Rat Pack Poker News & Reviews; Oct. 17-25th

Here is your wrap up for poker this past week Oct. 17-25th

• Eric Seidel and Dan Harrington were chosen as the two players to be inducted into the Poker Hall of Fame
• Howard Lederer blogged on Full Tilt about the possibility of a minimum age requirement for the Poker HOF, and we couldn't agree more. He suggested the age be 40 which is the age poker legend Chip Reese was inducted at.
• CardRunners the online poker training site posted it's 2,000th video
• Gus Hansen went on one hell of a good run streak but unfortunately is still down for the year
• Randy Couture announced that his upcoming charity poker event at the Golden Nugget in Las Vegas will be open to the public and proceeds will go to the Xtreme Couture GI Foundation along with 1st place taking down $10,000
• The Poker "Mocumentary" Hitting the Nuts  won the Cincinnati Film Festival's 2010 Audience Award. The film is about a 07' Scott County Sd eries of Poker event in Scott County, Indiana.
• and last but not least here are your top 3 online poker winners so far this year. In first is Tom Dwan with $4 Mil, second is Dave "CATES" Benefield with  $3.9Mil and third is none other than Phil Ivey with $3Mil

Crazy cats theres a poker news update and don't forget when you deposit use code SINATRA for Full Tilt and RATPACK for UB/Absolute. We will make it worth your while!

Rat Pack Poker's Fall Scotch: Ardbeg 10year

Poker, Cigars and Scotch, these are still things people associate together and here at RatPackPoker.com we couldn't agree more.  We reviewed several single malt and blended Scotch Whiskeys only to come up with one solid knockout of a Scotch for this fall season, so without further ado here it is.

Ardbeg 10yr. 

This single malt scotch is from the Isle of Islay and is non chill-filtered which basically means it's alcohol content has not been reduced and instead you can enjoy it at it's full flavor and alcohol content of 46%. 

We enjoyed this scotch when we visited some friends on the east coast  just when it started to get chilly outside. We were all outside talking about how much we love this time of year. When the weather is just cool enough to throw a pull over on and grill out for some Monday night football.  Then one of our friends who doesn't drink much whiskey at all said "That's what I really like about that Scotch you brought over, it reminds me of smoke and cigars and grilling out with you guys, hell man everything I love about fall." Then we all thought about it and one of the ladies smelled a glass and said "yeah, it reminds me you guys, I could smell that anywhere and instantly think of a man, it smells like a man who's got it together."  She of course went on to say that we play poker to much to completely have it together, but we at least act like it.

Now on to the real tasting notes. First this scotch is not for the faint of heart, its nose is very peaty and smoky but in a rounded way and that comes from it's location and water running through Isle of Islay's peat bogs. Once you taste it your mouth instantly heats up and your blood gets pumping, it engulfs your taste buds with smooth peat that's been coated with the sea and wrapped in gold barley with sprays of cracked pepper. Then it lingers on the back of your tongue and mouth much like a big/tannic cabernet would but the taste that stays is one of a pear that's been wrapped in barley and smoked for an hour. It's delicious! 

Hope you enjoy your fall, be sure to pick up the Ardbeg 10yr. and the price is only around $46-$55 depending on your location. 

--RatPackPoker

Poker still Poker?: To Chop or not to chop

The question in the title "Poker still Poker" refers to the recent twenty-three way chop of the Foxwoods $400 deepstack event prize pool.  We've all played in tourney's either online or in brick and mortar games/casinos where when it gets down to the final table or fewer we decide on whether to chop/split up the prize pool or not. Even then, does poker still remain poker. I mean the whole reason for playing is to win and the reason to win is for the most money, but when you divi it up can you still retain that drive or do people tend to "gamble" more knowing that they're at least getting paid a certain amount, after all isn't that what the pay out structure is for anyway. Personally I do not like to chop even though I can certainly understand why one would want to do so when a tournament turns into to much of a turbo style tourney, but that's also the reason why I typically chose not to play turbo's.  Don't get me wrong I'll play turbo's, just not as often and even when I play a turbo I don't play to chop. I play to win, hey a bracelet is nice but it's not the same bracelet if you chop. As a Shakespear said at his poker table  " to Chop or not to Chop, that is the question!"  any answers?

Cigar Aficionado and UB/Absolute Poker Idea

Any cigar lovers out there who like playing poker or poker players who love cigars this is an idea you'll like.

Ever play on UB or Absolute Poker you'll know they hold MTT's and SNG's for some cool prizes and trips, like their Anthrax Ticket giveaway and the steps  WPT 5 Diamond Classic Package. So we pitched them an idea for Cigar Aficionado's "Big Smoke" to be a package. Part of the idea :
Package 1: a "Big Smoke" Evenings on the 12 or 13th (tickets are $240 per night)

Package 2: the "Complete Weekend Program" which includes: Saturday and Sunday "Big Smoke" Seminars, Saturday lunch, one "Big Smoke" evening (either Fri. or Sat.) and tickets for that are worth about $550.

Could offer these via MTT's or SNG's

Rat Pack Poker news brief!

Ladies and Gents it has happened, the iPhone is getting real money poker but wait...it's not for the U.S. SwitchPoker.com is a real money poker site that can be played via the iPhone's browser, however it is not for US players...so really what's the point. Now on to other news

• Cake Poker Network adds Poker King to it's line up. Poker King offers some cool things like Online Live Dealer, Keno, Slots, a SportsBook but this is for the Asia market, don't know that it's available to the US but still and Online Live Dearler..that's intriguing.
• Scotty Nguyen who skipped the WSOPE in lieu of his very own poker tour let players around the US play in tourneys and against him for reasonable buy in.
• In a funny news brief. It was rumored that the new "hot poker couple" was Scott Montgomery and Annette Obrestad..mmm we'll just change that to "poker couple" eh.
• Poor Gus Hansen lost about  $1.5million in a week online via Full Tilt's high stakes poker tables

Theres a quick look at some poker news with more to come!