Party Poker Blog

Poker blogs, poker blogs and even more poker blogs

"Destroying workplace productivity, one post at a time."
Me

Bonus Poker Blog News Post:

I have a backlog of good poker articles and I thought I'd rip through them for you hard-working folks out there who need a break on a slow Monday. I'm all about my readers, damnit.

Except for you RSS whiners and apologists. FUD this. ;)

You RSS hippies remind me of Elaine on that Seinfeld episode when Elaine took a drink out of a 16-ounce bottle of orange juice and said, "Yuck! I hate when the orange juice tastes like this." Jerry replied, "You have to shake it first."

"I don't want to shake it," Elaine replies snottily. Jerry took the bottle from Elaine and began shaking it gently. "Yeah. That's a real burden, yeah, this is killing me."

I despair to think how difficult it must be to point and click to read this website. What a chore.

For those faithful readers who actually tackle the brutal job of loading this site in a seemingly antiquated web browser, thank you. You rule. Now let's get these damn links out of the way so I can actually write some poker content:

The Seattle Post-Intelligencer documents current college poker madness:
TV shows fuel poker craze on campuses

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Online tournaments such as College Poker Championship.com are "extremely troubling" because they target students and do not put out warning signs or post helpline numbers for addicts, he said.

"It's actively soliciting kids to gamble, and in some states, that may be illegal," Whyte said. "You wouldn't have a college drinking championship, or a college smoking championship.com."

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Maybe you should. Sounds like entertaining TV to me.

Yahoo Biz, Motley Fool has an interesting column about the Las Vegas mentality and the people who play there.
Vegas Psychology

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BusinessWeek put together an interesting study which demonstrated that investors in an old, boring utility index actually outperformed investors in the tech-laden Nasdaq from 1970 to 2000. All those hot-seated tech investors took 90% more risk, and yet received less return than owners of the staid, dividend-paying utility stocks.

When I shared this little statistic with the Aces, they were consistently shocked by it. "But boring utility stocks -- dividend-paying stocks -- aren't supposed to beat the market. They're supposed to be for retirees who are only looking for preservation of capital."

Well, not exactly. Dividend payers actually outperform non-dividend-paying companies over time. They've done so for more than 70 years. Don't think you'll be investing for 70 years? You could be wrong there, but fear not, because dividend payers have beaten non-payers over the last 30 years, too.

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Worthwhile (peek behind the curtains) snippet about a busted Vegas cheat and his cronies:
Card cheater draws winning hand in court
Using keen eyesight to rip off casinos doesn't justify extra jail time, judges rule.

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A sharp-eyed gambler from San Francisco, who helped his pals cheat a Las Vegas casino out of $1.5 million on a day at the baccarat table, caught a bit of luck in his prison cell Wednesday, courtesy of a federal appeals court.

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Here's a shocker:
World Poker Tour Events Continue Dramatic Growth

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The increase in players catapults the total prize money to $1,633,700, including the $25,000 WPT contributed to the prize pool. With this large prize pool for the tournament, players down to 27th place will go home with a nice payday, and the winner will capture a top prize of $604,469, including a seat in the season finale WPT Championship April 19th-23rd at Bellagio, Las Vegas. Last year's champion, Ron Rose, from Dayton, OH, walked away with $186,298 when the prize pool totaled $420,746. Two years ago, before the tournament became a WPT event, the tournament had 32 entries. The prize pool is determined by the number of players "buying in" to the tournament - in this case the entry fee is $5,000 per person.

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Mainstream article discussing poker as cultural juggernaut on MSNBC. Featuring an interview with Cardplayer owner, Barry Shulman.
Poker's Growing Stakes
Card Player magazine's Barry Shulman talks about why the game is seeing unprecedented popularity, especially online.

It's interesting how many business and financial related reports/columns I've been linking to over the past few months. This is the third in a series of articles looking at the changing face of Atlantic City's gaming industry from TheStreet.com.
Casinos Start Courting the Poker Crowd

It's ridiculous to me that every single gambling boat around here refuses to spread poker. Talk about missing a golden opportunity....

And here's USA Today chiming in:
Celeb poker hits the jackpot
No bluffing: Poker is the hottest game in Hollywood.

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Celebrities from Ben Affleck to Mimi Rogers to Sara Rue are placing their bets on the card game.

Whoopi Goldberg runs a weekly game on the set of her NBC sitcom, Whoopi, and cast and crew watch televised poker games during breaks.

David Schwimmer, Jennifer Aniston and George Clooney host poker parties at their homes.

James Woods is part of an elite group that includes Affleck that plays privately on Monday nights with a $5,000 buy-in. Woods shares his new passion with girlfriend Dawn DeNoon (a co-producer for Law & Order: SVU). There's talk of him directing James McManus' book about poker, Positively Fifth Street.

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I found this site from a press release sent to me at work. California players take note: The Poker California website lists all the casinos and card clubs in California.

Yikes, even more poker content found in work-related press. Here's AdAge.com giving the scoop on Mark Burnett's new reality TV show. Long article - worth the read if you care for the reality TV show thing.
Inside Mark Burnett's New TV Show 'The Casino'
Replaces 'American Idol' Starting June 8.

The Sacramento Bee featuring our man Phil Helmuth.
Hot poker
The stakes are high, but the action is low-key - at least until the TV editors get involved

Surprise, surprise:

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"Poker's at a whole new level right now, and I'm at the center of the storm," Phil says. "I'm the No. 1 guy in poker. Everywhere I go, I'm signing autographs, taking pictures. It's huge, and that's a good thing," says Phil Helmuth.

After a few more hands, the combative former World Series of Poker champ starts jawing with Tracy Scala, who is sitting across the table. "It's OK for you to get confused," Helmuth says. "Confused is good. Are you confused?" Scala sits in silence while Helmuth talks. And talks. And talks.

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Alrighty then, I hope that quenches your poker thirst. I'm off to write a real post.

Postscript: too tired drunk - will have a post up on Monday.