Negreanu Polls on the Moon Landing
Out of pure curiosity or for another reason, Dnegs took to Twitter with a divisive question. The good ol' debate about the Moon landing in 1969 began again.
Random fun question:
— Daniel Negreanu (@RealKidPoker) August 31, 2024
Do you believe that in 1969 we landed on the moon?
Over 20% of respondents doubt the moon landing, with 5% being fully sure about it. The comment section is packed full of strong opinions, which is probably Negreanu's desired outcome.
The debate went as expected.
Jungleman Knows What Poker Needs
Does this tweet from Daniel Cates resonate with you?
"In short, what poker needs is simple.
In needs more love, and to not be about the bottom line.
To leave VIPs and all people better than when they started, even if it hurts our earning potential.
Why did we need all that extra money anyway?
Making money is no longer my top priority in this game
I will find a way to make it a > 0 some [sum] game, and I hope you will join me"
Sep 3, 2024
There was a decent amount of agreement, mainly from Robbi Jade Lew.
But, many felt that Cates wasn't speaking for the average player or being realistic.
Up to 15 Years for Poker Pro Damien Leforbes
Damien Leforbes, known for playing multiple decades and appearing in high-stakes cash games, is caught up in a far-reaching investigation.
In a federal court, Damien has pled guilty to several serious charges. These include operating an illegal sports betting operation and money laundering, according to sources. The consequences could be as steep as 15 years in prison, three years of supervised release, and a fine of up to half a million dollars.
Over multiple years, millions and millions of dollars are said to have funneled through an organization where Leforbes was a central figure. Apparently, 700 bettors may have been involved in the illegal sportsbook. Court documents showed that Leforbes had wagered more than $148 million at an unknown venue in only 11 months (ending in Dec 2023).
On top of all of this, Leforbes is said to have more than $12 million of debt on the Resorts World Las Vegas balance sheet. Apparently, he even wrote a bad check for $2.5 million, which was turned over to authorities for the investigation.
European Poker Tour Bans Solvers and Changes Dealing Method
Many players will be pleased to see that the EPT has taken much-needed steps to strengthen game integrity.
"No use of GTO-solvers/charts or similar anywhere in the whole tournament area at any time, also not for spectators."
This was from a tweet made by PokerStars live event advisor Kenny Hallaert on August 26th. Along with changes to shotclocks and redraws, Kenny addressed two very important topics in his post. The EPT rule changes address solvers, but also, a recently discovered method of cheating that uses hidden cameras placed on the rail. If you need to brush up on this new method, see the full story here.
"We were considering removing all electronic devices from the table (including rail) for game integrity reasons. Instead, dealers will be taught to slide cards instead of pitching over the course of the next EPT's."
After Tamayo's $10 million Main Event win in 2024, plenty of poker players were waiting for these kinds of changes. Instead of normalizing solvers at large live tournaments, it's clear that PokerStars Live and the European Poker Tour appreciate the opposite. Before the 56th annual World Series of Poker in 2025, we are likely to hear about similar rule adjustments.
Joe Stapleton Releases Poker Comic Book
The owner of one of poker's most memorable voices is now the creator of a comic book. After four years, Joe Stapleton published "Trapped," which he says is a mix of Rounders and Deadpool. 150 pages of high-quality illustrations document the story of Joe, a main character with many similarities to the author. The hero of the story is a fired poker commentator frustrated by the game's modernization. He gets tangled up with the wrong crowd and a journey unfolds.
Joe's project is on Kickstarter right now and interested readers can buy Trapped or opt for higher tiers. A physical copy is around $27 (£20), but a digital copy costs half that. Other reward tiers include merch, a drink with Joe Stapleton, back rubs, or even a home game meetup. For a little under $1,200, Joe will play in your PokerStars Zoom game and give the entire table signed copies.
Teen Makes Dress Out of Cards – DQ'd by Judges
In Texas, one teen aspired to win a local arts and crafts contest at the State Fair. To do this, 16-year-old Ms Rodgers built a dress completely out of playing cards, using at least 2,000.
40 decks of cards and 60 hours later, she was finished. Whatever you think about the final product, the effort it took is clear to see. The dress even attracted the attention of casinos who were interested in potentially showing it off.
The expression, "They do things bigger in Texas," was true in this case.
Sadly, the teenager had gone over the size limits for the State Fair of Texas and was disqualified from the competition. Still, after hopping on social media, she was offered a place to show her dress for the full fair. Apparently, she's already creating another dress out of playing cards, this time for Day of the Dead on November 1st.
Hawk Tuah Girl Sees Future and Folds Two-Pair on Stream
Taking her 15 minutes of fame to value town, the "Hawk Tuah Girl" has been all over social media recently. In the wake of her virality, Haliey Welch has been doing podcasts, interviews, and now, a televised poker game.
Unfortunately, Welch went into the Celebrity Poker Tour without a strong foundation of skill. Before the game, she told a reporter:
“I’m not very good at poker and I’ve never played poker, so we’re going to see how this goes.”
At 55 minutes into the stream, we see limp after limp and the tables goes to a 7-way flop. is the best hand preflop, joined by several connectors, , and Hawk Tuah Girl's . She gets the kind of flop you want to see after a UTG+1 limp with those cards.
The flop is .
Patrick Peterson folds his (not even facing a bet), but Richards with bets 1/4 pot. After doing a magic trick with his tie, Xavier Mortimer folds a low flush draw. Hawk Tuah Girl throws her two-pair in-Tuah the muck.
"Wait.. how did he just do that? – and why did Hawk Tuah fold?" The commentators were alarmed. "What is happening?"
Ethan Klien of H3H3 folds his gutshot, and the turn is a , instantly counterfeiting Hawk Tuah's two pair.
The commentators praised her immediately, "Great fold by Hawk Tuah. Outstanding." The eventual tournament winner, Vegas Matt, also made a straight on the river with his .
To watch the full stream, visit the PokerGo channel on YouTube with this link.
What Would You Do with a Main Event Ticket?
One Redditor busted out of a $1 million guaranteed live tournament on day 2, but found a silver lining. His name was entered into a draw for a $10,000 ticket to next years Main Event at the World Series of Poker. Instead of going home empty-handed, he won the draw on his birthday.
Rather than going to Dominik Nitsche for coaching, he turned to Reddit for answers.
"A Main Event ticket just fell into my lap. What do?"
"I just went pro four months ago and have had a lot of success grinding $1/$2/$5 and live $300-600 MTTs. The biggest one I’ve played was a $600 3-day tournament with a $1M guarantee.
I busted out on day 2 of that tournament, but for making day 2, my name was entered into a random drawing for a $10,000 main event seat. And I won that shit. On my fucking birthday.
So now I’m freerolling the 2025 main and I’ve never even been to Vegas yet. I’m aware that approaching this tournament like any other is likely a mistake given the duration, the awkward mix of pros and amateurs, and the fact that you can’t rebuy; but I’m not exactly sure how to adjust my overall strategy to optimize my performance in this unfamiliar environment.
Any tips?"
Some sensible comments urged the author to sell the seat.
– "If OP is rationally thinking about this they’d sell it. If they had won $10,000 from playing poker instead, then they wouldn’t have spent it all on a Main Event ticket"
– "If you can't afford to buy into a $10k tournament, is it wise to play it anyway just because you got a free entry? You could use the $10k to play 20x $500 buy-in tournaments or to boost your bankroll and start playing bigger cash games."
– "I played the main for the first time this year. If you can sell the seat, 10k goes a lot further into many other tournaments. I hope I can play the main again, but it’s a huge and generally poor financial investment."
Plenty of comments wanted to see the lucky winner go for it.
– "Ignore these cowards, send it brother. You only live once, someone has to win it. If Jamie Gold can win, there’s no reason you can’t."
– "OP, please do not sell this seat for the love of God. You get to play in the ultimate poker tournament in the world for free."
– "Hire a coach. Make sure he’s railbirding with a laptop with piosolver. That’s basically it."
The majority like the idea of selling action and using that to cover travel expenses. The $10k ticket, relative to the author's usual buy-ins, is something to consider. When we factor in the 10,000+ players and the variance of the World Event, what would you do with a ticket? Online sites aren't holding satellites yet, but they will in the lead-up to the 2025 WSOP series.
- Increased first deposit bonus
- Increased rakeback and reloads
- Help with deposits and cashouts
- Access to private freerolls
- Round-the-clock support
A PokerStars Study on Emotional Composure at Work
Over in Canada, PokerStars has commissioned a study on the kinds of emotional control we use at work.
They found that "Over a third (37%) of Canadian workers have found themselves managing their emotions at work on a weekly basis or more frequently."
The study used answers from 1,389 experienced Canadian workers. Here's a useful expert from the study:
"The survey of 1389 work-experienced Canadians found that almost three quarters (74%) admit to having found themselves in work situations where they needed to maintain emotional control, with over a third (37%) experiencing this weekly or more. It was revealed maintaining composure has been challenging during conflict with colleagues (32%), closely followed by working under tight deadlines (29%) and working with people who have strong opinions (29%)."
"The survey also disclosed that workers have found their facial expressions as the most challenging 'tell' to control in the workplace (36%), with tone of voice (35%) and lack of confidence (26%), closely following."
Although the study is clearly a marketing tool, it's nice to see the data on how we manage workplace emotions. The study correctly points out that poker and workplaces both deal with similar themes from time to time. Managing pressure, considering your strategy, and predicting the actions of others are just a few.
