David "Chip" Reese, 1951-2007 --  "Chip" Reese, 56, died in his sleep at his home last Tuesday after suffering what was described as "mild pneumonia" symptoms in preceding days.  Reese was a legend in cash-game action and a mainstay of the "Big Game" in Bobby’s Room at the Bellagio, preferring to take the big money there in preference to what would have been the smaller winnings available to him on the tournament circuit.  Only in recent years did Reese play a few big events after winning two WSOP bracelets many years ago.  Reese’s third and final WSOP bracelet cemented his legend, since it came in the inuagural $50,000 H.O.R.S.E. event in 2006, culminating in a legendary heads-up duel against Andy Bloch.  The victory finally gave Reese some of the mainstream recognition he deserved.  Despite the fact that Reese never made a Main Event final table, his status as a poker legend was illustrated by online poker room Full Tilt Poker, which halted operations for a minute of silence in his honor.

Philachack Reels in Arieh in New Orleans --  Josh Arieh was the runaway leader through both of the first two days of the WSOP Circuit event at Harrah’s New Orleans, but it was Andy Philachack who came back for the win after starting the final table with one of the shortest stacks in play.  Philachack ended Arieh’s planned Cajun parade by coming from behind during heads-up play to win the $247,860 and a seat in next year’s WSOP Main Event, while Arieh had to settle for $130,050 and runner-up honors.

Vaughn Released by Bluff After Cheating Scandal --  Bluff Media’s Managing Editor, Chris Vaughn, was released by that media outlet in the fallout from the cheating incident involving him and Sorel "Imper1um" Mizzi and the sale of an account in a PokerStars Sunday Million tournament.  Vaughn and Mizzi’s mea culpa at PokerNews.com came too late, as it developed that Vaughn had lied about the nature of his win in other outlets, including a podcast on “Big Poker Sunday” with Haralabous Voulgaris and Scott Huff.  Bluff Media issued a brief statement acknowledging Vaughn’s termination.

PokerStars Launches Mac Software Version --  While a few smaller sites had versions of their software available for the Mac, most did not, leaving the dedicated fans of the Apple machine to use sometimes-balky third-party Windows emulator software programs if they wanted to play poker.  PokerStars changed that in a big way when they launched a beta version of their poker client for real-money games, after a play-money version had been tested (also in beta) for some time.  Mac lovers can download the new software from the pokerstars.com site.

UCLA Tops USC in GPSTS Poker Matchup --  The second-ever contest between colleges a part of Harvard law professor Charles Nesson’s Global Poker Strategic Thinking Society took place this past week, and home-team UCLA came out on top, winning three out of five of the best-of-three, head-to-head matchups.  Bragging rights were up for grabs, even if the GPSTS will expand with more events next year.  As for this one, where were all the "Bruins Felt Trojans" headlines?