New Poker Interface

Bwin's online poker site just released an upgraded poker software with a ton of new features. They are significant upgrades which make the interface easier to use and navigate and are already earning rave reviews.

They include:

Tables and functions you can resize - Now you can conviently multi-table with tables the size of your interest. Playing different buy-ins when you play online poker? Make the bigger buy-ins bigger size do you can make decision easier in regards to your bankroll.

You can also control three separate fields of table information. Chat, the virtual table, and promotions each have resizable fields of their own, so you can set up your table exactly as you like it.

The Lobbies have more table and tournament information - No longer do you have to go to each specific table when you want to play online poker to find out the table information. You can browse all the tables at once from the main lobby. Compare one to another and make your best game selection.

Also, there are filters on the poker lobbies that you can preset to your liking. In the respective tournament lobbies their are excellent up to the moment bits about ranking, add on and rebuy information, real time table information, all in one place.

As always there is a Mac Version - We've touted bwin's Downloadable Mac client in the past, and the new Mac online poker version has everything the window's version does so even Apple heads can sit down and play poker online.

The playing experience has already been topnotch at bwin but these new features will make it even easier. Some of them are exactly what players have been asking for, but most go one step beyond. Definitely some cool, user friendly upgrades, and tweaks in all the right places.

PokerNews Video about the history of the WSOP

Pokernews does an excellent story on the history of the World Series of Poker's origin. Although, there is still an air of mystery or a gloss of history over many of the early events the birth of how people first began to play poker tournaments. The first aspect that's weird is they never mention the name of the man that used to host the gambling convention that preceeded the WSOP. Doyle said they (the Binions) asked if they could steal the idea and the "man" in Reno said they could. He was done with hosting it. I guess technically you could say the WSOP is older than 40 years old OR if you just measure it based on the history of hosting poker tournaments less than 40 years old.

The next year, they played poker for three days and voted the best overall player. Depending on which source you listen to it was either a unanimous vote for Johnny Moss, or a unanimous vote (of Moss being the second best player with each voter voting themselves best player). Amarillo Slim and Doyle Brunson almost make it sound like at the time, Moss was a bit of a fish, and the title of best player was granted just to keep Moss coming back. Doyle gives the man credit where is due saying Moss was the best No Limit player he's ever seen, but if you read between the lines Moss wasn't the same player at the beginning of the WSOP. Interesting.

Another aspect of the history that is still not 100% clear is the tentative acceptance that Amarillo Slim was the first to suggest the freeze out poker tournament. Ironically, because he's most whistful about the old times, and the state of the game he played a huge role in creating. Without freezeouts or tournaments there is no Moneymaker explosion, no poker explosion, and no giant WSOP in the sprawling RIO convention center.

This is an enjoyable video, even if I've covered most of its contents in the body of this text. It gives a better insight to the forgotten history of this game. Now poker is fueled by online poker tournaments. In fact, most of the Main Event and THE World Championship of poker is created by online poker tournament satellite winners. In fact, the easiest way for World Series hopefuls to get there is to play poker tournament online.

Surely, the future episodes of this series will cover the transition from live players to online players. And the changing dynamics of the game of poker.

Durrrr Challenge Update

Tom Dwan and Patrik Antonius shocked online poker railbirds by getting together to continue the challenge. Not much changed. Actually Antonius padded his lead a little bit and perhaps more important chewed out another 874 hands. The Swede now leads the youngster by $447,684. If you factor in the odds of the bet, where Dwan is on the hook for 1.5 million if he is bested, right now Tom is looking at an almost 2 million dollar deficit to the Nordic one.

Thought things were going to slow down during the world series? So did we. Antonius thought better of dropping 40k into the big event, and Dwan thought nothing of it, and promptly was one of the first players out. Thus, the two had some time on their hands.

The Durrrr challenge is schedule for 50,000 hands. If Antonius is up even 1 cent over that span he wins 1.5 million from Durrr plus whatever he wins (see first paragraph). If Durrrr wins, he keeps his winnings plus 500,000. Things aren't looking so good for Durrrr as the challenge is now over 15,000 hands old. Meaning while there is still a lot of time to go, if Patrik keeps incrementally increasing his lead he may get too far ahead.

Due to the multi-tabling nature of the challenge, play is either PLO or No Limit Hold 'Em sometimes two big pots can happen at once. On one screen, Durrrr raised$1,200. Antonius reraised to $3,600 and Durrrr called. Antonius clicked bet $6,000 after the flop and Durrrr called. On the turn, the big guy checked and Dwan bet $19,200. After a moment, Antonius went over the top moving all in for over 52k. Dwan called. The river paired the board and Dwan took down the pot with aces up.

At the exact same time on a different screen. Antonius was busy opening for $1,200 and Dwan three-bet. Antonius four bet it, and Dwan five bet it to $32,400. Antonius called. Dwan moved all in on the flop for his remaining $28,800 and Antonius called. After the river, and seconds after scooping the other pot, Dwan won another huge pot.

More amazingly Dwan also won the biggest pot of the session. Yet, he still gave up ground. Has to be frustrating for the youngster. Only seconds after hauling in that last six-figure pot, he dragged another, worth 122.5k.

WSOP NOTES FROM EARLY 09

The 40th annual World Series of Poker is upon us.

Wait, did you come here for the latest High Stakes Poker update? Seems we feel into a bit of a lazy rut, just updating the episodes. That being said, we will get the 13th and final episode of the season up soon. However, in the meantime we should turn our attention to the WSOP

Players from all over the real and online world have congregated in Vegas and the online players will discover they got more chips than normal to play with. Sure, most of our ilk are fumbling the chips anyway, although if there were a prize for doing trips with your mouse or artistic points for tossing a laptop in the pool we'd win those for sure.

However the ratio of chips to buy-in has once again increased. It started at 1-1. Then doubled to 2-1 in '07 and this year it is 3-1. That means the players in the 40k special tournament got 120,000 in chips to start with. Course the blinds and antes didn't start at the same place. Do they really think we are that stupid. Pollack in the USA Today spins it saying they did it to "create more play and more value for everyone... You have a bigger gas tank, if you will." Who's buying this? Is anybody?

Effel, in the article, credited his wife with the idea for the 40k buy-in. Which will create a "final table for the ages" though many of the TV names are already eliminated except for Chris Moneymaker. Which would be a HUGE story but does anyone really expect him to final table this? If you do, bet it because you can get great odds, even now, with him second in chips and only 88 players left. For more on the 40k event go here.

The Binion Cup is another idea created to celebrate the history of the World Series. They are going to give the winner of the event a vintage 1970 Corvette, a trophy named the Binion Cup, and bragging rights. No, prize money.

If poker players had any balls or since of solidarity, these champions would make an example of themselves and get a piece of the TV money ESPN feeds to Binions. They should sit out and ask for a small prize pool to be added to the event. Most of the old champions are just that old, and probably could care less about a vintage Corvette. It'll be more a hassle selling it for them.

Not to get off on a rant here but it looks like I already have. Harrahs has a tidy deal with ESPN, yet the players still pay admin fees and have to tip out the dealers. The only way the casinos are going to give players a piece of the pie is if the biggest players make a stand. The Champion Cup is made for TV. Stage a sit out and don't give Harrahs or ESPN their made for TV event. They might stop squeezing the players so much if the biggest players make a stand.

It could only happen at an event like this, because right now the casinos know in any other event if Phil Ivy, Doyle Brunson, and Phil Hellmuth don't show they'll still have a 1000 other players in search of a bracelet.

High Stakes Poker Episode 11

Once again here's a helping of High Stakes Poker. You'll notice it isn't the entire episode rather than make you search for the rest of them on Youtube. I'll post some more. Aren't I nice.



In this episode Phil Laak takes a lot of grief from the other players and himself. He overshoves AA and gets no value for his hand at all. Hmmm, you see kids pull that move in a casino and get called by an old dude but didn't work for Laak this time.



Doyle Brunson turned a set of aces into a double up, despite having to withstand a flush draw twice. The board didn't help as it brought a Q on the turn giving his opponent an open ended straight draw with additional outs both times. However, this show seemed to be the one where they run it twice and the best hand usually winning twice. The only guy not to win was Dwan, surprisingly.



This has been a interesting season on High Stakes. I would be interested to see these guys mix it up in game selection a little bit. Maybe some volatile omaha action. Doyle would probably love it if these High Stakes games were mixed games most. Though Durrrr would have no problem with Omaha, as he plays a ton of online omaha poker maybe with Razz but not Omaha.

As the season is wrapping up here's a dream team type lineup.

Dwan... his performances this year mandates it.
Hellmuth... his blow-ups mandate it.
Jaime Gold... if he can rehab his bankroll to afford to play.
Mike the Mouth... pure entertainment especially if he's running bad.
Phil Laak... but not his sidekick the magician. Though Laak's been so subdued of late, he's probably not realizing his lack of antics is squarely outing him for the nit he is.
Andy Beal... Don't know who he is? You should.
Dario Mineri... His scarf and pipsqueak voice is funny.
Annie Duke... We need a lady and Jennifer Harman is too quiet. Annie is not.
Two wild fishes to round out the rest.

High Stakes Poker Episode 11

Another week, another episode of high stakes poker action. Got to write about more, I suspect. Otherwise I should change the name of this blog to High Stakes Poker Recap.

In big news, the WSOP Circuit Event returns to the birthplace of Poker, New Orleans, and because of a generous structure players have flocked to the event. After some dissapointments for turnouts in recent regional turnouts this was a great sign.

Annie Duke came in second in Celebrity Apprentice. A show that has been doing gangbuster ratings because of Duke's rivalry with Joan Rivers. One highlight was Trump slowrolling Annie Duke.

Okay, now to the High Stakes action. Dario Manieri joined Tom Dwan as a young gun driving the action with any two cards. Quite the contrast sitting right next to Doyle Brunson. Each had their trademark flair, Doyle's hat and Dario's scarf.

Phil Laak tightens up and complains about the Mountain Bike he could have bought with what he lost in the pot. Elie Elezra gets some money back for the old guard taking a number of pots from Dwan and Dario through out the episode.

Magically, the magician Antonio Esfandiari does a disappearing act and isn't attached to Laak's hip. There were three players David Pleat, Baxter, and Meltzer (a record executive whose play has taken some flack) that have not been seen on television in a poker session previously. They didn't add too much, except for Pleat's needling of Laak's tight play and Meltzer critique of his success rate.

Enjoy the episode as two of the better online poker pros discover the old guys can play a bit too. This week I won't give away all the action in the recap--why watch in that case right?

High Stakes Poker

High Stakes Poker was back. The action was kind of boring. Not terrible but kind of boring. It was the tenth episode of this season. The players staring at each other after glancing at their cards included: The Professor; Howard Lederer, Kid Poker; Daniel Negreanu, Salty Joe; Joe Hachem, The Unabomber; Phil Laak, The Magician; Antonio Esfandiari, The Director; Nick Cassavetes, DURRRR; Tom Dwan, and the Swedish Bombshell; Patrik Anotnius.

As per usual, the blinds were $400/$800 with $200 antes. The players were still playing the winner had to show one card.

The first two pots were exchanges between Salty Joe and Antonius. Hachem took the first with middle pair and Antonius threw away bottom pair. In the next hand, Antonius got his chips back pushing Hachem off a hand.

Antonio Esfandiari and Patrik Antonius mixed it up next. Esfandiari limped with 9-9. Antonius raised to $4,800. The big Swede was sitting on suited A-J of clubs. The Magician after a little thought called.

The flop was very favorable to the former tennis player Antonius. A-6-10 with two clubs. Top pair with the nut flush draw elicited a bet from Patrik after Esfandiari checked. BTW, sidenote, how confusing would this action be if we refered to them as Antonio as Antonius.

After a nonthreatening turn card, the lowly the 5 of hearts, it again went check bet (19,000), call. The river was the Ace of spades which was a bit of trouble card for Esfandiari. It made it less likely that Antonius had an ace. He did though. Esfandiari checked yet again, Antonius bet $41,000, and Esfandiari folded.

In the next hand, holding absolutely nothing Nick Cassavetes had a moment of bad timing as he bluffed at Dwan. Perhaps it would have worked if the community cards weren't A-3-Q-Q-A and Dwan didn't hold an A. The full house of Dwan fired back and the Director folded.

Negreanu's bad luck in the television series continued. He had to fold his pair of aces on the river to Dwan's rivered straight. Phil Laak was the next to fall to Dwan's run of luck as Dwan made a full house, and Laak called him with a flush.

In the next hand, Negreanu fell to Laak when the Unabomber's two pair bested Negreanu's KJ (with a king on board). Hachem rode sidecar in the hand to see the flop with 4-4.

Negreanu's next hand again was a loser to Dwan. In a multi-way pot Negreanu held A8 of hearts. Flop was AQ2. Dwan of course held AQ. Dwan bet the flop and Kid Poker called. The turn was a brick. Dwan led out. Negreanu raised $50,000 on top and Dwan called. The river went check-check. And Dwan dragged Negreanu's chips again in the over 220k pot.

The episode ended with somebody finally beating Dwan in a pot. Dwan held J-J. Antonius a lowly 10-6. Dwan raised preflop, Esfandiari called, and Antonius re-raised. Dwan called, Esfandiari folded.

Flop came A high and Antonius c-bet. Dwan called. Turn brought a king and Antonius fired out a large bet, Dwan stewed and folded. When Antonius turned over the 6 as his one card he had to show, Dwan fumed, knowing he had been bluffed.

Next week looks like a lot of fun as Dario Minieri, online Texas Hold'em prodigy in a scarf of course, joins the action. Looks like Eli Elezra taks a couple of pots of the seemingly unbeatable Dwan too.