HeadsUp Entertainment , operators of the Canadian Poker Tour (CPT) and Canadian Poker Player Magazine have finalized an agreement with strategic partner World Poker Showdown and Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines to host a Poker Super Cruise on the “Freedom of the Seas” launching March 23, 2011 from Port Canaveral, Florida.

Based on the success of the previous poker cruise held in April of this year, the event is being expanded to 2 weeks sailing first to the Eastern Caribbean and subsequently to the Western Caribbean ports-of-call.

Sounds good to me.

By expanding to a 2 week series, profitability increases substantially as fixed costs of tournament infrastructure are covered in the first week and options for players to accommodate their vacation schedules are expanded.

Sponsorship revenue, tournament fees and cash game rake revenue is expected to exceed $2,000,000 USD over the 2 week period, with net earnings approaching $1,200,000 or $.018/share.

The Company also announces that a major television deal is currently being finalized that will allow for broadcast of the event and allow for sponsorship revenues to increase dramatically from previous events.

Now that sounds even better.

“The expansion of the poker vacation market has become a major focus for the Company as revenues are maximized in this event structure,” commented HeadsUp President and CEO Kelly B. Kellner. “The event earlier this year was testament to a growing demand in the Canadian and international marketplace.”

I love cruising, so if you do too (and love playing poker or watching high stakes poker tournaments), this might be just the thing for you.

If you have ESPN, and who in America doesn’t?…. you know that this Tuesday, the 29th, will  see the return of the cabler’s poker coverage, with the cablecast of the 2009 World Series of Poker Main Event.

Having made the money, returning players will be looking to take their shots at becoming a member of the November Nine as 400 players start the action hoping to snag the millions of dollars at stake.

The first hour of play  on the 29th (Tuesday night) focuses on a particularly strong table that features two wily veterans who have gone deep in previous WSOP Main Events: Andrew Black and 2009 November Nine member Jeff Shulman.

Joining the fray is 2009’s hottest player, Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier.

In the second hour of play more than 300 players continue their fight for main event gold.

Players featured in the second hour include Joe Hachem, Peter Eastgate, Dennis Phillips, Phil Ivey and Dan Harrington.

I’ll be tuning in.

Will you?

Send me your take on what happens.

I was up late the other night watching reruns of the last few tables at the WSOP. Her appearance there certainly made this young lady the female face of poker. What will the effect of that be? Is she in a position to advance women in proffessional poker? She ruffled quit a few feathers at the world series and afterward. She did not seem to ingratiate herself to the other players at the table or to her sponsor. There has been plenty of talk about that. What is for certain though is that attention was focused squarely on her. Which, I have no doubt, was entirely by design.

Ms. Michelle has  great deal of experience in front of an audience. According to her website she has been an actress and musician since she was 10 years old appearing in shows like ER and Nip/Tuck. She’s not as technically proficient or controlled as someone like Annie Duke – partially a product of her age no doubt – but she knows how to play to the media like few players do. Lets face it, the media has become an integral part of poker. From ESPN to blogs like this, it is a very powerful advantage to be able to make those outlets work for you. Anyone involved in show business knows that any publicity is good publicity.

So how about it Shelly? Take advantage of some free publicity and do an interview for pokermoments.com? Being a philosopher, I can guarantee much more interesting questions than any other schmoe interviewer on the web.

Gone are the days of the dapper, dashing James Bond. in the 60′s and 70′s Jimbo would be in command of every situation, never get a smudge on his suit, and only engage in the classiest activities.  That’s why he played the high brow, gentleman’s game of baccarat. Now we have…

Daniel Craig’s Bond is not quite as confident and his suit get mussed far more often that Connery’s ever did, but he is playing a younger, more inexperienced secret agent. He’s a little rougher and dirtier around the edge’s and in Casino Royale, to go along with this new image, he played poker.

Giving the axe to the little known, lesser understood game was actually a smart idea beyond the simple fact that poker was a hot property in 2006. With a movie going populace that could be expected to have familiarity with poker as a climactic device, it was the perfect game to add suspense to the film without being bogged down with a lot of explanation. The audience could be trusted to just get it. They already knew the hand values and the flop/turn/river sequence of betting thanks to ESPN.

This film uses the game to very good effect. although I must say that I’ve never seen four of a kind come up against stright flushes more often then in the movies. I mean how often do regular poker players see either of those hands period? The prospect of them both coming up on the same hand is astronomical. I’ve certainly never seen it happen. Well, thats just the magic of the movies.

I was thinking recently about how poker becoming televised has affected the game. I don’t mean the community at large. Obviously that has changed a great deal. I never even knew of a professional poker circuit before ESPN started making a big deal out of the world series. The number of players and spectators is astronomical compared to when there used to be only 100 players.

What I mean is what effect has it had on actual game play when the cameras are there? I would think that especially that first year after the televised world series became a big hit, there must have been some kind of impact on the pro players who had been there for years already. Having worked in the TV and Film industry I can say from personal experience that having a camera there changes things, no matter what it is. One gets in front of the camera, especially if they are not used to it, and sort of has an existential moment where they aren’t sure how to act. They act like they think one should act in front of a camera, but they don’t know, they’ve never been in front of one before! Poker is a game that requires one to be deceptive in their actions already and to try and appear “natural” under stress that I have to believe that cameras surrounding the table had an impact, at least in the beginning.

There are of course different types of players. Someone like Scotty Nguyen obviously would have had a much faster adjustment period. His boisterous, full or bravado style lends itself to having all eyes on him anyway. But, there are just as many, if not more of the introverted cerebral types (especially on the pro circuit) like Howard Lederer or even Johnny Chan. They thrive more on being innocuous at the table and losing themselves in the complexities of the game. Of course now there is a whole generation of players that have come into poker specifically as a spectator sport. They were introduced to it as such and have that in their minds when they play. Which leads to another question; now that the spotlight is fading, will that affect them?