Poker News and Poker Gossip

Some random gossip from the high stakes poker tables.  Tom “Durrrr” Dwan posted in a chat box on Full Tilt that he is currently on a major downsizing this week from live poker.  After another high stakes player “OnTheRize” refused to play Dwan heads up, the two started chatting.  In the chat Durrrr posted that he lost $1.6 Million playing live poker this week.  Tough beat, but I guess when you play at the nosebleed stakes these guys play at, things like this are bound to happen.  Here is the chat:

durrrr: i lost 1.6m this week live
durrrr: =(
OnTheRize: i heard
OnTheRize: sick game
OnTheRize: too big for me
OnTheRize: srry man
durrrr: me2
durrrr: im hoping to run good online
durrrr: n get even by the end of july
OnTheRize: u always do well online
OnTheRize: u’ll get it back
OnTheRize: this is all a learning experience for me

Last month was quite a rollercoaster ride with the status of whether High Stakes Poker would be returning. Then on May 16th GSN announced that they would be pulling the plug on the show. This caused outrage in the poker community as they were going to lose THE GREATEST POKER TV SHOW.

During all this a person using the name AJ Benza posted a comment on a Tampa Bay poker blog about his thoughts on the cancelling of the show. Well, after some confirmation, it turned out that this was the real AJ Benza so they got AJ on the show to talk about his thoughts on the cancelling of the show.

One of the best lines from the interview had to do with his experiences with the new owner of the network. According to AJ the new owner said, “I don’t care if we have to air slavery… I want numbers”. He thinks the real problem is that they want listeners that will stay around after watching poker, but because many of the other shows on the network aren’t that great, people leave after HSP.

I really like AJ’s personality in that he is not afraid to speak his mind. Listen to the candid interview about some of the stuff that goes on behind the scenes from making fun of Johnny Chan’s shirt looking like a “strong man in the Beijing circus” to Sammy Farha “haggling like he’s selling a goat” at High Stakes Poker here:
AJ Benza on Ante Up - (fast forward to just about half way through for AJ)

Fortuntately rumour has it that GSN will not be giving HSP the axe and it will live for another season. Don’t worry, there is more of AJ and the rest of the HSP crew still to come!

Also, if you have never seen AJ’s great youtube movie review series called Real Guys Movie Reviews I recommend watching a few of them. Here is one of his reviews:

Who knew that a challenge by an 80+-year-old man could get a healthy and fit 28 year old so bothered? Saturday’s blog post by Patrik Antonius has him seeming quite indignant toward Doyle Brunson’s latest blog, challenging him to a high stakes round of golf. He did, in face, accept the $100,000 per hole challenge, but only after some whining and complaining about how he is a beginning player and Doyle is known to have been a golf hustler for many years. Seems to me that someone’s might be afraid of having his ego bruised a bit!

Whining and complaining aside, what really stood out was the blatant disrespect that Antonius shows to Brunson in the beginning of the post. While it may all have been in jest and good fun, his references to his shock at the ability of someone “around before TV’s and telephones” to write a blog and to stealing away Brunson’s son’s inheritance were quite rude and uncalled for.

In any case, it seems that the match is in the works, as Antonius has reportedly spoken with Brunson prior to their recent Poker After Dark appearance. Let’s hope that the outcome of both the heads-up match and the possible golf showdown do a little something to put a damper on a swollen ego. Wouldn’t it be fun to watch the Legend show the youngster a bit about how things are done. Better get that practice in, Patrik, I think you’re going to need it!

I haven’t really posted many high stakes hands in a while, but there was a pretty massive pot today over at Full Tilt Poker on the high stakes Pot Limit Omaha tables.  The hand was between Team Cardrunners members Cole “cts” South and Brian Hastings.  Without spoiling too much, here is the hand:

Full Tilt Poker $200/$400 Pot Limit Omaha Hi - 5 players

thecranium (SB): $15200.00
halibut2 (BB): $20587.00
Cole South (UTG): $91011.00
tsarrast (CO): $12533.00
Brian Hastings (BTN): $103797.00

Pre Flop:
Cole South raises to $1400, 1 fold, Brian Hastings raises to $4800, 2 folds, Cole South calls $3400

Flop: ($10200.00) 3 9 6 (2 players)
Cole South checks, Brian Hastings bets $8400, Cole South raises to $35400, Brian Hastings raises to $98997 all in, Cole South calls $50811 all in

Turn: ($182622.00) Q

River: ($182622.00) 6

Final Pot: $182622.00
Cole South shows A 4 T Q (a flush, Queen high)
Brian Hastings shows 8 9 4d 5 (two pair, Nines and Sixes)
Cole South wins $182620.00

Both players had some decent draws, but in the end Cole’s hand prevailed and he took down this HUGE pot.  To see more crazy hands like this, check out Full Tilt Poker.

Montel Williams is laying down the mic and picking up the cards to represent the USA in PartyPoker.com’s Poker Nations Cup, being held in Wales next month. The talk show host was selected by team captain Robert Williamson III to fill the final slot on the team. Besides Williamson and Williams, team USA will be comprised of Chris Ferguson, Freddy Deeb, Jamie Gold, and Chad Brown.

Montel, who is best known for his talk show and for making public his battle with Multiple Sclerosis, has been playing poker since his years in the Navy. He has organized many charity poker events to benefit those suffering from MS. Last year, he made his first appearance at the WSOP main event. He made an impression on everyone, carrying the chip lead for the better part of a day.

Under ordinary circumstances, the final player for each country is selected from online players through a qualifier, however since PartyPoker.com does not allow US players, the captain was allowed to select a player to join the five US pros. The team will go on to compete against other teams from Great Britain, Ireland, Sweden, Holland, and Germany.  This event has a total prize pool of $280,000, with individual match winners taking $20,000 per win.

Williams will be facing some of the best of the best in the poker world, sitting across the table from pros from across the globe. He’ll fins himself facing names such as William Thorsson, Ciaran O’Leary, and Joe Beevers. This American daytime talk show personality had better be on top of his game!

There is lots of chatter at 2+2 about the possibility of a head-to-head between Patrik Antonius and poker legend Doyle Brunson. There was a challenge issued to Brunson y Antonius during a magazine interview and it seems as if something might now be in the works.

The original article quoted Antonius as say he had heard rumors that Brunson would swim a river to play against him and more or less told Brunson to bring it on. Patrik said he would face him at any game and any stakes, any time he wanted.

Brunson responded by saying that he does not recall ever making the comment, particularly not in reference to Patrik Antonius by name. On his blog, Doyle goes on to say that if he wants to play in a heads-up cash game, he will accept the challenge, though ordinarily he shies away from one-on-one play.

The most recent blog post by Antonius shows him as being extremely excited by the prospect of playing heads up against Brunson and as ready and willing to iron out the details, as soon as possible. He even has his agent working to get the match televised, once the details are hammered out.

As Brunson is playing in the Irish Poker Open, slated for Easter weekend, it will likely be some time before we get more information on the when, where, and how of this clash of the poker Titans. But you can bet that the match-up will be big news whenever it goes down.