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• A.M. SCRAMBLE: The Beat Does Not Go On, November Nine Reunion, Twitter Wants Peace
• The Nightly Turbo: NBC National Heads-Up Championship, the Story Behind Ashton Griffin’s Million Dollar Prop Bet, and More
• WSOP Europe Moves To Cannes — Wicked Chops Poker
• 70 Miles, 24 Hours, $1 Million
• A.M. SCRAMBLE: Eastgate’s Coming Back, The Million Dollar Bet, PokerStars Goes Greek
• California Republican Partners with Barney Frank to Re-introduce Federal Regulation Bill Campbell to represent at online gambling summit in San Francisco

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• The Micros Facebook Fan Page and YouTube – TheMicrosPoker’s Channel
• BLUFF Reader’s Choice Awards: And The Winners Are … Bluff Magazine
• Will Jeffrey Pollack’s Federated Poker League Work? Wicked Chops Poker
• Russ Hamilton Heckled in Gulfstream Poker Room PokerNews
• PokerStars.net North American Poker Tour Announces First Three Stops of Season 2 PokerNews
• Aussie Millions: Erik Seidel Wins Biggest Buy-In Tournament in History Bluff Magazine
• 2011 WSOP Schedule Player Reactions Poker News Daily
• PokerStars Launch Fifty50 Sit & Go Tournaments PokerNews
• Isildur1 vs. Daniel Jungleman12 Cates in Next SuperStar Showdown Bluff Magazine

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Annie Duke and Jeffrey Pollack Launch New Professional Poker League

Article by Kevin Mathers, Bluff Magazine

• Duke and Pollack are starting a poker league that will consist of players that have to earn their way in through live play results.

WPT Season 9 Air Dates Announced

Article by Dan Cypra, Poker News Daily

• New season of the World Poker Tour will air on Fox Sports Net Sunday, February 13th.

The Fight: New Jersey First State to Pass Intrastate Online Gambling Legislation

Article by Kevin Mathers, Bluff Magazine

• NJ State Legislature approved Senate Bill S490 to create the first intrastate online gambling sites in the country.

PCA: Galen Hall Upsets Chris Oliver to Pick Up Main Event Victory

Article by Jessica Welman, Bluff Magazine

• Galen Hall overcomes Chris Oliver’s big chip lead to win the PCA Main Event.

Poker TV Guide: January 17-23

Article by Kevin Mathers, Bluff Magazine

• Kevmath runs down the list of poker shows for the week ending 1/23/11.

The Nightly Turbo: Eastgate’s WSOP Bracelet Winning Bidder Revealed, Tony G Wants a Rematch, and More

Article by Elaine Chaivarlis, Poker News

• “Well, the mystery bidder has revealed himself — it was Scottish businessman William Haughey who will have the shiny piece of jewelry to look at. In the last few years alone, Haughey has donated over $50 million (he’s worth about $238 million thanks to his refrigeration company called City Refrigeration Holdings) to charities and said the reason he bought the bracelet was because Eastgate had vowed to donate the proceeds to charity. He’s also a bit of a poker player, having cashed at the WSOP four times and won a European Poker Tour Grand Final side event in 2008.”

East Coast Poker: Borgata Winter Poker Open, Foxwoods Mega Stack Challenge and More

Article by Donnie Peters, Poker News

• “The Borgata Winter Open 2011 runs from January 19 through February 4, 2011. Over 25 events are on the schedule and there’s definitely a little bit of something for everyone.”
• “On Feb. 4, 2011, another installment of the Foxwoods Mega Stack Challenge comes around with six events. The buy-ins range from $120 all the way up to a $1,200 Main Event.”
• Entire Noveber Nine will be hosting the event and playing in a $15,000 freeroll with qualifiers from daily events at Foxwoods.

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PCA: Katchalov Bests Negreanu to Claim Super High Roller Win

Article by Jess Welman, Bluff Magazine

• Eugene Katchalov takes down the PCA super high-roller event and banks $1.5million
• Negreanu retakes the all-time tournament winnings lead with 2nd place and $1million

PCA: Ana Marquez Leads Main with Moneymaker Right Behind

Article by Jess Welman, Bluff Magazine

• Chip leader heading into Day 5 with 3,805,000.
• Team PokerStars Pro Chris Moneymaker right behind her with 3,765,000

PCA: Record-Setting Main Event Field of 1,560 Players

Article by Jess Welman, Bluff Magazine

• PCA sets new record with 1,529 players.
• 8-handed final table guarantees each player atleast $200,000.

The Week That Was: UB Signs Prahlad, Durrrr Challenge, PCA Super High Roller

Article by Kevin Mathers, Bluff Magazine

• Prahlad Friedman signs with UB
• Tom Dwan down over $300,000 to Jungleman12 during session, down $822,000 overall.

Ivey, Mercier, Marchese top December ranks

Article by Andrew Feldman, ESPN

• Tom Marchese and Vanessa Selbst move up 3 spots to 3rd and 5th respectively
• Grinder drops from 3rd to 7th
• From collaborator (and Bluff Magazine Editor) Lance Bradley: “The list has five new players from the start of 2010, and it’s a reflection of how quickly things can change in poker. That being said, the two constants continue to be Ivey and Mercier, who are simply dominating. Maybe Mercier can continue his strong play and push Ivey off the top spot in 2011.”

Isildur1 wins SuperStar Showdown match

Article by Andrew Feldman, ESPN

• Isildur1 (aka Viktor Blom) defeats Tony G in the heads up showdown on PokerStars.
• With the win, Isildur1 goes to 1-1 in his SuperStar Showdown

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November Nine'er and DeepStacks Pro Instructor, Michael "The Grinder" Mizrachi

You know that guy “The Grinder”?  That Mizrachi guy who won the $50k Players Championship at the World Series of Poker this summer?  That guy who made 4 final tables at this year’s WSOP?  That guy who has about $10 Million in career live poker tournament winnings?  Oh, and that guy who is going to take a seat at this year’s final table of the Main Event of the World Series of Poker?  Yeah, that Grinder.  Well, he wants to teach you how to play poker his way, courtesy of DeepStacks University.

Coming off of a banner year at the WSOP, Michael “The Grinder” Mizrachi signed on to become a DeepStacks University Professor, adding to their stable of unbelievable coaches a talent that has been crushing live tournament, cash, and online poker tables for the last 6 years.  His track record includes 2 WPT Titles in addition to his WSOP Bracelet this year, and a chance at making poker history in perhaps the greatest double of all time when the WSOP Main Event final table resumes next weekend.

Starting today, October 29th and running through November 1st, Full Tilt Poker will twice a day be running $5+.50 satellites into the DeepStacks360 Power Poker Course with Michael “The Grinder” Mizrachi as the instructor.  The course will be conducted on November 3rd, just days before Mizrachi plays against the rest of the November 9.

So how do you get in?

To get started, you need a Full Tilt Poker account (Click here to get set up with Rakeback).  Once you’ve done so, log in to Full Tilt Poker and follow 3 steps to register for the DeepStacks360 Satellite that you want to play.

1. Open the Lobby menu at the top of the Full Tilt Poker game lobby and select “Choose Lobby View > Standard View
2. Set the filters in the browser area to Tournament > ALL > ALL > All Types and Low
3. Scroll down the game list and look for the green color-coded tournament labeled “DeepStacks360 Course Satellite”, and register for the tournament.

The tournaments are running twice daily at 16:15 EST and 21:45 EST and winners will receive notification on how to claim their prize via email.

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Here is a list of devices that can run the beta as of this writing:

• Acer Liquid Stream S110
• HTC Desire
• HTC Droid Incredible
• HTC Evo 4G
• HTC Google Nexus One
• HTC Desire HD
• Motorola Droid 2
• Motorola Droid Pro / Droid 2 World Edition
• Motorola Droid X
• T-Mobile G2
• Dell Streak

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Billed as a “sudden death” matchup, the single table satellite will be comprised of players that have extraordinary poker achievements, but were not eligible to be voted on during the fan voting process.  Eligibility included being a bracelet winner of a prior WSOP event.   The 9 combatants who will battle for a seat at the final WSOP TOC event will be Tom “Durrrr” Dwan, Andy Bloch, Bertrand “ElKy” Grosspellier, Gus Hansen, Sorel Mizzi, Michael “The Grinder” Mizrachi, Liv Boeree, Paul Wasicka, and actor Don Cheadle.

“I’m happy to have the opportunity to win an invitation to the TOC,” says Full Tilt Poker pro Andy Bloch.  While Andy has finished runner up on two separate occasions, and has multiple cashes at prior WSOP events, the bracelet has thus far eluded him.  “When the voting first started, I heard from people who were disappointed to find out they couldn’t vote for me,” Bloch says.  “Though I have over $2 million in WSOP winnings, more than most people with bracelets, I wasn’t on the ballot because I didn’t win any of the 5 all-in pots that would have given me a bracelet.”

The competition at the table will certainly be fierce, as it features several incredible players.  Tom Dwan, arguably the best cash game player today, and certainly the individual with the most success at the high stakes online games already saw a runner up finish this year.  Michael Mizrachi won his first bracelet in the $50,000 Players Championship, and followed that performance with a final table at the 7-card stud championship.  Former WPT Player’s of the Year Bertrand Grosspellier and Gus Hansen, and EPT Champion Liv Boeree, as well as 2006 WSOP Main Event runner up, and NBC Heads up Champion Paul Wasicka, and the current Bluff Player of the Year Sorel Mizzi.

“Winning the entry won’t be easy.  These are some of the toughest players in the world,” said Bloch.  “I’m even looking forward to watching it on the WSOP Academy afterwards.  The video should be exciting and a great learning tool.”

The sponsor’s exemption tournament will be filmed for exclusive use by the WSOP academy.  Ali Nejad and 11 time bracelet winner Phil Hellmuth will provide hand-by-hand analysis and expert commentary of the tournament.  The content will be available to WSOP Academy customers through its website and live events, according to the WSOP.com site.

While 8 of the invitees are recognizable for their poker accolades, actor Don Cheadle has raised some eyebrows with no recognizable poker cashes to date.  However, the philanthropic Cheadle has been instrumental along with the WSOP in placing together the Ante Up For Africa events, and recruiting celebrities to participate.  His inclusion however has other players questioning the selection process for the event.  “One bracelet winner asked me if I thought it was fair that non-bracelet winners were going to be allowed to play for a seat,” said Andy Bloch.  “The WSOP is putting up the money and it’s up to the WSOP to set the qualifications, and they never represented that the two remaining exemptions would have to have bracelets.  The WSOP didn’t change the rules.”

With so many deserving players, many have used the voting process as a platform for charities, pledging all of their winnings from the event to different charities, which is likely where the nomination of Cheadle comes in.  Says Bloch “I understand the argument, so if I do win the seat and make any money, I’m going to donate 100% of my winnings to charity.”

The single table qualifying event will play on June 10^th at 12 noon PST, while the Tournament of Champions event is scheduled to begin on June 27^th at 12 noon PST.

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Event #2: $50K Players Championship

Michael “The Grinder” Mizrachi used a late chip surge to take over the chip lead at the featured table, raising his chip total to one of the 6 players above the $1 million mark.  His stack of 1,483,00 was tops on the day, just slightly ahead of Russian Vladimir Schmelev, who also finished the day with 1,432,000.

Probably the most active player was Full Tilt Pro David Oppenheim, who in a span of nearly 10 minutes sent both Cole ‘CTS’ South and Chris ‘Jesus’ Ferguson to the rail, with South moving all in for the rest of his chips with pocket 8’s in a NLHE hand, and Oppenheim calling with AK.  An Ace hit the flop sending the high stakes grinder to the rail.  Then Chris Ferguson would move all in on PLO hand with the flop of 8-6-x with two clubs.  Oppenheim snap called showing two pair (8’s and 6’s) and Ferguson showed the over flush draw with no re-draws. The turn card filled up Oppenheim when an 8 hit, and Ferguson was eliminated.  Oppenheim is currently 3^rd in chips with 1,340,000

Also sent to the rail on Day 3 included the likes of Doyle Brunson, Scott Clements, and Joe Serok, and eliminated early in the day was Phil Ivey.  Action gets back underway at 3pm in the Amazon Room, and play will continue until we reach a final table.

Event #3: $1K NLHE

In the Pavillion room, it was thought that play would move along so quickly that players from day 1a of event #3, the $1,000 NLHE event would return to day 2 already in the money.  A total of 1,744 players participated in day 1b, to join the 2,601 players from day 1a, to make the field size a total of 4,345.  But with 276 making it through the 10 levels of play in day 1a, it was thought that day 1b could have potentially enough eliminations to reach the money bubble, creating quite the stir among players in the field.  Thankfully, play slowed considerably over the last 2 levels of play, and when the nigh completed,  207 players bagged their chips, and will rejoin the group from day 1a under 1 roof at 2:30pm.   Braxton Dunaway appears to have the chip lead by a narrow margin over Thomas Jonides, Matt Berkey, and T.J. Boytor.

Event #4: $1.5K Omaha Hi-Low Split-8 or Better

Finally, 820 players took action in event #4, the Omaha 8-or-better split, and the board read 297 players when play completed for the night.  Many of the players that were eliminated early from the $50k and the $1k events showed up to play in event  #4, fuelling the numbers for this event.  Some notables included late arrival, and early exit of Tom Dwan, and other busts included Justin Bonomo, Matt Savage, and Daniel Negreanu.

Amnon Filippi looks to have taken about 30k chips into the close of the day, and David Bach bagged up about 39k.  Players will resume action at 3pm tomorrow.

Also in action today will be event #5, the $1,500 buy in NLHE event, which promises to draw a strong field.  For updates and pics from the floor, check out my twitter feed (@coolwhipflea) to bring you all of the action live from the Rio in Las Vegas.

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Former Tournament director Jack McClelland was also in the field today, finishing the event in 19^th place.  McClelland moved all in for the last of his chips with AK, and found a caller with JJ.  The flop produced an Ace, and the turn card a K, but the river J sent McClelland to the rail. 

In event #2, the $50,000 buy in Players Championship, action really heated up as 54 players made it to the end of day 2 with chips.  Among the leaders are Kirk Morrison who bagged more chips than anyone with 741,000.  Andy Bloch, who finished runner up in this event’s inaugural event to the great Chip Reese, is currently 2^nd in chips with 716,500.  Rounding out the top 5 in chips is Michael Thuritz (697,500), Nick Shulman (683,000) and Day 1 chip leader Erick Sagstrom (656,000) continue to run well for the second consecutive day.  Other players that didn’t fare quite as well, and found themselves on their way to other tournaments included the likes of Daniel Negreanu, Phil Hellmuth Jr., Greg Raymer, Michael Binger, and Huck Seed.  Players will resume play again in the Amazon room for day 2 at 3pm.

Event #3 also got underway at noon, and the $1,000 No Limit Hold’em event drew quite the crowd of players.  Announcing “Shuffle up and deal” and then joining the field was reigning WSOP Main Event Champion, Joe Cada.  Cada was one of the 2,615 players that saw action on Saturday, but wasn’t one of the 290 who would advance to day 2.  Because the field size was so large, there are 2 different starting days to accommodate the size of the massive field.  With Day 1a completed, Day 1b will begin on Sunday at noon, with both days meeting together on day 2 on Monday.  Among the biggest chips to end the day were Terry Fleischer, who emerged the chip leader with 119,300 chips, and Nancy Todd Tyner with 103,000, and were the only two players to get over the 100k mark.  Other notable survivors included Vanessa Rousso (25,700), Amarillo Slim Preston (58,700), and Joe Seebok (17,800). 

Tomorrow, Event 3 continues with Day 1b, and Event 4 gets underway which is the $1,500 buy in Omaha Hi-Low Split-8 or Better event.  Continue to check the TPT Site for updated information and exclusive interviews and photo’s to come, and follow me (@coolwhipflea) on twitter to get exclusive updates and photos that no one else can bring you from the floor of the World Series of Poker.

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