The Nightly Turbo: Barry Greenstein Clears Things Up, High Stakes Poker Host Confirmation, and More

October 30 2009, Elaine Chaivarlis

It's Friday. Halloween is tomorrow. We're ready to tell you the news so we can go play dress-up.

In Case You Missed It

We really like movies and we really like poker. Sometimes quotes from a movie speak to us about poker strategy. That's why we like bringing you From the Big Screen to the Final Table. Go ahead and check out what "New Jack City" has to do with poker.

There's a new name in the nosebleeds on Full Tilt Poker and we tell you who's up and who's down. Find out in the Online Railbird Report.

It seems like the World Poker Tour is a hot commodity these days. Every time we turn around there's a new bidder for the company. Mandalay Media is the newest one on the block.

Though ruthless on the felt, poker players do have a heart. We've set up a charity poker tournament on PokerStars to raise awareness of breast cancer. The top 50 finishers will win something (besides the gratification of helping others) and by the way, we've had some really cool prizes donated. Read The Bad Beat on Cancer Poker Challenge Set for Nov. 12 for more details.

Greenstein Sets the Record Straight

Many of you have been wondering how the heck Phil Ivey could muck the winning hand like he did on this week's WSOP coverage on ESPN. If you don't know what we're talking about, you've been living under a rock and should go here and here before proceeding further.

Ivey's bestie, Barry Greenstein, takes to his blog on PokerRoad to give us the inside scoop on where Ivey's head was at that moment. Did he know he folded the winning hand? Has anyone called to make fun of him? Would anyone actually make fun of Ivey? That's like making fun of God.

Phil asked Barry if there was a way ESPN could have doctored the hands because he couldn't remember there being four spades on the board. According to Barry, what was going through Phil's head was this: "he wanted to see what the guy had re-raised him with and he saw the guy had re-raised him with A9 offsuit and that's what he was actually looking at. He wasn't even looking at the board. He was looking at the guys hand and saying 'what the heck is this guy doing re-raising with A9 offsuit.'"

Hear all of The Bear Blog at PokerRoad.com.

Internet Gambling Could Produce A Lot of Revenue

The whole legalization of online gambling thing seems like a no-brainer to us. We might be a little biased though, but let's not focus on that. Congress is still trying to figure out whether it's a good idea to get behind the legalization and regulation of Internet gambling.

Money talks on The Hill and it would be really hard to say no to $42 billion in new revenue that could be generated if Congress legalized Internet gambling. Jim McDermott (D-WA) introduced an analysis that says up to $42 billion would be generated in over ten years if the Internet gambling legislation passed as it is proposed. With Congress trying to figure out how to pay for health care reform and other programs, we don't see how they can't consider this.

“This analysis further reinforces the fact that a regulated environment will generate billions in new revenue to offset the costs of health care reform or other vital government programs,” said Michael Waxman, spokesperson for the Safe and Secure Internet Gambling Initiative. “With the completed analysis, and support for Internet gambling regulation growing daily, it’s only a matter of time before Congress acts and begins allocating the billions in new revenue sitting on the table to one program or another.”

To find out more go to SafeAndSecureig.org.

High Stakes Poker: Host Confirmed

Our little birdie is back, whispering sweet nothings into our ears. There's not a lot to tell you here, except that PokerNews is confirming that Kara Scott will be replacing AJ Benza on "High Stakes Poker" when filming starts in November.

Thanks little bluebird. See you next time.

Caesars Palace Classic

The Caesars Palace Classic crowned a winner yesterday. Issac "westmenloAA" Baron bested 162 players in the three-day event taking home $250,000.

Final Table Results

1. Issac Baron - $250,000
2. Michael Benvenuti - $129,562
3. Glen Chorny - $76,213
4. Alex Keating - $60,970
5. Jimmy Tran - $45,728
6. Erik Nomberg - $38,106
7. Theo Tran - $30,485
8. Kathy Liebert - $22,864
9. Mark Ketteringham - $15,243
10. Chris Bjorn - $12,194

Find out more at CardPlayer.com.

Happy Halloween

Sometimes tricks backfire and you get a different kind of treat, like this guy found out. We'd like to thank Scott Huff (@ScottBHuff) for this gem. That's it for this edition of The Nightly Turbo. Hope everyone has a wonderful and scary Halloween and we'll see you next week.

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Comments

jdb74
11-01-2009 16:04

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.

Georgi
11-01-2009 01:29

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...

jdb74
10-30-2009 22:12

Nice Bear... Your boy, the Patron Saint of Poker screws up with the hopes and prayers of poker pros everywhere on the line... and sure, let's just create an ESPN conspiracy because there's no way we can just put it all on him. It's a poor poker culture cultivated by those at the highest level and it trickles down and degenerates further to the small daily and nightly games running everywhere. I watched Bellande and Hellmuth spar over who needed to turn over their hand and it made me quite ill. I think it's much more likely he wanted to see his hand... if Ivey says he has a flush first, or just turns over his cards like he's supposed to... the other guy mucks. Ivey probably never gets to see what the guy was holding when he tried to raise him off the hand. Maybe that information was worth $2 million chips... but I highly doubt he thinks that now.

I'm really embarrassed to be a poker player sometimes when I see such things, whether it's from a poker pro or some guy down at the bowling alley. Can we just play good poker and respect each other? Stop trying to screw each other over with HUDs and angle shoots? Some edges just aren't worth it.

/rant