What’s I’d like to see at the 2012 WSOP.

Perhaps there’s no better time to be a poker player and enthusiast than during the World Series of Poker. Not only does the entire poker world converge on Las Vegas to take their shots at winning the most prestigious award in all of poker, a WSOP Bracelet, but everything you want to see is in one place: the biggest poker stars in the world playing for the largest prizepools of the year on the grandest stage that poker has to offer. With so much going on at the Rio this summer, you just never know what you’re going to see. Double bracelet winners? Check. Beef jerky eating Big Foot? Check. Warmed over pizza in the poker kitchen? Check.

Yeah, you’ll see all of those things but here’s a few more events that might not happen, but I sure hope does, during the 2012 WSOP.

(in no particular order)

* The return of Hevad Khan.

It’s still there, buried deep in your psychosis…

“Bulldozzzzer”.

It longs to come out when you hit a two outer…

“Steammmmrollller!”

The WSOP made a rule specifically to thwart antics of one-time PokerStars online pro Hevad Khan from ever happening again. Only, as it turns out - Hevad Khan made for some amazing TV. You see, poker’s a game of emotion, even if that means trying to hide it, and emotion makes for compelling viewing. There’s nothing worse for poker TV than to see hoodied twentysomethings taking it all in stride. We need a little excitement, a little action - we need Hevad Khan!

At least we need someone like him: a fun-loving master of celebration that borders on obnoxious but isn’t a “rub-it-in-your-face” kind of guy. We need a divisive figure with some outstanding catch phrases that doesn’t come off as too forced and has more appeal than simply barking like a dog. ESPN wants to bring back the characters to the WSOP telecast and they’ve loosened the rulebook on celebrations to do so. What they need is a 2012 Hevad Khan. Let’s dooooo this.

* Tom Dwan trying hard.

Is there any questioning the Passion of the Dwan? Of course not! This guy plays full-time at the biggest stakes with no online poker to fall back on. He’s grinding it out, worldwide, wherever the games may take him but this summer I hope he sees fit to continue his devout focus on capturing WSOP glory. He’s not a tournament professional (nor is he a slouch) and he sure doesn’t need the accolades, but facts are facts: he’s the highest profile poker player without WSOP Gold and when he’s at a final table, the poker world stops, looks and listens. OK, so Dwan isn’t exactly overly media friendly, he doesn’t necessarily delight you on camera with warm witty quips or over the top remarks but it doesn’t stop him from being one of the most intriguing figures on the poker landscape and if he decides to continue to grind it out like he did in 2011 (and maybe win a bracelet bet or two) we could be in store for a fun summer of sweating out favorite (former) internet young gun.

* Andy Beal and Phil Ivey get HU in the One Drop

The Big One for One Drop is going to be a lot of things: the largest prizepool in WSOP history, a phenomenal money making charity funder and the collection of the biggest degens and poker sickos on the planet from all walks of life converging in one room. So yea, Phil Ivey has yet to commit to this monster of a tournament but his nemesis from The Corporation days has: Andy Beal is vetted, committed and participating. In 2006 Andy Beal and Phil Ivey went to war on the felt, with Ivey famously playing for “The Corporation” and taking Beal for a 16 million dollar ride. With an estimated 42.6 million dollar price pool (48 players field, as this is expected to sell out) and about 10 people cashing the first place money would be right around what Beal dropped to Ivey back in the day. Wouldn’t you love to see these two be forced together one more time, under the ESPN lights? I would. I guess first we need to make sure Ivey plays, but I have a feeling this tournament might just be too Big to pass up.

* Phil Hellmuth goes ballistic

Hey Phil, we’ve had it with you. No, not your antics, whining and tantrums but this new “do-gooder”, media savvy, turn-the-other-cheek Hellmuth. We’re done with it I tell thee! Ok, so you have a new website and a new forum and a new talk show to promote. Here’s some free PR advice: What you really need is a new face melting, blood-boiling, “honey”-crying temper tantrum! You need a new narcissistic, spur of the moment catch phrase. Someone shine the Brat-signal!

It’s time for the Brat to come back.

Three second place finishes last year and nary a single insult thrown?? No crying? No complaining to the wife? Phil, you’re the greatest poker heel of all time and now you want to turn face? It’s just a bad idea. This year, we need new over-the-top insults and penalty-inducing borderline insults, we need a renewed commitment to the Poker Brat persona. Yes, go get bracelet number twelve, but for the sake of poker – be an ass while you do it. I’m not saying don’t do charity work or be nice to your fans but on the felt it’s war and it’s time for you be the Brat once more.

Whether we see these things or not, one thing is for certain – the 2012 WSOP will be a spectacle to behold.

This past Tuesday I wrapped up my latest stint on QuadJacks Radio on the PKRGSSP show.  Roughly 30 shows, probably over 40 hours of on air-entertainment and some great memories and guests that we talked about.  Zac and Marco are focusing all of their QJ attention on bring live coverage of the WSOP this year and so to accommodate, regular programming (show like PKRGSSP Show, Eric Danis’ Poker Eh! and MJW and Random Chu’s Konvict Korner) are on hiatus.  Will I be back? You know, I don’t know.  Not because I don’t love it and I haven’t been given any indication yet that I wouldn’t be welcome (but you know, they could just be being polite) but things change over hiatus and since we had a nice wrapup in the last show, I’m happy to simply take a break and see what’s next.  

So, if you didn’t get the opportunity to check it out we had a pretty fun show!  I brought on my main man, PTPR’s Eric Danis - who normally breaks down all things MTT’s for us and we shot the shit for a while talking about WSOP predictions and what makes for a quality fantasy draft and then “Noted Poker Authority!” Ed Miller joined us for some laughs and to talk about what it takes to be a successful poker published author.  All in all, we had a blast and it was a great way to end a successful run of show.  What!? You haven’t checked it out?  Well, let’s correct that by having you click here.

That said, I didn’t get to discuss everything I wanted to with Eric about the WSOP and I have some burning questions about what’s going to happen!  So, for the sake of conversation here’s a couple that didn’t make it to air:

* Is Ivey going to show? 
 As far as I know, as of the time of this blog post, Phil Ivey is not committed to The Big One for One Drop 1 Million Dollar Buy-In but my gut says that with “businessmen” abound and the “no gamble, no future” attitude of our favorite Team Full Tilter - Ivey will be there, vetted with cash in hand ready to make a serious run at not just the 1 Million buy-in, but bracelet number number 8.

* Will a woman take down an open bracelet this year? 
I know, I know pretty lazy questions as this question is asked EVERY year and the line is always set at 1.5 bracelets, with the woman’s event included.  I’m an optimist here and I say that it’s going to happen this year.  Maybe it’ll be a Vanessa or Maria Ho or perhaps PokerKat scratches one out. If I was forced to pick someone though, I’m going with one of my favorites: Team PokerStars Online O8 grinder Talonchick. But I’m on record as feeling good about the ladies chances in 2012 in a non-holdem event.

* Who gets a stern reality check this year?
Look, no one hopes that anyone goes O-fer.  Well, I guess AsianSpa wishes some BadJuJu on Jeff Madsen, but I certainly don’t. I think most players are very “Good Luck All-In” to their fellow gamblers. That said, some high profile players have had a lot happen to them in a year and that can really effect what happens on the felt.  Good luck to these guys and I hope I’m really wrong but if I’m looking to pick a couple guys who are going to sail on some rough seas - I might choose:

Erick Lindgren aka E-Dog: The good-time guy who married The Hit Woman had it all - a new wife, a new baby, a sterling reputation as one of poker’s good guys.  The only thing he didn’t have was a desire to pay back his prop bet/Fantasy Sports gambling debts.  His reputation, subsequently, took a massive hit and you’ve got to be thinking that if he shows up at the WSOP the whispering, the snickers, the taunting may just follow him.  If they don’t, and he ends up winning, then it’s likely there will be players following him - to the cage…to get paid.  Good luck to Erick, I hope he wins some money to pay back some debt.

David “Doc” Sands: He and his finance Erica were the talk of the 2012 WSOP as they both went on a deep run and provided a little (very little) PDA to the ESPN cameramen (a little on camera smooch).  He then went on to take 2nd at the LAPC ME for a cool 800k.  Finally, he graced the cover of Cardplayer Magazine.  Amazing year for, by all accounts, an amazing guy. But just like a songwriter, sometimes, when you finally find happiness - well, your new songs suck.  Is Sands content? I mean, doesn’t he have everything? Here’s hoping he avoid the pitfalls of happiness and grinds out his first bracelet in 2012.

Names who will crush in 2012:

It’s always a lot of fun to pick people you think will have their names in the headlines and so here’s a few I’m hoping will see bundles of cash and some gold on their wrist this summer.

Mohsin Charania: aka Chicagocards1, your EPT Grand Final Champion, is going to be grinding it out in LV all summer and having talked with him on the show, he’s a good guy and easy to root for.

Shaun Deeb:  SCOOP-A-LOOP! This kid knows what time it is and he’s in the conversation of “best player without a bracelet”.  A true grinder, here’s hoping his hot streak continues.

Faraz Jaka: A Bay Area guy with a good sense of humor and a sicko game.  He’s a WPT champion and this year a good bet to nab some hardware.

Annette18: One time WSOP Europe ME champ her heralded debut at the WSOP was much ado about nothing.  Sometimes when the pressure is off it’s just easier to play and so be on the lookout for deep runs by Annette this series.

more to come…

Oh, I’ve got plenty more but this is pretty long and you likely didn’t make it to the end.  I do have my new “Driod Playing Poker” shirts - I think they’re going to be $15 (is that too much?) let me know if you want one.  On Monday I’ll post my article “Visions of a 2012 WSOP” so come on back and kill 5 minutes with me.

Email: pkrgssp@gmail.com
Twitter: @pkrgssp

See you soon! 

There’s a ton of “poker apparel” out there and let’s face it - most of it is pretty bad.  Well, that’s just my opinion.  I mean, sure, I enjoy poker (maybe more than most) but I’d be hard pressed to be caught dead in some affliction style shirt with spades and diamonds as graphic center pieces or some statement like “Any Two Cards!” to let people know what a table-captain-tough-guy I am when I’m “three-betting light!”.  No.  Those aren’t for me. Since I have a bit of an creator’s spirit in me, I decided to make my own “poker shirt” (or shirts). A shirt for the rest of us.  (By “us”, I mean me).

So here it is - my modern take on the whole “Dogs Playing Poker” theme. My question is does it need a caption?  ”Droids Playing Poker”? “Bots.”? or something else?  If you come up with something that I think is so good, it needs to be on the shirt and you wanna share it - and I use it! - I’ll make one for you too.

What do you think?

“going to take a day off tomorrow, unless the gssp is super good as I’ve got some life obligations, which I’m sure you can understand. But I’ll be back before you know it and who knows, if things work out, I’ll get something up for you this weekend.” - pkrgssp blog 4.14.11

As many of you know, probably all of you actually, yesterday was the 1 year anniversary of the day known as Black Friday to poker players around the world.  Plenty of stories of “where were you when” are available on blogs and poker news sites, so I won’t bore you with mine.  I will direct you to a couple links though for nostalgia sake if you are interested.  Before Black Friday hit, I was doing what I had done for the better part of three months - breaking down the daily poker news, what I was branding as “gssp”, and letting you know what was worth your time.  So, it’s pretty funny to see what the news of the day was on April 14th and then to look back at my live blog of the news of the 15th-17th (scroll down).  You might get a kick out of it as well, even though some of the links are now defunct (like the statement from Full Tilt claiming your money is safe).

One Year Later

While I find it interesting to remember where we are were when we heard the news, it’s far more interesting, to me, to see where we are now.  We have professional poker players from the US scattered to the ends of the earth, beloved heroes of televised poker accused of pillaging the community for millions upon millions of dollars and a poker media industry left to scrape for every dollar due to the lack of sponsorship money to go around.  Well-known champions like Greg Raymer and Joe Hachem without sponsorship and a string of former red pros from Full Tilt dropping down in stakes.  The Merge network is the only real place to play in the US and they have major questions when it comes to paying out and Epic Poker, trying to breathe life into the live tourney scene, spent almost 8 million dollars while only taking in 40k, and almost destroying the well-loved HPT in what can only be called pure incompetent decision making.  

This is where we are now. But we’re also in a place where various US States are moving closer to online gambling legislation.  We’re in a place where the Wire Act received clarification and some of those indicted have appeared before a judge and received plea bargains.  We’re at a place where from the ashes of Full Tilt, a new company MAY be born.  We’re also in a place where the community applies stricter scrutiny to those who are looking to exploit it.  

A year later, we may finally be able to see a little light at the end of this dark tunnel.

As for me, where am I a year later?  Well, prior to Black Friday, I was in complete obscurity - a hack blogger with a media background giving you the details of the day. I’d spend a lot of time researching, consuming and writing and I liked the fact that some people seemed to enjoy it. While some liked it —  I loved it. But it was a grind.  Eventually, I had to rid myself of talking about the horrible journalism in poker that ran rampant as it was pure content that drove people to affiliate sites, and those people who ripped that material simply didn’t care.  Eventually, after about 9 months of non-stop grinding the news, I took a break.

Side bar: (not sure if I’ve told this story) Earlier in March 2011, a media outlet reached out to me to inquire about exclusivity of the blog.  They wanted me to come on to their network and crank out content on a 3-4 days a week basis and I was to be compensated for it (which was cool, but not the end game for me).  I have emails still and on 4.14.11 we agree to terms and verbally agree to move forward.  Black Friday hits the next day and the deal came to a complete stall, along with my contact stepping away from their post in the company.

Here a year later, I’m no longer a complete hack blogger but I’m a complete hack host of a hack radio show that’s somehow on QuadJacks a couple times a week. While still pretty obscure, it’s not complete obscurity, if you know what I mean, and I’m pretty happy about that even if the show isn’t nearly as good as I know it could be.  I’ve logged about 35-40 hours of broadcast time (which isn’t that much) and I’ve had a good time but I’m left wondering if in one year from now, I’ll be doing this at all.

Not a Complete Disaster…

Speaking of that radio show, here’s the episode from last week:

I gotta be honest - they can’t all be winners and I’m sad to say, this show is probably not a winner.  I’d been trying to lock down Bart Hanson (Deuce Plays Premium and Cruch Live Poker) for a little bit and he was happy to come on, but it turns out that his evening plans got the better of him and while he did his best, you can tell there’s a point where he’s pretty distracted, which made me realize I was keeping him.  Not a good place to be when wanting to conduct an conversation.  I’ve made no bones about it, I think Bart’s one of the best and I hope to get him back on in the future for another conversation.  

Next up we had the WSOP Director of Communications, Seth Palansky.  It takes some time to get him on the line and then, right before I’m ready to ask him what he plans on doing with the giant posters of Chris Ferguson at the WSOP this year, Seth’s phone dies.  We try, a couple of times, to reach him but that phone is all but done. 

Note: It was rumored that Seth hung up on the show but as you can tell from the conversation, there’s nothing to suggest that’s the case in the talk AND he DM’d me on Twitter right away apologizing and he even provided a secondary phone number to reach him.  So, I truly can’t imagine this is the case.  I mean, I was lobbing softballs at him.

Good Beats

What a difference a week makes…just about 10 days ago I was having an on-air conversation with Zac from QuadJacks about the whole SrslySirius situation.  Next thing you know, there’s a new QuadJacks music production featuring 2+2’s DRhybes and rapper Sonny Caine and…it’s pretty good!  If you like the whole poker music phenomena, you’ll like this:

Bad Beats (don’t read this)

I think tournament poker is the cruelest form of poker, right? I also think that any of the Mental Game experts out there would tell me that, despite not cashing lately, I’m doing pretty good for myself.  This weekend was another soul-crushing, cluster**** of on the felt disappointment as not once, but twice, in two tournaments back to back. I built up huge stacks, only to have them both become annihilated by getting it in with the best of it.  The first was Bay 101’s Friday frenzy where another 170 or so my closest MTT pals and I did battle.  Busted in 23rd (18 paid) when I lost back to back flips, both times first to enter: JJ<AK and then KQdd<JJ.  No biggie.  Gotta win those flips.

The next one was a little rougher.  Once again, I chipped up nicely taking advantage of the table and was probably the chip leader by the 2nd break.  I was out by the 3rd each time getting my money in crushing.  The worst being the final hand getting it in KK<AJo on a 234K board for a 60k pot.  I just keep thinking that you keep getting it in good like that, the 4 outer won’t ALWAYS hit (will it??).  Anyway, despite the lack of results I’ve been super happy with my play and I’d love to talk a little more strategy on the show.  But in the meantime, you can always check out the TPE podcast, where they do that pretty well already.

I didn’t post a show or two from last week, so, if you are interested here’s some YouTube links.  My suggestion is check out who’s on the show and then just listen to the interviews you think might be interesting. Honestly though, we had some really great guests: Jon Aguiar, Derek from TPE, Jon Wein, Dan from Pokerati and, of course, Steve from WCP.  They all made me look pretty damn good.  Then, if you like dramabombs (and I know you do) listen to Zac and I hash out this “Serious” situation.  Enjoy and run good!

Both Derek and Jon were great guests, I think you’ll like this for some easy listening. Podcast available here.

You know me, I don’t like to take much credit (and I don’t) but I’m pretty proud of how this one turned out.  Three very open, honest guests and in each interview they say something that is going to make you think a little differently about poker and the people in the poker world.  Podcast available here.

Finally, hear ye, hear ye…this whole drama is sooooo one week ago.  I got accused of sucking up to Zac here, but the fact is and I think I state this pretty clearly on this recording: I was never looking to throw anyone under the bus, I didn’t take sides and I really like all these guys.  So, when this is the case and you have to do a show about it, you tread lightly but be honest.  I hope this is what happened in this case, tell me what you think.

Last but not least, know this: Casey Jarzabek is a funny guy.  He came on to the after show last week and we had a pretty good laugh or two.  It’s not recommended and it’s a super low-content recording…but if you burned through all the above and still haven’t been entertained, then maybe you’ll like this?? Probably not, but here it is:

Lastly, for clarification, PKRGSSP is supposed to be an entertainment show, not a hard-hitting news show.  If I wanted to do the Subject: Poker podcast, I’d do that (I’m pretty sure I could) so here’s my plea to you…if it’s NOT entertaining, listen to another podcast.  I don’t say that with this smug “if you don’t think so, then you’re an idiot” attitude.  No, I say this in so much that I HOPE you are entertained, but if not, even I don’t want you feel horrible about spending your time listening. There’s a couple others out there, that are pretty good!

OK, now really. I’m done for now.  Good luck on and off the felt.

@pkrgssp on Twitter.

ps: I didn’t edit this.