ZeeJustin Makes a Statement

Well ZeeJustin is back in the news again and this time he came out and gave an apology for his actions. Good for him for coming out and giving the real side of the story. He knows what he did was wrong, and I'm sure there are a bunch of other guys out there right now doing the same thing he and JJProdigy did, and just haven't got caught. I would like to think that these guys would stop now that they know they can be caught and the penalties that will follow. Even with ZeeJustin's apologies his fellow online poker player's are not going to forgive him or his actions any time soon, and when you think about it why should we. He took potential prize money away from all of us who are playing the game legitimately. Online poker is tough enough to win and be successful in its own right let alone having to deal with guys cheating. Trust me if this guy cost me a bunch of money playing in tournaments I would not accept his apology. However, I am glad that he decided to come out and give the rest of the online poker world an explanation for his wrong doings.

Here are some excerpts from ZeeJustin's statement:

For those of you that aren’t aware of the situation, I recently got caught by PartyPoker and PokerStars using multiple accounts in tournaments. There were six different PartyPoker accounts that I used. For big tournaments, I would often use these accounts to enter a single tournament with four entries. (I used all six once or twice, but generally used four) I did this by exploiting a bug which let you open multiple PartyPoker clients on your computer simply by clicking on the icon rapidly. On PokerStars, I had a single extra account which was mostly used by people other than me, but occasionally I did use it to double enter large PokerStars tournaments.

At that time, I unfortunately did not realize that what I was doing was unethical. For starters, many of the poker players that I have learned from were using the same practice. This obviously doesn’t make it ok, but I wasn’t questioning it at the time. Until recently; this wasn’t a well hidden fact. People seemed to accept it as ok and talked about it in the open.

Also, the idea was NOT to collude or chip dump with myself in any way. I only multi accounted in tournaments with thousands of players where it would be very unlikely for me to ever end up at the same table as myself. If the goal was collusion, I would have multi-entered smaller tournaments like sit’n’gos. This is something that I have never done.

I don’t think Party handled the situation as well as they could have. The money taken from me was won legitimately, almost entirely from sit’n’gos. None of the other accounts I used had any big tournament scores; in fact, they lost money overall in the few tournaments that they entered. Party has a zero tolerance policy which in my opinion is unfair. If I had only double entered a single $10 tournament, by the same policy, that would be grounds for them to confiscate $100,000 from me which seems unreasonable. The punishment was arbitrary, and no investigation was done to determine a reasonable adjustment. I feel like the amount of my punishment has been determined by what was in my account, rather than by what a thorough investigation would have determined.

Some players have begun to question my two recent tournament wins. Lee Jones publicly stated the following, “His big tournament win on PokerStars was legitimate (we checked it carefully).” PartyPoker has not made any similar statements, but my second place finish in the million guaranteed was legitimate as well. I have the hand histories to prove this.

I have many friends that have multi-accounted tournaments in the past. To my knowledge, they have all stopped, but I want to encourage them to talk to me if they still do it. I will explain to them exactly why it is wrong on both an ethical and practical level.

For starters, it is against the spirit of the game. In poker, there should be no situation where you have knowledge of more than one hand. Even the chance of this occurring is against the spirit of the game. It doesn’t matter if there’s a 9/10 chance or a 1/10,000 chance of ending up at the same table as yourself; that chance existing is against the spirit of the game.

It also leads to many gray areas in terms of ethics that should not exist at all. How many accounts is it ok to play with? Is two any better than fifty? What number of players in the tournament makes it ok? It’s obviously wrong in a 10 player tournament, but what about 100, 1,000 or 10,000? There is no one number at which you can draw a line and say, with 673 players or more it’s ok. Also, if you do happen to wind up at the same table as yourself, what is proper protocol? Should you try to play normal? Should you sit one account out? What if there are 5 people at your table each with two accounts making up ten players? Is there any way that game can be on the level? The answer to these questions isn’t important. What’s important is that you should never have to ask these questions in poker. There should be no gray area.

Most importantly, I’ve been thinking a lot about my character. In general, I’m a nice guy. I always try to be respectful of other people, and I’ve never stolen anything in my life. I’ve always wanted to be viewed as an ethical citizen, and up until recently, I believe I’ve deserved that view. Because of my actions, that’s no longer the case. My reputation has always been extremely important to me, but now I’ve compromised that. I’ve been getting a lot of heat lately, and I deserve it. I’ve been a huge hypocrite, and I didn’t realize it until recently. There is now a cloud over my poker accomplishments, and I vow to be the person I need to be to earn back trust in the poker community.

As for what the future holds, I’m not entirely sure. No matter what, I will return to poker. Poker has been my passion, and I can’t picture myself doing anything else. I hope that I can one day reclaim my reputation. Obviously this will take years and not days, and I accept this.


Obviously, whenever you see ZeeJustin's name come up in a discussion or a topic on any of the message boards you will see a lot and I mean a lot of comments on the topic. With this latest statement the message board community was going wild and here are a few the topics:

TwoPlusTwo Forums

NeverWin Poker

PocketFives


Full Contact Poker

Well another PokerParty at the expense of ZeeJustin has occurred and I hope that for all those chiefs still out there multi accounting you get busted and harsher penalties delivered to you. Multi accounting is flat out wrong and I hope someone is able to finally put a stop to it all.

This blog post was brought to you by the bonus code 20BR on PartyPoker.

Poker is not Dead

For all those people that continue to believe that poker is dying, or atleast in its dying stages are completely off. There was the great news reporter from the New York Post, Ryan Berger, and he came out and said because poker has hit the main stream (ie. the Pepsi Ad) it is now doomed. That is another great observation coming from the writers at the Post and it couldn't be further from the truth. Anyways, poker is not dying and if you look at last years online poker stats you will see that it is not dying. Here is an excerpt from Wil Wheaton's blog on the stats in the last year.

"Poker had its biggest year ever in 2005 reaching total Buy-ins of over $376 Million. Poker continued on its record setting pace to start 2006, with back to back record months. February buy-in dollars reached $25.8 Million, the best February ever recorded. This record comes on the heels of the fifth biggest month all-time in poker as January 2006 buy-ins grew 36% over January 2005 with buy-ins of over $38 Million."

So, Ryan Berger the next time you come up with some assinine article, maybe you should, just maybe, check the stats first. Stats don't lie, and these stats show that poker is continuing to skyrocket.

For those that frequent the discussion boards at pocketfives.com you should be glad to hear that the poker podcast is pretty much ready to go. They are going to be having segments on online poker, with special guests appearing on the podcast. The guests will mainly be online poker sensations and you will be able to pick their brain and listen to what they have to say. If you want to improve your online poker game, you should definitely check it out.

I was checking out Neverwin's Poker forums and I came across this cool post for those players looking to make real money playing online poker.

Do you want to make a living playing online poker?

Online poker is continuing to rise and that's a good thing for all those involved as that only helps with the increase in tournaments, prize money, and notoriety for all the player's looking to make their mark.

Don't forget to use the bonus code 20BR the next time you fire up a PokerParty at Party Poker.

$5 Million-Guaranteed Online Poker Tournament

For those that are ready to have an online PokerParty you had better keep your eyes and ears open and start reading this blog post. There is a combined 20 poker rooms involved in this tournament to create what would be the largest guaranteed prize pool in the history of online poker (in case you didn't read the title, $5 million guaranteed). This tournament is being put on by the Ongame Network, and the only way you can get your hands on a chance at history is to compete in one of the many satellites that will be run on Ongame's poker software (that means the online poker sites that use this software, i'll have a list up at the end of this post).

You can start trying to get into this tournament today, since today is the first day the satellites are up and running. Now the overall winner of this tournament will win over $1 million dollars. The Ongame Network Poker Classic will begin online at the end of the summer, and it will continue as long as it takes until there are 45 players remaining in the field. This is the cool part, once the online poker field has been dwindled down to 45, play will then stop and those 45 remaining players will then be flown by the Ongame Network to the Casino de Barcelona, in Barcelona, Spain. The players will then play live and battle it out for the first prize. Now the players do not have to pay a dime for their travel expenses to Spain as all the expenses are being picked up by the Ongame Network (a package worth over five grand).

Here is a list of some of the participating sites where you can find satellites to enter and get your PokerParty started:

AmericasCardroom.com, Caribsports.com, checknraisepoker.com, CherryCasino.com, CasinoEuro.com, EuroPoker.com, Eurobet.com, FullContactPoker.com, HoldemPoker.com, HollywoodPoker.com, and PokerRoom.com.

This tournament is going to have a lot of exposure and hopefully some of you guys will have some luck, and qualify for this grandaddy of them all online poker tournament.

This blog was brought to you by the partypoker bonus code 20BR.

Online Poker Player Rankings

Everyone who plays online poker has a couple of goals in mind when they first start up playing. The first is to make money (which is obvious), and the second is to become the best online poker player on the world wide web. Both of these are very difficult to achieve but they can be done. There are a lot of players that are making six figure incomes playing online poker and I'm like many of you wondering what it takes to hit that extra gear and take the next level. I am a big fan of online poker, and I like to check out sites and players, and see who is the best online poker player in the world. The best website that I have come across and one that I am constantly checking out is PocketFives.com. I give these guys huge props for what they do, and for establishing themselves such a tremendous online poker resource. If you want to become a recognized player in online poker check out pocketfives ranking system and see if you can get your name up on top of that leaderboard.

First off, the guys over at PocketFives go through a tremendous amount of detail to come up with their ranking system. They not only continually check out the tournament leaderboards at all the major sites but they also collect opinions on fellow players from the most respected online poker players in the game today. This in itself is a huge honor for some players, as that is what everybody wants, and earns for, and that is the respect of your fellow online poker players. This is just where these guys begin. Again, if you are looking to become the best player in online poker today and you want to see your name on the PocketFives Leaderboard, then you had better follow the ranking guidelines that they have put forth.

The first thing that they look for is to determine whether or not you are the next Mariano Riviera. For those that aren't baseball fans that means are you able to close the deal when you get the opportunity. If and when you get to a final table in a tournament, are you able to shut down your opponents and come out victorious. If so, this will go a long way in establishing yourself in the rankings. Secondly, they want to see how often you separate yourself from those large fields that you enter, and make it to the final table. Not only does this help your ranking, but it also helps in establishing your bankroll.

Another major factor that the staff at PocketFives looks for is how often you play online poker tournaments. You will not get ranked if you play in a couple of tournaments, you have to be a frequent player. This is the way it should be, and I really like the way these guys go about the ranking system. For the golf fans out there, this is how the PGA tour does their rankings as well. They base the rankings on number of tournaments played and the strength of the field in that tournament, and where you finished. This is the best, and only way it can be done.

The last factor they look at is the size of the prize pool that you play in. If you only frequent the $11 buy-in on Party poker you will not see your name anywhere near this list. They want you to enter atleast the $100 buy-in tournaments, and that is only fair because that is where all the good players play. Remember if you want to be the best you have to beat the best! Now the guys putting together this ranking system are not just guys working for pocketfives, they are regular players in online poker tournaments, and they are well respected in the online poker world. The tournament sites that they put the major focus on is PokerStars, UltimateBet, PartyPoker, ParadisePoker, and Full Tilt. So, if you are not playing at one of these sites and you want to get ranked you might want to make the switch, as this is where the best action is being played out.

Here is the latest top five ranked online poker players:

Thanks to PocketFives for this.

1. JohnnyBax: Schnorkus on Paradise. Hardly disputable as the top online tournament player for the year 2005. Won the Stars Yearly TLB. Won a WSOP bracelet in the $1500 7 card stud event.

2. TheBeat: Pete Giordano in real life. PeteTheBeat on Paradise and TheRealBeat on Party. Top 5 on PokerStars TLB in 2002, 2003, and 2004. Made final table of Foxwoods WPT. Few match his consistently excellent play.

3. Ari: BodogAri on most sites. James Taylor on UB. Known as a top cash player on Bodog, but has recently expanded to tournament play on several sites, with a lot of immediate success.

4. SamENole: Another top young player, who plays tournaments on all major sites on a daily basis. A very streaky player--he will often emerge to win several tournaments in a very short time. Took 2nd in the last event of the 2005 WSOP, which was worth about $100k.

5. iMsoLucky0: Yahtzee0 on Party. Has had some huge wins this year, including first place in the Party Friday Special for nearly $40k, first in the UB $150k for nearly $40k, and 5th in the Million Guaranteed on Party for $50k.

Online poker has taken over many people's lives and why not try to get some recognition for one of your favorite hobbies. These guys do a tremendous job and you guys should check them out. I just want to give these dudes there props for doin a kick ass job, and keeping the online poker world updated.

Don't forget the bonus code 20BR for your next PokerParty at PartyPoker.

Is Poker Finished?

I was checking out some newspapers over the weekend for some interesting poker articles and I came across this article from the New York Post that pretty much said poker is done. I know that these come across all the time and the naysayers are far and few between. This article makes its judgement on the fact that there are professional poker players (Daniel Negreanu, Scotty Nguyen, Phil Hellmuth) starring in a Pepsi Ad. The theory on poker is that this sport is an underground movement and the author of this article states that "once underground movements gain mass acceptance, it typically signifies the beginning of the end". I'm not so sure I believe this statement at all, especially when I am in the midst of an online PokerParty and there are forty thousand other players havin a PokerParty at the same time. You know what I mean! That is just the players online from one site. Sure poker became a huge hit, but I don't think that it is necessarily true to believe that poker is finished because Pepsi inserted three poker players into a commercial. That's a bit drastic!

Now there were some good points in this newsprint that showed a decline in the number of viewers that are actively watching poker. Here is a couple of excerpts showing this:

"The audience for Bravo's "Celebrity Poker Showdown" has fallen to an average of 134,000 viewers this year from a high of 364,000 viewers in 2003, according to Nielsen Media Research."

"ESPN's "Poker" has lost 193,000 viewers in the two years it been on the air. And the Travel Channel's marquee "World Series of Poker" has seen its average audience drop to 464,000 this year from a peak of 583,000 in 2004."

Obviously the writer should proof read his work a bit as he would know that the World Poker Tour is the program that is on the Travel Channel. There is a bit of a decline in the numbers per say, but also when these shows first came on air this is all the poker we had the opportunity to watch. Nowadays there are so many different poker tournaments to watch that it is tough to keep up with them all. I would still say that poker is on the up, and this writer did not look at all the facts before making this judgement. Will poker eventually decline or fade out? I'm sure it will as does most things, but that doesn't mean it is going to fall off the planet. Look at the number of entries into the Main Event of the World Series of Poker, and you tell me there is a decline. Thank you very much.

This blog is brought to you by the partypoker bonus code 20BR

Internet Gambling Ban

In yesterday's news you may or may not have heard that a U.S. House Committe approved a bill that would crush the Internet Gambling Industry, and its $12 billion dollar revenue. The main piece of this legislation is to stop the online gambling companies from accepting payments made either by credit cards, wire transfers, checks and electronic funds transfers (for example neteller and paypal to name a few) for gambling transactions. This would be a major blow to this industry, and to your PokerParty experiences. Now this is not only intended for online poker, it also includes sports wagering or any wager that is considered illegal. There have been some exceptions made in this legislation, with the likes of horse racing and fantasy sports being on the list.

This legislation would affect all those that live in an area that prohibits wagering of any kind by state or federal law. Who knows if, and when this will all take place, but it will definitely be a huge bombshell when it hits. This bill will now go to the House Floor for consideration and we will all find out whether we will be able to continue playing online poker.

For those players that want to have a say in the matter, make sure you check out the Poker Players Alliance. What is the Poker Player Alliance?

The Poker Players Alliance is a nonprofit membership organization comprised of poker players and enthusiasts from around the United States who have joined together to speak with one voice to promote the game, ensure its integrity, and, most importantly, to protect poker players’ rights.

They have set up a section on the website strictly for these bills and you can act on these matters by reading through the material and filling out a form that will go to the Senate. Atleast you are taking a stand on this matter.

This proposed shut down of online poker is a substantial threat towards not only the companies that run these sites, but I know that a lot of people around the world make a pretty nice living through playing online poker. So, if you do not want to have your dreams broken because of this legislation, its time to do something about it.

Stay tuned for any further updates, and don't forget the partypoker bonus code 20BR for your next PokerParty.

A PokerParty at PokerStars

With the World Series of Poker fast approaching again, an online poker room giant continues to step up its efforts to send the most players to the main event. PokerStars is throwing a major league PokerParty on Sunday July 16th at 4:30pm. Normally at this time on a Sunday at PokerStars, players are playing in the Sunday Million dollar tournament, but this event will be put aside for one Sunday. PokerStars has announced that they will be hosting a tournament where there will be a record 150 seats available for the WSOP. This is a $1.8 million dollar guarantee, now if you are looking to buy-in to this tournament the buy-in is set at $370 dollars. PokerStars will also be holding Satellites for this event as well. If you are looking to get yourself a seat into the main event of the World Series then mark this day on your calendar, and get ready for a Pokerparty.


Here is how you can win a seat to the PokerStars Sunday Millions


The PartyPoker Million V has set sail and the action is underway. There are a lot of big names in this years field and make sure to continue to check out the blog for the latest news on this PokerParty ship. The PartyPoker Millions is one of the few large-scale tournaments that is actually played as Limit Hold'em rather than the infamous No Limit Hold'em. Players either paid $10,200 to enter, or won one of the many satellites that have been running on Party Poker. With the large number of players in the field, Day One of the tournament has been divided into two flights.

Here are some results after the conclusion of Day 1A.


Chip Leaders after Day 1A:

Ali Eslami $78,000
Richard Predham $64,000
Victor Ramdin $61,500
Ville Vainio $59,000
Steve Godwin $54,000


What's Phil Hellmuth been up to?

This blog post has been brought to you by the partypoker bonus code 20BR. Don't forget to use this the next time you log on to partypoker.

Bodog.com:PokerParty House Raid

BoDog.com's CEO and founder Calvin Ayre's house was raided by Costa Rican police on Saturday night because they suspected there was illegal gambling taken place. There was a PokerParty" taking place at Calvin's mansion at the time for a wrap up party for the television show that is being produced by Bodog.com. Lucky for Calvin the reports that the officers had received were innacurate and at no time did he get arrested or detained. Bodog.com could have taken a big hit if these reports were accurate, but the Bodog.com PokerParty will continue to rock the world wide web.

Here is a statement made by Calvin Ayre:

“Yesterday evening, local Costa Rican law enforcement agents arrived at my residence during a wrap-up party for my television show that is being filmed in San Jose, the nation's capital city. The agents arrived at the Bodog Compound on inaccurate suspicions of illegal gambling."

One of the main reasons for the police to show up at Calvin's house, was because there were conflicting reports that part of the poker aspects of the new poker show might have been filmed at his house, but according to him, that never happened. The police found nothing.

~~

The world’s wealthiest also continue to find new ways to make money and get their names on the Forbes wealthiest people list. The appearance of online gambling creators have cracked this most impressive list. PartyGaming, the company that operates PartyPoker, turned three of its founders into overnight billionaires. Among the three is American Ruth Parasol, the list’s only new self-made woman. It's apparent that the poker industry is absolutely booming and also on the Forbes Billionaire list is Bodog.com founder, Calvin Ayre.

Stay tuned to this poker blog of mine and don't forget the partypoker bonus code 20BR for your next PokerParty.

PokerParty Stories

Being a professional poker player is obviously risky business and especially for those players that like to engage themselves into the highest stake
PokerParty cash games. Some pro's have a difficult time covering their entry fees, or at least they do not want to put up their own cash to get into the event. For these players, they try and locate some other player to back them, and if they find someone who is willing to stake them, the payback is typically arranged in sharing the player's earnings. In some cases, if a player does not finish in the money in a particular event and if there was a no strings attached deal in place, then the player does not have to pay the player back. In other circumstances they definitely have to get the money back to the player. This is obviously some risky business, and you will see some friendships won and lost under these circumstances.

Below are some excerpts about poker players staking one another and the
PokerParty outcomes:


Poker players “stake” other players and they pay a portion of their tournament entry fees in exchange for a portion of their winnings—all the time. But players with a financial interest in each other don’t end up meeting at the final table of a major tournament every day, like the story below.

In November 2004, Hasan Habib and Tuan Le flew together from Los Angeles to Connecticut to play in the World Poker Tour’s Foxwoods tourney. They decided to take a piece of each other (Habib’s piece much bigger), so if either (or both) cashed, they’d share the profits. Since
Le won the whole thing for $1.55-million, there were lots of profits to go around. And with the win, Le also earned a seat in the WPT season finale championship event at Bellagio. So as part of their gentlemen’s agreement, the “piece” would carry over to the April ’05 tourney.

Not only did Le win that one too, but he did so having personally ousted Habib from the final table in third place.

Before assuming the worst, know that prior to play at the final table, Le and Habib had the integrity to disclose all of the details of their arrangement to WPT CEO and founder Steve Lipscomb and the other four players at the final table. Everyone was fine with their arrangement
and how it played out.

But nobody could have been happier about it than Habib, who staked his way to an extremely profitable WPT season.

This is one circumstance where the deal came through significantly for both players. Tuan Le is an unbelievable poker player and he obviously made the poker world very aware of his name this past season on the WPT. He was Card Player's player of the year.



Here is an excerpt from the book "The Professor, the Banker, and the Suicide King" speaking about the big game and Ted Forrest's introduction to playing in the big game.




"What's the biggest game in the room?" Ted expected to hear that an afternoon $400-$800 game was getting started, which would have been just big enough to draw him into the room.

After a pause, the floorman said,"Ten-and-twenty-thousand Texas Hold 'Em."

Ted must have heard wrong. The biggest game ever at the Bellagio had been $4,000-$8,000, and this was more than twice that size. A game that large doesn't just materialize on a Wednesday afternoon.

"Are you sure that's right? Ten-and-twenty thousand?"

"Yeah," the floorman answered, unemotional. "That's what they're playing."

Ted struggled to clear his head as he drove toward the Bellagio. His palms had gone cold and clammy.

His heart was pounding, as if to drown out any remaining doubts. He had just enough money-his entire bankroll-to buy into the biggest poker game of his life and be at a significant disadvantage in chips.

Five hundred thousand dollars sounded like a lot of money, but it wasn't. When it came out of the box, it was income. You could buy things with it, invest it, even give it away. Then, it was a lot of money. While it was in the box, however, it was working capital, and even mom-and-pop operators would tell you that a half-million dollars was not much working capital for a capital intensive business.

To me it's crazy that these guys think that five hundred thousand dollars is not a lot of money. I sure could use five hundred thousand dollars right about now, but who couldn't right?. This just goes to show you the value of a dollar to a professional poker player is completely different than the value of a dollar to everyone else. Even if you have a boat load of money, five hundred thousand dollars is a substantial amount to present the opportunity of giving it away.


Ted sat down in Seat Six, to Chip Reese's left and across from the dealer. The best seat was the empty seat between the stranger and Chip, Seat Three. Position is important in Texas Hold 'Em and Seat Three would put Ted to the left of the stranger, acting after him throughout the hand,
two-thirds of the time. Forrest and Reese would be trying to win money from each other, but they had played each other for years and knew each other's expert skills. Both expected their profit to come from the businessman. Reese, however, obviously left Seat Three open to give him
and the stranger a little space, not as an invitation for someone to take over that prime position (as if anyone other than Ted Forrest would just wander into a $10,000-$20,000 poker game).

I thought this was a pretty cool segment as this is the introduction of Andy Beal to the big game and his name has surfaced a lot around the poker world in the last month or so (Andy Beal is the businessman). Obviously he was getting his poker fix in awhile ago and he will not go unnoticed anymore.

Ted decided not to start the game with a confrontation. Anybody with the minimum buy-in could sit in any open seat in the Bellagio poker room. Reese would have objected, however, and it wasn't worth starting the game with a fight. It was enough that Ted felt the butterflies in his stomach he hadn't felt since his $15-$30 stud days, when he was putting most of his bankroll on the line whenever he played.

Against an unfamiliar opponent, Ted Forrest tried to keep an open mind. He respected their bets until he learned how they played. This was not a matter of courtesy. For Ted, it was good strategy. Too many pros assumed an unfamiliar player didn't know how to play, refusing to give him credit for having a big hand when he led the betting. In the end, the pro would learn the new player's style and adjust, but underestimating a new player's ability was the more expensive error. If he overestimated a player's skill, he would get that money back when the player continued believing he could bluff Ted Forrest off his hand. Not giving the new player proper respect, however, could cost a lot of bets in the short term.

In $10,000-$20,000 Texas Hold 'Em, the blinds are $5,000 and $10,000. With three players, it was costing Ted a minimum of $15,000 every three hands just to sit at the table. It was an excruciatingly expensive way to get a read on the new player, a Texas banker named Andy Beal. Beal was very aggressive, playing nearly every hand, raising most of the time. It was costing Ted $20,000 per hand to see the flop, and his bankroll was taking a beating. After twenty minutes, Ted was down to his last $100,000, and he hadn't even gotten involved in many pots.

Oh, my God, he thought, what am I doing? Why did I sit down?



I couldn't imagine the stress that would go on in my mind if I just saw that much money just disappearing without even really getting a chance to act. Obviously, these guys play for enormous amounts of cash and they have no qualms backing themselves (as with the latest Andy Beal defeat of 16.6 million dollars). I don't know how these guys are able to do it, but good on them and I look forward to hearing more and more stories about these guys and the big game.

Don't forget the partypoker bonus code 20BR for your next
PokerParty.

Heads Up Poker Championship

Three days of poker spread out over sixty three matches led to the crowning of a new PokerParty champion in the 2nd Annual National Heads Up Poker Championship early this morning. The poker that was played this past weekend at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas was action packed and also provided many surprises. In the end, bigtime cash game player Ted Forrest was able to hold off the charge of the best players in the game today to walk away from the green felt with the Heads Up Title.

Thanks to Cardplayer Magazine for this excerpt:

Chris Ferguson, last year’s runner-up, faced Ted Forrest in the final three matches of the championship event. The players started off with $640,000.00 in chips each, and the blinds started off at $5,000 - $10,000 in the first round.

After two rounds were played, Forrest had secured a 4 – 1 lead with over a $1,000,000 in chips. But Ferguson came back (as he always does), doubled up twice and reduced Forrest’s advantage to less than $60,000.

Thirty minutes later, Ferguson was ahead and he proceeded to move all in with Ah – 9h. Forrest called and showed pocket tens. The flop came Kc – Jd – 7h and Forrest had the lead. The turn, 8c, didn’t help Ferguson and he needed a ten to complete the straight, or he could hit an ace which would give him the higher pair, to win the match. The river, the Ace of Spades, paired Ferguson and the players prepared themselves for another match.

Ferguson was on a roll heading into the second session, and he won six of the first seven hands that were played. But, Forrest came back for a 2 – 1 chip lead by the end of the first round.

The blinds increased to $15,000 - $30,000 and Ferguson decided to make a move, and he moved all in from the button. Forrest called and showed As – 4c. Ferguson had Jh – 7s and the flop came 6h – 5d – Qd, the turn was a 2h and Ferguson needed a jack or 7 to survive, but the 10 of diamonds fell on the river, and Forrest won the match with ace high.

The champion would have to be determined by the third and final round of the championship event.

The table was reset and the cards went into the air at 12:22 a.m. PST. The challengers had been competing for over twelve hours, with breaks, dinner and tape changes eating up the day. By the end of the first round, Forrest had taken a moderate lead and the blinds went up to $10,000 - $20,000

Forrest took down a monster pot and gained a $290,000 lead going into round three. The blinds increased to $15,000 - $30,000 and both players rallied back and forth until their stacks were almost even.

When the blinds were $20,000 - $40,000, Forrest won a huge pot. He made a set of sixes to win the hand, which built his stack to over $1 million.

Forrest held the advantage until both players went all in before the flop. Forrest had K – J and Ferguson had Q – 7. Forrest made trip kings on the river to win the hand and both rounds making him the National Heads-Up Champion,and awarding him $500,000. Not a bad pay day, but with all the money being tossed around on the felt nowadays it seems like this tournament should definitely have a bigger prize pool.

In an unusual display of emotion, Forrest threw his hands up in the air when he realized he had won the hand and the championship. He was out of his seat and pacing the stage. Forrest had shown no emotion throughout the tournament, so his hoopla caught everyone off guard, but Forrest deserved a release after conducting himself like a true gentleman and proving poker isn’t just for “bad-boys”.

Chris Ferguson was runner up for the second year in a row and took home $250,000. Chris "Jesus" Ferguson truly is a remarkable poker player and he will win this championship at some point. He is definitely at the top of the poker class and he is a player to be reckoned with.

The tournament will be broadcast on NBC as part of a ten hour package of poker that begins on April 16th and ends in late May. Last year NBC repeated broadcasts on their cable outlet CNBC as well, so there will be many opportunities to see the entirety of the tournament and the many twists and turns that occurred during the run of the tournament and some of the incredible action between the greatest players in the game today. For now, it's time to congratulate Ted Forrest as the new National Heads Up Poker Champion.

The Heads Up Championship was another tremendous pokerparty and I can't wait too see the poker action unfold on the television. I hope you enjoyed the recap here and be sure to stay tuned to this blog and look for all of the breaking news in the poker world.

Don't forget to use the bonus code 20BR for your next online Pokerparty at Partypoker.

Scott Fischman Rumor

There were some rumors floating around the message board community about Scott Fischman borrowing a substantial amount of money from Thomas "Thunder" Keller to enter into some major poker tournaments and enjoy the PokerParty. Here is the rumor brought to you by 2+2 Forums:

"A very respected and well-known top tourney and cash game player told me the following: Apparently, Thomas Keller backed Scott Fischman for 400k in tourney buyins since August of last year. The deal was 65/35 to Fischman w/ makeup. Which means that Keller gets paid back whatever buyins he stakes Scott for, then Scott keeps 65% of the profits.

At some point, another guy offers Scott a staking deal. Scott takes that deal, leaving Keller out 400k, with no payback when Scott hits his next score.
Now, apparently Scott claims there was no makeup condition in this staking arrangement, and Keller claims otherwise."

Here is Scott Fischman's reply to this situation:

"ok,
I will try to make this breif....hopefully this will; be my first and last post ever on here, as i usually dont like to entertain these type of childish high school gossip crap. I am aware by now that my position as a public figure forces people to talk about me quite often whether good or bad it usually never bothers me but this one happen to hit me in the wrong spot and i think it is because some of my close friends are involved in the rumor circulation. I am really hoping that "eldiablo" is not todd arnold because if it is then i would appreciate a phone calll when you read this. Also, quickly, and without reading the whole thread (i read like the 1st 20 replies) i would say thank you shaniac for being honest and shedding some light on the situation...Ebolivia, although you were honest and said nothing good or bad about me, i am a little disappointed that you wouldnt let me know this issue was on here and also that you should know this is [censored]!!! ok anway, i dont want to be too dramatic but let me try to settle this.
1. I was backed by thomas
2. i LOST and it was a hefty figure... NOT 400k and also NONE of anyones business.
3. there was no CONTRACT whatsoever. and this deal was terminated for various reasons. NONE of which any of you are entitled to hear.
4. I dont know where you guys get the idea that i owe thomas the "400k" back but that is very silly. The whole idea of being backed is that you do not put up your own money and if you lose that is the risk that the backer assumes. Why on earth would i get backed and give up 35% of my winnings but then pay thomas back if i lost???????? make any sense to anyone?
i think that pretty much sums up what i want to say, and i doubt i will be on hear to read the replies or post again, so i would apprecitae a phone call from shania, ebo or eldiablo if there are any more burning questions or rumors that u think i should give my attention to. thank you
oh one more thing. eldiablo...WHO IS THE VERY RESPECTED WELLKNOWN TOURNEY AND CASH PLAYER THAT TOLD YOU THIS BOLLOCKS??????"


For those of you that are interested in checking out the No Limit Heads Up Championship you can check out the 64 man field below:

Check out the Heads Up Poker Championship Bracket

Is your favorite poker player not going to be at this major PokerParty, check out who was snubbed from the 64 man field.

Thanks for coming by and reading the blog don't forget to use the partypoker bonus code 20BR the next time you are having an online pokerparty.

UltimateBet's Latest Promotion

Take a look at this great pokerparty promotion brought to you by UltimateBet.com.

This March is your chance to prove you’re the best.

UltimateBet is looking for UltimateBet.com’s best poker tournament player. And they are going to be sending them to play in the WPT Championship at Bellagio.

All you have to do is win any tournament on UltimateBet with a buy-in of $30 or more between March 1st and March 31st and you’ll be entered into their exclusive Tournament of Champions freeroll on April 3rd at 9pm EST.

The winner of the No Limit Hold’em freeroll will win a $25,000 entry into the WPT Championship at Bellagio + $2,500 travel money.

The second and third place finishers in the freeroll will win an entry into the $2,500 Super Satellite and $1,000 travel money.

*The one stipulation that they have set up is that players can only be entered into the Freeroll once, no matter how many events they win in the month. The Bellagio main event starts April 18th, with the Super Satellite running on April 17th.

Also, UltimateBet is looking to extend the PokerParty and here is what else they have been up to.........

They are Looking For Their Next Pro. And that will happen In Aruba.

This September, they invite you to join them for a week of good times and great poker in Aruba for the 5th Annual Ultimate Poker Classic.

And if you’re one of the first 150 players to win your seat to the 2006 Ultimate Poker Classic in Aruba through UltimateBet.com, you better get ready to be treated like royalty because you’ll be one step closer to becoming the newest member of Team UB. That's because you will automatically qualify for the chance to be a part of the Ultimate Aruba Freeroll. The winner will walk away with a spot on Team UB for 2007.

What a fantastic opportunity this is poker fans, so make sure you give yourself a chance at this once in a lifetime PokerParty.

Don't forget the bonus code 20BR the next time you check out partypoker.

WPT Bay 101 Shooting Stars Event

Day 2 of the WPT Bay 101 Shooting Stars saw 268 players (25 of them Shooting Stars) compete for a chance to advance to Day 3 and a step closer to the $1,172,800 first place prize purse (and a seat to the WPT Championship). Two of the same incentives used on Day 1 were also in effect for Day 2. This is one Pokerparty you do not want to miss the results for.

25 poker pros were labeled “Shooting Stars” and given $5,000 bounties. Any player that busted out a “Shooting Star” would receive 5k in cash, and that money would be paid on the spot. Another incentive for the player's to strive for is to become the Day 2 chip leader at the end of the day. The poker player that finishes the day in first place would receive a $10,000 bonus. Again these are great incentives for the players to try and achieve and enhance their pokerparty experience.

Some of the “Shooting Stars” that didn’t make it past Day 2 were…

Shannon Elizabeth
Mike Matusow
Erick Lindgren
Tuan Le
Toto Leonidas
Paul Darden Jr.
T.J. Cloutier
Josh Arieh
Barry Greenstein
John Juanda
Phil Laak


One of the things that the “Shooting Star” bounties created was interesting showdowns as players tried to bust out Poker Pros and earn the $5,000 reward. James Woods felt the consequence of that twist as he was called 11K (All-in) by Webber Kang who was holding K2 of spades. Woods flipped his cards over and showed QJ and he then had to wait for the card gods to seal his tournament fate. Kang's chip stack was at 20k and he committed more than half of his chip stack to challenge Woods. As the flop, turn and river all came, Woods tournament was sealed as spade after spade gave Kang a K-high flush, and in the process eliminated Woods from the tournament.

Another interesting showdown saw John Juanda go ALL-IN Pre-flop and he instantly was called by Andy Miller. Juanda showed his A7 and Miller turned over a 10 and a 5. Flop showed 642, and the turn showed a 4, and the River brought a 3. Miller makes his straight and the $5,000 bounty.

The six pros that advanced to Day 3 are Jennifer Tilly, Salim Batshon (Huck Seed’s last minute replacement), Dan Harrington, Layne Flack, Carlos Mortensen, and John Cernuto.

A total of 59 players survived 10 levels of play with Vineet Sharma finishing in first place with $134,700 in chips and taking home $10,000 for his first place chip lead. On Day 3, 119 players (60 from Day 1 and 59 from Day 2) will play until there are 36 players left. The levels on Day 3 have been lengthened from 1 hour to 90 minutes.

The bounties will be in effect until the completion of the tournament on Friday. It will be interesting to see if some of the players will continue to pursue the bounty as they get closer to the money. Will there be a challenge to a “Shooting Star” for a chance at $5,000 or will they bite the bullet and fight for the bigger prize? A first place finish in this event is worth $1,172,800 and a seat to the WPT
Championship (buy-in is worth $25,500). You might be seeing less of the player's trying to take down the poker pro's as that first prize is really substantial. Stay tuned as this PokerParty is only going to continue to heat up as the tournament approaches its conclusion.

Here are the top chip leaders going into day three:

(There are 119 players remaining going into Day 3 action)

1 Vineet Sharma 134,700 Chips
2 Stuart Fahmy 125,100 Chips
3 Robert Mizrachi 115,800 Chips
4 Farzad Bonyadi 107,600 Chips
5 Kirk Morrison 104,600 Chips
6 Larry Elliot 100,600 Chips
7 Tom Henning 91,900 Chips
8 John Smith 91,500 Chips
9 Jason Stern 89,100 Chips
10 Brad Booth 88,700 Chips
11 An-Nan Chen 88,200 Chips
12 Layne Flack 86,100 Chips
13 Yakoub Bellawala 85,300 Chips
14 Jennifer Tilly 84,900 Chips
15 Todd Arnold 83,600 Chips


Notables

22 David 'Chip' Reese 68,400 Chips
24 Gus Hansen 65,100 Chips
40 Gabriel Thaler 49,000 Chips
42 Allen Cunningham 47,500 Chips
43 Minh Nguyen 47,300 Chips
70 Doyle Brunson 30,500 Chips
74 Juan Carlos Mortensen 29,000 Chips
89 Dan Harrington 23,600 Chips
101 David Williams 18,800 Chips
The average chip stack is at $43,529

Make sure to check back for the latest PokerParty updates on the WPT Bay 101 Shooting Stars Event. Don't forget to use the bonus code 20BR for your next PartyPoker experience.