CEOs Say They Prefer Playing Poker Over Golf

A testament to the popularity of poker among top tier executives is a survey taken of 500 CEOs by CEO Poker. When asked if they would prefer playing a full day of poker to golf, 65% responded they would prefer poker

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Golf for many years was the sport of choice by executives to network, now poker is taking the limelight away from golf. There is even a new tournament exclusively for CEOs—CEO Poker, where CEOs will battle for Chairman of Poker title at The Palms in Las Vegas, October 22-26.

Poker is definitely the new golf,” says Maria Gomez, President of CEO Poker. “If you are a woman or man you can compete in the game. It is a level playing field, and only your ability to bluff, fold, and win, separates the men from the boys. Another reason Poker is so popular among CEOs is the game itself. There is an element of constant danger that CEOs thrive on, where you can go out on any one hand.”

A testament to the popularity of poker among top tier executives is a survey taken by CEO Poker of 500 CEOs. When asked if they would prefer playing a full day of poker to golf, 65% responded they would prefer poker. When asked why poker over golf: 73% stated the thrill of winning, 20% stated enjoyed the competition, 7% stated networking.

The quick response that CEO Poker had when it launched the poker tour is also a testament to the popularity of poker. Over 300 CEOs have applied to play in CEO Poker in only 10 days and the online reservations keep coming in via the www.WorldCEOEntertainment.com website.

“Thanks to the popularity of poker on television, poker is so hot right now among CEOs," says Gomez. "They see professional poker players doing what they do every day analyze the odds, review all the options, and make split second decisions. CEOs are naturals at poker."

Instead of a new breed of golf players, a new breed of poker stars are going from the boardroom to the poker room—day traders, dotcom millionaires, high powered women, online poker hotshots, and mathematical geniuses.

“Poker is both math and instinct, and CEOs understand the bottom line and the odds,” says Gomez. “But knowing the numbers is not enough, they have to know how to read people, something they do every day in the boardroom.”

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World Poker Champ Set To Compete In Christchurch

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The current world poker champ has confirmed he will be competing at the New Zealand Poker Champs in Christchurch this April.

Joe Hachem defeated 5,618 players to win the main event of the 2005 World Series of Poker in the USA – his victory earned him a record breaking $7.5 million.

He has now confirmed his entry into the New Zealand Poker Champs, where he will be taking on around 150 other poker players for the lion’s share of a $200,000 prize pool and a seat at the World Series of Poker in Las Vegas.

Christchurch Casino’s Marketing Manager Simon Carter says his team is ‘absolutely stoked’ Hachem is entering the competition.

“Not only is this New Zealand’s only nationwide poker competition with the richest prize pool, it is one of only a few competitions in the world with a seat at the World Series up for grabs,” he says.

“We knew this would attract some of the best players in the world but to have the world’s reigning champ in town for the event is absolutely huge news,” he added.

Joe Hachem says he is looking forward to coming to Christchurch.

“I just love New Zealand, it’s such a picturesque country. I am looking forward to visiting New Zealand’s Garden City, seeing the sights and seeing what Kiwi poker players are made of,” he says.

Simon Carter says Hachem’s involvement adds to the excitement surrounding the champs.

“We have some of New Zealand’s biggest names competing in our celebrity tournament, some big name bands playing and now we get to see the current World Series of Poker Championworld’s greatest poker ace in action – this is going to be the best week in the Casino’s Poker history,” he concluded.

Background on Joe Hachem
Joe Hachem, an Australian of Lebanese desecent, lives in Melbourne where he is a husband and father of four. He was a chiropractor by trade until a rare blood disorder in his hands forced him to take time off work in 2001. It was then that he began playing poker as a sport.

Background on New Zealand Poker Champs
The New Zealand Poker Champs are being held at Christchurch Casino from 1 – 8 April 2006.

The week will begin with a “20k Celebrity Challenge for Charity” where some of New Zealand’s most famous faces will battle around a poker table. The winning celebrity will donate their $20,000 winnings to their selected charity.

The following day the Canterbury Championships will be held with the South Island Champs following on Wednesday, 5 April. The New Zealand Poker Championships will be held over Friday 7 and Saturday 8 April 2006.

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News and Notes from the LAPC

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Officially, it was billed the "Card Player Player of the Year Awards Gala."

Actually, it might as well have been called the Phil Ivey Invitational.

Because it was the masterful and intimidating Ivey who walked off with the most trophies at the inaugural show put on by Bodog.com, which represented another wonderful step for poker by creating the game's version of the Oscars.

Ivey copped awards for best no-limit player, most feared player, and best heads-up player, which meant three speeches for the guy who gives away words as if they were chips.

The other multiple winner at the Henry Fonda Music Box Theater in Hollywood Wednesday night was Chip Reese, who was named best cash-game player and best mixed-games player. Men "The Master'' Nguyen closed the show by picking up the coveted Player of the Year award.

The rest of the winners: World Series of Poker ($1,000 no-limit hold'em event) and World Poker Tour (Party Poker Million IV) winner Michael Gracz for breakthrough player; WPT commentator Mike Sexton for best poker ambassador; WSOP Player of the Year Allen Cunningham for most underrated player; Jennifer Harman-Traniello for best female player; Daniel Negreanu for favorite player as voted by the fans; Mike Matusow for most entertaining player; and Academy Award-nominated actress and WSOP and WPT ladies champion Jennifer Tilly for best celebrity player as voted by the fans. Doyle Brunson also drew two standing ovations after being presented the lifetime achievement award.

The show featured music from former Eagle Don Felder, whose band blasted the joint with Eagles hits "Hotel California,'' "Life in the Fast Lane,'' and "Take it Easy.''

The star of the night, however, was emcee Brad Garrett. In a word, hysterical.

Garrett is best-known as the plumb, dumb brother on "Everybody Loves Raymond,'' which ended it's successful TV run last year. In fact, that's where Garrett started his monologue, noting that he went from the hit show to hosting this event.

"Where has my career gone in a year?'' he said.

Garrett plays in WSOP and WPT events, and has appeared on Bravo's "Celebrity Poker Showdown,'' but admitted he has a noticeable tell.

"Every time I bluff, I become incontinent,'' he said.

Garrett pretty much emptied the magazine on some of the most familiar poker names.

"Phil Hellmuth is here tonight,'' Garrett said. "No one told me that; I just heard whining.''

Of slightly built former world champion Scotty Nguyen, Garrett said, "Scotty, have a sandwich. You look like my X-ray.''

When Men The Master heckled Garrett, the hulking performer fired back, "Yeah, try to get the shirts back by Wednesday.''

But Garrett saved some of his hardest shots for Matusow, beginning with, "Mike Matusow is nominated tonight, which proves Darwin didn't know [anything].''

Later, Garrett introduced Matusow, who was to present the award for best poker ambassador:

"Having Mike Matusow present the award for poker ambassador is like having Dick Cheney present the award for marksmanship.''

But it was perhaps Negreanu who got off one of the best lines when he accepted his award as favorite player by thanking Ivey for letting him win something.

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Enticing overcalls: Maximizing good hands

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As we continue our attempt to ferret out possible nuances of our game which can be improved upon, today let's delve into when it might be appropriate to entice several overcalls instead of raising with our very best hands. An overcall is when a player calls after a player in front of him has already called the initial bettor.

Experienced players realize that to overcall requires a better hand than just calling. Obviously, the difference is that you now need to beat more than one hand. The bettor could be bluffing but the caller in front of you sure isn't.

Many beginning to intermediate players are too focused to the perceived strength of their own hands and automatically fold weak ones, call with mediocre ones and raise with strong ones. On the surface that course of action sounds reasonable. However, winning Poker is about maximizing the amount of bets won not playing by some predetermined formula. You need to recognize profitable situations and exploit them.

As an example, if you're in a five way hand and the turn card just made you a monster and an opponent bets into you with three players yet to act behind you, should you raise? If you feel that your hand is strong enough that it doesn't need to be protected and that your raise, in all likelihood, will induce the players behind you to fold then you should just flat call to trap additional bets behind you. A raise in this instance would probably yield one additional bet from the call of the original bettor while a call may capture three additional bets from the players yet to act. In addition, a call might entice one of those players behind you to raise so that you can then re-raise. It's simple math but an opportunity that is often missed by less experienced or savvy players.

Before you decide to adopt this strategy there are certain criteria which should be met to make it the ploy of choice. Obviously, you need players behind you but they also should be players who don't truly understand the dynamics of overcalling. You also need a hand that you're fairly certain is the winner, although if the original bettor has you beaten you will lose less than you would have if you had raised. So that's a bonus to utilizing this strategy. Another criteria is the size of the pot. You should only attempt enticing overcalls if the pot is not too large. If the pot is large, the opponents behind you may well feel compelled to call your raise based on the pot size and thereby pad your win even further. Our goal for this session is one we've had before.

Namely, not to play automatic/formula poker but to consider the elements of each situation to utilize strategies that will enhance your bottom line. If you're trying to win one to two big bets per hour then the situation outlined above could earn you an extra couple of hours by being astute enough to recognize a situation in which it makes more sense to entice overcalls instead of chasing away customers. Then you can knock off early and go to the ball game. In fact, you should buy a round of beers and hotdogs for your buddies with that extra money.

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Who to attack in Sit and Goes

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There is a powerful strategy in Sit and Goes when approaching the money that I see many players ignore. It is simply to target the correct opponent when on the bubble.

We all know not to try and tackle the chip leader unless we really have the nuts. However, if we are one of the chip leaders and the field is down to four, (the top 3 finishers make the money on a 50/30/20 percent basis) then who should you attack?

Let's imagine a scenario where out of the total of the starting $10,000 in chips among ten players, you have $3000. The leader has $5000 and the remaining two players have $1500 and $500 respectively. Many players attempt to knock out the low man to get down to three remaining players and qualify for the money. However, the player in fourth position with only $500 and facing escalating blinds, knows he's in trouble and is desperately looking to double up and will not need much of a hand to go all-in. He simply can't afford to wait too long.

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The player who is in third place with $1500 realizes the fourth place player's predicament and is the player you should be attacking. He realizes that as soon as the low man with only $500 gets knocked out, he will automatically back into the money. This knowledge should be used against him as he will not want to commit any of his chips without an absolute lock. Attack, attack and attack this player as he will virtually lay down 99% of his hands just waiting to get into the money.

In contrast, the low man will call most any bet as he has no choice. For the most part, unless you hold a monster, he will not be that much of an underdog and may well prevail in his forced stand. By the time you find yourself down to four remaining players, the blind structure is normally high enough to make these blatant steals from the third place chip stack quite profitable. You may well amass enough chips to strike fear in the heart of the chip leader.

So, if you find yourself in first or second place among the last four players then attack the second lowest stack instead of the lowest. The lowest stack will very often make a stand against a raise while the second lowest will be extremely cautious as he wants the lowest stack to exit first in order to make the money.

Pretty basic, right? Well yeah, except I find it hard to believe how many players I see who just go into a shell at that point hoping Mr. Chip leader takes out both the short stacks. The problem with being passive and letting the chip leader do all the eliminating is that you'll find yourself at an enormous disadvantage chip wise when you get down to heads up play. You should be amassing those easy chips so you'll have the ammo to fight for first place.

Give this tactic a try and see if it improves your performance and therefore your bottom line.

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POKER!

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New Zealand Prepares to Send Poker Champ to the World Series of Poker

Hot on the heels of his Aussie Millions win, Lee Nelson, of New Zealand, will have the opportunity to play in his own backyard in the upcoming New Zealand Poker Championships. Though the New Zealand poker tourney isn't nearly as rich as its Aussie counterpart, with a total prize purse of just about $134,000 (US), it still stands to attract approximately 150 players to the felt.

The New Zealand Poker Championships is one of only a handful of poker tournaments in the Southern Hemisphere to offer the winner a seat at the World Series of Poker main event in Las Vegas. Nelson and the rest of the poker hopefuls will grind it out at the Christchurch Casino, which has hosted the New Zealand Poker Championships since 1999.



Poker Thrilla in Manila?

Poker's finest will be invading the Philippines next week to take part in the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation's (Pagcor) first ever World Celebrity Poker Tournament. While not actually taking place in the nation's capital city of Manila, Cebu, the country's second-largest city, will see the likes of Doyle Brunson and his son, Todd, come to play in the special poker event at Casino Filipino.

Tournament organizer Wally Sombero, a top poker player in the Philippines, said that, aside from the Brunson contingent, 10 other world-class players will be taking part in the poker festivities. Also adding to the big-name status of the Pagcor poker night, Sombero announced that it will be hosted by Jack Binion, of World Series of Poker fame. The tournament will be followed by a cash game, promoted as the "Challenge of Champions."

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World Amateur Poker Championships In Making

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Mark Fracalossi executive producer stated, "We will be in Europe the first few weeks of February and plan to spend a significant amount of time in Denmark."

The Small Town Poker Tour will travel the world in search of the world’s best poker player. The tour plans to travel all 50 USA states to finds America’s best. Canadian, Australian and Asia tours are also in the works. The show is much different than the poker shows you see on television, it will focus more on the people that play and a glimpse into their life. It is more of a grassroots tour of the poker world. The tour will also help raise money for local charities.

“We are happy to be moving forward with setting up a true world amateur poker championship, and giving people a chance to shine. We are also happy to announce that Denmark will be the first stop on the European Small Town Poker Tour," Fracalossi stated. "We have received many letters of nomination from all of Europe but Denmark responded more than any other country. We are going to be visiting possible venues over the next few weeks."

You can nominate any city at the Small Town Poker web site www.smalltownpokertour.com. The Small Town Poker Tour is as simple as the title states, blending everyday people with the exciting game of Texas Hold’em.

"The money we raise will stay local. It’s a chance for all poker players to come to give something back," Fracalossi stated. All regional winners will come together in cash and prize filled season finale naming the European Small Town Poker Champion.

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Illegal Michigan poker party busted by cops

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An illegal poker party hosted at a banquet hall in Clinton Township, Michigan, was busted by police on Thursday, February 9, it has been revealed. According to reports, a squad of 15 officers raided the Imperial House where more than 50 people had gathered to play No-Limit Texas Hold'em in an evening tournament.

Police had been informed of the poker party a number of days in advance and set up surveillance of the Imperial House last Thursday in anticipation of the evening game. The officers raided the illegal tournament at 7 p.m. local time and found poker chips, playing cards, and nearly $50,000 in cash. None of the attendees were taken into custody but police took down their personal information for the ongoing investigation.

Township Police Captain Fred Posavetz admitted, "We stopped play immediately. A lot of people had surprised looks on their face. We kind of ruined their evening, I think." He continued, "We met some reluctance but no resistance."

Posavetz said organizers had set up a cash bar and a seating chart. The tournament was also offering a large prize to its winner. "It cost $40 to get into the first round. After you advance from the first round the goal is for the card players to actually get to the final round. Who ever wins that final round wins $10,000," he said.

According to the Detroit Free Press, the owners of the Imperial House, Robert and Linda Perakis, could face charges "of operating a gambling house, maintaining a gambling house, and having a gambling apparatus on a liquor license premise." The banquet hall could also be fined by the Michigan Liquor Control Commission or have its liquor license suspended "for having a cash bar open while gambling took place."

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Hollywood Poker Starts 'Celebrity Poker Night'

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In today's business climate, companies are seeking new ways to reward workers and potential clients. The latest attempt to capitalize on this type of corporate business comes from World Poker Tour Enterprises, who recently made a move to lock up elite clients by catering to their poker needs.

In a recent press release, WPTE introduced its new Events division and the hiring of two powerhouses in the event industry. The new Events division will offer corporations, meeting planners, charitable organizations and a host of other businesses, professional, top-flight, poker events.

According to WPTE CEO and founder Steve Lipscomb, this savvy move toward another potential revenue generating arm of WPTE was a logical move. "We plan to leverage the emotion, power, and appeal of the WPT brand to meet our customers' marketing and business objectives."

Lipscomb also praised the company's recent hiring of Linda Spitz and Kim Ellis. "We have added two key members to our team that we believe will elevate this division to one of the most visible and strategically powerful tools in our global brand."

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Linda Spitz, the former senior vice president for Clear Channel, has experience in planning, selling, and executing cross-platform strategies for companies interested in radio, television, interactive, outdoor, and entertainment properties. Her extensive experience should come into play immediately with this new market.

The WPTE's other hire Kim Ellis, is the owner of the reputable meeting and event company, KKE Meetings & Events. The company specializes in catering to the needs of corporate sales meetings, product launches, and golf events. She also worked with Hyatt Hotels for 20 years before starting her own company.

According to Spitz, the WPTE's hiring of the two longtime associates will benefit the company. "We believe we are the perfect fit to establish this division. Kim and I have been colleagues for more than twenty years. Our combined experience and backgrounds in event planning, media, sales management, and operations makes us so perfectly suited for this undertaking."

Ellis believes that this division will capitalize on what the group does best. "We believe that great business skills and great poker skills have much in common; learning how to read your opponent, bluffing, and risk assessment. Our events will be a welcome enhancement to corporate meetings because they can truly be turned into a teambuilding activity that everyone can learn to play, have fun doing, and be educational."

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Benson makes bid to become poker impresario

Anna Benson could find herself getting plenty of face time on TV in the coming year. Not during baseball games, but more likely during poker broadcasts.

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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 played her first official hand on the site last week. 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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"The Grinder" Scoops WPT Title and $1.2 Million

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Michael "The Grinder" Mizrachi outlasted a field of 381 players at the Borgata in Atlantic City this week to take the Borgata Winter Poker Open. Geez, that's a convoluted title. I guess we can distinguish it as opposed to the Summer

Poker Open. Anyway, this was also a World Poker Tour stop, so you can look forward to catching it later this year on The Travel Channel. This is just another major tournament to start of 2006, so stay tuned for more results for other big events throughout February. Here's what the final table looked like including their final prize money:



1. Michael Mizrachi - $1,173,000

2. John D'Agostino - $591,000

3. Erick Lindgren - $282,000

4. Amnon Filippi - $184,000

5. Josh Spiegelman - $147,000

6. Stuart Patterson - $110,000

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