What did our high roller thoroughbreds get up to during Valentines Day?
Not one of them mentioned it.
Still, there were other strains of stampedes to focus on.
Let’s get to it.
We start in the online poker realm, with Phil Galfond becoming supine in his heads-up challenge against VeniVidi1993. The Run It Once founder, called silly goose on the challenge after 15 sessions, in which time Galfond had lost €900,240.17, over 9,927 hands.
Galfond hasn’t given up, yet.
Instead, the orchestrator of the ‘Phil Galfond Challenge,’ said he needs until March 1st to clear his mind of ball bearings.
“I was playing scared. I was expecting to lose. I couldn’t get my brain to work properly.” Galfond wrote on Twitter.
The poker community seems divided on the matter with half spewing forth their usual splenetic, spiteful spittle at Galfond’s outward introspection. Then you have Galfond’s love club who understands his need to rein his nostrils in for a moment.
The funniest response came from Luke Schwartz, roasting Galfond in a rip-roaring reply, calling Galfond a ‘washed up nice guy.’ He even had a poke at the size of Galfond’s chest. Eventually, Schwartz owned up to wanting to add extra hype their will it/won’t it match, and the pair now seems to be in love again.
You can read all about it here.
One other collector’s item in the world of online poker, this week, was the release of the online bracelet events for the 51st Annual World Series of Poker (WSOP).
The WSOP has reserved a wheelbarrow containing 14-bracelets and a bucket load of cash for the subterranean section of the most iconic poker festival in the world, and for the first time, there is a $10,000 No-Limit Hold’em bracelet up for grabs.
You can read up on it, right here.
Live Poker News
Forget the Golden Globes and the Oscars; the major movie announcement comes from Triton Towers. Triton Million: A Helping Hand For Charity may be over, but not forgotten. Earlier this week, the Triton team released the ‘Triton Million After Movie’, including never before seen footage as the players warmed up for the event in Las Vegas, as well as coverage of the incredible event itself.
Check it out right here.
Another movie in the works that will interest the high stakes poker community covers on the story of Phil Ivey’s edge-sorting saga. Popcorn and pastries at the ready, as the Golden Globe winner, Awkwafina, has signed on to play the role of Cheung Yin “Kelly” Sun, in the tentatively titled ‘The Baccarat Machine.’
Please read all about it, right here.
The major live festival this month came from Uruguay. The Enjoy Punte del Este Casino and Resort lay partypoker MILLIONS branded red carpets over their pavements for nine days of action.
James Romero won the 30-entrant $25,000 No-Limit Hold’em for $325,000, and Pablo Silva won the 465-entrant $10,300 No-Limit Hold’em MILLIONS Main Event for $1m.
You can check out Romero’s win, right here.
Finally, the gossip has ended, and the truth is out.
Ok, there was no gossip.
Poker Central has inked a deal with Global Poker that will see the latter become the ‘Official Online Poker Partner’ at a series of live events including, but not restricted to, The Super High Roller Bowl, The Poker Masters and the US Poker Open.
Check out the finer details, right here.
The Debate
With a lull in the high stakes action, last week and nobody seemingly interested in the night of love, discourse flew to the most apparent lands of “how famous is Phil Hellmuth,” and “What is a dime?”
Mike ‘The Mouth’ Matusow, who is a great friend of Hellmuth, told Twitter that the gold-rimmed spectacle reached a new height of delusion when he said to him that he is a ‘B’ list celebrity, and would bet an undisclosed amount to prove it.
Matusow polled his 116.7k Twitter followers, 11,465 voted, and 21.8% agreed with the great man. Still, the vast majority felt that Hellmuth was a ‘D’ list celebrity (32.2%).
What do you think?
As a man from the UK, I struggle with this one.
What is a dime?
I know, from recently buying a children’s book from the library on this topic that a dime is a ten-cent coin, and ten of them makes a buck.
But this week, I learned it’s not that simple in gambling parlance after Mike ‘Timex” McDonald had to resolve a dispute between two players.
And the disputed amounts?
It seems my ten cents isn’t worth ten cents.
The player who lost the flip sent the winner $10k. The winner assumed he would receive $1k. They asked Timex, and he said a dime is $1k, the second person said it was $10k, so they agreed that it would be a $5k bet.
What do you think?
Interviews
A bunch of high stakes interviews have agitated the social media airwaves this week.
We’ll start close at home with the latest in our ‘I am High Stakes Poker’ interviews and a look at the life of Erik Seidel.
Catch it right here.
Poker Central’s Sam Simmons joined the PokerNews Facebook Live thingamajig to talk about all things high stakes poker.
You can watch the varnished version, right here.
Fedor Holz made an appearance on the London Leadership Podcast, and you can watch this razor-sharp mind unfurling, right here.
Triton Poker Ambassador, Jason Koon, partook in what Remko Rinkema called the best podcast he’s ever done. If you’ve turned up at the beach, and the tide is in, then get back in the car, and watch this.
This week marked the end of Andrew Yang’s presidential run, and that left the poker community looking for another stand to rest their hats on. Daniel Negreanu has gotten involved more than most, and this week, he appeared on the ‘Nerds for Yang’ podcast, and ‘The Vegas Take,’ to talk about the Yang Gang.
Finally, have we seen the end of Doug Polk’s highly successful poker YouTube channel? Polk managed to persuade 286k people to subscribe to his poker channel before broadening his horizons, moving into light entertainment and crypto.
This week, Polk polled his fans on the future of the poker channel, and the response was in favour of ditching it.
What do you think Polk should do?
The Poll of the Week
Derek Wolters wanted to know if there was any correlation between initial temperament and eventual success as a poker player. Should players start playing tight or aggressive?
Alex Livingston, Dan Smith and Bryn Kenney had their say.
You can trace the poll via this blue line.
The Tweet of the Week
There were so many gems this week.
These two were epic.
Jason Mercier’s nipper explaining what daddy does for a living.
Nick Schulman exposing Phil Ivey’s love of skittles.
Still, I don’t think anyone will ever beat this one.
Rob Yong is so committed to growing partypoker he didn’t even notice that his house had flooded.