Not a super exciting week in poker news, but some stuff has been going on, so here's a brief recap:

2009 WSOP Main Event champion Joe Cada continued his media blitz that has so far featured him ringside at Madison Square Gardens for WWE Raw, on the Late Show with David Letterman, on SportsCenter on ESPN and now on the American Morning show on CNN. He may not be the most effusive guy on camera, but he definitely seems to be getting more camera time than that guy that won last year, … John? Matthew? Mark? Luke? Wait, we know this… Dennis! That's right, Dennis Phillips. What? He didn't win? Well, then we have no idea.

Joe Cada on CNN American Morning

Tom "durrrr" Dwan has been taking on some of the worlds highest-stakes poker players in the heads-up Durrrr Million Dollar Challenge at the Les Ambassadeurs club in London. Each opponent ponies up $250,000 to tak eon the online prodigy in their choice of No Limit Holdem or Pot Limit Holdem. For the first day of the challenge, Dwan took on Marcello “luckexpress” Marigliano in No Limit Holdem for 11 hours and Pot Limit Holdem for the last hour. At the end, durrrr ended up down $25,500. The next day he took on notorious aggro Swede Ilari “Ziigmund” Sahamies in a match that saw both of them rebuy for $250,000 and end up so close that Dwan only managed to eek out a $68,000 victory. The challenge concludes when he takes on Sammy “Any Two” George tomorrow/today, or however these timezone things work.

Bluff Europe: Ilari ‘Ziigmund’ Sahamies' Turn in Durrrr Million Dollar Challenge

The LAPT Playa Conchal is already halfway through Day 2 in the beautiful town of Playa Conchal in Costa Rica. Honestly, who cares about poker in a place like this. Instead of reciting boring chip counts, just take a deep breath, look at the pic at the top of this post, close your eyes and just imagine being on that beach. Your welcome. For the rest of you, there are 60 players left out of the original 259. The only person we feel like is worth mentioning that is near the top of the chip counts is Maridu Mayrinck cos she's a super cool Brazilian chick. Further down the chip counts is Bodog online poker regular Bolivar "ramux" Palacios, for whom we are also rooting.

LAPT Playa Conchal Live Reporting

In an interview with the Las Vegas Sun yesterday, WSOP Communications czar Seth Palansky sat down to talk about the 2010 WSOP and what changes players can expect to see in the schedule and from the tournament overall.

Despite the economic downturn, the WSOP has continued to grow year after year since Chris Moneymaker brought about the poker boom with his win at the 2003 WSOP. Based on Palansky's comments to the Sun, they are every bit as ambitious about continuing to grow the brand as they were before the departure of WSOP Commissioner Jeffrey Pollack.

One of the major downfalls of the 2009 WSOP was the disappointing turn out on Day 1B which led to a sell-out situation on Day 1D, a very controversial situation that still resonates throughout the poker community. The reason for the small crowd on Day 1B was that it fell on July 4th, something that will now not be happening as the WSOP plans to either start after the holiday of take the day off for the holiday. They will also be expanding the footprint of the WSOP at the Rio (into the Pavilion Center) which will also help to cut down on any potential sell-out situation in the future.

Another learning they took from this past summer was the popularity of the smaller buy-in events like the $1,000 buy-in Stimulus Special. So, in recognition of this, the WSOP is looking at upping the number of lower buy-in events in order to draw in more players during these rougher economic times.

To read the full Las Vegas Sun article, go here, and to warm up your poker tournament skills and get ready for the 2010 WSOP check out the Bodog online poker tournament schedule and keep your eyes peeled for information about upcoming live tournaments and eventually the 2010 WSOP.

The newest WSOP Main Event champion, Joe Cada, has been making the rounds recently, appearing on TV shows and basking in the fame that comes with winning the largest poker tournament in the world. After being spotted ringside at WWE Raw on Monday night with Dennis Phillips, Cada made an appearance on the Late Show with David Letterman.

Along with getting all of his contractually obligated plugs in, Cada revealed that he has lost as much as $100k in a single session of playing, but that it was only after he had already received about a million after the WSOP Main Event but before the November Nine final table. He talks a little about the transition from playing online poker, the taxing conditions during the WSOP and how his parents feel about him playing poker.

So, check out the video and let us know what you think in the comments.

With the 2009 WSOP Main Event in the books and the November Nine now shrunk to the November One, WSOP Main Event champion Joe Cada, the inevitable analysis and summaries of that final table have arrived. From retrospectives to key hands, websites the world over are offering up their own perspective on what went down and what the key moments of the two-day matchup were.

Over at bodog.com they have waded into the fray with their own list of the best moments of the 2009 WSOP Main Event final table, featuring Cada, of course, as well as hands involving Antoine Saout, Phil Ivey, Eric Buchman, Darvin Moon and Steve Begleiter. Head over to bodog.com to check out the full list:

Top 10 Moments at the 2009 WSOP & Final Table

While Bill Belichick was making the worst clock-management and strategy decisions evar in the New England Patriots miraculous loss to the Indianapolis Colts last night, online poker player "he11raiser" was making much better decisions on his way to winning Bodog Poker's Sunday $100k Guaranteed online poker tournament. Beating out 514 other entrants to win the tournament, "he11raiser" beat "elena m" in fierce heads-up battle to win the $25,000 first-place prize.

This is the first tournament win of any kind for "he11raiser" in the Bodog Poker room so we'll just attribute it to beginner's luck… just kidding. A field that large is always a minefield and tough to navigate. Congrats to "he11raiser" for the big win and we're sure we'll see him around the virtual tables much more often now with this huge infusion to his bankroll.

Here are the full final table results and payouts:

1. he11raiser – $25,000
2. elena m – $15,000
3. Zwaffelaar – $9,500
4. AWander – $7,000
5. StinkyBritches – $5,500
6. bigtone52 – $4,500
7. thrtyftj – $3,500
8. skeptix – $2,200
9. perry_04 – $1,700

If you are brand new to poker or a veteran of the online poker tables, the Sunday $100k Guaranteed offers great value to players of all stripes and you can qualify to play in this event for as little as $1. So, get started today and the next thing you know, you could be $25,000 richer.

It's true. The sharply-dressed all-around good guy Jeffrey Pollack has resigned as the Commissioner of the World Series of Poker. As a friend to the media and fixture in the poker world over the past few years, he will be missed.

Harrah's made the announcement earlier that today, Friday the 13th, would be Pollack's last day as Commissioner and WSOP Communications director Seth Palansky revealed "there is no intention at this time to replace the Commissioner role." While this leaves an interesting power vacuum at the top of the WSOP hierarchy, for now it will be interesting to see if the WSOP can continue its steady growth without Pollack at the reins.

Pollack came on board in 2006 just in time to see the poker boom really take off. During the three years that he was at the helm, attendance at the WSOP grew an incredible 88%. He also introduced many popular initiatives and some that were controversial, including the eaxpansion of the brand into the WSOP Europe, the popular $50,000 H.O.R.S.E. championship, Ante Up for Africa charity tournament, the Poker Hall of Fame ceremony, and his most impactful legacy, the November Nine.

The ever-dapper Pollack has not decided where he will go after this and said that "future is a blank canvas." However, showing that there were no hard feelings, he went on to say, "Thank you for allowing me to be part of the WSOP these last few years. I will always be a fan and a friend to the poker community."

So, from us at the Beat, thank you for the efforts you put into making the WSOP an SEO goldmine.

As if insulting Annie Duke and the entire poker community on Celebrity Apprentice wasn't bad enough, poker hater-er Joan Rivers was at it again when she phoned in for an interview on SportsTalk 790 AM The Ticket, this time her target was poker legend Doyle Brunson.

When the whole Apprentice thing went down, Brunson took to his blog to decry Rivers as an enemy of the poker community and made a comment calling into question her intelligence based on ignorant remarks made by her on the show about poker players in general, and specifically Duke. When read this quote, Rivers erupted into another one of her self-centered, ill-advised and under-informed rants, accusing Brunson of trying to get famous "on [her] back" (so many jokes, so little time) and advised the poker great that when he was 76 and had a career like hers he could then come and talk to her, but until then could go "die under a deck of cards." She also called him a moron. Hi pot, this is kettle, you're black.

Anyway, as fate would have it. Brunson was scheduled to appear later in the show to hype his new book, The Godfather of Poker. The hosts of the show played back Rivers' rant an unperturbed Brunson just had this to say:

“That’s better than dying under what she dies under – a pile of manure. She insulted poker players as a group and I’m very upset with her. She had no call to berate the poker community like she did. I think it showed no class. Joan Rivers don’t need us and we don’t need Joan Rivers, so good luck to her. By the way, I’m 76 too – you can tell her.” (thanks to Bluff Magazine for the transcription)

So, kudos to Brunson for his vigorous defense of the poker community, and for giving us something to write about.

Completely overshadowed by the 2009 WSOP Main Event final table taking place in Vegas over the past few days, the 2009 WPT Foxwoods World Poker Open nonetheless pushed on, managing to draw 353 entrants and generate a total prizepool of $3,321,377. Emerging victorious from this field to take down the $910,058 first-place prize was poker pro Cornel Andrew Cimpan.

Despite the remote location and draw of Vegas this past weekend, the event still drew out a large number of recognizable poker pros (hey, you gotta make that money right), including Prahlad Friedman, Gavin Smith, Amnon Filippi, Gavin Griffin, Victor Ramdin, Theo Tran, Liv Boeree, Nenad Medic, Kathy Liebert and Chad Batista. Unfortunately, none of that list survived to the money bubble, but there were those who did like Jason Mercier, Terrence Chan, Michael "The Grinder" Mizrachi, Adam Levy and Kenna James.

However, just when you thought this final table was set to be a bust, much like many have been in recent memory, the list of players at the final table was actually impressive in its own right. Cimpan and eventual sixth-place finisher Lee Markholt are both previous WPT champions, Soheil Shamseddin and Curt Kohlberg have both reached WPT final tables and Matt "AllInat420″ Stout and Eric Froelich are well-known and widely-respected online poker pros. Only one could take home the top prize though, and Cimpan accomplished that for his second career WPT title.

Here are the full final table results:

1. Cornel Andrew Cimpan – $910,058
2. Soheil Shamseddin – $463,332
3. Matt Stout – $265,710
4. Eric Froehlich – $232,496
5. Curt Kohlberg – $199,283
6. Lee Markholt – $166,069

Get in on some poker tournament action of your own with the Bodog $100k Guaranteed online poker tournament. Qualifiers start for as little as $1 and the winner is guaranteed at least $25,000. So, download Bodog Poker today and get started on your way to a huge payday.

After eight days of play back in July, three months of waiting and 18 hours of play on Saturday, the 2009 WSOP Main Event has finally come to a conclusion, breaking records on the way. At 2am local time this morning, Joe Cada became the youngest player to ever win a WSOP Main Event, pocketing $8,547,042 for that win, and it came on the final hand of the longest Main Event final table ever played.

Just eight days shy of his 22nd birthday, Cada beat out the record set by 2008 WSOP Main Event champ Peter Eastgate, who himself bested the record set by Phil Hellmuth 20 years prior. This was the first WSOP that Cada had been eligible to play due to his age, and during the course of the summer cashed in two other events along with his monumental, record-breaking win at the 2009 WSOP Main Event.

Entering the final table just fifth in chips, Cada had an uphill struggle to reach the heads-up match, especially against a table that included several experienced players, like Jeff Shulman and Eric Buchman, and the widely acknowledged "best player in poker" Phil Ivey. However, Cada was able to catch the right cards at the right times – causing Hellmuth to dub him the "luckiest poker player in WSOP history" at one point – to meet Maryland logger Darvin Moon heads-up for the title.

Moon came into the final table with an impressive chip lead and found himself at or near the top for most of the final table, experiencing swings down to as low as third and then back up to the lead. However, by the time he was to face Cada for the title, Moon was at a distinct disadvantage, not only with almost two-thirds less chips than his opponent, but also with much less experience playing heads-up poker.

The heads-up battle lasted 87 hands over two hours and 21 minutes and came down to a classic race situation in which Cada's pocket nines went up against the Q-J suited of Moon. The board blanked out for Moon, giving Cada the title, bracelet and a place in the history books and Moon some great stories to tell his logging friends back in Maryland. Oh, and $5,182,928.

A huge week of online poker tournament action wrapped up last night with the Bodog Poker Open IV Championship event. Capping a successful week-long series that saw hundreds of online poker players turn out to play for thousands in prize money, the BPO IV Championship event was won by poker's newest superstar "MrElPaso," who walked away with $36,447.50 for first-place and a guaranteed spread in an international poker publication.

The BPO IV Championship drew out a field of 257 players, generating a $120,790 prizepool to which bodog.com added $25,000 for a total purse of $145,790. Part of the crowd that came out to take advantage of this incredible value were Bodog Poker Pros David Williams and Evelyn Ng, and online poker pros "nevertilt22," "UFpokerStar" and "ari," who reached the final table of the event.

Here are the full final table results and payouts:

1. MrElPaso
2. dvbronco
3. Ari
4. JazzyFace
5. bklynzto81
6. naskoxx
7. ello
8. ShuMoneyTonite
9. LIVIN LOUD

The Contender Series Finale also took place last night in the Bodog Poker room, featured $2,500 in added prize money and drew 204 players out to take advantage of that value. Online poker player "hitchchops" was able to best that field to walk away with the $3,268.10 first-place prize. Here are the full final table results from that event.

1. hitchchops – $3,268.10
2. Hoff26 – $2,079.70
3. mainendz – $1,378.54
4. olycrawford – $950.72
5. Jack0fAllTrades – $713.04
6. jason0802 – $534.78
7. larryblizzy – $415.94
8. selachii777 – $308.98
9. RezinLife – $202.02

All told, the Bodog Poker Open IV saw 2,646 total players come out to compete in the 11 events of the Championship and Contender Series and $368,000 in cash prizes with another $65,000 added by bodog.com.

The conculsion of the Bodog Poker Open IV does not end the online poker tournament action in the Bodog Poker room. Bodog.com’s Sunday $100,000 Guaranteed online poker tournament. Qualifiers for the $100,000 Guaranteed event start for as low as $1 and run daily.