DAILY BUZZ: Live Durrrr Challenge, 2010 WSOP, Keikoan Wins WSOPC

Jason Kirk | November 18, 2009

Welcome to the BLUFF Daily Buzz, where we scour the entire internet for all the latest news in and around the world of poker. If it involves chips and cards, or people known to associate with chips and cards, we’re there.

Dwan drops first Live Challenge match

The Full Tilt Durrrr Million Dollar Challenge is officially underway, and its namesake came out on the wrong end of the first match - though not by much.

Durrrr lost some pocket change to Marigliano at Les Ambassadeurs

Tom “durrrr” Dwan played Marcello “luckexpress” Marigliano heads-up for 12 hours yesterday at the Les Ambassadeurs club in London, with a $250,000 initial buy-in and the first 11 hours of play consisting solely of no-limit hold’em before the format changed to pot-limit Omaha for the final hour. Dwan won 55 percent of the pots in the match, but that wasn’t enough to keep him from posting a $25,500 loss at the end of the session.

“It was a really aggressive match,” said Dwan. “There was a time when Marcello folded 20 hands in a row then the next hand he picked up a gutshot and decided to win the 150k out there. But he made two really good reads and without either one of them he ends up down 50k or so but instead he’s up. They were key hands really and there were some other big hands but it was an interesting match – of course I wish I’d won.”

Next up for Dwan is Ilari “Ziigmund” Sahamies, followed by Sammy “Any Two” George. The series of heads-up matches is being filmed to air on British television next year, while Americans will have to be content with reruns of the WSOP and whatever new “poker game show” the networks throw our way until it’s time for the new season of High Stakes Poker.

(Marigliano wins Million Dollar Challenge opener - Matchroom Sport)

2010 WSOP: more space, July 4th off, no commissioner

WSOP spokesman Seth Palansky talked to the Las Vegas Sun yesterday about next year’s plans for the Series, and while Jeffrey Pollack is no longer along for the ride it seems as if the former commissioner’s tradition of meeting past mistakes head-on and making every year better than the one before is still in place.

This year’s Main Event scheduling snafu, which saw Day 1D sell out after the poorly-attended Day 1B fell on July 4th, is being fixed permanently: the Main Event will either start after the national holiday, or there will be no poker played that day. “We hope to address it somewhat with an expanded footprint for this year, which means more poker tables so we can have more players,” Palansky said. “But it’s more important to make it abundantly clear to register in plenty of time.” As for the rest of the schedule, there will be an even bigger focus on events with lower buy-ins in light of the success of this year’s “Stimulus Special” tournament. (A preliminary schedule was leaked on the WSOP.com website yesterday but has since been removed.)

Finally, Palansky confirmed that there are no plans to replace the commissioner role that Pollack vacated. “There’s no plans to replace the commissioner role, nor do we feel that there’s a void there,” Palansky said. “We feel that the brand has grown and the staff that has been here throughout is here and ready.”

(World Series of Poker looks ahead to 2010 - Las Vegas Sun)

Matt Keikoan banked $106,435 for his win at Harvey's Lake Tahoe

Matt Keikoan wins WSOP Circuit Lake Tahoe main event

The latest stop of the WSOP Circuit has concluded at Harvey’s Lake Tahoe, and 2008 WSOP bracelet winner Matt Keikoan came out on top of the championship event.

The tournament drew just 64 players and took only two days to play to completion. Despite the small field, Keikoan’s ascent to the top was anything but guaranteed. Recent Festa al Lago champion Tommy Vedes, former WSOP bracelet winner Michael Woo, and online pro Alan “BodogAri” Engel all had designs of their own for capturing the gold ring. It was Keikoan’s confrontations with the loose-aggressive Engel that helped him to secure the tournament, particularly the hand where he spiked a two-outer on the river to eliminate Engel and seize a big lead with just three players remaining.

“I’m really excited to win, but I’m also really tired,” Keikoan said. “There were some good players here. But I always feel comfortable playing at Lake Tahoe because I have come here to the Circuit each year it’s been held. It’s kind of a home field advantage for me, I believe.”

(Cop Gets Beat By a King - WSOP.com)

Cada media tour hits CNN; ESPN on deck

The Joe Cada World Tour continued today on CNN’s American Morning, where the youngest WSOP Main Event champ of all time got a chance to talk with hosts John Roberts and Kiran Chetry for several minutes and acquitted himself well, much like he did last night on the Late Show With David Letterman. Check out Cada’s appearance on CNN here, and the Letterman video here.

The World Tour continues tomorrow at ESPN’s website. If you’ve got a question of your own that nobody’s asked Cada yet, you’ll have a chance to ask him yourself tomorrow at 1:30 p.m. ET when he stops by ESPN SportsNation for a chat with fans. You can send in your question or comment at this SportsNation page.

PPA’s Twitter campaign gaining attention in Washington

With time nearly out before the UIGEA regulations go into effect on Dec. 1, the Poker Players Alliance has organized a “Tweet For Poker” campaign to contact Senators and members of Congress directly via Twitter and urge them to protect online poker. While it’s hard to gauge how effective the campaign has been so far, it’s worth noting that Tweet For Poker has earned the notice of Washington-based political paper The Hill.

In a column that normally covers activity on the Twitter accounts of politicians and diplomats, The Hill drew attention to the PPA campaign, which is noteworthy for what constituents are telling politicians instead of the other way around. The writer got a few minor facts wrong (such as saying the UIGEA banned online gambling, which it did not), but even having poker talked about outside of regular poker circles is a good thing. After all, as Oscar Wilde once said, the only thing worse than being talked about is not being talked about.

(Online poker group organizes Twitter advocacy campaign - The Hill)

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