Online Poker Player Pops $430,000 Jackpot at Absolute Poker
If the first two weeks of 2008 are any indication of things to come, online poker players have a lot to look forward to this year. Popular poker room Absolute Poker has already doled out hundreds of thousands of dollars after seeing its Bad Beat Jackpot surpass the $400,000 mark and edge closer and closer to $500,000.

One Month Countdown
It’s clear it’s been too long since I’ve attened a “proper” WPBT event. It’s been so long I can’t even remember when it happened. I seem to remember Otis, G-Rob and I each brought along Up For Poker t-shirts as a prize to the players who busted us. That’s all about to change in a month. It’s the 2009 WPBT Winter Classic and I plan to bring all of my luckbox skills to bear on all of you. I’ve been saving it up. It’s been months since I’ve pulled a three-outer on the river and I’m thinking I’m well over-due. As an added bonus, many of you will likely get to meet Lady Luck. As part of my unbelievable string of good fortune, it turns out that Lady Luck thinks Vegas is amazing. This will be my fourth trip to Sin City this year and my third with her along. We’ll be arriving on Wednesday night and I’ll be spending the first two days with her. Starting Friday, it’ll be a whole lot of poker, some championship Pai Gow action and a Sunday morning in the sports book. Will I see you there?

The Luckbox Last Longer Challenge
Let’s start with the breaking news: PokerStars will be adding $2000 to the Luckbox Last Longer Challenge prize pool. Let me say that again. The awesome folks at PokerStars are once again showing their support for the WPBT by adding $2000 to the prize pool for the Luckbox Last Longer Challenge at the Winter Classic (and find it on Facebook). Let’s just say this little contest of pride and wills just grew into something awesome. Now let’s get to the details. With this much money now at stake, we’re putting down some rules. Read carefully! Teams of three must be formed before the tournament begins and submitted to The Luckbox. Team entries can be left in the comments of Up For Poker on THIS POST, sent to cusephenom -@- yahoo DOT com, or done in person in Las Vegas. The Luckbox will be at the tournament site at Noon, one hour prior to the scheduled start time of the tournament. Live registration ends at 12:45pm, 15 minutes prior to scheduled start time of the tournament. Sorry, no exceptions. Each team requires a $30 entry fee ($10 per person). If you are unable to find two teammates prior to the end of the Last Longer registration, you are ineligible to participate in the Last Longer competition. It is each team members’ responsibility to notify The Luckbox (or his representative) upon his/her elimination. If notification is not made at the time of bust out, the player will be assigned the same amount of points he or she would have earned for busting out first. At the end of the event, each players’ bust out number will be added together and the lowest total finishes first, 2nd lowest finishes second, etc. If two teams finish with the same total, the tie-breaker is the team with the top finishing player. From the added prize pool: $1,500 to winning team ($500 apiece) and then $500 for for second place team ($170 for top player on team, $165 for other two players). The added prize pool will be transferred into your PokerStars account. From the entry fee prize pool: 50% to the winning team, 30% to 2nd place and 20% to 3rd place. The entry fee prize pool will be handed out at the conclusion of the tournament. (Astin asked in the comments about people with no PokerStars account. First, it’s free and easy to sign up! Second, you can provide us with whatever Stars account you wish if you’re on the winning team. So if you want it deposited into someone else’s account, we can arrange that.) Any and all disputes will be handled by The Luckbox and thisisnotapril. All decisions are final. By paying an entry fee, you are agreeing to the rules set forth here. We want to make sure that the great people at PokerStars know how much we appreciate this so when you talk about the Luckbox Last Longer Challenge (we’re going to call it the L-cubed), please give PokerStars some love (your blog, twitter, facebook, etc.). If you have any questions about this, leave them in the comments or email me at the email address listed above!

Johnny Cash Rises From Grave to Kill American Idol Contestant
Okay, so perhaps that’s a slight exaggeration in the headline. I’m guessing Johnny Cash merely rolled over in his grave when he heard Adam Lambert’s bastardization of the classic “Ring of Fire.” Had Jaoquin Phoenix not already gone crazy, maybe he would have rushed the stage to stop what millions of Americans witnessed last night. Instead, we get one of the most horrifying performances in American Idol history. If you missed it, thank your lucky stars. If you saw it, I hope you’ve managed to block it from your mind. I’ll keep the rest of my American Idol thoughts short going into tonight’s elimination. Looks like one of the ladies is leaving tonight. If it’s Megan Joy Corker, so long. If it’s either Alexis Grace or 16-year old Allison Iraheta, than the judges will have a difficult choice on whether to use their one save. Matt Giraud continues as my favorite after another strong performance last night with Danny Gokey close behind. I was glad to see Anoop Desai bounce back like he did. As you can guess, I’m fairly certain the men will extend their lead in American idol finalists. Thus far, there have been 8 male and 6 female finalists. When this season is over, it will be 10 male finalists… and the men will tie the women in total winners at 4 a piece.

Poker legalization hearing in Greenville, SC
The Poker Players Alliance has just sent out notice of a poker legalization hearing in Charleston and Greenville, SC this month. From the e-mail: Playing poker in the privacy of your own home is a crime in South Carolina thanks to a ridiculous outdated state law signed 209 years ago. Senate President Pro Tem Glenn McConnell will be holding two public hearings to discuss S535 a bill that would legalize home poker games and also expand charity gaming (including charity poker tournaments) in the state. The first public hearing will be March 23rd in North Charleston City Hall and the second on March 30th in the Greenville County Council Chambers, both start at 5:30pm. I plan to attend the March 30 hearing in Greenville. The PPA is looking for a large turn-out of pro-poker folks. Details: Monday, March 30th 5:30-7:30 pm Greenville County Council Chambers 301 University Ridge Greenville, SC 29601 I’ll likely have more on the subject in the coming days. In the meantime, if you’d like to RSVP for the hearing, you can do so HERE. To read the full text of the bill, click HERE.

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Old news: Annie Duke’s boytoy boinks boozy Judas
The man sat at the bar under a cloud of tight curly hair. It was as if the hair thunderhead had sprung a storm and the downpour produced a guy with bad pickup lines. Beside him sat a pretty woman. She wasn’t drinking for fun. Her order–shots and beer–had purpose. The drunker she got, the more she wanted to run naked in the hair storm. I’ll be honest, Joe Reitman’s hair has always freaked me out. Reitman looked like was wearing make-up. He threw out some line like, “If I order you one drink, I get to talk to you for ten minutes. If I order you four drinks I get you for an hour and half. If I order you more, I get you all night.” That’s not a direct quote. It wasn’t recorded for posterity, because the next thing anyone knew Reitman’s pants were around his ankles and he was humping the girl known as Gayle in the parking lot. His bad pick-up line wasn’t as bad as it seemed. He probably didn’t notice the girl was about to cry. But, be honest. If somebody was pumping on you and letting that hair bounce all around your head and shoulders, you’d probably cry, too. When I saw it happen, I turned to my wife. “I think that’s Annie Duke’s boyfriend!” I said. My wife snored. *** I guess I don’t keep up with pop culture well enough to know the occupations of pro players’ bed buddies. That is, I didn’t know Reitman was an actor. What I’d just seen was one of his breakout performances, this time as “Bar Customer” in the 2005/2006 Showtime series “Sleeper Cell.” You might also have seen him in such roles as “Hippie boy,” “Radio Station Manager” and “Regulator 2.” I don’t say any of the above to poke fun at Reitman. He has been married to and presumably slept with Shannon Elizabeth. Just because he played “Freshman” on 90210 doesn’t mean he isn’t 100 times cooler than I am. I only bring it up because I’d honestly forgotten Reitman’s name. I’d seen him around Vegas and always with Duke. As I struggled in vain to remember the guy’s real name, I wondered how Reitman would feel about me Googling him as “Annie Duke’s boyfriend.” I had to know, though. I’ve recently been watching the new-to-me “Sleeper Cell” on DirecTv’s 101 network. In this episode, the boozy bitch was about to turn on her boyfriend. That Retiman’s “Bar Customer” sealed the deal was almost poetic. That is, he put his career on hold to make sure we would have Shannon Elizabeth as a star. He deserved a little somethin’ somethin’ for his time. In fact, he also got Duke in the settlement and that should’ve been enough. I’ve heard no rumor of their break-up, so presumably they are happy. I think we all wish them the best. I’m simply happy I now have Reitman’s name locked permanently in my memory. Never again will I think of him as Shannon’s ex or Annie’s boyfriend. Now, he will be Joe. Or Joseph. Or Mr. Reitman. Or, after the 2009 release of “Radio Free Albemuth,” as “Prisoner #1.”

Dead Again
(Posters Warning : CJ told me this blog now has a more diverse focus. I still plan to stick to gambling in some sense. Because I am a problem gambler, this still leaves an immense range of topics about which I can, and will, post. I just felt like writing again.) I saw a wookie bounce off the hoods of three cars. He streaked past me, with clumped hair flapping and woozy knees wobbling, presumably running FROM something that only he could see. With wookies there’s an equal probability that he’s running from : A) The Law. B) His Past. C) His Imagination D) Soap. He’d just run down our aisle when he darted between cars, bouncing off one, into another fender, then off a hood. I thought he got away. I later heard he was slammed down by three cops. For those of you playing at home, that’s “A”. Now, generally I like to get all settled in before wookie watching, but since this is the first Dead tour in years I was prepared for anything. My wife, brother and I got to Greensboro at least 3.5 hours before showtime. Presumably enough time to either drink a dozen beers or wait once in the porta-potty line. The good news is that most of the salesmen were pretty savvy. That’s unusual for a wook. The two most active undercover cops were a big burly guy in a yellow shirt that said “Dead” and another guy, also burly, but at least 6 foot 6 with a crew cut and a blue ‘do rag. I saw douche-rag guy hit up one pipe vendor near our car. Pipe vendor was holding his glass in a black case and strolling down our lane when douche grabs a random pipe and whips out a wad of cash. My car was blasting tunes at the time and I couldn’t hear everything said but I saw douche-rag point several times to the “bowl” portion of this young wooks glass. Wook, again, was savvy. The only part of the conversation I actually heard was wook telling cop, “These are for tobacco man. I could hook you up with THAT if you want.” Cop grabbed his money back from the wook, put the glass back, and stormed away without a word. That’s the gamble that is the Dead lot these days. I remember back in the day, we’d see more of everything than you can imagine ( I mean wow, really, everything) and the cops did nothing. It used to kinda freak me out the way cops would just ignore all the obvious, illegal activity at a GRATEFUL DEAD show. Maybe Jerry was responsible for greasing the locals, but the cops ain’t cool these days and they haven’t been for quite some time. Granted, like the wookies themselves, some people deserve what they get. One kid, a girl who I’d say was about 17, came by our car holding a ticket in her hand. She showed it to me….busted for drinking in the lot. Now, here’s where she got super-extra-mega-dumb. Her girlfriend was in the process of getting busted by yellowshirt guy (who again, could have just worn the uniform for all the subtlety he brought to undercover work) and our kid goes up to give her friend a hug. During the bust. While holding an open beer. Sigh. These are tomorrow’s leaders. So once inside we take totally excellent floor seats just to by the soundboard (Philside) and I continue the now standing bet I have with Pauly. We each pick 3 songs for 1st set opener. 3 more for second set. 3 more for encore. I took $20 off him when Phish opened with Fluffhead at Hampton. We pushed all three for the dead. Here’s the setlist for those who care : Set 1 Music Never Stopped Jack Straw> Estimated Prophet > He’s Gone > Touch of Gray I Need a Miracle > Truckin’> Miracle Set 2 Shakedown Street All Aong The Watchtower Caution Jam Drums Space Cosmic Charlie New Potato Caboose Help on the Way > Slipknot! > Franklin’s Tower Donor Rap Encore: Samson and Delilah Some notes : I love Music Never Stopped but am unable to NOT hear Donna scream OHHHH YEAH at crucial parts of the song. I’m not sure what that means. I’ve never actually SEEN Donna but that’s what years of bootleg cassettes will do for a man. My brother and I really, really, really, really, really, wanted to see Estimated Prophet simply because we like screaming AH NA NA NA NA along with Bobby Weir. We’re amused by simple things. He’s Gone was written long before Jerry died but when you’re touring without him you do know the audience assumes it’s ABOUT him now….right? Miracle was the highlight of the first set. I got stuck in the beer line during Touch of Grey and missed part. In fact, I missed so much that I missed Truckin’. I was so oblivious to it that I PICKED Truckin’ as one of my 3 second set openers with Pauly. It was a dumb bet. I enjoy the song Shakedown Street very much. I also Enjoy All Along the Watchtower and Warren Haynes really shredded it up on this one. Caution was awesome and this is the best thing about having Warren play with the band. He can actually sing the blues. Not the douchey Bobby Red Rooster blues but the good ol’ Pigpen brand. If you get to see the Dead this year, hope that they play this song. During Cosmic Charlie my wife said, “you know the DEAD never played this but all the after-bands (Phil, Ratdog, the Dead) play it all the time. I wonder why.” Then they played New Potato Caboose. Wow. I don’t even own a bootleg version of this soon. I couldn’t remember the name until it was half-over. I do remember that “touching makes the flesh cry out loud.” That counts for something. The band started the Help>Slip>Frank at 11:30. That’s 4 hours in. My brother and I assumed all day, it being Easter and all, that we’d see either Promised Land (my guess) or Greatest Story Ever Told (his). Samson and Delilah is what we got. C’est la vie. This is the kind of crap I blog about now. It did contain some gambling. That counts.

It has been reported that the editor of Bluff magazine stated that it had to be awarded to the Dubliners again as they are always overwhelmed with the enthusiasm of the game whenever they visit Ireland. They also stated that Dublin won because there is such an intense structure of friendly tournaments that the UK just simply could not match this year.

It seems however the London may be able to pip Dublin onto the top spot in 2010 as there is to be many reported up and coming tournaments including the World Series of Poker Europe and the EPT London. There is also reported to be a good number of poker and online poker festivals including the Paradise series of poker, the London poker circuit and the GUKPT grand final. With all this to look forward to London is hoping they can pull off a win next year with this exciting up coming time table.

The European title for poker capital of the year has more or less always been between England and Ireland. It seems the sheer enjoyment of poker has become a great sport that many people have become interested in. This just proves that although poker is primarily a game based around competing with other players and winning money, it has developed into something much more. Poker Games Online is now a serious sport that takes a lot of skill. It is also considered perhaps a lot more difficult to become a novice at this game unlike other physical sports because of the psychological aspect that many players need to learn in order to win.

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More Chances Now for Sports Fans to Win a Ticket to the Sports Legends Challenge, Exclusively Online at Absolute Poker
The leading online poker site is giving fifteen lucky players a shot at winning the prize package of a lifetime to be part of the inaugural Sports Legends Challenge at the Atlantis Paradise Island resort and casino.

Absolute Poker’s Bad Beat Jackpot Passes $700,000 Mark
Online poker players are flocking in droves to the online poker site for a chance to secure a life-changing prize by losing a hand of Texas Hold’em.

Absolute Poker Pays out $10 Million in Bad Beat Jackpots
Absolute Poker players profit from $10 million in total payouts since the launch of Bad Beat Jackpot.

Absolute Poker’s Pro List Heats Up Once Again with Addition of Lacey Jones
The model-turned-poker-pro joins Absolute Poker’s roster of poker talent.