If you haven’t been paying attention you may be missing out on a few signs that Doyle Brunson is leaving in his wake. From what I have witnessed over the last few years Doyle has begun to leave small and large reminders of his legacy that extend beyond his ability to play the game of poker. The Godfather of Poker by Doyle Brunson is a book that chronicles Doyle’s journey. It goes as far back as Doyle can remember and takes you back to the old days of smoke filled rooms, guns and fisticuffs. Many times I have seen or heard Doyle in interviews mention how tough things were coming up with his fellow poker players. Now we can get all of the stories first hand and marvel at how Doyle came through all of the ups and downs to become a poker legend.

You will learn how Super System came into being along with many other triumphs and failures. You will want to add to your library as a collectors item if nothing else.

I am very sad to report that Dan Negreanu lost his mom this past Monday. My heart goes out to Dan and his family. I remember his mom to be the bubbly one that brought him home cooked food to the poker table. She seemed like a very happy and energetic person. I understand that she suffered a stroke and mild heart attack earlier this year and has been hospitalized since.

Hang in there Dan. You have our condolences.

I hope everyone has a very safe and happy holiday this week. I am going to relax a little, enjoy my family and enjoy the festivities.

Have a happy holiday!

Curtis III AKA “Curtom”

Tom Dwan is taking on any and all comers. All you need is $250k and the “fortitude” to put it all on the line versus Tom “Durrr” Dwan. These heads-up televised matches are set for 500 hands. Neither player can leave the table until the 500 hand threshold has been reached unless they are broke. Dwan is taking on the top online poker players in the world at these stakes. The matches will be televised on SkySports in 2010.

I was just reading about how Patrick Antonius just won the largest online pot ever. Antonius, for those of you that may not know, is a Full Tilt Pro and is currently engaged in the Tom Dwan Challenge. Antonius happens to be one of the best online poker players in the world. While Texas Hold’em is what he typically plays live Antonius is also a very good Omaha player as well. As I have watched Dwan and Antonius go back and forth I started wondering about what it really proves. Seriously, I am not sure that playing at the highest stakes possible necessarily means you are the most “skilled” poker player.

What it indicates to me is that both players choose to play at nose bleed stakes to prove they are the best. The fact of the matter is that both Dwan and Antonius could have done this challenge playing at far lower stakes if they so desired and still come to the same conclusion after fifty-thousand hands.

So my question to you is this:

Can you measure a players skill strictly because of the stakes they play?

Looks like the good times are over for Jean-Robert Bellande as Bodog parted ways with the poker reality show star. You probably remember Jean-Robert from his chatty WSOP performance at the final table. He was also a recent contestant on “Survivor – China”  Bodog has been slowing down on their sponsorships lately. Now only David Williams, Justin Bonomo and Evelyn Ng remain as sponsored pros.

Jeff Pollack, Commissioner of the WSOP, has resigned his position as of yesterday Friday November 13th, 2009. This came as a bit of a surprise but Harrah’s seemed very appreciative of his efforts. Pollack said that he doesn’t have any immediate plans but he will surely be working somewhere soon.

Personally I have mixed feelings. I do believe Jeff wanted to do what is best for the game. We also can’t forget that Europe now has the WSOPE as well and Pollack had a lot to do with making that happen. On the other hand, we still have the on and off tweaking of the WSOP each year. This has been going on since Harrah’s took over and my hope is that we come to some sort of agreement on what kind and how many events there are going to be each year. I also do not like the fact that Binion’s was completely removed form the WSOP equation. It could have been worked out so that the final table was played there rather easily. Overall, I give Pollack a grade of C+. He wasn’t great but he wasn’t bad either.

Best wishes to you Jeff in your new endeavors.

If you haven’t heard about it Joe Sebok just inked a deal with Ultimate Bet. You may have read some of my previous posts about the non-sense that was taking place over there a few years back with all of the cheating scandals. I don’t want to get into the gory details as most of you are already aware of what happened. I read the article Joe was featured on in Bluff Magazine and it was very insightful.  From my perspective this is an extremely important step that Ultimate Bet had to make. Their reputation was in the mud and they had either let go of or lost a lot of pros with all of the drama and doubt from the cheating scandal. I said a while back that until they actually admitted they were wrong and made some serious management changes nothing would change.

Well sure enough Joe Sebok is now “Media and Operations Consultant” for the “new” Ultimate Bet online poker room. When I first heard about this I questioned Seboks’ sanity. However, after reading Seboks’ reasoning I have to commend him for this move. Sebok is in a can’t lose scenario. If UB fails everyone will say it was going to fold anyway because the cheating scandal was just too much. If UB succeeds Sebok is hailed as a hero (rightly so). I say that with the belief that Joe Sebok is serious about this enough to put his name on the product. To me that means he is going to do everything in his power to make the changes necessary and bring credibility back to the site.

Sebok indicated that he has visited the UB offices in Costa Rica and spoken with the operations staff and security face to face. That has got to be a good thing. He also has a few things that he wants to get accomplished while in this post. I won’t give away the entire article but it is certainly worth a read.

True, he won’t be able to win over everyone and that is understandable. However, if he can find a way to turn around the debacle that was UB just a few years ago he will have made one of the smartest business decisions of his young life.

Good luck Joe.

It took 88 hands for Joe Cada to defeat Darvin Moon heads-up for the bracelet. Cada is now the youngest main event world series of poker winner in history. Cada also takes down $8.5 million dollars in prize money for his efforts. Hopefully Cada puts the money to good use and does not gamble it all away. At this point he is literally set for life if he manages his money properly.

Good luck and well done to Joe Cada!

Finally the deed has been done. We all knew this was coming and had been rumored for quite some time. However, Full Tilt has finally announced that Tom “Durrr” Dwan is now the 14th Full Tilt Pro. Dwan has been an online juggernaut for quite some time now but this pretty much consummates the relationship that everyone assumed was the perfect match.

Dwan is arguably Full Tilts best online poker player although he has also done well in live poker tournaments along with a WPT final table too. Dwan is now the youngest member of Team Full Tilt but will certainly hold up his end with his spectacular play.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed at press time.

After a marathon session last night Darvin Moon and Joe Cada emerged as the two that will battle it out for the $8.5 million dollar first prize and the title of 2009 WSOP Main Event bracelet winner. Joe Cada fought back from nowhere after being down to $2 million in chips at one point. He was on life support and managed to hang around long enough to rebuild his stack and catch a few hands. Cada did a fantastic job and he got lucky when he needed too as well.

Darvin Moon had his ups and downs especially early on but he too managed to fight back from being short at one point. I am going to give the edge to Joe Cada in the heads-up match. Unless Moon catches some cards I don’t see him out playing this kind.

Phil Ivey busted out of the 2009 main event final table in seventh place this evening. Ivey got his money in good holding Ace King versus Darvin Moons Ace Queen. Moon hit a queen on the flop and there was no help on the turn or river for Phil Ivey. The championship bracelet run is over. I am sure Phil will shrug it off as usual but it has to sting to run this far and then take a beat like that. Maybe next time. Ivey takes hom a $1.4 million dollar pay day. Ivey busted out 7th at WSOP final table.

The 2009 Main Event is now down to seven players. Phil Ivey has pretty much been stuck in neutral all day long at $10 million. However, Buchman has built his stack to $52 million and is now second to Darvin Moons $59 million. There is plenty of action left. I will post a little later.

It looks like the rumor mill was right about this one. Just a few days ago there was a thread on a popular forum suggesting that Kara Scott would be the person to replace A.J. Benza on High Stakes Poker. Apparently it has turned out to be true. They announcement will be made  shortly from what i understand. Now we can put all the speculation to rest although it was rather amusing to hear peoples thoughts on who should replace Benza.

Kara will certainly be easy on the eyes. I wish her luck in her new position, she’s gonna need it standing next to Gabe.

Yes the World Poker Tour has yet another owner. Personally, I believe this may be the best scenario for the troubled WPT. As you may well know the WPT has had trouble sustaining ownership. The stock has dropped dramatically over the years and is currently hovering around $1.41 per share. Mike Sexton being a major player with both Party Gaming and the WPT gives instant credibility to this marriage and the vision to make it profitable for both sides.

Of all the owners the WPT could have this is the most natural fit in my opinion. Let’s hope it works out well.