Today in the 3-Bet we find Joe Hachem back in the Global Poker Index, get a major case of plaque envy from the Aussie Millions and watch WPT Raw Deal host Tony Dunst balancing his tweet range.

1) Hach Back in Top 200 of Global Poker Index

Soul patch is back!

 

The latest update to the Global Poker Index was posted today and, to no surprise, Erik Seidel and Jason Mercier held on to the top two spots.

Jonathan Duhamel jumped into the top 10 (from #11), Mike "Timex" McDonald dropped out of the top 10 (to #11) and a slew of other great tournament players moved up or down the rankings as usual.

Making a big move, however, to ring in his new ambassadorship with the Asian Poker Tour and the AsianLogic Group was Australia's favorite chiropractor-turned-poker pro, Joe Hachem.

Hachem came flying back into the GPI this week as his third-place finish in the Aussie Millions $100k High Roller event scored him 228 points and rocketed him back up to #177 in the rankings.

$100k High Roller winner Dan Smith, aka KingDan23, also crushed the rankings this week on the back of his $100k finish and jumped up 90 spots all the way to #65.

Check the full updated rankings for this week here.

2) Cash-Game Plaques, So Hot Right Now

Plaques are the mack.

 

The bundles of cash they used on GSN's High Stakes Poker were pretty baller, for sure, but everybody knows what takes you to the next level of money cachet.

Plaques. Flat, plastic stacks of heavy casino plaques.

Because the best way to show how truly above it all you are is to never sully your hands with cash again.

As Daniel Negreanu tweeted along with this great picture of his stack of plaques at the Aussie Millions cash game, plaques are also just "so James Bond."

To paraphrase Chris Rock:

"Bundles of cash make you look rich. Plaques make you look wealthy."

Check out a few more pics from yesterday's cash game in the PL blog and look for more reports later today.

Follow @RealKidPoker on Twitter for some of the best tweets in the game.

3) Tony "Bond_18" Dunst Balances His Tweet Range

Likes it raw.

 

Think the lingering resentment towards Full Tilt Poker and its primary owners Chris Ferguson and Howard Lederer has dissipated at all?

Not if the Twitter tempest around a new report that came out yesterday revealing some “secret” accounts of Ferguson is any indication.

Most notably expressing his latent rage was WPT Raw Deal Host Tony Dunst, who made it pretty clear in a couple of tweets what he’d do if he ran into either of those two again:

“If Chris Ferguson shows his face in poker again I'll happily be the first one to drive a stake through that piece of shits ankle.”

Not to give Lederer a pass, he followed that immediately by:

“I'd bring retribution to Lederer too if I weren't so confident that the fat fuck will eat himself to death if he has any money left.”

Just to balance his range, Dunst was back to his more jovial host persona four minutes later when he tweeted:

“Check out season X of the WPT on FSN starting February 12th!”

Follow Dunst on Twitter here to see who gets it next.

The season, which will once again be broadcast on Fox Sports Net (FSN), will consist of 37 episodes, up 11 from Season IX. Part of the change is an increase in the number of episodes per tournament; the story of each tour stop will now be told across three episodes instead of just two. Strong ratings were likely another catalyst for the added episodes, as ratings increased 30 percent from Season VIII to Season IX.

“The steadfast effort put into revamping the World Poker Tour last season was rewarded with resounding fan and viewer support,” said WPT President Adam Pliska in a press release. “For WPT Season X, we’re debuting more innovations and giving our audience even more reasons to tune in each week.”

One of those innovations is a new segment called WPT Champions Cup in which some of the most memorable moments from WPT final tables will be relived. Another new segment, On the Road, will give viewers a sort of “behind the curtain” look at the lives of the WPT cast.

Speaking of cast, poker icons Mike Sexton and Vince Van Patten will again be the voices behind the microphones, just as they have been since the very first televised episode of the World Poker Tour. Kimberly Lansing is back as the WPT Anchor, while Tony “Bond18” Dunst returns as the analyst on Raw Deal.

The first episode of the new season will be a special Season X preview, setting viewers up for the months to come. The Legends of Poker will be the first tournament to air, running three consecutive Sundays from February 19th through March 4th. The season will continue from there with 11 more tournaments, each consisting of three weekly episodes. All tour stops in the United States will be broadcast except for the first Jacksonville and Seminole Hard Rock events. The second stops at both locations will be shown. Two different tournaments at the WPT World Championship will be aired: the $25,000 World Championship itself as well as the $100,000 Super High Roller event.

For those who miss the Sunday broadcasts, each episode will re-air every Wednesday at 11:00pm local time.

The complete World Poker Tour Season X television schedule is as follows:

Feb. 12 – Season X Special
Feb. 19-Mar. 4 – Legends of Poker
Mar. 11-25 – WPT Grand Prix de Paris
Apr. 1-15 – Borgata Poker Open
Apr. 22-May 6 – World Poker Final
May 13-27 – Five Diamond World Poker Classic
June 3-17 – WPT Venice Grand Prix
June 24-July 8 – LA Poker Classic
July 15-29 – Bay 101 Shooting Star
Aug. 5-19 – Seminole Hard Rock Poker Showdown
Aug. 26-Sep. 9 – WPT Jacksonville
Sep. 16-30 – WPT World Championship Super High Roller
Oct. 7-21 – WPT World Championship

Players who eliminate one of the names on this list will get a $5k prize along with a signed tee-shirt to commemorate the occasion.

The list runs the gamut of professional poker from big-name live tournament legends like Erik Seidel and Scotty Nguyen to up and coming international names like Sam Trickett and Chris Moorman.

In 2011 the WPT Shooting Star was won by Alan Sternberg, a poker pro from New York who earned $1,039,000 for the victory. He defeated a very tough final table including the WPT’s own Mike Sexton as well as past WPT Champion Vivek Rajkumar and brand-name pro Mike Matusow.

Here is the full list of bounties for the 2012 WPT Shooting Star, playing out in San Jose March 5:

Keep an eye on PokerListings.com's Poker News Section for daily updates from the WPT Shooting Star.

Here were the chip counts to start the final table:

David Shallow – 6,155,000
Steve Watts – 1,600,000
Patrik Vestlin – 1,100,000
Charles Chattha – 835,000
Ronan Gilligan – 775,000

While the final table was very short by World Poker Tour standards, coming in at under three hours, it wasn’t a totally smooth ride for Shallow.  Right off the bat, he doubled-up both Patrik Vestlin and Ronan Gilligan, causing his chip stack to fall to 4,276,000.  Gilligan rode the momentum, eliminating Steve Watts in 5th place.  Watts had moved all-in pre-flop with T-T for his remaining 1,130,000 and Gilligan called him with A-K.  The flop was Q-J-7, which was generally good for Watts, but it did give Gilligan a straight possibility if he could hit one of the remaining two Tens to go along with the 6 outs he already had.  No dice on the turn, but the river produced one of those Tens, allowing Gilligan to knock Watt out with a Broadway straight.  That pot took Gilligan up to 2,898,000, which was still a good chunk behind Shallow, but nothing that couldn’t be overcome.  It looked a whole heck of a lot better than the more than 5,000,000 chip deficit he faced about a half-hour earlier.

Just a few minutes later, Gilligan continued his hot streak.  Patrik Vestlin raised pre-flop and Gilligan called from the big blind.  The two saw a flop of 9s-7s-3s and Vestlin made the first bet with As-Qc, giving him the nut flush draw.  Gilligan check-raised to 450,000 with Js-9d – top pair and a flush draw – and Vestlin shoved for 1,750,000.  Gilligan thought a bit about his decision, but decided it was worth the risk and called.  The turn was the Tc; black, but the wrong black.  Another tease presented itself to Vestlin on the river in the form of the 8c and Gilligan’s hand held up.  Vestlin was gone in 4th place and just like that, less than an hour into play, Ronan Gilligan, the shortest stack to start the final table, was the chip leader.  He had 4,852,000, Shallow had 4,259,000, and Chaz Chattha had 1,029,000 chips.

After that, though, it appeared that Gilligan’s confidence may have gotten too high, as he began making some reckless raises and calls with marginal holdings.  Having watched his stack take several hits, he once again made a call of a David Shallow pre-flop raise with just 3-4 in the hole.  Shallow had T-9 and the flop was friendly to both, giving top pair to Shallow and an open-ended straight draw to Gilligan.  Shallow led out on the turn for 215,000, Gilligan raised to 525,000, Shallow moved all-in, and Gilligan called.  Gilligan couldn’t find the outs to complete the straight on either the turn or river and he was eliminated in 3rd place.

Going into heads-up play, David Shallow once again had a large chip lead over Chaz Chattha, 7,280,000 to 2,860,000.

Shallow was very aggressive heads-up, a style for which he is known, but that style came back to bite him less than 20 minutes into the one-on-one match.  Looking at just K-3 suited, he watched Chattha raise pre-flop to 140,000 and decided to three-bet it to 360,000.  Chattha took it up to 600,000, Shallow moved all-in, and Chattha quickly called.  And no wonder.  Holding pocket Queens, Chattha was a big favorite over most hands.  Shallow hit a 3 on the flop, but nothing else materialized and all of a sudden, Chattha had a slight chip lead, 5,180,000 to 4,960,000.

Just after that, Shallow regained a small edge, taking a couple small pots, and that was all he needed when the big hand was dealt.  With Q-Q, Shallow raised pre-flop to 135,000, only to see Chattha re-raise him to 380,000 with 9-9.  Shallow raised him back, making it 825,000 and Chattha moved all-in.  Shallow made the call.  The flop ran out K-K-2, pretty much as bad as it could get for Chattha without a Queen showing up.  The turn 8 and river 3 sewed it up for David Shallow, who won WPT Ireland along with the €222,280 first prize and a $25,000 seat in the season-ending WPT World Championship.

World Poker Tour Ireland – Final Table Results

1.    David Shallow – €222,280 ($289,031)
2.    Charles Chattha – €111,130 ($144,502)
3.    Ronan Gilligan – €74,090 ($96,339)
4.    Patrik Vestlin – €52,600 ($68,396)
5.    Steve Watts – €39,270 ($51,063)

The World Poker Tour (WPT) kicks off 2012 tomorrow with WPT Ireland.  Hosted by the Citywest Hotel, Conference, Leisure, and Gold Resort in Dublin, the €2,500 Main Event is scheduled to run four days, ending with the televised final table on Sunday, January 8th.  This is the first time the World Poker Tour will make a stop in the Emerald Isle.

Running concurrently with the Main Event will be the Irish Poker Championship as well as a handful of lower buy-in, single day tournaments.  The Irish Poker Championship (€675 + €75) will begin on Friday and will run through the weekend.  Satellites are currently running for WPT Ireland, while the Irish Poker Championship will have its own qualifiers right up until start time.

The European Poker Tour’s (EPT) most popular stop, the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure (PCA), also begins Thursday with its most expensive tournament, the $98,500 + $1,500 Super High Roller 8-Max Re-entry event, scheduled as a three day televised event.  The $10,000 + $300 Main Event will see its first hand dealt on Saturday, January 7th with the first of two Day 1 flights and will conclude next Friday, January 13th (Friday the 13th – expect lots of bad beats?) with the televised and webcast final table.

There are over 30 additional open events on the docket at the PCA over the next week and half, including what is to some the most anticipated tournament, the PCA Battleship Main Event.  This event is a heads-up tournament played online, but in person, with competitors playing on laptops right in front of each other.  The monitors of the laptops are placed back to back with the players facing each other, reminiscent of what it looks like when people play each other in the popular “Battleship” family game.

As usual, the PCA will take place at the incredible Atlantis Resort and Casino on Paradise Island in the Bahamas.

The World Series of Poker (WSOP) Circuit stop at the Bicycle Casino in Bell Gardens, California is actually already underway, as tournaments started up on New Year’s Day.  All told, there will be a dozen official WSOP Circuit ring events at The Bike through January 12th with many more smaller buy-in non-ring events on the schedule, as well.  The $1,600 Main Event is the tenth of the twelve ring events, starting on Tuesday, January 10th and featuring three days of play (with two Day 1 flights).  The Main Event is a re-entry tournament, as players eliminated on Day 1A can jump back in on Day 1B, provided they pony up another buy-in.

He's also making sure all are considered legitimate main events equal to those on American soil.

Today Heller answers seven questions covering the WPT’s European expansion, live poker post-Black Friday and how the American tour will fare against Europe’s own EPT.

1. PokerListings.com: Three years ago, the WPT hosted two tournaments in Europe. Now WPT Season X hosts eleven stops in Europe plus WPT Marrakech.

Has the WPT recognized Europe to be the market of the future?

Steve Heller: World Poker Tour is committed to continuing to expand and extend its global reach.

Not only does WPT Season X feature new European events in exciting places like Malta, Ireland and Prague, we’ve invested heavily in bringing WPT Tour stops in Europe on par with those we host in the U.S.

Our committed expansion means that all European WPT Main Events are scheduled to feature Live Streaming, Live Updates and, for the first time, European Royal Flush Girls.

What’s more, we will display the new WPT Champions Cup—which features engraved plaques with the name of every WPT champion, together with the event they won—at every Tour event thoughout Europe and around the world.

Europe now gets to enjoy the Royal Flush Girls too.

 

WPT now also hosts National Series events in Europe, making the WPT even more accessible through these lower buy-in events. Our goal is to deliver the WPT experience to as many fans as possible.

2. Is the EPT the biggest rival of the WPT in Europe? Is the accumulation of European tournaments a direct attack on the EPT?

WPT’s European expansion is not a direct response or attack on the EPT. We are simply reacting to the incredible demand for the WPT in Europe.

Fans and players around the world love our show and events. As a global brand, we want to make sure everyone gets to experience WPT wherever they are.

3. Despite Black Friday and the turmoil around Full Tilt Poker, the WPT has managed to grow consistently lately. How do you account for that?

In the last two years we feel we’ve made great progress in improving the experience for both the players and the viewing audience.

We’ve added great excitement to the events via talent appearing at the events, Live Streaming every final table, having our Live Updates team at every event, the presence of the Royal Flush Girls and the WPT Champions Cup at every event, as well as more of a WPT presence at the events and a stronger marketing push for the events.

On the TV show, starting with Season IX we changed the way poker TV is produced and viewed, in a way not done since Season I of World Poker Tour.

By adding Kimberly Lansing as the Anchor, bringing on some controversy and analysis with Tony Dunst and the Raw Deal, adding some glamour via the Royal Flush Girls and increasing the context and story around these great events.

All of this has added to the drama and entertainment value of the program. Our efforts have borne out in the 30% year-over-year growth of our ratings in the US, where we’ve become the number one rated show on our network.

Introducing Kimberly Lansing as anchor is one way the WPT has upped its game.

 

We believe these efforts have been recognized by the poker community and have led to a reinvigoration of the brand and of the WPT playing and viewing experience, which has led to more people playing, more casinos wanting, more media covering and more people watching WPT.

4. In the last years, the EPT has been the poker tour with the highest prize pools and biggest fields. Can the WPT reach the same levels or even beat the EPT? How?

We don’t see it as a competition. There is tremendous demand for major poker events around the world and room for more than one company to meet that demand.

We offer many of the world’s most prestigious tournament at some of the world’s most storied venues and those event draw player fields of quantity and quality that set the world standard.

We’ll continue working to make our events the best they can be, expand our Tour and help to grow the poker industry worldwide.

5. Is the merger between Party and bwin a main factor for the consolidation of the WPT’s position on the European market?

While receiving support from bwin.party, WPT operates as an independent entity that has a variety of sponsors and supporters throughout the online poker community.

For at least a couple of years now a concerted effort has been made to tap into the opportunity for expansion into Europe.

6. What are the plans for the WPT in the future? Will there be more/less/different events?

We expect poker to continue to grow—and so will WPT.

We are extremely excited about our European expansion during Season IX and X and the success of our newer events.

We’ll continue to build on that momentum and the poker community can expect to see more events in more markets.

7. Where do you see the future of online/live poker? Is Asia the coming market, or will poker be regulated soon in Europe or the US, and how would that affect online poker?

We see live poker continuing to grow in current and expansion markets.

As more people are introduced to the fun and excitement of poker, more will seek out the live experience, which simply cannot be replicated online.

We’re completely committed to our role of continuing to bring poker to more people’s lives and improving the way they experience WPT, regardless of the method they use to experience it.

Today in a special all-video 3-Bet we hit up a new Christmas flipbook from former Royal Flush Girl Melanie Iglesias, another hot tip from Vanessa Rousso and a look back at a beloved SNG savant.

1) Melanie Iglesias Xmas T&A FlipBook

Fans of former WPT Royal Flush Girl Melanie Iglesias pretty much wait by the refresh button for a new video flipbook to be posted on her fanpage.

The schtick:

A quick-cut video of her peeling off a variety of themed outfits to get to her underwear.

Yep. That's it.

Seems like the model is working. Her first three flipbooks - besides being poker forum sensations - have around six million views on YouTube so far.

A brand new flipbook has arrived just in time for Christmas. And she's brought friends this time.

Check it out below:

Iglesias and three other WPT Royal Flush Girls walked off the job at the LA Poker Classic in August for still unspecified reasons.

Some say it was because they were asked to show up on time. Others say creative differences.

Let’s hope all can find comfort and peace this holiday season in the putting on and taking off of underwear.

Follow Iglesias on Twitter here. See the rest of her flipbooks here.

2) Vanessa Rousso's Hot Tips

Team PokerStars pro Vanessa Rousso has been a Go Daddy girl for about three years already and, besides a strange hidden talent video, she’s also made a "Hot Tip" series fto help out poker beginners.

Four videos have gone up so far including How to Gauge Your Stack, How to Manage Your Chips (Winning=Survival), Leveraging Your Position and Deciphering Reads and Tells.

Her latest covers Maximizing Information From Your Opponents.

Haters can say what they want about her playing style, but $3.4 million in career earnings say she's doing just fine.

That number could have been even higher if it weren't for a horrific beat at the hands of Joe Tehan's 42o on the bubble of the $20k Epic Mix Max main event last week.

No poker tips can save you there.

Check out here latest tip below:

More on her Go Daddy page here.

3) Remembering RaiNKhaN

Known for his Monkey dance and obnoxious behavior at the 2007 WSOP Main Event, Hevad “RainNKhaN” Khan first came to prominence when he was accused of cheating on PokerStars because an opponent thought he was a bot.

A 26-SnG playing, multi-tabling robot.

Back in the day (that day being 2007), apparently no one thought that was possible.

RaiNKhaN, however, proved them wrong with this poorly lit video of him actually doing it. And on one monitor no less

Filmed in his dorm room at SUNY Albany and set to the tune of Eye of the Tiger, there is so much win in this video it should be revisited daily.

To wit:

“I’ll tell you right now, for about four months, I’ve was doing that shit, like, 6 to 7 sessions a day.

“AND I WAS BANKING. The only problem is that I have a spending problem, I cash out, I buy shit, you know, I gamble in the casino.

“That’s all done with now. I’m doing this straight up and I’mma keep making money off this.

"Cuz I’m good son."

RaiNKhaN, you are missed:

Today we hit up the Ace High poker movie mashup, a less-than-glowing profile of former PokerListings blogger Matt "ADZ124” Marafioti and a sub coming in as WPT Hostess.

1) Ace High Movie Mashup

This has been kicking around since November but worth mentioning again.

It’s a fake trailer for a film about a college kid who gets in over his head in the high-stakes poker world.

Clips are taken from existing movies that work with the premise and mashed together to give a sense of how it could look.

According to the YouTube poster:

“The guys who created this are buddies of mine. they are checking for general interest for such a movie.

“if they gonna get enough clicks they have some investors etc. thats the deal as far as I know! therefore I think they will be able to start production of the begin 2012.”

The script itself is reportedly based on the real-life experiences of “several online gamers” and one “special one” in particular.

Click and watch to increase its chances of being made.

2) ADZ124 Ripped in Toronto Life

We Facebooked this a couple of days ago but Toronto Life magazine recently published a long feature on former PokerListings blogger Matt “ADZ124” Marafioti.

Toronto Life author not a fan of smug.

 

Doesn’t take much reading between the lines to see the author really disliked him, but there is some objectivity during some of Marafioti’s more palatable moments.

Can't say Marafioti made it easy for him either.

Some highlight reel quotes:

“At these 15-minute breaks, which occurred every hour-and-a-half, Marafioti collected himself in his room at the Palms, taking hits off a large bong.” “They fear me,” he said later. “When Phil sat next to me, he was like, ‘Who is this Internet wizard?’” “When I asked him what he liked doing when he wasn’t playing poker, he said, ‘Shopping, eating at good restaurants, fucking bitches.’” “His 25-year-old girlfriend, Lauren Kling, a professional player from Florida, calls him the best river player she’s ever seen.” “In the first phone conversation we ever had, he informed me within five minutes that he spends a minimum of $200,000 a year on food."

Full feature here.

Marafioti did crack the Top 10 on the Global Poker Index this week, so he has that going for him. Plus all those bitches.

Cue Chainsaw tweets. Photo: Michael Polizzi

 

3) Marianela Pereyra Subs in for Kimberley Lansing

The World Poker Tour announced that Marianela Pereyra will step in as the new WPT Anchor while Kimberly Lansing is on maternity leave.

The host of NBC’s Poker After Dark in 2008, Marianela won the WPT production team over in her interview with her "endless enthusiasm, quick wit and extensive poker knowledge."

A psychology grad from the University of Maryland, a dancer and former VJ at FUSE TV, she's also covered events for ESPN, CBS Sports and FOX Sports.

And she's been on ER.

Let the flirty Allen Kessler tweets begin.

Bonus: Phil Hellmuth Boring Golden State Warrior David Lee

If you enjoy pictures of NBA stars looking annoyed by Phil Hellmuth at a casino at 4 am, you'll like this pic from Deadspin.