It seems that everyone is coming out with their own clothing line nowadays and why not as plenty of stars have made millions off of the clothes they’re selling.  Well now you can add Phil Hellmuth to the list of stars trying to make money off of their own clothing line as he recently launched the Poker Brat Co. apparel line.

According to Hellmuth, he worked with artists in Hollywood, Missouri, and Las Vegas to come up with designs for the clothes and apparel.  Some of the t-shirt designs include a poker tree, regular shirts with “Poker Brat Clothing Co.” written across the middle, a poker skater, and some random crazy, designs.  The hats have a “PH” logo on them which looks quite similar to the logo the NBA’s Houston Rockets use.

Some of the clothes that Phil is shopping do look pretty cool, but I’m wondering how well his stuff will sell outside of the poker world.  I’m sure that plenty of diehard poker players will buy things from his clothing line, however, I really have to wonder if this is something which will draw interest from the outside world.  After all, it’s not like Phil is on all kinds of Gatorade commercials or graces huge billboards in downtown New York.

But then again, there are plenty of apparel lines which have done well despite their inspiration not being universally recognized.  Professional skateboarder Rob Dyrdek and the DC Shoes brand is one thing that comes to mind right away and I’m wondering if Hellmuth can expect some of the same for his venture.  Another thing which will be interesting to watch for is if other star poker players will start coming out with clothing lines.  I’m guessing we will see this more and more in the future since Hellmuth has broken the ice already.

It’s been several months now since both the online poker rooms, Ultimate Bet and Absolute Poker, scandals broke around the same time.  The scandals involving situations where certain players could read the hole cards of others gave both sites a bad name in the online poker world.  Plus it forever tarnished the reputation of former UB owner and 1994 WSOP champion Russ Hamilton.

With the scandals in the past, both sites will look to move forward tomorrow when their new network – CEREUS – launches tomorrow.  CEREUS will merge the players from both sites together in attempt to help the two rooms grow and also to help restore the names of both places.  But the question for anyone who has been paying attention to the situation has to be: will the move really change the views people have of these rooms?

Now sure there will be some players getting reimbursed for what happened before – especially on the UB side where Excapsa is supposed to pay the new UB owners in Tokwiro $15 million so they can refund the affected players.  But really, how exactly will they know who all was affected by the hole card scandal and who should really get their money back?  What’s more, will anyone who’s heard about the scandal feel safe depositing their money with either room – even if they are joined by a fancy network?

In my opinion, the move may help both rooms with people who were oblivious to the scandals, but it is unlikely to draw people in who’ve heard about the scandals.  It is especially unlikely to draw anyone back who was actually affected by the scandals.   I just don’t think that you can merge two losers together and create a winner.  But the people at CEREUS are certainly hoping you can and are banking the future of two sites that you can.

When you think of the Ultimate Fighting Championship in comparison to all other things, the last thing that comes to mind is poker.  But, somehow, the connection was made by Full Tilt as they recently signed former Heaveyweight Champion Randy Couture to their mix of celebrity players.

Couture is fresh off of the beating that Brock Lesnar handed him for the UFC title, but is long revered as one of the greatest mixed-martial artists of all time.  And even though he is 45 years old, many believe he still has the stuff to make it back to the top if given another shot.

Still, how all of this fits into the scheme of Full Tilt Poker I’ll never know.  The room seems content to throw money at anyone who will agree to whore themselves out in Full Tilt logos.  In his match with Lesnar, Couture made his way to the ring covered in FT garb which only foreshadowed what was to come. 

In addition to signing Couture, FT also grabbed two other UFC stars in Matt Hughes and Mike Swick.  But Couture remains the big name in this deal since he is a world-renowned fighter who walked away from millions in the UFC at one point just so he could go up against the best fighter in the world at the time – Fedor Emelianenko.

The signing of these UFC fighters has me wondering where Full Tilt is going to go looking for players next.  Maybe they’ll start hitting up athletes in other sports such as basketball, baseball, soccer, and football; who knows?  All I know is that it’s a good bet Randy Couture, Mike Swick, and Matt Hughes aren’t exactly the world’s greatest poker players.  If this is the case, it would be nice to catch them online at some point.

There are certain hands which I like to play almost every time when I get a hold of them.  One of those hands happens to be A-10 since I seem to call just about anything with this.  But lately, I haven’t been winning a whole lot with this hand so I started studying up on what the experts think about playing A-10. 

When playing A-10, you’ve definitely got to look at where you are on the table before making any kind of move.  After all, if you play A-10 from early position then you’ve got to know a better hand is out there almost 70% of the time (on a full table).  This means that you’ll not only be behind the betting action the whole time, but you will also be an underdog to win the hand anyways.

Another thing to take note of is that A-10 will lose to pocket 2’s through 9’s at a 52%-56% clip.  Against better hands such as pocket kings, queens, jacks, and tens you’re only going to win about 30% of the time.  Think you’re going to hit a two pair or straight and beat pocket aces?  This only happens about 10% of the time.  So anyway you put it you’re at a disadvantage with A-10 in early position.

This doesn’t mean people should avoid playing A-10 though because it can be an effective hand when in middle and late position.  But it’s a hand that you want to wait to see the flop with since A-10 is definitely a drawing hand.  The best thing to do is to simply call in middle position if you expect others behind you to limp in while possibly raising in later position to get limpers to fold.

The key with A-10 is to exercise caution because it’s a pretty vulnerable hand and one you shouldn’t be raising with preflop if you’re at a full table or are playing with loose players.  After studying the subject, I definitely plan on reigning in my play with A-10 from now on.