World Cup Soccer

June 15, 2010 - The defending World Cup champions face Paraguay today in a fascinating meeting between an aging and talented European power (Italy, in case you forgot) and a young and rising South American squad. Paraguay won 10 games in qualifying, more than Argentina and Brazil. SI.com’s Georgina Turner calls it a “chess game“ that will likely result in another low-scoring contest. Closer to home, the biggest question facing the U.S. team (the Americans play Slovenia on Friday) is the health of goaltender Tim Howard, as SI.com’s Peter King examines. The sports schedule (all times Eastern) features World Cup play and a light night in baseball:

-Italy vs. Paraguay (2:30, ESPN)
The Italians will be without standout playmaker Andrea Pirlo until the final game of Group play but remain strong in the back with goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon and Giorgio Chiellini, the two-time reigning Defender of the Year in Serie A. Manchester City's Roque Santa Cruz is Paraguay's most dangerous striker. Keep one stat in mind: Paraguay’s World Cup record in opening games is 1-6.

-Mariners at Cardinals (7:10, ESPN)
Cardinals starter Adam Wainwright (8-4, 2.30) has 91 strikeouts, six behind Arizona’s Dan Haren, who leads the National League in strikeouts. The rare Seattle-St. Louis matchup is part of the continuing Interleague play.

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Christine Pietsch nearly became the first woman in two years to win an open event on Day 16 of the 2010 WSOP.

Pietsch was narrowly edged in the $1.5k Seven-Card Stud event by Englishman Richard Ashby who won his first WSOP bracelet.

She almost performed the feat just as the $1,000 Ladies event was playing down to a final table in a nearby area.

Noted poker player Tex Barch also won his first bracelet on a very busy day at the 2010 WSOP.

Here's a closer look at how each event unfolded:

Event 21 $1,500 Seven-Card Stud

Richard "Chufty" Ashby is known more for crushing high stakes cash games on Full Tilt Poker than winning live tournaments but that all changed on Saturday.

The Englishman beat a tough final table that included the likes of Dan Heimiller, Sorel Mizzi and Pat Pezzin. He took home over $140,000 for his first place finish.

Ashby displayed a splendid heads-up game and quickly overwhelmed Christine Pietsch who put in an otherwise strong performance in the tournament.

Event 20 $1,500 Pot-Limit Omaha

John "Tex" Barch took down the $1,500 Pot Limit Omaha event. After making three final WSOP final tables, he's finally sealed the deal and has a bracelet he can call his own.

Barch began the day second in chips and didn't look back from there. Players dropped until it was just Klinghammer Thibaut and Barch left standing.

The heads up match took all of one hand. Barch managed to flop middle set and it held up against Thibaut's two pair and straight draw. Second place earned Thibaut $158,698 but it was Barch who took home the lion's share worth $256,919 and bracelet glory.

Event 24 $1,000 No-Limit Hold'em

Event 24, yet another $1,000 No-Limit Hold'em, tournament started today. These tournaments were put in place to allow more people a chance at trying their hand at a WSOP event and try they are.

Today 1,931 players ponied up the dime to play day 1a of this event and 290 of them are left standing. Leon Yanovski somehow managed to grind out a stack of 58,275 by the end of play. It puts him at the top of the leader board and is an impressive feat considering the 3,000 starting stacks.

Tomorrow starts day 1b at 12 p.m. when another big group of weekend warriors are expected to take their seats and try their hand at a little No-Limit Hold'em World Series of Poker style.

Event 22 $1,000 Ladies No-Limit Hold'em

Day 2 of the $1,000 Ladies No-Limit Hold'em saw 136 players play down to a final table of nine.

Notable players Michelle Lewis, Liv Boeree, Lacey Jones and Karina Jett were all relegated to the rail over nine and a half hours of play.

Relatively unknown player Sidsel Boesen finished with 789,000 for the overnight chip lead.

The final table begins at 3 p.m. on Sunday.

Event 23 $2,500 Limit Hold'em Six-Handed

108 players entered Day 2 of the $2,500 Limit Hold'em Six-handed event and after approximately 12 hours of play only 12 remained.

Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier, J.C. Tran, Annie Duke, Andy Bloch and Vitaly Lunkin all hit the rail before even getting a whiff of the money.

Justin Bonomo, Michael Binger, Shawn Buchanan and Rafe Furst all did a bit better and at least got paid for their efforts before busting.

Veteran poker pro Al "Sugar Bear" Barbieri finished with the chip lead but he'll have to beat Dutch Boyd and JJ Liu to win the event.

Play recommences at 3 p.m. Sunday.





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June 11 - 30, 2010

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THURSDAY, JULY 1


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WHO'S GOT A POKER FACE NOW??

MADONNA thinks Lady GaGa is a great big copy cat!

According to a report in the Chicago Sun-Times newspaper, the Holiday hitmaker gets irritated when she sees a clip of the Poker Face singer performing.

“It just bugs Madonna that Lady Gaga uses fashion and her performance style in a way that has so many people calling her ‘the new Madonna,” a source revealed.

“Madonna thinks she is unique and there cannot be a younger version of something that is unique.


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North American Poker Tour Stops the Clock

The North American Poker Tour (NAPT) has attracted a curious crowd of observers at its website this week. They have fixed their eyes on the steadily ascending number of days on the "NAPT Next Event Count Down Clock."


In an exclusive report last Friday, Poker Player Newspaper reported on NAPT’s advanced discussions with the Bicycle Casino, "NAPT Hovers Over the Bike," but at the NAPT website, the "Next Event Count Down Clock" was showing delays - one day at a time - for a whole week. The countdown meter last Friday indicated 58 days. By Tuesday it had increased to 62 days. Speculation started to develop as to the reasons.


It was time to dig deeper. The digging was fortuitous and the results were surprising. Checking the tournament calendar, the August time-frame for an NAPT event at the Bicycle Casino began to look as bizarre as the strange workings of the NAPT website clock. The long running World Poker Tour / Legends of Poker festivities are on every poker-loving California dreamer’s dance card the whole month!


One conundrum at a time, the mysteries have been unraveled. In a telephone call early yesterday afternoon, Jeffrey Haas, the Managing Director of Global Poker Tour Ltd. (GPTL), reported on the NAPT clock. He figured out the problem almost instantly, explaining there was technical glitch. Apparently, the clock has been ticking off the number of days since the last NAPT event at Mohegan Sun, instead of the number of days until the next NAPT event.


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2010 World Series of Poker Day 13: Steven Gee and Carter Phillips Become Bracelet Winners, Stacked Field in Event #19

Thur June 8th, 2010

Thirty-year lowball specialist Steven Gee picked up his first World Series of Poker bracelet in Event #13 Wednesday night after outlasting a field of over 3,000 players. Young-gun Carter Phillips, just 21, bested the field in Event #16 to bag his.

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Tropicana Las Vegas

LAS VEGAS (AP) - Cantor Gaming LP, an affiliate of financial services firm Cantor Fitzgerald, said Thursday it plans to open a new mobile gaming area in the Tropicana Las Vegas casino.

The new sports and racing area is expected to open this fall, pending regulatory approval and is part of Tropicana's $165 million renovation.

Cantor Gaming said casino-goers will use its mobile gaming device called an "eDeck" to gamble and play casino games like slots, blackjack and poker while away from the casino floor.

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Sacramento pro wins $472K, WSOP title

Steve Gee won the second $1,000 buy-in No-Limit Hold'em event at the World Series of Poker to collect $472,479 in prize money on Wednesday night.

Gee is a 54-year-old poker pro who now lives in Sacramento, Calif. He has been playing poker for more than three decades and was one of California's top cash game Lowball players, long before flop games such as Hold'em became popular. He only started playing Hold'em seriously about two years ago.

"I was a professional poker player before it became popular," said Gee, who was born in China and immigrated to the United States with his parents when he was five. "It was not glamorous at all, like it is today. It was more like being a pool hustler."

He conquered a massive field size of 3,042 players en route to his biggest poker win. The field was so large that the final table was extended to an unscheduled fifth playing day.

"These tournaments used to be like 300 players," said Gee. "Now, they get 3,000. I mean, that's tough to get through, even for a really great player. As good as you might play, you still have to get lucky too (to win)."

After playing poker professionally in his early adult life, Gee earned a degree from Sacramento State University. He then worked as a software developer for many years. After a hiatus working a "regular" job, Gee returned to playing poker full-time. His biggest transition came when he had to adjust from playing Lowball to Hold'em. Gee had survived for several years in the Lowball environment. But flop games were legalized inside California cardrooms in the mid-1980s, and that gradually led to a decline in Lowball and an increase in popularly of Hold'em.

Gee's nearly half-a-million-dollar payday came on just a $1,000 buy-in (photo by GreasieWheels)

Gee jokes that he was once the youngest player at the table every time he played. Now, he says at age 54 he is often the oldest player in the game.

Gee has always preferred playing in cash games over poker tournaments. He did not play in tournaments until the last five years. His first recorded cash was in 2005.

"The thing about poker today is that no matter how good you are in cash games, even if you crush the games, nobody knows who you are," said Gee. "The tournament players are the rock stars today. So, this is what you do if you want to be known and get validation for what you do as a poker player."

Matt Vance of Lowville, N.Y., finished second to collect $292,232. It was his third cash in this year's WSOP, all against huge fields in various No-Limit Hold'em events. The final hand of the tournament came when Gee had ace-king suited and paired his ace against Vance's queen-jack.

Poker pro David Baker from Katy, Texas, was third to claim $206,813, while Nick Heather from Dublin, Ireland, was fourth for $149,702. Twenty-three year old Jeffrey Gross from Ann Arbor, Mich., a former soccer player for the University of South Carolina, finished fifth for $109,621.

Daniel Thomas from Lincoln, Neb., was sixth, Kyung (Kenny) Han, from Woodbridge, Ill., was seventh, Jared Hamby from Henderson, Nev., was eighth, and Mats Gavatin from Lidingo, Sweden, was ninth.

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