From ESPN.com
From PokerNewsDaily.com
“At 7:30pm local time on Thursday, 2006 World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event Champion Jamie Gold and 2008 winner Peter Eastgate will host a 50 player charity poker tournament benefiting the Jamie Gold Foundation. The event is one of many that will take place as part of London’s Poker in the Park.
The Foundation works with a bevy of notable charities, including the Muscular Dystrophy Association/ALS Division, Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research, Montel Williams MS Foundation, Sunflower Children, Covenant House, Fallen Heroes Fund, Fulfillment Fund, and the Abolish Slavery Coalition. Prizes up for grabs include a £5,200 European Poker Tour (EPT) entry, a £3,000 Unibet Open package, a Gresham Blake suit, a £1,000 Gevril Wristwatch, and chipsets and tables that are perfect for home games. Poker News Daily sat down with Gold to talk about this week’s event.
Poker News Daily: What can attendees expect at the charity poker tournament on Thursday?
Gold: This has all come together at the last minute, but we have some great support from the people running Poker in the Park. The Empire Casino, where we hold WSOP Europe, donated their space for us. We’re going to have a red carpet and even David “Devilfish” Ulliott is coming. He’s amazing and he’s a really great guitar player. He sings like Elvis.
PND: Talk about Peter Eastgate’s involvement.
Gold: The reason we became friendly is because we are both Main Event champions. He is impossible not to be friends with and, from what I can tell, he really cares. He knew that I had spent years trying to give back as much as I could. One of the things we bonded over is that he wanted to do the same. He wanted to make sure he didn’t just take the money and status for granted. He told me that if I ever needed him for anything, he’d be there.
There’s really one person who made this whole thing happen, Michael Casselli. He’s the head of Lyceum Media and Poker in the Park. He and I have been talking about doing an event together. It’s a little overwhelming because I’m not from Europe and he’s been a tremendous help.
PND: Is the 50 player maximum just a function of limited space?
Gold: The Empire Casino was kind enough to give us their space. We thought we had the whole casino, but they felt that if we had celebrities, we should have a protected area. We invited people like Daniel Craig (of “James Bond” fame). When you have people like that potentially coming, they will only allow you to be in the VIP room.
PND: One of the prizes in the charity poker tournament during Poker in the Park is a week-long poker training session by David “The Maven” Chicotsky. Talk about Chicotsky’s involvement.
Gold: Those guys are amazing, so I’m really excited. I’m in the process of making a partnership with The Maven. The things he doesn’t teach are my skills. I don’t claim to be the best in the world, but I seem to be on par with the best. I’ve only trained with them for a day, but I made two final tables during it. He’s completely changed my game.
PND: Are you considering relocating to Europe or signing with a non-U.S. online poker site?
Gold: Some of it has to do with the legalities, but I can’t deny that, with the economic situation, there’s not a lot of money being thrown around. The most lucrative deal I can make is in Europe. The two sites that take American players don’t need my help. However, my presence would help double most European sites’ numbers.
I have a powerful celebrity marketing base that could help a site do something special. I also believe strongly in my commitment to charity. I haven’t found another site in America that has the same commitment. They all care, but it’s not their number one goal, nor should it be. While I’m young, single, and healthy, now is the time I’d like to travel the world. I feel like I’m in a rare position.”
Celebrities are gambling for a cause!
This is the week when celebrities descend upon the World Series of Poker, with the Ante Up for Africa Celebrity-Charity Tournament.
The WSOP Main Event has has participants from the world of music, sports and movies and are expecting the same this year. world of music, movies, . The participation of such high-profile non-professionals playing alongside the game’s greats often brings added attention to poker.
Considering the circumstances, sometimes these celebs perform exceptionally well. Here are ten especially notable instances of celebrities making good.
1. Gabe Kaplan, 1st place ($190,000), 1980 Amarillo Slim’s Super Bowl of Poker
2. Guy Laliberte, 4th place ($696,220), 2007 World Poker Tour Championship, Five Star World Poker Classic
3. Gabe Kaplan, 3rd place ($256,519), 2004 World Poker Tour Mirage Poker Showdown
4. Jennifer Tilly, 1st place ($158,335), 2005 WSOP Ladies’ Event, No-Limit Hold’em
5. Ben Affleck, 1st place ($356,400), 2004 California State Poker Championship
6. Shannon Elizabeth, semifinalist ($125,000), 2007 NBC National Heads-Up Poker Championship
7. Gabe Kaplan, 6th place (no cash prize), 1980 World Series of Poker Main Event
8. Telly Savalas, 21st place ($8,080), 1992 World Series of Poker Main Event
9. Sam Simon, 329th place ($39,445), Tobey Maguire, 292nd place ($39,445) and Sully Erna, 237th place ($45,422), 2007 World Series of Poker Main Event (three-way tie)
10. Orel Hershiser, Quarterfinals ($75,000), 2008 NBC National Heads-Up Poker Championship
Read more from PokerNews.com
From PokerListings.com:
The 33-year-old professional poker player topped a field of 125 to take the $300,000 first prize in the three-day, $10,000 buy-in event at the Paiute Golf Resort.
“I’ve played in a lot of high-stakes poker games, but this was a whole different kind of pressure,” Garaventa said. “There were times out there when I missed shots because my hands or knees were shaking, but it’s an unbelievable rush.”
Poker personalities Daniel Negreanu, Gavin Smith, David Benyamine, Chris Ferguson and David Oppenheim joined Ray Romano, former MLB pitcher Greg Maddux and footballer Jorge Campos in teeing off in this unique event.
Negreanu, Benyamine and Oppenheim would all cash for the minimum $10,000 after winning their first round, but none of the three would survive the second day of play.
Campos took fifth place for $30,000 after busting out early on Day 3.
The World Series of Golf is open to any amateur golfer with $10,000 to spend and adds a No Limit Hold’em-style betting element to the game.
Players are given a 10,000 bank of chips and post ante at each hole. A random draw is made to determine the shooting order, with the button being given to the first player to act.
After the first round of shooting, the button can either check or bet and each successive player must match his wager (or raise) in order to stay in contention for the hole.
Following the betting round, each player still in contention hits another shot and another betting round commences.
Action continues until one player has won the hole, either by stroke count or by forcing his rivals to fold. The last player standing in his group of five wins the round and advances.
Previous champions include Mark Ewing (2007) and A.J. Johnson (2008), both of whom took $250,000 for their efforts.
Tips from one of the best. This is part 1 of 3:
From Daniel Negreanu at Chron.com:
The best players in the world rely on small ball poker when playing in No Limit Hold’em tournaments. And though it is the optimal strategy, it’s not meant for players of all skill levels. You must have superior hand-reading and people-reading skills for it to be effective.
You’ll play a lot of hands in small ball poker which means you’ll often face difficult situations with marginal cards. That’s why this approach is simply too advanced for beginning players.
In my book, Power Hold’em Strategy, I teach two distinctly different strategies. One is targeted at the experienced player who is looking to get to the next skill level. The other is an entry level approach that seemingly contradicts some of the basic tenets of small ball poker.
Here’s the first tip for beginners: Avoid playing small pots against experienced players because you’ll almost certainly be outplayed after the flop. Instead, make much larger bets before and after the flop. Also, play fewer hands, especially when out of position.
On the other hand, experienced small ball players should come in for a slightly smaller raise when they are first to enter the pot. A raise of 2 ½ times the big blind is about right.
Say you’re dealt 7c-8c with the blinds at 50-100. A skilled small-baller would raise the bet to 250. Not so for a novice player; he should avoid playing the han
d altogether. You see, experienced players can get away with playing more hands pre-flop because they are less likely to make mistakes after the flop.
A novice, though, needs to play much tighter before the flop. And when they do get a playable hand, they need to make larger raises — as much as five times the big blind.
Large raises serve multiple purposes for the beginning player. They apply pressure on skilled opponents who like to play a wide range of funky hands. They also improve the beginner’s chances of taking down the blinds and antes without a fight. Finally, they can help novices avoid difficult decisions after the flop by inducing skilled opponents to lay down their hands.
Remember, this isn’t the optimal tournament strategy for skilled players; it risks too many chips in relation to the expected small payoff. It works for novice players, however, because their primary goal should simply be to stay out of trouble and survive.
Here’s the second tip for beginners: Use the same big betting approach through to the flop as well. For example, with 1,200 in the pot, make a large bet to apply maximum pressure on your opponents. A pot-size bet ought to do the trick.
A bet of that size, though, is clearly too steep for an accomplished small ball player. It’s too exploitable and forces skilled players to assume much more risk than is necessary. Instead, small-ballers should bet around 700 chips for which they would gain virtually the same information as the beginner’s 1,200 bet – but at much lower cost.
Big raises by inexperienced players cause advanced players to operate outside of their comfort zones. That’s because skilled pros hate playing big pots unless they have the nuts, or something close to it.
Big bet poker is effective against small ball players because it forces the skilled player to wait patiently for trapping situations. Yes, this approach does make the beginner more susceptible to a trap. But the pro must still catch strong cards in order to even consider calling a big raise, and that’s not easy to do.
Visit www.cardsharkmedia.com/books.htm for information about Daniel Negreanu’s popular book, Power Hold’em Strategy.
Ylon Schwartz is one of the November Nine, the most hyped final table in poker history. He’s about to play on poker’s biggest stage for the championship of the world and more money than even he could burn off in a few years. The eyes of the world will be upon him and the other eight remaining players in the main event, looking on as poker’s next world champion is determined. However, one senses that he’s not interested in the accompaniment of fame.
What’s going on here?? From Reuters:
Ireland’s biggest bookmaker said on Thursday it would pay out more than 1 million euros ($1.35 million) on bets that Barack Obama will be the next U.S. president, three weeks before the election.
Dublin-based bookmaker Paddy Power said it made the “unprecedented decision” to pay on bets taken so far, following Wednesday’s final campaign debate between Obama and his Republican rival John McCain, which polls judged the Democrat to have won.
“We declare this race well and truly over and congratulate all those who backed Obama,” Power said in a statement.
“Although he seemed a little out of sorts in last night’s final debate we believe he has done more than enough to get him across the line on November 4.”
The bookmaker said the overall betting trend had shown “one-way traffic” for the Illinois senator since the start of the summer, with odds shortening to 1-9, meaning a bet of 9 euros is required to make 1 euro profit.
The odds on McCain winning are 5-1.
Power said it had taken more than 10,000 bets on the 2008 U.S. presidential election, the majority in support of Obama.
In June a wager of 100,000 euros was placed on Obama to win at odds of 1-2, it added.
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