Article - Articles by Daniel Cox

Articles by Daniel Cox

Do Not Criticize, It Will Only Cost You
June 4, 2008
Daniel Cox
I realize I am sometimes guilty of it, too; the snide comment after an unimaginably bad play when 8 10 offsuit cracks your Aces and knocks you out early in the $40,000 Monthly Event. Let me assure you, it is not the right thing to do, especially on a site like Spade Club that caters to the beginning players and as Card Player Media and Spade Club head Barry Shulman calls them, “The Kitchen Table crowd.” Many of these players are new to the game and have grown up on televised poker. Since a 7 – 2 offsuit catching a miracle 7 – 7 – 2 flop is more exciting television, it is what people new to the game see winning big pots, not solid consistent play. There are several reasons why it is improper to criticize another person’s play.

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An Evening with Humberto Brenes
May 5, 2008
Daniel Cox
San Jose, Costa Rica - Passion is the one word that best describes Costa Rican poker star Humberto “The Shark” Brenes. The passion he feels towards his family, the passion he shows for the game of poker and the passion he invokes when talking about the importance of preserving nature are all evident after only a few minutes talking with him.

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Check another One off the Bucket List
May 25, 2008
Daniel Cox
Los Angeles - Every one has a “Bucket List” of one sort or another. It may be a formal list, written down and updated as time passes or it may just be a gnawing at the back of the mind. For those whomhave not seen the Jack Nicolson - Morgan Freeman movie, a Bucket List is an inventory of those things we want to do before we end this mortal existence. I have had my informal list for more than 30 years and I wrote it out four years ago. Though my list still has “See Aurora Borealis” in the number one position, the item that has been on the list the longest was “Attend a party at the Playboy Mansion.” It is something I have wanted to do since I was a teenager. The closest I had come was during my early U.S. Army days in the late seventies and early eighties. At that time I was a dues paying member of the Playboy Club, visiting clubs in Los Angeles and New York City.

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The Celebrity Crasher
Daniel Cox
March 2008
Unlike Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson in The Wedding Crashers, my desire to crash the Celebrity Invitational had nothing to do with trying to take advantage of an unsuspecting bridesmaid, but instead by being a bridesmaid myself. I nearly received a legitimate invitation to the tournament the week before, since the winner of the LA Poker Classic Media Tournament receives a seat to the tournament. Unfortunately, I lost a highly contested heads-up battle to Justin Marchand, Card Player Magazine’s Chief Media Officer. Justin, who eventually finished fourth at the televised final table, is a quality player in his own right, having previously cashed at the World Series.

Falling Off at the Bike
Daniel Cox

August 2007

One good thing about being a Poker journalist is that I get invitations to play in Freerolls at the top casinos and card rooms around the world. The summer of 2007, prior to the Legends of Poker World Poker Tour (WPT) Main Event at the Bicycle Club near Los Angeles, I was invited to one such tournament. The thing I like best about these tournaments is that I play with some of the best players in the world without having to pay a huge buy-in. I have played at the same table with Kathy Liebert and “Brooklyn Dan” Pugliese at Binion’s Horseshoe and at the same tournaments with Amarillo Slim, Tom McManus and many others. Being able to get up close as Phil Hellmuth throws a temper tantrum or Doyle Brunson shows a bluff is exciting to watch and has been extremely beneficial to improving my own game. Prior to this tourney I played in a $175 satellite with Hans “Tuna” Lund, the 1990 Main Event Runner-up and 1992 World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event third place finisher, as well as owning two WSOP bracelets.

The Long, Short Goodbye

Daniel Cox

WorldSeriesofPoker.com

June 2007

It took thirty years to make the dream come true and only an hour for a nightmare hand to end it. I had wanted to come to the World Series of Poker since I had first heard of it playing barracks poker in the mid-1970’s. This was going to be another Jim McManus story, with a poker journalist making it to the final table of a World Championship event. To set the stage, I lost a $275 Satellite on Day 1 of the 2005 WSOP (with a bad beat story involving actor James Woods). In 2006, on Satellite Day prior to the Main Event, I chopped two $225 Satellites to go up $1,400. I saved that money for the 2007 World Championship Seniors Texas Hold’em (No-Limit) $1,000 Buy-In. Tom McEvoy, Men “The Master” Nguyen, “Amarillo Slim” Preston were only a few of the top names in poker competing.

The WPT Challenges the WSOP Heads-Up

Daniel Cox

WorldSeriesofPoker.com

June 2007
The World Poker Tour (WPT) and the World Series of Poker (WSOP) are going heads up in Las Vegas this year. The Bellagio Cup III, with 28 events, began June 11^th and culminates with the WPT $10,000 Main Event July 10-15 is occurring at the same time as the 2007 WSOP at the Rio. The WSOP, with its most ever 55 events, began June 1^st and finishes with the $10,000 Main Event July 6-13.

Ultimate Poker Challenge Moves to Binion's

Daniel Cox

October 2006

Binion’s Gambling Hall and Hotel is proud to announce that America’s top syndicated poker show has moved to “The Place that Made Poker Famous.” The Ultimate Poker Challenge (UPC), after three successful seasons at The Plaza, changed venues for the 2006-2007 season to Binion’s. The No Limit Hold’em tournament action is scheduled three times weekly for the next 52 weeks.

A New Breed of Poker Has Arrived

Daniel Cox

August 2006

On July 28, 2006, The MANSION Group, Promoter Hollybrook Regency, Inc. and Fox Sports Net unveiled the “next big thing” in Downtown Las Vegas, the MANSIONPOKER.NET Poker Dome. The New Poker Dome, home of the $2,000,000 Poker Dome Challenge was introduced to the media and special guests Friday. Guests were treated to behind the scenes tours and watched simulated tapings of one of the most popular televised poker events of the season. To work out the bugs between the players, Dealers Blaine and Leslie, Tournament Director Matt Savage and the extensive technical crew, they ran several simulated tapings.

Another Celebrity Bad Beat

Daniel Cox

August 2005
I have been playing poker for over 40 years now, since my father taught me five card stud at age eight. He got tired of me beating him at chess, so he chose a game where he felt he had a better chance of beating me. It worked for a couple of years, but I was playing in adult home games by the time I was 13. I began playing the card rooms in Gardena and Bakersfield, California, at 17 and advanced to the casinos in Las Vegas and Lake Tahoe over 30 years ago. As a young private in the Army, I paid for my first sports car with my winnings from “payday” poker games. I have played cards across North America, and as far away as South Korea, mostly for low stakes – at casinos, in home games, with co-workers, or with fellow officers in the Army. One thing to remember is that by the turn of the millennium, and before Chris Moneymaker’s ESPN showing, Poker was nearly dead. One was hard pressed to find a game in Tahoe or Vegas.