Kid doesn’t need to go to poker school but he and Martin Grammatica might need to learn how to celebrate.

Then the agony turned toward the poker and his AQ was pipped by Gomes’ AK. Jaka finished off Smith with pocket Kings. Smith held an overcard, the only overcard but it went unpaired. Smith would try and soothe his busted knee with the 464k for third.

The chiplead had reverted back to Gomes as Jaka and he entered heads-up play. The grind was on. Gomes gradually traded pots but always winning a little more. Finally, with a big lead the Brazilian got in with a better ace. Neither kicker paired and Brazil claimed the Bellagio Cup.

Faraz Jaka won 774k and Alexandre Gomes won 1.1 million.

Phil Ivey is Better at Poker Than You Are…

Okay we know that.

You don’t need me to tell you that.

You don’t need his sponsor to tell you that. 

You don’t need the World Series of Poker to tell you that.

You just need to watch the guy play.  He sees every angle, any flinch of weakness and zones in like no other.  In fact, he’s like the annoying naturally brilliant kid in class he never had to study yet still made As.  Ivey is so good at poker he’s bored by it.

He can’t take the World Series seriously, seriously, unless he has some serious money riding on prop bets.  He makes so much more playing the cash side games the tournaments are almost a burden, a contractual obligation to get his mug on TV for his sponsor.

Last year despite a slew of prop bets, he played like he had better places to go.  And he went there quickly.  This year, he’s come back with a vengence.  Why?  He doesn’t take losing well.  It’s probably why he keeps trying to beat craps and other casino leaks that the house has an edge on him (they say that’s why Jordan gambled so much, he didn’t understand the losing).

The problem for poker players, for you and I, is that Ivey isn’t giving up  an edge, in fact, when he’s on, nobody has an edge on him.  Perhaps, save the giant ego of Phil Hellmuth, there is not one single pro that doesn’t think in a dark corner of self-doubt in their own mind that Ivey is better. 

He simply is.  This year, he’s refocused and come back with a mission to make the world series his.  The prop bets he’s already won, the new ones he’s already made, are for millions and millions of dollars and yet he wants more.  It’s almost like Ivey has been sitting on a poker island somewhere biding his time to remind everybody how good he really is.

Darvin Moon and the rest of the November Nine better be careful because Ivey has that look in his eye.  That predator’s guile that he might slice and dice the remaining challenges in short order.  So what if he’s coming with a short stack.  He’s Phil Ivey and he’s a better poker player than anyone.