According to Laak, breaking a world record was always a dream of his and he had even trained for the event by adhering to a strict diet and exercising regularly. During the marathon session, Phil was allowed a five minute break for every hour that he played poker and saved up enough to take a 30 minute nap. Specially cooked meals were brought out to him at pre-determined intervals by his nutritionist.

Laak, who is the boyfriend of actress and professional poker player Jennifer Tilly alleges that he did not take any stimulants during the competition and even pulled off a $6,766 win. The challenge was followed by 130,000 viewers from all over the world via webcam feed. During the session, Phil encouraged visitors to donate to Camp Sunshine, a center for children with life-threatening illnesses, and vowed to donate half of his session winnings as well.

Motives

The victim was found with her necked snapped and beaten to death with a tennis racket that was found inside the room. Her father says that he had given her $1,000 in cash to buy a laptop and others claimed that she had won $1,700 more playing Texas Hold’em that night, none of which were found on her bludgeoned body. This leads some to believe that the motive was robbery but it’s more likely that taking the money was an after-thought due to the violent and unplanned way the attack was carried out.

Evidence

The early evidence already weighs hard on Van Der Sloot. The hotel surveillance video would probably be enough for a conviction in any country but there is oh so much more! Aside from the fact that he fled the country with the girl in his already paid for room and dyed his hair red, there are reports that bloodied clothes were found in his possessions when he was captured in Chile. We haven’t heard from Peruvian authorities on DNA test results yet but this seems to be just a formality at this point.

Consequences

Now that Joran has had a few days to enjoy one of Peru’s notoriously violent prisons, he’s probably re-thinking committing murder in the third world country where he faces 35 years of extremely hard time. Security for Joran’s personal safety has been beefed up due to allegations that he is now in a suicidal state. The average murder trial in Peru takes about 2 years from start to finish but with the mountain of evidence against him, Joran might as well get comfortable as this isn’t going to end well. Once sentenced he will be thrust into a world where prisoners have almost complete control inside the prison, carry weapons and very often rape other inmates, especially ones who kill or molest young girls.

The victim was 21 year old Stephany Tatiana Flores Ramirez who according to Peruvian news outlets was also a poker player. She was found wrapped in a blanket on the floor with blood spattered all over the walls. Van Der Sloot was seen on video footage leaving the casino with the woman around 5:45 am and a hotel employee believes to have seen the two enter Van Der Sloot’s room at a Miraflores hotel. Peruvian officials say he left the country on Monday and fled to Chile by land, some believe he is headed to Argentina.

His lawyer cautioned to not jump to conclusions as Van Der Sloot has be “wrongly accused of murder in the past” but stated that he has not spoken with his client since the woman was found dead. It’s very likely that Joran won’t come out so lucky this time and will no longer enjoy his life of poker, travel and morbid celebrity as he is facing hard time in a Peruvian prison, which are notoriously violent and decrepit.

As the news of the murder spread, the online poker community began to speculate if the Dutch man was more than a casual poker player and possibly even living off of his winnings. Some believe that he is player “AANOTILTKK” on Party Poker who won a $13,000 prize last year. He has also been linked to a Titan Poker account “Joran888″. An international search warrant is out for his arrest and he is currently being pursued by Interpol…GG Joran.

According to Google, PartyPoker.com recieved around 35,000,000 unique visitors and 280,000,000 page views for the month of April. CNN on the other hand received a million fewer unique visitors but boasted a mammoth 1.3 billion page views.

Even so, the thought that an online gambling site that does not even service the U.S. market attracted more unique visitors than an international news organization like Cnn.com makes these numbers seem highly dubious. Furthermore, no other gambling site even comes close to making the cut in the 1,000 site list. Poker Stars, Full Tilt and Absolute Poker are nowhere to be found.

This could come as good news though, if more people are visiting PartyPoker.com than reading news at the New York Times we should be seeing a lot more fish in the near future.

This isn’t the first time a poker site has been advertised in a rap video, Poker Stars chips and cards found their way into Rihanna’s video “Hard”. In the popular video, Rihanna is seen playing poker in a military camp somewhere in the Middle East. This could be the signal of a growing trend of new marketing strategies by online poker sites to appeal to a younger, more hip demographic.

Over the last few years horror stories of poker accounts being hacked have become all too frequent on poker message boards. Many times the poker hacker doesn’t even try to chip dump or cashout the money, they simply lose it for the fun of it. One player explained how he lost more than $38,000 from his account because someone logged in and simply drained his money off at the tables. A well known internet pro by the name of “Pearljammer” had his girlfriend’s account hacked into and was cleaned out of $30,000. The lesson here is that spending a small amount of time safeguarding your poker account could save you a ton of grief, misery and cash. Do we have your attention by this point? Good!

WEAK PASSWORD THREAT

One of the worst things you can do is use the same password for all of your accounts and/or use a really easy to guess password. I helped out a friend who thought that someone had been using his wireless internet, even though he secured it with a password. I asked him what his password was, and he said “It’s the word password” which is probably the dumbest one I’ve ever heard of. Using something that’s easy to guess and using it across multiple accounts practically guarantees a disaster.

Another recent ploy poker hackers have used is taking control of player’s AIM instant messaging accounts and hitting up their friends for money. Recently a friend of mine who had published a popular YouTube.com clip was duped into giving out some personal info by someone he thought was a fan. The hacker was then able to answer the security questions asked by AIM when you lose your password and took control of the account. He then ran down his list of contacts (mostly poker players) telling everyone he was “desperate” for some quick cash, luckily no one sent him anything.

KEYLOGGER THREATS

Sometimes, you can come up with a strong password but still be hacked through whats called a keylogging program. What these programs do is install themselves on your computer (similar to how a virus works) and remember every keystroke and website you visit. The program then transmits that data back to the person that programmed it, who then has your login and password for whatever sites you frequently access. If that’s a poker site, you’re account is in serious jeopardy. If it’s your email account that gets hacked, it can actually be an even worse possibility. Many times poker account information can be retrieved though a “Lost Password” link that sends your password to your email address. If the hacker gets into your email account, he could conceivably get to every online account you have linked to that email account.

The scenario above is probably the worst case that you can face and it doesn’t happen frequently but it’s something you should be aware of. Other hacks might just make your computer run a lot slower, or in the case of my Uncle have random porn pop up when using the computer at random times. Either way, it sucks when your computer is slow and laggy or does things you fully intend it not to do.

VIRUS THREATS

There are a couple of really dumb things that people do that get them in trouble. In the case of my Uncle and the unsolicited porn that pops up, he often enjoys clicking on links from spam he receives in his inbox. Obviously, this is a HUGE no-no in the world of email. Those links often send you to sites that attack your computer and auto-install software without your permission. Other ways outside of visiting these attacking websites that you can be breached is through the download and installation of programs from unknown sources. If you download music or programs through torrents (or something similar) you are in a high risk situation.

PROTECTING YOUR COMPUTER FROM POKER HACKS

Fortunately there is a multi-faceted defense strategy you can take that will practically lock down your computer from attacks. These preventative measures include password protection programs, hardware firewalls, software firewalls and virus scanners as well as PIN codes and RSA tokens for your poker accounts.

PINS

A PIN is a “Personal Identification Number” that is generated by the poker site just for you. Many sites such as Absolute Poker, UB.com, Full Tilt Poker and PokerStars offer this PIN service for free. On UB.com and Absolute Poker, this PIN is a five digit code that is set up through the cashier. Once you set it up, you’ll have your regular password then have to enter in a PIN through a mouse-click-only terminal that will pop up. This prevents keylogger programs from knowing what your PIN is since you never enter the numbers in with your keyboard. The PIN on Full Tilt Poker is a three card (as in cards from a deck) system while PokerStars employs a randomly generated six digit system. In the cases of all the sites, the PIN system is completely free at no cost to set up and use.

RSA TOKENS

Perhaps the most secure option that you can employ is what is called an RSA Token. This device is about the size of a small keychain and is only available currently from Full Tilt Poker and PokerStars. It is not free and depending on the site will cost you Full Tilt Points or FPPs respectively. One of these devices will cost you approximately $20-$25 depending on your VIP level but the protection can be worth a lot more. What an RSA Token does that makes it so secure is that it allows your password to randomly change every 30 minutes.

The token has a chip inside that is synchronized with the server on your account. Every 30 minutes that password changes, so you first log in, then use your PIN code and then enter the RSA Token password. Because the password changes every 30 minutes on the server (and your token) it’s impossible for someone to get into your account without knowing your password and PIN AND having your assigned token in hand. Typically the turnaround time for ordering an RSA Token is about two weeks if you live in the United States.

PASSWORD PROTECTION

To address the problem with passwords, I would highly recommend a program I use called Roboform. There are other programs like it out there but this one works the best for me and I can say I’ve used it for a full year without any problems. It is a full password encryption system that allows you to save all your passwords to a highly secure database. You cannot access the database without the master password and the software will generate random passwords that are absolutely impossible to guess.

What this does is allow you to have a different random password (which will look something like “JqWvN43T”) for every account that you have (email, bank, website, poker site, whatever). The cost of Roboform is just $29.99 (Visit the www.roboform.com website) and if you have more than one computer you can buy additional licenses for just $9.95 and sync up your databases. This method secures your password and makes it impossible for keyloggers to have any effect on your computer, since the program will enter passwords through a copy and paste method (no keystrokes!).

SOFTWARE and FIREWALL PROTECTION

Other highly recommended programs include Windows Firewall, which is free for Windows Vista and Windows 7 users, as well as the Norton Internet Security suite. Using Norton AntiVirus or AVG Free is an absolute must (or other well known anti-virus program) if you download a lot of files on a regular basis or get emails within Microsoft Outlook. Using a hardware firewall which is built in with all modern routers is also a must. Do not simply plug your computer straight in to your cable or DSL modem as this is another recipe for disaster and “shows” your computer naked on the internet for people to hack straight into.

SIX STEP STRATEGY

So as an online poker player that uses your computer on the internet regularly, here is a step by step checklist of what we recommend you do to protect yourself and your accounts:
1. Buy and install a hardware firewall router if you don’t already have one
2. Buy and install Norton, AVG Free or other AntiVirus program
3. Make sure you use either Windows Firewall or Norton (or its equivalent) Firewall protection
4. Buy and install Roboform and change all of your passwords to the generated ones and get into the habit of using Roboform to log into your accounts
5. Go to your poker sites and immediately sign up to use a free PIN
6. If you have the spare points, buy an RSA token and install it when it arrives in the mail

If you take the steps above, you can rest assured at night that your poker accounts will be safe. You do not want to be one of the many people that have had their accounts hacked and frantically post how you lost all your money because you were careless. Taking the necessary steps isn’t an option in today’s internet universe, it quite simply is a must.

Michelle started by bringing up Republican Scott Brown’s surprise victory in Massachusetts calling the upset a “bad beat” for the President. At Cavuto’s prompts Michelle agreed that Obama was “doubling down” on failed and unpopular policies.

She then told Cavuto that she thought Obama was trying to tackle too much and should “step away from the table” and get his head back in the game. She also insisted that when other players are constantly “catching you weak” you can lose the respect of your peers.

At the end of the clip she speaks on Obama’s struggle to pass health care reform, and believes that if “something does pass” Americans won’t be happy with it and it will cost a lot of money. Check out the entire clip below and let us know what you think.

Can you give us a quick background on yourself?

I am 25 from New York, but have been traveling around the last few years since I graduated college and just play poker now.  I have been living in Breckenridge, Colorado for the last couple of winters, and summers I’ve traveled to places such as Hawaii, San Diego, LA, Vegas and back home to NY.

What is your game of choice and how many hours/hands do you play per week?

Holdem, and way too many hands, hoping to cut down next year.

How many tables do you play at a time?

Between 4 and 6, since I just play on a laptop it would be too crazy with any more than that.

Do you play professionally? What did you do before you went pro?

I guess you call it professionally because I haven’t had any other job in a while, don’t know exactly how you get pro status.

What is your computer setup like?

Laptop nothing special.

What do you like about playing on Absolute Poker?

The benefits and promotions at Absolute Poker are very good for VIP’s.

Do you use any poker software or watch training videos?

Never, I’ve just learned from my own losses and experiences.

What online player do you fear or respect the most?

Haha, I don’t think I can answer that since I’m a regular at the high stakes SNG tables, we have a lot of unspoken rivalries in those games

What was your biggest one day win and/or loss?

My swings are sickening since I am playing those big SNG’s all day. I have gone on many $10k swings in both directions. My biggest MTT cashes so far have been a couple around $12k to $13k and a few big package wins.

Are there any bad beats you’ve taken that stand out in your mind?

Yes, 100’s a day but every real poker player knows you cant talk about that.

What do you like to do besides playing poker?

I’m big into skiing and most sports, just trying to live the dream while poker is going good because everyone knows that can change in an instant and its back to the real world.

The difference between the old brand and the new goes well beyond the logo and tagline. The update also features a complete software overhaul. On top of the PC upgrades, a new Mac OS X compliant native software client was released for Apple users. One of the biggest new features includes the options to play some new poker games, including 7-Deuce Hold’em, new 4-Max Tables as well as ring games with antes.

POWER HOUR

UB.com will also to offer players their popular RAI$E loyalty rewards program and has promised easy access to excellent customer support and more ways to deposit real money funds with “the fastest cashouts around”. Announced on December 3rd, UB.com and Absolute Poker will share in a new “Power Hour” double rewards program. This new program will reward double UB and AP points for playing in ring games and tournaments. The promotion occurs Monday through Saturday between 1-4am ET and 1-4pm ET for a total of 6 “power hours” for double point accumulation.

The Power Hour double rewards system continues on Sundays between 1 and 4 am ET and ring game players get an extra hour on Sunday afternoons from 1-5pm ET. The extra points will automatically appear in player accounts. These points and the RAI$E system have five different levels. You can get exclusive access to freerolls, gain access to major live tournaments and buy killer swag sporting the new logo in the store. If you think cash is King, then you can always turn in your Ultimate Points into cold hard cash.

TOURNAMENT PROMOS

For tournament players, the UBOC tournament series returns this coming January with the UBOC4 with $4 million in guarantees paid out in tournaments over 12 days. The tournament series will feature two $1 million guaranteed tournaments and 18 total events including Hold’em, Omaha, HORSE, Heads-Up, Pot Limit, No Limit and other games. There will be extra contests for 2010 Aruba Poker Classic seats, freeroll entries and more. On January 24th the first of the two million dollar guarantees will kick off with the UBOC 8-Deepstack No Limit Hold’em 6-max tournament that has a $2,500+$100 buy-in. The finale to the UBOC will occur on January 31st with the $1,000+$50 UBOC 18-UBOC Championship that features 10k in starting chips.

For players with much more modest bankrolls, the Mini-UBOC will occur at the same time. The kicker with this tournament series is that it mimics the UBOC, but at only one-tenth the buy-in. There are a few wrinkles between the two as there is no Championship event on the 31st for the Mini-UBOC. Nonetheless, both tournament series offer a fantastic way for players to take a small buy-in and turn it into a modest fortune.

Tournament players will also enjoy the Step Tournaments that allow a player to climb the ladder starting at just ten cents. From there they can go all the way and win an entry into the illustrious World Poker Tour’s Five Diamond World Poker Classic at the Bellagio in Las Vegas.

LEADERBOARDS

Other promotions include the tournament leader boards which award cash bonuses to players that grind Sit & Gos and MTTs, The Donkament freeroll which is a $50,000 tournament that players can only buy-in with points, the bad beat jackpot which is typically in the hundreds of thousands of dollars and plenty more.

RAKEBACK AND SIGN UP BONUS

For new players that are curious about the new UB.com and all the great things that have this site the buzz of the internet poker industry, there’s perhaps the best promotion of all saved for them. For a limited time, UB.com is offering a 111% first time deposit bonus up to $1,100 in bonus dollars. Poker Bonus Dollars are converted based on your RAI$E level and the type of play. A complete breakdown of the lucrative bonus offer is outlined on the UB.com promotions page. Signing up through Absolute Incentives will also qualify you for a lifetime of 30% rakeback at the popular poker site.

If you haven’t already, sign-up for the 30% rakeback deal here at Absolute Incentives and check out the new UB.com and all the amazing promotions they have to offer.

11/8/09 – Isildur1 vs Tom “durrrr” Dwan – $500-$1000 No Limit Texas Hold’em

On the big blind playing heads-up against durrrr, Isildur1 was dealt QQ and faced a raise to $3,000.  As expected, Isildur1 3bet to $12,000 which was flatted by durrrr.

FLOP: Qc – 5d – 8d

The flop was golden for Isildur1 as he hit top set and bet $15,000 into a $24,000 pot.  Dwan made the call on the button to reveal the turn.

TURN: 9c

Once again Isildur1 cbet, this time to the tune of $36,400 into a pot of $54,000.  In an aggressive move, durrrr shoved his remaining $259,995 which was called rather quickly.  Once all the money had gone in, durrrr showed 52 of clubs for bottom pair and a flush draw.  With his top set, Isildur1 was an 82-18% favorite in a pot of more than a half-million dollars.

RIVER: 3h

The river blanked for durrrr, whose competitive and aggressive gambling nature worked against his fortunes.  Getting his money in good shipped a $573,991 pot over to Isildur1 who probably never loved pocket Queens more in his life.

11/10/09 – Isildur1 vs Tom “durrrr” Dwan – $500-$1000 No Limit Texas Hold’em

This time, it was Isildur1 with position on the button having been dealt J9 of clubs.  He made a raise to $3,000 which was 3bet by durrrr to $10,000 and subsequently 4bet to $17,000.  The preflop action didn’t end there with a rare 5bet to $39,800 from durrrr which was flatted by Isildur1.

FLOP: 8d – 7h – 3s

With the pot at $79,600 durrrr led out for $35,800 which was called by Isildur1 who had two over cards, a backdoor flush draw and an inside straight draw to a ten.

TURN: 9h

The turn came and connected tremendously with the board giving three to a straight plus two hearts for a potential flush draw.  Given the wetness of the board, durrrr shoved his remaining $163,195 into the $151,200 pot which was called.  Isildur1 showed his top pair plus gutshot draw while durrrr showed a massive lead in the hand with pocket Kings (80-20% lead).

RIVER: Tc

Talk about the mother of bad beats in terms of sheer dollar magnitude.  As a 80-20% underdog, Isildur1 managed to pry away a $477,590 pot from durrrr thanks to the river gutshot hitting.  It’s almost understandable why Isildur1 made the turn call given durrrr’s ultra-competitive nature as evidenced by the last hand we looked at.  In the end, it’s another half-million pot for our unknown hero.

11/22/09 – Isildur1 vs Phil Ivey – $500-$1000 No Limit Texas Hold’em

So you might have heard of this Phil Ivey guy who’s apparently a pretty good poker player and had himself a decent WSOP showing in 2009.  On this particular hand, Isildur1 was dealt QK of diamonds on the button and made his usual raise to $3,000.  Ivey 3bet to $9,000 which was flatted.

FLOP: Qs – 8s – 2c

Isildur1 had flopped top pair and had a King for an overcard.  Given the aggression in this game it was obvious that the fireworks were about to fly if Ivey had any piece of the flop.  Ivey led out for $14,000 into $18,000 and Isildur1 re-raised to $42,000 with his top pair.  Ivey then 3bet the flop to $126,000 and it was at that point that Isildur1 had enough and shoved in the rest of his $337,094.  Ivey was more than happy to oblige, as he had actually flopped decently here with two over cards, the nut flush draw and a backdoor straight draw (AK of spades).  With all the money in, the hand was nearly a coin-flip with Isildur1 ahead 53-47%.

TURN: Ac
RIVER: 6c

Ivey won the coin-flip and took in the massive pot.  We saw Isildur1 defy the odds before with the money in, but this time he couldn’t win in a near 50-50 situation.

11/09/09 – Isildur1 vs Tom “durrrr” Dwan – $500-$1000 No Limit Texas Hold’em

On the button, Isildur1 would make a raise with KT offsuit to $3,000 and get 3bet by durrrr to $10,000.  Without a huge hand, Isildur1 flatted the bet to see the flop.

FLOP: 5s – Kc – 9d

Always aggressive, durrrr led out for $15,400 into the $20,000 pot which was flatted by Isildur1 who held top pair.

TURN: Td

Leading out on the turn, durrrr bet $34,200 into $50,800 against his opponent.  Having turned two pair, Isildur1 responded by raising to $118,600 which durrrr came over the top of to the tune of $197,095 which was called.  Durrrr flipped over AK of diamonds for top pair plus the nut flush draw and a gutshot straight draw against Isildur’s two pair.  Once the money went in here, Isildur1 was actually a 73-27% favorite in the hand.

RIVER: 7d

As the saying goes, the river will giveth and the river will taketh.  This time it took from Isildur1 who felt the sting of a bad beat and saw a $375,663 pot be shoved over to Tom Dwan.