jdb74

...but now your side events count for something, instead of nothing. It shouldn't be a problem for the small time players to grind their way up to significant rakeback... much more valuable and usable rakeback than a $10 food voucher. There's no way this is a bad thing for the poker community.

PokerNews covered their "scandals" extensively. They are also mandated to cover when they make positive poker news as well. People change. Even people who have made past trangressions are capable of making positive contributions.

Yet another example of why a vote for the GOP is a vote against online poker, freedom and reasonable thought.

Regardless of intent, a lie is a lie. Duke, Pollack and others should offer up every cent they personally pocketed in this venture to the players who trusted them. They should at least get their buy-ins back if and when EPL fails.

ME trophy is a fantastic idea, but don't knock the Chip Reese trophy. It's the most beautiful trophy in the world. 7s and 4s baby!!!

I signed up under a false name. i advise all others to do so... but just sign the petition once, obviously.

This is a fantastic idea and venture on South Point's part... unfortunately it has to involve Zen Entertainment, which is the absolute worst and worthless software out there. It's frustrating how bad it is and he's way overstating the value of their promotions (some of which offer outdated prizes) and effectiveness and efficiency of their customer service.

You missed a big part of the challenge durr promotion... the freeroll tournaments that happen in between the cash game leaderboards and the Matrix SNG.

How exactly does this pertain to poker? Hope this guy is doing this for free while you lay off women that actually have the talent to talk about poker.

Ok, I'll say it... RaiseOnce = Phil Ivey?

Is Bertrand Grospellier not overseas enough for you? They gave him a chance, and he got in. Can't see what you have to complain about there. If "overseas" players want in... it's a worldwide vote. It only took 6k in votes to get in. If they want in, they need to work hard for it like Antonio Esfandiari and Jen Harman did.

I'm ok with keeping the voting exactly the same, but maybe expanding the number of tables (though I'm ok with just 3). It's up to WSOP and the players to properly promote the voting and themselves.

...and very few will be able to watch it because of this unfortunate partnership with ESPN3.

Great article, as always. I hope the Jason Merciers and Eric Baldwins keep giving voters reasons to look them up in future votes.

Tom Schneider should get some brownie points for 1)being a former POY, 2) making a deep run in the 2009 WSOP ME, and 3) the train wreck having his wife in the audience would bring to the broadcast.

Also, If you're not casting votes for the Phils because they don't need it... how can you justify still casting votes for Daniel and Dolly? That gets you room to vote for Schneider and Jeff Madsen, who has had a good year so far taking down a Borgata tournament or Freddy Deeb or John Phan, who bring definite name value, watchability and consistent wins at the WSOP and WPT.

Kudos to you for taking seriously my suggestion to reconsider Eric Baldwin. He's hot now and consistently improving every year at the WSOP.

I know this is personal choice, and I completely respect it... but you left off Eric Baldwin who has recently won a bracelet and made another final table... and is the reigning overall CardPlayer of the Year. He's cashed at least twice in the last three WSOPs, and has a final table in a circuit event.

When did it become a yellow jersey instead of a gold jersey? Was that some kind of shot?

Also... you should have seen the sick Moon-beat the winner put on Chris Ferguson to knock him out. AQ>AK

And like the good fanboy I am, I have to give a shoutout to Erick Lindgren for winning the tournament he hosted.

I agree with Michael, and I agree with Nichole... and that drives me extremely crazy.

People... stop trying to equate online poker with "live" poker. It's just not the same thing. Unless they let you play in a different mask each week, you see your opponent. It doesn't matter what name he chooses to call himself each week. You see him. You know him. You know what he did last week. He might not play the same, but if you can't adjust, that's your deficiency.

If you wanted online poker to be like "live" poker, you'd want people to not be able to change their screen names. But, I'm betting the same people are using all the PokerTracker, HoldemManager, PokerTableRatings, etc... while they're playing. That's definitely an advantage you won't get in a casino.

I guess I agree with Nicole more, because I only slightly care about my screen name. Sometimes, I think it gets me the right kind of action in the regular games I play where people have respect for me and are intimidated by my previous accomplishments... but usually I'm playing with people I've never played before, so having a screen name tied to my previous exploits just leaves me wide open to those who use software and databases.

I'm on record multiple times as considering their use cheating, at the very least dishonest. Poker shouldn't be about how much money you can spend on a program that will let you cull information on 20 tables without actually paying attention to all of them. If you can boil down someone's play to a pretty number or a letter grade, then go ahead and do that. I know these programs are "legal", well most of them, but if you dispute they're cheating, I dare you to inform players you are using one next time you play a ring game.

These enablers are killing the profitability of low and middle-stake games online. Progressing through the ranks takes forever since you never know when the last speed bump you hit was the cause of someone using an advantage like this and not just better play on their part. And when you give actually talented players access to this kind of info (i.e. Brian Hastings), watch out!

The money is always going to rise to the top of the food chain, I understand that and respect it. However, too much money is being siphoned off on the way by players who haven't earned their profitability.

Also... Joe Cada was seen on WWE Monday Night Raw in the front row while one wrestler was having an altercation with an official at ringside. I also thought I saw Dennis Phillips alongside him, but that is not confirmed. The show was in New York at Madison Square Garden, which is always one of the multi-billion dollar wrestling promotions biggest events of the year.

We saw Ivey toss a winning flush, Begs miscalculate his actual outs by a long shot and some play that could best be described as 'expert coin flipping' so I think that this is not a big strike against Moon.

Including some "expert coin flipping" that got Billy Kopp in that situation in the first place, as we saw in the last episodes leading up to the final table. The Ak vs QQ is what really killed his momentum and put him at risk for something like this. And with the final table just in his grasp, raising with 35 utg just is completely unnecessary. But I'm sure James Akenhead thanks him. He and Jordan Smith will kick themselves for a long time, no matter what they say in the press. Let the no-names impale themselves against Darvin Moon (and maybe even Moon himself will make the mistake) and lock-up that important November Nine spot. Kelly Kim and Craig Marquis may not have had many chips when they made it, but it's better than what makes us think about Dean Hamrick.

Georgi wrote

I think Kara Scott will do good job.

@jdb74 I don't know what to think about Phil Ivey's situation but... its very possible that he is right. I just can accept that it is coincidence that exactly Phil Ivey, exactly about 10 days before start of the WSOP FT made that mistake to create sensation about WSOPE ESPN episodes. This is just perfect to ESPN/WSOP and perfect things don't happens just like that by coincidence. They do sometimes but I'm not sure about this one...

You meant CAN'T accept, right? ESPN didn't make this hand happen when it did. This is right where they would have broadcast it, no matter whether they doctored it or not. Coincidences happen all the time in sports. We seem them with our own eyes all the time, live as they happen. Balls bounce off of players legs and into the hands of one of their teammates. Birds fly right in front of home plate at just the right moment to meet its doom in the form of a 99-mph fastball. 3/4 court shots do fall in right when a team needs it most.

I think it's much more likely he didn't want to show how weakly he played the hand against a player who had nothing... and wanted to see what he was willing to re-pop him light with. I've already seen quotes from him where he says he does this in games... cash games, obviously... I don't know if he would have done this on the biggest stage and on tv for everyone to see.

But it's classless how they're willing to cash the checks they make from the celebrity ESPN gives them... and then pull this mularkey when either he made a horrible error or was playing silly games.

I think I would consider suing Ivey, Greenstein and PokerRoad if I were ESPN.