Tao of Poker

Hump Day Link Dump: WPT Sold for $9M, Justin Shronk Memorial Scholarship, Face the Ace Flounders, and the New Poker News

By Pauly
Mountain View, CA

I'm on the road again, so I don't have too much time to post. However, here are some interesting links that you check out...

Face the Ace Has Room for Improvement (Wicked Chops Poker)... Face the Ace was more than a dud.... it was just awful. Then again, it has potential to be an amazing marketing tool for Full Tilt and online poker in general. That's why they need to improve the leaks in the show ASAP. Los Hombres at Wicked Chops Poker offered up a few suggestions. They actually stopped snorting blow and wanking off to Swedish pissing porn long enough to write something coherent. Kudos.

Letter from the Editor: The New PokerNews.com (Poker News)... In the poker industry world, it's a little known fact that people switch jobs and positions a few times a year. That's why whenever we run into each other on the road the first question we ask is... "Where you working?" If it's not for various online poker rooms themselves, there's plenty of rotating jobs for shill sites or other media outlets that are propped up by the online poker rooms. There's lots of movement before and after the WSOP. In the weeks leading up to the WSOP, there was a change up at Poker News at the CEO position when Robbie Davies took over for the ruggedly handsome Damon Rasheed, who was instrumental in Poker News' success over the years.

Also, there's a new sheriff in town over at Poker News as Matt Parvis takes over as the Editor-in-Chief. Matt was the reason why I started writing for Bluff. As Bluff's former Editor-in-Chief, he gave me an column where I detail all of my exotic travels covering poker all around the world. Parvis allowed plenty of artistic freedom which is rare in poker media, and of course, I got in trouble a couple of time pushing those limits (e.g. Key West stripper story). Matt recently took over the reigns at Poker News when Haley Hintze "stepped down" from the top spot. She's been under the weather the last few months and has been working brutal hours since she joined the company. Get well soon, Haley.

And, in case you were wondering, former managing editor, Lance Bradley (formerly of The Poker Biz which used to be one of my favorite poker sites), is now the big cheese over at Bluff Magazine.

Gamynia Buys WPT (Pokerati)... Yep, it's true. WPTE sold off the WPT and PPT to Gamynia (a holding company who is partners with a different firm whose clients include iPoker aka Titan Poker). The WPT used to be the big dog on the block. For a while, a close source to the Tao of Poker insisted that Full Tilt was going to buy WPT in 2009 and run it in the same manner that PokerStars runs their international tournament circuits (EPT, APPT, LAPT, et al). Alas, Full Tilt focused on NBC and network TV instead. Let's see if Gamynia can revive the fledgling WPT.

Justin Shronk Memorial Scholarship (Poker Road).... Brian Lemke, the cousin of Justin Shronk, won a bracelet this summer and recently helped organize a scholarship to Shronk's alma mater at Temple University in Philly. Here's a bit... "The Justin Shronk Scholarship will provide scholarship support for students majoring in Broadcasting, Telecommunications and Mass Media within the School of Communications and Theater, which was Justin's major as a student."

And yes, I'm back on the second leg of Phish tour and conducting research for the Phish book. I'm seeing six shows in five different states in the next week or so after catching a tantalizing four-night run at Red Rocks in Colorado during a five-day bender. You can head over to Coventry Music Blog to read the recaps of the four-day bender at Red Rocks. You can also check out my videos here and Colorado pictures here.

And as always, you can always follow my hijinks via Twitter.

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