Once more into the breach, dear friends, once more.

Filed Under: 2010 Bellagio Cup VI, Articles, CA, Daniel Negreanu, Doyle Brunson, Events, FSN, Games, Las Vegas, Long Run, Mike Sexton, Object, Other, Phil Ivey, Poker, Season Nine, Shows, Television, WPT, Wor, World Poker Tour, b, bellagio, cast, champion, d, daniel, episodes, girl, google, history, hot, house, ing, love, new, past, running, s, season, time, tour, tournament, vegas, world, world-poker by: admin

Season Nine of the long running television show “World Poker Tour” begins taping today at Bellagio in Las Vegas with a $10,000 buy-in and a potential $1,000,000 first place prize. The Bellagio Cup VI will mark the 123rd open tournament in the WPT’s eight year existence as well as the 179th and 180th televised episodes when the high stakes battle airs as a two-parter in early 2011.

Thought of as a long shot when it was first broadcast on the Travel Channel in 2003, the WPT is now one of the top one hundred longest running shows in the history of television. This season will see the WPT’s total episodes surpass such television greats as I Love Lucy (179 episodes), Seinfeld (180 episodes), The Cosby Show (197 episodes), X-Files (202 episodes) and Little House on the Prairie (203 episodes).
The World Poker Tour currently airs on FSN in the U.S. as well as in 150 countries and territories around the globe. Longtime hosts Mike Sexton and Vince Van Patten will be on hand once more to call the action alongside new additions Kimberly Lansing and the Royal Flush Girls. Past champions of the WPT include Doyle Brunson, Phil Ivey, Daniel Negreanu and Carlos Mortensen.
1117031691333968186 3073933928001771016?l=blog.worldpokertour Once more into the breach, dear friends, once more.

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Travel Report: LAPT Lima, Day 2

Filed Under: *high society, AAA, APT, Barrow, Bloggers, CA, CES, Casino, Casinos, Comeback, Events, Final Table, Greg Mueller, IPL, Inter, LAPT, LAPT Lima, Mile, News, Object, Other, Otis, Poker, PokerStars, Que, RSA, Ruling, SEC, Shows, The Goods, The World Series, WSOP, Wor, YES, america, argentina, b, blogging, blogs, burn, champion, championship, chile, city, d, difference, displays, draw, eve, event, final, google, hot, ing, jai, jpg, ka, life, main event, media, missing, money, morning, new, night, november, past, picture, playa conchal, players, poker room, remaining, return, s, season, starting, style, summer, team, things, time, tour, winner, winners, work, world, world series of poker by: admin

Preparing for the LAPT Lima final tableAn especially long one yesterday — about a 16-hour workday, all told. Still a little tired this morning, but ready to get back over to the Atlantic City Casino to see how the story of LAPT Lima continues to unfold.

There were 197 players returning for Day 2 of the $2,700 buy-in Main Event. The plan was to play down to 24. (That picture to the left shows the main feature table starting to be constructed at the far end of the poker room.) After ten one-hour levels there was talk of just stopping things after two more levels (at the end of Level 20), regardless of how many players were left. As it happened, the elimination of Costa Rican player Luis Jaikel in 25th place happened just a few minutes before the end of that level, and so we’ll have the three eight-handed tables as planned when play restarts today.

As the day wore on, I began more and more to notice differences in the way the players interacted and what might be called the “culture” of the LAPT event when compared to, say, the World Series of Poker or U.S.-based tourneys.

As happens at the WSOP, there have been occasional displays of emotion as players react to various situations, most often during the all-ins when a player’s tourney life is on the line. And there have been a couple of dust-ups about rulings and such, but nothing terribly out of the ordinary.

I’ve found it interesting, however, to witness what seems like a lot of genuine human interaction at the tables as well, with much conversation and smiling. You’ll see that at the WSOP, too, now and then, but not with as much frequency as I have here, I don’t think.

For example, another player from Costa Rica, Steven Thompson, is one of the 24 coming back today. He has been kind of a gregarious type, talking and laughing quite a bit. And his tablemates seem often to be following suit. Even a simple blind-vs.-blind hand between Thompson and another player in which one bets the other out of a pot seemed always to elicit a lot of grins and good-natured back-and-forthing.

There was one particularly funny moment yesterday when there were just 51 players remaining. The top 48 spots paid, and so the tension had risen somewhat (and play slowed down a lot). Suddenly I noticed a player at Thompson’s table — Leandro Csome of Argentina — standing up with a piece of paper. He had written the number “48” on the paper, and with a huge grin was holding it up over the “51” on the electronic board indicating players remaining.

Csome let out a cheer, and Thompson immediately joined in the celebration, hugging Csome and drawing huge laughs all around. A very funny moment. Felt bad for Csome when he in fact went out soon after, just missing the cash, but he still had a smile on his face as he left.

 Travel Report:  LAPT Lima, Day 2There were other interesting stories yesterday. American player Martin Mathis started the day with 20,075 chips — just 75 more than the starting stack for the tourney — but survived multiple all-ins early on, then showed a lot of savvy to make it into the money before getting knocked out in 42nd.

There were a couple of other huge comebacks yesterday, too. Probably the most remarkable was that of U.S. player Ben Barrows. Sporting a t-shirt that said “Dazed and Confused,” Barrows started the day with just a little over 18,000, but is still in the sucker, currently in 11th place.

Also — and this is kind of a wild one — the last woman in the event, Pamela Espinosa of Chile, went out in 31st place, and was followed in 30th place by her husband, Mauricio Zeman! Not quite the Mizrachi brothers both making the final table of the $50K Player’s Championship at the WSOP, but remarkable nonetheless.

The big story as we ended the night — told by my blogging partner Brad “Otis” Willis over on the PokerStars blog — is the fact that the two previous winners of this season of the LAPT are first and second in chips heading into Day 3.

Amer Sulaiman, the chip leader, ran especially well during the last hours of play on Day 2, picking up pocket aces at least twice, and seemingly always having the goods when short-stacked players were pushing all in against him. The Canadian Sulaiman won the LAPT Playa Conchal event in Costa Rica last November which kicked off this Season 3 of the LAPT.

And Team PokerStars pro Jose “Nacho” Barbero of Argentina is second in chips. Barbero is an especially tricky player whom I remember covering at last summer’s WSOP when he made a final table in the $1,500 limit hold’em shootout (won by Greg Mueller). Barbero won LAPT Punta del Este in Uruguay this past February.

Both Sulaiman and Barbero had vocal supporters on the rail yesterday, and indeed the scene was pretty raucous at times with a lot of cheering and singing as more than 100 spectators crowded the action.

A news crew shooting a segment in the Atlantic City CasinoIncidentally, there wasn’t too much talk yesterday about the Joran van der Sloot situation. We heard he’d been arrested in Chile, but that was about it.

The only other evidence of the story was the fact that a couple of times during the day there were news crews — not covering the tourney — shooting segments there near and in the poker room. On the left is a picture of one such segment being shot as I walked in early yesterday.

We expect there will be more excitement today as they play down to the final eight. Check in on the PokerStars blog to see the next chapter of the story.

27238395 7747640277942416465?l=hardboiledpoker.blogspot Travel Report:  LAPT Lima, Day 2

 Travel Report:  LAPT Lima, Day 2

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Interviewing the Interviewer

Filed Under: *the rumble, 2010 WSOP, 311, AAA, Andy Bloch, Ascot, Ask, Barry Greenstein, Betting, Bloggers, CA, Casino, Dennis Phillips, EPT, FullTilt, FullTiltPoker, General, High Stakes Poker, Ilya Gorodetsky, Inter, James McManus, Kara Scott, Kevin Mathers, LIPS, Lou Krieger, Matthew Hilger, News, Object, Other, PLO, PartyGaming, PartyPoker, Poker, Poker Tips, PokerNews, Que, Quest, Relationship, Shows, TUF, TV, Team Party, Television, Tournaments, Victoria, Victoria Coren, WSOP, Wor, World Poker Tour, ads, b, betfair, blogs, boxer, burn, cards, d, eve, event, experience, full tilt, full tilt poker, fulltiltpoker.com, game, gaming, google, green, ing, interview, interviewing, interviews, january, jpg, ka, london, main event, new, november, october, over-on-betfair, party, pics, players, poker shows, s, stuff, style, team, things, tilt, tour, tournament, weekend, work, world, wsop main event by: admin

Interviewing the Interviewer0I think I might have mentioned something last week about having had plans to interview Kara Scott, the poker player who has appeared as a host or presenter on numerous poker shows, including currently on “High Stakes Poker.” We did get a chance to talk this week, and the interview can now be read over on Betfair.

I asked her about various topics, including how she got into poker and poker TV, “High Stakes Poker,” the recent PartyPoker Big Game IV in London, her joining up with team PartyPoker, and her own play, in particular those two deep runs in the WSOP Main Event she has had over the last couple of years (finishing 104th and 238th).

As was the case last week with Matthew Hilger, I had a lot of fun talking with Kara, especially regarding her experience at the 2008 WSOP. I was also surprised a little about the story of her having trained as a Thai boxer (and that being an avenue to television for her). I guess I had heard that about her at some point along the way, but had forgotten.

Kara ScottThere was one question I didn’t ask her which didn’t occur to me until later on, a question having to do with her new affiliation with PartyPoker. She mentioned how there would be some television work there for her with Party — the Big Game IV was an example. I remembered afterwards that PartyGaming had purchased the World Poker Tour last year, so I might’ve asked if she knew anything about the future of that relationship (including the TV side of things).

We also talked a bit about interviewing players, generally speaking — something with which Kara has a lot of experience. Speaking of, I mentioned last week I was thinking of compiling a list of poker-related interviews I’ve done, so here that is:

Dennis Phillips (October 2008)
Barry Greenstein (April 2009) — Part 1 & Part 2
Andy Bloch (May 2009)
James McManus (November 2009)
Victoria Coren (January 2010)
Kevin Mathers (February 2010)
Lou Krieger (February 2010)
Ilya Gorodetsky (March 2010)
Matthew Hilger (April 2010)
Kara Scott (April 2010)

Have other fun stuff coming up over on Betfair Poker in the near future, including involving contributions from some of your favorite poker bloggers regarding the good-gawd-is-it-less-than-five-weeks-away-that-can’t-be-right-I-guess-it-is 2010 WSOP. (Stay tuned!)

Meanwhile, enjoy the weekend, all! Don’t forget the BBT5 continues over on Full Tilt Poker (details here).

27238395 3277841555381418818?l=hardboiledpoker.blogspot Interviewing the Interviewer

 Interviewing the Interviewer

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

General Election Betting: Tory majority odds dip after poll

Filed Under: Betfair markets, Betting, CA, Casino, Comeback, General, General Election Betting, Labour, Mike Robb, Object, Other, Politics, Politics betting, Shows, The Conservative Party, The Conservatives, The Labour Party, b, betfair, book, conservatives, d, ing, invalid, love, markets, markets-react, money, odds, offer, poll, price, s, time, video by: admin

Betfair markets react to poll which shows Labour gaining on the Conservatives…

Related posts:

  1. General Election Betting: Boris Johnson offered chance to put our money where his mouth is Boris Johnson stated his love for political betting in…
  2. Politics Betting: Odds on March election shorten after Times poll Price on a March election shortens into [2.72] after…
  3. General Election Betting: Labour’s mini-comeback has limited potential Is a Labour comeback underway and can it be…

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Top Ten Las Vegas Events this Week

Filed Under: Barry Manilow, Beatles, Blue Man Group, CA, Casino, Cher, Concerts, Events, Las Vegas, Las Vegas Events, Object, Other, PLO, Poker, SEC, Shows, The Beatles, The Colosseum, UB, ads, article, artist, b, blue, book, cirque, cirque du soleil, closes, colosseum, comedy, d, david copperfield, destinations, eve, event, field, forum, group, highest, ing, jay leno, jubilee, las vegas event, las vegas show, las vegas shows, las vegas tickets, le reve, love, mirage, results, running, s, sale, show tickets, spa, the mirage, the rio, tickets, vegas, wedoitallvegas by: admin

What are the top selling Las Vegas show tickets this week? Few surprises in the this week’s list aside from the entry of Penn & Teller into the top ten, with their show at the Rio Las Vegas and Jay Leno’s comedy show at The Mirage moving up six spots from last week.

Cher at the Colosseum takes the top spot for the second week in a row, more than doubling her closest competitor’s ticket sales-Cirque du Soleil’s The Beatles: Love. Barry Manilow dropped from the third spot down to the fifth position as Blue Man Group and Jay Leno fill this week’s third and fourth positions.

Rounding out the list is Vegas staple, magician David Copperfield in the sixth spot, followed by the long-running burlesque show Jubilee! in seventh place, Penn & Teller in eighth, the other Cirque show on the list-Le Reve, followed by comedienne Rita Rudner in the tenth spot.

1     Cher Tickets
2     Cirque du Soleil - The Beatles: Love Tickets
3     Blue Man Group Tickets
4     Jay Leno Tickets
5     Barry Manilow Tickets
6     David Copperfield Tickets
7     Jubilee! Tickets
8     Penn & Teller Tickets
9     Le Reve Tickets
10   Rita Rudner Tickets

More Las Vegas Tickets Here

Discuss this article in our forum Discuss this article in our forum

cab3e88dcbvities3 Top Ten Las Vegas Events this Week

8f866cbb8cs icon96 Top Ten Las Vegas Events this Week

Related posts:

  1. Top Ten Las Vegas Event Tickets for this Week Which Las Vegas events had the highest ticket sales…
  2. Cirque du Soleil Tickets Special for all Las Vegas Shows Just $25 Cirque du Soleil has a great deal to celebrate…
  3. Cirque du Soleil to bring Elvis back to Las Vegas At list a third of the 75 artists and…

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.