Wpt

"It was chance created the poker beast; beancounters will kill it."

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Economics and Poker will clash this summer among the slightly tarnished gaming glitz of Las Vegas. Dispassionate observers of the poker world realize that this may be the watershed moment in the continuation or the demise of the "poker boom" worldwide.

Let's deal with the jingoism first: the United States is not the center of the universe. However, in some areas the U.S. does lead and one of those areas is 'poker as a recreational fad'. The central elements present in the U.S. that have fueled the poker boom are: the high proportion of casinos and card rooms available to the population; a large middle class with disposable income; high amounts of leisure time to pursue gaming as a hobby; relatively lenient social restrictions on gambling. Add to this the holy trinity of: the internet, television hole card cams and Chris Moneymaker; shake and stir and you have the poker boom of the last five years birthed in the United States.

The first nail in the poker coffin was indisputably the passage of the Unlawful Internet Gaming Enforcement Act in 2006. While online poker remains available to everyone who is really interested; any trend, craze, furor or fad like all good pyramids needs a constant influx of bodies to provide new fuel and new fodder. The UIGEA strangled that conduit of new poker players in the U.S. and hurt online sites globally that relied on U.S. players. While many internet sites continue to flourish, we all dream of what might have been had the wealth of new U.S. players not been shutoff.

But why will this summer be such a telling moment for poker? Well, the pieces are in place for the perfect storm of economic factors to lay bare the shaky fiscal underpinnings of the poker phenomenon. First and most obviously, the whole world will be watching the World Series, which begins here in Las Vegas in just two weeks. In fact, our first piece of evidence is the change in the WSOP schedule moving the main event final table to November. Clearly, this is an attempt to salvage the declining viewership on ESPN. Sure, sure there are other PR reasons being floated for the experiment but the television numbers don't lie.

Gus Hansen was crushing the final table at the World Poker Tour Championship at Bellagio in Las Vegas. Here is a summary of the early final table action:

Beginning Chip Counts for six-handed Final Table:

Seat 1. John Roveto - 2,720,000
Seat 2. Gus Hansen - 8,570,000
Seat 3. David Chiu - 6,050,000
Seat 4. Tommy Le - 1,950,00
Seat 5. Cory Carroll - 6,670,000
Seat 6. Jeff King - 1,305,000

Action at Final table:

Hand #12 Jeff King eliminated in 6th place by Gus Hansen.
Hand #15 Tommy Le eliminated in 5th place by Gus Hansen.
Hand #16 Cory Carroll elininated in 4th place by Gus Hansen.
Hand #22 John Roveta eliminated in 3rd place by Gus Hansen.

Hansen rivered a ten to beat Jeff King's A-Q suited with his 10-9 suited. Hansen flopped a set of tens over Tommy Le's set of fives. Hansen rivered a seven-high diamond flush to overcome Cory Carroll's pair of jacks. And Hansen cracked John Roveto's pocket kings by rivering a jack-high straight with A-10 suited.

Heads Up Chip Count
Gus Hansen - 22,905,000
David Chiu - 4,360,000

By Hand #46 David was up to 11 Million.
On Hand #77 David won a big pot and brought the chips counts to:
Gus Hansen - 14,825,000
David Chiu - 12,450,000
Two hands later, David Chiu takes over the chiplead.

Hand #80: Gus moves all-in on the turn with two pair 10's & 8's; David calls with top pairs Aces and spikes an Ace on the river to finish a remarkable comeback.

David Chiu wins the 2008 WPT Championship.

One of the continuing struggles in poker is to institute standardized rules for all tournament play. There is honest debate among both players and tournament directors on many of the rules. I attended last year's Tournament Directors Association meeting and was impressed with the diversity of views on how rules should be written and applied.

So it was heartening today at the start of Day Three of the World Poker Tour Championship at Bellagio to see some true rule cooperation. Before the cards were in the air, reknown and respected Tournament Director Jack McCelland stood up with Daniel Negreanu and asked the players their opinion of the "Show One Show All" rule. Daniel has written often in his blog that the application of the rule, particularly at Bellagio is not what was intended.

Interpretation #1: If you show your cards to one player, you must show them to all players. This is a rule everyone agrees on.

Interpretation #2: If you show one of your cards to the table, you must show both cards. This is a rule that most players do not think is appropriate.

So Jack stood up and asked the players about the #2 application of the rule. The players nearly unanimously voted against it. At which point Jack changed the rule at Bellagio.

Now that is cooperation.
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Later in the day another new rule:

The Bellagio has implemented another new rule for the money bubble. If a table has players who are all in, they do not reveal their hole cards until all the tables either complete their hands or also reach an all-in situation. That way, players at other tables don't have the advantage of knowing whether a short stack at another table has busted, therefore allowing them to fold into the money.

Just last week in a post on the WPT, I mentioned the long running and lingering lawsuit between the World Poker Tour and five professional players. My observations was: "the WPT could have and should have settled several years ago." Well now the announcement has been made that the dispute has been settled.

The entire issue was centered on the wording of the WPT player release document and just how much control that gave the WPT to the use of player's images for the promotion of the WPT. Several different wordings had been proposed by both sides and now, finally, there has been an agreement reached.

According to Steve Lipscomb, CEO of the WPT:

“We are happy to have come to an agreement that is fair to all players, and to have put in place a new release that clears up ambiguities in how players’ images may be used.”

Chris Ferguson, speaking for the players, said:

“We are especially happy that this new release will apply to all poker players who wish to participate in WPT tournaments and events. WPTE has created some of the best poker events in the world, and we are excited to participate in them once again.”

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It will interesting to see if Annie Duke, Howard Lederer, Chris Ferguson, Andy Bloch and Phil Gordon are in the field at the WPT Championship today.

[Note: Chris Ferguson, Andy Bloch and Howard Lederer were in the field at the Bellagio today.]

The World Poker Tour has been making some news recently; let's see what they have been up to. First, they announced that as part of the WPT Championship of the current season six, currently underway at Bellagio in Las Vegas; as part of that celebration, they would be giving all former winners (96 of them!) a WPT Championship bracelet. There will be a big ceremony and nearly everyone has said: "So what? The WSOP gives bracelets, why is the WPT coming out with a copycat bit of bling at the end of six years of tournaments?"

Next, WPT Enterprises announced that Grup Peralada's Casino Barcelona will host its second World Poker Tour event May 21 – 27, 2008. But it really isn't on the official WPT schedule, it will not be taped for television and, well and what? Seems a bit like a placeholder and not a real tour stop.

Finally, there was the announcement of the World Poker Tour Canada. A completely separate Canadian WPT, which will begin on May 5th with the Coast to Coast Poker Tournament at the River Rock Casino Resort. The Coast to Coast Poker Championships will be the first stop for World Poker Tour Canada but no further sites or dates have been announced.

Perhaps before the World Series of Poker gets underway late next month, perhaps we should take a look at the World Poker Tour and see just how well they are doing. Time for a World Poker Tour report card. Coming next week.

Within a space of less than 36 hours the three major poker tours will all have final tables going off. The World Poker Tour is already down to the final six at the Bay 101 Shooting Star in San Jose, California. The European Poker Tour at Casinos Poland in Warsaw will hold its nine player final table tomorrow and the WSOP Circuit event at Caesars in Atlantic City, New Jersey has a final table of ten set for tomorrow afternoon.

Here are the lucky players who have survive to these three final tables:

European Poker Tour; Warsaw

Michael Schulze 1,162,000
Ricardo Sousa 756,000
Juan Maceira 437,000
Mehdi Ouakhir 360,000
Mathias Viberg 229,000
Trond Erik Eidsvig 220,000
Niclas Svensson 174,000
Daniel Woolson 164,000
Christian Öman 110,000

WPT Bay 101 Shooting Star, San Jose

Noah Jefferson - 842,000
John Phan - 374,000
Brandon Cantu - 3,323,000
Steve Sung - 474,000
Jennifer Harman - 541,000
Mike Baker - 1,964,000

WSOP Circuit Event Caesars Atlantic City

Dan Hicks 1,182,000
Eric Haber 927,000
Soheil Shamseddin 855,000
Steven Merrufield 624,000
Sumeet Batra 579,000
Nicholas Binger 546,000
Scott Blackman 391,000
Steven Greenberg 251,000
Marc Morris 185,000

A real conflict between poker tournaments is happening as we speak. Tonight at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas they will draw for the pairings in the NBC Heads Up Championship and tomorrow the Day One couples will square off. The dates for the Heads Up are February 29th through March 2nd.

Meanwhile, just down the road in Los Angeles, the LA Poker Classic is wrapping up today with a really interesting final table, including Phi Ivey Phil Hellmuth and Nam Le. After the winner is crowned tonight, there is an off day before the WPT (LA Poker Classic) Celebrity Invitational begins on Saturday March 1st.

See the problem!

Sixty-four (OK really Fifty-Seven with qualifiers and a few celebrities) but a lot of professionals and the biggest names are going to be playing in Las Vegas for the big deal, lots of television Heads Up title. Meanwhile, the formerly big, big deal WPT Celebrity Invitational will be down several dozen big names.

You gotta wonder how many last minute plane reservations will be made on a cell phone by a player who has just busted out of the Heads Up event. The Commerce Casino in Los Angeles is only an hour away by plane and five hours by car from Caesars Palace in Las Vegas. There will be more then a few pros making the quick dash to LA once they lose their heads, Heads Up.

Let me just say that there are plenty of women who oppose separate events of any kind when physical strength or the length of your beard are not important criteria for winning. I personally have mixed feelings about "Ladies" events in poker. That being said:

The World Poker Tour (WPT) has expanded its tour offerings with the launch of an official WPT ladies league and No Limit Texas Hold ‘Em tournament circuit—WPT Ladies (WPTL).

The first season of the WPTL tour kicks off January 20 at the Borgata Hotel Casino in Atlantic City , New Jersey; and will feature additional tournaments at Foxwoods Resort, Commerce Casino, and Bay 101. The tour will conclude with a $1,500 Championship tournament at Bellagio in Las Vegas. The WPTL Championship final table will be filmed on the WPT set for television broadcast on the Game Show Network in 2008.

Complete Schedule:

January 20 Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa Atlantic City, NJ. $300

February 2-3 Commerce Casino Los Angeles, CA. $970

March 16 Bay 101 San Jose, CA. $300

March 29 Foxwoods Resort & Casino, Mashantucket, CT. $530

April 13-14 WPT Ladies’ Championship Bellagio, Las Vegas, NV $1,500 April 25: Final Table

We all hear the common reasons behind the "Poker Boom". The Cranky Olde Coot even wrote an article about them a couple of weeks ago. We all tend to be jingoistic about our lives, which means we think what happens where we live is the way it is everywhere else. That, of course, is not true. By example let's look at how the Poker Boom played out in Australia.

In January 2006, I covered the Aussie Millions poker tournament in Melbourne. I want to thank several Australian friends for talking with me about the whole subject of poker and Australia. Their assistance for this article was essential.

Television is the most often cited reason for the poker boom and in particular the hole card cam. But while the poker boom in the US is often pegged to the Chris Moneymaker win in 2003, the televised version of big poker tournaments didn't even hit down under until 2004 when the World Poker Tour began showing itself on cable television.

Casinos in Australia began to notice an increased interest in poker in 2004 but the real explosion came in 2005 when Australian Joe Hachem won the main event at the World Series of Poker in Las Vegas. Anyone connected with poker will tell you that of the recent WSOP Champions, Joe has done the most for the game. In Australia he did everything.

If a casino didn't have a poker room when Hachem won the WSOP, they had one open by the end of the year.

Tell me if you have heard this one before:

"The current poker boom can be traced back to the improbable run of amateur Chris Moneymaker, who won his way into the 2003 World Series of Poker through an online $35 satellite and went on to win the Main Event."

How about this one:

"The World Poker Tour use of the hole card camera opened up the game to spectators like never before."

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Which leads us to the big #3 reason for the poker boom:

"Television, television, television."

OK, all poker writers, bloggers and any sports media people. STOP! We all know this, we are all sick about hearing any and all of these three facts. If you are too damn lazy to think of a decent opening line for your article than get another job.

That's all, I am done for the day, I am going to put my head down on a pillow now and punch my teddy. Have a jolly nice day.

I wanna hang a map of the world in my house. Then I'm gonna put pins
into all the locations that I've traveled to. But first, I'm gonna have
to travel to the top two corners of the map so it won't fall down.
-- Mitch Hedberg

There is a new element to professional poker play that was never more evident than last week. We all know about table selection but now professional poker players have to consider "Continent Selection." Last week there were major tournaments in London (World Series of Poker Europe) another tournament in Turks and Caicos (World Poker Tour) and players at the WPT event hopped privated jets to Aruba for the Ultimate Bet tournament and then there was the most recent leg of the Asian Poker Tour in Seoul, Korea.

Players have lots of factors to weigh in making a tournament selection:
-travel arrangements and time consideration;
-overlap with next event;
-proximity to next event;
-television coverage and broadcast area;
-sponsors perks (did they comp the suite?);
-tour name recognition (WPT, WSOP, EPT...);
-sponsors required play (the PokerStars team showed in Seoul because it was a PokerStars sponsored event; the FullTilt team had a big presence in London because that is what the Professor wanted).

A lot of the players are also taking into account the competition, players can only make it to one event and if all of the European players are going to play in the WSOPE then the fields like Pot Limit Omaha will be tough.

Another factor to be considered is the increase in championships to be won. In years past there was one big event to win a week if that, now while you are hoisting the WSOPE trophy another player is having his picture taken with a WPT pile of money. More tournaments, more winners, more poker resumes being built.

Who says poker is not a business? Now let me see, the $110 at Binions at 7 PM or the 8 o'clock for $120 at the Venetian?

As I write this post, the players at the WPT Turks & Caicos Poker Classic are voting on the payout structure. It seems that this "One Million Dollar Guarantee" tournament did not get enough entrants, so tournament director Jack McClelland has offered the players the choice of:

Plan A: (a winner takes all tournament)
1st place pays $996,675

or

Plan B:
1st: $426,675
2nd: $225,000
3rd: $125,000
4th: $70,000
5th: $50,000
6th: $30,000
7th: $25,000
8th: $20,000
9th: $15,000
10th: $10,000

while I was typing a third option has reached the floor:

The continuing shrinkage of the poker media continued today as Poker Wire closed down its website. While the U.S. Government's restrictive Unlawful Internet Gaming Enforcement Act had been the reason for past media closures, Poker Wire has fallen to the reality of the new "exclusive coverage agreements" that both the World Poker Tour and the World Series of Poker have signed with CardPlayer Magazine and Bluff Magazine respectively.

Check back here tomorrow for my commentary of this new exclusive media environment.

Below is the text of the Poker Wire announcement.

As many of you know, both the World Series of Poker and the World Poker Tour have both signed exclusive deals with competing magazines for media coverage. With these new deals in place, media outlets like PokerWire.com are no longer allowed to post live updates or chip counts. The WPT exclusive took us by surprise; over the last six months we had put together a team of reporters that was second to none in the industry.

There were many complaints by the media about limited access during the WSOP—but the WSOP restrictions seem almost lax compared to the press release about the WPT’s new arrangement. The wording in the press release stated "Floor Access via escorted PR escort ONLY" in fifteen-minute increments and that "there will no longer be designated areas for media with tables, chairs, internet access and power."

This is the latest of World Poker Tour President Steve Lipscomb's "Open Letters to the Poker Community." This time he addresses the long running complaints about the blind structure at the WPT "TV" Final Tables.

If you would care to comment the WPT has a forum for discussion.

The Steve Lipscomb letter is presented here without comment or editing directly from the WPT website:

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An Open Letter regarding Final Table Structure from WPT Founder Steven Lipscomb:

Dear WPT family:

As we begin our historic Season VI of the World Poker Tour, we continue to strive to make World Poker Tour events the best possible experience for players, casinos and television audiences alike. To that end we are opening a forum today on our website to discuss the optimum final table structure for WPT events.

The first event of the Spring Poker Season in Las Vegas is over and Juan Carlos Mortensen has added the World Poker Championship/Five Diamond Classic Trophy and $4 Million prize to his wallet and mantle. This was a very interesting tournament and week for me personally.

First, the season ending $25K buy-in WPT/Five Diamond always draws a classic field of professionals and wealthy amateurs. There were literally five recognizable faces at most tables. Now that is five faces that we in the poker media know but even a casual fan could pick out at least one player at each starting table and say:

"I know that guy, I saw him on TV."

With 50,000 starting chips both Day One flights started predictably slow but there was a lot of gamble in this event and lots a big stacks pushing at other big stacks almost every day. The Bellagio preferred structure is five 90 minute levels each day and no more; even with 50,000 chips and a great structure this was adequate time for a seven day event with 639 entrants.

Phil Hellmuth was seated near my media perch on several days and once again gave his immature, obnoxious performance; berating others players at the table and then hours later offering weak and insincere apologies. Around the tournament circuit, floor staff seem immune to enforcing penalties on such behavior but Phil gets a particularly blind eye turned to his television rich bad behavior.

On a very positive personal note, I was working with a great team for the Five Diamond including: Tiffany Michele, the emerging princess of poker interviewers; Justin Shronk, responsible for all the great video over on PokerNews.com; Amy Calistri, BJ Nemeth, Change100 & Dr. Pauly handled the tournment floor duties and photography. Its nice to work with people who know how to professionally do their job.

Finally, the tournament ended with a long and strong heads up between Carlos Mortensen and Kirk Morrison. Its a shame that the blinds eventually have to decide a winner in these WPT events. With 33M chips in play, the final level structure was: 100K ante and 600K/1.2M blinds.

Next, the WSOP Circuit event at Caesar's on Monday.

photo credit: BJ Nemeth

The first big event of the Spring/Summer Las Vegas Poker season has reached 27 players. The WPT Championhship at the Bellagio will play down today to the "Television Six" before tomorrow's Final Table. This has been a very interesting tournament for several reasons:

-there has been a lot of talk among players about this being "the second biggest tournament in the world." Referring, of course, to the WSOP Main Event as number one but fairly uniformly the players hold that a $25,000 buy-in held at the Bellagio as the culmination of a WPT season clearly makes this #2.

-Lyle Berman, the founder of WPT, went deep in this event; eventually busting yesterday in 29th place. Everyone was rooting for a final table appearance for Lyle, except Doyle Brunson, who was at the rail yesterday telling him to bust out and come to the "real" game over in Bobby's Room. For those who don't know--the high stakes room in the Bellagio is named after Bobby Baldwin and is the site of the big stakes game in town, which often finds both Doyle and Lyle taking seats.

-like most other casinos, the Bellagio has yet to figure out how to accomodate fans who would like to watch some poker. The mindset of nearly every tournament director in poker is to break tables like they have always done so, yet with just a little creative arrangement the fans on the rail could see a lot more of the action without inconveniencing the players. But poker remains first a game to accomodate the casino and then running a distant second to make the players comfortable; the fans, as yet, are not on the radar of the tournament organizers.

-at Bellagio, they have some unique rules on reseating, on stalling to end the day's play and a completely unique interpretation of the "Show One Show All" rule. Many players and other observers believe that Bellagio is actually attempting to circumvent the Tournament Director's Association by enforcing different rules than those being used by the TDA.

Spring is here in Las Vegas or at least what briefly passes for Spring before the inferno of Summer begins. Next week the WSOP Circuit hits Caesar's Palace.

The Spring and Summer are clearly the "high" seasons for poker in Las Vegas. I have been looking over my schedule for the next three months and it basically says:

"ALL POKER ALL THE TIME!"

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Over the next several months, I am going to try and give you some of the flavor of what it's like during this period for players, for fans, for dealers and tournament staff and yes for a poker journalist during the "High Season of the Las Vegas Poker Year."

Today was a fun event: The First Annual Jennifer Harman Charity Tournament for the Nevada SPCA Sanctuary. A hundred professional players and lots of local amateurs all coming out for a great cause.

Tomorrow the final event of the 5th season of the World Poker Tour Championship kicks off at Bellagio. A big seven days $25,000 tournament to end the most successful WPT season to date.

Immediately following that event, the WSOP Circuit hits town at Caesar's Palace for another run. In fact, the preliminary events of this Circuit stop are already underway. Final Table will be May 2nd.

Take a short break and Season 6 of the WPT launches with not one but two back-to-back events. First, the Mirage Poker Showdown runs from May 7th to May 23rd and then the Mandalay Bay kicks off their Poker Championship on May 22nd with a main event final table on June 2nd.

Which takes us to the 2007 World Series of Poker running 55 events from June 1st until July 17th at the Rio All Suites Hotel and Casino.

And don't forget the Bellagio Cup III, which runs from June 11th to July 15th and has just been added to the WPT schedule.

Quite a Spring and Summer in Las Vegas - stay tuned.

See Dream Big part I here.

I had a chance last week to attend a hands-on event for the WPT Academy. There is good news and bad news here but for poker nuts the news is mostly good.

First of all the WPT Academy for now is free and there is a lot of information available there. The entire site is based on access to all of the hands at the WPT Season #1 Final Tables. Great news, these are not just the hands shown on television but all of the hands played at the Final Table.

Neutral News, this is all Final Table action, so play is appropriately loose and aggressive as the large blind structure of the WPT dictates. This is afterall a TV final table and the WPT formula is keep the action moving with big blind structures. But as long as you know that there is a lot to be learned about final table play.

There are clearly players, who you might well sit across from one day, walking their way through each and every final table. You can see this happening in the "recently viewed" scroll bar on the home page. Someone is going through a complete final table hand-4-hand every time I have been on the site.

I am not so sure that the various "search" capabilities of the Academy are more than just something a tech dreamt up. I have yet to find anything I needed to search for, the site in my opinion is geared to follow the action at a Final Table and leaping around with the search engine loses this essential golden thread of learning potential.

Yes, Season Two is on the way and eventually all the Final Table action at all WPT final tables will be up on the site. If, when and how much the Academy will eventually cost is still undetermined but right now its FREE, FREE, FREE and a very interesting learning tool.

WPT Academy Part I

Ah! The Bellagio.

After all the complaining at the Rio this summer:

"The events are so big, it's all about luck now."

"There is no way to read a field of 3,000."

"All-in is the only move these guys have."

How nice it is to come back to the Bellagio. Even with 400+ entries, this is a quality field.

While the other media ran about getting names, seat assignments and hat sizes; I strolled the two rooms just counting the players I knew. No list of names just the quality of the field. Once my number hit 100, I was going to stop but then the late arrivals started to trickle in (15 to 20 minutes late is the new "fashionable" arrival time for stars wishing to avoid the public).

"Sorry I am late for the tournament."

Nearly half of the final field were professionals. Nary a donkey in the house, no matter what Phil says. All is right in the world of poker...as long as you don't listen to the table talk about you know what.....

The main event of the Festa al Lago at Bellagio is set to begin on Monday, and I'll be heading out there to take in all the sights and sounds of what is likely to be one of the last mega-sized events of the World Poker Tour - at least for the foreseeable future. As Change100 noted the other day, the WPT has stopped accepting tournament registration through online poker sites. I'm guessing attendance will fall sharply after Fallsview - the last tournament where online satellite winners will be allowed - is finished.

Here's a rundown of the numbers over the years at a few of the upcoming WPT stops, as listed at the excellent Hendon Mob Poker Database.

Bellagio, Festa al Lago Main Event
2004 - 312 entries, $1,000,000 top prize
2005 - 420 players, $1,060,050 top prize

Foxwoods, World Poker Finals Main Event
2002 - 89 entries, $320,400 top prize
2003 - 313 entries, $1,089,200 top prize
2004 - 674 entries, $1,549,588 top prize
2005 - 783 entries, $2,167,500 top prize

Bellagio, Five Diamond World Poker Classic Main Event
2002 - 146 entries, $556,460 top prize
2003 - 314 entries, $1,101,908 top prize
2004 - 376 entries, $1,770,218 top prize
2005 - 555 entries, $2,078,185 top prize

Atlantis, Caribbean Poker Adventure Main Event
2004 - 221 entries, $455,780 top prize
2005 - 461 entries, $890,600 top prize

Gold Strike, World Poker Open Main Event
2003 - 160 entries, $589,175 top prize
2004 - 367 entries, $1,278,370 top prize
2005 - 512 entries, $1,491,444 top prize
2006 - 327 entries, $969,421 top prize

All of these events have experienced significant growth in each passing year of their existence, with the exception of the WPO in Tunica. Last year's attendance was down there, mostly thanks to Harrah's introducing the WSOP Circuit down the road at Grand Casino Tunica and cutting into the Gold Strike's business. How do you think these numbers will be affected by the change in WPT policy? Moreover, do you think we'll see attendance at Festa al Lago negatively impacted because of players' unhappiness with the WPT?

A couple days late due to having a case of the bird flu. It's all cleared up now. ;)

Life's A Bluff: Today's strip marks the end of a storyline that began with The Legends of Poker WPT event.

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."

Here is a condensed press release that despite its legalese and business-speak has some interesting tidbits about how the World Poker Tour views itself and how they wish to be viewed.

LOS ANGELES, Sept. 27-- WORLD POKER TOUR® Enterprises, Inc. (Nasdaq: WPTE - News) announced today that it will attend MIPCOM, the global tradeshow for content creation, production and distribution, in Cannes, France, from October 9 - 13, 2006. As the global leader in poker entertainment and the company behind the worldwide poker television boom, WPTE will offer new sponsorship, licensing and programming opportunities for 2007.

To foster increasing worldwide penetration, the WPTE aims to build its international partnerships via joint-ventures, local programming, merchandising, and other strategic alliances. WPTE will showcase at MIPCOM the World Poker Tour Season IV, the flagship show in poker television. Executives will also present the premiere season of the ground-breaking PROFESSIONAL POKER TOUR, which is currently airing on the Travel Channel in the United States.

"We look forward to leveraging a premiere tradeshow like MIPCOM to strengthen relationships and create opportunities to further expand poker throughout the globe," said Gary MacKinney, WPTE Executive Director of International Distribution. "The WORLD POKER TOUR will continue to add international stops while exploring locally-produced televised tournaments in key markets."

WPT programming currently airs in 154 countries, including Spain, Canada and Philippines. It also recently inked pacts with Kanal 5 in Sweden, Macau Cable in Macau and MediaCorp in Singapore.

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.

LONDON--Two days ago I was saying there wasn't a TV table here at the EPT, but yesterday they were putting it together. I've never seen a poker table in this state before. It's fascinating. Look at what goes on underneath the felt, what with all those hidden cameras and all. And the stage. It's impressive when you see it get put together from the beginning.

ATLANTIC CITY, NJ---So not a long night afterall. Mark Newhouse went all in on the button. Chris McCormack calls. Newhouse shows queens and McCormack turns over A-J. The board 5d-10s-4s-10c-Qs and Mark Newhouse wins the Borgata Open Championship earning him $1,519,020 and a seat at the WPT Championship at the Bellagio in April.

McCormack goes home a runner-up with $802,985 and Gonz has headed back to get a little shut-eye before heading off to Philly for his crack of dawn flight.

ATLANTIC CITY, NJ--David Sklansky has left the building. Beginning the tournament with a little over 600,000 chips, Sklansky worked his way back to 3.2 million. He pushed it all in with fives against Chris McCormack who called with 10s. The board came 8-10-8-4-K giving McCormack a full house and an opportunity to face Mark Newhouse heads up at the Borgata Final Table. Sklansky leaves with third place and $419,040.

Chris McCormack (bottom right) has 9,715,000 chips and Mark Newhouse (bottom left) has 4,350,000.

ATLANTIC CITY, NJ—While Gonz and Spaceman are arguing about who is going to get the “Out in a Blaise of Glory” headline, until Blaise Ingoglia busted out to Mark Newhouse, things have been pretty….well, just plain stale! Everyone at the final table has moved all in at least twice but the victor was always the low-stacked underdog. Media is packed on a couple of platforms behind the crowds making it difficult to see or hear anything….well except for, and God love her…Linda Johnson’s bad jokes.

Ingoglia is our first move to the end of this final table. I have a feeling it could be a long night…and for Gonz who flies out of Philly at 6 a.m. tomorrow…a long day ahead.