With around $30,000 in winnings playing at the  1c/2c and the 2c/5c levels alone, it is no surprise Nathan Williams didn’t attract much attention from $2NL and $5NL cash game railers, until his stats first appeared on poker tracking sites. As Williams explains:

“When PTR came out my exploits at the lowest stakes became public knowledge and it became interesting for people to talk about. I guess because no one was playing as many hands as I was and getting such high win-rates, people just thought it was crazy.”

Now, Nathan Williams has decided to tell the story of his success in a new book entitled “Crushing the Microstakes” and fundamental to his approach to micro stakes annihilation is recognising and exploiting the fishy tendencies of his opponents.

Some of the gems mentioned in his book, which he highlights do not apply to higher buy-in levels, include slipping in 10BB raises pre-flop with hands such as AA and KK as a fish who has decided to go with a hand will rarely be dissuaded from playing.

Other micro-stakes moves he mentions include pushing all-in with the nuts into tiny pots, and advising against too much bluffing as its value diminishes at the lower levels, especially against serial callers.
 
Although Williams’ advice may not extend to low or mid-level players, the poker maestro insists it is the micro-stakes domain where his book acts as a definitive guide and as he explains:

“I realized that the players you make the most from playing lower stakes are just recreational players…the recreational players really aren’t doing anything to improve, and that’s where most of your money is coming from at the micros.”

Thirteen months later and the collaboration between Miramax, which produced the original movie, and The Weinstein Company has yet to get off the ground. At the time, movie producer and co-founder of Mirimax, Harvey Weinstein said:

“I’m entertaining the idea of doing a ‘Rounders’ sequel because there’s a side of the story that we haven’t told. I want to do it because there’s something that we didn’t say.”

Interestingly enough, ‘Rounders’ ended with protagonist Mike McDermott (Matt Damon) heading off to compete in the World Series of Poker, but where the sequel picks-up remains a secret.

Since announcing the sequel, however, Weinstein has expressed concern over the declining state of the DVD market and the need to now make theatrical style movies which translate well to the big screen.Rounders 2, therefore, presents a challenge to Harvey Weinstein, who indicated he was concerned that the original Rounders only grossed $23 million at cinemas when it was released and only proved a hit later on in ancillary markets.

Not backing away from the project, Weinstein instead emphasised the need to get Rounders 2 just right, and added:

“It’s become much more of a theatrical business because the movie has to work in theaters. There’s no second chance..I never make sequels but it’s something I’d like to revisit.”

Despite originally showing a release date of 2012, Rounders 2 is currently scheduled to hit the screens in 2014, according to the Internet Movie Database (IMDB).

In the meantime, both Matt “Mike McDermott” Damon and Ed “Lester Murphy” Norton have expressed interest in starring in the sequel, although it is unclear whether John Malkovich or John Turturro will reappear to revive their previous roles.

Even poker’s unofficial spokesman Daniel Negreanu didn’t give the EPL much hope of survival, possibly due to his well-known dislike of EPL Commissioner Annie Duke, and commented at the time:

“I don’t think this league can succeed..I don’t believe this product will resonate with the public. I don’t think it’s possible to bring in enough revenue to survive.”

However, three Main Events later and with the next one due on February 9-12, the professional poker league continues to grow in prestige and stature. Further expanding its business, the EPL has now said it is a step closer to securing a global fan base after announcing a partnership with European poker broadcaster ‘The Poker Channel.’

Starting January 15th, the EPL will begin showing 70 hours of recorded EPL tournaments to around 30 million homes throughout Europe, and said they were
thrilled to be working with a quality broadcaster, who will help them reach an important new audience overseas.

Gaming Media Group Director of Business Development Chris White, The Poker Channel’s owners, seemed equally as pleased and after the deal was announced, commented:

“With the incredible success of Epic Poker League’s first three events and high quality production, they are a great partner for the Poker Channel. We’re proud to bring this unique format featuring the world’s best players to millions of Poker Channel viewers.”

The addition of the Epic Poker League would also seem a natural extension to the Poker Channel’s already comprehensive poker shows offering, which also includes High Stakes Poker, the World Series of Poker, the European Poker Tour and the World Poker Tour

Marianela Pereyra, 32, moved to the USA aged just 5 alongside her professional tango-dancing parents and later earned  a psychology/romance languages degree from the University of Maryland. A Romance language is one which is derived from the Latin language, and Marianela is fluent in French and Italian, as well as Spanish and English.

After leaving college, Marianela’s career included becoming a model and  she has now appeared in countless magazines such as Maxim, as well as numerous Billboard posters. She currently also writes a monthly column at CosmoGIRL.

In addition, Marianela Pereyra has become a television personality, with her TV poker experience including being the “sideline reporter” for the 2007 WSOP. She also replaced Shana Hiatt as hostess for Poker After Dark Season 3, but was later replaced by Leeann Tweeden as the show’s third hostess..

Now as anchor woman for the WPT, Marianela Pereyra will travel to various WPT stops throughout 2012, starting on February 6th with Venice, Italy. Talking about her new job, Marianela Pereyra commented:

“I’m thrilled to be given such an incredible opportunity. It’s an honor to be filling in for Kimberly Lansing and I’m really looking forward to being part of the World Poker Tour.”

WPT President Adam Pliska was equally as delighted at having Marianela onboard, and said:”The innovative position of WPT Anchor is integral to the World Poker Tour, and Kimberly Lansing has done a fantastic job establishing this role. Marianela has impressive experience in the poker community and we know she’ll fit right in with the WPT family.”

The poker cash game series was originally hosted by Gabe Kaplan and  AJ Benza and quickly built up a big following amongst hardcore poker fans, with its entertaining presentation style and insightful poker analysis.

Over the years the show had many of the top poker players in the world lining-up for a place at its high-stake cash game, including Phil Ivey, Tom Dwan, Daniel Negreanu, Doyle Brunson, Jennifer Harman, Patrik Antonius, David Benyamine, Eli Elezra, Sam Farha, Barry Greenstein, Mike Matusow and Phil Hellmuth Jr.

It was later confirmed by Daniel Negreanu in season one that all the players received $1,250 per hour for taking part in the show, with each season edited from 24 hours of actual play.

‘High Stakes Poker’ is also responsible for some of the most memorable moments in TV poker history, such as Gus Hansen winning $575,000 with four fives against Daniel Negreanu’s full house. Or Brad Booth’s memorable $300,000 bluff with 4-2 on a 3-6-7 flop against Phil Ivey with pocket kings.

However, the show began to unravel in 2010 after Season six premiered without AJ Benza, followed by Gabe Kaplan being replaced by Norm Macdonald in 2011 for Season seven.

The new format received a wave of criticism from fans who felt the show no longer had the same appeal as earlier seasons. Furthermore, comedian Norm Macdonald seemed to have been an unusual choice for the role of poker presenter, given his lack of insightful analysis as well as his track record in being involved with shelved TV show. These have included The Norm Show, A Minute with Stan Hooper and ‘Sports Show with Norm Macdonald.’

High Stakes Poker’s woes were further compounded after Full Tilt Poker pulled out of the show, followed by new sponsors PokerStars as part of the Black Friday indictments.

It now remains to be seen whether another network will express interest in the show after its last GSN airing effective Jan. 2, 2012.

Surprisingly, however, popular cash game show ‘High Stakes Poker’ (HSP) continued to air on the Game Show Network (GSN) despite PokerStars being the main sponsor of the programme.

Initially, High Stakes Poker decided to pull PokerStars references, including commercials although the site’s logos were still shown on the players at the table. Now, however, the show has finally got a new sponsor in the form of legal, US online poker room GoldStrike Poker.

Click here for poker sites that accept US players

Based in the state of Georgia, GoldStrike Poker is a subscription-based site, which takes advantage of the grey area in the UIGEA law by charging a monthly  membership fee, in this case $20. The players can  then enter a number of free poker tournaments each month which pay-out cash prizes with technically speaking no monetary gambling involved.

As Gold Strike Poker spokesman John George explains: “With the FBI seizing the illegal poker sites, 50 million American poker players have no idea where to play poker. Gold Strike Poker is America’s only legal online 3-D poker site and is taking the leading position in the U.S. market.”

As Gold Strike Poker takes over the sponsorship for HSP, it is hoped that the show may now be able to reverse some of its recent disappointing ratings and reviews.

HSP’s popularity began to decline after AJ Benz and then Gabe Kaplan were replaced as the show’s hosts. HSP was then further hit by the exodus of Full Tilt pros after PokerStars became the show’s primary sponsor this season.

However, with PokerStars now out of the picture poker fans will be hoping to see the return of players such as Phil Ivey, Tom Dwan, Patrik Antonius and Gus Hansen in Season 8.

With the tagline ‘Even Professional Poker has a Farm System,’ the movie bills itself as the “true story” of the 2009 annual illegal poker championship held in Scott County, Indiana.

However, according to the DVD description the emphasis of this comedy mockumentary is actually about “an outrageous group of blue-blooded American misfits who have spent a lot less time hitting the nuts in life and a lot more time having life return the favor.”

Hitting the Nuts is a Rebel Pilgrim Production and was actually written and directed by Joe Boyd, who also appears in the movie as Amish farmer/poker player, Ezekiel Yoder.

Boyd has a background in comedy improv and despite writing the scenes in advance, incredibly used a selection of improv actors to fill in the dialogue parts during filming to give the mockumentary an authentic documentary type feel.

The resulting movie has since picked up a “Best Feature Film” award at the 2011 Derby City Film Festival, with the director Kristopher Rommel describing it as “Perhaps the funniest movie in the history of our film festival.”

Complete with a wacky assortment of characters including a returning champion, a busty waitress, a town preacher and a man who idolizes Phil Hellmuth, the film provides ample comical opportunities to mock those people who treat the game of poker way too seriously.

It also enjoys the support of Californian poker pro Jeff Madsen, who has 2 WSOP bracelets to his credit, as well as over $3.2 million in live tournament winnings.

Currently only available on DVD at www.hittingthenuts.com, over half the initial run of DVDs have already been sold over the space of just one week, with Joe Boyd saying he is now seeking wider channels of distribution for the movie.

TV production company ‘Presentable Productions’ had just finished filming the third heat of the eight heat six man $20k sit-n-gos poker show, where each week’s winner receives $120,000.

Click here for the current poker sites still in the US market.

However, when Full Tilt’s payment was not forthcoming Presentable’s managing director Megan Stuart then decided to pull the plug on filming the show, explaining:

“The money hadn’t come through for some of the players, basically the Full Tilt ones. We would have been staging the tournament under false pretences had we carried on.”

Apparently, the decision to halt filming was a joint one made between Presentable and Full Tilt and is being seen as yet another consequence of poker’s ‘Black Friday’ when the US Department of Justice closed Full Tilt, PokerStars and Absolute Poker’s American operations.

Cash flow has since become a problem for Full Tilt who, along with the other mentioned sites, had 76 accounts frozen by US authorites along with millions of dollars. As a Full Tilt statement explained at the time:

“Unfortunately, there remain significant practical and legal impediments to returning funds to players in the immediate future. Full Tilt Poker has no accounting of the millions of dollars of player funds that were seized by the government.”

Luckily, it would seem Presentable Productions and Full Tilt may now have sorted out their payment troubles and subject to the availability of players and crew, the show is still expected to air in July. Producer Megan Stuart has subsequently released a statement, which read:

“We haven’t sorted out figures for the future but we have been given assurances of future payments from Full Tilt with which we are satisfied. They are honourable and we have always had good relations with them in the past, so we have no concerns about payments.”

However, the latest embarrassing situation is a clear example of how the recent decimation of US online poker continues to send shock-waves throughout the whole of the poker industry.

The 70 minute video features a series of candid interviews with some of online poker’s most successful high-stakes pros. One thing they all have in common though, is that they are all very rich as well as also being very young.

Amongst the cast of players offering up their expert views on the highs and lows of online poker are brothers Di “urindanger” Dang and Hac “TREX313″ Dang, with over $15 million in winnings between them. Other top players fearured in the programme include Isaac “LuvtheWNBA” Haxton, Andrew “Good2CU” Robl, Shaun Deeb, Alec Torelli and Peter Jetten, to name but a few.

During the programme a whole range of subjects are explored by this young savvy group who, despite their young age, still took time to reminisce fondly over the “Old Days” of online poker when most player were simply bad. Isaac Haxton mentions that then it was almost impossible to suffer two losing days in a row, while Andrew Robl expands on how the situation has changed drastically over the past five years.

The players also talk about their egos, logical thinking and drive which helps them to reach the very pinnacle of their chosen lucrative career.

However, the downside of the game is ironically discussed by Shaun Deeb who has won around $5 million online from tournaments alone. As he explains some of the young players have the tendency as they become more successful to lead  lazier lifestyles and as he comically jokes; “I basically suck at life, but I’m good at poker.”

Another memorable quote in ‘A Kid’s Game’ comes from Isaac Haxton, who said:

“If [people] have some prejudice against it going in they’re not going to listen to what you have to say. They’re going to assume that the stuff you’re saying that [they] can’t understand, or don’t understand, are just the rationalizations of a compulsive gambler.”

Poker fans will find the documentary well worth checking out and the video can be viewed at poker training site Bluefire Poker, although you might need to sign up for a trial account first.

Recalling the moment he was told the news and offered the hosting role for the upcoming HSP Season 7, Norm Macdonald said:

“It only happened a couple of weeks ago. I was stunned by it. “High Stakes Poker” is my favorite poker show, so I was shocked that Gabe Kaplan wasn’t coming back. I thought he was the best announcer by far. I was a little reluctant to do it because I didn’t know if I’d be as good as him, so that was a little daunting.”

Many people can empathise with Norm Macdonald’s initial trepidation as, unlike Gabe Kaplan, his poker credentials pale in comparison to Kaplan’s who was able to use his own vast experience to accurately analyse the play of some of the best poker pros in the world.

Actor comedian Gabe Kaplan first took up poker in 1978 and has since gone on to amass around $1.3 million in live tournament winnings. Among Kaplan’s impressive list of achievements are 9 cashes at the WSOP for $497,659, as well coming 3rd in the 2004 Mirage Poker Showdown for his biggest score to date of $256,519.

Such is Kaplan’s level of expertise that on one famous HSP episode he even took time off from the commentators box to go down and join the pros in some  high stakes poker action.

Norm Macdonald’s tournament credentials are a little spartan in comparison, having only won $26,153 from two tournament cashes, both in 2006. Talking about when he first started playing poker, Macdonald said:

“I discovered poker at the Mayfair Club and played Limit because it would slow down the bleeding. When I went to Las Vegas, I’d try to stay away from the tables and just play Limit Hold’em. I started by playing 100% of the hands and bringing as much money as I could. Sometimes it’d be a good night, but I’d still lose less than at the pits. Then, by osmosis, I got better and started realizing that it wasn’t really gambling. I started reading books and then I understood.”

As High Stakes Poker S7 gets underway on Saturday, February 26th at 8 p.m. EST, an army of poker fans will eagerly be awaiting the new show and hoping Norm Macdonald’s commentary and style will make the action every bit as entertaining as previous seasons.