Hammer's Blog

2/13/2009

PAD Nerd-O-Rama

Is it just me, or is this possibly the

most boring week of PAD ever ?

Oli Nejad summed it up pretty well.
" 6 geniuses + 1 math problem = 4 aspirin"

I've always wanted to over hear geniuses
disgussing geometric proofs and proofs
by induction. .... Not !

The "Brilliant Minds" have so much potential.
Unfortunately for the audience, these guys
show that being extremely math smart
doesn't often combine with being a
conversational, social animal.

This could easily be called:
"Revenge of the Nerds Week".

The only semi-entertaining guy with
some personality is David Sklansky,
and he was knocked out first.

Hostess Leanne Tweedan has some how
gotten the idea that these "math pros"
are doing sophisticated algebra and
calculus equations in their heads while
the rest of the world is asking the
magic 8-ball whether to call or fold.

Sklansky even explained to her that
everyone can figure out pot odds and
the percentage of times your hand
will hold up. That's not what makes
these "math" guys special.
Its GAME THEORY !

Atleast I have something to look
forward to. Next week (Feb 16) it's the
"Nets" versus "Vets" cash game with
Taylor Caby, Cole South, Gabe Kaplan,

Dave Benefield, Doyle and Eli Elezra

2/12/2009

Heads-Up Practice

... and a chance to enter a big
televised tournament.

Both FullTilt and PokerStars have
freeroll satellites for the National
Heads-Up Championship in Vegas.

Its a great chance to practice your
heads-up skills. Its something almost
everyone needs to polish up on.

I've finished somewhere between
3rd and 10th countless times,
but cant seem to crack the
final four (out of 256).

I'll keep trying.

2/05/2009

PPT Online Tx Update

The lower buy-in NL Holdem K/O
tournaments have been a big success !

We're going to extend that buy-in
and format to our other nights.
We've had as many as 17 players !

Mondays 7pm, $3 + .50, Bounty NLH
Tuesdays 7pm, $3 + .50, Bounty NLH
Wednes 7pm, $3 + .50, Bounty NLH
Thursdays 7pm, $3 + .50, Bounty NLH
Fridays 7pm, $3 + .50, Bounty NLH

These new events will start Feb/6/09.

Everyone is Welcome !

The buy-in for the KnockOut tournament
is $3 + $0.50, with $2.40 going to the
prize pool and $0.60 paid as a bounty
every time you Knock another player out.

To locate our tournaments, click the
"Private" tab in the tournament lobby.
Password is " PPT "

Sign up for a new Full Tilt Poker
account using bonus code PPT.

2/03/2009

High Stakes Poker, Season 5

GSN has started running commercials
for the upcoming season of HSP.

Season 5 premieres Sunday, March 1st.

I'm so excited ! HSP is probably
my favorite show on television.

Taping was done December 19-21 at
the Golden Nugget in Las Vegas.

The upcoming season will have a
minimum cash buy-in of $200,000,
which is the largest to date.

Prospective Lineup:

Daniel Negreanu

Doyle Brunson

Phil Hellmuth

Eli Elezra

Antonio Esfandiari

Tom Dwan

Dario Minieri

Howard Lederer

Peter Eastgate

Ivan Demidov

Barry Greenstein

Sam Simon

Giorgio Medici

Ilari Sahamies

Phil Laak

Patrik Antonius

David Benyamine

Bob Safai

Nick Cassavetes

Mike Baxter

Filming on Friday December 19th featured

Doyle Brunson, Dario Minieri, Phil Laak,

Tom “durrrr” Dwan, Eli Elezra, Mike Baxter,

Alan Meltzer, and David Peat.

Saturday’s action features Daniel Negreanu,

Joe Hachem, Howard Lederer, Patrik Antonius,

Antonio Esfandiari, Sam Simon, Tom Dwan,

& Nick Cassavetes.

Sunday’s table will include Peter Eastgate,

Doyle Brunson, Ivan Demidov, Phil Ivey,

Barry Greenstein, David Benyamine, and

Ilari Sahamies.

Although that is the order in which the tables were

filmed, GSN may not necessarily air the episodes

in that particular order.

High Stakes January recap

Courtesy of http://www.highstakesdb.com/

Gus Hansen became the biggest winner
last month when he closed January for
a $500k profit. There´s been a lot of
action on his PLO HU tables, and also
some huge swings.

Patrik Antonius looked good all through
the month but was passed at the finish
line by Gus Hansen as the biggest winner
this month. Patrik still made a total profit
of $2.6M and played his A-game
straight through January, making most
of his profit on the HA tables.

Gus Hansen won his biggest pot ever,
the hand was played against durrrr and
trex313, a $537k pot.

Patrik Antonious wins his third biggest
pot ever, which also was the biggest of
the month, $562k pot

Durrrr didnt have a good month, experiencing
his presumably biggest poker loss ever.
There have also been alot of roumors going
around him, some about his huge loss and
some about he not being able to run his
Million dollar challenge. Most of these were
straightened out when durrrr did a radio
interview, in which he talked about the
rumours and stated that the challenge
was in no danger. All in all he is UP about
$1.0M in NLHE but STUCK $4.0M in the
other games in January.

2/02/2009

Montel Williams new Poker tv show

Former talkshow host Montel Williams
has announced his new one hour tv show
titled "International Team Poker League"
that will combine online qualifiers with
bricks and mortar casinos.

The show, starting with satellite tournaments
in March and set to be televised starting in
November this year, will combine NLHE with
‘reality TV’ style segments about the players.

Creator and CEO of ITPL, Montel Williams
comments: “I love poker – it’s a game that has
everything, played by kings and leaders and
regular joes alike. It crosses boundaries and
borders, now, thanks to technology and the
Internet, a global phenomenon that brings
people of different ethnicities and origin
together around the world. It is truly international,
and the time is right for the International
Team Poker League to take poker to a new
level and a wider audience.”

In a similar format to the more familiar talent
shows, the series will begin with a selection
process through regular NLHE satellite tournies
in both land-based casinos and online poker sites.
Entrants play to win entry into a three-day
Draft Pool Seeding Tournament at a Las Vegas
host casino at which the leading players will be
selected into six teams before fighting it out to
build chip stacks for the final one-day SuperTable
team event.

The six winners will become the ITPL Team for
the season, and will be filmed as they live the poker
lifestyle, play the pros and possibly find or create
celebrity for themselves.

1/30/2009

WSOP Europe on ESPN

Pretty good coverage of the event.
Commentary by Lon M. & Norman Chad.

ESPN:
Sunday, February 1st
6-10pm ET
(Episodes 1 thru 4)

ESPN2:
Sunday, February 1st
10:00pm: Episode #1
11:00pm: Episode #2

Sunday, February 8th
10:00pm: Episode #3
11:00pm: Episode #4

Sunday, February 15th
10:00pm: Episode #5
11:00pm: Episode #6

Sunday, March 1st
10:00pm: Episode #7
11:00pm: Episode #8

1/24/2009

'08 a rough year for vegas casinos

Hotel statistics released in a report
yesterday by the Nevada Gaming
Control Board present a dismal picture.

Major hotel-casinos suffered a huge drop
in net income in fiscal 2008, bringing in
$721.2 million... only a third of what they
netted in the previous (2007) year.

The report reveals that 266 resorts grossed
$25 billion but were hammered by increasing
expenses during the fiscal year ending June 30.
Their net income was just 2.9 percent of the gross,
down from 9.1 percent in fiscal 2007.

1/23/2009

New PPT online tournament

Starting on Jan 26th, the PPT's

monday night format is changing.

We're taking a break from Omaha

and going for a lower buy-in NL

Holdem KnockOut tournaments.

The buy-in for the KnockOut tourny

is $3 + $0.50, with $2.40 going to

the prize pool and $0.60 paid as

a bounty every time you Knock

another player out.

Mondays 7pm, $3 + .50, Bounty NL Holdem

Wednes 6:30, $5 + 1, NL Holdem Deep Stack

Fridays 7pm, $5 + 1, NL Holdem Deep Stack

Log in to FT with your Player ID and pwd.

Click on "TOURNAMENTS", then

"PRIVATE". Click on "DATE", then
scroll down to the date/time of our

tournament (01/26/09 19:00 ET).

There may be more than one tourny

at that time so click on each one

until you find the one called

"PremierPokerTour.ca"

(There's an info box to the right

that lists the name and details

of each tournament as you click

on them.)

When you find our tournament,
click on either "TOURNAMENT LOBBY"
or "REGISTER NOW" (on the right side)

and Register for the tournament.

You will need to enter the PASSWORD: PPT

Hope to see you there !

1/12/2009

CAKE Announces more sites open to Canadians

The Cake network announced in a
press release this week that it has
opened up poker, casino and sportsbook
poker sites for players in Canada,
specifically Sportsbook.com and
Superbook.com.

The move will "expand the player base
and the network alike, increasing the
value and possibilities players can
achieve from these sites."

"Sportsbook.com is a growing poker
site and continues to rise in popularity,"
the release claims. "This site offers
online players the ability to play poker
and casino games as well as place
sports bets all from one account.
The software has a great menu system
that is simple and easy to use. "

"For Canadian poker players looking for
a great poker game, Sportsbook.com is
a highly recommended poker room for
its soft competition, easy deposits, quality
software and excellent customer service."

The release describes Superbook.com as
a popular and well established sports betting site.
"This site earned the title "Online Sportsbook
of the Year" in 2005 and continues to be a
leader in the online sports betting arena.
It offers no-fee deposit methods, great
customer support and quick payouts."

1/11/2009

Annie Duke on Celebrity Apprentice

On March 1st, Annie Duke will
appear on the second installment of
Celebrity Apprentice, joining the 15
other [cough] "celebrities"

I'm not sure if she's buddies with
Jeff Immelt (CEO of General Electric)
but she has a habit of appearing on
NBC shows. I remember seing her on
the gameshow 1 vs. 100 (on NBC) .
She is like a flaming car crash to me,
I dont want to watch, but I must watch.
I find myself yelling at her/my tv when
an episode of 'Best Damn Poker Show'
or 'Winstar Poker-The River' comes on.
Her criticism of any player who isnt a
super-nit drives me crazy... but I digress.

Others appearing on Celeb Apprentice II:

Clint Black - Country Music singer
Khloe Kardashian - "Keeping Up w/ the Kardashians”
Brande Roderick - Playboy skank ? ?
Scott Hamilton - Gold Medal Skater
Tom Green - Gameshow Host / Actor
Jesse James - Monster Garage, WestCoastChoppers
Natalie Gulbis - Sexy Golf Pro
Claudia Jordan - Gameshow Model...?
Joan Rivers - Cosmetic Surgery Speciman
Melissa Rivers - Only claim to fame is mom
Dennis Rodman - retired Chicago Bull
Andrew Dice Clay - Washed up Comedian
Herschel Walker - retired Dallas Cowboy
Brian McKnight - R & B musician
Tionne Watkins - The "T" from TLC

1/06/2009

Corey Z on PAD

This guy has been added to my list

of favorite players now. The way

Corey Zeidman ripped on Phil Hellmuth

on episode 1 of this weeks Poker After Dark

has endeared me to him.

The theme is "Speak Your Mind" and
Corey has taken this literally.

PAD will easily be the best thing on

tv every night this week at 2:05am.

You can watch mondays episode here:

http://nbcsports.msnbc.com/id/22825103/vp/28505642#28505642

Hellmuth proves that he can dish out

lines like "this guy can't even spell poker"

(at the '08 wsop) but he cant take it when

someone gives it to him.

Here's some highlites:

-Zeidman to Hellmuth: "Do you

always complain when you win a pot ?"

-After Hellmuth calls Gordons river bet

with the losing hand, Corey says:

"I think he needs to put more bracelets on"

-Hellmuth says "I just had my own

reality tv show on Fox Sportsnet".

Zeidman retorts "Yeah, that was a gem".

The table erupts with laughter.

-Hellmuth states he's on the 20,000th

peg of a 30,000 peg holdem ladder,

but Zeidman is only on the 4th peg...

"so you dont have a right to ever

talk to me about poker"

-Phil modestly proclaims that he gave

a speach at Oxford University like

"Clinton, Churchill, and those guys"

-Hellmuth doesnt enjoy the needles so

he threatens to ask for protection from

the floorman.

- Phil Gordon takes a shot at Corey

referencing Zeidmans incoherant rant

during the '07 wsop pay-per-veiw.

Corey (high or drunk?) was rambling on

about having a toothache before the

ME, so he went to the dentist office and

was disgusted by what he saw, the

dentists chair had bread crumbs on it.

Corey is most famous for his straight-flush

"slow-roll" of Jen Harman at the 2005 wsop

main event. He'll probably never live that

down even if he lives to be 100. If you watch

the video, I dont think it was intentional,

but that doesnt really matter when you

slow roll the most popular woman in poker.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GONjUZ013SQ

1/04/2009

Why I dont play at Casino Niagara much

Its been a while since I played poker
at Casino Niagara so I made that my
target for Saturday afternoon/evening.

I called ahead when driving by Hamilton
and got my name on the list to minimize
any waiting time when I got there.

I arrived at the poker room before 4pm
and was told that it would be a minimum
One Hour wait, probably longer since there
were about 15 ahead of me on the list.
Considering CN had 8 tables running and
plenty of empty tables, I find this unacceptable.
Not only that, the only games they had
running were $1/2 - $100 max. No $200 max
games being spread any more I guess.

I called over to Seneca and asked how long the
wait was. No wait, immediate seating.
Plus, they had $1/2 100max, 200max,
$2/5, and 2/4, 3/6, and 4/8 limit spread as well.

After a quick drive across the river, (less than
30 minutes later) I was sitting in a game.

The difference between these two casino's ?
Seneca can/will open up a new table when
demand dictates because they schedule an
adequate number of dealers. Casino Niagara
is happy to turn people away or make them
wait, hoping they will drop some money
out on the casino floor.

1/03/2009

Mini TR: Point Edward Casino

I headed down the 402 towards Sarnia
Friday afternoon searching for somewhere
new to apply my poker trade.

Arrived at the Point Edward Charity Casino
in Sarniatown around 3:30pm.

It has a small poker room, 5? tables or so.
2 full tables running. All $1/2 NL 100max.
Nice tables although the material wasnt
speed cloth, more like suede ? Cards dont slide,
they stick/bite when pitched across the table.
No cup holders, but tables available.
Chairs were simple, but not uncomfortable.

Dealers were technically skilled although
they seamed to lack control of the game
at times. There was way too much table talk
and the informal chatter between the dealers
and the regulars was inappropriate at times
(foul language, etc). It seemed more like a
home game than a casino atmosphere.

Poker managers were attentive and polite.
Drink service was a little hit and miss,
long gaps in between visits. Actual servers
were excellent, propt with orders and polite.

The entire session, there was never less than
7 regulars at my table, all knowing each other
by name and how each plays to a good extent.

The game itself was fairly straight forward.
Mostly tight passive. The odd lagtard.
A couple good players, a couple not so good
and some average players. A couple of the
weaker players hit some cards and were up
with $6-700 in front of them. They realized
that they were lucky and if they stuck around
they'd only lose it back, so they bailed.

Its nice that Pt. Ed is a shorter drive than Niagara, but i'm not sure there's enough action here to make it a worthwhile regular stop. I might check it out on a Saturday evening to see if they get more tables going and some more casual traffic, rather just the same regulars passing money$ back and forth.

( I left around 6:30pm + $45 )

1/02/2009

New Years Trash on the Vegas Strip

Just after midnight on the Vegas strip.

Photo credit: flipchip

1/01/2009

Test, do not download

12/30/2008

More Glitches Reported at UltimateBet

Reports earlier this week that a winner's
payout had been given to the loser of a
hand at UltimateBet.com have been
followed by further incidents, suggesting that
the original mispayment is not an isolated
incident. Posts on various forums like 2+2
and the UltimateBet blog
http://blog.ultimatebet.com/2008/12/hand-1162170993/#comments
indicated at least three other highly questionable
payouts to the wrong players had been made,
suggesting a glitch in the recently upgraded,
Korean made, Cereus Network software which
is used by UltimateBet and Absolute Poker.

In one incident, a player claimed that he had
been congratulated for finishing 16th in a
tourney...before the last two cards hit the table.
And at table #1165492664: Razz Normal
$0.25/$0.50 - 2008-12-22 12:55:02 (ET)
a player who was apparently sitting out was
awarded a pot.

In yet another incident, a player waiting for a
big blind was allegedly awarded part of the pot,
which appeared to be confirmed by a re-player
at Tableratings.com.

The positive side to the incidents is that both
UltimateBet owner Tokwiro and the Kahnawake
Gaming Commission have reacted to early alerts
sent by concerned players. Tokwiro C.O.O. Paul
Leggett has promised on the company blog that
the investigation is underway and will report back,
and a spokesman for the KGC confirmed that the
regulator was also studying reports and monitoring
the situation.

However, the KGC spokesman said, it was essential
that players with a genuine and substantiated issue
lodge a formal complaint with the Commission,
rather than relying on merely posting on industry
message boards. He confirmed that the player
"Doubleballer" in the original incident had now
been paid the full value of the pot, although he
had not actually submitted a KGC complaint,
and said that the Commission would investigate
all legitimate and factual complaints it was sent.

"What does slow things down is when forum
posters randomly send disparaging comments to
the KGC about an operator, but don't substantiate
any claim or provide any intel which would be of
use in opening an investigative file," he observed.
"If there are legitimate claims, I would encourage
any potentially wronged players to contact the KGC."

Online Bingo to Rival Poker

Internet bohemuth Google claims that
its research has shown a rising popularity
in Internet bingo across every age group
and gender and is online poker's most
powerful rival yet. A statement from the
search engine revealed that bingo has rapidly
caught up and is now engaged in a race to
decide which game is the most dominant.

”Due to the presence of so many online
bingo operators, competition is becoming
more and more intense forcing bingo sites
to offer more and more benefits, bingo bonuses
and added benefits to ensure loyalty and traffic,”
the Google statement claimed.”

Although bingo has been considered to be a
female game in the past, the taboo has
diminished as more and more male players
are traced in the chat rooms of online bingo halls.
The wide offerings, the social community nature
of the game and the quality of the service are the
main reasons of the increasing popularity.”
Google points out that another advatage held
by bingo is that the variants of the game are
easy and straightforward to play. Unlike poker,
online bingo players do not need to wager large
amounts of money as bingo cards are generally
affordable. The online game can be played while
browsing the Internet with attention not mandatory,
unlike poker. In the modern game, play is almost
automatic, as players are not expected to call out
bingo when they’ve won. The main requirement
is to purchase cards on time before a session begins.

New WSOP game for Nintendo Wii

Activision has released the latest version
of last year's virtual poker game hit "World
Series of Poker : Tournament of Champions"
to mixed reviews, some of which advise that
there are more serious products with better
artificial intelligence on the market for the
demanding poker aficionado.

The game builds on last year's popular version,
taking a story-based approach as it puts virtual
players on the WSOP Circuit as a newly turned
poker pro under the wing of Chris Ferguson as
his protege. Players test their skills against the
world's best poker pros in the premier Circuit
events in hopes of qualifying for the virtual
winner-take-all, invitation-only Tournament
of Champions at the Rio Resort in Las Vegas.
Along the way, players face-off against WSOP
bracelet winners and former Main Event champs.

The game gives advice on the personal tricks
and strategies that have made Ferguson
one of the world's foremost poker players,
with each successful win unlocking valuable
tools that help bring a better game to the table,
among these checking the odds of hitting
various hands at every stage of the deal,
checking the rank of hands, and viewing statistics
and percentages of the hands of opponents.
The dialogue between players is especially
noteworthy and entertaining.

Amazon's purchasing offer on the game is
interesting - it reveals that after viewing the
information on WSOP Tournament of Champions,
61 percent of visitors bought Howard Lederer's
Wii offering "World Championship Poker" instead.

Battle with Boris (Becker)

PokerStars marketers have come up with a
sideshow to the 2009 PokerStars Caribbean
Adventure scheduled for early January,
a chance for online players to take on former
tennis star Boris Becker, who plays as a
celebrity for the site.

The idea is for seven PokerStars players
to compete with Becker in a heads up match,
with the main prize being a$10K seat to the
main event of the Caribbean Adventure in
the Bahamas.

The match will be played in a Battleship format,
which means that participants play each other
heads up and online, using laptops instead of
in front of a live dealer.

In a company statement, Becker said:
"Battleship poker gives you all the fast play
luxuries of online poker, but also allows you
to look your opponent in the eye. It's an
exciting game to play and I'm really looking
forward to competing against these players."

Four North American players have so far
been chosen for the confrontation:
Itsik Oknin of Ottawa, Canada;
Joshua Miloy of Oley, Pa.;
Keith Anderson of Quebec, Canada
Michel Dion of Quebec, Canada.

12/28/2008

Dwan Continues Hot Streak

Tom "Durrr" Dwan, had a hugely successful weekend, winning over $ 1,300,000 multi-tabling at Full Tilt for a few hours. He was playing NLHE $500/1000, PL Omaha $500/1000 and Mixed HA $500/1000.

He won a $209,000 pot against Patrik Antonius playing Pot Limit Omaha, $297,963 from OMGClayAiken in NLHoldem, a $433,737 holdem pot against Trex313, and a $394,297 holdem pot against Mastrblastr.

12/24/2008

Merry Christmas Everyone

And remember, if Santa doesnt

bring you what you want, you can

always play poker on FullTilt and get

Triple Points for X-mas Happy Hour.

'The Real Deal' is a Done Deal

I'm glad I got to see it before it
closed for good. Seemed obvious
at the time that it wasnt likely to last.

As posted on WickedChops.com .....

The Venetian Pulls Plug On The Real Deal
It's officially curtains for The Real Deal.
After an eight-week run, the folks at
The Venetian have finally pulled the plug
on its poker-themed stage show which
starred big name pros such as Daniel Negreanu,
Doyle Brunson, Phil Hellmuth, Scotty Nguyen,
Gavin Smith and Antonio Esfandiari.
We could tell you that the piss poor economy,
launching the show three years after the height
of the poker boom and people's overall lack of
interest in poker-themed stage shows were
to blame but that would be glossing over the
real reason why it bombed: not having co-host
Lacey Jones appear in nothing but body paint
nightly. That would have been a hit. Huge hit.
Todd Brunson plump-ily sitting at a poker table,
not so much.

Real Deal Co-host Lacey Jones

I should pay more attention

Considering that observation is
one of the key skills of a good poker
player, I'm a bit embarrassed that
I missed this. I would have taken the
PS Blogger Championship tournaments
WAY more seriously if I knew there was
more at stake than just qualifiing for
the final event.

EVENT # 2 Final Results
1. malice51 (United States) -- Sunday Majors Platinum Package
2. Baba_Jin (Israel) -- Sunday Majors Gold Package
3. United113 (United Kingdom) -- Sunday Majors Gold Package
4. MemphisM0J0 (United States) -- Sunday Majors Gold Package
5. WMZeus (United States) -- Sunday Majors Gold Package
6. WILLdaHAMMER (Canada) -- Sunday Majors Gold Package
7. Joppa Rd (United Kingdom) -- Sunday Majors Gold Package
8. maka818 (Spain) -- Sunday Majors Gold Package
9. Would-Be83 (United Kingdom) -- Sunday Majors Gold Package

A "Sunday Majors Gold Package"
consists of TWO x $215 tournament tickets.

http://www.pokerstarsblog.com/2008/12/wbcoop-no-absence-of-of-malice51-in.html

More Problems at UltimateBet - Oh Brother !

Early Saturday morning, DOUBLEBALLER
and Ultimate Bet front man PHIL HELLMUTH
were playing heads up on a $200/$400 limit
table on Ultimate Bet. However, when the hand
was over, Hellmuth scooped the pot with a
pair of deuces, despite DOUBLEBALLER
holding THREE KINGS ! Ultimate Bet issued a
press release explaining the fluke late
Tuesday afternoon.

The Tokwiro-owned online poker site
blamed the abnormality on DOUBLEBALLER
being disconnected at the exact moment
in time as the payout in the hand was
being awarded. Ultimate Bet added that
this happened “in conjunction with the
‘player’s state’ data being cleared from
the memory cache.” In essence, it appears
as if the Ultimate Bet software did not
recognize DOUBLEBALLER being seated
at the table, thus incorrectly awarding the
pot to his opponent.

Chat posted on 2+2 is in line with the story.
DOUBLEBALLER returned from being
disconnected and confronted Hellmuth
about the incident. Curiously, upon
DOUBLEBALLER’s return, Hellmuth was
seen typing phrases in the chat such as
“I play U limit, right now” and “miracle U
beat me.” Hellmuth stated in the Tokwiro
press release, “I am one of the most
watched players on the Internet and all
I can say is that it is pretty obvious that
there was no malicious intent and even
more obvious that UB handled this
problem well. The important thing here
is that I continue to have a ton of trust
in UB’s software and new management team.”

In the process of fixing the disconnection
issue, Ultimate Bet introduced a new error
onto its servers which resulted in 36 pots
being awarded erroneously. The statement
read, “All players have been reimbursed
for these hands as well.” The game types
that were adversely affected as part of
the 36 hands were in low-limit Razz, Stud,
and Hold’em.

Meanwhile, the online poker room’s
technical staff is busy combing through
past hands dealt on Ultimate Bet’s
virtual felts looking for other potential
instances where the same error that
affected DOUBLEBALLER may have
occurred. So far, no such problems
have been found from hand histories
in November and December.

The hand in question was number
1162170993. It kicked off at 4:15am ET
early Saturday morning. The final board
read K-K-J-2-9. Hellmuth held the Doyle
Brunson hand, 10-2, for a pair of twos.
DOUBLEBALLER held K-Q for trip kings.
In the end, Hellmuth scooped a $5,599
pot with his inferior hand. In chat posted
between the two players, Hellmuth
suggested that DOUBLEBALLER may
have been “booted,” which turned out
to be the root cause of the problem.
Hellmuth entered the hand with $4,495,
shy of DOUBLEBALLER’s stack of $7,494.

Ultimate Bet recently merged with
Absolute Poker to form the CEREUS
poker network. The two sites are both
run by Tokwiro Enterprises, which is
owned by Joe Norton. They were recently
the subjects of a feature piece by CBS
News program “60 Minutes,” which
focused on the cheating scandals on
each of the two sites. Ultimate Bet claimed
that the simultaneous occurrence of the
pot being awarded and DOUBLEBALLER’s
disconnect was the primary cause.
It added, “Had the disconnection happened
literally a millisecond sooner or later, the error
would not have transpired.”

**Official Statement From UltimateBet**

--------------------------------------

Tuesday, December 23, 2008 - COO

On Saturday, December 20, 2008 we were alerted to a problem with a hand involving PHILHELLMUTH and DOUBLEBALLER.
We realize that this issue is of great concern to UB’ers and the poker community. Since we learned of the problem we have worked tirelessly investigating and fixing the software issue that was responsible for the incorrect payout. We have now released an official statement, which you can read it on our corporate site tokwiro.com.

I became aware of the problem on Saturday evening, shortly before I made my original post on this blog. I must admit that the information on twoplustwo was very helpful to me in getting up to speed right away.

I know many of you wanted information immediately after the incident happened. I did make a post on the UB blog to let everyone know we were aware of the problem and the seriousness of it. At the time I did not comment further because I wanted to make sure that we had all the facts before we made any public statements. I would hate to say something that is inaccurate or even false because I rushed it out before understanding the problem completely.

The problem is truly and honestly just a software malfunction. I do realize this issue caused a great deal of concern because Phil Hellmuth, a spokesperson for the site, benefited from the malfunction and that is quite the coincidence. For this reason we are providing the public with as much information as possible and hope that by doing so, and answering as many of your questions as possible, you will be reassured that our site is a safe place to play.

The Issue:
As we explained in our press release, the incorrect payout was caused by a software malfunction. The software malfunction occurred when the winning player was disconnected from the hand at the precise millisecond the software was determining whom to award the prize. This in conjunction with the “player’s state” data being cleared from memory caused this extremely improbable incident to occur.

Originally we were unable to reproduce the error in our test environment, until we programatically forced a disconnect to happen at the precise millisecond the hand was being awarded.
We have never had an issue like this reported previously and we have reviewed all of our database and application logs for December and November and have been unable to find any historical occurrences. We are continuing to go back further into the historical data to ensure no hands from the past need to be corrected. Analyzing this data takes time but we will continue to go back further and further into our history to ensure no one else was affected.

The second, related issue:
During the weekend we released an update to our game servers which included new business logic to prevent the first incident from ever happening again. The new update unfortunately created a new logic issue resulting in 36 hands with incorrect payouts. The 36 hands affected were lower limit razz, stud, and hold’em hands. Upon learning of this problem, we were able to addressed it quickly and the affected players were refunded immediately. We are extremely confident that everything has been corrected and order has been restored but we’re continuing to monitor the system and are performing extensive tests to ensure there are no incorrect payout or disconnect issues in the future.

An unrelated issue:
Another player made a comment on our blog (Mark) and emailed our support team about a tourney (212042 where 700 chips were mysteriously deducted from his stack mid tourney. What happened was his chip stack was reset to his starting chip amount (3000 chips). This happened because he won a satellite into the very tourney he was already playing in . This uncovered the unrelated problem, where the system reset his chip stack to the starting amount. This software issue was addressed immediately and Mark’s account was refunded.

Our company takes a lot of pride in our work and i think it’s safe to say we are embarrassed by these issues. We have an amazing software development team who have accomplished so much this year. I assure you they take this very seriously and I’m confident they have dealt with these issues professionally and I do not expect anymore problems to occur.

Our company is committed to being the most transparent site on the net and to providing our players with a personal touch that other sites do not. I speak to many players myself, I grant a lot of interviews, we offer phone support and our security team speaks with players on a daily basis. We hope that you start to notice the improvements we are continually making to improve our service and transparency.

I will try to blog and respond to your comments/questions the best I can over the holidays.

Happy holidays everyone!
Cheers,
Paul Leggett

12/23/2008

Caesars LV Raises Rake to 10%/$5 max +$1

Reprinted post by LasVegasMichael
on AllVegasPoker.com, 21 Dec 2008 06:27

Hello all,
It has been confirmed that Caesars Palace
has officially raised its rake to 10%/$5 max,
plus $1 jackpot on all its games.
This now means that all Harrahs owned
properties are raking at the $5 max level.
Up until now, Caesars, Harrahs flagship
property and premier poker room, had kept
its rake at the Vegas industry standard of
10% / $4 max plus $1 for high hand jackpot.

AVP has learned on good authority that
the decision to keep the rake at a $4 max
was directly correlative to Caesars offering
only well drinks in their poker room.
The room management apparently decided
that in lieu of raising their rake, they would
rather limit poker players to non-premium
cocktails. However, now that the rake has
risen to the Harrahs standard 10%/$5 max,
the premiums are NOT being brought back
to the supposed "Premier" poker room.
This means that one can get better quality
cocktails at the lesser properties (Imperial
Palace, Harrahs, Ballys) and pay the SAME
RAKE then one can get at Caesars Palace,
the supposed flagship Harrahs property.

Furthermore, Harrahs poker room, located
accross the street from Caesars Palace,
offers Red Bull in the can in addition to
premium cocktails, complimentary, and has
3 cash games in the morning when Caesars
is ususally either dark or running a single
cash game (8-11AM).

Of the premier poker rooms in Las Vegas
(Venetian, Wynn, MGM Grand, Mirage, Bellagio,
and Caesars Palace), Caesars is the only room
that does not offer premium cocktails, rakes
at 10%/$5 max, and takes a jackpot drop.

12/21/2008

WBCOOP Update

To quote Nelson from the Simpsons...
"I feel like such a tool".

I got caught up watching football on
Sunday afternoon and forgot about
the Blogger Championship finals on
PokerStars.

I finally remembered almost 2 hours in,
but I had been blinded down severely by
then. Only 137 (?) players left.
I shoved with AT in the cutoff and
the big blind woke up with AQ. No help
for me, Out. Not that I deserved to win
or make a big come back, its a fair result
considering my absent mindedness.
Oh well, its only another 12 months until
the next one.