Poker Podcast “News and Notes”

Had a fairly mediocre showing in last night’s AIPS II: Electric Boogaloo tournament, finishing 40th out of 88 runners in the tourney hosted by the Ante Up! podcast. The game was Pot Limit Omaha Hi-Lo. Have to admit I had harbored hopes of doing better than that since I had somehow managed to make it all of the way to third in the same event last time around.

Couldn’t get things going last night, though, as I rarely saw a single ace in my hand during the first hour (never mind two at once). And when I did there was usually a 7, 8, or 9 sitting right beside it. By the time the blinds began to get uncomfortable, I was hopelessly stuck in first-gear and couldn’t figger a way to get that dumb little Full Tilt frog a-hopping.

Speaking of Ante Up!, there’s a hell of a lot happening on the poker podcast front these days. The Poker Road has finally launched, with Scott Huff and Haralobos Voulgaris’s new podcast, Big Poker Sundays, making its debut last week. You might recall Voulgaris’s particularly memorable appearance on the old Circuit from long ago, probably one of the funniest damn sequences I’ve ever heard on a poker podcast. The first episode is a good one, with the pair interviewing Nat Arem amid a discussion of the imbroglio over at Absolute Poker. They also spend some time discussing ESPN’s WSOP coverage. Referring to that weird moment at the final table when both Jerry Yang and Lee Watkinson's fiancée were praying for God to bring each a favorable river card, Voulgaris had the following to say:

”It was like witnessing an exorcism . . . . Maybe some people don’t realize this, but God doesn't give a sh*t about poker. And if they did[n’t] realize it [previously], they would have known when Jamie Gold won the year before.”

Some pretty good funny there. From the looks of things, we’ll be getting about a half-dozen new shows over at Poker Road, including the latest incarnation of the Gavin Smith-Joe Sebok travelling circus, this time called Poker Road Radio (first show airs tonight from Niagra Falls, I believe), a new show hosted by Barry Greenstein called Tips from the Bear (first episode already up), and a show called Sport of Poker to be hosted by PokerNews reporter B.J. Nemeth. Cool stuff.

In other podcasty news, my buds over at Beyond the Table have also been enjoying some added exposure here lately with their reports from last week’s Poker Bowl getting syndicated over at CardPlayer. Not sure as yet whether CardPlayer intends to begin distributing Beyond the Table permanently or not. In any event, I hope the exposure over there has brought the fellas some added listeners.

All of this means that along with Rounder’s Radio (where it appears at least four different poker shows are being produced), there may well be over twenty separate poker podcasts currently pumping out shows on a regular basis. That might actually be more than yr humble poker junkie can keep up with, and that’s despite being stuck behind the wheel with nothing else to do some 8-10 hours every week!

I have been able to keep up with just about everything thus far, though. Huff and Voulgaris weren’t the only ones talking about Absolute Poker this week. As you might imagine, just about every single podcast featured some discussion of the “super user” scandal. I say almost all, because there was one fairly glaring exception to the rule.

Was listening today to the Joe Average Poker Show (the 10/24/07 episode). Not my fave, but passable entertainment (usually). Joe Average Poker has been around for quite some time -- the show debuted in June 2005 -- and has established a fairly-routinized formula of segments, one of which is to report the week's “News and Notes.”

I was somewhat perplexed this week when I heard co-host Charles “Mr. Know-It-All” Knox (their nickname) run through the five or so news items without mentioning the Absolute Poker scandal at all! How can that happen? I have no idea, other than to suspect the show being sponsored by All-In Magazine might have had something to do with such a blatant omission.

I’m not completely up on All-In’s relationship with Absolute Poker (I assume the poker site -- like most -- is an advertiser and thus client of the mag). I did, however, find it curious to see All-In report on Absolute’s announcement last week that it had identified an internal security breach in an article headlined “Absolute Poker Security Breach Resolved.”

Resolved? As the posters on the forums might say, with a funny picture of an owl as illustration . . . O RLY?

(Of course, All-In has never been my source of choice for poker news. Have noticed them blatantly plagiarizing items from other outlets in the past.)

I could be wrong, of course, to assume Joe Average Poker is beholden to some sort of corporate interest here. By why else fail to mention one of the biggest friggin’ poker stories of the year? Whatever the reason, Joe Average should probably be careful with such applesauce. There are a ton of other poker podcasts out there now, most of which aren’t holding back (quite so obviously, anyway). In other words, a much better use of the poker fan’s day.

(EDIT [added 10/27/07]: I have added a few of the new shows over in the right-hand column. I have also weeded out any podcast that hasn’t had a new show within the last month. Incidentally, the dates listed represent the most recent episode available for download. If anyone is aware of other poker podcasts out there that are currently producing shows, let me know and I’ll add 'em as well.)