For years, poker players only appeared on TV if it was related to the actual game of poker.  However, we’ve recently begun seeing poker players appear in a lot of mainstream television shows and movies.  Daniel Negreanu appearing in the movie “X-Men Origins: Wolverine”, Annie Duke being one of the finalist on “The Apprentice”, and Tiffany Michelle and Maria Ho appearing on the hit CBS reality series “Amazing Race” are just a couple of the latest examples.  Popular poker pro Erik Seidel added his name to the list this week.

Seidel made his mainstream television debut on the HBO comedy “Curb Your Enthusiasm” which revolves around the fictional life of Seinfeld producer Larry David.  The episode that Seidel appeared in was entitled “Officer Krupke”, and Erik is prominently featured in a shot where Larry and his onscreen wife Cheryl Hines are talking at a restaurant about a Seinfeld reunion.

Many have wondered how/why Seidel was on Curb Your Enthusiasm.  The 8-time WSOP gold bracelet winner explained that he is a huge fan of the show, and had been looking for a way to appear on it.  So basically, being able to appear on Curb Your Enthusiasm was a dream for Seidel since he is such a big fan of the show.

It has also been rumored that another poker pro might be making an appearance on a HBO show.  Daniel Negreanu will appear in an episode of the hit show “Entourage” along with fellow poker player/actor Ben Affleck.  Aside from his role as a poker player in X-Men Origins: Wolverine, Negreanu also recently appeared in the “Body Issue” of ESPN: The Magazine.  Being on HBO’s “Entourage”, which is a drama based on the fictional life of a movie star and his friends, would only further cement Negreanu’s mainstream status.

His name is Luke Schwartz and he is a 25 year-old player from London, England.  Schwartz is definitely a solid online poker player, since he earned over $1 million last year.  But big winnings aside, Schwartz is probably better known for his tirades against fellow players.  And these aren’t just any players that Luke Schwartz is targeting either since he’s going after online stars such as Tom “durrrr” Dwan, Patrik Antonius, Di “urindanger” Dang, and David Benyamine.

Dwan has received the brunt of Schwartz’s rants as Luke has labeled him ‘gay’ and ‘geeky’.  Schwartz dove deeper into his disdain for Dwan by saying in an interview, “I just can’t stand him.  I hate watching him on that new High Stakes Poker and seeing him dominate so badly.  He’s such a cringe-worthy guy.  It’s all too geeky.  I just can’t handle it.”

Luke Schwartz has also declared that David Benyamine is ‘atrocious’, Patrik Antonius is a ‘golden trollocks’, and Di Dang is supposedly a ‘nitty bum hunter’.  Schwartz antics haven’t been confined to the Internet either since he was recently banned from this year’s European Poker Tour season after throwing a fit over a sandwich.  At just 25 years old, we can certainly expect to hear more antics from Schwartz in the future.

Here is an update from one of our Australia correspondants. As you know, CarbonPoker was proud to send some online poker winners to the PokerNews Cup – Australia. Here’s what Shane in Melbourne has to report on the action from Day 1A:

With the Carbon team decimated by 2 late withdrawals there was only one runner on day 1A, impser.

After watching a fair chunk of his play today I have renamed impser “The stone faced Estonian”, he is a rock at the table giving nothing away in his demeanor. Hour after hour after hour he can’t be broken.

Through to the dinner break impser was just under the average stack, still well alive but not moving to far ahead.

With the blinds at 200/400 impser limps in from middle position only to have a know blind thief raise it up to 4k. Without blinking impser plonks down a stack of his biggest chips, roughly 20k. The original raiser went into the tank thinking long and hard before folding and showing pocket 8’s. The stoney faced impser didn’t show his hand, never giving away more information than he has to.

After hitting a low of 13k impser had a late rush in the last session of play and has survived day one and with 65k in chips he is just under the average of 69k with 49 players remaining in flight 1A.

So with a perfect 100% record from day 1A expectations will be high when flight 1B kicks off tomorrow!

We’ll be sure to keep you posted on all of impser’s action throughout the PokerNews Cup. GL, man.

The World Series Of Poker Europe isn’t all about tight hands and pressure betting, it turns out. Paul Zimbler proved that Thursday (or should I say on Tuesday through Thursday) by successfully breaking the world record for the longest recorded continuous poker session at London’s Casino at the Empire.

Zimbler played 183 heads up sessions over more than 74 hours, winning a remarkable 102 of those and altogether raising an impressive £35,000 for the Make-A-Wish Foundation.

Some of that total was donated by the substantial lineup of pros Zimbler faced, including Doyle Bruson, Annette Obrestad, Phil Hellmuth, and Mike Matusow.  Matusow had by far the toughest match, playing Zimbler in the 74^th hour and through the threshold of the record, which now stands at 74 hours, 20 minutes and 21 seconds.

Matusow employed a mock-him-so-he-keeps-playing strategy, which—combined with the large crowd of people hollering support at him—might have been the main reason Zimbler was in visibly rough shape by the time he broke the record.  Or maybe it was that he hadn’t slept in three calendar days.

It should go without saying that you should not attempt a record like this yourself.  That said, if you were thinking about it, let that dream go.  I get that you have played some epic sessions, but Zimbler was playing in a substantially more draining environment than your den, and was wearing clothes, not a robe.  And let’s not forget he was doing it for the children.

Good work, Paul.  Now get some sleep.

The Caesars Cup is essentially a carbon copy of the PGA’s Ryder Cup, which has successfully attracted a substantial fanbase to golf’s fifty billionth event of the year. Young, popular pros have been conscripted to 8-player teams captained by Annette Obrestad (Europeans) and Daniel Negreanu (Americas).

The awkwardly-named teams will play through a variety of different permutations of doubles No-Limit Hold’em, with a bit of heads up thrown into the mix to guarantee lively action.  The format is—not unlike the Ryder Cup—somewhat hard to grasp at first, but the appeal is simple: it’s us vs them (you decide which team “us” is for you).

Here’s why I love the idea: poker, like golf, tennis, and other individual sports, is limited to the extent to which it can tell a compelling story by the success of the major names that are playing in that particular event.  In other words, a classic case of the No Tiger Woods, No Interest Syndrome.  Just ask any of the qualifiers for the final table at the Borgata Poker Open (you’ll need to look them up), also going on this week.

By assembling teams made up of well-known pros around inclusive international labels, the event cashes in on fans who have been trained on years of cheering for their favorite sports team, and who will love to see the players work together to win bragging rights, and play entertaining poker.  And if the first Ryder Cup was any indication, they’ll be playing hard.

In case you’re interested, the players involved include heavy hitters Phil Ivey, Phil Hellmuth, Jennifer Harmer, Doyle Brunson (Americas), Peter Eastgate, Patrick Antonius, and Dario Minieri (Europeans).

ESPN will be broadcasting all the action as part of their World Series of Poker Europe coverage.  Be sure to tune in to watch history unfold, and because you know you want to.

In the midst of all the news we hear and read about flashy international tournaments, sometimes-hot sometimes-not television coverage, and the drama of celebrity players deciding which hat to wear to a particular event, it can easy to forget the appeal of poker itself.

So let’s celebrate what we love about the core of it all: simple card games made infinitely complex by the nuances of the human beings playing them.  From the rush of that rocket-ship-taking-off-inside-you feeling of catching a huge river, to the doubt of never knowing what your opponent has, to the dry heave sensation that comes with getting caught on a bluff, the physical and emotional thrill of poker is what keeps us coming back.  Right?

Check out the video below for an example of poker at its best.  Two players at the top of their game playing beyond the cards–ignoring what the strategy books would say, leaving statistics behind, and bluffing like a former president–indeed, playing off each other.  This is what it’s all about, right?  Go get ‘em Phil Ivey.  Thanks for the reminder.

After bringing the competition at the World Series of Poker to its knees, Moon is poised to sit down and use his monster chip lead to win the thing outright in November.  And while he is the least experienced player at the table, you just can’t argue with the guy holding 30% of the chips.

But that’s just the beginning: in the four months since the much-ballyhooed Final Table was determined, Moon has had every opportunity to sign a major promotional deal with the online poker site of his choosing. Instead Moon has remained a lone gunner, stating that “there is not enough money in the world for someone to tell me what to do.”

Well, we here at CarbonPoker are not about to take no for an answer.  You hear that, Darvin?  We like you just the way you are.  With that in mind here are the

Top Five Reasons You Should Join CarbonPoker, Darvin Moon

5. Holy!  We Like the Saints Tooooo!

We just love that you wear a Saints hat while you play. If you join us we’ll put out a hit on Drew Brees and have you starting in no less than a year.

4. CarbonPoker is Elderly-Friendly

Everyone is talking about how you learned to play from your grandfather.  Well, sign on with us and we’ll open the internet’s first 80+ poker room, featuring on-screen reminders of what the hands are, 0.01 cent Sit and Gos, and weekly online garage sales.  It’ll be the bees knees.

3. Goatees = Nice

If you become Carbon’s number one man, we’ll institute a mandatory goatee policy for all employees.  But none will be as bushy as yours, Darvin, promise.

2.  Logging is For Winners

We’re very impressed that you own a logging company, Darvin.  We hate forests.  We’ll clear-cut the Eastern seaboard if that would get you on board.

1. We Like Being Told What to Do

Don’t worry about us telling you what to do, Darvin.  With your enticing combination of looks, personality, and enthusiasm, we won’t need a marketing strategy with you on our side.  Just undo that lower button on your golf shirt and accept the keys to the CarbonPoker vault.

The buy-in for the heads-up match will be $500,000 with the blinds set at $500/$1,000; it will last for 500 hands.  Matchroom Sport, which is holding the contest, has said that neither player can leave the game until one person has busted out or the 500 hands are up.

George is extremely excited about the heads-up contest and said, “I’m buzzing!  What could be sweeter than playing in the world’s biggest heads-up match against durrrr?  I’m stepping up to the plate and putting my money where my mouth is, and it will be an honor to represent my country against the best the U.S. has to offer.”

Sammy “Any Two” George has gained quite a bit of notoriety in the poker world for his philosophy that any two cards can win a poker hand before the flop.  George is mostly known as a cash game player, but he has also appeared on a few noted poker programs including the Million Dollar Challenge where he finished in 6th place which earned him $20,000.

As for Dwan, this will be the second million dollar challenge he is involved with since he is also playing one online.  His online million dollar challenge is against Patrik Antonius and it has gone on since February.  So far, 20,647 hands have been played and 50,000 hands will need to be logged before the contest concludes.  Dwan is also set to accept two more online challenges in the future from players to be determined.

Lou Diamond Phillips

Phillips has been out of the limelight for a while as it’s been years since he starred in La Bamba, but the poker community definitely took notice of him after he went farther than any other non-poker celebrity in the Main Event.  Some thought Lou even had a chance to win it all before he finally busted out in 186th place.  For his excellent showing at the WSOP, Phillips received $36,600 which is more than almost 6,000 other players can say they received.

Jordan Farmar

Since Farmar had never even played Texas Hold’em before the 2009 Main Event, nobody expected the Los Angeles Lakers player to do anything.  However, Farmar defied the odds and made it through almost 3 days of play before being knocked out of the tournament.  This is quite an accomplishment for a true poker rookie! He must have had a few games with Lakers owner Jerry Buss.

Shane Warne

This former international cricket star showed that he has a presence on the poker table too as he was also able to make it to the third day of play in the Main Event.  Unfortunately, Warne’s flush was topped by a full house which is truly a bad beat for someone who was looking to double up on a great hand.

Jason Alexander

Alexander used his experience from TV shows like NBC’s Heads-up Championship to perform the same feat as Warne and Farmar in making it to the third day of the WSOP.  Jason, who is best known for his days as George Constanza on “Seinfeld”, will no doubt be back next year looking for a strong tournament run.

It was a year of multiple-bracelet winners, some dominant performances and packed card rooms at the RIO – and all over the strip.

As usual, we saw a lot of first-time winners and more established online players rising above the brick and mortar crowd to get some of the coveted jewelry.

CarbonPoker player, JP Kelly took down the $1,500 Pot Limit Hold’em event in my favorite result of the 09 WSOP.

Below is the full list of events and winners from this year’s action: