Anna Benson announces that she'll try hand at poker

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Anna Benson could find herself getting plenty of face time on ESPN in the coming year. Not during baseball games, but more likely during one of the network's ubiquitous poker broadcasts.

The wife of Orioles pitcher Kris Benson has been polishing her game by playing nearly every day, whether online, on her cell phone or even live and in person. She also recently signed a deal to endorse and promote a fledgling poker Web site.

"I'm still a young little poker player. I've got a long ways to go,'' Benson said. "It is a thrill to me. They call it a sport now, so it's kind of cool for me to come in and be my own type of an athlete.

"I'm hoping to really amass an empire with this poker. I love to give money away to charities, to change people's lives.''

Benson represents a unique kind of endorser — she appeals to two unique groups of consumers — those who read magazines like Maxim and FHM, and those who follow professional sports.

Benson signed a multiyear deal with Golden Spirit Poker, a company that renamed itself from Golden Spirit Mining and refocused on online gaming. She will link to the Golden Spirit site from her personal Web site, as well as have a site named for her which redirects to Golden Spirit's main site.

She plans to play her first official hand on the site Thursday night. The site lists other casino games as "coming soon'' but sports gambling will not be available.

Rich Levin, spokesman for the commissioner's office, declined to comment on Benson's affiliation with Golden Spirit.

Kris Benson was recently traded to Baltimore by the New York Mets. Anna Benson had made comments critical of her husband's teammate, Carlos Delgado, and upset some in the Mets organization by wearing a racy Santa costume to the team's holiday party.

Several months before the World Series of Poker in July, Benson became interested in the game. She entered the series, was eliminated after a few days, but plans to return to Las Vegas this summer a better player.

"I'm going to get schooled on how to play by some of these big-time pros,'' Benson said. "I want to play well. I'm not trying to do this as a joke, I'm dead serious about playing. I'm not like some bimbo sitting down at a table.''

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WPT Event Won by Scotty Nguyen, Baby

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Everyone's "Baby" to Scotty Nguyen at the poker table. It's been awhile since I've been able to write about Scotty winning a major event, but the almost $1 million first prize is his after beating out Michael Mizrachi at the final table of the Gold Strike World Poker Open in Robinsonville, Mississippi. Other notable names include Josh Arieh finishing in 13th place. The event was a stop on the World Poker Tour circuit, so you'll catch it on the Travel Channel later this year. There were 327 players who paid up a $10,000 buy-in for the event creating a $3.1 million prize pool. Here's how the final table looked and how they finished:

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1. Scotty Nguyen - $969,000

2. Michael Mizrachi - $566,000

3. Raul Paez - $298,000

4. Gavin Smith - $173,000

5. An Tran - $125,000

6. Bau Le - $88,000

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Poker Pro Panel Helps to Add Big Event to 2006 WSOP

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Probably in response to the massive number of entrants the past 2 years in the various WSOP events, Harrah's announced that a new $50,000 event would start in 2006. The game will be H.O.R.S.E, a mixed game variation that combines rounds of Hold'em, Omaha, Razz, Stud, and Stud 8/b. Typically, poker professionals and large cash game players excel at this type of mixed game.

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With astonishing fields at the 2005 WSOP a greater element of luck has entered the tournaments. As Doyle Brunson commented about the Main Event last year, "It's a huge lottery. We just have a few more tickets than the rest of them." Professionals are hard-pressed to find an event that isn't swarmed full of amateurs looking to pick them off with their new breed of poker style. By adding a $50,000 mixed game event, this should deter casual players because of the large entry fee and the greater skill level needed.

Also, Harrah's has formed a player commission of sorts featuring Chris Ferguson, Howard Lederer, Jennifer Harman, Daniel Negreanu, Scotty Nguyen, and Robert Williamson III. This panel will meet with WSOP executives to help find ways to improve the tournament series and the overall player experience.

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General Poker News!

The other Doyle tries his hand at poker

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JUST SO THERE'S no confusion, Doyle Brunson is a famous poker player, skilled enough to win more than $1 million playing cards. People buy the book he wrote to learn how he did it.

Doyle Murphy is a rookie reporter, skilled enough to lose 50 cents as a third-grader when the one card trick he ever performed failed. People buy the things he writes to line their shelves and clean their windows.

Unfortunately, I'm not the millionaire, but in an effort to right that cosmic wrong, I persuaded Aims Community College instructor John Hutson to let me sit in on the one-night poker class he taught on Monday with his wife, Diane.

During the day, John works with computer courses and likes to discuss and play poker tournaments in his free time. Diane Hutson is a card player, too, and she took her husband to Las Vegas last month after she earned the trip through a Texas hold 'em tournament.

John starts the class in the traditional style. With a blue marker, he writes on the board "Poker 101" and "The Basics." Besides me, eight people arrive for the class. We sit at long desks while John and Diane explain which cards beat which, some general rules and how a game works.

I get a little lost as he talks about "streets" and "rivers" and focus on my favorite handout -- a glossary of poker terms to make you sound cool. Did you know a hand with a 10 and a 2 is called a "Doyle Brunson?"

After a break, the Hutsons divide us into two groups and demonstrate games around the tables. I learn fourth street is the fourth card the dealer turns over, and the fifth is the river. Everything else is a little sketchy, but Paul Newman probably had to learn a few things before he could play "The Hustler."

The groups sit down, and we start playing Texas hold 'em. I'm not real sure what happened, but John Hutson tells me I won the first game. I suddenly feel much smarter and theorize the difference between Brunson and Murphy is only a name.

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The second hand goes to someone else. So does the third. I fold on the fourth game and wonder if I'm a natural after all. John Hutson talks about "tells." I decide to reconsider my strategy of saying "might as well," when betting a poor hand.

The guy next to me, 56-year-old Keith Bishop of Greeley, has been quiet most of the evening. I remember he said something about taking the class to hone his skills but get distracted when I draw a King and a Ace in the fifth hand.

The dealer drops a Queen, Jack and 10 on the table after some betting. I consult a handout and realize I have a straight even before fourth street or the river. I beat the next best hand, two pairs and rake in a cool -- although fake -- $300 in chips. Maybe I should play "The Hustler" in a remake.

I push chips toward the center without much thought. Call? Of course, I call.

Bishop takes the next hand, and the next hand. I wonder if I miscounted the amount I'd won earlier. There's no way that pile could have dwindled so fast.

John announces the last hand. Somehow, my pair of fours come up short. Bishop sweeps the chips into his pile. He's won $860 in fake money. I've lost $120.

In the hallway, I ask him for what I'm sure must have been a secret strategy or a tell he'd noticed.

"I was just concentrating on my own cards," he says.

Oh.

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Heads-Up Poker Psychology

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In a recent conversation with Phil Hellmuth, the winner of the recent National Heads-Up Poker Championship, he talked about the special feeling of competition that naturally accompanies a heads-up battle.

"I drew a lot of people that I've had trouble with in the last couple of years," he admitted. "Men the Master has beaten me more than I've beaten him in the last couple of years, same with Paul Phillips, and Huck Seed and I are more neutral. In the final four I see Antonio Esfandiari. Antonio's been crushing me in the last two years. I thought, 'this is cool.' I told my wife that I'm getting to play players that don't totally respect me, or that I've not really beaten before. I loved it."

Heads-up tables are beginning to boom at nearly every poker website, with all spreads of games and buy-in levels. Riding the popularity, Hellmuth and Esfandiari now offer some lucky amateur players the chance to play against them (heads-up) at Ultimatebet. The rising interest of the one-on-one style of poker does not surprise me, as I see a head's-up contest online as the perfect opportunity for the impersonal feelings that comes with web-based play to be masked. Even if your opponent never types in a single word of chat, you still soon get to "know" your opponent.

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The time he takes to make decisions, his bets, and his calls all begin to form a mental profile in our minds. We feel personally attacked when bluffed off of a pot and proud when we steal one. During the heads-up competition, the challenges seem greater and the rewards are even sweeter. Heads-up play carries with it the natural side effect of emotional power or domination. This emotional rush is like no other, and causes many players to come back to the heads-up tables again and again.

Basically, a heads-up game is deeply compelling because of the personal psychology. There are no built-in excuses, such as the poor play of others boosting your opposition's chip count. With the variables cut down and the blame (or credit) squarely on your shoulders, it seems that it is not just your money being gambled. Instead, it is your ego, confidence, and respect that are on the line. Phil summed it up when he talked about gaining respect from his opponents during the heads-up competition, "I was thinking that they are gonna know who I am at the end of this. If I lose, that's ok, at least they are going to know who I really am."

Playing one-on-one is simply a crash course in your personal poker psychology. There is no better way to expose the holes in your game and any shaky confidence. Phil provided some great insights to the headsup mentality, showing that you must remain confident even if your chips fall. "Antonio tried to run me over. He did run me over for a while, but I started picking up some hands and checked them to him. Checkcall, check-call - then a bet on the end. I let him bet for me." Even if you lose, whatever financial losses you suffer at the table when playing heads-up can be recouped through the growing understanding of yourself and your game. Embark on a few heads-up adventures to help evaluate where you stand.

Now go make it happen.

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