Player: Blind Poker Player Being Featured on ESPN (Las Vegas, NV)

“It was only about three years ago when Hal Lubarsky’s failing eyesight made it impossible for him to play poker. Thanks to a disease called retinitis pigmentosa, the darkness slowly closed onto the center of his eye, and it led him to a point he knew was coming – his eyesight had been deteriorating basically since he was born. He would soon be blind, and one day Lubarsky said to himself that he couldn’t play poker anymore, something he’d done since he was a boy in Brooklyn. It was a sad day among sad days when he decided to give it up.

Event: The First Annual California Poker Players Conference To be Held at Hollywood Park

“The First Annual California Poker Players Conference — CPPC — will be held on Saturday, October 20, and Sunday, October 21 at the Hollywood Park Casino, Inglewood, California, in conjunction with the twelve-day National Championship of Poker Tournament. The theme for the two-day Conference is Gain a POSITIVE EXPECTATION! Learn to be a WINNING Poker player

According to Phyllis Caro, Director of Poker Operations at the Hollywood Park Casino: “Attendees will gain more solid information about winning poker during this two-day conference than they could ever hope for!” Helping to organize the event are Robert Turner, Poker Manager of the Normandie Casino, and George “The Engineer” Epstein, columnist for Poker Player newspaper, poker lecturer, and teacher of poker classes for senior citizens.

Television: Jean-Robert Bellande a “Survivor”

“CBS officially announced the cast of Survivor: China, yesterday and professional poker player Jean-Roberts Bellande was on the list.

There were rumors Bellande would star in the reality television show, which has contestants duke it out for more than 30 days in a remote location, for months but this is the first official confirmation.

Technology: Social Networking + Poker = K9Poker.com

“Social networking is the new hot web concept. Mainstream successes like MySpace and Facebook have brought on a deluge of social networking sites based around a simple idea: Get people together, and people with similar interests will find each other and create something cool.

I’ve long thought that poker was ripe for such a site. Poker networking can help you schedule home games, coordinate trips to Vegas, find people to talk about hands with, and more. You can show off your tournament successes on your profile page, post photos of yourself or friends, or tell bad beat stories on your blog. Poker and social networking are both hot, so they seem like a good match.”

Noted Poker Authority (08/10/07)

Technology: Ultimate Bet Pro Phil Hellmuth Goes Head-to-Head With Cell Phone Users

“UltimateBet pro Phil Hellmuth today announced the launch of Texas Hold’em 2007 with Phil Hellmuth, a follow-up release to the best selling mobile poker game, Texas Hold’em by Phil Hellmuth.

“I’m amazed at how crisp and clear the new poker game looks on a cell phone,” said Hellmuth. “Not to mention the ease of play and the new options … it’s cutting edge.”

Jeff Haney on how the new face of championship poker came from unlikely origins, gained fame lightning fast and plans to give away part of his winnings

The newest de facto worldwide ambassador for poker spent part of his youth in a refugee camp in Thailand, began playing the game only two years ago and prays to a deity who’s fluent in poker lingo.

Jerry Yang, a 39-year-old psychologist, social worker and deeply spiritual man from Temecula, Calif., has pledged to donate to charity 10 percent of the $8.25 million he won at the World Series of Poker and plans to devote even more to missionary efforts.

WSOP: Who’s Holding The Cards Really Matters

“Poker has had a tough year, with congressional legislation that has taken some of the big players out of the U.S. market. That in turn has hurt the turnout–the 6,358 entrants in the main event, down more than 25 percent from last year’s number. To take this further, the fewer number of people paying the $10,000 fee, means there’s less for the winner ($8.25 million vs. $12 million last year).

Despite all this, the World Series of Poker is still compelling television. Last year, ESPN averaged almost one million viewers per broadcast and I have no reason to believe that this year’s tape-delayed coverage will take a significant hit.

WSOP: Whispers at poker table – The blind guy’s winning

“Hal Lubarsky lifts his three gold rings an inch from his face; two are stone-studded, one is a fat band hammered flat and carved to look like a playing card. The ace of inlaid diamonds.

It’s about all he can see. Lubarsky is legally blind, which complicates his near-nightly poker games at the Mirage, where the sightless gambler guesses he’s up about $20,000.

Not bad for an utter underdog, a blind man trying to beat a game that rides on reading not just cards but faces. This in a city with religious reverence for poker, where one complaint from fellow card players can get you banned from the green felt fields, as Lubarsky has been in the past.

People get prickly when the blind man bags their money, he says.”

Las Vegas Sun (07/07/07)

Vilma playing risky hand – LB frequents Big Apple poker parlors (New York, NY)

“Playing poker legally isn’t a violation of league policy, according to NFL spokesman Greg Aiello. But some might question Vilma’s association with the clubs, considering the perception it might create because of the raids and robberies the clubs occasionally face, although he says he doesn’t see any downside. He views it as a winning situation – even when he loses.

Player: Talking Poker (and Spurs) with Top Pro Chad Brown

“VI: What do you think about all the actors trying to be poker players these days?

CB: I think it’s great. Poker is so in vogue that you don’t only have actors that are passionate about playing, there are a number of professional athletes that play it passionately, as well. I’ve played in games with Pete Sampras, a number of pro baseball players, pro basketball players, even pro boxers. Poker is the one sport that anyone can play from any gender and from any age group and the playing field will be equal. I couldn’t go on the tennis court and compete with Pete Sampras. It would be any fun for either of us. But on the felt, anyone can win if they take the time the learn the game.

VI: Who are the best actors you’ve played against?

CB: James Woods is a very good friend of mine, and he has become an excellent poker player. Now on the female side, Jennifer Tilly has been very successful. Other actors who I have played with that play very well are Tobey Maguire, Ben Affleck, Shannon Elizabeth and of course my very good friend Gabe (Welcome Back Kotter) Kaplan, who I had the pleasure of beating in the NBC Heads-Up Championship…”

WOAI (06/13/07)