Centaurus Games Poker Blog

It’s freezing in Las Vegas.  Isn’t it supposed to be hot in the desert, even in December? I just glanced outside and it’s pouring down rain. Glad I just washed my car. I came back from Washington last night, where of course it was sunny and clear. A bit cold, still beautiful.

But it’s all a trick.  You think “Oh, I want to move back…”, then comes the 200 straight days of cold, grey and wet.

This month also reminds me that I need to keep in touch with old friends.  So I spent a little more time on Facebook updating them and on my new addiction: Twitter @brettcalapp. 

If you didn’t get to read this month’s newletter, you missed a nice little featurette on our Four Color Deck option.  I now have a much greater appreciation for this functionality because I’ve been informed by my doctor that I need to get glasses.

The Club supports a four-color deck, which allows you to change the color of the suits to help in identifying them during game play. Spades are black, Diamonds are blue, Hearts are red, and Clubs are green.

To turn on the four color deck feature:

1.            Right click and choose “options” from anywhere on the poker table.

2.            Under table options, click the check box next to “Four Color Deck.” This will put a checkmark by this feature.

3.            Click “apply” and then “okay.”

4.            Go to a table and you will now see all four colors!

You can switch back at any time. Just follow the instructions above and uncheck the box next to “Four Color Deck.”  The best thing about this feature is that it’s only seen on your computer, so nobody else needs to know; our little secret.                       

 The “Holiday Hookup” started yesterday with lots of great extra prizes just in time for the holidays.  The tournaments are fast and furious using our “ultra turbo” format (two and a half minute blinds). So if you find yourself without a lot of free time, these are the ones to play. There are video games (think Modern Warfare 2 and Tony Hawk), gift cards to Walmart, iTunes and ToyRus, TAG Heuer sunglasses, movie tickets from Fandango and some ultra stylish clothing from KSINO.com.

THIS JUST IN…to celebrate New Years in style, the club is going to be giving away gift packs of Zino Platinum cigars. These cigars have received countless honors and are an incredibly bold, beautiful cigar with a full bodied aroma. zinoplatinum.com .  And if you don’t like cigars, remember these make a great gift for that favorite uncle or best friend.

It’s finally November and so close to one of the great eating days of the year.  That’s why I’m excited to say the winner of the ThanksGIVING $1000 poker tournament will also have a donation made to Feed America (www.feedamerica.org) in their name.  Each year, the Feeding America network provides food to more than 25 million low-income people facing hunger in the United States, including more than 9 million children and nearly 3 million seniors.

We’ve got some great tournaments lined up at the Club.  The most exciting news is the 12 WPT Celebrity Invitational seats we are giving away. Congrats to “brockway”, “gobigray”, “HeliFlopster” who have already secured their seats to this event. There are 3 more seats being awarded this month: November 11th, 15th and 25th, all at 9pm ET.  This is a great tournament and a lot of fun. I’ve been lucky enough to participate the last few years and have some great memories.

Last year I was running late and got wait-listed along with about a dozen other people. With some time to kill, I got a cocktail and went over to where they corralled the rest of the players-in-waiting. I started talking to a pretty cool guy named Chris. It turned out he did some work for TVG in the past (interative horseracing) and we chatted about poker. I asked him what he did now…his response: “I host a show called the Bachelor.” My reaction: “Is that job like being the DJ at a strip club?”

My name came over the loud speaker. I thought to myself “good, now everyone knows I’m here”.  I wandered to my seat.  Just my luck, I found myself seated with my good friend Reeve Collins (CEO – Red Lever), WPT CEO and Founder Steve Lipscomb, pros Barry Greenstien and Maria Ho, actors Don Cheadle and Jimmy Van Patten.  I sat down, chatted with my table and nonchalantly glanced at my first hand…pocket eights.  Then the flop came with an 8. One guy put me All In.  What the #*$@!  I’m completely frazzled.  I think to myself how embarrassing it will be to go out on the first hand I play.  But on the other hand I do have a set.  So I do what any self-respecting person in this situation would do…I completely chicken out and fold. I see the guy sign…I got bluffed! Way to start the day, Calapp.

Interesting facts I learned last year:

• Richard Karn (Al from Home Improvement) lives up on Pine Lake in Issaquah, Washington. I went to Pine Lake Middle School.
• Marlon Wayans is just as funny in real life as he is on TV.
• If Lou Diamond Phillips comes up and gives you a bro-hug…go with it…it’s La Bamba for crying out loud. (My wife loves that movie.)
• The line for the bathroom at these events is always long. I found myself in an unusual conversation with one of the guys from Everyone Loves Raymond about germs and how a certain percentage of chips have some really bad bacteria. Lesson to all: Always wash your hands before and after you use the restroom.

Back to the Club. We are giving away two Shuffle Tech ST-1000 automatic card shufflers this month and two more in December.  This is a perfect way to pimp-out your home game.  There are still two seats left for one lucky Club member to win for the Annie Duke Celebrity Poker Night 09 benefitting DEF (www.decisioneducation.org).  Three club winners are going to play in this great event alongside some of the best and brightest pros, actors and entertainers.  Another seat to a WPT $10,000 event will be up for grabs on Nov 14th at 9pm ET along with $10,000 of cold hard cash on Nov 28th at 9pm ET.

November is Ladies Month for our TAG Tuesday tournaments.  Every Tuesday we will give away 2 pairs of TAG sunglasses (strictly sized for the ladies this month).  We’ve also got year supplies of Blue Diamond “Bold” Flavored Almonds, custom built Big Slik Poker tables, and as always lots of cash.

Foxwood’s World Poker Finals kicks off shortly. Good luck to Club members “jlopez74”, “qhorses”, and “wantsome”.

October isn’t even halfway over and it’s already been an exciting month. First and foremost we awarded our three-millionth dollar earlier this month. Hard to believe, but it wasn’t that long ago when we awarded dollar one. I can’t wait until we’re giving away a million a month. Congrats to everyone who has helped get us this far.

This month has some great new prizes including a custom built Big Slik poker table that includes the winner’s name on the felt. Tuesdays in October feature TAG Heuer sunglasses – the ones Ferrari Formula One driver Kimi Räikkönen wears. We’ve even got something fun cooked up for Halloween night (besides the $10,000 in cash we are already giving away that night). But wait! There is something even bigger on the horizon. I can’t announce what it is yet but it’s an extra special October treat from our friends at the World Poker Tour. More information will be available shortly.

In other WPT related news, we are sending 3 Club members (jlopez74, qhorses, wantsome) to play in the 2009 Foxwoods World Poker Finals on Nov 5^th 2009. This $10,000 buy-in event always stirs up some great poker competition. We’ll have to see if there will be another marathon match like last year when the two Jonathans (Jonathan Jaffe and Jonathan Little) played heads up for over five hours before Little took down the final hand and $1.12 million.

What I can’t stop doing is eating these Blue Diamond almonds. As you know, you can win a year’s supply of these “Bold” flavored almonds (my favorite is Jalapeno Smokehouse) right now at the Club. We were lucky enough to have the folks at Blue Diamond send us a couple extra packs (actually a whole case) for us to try out all the flavors. Now there are almonds everywhere in our offices; which may be why visitors seem to be lingering a bit longer than usual.