I think I might have mentioned something last week about having had plans to interview Kara Scott, the poker player who has appeared as a host or presenter on numerous poker shows, including currently on “High Stakes Poker.” We did get a chance to talk this week, and the interview can now be read over on Betfair.

I asked her about various topics, including how she got into poker and poker TV, “High Stakes Poker,” the recent PartyPoker Big Game IV in London, her joining up with team PartyPoker, and her own play, in particular those two deep runs in the WSOP Main Event she has had over the last couple of years (finishing 104th and 238th).

As was the case last week with Matthew Hilger, I had a lot of fun talking with Kara, especially regarding her experience at the 2008 WSOP. I was also surprised a little about the story of her having trained as a Thai boxer (and that being an avenue to television for her). I guess I had heard that about her at some point along the way, but had forgotten.

There was one question I didn’t ask her which didn’t occur to me until later on, a question having to do with her new affiliation with PartyPoker. She mentioned how there would be some television work there for her with Party — the Big Game IV was an example. I remembered afterwards that PartyGaming had purchased the World Poker Tour last year, so I might’ve asked if she knew anything about the future of that relationship (including the TV side of things).

We also talked a bit about interviewing players, generally speaking — something with which Kara has a lot of experience. Speaking of, I mentioned last week I was thinking of compiling a list of poker-related interviews I’ve done, so here that is:

Dennis Phillips (October 2008)
Barry Greenstein (April 2009) — Part 1 & Part 2
Andy Bloch (May 2009)
James McManus (November 2009)
Victoria Coren (January 2010)
Kevin Mathers (February 2010)
Lou Krieger (February 2010)
Ilya Gorodetsky (March 2010)
Matthew Hilger (April 2010)
Kara Scott (April 2010)

Have other fun stuff coming up over on Betfair Poker in the near future, including involving contributions from some of your favorite poker bloggers regarding the good-gawd-is-it-less-than-five-weeks-away-that-can’t-be-right-I-guess-it-is 2010 WSOP. (Stay tuned!)

Meanwhile, enjoy the weekend, all! Don’t forget the BBT5 continues over on Full Tilt Poker (details here).

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French poker pro, David Benyamine, has taken down Party Poker’s Premier League IV tournament held at the M Resort and Casino in Las Vegas after outlasting a final table that featured fellow pros Daniel Negreanu, Phil “The Unabomber” Laak, Roland De Wolfe, Luke ‘FullFlush’ Schwartz and PartyPoker’s online qualifier Giovanni Safina.

After the the preliminary heads up heats between Daniel Negreanu, Team Party pro Ian Frazer and Roland De Wolfe, the final table action began with Phil Laak taking leading the chip count with 480.000 . But after more than three hours of play, Laak became the first eliminated player on the final table when tens were unable to hold against Benyamine’s A-K.

The next to go was British Pro Roland de Wolfe, who was sent to the rail in fifth by Daniel Negreanu. Unfortunatelly for Negreanu, he joined de Wolfe on the rail shortly afterwards. Schwartz and Benyamine entered the final heads up after after Schwartz eliminated online qualifier Giovanni Safina in third place with $120,000.

Schwartz took an early advantage in heads-up play with 1,320,000 chips againts Benyamine’s 580,000. However, it didn’t take long for Benyamine to double his chips and level things up. In the final hand of the night, Schwartz raise with Q-2 spades and Benyamine make the call with Q-8.

The flop came 5-3-Q and Benyamine check-raised, with Schwartz moving all. After a few minutes contemplating the situation, Benyamine called. The turn card was a 7h, reducing Schwartz chances to win the hand and the title. The river came 6 hearts, sealing Benyamine’s victory and sending Schwartz home with $200,000 for his runner-up finish.

“It feels really good winning a title, I’m not used to it. The whole time I never thought about winning, I just wanted to do what I thought was right. I know people always say that when they win but it’s true. I haven’t really been around for a while and I hope this gives me momentum going forward! I really enjoyed the format and competition – I’m sure it will make great TV. Position in these final tables can help and I didn’t do anything special today, I just got hands at the right time and played my own game. Luke (Schwartz) is a very impulsive player but I just stuck to my own game heads-up and it was enough.” said Benyamine after taking the event.

“Congratulations to David - it has been a fantastic week and was such a spectacle at a fantastic location in the form of the M Resort. The story of Giovanni Safina is inspiring, what a dream ticket for 100 euros! Yes, you get an online poker qualifier who wins millions in a big tournament quite frequently but this was different. You had an online qualifier who was thrown in the lions den in a league over seven intense days with players at the top of their game and those who were masters of table intimidation. He did himself proud - he never once shirked and deserves all the acclaim he has already got back in his homeland.” commented a PartyPoker spokesman.

“Bringing the Party Poker Premier League to Las Vegas has taken the world’s best distributed poker show to a whole new level – this is simply must see TV, it has been amazing. Everybody has also enjoyed the fantastic facilities and service of the M Resort. I would like to personally thank Richar Fitoussi and all the team there for being such wonderful hosts.” said Eddie Hearn, Director of Matchroom Sport.

Party Poker Premier League IV Final Table Results:

1st: David Benyamine ($400,000)
2nd: Luke ‘FullFlush’ Schwartz ($200,000)
3rd: Giovanni Safina ($100,000)
4th: Daniel Negreanu ($80,000)
5th: Roland De Wolfe ($70,000)
6th: Phil Laak ($50,000)

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PartyPoker.com has announced that WSOP bracelet winner Daniel Negreanu, professional poker player Vanessa Rousso and French high stakes cash legend David Benyamine have joined the line-up for PartyPoker.com Premier League IV in Las Vegas from the February 12th – 18th, 2010.

Both Negreanu and Benyamine are among the most popular poker pros on the circuit, with over $12 million in combined career earnings. Rounding up the players lineup is French-American poker talent and Team PokerStars member, Vanessa Rousso, who will add a little glamour as the only female player invited to play this year’s event.

“There was only one target when selecting a female player for the league. Vanessa has become a huge force in poker and her win at the EPT High Rollers event coupled with her runners-up finish at the NBC Heads-Up Championship as well as a string of WSOP cashes has made her, in my opinion, the world’s number one female player right now.” commented Eddie Hearn from Matchroom Poker.

This year’s line up will also feature 2009 Poker Hall of Fame inductee Mike Sexton, J.C. Tran, Yevgeniy Timoshenko, Roland de Wolfe, Luke Schwartz, multiple WSOP bracelet winner Phil Hellmuth and the newest member of Team Party Poker, Tony G. With ten players for the $100,000 buy-in Main Event already confirmed, there are now only two seats left for the Premier League IV. One seat will come from a Team Party play-off, while the final seat will go to an online poker qualifier. A total of 16 players who all fly out to Las Vegas to play in a Premier League Poker play-off to see which one of the 16 will  join 11 professional players in Premier League Poker IV. The  online qualifiers will play a short series of play-off sit & go’s in Las Vegas and the eventual winner will win a $100,000 buy-in to take part in the main Premier League event.

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So I did find time to sit down for a relatively brief session of Rush Poker on Full Tilt yesterday. Jumped into the $25 max. buy-in, six-handed pot-limit Omaha game, where I joined about 160-170 others. A little over a half-hour later I’d played 111 hands, at which point the game paused. I noticed players quickly dropping out of the pool, and after a couple of minutes of waiting I decided to skedaddle as well.

I was happy enough to leave, having accumulated a handsome profit during those hands. I managed to double my buy-in (almost) very early on, then added a few more bucks before the pause. So I came away feeling fine, although the whole experience was likely unduly affected by my good mood at having that early success. In fact, I’m sensing a lot of early reactions to Rush Poker are tied pretty closely to whether the player won or lost during that first session or two, which is understandable.

With that in mind, I’m gonna resist offering some long-winded analysis and/or judgment of Rush Poker as of yet. I need to try it again and become more familiar with the ins and outs before presuming to say anything meaningful about it.

I will say one thing, though. Those initial hands, when I first realized how the game worked, evoked for me a feeling I hadn’t experienced for quite some time while playing online poker. I’m talking about that sorta nervous excitement that came with first signing onto a site and playing those initial hands. You remember that? That mix of fascination and edginess you felt when you first realized how online poker worked — how you could play against others all around the world, any time of day or night? And then, when you won your first hand, and thought, hey, I like this!

Not saying that getting to relive that feeling necessarily means Rush Poker is the cat’s pajamas. But it was pretty cool to “go back” like that, even if only for a few moments.

Speaking of “going back,” the New York Jets are playing the Indianapolis Colts this weekend in the AFC Championship game, with the Colts being huge favorites. Spent some time this week listening to “the Fan” — i.e., the New York sports radio station — and enjoying all the excitement and hype. And all of the references to Super Bowl III, the Jets’ finest moment, when “Broadway” Joe Namath led them to a stunning 16-7 victory. Over a heavily-favored opponent. The Colts.

As a Carolina Panthers fan, I have no particular allegiance to any of the remaining teams, which means like most unaffiliated folks, I’ll be rooting for the underdog in this one. That decision a few weeks ago by Indianapolis to rest their starters against the Jets and forgo the chance at an undefeated season — see “The Colts Find a Fold” — provides another reason to pull for the Jets on Sunday.

What a story that would be, eh? The Colts give a game away to the Jets, saving New York’s season, then find themselves in a nightmarish situation wherein a newly vitalized Jets team gives ’em all sorts of hell just one step from the Super Bowl. Sort of like a chip leader passing on a chance to eliminate a short stack, only to see that player then double up a few times to become a real threat to take it all away.

That Jets defense is obviously going to have to step it up to slow down Manning et al. And New York will absolutely have to run the ball effectively to chew up the clock and keep Indy’s offense off the field. Here’s hoping they keep that momentum going — first launched just four weeks ago in that game versus Indy — and make things interesting Sunday.

As far as the NFC Championship between the Minnesota Vikings and New Orleans Saints goes, I’m mainly just looking for a good game there. Really, whoever wins that one will make for an interesting story.

So enjoy the weekend all, whether it be filled with Rush Poker, monitoring the Jets’ rushing attack, or rushing around doing something else.

Like listening to Rush!

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Back in September 2007 — several months after the UIGEA had become law and PartyPoker and other sites pulled out of the U.S. market — I thought I’d open up an account over on UltimateBet in order to give myself more options for places to play. Then, about six weeks later, the Absolute Poker insider cheating scandal broke. I had an account on AP as well, and knowing that both companies were run by the same folks, I decided it best to pull my funds from both sites.

About two months later (January 2008), news of an even larger cheating scandal over on UltimateBet first appeared. With subsequent reports we learned of the jawdropping magnitude of the UB scandal. Cheaters with access to opponents’ hole cards played on the site from June 2003 to December 2007, with 32 different people — including 1994 WSOP Main Event champion Russ Hamilton — linked to over 100 different accounts apparently having been involved.

Those numbers came from a September 2009 “final decision” by the Kahnawake Gaming Commission, an outfit “empowered to regulate and control” online gambling sites by issuing them licenses. That “final decision” reports that Tokwiro Enterprises (who now owns UB) had paid $22,054,351.91 back to players who had been cheated on the site, as well as a $1.5 million fine to the KGC. The site got to keep its license, but is now on a one-year probationary period.

Needless to say, I was glad I got off UltimateBet when I did. I probably would’ve never looked back except for the fact that later in 2008 I heard UB spokesperson Annie Duke (on Poker Road Radio) saying that anyone who had played on the site and who wanted to obtain copies of their hand histories could receive them.

As I say, I only played on UB for about six weeks, and in fact only intermittently. According to my records, I had played only a little over 1,100 hands. And at my low limits, I was fairly certain I had not been up against any of the cheaters in my games. Still I was curious to see my HHs, and so made a request. I received a couple of promises back over the following weeks, but eventually UB support stopped answering my emails and the HHs were never sent.

In September 2009 — a couple of weeks after the KGC’s final report — we heard the surprising news that Joe Sebok had signed on with UB as a spokesperson and “media and operations consultant.” Like Duke before him, Sebok was saying things about making hand histories available, and so I once again submitted a request. I received a prompt reply that I would be getting my HHs “ASAP,” but weeks went by and nothing came. I sent another email in late October, and it was returned as undeliverable.

I sent a brief note on Twitter stating what had happened, and Sebok — whom I’ve met a couple of times while covering the WSOP — ended up responding to me. He said he’d look into it, and try to ensure I got my hand histories. It took nearly a couple more months, but I finally did get an email back from the “Poker Security Manager” with a ZIP file full of hand histories.

The ZIP file contains 614 text files, some of which include just one hand and others that have multiple hands (dunno why). The histories themselves are a bit difficult to parse — they are not the clean-looking ones you get from PokerStars or Full Tilt Poker — but I can make out the action at least. They’ve also sent me a large number of hand histories for hands in which I was just sitting out, meaning of the 854 HHs included, there are only about 700 hands of mine in there.

Since I keep my own records for all of my sessions, I can see that a number of hands I played on UltimateBet are missing, including two entire sessions. In all, it looks like I’ve gotten back hand histories for about two-thirds of the hands I actually played on UB.

To be honest, I’m not that interested in taking it any further and trying to get the missing hands sent as well. I know this amounts to fairly minute trivia, all things considered, but for the sake of completeness I wanted to report here how my little hand history saga has concluded. Kind of silly to think it took this long (over a year) just to send me these 700 hands (and that there are still 400 or so for which I didn’t receive HHs). But I do appreciate Sebok getting involved and helping me out here.

Still no plans to revive that account, though.

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