Save the comedy bit for the WSOP.

With that said, what the hell were you thinking Norm?

We know that your comic bits is part of your overall sportscaster gimmick, but most comedians know when to draw the line. Clearly you don’t.

While I know you were trying to be funny during your stint as a juror, that was entirely not the time nor the place.

It doesn’t matter if your tweets were over the top, they could have done serious harm to the proceedings that were going on at the time. Thankfully it was just a burglary case.

However, what if it weren’t? What if someone would have been seriously hurt or even killed during the crime and the person was looking at murder or manslaughter charges. How would the following tweet look to the defense?

“During lunch break, I could’ve sworn I saw defendant getting into a white Bronco with Gloria Allred”

If I was the defense, I would be claiming jury tampering from the start. Also a couple of those tweets could have been taken as slanderous.

I agree with the judge. You did make a mockery out of the trial. Fortunately, you are not a jackass so I agree with her just giving you a warning.

Norm, I realize you were trying to be funny. I get it. Next time, use some better judgment.

There is a time to leave funny at the door. Save your comic bits for the WSOP.

61 bracelets are up for grabs this year.

This year’s WSOP will feature 61 bracelets events, culminating in the WSOP Main Event.

Yesterday, it was announced that the November Nine would not be returning.  While this is technically true, the final table of the WSOP Main Event will still be delayed.

The final table will return on Sunday October 28^th and play down to the final two.  Those players will return on Tuesday October 30^th and play to a champion.

It appears the reason behind this “move” was the US Presidential elections and not that the November Nine has run its course.

Among the new events this year there is a $3,000 Heads-Up NL Hold’em / PL Omaha Event, a $2,500 Four-Handed NL Hold’em Event, a $1,500 Ante-Only NL Event, as well as a Mixed Doubles non-bracelet exhibition event.

For a complete rundown of the new schedule, head over to WSOP.com.  Stay tuned to Poker Junkie as I will give my opinions on the latest schedule in this week’s Op-Ed.

Pius Heinz will be the last champion crowned during the November Nine.

First, the 2012 WSOP will be held from May 27th through July 16, 2012. The complete schedule of events will be released tomorrow.

Also, WSOP officials announced that the event will use 470 tables for the event, an increase of 100 tables from last year.

In addition, there will be no off days during the Main Event. Whether that will be viewed as good or bad will depend on how players react.

The biggest announcement was the November Nine will NOT be returning for 2012.

This is not a huge shock seeing how that the ratings for the November Nine have never been able to reach the same heights as its inaugural year.

Up until 2010, I was never a big fan of the November Nine. However, the Mizrachi final table was to me one of the most exciting poker I have watched (and listened to) in a long time.

This year’s November Nine was still good, but the 2010 November Nine will remain my personal favorite.

We should find out tomorrow whether the Main Event final will revert to being played out in July or whether there will be a shorter delay. With live broadcast options now available, I would not be surprised if they chose to play it out in July but on a small delay like a couple of days to a week.

The schedule will be released at 1 PM EST tomorrow.

Not the biggest casino down here, but still fun.

Got here last night and headed over to Harrah’s Tunica to check things out. The Seniors’ event was well in swing and I ended up playing a single-table satellite.

Did well early on but lost a key flip about mid-way to get crippled. Went and pulled an Allen Kessler and won enough to get my money back and win a few bucks.

Today was the six-handed event and I had no interest in that, so I checked out the RoadHouse Casino. Basically set up as a country western casino, it was fairly enjoyable and had some decent gaming.

No poker room though. Played there two hours and lost $3.

Decided to head over to Gold Strike to play some limit Hold’em, which was like getting my teeth pulled. I was yo-yoing early on and wound up taking more bad beats than is normal, even for that game.

The best one (sarcasm) was two people calling two bets pre-flop and then one on the flop looking for a gutshot straight and caught. Anywho, dropped about $105 bucks in the game over a four-hour period. Won a little back in some Video Poker.

Tomorrow is the non-ring HORSE event at this circuit stop, one of the main events I wanted to play. Not a big fan of the structure, but it could be worse.

Looking forward to a decent turnout tomorrow as well as a deep run in this event.

The survey had around 8,000 respondents and included poker players primarily in the 30 to 60 year range.

Do you like poker sir? Thumbs up? That's one yes vote, write it down.

The survey produced the following results. I’ll paraphrase:

• Most poker players don’t play the lottery
• Many poker players quit playing online after Black Friday
• 70% of poker players don’t care where they play if it is legal
• Poker is a game of skill
• Most people spend less than $100 a week on poker.
• Online players spend less than live casino players

It concludes with “the well constructed and thorough survey initiated by US Gaming Survey generated some very meaningful results that clearly indicate that American poker players want regulated poker in the U.S.”

My thoughts on said survey, and I’ll paraphrase:

• Gee, poker lobbyist and poker supporter put out a survey saying that people who play poker like poker.  Shocking
• Players quit playing after Black Friday because *insert company here* still has their money
• How many of those 70% were playing on UB pre-Black Friday? Saying you don’t care doesn’t mean much to me.
• Poker = skill game. We know this. Tell us something new.
• A lot of players wish they had $100 a week to spend on poker. This is not new news either.
• Comparing online player spending to what live casino players spend is like comparing high school football to the NFL. They are not the same.

From what I read, there isn’t anything really all that shocking that came out of the survey, nor are the conclusions surprising.

Seriously, did anyone expect anything else from something prepared by two pro-poker organizations?

Don’t get me wrong, I understand the point they are making, but it looks like just another pro-poker lobbying tactic to me.  I’m sure I am not the only one here thinking this.

Here are some things I would like to see in a survey to poker players.

• Third party association with no ties to casinos, gambling, or any poker lobbying organization
• Do players fully understand the tax implications, including self-employment taxes, etc?
• Are they willing to give up many of the freedoms associated with online poker of the past, such as PTP transfers, having a company report on their win-loss yearly etc?
• Are they prepared for a potential higher cost of poker that will likely come with legalization since states will be taking their cut?
• Will they give up rakeback in order to play poker legally?

Those are just a few things off the top of my head. I’m sure some of you can come up with better ideas.

Essentially, I would like to see an unbiased party do some data crunching on the issue and give us some results that seem a bit more legit than those prepared by lobbyist.

Ivey decided to take back some of his money.

That’s the sound of the collective poker world weeping for their bankrolls as Phil Ivey just proved that he indeed is NOT the Tiger Woods of Golf.

Ivey just won the Aussie Millions $250k Super High Roller after taking most of 2011 off.

With his $2 Million win, Ivey takes over #2 on the All-Time Money List behind Erik “Can I do another Micros episode so I can win more money” Seidel.

I could go the cliché route and talk about how Ivey proved yet again that he is the best poker player of all-time, but Ivey’s bankroll is doing the talking for him.

Don’t forget, the objective in poker is to see how long you can keep your money away from Phil Ivey.

About the only things left for Ivey to accomplish in his career are as follows:

1. Overtake Phil Hellmuth for #1 All-Time WSOP Bracelets
2. Win the WSOP Main Event
3. Win the WPT Championship (If anyone still cares about that)
4. Be inducted into the Poker Hall of Fame. (Not eligible due to the “Let’s make Phil Ivey wait rule.”

You can book my “Phil Ivey to win WSOP bracelet #9” bet this year.

All your money are belong to Chris.

While I actually saw this first on QuadJacks’ Daily News Update, Subject:Poker reported today on secret bank accounts held by Chris Ferguson where he funneled $60 Million from the company beginning in 2007.

Since that time, he has withdrawn or spent  $45 Million of that money.  In addition, he used $14 of those funds in post-Black Friday expenses.  The kicker to all this is that he believes that he is entitled to that $14 Million.

Forget the fact that the company owes $400 Million to players worldwide, Ferguson just wants to get paid.

Also, according to the report on Subject:Poker, Ferguson and his lawyer Ian Imrich (yes, that is really his lawyer’s last name) have threatened to take steps to block the sale of the company to GBT.

A couple of reports have been out today saying that the sale is close to complete, so the last part, if indeed true, may no more than idle threats on Ferguson’s part.  If the sale does somehow still fall through, don’t be surprised if a large portion of the blame is heaped upon Ferguson.

Do the recent reports about Ferguson change your opinion about the once highly popular pro?  Drop us a comment and let us know.

Tonight, I watched President Obama deliver the State of the Union address. He addressed many pressing topics that affect America as a whole.

When I look on Twitter, I can’t count how many “are we going to get an online poker mention” or a “will he talk about Full Tilt repaying players?”

Really folks? Jobs, immigration, taxes, bank fraud, and all the issues out there and we are focused on poker?

Yes, it is a major issue to us involved, but it is a state issue first and foremost, and secondly, it’s not as big of an issue.

Next, why would the President go on TV and nationally give an endorsement about something that is considered morally reprehensible by many and easy political fodder for the Republicans?

Besides, there are other issues that outweigh it that the President did not address.

What about marijuana legalization? That would produce a lot more money for the Government than online poker, especially if it is taxed and regulated like alcohol.

About the closest that he came to talking about online poker was “eliminating laws that make no sense.”

That was about the only point that I gave it an inkling of a thought of having a shot of being talked about, but once he started “crying over spilled milk”, the odds of poker getting a mention were zero.

Poker is not a major issue in the grand scheme of things in this country and not one that a incumbent President will latch onto for election year.

Poker is not the issue he is looking for.

This will always be the Grand Casino Tunica to me.

Well, plans are now finalized and I will be heading down next Saturday and will arrive on Sunday to take part in my first poker tournament series in almost 2 years.

Why haven’t I played live tournament poker in two years?  A couple of reasons.  The main reason was my health.  I will go more into details in a future blog, but I limited myself to very little extensive traveling since July of 2010.  I started doing more the middle of last year, but still mostly only went and played cash games.

For this trip, I will probably stick mostly to satellites and a couple of non-Hold’em events unless I happen to be running well.  I will probably play the first HORSE event and probably the first Omaha Hi-Lo Event.  Otherwise, I will likely stick primarily to cash games and I may head over to the Gold Strike as well.

I’ll be staying at Harrah’s Tunica once again.  As usual, they are giving me a great rate.  ($30 a night.)  I’m usually not a huge fan of Harrah’s properties but the Grand is an exception.

I still call it the Grand as it was known as the Grand Casino Tunica before Harrah’s decided to change all the property names.  It is a great resort with good to fantastic rooms and solid service.  At least that has been my experience.

My first live poker experience was at the Grand in 2006.  I did pretty well, finishing up about $3,000 due to mostly running very well in satellites.  My tournaments have never went so well at the Grand though.  I’m hoping to change that, but it will be good to get out and compete again and also wishing Jimmy and Teresa well in their retirement.

I’ll keep everyone updated on my travels and will try and maybe even get a few shots of the venue while I am down there.

So its ok to wait for someone outside and do this to them right?

The post goes on to state that Duhamel “likely deserved” a bit of what he got.  Really, he deserved for someone to intentionally wait for someone to come out of a club so that they could get punched in the face.

And this isn’t the first time this guy has gotten aggressive when drinking.  Apparently he got drunk and broke into a restaurant to feed himself back in October.

The worst part about this is that there will likely be very little if any consequences to him for acting like a fool when drunk.

A couple of weeks ago, Matt Glantz wrote a post about “Responsibility in Poker” but one has to wonder if people are taking his words seriously.

My guess is, not really.  How can they take those words seriously when there are no consequences for their actions within the poker world.

John Racener gets three DUI’s and other than his legal issues involved, nothing is done within poker to sanction.  Tom Dwan gets on Twitter talking about how he is driving around Las Vegas drunk, and nothing is even mentioned.  Finger punches a guy in the face and it is practically made light of.

Those are just some examples.  While all of us know that heavy drinking and partying is part of the poker culture, there should be some type of consequences to players when they screw up because of it.  Revoke their sponsorship, ban them from playing events, or do something other than post on a blog how they shouldn’t punch a guy because it will make him win tournaments.

Is someone going to have to get killed or seriously injured before something is addressed in this area?  I hope not, but it seems that nobody really cares.  Just as long as they show up with their buy-in and keep their nose clean in the poker room, who cares right?