Daily Poker News Review: Monday, March 17, 2014

Main Headlines

PokerStars Invites Players to Play Against Rafa Nadal on Play Money Facebook

Daniel Negreanu will quiz the tennis champ as he takes on “The World” for one hour of Facebook poker via a livestream.

PokerStars SportsStar Rafa Nadal will be playing for an hour on PokerStars’ play-money Facebook app on Wednesday, March 19.
The game will be a “low stakes” 6-max NL Zoom play money game.
A live webcast of the event will be broadcast on PokerStars.TV, showing a split screen: On one side, players can watch Rafa live as he moves around the Zoom tables; on the other side Daniel Negreanu will be at Rafa’s side offering live commentary and asking viewer questions to Rafa as he plays.

Winning Poker Network Drops Jackpot Fee from The Beast Promotion

The Beast promotion will now be available to all players without any additional contributions being taken from cash game pots.

Case Against PokerStars in Illinois Dismissed

PokerStars’ parent company Rational Group won a dismissal last Friday against a class action lawsuit aiming to reclaim money lost by Illinois players stemming from illegal gambling.

PokerStars’ parent company Rational Group won a dismissal last Friday against a class action lawsuit aiming to reclaim money lost by Illinois players stemming from illegal gambling.
The class action aimed to recover gambling losses of PokerStars’ customers in Illinois. Under Illinois statute, third parties can reclaim money lost in the case of illegal gambling from the winner, as long as the gambler themselves failed to make such a claim within six months.

DOJ Rejects Calls to Investigate Senator Harry Reid in Connection to Online Poker Scandal

Senators Harry Reid and Mike Lee are in the sights of two Utah prosecutors, but the DOJ refuses to get involved.

The allegations refer to whether the politicians asked for or received money or other benefits as the result of providing political favors or taking official action. The allegations particularly refer to contributions for online gaming companies in exchange for political support.
Claims by Utah businessman Jeremy Johnson that former Utah Attorney General John Swallow helped arrange an attempt to bribe Harry Reid surfaced last year.
Representatives for both senators have denied any wrong doing.

This Week in Poker Podcasts: Mike Matusow, Poker’s 1% and Bluff-Catching

The latest from the Pokerfuse Poker Podcast Directory.

Poker Training Videos This Week: Playing Out of Position, Poker Math and an Introduction to Open Face Chinese Poker

Improve your poker game with our top picks from the pokerfuse poker video directory.

Picks from F5 Poker:

PokerStars’ Victoria Coren Looks Back At Career In Poker, Porno and TV Presenting

New episode of The Bonus Cut talks to UK Poker Legend. One of the most popular UK poker personalities, Victoria Coren, sits down with the PokerStars film crew to talk about her career in and out of poker. From her early years writing and submitting short stories to her current gigs creating various features and columns for poker publications, Coren explores her love/hate relationship with her role as a professional writer.

Unibet Open Copenhagen 2014 — Final Table Live Stream

With hole cards and commentary. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6zNaOmaKT8

Sam Trickett, Kara Scott Confront The Haters, Read Mean Tweets

World Poker Tour takes a page from Jimmy Kimmel Live! Over the weekend, at the World Poker Tour Venice event, the camera crew sat some of the more notable poker players down in front of the camera to have them read some not-so-nice things about themselves. Much like the popular Jimmy Kimmel Live! segment, some of the biggest names in the game agreed to read “mean tweets” directed right at themselves.

Joe Serock Leads WPT Thunder Valley Into Day 2

Attendance considered a success for inaugural Sacto event. On the heels of James Carroll’s Bay 101 Shooting Star $1.25 million victory, the World Poker Tour party bus continues into the third leg of the WPT’s newly minted “California Swing.” The first ever WPT Rolling Thunder event attracted 465 runners to Sacramento’s Thunder Valley Casino just outside of Sacramento for their $3200 + $300 event.

Chris Moneymaker Makin’ Money In St. Louis

The 2003 WSOP Champ claims another, slightly smaller, title. Chris Moneymaker is back in the winner’s circle. The 2003 World Series of Poker Champion and Team PokerStars Pro was crowned the winner of the $1800 buy-in Hollywood Casino St. Louis Regional Hollywood Poker Open.

Mike Leah — Two Rings, One Day

Team Ivey Pro bags two WSOP Circuit Events in 24 hours. The last time we saw Mike Leah he was prop betting Phil Ivey on who could sink a bucket from way downtown. Well, spoiler alert – he bested the best to win that bet.

Jennifer Tilly & Phil Laak Look To Win Some of Sam’s D’oh

Good friends spawn awful headline. It’s poker night at Sam’s house and a few of his good friends stopped by to play. Sadly, Sam Simon, recent Writer’s Guild Award recipient, co-creator of the beloved The Simpsons and well-known poker enthusiast is fighting what has been diagnosed as terminal colon cancer.

Sky Poker Offers Strategy Tips For Tournament Players

Navigate the seas of family pots in early stages. In poker if you aren’t getting better, you’re getting worse. Sky Poker wants to help those who are just getting into the game learn a trick or two with some basic strategy videos including this one where “we’ve gone multi-way!!”

Ivey, Chino, Grinder & Cassidy Recreate A Scene From Entourage

JRB snaps a pic as he hangs with “his boys.” Wasn’t it just a few days ago we saw Phil Ivey talk about being careful about who he hangs with? Well, here we have Ivey playing the part of Entourage’s Vinny Chase (Adrian Grenier) hanging with a rag-tag group of poker’s most wanted including Michael “The Grinder” Mizrachi, WSOP bracelet winner Joe Cassidy and David “Chino” Rheem.

Poker Podcasts and Training Vids:

Podcast: Guy Hickey of Four Aces Michigan Poker Monster

Four Aces owner, Guy Hickey is featured in this episode talking about the new Four Aces Club location and the charity rules changes. Frank and Gambit play the $100 tournament at Four Aces that day and breakdown a hand from that tournament. Music by Alfred English.

Podcast: Strategy with Kristy: Aaron Steinberg Discusses Poker Psychology Coaching PokerNews Podcast

Aaron Steinberg, a poker psychology coach and relationship consultant, served as this week’s guest on the Strategy with Kristy podcast. Aaron is a former professional poker player and brother to two highly accomplished players, Max and Danny Steinberg. He also manages and coaches Ben “Sauce123″ Sulky’s stable of staked players.

Training Video: Crushing 6-max NLHE- Lesson 3: defending against 3bets MoreEV

Training Video: Party In New Jersey 1: NL10 Drag The Bar

I fire up 3 tables of NL10 and 1 table of NL25 after taking a brief tour of the lobby. I talk about stuff like keeping it simple and extracting value. Some interesting hands arise, but mostly I ramble on about why a simple, straightforward approach is often the best at these limits. But in a fun way. Because it’s a party!