Rescheduled Nightline Featuring Online Poker Pros Expected to Air Tonight

Date: Tue, Aug 31, 2010

Tonight's Nightline, at 11:35 PM on ABC, features two online poker pros: Joe Cada and Blaine Brount, a 19-year-old student at the University of Illinois. It was rescheduled from the previous expected air date.

Update: you can watch it online now.

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Nightline Features Online Poker Pros Tonight

Date: Tue, Aug 24, 2010

Tonight's Nightline, at 11:35 PM on ABC, features two online poker pros: Joe Cada and Blaine Brount, a 19-year-old student at the University of Illinois.

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Poker on TV Update: WSOP to 9 PM

Date: Tue, Aug 24, 2010

The WSOP moves to 9 PM today with day 2 action (preview).

PokerStars's Big Game, which has gotten some very good reviews, will be in rerun for a while after this week's episodes. Poker After Dark is in rerun till October 4. The next upcoming shows are World Team Poker and Heartland Poker Tour Season 6 in early September.

This week's newsbites:

• Fatty's is a proposed new reality show featuring Lacey Jones set in a fictional New York City underground cardroom. See their web site and ESPN's interview with cast members at the WSOP.
• Poker News has pics of the recent taping of Big Game episodes for the fall.

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High Stakes Poker Season 7, Biggest Winners and Losers List for the First Six Seasons

Date: Tue, Aug 24, 2010

High Stakes Poker season 7 is expected to film in November according to Kara Scott (see 9:07 in the video).

Thanks to some 2+2ers for compiling the win/loss record for every player in the televised hands on the first six seasons of High Stakes Poker. The biggest winners and losers are:

Tom Dwan +1,756,500
David Benyamine +904,150
Doyle Brunson +782,300
Mike Matasow +609,350
Patrik Antonius +418,490
Phil Ivey +332,400
Eli Elezra +312,650
Barry Greenstein +277,600
Erick Lindgren +273,550
Mimi Tran +251,400
...
Mike Baxter -200,700
Todd Brunson -202,400
Jamie Gold -217,140
Daniel Alaei -222,300
Shawn Sheikhan -243,900
Antonio Esfandiari -273,050
Dario Minieri -328,400
Ilari Sahamies (Ziigmund) -362,150
Phil Galfond -406,300
Daniel Negreanu -2,182,850

The full list is here.

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Doubles Poker Championship Starts Airing

Date: Fri, Aug 13, 2010

The Doubles Poker Championship replaces the Aussie Millions at 9 PM Saturdays on GSN this weekend. Teams of two players will play alternate streets (preflop, flop...). Poker PROductions produced 13 weeks of coverage of the $50,000-buyin event. Commentary is by David Tuckman and Brandon Adams with Lacey Jones serving as hostess. Many of the most famous players in the world are participating.

The WSOP, Poker After Dark, and The Big Game are also running new episodes now.

Are you interested in writing about poker on TV for this blog? Email me at TV at Poker Information Group dot com.

This week's newsbites:

• The WPT will add a stop in the newly-opened Florida poker market.
• Daily Finance had a short article about the payments players get for wearing poker site logos on TV.
• The WPT is running a contest where you can get the chance to host a new segment on the show by submitting a video.
• Ratings for the first week of WSOP coverage were up 15% from last year.

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WSOP TV Coverage Starts With Preview Show Tuesday

Date: Mon, Jul 19, 2010

ESPN's TV coverage of the 2010 WSOP runs on Tuesdays from now through November 9. It starts with a preview show at 8 PM this week. See the full schedule.

PokerStars's The Big Game is in rerun till August 9, when Poker After Dark also resumes. Heartland Poker Tour is in rerun till Season 6 starts on September 6.

The most interesting recent shows for download or streaming are:

• Party Poker's The Big Game IV, a cash game.
• EPT season 6: five tournaments are available on PokerStars.tv.
• The Poker Lounge, a British show similar to Poker After Dark's tournaments.

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WSOP TV Schedule

Date: Mon, Jul 19, 2010

ESPN's coverage of the 2010 WSOP airs Tuesdays:

• July 20: WSOP Preview Show, 8-9 PM
• July 27: Players' Championship, 8-10 PM
• Aug. 3: Tournament of Champions, 8-10 PM
• Aug. 10-Aug. 24: Main Event, 8-10 PM
• Aug. 31-Nov 9: Main Event, 9-11 PM

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WSOP Tournament of Champions Live Stream On Now

Date: Mon, Jun 28, 2010

ESPN replaced one of the planned WSOP live streams (schedule) with the Tournament of Champions. A day two feature table is streaming live now, and they'll play down to the final table today. The tournament will be televised, so I don't expect Sunday's final table to be streamed.

Most of the Tournament of Champions players were chosen by a public vote (results). Only players with WSOP bracelets were eligible.

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Everleaf Gives Italy To ITA, Kicks Off CMXX

Date: Sat, Jun 19, 2010

The Everleaf online poker platform recently settled a dispute between its ITA and CMXX networks by going with ITA's plan, giving them exclusive access to the Italian market, and kicking CMXX off the platform. CMXX is the smallest of the networks on Everleaf but its games are very juicy, as are ITAs. We recently wrote an article explaining Everleaf's networks and how to get an account that can play the fishy ITA games.

ITA and CMXX are both Italian networks, and I'd heard a third-hand rumor a while back that the Sicilians just didn't get along with the other Italians. In actuality there were many disagreements between the networks, but one major one is something that people who follow online poker news will have heard before: competition between skins was reducing their margins. Specifically, some CMXX skins were giving out 50-55% to affiliates and agents (basically Italian bookies) when a skin owner might only be getting 60% from Everleaf, leaving a tiny profit margin. I can confirm that I've seen very high rakeback offers on CMXX: from 40-50%. The major US-facing Everleaf sites (e.g. Victory, Minted, and Cellsino) also offer 40% rakeback. I've never seen anything close to that offered by ITA sites however.

The rules that ITA proposed and Everleaf accepted are pretty simple: no stealing affiliates/agents (they will only be allowed an account with one ITA room) and players; and affiliates/agents that bring in fish should be rewarded more generously than those that bring in sharks (which includes many rakeback players). This way the ITA skin owners feel they will be more adequately compensated for the hard work they do to bring in fish... and it will keep the network soft for us players.

CMXX rooms will have till early October to get off the network, renegotiate, or join ITA. Some CMXX skins are already reportedly joining ITA, and Everleaf and ITA hope that 80% of them end up doing so. For the background on this story and how to get an ITA account, see our recent article on Everleaf's "private" ITA and CMXX tables.

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Everleaf ITA Tables

Date: Thu, Jun 17, 2010

If you play an Everleaf poker room like Victory or Minted you may have wondered why you didn't have access to most of the traffic, which is hidden in the "private" tab. You may also have seen that the Everleaf ITA and CMXX tables have higher viewflop percentages, a sign of bad player. We just added an article, Everleaf ITA Tables, explaining the private tables and where you can find them.

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The Big Game: Cash Game On 5 Nights A Week

Date: Sun, Jun 13, 2010

PokerStars is sponsoring The Big Game, a one-hour cash game that will run late night (typically at 2 AM) each weekday on Fox (the broadcast network, not the cable sports network) stations. Unfortunately it won't air on every Fox affiliate, so check a programming guide for availability and time in your area. You will always be able to watch it on PokerStar's site.

The game has a $100,000 minimum buyin with $200/400 blinds and a $100 ante, is pot limit preflop and no limit postflop, and each one lasts 150 hands. The twist to this show is that each features a "Loose Cannon," who qualified through PokerStars, on a $100,000 freeroll, but they only get to keep whatever they win. If they lose they leave with nothing, but if the Loose Cannon makes a profit they'll have the option of returning for another session. The rest of the players will be pros including Daniel Negreanu, Barry Greenstein, Doyle Brunson, Phil Hellmuth, Antonio Esfandiari, Phil Laak, Vanessa Rousso, Tony G, and David Williams. Chris Rose and Joe Stapleton will be doing commentary and Amanda Leatherman will host. Non-game segments will include ones on the pros' lifestyles.

12 weeks of programming are scheduled. One round of 30 tapings has already been done and the next taping will be after the WSOP.

Daniel Negreanu's blogs about the show are interesting: 1, 2, 3, 4.

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WSOP Live Stream Schedule

Date: Mon, Jun 7, 2010

ESPN will be streaming the final tables of five WSOP events live. They will stream on ESPN3, formerly ESPN360.com, which is available to subscribers of certain cable systems including Comcast (full list). On the 2+2 PokerCast the WSOP's Ty Stewart said they would be broadband streams.

Each event starts at 5:30 PM Eastern:

• Saturday, June 26: Event 44, $2,500 Mixed Hold ’em (Limit/No-Limit)
• Sunday, June 27: Event 45, $1,500 No-Limit Hold ’em
• Wednesday, June 30: Event 49, $1,500 No-Limit Hold ’em
• Thursday, July 1: Event 51, $3,000 Triple Chance No-Limit Hold ’em (structure)
• Saturday, July 3: Event 52, $25,000 No-Limit Hold ’em, Six Handed

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Poker on TV Update: Aussie Millions, Cash Game on Poker After Dark

Date: Fri, Jun 4, 2010

The Aussie Millions begins its 10-week run at 9 PM Saturday on GSN. The first two weeks will be the $100K Challenge, a $100K-buyin tournament that attracted 24 top players.

Poker After Dark is running a $100K-buyin cash game for the next two weeks. The players are Phil Hellmuth, Phil Laak, Eli Elezra, Tom Dwan, Doyle Brunson, and Gus Hansen.

The Unibet Open is live streaming without hole cards through Sunday.

This week's newsbites:

• An excellent documentary about old-time gambler Amarillo Slim, which I don't think I've mentioned before, is available on YouTube.
  
• The second episode of the poker documentary series From Busto To Robusto, about Andrew "good2cu" Robl, is now up permanently on the web, but I don't like it as much as the first one.
• Jennifer Newell doesn't like that women on poker shows are relegated to the "hottie" roles rather than being in the commentary booth.
• The V Foundation held a charity poker tournament and ski race in Lake Tahoe that was filmed for ESPN2. A half-hour show should appear at some point. Read more.
• The upcoming Right Network will have a show called Politics and Poker where they discuss politics while playing poker (preview).

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Aussie Millions Airs Saturdays on GSN

Date: Thu, Jun 3, 2010

The 2010 Aussie Millions starts airing at 9 PM Saturdays on GSN with reruns at midnight. Three events will be presented:

• the $100K Challenge (a $100K-buyin tournament that attracted 24 top players),
• the Heads Up Championship (with best-of-three matches),
• and the Main Event (746 players paid $10,500 each generating a top prize of $2 million [multiply by .84 to get $US]).

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