All Africa Poker Tournament The winner of the All
Africa Poker Tournament wins a Million Rand and a seat in the World Series of Poker main event

All Africa Poker Tournament

The winner of the All Africa Poker Tournament wins a Million Rand and a seat in the World Series of Poker main event. Last year that title and that WSOP seat went to Raymond Rahme and he went on to place 3rd at the WSOP and add $3 Million US to his poker bankroll.

Raymond did not repeat his win at the AAPT this past week, he did place in the money and win 80,000 Rand. The new All Africa Champion is Greg Ronaldson, who at 24 years of age has ambitions next year to repeat or better the outstanding performance at the 2007 World Series of Poker of previous champion Rahme.

The All Africa event has held at Piggs Peak Casino in Swaziland; billed as the richest poker tournament on the Africa continent, this year three WSOP seats were awarded. Second place finisher, Michael Simoes will also be traveling to Las Vegas next summer, as will third place winner Daniel Callighan. The rest of the televised final table included Peter Kortleve, Jaco Mouton, Jaco Storm, Clyde Sham, Barry Shum, Hennie Appel and Andre Clark.

There is one more chance to win the All Africa title and participate in the 2008 WSOP, as the 12th edition of the tournament will be taking place February 28 to March 2, 2008 at Piggs Peak Casino.

Tony G takes down Moscow Millions

Tony G. took down the first prize at Moscow Millions on Sunday and immediately donated the entire first place prize money to a Moscow orphanage. The Moscow Millions tournament was beset by problems including Russian licensing issues and the loss of the main sponsor. Despite that the tournament boasted a prize pool in excess of half a million dollars and was a resounding success.

Tony G (Antanas Gouga)arrived late due to a minor medical issue and then lost a large portion of his stack early before making an impressive comeback that pushed him into the chiplead when the final table was seated. Tony is often associated with the "Bad Boy" image; like Phil Hellmuth, Mike Matusow, John-Robert Bellande and others; but in Tony's case it is clearly part of his game only. The image works well at the poker table but is just strategy.

I have worked for Tony, including daily coverage of his play at the 2006 WSOP, I can tell you that he is not only a great interview; he also would gave me tips on other hands and incidents at tables around him. It was always a pleasure to work for and with Tony. This is the second big prize win that Tony was donated this year; he did the same with his first place cash in Singapore earlier. completely class act for a 'bad boy'.

Another Game, Another Armed Robbery

The games around here used to have names like "Gaelic," "Depot," and "Spring Hotel." The next one will be the "O.K. Corral". The latest undergound game to face a gang of armed bandits is a tale of lessons unlearned... and the first appearance of Wyatt Earp.

I actually got curious about this one after EDDIE posted about his near miss on Sunday. He was ALMOST the dealer there. He slept late, after getting up early for a very rare visit to church, and missed the shots fired, cash stolen, no-pants party. (See Otis' Entries Below)

Here's the second of two comments to his post:

"Anonymous said...
Did you hear about the foiled attempt by the same robbers Wednesday night in Piedmont?"

HERE'S WHAT I NOW KNOW:

The game was one I've never played, but I think I've met the guy who runs it. They, of course, knew all about the other two armed robberies here in the past two months. All poker players in these parts know by now. STILL, according to my source, they almost got in trouble.

The game had a camera that looked over the door. The thugs covered it up. When they knocked, they were asked for a name. They gave EXACTLY THE SAME NAME they gave when robbing the "Black Stallion" game. STILL, someone opened the door.

Luckily, that someone (and probably some others) realized who was out there and got the door closed again. Then, they called police. In fact, there may have been a deputy playing IN the game at the time.

WHAT IT MEANS

Timeline:

2 months ago

Last Month

Sunday

Wednesday. This.

Crap.

Now police are on the case.

I don't play underground poker.

Online Poker Coming to Nevada?

While the long term fate of online poker in the United States and other countries around the world awaits the slow and tedious process of governmental regulation.....There is good news for residents of the State of Nevada, including those in Las Vegas. The State of Nevada may be acting to legalize online poker.

Long before the US Federal government passed the Unlawful Internet Gaming Enforcement Act (UIGEA), the State of Nevada was looking into the legalization and regulation of online gaming. The Nevada Legislature as early as 2003 tasked the Nevada Gaming Control Board with studying the question of Internet gambling and State regulation.

The Gaming Control Board has closely followed the development of software technology to locate and identity all gamblers using internet access to gaming sites; as well as age and identity verification technology. They are as aware as anyone that the necessary computer systems are available to control and regulate online gaming. While the Federal legislative process has dragged over the past year the State legislature has not pursued the idea of legal online gaming in Nevada, at least not until now.

Bonus Code IGGY on Party Poker, damnit!
What a week. Frazzled is an understatement.But I'm starting to get jazzed for Vegas and blogger shenanigans in December. I've taken a look at the list of attendees and things are looking superb. Can't wait to see ya'll in a few weeks.But for now, let's throw a little poker your way. It is what we do here, after all.Daniel Negreanu on Live vs Online PokerI actually went into the cesspool
Poker and The Meaning of Life

The University of South Dakota has offered its freshman class for a second year a course in poker; poker as a metaphor for life that is. The course is called: Utilizing Poker as Life: 101 Lessons from the World's Greatest Game. We certainly concur with that title and find the growing academic interest in poker to be most interesting.

Psychology Professor Doug Peterson and Instructor Steve Ward combine their knowledge of psychology, history, sociology, and statistics to provide an entertaining and informative look at poker. In addition, students in the course will organize and run a live poker tournament to raise money for a charity of their choosing.

Here is the course description from the University catalog:

This First Year Seminar is designed to help students enjoy their college experience, both academically and personally. The course aids students as they acquire and develop the skills necessary to reach their educational objectives. The Seminar will revolve around the life lessons that can be learned through playing and discussing the game of poker. Through these discussions and class activities related to the discussions, the students will practice skills that will enable them to succeed in their college courses. In addition, students will participate in the creation of a community poker tournament for charity. This project is designed to acclimate students to campus and community life and teach them the value of organization and preparation, all valuable tools for a college student.

The required text for the course is:

Schreiber, Lee Robert. Esquire. Poker as Life : 101 Lessons from the World's Greatest Game. New York: Hearst Books, 2004.

EU Attacks U.S. Online Gambling Legislation
Last year, the government all but closed down the market for online gambling in the U.S., a move that shut down several gaming companies across the globe. The U.S. used to account for approximately half of all Internet gambling revenues, it's unclear what that number is now, a year after restrictions were placed before credit card companies and online payment services. Foreign outlets were also
Hole Card Camera for Online Final Tables

Several online poker sites are going to show the hole cards of final table players in their bigger events. There are several reasons for this and several mechanisms for revealing the hole cards.

The first reason, that no online site is going to admit to, is security. After the fiasco at Absolute Poker last month, everyone wants to be bending over backwards to make it clear to the online players that everything is fair and secure. What better way to do that then to show every player's hole cards.

Now the "reason" the online site are giving is that it makes following a final table more interesting but that runs into a snag because you cannot show the hole cards in real time. (If you don't know why, stop reading now!). So the hole card reveal must be on some type of delay, which takes some of the fun out of watching the final table live. The WSOP encountered the same issues with its ill-fated Sequestrium this past summer.

So either the entire final table is shown with hole cards after the table play is complete OR there is some type of delay. The problem with just a delay is that players still at the final table can get information on how another player is playing hands in nearly real time.

So far the only sites using the hole card reveal are doing it with a delay until after the event is concluded, which takes us back to our original argument about this being all about security and very little about entertainment for the cyber-railbirds.

Liz Lieu Goes Back-to-Back

Liz Lieu, the poker player of many poker player's dreams, has gone back-to-back with final tables at the Asia Pacific Poker Tour in Macau, China.

The two big events in Macau were the $2,500 three day Main Event and the $15,000 two day High Roller event. Liz played them both and made the final table in both. The only player to reach both final tables.

Liz would probably tell you that this was a much needed showing after a long drought in her tournament poker play but the truth is that she continues to dominate the cash games where she loves to play. There is little or no reporting on cash games action in the poker media where the focus is on the TV tournaments.

But Liz is not back, she was never gone.

Poker Itch
"Luck is nothing but probability taken personally."UnknownIs there anything better than a Thanksgiving break? I think not.A few Guinness-fueled, tangential quick thoughts before getting back to business tomorrow.First off, I live on a 100+ acre horse farm. We have five mailboxes at the end of our very long driveway for the assorted families who live here. Thankfully over time, when I'm
Spring Hotel robbery update

"Where that chip money at? I love me some chip money!"

It's the one phrase Sunday night players at the Spring Hotel will probably remember for a long time. It's funny now to hear the players recount the words, imitate the robbers, and have the phrase "chip money" slowly sneak into the local poker lexicon. At the time, though, it was the farthest thing from funny. Because when the thugs who hijacked the Spring Hotel couldn't find the house bank (aka "chip money"), they fired their gun for the first time.

By Monday night, victims of the second Greenville poker robbery in two months were able to laugh about it and deny ever being actually scared or now emotionally scarred. I caught up with some of them Monday night where they were--no surprise--playing poker.

***

One player was sitting at the end of the table when he heard a commotion at the main entrance to the Spring Hotel. He looked up to see a player's girlfriend with a gun to her head. She'd been walking outside when the thugs jumped her. The robbers, one curiously tall, were all dressed in dark clothes, had their faces covered, and wore latex surgical gloves.

Immediately players recognized the MO. After the robbery two months ago at the Black Stallion, the story of how the robbers made everyone drop their pants had spread quickly through the poker community. The players at the Spring Hotel knew what was coming.

Within seconds they were all taking off their pants and noticing the oddest of details--how many people were wearing boxers versus briefs, what was written on the side of the gun, who was and who was not in the room. One player fumbled with his cash and phone and tried to drop them into his socks. He missed his target and tried to cover his money with his shoe. It worked until the robbers made the rounds around the table and started picking up everything. The player's shoe got moved and his money--a good score on its own for the thugs--sat in open view.

At first, it looked like the hijackers were going to be happy with their take out of the players' pockets. The money split among them, they were going to have a good night without taking any more. However, there was was clearly a leader among the group and he knew the score. He knew how to get there, he knew what kind of money was available, and he knew what to search for.

That's when he said it.

"Where that chip money at? I love me some chip money!"

Nobody said anything. It was likely the players themselves didn't know for sure where the money was. The dealer and the operators were mum. The robbers grew more agitated. The next thing the players would remember was the shot.

One of the operators was already on his knees. When the gun went off, the big man fell onto his chest and didn't move. Everyone--in their underwear--stood in shock.

"I thought, 'Someone's actually been shot in here,'" one player said.

The operator had not been shot, but no one knew that until he eventually turned his head to see the robbers searching the house. Finally, they found the cash they were looking for. Nearly sated, they headed for the door with the money, credit cards, cell phones, pants, belts, and at, as would later be inventoried, at least one shoe.

"Grab that suitcase," the lead robber said. "It looks expensive."

While it was clear the robbers had been tipped to the game and how it worked, they were still laughingly unaware of value. They grabbed a cheap metal chip case and headed for the door. Then, like a scene out of a wild west robbery, one of them fired a final shot in the air and the masked men disappeared into the night

Then began the frustrated inventory. Everyone had lost what was in their pockets. Blackberries full of contacts and months of unbacked-up data were gone. Keys, credit cards, drivers licenses, thousands of dollars, and clothing were all gone. So was one of the remaining bastions for poker players in G-Vegas.

While there is more to this story, it's nothing I can tell here. There's only so much that can be put in a public forum.

***

By Monday night, the laughter had returned. One player remarked how he expected to be jumpy and still shaking from the night before. Instead, he was just pissed off. He couldn't stop thinking about the robbers driving down the interstate, "thinking they were bad motherfuckers."

While bold, few people would call the robbers anything but opportunists. The cheapest form thievery is stealing from people you know won't shoot back or call the cops. However, bad motherfuckers or not, they got away and put another ding in the local poker community.

"You see my new phone? It's the 2007 Razor," said one player with mock pride at last night's game. He held up a brick of a cell-phone circa 2003, one he had pulled out of a drawer to replace the one he had stolen the night before. He fumbled with the key pad and mumbled, "Takes me ten minutes to send a text message on this thing."

Old school poker players will tell you, it's all part of the game. Getting raided or hijacked was just part of the territory. The old stories told by the Texas road gamblers are fun, legendary, and even a little romantic. However, when people you care about are staring down the barrel of a gun, the romance ends. The idea of attending the funeral of people that I consider friends is not something I consider the least bit fun.

A younger Otis, one with sick ideas of romantic danger and James Dean cum Christian Slater-like violent brooding, might have gotten off on the idea of having a gun shoved in his face and living to tell about it. This particular Otis, however, is much more content to suffer with lower back pain, an ulnar nerve tweak, and an expanding waistline as his bigger physical dangers. That is, this is a story that is intriguing to hear, but not one I want to tell again.

Because, in short, it's just not worth it.

Previously:

G-Vegas Spring Hotel poker game robbed
G-Vegas Black Stallion poker game robbed
G-Vegas Gaelic Game Raided
G-Vegas Gaelic Game Busted full story

A Bright, Shining Poker Voice: Annie Duke

Annie Duke testified in front of the US Congress this past week. My comments will follow in a few days; for now here are some excerpts of Ms. Duke's comments that I think should inform the current legislative discussion. Her entire testimony can be found in pdf.format here.

"Having the right to continue to pursue my profession, wherever I might choose to pursue it, is very important to me from both a financial standpoint but also from the broader perspective of freedom, personal responsibility and civil liberties."

Yes, if you read Annie's entire testimony you will hear parts of the "luck versus skill" arugment, however, I find the personal freedom argument more compelling and more essential to the rights of poker players everywhere.

What's new Peekachu?

My work friend Jarz turned me on to "Cowboy Junkies". The music is decent, the lyrics above average, something about it is pretty damn good though. I reccomend "Murder, tonight, in the trailer park".

I had knee surgery 2 weeks ago. It's still swollen. I feel like a 97 year old man. The pain pills aren't so bad.

I just won a rebuy tournament on Full Tilt. It cost $15. That includes a rebuy and the add-on. I roll it cheap like that.

Here's the damage done by the first seven picks in our big and very old fantasy football league :

1. Tomlinson (decent year, but not as dominant as before)
2. S. Jackson (meh)
3. F. Gore (meh)
4. L. Johnson (out)
5. J Addai (worthwhile)
6. Rudi Johnson (My Pick and worthless)
7. S Alexander (Otis..later traded to me. Worthless)

I got Adrian Peterson in the 4th. That WAS working out pretty well. Last week I had to depend on Maurice Morris. Who the hell is Maurice Morris? My team is 7-3-1.

I played at a friend's house a week or two ago. I lost $400. Once I ran KK into AA postflop. He got all creative like. The other time I just played like a fool.

I had worked out a trip to Vegas for the blogger gathering. I was planning to book the flight Monday, and asked the boss that morning. He said I could have that Thursday but not the Friday. That seemed kinda pointless but utterly typical.

I downloaded the "In Rainbows" album by Radiohead last week. For those who don't know, the band put it on their site and allowed the fans to decide what it was worth. Pay whatever you want or pay nothing. I've seen estimates about these fans and what they're up to. A good many just took it for free. I spend a good long while hating those "fans".

Then I downloaded the album to my laptop. For Free. I couldn't find my wallet at the time. I do, for what it's worth, feel pretty bad about it.

Actually, I can't find my wallet right now.

I kinda like my job again. I have a new co-anchor with a good sense of humor. I still don't see myself being a TV guy for the rest of my life. Anyone hiring in PeeArrr?

I have a bunch of those $75 dollar tokens on Full Tilt and now I regret acquiring them. I never play in $75 tournaments.

I miss Vegas. The next big trip for me will be CJs wedding. I'm really looking foreward to that. They have a casino. My best friends will all be there. I plan to get drunk. I plan to get historically....even legendarily drunk. I have a history in New Orleans.

I like the TV show "Weeds". I just watched the season finale. That woman is attractive.

I have to go now, to my daughter's end of season soccer banquet.

She'll get a trophy.

We all deserve a trophy.

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