REAL POKER MASTERY

Scott Seiver stormed through the competition on Day 1 of the PokerStars North American Poker Tour (NAPT) $25,000 High-Roller Bounty Shootout at the Venetian. Seiver ousted all six opponents at his starting table to move on to Day 2.

Seiver collected a $5,000 bounty for each player knocked out, or $30,000 total. In addition, his appearance at Thursday’s final table in the $25,000 buy-in event is worth another $75,000. All told, he’s a very happy camper heading into the finale, which will air as part of ESPN2’s coverage of the NAPT beginning in April. Seiver didn’t knock out a bunch of amateurs, either. Instead, he defeated Betfair pro Sorel “Imper1um” Mizzi heads-up. Also a victim of Seiver’s bloodbath was Season 7 World Poker Tour (WPT) Festa al Lago winner Bertrand “Elky” Grospellier.

Seiver sent Team PokerStars Pro member and “High Stakes Poker” regular Barry Greenstein to the rails first, followed by Victory Poker front man Antonio Esfandiari, cash game specialist Chau Giang, and online poker pro Brian “tsarrast” Rast. Seiver won his first World Series of Poker (WSOP) bracelet in 2008, when he took down a $5,000 No Limit Hold’em event for $755,000.

Joe Cassidy defeated Justin “ZeeJustin” Bonomo heads-up at Table 1 to move on to Thursday’s finale. Cassidy knocked out four of his six opponents, including reigning WPT Championship winner Yevgeniy “Jovial Gent” Timoshenko, Bodog poker pro David Williams, and Unabomber Poker namesake Phil Laak. Cassidy finished 13th in the inaugural $50,000 HORSE Championship during the 2006 WSOP for $137,000. Also eliminated from Table 1 were “Poker2Nite” host Joe Sebok and Tommy Vedes.

2008 WSOP Main Event champ Peter Eastgate emerged victorious from Table 2. Eastgate defeated fellow young gun Isaac Haxton heads-up to collect his $5,000 bounty. Haxton sent Alec “traheho” Torelli and poker bad boy Tony G packing in third and fourth places, respectively, to give Eastgate a run for his money. The table also featured James Calderaro, Italian stud Dario Minieri, and WPT Doyle Brunson Five Diamond World Poker Classic winner Daniel Alaei.

Ashton Griffin outlasted 2003 WSOP Main Event winner Chris Moneymaker at Table 3 to advance. Moneymaker eliminated fellow Main Event champion Joe Cada along with Hasan Habib and Jason Mercier before Griffin took out the former Tennessee accountant. Griffin finished 12th in the 2009 WSOP Europe £5,000 Pot Limit Omaha tournament for £15,000.

Over at Table 4, Brent Richey defeated three consecutive players down the stretch for the win, including Victory Poker’s Lee Markholt. Richey also sent Phil “OMGClayAiken” Galfond home in third place and Andrew “good2cu” Robl out in fourth. Markholt, meanwhile, eliminated rumored new DoylesRoom Brunson 10 member Alex “AJKHoosier1” Kamberis and poker veteran John “World” Hennigan.

An epic battle between Faraz “The-Toilet” Jaka and UB.com’s Annie Duke unfolded at Table 5, with the former finally reigning supreme. Jaka busted four players from his table, including Jennifer Tilly, Vanessa Rousso, and 2006 World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP) Main Event winner J.C. Tran. Oddly enough, only three women competed in the 49-player event; all of them were seated at the same table and eliminated by Jaka. You can check out Annie Duke’s evaluation of Jaka’s poker game.

Finally, DoylesRoom pro Hoyt Corkins, fresh off of taking down the WPT Southern Poker Championship in Biloxi, bested European Poker Tour (EPT) founder John Duthie at Table 7 to move on to the finale. Corkins amassed five bounties in the process, including Adam Richardson, Hevad “RaiNKhaN” Khan, 2004 WSOP Main Event champ Greg Raymer, and Steven Paul-Ambrose.

PokerStars is awarding $100,000 to the player with the most number of bounties when the tournament concludes. As it currently stands, Seiver leads the way with six and Corkins has five. Cassidy and Jaka each own four bounties.

The tournament resumes at Noon PT on Thursday, as all eyes today are focused on the Main Event of the NAPT Venetian. The winner of the Bounty Shootout will earn $460,000 in addition to the $75,000 reward for making the final table.

Tweet This Post

This month, poker pro and “Celebrity Apprentice” runner-up Annie Duke breaks down the PokerStars North American Poker Tour (NAPT) $25,000 High Roller Bounty Shootout at the Venetian, the National Heads-Up Poker Championship, and her appearance on the television game show “Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader?”

Poker News Daily: Thanks for joining us. We saw that Faraz “The-Toilet” Jaka bested your table in the NAPT High Roller Bounty Shootout. Tell us about your table, which also featured Joe Hachem, Jennifer Tilly, Vanessa Rousso, and J.C. Tran.

Annie Duke: I got heads-up with Faraz at my table. He’s an excellent player plus he’s clearly been playing his best lately because he’s been final tabling everything. He’s the last person I wanted to end up heads-up against. Even though Vanessa has been playing everything and doing well, I’ve played with her and know her. Faraz is a guy who has been playing everything and I don’t know anything about his game.

PND: Evaluate Faraz Jaka’s game for us. What makes him so successful?

Annie Duke: He’s very good at gearing differently and is good at gearing against different stack sizes. He does not play fast or play super small ball. That’s a harder person to deal with because they’re going to play against your stack effectively. Faraz played brilliantly heads-up. I managed to get a chip lead on Faraz and then lost two big pots.

There were a couple of draws I chose to play slow and didn’t hit and a couple I played fast as a semi-bluff and didn’t hit. I said to Phil Hellmuth afterward that it’s a no-win situation. When you play it slow and don’t hit, you regret that you didn’t try to bluff. If you play it big, then you regret that you didn’t play it slow. I don’t know if I could have won them playing differently, but I feel like I didn’t reverse well.

PND: Are you looking forward to the National Heads-Up Poker Championship, which will be filmed in March and then air on NBC?

Annie Duke: Erik Seidel and I were joking that we have bad records in that event. He’s a brilliant player, but has never won a match, and I’ve won one. I don’t care who I draw; I just want to win my match. I played against Brad Garrett last year and he had all of the better hands. When I find out who I play against, I try to think about their game, but I don’t like to come into matches with a set strategy. People play differently on different days and against different opponents. I’m just trying to improve my record in that event.

PND: Has it been refreshing to return to playing poker?

Annie Duke: I realized when I played the $25,000 NAPT event that I hadn’t played since October. I have been prioritizing differently. It’s nice to have all of this poker coming up and then I am going to Mexico with the kids. The World Series of Poker starts after that. It’s the part of the year where I play a lot of poker and I like to get back to my roots. I don’t regret that I choose to do other things because I like what else I’m doing. Poker players can get really myopic and just think about poker. I don’t remember ever feeling that way coming up.

PND; Tell us about your appearance on the syndicated game show “Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader?”

Annie Duke: I played for Decision Education Foundation. It’s the daytime version of the show where you have to clear 10 questions. I got every question right and used the help one time because I wanted to make sure. The question was asking who the Volunteers were and I was pretty sure it was Tennessee, but thought it could also be Kentucky since I am not a big college basketball person. I peeked at the girl’s answer and she put Tennessee.

I got all 10 questions right and had $25,000. Then, there’s a bonus round question that you’re getting laid 10:1 on. If I thought I could answer it right 10% of the time, there was an overlay. I went for it and didn’t know the answer. If you get the question wrong, you go down to $2,500, so you’re risking $22,500 to win $250,000. That’s an easy decision even though it didn’t work out.

Tweet This Post

Following the lead of the province of Quebec, the leaders of the province of Ontario are now examining the possibility of starting their own provincial online gaming and poker outlets.

Facing a deficit of $24.7 billion this fiscal year, the government of Ontario, headed by Premier Dalton McGuinty, is attempting to find ways to make up that shortfall. McGuinty has previously shot down the idea of increasing taxes on alcohol sales in the province, but seems to be willing to discuss the province opening up its own online gaming and poker portals. With the appointment of a new director for Ontario Lottery and Gaming in Paul Godfrey, the discussion of an online operation is moving forward.

Godfrey, who is currently the president and CEO of the National Post newspaper, has stated that he believes that the implementation of a provincial online gaming and poker outlet would benefit Ontario as a whole. It is estimated that Ontario’s citizens are responsible for approximately $1.9 billion per year in action on online gaming sites and Godfrey believes that Ontario is losing out in taxes and other revenue through not having an outlet for its citizens. “Money is going out of this province to other provinces as well as offshore sites,” Godfrey stated.

The opposition to legalization and regulation of any Ontario-based online gaming outlet is pointing out many issues that concern them. In an interview at TheStar.com, Jeff Derevensky, who heads McGill University’s International Center for Youth Gambling Problems and High Risk Behaviors, weighed the pros and cons of Ontario’s ideas. With more than 2,000 online gaming sites available worldwide, Derevensky stated, “If they can recoup a slice of it, then that (money) could be better used in government-run programs.”

The downside of opening up a provincial gaming operation is that Ontario’s youth haven’t been prepared for such activity, Derevensky notes. While the Ontario school system has instruction in other possible problematic areas such as alcohol, drug usage, and underage sex, there is nothing that deals with the potential pitfalls of online gaming. If the Ontario provincial government were to open up a government run online poker site, “It puts more young people at risk,” Derevensky said in TheStar.com article.

Ontario already has an active lottery and gaming establishment, but, according to TheStar.com, the operation has faced several problems. Revenues have been declining because of a loss of previously seen American action. Because of stricter border controls, fewer Americans are crossing to take part in Ontario’s gaming options. While Ontario Lottery and Gaming pulls in approximately $6.5 billion per year, the company has had several problems that have made the news, including lawsuits from people who say their product made them gambling addicts, according to TheStar.com.

Canadians are free to participate in online gaming and poker, but the moves by Ontario and Quebec are a grab at getting their share of the money made by these sites as well as being able to enact governmental controls on such activities. The Kahnawake Gaming Commission (KGC), located outside of Montreal, is the hub of the online gaming industry, licensing and managing many of the top sites in the world. Because the KGC is a private company under the Mohawk Nation’s control, however, provincial governments see no revenue from the venture.

Earlier this month, Quebec announced that it would be opening its own state-run online gaming and poker site later this year. Quebec’s Finance Minister Raymond Bachand has predicted that the new operation will generate $50 million in dividends within three years of activity. With its budget shortfall, this could be what Ontario is looking at as a way of cutting into the deficit without raising taxes in other areas.

Tweet This Post