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Card Player is reporting this afternoon that both Poker Stars and Neteller have decided to remain in business with their American customers despite the passage of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act. President Bush will likely sign the bill into law this Friday, the 13th.

"Card Player has learned moments ago that PokerStars has made a decision to continue accepting U.S. customers even if the President signs the current legislation...We have strong reason to believe that this afternoon, PokerStars customers will receive answers to their e-mails stating that Poker Stars will remain doing business in the United States."

Citing reports in the Wall Street Journal, the article also confirms that Neteller will continue to serve U.S. customers.

A NETeller PLC executive said the British company, which handles payments for online gambling companies and others, will continue to operate in the U.S., despite the recent passage of antigambling legislation.

"We are staying in the U.S.," said Bruce Elliott, Neteller's executive vice president, marketing and sales, told a online gambling conference in Barcelona. "I don't think we have a very big problem."

**Updated- 5:45 PM PDT**

The full text of Poker Stars' official announcement follows the jump:

In yesterday's ESPN Radio broadcast "The Poker Edge" with Phil Gordon and Andrew Feldman, Gordon revealed that Harrah's has informed the online sites that they will not be accepting third-party registrations for this year's World Series of Poker. Gordon puts it in layman's terms:

"If you go to one of the online sites and win a seat to the WSOP, they will not allow the site to buy you in. You're gonna have to buy yourself in."

While some may point out that sites could simply award such prizes in cash instead of the actual tournament buy-in, Gordon points out a major problem most players would still face:

"All these guys that win the $10,000 or $12,000 satellite? It's a big deal to convince your spouse to let you take that $12,000 and go gamble it again... if you don't have a choice, what can they say?... But it's a completely different thing for you to win a seat on 'Site X' and for them to send you a check, say for $12,000, which is kind of the normal package price, and then you take that check, you cash it, and then you buy your ticket to the WSOP. There are a lot of things that can intervene between the time you get that check and the time you actually go to Las Vegas."

Additionally, Full Tilt Poker just sent the following email to recent winners of their "Winner's Choice" $12K WPT/WSOP-Cicuit Event super satellite (full text follows the jump):

The op-ed page of the unapologetically right-wing Washington Times is last place I thought I'd find a well thought-out article denouncing the Unlawful Internet Gambling Act. Penned by the Cato Institute's Clyde Wayne Crews, Jr. the piece provides a more libertarian analysis of the legislation and its potential economic consequences. Most of all, it condemns the manner in which this legislation "runs roughshod over individual freedoms" by allowing the government to make choices for its citizens about how they spend their own hard-earned money.

"One gets the impression the real motive behind the legislation is not to protect against crime or terrorism but to legislate behavior" says Crews.

Crews also contends that the legislation's very definition of "gambling" is subject to interpretation. "Even investing can be a 'gamble' in the sense that 'the opportunity to win is predominantly subject to chance' -- as the legislation defined 'gambling,'" he writes.

Check out the entire piece "Gambling with Freedom" here.

At around 2:00 AM Sunday morning, the clatter of poker chips at the Commerce Casino was interrupted by an eruption of gunfire near the building's main entrance. A suspect in a high-speed freeway chase abruptly pulled off the 5 freeway and drove his vehicle into the valet parking area of the casino, plowing his black Toyota Scion into the rear of a Porsche. With the police right behind him, the suspect realized that he didn't have anywhere to go and he fired multiple gunshots at the cops. The officers returned fire, killing him instantly. The suspect had a female passenger in his car and she was taken in to custody.

St. Louis radio host Paul Harris was playing poker at the Commerce at the time of the incident and offers up an execellent first-hand account on his blog. According to Harris, most players and dealers hit the deck as the shots rang out, diving under the poker tables for cover. Thankfully, no one was hurt. The police later cordoned off the entire valet area with crime scene tape and everyone at the casino who had valet-parked was unable to retrieve their vehicle that evening. Some grumbled and complained, others accepted offers of comped rooms at the casino's Crowne Plaza Hotel.

Most, though, just kept on playing.

In one of the first public responses from a high-profile poker pro on the passage of the online gambling legislation, Daniel Negreanu just offered his two cents about the law in a stinging post on his blog. Here's the most scathing excerpt:

"The weasel (remember, that's Bill Frist), claims that online gambling is a way in which terrorists go about laundering money. Come off it? How do you say that with a straight face? Weasel, do you have any proof whatsoever that any terrorist group has used online poker accounts to launder money? Any at all?

The weasel is a self-righteous douche bag who has decided to push upon us his moral agenda by claiming that online poker is "bad." Has he ever played poker? Probably not. Does he even understand that it's different from slot machines? Probably not. Does he even realize that many Americans put food on the table by playing online poker? Probably not, and I doubt he cares. He thinks "gambling is wrong" so we all have to have the same view of it as he does."

An owner and celebrity endorser of Full Contact Poker, Negreanu also states that he believes that business will go on as usual for the smaller, privately owned sites.

"As for the majority of privately owned sites, it will be business as usual. Frankly, as moronic and intrusive as this bill is, there is really no need to panic. The bill states that banks have 270 days to comply with the law. Most banks, especially smaller ones, won't even have the resources to do that as I understand it."

Of course, Negreanu is only a poker player, not a legal scholar or a psychic-- these are only his opinions. An interesting, relevant read nonetheless.

So, how did the thoroughbred racing industry ensure their carve-out in the online gambling legislation? As the U.K. newspaper The Independent examines today, they pretty much (a) organized and got their shit together and (b)put money in the right pockets, including those of original bill architect Rep. Bob Goodlatte, who was one of the top four recipients of campaigh contributions from the National Thoroughbred Racing Association. The NTRA met with Goodlatte as well as other influential Republicans and "educated" them on all things horsey, ensuring their legal carve-out in the bill.

The article also suggests that the online gaming companies (after tearing their hair out in anguish) have learned a great deal from the racing industry's lobbying efforts and are vowing to mount similar campaigns in the near future in pursuit of their own carve-out, or a new piece of legislation that would fully regulate internet gaming.

In a just-issued press release, the World Poker Tour declares that (a) THEY'RE the ones responsible for the poker boom, thank you very much and (b)they could give a rat's ass about the passage of the online gambling legislation because they already think American internet poker players are criminals.

Statements to the former:

"WPT Enterprises, Inc. (NASDAQ: WPTE), the company that helped launch the current global poker boom..."

"'It was a wide-spread love of this game and the reinvention of poker as a televised sport that ignited the poker phenomenon,' said Steve Lipscomb, CEO and founder of WPTE. 'And, that is what will continue to drive the future of the sport.'"

"The WORLD POKER TOUR launched the poker phenomenon when it first aired on the Travel Channel on March 30, 2003, and it continues to lead the way in developing poker as a major international sport."

Statements to the latter:

”The Justice Department has been very clear that it believes online gaming to be illegal in the United States and our policies have been always been tailored accordingly,” said Adam Pliska, General Counsel of WPTE. “This law clarifies the rules and makes it possible for everyone to move forward on an even footing.”

So, yeah. Pretty much reiterating what Steve Lipscomb & Co. already said two months ago in their response to the Lederer/Duke/Gordon/Raymer/et. al lawsuit. In laymans terms? "Moneymaker who? And what is this Party Poker? Pshaw!! We created you and we will destroy you!"

Deep Throat: Follow the money.
Bob Woodward: What do you mean? Where?
Deep Throat: Oh, I can't tell you that.
- All the President's Men

Would it surprise you that Harrah's Entertainment ranked #13 on Bill Frist's list of top campaign contributors' for most of the 1990s? Nah. The way hypocrisy is running rampant in the halls of the United States Congress today, it wouldn't shock me if I found out that Dennis Hastert was running a whorehouse out of the Republican cloakroom.

After reading that statistic (thanks Drizz!), my curiosity was peaked. So I decided to take a look and see which other proponents of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Act (H.R. 4411) were stuffing their pockets with the gaming industry's money.

At least 7 of the top 20 recipients of campaign contributions from the gaming industry for the 2006 election cycle voted FOR H.R. 4411 including the following hypocrites representatives:

Business Week's article "Online Gambling Still in the Cards?" is definitely worth a read for those seeking an optimistic take on the events of what is now being dubbed industry-wide as "Black Monday." Contending that online poker has not specifically been outlawed and that payment loopholes will likely continue to exist, the piece includes commentary from multiple corners of the industry including original bill architect Rep. Bob Goodlatte who admits that the language that was passed was far weaker than he'd have preferred. It also features some utterly brain-damaged quotes from conservative nutjob Iowa Congressman Jim Leach, who co-sponsored the bill and arm-wrestled Bill Frist into jamming it through:

"Religious leaders of all denominations and faiths are seeing gambling problems erode family values...If Congress had not acted, gamblers would soon be able to place bets not just from home computers, but from their cell phones while they drive home from work or their BlackBerries as they wait in line at the movies."

The New York Times and the L.A. Times both ran in-depth pieces in their business sections today on the $15 billion Harrah's buyout offer.

MSNBC has the word on how gaming shares did in Tuesday's trading. In a nutshell? Not good.

Around the poker blogosphere and the forums, response to the online gaming legislation has run the gamut from cashout hysteria to sober analysis to well, slightly less sober analysis. Check it out after the jump:

BELL GARDENS, CA-- Last night, while a dark cloud moved over the future of online poker in the U.S., live poker flourished at the Bicycle Casino, where 227 ladies bought in for event #4 at Big Poker Oktober-- the $100+25 "Queen of Clubs" NLHE tournament. Yours truly crossed her fingers, downed two mimosas at the complimentary brunch buffet, and bought her donkey self in.

At my first table I was seated two to the left of the vivacious and chatty Timmi Derosa, who captured the California Ladies State Championship on Monday night at Ocean's 11 Casino in Oceanside. I immediately recognized Timmi's studded jacket and Louis Vuitton day planner from a fashion photo I snapped at the World Series of Poker (scroll down to the one with the caption reading "the Queer Eye guys want their hoodies back").

The U.S. banking industry just issued some of their first comments on the internet gambling ban in this International Herald-Tribune piece. In a nutshell, despite the ban, banks will still be able to process transactions from Neteller, et. al. since these "online wallets" are not specifically wagering companies. Furthermore, most banks do not currently have technology in place to track deposits in the way the legislation would have them do. Thus, the law is unenforceable.

It's far from a silver lining, but at this point, I think we'll take whatever good news we can get.

Last night, while we were all freaking out and consequently drinking ourselves into a stupor over the impending online poker ban, Shannon Elizabeth made the final table of the Bicycle Casino's Big Poker Oktober event #2, $200+30 NLHE with rebuys, ultimately finishing 7th. 20% of the prize pool went to Mothers Against Drunk Driving (M.A.D.D.) 171 players came out to the Bike, creating a prize pool of $77,400. Orange County's Kevin Goodling finished first for the top prize of $31,000.

The official standings (as well as most of the online databases) list Elizabeth under her given name, "Shannon Fadal" (Elizabeth is her middle name). Back at the WSOP, I remember her remarking to a crowd of media that she had to get that fixed. Rounders writer Brian Koppleman also made the money, finishing 15th.

Congrats to Shannon, who has been on a rather nice roll this year, including three WSOP cashes.

The Poker Player's Alliance just sounded the siren to its thousands of members to take action. Apparently, Sen. Bill Frist got his way and the anti-gambling legislation is being attached to a different piece of legislation (not the DoD bill as previously reported, but a Port Security bill) that will be voted on this evening.

It's time to burn up those phone lines. Call your senators NOW.

Here's the text of the PPA's message:

The U.S. Congress is Trying to Ban Online Poker TODAY!!!
THIS IS NOT A TEST -- Call Your Senator Now

U.S. Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist is attaching the Internet Gambling
Prohibition Act to a bill that is expected to be approved by the Congress
early this evening. PLEASE call your Senators today and tell them that
they should oppose the Internet gambling bill being part of Port Security
legislation.

If the Port Security bill passes, with the Internet gambling language
included, your ability to enjoy poker online will be at serious risk.

Each member of the Poker Players Alliance has two Senators which are
listed below. They need to hear from you RIGHT NOW! Let them know
that you care about your rights to play poker.

Please Call!!! Tell your Senators to oppose attaching Internet gambling to
Port Security!

The complete list of U.S. Senators' names and numbers follows the jump.

Like our fearless leader pointed out yesterday, major tournament action is spread thin around the Western Hemisphere at the moment, from Tunica to Aruba, to Atlantic City. While there may not be a clear favorite yet as to where the most TV- friendly poker players will end up spending this month (though it appears Aruba has an early lead), the field sizes aren't suffering at all, and hundreds of local pros, from the banks of the Mississippi to the SoCal beaches are getting great opportunities to go for that big score.

As Los Angeles is without a Harrah's property, we don't have a WSOP Circuit stop here, though our neighbors to the south in San Diego will have the tour blow into town in February. We do, however, with the sheer number of world-class poker rooms we enjoy here in the greater L.A. area, have a seriously thriving mid-size local tournament scene. It seems like every month there's some sort of series going on and October is no different.

That's right, people. It's Big Poker Oktober at the Bike. Get yer buyins out, Southern California.

According to this press release that just found its way into my in-box, it appears that the PPT's second season has been postponed semi-indefinitely. This is not a huge surprise, given the over-saturation of the TV poker marketplace, the crowded tournament calendar, and the numerous difficulties PPT has encountered in selling the second season to a network.

"We regret to inform you that the PPT Season II schedule of tournaments has been postponed. WPT Enterprises is proud to be a part of the ongoing effort to organize a televised league of qualified poker proessionals, and it is with great disappointment that we must delay its progression.

While we continue to negotiate the broadcast of the second season we have decided to delay these tournaments for the benefit of players who need to make long-term travel arrangements as well as the league itself. We expect to resume filming in 2007. As the poker industry expands, and the television marketplace eveolves, we must adapt our business and brand strategies to reflect current market conditons."

With the future of internet gambling hanging in the balance, Congressional newspapers like The Hill and Roll Call have become daily reading for me. In Hollywood terms, they're like the Variety and Hollywood Reporter for D.C.

In today's Hill, I was happy to find an excellent op-ed piece that actually defends internet gambling, penned by a former U.S. assistant attorney general. Here's hoping that some Senate staffers with the WSOP on their Tivo season pass actually read it.

Continuous updates from some serious political wonks can also be found on the 2+2 message boards if you can get past all the nerd-speak.

Lon McEachern said the following about 7 minutes into tonight's premiere broadcast of Episode 11 of the 2006 WSOP Main Event:

"If you're really quick with math, you might notice that there are more than two million extra chips in play. That may be due to a miscount during the color-up of chips so now... a little over 90 million chips at the final table."

Might that little piece of ADR have been included at the last minute thanks to our own Poker Shrink and Amy Calistri's fantastic display of investigative journalism?

One has to wonder...

I was so ready to dance the horah last night when I read Dan's post about the Online Gambling Legislation being dead in the Senate. But like a loser on tilt who picks up pocket aces, I knew something had to be wrong. So I found this article in the Congressional newspaper The Hill which confirmed my fears of an impending suckout.

The Online Gambling Legislation is not dead. It's horribly, horribly alive.

In a nutshell, here's what's happening right now:

Steve Lipscomb and his cronies at the WPT have yet another lawsuit and accompanying P.R. black eye to deal with, this time courtesy of former WPT hostess Shana Hiatt. Hiatt filed suit against the World Poker Tour on Friday in L.A. Superior Court after Lipscomb/WPT interfered with her negotiations for a TV hosting gig on 2 NBC poker shows, including the popular National Heads-Up Poker Championships and a new show in development called Poker After Dark.

According to Hiatt's complaint, Lipscomb contacted NBC and informed them that Hiatt "was precluded from working for NBC or for appearing in any poker-related television shows" and that WPT "owns Shana Hiatt in poker." Hiatt claims that WPT is relying on an illegal and unenforceable "non-compete" clause that appeared in a draft of Hiatt's release from her WPT contract. Hiatt and her lawyers maintain that not only did she not sign that particular draft of the release, but that the non-compete itself is unenforceable under California Law.

In layman's terms, the law states that any contract that prevents an individual from seeking lawful employment is void. WPT is trying to do just that-- prevent Hiatt from getting a new job at something she does well merely to protect their own product and financial bottom line. God help Steve Lipscomb if Hiatt should hold a microphone and interview Phil Hellmuth on another network and get on with her career-- he can't have his WPT video games or pinball machines or DVDs with Hiatt's likeness on them devalued but one penny. It's a greedy, disgusting move that makes the WPT only look even more soulless and corporate.

The California State Poker Championship Main Event gets underway tomorrow at the Commerce Casino. A $2,500+80 buyin gets you a seat and probably at least one food comp (but I'd avoid the tacos). Tony Ma is our defending champion, having bested last year's field of 214 entries for a $384,000 payday.

Back in 2004 when Ben Affleck famously won $356K and the title, the CA State Championship boasted a $10,000 buyin main event, but the crowded post-boom tournament schedule has caused this event to fall a bit by the wayside in terms of prestige and the presence of big-name pros. In 2005 the event was moved from June to September to accomodate the later-starting WSOP and the main event buyin dropped from $10,000 to $5,000. However, it was now scheduled opposite televised events such as the WPT Borgata, the U.S. Poker Championships, and the Ultimate Bet Poker Classic in Aruba. And we all know how important TV coverage is. This year, there was the same sort of scheduling logjam, and the buyin was lowered again, this time to $2,500, putting it more on the level of Commerce's other semi-annual midsize tournament series like Heavenly Hold'em.

"What does L.I.P.S. stand for?"
"Lesbians in Poker Shirts."
-two women in line ahead of me at the last L.I.P.S. event at the Bike.

It very well could stand for that, but L.I.P.S. is actually the acronym for the Ladies International Poker Series, a ladies-only poker tour that is in it's third year. In addition to the dozens of local events they sponsor at casinos across the country, this year L.I.P.S. is running ladies' championships in each of the 50 states, culminating in the U.S. Ladies' Championships which will take place in 2007. California's Ladies State Championship takes place this coming Monday, September 25th at Oceans' Eleven Casino in Oceanside, CA (just north of San Diego). The buy-in is an affordable $230+30.

The defending CA Ladies State Champion? "First lady" of poker and saucy WPT storyteller Linda Johnson.

Our WSOP Cast of Characters got another nice chunk of airtime in this
penultimate week of new WSOP Main Event episodes on ESPN. I was also pleasantly surprised to see that Party qualifier and Altoid aficionado Richard Wyrick (right) made the broadcast!

How did our motley crew of poker personalities damage (or repair) their images this week? Let's take a look.

Leif Force: A-

Leif Force was raised as a nudist in the woods! He lived in a treehouse! And he's "never had more than a couple thousand dollars" to his name! Well that explains a lot. Especially why he was borrowing cab fare from a couple of the ESPN sound guys at the end of Day 5. Whatever. I adore him. A star is born. Vive la Leif!

Prahlad Friedman: D

I spoke way too soon about the end of Friedman's ESPN rap career. In one of the most bizzare, cringe-inducing moments in televised poker history, Friedman, who clearly didn't learn from his humiliating debut last year, broke out in yet another freestyle rhyme for the cameras. For your reading pleasure (and mine), here is the text in its entriety:

Back when I first alerted you to Jamie Gold's new reality TV project Hottest Mom in America there wasn't a ton of information to be found on their official website. Audition cities and dates were posted but no times or venues. The contest was describled as "pageant-style" but there was little else to go on. But most of all, there was nothing about what the Hottest Mom in America would win.

Well, that's changed. Because it looks like Jamie Gold and his friends at BuzzNation got themselves a sorta-corporate sponsor.

Enter Restylane. It's sort of like Botox. And the Hottest Mom in America gets a year's worth of free treatments as well as the opportunity to become "The Face of Restylane." There's also a $25,000 cash prize, a $25,000 scholarship for the Hot Mom's kid, and an "interview with a top modeling agency" up for grabs in the competition.

U.K. filmmaker Nick Scott is about to celebrate the London premiere of his short film Breakers and he may have never seen his vision hit the big screen if it weren't for one very lucky turn card.

After unsuccessfully pounding the pavement for investors in his project, Scott turned to online poker to finance the film. From only a £3 investment, Scott won a satellite into Betfair Poker's £15,000 guaranteed tournament and after hours of tight, careful play, found himself heads-up for the first prize of £5,000. On the final hand, Scott went in as a big underdog, his 9-9 up against his opponent's A-A, but the 9 of diamonds on the turn sealed the win (and his film's budget) for him.

Breakers is about a guy who hurls bricks through windows to make art and is described as a "Faustian tale." Scott and his producing partner are currently shopping it to film festivals. In their spare time, they also run the annual U.K. Lebowski-fest called "The Dude Abides".

Sounds...very uh, arty. But I can't help but admire their gamble. Sort of like those weed dealers I used to know who used their "proceeds" to finance neo-modernistic interpretations of Chekov at a 99-seat theatre in Koreatown. Those dudes had gamble, too. Just a different "kind."

Poker just made Page Six. And this time it ain't about A-Rod donking off a few G's in an underground game.

Usually my first stop for finding decadent blind items of the Hollywood variety, the New York Post gossip column reported a rumor today that two "young male movie stars" who play the Hollywood high-stakes home game circuit on a regular basis are allegedly "working together, using subtle signals to team up on opponents."

I wonder what happens when a bunch of metrosexual twentysomething actors discover a mechanic at their home game? Key his Porsche? Call Ari Gold for backup?

I have no confirmation as to the identities of these gentlemen, but of course I have plenty of guesses. What are yours? Leave 'em in the comments.

After finishing third in the Borgata Poker Open's $1500 NLHE event, former college student Shannon Shorr passed Nam Le to take second place in the Card Player Player of the Year Race. Shorr won $51,000 for his finish, mere peanuts compared to the small fortune he's already pocketed so far this year.

In addition to his 2 WSOP Circuit final tables at Lake Tahoe and two WSOP cashes, Shorr won not one, but two tournaments at the Bellagio Cup II this summer-- the $1,000 NLHE and the $10,000 NLHE Main Event. Shorr currently is about 350 points ahead of Nam Le in the POY race, but is still well behind Michael Mizrachi who has a stranglehold on the lead.

Unlike his contemporary Jeff Madsen, Shorr elected to suspend his education in exchange for a life on the tournament trail. Though they made different choices with school, both 21-year olds are enjoying similar success in their first year playing major tournaments with $1.4 million apiece in winnings.

As originally reported by Dan Michalski, Vanessa Rousso bested a table full of name pros at the Borgata Poker Open's $5K NLHE event Thursday night, adding another $285,000 to her rapidly growing bankroll. That buys approximately 917 pairs of Dior sunglasses, 553 pairs of Manolo Blahnik pumps, or 237 Louis Vuitton purses.

The final table Rousso faced was a veritable Murderer's Row of poker professionals, including Hasan Habib, Paul McCaffrey, Cliff "JohnnyBax" Josephy, and everyone's favorite diaper-wearing bear Joe Sebok. In a scene reminiscent of their clash at the WPT Legends of Poker only a few weeks ago, Rousso ended up on the good end of a coinflip for Sebok's entire stack.

Sebok was none too happy about his fifth place finish, and had this to say on his blog:

"It seems that Vanessa has my number right now, after I also spurned her on to cashing in the Legends event a few weeks back. I single-handedly am bulding this girl's career...maybe I should be taking a cut..."

Rawr!

(Vanessa Rousso photo by Amy Calistri)

SportingBet Chairman Peter Dicks resigned his position with the London-based online sportsbook today following his arrest last week at New York's Kennedy International Airport. Dicks was jailed after entering the U.S. from London when customs officials discovered there was a Louisiana warrant out for his arrest. The charges included gambling by computer and accepting wagers from U.S. bettors.

64-year old Dicks appeared in court today in Queens, where it was revealed that New York governor George Pataki had withdrawn a warrant allowing for Dicks' extradition to Louisiana. Though he will need to appear in a New York courtroom again on September 28, Dicks was now free to travel back to London.

While Dicks got to return home to jolly olde England, our other online gambling jailbird, BetOnSports CEO David Carruthers, is still awaiting trial in St. Louis. Carruthers was pinched at the Dallas airport in July on a business trip to the U.S.

SportingBet is still accepting wagers from U.S. clients and their stock price soared 25% today on the London Stock Exchange following Dicks' release from the slammer.

All eyes are now on Sept. 28, when we'll hear more about whether or not Dicks will ever be extradited to Louisiana and forced to stand trial for these charges.

Let's be real. TV exposure is almost as important for a professional poker player today as a major tournament score. Some may argue that it's even more important in terms of potential sponsorship and endorsement opportunities. The ESPN repeat cycle guarantees that any player lucky enough to make the broadcast will enjoy a full year of mass-media exposure. Though emerging players stand to benefit the most from national airtime, veteran pros with existing deals still have a lot to gain from playing a few hands well on television.

Yesterday we texamined how some of poker's often-brash new personalities came off on this week's WSOP broadcast. Today we'll take a look at the veteran players.

Humberto Brenes: A

I think Norman Chad got it right for once when he said "Humberto Brenes doesn't just play poker, he performs poker." Humberto serenaded the dealers. He made his opponent smile when he spiked a gutshot to double up. And he expanded upon his traditional "all eeeeen!" schtick to accomodate his new sidekick-- a rubber shark card protector. The shark rode into the pot with Humberto's chips as he'd bellow now-classic lines like "Humberrrrrto eees hunnnngry!" Though some may find him annoying, I for one appreciate the levity Brenes brings to a tournament where more often than not, tension rules the day. Good for poker and GREAT for television, Humberto teaches us all that it's possible to be a great competitor while having fun along the way.

Last night's ESPN broadcast premiere of parts 7 & 8 of the 2006 WSOP Main Event gave many of poker's new cast of characters their first chunk of significant TV airtime. As we all know, when it comes to the WSOP broadcasts, good poker TV isn't always about amazing laydowns or stunning calls, but the personalities of the players themselves. Last night's installment featured a number of strong personas -- both newbie and veteran.

How did they all come off to the viewers at home? Here's my report card on the performances of some of last night's featured players.

Jamie Gold: B-

Surprisingly enough, Jamie Gold came off pretty decent on television. We only saw a few of his hands as he built up his significant chip lead over Day 5 and 6, but on the broadcast I witnessed three important things from Gold that likely led to his victory.