Poker Guru Blog

Rounders is undoubtedly the most popular poker film of all times, one that probably every Texas Hold’em player knows about. This is the movie that made people start playing poker even before the era of poker ads on TV. This is the movie that every poker player has to see at least once in their lives. The poker society altogether has a lot to thank to this cult film for poker players.

I think that the above thoughts already express my admiration for this movie. I wasn’t even really clear with the rules at the time I watched the film, but it still instantly grabbed my attention. The atmosphere and the magic surrounding the players and the buoyancy of Mike (Matt Damon) make this film a must-see.

Do I really need to introduce the plot of this film? Is there a reader of this blog that hasn’t seen it?

Scotty Nguyen, considered one of the most funniest poker player talks about the new eight-game mix format and his love for the Lakers at the WSOP 2010. In 2008 Scotty won the $50,000 H.O.R.S.E. tournament at the WSOP and is considered a professional poker pro.

The multiple Guinness Record holder Bryan Berg has built the card version of the Venetian Macau Hotel & Casino out of 218,000 cards, with which he broke his own previous record. The playing card version of the Chinese luxury hotel and casino has been exhibited in the lobby of the hotel itself. The monstrum took 44 days to put together and weighs 272 kilograms in total.

In 2008, when Porsche first released its secret blueprints for the catamaran-like superyacht, they were not taken that seriously by the public, with most saying it would never get built. We don’t know what the odds would have looked like at betting offices for ever seeing the yacht on water rather than paper, but now it’s clear it is not just a fancy drawing. All speculations were crushed when spy photos of the luxury superyacht appeared in Superyacht Times.

If there is a place in the world that uses all the opportunities it gets, it would have to be Las Vegas. One thing that everyone surely knows about this city is that it is situated in the middle of the Nevada Desert and plays home to some of the world’s best casinos. Its isolation by the desert doesn’t mean it’s a city that is forgotten, being one of the most popular tourist attractions.

Bringing in millions of dollars from tourists each year, a new organization seeks to make the most of this by transporting tourists to the gallows of Las Vegas (home for the gambling yankees) in their new luxury train. The only difference between this and other schemes is that they’re trying to rob your wallets before you even make it to your destination.

In an earlier post made, we reported on Steve Soffa, the renowned Las Vegas jeweller showcasing his newly designed World Series of Poker bracelets. Ever since pictures of the new design where made public, people have been voicing their options on the new bracelet design. With most criticizing its fancy looks and suggesting that it was a little bit overdone, organizers have heard the calls and have decided to modify the original plans.

Players that end-up winning a bracelet now will have the on-site team ready to personalise their bracelet by engraving their name and event details. Winners also have the option to opt out of the "extra features", such as decoration locations, size and quantity. All bracelets will be created out of special solid gold clasp and will contain the WSOP logo and card suit. It will also contain cut diamonds and the card suit will be decorated with black diamonds and rubies.

For those who enjoy Armani products being of fragrance to clothing, there is now a hotel to please your accessorized body. Armani Hotel, exclusively located in the Burj Khalifa Tower in Dubai, has just recently opened its doors to the public, with its ribbon being cut by Giorgio Armani himself, of course. The hotel must have taken a large portion of the company’s holdings to build, but they have great expectations on return.

Gianluigi ’Gigi’ Buffon, the professional goalkeeper for the Italian national soccer team and Juventus will be PokerStars' newest ambassador. The world's largest poker room officially announced on Wednesday, that they have once again signed a world famous sportsman in their line-up of professional sports players.

Daniel Negreanu didn’t spend too much time worrying about Phil Ivey getting his own poker room at the Aria, as PokerStars gave him his own online poker room. Accessible from the PokerStars software client under the name Daniel’s Room, you can play high stakes cash games, ranging from $20/$40 and working their way up to $100/$200.

Daniel’s Room is not for the amateurs, with tens of thousands dollars required to challenge the pros. Of course, Daniel himself will be visiting the room on a regular basis, and for those who do beat him, not only do they get to take his money, they also get the opportunity to raise attention on their gameplay as they humiliate ’KidPoker’ in his own room. Who knows, with the attention that Negreanu attracts these days, players who go up against him and are successful could end up being featured on TV or getting a gig for themselves.

Just like other poker stars, Barry Greenstein has also attended the opening of his fellow poker star’s new poker room, the Ivey Room in the Aria, Las Vegas. The famous Barry Greenstein decided to record this grand event, bringing along his handycam. Thanks to Barry, we are able to get a sneak peek not only into the Ivey Room, but also the exclusive party and its guests.

The only downfall with the footage is that it is a bit shaky and this is most probably because all the free alcohol Barry had consumed that night.

You should definitely check out this video, it can give you a different perspective of the roof, the floor and the people who attended the opening. Enjoy!

With Everest Poker being featured in the latest David Guetta hit music video and PokerStars in Snoop Dogg's videoclip, could this be the next big thing in marketing online poker rooms? Well, UB poker believes so, with them also jumping into this latest way to target new potential customers by securing a placement in Ludacris latest videoclip, titled 'Sex Room'.

I don't think there is anybody on this planet who would like to break Terrence Watanabe's record of losing 204 million dollars in one single year. The American businessman was a regular visitor at the Harrah's Entertainment casinos in Las Vegas and is still more than 14 million dollars behind with his payments, which means that he could even be facing 28 years in prison.

52 year old Terrence Watanba from Nebraska took over Oriental Trading Company, his father's business in 1977, which is mostly dealing with party accessories and toys. The company's yearly income exceeded 300 million dollars, when Terrence sold it to Brentwood Associates in 2000. Although the buying price has been undisclosed, it is highly probable that Watanabe received enough money to secure a wealthy life for all his descendants.

However, the 52 year old workaholic couldn't bear having free time and first became the prisoner of alcohol, and then got addicted to gambling. As he regularly did these two free-time activities at the same time, he started losing huge sums of money, which means that the most his descendants can inherit will be his huge debts. According to the first reports by Harrah's Entertainment, he had lost 127 million dollars in Rio and Caesars Palace, but it later turned out that they had underestimated his losses, which truly add up to around $204 million. Watanabe is still unable to put together $14.75 million, which means he could be facing up to a 28-year sentence.

Watanabe's attorney attacks the casino's attitude, saying that his patient had intentionally been given prescription drugs and alcohol to keep him playing.
"They took advantage of his inebriation to defraud him out of tens of millions of dollars," O'Donnell said. "There was a concerted effort from the highest levels of management to keep him gambling. They targeted him and then took advantage of his vulnerabilities. He is the victim here."

Terrence Watanabe

A new era has begun, when it comes to trading firms scouting for new talent to add to their team of professional Wall Street traders. Giving up the old conventional ways of looking for new Wall Street recruits, firms are now switching the focus on poker skills rather than business experience or connections. This new phenomenon of trade companies hunting down poker pros does not come as a surprise to many. With most firms now acknowledging that a poker player lacks in-the-field experiences, they easily make up for it in their quick decision-making and their number-crunching abilities.

Phil Hellmuth, one of the most famous poker players in the world, hasn’t been able to win any live tournament since 2007, which is a rather uncomfortable experience for someone who already owns 11 WSOP bracelets. Phil’s self-esteem is still in the skies, though, as a recent interview proves this. Michael Kaplan visited Phil Hellmuth in his Palo Alto home, and this is where the poker pro paraphrased his rather self-conscious statement. He said he is still the best Hold'em player in the world, and, despite his series of failures, he is catching up with the ever-improving modern poker. (Experts say that the reason for Phil's lack of success might be that he cannot keep pace with the 'new generation' of hyperaggressive players that are willing to take all the risks needed to win.)

The new high stakes poker room of the Aria Resort & Casino has finally opened, and celebrated its launch with an invitational tournament offering a prize pool of one million dollars.

Poker pros, celebrities and rich entrepreneurs attended the grand opening ceremony of the Ivey Room this Saturday. Phil Ivey (after whom the room was named) gave an opening speech, and after that, all the people invited sat down to take part in the one million dollar guaranteed tournament. The players that made it to the final table took a share of the prize pool, and there was a special $100,000 prize offered for the player eliminating Phil himself. WPT winner David 'Chino' Rheem took the knockout bounty.

The final table decided to go for a deal and refrained from taking the game all the way to heads-up. The tournament winner was supposed to play heads-up with Phil Ivey for another $100,000. Larry Litton, the one with the biggest stack took the challenge, but didn't manage to take down the 7-time WSOP champion.

Phil Ivey and Larry Litton