All Posts Tagged: Industry Insider

Judging by these two videos having only 330, and 100 views at the time of writing this, none of you have ever witnessed the glory of Phil Galfond's acting debut.

According to Galfond, these videos were made to help a friend of his out with her film project.

According to me, they're goddamn hilarious.

The only question I have is this: how is it possible for these to have been kept a secret for over two years?

Without further ado, I give you the first of two short films: Mark and Amy.

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Joe Cada's been putting in work with the mainstream media appearances. Most recently he showed up on CNN's American Morning.

It's a big step up from what we've seen from WSOP Main Event champions before and whatever you may think of Joe Cada's victory it's good to see him doing so much since.

Letterman, CNBC, WWE Raw and now the most trusted name in news: CNN.

Check out the clip below and let us know what you think of Cada in the comments below.

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As we reported a few days ago current youngest-ever WSOP Main Event winner Joe Cada was on David Letterman last night.

As far as we're concerned this falls squarely into the "Good for Poker" category. Just talking about the main event and how much money is up for grabs in the mainstream media is a great thing.

Cada managed to pull off his four minutes without using any made up words and on the whole came off as a relatively responsible poker professional.

Check out the clip here while it's still available on Youtube. We'll try to find a version that won't be taken down but unfortunately the rest of world can't watch the official video on CBS.com.

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The main geezers from PokerRoad, Joe Sebok and Scott Huff, have gotten themselves a for-real TV show on Fox Sports and it airs tonight at 11 p.m.

We've been fans of their radio shows since the start, and we've even been on them a few times, so we're happy they're bringing their own special brand of idiocy to the television box.

Sponsored by UB, Poker2Nite is an entertainment/news format show that will cover everything that's going down in the poker world.

Poker news shows are notoriously difficult to make interesting, even to poker nerds, so we're interested to see what the PokerRoad guys have up their sleeves.

Tune in to Fox Sports tonight and tell us what you think in the comments below.

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It's common knowledge that Hollywood celebrities play poker. What isn't so commonly known is that many of them have Twitter accounts where they tweet about it all.

We've put together a handy list of the biggest and best actors, musicians and Hollywood personalities that play poker and have Twitter accounts.

This list, and others, can be found by following PokerListings.com on Twitter.

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It's only been a week since Joe Cada became the youngest player ever to win the WSOP Main Event and already he's doing more than some have done in an entire year of being champ.

Cada made a brief appearance at the announcer's table on WWE Raw last night and he's rumored to be showing up on David Letterman tonight.

Cada's a clean cut kid and it can't hurt to see someone like that promoting the game on a big-time TV show like Letterman.

The episode airs at 11:35 p.m. on CBS so check it out to see Cada in action.

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In case you haven't noticed, Twitter has added a new "list" feature that they proudly describe as "a great new way to organize the people you follow and discover new and interesting accounts."

And really, how can anyone argue with Twitter? With the way they've expanded it's hard to criticize anything they decide is a good idea.

So to help quench your thirst for poker pro info, we've kicked things off with the first of what will be many lists.

In case you haven't seen them before Twitter Lists are essentially a custom made filter that puts a bunch of Tweeters together on one page. It's just that simple.

Our first list combines the awesome power of the world's most famous live poker pros who have Twitter accounts.

You can find it at: http://twitter.com/#/list/_PokerListings_/poker-pros

If you're not already following PokerListings.com on Twitter you can do so here.

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Just 72 hours after the conclusion of this year's WSOP Main Event final table WSOP Commissioner Jeffrey Pollack announced his resignation.

It came as a bit of a surprise but by all accounts there are no nefarious secrets behind this situation.

While Pollack's resignation is probably more interesting to people in the media and the industry, fans of the WSOP should recognize that Pollack has played a big part in the improvements we've seen at the Series over the last few years.

The November Nine concept and huge increases in the player fields and prize pools are two of the most visible results of Pollack's tenure as WSOP Commish.

Pollack had a vlog on RawVegas.tv so it's only fitting that he sat down with them to talk about it all.

We've got the three-part video interview embedded right here for you to watch so check it out.

For parts 2 and 3 make sure you're on the post page!

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Joe Cada's win at the 2009 WSOP Main Event has had time to sink in and we're ready to bring you the heads-up installment of our November Nine photo blog.

Taking photos is my favorite part of the job and that goes double for the Main Event. This year our hats are off to the WSOP staff for making it so easy to get great pictures of all the action.

We were all over that stage and we have the photos to prove it. Here's a visual account of the heads-up match with a few words for context. But don't worry; you won't have to do much reading.

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Anyway, onto some predictions and opinions about the November Nine ... bear in mind that I haven't watched all of the available ESPN footage, so I may be missing some info about players' tendencies and capabilities.

First, I don't think Phil Ivey has nearly as good of a shot as most people seem to think (since 90% of people seem to be sure he'll win it seems).

Yes, Ivey is at least one of the best, and probably the best player in the entire world. He's clearly the best player at the final table. But with blinds soon going to 150/300k (40k) and the average stack at nearly 22 million, Phil only has 9.8 million.

He's not in panic mode or desperately shortstacked, but he doesn't have as much room to maneuver as he'd like to.

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With one World Series (baseball) drawing to a close and the final table of another (poker) set to kick off Friday, we thought we'd bring you a not-so-useful cross-genre analogy just for shits and giggles.

Welcome to the first ever World Series of Poker November Nine baseball team.

Players: The nine dudes at the final table, silly.
Manager: Me
Team Name: The Niners

Although this blog may not have any value or pertinent relevance, at the very least let it be an exercise in thinking outside of the (batter's) box. B'doom ching!

So as GM of this unique squad it is my duty to delegate positional defense as well as arrange the most effective offensive line up. The assignment is as challenging as it is pointless. I look forward to it.

So without further ado, I present to you The Niners.

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In the past when we've done a feature interview with a high-stakes player we run the entire transcript here in the blog. Because this one is Phil Ivey we did you one better and videotaped the entire interview for you to watch.

This is 13 minutes of pure and uncut Ivey and it's worth watching. Ivey is one bad dude and anything he says is worth listening to. This is our very own Martin Derbyshire kicking it with Ivey and talking about a ton of different stuff.

Ivey opens up and has a frank discussion which is great to see. There are some epic quotes in there so check out the video below. Click through here for the feature news story.

If you're on the main blog page click through to the post page to see the embedded video.

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The E:60 Episode featuring Phil Ivey aired on ESPN and we've got it right here for you to watch.

The media attention is really ramping up with the November Nine final table just a few days away and this is a great addition to the array of Ivey-oriented content on offer.

And goddam is Ivey a baller. ESPN gets access that is unheard of in the poker media. On the jet, in the suite, at the high-stakes pit games. Check this video out. You won't be disappointed.



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21 years old and already a successful online pro, Joe Cada has a chance at becoming the youngest Main Event winner this weekend in Las Vegas.

He's got 13,215,000, good for fifth in chips, and with blinds of 120k/240k when the November Nine return he'll have a bit of room to maneuver.

Cada has stacked over half a million dollars in tournament earnings but describes himself as a cash game player.

His biggest MTT result was almost $150,000 courtesy of taking down the $750k guarantee on Full Tilt.

He's won some money before but we'll see how comfortable he is in front of the TV cameras with millions of dollars on the line.

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One of the most well known of the 2009 November Nine, Jeff Shulman has one distinct advantage over the other eight players: This is his second time at the final table of a WSOP Main Event.

This year Shulman enters the finale fourth in chips but back in the year 2000 he held a commanding lead over the rest of the table, which included one Chris "Jesus" Ferguson.

One bad beat set the stage for Shulman's elimination in seventh and paved the way for Jesus to become a world champion.

Now, just nine years later, Shulman has another chance at winning the biggest tournament in poker.

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The 2009 WSOP Main Event final table is less than a week away and before we do the deed we wanted to get you in the mood with a fresh series of profiles. The first choice was obvious: Phil Ivey.

Unlike the vast majority of the poker world Phil Ivey didn't have to make the November Nine to get a spot in the limelight. The limelight follows Ivey wherever he goes.

Entering the final table seventh in chips with 9.765 million he's got his work cut out for him.

Ivey is a mythical figure that walks among us. Even before this year's World Series of Poker, he was regarded by most as the best all-around player in the game.

He crushes online. He crushes live. He treats tournaments, cash games, prop bets and high stakes pit games as his personal ATM.

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Last week it was Eric Cartman singing Lady Gaga's Poker Face, but this time it's someone so much better.

On BBC 1's Friday Night with Jonathan Ross Christopher Walken did a dramatic reading of the pop hit. Second to only Morgan Freeman in the talking game, Walken is simply brilliant.

We're hoping this sparks a new fad of great actors doing dramatic readings of crappy pop music lyrics.

Kenneth Branagh doing Flo Rida's Low? Ian McKellen reading Soldia Boy?

So, check it out below in all its glory and tell us how much you like Christopher Walken in the comment section below.



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With the final table of the main event of the WSOP coming up, I wanted to make a prediction. My prediction is not about who is going to win, but about who I think is going to make a run at the win.

I'm predicting James Akenhead to go on a rush, early, and finish in the top 4, possibly even win it. I had the chance of playing against James in the WSOPE main event for a ton of hours, and let me tell you, the kid's game is SOLID.

Also, he's a super nice guy, and I would like for him to take that shortstack and run it up.

As for an update on me, I played the 5k at Caesars a few days ago, and that obviously didn't go so well. Played pretty well, just had aces cracked twice for big pots near the end of day 1 to bust.

I played on Stars a ton in the last week, making the final two tables of seven online MTTs with zero final tables. 11th, 13th, 14th, 13th, 13th, 14th, and 18th, UGH, it hurts so bad.

I'm going to play MTTs on Stars all day today, and then tomorrow I'm off to Foxwoods to play the last prelim (5k) and the main event.

I will probably be going home after that and then heading to Portugal for the next EPT.

Big Sunday coming up, then my WPT title. One time?

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It's November 1st and we've got the inside dirt on everything you might have missed this week. We do our best to report on every little thing but, sadly, a few things always slip through undetected.

Luckily for you we take the time to recap it all. Go there now!

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78% of people who filled out an online poll on www.wsop.com believe Phil Ivey will win the 2009 WSOP Main Event.

This confirms to us that people are generally dumb and that online polls are in no way accurate.

Ivey is the greatest, no question, but he's still fallible and it's not like he's won every final table he's ever been at.

Lest we forget, he made seven WPT final tables before winning his eighth. There are only six players at WPT final tables.

The funny thing is, part of me can't argue with backing Ivey in something as big as the Main Event. This is the biggest opportunity in Phil Ivey's life and he has a way of pulling it out when he needs to.

Anyway, the rest of the November Nine can't be too happy seeing how low they're rated by the public (or at least that part of the public that votes in online polls about poker).

Here's how the rest stack up.

- Phil Ivey 78.05%

- Darvin Moon 6.57%

- Jeff Shulman 5.62%

- Eric Buchman 2.34%

- Joe Cada 2.18%

- James Akenhead 2.1%

- Antoine Saout 1.11 %

- Steven Begleiter 1.1%

- Kevin Schaffel 0.75%

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It used to be Mad Magazine, but in the modern era it's South Park: The thing you have to get on to be considered truly big-time.

This week Lady Gaga's song was sung by Cartman, meaning Lady Gaga is now a legitimate star. We assume she's planning some sort of party to commemorate the occasion right now.

We'd also like to stress that we don't condone Cartman's attitude towards the noble cetacean.

Without further ado, here is Cartman singing Poker Face.



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ESPN's Inside Deal is running through the November Nine crew, well, the ones wearing PokerStars patches. This week they have Kevin Schaffel and we've got it embedded right here for you to watch.

Like we've said before, Inside Deal is doing a good job of legitimizing the poker news show format. They have a real set, real hosts and they cover pretty much everything of note, at least topically.

What's not so great are the intros. I know they're just supposed to be fun, quick little gags but for the most part they come off pretty labored.

In today's Laura Lane has her hands tied behind her back so that's something at least.

Watch the video below and tell us what you think in the comment section at the bottom.



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It seems like Ohio is a dangerous place to play live poker, giving us yet another reason why online poker is just plain better.

Another stick-up job went down in Solon, Ohio on Monday, adding to the already long list of poker-related crimes in the state of Ohio. The criminals, armed with assault rifles, relieved the players in this game of around $11,000, their wallets and their pants (?).

Players in the game seem to be blaming the host, since he advertised the game on the internet. We can only assume he was hoping for more poker players and not the gun-wielding criminals who showed up.

The full story with quotes from one of the players can be found here on Cleveland.com

The player who is quoted in the story was actually present at another armed robbery last April, when seven bandits, again with the assault rifles, took off with $75k of private cash game money.

This latest robbery came just two weeks after a man was shot in a Toledo bar, apparently over a dispute relating to a poker game. This was the second shooting in this bar in a week so it's probably not poker's fault.

That story's here on the FOX Toledo website.

Anyway, to make a long story short, if you live in Ohio PLAY POKER ONLINE. The perks include not getting robbed at gunpoint, not getting shot, and being able to play in your underwear.

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2M2MM is over, done, kaput. The season finale just went up and we've got it embedded here for you to watch.

All in all the season did not suck. It managed to hold our attention for ten episodes and it succeeded in giving the audience a look at what's possible playing high-stakes online poker.

We're not going to preview the finale for you here so just surf on down the page and see it for yourself.

We're interested in what you thought of the show as a whole, and the future of reality poker TV, so drop it in the comment section below.

If you're on the main blog page click through to the post page to see the embedded video.

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2M2MM is back with another episode and it's a good one if you like poker.

While it still falls short of catering perfectly to the online degenerate it spends a ton more time focusing on the play than any other episode so far.

It's also the first episode where the $2 million goal seems like it might have been, at some point at least, attainable.

Krantz goes on a big downswing and the crew locks themselves in the war room for 36 hours to try to get something going.

You'll have to watch to find out for yourself but suffice to say, they get something going.

If you're on the main blog page right now click through to the post page to watch the vids.

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