Poker News and Poker Gossip

WOW! Huge news, found this email from a UB/AP Affiliate Manager on a site I work with for my rakeback stuff. Obviously an attempt to cover up the scandal:

Vegas is the poker capital of the world, and with the money that flows through the casinos you would expect some pretty nice poker rooms. Here are some of the best looking poker rooms in vegas:

Top 5 Vegas Poker Rooms

1) Bellagio
Every poker player dreams at some point of playing in the big games at the Bellagio.  Bobby’s Room is the poker room in the Bellagio where some of the biggest poker games in the world happen.


2) MGM Casino
The MGM is known for hosting all the biggest boxing fights in Vegas through the 80’s and 90’s.  They have spent quite a lot of money on their poker room, and it has one of the nicest, modern looks of all the poker rooms in Vegas.  The nice thing about the MGM is they offer much more affordable games, so you don’t have to break the bank to play here.

3) The Wynn
Steve Wynn spent $630 Million dollars to build the Wynn Hotel, and some of this price definitely went into their poker room.  The Wynn is one of the nicest hotel’s in Vegas and if you are looking to play some higher stakes poker, check out their poker room:

4) Red Rock Casino
The Red Rock is a little off-strip, but is one of the nicest looking hotel/casino’s in Vegas.  Their poker room is ultra-modern and is definitely worthy of a top 5 position.   Since it is right beside the sportsbook, you can also place bets on the games while playing poker:

5) The Venetian
If you are heading to vegas and aren’t strapped for cash, the Venetian hotel has some of the nicest and biggest rooms in town.  Their poker room is also lavishly decorated with TVs everywhere, and nice chandeliers.

The Ultimate Bet Scandal investigation just got a little uglier. Today, Nat Arem posted on 2+2 that he has “been threatened” as a result of his involvemement in the investigate on Ultimate Bet. Nat’s entire post read:

“I’ve officially been threatened, so I suppose I’m done with this. Not worth getting hurt over.
I’ve forwarded on my info to a few trusted sources and they can take it from there.
Good luck everyone.”

Nat later elaborated on this post saying, “I do want to say that the threat made towards me was:
a) Not explicitly physical, but I don’t want to chance it
b) Did not come from the current management at UB/AP
Just needed to clarify that.”
This shows that someone is definitely trying to hide something.

What happened to Vanessa? It seems all the other girls in her family got all the looks. Her mom is smoking, and her sisters are incredible also. I think part of the problem is she dyes her hair to that stupid blonde color that doesn’t suit her at all. If her hair was dark, she would probably look a lot more like her sexy sisters. Maybe Vanessa got the brains, and the rest of the family happily took the great looks:

“Scotty Nguyen’s gonna be triple crown, baby!” Nguyen said while posing after winning the $50k H.O.R.S.E. at the 2008 WSOP yesterday.

Nguyen beat out the field of 148 players to win what many poker players regard as the most prestigious bracelet at the WSOP. “The $50K H.O.R.S.E. event is the best all around player…#1 in the world”, Nguyen said to interviewers. “Nobody can walk up to me and say, Scotty, you’re second, baby.”

Since his blow-up at last year’s WSOP, Nguyen has had a few final tables, but no first place finishes. Nguyen was the chip leader in the main event last year with just 12 players left, but started spewing chips and ended up finishing 11th.

This is Nguyen’s first gold bracelet since 2001. “I’m gonna make Phil Hellmuth squirm,” he said, referring to the World Series of Poker record holder with 12 bracelets.

Nguyen beat out 2nd place finisher Michael DeMichele. Nguyen said, “He’s a great up and coming young player. Everyone told me to watch out for him.”

H.O.R.S.E., which stands for five games of poker played in rotation - Hold ‘em, Omaha, Razz, Stud and Eight or Better - tests the all-around player more than the No Limit Hold ‘em game, which was born in Texas and is currently the most popular poker game worldwide.

Here are the top 10 from the $50k H.O.R.S.E. final table:
1 $ 1,989,120 Scotty Nguyen
2 $ 1,243,200 Michael DeMichele
3 $ 781,440 Erick Lindgren
4 $ 568,320 Matt Glantz
5 $ 444,000 Lyle Berman
6 $ 355,200 Barry Greenstein
7 $ 284,160 Huck Seed
8 $ 230,880 Patrick Bueno
9 $ 177,600 Ralph Perry
10 $ 177,600 Raymond Davis

I’ll end this post with one of my favorite videos of Scotty Nguyen:

After vowing to never gamble again, Charles Barkley is going to be back to the tables again, the poker tables that is.

In May 2008, Charles told ESPN, “I like to go into Vegas, it’s a fun place, but you know what, I’ve got to stop gambling. That’s the bottom line,” Barkley said during TNT’s pregame show before Game 7 between San Antonio and New Orleans. “I am not going to gamble anymore. For right now, the next year or two, I’m not going to gamble.”

This came about after he was detained by police for owing $400,000 to the Wynn Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas.  Funny thing is, I was actually in Las Vegas when he took out the markers and we watched him playing Blackjack on a private table for about 30 minutes (for what we assume was around $20k per hand).

He had been doing well, according to friends and had stayed away from casinos, but this week Charles announced that he will be playing in a charity event for Ante Up for Africa (a charity designed to raise money for the crisis in the Darfur region of Sudan.

Charles will be anteing up $5k to play the event, but promises to donate his winnings to charity.  I think he is doing this for a great cause, but the BET blog summed it up the best, “this is like an alcholic who has vowed to give up drinking but decides to host a wine tasting event for charity”.