ESPN has announced its new gambling TV show, "Tilt". As previously mentioned here, Brian Koppelman of Rounders was developing a series with ESPN. It was originally pitched to be about college gambling, but the series that made it is about the World Series of Poker!

The dramatic series will air on Thursday nights beginning Jan. 13 (9 ET), with one-hour shows that will explore the drama of high-stakes gambling, as well as the action away from the table where greed and revenge fuel conflict, power plays and deal making.

Link

I'm quoted in a fairly funny article about Vegas - and Casino War! - in The Weekly Standard.

"...[it] rivals the worst games with none of the 'benefits.'" (And still he admits that each time he's in Vegas, he plays a few hands of War, "because it's funny.")

Link

The growth of poker means the growth of poker-based businesses. Pokercoaching.com launched a press release today, announcing their pay-hourly coaching service for aspiring pros. Link

I think I'm going to launch a competing service -- we provide the same service, only it's more sincere and it's free. It's called makefriendswithagoodpokerplayerandgethisorheradvice.com :)

Hot on the heels of my post on the Amateur Poker League, there's a new group offering free poker tournaments in Austin called The Hold'em House.

Starting next Wednesday and Thursday, they'll be holding weekly tournaments at Buffalo Wild Wings, and the Coppertank, respectively. No specifics on what the prizes are. Link (thanks, AJK!)

It may sound like the title of a Saturday Night Live skit, but it actually happened.

"Golden Girls" star Bea Arthur, now 81, caused quite a ruckus at Boston's Logan International Airport this week when she tried to board a plane with a pocketknife in her purse, says IMDb.com. After security discovered the knife, the Emmy-winning actress yelled, "The terrorists put it there," and threw it at a security agent, a passenger said.

Link (thanks, Jonno!)

If you're wondering what Bea Arthur has to do with poker, you've obviously never played poker in my home game before :)

There's a fairly new online poker comic / blog called "Returning Champions". The comics are all about poker. They are a little hit and miss, and have an inexplicable lack of punctuation at times, but the comics from August 11 and August 25 made me laugh out loud. Link

America West is offering a fairly unpublicized but pretty cool promotion for flights to Vegas from around the US.

The Wheel of Savings is a 10% to 50% Internet-only discount applied to America West's low Coach or First Class fares to Las Vegas. Build your itinerary at americawest.com. When you click the Purchase button on the Purchase page, America West will spin the Wheel of Savings. The discount of 10% to 50% will be randomly determined and applied to your fare. Your credit card will be charged the discounted amount.

Despite being co-marketed with rates at the Venetian, the promotion does not require a Venetian hotel stay. Travel must be booked by August 20 and completed by September 26, 2004. The promotion is enabled by entering "VENETIAN" into the "eCertificate" field on the air reservation page of americawest.com. Link

Odds of winning are as follows:

50% off - 1 in 25
25% off - 3 in 25
10% off - 21 in 25

Which gives fares an E.V. savings of 13.4%, but it's still a fun promotion.

I'm fairly excited about the Amateur Poker League, which appears to be the first legitimate, well-organized attempt to bring legal, free poker in a national US league format.

The APL started in Kansas and seems to be in rapid expansion. I got a message from an APL rep saying that they are bringing the APL to Austin in the coming weeks and are looking for tournament organizers.

The APL is most active in Kansas and a couple other midwest states, but really appears to be seriously expanding nationwide.

If you've played in an APL event, or know any futher information about it, please let me know.

Link

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