Referring to himself as the “World’s Greatest Gambler,” Amarillo Slim helped to promote the game of poker throughout the United States after winning the World Series of Poker in 1972.  Amarillo Slim won three additional gold bracelets in WSOP events, most recently in 1990 when he won a $5,000 pot-limit Omaha competition.

In addition to appearing on numerous game shows, Amarillo Slim used his appearances on national television shows including The Tonight Show, Good Morning America and 60 Minutes as well as his small role in the movie, “California Split,” to help increase poker’s popularity across the nation.

The year after he won the third World Series of Poker ever held, Amarillo Slim partnered with Bill Cox to write a book entitled, “Play Poker to Win.”  The manuscript was re-released under the title, “Amarillo Slim’s Play Poker to Win.”  The 1992 Poker Hall of Fame inductee also authored an autobiography entitled, “Amarillo Slim in a World Full of Fat People,” in 2003.

The WSOP’s website posted the following statement issued by Amarillo Slim’s family on Sunday:

“We hope everyone will remember our beloved Amarillo Slim for all the positive things he did for poker and to popularize his favorite game, Texas Hold’em.”

LOCKOPS was to be an exclusive set of tournaments set for only Lock Poker players. However it seems Merge did not approve of the exclusiveness of LOCKOPS and pulled the plug in what Lock called the ’24th hour’. After the Poker Nordica unexpected closed out of the nowhere many players have been apprehensive concerning the safety of funds on other Merge Network skins. My inside source at Lock Poker tells me it’s business as usual at Lock, as well as there being on cause for concern. He points out that Lock has a separate cashier from the rest of Merge that facilitates faster cash outs as well as Lock Poker continuing to sign reputable pros to it’s roster.

The indie movie was first screened at the 2009 CineVegas Film Festival, where it was awarded the prize for “Best Documentary.” It was then scheduled for a general public release in theatres around the world in the Fall of 2011. After some delay, it eventually premiered in theatres on March 23rd.

Reviews have been mixed, but it is certainly a great insight into why the game laid dormant for decades before exploding into mainstream culture. Just ten years ago, no one would have ever imaged how popular the game would become. This eruption was a culmination of factors including: the rags to riches story of Chris Moneymaker, the advent of hole card cameras for entertaining tv broadcasts and the mystique and apparent simplicity of a very deep and rich gambling game.

Starting tomorrow, April 24th, the movie will be available for viewing on various Video on Demand platforms, as well as the iTunes store.

“I’m honoured and humbled to have been asked to be a part of PokerStars Team Online,” he wrote, “and will do my very best to represent my position with the site both here in the Australia & New Zealand region as well as around the rest of the world both online and off.”

Bhasin went on to answer several questions in his latest post. His best game, the new pro says, is Pot Limit Omaha. Though No Limit Hold’em remains the most popular game in his homeland, he has expressed interest in promoting PLO as often as possible.

Initially, Bhasin began playing after catching a poker show on television. For several years, Bhasin has put in a great deal of time on the PokerStars servers. It didn’t take long for him to discover the online game, where his skills were honed to a point. He’s made several notable cashes in his time at the digital felt, the largest of which came during the Spring Championship of Online Poker in 2010. The event in question was a $2,100 No Limit Omaha Hi/Lo affair, where his second place berth drew a $40,800 payday.

When he began his blog, Bhasin goes on to say, he had aspirations of becoming a sponsored member at PokerStars. After years of hard work, he’s managed to achieve his goal.

Jennette Tan

Bodog has announced Jennette Tan as the latest addition to their Team Bodog. Nicknamed “Jay”, Tan is an Asian poker player who was born in Los Angeles. In addition to her beauty, she also holds a Masters Degree in Business. She briefly moved to Hong King to start a banking career at Goldman Sachs, but soon discovered poker and was drawn to it.

It did not take Tan long to determine that she has a knack for the game. She has cashed in a number of Macau poker tournaments in the past year, with her biggest cash so far being $40,622 for her 5th place finish in a Macau Poker Cup Red Dragon event.

Tan is very excited at the chance to represent Bodog and live the life of a professional poker player. At Bodog she will join two other accomplished female pros: Evelyn Ng and Tatjana Pasalic.

Already somewhat of a poker celebrity in the Asian poker scene, Tan will help to represent Bodog when their new Chinese poker client (Bodog88) is launched. Poker is becoming very popular in the south pacific region. There are already a number of large live poker series including in Asian Poker Tour (APT) and PokerStars’ Asia Pacific Poker Tour (APPT) and their field sizes continue to grow.

Players around the world had breathed a collective sigh of relief in December when the deal was announced, as it was the first indication that they may receive their money from the formerly popular poker site. Part of the deal was for the GBT to be responsible for Full Tilt Poker’s international player balances, amounting to an estimated $150 million. The DOJ was to deal with repaying domestic USA player balances (approximately $80 million) out of the funds they had seized.

There have been no official statements and very little credible information regarding developments being made on the deal. Speculation and rumors have been flying around, especially in the last month since Laurent Tapie, CEO of GBT, confirmed allegations that over a dozen FTP pros owe the company a combined $16.5 million. Included on this list were some very well-known pros: Barry Greenstein, Phil Ivey, Eric Lindgren and Mike Matusow. Despite claims that the majority of these players were making arrangements to pay back this money, rage was ignited among many former FTP players. Some felt that this equated to pro players stealing money out of the pockets of FTP players around the world.

Barry Greenstein addressed his involvement in this mess swiftly and publically. He made it clear that he does indeed owe the company $400,000. He also explained that it isn’t simply a matter of paying it back right now and having it instantly go towards player balances. “If we had paid Full Tilt management that money, where do you think that money would be right now?” he says, “It would just be gone.”

Current rumors regarding the GBT-DOJ deal suggest that the deal may be losing traction. Unconfirmed reports have been saying that FTP may possess more debt than originally thought. More debt than GBT investors are prepared to take on. Players have cited the silence of FTP shareholders as evidence that things are going poorly.

Matt Glantz, a high stakes poker pro and writer for Card Player, recently wrote on his blog that he believes FTP insiders are reluctant to say anything at all due to the fragility of the deal. He suggests that “insiders seem to conclude that there is almost no chance of this deal going through at this point, they don’t want any perception that their words caused the deal to fail.”

Although Glantz claims that (according to one insider source) there are other options if the GBT deal fails, it seems unlikely that many investors will be lining up to take on such a debt-laden company. Bernard Tapie may very well be one of best chances Full Tilt Poker has. Tapie has a somewhat successful history of rescuing bankrupt companies. Most notably, he helped ADIDAS on their way out of a significant rut during his ownership of the company between 1989 and 1992.

As for future developments, Greenstein speculates that at some point there will be a “judgment day” where whatever money is left will be pooled and spread out to partially repay player balances. Matt Glantz writes that he believes this GBT deal will eventually fall through, leaving FTP no choice but to shut down for good. He estimates that players could reasonably expect to “receive between 20%-40% of their account balances back from the government somewhere down the line.” Although most of these predictions are based on rumor and hearsay, it is very likely that the outlook really is as bleak as it seems.

WPT Los Angeles Poker Classic - 20th Anniversary

Just one month after his $2 million win at the Aussie Millions High Roller event, Phil Ivey has continued his roll with his shrewd play at the WPT LA Classic. Thanks to a late surge, at the conclusion of day 1 he is sitting in 5th place with 116,300 chips. The chip leader, Michael Rocco, ended the day with 156,200 chips. Phil Ivey is on track to repeat his performance in 2008 when he won the LAPC during season 6 of the WPT.

The World Poker Tour’s Los Angeles Classic tournament is held annually at the Commerce Casino. It is their largest event of the year and draws many professional players. This year marks the 20th anniversary of the $10,000 buyin event, and is the 10th year since it became affiliated with the WPT. The LAPC has often had very difficult fields, as evidenced by these well-known past winners: Gus Hansen (2003), Antonio Esfandiari (2004), Michael Mizrachi (2005), and of course, Phil Ivey (2008).

This year’s LAPC began with a field of 523 players, and at the end of the first day 373 remained. The field will increase slightly as Commerce Casino is still running satellites to this event, with registration open until noon tomorrow, when Day 2 officially starts. As of now the prize pool contains just over $5 million, with a first place payout of $1.37 million. Other notable players still in the running include Jonathan Duhamel (98,950 chips), Shaun Deeb and Joe Hachem.

Eastgate’s relationship with the game has been a complicated one. Since winning poker’s most coveted crown in 2008, he has played rather sporadically. In fact, after spending a stretch as a member of Team PokerStars, Eastgate took nearly a one year leave of absence from poker. His reasoning, quite simply, was that he felt that he’d last his desire to compete. With financial independence achieved, he said, it was time to step away. During that time, he went so far as to auction off his Main Event winner’s bracelet, with the proceeds going to charity. The sale, held on eBay, eventually raised $147,500 for UNICEF.

“I had a 10-month hiatus where I didn’t play poker,” he recently said, “then felt the lust to play again… I still enjoy the game and there’s still a lot of challenges to the game. I’m not by any means the best player in the world, so there’s a lot of challenges.”

Eastgate, a native of Denmark, now joins a Betfair Pro team populated by names such as John Tabatabai and Hans Martin Vogl, according to iGaming Business.

Duhamel's mangled 2010 WSOP Championship Bracelet

Jonathan Duhamel is relieved to hear that his prized 2010 WSOP Main Event Championship bracelet has been recovered. The bracelet, along with $115,000 in cash and other items including a Rolex watch were stolen from him in a home invasion in December of 2010.

The home invasion occurred outside his Montreal area condo on the night of December 21st, 2010. Duhamel opened the door for what appeared to be a parcel delivery man. But as soon as he opened the door, he was rushed by four individuals- his ex-girlfriend and three accomplices.

Duhamel was beaten, had his life threatened and was then forced to open his home safe. The quartet made off with $115,000 worth of cash, including a number of 500 Euro banknotes, his Rolex watch and his 2010 World Series of Poker Championship bracelet. Fortunately, Duhamel didn’t sustain any serious injuries from the ordeal.

Police were quickly able to retrieve the Rolex watch and half of the stolen cash. In just days they arrested the four allegedly responsible for the robbery. They now face charges of conspiracy, breaking and entering, armed robbery, aggravated assault, unlawful confinement and receiving stolen goods. They are currently still being detained in prison, awaiting their trial which is scheduled for this week.

Duhamel’s WSOP bracelet was still missing until last Wednesday when it was found in the receptacle of a street sweeper cleaning truck that had been cleaning the Ville-Marie Tunnel. The bracelet was badly damaged, and by the photo it appears that the band was removed. It also looks like an effort was made to remove Duhamel’s name from the engraving in order to make it unidentifiable, and presumably, easier to sell. Given that it ended up on the street, it appears that the criminal gave up on selling the engraved portion of the bracelet.

The 14 karat gold, diamond studded bracelet had been valued at around $40,000, but Duhamel is just glad to have it back due to its tremendous sentimental value. Of this recent find, Duhamel’s manager, Philippe Jette, said, “The sentimental value [of the bracelet] is priceless. We are giving the bracelet to the police, because it is still a piece of evidence, and should help the police with the investigation. We are happy, and Jonathan is doing very well.”

Gillian Epp

The online poker site Bet24 has signed on another poker pro to their brand, Gillian Epp. The 27 year old is an established poker player who also writes columns for the poker magazines CasinoPlayer and PokerPro Canada.

At the age of 19, Gillian Epp started out as a poker dealer. It didn’t take her long to realize that she had a knack for the game. She quit her poker dealing job, as well as university, to become a professional poker player. She prefers cash games to tournament, as is evidenced by her quick rise from the mid-stakes games in Vancouver, Canada to the high stakes cash games in Las Vegas. The Bellagio is reportedly one of her favorite casinos.

She gets a rush by playing against the best players, allowing her to improve her game even more. “Playing against the best players raises your own level of play. I learn the most when I am put in challenging situations,” says the female pro.

She has preferred live games to online thus far, but now she will be throwing her hat into the online scene as she joins Bet24, a small, but growing site on the Ongame poker network. She joins other Bet24 pros such as Jesper Hougaard (the team captain), Thomas “Kalllllle” Pedersen, Casper Toft and half a dozen others. The Bet24 pros are from all over the world, including Sweden, Finland, Germany, Australia, Canada and the UK. Poker Manager of Bet24, Lards Kollind, is very happy with the way the team is shaping up. “We are getting very close to completing the elite of the 24s,” he says, referring to the two dozen spots they have reserved for pro players/ambassadors of their site.