Citizens of Las Vegas and the business world in general know American businessman Phil Ruffin. The Las Vegas resident has been listed on Forbes 400 list of wealthiest people in the world numerous times. He is worth well over $2 Billion.
While he is known for many of his business ventures, his most well known venture may have been the purchase of the Frontier Hotel and Casino in 1999. Margaret Elardi and her family owned the casino at the time and the casino was in a long term strike with the Culinary Workers Union. Soon after the sale, the strike was settled and Ruffin ran the property until 2007. He then sold the property to El Ad Properties for $1.2 Billion. The 36 acre property commanded the highest per acre price in the history of the Las Vegas Strip.
Microsoft’s XBox is leading the way in online poker technology as far as consoles go. They have launched Full House Poker and so far, its being well received by the video game community. Released just yesterday, Full House Poker is the successor of 1 vs 100 and includes a series of tournaments called Texas Heat. Players can experience television style live poker events that include season long tournaments and traditional Texas Hold’Em games where you can include up to 30 players, human or computer.
Though video game enthusiasts play for XBox credits, Microsoft is feeling the waters for cash games, if the US legalizes online poker. Reviewers are giving the game a score of 7.7 out of 10. The pros are that Texas Heat is balanced, due to playing against leveled opponents. Quick and effortless game-play that comes with preset actions such as call, bet and fold. It also includes a 15 second timer to keep the game going. Its only downfall? Simply that the US Government has still made online gambling illegal. You can find Full House Poker for Windows Phone 7, XBox and XBox Live Arcade.
Season 7 of High Stakes Poker is currently underway on GSN. This year there are a few notable changes in the show. First, the show has been moved form the Golden Nugget to the Bellagio. Next, the show is sponsored by PokerStars.net, and as such Full Tilt Poker pros will not be appearing on the show. Finally, Gabe Kaplan has been replaced as host by former “Saturday Night Live funny man” Norm MacDonald.
The season started with the following lineup.
Seat 1: Doyle Brunson
Seat 2: Vanessa Selbst
Seat 3: Barry Greenstein
Seat 4: Antonio Esfandiari
Seat 5: Robert Croak
Seat 6: Phil Ruffin
Seat 7: Bill Klein
Seat 8: David “Viffer” Peat
Croak, Ruffin, and Klein are all amateurs. Croak is the creator of Silly Bands, Ruffin is the owner of Treasure Island in Las Vegas, and Klein is a retired business owner.
The first episode got off to an explosive start when Ruffin stacked Vanessa Selbst. After a raise to $4,900 by Doyle Brunson, Selbst, Ruffin, and Antonio Esfandiari all called. The flop fell 4c-9c-3d and Esfandiari bet out for $17,100. He was holding 10d-9d for top pair. Ruffin called, Brunson folded, and Selbst raised to $63,800 holding a pair of queens. Ruffin almost acted out of turn, and this caused Esfandiari to get out of the way. Ruffin then raised to $117,100. Selbst moved all-in on Ruffin, and he made the call. He then turned over pocket threes for a flopped set. Selbst was unable to catch another queen and she had to re-buy for $200,000.
The very next hand saw a huge $428,600 pot. Bill Klein was dealt aces and raised to $3,000. David Peat called with Jh-10h, and Ruffin called with Js-4s. The flop fell Kh-10c-5c. Klein led out for $7,000, followed by a raise by Peat to $24,000. Ruffin got out of the way and Klein made it $67,000 to go. Peat shoved and Klein made the call. The two decided to run it just once. That decision may come back to haunt Klein as a heart hit the river to complete Peat’s flush and send the $428,600 his way.
The second episode saw the same cast of players return and Klein continued to get pocket pairs cracked. This time he was dealt pocket kings but failed to three-bet pre-flop after Selbst raised with pocket eights. This would come back to bite him as both Esfandiari and Peat splashed around with the two players. Peat held 7-5 offsuit and proceeded to flop trip fives on a board of J-5-5. Klein decided to check raise the flop against Peat and this forced the other opponents out of the hand. Klein then bet the turn and river, and Peat called him down both times. He then showed his trip fives to drag a $160,800 pot.
Peat later learned that you cannot bluff a calling station. The board at the turn was Ks-Ah-8d-4h. Ruffin bet $20,000 into a $19,000 pot holding Kc-3c. Peat then decided to raise to $50,000 holding 9c-2c. Ruffin made the call and then checked when the river fell the Qh. Peat bet out $100,000 on nothing but air, and Ruffin almost insta-called. He then showed his pair of kings to take down the $319,000 pot.
The biggest hand of the season then went down between Barry Greenstein and Antonio Esfandiari. On a flop of 10c-6h-4h, the two got into a raising war that saw Greenstein move all-in. He was holding pocket fours and had flopped a set. Esfandiari then asked “run it once or twice” and slam dunked the call. He was holding 8h-7h for straight flush draw and gutshot straight draw. Greenstein said to run it just once no sooner than he said run it once, the Qh hit the turn to give Esfandiari a flush. The board failed to pair and Esfandiari took down a $593,900 pot.
Episode three of HSP saw the busting of Robert Croak by Phil Ruffin. Ruffin, Croak, Selbst, and Esfandiari saw a flop of Ah-Jc-Ks. Croak bet out $11,000 with A-J and two pair, only to be raised by Ruffin who held Q-10 for a flopped straight. Croak then moved all-in and Ruffin snap-called. Croak was unable to catch an ace or jack and Croak was both felted and gone. He decided he hand enough and in his place, Andrew Robl joined the fun.
The only other pot of significance was between Ruffin and Peat. Ruffin flopped top pair and Peat a straight draw. This time, Peat decided just to call bets on the flop and turn from Ruffin. After a final river bet, Peat decided to lay it down to give Ruffin the $200,000 pot. After this pot, Ruffin was up to almost $1 Million in his stack.
As you can see, there have been plenty of big pots this season in High Stakes Poker. It is good that the poker is doing a bit of the talking as new host Norm MacDonald is absolutely horrible in the booth. Hopefully this will be his only season of covering the show. Vinny Vinh’s chair would be more interesting to listen to.
There are still nine more episodes left to come this season for High Stakes Poker. Can Selbst rebound from her loss and will Ruffin continue to steamroll over the table? You have to tune in to find out.
In many sports, when an amateur faces off against a professional, the professional usually mops the floor with the amateur. Many expected the same to be the case in this past Sunday’s Pokerstars SuperStar Showdown challenge between Viktor Blom screenname “Isildur1″ and online qualifier DodgyFish72. DodgyFish72 survived a freeroll event and was given $15,000 to face the internet phenom. While most expected a sound beatdown, DodgyFish72 had other ideas.
The two players decided to four table $5-$10 NL Hold’em and early on, DodgyFish72 had a lead by a couple grand. However, it was not long before Isildur1 went on a streak and by the midway point of the match, Isildur1 lead by $10,768. It looked like this would be an utter route. Then things went a bit sour for Blom.
Blom was steadily leaking chips and slowly letting DodgyFish72 back into the game. The hand that gave him new life was a $5,550 pot that almost went to Blom. Blom called a three-bet pre-flop with K-9 and proceeded to catch trip kings on the flop. DodgyFish72 checked to Blom, who bet out and DodgyFish72 called. When an ace hit the turn, Isildur1 moved all-in with his trips. DodgyFish72 snap-called and showed pocket aces for aces-full and took down the $5,550 pot.
The $5,550 pot seemed to give DodgyFish72 new life as he proceeded to whittle away at Blom’s lead until the two players were dead even going into the final hand of play. On the final hand, DodgyFish72 was in the big blind and Isildur1 shoved for $3,745. Instead of trying to take a chance on beating Isildur1, DodgyFish72 decided to fold.
As such, Isildur1 won by just a single big blind. This was the smallest margin of victory for any of his matches. DodgyFish72 finished the day with $14,990 left of his original $15,000. In a way, you could say that DodgyFish72 walked away the winner in the match.
According to Onlinepoker.net, DodgyFish72 is Hungarian player Attila Gulcsik. Going into the match Sunday, Gulcsik had said “My main goal is to try and play well without making huge mistakes. It is obvious that I am a huge underdog as Viktor has significantly more experience being one of the best in the field of heads-up cash games.”
While the match proved to be a squeaker, many feel that Blom was not taking the game seriously. Some have even said that he let DodgyFish72 back into the match. Whether or not that is so, Blom is now 4-1 in the Challenge matches.
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