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JOHNNY CHAN IS ALL IN – GULP!
Move over Red Bull — several pros including Johnny Chan, Layne Flack, Shannon Elizabeth, David Williams, Billy Baxter, Tuan Le, Tim Phan, Devilfish, Ken Einiger (blackjack player), and Hollywood Dave are backing poker’s new energy drink — All In. All In Energy comes in three flavors: root beer, citrus, and grape. It has zero carbs, no sugar, 200% of our daily requirement of Vitamin C, and 3,500% of Vitamin B12 (hey, is that overkill?). Players will like it because they will get an energy boost without the sugar crash associated with other energy drinks. Look for All In Energy in an upcoming music video on MTV and VHI in the rap song “All-In” by ProHoeZak? AllinEnergy.com.
WSOP ACADEMY H.O.R.S.E
The WSOP Academy is proudly expanding their poker education beyond No Limit Texas Hold’em and delivering a program sure to sell out in a heartbeat. Howard Lederer will be your instructor for Limit Hold’em, Annie Duke will teach Omaha, Andy Bloch will provide his insight on Stud, and Greg Raymer will guide you in Stud Eight or Better. There will also be advanced No Limit Texas Hold’em courses from Joe Navarro. The H.O.R.S.E Edition will take place at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas on November 2-4, 2007. This allows plenty of time to practice and train before the 2008 WSOP. You could win a title and bracelet just like Sally Boyer did after she attended the Ladies WSOP Academy earlier this year. Call (800) 989-WSOP or visit www.wsopacademy.com; $2199, same as three day event.
EPT SEASON 4
The European Poker Tour announced their new lineup of events. The stakes have been raised and buy-ins are now in the range of US $10,000, as opposed to the $5,000 they were last year, making these events true elite tournaments. Go ahead – take a vacation and play poker at the same time.
Barcelona, Spain – Aug. 28 - Sept 1, 2007
London, England – Sep. 25-29, 2007
Baden, Austria – Oct. 7-10, 2007
Dublin, Ireland – Oct. 30 - November 3, 2007
Paradise Island, Bahamas – Jan. 4-10, 2008
Prague, Czech Republic – tba
Dortmund, Germany – Jan. 29 - Feb. 2, 2008
Copenhagen, Denmark – Feb. 19-23, 2008
Warsaw, Poland – March 11-15, 2008
Monte Carlo, Monaco – April 12-17, 2008
CALLING ALL POKER SIRENS
Hey ladies, if you’re feeling withdrawals from the postponed ladies tournaments at Caesars in Las Vegas (closed until January), rest assured your fix is on its way. Treasure Island is launching their Monday night ladies tournaments this summer. Drop your chubby hubby off at the sports book for Monday Night Football and grab some girlfriends and head to the TI poker room for some NL Texas Hold’em tourney fun. There will be all sorts of added prizes and a girly good time in addition to the prize pool, which often pays six spots.
POKER RERUNS ON TV
If GSN (which has both the World Poker Tour and the popular High Stakes Poker) isn’t on your cable programming, it might seem like the opportunities to watch fresh poker are getting harder and harder to come by. Are new poker shows on TV drying up? Yes and no. There’s interest in poker; there are ratings and the fans are still watching – there just aren’t any sponsorship opportunities. What are left of poker on TV are reruns. FSN’s Mansion Poker Dome fell by the wayside after the UIGEA passed, as did the Live Full Tilt events, but you can still find repeats of Poker Superstars and Learn from the Pros on FSN. CNBC still carries the NBC National Heads-up Poker Championship and NBC has Poker After Dark. ESPN still runs the old World Series of Poker tournaments. If the fans want more original poker programming, then they’re going to have to hope that more outlets will take a shot on original poker programming.
POKER CINEBUZZ: THE GRAND
If Lucky You left you stocking up your Netflix list with titles like Rounders, The Cincinnati Kid, and Maverick, rest easy because word on the street is that The Grand is going to make good for poker on the silver screen. A hot title at the Tribeca Film Festival, The Grand has been picked up by AnchorBay Entertainment and will release next year. The movie was filmed at the Golden Nugget and features such names as Ray Liotta, Ray Romano, Shannon Elizabeth, Mike Epps, Dennis Farina, Hank Azaria, Richard Kind, Woody Harrelson, Gabe Kaplan, Jason Alexander, and poker pros Doyle Brunson, Phil Hellmuth, Phil Gordon, and Phil Laak. Some have already nicknamed the mockumentary Spinal Felt.
CAESARS PALACE CLASSIC
Caesars Palace in Las Vegas has guaranteed a $1,000,000 prize pool for their Caesars Poker Classic to be held in October. It’s interesting that casinos are doing big buy-in tournaments without the support and guaranteed draw that a televised tournament gets. The Wynn had a $10,000 buy-in event last year, and now Caesars is doing one. The only city in the U.S. in which a non-televised $10,000 tournament could work is Las Vegas. Now, poker players who want to play for big money, but couldn’t care less about the TV spots, can come out from hiding. The Classic will host 13 events beginning on October 12th including the Main Event, which will be held October 22–24, 2007.
QUEST FOR THE CUP IN AUSTRALIA
One of the cooler destinations on the fall tournament calendar is Melbourne, Australia – home of the inaugural PokerNews Cup. PokerNews.com will be whisking over one hundred lucky winners off to the Crown Casino in Melbourne for five days of fun activities and some serious poker. The event, which takes place October 26-29, is unique in that it is the first time that a news outlet has been the title sponsor of a big poker tournament. The tournament is expected to easily eclipse a $1,000,000 prize pool and will draw hundreds of competitors from dozens of countries all over the globe. Say G’day, Mate!
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