I just found out that Phil Ivey has filed for divorce from his long time wife and high school sweetheart Luciaetta. Ivey and Luciaetta have been married for 7 years. Fortunately there are no children involved. More details coming soon.

I am sure you have heard rumblings about the Full Tilt cheating scandal involving Brian Townsend by now. If not, Townsend and a couple of buddies of his took down $4 million dollars playing a cash game against well known online poker pro isildur1. Townsend basically colluded with a couple of other players comparing hand histories. This allowed them to put isildur1 on a range of hands and also to recognize betting patterns which gives the player with that knowledge a HUGE advantage!

To say that I am pissed off would be an understatement. This isn’t the first time I have heard Brian Townsend’s name mentioned in a cheating scandal. I have never met or spoken to Brian Townsend a day in my life. However, I am extremely disappointed in his conduct or lack thereof. The reason being is that Brian was extremely selfish along with those he colluded with in not taking into account the repercussions to online poker. Online poker is in the midst of its toughest fight ever and yet again it gets hit with another cheating scandal. Townsend is a fantastic player in his own right. I have seen him play both cash and tournaments just as many others have. He has the talent to win in high stakes games. That is what makes this entire situation so puzzling. I realize that it was Hastings that was doing the playing but sharing specific hand histories is a no no. Yes, we all read our hand histories but not necessarily to take down one particular player as is the case with this scenario.

What the hell was he thinking?

It’s my hope that Townsend gives this situation some serious thought over the next few weeks. He has done damage to himself and to the game of online poker. I don’t believe he is a bad guy but he sure has made some very poor choices lately. In 2008 he lost his Full Tilt Pro status due to multi-accounting.

Hey! Brian Townsend!

“C’mon MAN!”

The 2010 WSOP schedule has been announced.There will be 57 bracelet events this time around which is the same as last year. The WSOP will run from May 27th through July 17th. In a twist on the past two years the Chip Reese memorial H.O.R.S.E. event will be the first event open to all comers. The H.O.R.S.E. event still has the lofty $50k buy-in but this time will be televised unlike last season. It has also been re-named to the “Players Championship.”

Otherwise, it looks pretty much the same as last year. Unfortunately there will be another delayed final table.

I had an opportunity to sit down and watch the CNBC Illegal Gambling Special this evening and I thought they did a pretty good job. They highlighted arguments from both sides of the aisle and really broke down the reasoning behind why online gambling should be legalized and regulated in the United States. They also had a few of our friendly politicians on to discuss their take on it pro and con.

The consensus seemed to be that online gambling will be legal within a couple of years. I tend to agree with that assessment based on all of the information I have been able to tap into since this non-sense began. We are progressing and we should expect things to change in the short and long term. The fact of the matter is that $40 Billion dollars is a lot of money and it’s there for the asking.

If you didn’t know Vanessa Rousso is wisely expanding her horizons and is a panelist on the E! show Bank of Hollywood. The show is about people that are asked to make a proposal for a project and they stand before the panel to either get approved or denied. The show had several familiar panelist with the exception of Vanessa. Rousso has clearly been branching out beyond the poker world and taking advantage of the numerous opportunities that are presenting themselves. As usual she did quite well and came of intelligent as well as beautiful. I don’t know how long the show will be on the air but it was well produced and if it is your kinda thing you might want to tune into the E! channel.

Sometimes it seems very difficult to sustain your momentum when you are building your stack. You lose a small pot here and another small pot there and all of the sudden one third of your stack is gone. Then you end up getting bad beat and you are back down to the average with the rest of the “mortals.” It happens and it will happen again because that is the nature of the game. I had to remind myself of that after getting bad beat out of 4 tournaments deep when I was either chip leader or among the top five players with only 20 left.

Not much we can do about it other than fire up another tournament and move on. Momentum can be a funny thing sometimes because it works the same as variance in that it can stop a very good run dead in its tracks. So on those days when things are going your way and you are hitting hands all over the place don’t stop playing. Find another tournament or cash game and PLAY PLAY PLAY. Remember, when you recognize things are swinging your way take advantage of it.

Enforcement of the UIGEA has been delayed until 2010. Basically this means the banks do not have to be in compliance with the new laws regarding how they do transactions with online gambling sites. I suppose the delay can be viewed as somewhat of a small victory for us online poker players. I am still very cautious about getting overly excited about this whole thing. I do believe we are moving in the right direction. I also believe the economy is so bad that it would be very difficult for the US to turn down $3 billion in tax dollars.

We have a while until July to see what happens. Until then…

Binions hotel will be closing down December 14th. I have been fortunate enough to have played in the Binions poker room many times. The good news is that the poker room, sports betting, casino and Binions Ranch Steakhouse will remain open. The fact of the matter is that the economy has a lot to do with it in this case. Binions was simply not getting the kind of traffic it had been getting in the past. Changes had to be made and the hotel is a part of those changes. The wall of fame is still there and the nostalgic feel of the poker room remains albeit in an altered state. TLC Enterprises spokesperson Lisa Robinson indicated there could be plans to re-open it.

That certainly can’t be a bad thing but I am sure they will re-open with some major upgrades for the rooms. If they can put that together and perhaps some strong marketing maybe the newer version of Binions hotel will fare better.

Now that all of the hoopla is over and the hams and turkeys are long gone I can look back on this past week with a smile. I ran ridiculously good and my bankroll is extremely happy about it. I took 2nd place in a large multi-table tournament and cashed in several others. Also, I caught some really good cards at the right time and they held up. All the skill in the world doesn’t mean too much if your hands are not holding up but I certainly didn’t have that problem.  The next live poker tournament I will be playing will be at the Majestic Star casino. They are having a Winter Deep Stacks Challenge in another week or so and I will be there ready to go.

I hope that everyone is enjoying success with their poker games or at least moving towards the goals that they have set for 2009. Remember, we still have a few weeks left to hit those 2009 goals.

Good luck!