By UBpoker and Phil Hellmuth. Play Poker with Phil  now at UBPoker.

I choose the poker tournaments that I play with great care. I don’t miss many WSOP events which means I’m booked in Vegas from the end of May until the middle of July each year. I also like to play the major WPT tournaments, so that’s another twenty days per year that I’m away from home.

Add in all the made-for-television games like Poker After Dark, High Stakes Poker and The Big Game, and man, that’s a lot of poker!

There is one other event that I always try to play, the $10,000 buy-in heads-up tournament at the Los Angeles Poker Classic. What’s fun about this tourney is that it features a unique double-elimination format — lose two matches and you’re toast.

In 2008, with 110 players signed up to play, I got lucky and randomly drew a first round bye. But in the second round, I had to face the always-tough and well-respected pro Erick “E-Dog” Lindgren, that year’s WSOP Player of the Year and an all-around great guy, too.

In the second hand of our match, with the blinds at $100/$200, I limped in on the button with Q-3 offsuit. Erick raised $300 and I called.

The flop came K-7-5. Erick fired out $600. Attempting to bluff E-Dog out of the pot, I made it $2,600 to go. Didn’t work, though, he called.

Another king fell on the turn. Erick checked this time, probably wary of my raise on the flop. Continuing my bluff, I bet $1,800 and Erick called again.

The river was a ten and Erick checked. I studied for a while then decided to check, too.

Wow, good thing I didn’t try to bluff on the river as E-Dog rolled over K-10 for a big full house.

Let’s take a closer look at this hand.

I don’t mind my pre-flop call for $300. My $2,000 raise on the flop was a decent play although it certainly didn’t work out as planned. I’m pretty sure that my bluff would have done the trick if E-Dog was weak, but that just wasn’t the case.

On the turn, I like my $1,800 bluff bet. It was designed to deliver the deceptive message that I had a king and wanted a call. Also, it afforded me the opportunity to continue bluffing on the river.

I love my check on the river. I mean, c’mon, it was the only move that worked to my benefit in this hand!

E-Dog, you played the match like a true champion.

When I was down to my last $5,000, a less experienced player might have eased up, or conversely, might have played recklessly. But Erick never let me back into the match. He played fiercely until he had the victory in hand.

Of course, I didn’t make it easy for him. It’s important to play your best right up until the end because you just never know when a run of good cards will come your way.

One more tip: You’ve got to be willing to change your heads-up tactics depending on how your opponent plays his cards.

My preference is to play patiently and trap a super-aggressive opponent by letting them do the betting. And when I do catch a strong hand, I’ll make a small bet to induce a call. But if my opponent plays tight, I’ll try a few well-timed bluffs. In fact, I might bluff every single pot until he finally calls me down.

Heads-up poker requires flexibility, imagination, and well-timed aggression. Keep that in mind the next time you get to down to the final two.

SANTA ANA — Police in Santa Ana say a 55-year-old man who won a large amount of money at a casino was followed by two suspects and killed for his winnings.

Cpl. Anthony Bertagna from the Santa Ana police department told KTLA that Chi Ngoc Bui, of Westminster, was with a female friend and had won several thousand dollars at a casino in Hawaiian Gardens. He was then followed to Santa Ana, where a confrontation took place.

Bertagna says two suspects cut off the victim’s car, forcing him to pull over near the intersection of First Street and South Andres Place around 4:30 a.m..

One of the assailants chased down the fleeing victim and fought with him over a cash-filled envelope, Bertagna said. The suspect then reportedly ran back to the car after knocking down the victim, who was then run over by the fleeing vehicle.

The victim was found dead in the road, with dozens of 20 dollar bills and a knife scattered around his body.

Initially, officials thought the suspects stabbed the man to death, but later deduced the man was threatened with a knife and was killed when the suspects ran him down.

The cause of death was blunt-force trauma to the head and upper body.

The suspects took the victim’s money and fled, though it’s unclear how much they made off with.

A woman who was with the victim began screaming, prompting someone to call 911. She was not hurt in the incident.

The suspects were said to be driving a small gray car with tinted windows.

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Swedish Pro Martin Jacobson Leads the Field with 24 Remaining

Day 3 has come to a close at the European Poker Tour Vilamoura €5,000 no-limit hold’em main event and there are just 24 players remaining from the original 384 players that entered the event. Today was especially tough on the professionals, particularly day 2 chip leader Brandon Cantu. He came into the day with 557,400 but he eventually fell in 36th place.

The remaining players will return tomorrow and play down to the final table of eight. You can watch all of the action live on the EPT Live video feed, which will bring you every minute of the tournament. You can also follow the tournament live on the PokerStars blog feed.

The overnight chip leader is Swedish professional Martin Jacobson. He will be looking to take his career earnings above $1 million at this event and he is in a good position to do so with only two days left on the journey to the championship. Another familiar face remaining is the first EPT Grand Final champion Rob Hollink. He holds 696,000. Other notables still in the mix include England football star Teddy Sheringham (381,000) and Nicolo Calia (609,000), who took seventh place at EPT Tallinn. He can make back-to-back EPT final tables if he survives tomorrow.

Check back at CardPlayer.com tomorrow for another summary of the action. Here is a look at the tournament statistics from EPT Vilamoura Day 3:

Day 3 Top Chip Counts:

Martin Jacobson — 1,362,000
Marco Leonzio — 778,000
Guillermo Garcia — 766,000
Sam Trickett — 712,000
Rob Hollink — 696,000
Sergio Coutinho — 635,000
Nicolo Calia — 609,000
Jason Lee — 600,000
Erik Van Den Berg — 554,000
Tom Johansen — 521,000

Notable Cashes:

56: Joe Ebanks — €7,263
52: Luca Pagano — €7,263
36: Brandon Cantu — €8,381
35: Marcin Horecki — €8,381
29: J.P. Kelly — €9,312
26: William Thorson — €9,312

Hand of the Day:

William Thorson Eliminated

William Thorson raised to 25,000 preflop and Guillermo Garcia reraised all in. Thorson made the all-in call and they flipped over their cards:

Thorson: Q Q
Garcia: A Q

Board: A 6 5 A 7

Garcia had three outs in the deck and two of them were delivered by the board. Thorson was eliminated on the hand in 26th place and he took home €9,312 in prize money.

Remaining Payout Structure:

1: €467,835
2: €297,984
3: €186,240
4: €139,680
5: €93,120
6: €74,496
7: €55,872
8: €37,248
9-10: €27,936
11-12: €20,486
13-14: €16,762
15-16: €13,968
17-24: €11,174

This week, the Commerce Casino caused outrage amongst members of the Poker Players Alliance (PPA) after it’s revelation that it was against any federal licensing of online poker.

The Commerce Casino’s opposition to Barney Frank’s HR 2267 and McDermott’s HR 2268 bills may have caused a furore in the poker playing community, but now more casinos have come out in support of the Commerce, including the Bicycle Casino, Hollywood Park and Hawaiian Gardens.

Responding to criticism by the PPA that they were greedy, betrayers of the poker community,  Commerce Casino board member Haig Papaian and Tom Malkasian dismissed the PPA as one of many  “special interest groups receiving funds from illegal offshore gaming operators.”

The Commerce Casino claims to employ over 20,000 workers in the state of California. Furthermore, with 70% of Californians using the interenet and  $13.4 billion wagered annually online, the Commerce said it was keen to protect what is the biggest internet gaming market worldwide. As Malkasian explained in an interview with Poker News Daily:

“Federal and state regulation of online poker is coming and we can either fight to ensure that poker players’ interests are protected or allow illegal foreign operators, who are siphoning millions of American dollars out of this country, to dominate the U.S. market”

“If domestic card casinos do not defend themselves from offshore interests, we stand to lose not only revenue but also the loss of jobs. We are against the Frank and McDermott bills. (The) Poker Players Alliance should be against this, too.”

So far, the PPA seem unmoved by the Commerce casino’s stance with over 6,000 poker players already having signed a PPA organised online  petition voicing their dissatisfaction with the casino. Amongst those players adding their weight to the petition are Phil Ivey, Tom Dwan, Patrik Antonius, John Juanda, Joe Sebok, Erick Lindgren and David Williams.

In addition, PPA Executive Director John Pappas countered some of the Commerce’s argument by highlighting the fact that the HR 2267 bill stipulates that poker companies would be required to have at least 50% of their operations within the country. He summed up by stating:

“It’s pretty clear their only concern is that they don’t want to compete.”

As the war of words continues between the casinos and the PPA, we will endeavour to bring you any updates to the story as they develop.

LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM – Virgin Casino, part of the leading online gaming company – Virgin Games, has today added to its extensive range of games with the introduction of Cashapillar, one of the most popular slots to be launched. With as many paylines as a centipede has legs, this latest game from Microgaming is a 5 reel, 100 payline slot with Wild, Scatter, Freespins, Multiplier and Gamble opportunities wrapped in a fun insect party theme.

This slot introduces the ’stacked wilds’ concept on all reels. A maximum of 5 ‘Cashapillar’ wilds can appear vertically stacked to create a win bonanza – and every time the wild substitutes to complete a win, that win is doubled. This new game has remarkably good chances for reward, too. Up to 2,000 in the base game and 6,000 coins in Free Spins can be won per line. This translates to a maximum win across all paylines of 2 million coins in the base game and 6 million coins on Free Spins.

Warren Eloff, Head of Products at Virgin Games, commented:

“With 100 paylines, this latest release from Microgaming is certainly a unique addition to our game portfolio. The plentiful paylines together with the stacked wilds make this slot enormously rewarding and fun. This is sure to become a firm favourite with our customers.”

Founded in 2004, Virgin Games has over 1,000,000 players and over 200 games on its site. Through the introduction of a custom built Virgin Games platform in 2008, Virgin Games seeks to provide its players with the widest possible choice of casino games. A growing selection of games can be found at Virgin Games from a number of producers including Microgaming, WagerWorks, Cryptologic, Freemantle and Ash Gaming.

About Virgin Games:

Virgin Games launched in June 2004 and has quickly established itself as one of the leading gaming websites in the UK. Virgin Games comprises three distinct offerings:

• Virgin Casino, offers content from a range of games suppliers including WagerWorks, Microgaming, Cryptologic, Freemantle and Ash Gaming, bringing consumers classic casino games like Blackjack and Roulette, as well as great feature slots like Monopoly, Rubik’s, X-Factor and the highly popular MegaJackpots progressive games, with a current jackpot value of over £2,500,000

• Virgin Poker, part of the Boss Media network, offers a huge array of games and content for beginners through to experienced pros – as well as the most generous loyalty scheme in the industry

• Virgin Bingo, part of the Virtue Fusion network, offers cash prizes worth thousands of pounds in the progressive jackpots, as well as Virgin prize bingo and a range of unique Virgin Games bingo games.

International Game Technology (IGT: 15.33 0.00%) will showcase its award winning products this week at the 2010 Oklahoma Indian Gaming Association Tradeshow (OIGA).

Attendees on August 23 and 24 will get hands on experience of more than a dozen of IGT’s popular games and system enhancements.

On display will be MegaJackpot slot games like American Idol, Star Wars Droid Hunt, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Super Nova Blast; Siberian Storm, The Little Shop of Horrors, Cougarlicious and Double Diamond Reel MultiPLAY.

Also being featured will be IGT’s video poker games including Five Star Poker, Texas Hold ‘Em Heads Up Poker and Double Super Times Pay Poker.

Roulette Evolution and Triple Towers Greyhound Racing games in the M-P Series will also be displayed, allowing casinos to increase the number of players wagering on a single game.

“IGT prides itself on being an industry leader and developing the games that players enjoy playing,” said Eric Tom, chief operating officer for IGT. “OIGA attendees will see this first hand when they learn more about the many exciting new games and Network Systems products available from IGT.”

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Gus Hansen is one of the most recognizable players in poker today – and he is also a study in how deceiving some numbers can be in poker. Hansen’s live tournament winnings total nearly $7.25 million, more than all but 22 players in the entire world since poker tournaments first began being played in the 1970s. He has three World Poker Tour titles to his name, and he also won the 2008 Aussie Millions main event. Without a doubt, he is one of the most successful tournament poker players in the world.

But when it comes to playing online poker, Hansen prefers the high-stakes cash games against top competition like Tom Dwan and Phil Ivey. His results in those games have been nearly the total opposite of those he’s compiled in live tournaments. He’s down $7.7 million since the beginning of 2007, making him one of the single biggest losers in the game over that time period, with about $800,000 of that total coming just in 2010. So, depending on your perspective, Gus Hansen is either a highly successful poker player, or he’s the fish who keeps the game running.

Naturally the speculation that Gus Hansen is broke is high, but there’s not nearly enough information to back that up. His online poker results are publicly available, but numbers for his live games and his outside business dealings don’t show up on databases. The only really sure thing is that the Great Dane might want to reconsider the players he takes on when he decides to play high-stakes online poker.

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