Poker Mom of the Year?

When the police walked into Woody’s Press Box at one in the morning in Wyoming, they were looking for the mother of three kids. The children, found waiting in a car in the parking lot, were without parental supervision but the police were not sure for how long. Ranging in age from five to fifteen, the kids were alone because their mother was inside, where the police found her in the midst of playing a Texas Holdem poker tournament. The woman was cited for child neglect and will now be persecuted by the state prosecutor’s office.

WPT stock closed at $1.26

The news simply doesn’t get any better on the financial side for the World Poker Tour.

WPT stock closed at $1.26 on Thursday, giving the company a value of $25.82 million. The WPT has assets and cash in hand totaling $31 million.

According to poker-king.com, WPT stock hit an all-time high of $29.50 in 2005, the high-water mark before a serious downturn:

They are getting much less per episode in their new deal with the Game Show Network compared to their previous deal with the Travel Network. They received 477k per episode in Season 5 - this year they are receiving $300k per episode. They posted revenues for their online gaming business of $1.2 million dollars for all of 2007, down from $3.2 million dollars in 2006. They posted a net loss of $9.6 million dollars in 2007. Revenues decreased $7.5 million dollars from 2006 to 2007.

Company executives are still painting a rosy picture with the future of worldpokertour.com and clubwpt.com as future cash revenue streams, although immediate relief from economic woes does not seem to be on the horizon.

Omaha at the 2008 WSOP

Are you an Omaha guru waiting for a shot at a coveted WSOP bracelet? Do you cringe when you only get two cards dealt to you instead of four? Are you a total action junkie and love getting your money in with a flush draw and a gutshot? Are you sick of Texas Hold'em?

If you answered yes to any of those four questions, then you need to check out the list of Omaha themed events at the 2008 WSOP. There are ten bracelet events in total and include two $10,000 buy-in World Championship events.

6 Tuesday, June 3, 2008 5:00 PM
$1,500 Omaha High-Low 8/b

10 Thursday, June 5, 2008 5:00 PM
$2,500 Omaha 8/b and Stud 8/b

16 Sunday, June 8, 2008 5:00 PM
$2,000 Omaha 8/b

19 Tuesday, June 10, 2008 12 Noon
$1,500 Pot Limit Omaha

24 Thursday, June 12, 2008 5:00 PM
$2,500 Pot Limit Hold'em/Omaha

28 Saturday, June 14, 2008 5:00 PM
$5,000 Pot Limit Omaha (Rebuys)

34 Wednesday, June 18, 2008 12 Noon
$1,500 Pot Limit Omaha (Rebuys)

37 Thursday, June 19, 2008 5:00 PM
$10,000 World Championship Omaha 8/b

43 Tuesday, June 24, 2008 12 Noon
$1,500 Pot Limit Omaha 8/b

50 Sunday, June 29, 2008 12 Noon
$10,000 World Championship Pot Limit Omaha

Most of these events start at 5pm and unlike last year, they will not be held inside the poker tent.

TI offers weekly Head Hunters bounty tournaments

TI (Treasure Island) in Las Vegas has a Head Hunters bounty tournament that runs every Wednesday at 11 a.m. and every Sunday at 7 p.m.

The tournament attracts about 30-40 players and 1st place averages $600.

Buy-in is $125 with a $50 bounty on each player (so technically a $75 tourney). If you bust someone out, you not only get their chips, you also get $50. If you win the tournament, you get your own $50 bounty.

Starting chipstack is 5,000 and levels are 30 minutes.

For more information, call (702) 894-7291.

Bellagio Pays Tribute to WPT Champs

In less than two weeks, the Bellagio will play host to the Ceremony of Champions, the World Poker Tour event will pay tribute to 96 champions from the tour's previous six seasons.
The World Poker Tour has even had infamous jewelers Tiffany & Co. design titanium and diamond bracelets, personalized for every champion.
"There are so many incredible stories to celebrate from the six World Poker Tour seasons and we are thrilled to pay tribute to each of our WPT Champions," said WPT founder, president and CEO, Steve Lipscomb. "The championship bracelet has become synonymous with poker as a symbol of achievement and respect, and we are honored to continue the tradition that Benny Binion began over 30 years ago."
All future World Poker Tour champions will receive a bracelet along with their cash winnings. Could you be the next World Poker Tour winner? Try your luck at a WPT online poker. That next bracelet could very well be yours.

No more hot food at Diamond Lounges?

With the closing of the 7 Star Lounge at Caesars Palace, there's been some talk about the downgrading of the Diamond lounges at Harrah's properties.

Diamond lounges are open to Diamond players, who are players earning 11,000 in base points in a calendar year (each point is equivalent to $5 in playthrough on slots).

The rumor is that hot food has been removed from all Diamond lounges in Las Vegas to match other like lounges in the midwest.

We wanted to check to be sure and stopped by Harrah's last Saturday.

We were there in the evening, and while we saw no traces of hot food, there were chips, salsa, cookies, and other snacks that seemed to corroborate what people in the message boards have been saying.

We spoke with a Harrah's host and were told that hot food is still being served, but just between 4 to 6 p.m. We were also shown a menu that listed the different hot food that would be set out over the next week.

Of course, the bar was as full as ever, and mudslides were still freely flowing.

So the rumors of the death of hot food has been exaggerated. As long as you're there between 4 and 6 p.m.

Daniel Negreanu: "I'm In That Killer Mindset, Like I Literally Want to Eat People's Brains"

Wow! In his latest blog posting on his site, entitled "Eating Brain", Daniel Negreanu begins by talking about how prepared he is for both the EPT Grand Final (currently taking place as we speak) and the upcoming Five-Star World Poker Classic event at the Bellagio. Negreanu goes on to say that he is eating extremely healthy, exercising and getting proper bed rest.
After getting some of the more boring details out of the way, Negreanu sends out a warning shot to all of the other players who may be unfortunate enough to sit at his table.
The 140 pound vegan says that he is in "that killer mindset", "like I literally want to eat people's brains."
If that isn't enough to send a cold chill down your spine, Negreanu continues:
"Just literally rip their brains to shreds after an appetizer of ripping their hearts out of their chests, taking a big bite out of them, and then spitting the blood back in their faces."
Negreanu finishes by stating that he is going to "pwn" the EPT Grand Final, if the cards co-operate.