Partypoker

DALLAS--I decided to do some image hunting at the State Fair of Texas this weekend. About 50 feet inside Fair Park, towering over me was PartyPoker.net's white and green tent. I was a little shocked to see it in light of new laws and Party's American pull-outs ... but apparently it was merely a sign of Party's marketing left-overs.

Inside the tent, it seemed like business was running as usual. A hired Dallas marketing firm was operating the tent and cute girls in Party attire and khakis were giving away t-shirts and hats. Free tournaments boasting Party Poker luggage for the winner ran about every three hours.

I decided to stick around for the 4 pm tourney hoping to find out how my fellow Texans felt about the recent online gambling prohibition. I found only two who played online poker, and only one played for real money, former University of Michigan math professor Dr. Shane O'Neill (above). O'Neill said the new law was intrusive and described it as "pure robbery" of poker players rights, but said it wouldn't stop him from playing on Party. He plans to play under an "international alias" if his American Party account ends up giving him trouble. I imagine he won't be alone.

Meanwhile, other online sites engage in big fat game of Hungry Hungry Hippo trying to scoop up Party players, which until today represented 40+ percent of the worldwide online poker market.

Mike Sexton explains Party's U.S. pullout as part of good-corporate-citizen strategy in an effort to set-up a taxably triumphant return ... while Daniel Negreanu respects the move but wonders if they'll ever get back the players left behind.

(I know a couple poker-room guys in Dallas who know the answer to that -- it's possible, but not easy.)

Shame on me for sharing personal, private emails between me and the team with the world, but this addendum from Change100 I found simply too humorous and relevant to not post:

P.S.-- Is it just me, or are online poker games playing like it's the last night of the world right now? I haven't had this good a week in 6+ mos. Viva la Party Poker!

Hmm, maybe I was one of those tilters ... because I pretty much drained all my online accounts not by withdrawing funds, but by chasing open-ended straights.

As Monday morning dawns across the pond, we're hearing word about how many of the online poker sites intend to respond to the US legislation. The first offical announcement appears to be from Party Poker, stating that they will cease doing business with US customers once the bill is signed into law.

After taking extensive legal advice, the Board of PartyGaming Plc has concluded that the new legislation, if signed into law, will make it practically impossible to provide US residents with access to its real money poker and other real money gaming sites. As a result of this development, the Board of PartyGaming has determined that if the President signs the Act into law, the Company will suspend all real money gaming business with US residents, and such suspension will continue indefinitely, subject to clarification of the interpretation and enforcement of US law and the impact on financial institutions of this and other related legislation. Access to PartyGaming's online gaming sites for the Group's US free play customers will be unaffected. Access for all of PartyGaming’s non-US customers will also be unaffected.

Read the full Party release here. Rumor has it that PokerStars will soon follow, though Ultimate Bet will continue business as usual.

5,060 players decided to kick off their October by taking a shot at a $156,860 first place prize. A final table recap is forthcoming; in the meantime, here are the payouts for the top 10 finishers:

TipTripTrap - $156,860
ThePope7979- $85,615
G_Becks - $53,130
DwightSchrute - $43,010
Poly_Baller - $35,420
ZMAN01 - $27,830
doublmeup1 - $20,240
Okla_State21 - $15,180
MagicMarker3 - $10,120
pokerMan505 - $5,060

This was a final table where negotiaton skills were far more valuable than card smarts. Party Poker has a great deal-making system that allows players to agree to discuss deals, work out all the details, then confirm a deal and end the tournament - all without ever having to track down a support person. Willingness to talk deal is indicated by players marking a "Yes" or "No" button found at the bottom of their screen. I always find it interesting to keep an eye on the number of players willing to discuss a deal. While you don't know who has selected what, you can make educated guesses; then find out for sure once someone is knocked out or doubles up and the willing tally changes. Almost always, it's the short stacks that are interested in deals, while the big stacks prefer to pick off the little guys and give themselves a shot at the first place money.

At this week's table, no one came in with a huge chip lead over the others. An all-in by a 1.5 million short stack was still going to cost a big stack 1/3 of their chips if they called and lost. Still, I was a little surprised when talk of a deal began almost immediately.

Dan, you and Jen may get to cover tournaments with snowy Lake Tahoe as a backdrop, but I'd put the backdrop for my tournament reporting up against it any day.

That's the Cowgirls getting lucky and beating the Redskins in HD, and a tall glass of Guinness.

While the Party Poker Sunday Million Guaranteed tournament has a field size and prize pool similar to a WSOP Circuit or Prelim event; the players get to play in the comfort of their own homes, where not only can they say "fuck" all they want, pants aren't even required. It's fitting then that the tournament reporter gets to do the same, though I got all the cursing out of my system while watching the shameful Texans/Colts game. (And I wore pants.)

This Sunday's event started with 5,015 players, a prize pool of a cool $1,003,000, and a few familar names at the virtual felt - JohnnyBax, Matt Matros, and an unconfirmed John Juanda. 750 players would make the money, with players finishing at least 200th taking home over a grand.

LAKE TAHOE, NV--Recovering from my altitude illness, I made it back up to Harvey's today to check out the $500 No-Limit Circuit Event #6. I noticed two more Party Poker players, Robin Lacey from Dublin (right) and Yoon Kim from Chicago (with headphones).

You might remember Robin from the WSOP main event. Since then he's been enjoying his three month holiday mostly on the west coast where his girlfriend is doing a semester abroad. He busted out of Event #6 when his pocket 5's lost to a pair of aces, but he said he made enough here in Tahoe in 5/10 NLH cash games to pay his way into the $5,000 main event on Friday.

CYBERSPACE--I have to admit it has been a long time since I played one of the "big" field events online. The last time I did that I think there were 1300 players in the event, so I thought it was time to take a look at how the online monster tournaments were doing these days and evenings and nights and early mornings.

So, I played a little (60 player) $10 satellite on Party Poker and being the wise and astute player that I am..... I got a seat in the Sunday Million Guarantee event today. Now mind you I had no idea what the field or the structure or even the starting chips were; I just put my ten bucks down and got lucky. So this afternoon when I logged in and saw that the field was over 4,000 I was shocked.

The final starting field was 4,895 players. Twenty minute rounds, five thousand starting chips, blinds begin at 20/40. Nice structure, good stacks, lots of play. As I remember these events would lose 1/3 to 1/2 the field in the first hour; that did not seem likely today.

Mind you I was playing on a $10 buy-in and when first place was posted it was: $160,000! Now those are nice odds. The event would pay 600 places with 501st to 600th getting $400 or 40 to 1 on my buy-in but that would be several to many hours away.

Shuffle Up and Deal.

Just a quick open thank you to Dan and PartyPoker for employing me during the series. The great thing about having a team was not having to work 16 hours a day. Also if something newsworthy happened chances where one of us would be there to witness it.(especially if it happened near the Sapphire stand or beer tent.)

I was dispatched to the more hospitable Bellagio this week. Amazing, no other site was on hand to witness 22 year old Shannon Shorr win $960k.

The highlight of the series for me was the lifestyle show and the appearance by the monkey, which may or may not have tried to play the main event.

My favourite quote from Dan about me on Ladies Day " Charliebigtime loves this day more than Christmas..." See why I love it on my site
here.

I know this is not a high priority, but didn't this site post the bonus code for 100% deposit bonus on PartyPoker. I think the code was VWOOD. And the code was supposed to be good until 8/31/2006. I just searched 23+ pages of posts, but I cannot seem to find the initial post. Can you folks help me, or am I just crazy?!?

By the way, I have been following your coverage of the WSOP since day one, and I have really enjoyed the insight and I feel like I am there just from reading your posts.

Keep up the good work!

Three Party Poker qualifiers continue play on Day Six, and I caught up with two of them last night as play concluded for the day. Both men are obviously great players to have made it this far in the biggest WSOP field ever, but the similarities end there. Paul Raeburn has the mild-mannered demeanor of Clark Kent, while Richard Wyrick is an animated personality who is clearly thrilled to be here.

Paul Raeburn will begin Day Six with 1,385,000 in chips, which puts him in 26th place out of the remaining 45 players. Paul's been playing poker for eight months, after watching the WSOP on ESPN and deciding he wanted to give the game a try. He said he started out playing cash games and went broke, then moved on to sit-n-gos where he built his bankroll and practiced his tournament style. Paul had a couple of big hands on Day Five, including one where he doubled-up when he pushed all-in with Aces after a his big blind was re-raised by an opponent holding A-K. "Makes the decision easier" he said about being fortunate enough to have aces in that spot. Paul was ready to get some rest at the end of play, but did say before he left that his plan for today was to tighten up now that the money levels are getting bigger.

In contrast is Richard Wyrick, who announced to his table when he bagged up his 800,000 chips for the night that "this is the 5th night in a row that I'm the shortstack!!!" Richard said he's been unable to build a stack thus far, pushing all-in often, but not getting called. I asked if he was card dead, to which he replied with a wink "I'm not card dead when I'm all-in." He said the best hands he saw pre-flop were A-K and pocket jacks, but stated he was not here to sit around for money bumps - he wants to win the whole thing and stated several times that he was going to play the cards the way they should be played. While Paul is new to the world of poker, Richard is no stranger to a casino, having an affection for blackjack and also having won his way on the PartyPoker Millions cruise last year. Richard gained a railbird last night in his brother, who flew down to cheer him on despite having two children and trying to get a business off the ground.

As "Coach" Dan pointed out to Richard, today's play begins like a 45-player sit-n-go - a little less stressful for a short stack, and a drastic change from the field both gentleman started with. Here's hoping that their playing styles continue to serve them well as they make their way to the final table.

Nicolai finishes 51st and is taking home a prize of $164,932, which should certainly fund future tournament attempts. Right after the dinner break Nicolai was moved from the feature table to a table with Allen Cunningham, and again had a monster chip stack to his right. Unfortunately he appeared unable to do much with the cards he was getting. Short-stacked and in late position, he came over the top of a raise from the player under the gun. UTG called and fliped queens, leaving Nicolai with only a 30% chance to win the hand.

The flop was 8c Jc 2h, giving Nicolai a few more outs, but none arrived and he was sent to the rail.

Congratulations to Nicolai for an amazing first appearance at the WSOP, and we'll see you next year.

The Amazon Room is big enough to land a jet in, and for days WSOP tournament tables have filled the floor, with the sound of shuffling chips occupying the space in between. Now when a table breaks, it literally breaks - a crew comes in to stack up all the chairs, take off the rail, fold up the legs and store the table in the Rio attic until next year. The sound of rifling chips has dimmed from a constant murmur to a slight whisper, and each player tries to hang on to the seat so many dream about for as long as he can.

One such player is Nicolai Vivet from Copenhagen, Denmark. Nicolai made his way to the WSOP by using his Party points for an entry, and this is his first main event appearance. Already he's outlasted nearly all of the big name pros that played in this year's event and guaranteed himself a minimum $50,000 payday. Nicolai's name may have only recently begun showing up on tournament winners lists, but he's no novice to poker. He is a high-stakes limit player, playing the $100/$200 games on Party when not developing his no-limit tournament skills.

I spoke with Nicolai briefly during a break where he reported that he's been having a great time playing. He's had chipleader Jamie Gold on his right for most of the day, and recently his table was relocated to the feature table on the ESPN stage, where Humberto Brenes has been holding court with his always entertaining antics.

Nicolai has built his chip stack up today, but not without making some heart-pounding decisions. You'll catch him on ESPN for sure when they show his calling the all-in of another featured table player, with his pocket nines versus the other's A5. Despite being a 69% favorite to win, Nicolai's face showed the anxiety you'd expect from someone putting a lot of chips on the line in the biggest poker tournament in the world. His hand held up, sending his opponent to the rail, and pushing him up in the chip count.

Currently Nicolai is sitting with T700,000, putting him right in the middle of the remaining field. I'll keep an eye on his progress today and report back to you.

Of the five Party Poker qualifiers remaining in the main event, three of them are currently seated at the same table.

Table 139, seat 5 is Paul Raeburn (T1,250,000), next to Richard Wyrick (T370,000) in seat 6, with Scott O'Reilly (T620,000) in seat 9.