Party Poker Blog

"I just got a $500 fine by the State of Washington for playing poker on the internet.

The judge also gave me 30 days in jail when I asked if the court accepted frequent player points as payment."
RGP post

I don't have much time before the start of the HOY this evening but I wanted to try and get something up anyway.

Let's start off with some perspective from the Babe Ruth of poker, Doyle Brunson, about our beloved game of poker and it's current state of affairs.



Bah, I'm getting pissed off just thinking about it but I'm gonna lay off this dead horse.

Let's move along to the Phil Ivey - Ram golf debacle. At the end of the 2+2 thread on this matter, Barry Greenstein chimed in with his two cents.

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It is hard or me to believe how gullible the people on here and on the Hendonmob forum are. Someone trying to get out of a debt comes up with a reason not to pay, and so many of you bought it.

1. Phil never lied to them. And he didn't shoot better than he said he would. He putted well, but hit the ball worse. He shot in the 90's as expected.

2. Erick Lindgren gave Phil 10 shots during the summer. He now gives Phil 8 shots. They played even in a nine-hole TV match in Australia, and Erick clobbered Phil. When Mark and Ram asked Erick if they ever played even, he admitted they had, but he made sure that Ram knew that he was a much better golfer than Phil. That conveniently got left out of Ram's post.

3. Mark and Ram beat Phil five times in a row. The last time was in Barcelona where Phil lost six of the first seven holes and then walked off the course. Ram says Phil lost only $34,000, which is hard to do playing in increments of three different $10,000 bets per hole. (Two individual bets and a team bet.) Ram forgot to mention
that the reason they are not much ahead of Phil is that Phil won most of the money back at Chinese Poker.

4. After they played the first nine holes in Australia, they made a small adjustment in the match, and Ram and Mark asked for a contract. (A contract means no more adjustments while in Austrailia.) They continued for a total of 72 holes. (Mark didn't finish the last nine.) At what point, should they have taken responsibility for their loss? Or is it OK to play to try to win money back, and not pay if you lose?

6. Except for nine holes where Mark parred seven holes, as expected, since he is nearly a scratch golfer, I don't think Mark shot less than 45, where his average was expected to be 38. And Ram, who was supposed to be better than Phil, was having trouble breaking 100 for 18 holes.

7. If $140,000 had been won instead of $1,400,000, the money would have been paid and a new match would have been negotiated. As Benny Binion once said, "I usually find that people are honorable as long as they can afford to be."

8. I was not brought in as an arbitrator or to fight Phil's battles. Phil wanted me to show up because he said, "You're never going to believe what they have to say. Their whole argument is that since they didn't realize they were clear underdogs in the match, the match should be voided."

9. Phil usually tells me about his matches. I invariably tell him he is an underdog. He always says he likes to win as the underdog by being tougher under pressure, and if he loses he will practice and get better and eventually win the money back.

10. The reason Phil has never defended himself is that he is a private person, and he didn't even know these forums existed until I told him about what was being posted. I have a feeling Phil may have someting to say or write once this is settled.

I can't believe that this thread has gotten so big, starting from a false hypothesis.

Barry

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Segue: the summer gathering of poker bloggers and assorted groupies is coming together nicely. Thanks a ton to the hard working folks behind the scenes, per always.

Here's the skinny with contact info if you wanna go - from Poker Stage:

The room block is ready for booking at The Orleans. For those who have forgotten, the rates are as follows -

Wednesday Night - $60
Thursday Night - $60
Friday Night - $110
Saturday Night - $110
Sunday Night - $65

There are 50 rooms held at those rates, plus the million dollars in taxes and other fees that come with. The room block will vanish in three weeks, so don't dick around!

Call 1-800-675-3267 for reservations. Make sure you tell them this is for the World Poker Blogger Tour, June 6-10.

Also, if you're coming, please email me (johnhartness AT gmail DOTDON'TYOUDARESPAMME com), so I can start compiling a contact list of everybody that will be there.

And from Vegas local, RadioVegas, we have tourney updates:

WPBT Summer Classic 2007

The WPBT Summer Classic 2007 tournament will be held June 9th at The Orleans in Las Vegas. Start time will be at about 2pm.

Buy in will be $65 + $10 + optional $5.

$65 goes into prize pool, $10 to the house and the optional $5 goes directly to the dealers.

Starting chips will be 1600 and if you pay the $5 extra dealer add on you get an additional 400 in chips.

I do not have a copy of the blind structure but its fairly standard with 20 minute levels. If enough interest I will make a copy of the blind structure.

It is important that I have a rough estimate of how many people will be planning to play so the Orleans can staff their dealers appropriately.

Drop me an email if you're attending: sloshr * gmail * com.

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Arg, I gotta go play in this blogger tourney thingy. These 10pm start times are starting to kill me.

Allow me to leave you with an oldie but goody link/story.

Jonathan Lebed: Stock Manipulator, S.E.C. Nemesis -- and 15