Regarding Poker

After a record win of $500,000.00 in last night’s game show, ‘Are You Smarter than a 5th Grader?‘, and by not winning the top prize of one million dollars, Alex Outhred, a professional game show competitor, who is also a poker professional and instructor at the World Series of Poker Academy, had to announce to the TV audience that he is not ‘Smarter than a 5th Grader’. But anyone who watched the TV show last night knows that he indeed is ‘Smarter than a 5th Grader’.

The problem that I’ve had with this show in the past was the contestants. They mostly appeared to be picked for the show because of their lack of intelligence. So last night’s show was a refreshing change, as we got to witness someone who was actually very intelligent.

Alex Outhred won the 500K by rationalizing each question, calculating his odds as to speak, to come up with either the correct answer, or getting help from his young classmates.

Before it came to the final question for the grand prize of one million dollars, Alex Outhred had to either take his 500K or proceed with the final million dollar question. If he had gone with the final question there was no backing away from it. Once read, he would have to answer the question, which would have paid him one million for getting it correct, or had he answered wrong, he would have received his guaranteed prize of $25,000.

When Jeff Foxworthy asked Alex Outhred if he wanted to go with the last question, Alex Outhred declined and took the record winning $500,000!

For fun, Jeff Foxworthy asked the final question, it was a US History question, of which is Alex Outhred’s favorite subject. The question was, “Who was the first American Secretary of the Treasury?”. Alex Outhred instantly replied the correct answer, ‘Alexander Hamilton’. Too bad he didn’t “gamble” with that last question. But taking home a half million dollars is pretty good in my books and he and his fiancé looked pretty happy about the accomplishment.

Alex Outhred’s Poker Tournament Achievements:

Mandalay Bay Poker Championships / WPT Event Season 5
WPT Main Event - No Limit Hold’em 4th $184,745 Jun 8, 2006

Mandalay Bay Poker Championships / WPT Event Season 5
Super Satellite - No Limit Hold’em 5th $10,400 Jun 3, 2006

World Poker Challenge - WPT Season 4
Event #40 - No Limit Hold’em 5th $1,045 Mar 29, 2006

World Poker Challenge - WPT Season 4
Event #39 - No Limit Hold’em 6th $910 Mar 28, 2006

36th Annual World Series of Poker
Event #10 - WSOP Limit Hold’em 46th $2,615 Jun 11, 2005

Big Poker Oktober
No Limit Hold’em 22nd $595 Oct 13, 2004

You can see more of Outhred this May 16th when his final table appearance at the 2006 WPT Mandalay Bay Championship airs on the Travel Channel.

Click here for a recap of the questions asked to Alex Outhred.

Take a quiz; Are You Smarter than a 5th Grader?

When I first seen Tony G on TV playing at the WPT (World Poker Tour) final table in Paris Season III, I, like many other TV viewers, were hoping that he would get busted out because of his brash trash table talk.

His masterful trash-talking was misunderstood by many at that time, and has proven that his table talk is a powerful weapon against his opponents.

The more I see Tony G play on TV, the more I respect him as a poker player, a high caliber professional poker player.

Tony G is a very smart player. He will get players to make calls or folds solely on his table talk. I just recently seen him on NBC’s Poker After Dark as he got Ted Forrest to call down a losing hand, all because Tony G “lied” to him and told Ted Forrest that his KQs beats his hand. Ted Forrest gave him all the credit for getting him to call as a result of his table talk.

Many professional poker players dislike Tony G’s style at the tables and some won’t even shake his hand after busting out to him, but many agree, that Tony G is a likable and friendly person off the felt.

The one thing I really like about Tony G is that you will never see him get mad after a beat, even a bad beat.

Many people have given Mike Matusow the title for the most trash-talking-player, but Tony G showed everyone that even Mike “The Mouth” Matusow is nowhere near as good at trash talk as he is.

It was at the WPT Bad Boys of Poker 2 where we really got to see who the real bad boy was. Even Mike ‘The Mouth’ Matusow said that Tony G has him beat in the verbal department. Tony G won the event and is the current WPT Bad Boy Champion. His T♦ 8♦ outdrew Mike Matusow’s K♠ K♥ on a board of 8♠ T♠ 2♥ 9♥ Q♣.

Tony G

Birth Name: Antanas Guoga
Nicknames: ‘The Australian Airbag’ and ‘The Mouth from Down Under’
Hometown: Melbourne, Australia (moved to Australia at the age of 11)
Birth Place: Kaunas, Lithuania
Birthday: December 17, 1973
Hobbies: Basketball, Chess, and horses

- Started poker at the age of 18
- As a child, he was the Rubik’s Cube champion of Lithuania
- He considers 10-8 (suited or unsuited) to be his lucky hand
- Speaks 5 languages, and travels 9 months out of the year
- Career tournament earnings in excess of $2.08 million
- No WSOP Bracelets yet, but finished in the money seven times

Bad Boys of Poker 2 Videos:

Part One:

Part Two:

He plays online poker at Ultimate Bet under the alias “wraptduck” and at Party Poker under the alias “TheRealTonyG”.

Not only does Tony G talk-the-talk, but he walks-the-walk.

Every poker player has heard the old adage, ‘a chip and a chair’. This saying holds even truer when playing in a NL Texas Hold’em tournament. Why? Because doubling up your small stack just a couple of times may just put you back into the tournament and a shot at the money, or win it, like Jack “Treetop” Straus did in the 1982 WSOP Main Event.

Jack “Treetop” Straus (1930 - August 1988) was a professional American poker player. He played in the World Series of Poker in the early 70’s and won the 1982 WSOP Main event in 1982, giving him two WSOP bracelets.

Supposedly the poker aphorism, “A chip and a chair”, originated when Jack Strauss won the 1982 WSOP Main Event with a comeback from having only one chip.

The ‘one chip comeback’ did happen, but the story differentiates. The most common story is that he had all his chips in a hand and lost, but as he was getting to leave the table he noticed that he had one $500 chip under a napkin. Because he didn’t declare an all-in, the tournament director allowed him to continue playing and he ended up winning the tournament.

The modern belief was that it happened at the final table, but the 1983 classic book, The Biggest Game in Town suggests that it occurred on the first day of the tournament.

So there you go, you now have an interesting story to tell fellow poker players the next time someone says, ‘A chip and a chair’…

UltimateBet.com was developed with the assistance of many of the world’s leading poker players and authorities. Annie Duke, Phil Hellmuth, “Magic” Antonio Esfandiari, KrazyKanuck all have given UltimateBet their expert advice in shaping the way UltimateBet is today.

Team UB:

Phil Hellmuth Jr. – this ten time World Series of Poker professional is the envy of poker players around the globe. Hellmuth, now tied with Brunson and Chan for the most number of WSOP bracelets, is known for both his lightning skill and sometimes unpredictable theatrics – leading to his nickname “the poker brat”. An astute business man and dedicated husband and father rounds out this poker icon.

Annie Duke – considered being the best all around female professional poker player of all time, Annie can often be found on UltimateBet chatting with UB’s players and teaching the rules of poker. Annie is the WSOP’s largest money winner among women to date – proving that poker is not just a man’s game anymore! Look out guys – be prepared when you see Annie at the tables!

Antonio “the magician” Esfandiari – the youngest Team UB pro is also the youngest player to ever win a million dollar prize. Turning from professional magic to poker at the tender age of 21, Antonio has risen to the top of the poker world with lightening speed. Well known on the poker circuits, Antonio woos them with style, sensibility and a memorizing smoldering gaze.

Johan Storakers – this fearless Swede and newest member of Team UB has cashed in well over a million dollars in poker winnings since hitting the tournament trail. With more than a dozen final table appearances in the World Series of Poker, World Poker Tour and other big buy-in events under his belt he is considered among Europe’s best. When asked what’s the strength of his game, Storakers replied without hesitation, “I’m patient, and I don’t tilt. I don’t become upset by setbacks.” Still, he adds, “I have to stay humble to poker and myself. It is all about having reasonable expectations.”

Devin ‘Tranquil Chaos’ Porter – One of the newest members of Team UB and the poker world’s next rising star, Devin has cashed in well over half a million dollars on the poker circuit. Finishing 4th in UltimateBet’s Aruba Classic, and also netting a 3rd place finish at the WPT Mirage Poker Classic, are just a few of his latest victories. This rising star believes in playing perfect poker. “Eliminate leaks and mistakes and you will win,” says Porter. He regards patience and aggression as a strength of his game… watch for him at the tables!

Jim Worth – known fondly as KrazyKanuck, this tier one Team UB pro will very often be found playing on multiple tables at UltimateBet where he has a huge online following. Using his expertise to make recommendations to improve your online experience, Jim has risen through the ranks of online play and is a perfect example of how talented online stars can make it big in the brick and mortar poker world as well!

Mark Kroon – P0ker H0 – The name ‘P0ker H0′ has become synonymous with a slash-and-burn tournament style that leaves hapless opponents broke and scratching their heads. And while he has a reputation for being a wild man at the poker table, Mark Kroon (P0ker H0) says that patience is the real key to poker success. H0 started playing poker 20 years ago with fellow Team UB member, Phil Hellmuth, in Madison, WI. A larger than life personality who is widely known and intensely well liked throughout the online poker playing community, Mark regularly travels to the big events on the poker tournament calendar representing UltimateBet, such as a variety of WPT locations, the World Series of Poker and the Aruba Ultimate Poker Classic.

Shawn Rice – Texan Shawn Rice transitioned into poker from pool having run a pool hall for poker legend Amarillo Slim. After playing in Slim’s daily game, his poker game inevitably improved and he has never looked back. As a member of Online Team UB, this resident of Lubbock still carries with him the best advice he ever got from the legendary Amarillo Slim. “If you can’t find a sucker in the game, you are it.” Shawn’s perseverance has afforded him some great accomplishments, one being a second place finish at the WSOP in 2004, which netted him a cool $213,000.

Gary DeBernardi – Debo34 – ‘Debo34′ as he’s known in the poker world discovered online poker about 4 years ago and has never looked back! In the last two years he has made it his full time job and now proudly sits as a member of Team UB.

Debo brings a cool hand and a cool head to the poker realm. Thoughtful and analytical, he goes into every tournament with a well developed game plan. Whether he’s racking up online tournament wins at his Oregon seaside home or hitting the road to play in the world’s biggest events, he’s living every poker player’s dream, and making that dream come true.

Click here to check out UltimateBet.com.

After repeatedly trying numerous different passwords, a persistent password hacker was able to login into Greg “Fossilman” Raymer’s PokerStars account.

Once this hacker had access to Greg Raymer’s PokerStars bankroll, the hacker quickly opened multiple heads-up, sit and go tables and started chip dumping Greg Raymer’s money into a relatively new PokerStars account by the name of “Ikeyrson“.

Greg Raymer is a very popular player on PokerStars and whenever he sits down to play, there are always Railbirds watching him. These Railbirds found Greg Raymer’s play suspicious and quickly informed PokerStars Support about the activity.

PokerStars quickly notified Greg Raymer and suspended both accounts before any money could be transferred to a third party account.

Greg Raymer even admitted that his password was not as good as it should have been. Let’s all take that as a lesson, make your password strong.

Click here to test the strength of your password, you may be surprised!

Click here to see some great tips on making strong passwords.

Isabelle Mercier is on Team PokerStars (NoMercy) and besides her gorgeous looks; she is also a fiercely competitive professional poker player.

Although she is a relatively new pro poker player on the scene, she has been around poker for a very long time in some fashion or another.

Isabelle Mercier went from being a lawyer, to being a Blackjack dealer, poker dealer, and then she moved to Paris to become the poker room manager for the Aviation Club de France. She then set her sights on becoming a successful professional poker player.

Isabelle Mercier:

Born in Victoriaville, Quebec, Canada, August 5, 1975
Now Resides: In my suitcase
Marital Status: Single
Children: None
Started playing poker: When I was very young with my family.
Favorite poker game: Hold’em in all its variations
Ambition: To win as many major titles as possible.

Nominated twice at the Aviation Club for the “European Poker Awards” in the Staff Person of the Year category.

Since turning pro three years ago, she has been the TV commentator for the last three World Poker Tour (WPT) episodes in Paris, and written professionally on the topic of poker.

In her short time as a pro, Isabelle Mercier has won more than $582,000 in tournaments to date.

She won the World Poker Tour’s “Ladies Night Out” poker tournament which is where she earned her nickname, “No Mercy” from World Poker Tour host, Mike Sexton.

She is now ranked 9th in all time tournament winnings for ladies in poker.

Since the World Poker Tour “Ladies Night Out” poker tournament (which was her first), she has made eleven final tables in one year including two first place finishes. Her second took place at the European Poker Tour Grand Final in Monte Carlo in a No Limit Texas Hold’em Event.

Other finishes are:

$5,000 Main Event Euro Finals of Poker 2005, No Limit Texas Hold’em - 7th place
$10,000 European Poker Tour Grand Final, No Limit Texas Hold’em - 10th place
$25,000 5-Star World Poker Classic, No Limit Texas Hold’em - 28th place
$4,000 European Poker Tour Deauville, No Limit Texas Hold’em - 7th place

Video - Isabelle Mercier wins in the first round of the NBC National Heads-Up Poker Championship and beats Internet qualifier Eric Larrivee:

Isabelle Mercier, she’s intelligent, beautiful, and one heck of a poker player!

You can find Isabelle Mercier playing online poker at PokerStars as “NoMercy”.

Doyle Brunson’s online poker room, Doyle’s Room, is no longer accepting American poker players to their online poker room. As a result, even Doyle Brunson needs to find a new room to play at.

Doyle Brunson, also known as Texas Dolly, was spotted playing some high limit HORSE with Patrik Antonius at Full Tilt Poker recently. His chat was friendly and to the point.

Here’s an excerpt from Doyle Brunson’s chat on Full Tilt Poker:

jackwildcard (Observer): hey doyle is that you
getasack (Observer): lol
texdolly: yep
jackwildcard (Observer): swweeet
texdolly: doylesroom is gone
Dealer: Luigi66369 shows two pair, Fives and Twos, for high
Dealer: Luigi66369 shows 8,6,5,2,A, for low
Dealer: bigie smalls shows two pair, Queens and Jacks, for high
Dealer: bigie smalls wins the high pot ($14,298.50) with two pair,
Queens and Jacks
Dealer: Luigi66369 wins the low pot ($14,298.50) with 8,6,5,2,A
Dealer: Hand #1907034519
getasack (Observer): hi honey GL
Cactus League (Observer): gone?
Ducks1987 (Observer): can you virtually sign my copies of SS1 and
SS2 lol
jackwildcard (Observer): lol ducks
Dealer: CrazyZachary has 15 seconds left to act
Dealer: woeisme wins the pot ($2,197)
Dealer: Hand #1907040084
getasack (Observer): yes they transferred my doyle money to my ftp
acct. today
caryb83 (Observer): you sad about that doyle?
Ducks1987 (Observer): europeans can still play right?
getasack (Observer): yes
texdolly: right
texdolly: yes im unhappy about it
getasack (Observer): me too
Dealer: Luigi66369 has 15 seconds left to act
texdolly: maybe we will come back
jackwildcard (Observer): we us members still believe in you doyle
we will be back
Ducks1987 (Observer): will there be any bounty tournies for us euro
..
Dealer: bigie smalls wins the low pot ($11,798.50) with 7,6,4,3,2
texdolly: i think so
jackwildcard (Observer): GL doyle
getasack (Observer): well gl here doyle
Dealer: Hand #1907051989
texdolly: ty

Doyle’s Room switched all their American cash accounts to Full Tilt Poker recently. Obviously some kind of deal was made between the two online poker rooms.

I for one welcome Doyle Brunson to Full Tilt Poker. He may not be one of the official Team FullTilt players, but he’s still one of the best at the game and even having Doyle Brunson there as a player is a treat for some of us.

Live long…

Click here to visit Full Tilt Poker: 100% match deposit bonus up to $600.00 for new accounts! See the post below for a special offer from Full Tilt Poker and the Poker Players Alliance.

Roy Rounder (AKA Rory Monahan) is a poker professional for more than 15 years. His free poker newsletters offer a wealth of insight into the game of poker, especially No-Limit Texas Hold’em.

Joining his poker newsletter is absolutely free and he’ll discuss:

• A simple three-step method for avoiding up to 90% of the “bad beats” you take playing online poker.
• How to calculate poker pot odds quickly without complicated math formulas.
• How to spot poker tells online and in live poker games. He also includes audio and diagrams to make his point understandable.
• How to improve your position to ’steal the button’, good for getting an extra one or two pots an hour.
• How to manage your poker bankroll and much more.

I personally enjoyed and learnt a lot from Roy Rounder’s Newsletter and highly recommend it to any poker player that wants to improve his or her’s poker game.

Click here to get your free Roy Rounder Email Newsletter.

Jamie Gold, the winner of the 2006 WSOP Main Event has agreed to a settlement without litigation with Bruce Crispin Leyser.

Jamie Gold and Bruce Crispin Leyser made a verbal deal prior to the Main Event that would give each other a cut of any of the earnings either of them made in the WSOP Main Event.

As you know, Jamie Gold won the tournament and received $12,000,000.00 for finishing first. Bruce Crispin Leyser quickly made it aware to everyone that he and Jamie Gold made a deal that would give him half of the winnings, six million dollars. Apparently Bruce Crispin Leyser even has the verbal deal on an answering machine with him and Jamie Gold talking about the deal.

Whatever the details were of the deal, the US Court held six million of the winnings in an interesting bearing account until the matter was dissolved. Jamie Gold never gave details of the deal but has always stated that he intended to give Bruce Crispin Leyser some of his winnings.

The final amount of the agreement has not been disclosed.

Who is Jamie Gold?

Jamie Gold is a former television producer and Hollywood agent, turned poker pro. He was the chip leader of the WSOP Main Event on day four and never looked back to win the tournament. He beat out a record 8,772 players.

He worked with WSOP Champions Johny Chan and Chris Moneymaker on an upcoming television show and that’s when Johny Chan started to mentor Jamie Gold.

Jamie Gold took what he learnt from his mentor and won his first poker tournament in 2005 and within the next twelve months finished in the money in other poker tournaments seven more times.

Jamie Gold said he didn’t want to win the WSOP Main Event tournament because of the attention he would get and the responsibilities of being an ambassador to poker. He said he would much rather win the cash than the fame. Well, he got both.

Shortly after winning the Main Event Jamie Gold became a representative of Bodog Poker and just recently Bodog let him go. Bodog has said that they are focusing their marketing efforts overseas and Jamie Gold did not fit in with that plan. That sounds pretty fishy, as I think any poker player from anywhere in the world would have known about his remarkable win.

Many people dislike Jamie Gold, probably because of his poker style in the Main Event. He had a knack of goading his opponents to either call or fold their hands.

Although Jamie Gold has the name for poker, “Gold”, he never did get accepted like other former WSOP Main Event winners.

Maybe Jamie Gold would have been in a different situation if he had been representing PokerStars? All their past champions have been received very well by poker fans from allover the world.

I look forward to seeing how well Jamie Gold does in this year’s WSOP, and it will be interesting to see which, if any, online poker room he represents.

Here is a short video on Jamie Gold being schooled by ‘Texas’ Doyle Brunson in Jamie’s first High Stakes televised poker game appearance:

Earlier I mentioned the poker professionals that you can play with at FullTiltPoker. Now I want to introduce to you the poker professionals that you can play with online at PokerStars and who call PokerStars their home for online poker.

Chris Moneymaker
2003 World Series of Poker Champion

Greg Raymer
2004 World Series of Poker Champion

Joe Hachem
2005 World Series of Poker Champion

Barry Greenstein

Isabelle Mercier aka “No Mercy”
World Poker Tour Ladies Night Out Winner

Tom McEvoy
Poker author and World Series of Poker winner

John Duthie
European Poker Tour Creator

Wil Wheaton
Actor, author, publisher and card shark

Steve Paul-Ambrose
2006 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure Champion

Vanessa Rousso

Luca Pagano

Victor Ramdin

Lee Nelson
2006 Aussie Millions Poker Champion

Bertrand Grospellier

Humberto Brenes

Bill Chen

Katja Thater

Finding and playing with these poker professionals is easy; just login to the software and click on ‘Requests’, then click on ‘Find a Team PokerStars Player’. PokerStars will list all their poker pros and will show you which ones are playing now. Click on one of the poker players that are on now and you’ll be taken to their poker table where you can join their game or chat with them.

Don’t have a PokerStars account yet? Click here to visit PokerStars to download their software.

P.S. PokerStars now has a 100% deposit bonus match, up to $50.00 free dollars (use bonus code “FIRST2007″) and PokerStars proudly accepts players from all over the world, including players from the US.