Cantu Prevails at the Wynn Classic Championship

The Wynn Classic championship drew a total of 262 players who were willing to put up the $5,000+160 buy in for their chance to take home a piece of the $1,173,700 prize pool. The tournament was a three day event which saw a list of pros show up. The top 24 players got paid and Justin Bonomo, Tony Korman, and Erick Lindgren were among the top finishers.

When it got down to the final table Brandon Cantu had the chip lead, but he was facing some tough competitors. Jarred Jaffe, Odie Dardon and Thomas Marchese were among the final table competitors.

The much talked about Marchese played strong but went out in fourth place. He took home $73,356 for his efforts. After winning the inaugural North American Poker Tour event at the Venetian in Las Vegas last month, and then going on to cash deep in the WPT Bay 101 Shooting Star event, he has become a hot ticket.

Jarred Jaffe took Cantu on heads up at the final table, but he just wasn’t able to book the win. Jaffe took home $246,477 for his second place finish. Cantu took pocketed $363,844 for his first place win.

This was the first major score for Cantu since his World Series of Poker bracelet win this past summer in the $1,500 Pot-Limit Omaha 8 event. He currently has over $3.6 million in online and live tournament winnings.

Reader Question: Is it Ok To Hustle My Friends in Poker?

I just moved to a new city and was able to make some friends that play a home game on the weekends. They have no idea that I’ve been playing for a while because I told them I was just learning. These guys suck at poker! I played with them last week and acted like I didn’t know what I was doing for the first hour and when they started drinking I really started playing. I ended up taking home a nice profit for the night. Is there anything wrong with this?

Poker is just like pool in that it is a game of hustling. Traditionally the key has been to scope out the weaker players to make sure you have an edge at making money against them. No one is a profitable player because they are constantly going up against players that are better than them. If you can make a nice profit by playing with weaker players, why not do so? The object in poker is to get as many or all of the chips at the table as possible. Poker is a game that requires a variety of skills, and that is what makes the game so great. So if it means you have to put on a bit of an act to win some money then so be it.

However, this isn’t a poker room situation where people are aware that they might be up against stiff competition. It sounds like this is more of a laid back fun poker game full of guys that just want to have a good time. At some point they will realize that you are a lot better than you let on, and they might decide to stop inviting you. It would be a shame to alienate the first group of poker friends that you meet in a new city.

If you want to continue to play with these guys, try not to take it so seriously. Its ok to win, but if you win every time you run the risk of not being invited back. One thing you can do is to take a portion of the winnings from the game and make sure you donate it back the next time you play. If you leave down for the night, make sure to mention that in passing so they don’t get the idea that you are always winning. Appeal to their egos a bit by mentioning how well someone played a hand (even if they didn’t), so they feel that you are on their same level. It wouldn’t be very fun to play with Phil Ivey every weekend when all you want to do is relax, play poker, and drink a few beers. So remember to have some fun with your new poker buddies!

Poker Named Official Sport in Lithuania

Even though the U.S. does arguably the best job of promoting poker on a mainstream media level, there is still much debate as to whether or not poker should be considered an actual sport in North America. Poker purists argue that poker requires just as much skill and training as baseball and football, while others are simply content to refer to the game as simply a fun hobby. Lithuania on the other hand is taking a major step forward in legitimizing poker for its players, having named it an official sport.

The Lithuanian Department of Physical Education and Sports issued an official decree on March 20th that recognizes the Lithuanian Sports Poker Federation as an official sports federation. This will allow the LSPF to produce and organize noncommercial poker tournaments in casinos that reside outside of Lithuania.

“This is extremely important step in our work,” Andrius Tapinas, president of the Lithuanian Sport Poker Federation, said. “We are receiving congratulations from many of our colleagues abroad and I know that we are breaking thick ice with our progress for similar international initiatives.”

Sometime this week, the LSPF will release their official tournament schedule for 2010 to the country’s sports media. The LSPF has already received numerous endorsements from the poker world, including Tony G and the International Federation of Poker, where it was recently accepted as a member.

Is there any chance that poker will be recognized as an official sport in the United States? Hard to say, but you would think that if online poker is made legal again and regulated across most of the 50 states, then there might be a chance that you could see the game awarded official sport status.

Police Break Up Senior Citizen Poker Game

Here’s something you don’t see everyday. A story has surfaced that claims that approximately 20 elderly residents from the Twin Falls Senior Center in Idaho get together every week for a simple $20 buy-in poker game for leisure entertainment, only to recently have been told by local police that they must cease the weekly game immediately or face prosecution. A public outcry has since followed, which resulted in Idaho legislators dropping the case altogether.

The residents told the police that they did not know that playing poker for money was illegal in Idaho, but they still agreed to remove the buy-in from the game each week. The players, most of whom are in their 70s and 80s, were dismayed over the hassle, as their poker game is one of the biggest highlights of their week.

“I don’t have many things that I can do,” Norman Pohl, a resident who uses a wheelchair, told the Times-News newspaper. “I met so many people…I would look for it every week.”

You can’t blame local prosecutors either, as it is a misdemeanor for them if they fail to investigate any reports of gambling in the area. They were forced under law to break up the poker game, but then worked with Twin Falls County Prosecutor Grant Loebs to get the law on the books revised.

“It is a misdemeanor crime for a prosecutor to fail to prosecute someone who fills out an NCAA tournament bracket,” said Loebs. “That seems, at best, to be a waste of law enforcement resources.”

Under a new sponsored measure by Idaho State Senator Kate Kelly, prosecutors will have the power to decide how they want to handle investigations in the future.

Kelly spoke about the new measure: “We have elected prosecutors in Idaho, and they make decisions every day about whether or not to pursue a particular defendant or whether or not to pursue a particular act. And I think we can support that rather than exposing them to be subject to a crime for failing to prosecute.”

Two Suspects Detained in EPT Berlin Heist

Earlier this month, the EPT Berlin was robbed by a couple of masked gunmen. The tournament series was taking place at the downtown Hyatt hotel which was holding all of the tournament money for the series. When the robbers saw that the money was being guarded by unarmed security personnel, they knew there was a good chance they could get to the money.

The robbers were able to make way with $332,000 from the EPT Berlin. Frank Heller, a prosecutor on the case told officials, “The money was divided up immediately after the crime.”

All four of the robbers have been identified and their pictures were released to the public. Names of the three suspected robbers have been released. Ahmad el-Awayti, 20 years old; Jihad Chetwie, a 19 year old German citizen; Vedat S, a 21 year old Turish citizen; and Mustafa Ucarkus, a 20 year old Turkish citizen have been named as the four suspects in the robbery.

Vedat S was the first to be detained in connection with the robbery. He had turned himself in to the police and has been cooperating with the authorities. He was the owner of the vehicle used in the heist, and he claims that he was paid €40,000 to participate in the heist.

Ahmad el-Awayti turned himself in to authorities just days after Vedat S at a subway station in Rosenthaler Square. The apprehension took place without incident as el-Awayti simply approached the officers posted at the subway station and said, “I believe you are looking for me.” He was taken in for questioning without further incident.

Both Vedat S and Ahmad el-Awayti have agreed to pay back their share of the money and are likely using this as a bargaining tool. A third party is holding their share of the money.

The police are still looking for two of the suspects Mustafa Ucarkus and Jihad Chetwie. Ucarkus has a history of violence and police consider him especially dangerous. . Interpol might be getting involved with the investigation since police suspect the two have fled the country.

Devilfish To Turn Autobiography Into Movie

Britsh professional poker player Dave ‘Devilfish’ Ulliott, one of the most colourful figures in the poker world, has announced that he has begun preliminary discussions to produce a movie based off of his up coming autobiography.

During a video interview for the “What The Bookies Say” blog, Devilfish revealed that he was in the early stages of discussing the project with an English and Swedish company who were interested in transposing his life story to the big screen.

“Its going to be a great movie with lots of funny stories in it. A bit like the Guy Ritchie stuff. If you can imagine Snatch but put the Devilfish in it, it will be a bit like that,” said Ulliott during the interview, referring to British director Ritchie’s famous work on gangster films such as Snatch and Lock, Stock & Two Smoking Barrels. Ulliott even said that should the project come to fruition, he would love the chance to play himself during his character’s older years.

Over his career, Ulliott has become on of the most successful figures in the poker world by earning over $5.6m in tournament winnings, collecting a World Series of Poker bracelet and opening up a number of leading marketing consultancies. However, Devilfish’s earlier days began in humble beginnings. He has never made a secret that he came from deprived beginnings, and the Devilfish is proud of his journey to the top of the poker world.

WSOP Tournament of Champions’ Voting Going Strong

The last time the World Series of Poker put on their famous Tournament of Champions event was back in 2006. Now, they’re planning on bringing back the exclusive tournament for 2010 and opening up the invitation list to be decided by the WSOP fans themselves. 27 players will end up being offered seats into the event, and already in the first 24 hours of voting more than 40,000 votes have been cast.

“In just 24 hours, the poker community has spoken loud and clearly, and they should be applauded for their passion,” said Ty Stewart, the vice president for Harrah’s Interactive Entertainment. “We really love the idea of turning the fans into executive producers, and they are taking the challenge head on and making sure their voices are heard.”

Don’t worry if you haven’t cast your vote yet, as you have until June 15th to make your selection on the WSOP website. Also displayed on the site will be a randomly generated list of the top 50 players who lead the overall vote count. After June 15th, the top 20 vote-getters will be awarded seats into the freeroll event (which will be televised), where they’ll compete against Mike Matusow, Mike Sexton, Annie Duke, Joe Cada, and Barry Shulman, all of whom were giving automatic entries for either being the current WSOP and WSOPE champion, or for having won a past Tournament of Champions event. An additional two spots are being left available as sponsor exemptions and will be awarded to players that win qualifier tournaments produced by Harrahs.

As expected, the current list of that comprises the top 50 vote-getters is full of legendary players including Ted Forrest, Sam Farha, Phil Hellmuth, Johnny Chan, Dan Harrington, and Chris Ferguson.