New Online Poker Scam

When my friend won event #13 of the WSOP of poker, it was definitely a time for him to celebrate.  Not only did he win over $500,000, but he also grabbed his first WSOP gold bracelet which is something few poker players ever get to experience.  And with all of this going on, his return to Ohio definitely should have been even sweeter since he was returning as a WSOP champion.

However, things weren’t so great when he returned after finding out that he was the victim of a new scam aimed at online poker scam.  Basically, somebody tricked him into clicking on a link so that they could put a key stroke logger on his computer which would allow them to get his passwords and other info. 

The way it worked is that they sent him an e-mail from a start-up poker room claiming that they wanted to pay him $5,000 a month plus give him 100% rakeback on all of the hands he played there.  And this seemed like a somewhat legitimate offer since he had just won a WSOP bracelet, and was already one of the top-rated online tournament players in the world.

Unfortunately, the whole offer was simply a fraudulent trick which could’ve cost him thousands of dollars.  Luckily, Full Tilt Poker sent him an e-mail immediately detailing the key stroke logger scam and telling him to get rid of it right away.  So my friend had somebody reload his Windows software which effectively removed the key stroke logger from his computer.  I don’t know how Full Tilt catches this stuff so fast, but I’m glad they did and I know for sure he’s glad they did!

Playing in Shorthanded Poker Tournaments

Back in the day, shorthanded poker tournaments weren’t much of a draw since man had yet to even conquer traditional Texas Hold’em tourneys.  But now that regular Hold’em tournaments feature so many good players, people have moved on to new types of tourneys and shorthanded tournaments happen to fall into this category.  6-max table tournaments have especially gained popularity since they’re prominently featured in the FTOPS series. 

I’ll admit that I have yet to master the shorthanded tourney, but I have employed some strategy that has helped me cash in plenty of these 6-max tournaments.  The first thing I always do is open up the range of hands I am willing to play.  This not only includes playing hands like pocket 9′s more often, but it also includes playing them out of position too.  For instance, if I’m two seats to the left of the big blind, and first seat has called then I’ll almost always play the pocket 9′s (assuming they’re not a major rock).

Another thing I do when playing in shorthanded tournaments is play more loose and aggressive.  In a shorthanded tournament, you don’t have time to sit back and wait for everyone to beat each other up; if you do this then you’ll be blinded out of the tournament in no time!  So you’ve really got to open up your play and start being more loose and aggressive.

One more thing I like to do when playing in 6-max tournaments is spend the first 20 minutes of a new table studying opponents.  Now this might sound a little contradictory to playing loose and aggressive, but you’ve got to play tight in the beginning since you don’t have the luxury of sitting back and gathering info like in traditional tournaments.  If you do these things then you should be pretty successful in 6-max tourneys right off the bat.

The Saturation of Poker Shows

I love poker shows and am really glad that they’ve experienced so much success on the television market.  Poker After Dark, High Stakes Poker, and several other shows have been successes which has prompted a lot of other TV producers to create more new shows.  Face the Ace is one such instance of a new poker show which has spawned from the success of others, and what’s good about this one is that it’s in a primetime slot on Saturday, 9:00 pm ET on NBC.

What’s not so good about this show is that its debut was a big failure since Face the Ace placed last in ratings among shows at this time slot with 1.54.  Even worse is that a rerun of the tired-assed show on CBS called Numb3rs beat out Face the Ace by over 2 million viewers.  Now I’m no TV executive, but when a rerun beats your debut then it can’t be considered a success.  All of this has me wondering if there are too many new poker shows on the market now.

I mean Face the Ace has a good premise in that it involves a contestant playing against poker pros for $40,000 in the first round, $200,000 in the second round, and $1,000,000 in the third round.  And they can walk away with the money at any point during play which adds the game show element.  However, there are only so many ways which you can spin poker, and the way Face the Ace just spins it just isn’t drawing viewers.

But with Full Tilt Poker as a major sponsor for Face the Ace, it may survive long enough to attract new viewers.  But I don’t see it gaining many more viewers if the debut show can’t even peak people’s interests.

APT Macau invites Michael Phelps once Again

As has been the case ever since Michael Phelps teased the poker world by saying he would like to compete in the World Series of Poker someday, the Asian Poker Tour is still in the race to land him at one of their events.  APT officials once again invited Phelps to the APT Macau event that will take place from August 12th to August 23rd. 

And once again, the APT was not short on corniness in their open letter to Phelps which read, “Some media reports even suggest that you may have got in with the wrong crowd in the last 12 months – we promise to keep you out of trouble.  We’ll give you access to pools of sharks, fish, and those that you swim in! If you don’t want to bring your goggles, fair enough; bring a pair of sunglasses and your poker face!  While you are at it, you could ask a certain poker playing President by the name of Barack Hussein Obama II if he fancies joining you!”

After receiving letters such as this, I don’t blame Phelps for not wanting to play in the APT Macau tournament – or any other tournament for that matter.  In fact, he probably thinks that the world of organized poker tournaments is filed with dorks and losers since they keep sending him these stupid letters. 

At least I know his perception of the entire poker world isn’t that bad though since he hung out with Doyle Brunson a lot, and played around Las Vegas some.  Perhaps this might be the year he gets more involved with poker since Phelps has been flirting with the possibility for a while now.  But don’t expect anything major before the 2012 London Olympics are over with though.

Tom Dwan could be Youngest in the Poker Hall of Fame

The 2000′s have seen a wave of young, college dropouts who’ve turned to poker as their main source of income.  And nobody better exemplifies this era than Tom “durrrr” Dwan since the Boston University dropout has become one of the richest cash game players in the world.  Dwan is a regular on the $500/$1000 limit cash games at Full Tilt Poker where he makes a killing off some of the best players in the world.  Perhaps this is what earned him a Poker Hall of Fame nomination at the age of 23.

Dwan was voted as one of the 10 Poker Hall of Fame nominees by the public which just goes to show how popular he is among fans and players.  And if it hadn’t been for the new process which lets fans nominate players for Hall of Fame consideration then Dwan probably wouldn’t be up for this selection. 

That’s because I can’t see any reasonable scenario where the old-timers would want someone like Dwan in the Poker Hall of Fame.  He’s only 23 years old and all of the older players are going to be saying stuff like, “He needs to play his dues” and, “He hasn’t won any major tournaments either.”  And it is the living Hall of Fame members along with the media who will be selecting players into the Hall of Fame.

Since this is the case, even Phil Ivey could have a difficult time getting into the Poker Hall of Fame since he is just 37 himself.  If Ivey was picked for the HOF, he would be the youngest player ever inducted (assuming Dwan didn’t get int).  So if Ivey would have a difficult time, Dwan has virtually no shot at the Hall.  But it was definitely cool to see him nominated this year!

Poker Pro drops Lawsuit against US Golf Association

Dusty Schmidt was once an aspiring gold star who was among the top junior players in America.  In fact, Dusty was so good that many wondered if he would eventually wind up on the PGA Tour.  However, tragedy struck when Dusty suffered a heart attack at the age of 23, and this heart attack essentially derailed his golf career.  In addition to having to endure a long recovery from his heart attack, Schmidt also lost his amateur status that was granted by the United States Gold Association.

During his recovery, Schmidt’s pains were soothed as he started playing online poker heavily.  Schmidt became so good that he professed to making over $3 million over the past few years, and even earned over $100,000 during his strongest months.  But even though he is such a successful poker player, Schmidt still longed for the greens of the gold course and reapplied for his amateur status.

That status was granted by the USGA and Schmidt was once again ready to resume his career.  However, the USGA eventually caught wind that Dusty has issued a $1 million challenge to anyone who would take him on in a golf/poker competition.  Because he had issued this $1 million challenge, the USGA basically ruled that he was no longer an amateur player.

This lead Dusty to try and arrange a lawsuit which he has now decided to back off of after finding that there is nothing he can really do to win.  Seeing as how this is the case, Schmidt will ready himself for the professional golf ranks while still funding himself through poker.  And with $3 million already in his bankroll, I don’t think Schmidt will shed too many tears over the amateur status thing.

Best Changes to the WSOP of All-Time

As we now sit and wait for the 4 months between the November Nine forming and the final table being played out to subside, I thought it would be fun to reminisce about some of the best changes of all-time to the WSOP.  One of the first ones to come off the top of my head was the introduction of the ladies-only event which occurred in 1977.  Back then it was very rare to see a woman in the game of poker so something definitely needed to be done to draw women into the game, and this was the perfect thing.

Another great change to the WSOP was when gold bracelets were introduced in 1974.  Before this time, players were given a silver cup to commemorate winning the WSOP, but there were no awards for the preliminary events.  After the gold bracelets were introduced, we then had a way of determining who the greatest players of all-time have been.

The intro of TV broadcasts for the WSOP are another thing that has boosted the popularity of the annual event as well.  CBS first filmed the event through an hour-long documentary that was done by Jimmy “The Greek” Snyder.  After Snyder’s hour-long documentary, CBS began filming the event every year until ESPN took over in the late 80′s.  Eventually, ESPN would expand their coverage which also helped to popularize the WSOP even more so.

And the most recent change that has had a major impact is the introduction of the November Nine.  When this idea was first brought out people hated it since the November Nine concept delayed the crowning of the WSOP champ.  However, with a 46% increase in TV viewers for the final table, it looks like the November Nine idea is only going to drive up the WSOP’s popularity more.

More Drunken Scotty Nguyen Antics

The 2008 WSOP H.O.R.S.E. Championship showed the height of what can happen when Scotty Nguyen gets drunk.  Nguyen’s legendary drunken antics in this event had him yelling about getting a cocktail, arguing with Erick Lindgren because he wasn’t playing on “Team Scotty”, and giving the worst of it all to Michael Demichele who was his heads-up opponent in the end.

But Nguyen has been fast at work over the last year trying to upstage this drunken rant, and a new video I saw may come close (though I don’t think it quite does the job).  In this video that surfaced just before the 2009 WSOP, Nguyen is obviously cooked and talking about how he will quit poker if he doesn’t make at least $4 million.  Nguyen repeatedly says that “not too many people say this” but he WILL quit if he doesn’t pull in at least $4 million.

If you happen to check Nguyen’s results in the WSOP you’ll see that he’s not too close to that $4 million goal and it has some seriously wondering if he’ll quit.  However, I don’t think there’s a chance of him quitting as this was just another drunken rant by him, and I don’t think that Nguyen even knew what he was saying when he was on video (at the end he kisses the lens).

Nguyen did offer to play people for $1,000 and they only have to put up $100 (a deal I would have gladly taken if I were around then).   In the end, I think we’re in for many more years of Scotty Nguyen, and I also think that we’ll see more antics like this in the future.

More Poker Players on Reality Shows

If there’s one thing that reality shows have taught me (I don’t really watch them much to begin with) it’s that poker players make excellent contestants.  Annie Duke certainly proved this as she nearly won the Celebrity Apprentice 2 after losing to Joan Rivers in the final.  More than this though, she provided much of the show’s entertainment by frequently having verbal sparring matches with Joan Rivers. 

Jean-Robert Bellande also proved that he could be competitive in Survivor: China since he lasted pretty late into the show before having his torch extinguished.  This has me wondering if the success of Bellande and Rivers is the reason why the Amazing Race has picked up Tiffany Michelle and Maria Ho for their show.

According to various news reports, Ho and Michelle will be shooting for the show next month and are very excited about the opportunity to appear on the Amazing Race.  Amazing Race is one of the more interesting reality shows out there right now since it sees contestants traveling across various countries in an attempt to finish first in the race.  Last year’s show saw players visit Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Russia, Thailand, India, Romania, and China before finishing up in Hawaii.

I think that Michelle and Ho were definitely picked because they’re both hot, but Michelle will especially be good on the show because she is a bit controversial.  As the WSOP Main Event showed, she likes to talk a lot and also caused an incident after calling for the time clock on a hand she wasn’t even in; Craig Marquis got very mad about this.  I may even have to tune into the Amazing Race to check it out.

PayPal is Now an Option for Gambling Again

Like many companies around the time of the UIGEA, PayPal did their best to shy away from gambling since companies feared legal action and prosecution if they got involved in the matter.  And seeing how PayPal is part of a much larger entity in eBay, I figured we had seen the last of PayPal in the gambling sector….at least until the UIGEA is totally repealed.

But much to my surprise, PayPal is testing the waters of the gambling world again by aiding 75 different gambling companies with deposits and withdrawals.  Super Slots and Golden Casinos are among the 75-plus companies that PayPal has decided to work with again which has me wondering how long it will be before they dive back into the online poker world again.

The online poker and traditional gambling industries have pretty much gone side-by-side as far as their fates with gambling laws have went.  And I hope it is a similar situation with PayPal where the most trusted online baking company in the world will decide to do business with poker rooms again.

I can’t imagine how much easier it would be to just hop on PayPal and deposit or withdrawal money compared to the hassles of dealing with checks and other more obscure methods.  And this would eliminate another big problem in that players would actually have an online banking company to go to since NetTeller decided to jump ship.

Of course we’ll just have to wait until PayPal makes the decision to start working with online poker companies again before we can be certain.  However, I think that PayPal will no doubt make the decision that we’re all hoping for.