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From the Bird on the Rail
By: Amy Calistri

The Crew – Shipwrecked!
The lifespan of alliances is predictably short in poker, a brutally independent game where money is a central feature. And while it’s not surprising to learn that the once high-fiving ‘Crew’ has been reduced to middle-fingering each other, the setting for their public demise has been rather unique. Voyeurs only have to go to eBay, the online auction site, to get a feel for the Crew’s carnage. Dutch Boyd, who often boasted of the Crew’s ability to get backers, is pimping pieces of himself, like so many beanie babies, for the WSOP Circuit San Diego event in a series of eBay auctions. But he’s not the only former Crew member playing the eBay card. Brett ‘Gank’ Jungblut launched his own ebay auction, offering up a personal phone conversation, the proceeds of which would be donated to a Los Angeles homeless shelter. But Gank’s real motive was to use the item to publicize a ‘buyer beware’ message for anyone bidding on Dutch’s action. Where is Fischman in all of this? Last time I saw him he was happy scooping final table pots. Go figure.

Fear the Beaver
Apparently Canadian poker players have a new battle cry. “Fear the beaver, baby. Fear the beaver,” is the official motto of Team Canuck, the new labor of poker-love nurtured by semi-pro Dave Scharf. ‘Rambling Dave’, as he is known to his Saskatoon morning radio fans, has entered World Series of Poker events three times and has made money each and every trip. Dave’s new website, www.canadianpoker.com , chronicles his pending bid to go four-for-four while upholding the team’s creed of ‘working hard to make the game fun’. Dave has kindly offered me a Team Canuck Tshirt so I can ‘display my beaver with pride’. Uh…thanks Dave.

A Wynning Partnership
If you’re wondering where to catch Daniel Negreanu over the next year, you might start at Wynn Las Vegas. Daniel has been named Wynn’s poker room ambassador, and according to Marc Shore , Wynn Las Vegas President, that’s where you’ll find Daniel 200 days a year. On schedule to open April 28th, Wynn’s poker room will sport 25 tables, a VIP section for big cash games, an automated player sign and paging system – and, apparently, one Daniel Negreanu.

High Stakes
The phone rings. It’s Doyle Brunson. Andy Beal is coming into Vegas tomorrow and he wants to know if you’re in. Your admission price is $200,000, paid in full two hours before the game. Doyle would repeat this call more than a dozen times a night, in what became a high stakes poker ritual.

While ESPN and the WPT have offered even the layman a view of major tournament action, few people get a glimpse of poker’s biggest high stakes games. And the Vegas team funded heads-up encounters with Dallas banker, Andy Beal, were arguably the biggest games in town, with stakes starting at $10,000/$20,000, gravitating to $100,000/$200,000.

But if you don’t have the bankroll for the game, you can still get a view of the Bellagio’s upper deck extravaganza when two new books debut this June. Keep an eye our for high stakes pro Barry Greenstein’s book, tentatively titled Poker Thoughts of a Winning High Stakes Playe r and Michael Craig’s The Professor, the Banker, and the Suicide King .

Heads Up
NBC SPORTSrecently announced televised coverage of its own Vegas-based poker tournament, the National Heads-up Poker Championship, to be filmed at the Golden Nugget. The tournament will have a sixty-four player field of invited pros going head to head for a $1.5 million prize pool. The four show series will be filmed in March and will air in May. A relevant side note: Harrah’s is currently renegotiating the television contract rights for the World Series of Poker. As NBC looks to capitalize on poker’s new mainstream appeal, many speculated that NBC would be among the bidders. Jon Miller, senior vice president for NBC Sports, recently confirmed that NBC might, indeed, be interested in televising poker’s big dance.

TV Star
Lion Television spent the better part of February at The Orleans Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas filming a poker reality show that’s slated for release in the , and possibly the , market. Vegas Virgins is a bit like Survivor. But instead of being stuck on a desert island, these British and American poker newbies, coached by writer and pro Lou Krieger, compete for their survival on the felt. In the finale, the last contestant goes up against some Vegas regulars. Although yours truly gets some time in at the final table as a non-virgin (who told?), I can only wonder if my appearance suggests that televised poker has, at last, jumped the shark.

Show me the Love...
…and in the end, the love you take is equal to the love you make.” For some reason, every time I saw Avner ‘Papa’ Levy at this year’s WPO that old Beatles refrain popped into my head. I know this former tennis pro, now poker pro, is often associated with adjectives like ‘confrontational’ and ‘bombastic’. And to be tagged as an eccentric in the poker world probably means you’ve put in some hard time on the lunatic fringe. But Avner was bucking his reputation this year. He was charming, gracious, and behaving like a man who finally seemed at ease with himself and the game he loves. Like an unofficial ambassador of the WPO, he was issuing warm smiles, buying drinks for strangers, giving away packs of cigarettes to needy players, and had somehow converted his trademark frenetic energy into joyful exuberance. And as the Beatles song attests, you get back what you give. Levy was awarded his second WPO bracelet in the $500 Stud event; his first was secured in the 2003 $1000 No Limit Hold‘em event. His final table play, in the past described as ‘chaotic’ and like ‘a toilet overflowing’, was thoughtful, calculated… and strangely quiet. The crowd only got one ‘Come to Papa!’ on a won pot, which was delivered with tongue-in-cheek aplomb. Avner has been slugging it out on the felt the hard way for many years, and I believe he has finally discovered that there’s a kinder and gentler path to the final table.

 

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