Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?

Gus Hansen has been on quite a streak this month. Even as Tom "durrrr" Dwan has been hemorrhaging on the Full Tilt tables, Hansen has been earning enough to put a small village through college.














Last we heard, he's up $2.6 million. Apparently, that's not enough to seduce Phil "OMGClayAiken" Galfond. He was asked whether he considered Hansen a "good player." He responded, "Yes."

... and then followed it up with, "in a game of World Class players."




















That's not nice, Phil. Of course, with $2.6 million in his pocket for January, we doubt Hansen is crying about it.

Let's Go Aussie!

Those of you who have kept your ears to the ground already know that this year's Aussie Millions has launched. Nearly two dozen players have each ponied up AUD$100,000 for a chance to take home the AUD$1.2 million first prize.

Ever the high-rollers, both Dwan and Patrik Antonius strolled up to the table. Antonius coughed up $1.5 million for the buy in. Dwan, not to be shown up by a bald guy, bought in for $2 million.




















They battled it out for awhile at $1,000-$2,000 blinds before other players joined. When Dwan finally took his hands away from his eyes, he was [luckily] stuck at $1.5 million while Antonius added another $300,000 to his bank.

All in a day's work.

WSOP 2009 Schedule Released!

To get us lickin' our chops, Harrah's released this year's World Series of Poker schedule. It kicks off on May 26th and the winner will be crowned in mid-November.



















A couple changes from last year...

• no rebuys. We're not sure what happened here. Some folks speculate that the Harrah's officials thought the bracelets would eventually end up on eBay (our words, not theirs).
• $1,500 and $5,000 Mixed Hold’em tournaments are gone
• a $40,000 No Limit Hold’em tournament has been added to the docket. For you fans out there, the WSOP is in its 40th. The addition of the new tournament is to to commemorate the occasion.

Well, that's another wrap. To recap...

1. Gus Hansen is a whole lot richer.
2. Phil Galfond has a dark side...sort of.
3. Dwan dodged a bullet.
4. Antonius can buy another house or three.
5. WSOP 2009 is ON... (in May)!

See you later in the week.

Poker Ain't Gamblin' (And More!)

The next time someone looks at you and asks, "You're a gambler?" look 'em right back in the eye and say, "No, sir. I'm a **skilled professional.**"

So says a Pennsylvania judge. A couple of guys were running a $1-$2 no-limit game out of their garage. Apparently, someone wasn't invited and called the cops. Eventually, charges were filed and the case landed on the desk of Columbia County Judge Thomas James.















We'd like to picture the honorable Judge James looking over his glasses at the prosecutor, disgust in his eyes, as he said, "Texas hold’em poker is a game where skill predominates over chance." We also like to imagine the Good Judge had just won a huge pot the night before at his own neighborhood poker game.

So, poker is a game of skill. Case closed. Of course, Tom Dwan probably wasn't too happy to hear the judge's ruling...

C'mon Dwan

After logging a $5.4 million year in 2008, Tom "durrrr" Dwan has endured a bone-shattering $3 million loss so far in January.

Ouch.




















So, who's been cleaning his clock? Well, Patrik Antonius is a pretty good bet. He's up $3 million in January. Gus Hansen isn't far behind with a $2.4 million take so far in 2009.

Dwan's a damn good player, of course. So, we're thinking he'll ride the storm out and come back swinging.

"I'll Flip You For It."

Recently, Phil Ivey and Ilari "Ziigmund" Sahamies showed us what it feels like to not worry about the global economy circling the drain. On a Full Tilt Poker table, they agreed to flip over $400,000.

They had been going back and forth when "Ziigmund" suggested they both go all in for their banks. Always up for a challenge, our man Ivey agreed.

Unfortunately, it wasn't his day. He looked good through the flop, but the turn killed him.











Well, that's a wrap for this week. To summarize...

1. We're all skilled professionals
2. Dwan may need a loan soon
3. Ivey and Sahamies have way too much money

See you next week.

Poor Clonie Gowen

Let's get this party started.

You might remember back in November (before we took our sabbatical), Clonie Gowen had gone "full tilt" on Full Tilt Poker and a few other companies. She threw the gloves off and sued 'em. Never one to shy away from the big game, Gowen had a nice round dollar figure in mind: $40 million.



















Back then, we had no idea what happened. For all we knew, a VP at Full Tilt might have asked her if she was pregnant.

Well, fast forward to the present. It turns out that Gowen somehow got it into her head that she owned 1% of the company. She says she was promised the stake in 2004 as compensation for promoting them.

Her lawsuit basically said:

1. The Full Tilt empire is worth $4 billion.

2. A 1% sliver equals $40 million.

3. Gimme my money.

4. Seriously, give me my money.

Full Tilt Poker probably had the same reaction as we did...

"Say WHAT?!"

And get this... apparently, it was an oral contract. Now, we don't know about you, but if our company were worth $4 billion (it's not, by the way), we sure as HELL would not make an oral contract for a stake.

In the lawsuit, Gowen further claims that she was never compensated for representing Full Tilt. Who knows if that's true or not. What we DO know is this...

Full Tilt's lawyers have filed a motion to dismiss the case. Which we assume is their way of saying to Gowen, "Yeah, right."




















We suspect this tasty morsel of poker news isn't over yet. We'll keep our eyes on it.

A Follow Up On The "durrrr" Challenge

Last week, we mentioned that Thom Dwan had issued his Million Dollar Challenge. That chest-beating affair lit up the poker world like the Strip on Fight Night.











Three people have stepped forward to accept:

• Phil Ivey (that was an easy one to call)
• David Benyamine
• Patrik Antonius

Benyamine's starting, Ivey's following, and Antonius is bringing up the rear. It should be an interesting event. We're rooting for Ivey.

That's it for now. Stay tuned, because there's a lot happening in the world of poker.

Let's Catch Up On The Poker Gossip

Time flies. It's been several weeks since we've posted, but that's going to change. There's way too much juicy poker gossip slipping through our fingers. So, let's get to it.

First up: Tom "durrrr" Dwan.



For those of you who haven't been following the circuit news, check this out. At the end of 2008, the guy was up over $5 million at Full Tilt.com It took him over 220,000 hands, but we think you'll agree it was time well spent.

A little background on Tom for those of you who aren't in the know. He's been at since he was 17. Last year, he launched out of the gate with a little over $225,000. He started at the Borgata Winter Open and moved on to the 2008 WPT World Championship where he came in 9th place.

He attended the WSOP during this past summer and battled off tons of other players, taking 8th in a couple of events. Then, he poured it on through the rest of the year.

Now, he's up $5 million. Not a bad stretch.

And it gets better...

Good 'ole Dwan, surely feeling quite pleased with himself these days, recently issued a simple challenge to the poker world. He'll put up $1.5 million to someone else's $500,000 for a 4-table, 50,000-hand, $200/$400 minimum tournament. If the challenger is up a $1 at the end, they get Dwan's stake.

Damn, where did we put that extra $500,000?

Doesn't matter. Phil Ivey announced today that he's stepping up to the plate (we had a feeling he'd be interested). Frankly, we're a little surprised that Tom threw the gauntlet down to Phil. Phil's damn good. We're talking "top of his game" good.

















Publicly, Phil says that Tom's got an edge on him. That's because he usually only plays 2 tables at a time (Tom's challenge is for 4 tables heads-up at a time).

We'll see. Phil and Tom have been playing against each other quite a bit over at Full Tilt. No doubt that's given him the chance to get used to Tom's style. So, he's definitely not going in blind.

Let's keep our eyes on this one, folks. It's gonna be exciting...