pokerDialog Blog

Connecticut is crowded with gamblers from all over the world willing to get their cut in the 2009 World Poker Finals which began yesterday October 19th in Foxwoods Casino. The series constitute 20 Tournaments and the winner will have to cut his way through all the competitors and enjoy the Final $15.000 no- limit hold’em. The tournaments held will include no-limit hold’em, limit hold’em, seven-card stud, seven-card stud eight-or-better, pot-limit Omaha, Omaha eight-or-better, and H.O.S.E.

Apart from that there will be a ladies night with $400 no-limit hold’em and seniors $500 no-limit. Below you may find the complete list of tournaments with the final approved schedule:

Monday, Oct. 19: Event No. 1 ($300 no-limit hold’em shootout)
Tuesday, Oct. 20: Event No. 2 ($400 seven-card stud)
Wednesday, Oct. 21: Event No. 3 ($400 no-limit hold’em)
Thursday, Oct. 22: Event No. 4 ($400 Omaha eight-or-better)
Friday, Oct. 23: Event No. 5 ($500 seniors no-limit hold’em)
Saturday, Oct. 24: Event No. 6 ($500 H.O.S.E.)
Sunday, Oct. 25: Event No. 7 ($1,500 no-limit hold’em)
Monday, Oct. 26: Event No. 8 ($500 no-limit hold’em)
Tuesday, Oct. 27: Event No. 9 ($400 seven-card stud eight-or-better)
Wednesday, Oct. 28: Event No. 10 ($600 no-limit hold’em)
Thursday, Oct. 29: Event No. 11 ($400 limit hold’em)
Friday, Oct. 30: Event No. 12 ($1,000 no-limit hold’em)
Saturday, Oct. 31: Event No. 13 ($400 ladies no-limit hold’em)
Sunday, Nov. 1: Event No. 14 ($2,500 no-limit hold’em)
Monday, Nov. 2: Event No. 15 ($400 pot-limit Omaha)
Tuesday, Nov. 3: Event No. 16 ($5,000 no-limit hold’em)
Thursday, Nov. 5: Event No. 17 ($15,000 WPT no-limit hold’em championship)
Friday, Nov. 6: Event No. 18 ($1,000 no-limit hold’em survivor)
Saturday, Nov. 7: Event No. 19 ($1,000 no-limit hold’em)
Sunday, Nov. 8: Event No. 20 ($400 no-limit hold’em)

Dark times of economic decay have been said to force municipal executive to reconsider gambling bans on city territories. This is the case with Pennsylvania where gambling has been allowed recently and the budget with impressive numbers has been approved already.

Number of tables is still being negotiated but approximate calculation of the revenue the city is planning to receive constitutes $200mln. Last week the state senate forwarded table games bill 29-20 which the Legislators hope to have completed within a fortnight. The house should take the bill seriously as in case some amendments are made, the Senate will have to vote again.

However, the House spokesman Todd Eachus assured that he sees no issues and that the bill will be eventually signed.

Regarding the taxes the gambling facilities will have to pay the information is not provided as the initial 34% of the revenue a gambling house gains is way too big and the government promised to review the taxes and get them lower.

To manage the new gambling houses, the house control board requires approximately half a year, so we are planning to have world poker players visiting Pennsylvania this time next year.

Despite the fact that the budget was signed, some politicians declared that still they do not favor gambling in the city.

Good news for Mike Sextons and his fans as he is going to become a resident of the most prestigious fame halls in gambling world. The official announcement is planed to be made in a few weeks but unofficially he may start celebrating already.

Mike proved his talent by hundreds of hands he played lately and attracted the professional likes of Stu Ungar and Doyle Brunson.

The Poker Hall of Fame was founded back in 1979. A worthy candidate is chosen by the alive members of the prestigious wall who vote for a candidate they prefer given in a short list of the best poker players for the present moment. The lucky ones given in the short list are selected by the public and the fans who supported the players and constituted larger part of all other fan clubs. Initially the list comprised of 10 best players but Tom Dwan had to leave the champions list due to the commission’s verdict which stated that Tom was too young. Phil Ivey however simply failed to gain access to the lucky list of nominees. Here is a list of his companions who didn’t succeed in gaining access as well: Daniel Negreanu, Barry Greenstein, Tom McEvoy, Scotty Nguyen, Erik Seidel, Men “The Master” Nguyen, and Dan Harrington.

Apart from having multiple tournament rewards Mike is also famous for being voice of the WPT introducing new generation of gamblers whom we see competing nowadays.

The official announcement is planned to be held on November 7th at the final table of the WSOP event.

Congratulations Mike!

According to official sources GSN is planning to start recording High Stakes Poker Season 6 which will be available in early 2010. The new episodes will be having new co-host as A.J Benza left the show.

Since the Pilot of the show was first released back in 2006 the High Stakes Poker Show has proved to be the most popular entertaining show on TV. The mixture of high stakes, piles of cash on the tables and famous gamblers couldn’t but attract audience. Main hosts of the show were Benza and Kaplan who have gathered million fan crowds supporting them in their poker battles. People say, we mean, there are rumors, that on his leaving he suggested that the company should replace him with Vanesa Rousso.

The personal blog of AJ contains post telling how disappointed and angry he is with the company (details can be found in his blog). However he addresses his fans and says that there is still little hope as in case the female gambler fails to play her best, the company might ask him to come back offering him better conditions. But that might be only in High Stakes Poker 7.

Brandon Hall proved to be the best among other 474 gamblers who came to Aruba Poker Championship to try their luck.

With Chase Steely gaining the third place, Hall And Mizrachi agreed to the mutual beneficial deal leaving Mizrachi the Chip leader occupying second place and that they both would add $30.000 from their revenues to the actual winner whoever it would be.

The final hand brought disappointment to Robert as he failed to beat Brandon and had to please himself with the second place of the Poker Championship while Eric Baldwin was left with the forth result of the tournament though he was quite good competing Hall. He won $126.000 and seemed to be fine with the result of his success. Chase contented himself with the $220.000 he won ranking third in the battle for millions.

The overall table of Top 5 players

1. Brandon Hall
2. Robert Mizrachi
3. Chase Steely
4. Eric Baldwin
5. Jose Roberto Santos

Congratulations to Brandon and good luck in forthcoming championships.

Since the London events have ended and the players have nowhere to compete, they rushed into online poker. Gus Hanses tried to crush on Cole South but the last one succeeded to get back most part of what he lost previously.

There was a fine battle at Full Tilt room between Erik “DIN_FRU” Sagstrom and Phil Ivey. Erik was having fun beating everyone and finished the day with a $336k in his pocket, though he could have won much more if it were not for the Phil Ivey who suddenly rushed in to the game as if he knew some kind of secret and was not afraid of getting into trouble with Erik. The day brought him $1.1 million. Here is a short list of the players who were not that lucky to sit at the same table with Ivey: Tom “durrrr” Dwan, Cole South, Ilari “Ziigmund” Sahamies, Phil “OMGClayAiken” Galfond and Patrick Antonius.