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.

Negreanu vs. Antonius - on the links

Today was a big day for Daniel Negreanu and Patrik Antonius - just not at the poker table.

The two poker superstars took their high-stakes action to the TPC Summerlin golf course yesterday in the first leg of a two-day match for unspecified stakes and things were close: Negreanu’s team shot a 59, but Antonius’ team made a birdie on the final hole to finish the day with a 58. Besides the high stakes on the links there was apparently some pretty sick side gambling going on, too, with two unnamed degen buddies flipping coins to decide who got which team in a $200,000 bet.

All day long today Negreanu has been posting updates from the golf course on his Twitter feed, even noting his pre-game warm-up of Chinese Poker with David Benyamine and Erik “Erik123” Sagstrom. Things were looking good for Kid Poker from the beginning; after nine holes he was up by four strokes, and by the 15th hole he had maintained his lead. There’s no word on exactly what he and Antonius are playing for, but whoever loses is most likely not getting off very cheap.

RawVegas caught up with Negreanu on the course yesterday and are promising a new video once today’s action is in the bag.

Penn. poker law stall may cost state universities $675 million

Usually when somebody in government talks about gambling and education in the same sentence it’s to promote the former as a revenue generator for the latter. But in Pennsylvania, students may be the ones paying if the state government doesn’t solve a crisis over legislation to legalize poker and table games at the state’s slot machine parlors.

The Republican Senate and Democratic House leaderships are deadlocked on the bill over differences in tax rates and license fees. Normally that wouldn’t have any bearing on the situation, but Governor Ed Rendell has tied passage of the table games legislation to funding for several public universities. If a break of some kind doesn’t come soon, students at three major universities in the state will have to pay with higher tuition rates to make up for any budget shortfalls. Penn State University, Temple University, and the University of Pittsburgh are currently awaiting some $675 million in discretionary funding from the state; in Temple’s case, that money makes up 20% of the school’s entire budget.

“We have not yet set our tuition for the second semester, and those decisions must be made very soon so that bills can be mailed beginning November 13th,” the presidents of the three schools wrote in a letter to the legislature last month. “In order to maintain the low tuition increases at our universities, there needs to be assurance that the funding levels in our pending appropriation bills will be enacted soon.”

(Pa. Table games stalemate bumps into tuition bills - Associated Press)

Berman to rake Ohio casinos

Lyle Berman, the new Godfather of Ohio gambling

Ohio voters approved an initiative to open four casinos throughout the state earlier this week, and one of the big winners in the deal may be the company run by three-time WSOP bracelet winner Lyle Berman.

Berman, the chairman of Lakes Entertainment Inc., cut a deal with the backers of the ballot initiative on Oct. 29 to bear ten percent of its estimated $35 million cost. In exchange, Lakes received the option to take a ten percent share in each of the casinos, which will be located in Cincinnati, Cleveland, Columbus, and Toledo. According to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Lakes has already made payments totaling $4.3 million to Penn Ventures and Rock Ohio, the two companies developing the casino properties.

That ten percent share should be worth a lot of money to Lakes, but don’t be surprised if you end up reading in the gossip forums that Berman dumped it all to Tom Dwan playing no-limit deuce-to-seven single draw in Bobby’s Room.

(Poker champ Berman stakes claim in Ohio casinos - Associated Press)

Police get one of their own at illegal Ga. poker game

Poking a great big hole in the myth that all you need to keep your underground poker game safe is to have an off-duty cop involved, a Cobb County, Ga., police officer has resigned from the force after bring arrested for his alleged role in an illegal poker game at the Vinings Forest Condominums in Smyrna, Ga.

Neighbors complained about the game to police because of the traffic coming and going from the condo owned by Paul Miller, where catered food was available to the game’s players. Those complaints led to an undercover sting operation that led to the arrest of Miller and Christopher Soltes, an officer from the Westside district of Cobb County who served as the game’s dealer, working for tips from the “high rollers.”

There haven’t yet been any reports yet on what kind of money was at stake, so for the time being we’ll just have to take the word of the police that the game was “high-stakes.” Still, even if we’re talking about a decent-sized game, you have to wonder how much police officers are being paid in Cobb County if one of them thought had to resort to dealing for tips in order to pay the mortgage.

(Officer Arrested in ‘High Stakes’ Poker Bust - WSB Atlanta)

Associated Press previews November Nine

And finally, from the Holy Crap, Mainstream Media Is Paying Attention To Poker department, the Associated Press today ran a preview of the upcoming WSOP Main Event final table. There’s not much information in it that you don’t already know from reading Bluff and watching ESPN, but there are some good quotes from a few members of this year’s November Nine. It’s also just fun to see mainstream media sources quoting Phil Ivey interviews on PokerRoad and talking about side bets on the table’s outcome by Doyle Brunson and Daniel Negreanu, all in an article that’s not overloaded with ridiculous poker puns. Kudos to the AP for taking a “just the facts” approach.

(Last 9 Prep for World Series of Poker final table - Associated Press)

Related posts:

1. DAILY BUZZ: Hans Lund Dies, Ivey’s Fortune, Negreanu/Antonius II Welcome to the BLUFF Daily Buzz, where we scour the...
2. DAILY BUZZ: Laak Wins, Antonius Vs Vos II, Doyle On TV Poker Shows Welcome to the BLUFF Daily Buzz, where we scour the...
3. DAILY BUZZ: Negreanu On Poker Blogs, Multi-tabling, Chad Roasts NFL Welcome to the BLUFF Daily Buzz, where we scour the...
4. DAILY BUZZ: Penn Poker Politics, Chicago WSOPC Love, WPT Marrakech Welcome to the BLUFF Daily Buzz, where we scour the...
5. DAILY BUZZ: WSOP Online, How Not To Get A Backer, Legal Penn Poker Welcome to the BLUFF Daily Buzz, where we scour the...