Jeffrey Pollack

Jeffrey Pollack’s run as World Series of Poker Commissioner is over after four years.

Pollack first joined Harrah’s in 2005 and set about to increase the global awareness of the brand. Under his watch the WSOP added events in Europe, partnered with Annie Duke and Don Cheadle to build a top flight celebrity poker event and increased corporate sponsorship of the WSOP.

Pollack also was at the helm when Ty Stewart, Craig Abrahams and Seth Palansky were hired. His final day on the job is Friday, November 13.

“We appreciate Jeffrey’s contributions over the past four years and wish him the best in the future. The World Series of Poker remains the market leader with this year’s tournament exceeding all expectations, and we are well positioned for the future,” said a WSOP spokesperson.

“There is no intention at this time to replace the Commissioner role,” the spokesperson said.

The split comes as little surprise to some observers given that the official website, WSOP.com, is being turned into an online poker room. The hiring of form PartyGaming CEO Mitch Garber put him in charge of the monetization efforts and operations leaving Pollack with less control.

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.

ESPN’s WSOP finale numbers down slightly; overall numbers up slightly

Attendance numbers at this year’s WSOP Main Event might have been down a bit thanks to the worst economy the country has seen in decades, but the number of people watching the tournament held generally steady in 2009 compared to 2008.

ESPN’s same-day coverage of the Main Event drew more than 2.1 million viewers this year, earning a 1.8 household coverage rating. Overall, ESPN averaged a 1.0 rating for the entire 31-episode run of its 2009 WSOP coverage, which held steady compared to last year. ESPN saw increases in weekly averages for households (up 7% to 1,024,901) and viewership (up 9% to 1,228,008), and a significant jump of 13 percent in the important Male 25-54 demographic. Translation to English: the overall numbers are up thanks to your dad and his Tuesday night home game buddies.

Those kinds of modest gains are pretty good news for ESPN in light of the long-term deal with the WSOP earlier this year, especially given the change in format to avoid airing earlier bracelet events and focus more on the Main Event. It seems like people have responded to the new coverage, which hopefully will encourage ESPN to continue evolving the way it presents the WSOP to the public.

Brad Booth is the new spokesman for GR88.com

Brad “Yukon” Booth signs on with new poker site

GR88.com is one of the newest members of Merge Network of online poker sites, and to help promote their brand they’ve recruited Brad “Yukon” Booth. A former Full Tilt Poker and Doyle’s Room pro, Booth has joined on as GR88.com’s official spokesman and Head of Poker Development. The latter title is likely to be especially important to Booth, who was among those taken for a ride during the superuser scandals.

“Yukon Brad’s talent, undeniable work ethic, and desire for fairness makes him the perfect partner of GR88.com,” said Peter Karroll, CEO of International Arts Management, the parent company of GR88.com. “Our site offers players around the world premium poker and casino games, programs and tournaments all set within a secure and trust-worthy environment.”

While you wait for a chance to play with Booth on GR88.com, check out this video of Booth hitting a straight flush against Daniel Negreanu on Season 2 of High Stakes Poker, or this video of Booth running a gigantic semi-bluff on Phil Ivey on Season 3 of HSP.

Social media - the next frontier of online poker?

Austrian online gambling giant Bwin has been making waves on the market side of its business this year, but now it’s turned its eyes to the software side of its poker business for its next big move - social media integration.

Bwin has spent some €45 million developing its new online poker client, currently in testing, which replaces the standard online poker chat box with a “shoutbox” filled with social media options tied into existing social media services like Twitter and Facebook. Players will be able to make comments on specific bets and hands, invite their friends to the table, and generally be more, um, social while they’re playing their favorite game. (Hopefully one of the options will be a button to gently remind all the loudmouths at my table not to knock on the fishtank.)

“It’s really the customer experience that’s key,” said Bwin’s Chief Technological Officer, Thomas Kiessling, of the company’s decision to move into the crossroads of online poker and social media. “Customer relationship management, customer intelligence, usability studies. That is a major priority for me.”

(Bwin Add Social Media To Online Poker - FlopTurnRiver.com)

Beth Shak is much more clothed here than she was in News Of The World yesterday

Beth Shak appears in British gossip paper

I write a lot about “poker in the mainstream” news in this space, so today I’m going to throw you some balance with a little “poker in the tabloids” news.

Beth Shak appeared in yesterday’s News of the World, the British tabloid that features all the latest in television gossip, sports gossip, and Michael Jackson gossip. The interview, which talks plenty about strip poker but sadly doesn’t go into the merits of semi-bluffing the turn when you’re down to just your underpants, is probably not going to be of much interest to most of you. Luckily there are pictures of Shak in stockings and lingerie accompanying the interview to keep your mind off whatever it is you’re ducking to read poker news.

No big surprise that the tip of the hat here goes to Wicked Chops Poker, who read News of the World daily, link to pictures of women in various states of undress almost as often, and sometimes even write about poker.

(Shak Attack! - News of the World)

ESPN Inside Deal wrap-up

And finally, ESPN Inside Deal posted its wrap-up episode with the two remaining interviews it hadn’t gotten yet: Darvin Moon and world champion Joe Cada. Check out the last episode of Inside Deal with hosts Laura Lane and Bernard Lee here.

Joe Cada becomes youngest WSOP ME Champ in history.

Peter Eastgate, step aside. Joe Cada rode a roller coaster of a chip stack and emotions late Monday night into Tuesday morning to defeat Maryland logger Darvin Moon to win the 2009 World Series of Poker Main Event. In the process the 21 year old Cada - he turns 22 next week - became the youngest WSOP Main Event champion ever. 

Many pundits were predicting a quick night and they nearly got exactly that on the first hand of the night. Moon limped from the small blind and Cada raised to 3,500,000 and Moon called. The flop came K 3 2, Cada bet 2,500,000 and Moon raised to 10,000,000. Cada called. The turn was the A, Moon followed Cada’s check with a bet of 10,000,000 and Cada called. Both players checked the K river. Cada tabled 9 9 and Moon showed Q Q to take the 47,000,000 chip pot.

After the first break of the night Moon became a man on a mission. He picked up four of the first five pots by countering Cada’s aggression with even more aggression. Cada’s raises were almost always met with a reraise from Moon forcing Cada to fold without even seeing a flop and the shift caused Cada some concern.

“It threw me off. Every time he did something it was different. every time I did something or made a move it was a misstep. He played perfect poker,” said Cada who saw his chiplead turn into a 3-1 chip deficit at one point.

Cada’s tournament seemed to turn around on the 80th hand of heads-up play. Cada put in a preflop button raise to 3,000,000 and Moon called. The flop came T 9 5 and both players checked. The turn came T and after Moon checked Cada bet 3,000,000. Moon responded by announcing all-in. Cada took some time to replay the hand in his head and after tanking for some time made the call and tabled J 9. Moon showed 7 8 and was behind needing a six or jack to complete his straight draw. The river was the 3 and Cada doubled through to 109,000,000 and the chip lead.

“I was almost positive I was ahead. The only problem was the bet compared to the pot size. It was a big bet, it was like 50 million and I bet 3 million into a 6 million pot,” said Cada. “Once you break down the hand and think about it, it’s not that tough of a call.”

Only eight hands later the tournament was over. Cada raised to 3,000,000 from the button and Moon followed the pattern he’d been following with a re-raise to 8,000,000. Cada announced all-in and Moon called almost instantly. Cada showed 9 9 and Moon tabled Q J and all of Cada’s cheering section went wild. The flop came 8 7 2 and Cada stayed ahead. The turn was the K and the river was the 7 and with Moon missing his draw Cada was world champion.

“It’s a pretty sick flip that you have to wait,” said Cada. “I thought he had queens at first when he flipped it over. Once I saw queen-jack it was one of those things, if I win I win, if I lose I lose.”

For his part Moon realized he was behind but was prepared to race in hopes of taking back the chip lead.

“I knew where I was at. I was in better shape than I thought. I thought I was 40/60. He told me I was 48/52,” said Moon. ”There’s my shot to take a tremendous chip lead. I didn’t get it.”

The two-hour final table broadcast will air on ESPN on Tuesday night beginning at 9 pm ET.

Darvin Moon started the day with the chip lead. Joe Cada started the day with a chip and a chair. After an 18 hour day Saturday the two Americans are the final two players in the 2009 World Series of Poker Main Event.

Play will resume Monday night at 10:00 pm PT with Cada holding the chip lead with 135,950,000 chips to the 58,850,000 of Moon.

Cada’s day came down to three seperate all-ins where he was behind with his tournament life on the line. Once with pocket threes against Jeff Shulman’s pocket jacks, once with pocket deuces against Saout’s pocket queens and on the final hand of the night with A-K against Saout’s pocket eights. Each team Cada got there, flopping sets against both Shulman and Saout and rivering a king against Saout to end his tournament.

“If anyone ever hears me complain about poker again, the can knock me out,” joked Cada, referencing his ability to come from behind.

Moon had a different kind of day. The overwhelming chipleader had an inexplicable fold during the early part of play Saturday followed by an even stranger play with A 4. But the logger from Maryland managed to rebound and regroup to get himself into heads-up play with Cada.

“I can’t get nervous at a card table, you don’t benefit from,” said Moon. “You can’t get worse.”

Action resumes Monday evening and you can listen live at www.bluffmagazine.com/live

Antoine Saout’s roller coaster at the WSOP Main Event Final Table has come to an end. Saout was eliminated on the final hand of the night by Joe Cada.

Saout entered the day 8th in chips and after what seemed like an endless string of double-ups found himself with the chip lead when three-handed play began. The Frenchman’s 80,600,000 had him ahead of Darvin Moon’s 75,900,000 and nearly double the 39,200,000 of Joe Cada.

The first hand of three-handed play saw Cada and Saout get all their chips in the middle with each player holding a pocket pair. Cada was behind with pocket twos while Saout held pocket queens but a two on the flop left the Frenchman hoping for a favorable turn or river. When neither came the roles had been reversed with Cada now holding the chiplead.

Four hands later Saout’s night was over and not surprisingly it was at the hands of Cada. The two players again got all the money in preflop with Saout ahead with pocket eights to the ace-king of Cada. The flop and turn were both harmless but the K on the river sent the remaining fans inside the Penn & Teller Theatre into a tizzy. Saout was the final player eliminated before play broke for the night.

He leaves with an extra $3,479,670 to his name for his third place finish. The 25 year old posted a 7th place finish at the WSOP Europe Main Event final table and over the past three months has learned as much about himself as he has about his poker game.

“I’ve learned to be more aggressive, more confident and more comfortable around the cameras and lights,” said Saout. “I’m very happy with the way I’ve played.”

Eric Buchman was in control of the 2009 WSOP Main Event Final Table for most of the day Saturday, but early Sunday morning things took a turn for the worse.

In what was at the time the biggest pot of the tournament Buchman button raised to 2,500,000, Antoine Saout reraised to 9,000,000 and Buchman moved all-in. Saout made the call, creating a pot of 89,000,000, and flipped over A K and found himself ahead of Buchman who showed A Q. The flop came K T 7 and Saout made top pair but would have to fade Buchman’s newfound broadway draw. The K on the turn and 6 on the river gave Saout the pot and overall chiplead while Buchman was left with just shy of 9,000,000.

Six hands later Buchman moved all-in and was called by Darvin Moon. Buchman was behind with K T to Moon’s A 7 but the board ran out K 9 5 K Q and Buchman doubled up. On the very next hand he got all his money in against Moon again but this time held the upper hand. Buchman had A 5 while Moon held K J but after a flop of Q 9 2 Moon made top pair when the K came on the turn. The river blanked for Buchman and the 30 year old New Yorker was out in 4th with a $2,502,890 payday.

Eric Buchman was eliminated by Darvin Moon.

Jeff Shulman’s run at a WSOP Main Event title is over. Shulman was eliminated by Antoine Saout in fifth place just after 3 am PT Sunday morning.

Shortstacked for the better part of four hours Shulman found himself all-in after Antoine Saout raised to 5,400,000 from the small blind. Shulman called all-in from the big blind and turned over 7 7 and found himself racing against the A 9 of Saout. The flop came T 9 6 and Saout was head with a pair of nines. Neither the Q on the turn or the 4 helped Shulman and he was eliminated in fifth place. He earned $1,953,452.

Following his elimination Shulman, whose father Barry won the WSOP Europe Main Event in September, joked that the family patriach was less than impressed with his premature exit.

“How disappointed he was. No, he was pumped. Everybody was pumped,” said Shulman.

“I think they’re all playing well right now. I think Darvin made some mistakes early. Joe is relentles, he keeps on raising and Buchman has been playing perfectly since he hit his kings,” said Shulman. “Saout is playing great also. They’re all playing really well right now.”

Steven Begleiter made the same mistake Phil Ivey made only minutes earlier. He tangled with Darvin Moon and watched as the best hand preflop fell to the wayside.

Begleiter raised t0 1,600,000 and Moon responded by moving all-in. Begleiter called instantly and tabled Q Q while Moon showed A Q. The flop came 8 7 4 giving no help to Moon. The 3 on the turn meant only an ace on the river could eliminate Begleiter. Sure enough, the A hit the river and while Begleiter’s supporters went silent the rest of the Penn & Teller Theatre went nuts as Moon collected his second consecutive elimination with A-Q.

Walking away with $1,587,160 Begleiter was still in shock as he exited the theatre.

“I’m a little numb obviously, I would have liked to have won that pot,” said Begleiter. “But what else can I do, I got my money in really good and I was one card away from being right back in the thick of it.”

Despite suffering a bad beat and not being able to collect his first WSOP bracelet Begleiter was happy with the way he played and takes comfort in having gone out with the turn of a card rather than his own mistake.

“In a way going out like that is actually easier than making some horrendous play and ending up with 3,000,000 chips and having to push with nothing. That was my fate.”

Begleiter, who talked publicly about being coached by Jonathan Little leading up to the final table, admitted afterwards he also spent some time working with 2008 November Niner Ylon Schwartz.

Phil Ivey will have to wait another year for a shot at the one bracelet he desires the most. Ivey, shortstacked at 6,350,000, moved all-in on the first hand back from a break and found a caller in Darvin Moon. The resulting bad beat ended his 2009 WSOP Main Event run with a 7th place finish.

Ivey tabled A K and found himself dominating Moon’s A Q. The flop however brought horror for the Ivey fans inside the Penn & Teller Theatre as the doorcard was the Q followed by 6 6. The air was sucked from inside the theatre with the collective gasp of all of Ivey’s fan club. The turn and river brought no help for the seven time bracelet winner and his quest for a third bracelet this year was snuffed out by the logger from Maryland.

Following the hand Phil Ivey gave a quick interview to WSOP officials but decided against speaking to the assenlbled media. Within an hour of his elimination Ivey was on FullTiltPoker.com playing $2,000/$4,000 Stud Hi Lo.

Kevin Schaffel got all his money in with the hand most poker players dream of; pocket aces versus pocket kings. Only the hand turned into a nightmare in a hurry.

Schaffel opened the betting with a raise to 1,250,000, Steven Begleiter called from the cutoff and Eric Buchman re-raised to 5,750,000. Schaffel moved all-in for 17,000,000 causing Begleiter to fold. Buchman went into the tank, stood up and after asking for a count of Schaffel’s bet made the call. Buchman tabled K K but Schaffel showed A A and for the second time at the final table we had aces versus kings.

The flop came K Q J giving Buchman a set but giving Schaffel the four remaining tens as outs to a straight as well as the final two aces for a higher set. But the K on the turn gave Buchman quad kings and rendered the river meaningless.

“Up until (today) I think one of the biggest things is I haven’t gotten unlucky and that always helps,” said Schaffel. “I’m a little speechless right now. It’s really hard to take in.”

Buchman walked away with $1,300,231 which he will add to his $607,421 lifetime earnings.

It took longer than expected and included a roller coaster ride but James Akenhead was eliminated in 9th place at the WSOP Main Event Final Table.

The 26 year old Englishman started the day as the short stack with only 6,800,000 but found himself moving up the chip counts thanks to a timely triple up with K-Q. After moving all-in for just over 4,000,000 Akenhead found himself in trouble after Steve Begleiter called and Eric Buchman re-raised to 12,000,000. Begleiter folded and the two players flipped over the hands. Buchman held A K to the K Q of Akenhead.

The flop came J 3 2 helping neither player. The K on the turn gave both players top pair. The crowd went silent waiting for the turn to come and then errupted as the Q hit to give Akenhead two pair and triple him up.

“I was getting dealt so much trash. I find king-queen and I’ve got ten big blinds so to me it’s automatic push,” said Akenhead.

Only ten hands later though the cards turned on Akenhead and a cooler sent him back to short stack.

Kevin Schaffel opened with a raise to 1,150,000 and Akenhead called from the big blind. The flop came J 9 4 and Akenhead lead out for 1,600,000. Schaffel announced all-in and Akenhead made the call. Schaffel tabled A A and Akenhead showed K K. The turn and river both failed to produce one of two remaining kings and Akenhead was right back to being shortstacked.

On his final hand of the night he moved all-in for 4,450,000 with 3 3 and his nemesis from earlier, Kevin Schaffel, called with 9 9. The board came T 7 2 2 9 to give Schaffel a full house and send Akenhead home in 9th place with $1,263,602.

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.

Two-time WSOP bracelet winner Hans Lund dead at 59

Hans “Tuna” Lund, a fixture at the World Series of Poker and other tournaments for more than two decades from the 1980s through the 2000s who nearly won the 1990 Main Event, died this morning after a long battle with cancer. He was 59 years old.

Lund won his first WSOP bracelet in 1978 playing no-limit hold’em and would win another in 1996 playing ace-to-five draw, and he also won the 1983 Super Bowl of Poker for a $275,000 payday. His biggest money finish came in the 1990 WSOP Main Event, though in most disappointing fashion; he finished in second place to Mansour Matloubi after getting all-in and turning an ace for top pair, only to see Matloubi river a set. All told, he won more than $2.9 million in tournament in his lifetime.

The man known as “Tuna” had not been extremely active in recent years playing tournaments, with his last major cash coming in the 2007 WSOP Main Event, where he finished in 319th place. Nevertheless, he maintained ties to the poker community. A number of players and other poker personalities noted Lund’s passing on Twitter today.

Jonathan Little: Rip tuna. He called me a young guppy a few times in LA.
Phil Hellmuth: Fond memories of trveling poker tour w Tuna in 80’s + 90’s-will miss him
Alex Outhred: RIP Hans ‘Tuna’ Lund… Always impressed w/ the time you took to make critical decisions, and you were always a gentleman. Truly a pleasure.
Matt Savage: Hans “Tuna” Lund passed away this morning. Hoping @JeffreyPollack can say something at WSOP Final Table!

Fortune-ate son Ivey going mainstream

Phil Ivey has made the cover of Bluff and basically every other publication in the world of poker, and earlier this month he appeared on the cover of ESPN: The Magazine as well. Now he’s getting a chance for some heavy exposure in the pages of mainstream financial publication Fortune Magazine, though the cover story will have to wait until after he wins the Main Event on Tuesday. The November 23 issue of Fortune, which hits newsstands tomorrow, is a feature article by Scott Cendrowski titled, “Will Phil Ivey be poker’s Tiger Woods?”

For a bit more Ivey entertainment, go check out some of the comments on this blog from a bunch of people who clearly know nothing about poker talking about how beatable Ivey is and how half the players in a home game could beat him regularly.

(Poker Giant Phil Ivey Graces the Pages of Fortune Magazine - PR NewsWire)

Negreanu comes back on Day 2 to beat Antonius - at golf

Yesterday I told you about the big high-stakes golf match between poker stars Daniel Negreanu and Patrik Antonius taking place at the TPC Summerlin course outside of Las Vegas. After Day 1 Mantonius and his team held a slim one-stroke lead, but on Day 2 Negreanu and his squad came roaring back with a four-stroke win, partially thanks to Negreanu himself improbably sinking three eagle putts. Wicked Chops says that some members of Antonius’ team think Negreanu and his guys underrepresented their skill level, though there was no such complaint from the Finn himself.

RawVegas caught up with Negreanu after his win for an after-action report; you can watch the Day 1 video here.

LOL dealaments

There are good deals, and then there are great deals - and FTOPS XIV Event #1 winner Kory “s00tedj0kers89” Kilpatrick got himself a great deal by anyone’s measure. In a thread at 2+2 right now he relays the tale of how he managed to get a $110,000 share despite only holding enough chips to be worth $83,000. As he tells it:

When we started discussing a deal, I said that I wanted 100k and didn’t care who else got what, so I wasn’t paying much attention to them making the deal/working out numbers etc. I got them to give me control of the deal, cause they couldn’t figure out how to work it somehow, and when they did, I typed in the amounts for everyone that were being discussed. When I put everyone’s amounts in, they all said that they accepted the amount they have. I didn’t realize until I couldn’t submit the deal that there was 10k left out (I thought it was the 10k that we were leaving to play for). When I realized this, I proposed that I got the additional 10k, since everyone else was happy with the number they had, and everyone accepted.

I didn’t click their accept buttons for them. All the numbers were right in front of their face for them to look at, review, and agree to. I proposed a deal and they accepted it.

Anyone questioning my character/ethics/etc., can gtfo

The thread continues with posts from all over the spectrum from “screw ‘em if they can’t do simple math” to “calling you shady is far too light,” as well as a response from fourth-place finisher taaffey (“that was shady as f.*ck. i lost 3k from ICM but sooted just shipping in an extra 10k after agreeing to 100k is so dbaggish”). After some thought Kilpatrick decided to tack a Hollywood ending onto this story and ship another $2,500 to each of the other three players in the deal, getting him a few virtual pats on the back in the forum (and maybe a little positive karma for the rest of this FTOPS).

(SWEAT DEVO NOW, FTOPS - 2+2 Multi Table Tournaments forum)

This time next week poker fans will know who the 2009 World Champion is. But before poker fans get to the last player standing there is the little matter of meeting the November Nine. Tuesday night’s ESPN broadcast will help them do just that.

The final broadcast from the summer’s action at the 2009 World Series of Poker Main Event will take viewers from 18 players down to the November Nine. The first of Tuesday’s two one-hour episodes airs at 9 pm ET with the second episode airing immediately after.

And if that’s not enough poker on the World Wide Leader there is also a feature on November Niner Phil Ivey as he takes ESPN’s E:60 cameras, and ESPN the Magazine writer Chad Millman, around the world on a poker and craps playing adventure.

The e:60 will air on ESPN at 7 pm ET.

The 2009 November Nine

Tuesday night’s episodes of the World Series of Poker Main Event on ESPN will continue to introduce poker fans to the November Nine.

Tuesday’s first one hour episode begins with 27 players left in the tournament including BLUFF contributor Antonio Esfandiari and Maryland logger Darvin Moon. Also featured in this episode is the last woman standing Leo Margets who hopes to continue her run at becoming only the second woman to ever make the final table.

The second hour will begin with 23 players left in the tournament including Phil Ivey and Jeff Shulman as well as Billy Kopp and Steven Begleiter.

ESPN’s coverage of the 2009 WSOP Main Event continues each Tuesday until November 10 when the two episodes from the November Nine will air and a new world champion will be crowned.

BluffMagazine.com is helping poker fans get excited for the 2009 World Series of Poker Main Event final table with the launch of a new video player and exclusive content from the 2009 WSOP.

The video player, which is sponsored by UltimateBet, will give fans the chance to see the 24 final tables which were broadcast by BLUFF Media in an edited format complete with all bustouts and heads-up battles.

“Between now and November 7 we’ll add a new final table each day,” said Eric Morris, BLUFF Magazine publisher. “On top of that we’ll be adding all the interviews from the 2009 WSOP as well.”

Fans will be able to see the final table of the $50,000 H.O.R.S.E. event, the $10,000 Heads Up World Championship and both of Phil Ivey’s bracelet wins. Also available will be a Phil Hellmuth channel featuring the footage from his historic 11th bracelet win in 2007.

On the day Ivey and the rest of the November Nine regroup to determine a new world champion fans will be able to tune into BLUFF’s live audio broadcast from tableside. Fans will also be given live chip counts and graphics throughout the final table.

“Our radio coverage of the November Nine will give hardcore poker fans the chance to step inside the ropes for poker’s biggest event,” said Morris.

To check out the new video player for yourself visit http://www.bluffmagazine.com/videoplayer.asp