The Nightly Turbo: Doyle's Tribute to Amarillo Slim, WSOP Coverage on ESPN, and More
The 2012 World Series of Poker is upon us, and we learned more details about the event during the WSOP conference call on Tuesday. Not only that, but ESPN released the television schedule for this year's WSOP coverage. We'll bring you that story, plus Doyle Brunson's tribute to the late Amarillo Slim, in this edition of the Nightly Turbo.
In Case You Missed It
PokerNews was listening in on the WSOP conference call on Tuesday. Chad Holloway provided a running blog with all the details.
Joe Serock has been crushing tournaments around the world this year but finally snagged his first live win last week. Rich Ryan discussed that and more in his latest Five Thoughts piece.
Team PokerStars Pro Viktor "Isildur1" Blom claimed his first PokerStars SCOOP title on Monday. Could he win No. 2 on Tuesday? Martin Harris and Mickey Doft break down Day 2 of the Spring Championship of Online Poker.
Christopher Bonn took down the 2011-2012 World Series of Poker Circuit Harrah's Philadelphia Main Event on Monday. Get all the details in our WSOPC final table recap.
Daniel Negreanu had some troubles uploading his Weekly Rant last week but finally solved the technical issues over the weekend. You can check it out over at The Muck.
A Tribute to a Legend
The poker world lost one of its most influential figures last month when Amarillo Slim passed away at age 83. The news was a blow to the entire poker community, but no one more so than Slim's good friend Doyle Brunson.
Brunson took to his blog late last week to reflect on the many good memories he had with his longtime comrade. The two gamblers endured many ups and downs, each of which left Brunson with a story to tell — and he describes each of them like they happened yesterday. Brunson recalls that he, Slim, and Sailor Roberts spent years as equal partners in the gambling world, traveling around to poker games and sharing their wins and losses, while taking several lumps along the way.
Says Brunson, "My eyebrows are full of scar tissue because of them but we had lots of outrageous adventures and plenty of fun. We were robbed at gunpoint four times, arrested many times, had several dangerous situations. Why did we continue doing it for 7 years? Simple, we loved poker."
Read Doyle's full blog at DoyleBrunson.com.
2012 WSOP on ESPN
Just hours before the World Series of Poker held its annual conference call on Tuesday, ESPN unveiled the television schedule for the 2012 WSOP. Now, everyone is gearing up for poker's biggest event that is now less than three weeks away.
ESPN announced that it will be airing three events as part of its schedule this summer and fall. In addition to the Main Event, the $1 million buy-in Big One for One Drop and the WSOP National Championship will be showcased as part of the coverage. The final day of the Big One (July 3) and the Main Event final table (Oct. 30) be shown on a 15-minute delay, giving viewers a chance to watch the action with hole cards virtually live.
“Fans know Tuesday night is poker night on ESPN,” said Doug White, ESPN senior director of programming and acquisitions. “Beginning with the Big One for One Drop and the WSOP National Championship, and continuing on Tuesdays with the WSOP Main Event, we will set the stage for this intense competition and continue the excitement through the Final Table in October.”
For a full look at the schedule, read the story here at PokerNews.com.
Isle of Man Eyes Live Poker Tournaments
The Isle of Man moved one step closer toward expanding land-based tournaments last week when a second reading of a proposed bill passed through the Legislative Council.
The island, situated between Great Britain and Ireland on the Irish Sea, has been the home of PokerStars' global headquarters since 2005. However, only one small casino on the Isle of Man is permitted to host live tournaments. The new bill would allow for outside venues to hold events used for gambling.
"I believe the Isle of Man would be doing a disservice to itself if it didn't participate and take advantage of its reputation as well as regulation in this area, as far as gambling is concerned," Eddie Lowery, one of the bill's biggest supporters, told Isle of Man Today last week.
iGamingBusiness has more.
Mad Marvin Leaves Titan Poker
Monday, we reported that Sam Trickett had parted ways with Titan Poker as one of the site's sponsored pros. On Tuesday, we learned that Trickett wasn't the only Titan pro to hit the free-agent market.
On Sunday, Marvin Rettenmaier announced via Twitter that he was also moving on from Titan. The German pro joined Titan Poker in 2010 and has developed into one of Europe's biggest poker stars. Rettenmaier has nearly $1.7 million in live tournament cashes since 2009.
@titan_poker has decided to part ways with its Pro Team. I am very thankful for the opportunities and I had a great time representing them.
— Marvin Rettenmaier (@MadMarvin)
The loss of Trickett and Rettenmaier leaves Titan Poker with an empty roster. The profiles of both players remain on Titan's website, and the poker room has yet to release an official statement.
Online Poker Traffic Report
PokerScout.com released its weekly online poker traffic rankings on Monday. The tracking site reported a worldwide increase of 8.5 percent, mostly because of a massive week at PokerStars.
PokerStars' 20 percent rise last week was triggered by its 80 Billionth Hand promotion. The site recorded nearly 80,000 cash game players on Sunday when the Mega Milestone hand hit. To compare, PokerStars' normal seven-day average is around 25,000 players.
PokerStars kept its sizable lead over the iPoker Network and PartyPoker, which landed at second and third in the rankings, respectively. There were two changes in the Top 10 from last week. Winamax.fr overtook PokerStars.it for sixth place, and International.it fell from 10th to 16th, allowing the Microgaming Network to creep back into the Top 10.
As for year-over-year traffic numbers, online poker has seen a worldwide decline of 13 percent since this time last year, much of that because of the falloff at Full Tilt Poker and the CEREUS Network. Some of the biggest gainers during the past year were 888poker (up 46 percent), PokerStars (up 34 percent) and Winamax.fr (up 25 percent).
Read the full report at PokerScout.com.
Daniel Negreanu? Never Heard of You
Daniel Negreanu made the rounds with the media ahead of the PokerStars SCOOP and the WSOP this month. Kid Poker did interviews with The Fan 590, Toro Magazine, and other outlets in recent days. It was his meeting with MTV Live's Paul Lemieux, though, that had us in stitches.
We really hate when we can't find embed codes, so we apologize for making you click on this link to watch Negreanu's interview. Enjoy!
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