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.

CNN spotlights Don Cheadle & Ante Up for Africa

The mainstream media got a look at one of the better sides of poker today when CNN today featured a story about Don Cheadle and his efforts to raise awareness of the human rights crisis in Darfur, Sudan, through the Ante Up For Africa charity. Cheadle tells CNN about his initial surprise at how much money the first AUFA tournament was able to raise and about the generosity of most of the tournaments’ big winners, while his AUFA co-founder Annie Duke lets CNN in on the secret of why poker tournaments are such great fundraisers.

“Everyone wants to give. I think there’s a variety of ways to do that that are effective, but I’m not sure anything is more effective than a poker tournament,” says Duke. “People come and they can genuinely hang out with celebrities and some of the famous poker players, and just have a really fantastic time while they’re giving.”

“Some people look at that and are cynical about it and think, that’s just frivolous celebrities trying to give themselves some sort of gravitas,” says Cheadle. “But I still say, even if it is that, there is still something going on over there, and we want you to look over there. So you try and take the opportunity whenever you can.”

The new AUFA event, sorting a $150 buy-in with rebuys, is set to be held this Thursday at the San Manuel Indian Bingo & Casino outside San Bernardino, Calif. The casino has already kicked in $500,000 for the charity and the players are expected to donate tens of thousands more.

(Don Cheadle’s poker playing has benefits - CNN.com)

Kevin Schaffel on ESPN Inside Deal

It’s Tuesday and that means it’s time for ESPN Inside Deal. Today’s episode is one of the last before the November Nine get back to action and play down to a winner. Kevin Schaffel, who sits in the middle of the pack but has scored a few nice cashes since going on hiatus in July, sits down with Laura Lane and Bernard Lee to talk about how making the final tables of the WSOP Main Event and the Legends of Poker has changed his life, his previous tournament experience, and who he’s bringing to the Rio with him in November.

Mike Sexton also calls in to talk with Lane and Lee about his impending induction to the Poker Hall of Fame. “It’s pretty flattering…to be up there with the legends and icons of the game,” Sexton said. “It’s really pretty special.”

Check out the full episode here.

ESPN deal a bright spot in downbeat Harrah’s 3Q results

World Series of Poker parent company Harrah’s Entertainment issued its earnings report today and the company’s business is down from this time last year. According to the report, the continued slump in business was due to the recession eating into its customers’ wallets. Revenues were down to $2.28 billion from $2.65 billion in the third quarter last year, while the loss from operations was $1.05 billion, compared with income from operations of $349.6 million in the 2008 third quarter.

While everything else at Harrah’s seems to be following the broader economic downturn, one of the bright spots for the company continues to be the WSOP. Among the the third quarter highlights singled out by CEO Gary Loveman in the report was Harrah’s new seven-year deal with cable network ESPN to continue its annual coverage of the WSOP. Loveman noted in the report that the company was looking forward to the November Nine completing play at the WSOP Main Event in a few weeks.

(Harrah’s Entertainment Reports Results for 2009 Third Quarter, First Nine Months - MarketWire.com)

Florida poker blues likely to keep playing

Poker players in Florida have been stuck with less-than-adequate live cash poker games for a long time now. There was once a $2 cap on all bets, though that changed a while back when the state decided to allow maximum buy-ins of $100. Still, the games pale in comparison to those available in California, Las Vegas, the East Coast, or nearly anywhere else in the United States with a poker room.

Players in Florida were given some hope earlier this year when the legislature considered a bill to allow true no-limit poker throughout the state, but that bill was tied to a yet-to-pass revised compact with the Seminole tribe which would allow the Seminoles exclusive rights to offer blackjack and table games in the state. So while everyone appears to be for passing no-limit poker, the political bargaining game between Gov. Charlie Crist and the state’s legislature means the issue probably won’t be dealt with anytime soon. In the meantime, several airlines are still offering plenty of cheap flights from Florida to Las Vegas…

(I told the governor to hustle it up with poker - Action South Florida Gambling)

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.

Ante Up For Africa hits CBS airwaves

The European Poker Tour got in on the major charity tournament game at last season’s EPT Grand Final in Monte Carlo when they put on the $6,000 Ante Up For Africa Europe tournament. Now the PokerStars-sponsored event is being shown on television network CBS, bringing even more publicity to the crisis in Darfur, Sudan, which the charity hopes to help reach a resolution.

“Each year at the World Series of Poker, I make a point to play in Ante Up for Africa,” poker pro Vanessa Rousso said in a press release announcing CBS’ coverage of the tournament. “It’s amazing that PokerStars hosted the event in Monte Carlo to help a worthy cause and bring some fun to the table during one of their biggest events of the year.”

CBS aired the first of two episodes covering the tournament today before college football. The second and final episode will air next Saturday, September 26th, from 2:00-3:00 p.m. EST.

Silver lining for Borgata ladies event

You’ll remember that last week I told you about Abraham Korotki, who is most certainly not a lady, winning the ladies tournament at the Borgata Poker Open. Today’s Philadelphia Inquirer features a story about the same tournament focusing on the second-place finisher, Nicole Rowe.

Rowe had already finished in second place in the Borgata ladies tournament two years ago, which would usually be enough motivation to push for a win. But this time around she was using the tournament as a temporary escape from the reality of her current struggle with breast cancer. While she was once again denied first place, Rowe told the Inquirer that “it was a gift that (Korotki) entered the tournament” because of the public attention the tournament, and therefore her cause, got thanks to the novelty of a man winning a women’s tournament.

Korotki, who claims he entered the tournament just for practice before the upcoming WPT main event at the Borgata, has pledged all of his winnings to charity, including one-third of the total to the Susan G. Komen Race For The Cure in Rowe’s name. Added to the $5,000 Borgata donated to the Komen foundation in Rowe’s name after the tournament, that means she was able to raise nearly $12,000 for breast cancer research without even winning the tournament.

“In that moment of losing, I realized why everything had happened the way it did,” said Rowe. “God revealed to me why this happened. Why I ended up sitting at a women’s only tournament next to a man - and he won - and I came in second, again. I was able to bring so much attention to breast cancer.”

(Poker loss is a win for cancer-awareness effort - Philadelphia Inquirer)

Ziigmund steaming after huge loss

Ilari “Ziigmund” Sahamies didn’t have the best of days at the Full Tilt high stakes PLO tables on Thursday, as variance decided to play with the Finn like a cat playing with a mouse. Ziigmund dropped a cool $1.2 million in just two hours, the majority of that going to Phil Ivey in large part thanks to a number of coinflips that went Ivey’s way to give him one of this biggest online winning days ever.

While that might be bad news for Ziigmund, it’s fantastic for all poker’s schadenfreude junkies out there who love to watch the effects of serious Bajungi tilt. Sahamies hopped onto his blog and posted a rant with the title Ivey is so lucky and poker is just fcking marvelous horrible f*ckface game! in which, between plenty of expletives, he bemoans his bad luck and reveals that he hasn’t felt good about playing the game in four months. Despite all that, he’s apparently still planning to play every game he can at WSOP Europe.

(Ilari loses 1.2 million in two hours - “Poker is a bitch!” - Coinflip.com)

Ivey loses biggest pot in TV history

It might not soothe Ziigmund’s troubles any, but Ivey’s win against him was evened out yesterday by losing the biggest pot in TV history to Tom “durrrr” Dwan in the Full Tilt Million Dollar Cash Game in London. The pot, worth $1.1 million, saw Ivey come out on the wrong side of a straight-over-straight confrontation against Dwan, holding A-2 on a Q-3-5-4 board against Dwan’s 7-6. The new record win topped durrrr’s own previous best of $919,000 from a hand in the fifth season of High Stakes Poker that saw him crack Barry Greenstein’s pocket aces holding K Q.

Footage of the record-setting pot will air on Sky Sports in the UK  in January 2010. That’s a bummer for Americans, but anyone in the U.S. who wants to watch durrrr drag seven-figure pots can always just hang out on the rail at Full Tilt’s high stakes tables.

(Full Tilt Million Dollar Cash Game Features $1.1 Million Pot - Poker News Daily)

Three Full Tilt Online Poker Series XIII events kicked off Saturday afternoon but only two played down to a winner at the end of the night.

The $120 buy-in Ante Up for Africa event and the $109 Pot Limit Omaha with rebuys tournament both awarded the gold FTOPS jersey avatar late Saturday night while the $2,620 No Limit Hold’em event played the first of its two scheduled days.

The Ante Up for Africa event, which had a $100 buy-in with a $20 fee that went directly to Africa-related charities, drew 2,367 players. The prize pool of $236,700 was impressive enough but a total of $47,340 was raised for the benefitting charities. The event attracted big name poker pros, regular online grinders and some of Hollywood’s biggest stars including Rounders star Matt Damon.

Winning the tournament, and the $48,274.97 first place prize, was “warren_ace1“. The runner-up in the event, “berkey11” added $31,244.40 to his bankroll. The top finish by a member of Team Full Tilt was the 184th place performance of Michael Tureniec. Damon wound up finishing 1,637th.

FTOPS XIII Ante Up for Africa Event Final Table Payouts

1. warren_ace1 - $48,274.97
2. berkey11 - $31,244.40
3. FU_15 - $23,196.60
4. YrrsiNN - $17,515.80
5. awojj - $12,308.40
6. j0ush0es - $8,047.80
7. gimmeda1tyme - $5,444.10
8. Oddla - $3,787.20
9. Boinkage - $2,840.40

The PLO with rebuys event had a bigger field and they were more than willing to build the prize pool with rebuys and add-ons. The 1,107 players rebought 2,513 times and added on 635 players to build the total prize pool to $425,500. A little more than 1/3 of that prize pool went to the final two players who chopped first and second place nearly evenly.

The eventual champion, “wizfromoz“, walked away with $78,900.76 while runner-up “Porlin” pocketed $77,470.49. Jeff “YellowSub86″ Williams made the final table and recorded a 7th place finish for a $12,765 cash. The top red Full Tilt pro was Christian Kruel who got close to a final table but busted out in 19th for $1,553.08.

FTOPS XIII Event #23 Final Table Payouts

1. wizfromoz - $78,900.76
2. Porlin - $77,470.49
3. Laurrra - $44,890.25
4. Anna Rexic - $35,103.75
5. aka_advanced - $26,593.75
6. ChipSteela - $19,147.50
7. YellowSub86 - $12,765
8. bestlayever - $9,573.75
9. BlackJackLeak - $6,808

FTOPS XIII wraps up Sunday afternoon when the $2,620 event will play its final day and two more events, a $129 buy-in knockout NLHE event and the $535 Main Event, will award the final two FTOPS titles.

Being the commissioner of the world’s longest-running, largest, richest and most prestigious poker event in the world isn’t meant to be a cakewalk for most people, but if you’re Jeffrey Pollack the cake is even sweeter everytime the World Series of Poker begins its annual tournament.

Since 2005, Pollack has been instituting his own style into the WSOP where he’s been steadily increasing its popularity not just in the United States, but throughout the world.

Using his past experience as a Director of Broadcasting and New Media for NASCAR’s digital entertainment, Pollack has brought his innovative, tech-savvy spirit to each and every WSOP he’s commissioned since he first got on board.

BluffMagazine.com caught up with Pollack on Day 1 of the WSOP for an exclusive Q&A about another exciting summer of poker and his insider’s take on all those Obama haters protesting outside Caesers Palace this past week:

We’re in the 40th year of the WSOP. How special is it to be a part of something so significant?

It’s an honor. We take our stewardship of the WSOP brand very seriously. We’ve worked hard over the last 4 years to grow this event and I think we did a good job in doing that. It’s a great moment to put the light on the history, tradition, and heritage of the WSOP. We got some good events related to the 40th year so it’s going to be a good summer.

Looking back on history, what changes have you seen that have impacted the Series the most?

There have been a lot. The $50,000 HORSE event was something really special and our delayed final table was a complete game changer for us. Our improvements of the schedule year after year have been meaningful along with our refinement of the overall player experience at the WSOP.

With the economy the way it is, were you guys persuaded by the crisis in any way to offer certain events, like the Stimulus Special?

As far as the schedule goes, we made a conscience decision not to program the World Series of Poker around the recession. We decided to pick up where we left off from last summer which was our best event ever. We wanted to move forward with the broadest pallet of poker events on the planet and create that spectacle we’re responsible for.

So last night you had a chance to meet President Obama. How did that come up and how did it go?

It was great. I was invited by our head of Government Affairs, Jan Jones. We presented him with an embroidered WSOP jacket and I invited him to visit the WSOP and it was just a great opportunity.

Do you think Obama is a big poker fan? Did he like the jacket?

He was excited. Rumor has it that he plays. He didn’t want to confirm or deny that for me.

He probably would never confirm that?

Yeah.

Now there were a bunch of protesters outside Caesers Palace yesterday regarding his recent comments about Las Vegas. Do you believe his comments will directly affect the business here in the city?

He didn’t address his comments last night, but the fact that he showed up says a lot.

The Champions Invitational is going to be a great event. It’s going to be good to see most of them in the same room, but maybe not Russ Hamilton. If he did show up…

He won’t show up.

But if he did…

He won’t show up.

In recent years, the WSOP has offered charity events to help its brand improve and stay close to the community. With the Ante Up for Africa on this year’s schedule again, why is it important for the WSOP to host tournaments like these?

I think it’s incumbent upon any global sports property to have a meaningful community relations plank. The Nevada Cancer Institute is our official community relations partner. We have a three year standing relationship with Ante Up for Africa. Plus, we’re going to further integrate Bad Beat on Cancer into the WSOP. In the end, you need to give back.

You’re on Twitter a lot reporting on the WSOP. So how has the technology improved over the years to better communicate your WSOP messages to the fan base?

Over the years? Forget it. How about the last 12 months? Last year I was struggling to just hack together a blog every week or so. Now, I’ve been liberated by the freedom of Twitter so that I can report on what’s happening in real time and it’s just much more natural. It’s a brilliant, brilliant technology.

So with technology improving and everything in place, how much bigger can it get?

We want to grow, but we want to continue to be the best. If we can continue to be the best, then we’ll be the best.

And finally, what’s left for Jeffrey Pollack out there? What more do you want to accomplish?

All I’m focused on right now is having the best possible WSOP this year and continuing to humbly making contributions to this great brand.

Full Tilt Poker has a number of poker heavyweights whose names appear in red on the site as members of Team Full Tilt or Friends of Full Tilt. Now they’ve got a Hollywood heavyweight joining the ranks.

Don Cheadle, star of Oscar-nominated films Hotel Rwanda and Crash, has been signed by the online poker site as a Friend of Full Tilt. He’ll appear in red any time he’s playing on the site.

Cheadle has played in some high profile poker tournaments, including the NBC National Heads-Up Poker Championship, but he’s probably best known for being the co-founder of the Ante Up for Africa tournament.

Cheadle, along with poker pro and Celebrity Apprentice finalist Annie Duke and Norman Epstein, created the charity tournament to benefit the humanitarian efforts in Sudan. Charities such as “The Enough Project”, “Not on Our Watch” and the “International Rescue Committee” have been awarded over $2 million in donations as a result of Ante Up for Africa events.

At the 2007 NHUPC Cheadle scored a major upset victory over Phil Ivey in the opening round. He was eliminated in the next round by Scott Fischman.

“I’ve done alright in the televised tourneys I’ve participated in and I’ve won several tournaments around town. I have yet to play in the WSOP events, but I hope my schedule will permit me to do so in the future,” said Cheadle.

To play with Cheadle or any of the other Full Tilt pros sign-up now for Full Tilt Poker and receive a 100% sign-up bonus.

Rapper Nelly was just one of the celebrities out of the Ante Up for Africa event in Monte Carlo Monday.

Some of the stars who made their way to felts to help raise funds for refugee efforts in Darfur included rapper Nelly, James Kyson Lee, Joel Madden as well as English soccer star Teddy Sheringham. They were joined by Team PokerStars Pros Vanessa Rousso, Daniel Negreanu, Joe Hachem, Peter Eastgate, Greg Raymer and Isabelle Mercier.

The event raised over €260,000 ($343,000) for the cause to push the total earnings from Ante Up for Africa event to over $2 million.

Mercier eventually won the tournament after eliminating Sheringham in the heads-up battle. For finishing as the runner-up to a Team PokerStars Pro Sheringham won entry to the 2010 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure.

After two successful runs at the World Series of Poker, Ante Up For Africa is turning its attention to Monte Carlo and the European Poker Tour Grand Final Week with a €4,000 event hosted by PokerStars.

PokerStars pros Daniel Negreanu, Joe Hachem, and Vanessa Rousso will join together with the charity co-founded by Annie Duke and Don Cheadle on April 27, the night before the EPT Grand Final begins, to raise money for charities that advance the cause of refugees in Darfur, Sudan. All the money collected at the tournament will go to the cause, and PokerStars has announced that it will provide a $10,000 seat in the 2010 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure for the tournament’s winner.

To date, Ante Up For Africa has raised more than $2 million through its special events at the WSOP. Among the celebrities who have attended past tournaments are Ben Affleck, Matt Damon, Jason Alexander, Adam Sandler, Charles Barkley, Hank Azaria, Cheryl Hines, Mekhi Phifer, Martin Sheen, Ray Romano, and Montel Williams. Both previous Ante Up For Africa tournaments saw the winners - Dan Shak and Brandon Moran in 2007, John “World” Hennigan in 2008 - gave their entire prizes to the charity.