» Poker Players

Wait, There is a Poker Hall Of Fame?

Apparently there is, and it’s currently accepting nominations for the 2009 inductees.  This is a public forum, and you are able to not only choose which poker great you think should be inducted this year, but also you get to write 250 words as to WHY you think they deserve the honour.  This is the first time that the public will have a say in who gets inducted into the hall of fame.

The top ten nominees will be announced during the main event in July of this year.  (This begs the question, why are you writing 250 words as to why you think someone should be nominated but it’s vote volume that counts?)

Click to Vote (or you know…go to the website)

Also a Women in Poker Hall of Fame?

Yep! The Mayor of Las Vegas, Oscar Goodman has declared June 5th “Women in Poker Hall of Fame Day,” in support of this year’s inductees: June Field, Jan Fisher, and Cyndy Violette into the Women in Poker Hall of Fame.

The career accomplishments of June Field, Jan Fisher, and Cyndy Violette, will be celebrated by the poker industry at the second annual Women in Poker Hall of Fame (WiPHoF) dinner and dance gala presented by High Society Spirits, sponsored by Rockwell Time, and hosted by Golden Nugget Casino on Friday, June 5th at 6PM in Las Vegas.

The Seven Sisters of Greek mythology will be the theme for the glamorous white linen gala. Guests will enjoy no-host cocktails, music, dinner, and have a unique opportunity to mingle with poker industry celebrities and players.

If you have a spare $75-80 in advance and $90 at the door, and happen to be in Las Vegas, this is a public event (link🙂 and will take place inside the Golden Nugget Casino’s Augusta/Pebble Beach ballroom.

Online Pokers effect on Big Tourneys

Every year Bluff Magazine puts out a list of top “amateur” players to watch.  It’s a great list with some fantastic talent, but that’s not really what this post is about.  What i noticed about the list is the fact that it’s all WSOP Rookies, or to put it another way, they’re all 21.  Young players with very little live experience is becoming the new norm for WSOP final tables.  They are starting when they’re 18, honing and really translating their online skills to live games.

Starting Young

Players who start playing online at 18 years old are able to make the mistakes all newbies make, but do it in a way that is very minimal risk to them.  By the time they’re 21 and able to play in major live tourneys in the states, they have had 3 years to correct those mistakes and are already well past the nerves of most first time players.

The other advantage to playing online early is all of the tournament entry’s possible to be won.  A lot of these players are able to not only win entry into tourneys in the Caribbean or Monte Carlo (or Canada), but they’re able to cash.  These tournaments have as wide a variance as any tourney in the states, and gives these players a real look at what live poker is all about (not to mention some nice paydays).

Translating their Skills to a live Game

I don’t care what anyone says, online poker and live poker are 2 different monsters.  Translating your skills from sitting in front of a computer to sitting across from someone at a major tourney is a huge challenge.  Even the most  veteran online player has bad habits that need correcting and new skills that need to be learned before becoming a really successful live player.  But i think this discussion is something for a different post.

Overall i think that starting young, online is the way to go.  It really gives you the ability to, at 21 years old, walk in and sit across the table from any of the big names, and realize that everyone is playing the same game…and you know it as well as they do.

“I’m just preparing for the live poker grind. Six weeks of live poker is a shit ton, so I think getting in the right mindset and trying not to burnout,” – Harder

Link to the article

Devilfish is the new Gordon Ramsay

I can read Dave Ulliott’s mind right now… “If Gordon Ramsay can do it, why can’t I?”

Well Dave, you can’t. And more people are going to watch a “Kitchen Nightmare” show than a poker show. Obviously Dave didn’t get this memo and on the show, attempts to goad, scream, and humiliate 4 poker hopefuls. He bankrolls (supposedly from his own bankroll) them and coaches them through the ranks by starting them at an online poker site.

The show, titled “How to Become a Poker Millionaire” is airing on ITV Wales and will not be seen on US television. The ultimate goal of the show is take the last player standing and send them to the WSOP Main Event next year. It’s a last man standing type show with one player being eliminated weekly.

Dave stated, “Poker players won’t have seen anything like this before. It was a real boot camp for the participants and I took no prisoners. There’s laughter and tears, good poker and bad poker, and viewers will get to learn many of the tricks of the high-stakes poker trade which took me years and a lot of money to learn.”

Never seen anything like this before? Dave, we hope we never see anything like it again!

Dave "Devilfish" Ulliott

Dave Ulliott, or Devilfish as he goes by at the poker table, is currently the best poker players in the UK as of March 2008 according to UK Poker Player magazine.

Who is David Ulliott?

You may recognize him by his funky glasses, but Ulliott has quite an amazing history.

Ulliott was born in Hull, England. He was born the son of Stanley Ulliott, a World War II paratrooper turned truck driver and his wife Joyce (née Jefferson). Ulliott had a rough childhood and at 19 he was involved in a fight where he got his face slashed by a steel comb. He then moved on to safe-cracking and was part of a team that targetted tobaconists, off-license and garages. The team was eventually caught and Ulliott went on the run. His run did not last long though as he was eventually arrested and sent to Leeds Prison where he spent his 21st birthday. Shortly after his release he was arrested again for armed robbery at an off-license, but was released three days later without any charge. After being released this time, he ended up getting back together with another safe-cracking team. This lasted for a bit while he continued a job at a timber yard.

At 28 Ulliott was arrested again for fighting outside a nightclub. He served another 18 months at Leeds Prison where he met a criminal named John. The two plotted a bank robbery on their release, but on the day it was to happen John was arrested and the plans fell apart. John’s wife told Ulliott to go straight and shortly after he met his 2nd wife and as far as we know, never committed another crime again.

Ulliott started playing poker as a young child, and later learned The Three Card Brag (a popular UK card game) at the age of 16. Ulliott also made a fair amount from betting and was banned from William Hill at one point for successfully gambling £4,000 up to £70,000.

When playing in private poker games, Ulliott often carried a gun on him to ensure that he would not be robbed of any winnings. In one instance players attempted to rob him, but he fired the gun into the air and managed to escape with his winnings.

In 1997 Ulliott went to the WSOP with $200,000 to play. After losing it all in tournaments and cash games, he borrowed another $70,000 but lost this too, and pissed off several people in the process. He managed to scrounge together an additional $2000 for the $2000 NL Holdem event, where he reached heads-up against fellow Englishman Chris Truby. On the final hand Ulliott shoved all his chips in on an open ended straigh draw and flush draw and managed to hit his striaght on the river winning $180,310 and his only WSOP bracelet ever. But, he wasn’t done just yet in Vegas. After the game he startd playing in some big cash games and by the end of his trip he managed to accumulate $742,000 in cash winnings.

His largest tournament win came in 2007 when Ulliott came 3rd in the WPT $15,000 Doyle Brunson Classic – No Limit Hold’em for $674,500.

Here is a video interview with Devilfish:

Sources: http://pokerdb.thehendonmob.com/player.php?a=r&n=236
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dave_Ulliott