OK, so maybe my November Nine prediction didn’t quite come out the way I would’ve liked. At least I got 2nd place right! On the PokerBRB forum, I asked some of the Danish players there why Eastgate didn’t crack a smile after he won. After all, if I’d won $9.1 million, I’d be doing cartwheels! When they explained the Danish tax situation to me, and how he’d fork over about 70% of his winnings to SKAT (the Danish IRS — a fitting acronym for a tax agency), I can see how his elation can turn to disappointment. That tax money will buy a lot of cheese- and cherry-filled pastries! (Get it?)

Anyway, now that the ‘08 WSOP is (FINALLY!) in the books, it’s time to look forward to the coming holidays and the promise of a new year as well as a (hopefully) more poker-friendly new administration. On a personal note, I’ll be starting the new year (or at least mid-January) trying to hit as many Vegas poker rooms as I can.

I’ve already played at the poker palaces like Bellagio and Venetian, but there are still a few of the high-end rooms I’d like to try.

Some of the poker areas on the Strip don’t qualify as rooms (the fenced-off area at the Flamingo immedately springs to mind), but I’d still like to check out the play at some of the smaller Strip casinos — maybe the action will make up for the lack of atmosphere.

Even a few of the Downtown rooms, despite their seedy exteriors, have great play on the inside. On my first visit to Binion’s, I made the final three at a small daily tournament. I can say, with absolute truth, that I made a final table at Binion’s!

Here are the top five poker rooms in Vegas I want to visit!

5. Mirage. The Mirage and its sister properties, TI and Bellagio, have been attracting poker players since they opened. While Bellagio hosts the WPT Championship, the Mirage typically hosts the season opener. Also, if I take a bad beat, I can just throw myself into the volcano!

4. Golden Nugget. Calling the Golden Nugget the nicest place to play downtown may be like calling a junked-out ‘57 Chevy the nicest car on the scrap heap.  While their poker room has only ten tables, the atmosphere in the room carries both a rich history as well as 21st century amenities. In photos, the room comes across as a “mini-Venetian” — comfortable, but scaled down.

3. Wynn. I’m not sure I have enough money to breathe the same air as most of the people that stay at the Wynn. I only hope that they don’t laugh at me too much for only playing $4/$8. Even their street sign says, “I’m richer than God!”

2. Hard Rock. For a room with only eighteen tables, the Hard Rock is going all out to make its “Poker Lounge” seem like the coolest place to play. Of course, an out-of-shape math nerd like me will stand out there like John McCain at an ACORN meeting.

1. Caesars Palace. Not only does Caesars have one of the best rooms in town, it has two! It’s the only place on the Strip that has separate rooms for tourneys and cash games. If you don’t want the loud rookie at the $3/$6 table to bother you during the money bubble of a tourney, no problem!

Of course, if you have any other rooms you’d like to recommend, either for the action or the atmosphere, then drop a comment here. Also, if you’d like to learn more about some of my strategic writing on no-limit hold’em, you can check my posts at www.pokerbankrollblog.com.

As a poker journalist, I should remain objective about my views regarding the relative merits of the November Nine. I should point out what a great story it would be for short stack Kelly Kim, if he could climb to the top of the mountain. A win by a young pro like Craig Marquis, David “Chino” Rheem or Scott Montgomery would launch their careers to stratospheric heights. An unknown like Darus Suharto, who cashed in at this event two years ago, would make a wonderful ambassador for the game, as would long-time tournament pro Ylon Schwartz. Poker could further expand its international appeal if the bracelet came to Gus Hansen disciple and fellow Dane Peter Eastgate or to the young Russian pro Ivan Demidov. Demidov also could cement his reputation as superstar of the game by winning this event after his third-place finish in the WSOP Europe main event last month.

Each of these skilled, intelligent, talented players has a wonderful story to tell.

Screw them all!

My pick to win is Dennis Phillips, an account manager for a trucking company in my hometown of St. Louis, Missouri, US of By God A! He’s not young (53). He’s not brash or loud. Until now, he’s had as many cash finishes in major events as I have (1). He has refused to trade in his company shirt and autographed St. Louis Cardinals baseball cap for those with poker site logos, despite the money these sites are throwing his way; his loyalties to his friends, his coworkers and his hometown team are not for sale. He is, as Wicked Chops Poker described him, an “everyman”.

After watching all of the disgraceful, disgusting and ridiculous behavior we’ve seen during this year’s World Series, the sight of a triumphant everyman, similar to the site we witnessed five years ago, would be a pleasant and refreshing change of pace.

However, since Harrah’s and the WSOP still choose to bow at the feet of the four-letter network, I do have a suggestion for how the final heads-up battle should unfold. Ideally, the contestants in this fight would be the tough, gritty American Phillips and the young, cagey Russian Demidov.

Before the match, the two combatants shake hands and Demidov coldly glares into Phillips’ eyes as he whispers, “I must break you.”

Phillips returns the stare and replies, “Go for it.”

During the match, the sneaky Russian has the proud, plucky American almost down to the felt. In spite of his adversity, Phillips refuses to go down as he staggers and stumbles against the Russian’s relentless onslaught.

Phillips goes all in and Drago Demidov doubles him up. Phillips repeatedly doubles up until he establishes the chip lead. The entire crowd is chanting “USA! USA! USA!”

After a long, valiant struggle, Phillips finally puts away the Russian when he flops a nut straight and Dragodov misses his flush draw. The crowd cheers, the Stars and Stripes wave in the breeze of the air-conditioning vent and grown men weep in exultation. A battered, bloody Phillips, Old Glory draped on his shoulders, accepts his championship bracelet and the thanks of a grateful nation!

For those players that enjoy Sit and Go tournaments (as well as those crazy Wachowski brothers movies), Full Tilt Poker has a new spin on the standard one-table tourney in a setting called a Matrix Tournament. Some of these features include:

• Same opponents
• Different seats
• Four tables
• One Price

In a Full Tilt Matrix tournament, the prize pool is split into two categories. While players still win money for each top-three finish at each table, they also have the chance to earn cash prizes based on their cumulative point total at all four tables.

• For each player eliminated at a table, the remaining players earn one point.
• For each successful “knockout” (eliminating a player), the winning player earns two points.
• For each first-place finish at a table, the winner earns two points.

For full rules and descriptions, see Full Tilt’s Matrix Details Page.

This particular setting is a great way to test a player’s abilities against different types of opponents in different positions at the same time – an opportunity that many players may not find in any environment, live or online. As we look at each facet of this fun new innovation in online poker, we can see how each area can improve your poker skills.

Same opponents. If you’ve ever wished that a tough opponent were on one side of your position, only to have him seated on the opposite side and hindering your style, Matrix tournaments give you the chance to (literally) turn the tables. This setting gives you ample opportunity to observe players under different situations and positions simultaneously. How does the maniac react to a re-raise from out of position? Is the tight player you’ve targeted at one table really as tight as he seems at another? Is the player who put a bad beat on you really that lucky or is he truly better than he seems? When you play the same players in four different situations, you get four times the information and (ideally) will play four times better.

Different seats. The Full Tilt software assigns each of the nine players to different seats at each of the four tables. The maniacal raiser on your left at one table may be sitting two seats to your right at another. The Rock of Gibraltar may be on your left at one table, on your right at another, and directly across from you on a third. These different seating arrangements can make for very interesting variations in strategic approaches. When these assignments fit with your style of play, you can tweak your basic strategies and look for opportunities to exploit these favorable settings. When the styles and seating arrangements of your opponents don’t fit well with your comfort level, such adversity offers you a great chance to improve your game and good practice at playing in a wide variety of scenarios.

Four tables. If you’ve ever sung the old song, “Bad Beat Blues” after you were eliminated from a SNG, replace it with “Hit Me Baby, One More Time”! Even if you took a bad beat at one table, Full Tilt Matrix tourneys still give you three more chances. If you’ve ever lost to an inferior opponent and told yourself, “I know I can beat that guy,” Matrix tourneys give you three more opportunities to prove yourself. For anyone who has ever questioned whether poker is a game of luck or skill, they’ll see immediately how difficult it is to “get lucky” four times against the same players.

One price. One of the main attractions of Matrix tournaments is the fact that you can play four SNGs for only one price, starting as low as $1.25. For cost-conscious players, Matrix tournaments may be the best bargain since the invention of the satellite tournament. In these tough economic times, poker bargains are quickly becoming scarce. Full Tilt now has one of the best opportunities available.

While you don’t need to take a red pill to enter this Matrix, you’ll still have to battle powerful agents to determine if you truly are “the One.”

Many players found former Main Event champion Scotty Nguyen’s behavior at the $50K Chip Reese Memorial HORSE tournament deplorable. His verbal attacks on his fellow pros were universally derided (included here in an earlier entry) as tirades fueled by alcohol, sleep deprivation and the mental toughness required to play five diverse poker games at the highest level.

If all of these circumstances can mitigate Scotty Nguyen’s behavior, what excuses can fellow champion Phil Hellmuth use to pardon his unconscionable treatment of Christian Dragomir during this year’s Main Event? After he repeatedly called Dragomir an “idiot”, tournament officials threatened to penalize Hellmuth for his outburst. Hellmuth appealed his penalty, and WSOP brass rescinded their punishment. Some observers may believe that a certain cable channel with four initials recommended to Jeffery Pollack and company that the “Poker Brat” be given a pass for his childish tantrum. Since Harrah’s changed the timing of the final table specifically to meet their TV partner’s demands, such speculations should not be considered as out of line.

If the now-infamous “Joe the Plumber” would have received a stiff penalty for such outlandish behavior, why did WSOP higher-ups let Hellmuth off the hook? If they can make a rule banning excessive celebrations (the much-needed “Hevad Khan” rule), why don’t they enforce such a rule regarding temper tantrums and insulting players?

If you’ll recall, the unnamed four-letter network produces their WSOP shows under the banner of “original entertainment.” Similarly, World Wrestling Entertainment bills their product as “sports entertainment” so as to differentiate their shows from a true competition. Since the WSOP becomes more like a TV entertainment show and less like a competitive tournament since the Moneymaker boom, should we start to consider the WSOP “poker entertainment”? Will we see Daniel Negreanu hit Mike Matusow with a steel folding chair? How about a steel cage match between Nguyen and Hellmuth? Instead of bracelets, the WSOP can award big gold championship belts. Give the dealers striped shirts and string ropes around the tables – now that’s entertainment!

Up until recently, the marriage between poker and TV had been a blessing for both parties. Now, it appears, that the relationship has reached the stage where the “same old, same old” isn’t as exciting as it used to be. The more adventurous partner wants to “spice things up” and “try something different” at the expense of the synergy that made the relationship work in the first place. TV cameras encourage the kind of asinine behavior we see from the Hellmuths, the Matusows and the Khans in the interests of making “good TV”. The question is, when did good TV replace good poker?

Part I of this piece analyzed how the current economic downturn potentially could affect the future of poker. While the recent explosive growth in the game will not be able to sustain itself during these conditions, such a slowdown should not be interpreted as the tolling of the funeral bell for the game itself. In many instances, both live poker tournaments and live cash games will take a significant hit from this cash contraction. However, many players will be able to find new opportunities amidst this adversity.

Newer Players. With the widespread exposure of televised poker tournaments and their million-dollar prizes, many players who have never set foot in a casino or read a poker book may try to take a stab at what they believe to be quick, easy money. In their desperation, they may not take the time to study, learn and practice the game as well as they should. These aspiring players would be better served if they spent their money on state lottery scratch-off tickets. Their attempts to make the kind of gutsy bluffs and aggressive reraises that they see on TV will deplete their bankrolls and leave them as potential profit centers for the true students of the game.

Home Games. If you can’t afford the airfare to Las Vegas, hopefully you can afford the extra gallon of gas to drive to a friend’s house for an old-fashioned home game. Some of the better aspects of home games are:

• Players can choose the game, limits and structure.
• In most cases, the players all know each other. This can make for a much more fun and festive atmosphere.
• Food and beverages are usually plentiful during such games. On some occasions, the host provides for the party; at other times, the players chip in for the meals and drinks.
• The host can query the players as to whether they would feel comfortable with the house taking a rake from the pot.

One downside to home games is that laws on private games vary by local jurisdiction, so please do your homework before advertising or promoting a home game.

Online Sites. Not only do online games put the poker table as close as you computer desk or laptop, they also offer games and tournaments at much lower stakes than any live poker room could ever provide. For players with adequate skills but insufficient bankrolls, online sites offer the chance to practice your play, work on new strategies and learn different games and styles of poker for much less money than you’d spend on cab fare from the airport!

New Laws. From national lotteries during the Revolution to the legalization of gaming in Nevada during the Great Depression to the establishment of Native American casinos in the 80s and 90s, state and federal governments have built a history of turning to revenues generated from gambling whenever a financial crisis hits American shores. If history is any guide, US authorities once again will call a temporary truce in their war against the ‘evils’ of gambling long enough to wring out the ready cash they need to set the economy back on the right track. Many legislators are working on refining the 2006 Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act so that it excludes online poker. As this cash crunch continues, authorities soon will realize that regulation and taxation will benefit their citizenry and their coffers much more than prohibition and incarceration of players.

“Is the poker boom over?” If that question implies the death of the hype and hysteria surrounding the game since Chris Moneymaker’s miraculous win five years ago, then the answer is undoubtedly, “Yes”. However, just like the dot-com bust that preceded the ‘Moneymaker effect’, the seeds of eventual triumph often find root in times of struggle.

The sudden, startling downturn in the US economy has affected almost every business arena. Poker, specifically live casino poker, is no exception. This deep recession will impact your live poker experience in several ways:

Travel Expenses: With rising prices for both gasoline and jet fuel, along with a tighter money supply, traveling to the major poker rooms in Las Vegas, Atlantic City and elsewhere around the country will become prohibitively expensive. Instead of a fun weekend excursion or a summer-long tour of your favorite casinos, your poker trips will take a back seat to paying your rising household bills with your shrinking (or non-existent) paycheck.

Closing Poker Rooms: Last year, the Las Vegas Hilton closed their poker room. This year, Planet Hollywood shut down their popular poker room and replaced it with a high-limit gaming area. In this economy, casinos are seeking to improve their profit margins wherever they can. Until the recent boom, poker barely rated as an afterthought in the minds of casino executives. Loss-leading areas like poker will be among the first amenities to feel the budget axe.

No more ‘aquariums’: Another consequence of this widespread belt-tightening is that fewer and fewer new players will put their hard-earned money down on the table. With a thinner supply of ‘fish’ in the sea, the ‘sharks’ will have no choice but to turn on each other. For those professional players on the margins of the game (i.e. those not on the tournament trail or without web site endorsement deals), their primary source of income will quickly dry up. Even top-level touring pros will feel the impact in smaller tournament fields and diminished prize pools.

As we’re seeing now, any artificially inflated economic bubble cannot be sustained. Whether the fuel for that bubble comes from buying stocks on credit, investing in junk bonds, overvaluing dot-com public offerings or bundling sub-prime mortgages, that bubble inevitably bursts with catastrophic and far-reaching consequences.

Does such a catastrophe truly sound the death-knell for the poker boom? As with any boom, this one will eventually go bust. However, such events should not be interpreted as the funeral march for poker itself. The game has survived bad times and bad people, depressions and recessions, a civil war and two world wars. As long as people have cards, chips and cash, poker will survive in one form or another.

In fact, this recession may present some wonderful opportunities to open up this great game to new arenas. In Part II, we will explore some of the silver linings available in these dark financial clouds.

Recently, the World Poker Tour announced that, starting with Season Seven, their final table broadcasts would air on Fox Sports Network and its affiliates. Such a move could sever as a bounce-back for the struggling poker franchise. After their long and successful five-year run on the Travel Channel, their move to Game Show Network did not garner them as much attention as founder Steven Lipscomb had previously enjoyed. Even when the channel paired the WPT final table shows with their broadcasts of High Stakes Poker, their ratings numbers suffered. This setback, along with the failure of their Professional Poker Tour series, forced WPT executives to make a move.

With their new partnership with FSN, combined with their relationship with the MGM/Mirage casino chain, WPT is taking dead aim at the combined forces of the World Series of Poker Circuit, Harrah’s and ESPN. The widespread coverage offered by FSN will attract many non-poker sports fans in ways that neither the Travel Channel nor Game Show Network could provide.

For the regular touring players, such competition could result in more opportunities for exposure, which could lead to more endorsement and sponsorship deals available outside of poker.

For the Joe-Average player who want to live his dream of playing at a TV final table, more exposure could lead to more chances to realize that dream and more satellite tournaments to help pave the way.

For the host casinos, more TV time inevitably leads to more foot traffic through the doors. The hopes of these casino executives lie in having these poker players, students and fans of the game stop on their way to the tournament room to sit down at the slot machines or blackjack tables.

For TV viewers, it gives us a chance to see more of our favorite players at their best (or worst), glued to our screens, hanging on every move.

Has it really been five years since Chris Moneymaker’s miracle run at the World Series of Poker Main Event? Most players, especially those introduced to the game through those broadcasts, remember where they were when they saw the pudgy Tennessee accountant face down the slick, experienced pro Sam Farha.

After watched that display of skill, luck and fearlessness, many young men (and a few young ladies) put down their toys and picked up poker chip sets. Cards flew around kitchen tables and frat houses across the country. Travelers to Las Vegas who would normally confine their explorations to the glitzy Strip casinos soon began to venture through the grimy confines of Fremont Street and took a seat at Binion’s, as if stepping into the batter’s box at Yankee Stadium.

In the months and years following Moneymaker’s triumph, the popularity of no-limit hold’em tournaments exploded:

• World Series of Poker reruns on ESPN continue to draw in viewers.
• The World Poker Tour was established and grew into the Travel Channel’s #1 show during its run on that network.
• On the heels of the WPT’s success, Harrah’s established their own tour, the World Series of Poker Circuit, at its own casinos around the country, with the final tables taped for ESPN.
• Hollywood stars jumped on the hold’em bandwagon with Celebrity Poker Showdown on Bravo.

At this year’s Main Event, for the first time ever, tournament officials have delayed the start of the Final Table until November 10th. Why the wait of over four months?

Four letters: ESPN.

Instead of having viewers watch a Final Table from months earlier, the cable network plans to air the action on November 11th. The idea, according to some, is to maintain interest in the outcome. “If Joe Channelsurfer already knows who’s going to win,” the reasoning goes, “why should he watch?”

Such a delay, built in expressly to enable both Harrah’s and ESPN to stoke the embers of the TV poker fad, can serve only to hurt the participants. While some players may lose that needed adrenaline edge after such a long layoff, others may be tempted to win by compromising the integrity of the game. Four months is more than adequate time to set up an elaborate cheating system or a collusion arrangement. If such unscrupulous behavior ever came to light, it would damage everyone involved. Most of all, viewers would lose faith in what they were watching. If Harrah’s and ESPN aren’t careful, their carefully honed product could become a “sports-entertainment” joke with outcomes having as much credibility as the next WWE pay-per-view.

Like many modern pro sports leagues, Harrah’s and WSOP officials have sacrificed themselves and their integrity to the gods of the flickering screen. As players and fans of the game, we only can hope that the November Nine choose not to lay their ethics on that same altar.

Up until recently, the poker media have portrayed veteran pro Thuan “Scotty” Nguyen as a pleasant, fun-loving character. Famous for his boisterous laugh, gold medallions and referring to everyone he meets as “Baby”, Nguyen often came across as one of the most enjoyable players to watch. Even when playing against him, opponents often found themselves caught up in his ability to turn the tense atmosphere of a major tournament into a home-game-style party.

That image has suffered since the 2007 World Series of Poker Main Event. With the final two tables in play, Nguyen was the chip leader. By all accounts, he should have made the final table and stood a very good chance of joining Moss, Brunson, Ungar and Chan as the only multiple Main Event champions. Instead, he attempted to force his will on European pro Philip Hilm, who refused to be intimidated by the former champion. Nguyen’s ego and recklessness cost him his final table berth and earned him an eleventh-place finish.

At this year’s World Series of Poker, Nguyen won the prestigious $50,000 buy-in HORSE event. Most poker experts consider this to be the toughest tournament in the history of the Series: the field is almost exclusively made up of experienced pros, the buy-in keeps out all but the most elite players and the mixture of games requires the highest skill levels of the participants. Nguyen’s victory under such circumstances, especially after his flameout in last year’s Main Event, should have cemented his legacy as one of the greatest players in the history of the game.

Instead of displaying the class and dignity befitting his stature as the “Prince of Poker”, Nguyen chose to behave so disgracefully that his fellow pros have questioned both his state of mind and his sobriety. Some examples of his outlandish behavior:

• During a seven-card stud hand, Nguyen showed his hole cards to the crowd.
• In another hand, he left the table to high-five audience members before the action had finished.
• He hectored young pro Michael DeMichele on his behavior while acting worse by the moment.
• His repeated use of foul language at the table while calling for more cocktails did not draw a penalty from tournament officials, unlike in previous years with players such as Mike Matusow and Sean Sheikhan.

Many players have speculated that Nguyen’s behavior at the HORSE tournament reflects a “hangover” from last year’s Main Event failure. Nguyen also issued an online apology to his fans, though that statement did not mention Lindgren, DeMichele or World Series staff.

Nguyen’s talent for the game is undeniable. He will go down in history as the first man to win both the World Championship and the David “Chip” Reese Memorial Trophy. The question remains: will the Prince of Poker become an admired leader like Henry at Agincourt, or will he still be the loutish Prince Hal throwing back beers with Falstaff?

Let me tell you a story about a guy named Phil.

No, not that Phil. No, not that Phil, either. Not that one, either. Definitely not that Phil.

This Phil.

Phil Gordon is a man of many talents: author, TV commentator, teacher, video producer, movie star and, on occasion, poker player.

He is also a man given to extremes: he is extremely intelligent (graduated from Georgia Tech at age 20), extremely rich (made millions in the dot-com years), extremely tall (at 6’9”, even LeBron James looks up to him) and extremely charitable (his Bad Beat on Cancer charity has raised millions of dollars for cancer research).

For players who are looking to improve their game, especially at the final table of a big tournament, I recommend his Final Table Poker DVD. The production values and visual presentation are top-notch, as opposed to most poker videos that look like they were made in someone’s basement. His narration takes you through his thought process as he navigates through his opposition to make the best decision during each hand. He includes guest players like UFC announcer Bruce Buffer and former World Champion Chris Ferguson. He also uses actors to portray characters that may or may not resemble certain famous pros.

Phil Gordon’s books also contain a lot of sound poker advice. His first book, Poker: The Real Deal, features great stories and insights into the lifestyle of the touring poker pro. His Little Green Book and Little Blue Book, modeled after golf instructor Harvey Penick’s Little Red Book, carry excellent tips for players at all levels in all situations.

Most people recognize Phil from his hosting duties on Bravo’s Celebrity Poker Showdown. His astute analysis and conversational tone helped to make that show one of the highest rated programs in the history of the channel.

Recently, Phil landed a role in the film The Grand with Woody Harrelson, Cheryl Hines and Ray Romano. Going against type, Phil gives a stellar performance as a TV poker commentator (what a stretch!) who doesn’t always get along with his co-host.

A certain old saying goes, “Those who can, do; those who can’t, teach.” Phil Gordon is a rare example of a player who “can do” and who “can teach”.