PaddyPowerPoker.com’s Paddy’s Pantsdow...

PaddyPowerPoker.com’s Paddy’s Pantsdown promotional tournament series will recommence today and extend through the end of the year, giving away $80,000 in the coming months. The Paddy’s Pantsdown money added tournaments will continue to take place twice every day, with buy-ins ranging from $1 to $4 and up to $400 added to each tournament prize pool.

Players who participate in two or more of these money-added tournaments in one week will automatically be entered into Friday’s Play-Off Freeroll where there will be $2,000 added to the prize pool. PaddyPowerPoker gave away more than $30,000 in added money during the Paddy’s Pantsdown tournaments in August.

“We have had such positive feedback on our Paddy’s Pantsdown promotion that we have decided to continue these money-added tournaments for the remainder of the year and give away an additional $80,000!” said a representative of PaddyPowerPoker.com. “The summer may be coming to an end, but the good times will keep on rolling for PaddyPowerPoker.com players — we know that nothing pleases our players more than a wad of free cash so that’s exactly what we are providing in order to keep those winter blues at bay.”

Here’s a look at the Paddy’s Pantsdown weekly tournament schedule with times, buy-ins and money added:

Monday, 7:45 PM — $2 buy-in ($200 added) Monday, 8:30 PM — $4 buy-in ($400 added) Tuesday, 7:45 PM — $1 buy-in ($200 added) Tuesday, 8:30 PM — $3 buy-in ($300 added) Wednesday, 7:45 PM — $2 buy-in ($200 added) Wednesday, 8:30 PM — $4 buy-in ($400 added) Thursday, 7:45 PM — $1 buy-in ($200 added) Thursday, 8:30 PM — $3 buy-in ($300 added) Friday, 8:00 PM — Qualifier Freeroll ($2,000 added) Saturday, 7:45 PM — $1 buy-in ($200 added) Saturday, 8:30 PM — $3 buy-in ($300 added) Sunday, 7:45 PM — $1 buy-in ($200 added) Sunday, 8:30 PM — $3 buy-in ($300 added)

PaddyPowerPoker.com is also launching a series of Irish Winter Festival €10 rebuy super satellites, which will take place at 8:00pm every Monday in September. Each tournament will guarantee an Irish Winter Festival 2010 ticket worth €1,650, with additional tickets awarded depending on the total prize pool generated.

In addition, any player who wins an Irish Winter Festival ticket in one of the €10 Rebuy Super Satellites will be eligible to take part in the €20,000 Sole Survivor qualifier promotion in October.

“We are delighted to introduce an even more affordable way to qualify for the Irish Winter Festival this October bank holiday weekend,” said Paddy Power. “Not only could you be on your way to the IWF for as little as €10, you will also be in the running for the €20,000 Sole Survivor prize. You’d be mad to be anywhere but Paddypowerpoker.com each Monday in September — somebody is going to win these IWF seats and it could easily be you.”

The Irish Winter Festival will take place at the Burlington Hotel in Dublin from October 22 to 25.

Jake Cody followed up his title in the European Po...

Jake Cody followed up his title in the European Poker Tour’s (EPT) Deauville event in January in a big way. This time, he trumped the pack of the World Poker Tour’s (WPT) first ever stop in London and racked up £273,000. His EPT Main Event victory was worth a colossal €847,000.

WPT commentator Mike Sexton, who flanked Jessie May in the broadcast booth for WPT London after Vince Van Patten did not make the trip, commented in a press release distributed by tournament officials, “Jake Cody is an outstanding young player and, mark my words, when you see this action on television, this final table is something very special. I rate it as among the best poker I have seen in nine years commentating for the WPT. This is going to be a real treat when it airs; I can hardly wait.”

Cody’s rail featured Devilfish Poker front man David “Devilfish” Ulliott. On his second major live tournament title, Cody told PartyPoker staff, “This is crazy – I am so happy to win my first WPT title. It’s been an amazing year for me so far and to win a major tournament on U.K. soil is very special. I was totally aware there was huge pressure on Kristoffer because of the extra $1 million bonus. I thought he did well and actually believe he was the best player at the table.”

The “bonus” Cody referred to was a potential $1 million bankroll boost triggered if Swedish PartyPoker qualifier Kristoffer Thorsson took down the title. He would have made an extra $500,000 for himself and $500,000 to share among the qualifiers from the popular online poker site. However, Thorsson ultimately took fourth place, falling just short of what would have been a very memorable WPT title.

On the final hand of the WPT London Main Event, Nichlas Mattsson raised pre-flop with A-Q of diamonds and ultimately ended up 4betting his chips into the center. Cody made the call after being dealt pocket queens and the board ran out five cards nine or lower. Mattsson collected £177,000 for his runner-up performance.

Bruce Atkinson was the tournament’s third place finisher. In his final hand, Atkinson moved all-in before the flop with K-9 of diamonds. Cody woke up with A-10, but watched in agony as Atkinson flopped a flush draw. The turn gave Atkinson even more outs to a gutshot, but no help was on the way on the river and Atkinson departed £93,000 richer.

Thorsson’s dreams of a $1 million bonus were dashed when he shoved from the small blind with A-7 of clubs. Cody called from the big blind with K-9 offsuit and promptly spiked a king on the turn. While it wasn’t an extra $500,000 for his bank account, Cody, a 21 year-old, walked away with £56,000.

Here’s how the final nine players cashed out in the Main Event of WPT London:

1. Jake Cody – £273,783 2. Nichlas Saarisilta – £176,979 3. Bruce Atkinson – £93,316 4. Kristoffer Thorsson – £56,311 5. Giovanni Safina – £42,233 6. Sandiep Khosa – £34,189 7. Fabian Quoss – £26,144 8. Gareth Teatum – £18,100 9. Priyan de Mel – £12,871

Also taking place in London was the WPT’s High Roller event, which saw Full Tilt Poker pro Justin “Boosted J” Smith walk away with the title. Smith pulled down £141,000 after trumping PartyPoker pro Tony G heads-up; the Aussie headed to the cage to collect £84,000. The tournament sported a healthy buy-in of £15,000 and featured 14 entrants. The only other player to make the money was Freddy Deeb, who took home £56,000 for third place.

We have an exciting new schedule for you here at Dusk Till Dawn

Throughout September we have some exciting events including the Sky Poker Tour and DTD300 Deepstack. For more information please check the Dusk Till Dawn Poker Club Schedule.

Also don't forget we have Online Satellites running throughout September at Dusk Till Dawn Online Poker qualifying you to each of these live events. So keep checking the Dusk Till Dawn Online Poker site for your chance to qualify!

Starting on Monday from the Palm Beach Casino in L...

Starting on Monday from the Palm Beach Casino in London is the sixth incarnation of the PartyPoker World Open. Last October, Phil Laak took down the title of PartyPoker World Open V champ after defeating a final table that included Luke “FullFlush” Schwartz, Laak’s girlfriend Jennifer Tilly, and World Poker Tour (WPT) host and Poker Hall of Fame member Mike Sexton.

This year, Laak will return to defend his title. A total prize pool of $480,000 is up for grabs in the $10,000 buy-in tournament. Forty-eight players will be in action across eight heats, the first of which features Victory Poker CEO Dan Fleyshman taking on Marty Smyth, Sam Trickett, 2009 World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event November Niner James Akenhead, Neil Channing, Lee Atherton, Peter Jetten, and U.K. poker pro Ian Frazer.

The second heat, which will be played on September 6th and 7th, features three of North America’s hottest players in Andrew “good2cu” Robl, UB.com’s Brandon Cantu, and former National Heads-Up Poker Championship winner Huck Seed. The group’s opposition in Heat #2 includes James Mitchell, Matt Perrins, Josh Gould, Dragan Galic, and Felipe “Mojave” Ramos.

The third heat of the PartyPoker World Open VI, which will pan out on September 7th, features young guns Schwartz and Full Tilt pro Annette Obrestad taking to the felts together. European Poker Tour (EPT) founder John Duthie and high-stakes cash game pro David “Viffer” Peat will join them, as will Liam Flood, John Eames, Barny Boatman, and Giovanni Safina.

That’s a lot of pros already and we’re only halfway through the opening seat of heats in the annual PartyPoker tournament. Former WPT Championship winner Yevgeniy Timoshenko will be part of Heat #4 on September 8th. His competition includes “Dixie,” 2010 bracelet winner Praz Bansi, Simon Zach, recent WPT London winner Jake Cody, Fabrice Souiler, and 2010 Aussie Millions Main Event champ Tyron Krost. This heat also has an open seat.

Laak will defend his title as part of Heat #5 on September 8th and 9th. However, he’ll have to get past Tom “durrrr” Dwan, who is in the midst of completing a pair of online Million Dollar Challenges against Patrik Antonius and Dan “JungleMan12” Cates. Others in the eight-player field will include John Tabatabai, Toby Lewis, Roland De Wolfe, Dale Hoy, Heather Mercer, and Jason Grey.

The final heat of the PartyPoker World Open VI will kick off on September 9th and feature some of the top talent Europe has to offer. Juha Helppi, David “Devilfish” Ulliott, Sandra Naujoks, Roberto Romanello, and Bruno Fitoussi will be a part of the Heat #6 field. Sexton, a sponsored pro of PartyPoker, will also be in the running, as will Titan Poker pro Sorel “Imper1um” Mizzi and Tilly.

The starting stacks in the PartyPoker World Open VI have been tripled and the final table, which is set to occur on September 10th, will be played seven-handed. The top seven players made the money during the fifth World Open, which also featured a field of 48. Heading into his title defense, Laak told PartyPoker officials, “Last year was a wild roller coaster ride. This year, I am looking forward to coming back to defend my title – it is ideal that it comes straight off the back off the WPT London Poker Classic – hopefully I can win both!”

Jesse May and PartyPoker’s Kara Scott will front the event’s broadcast, which can be seen on Five in the U.K. in late 2010. Spectators are welcome.

Frenchman Bruno “King” Fitoussi, born ...

Frenchman Bruno “King” Fitoussi, born September 21, 1958 in Paris, can often be found playing in the biggest poker games in the world. But Fitoussi isn’t your regular high-stakes card shark. An architect by trade, Fitoussi was also a music producer before founding the consulting firm VIP Gaming, where he still holds a position as President. He also created the poker magazine 52, which can be found in casinos all over Europe.

The entrepreneur has said in interviews that he isn’t a professional poker player, but that is certainly debatable based on his results. Fitoussi first made his mark in the poker world by defeating legendary pro Amarillo Slim at the 2001 World Heads-Up Championship in Vienna, Austria. He earned $101,727 for his first title on the circuit, amplifying his love for the game that has continued into the next decade.

In 2004, Fitoussi was voted into the European Poker Hall of Fame, joining superstars like David “Devilfish” Ulliott, Carlos Mortensen, Marcel Luske, and Surinder Sunar. The honor not only rewarded his talent at the tables, but also his contributions to the emergence of Texas Hold’em in France, especially through the Aviation Club. Fitoussi helped bring in some of Europe’s top players to the famous poker club, including David Benyamine, Tony G, Ram Vaswani, Joe Beevers, and the Boatman brothers.

In 2005, Fitoussi made his first final table at the World Series of Poker (WSOP), finishing second in a $1,500 Seven Card Razz event for $70,275. He made another final table at the 2006 WSOP, taking fifth in a $1,500 Pot Limit Omaha event for $54,486.

Fitoussi’s biggest achievement came at the $50,000 HORSE World Championship at the 2007 WSOP, where he faced off against 147 of the best poker players in the game. After five days of play and a 14-hour final table, he came within a few hands of winning his first bracelet, finishing as the runner-up to Freddy Deeb for a cool $1,278,720. The tournament was aired by ESPN and put Fitoussi on the poker map, helping lead to his appearance on more television shows in the future.

Since then, Fitoussi has found a lot of success on the World Poker Tour (WPT). He took second place in a $5,000 event at the WPT Five Star World Poker Classic at the Bellagio in Las Vegas in 2008, collecting $205,385. He then took 10th at the $25,000 WPT Championship in 2009 for $98,050, an event ultimately won by internet phenom Yevgeniy “Jovial Gent” Timoshenko. In total, Fitoussi has more than $2.4 million in live tournament earnings.

Despite his success, Fitoussi still isn’t one of the more recognizable faces in the world of high-stakes poker. He isn’t flamboyant like Daniel Negreanu, obnoxious like Mike Matusow, or temperamental like Phil Hellmuth. His quiet, polite behavior on the felts hasn’t helped land him any sponsorship deals with major online sites, but the cool-headed “pro” seems to be just fine with that.

Poker News Daily: What have you been up to poker-w...

Poker News Daily: What have you been up to poker-wise since the conclusion of the 2010 World Series of Poker (WSOP)?

Annie Duke: Trying to slack off. My goal has to been to shirk all responsibility and I’ve been doing a pretty good job of that. The WSOP is a lot. It’s six weeks of playing every day and I am burned out from it. I still have been doing my part and went to Washington DC to testify in front of the House Financial Services Committee. I’ve been spending time with my kids before school starts. I was going to hit The Bike, but it conflicted with UBOC, which I wanted to play a lot of.

PND: You told us earlier that you’re not a big fan of the Bellagio’s tournament structures. Can you explain your point of view?

Annie Duke: When you can sign up on Day 2 and it’s not a bad choice, that’s not a good structure. If I show up on time, I’m playing in a structure where the average stack at the end of Day 1 is 10% higher than the starting stack. Overall, it seems like a waste of a day. If you show up on Day 2, you’re going to lose out on people who are willing to explode, so I also feel like you miss out on opportunities if you start late.

You shouldn’t have a good choice to sign up on Day 2. In the WSOP, signing up two hours late is reasonable to me. The third level in should be good relative to the starting stack. At the Bellagio, you’re signing up eight or 10 levels in. You shouldn’t be able to do that and still have a decent starting stack.

You want to have a lot of play, but at some point, you have to think about people’s play and their health. You should be getting into the money early on Day 2. The pendulum has swung so far partly because of events like the Venetian Deep Stack tournaments. Those go fast because they start you with a lot of chips, but the rest of the structure is pretty fast.

PND: The fifth Ultimate Bet Online Championship, or UBOC, recently played out on UB.com and Absolute Poker. Heading into the series, what were you looking forward to the most?

Annie Duke: I just like the variety. I feel like online it’s always No Limit Hold’em unless it’s one of these big tournament series. To figure out our UBOC schedule, we look at what’s done well in the past. We also want to preserve the integrity of the series itself. It might look like a good strategy to have all No Limit Hold’em events because they’re the most popular, but that hurts your series overall. When the Bellagio went all No Limit Hold’em, their attendance started dropping. People came in for a few tournaments here and there and then left. If you offer a big variety of games, people come in and camp out for a month to play.

It’s all about balancing what does well with what people will sign up for. The pros on UB.com definitely get asked about what they like. They have a good beat on what’s becoming popular. A year or so ago, people started pushing for Pot Limit Omaha Eight or Better and that’s a great game.

PND: Tell us about testifying in front of the House Financial Services Committee on July 20th in Washington, DC.

Annie Duke: Since the trip, HR 2267 got out of committee, which is amazing. We’re now in a situation that during the lame duck session when the spending bills are being passed, you’ll have people that know they won’t be retuning to Congress in 2011 and may not have a problem backing an online gaming bill. There’s a decent chance of the bill passing this year. I wouldn’t make it a favorite, but we have the best chance we’ve had in the last five years.

The big thing for me is overwhelming disappointment in the Commerce Casino’s position. They’ve taken an anti-competitive stance in regard to online gaming. Unless the Commerce is the only operator, they don’t want to share. That’s ridiculous for poker players. They want the version where they’re the only hub that offers online gaming in California.

If there’s a bill that allows gaming in California, it doesn’t help someone in Iowa or Delaware. Those states would have to pass their own bills, but look at the population difference. At the Commerce, I can gamble with people from all over the world. I feel like the Commerce Casino’s position is anti-competitive and their customer base consists of poker players. In the end, the poker players fund their commercial interests.

Also, I’m concerned by the comparison of the operators of online sites to the drug cartels. We know that’s not true. These sites may not be licensed in the U.S., but foreign governments that are friends of our government license them. France isn’t in the business of licensing drug dealers and terrorists.

PND: Tell us about Liv Boeree and UB.com parting ways.

Annie Duke: The issue was that she had a really good result that increased her value and wanted something we couldn’t come to terms with. It was very amicable.

PND: What are your Labor Day plans?

Annie Duke: I don’t have any plans, but I’ll probably cook out with my kids. We don’t do big Labor Days or Memorial Days. I feel like every day is a party at the Duke household.

On Saturday night, the second round of matches in ...

On Saturday night, the second round of matches in the Full Tilt Doubles Poker Championship played out on GSN. The unique team format features randomly assigned partners who alternate action on every street. Teammates cannot discuss strategy while they have cards unless they call a 30-second time out.

In the first match of the one-hour episode, high-stakes poker pros David Benyamine and Phil Ivey teamed up, Andrew “luckychewy” Lichtenberger partnered with Greg “FBT” Mueller, Carlos Mortensen teamed with Allen Cunningham, and UB.com’s Phil Hellmuth teamed with Jennifer Harman.

Ivey and Benyamine were the first pair to depart, getting it in with pocket fives and running into pocket tens. They received zero points towards the regular season standings and Full Tilt Doubles Poker Championship commentator Brandon Adams quipped, “They’re probably going to terrorize people on the internet.”

Hellmuth and Harman were the next team to be eliminated after moving all-in with pocket deuces and running into a wired pair of fives. Then, Mortensen and Cunningham doubled up with A-10 of clubs against Mueller and Lichtenberger’s K-9. The latter team’s chip stack sunk to three big blinds and they were eliminated on the very next hand. Mortensen and Cunningham received 20 points each for the regular season, while Mueller and Lichtenberger each accrued 11.

In the second match of the show, which spanned its last half-hour, Nick Schulman teamed with Phil Gordon, Antonio Esfandiari teamed with Chris Ferguson, and Gus Hansen teamed with Toto Leonidas. The final pair of the second match was none other than Johnny Chan and Erik Seidel, whose heads-up battle in the 1988 World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event was featured in the movie “Rounders.”

Hansen and Leonidas doubled up early on, but could not sustain the momentum and finished in fourth place, netting zero points for the regular season. In their final hand, Hansen committed his team’s chips pre-flop with 10-9 of hearts, but Ferguson woke up with pocket aces. While Esfandiari furiously rubbed Hansen’s head for good luck, the board ran out 6-7-4-5-Q.

Chan and Seidel hit Broadway on the river to double up through Gordon and Schulman, who were promptly eliminated with 3-2 against Esfandiari and Ferguson’s K-6. Each received four points for their third place finish in the Full Tilt Doubles Poker Championship.

In the final hand of the night, Ferguson check-raised all-in on a flop of 4-J-A holding 4-2 for bottom pair. Chan made the call with J-6 for middle pair and the seven of diamonds came on the turn. By the river, Ferguson and Esfandiari were drawing to a deuce, four, or diamond. However, the ten of hearts hit and Chan and Seidel each picked up 20 points for the regular season after their WSOP Main Event reunion.

Chan has lodged 40 points over his first two matches after recording two wins. Each of the 32 players in the field will take to the felts for four regular season matches. Then, the top 16 will advance to the playoffs, where the winning team will split $1 million. The buy-in to the Full Tilt Doubles Poker Championship, which was filmed at the Golden Nugget in Downtown Las Vegas, was $50,000.

On his unique pairing with Chan, Seidel told hostess Lacey Jones, “I was very comfortable with the partnership. I know Johnny’s going to make the right decisions when the time comes up, so I was always happy when the cards were in his hands.”

You can catch the Full Tilt Doubles Poker Championship every Saturday at 9:00pm ET on GSN.

The World Series of Poker (WSOP) Circuit made hist...

The World Series of Poker (WSOP) Circuit made history earlier this week with the announcement of an additional stop to its 2010-2011 Circuit schedule, a visit to the great state of Oklahoma.

The WSOP Circuit will visit the Choctaw Casino Resort in Durant, Oklahoma from January 6th to 25th for the first ever American WSOP event not held in a Harrah’s property. The Choctaw Casino WSOP Circuit stop will feature ten ring events among a flood of 54 tournaments. The Choctaw tournament now brings to 13 the total number of stops on the WSOP Circuit schedule this year, with potentially one more to be added.

Harrah’s officials were impressed enough with the Choctaw Casino Resort to hold a WSOP Circuit event at the location. Its proximity to several large cities in the South – including Dallas, Fort Worth, Oklahoma City, and Tulsa – should provide for large and competitive fields. Still, it was the Choctaw Casino Resort itself that made its mark on WSOP Vice President Ty Stewart.

“After visiting the property, it was a must that we brought a WSOP Circuit stop to Choctaw Casino Resort,” Stewart stated during the announcement. “This is a huge poker market that has clamored for high-stakes tournament poker and we’re ecstatic to be hosting a WSOP Circuit in this gorgeous property in Durant come January.”

Steven Loyd, the Choctaw Casino Resort Director of Gaming and Hotel Operations, thinks that the WSOP Circuit stop at the Choctaw casino will be highly successful. “The vibrant poker markets in Texas and Oklahoma deserve a local to regional WSOP Circuit opportunity and Choctaw Casino Resort in Durant couldn’t be a better choice,” Loyd said. “Our location midway between Oklahoma City, Tulsa, and the large population base around Dallas/Fort Worth puts us within easy striking distance of thousands of serious poker enthusiasts.”

“Our beautiful new facility is poker friendly, with a best in class poker room and spacious tournament areas, great food and lodging,” Loyd concluded. “The Choctaw Nation is proud to be the newest member of the WSOP Circuit family.” The recently revamped poker room at the Choctaw Casino Resort is definitely a jewel in their crown. It features a brand new 30-table poker lounge that has its own exclusive floor in the casino.

With their new tournament in Oklahoma, Harrah’s and the WSOP Circuit are following what could become the new trend among tournament poker schedules. The World Poker Tour (WPT), after law changes in Florida that made it more poker-friendly, recently announced an agreement for a multi-year tour stop to be held at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casinos in Hollywood and Tampa. The Seminole Indian tribe, which owns the Hard Rock franchises, will be bringing the first major poker tournament to Florida come 2011.

These major tours – with the WPT and the WSOP moving into Indian casinos to expand their tour’s potential – could mark an new “poker rush” among casinos and poker rooms that do not have any association with a major tournament schedule.

After the first six weeks of coverage of the World...

After the first six weeks of coverage of the World Series of Poker (WSOP) on cable sports giant ESPN, the ratings are down slightly in comparison to last year’s numbers.

The overall ratings for the first six weeks of WSOP coverage on ESPN have garnered a 0.67 rating, with a rating of 1.0 meaning that approximately 1.1 million viewers were watching a program. This would give the WSOP on ESPN an average of 737,000 viewers over the first six weeks of broadcasting. Compared to 2009, when the first six weeks pulled in a 0.79 rating (869,000 viewers), the ratings have dropped approximately 16%.

Among the demographics, only one ratings group showed improvement over its 2009 numbers. For men above the age of 55, the ratings have gone up to 0.80 from their 2009 average of 0.74. All other demographics have either remained steady or fallen.

After ESPN aired its special WSOP preview episode on July 20th, the Poker Player’s Championship drew two hours of coverage the next week. The battle, which featured brothers Robert and eventual champion Michael Mizrachi, improved the first week ratings over 2009. Those numbers – 0.7 in 2010 versus the 0.6 average in 2009 – were a 15% increase year-over-year.

The next week, the revival of the Tournament of Champions that included some of the top names in the game was featured. Players involved in this final table included former victor Annie Duke, Howard Lederer, Barry Greenstein, and T.J. Cloutier alongside former World Champions Johnny Chan and Joe Hachem. Former World Champion Huck Seed would go on to take the title at one of the most star-studded final tables in recent WSOP history.

The broadcasts of the 2010 WSOP Main Event began on August 10th featuring the second largest field in Main Event history. 7,319 players came to the tables to battle it out for an $8.9 million first place prize and one of the most cherished bracelets a player can earn. Over the last month, Mike Matusow, 2003 WSOP Main Event champion Chris Moneymaker, 2004 WSOP Main Event winner Greg Raymer, inaugural WSOP Europe Main Event champion Annette Obrestad, and 2008 WSOP Player of the Year Erick Lindgren have been featured as part of ESPN’s coverage.

Last week’s of coverage of the WSOP on ESPN featured some of the most volatile action of the 2010 schedule. The two hours of coverage were from Day 2B of this year’s tournament, with much of that time spent on a feature table that included 1995 World Champion Dan Harrington, 2009 November Nine member Jeff Shulman, top poker pro Josh Arieh. The real highlight of the latest coverage by ESPN, however, was a disputed hand on an outer table between Ted Bort and noted pro Prahlad Friedman.

In one of the most memorable moments caught on a WSOP broadcast, Bort, who is the CEO of Allied Network Solutions, and Friedman were on the river in a hotly contested hand. After Bort pushed his stack to the center, Friedman pondered his decision while Bort annoyingly barked like a dog.

The clock was called on Friedman and, once Rio staff announced the count of one, Friedman made the call. The floor, however, ruled the hand dead because Friedman didn’t make the call in time, saving him from elimination. Although several players protested the decision, it stood and Friedman stayed in the $10,000 buy-in tournament.

The WSOP Main Event will continue to be the focus on ESPN over the next ten weeks. The broadcasts, which come in two-hour blocks on Tuesdays from 9:00pm to 11:00pm Eastern Time, will continue to track the most prestigious tournament in poker to its end.

On Wednesday, September 8th, the Borgata Poker Ope...

On Wednesday, September 8th, the Borgata Poker Open will kick off from Atlantic City. A total of 21 poker tournaments are on tap, including the $3,500 buy-in World Poker Tour (WPT) Main Event. Day 1A of the WPT Borgata Poker Open begins on September 18th and the tournament will crown a winner five days later. Two starting days are planned.

Event #1 of the Borgata Poker Open is a $400 buy-in Deep Stack No Limit Hold’em tournament that issues its “Shuffle up and deal” command on September 18th at 11:00am ET. Day 2 of the event will be held the next day at Noon ET. Other Borgata Poker Open preliminary events include a $2,150 buy-in Heads-Up Double Elimination contest on September 14th and 15th and a $1,650 buy-in No Limit Hold’em tournament on September 16th.

Borgata Senior Vice President of Operations Joe Lupo commented in a press release distributed by the East Coast gaming establishment, “The Borgata Poker Open provides an incredible opportunity for amateurs as well as poker pros to participate in a unique tournament series, unmatched anywhere on the East Coast. With a $3,500 buy-in, televised WPT Borgata Poker Open Championship event, and a guaranteed $2 million prize pool, anyone has the chance to take home the trophy, championship money, and become a star.”

Last year, the WPT Borgata Poker Open, which also featured a $3,500 buy-in, attracted 1,018 players. Olivier Busquet took down the title and claimed a $925,000 payday after defeating Jeremy Brown heads-up. Busquet, who hails from New York, took second in the European Poker Tour (EPT) Monte Carlo High Roller event in April for nearly $800,000, falling heads-up to Tobias Reinkemeier.

Rounding out the final table of last year’s WPT Borgata Poker Open were Ivan Mamuzic (third place for $251,955), Yanick Brodeur (fourth place for $216,681), Keith Crowder (fifth place for $188,126), and Kenny Nguyen (sixth place for $156,212). Last year’s prize pool lapped $3.3 million and this year’s, as Lupo alluded to, is guaranteed to be at least $2 million.

On-site reservations for any of the 21 Borgata Poker Open events will be available on Tuesday. Here’s the full schedule and all times are Eastern:

Event 1: Wednesday, September 8th at 11:00am $350 + $50 Deep Stack No Limit Hold’em

Event 2: Thursday, September 9th at 11:00am $200 + $30 Deep Stack Turbo No Limit Hold’em (Two Re-Entries)

Event 3: Friday, September 10th at 11:00am $500 + $60 No Limit Hold’em

Event 4: Friday, September 10th at 12:00pm $350 + $50 Pot Limit Omaha High

Event 5: Saturday, September 11th at 11:00am $1,000 + $90 No Limit Hold’em

Event 6: Saturday, September 11th at 12:00pm $250 + $30 No Limit Hold’em

Event 7: Sunday, September 12th at 11:00am $350 + $50 Deep Stack No Limit Hold’em

Event 8: Sunday, September 12th at 12:00pm $200 + $30 Ladies No Limit Hold’em

Event 9: Monday, September 13 11:00am $350 + $50 Deep Stack Turbo No Limit Hold’em (Two Re-Entries)

Event 10: Monday, September 13th at 1:00pm $350 + $50 Omaha High-Low Eight or Better

Event 11: Tuesday, September 14th at 11:00am $2,000 + $150 Heads-Up Double Elimination

Event 12: Tuesday, September 14th at 12:00pm $300 + $50 No Limit Hold’em

Event 13: Wednesday, September 15th at 11:00am $170 + $30 $100,000 Guaranteed No Limit Hold’em (Two Re-Entries)

Event 14: Thursday, September 16th at 11:00am $1,500 + $150 No Limit Hold’em

Event 15: Thursday, September 16th at 12:00pm $300 + $50 Seniors No Limit Hold’em

Event 16: Friday, September 17th at 11:00am $1,000 + $90 Six-Handed No Limit Hold’em

Event 17: Saturday, September 18th at 11:00am $3,300 + $200 WPT Borgata Poker Open Championship Event

Event 18: Sunday, September 19th at 12:00pm $500 + $60 No Limit Hold’em

Event 19: Monday, September 20th at 12:00pm $350 + $50 No Limit Hold’em

Event 20: Tuesday, September 21st at 12:00pm $300 + $50 No Limit Hold’em

Event 21: Wednesday, September 22nd at 12:00pm $200 + $30 No Limit Hold’em

When the 2010 World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Ev...

When the 2010 World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event resumes on November 6th, Filippo Candio will hold the sixth largest chip stack at the Rio at 16.4 million. The Italian is the lone European at the final table and sat down with Poker News Daily to preview the $10,000 buy-in tournament’s conclusion.

Poker News Daily: Tell us what it feels like to be representing your home nation of Italy at the Main Event final table.

Filippo Candio: It is a great honor to represent my country at the final table of the World Series of Poker Main Event. It’s the stuff dreams are made of!

PND: What preparations will you be making for the November 6th resumption of the final table? Studying your opponents? Tweaking your own game?

Filippo Candio: Nothing more than usual. I will be planning on playing my A-game throughout the final table and hopefully bringing back the bracelet. If I continue the way I was playing, I don’t feel I need to change too much.

PND: How hard do you anticipate it will be to get back into the groove of the Main Event come November after a 100-day break?

Filippo Candio: Not hard at all. I’ve been playing a fair bit anyway, so it’s not like I haven’t been playing poker for four months, but I think I’ll need to sharpen up a bit.

PND: Which poker players do you admire the most and why?

Filippo Candio: Phil Ivey and Patrik Antonius are my favorite players because they are simply the best in the world. I think everyone wants to be able to play like them. They have so much respect and deservedly so.

PND: What’s the number one interview question you’ve been asked by the poker media since July and how have you responded?

Filippo Candio: I think it would have to be, “How does it feel to be on the final table?” I usually respond with the same answer because it truly is an amazing feeling.

PND: Would it be a major disappointment if you didn’t win or is making the WSOP Main Event November Nine an accomplishment in itself?

Filippo Candio: Making the final table is the biggest accomplishment I have ever had. It’s a great honor to have just made it that far, but everybody wants to win in life and I’m the same. Winning would be great, but I’ve been lucky enough to make it this far, which for me is almost the same.

PND: Are you planning to seek any coaching leading up to the final table?

Filippo Candio: I highly doubt it. I’m pretty happy with my game at the moment, so I’m most likely just going to continue trying to improve any leaks by myself.

PND: How did you get started in poker?

Filippo Candio: I started when I was younger, probably about 18. I was playing a lot with friends before I realized I could make a fair amount of money from the game.

PND: Who will you be bringing with you to support you in Las Vegas?

Filippo Candio: Mainly just a few members of my family and a few friends.

If your weekend activities involve watching colleg...

If your weekend activities involve watching college football or otherwise lounging around in your pajamas, head to Full Tilt Poker and take advantage of the site’s Fast $50 bonus. The offer is good through September 12th on the world’s second largest online poker room.

All you have to do is log into the Full Tilt client and accept your Fast $50 offer by 23:59 ET on September 12th. To do so, click on the “Requests” menu and then select “Check My Bonus Offer.” If you’ve followed our directions to a “t,” a window will pop up asking you to accept your Fast $50 bonus. Click on “Accept Offer” and start clearing it!

Anyone who has made their first deposit on Full Tilt Poker and finished a bonus by 23:59 ET on September 1st is eligible to receive a Fast $50 immediately. If you haven’t yet signed up for and deposited on the USA-friendly site, you’re in luck. Not only can you take advantage of the Fast $50 promotion, but you can also claim a 100% deposit bonus.

Text found on Full Tilt’s website explains, “If you have not made your initial deposit, you have until 23:59 ET on September 9th to make your first deposit and finish your 100% First Deposit Bonus. If you do so, you’ll receive a Fast $50 bonus offer by September 10th and have until 23:59 ET on September 12th to accept.”

If you still have an active bonus pending, you have until the end of the day ET on September 9th to finish it. Then, you’ll get a Fast $50 bonus by September 10th and have until 23:59 ET on September 12th to accept it. You can click on the “Bonus Account” button in the Full Tilt Cashier to see where you stand on any active offers.

The Fast $50 bonus expires 21 days after you accept it, so be sure to hit the virtual felts in earnest. It clears at a rate of $0.06 per Full Tilt Point, or FTP, and is paid out in increments of 10%. Players on the popular online poker forum PocketFives.com reported receiving Fast $50 bonuses between $50 and $500, with the majority receiving the former. Some players also claimed that no bonus was waiting for them when they logged in.

Had enough of the red tape? So have we. If you’re looking for an easy way to clear your Fast $50 bonus, Full Tilt recommends hitting up its Rush Poker tables. Introduced in January, Rush Poker eliminates virtually all downtime in poker. As soon as your action in one hand ends, you’re whisked away to a brand new table with a brand new set of opponents where a new hand is immediately dealt. Both Rush Poker tournaments and cash games are available.

On Wednesday, the Mini version of the 17th Full Tilt Online Poker Series, or MiniFTOPS, will begin. The 34-tournament series offers a colossal $6 million in guaranteed prize money and follows the same slate of events as its high-stakes counterpart. This time, however, the buy-ins are one-tenth as large, allowing players of all bankrolls to get in on the FTOPS fun. The kickoff event is a $22 No Limit Hold’em tournament that guarantees $200,000.

The Main Event of MiniFTOPS XVII will take place on Sunday, September 19th at 17:00 ET. The $75 buy-in online poker tournament will dole out at least $1 million and Carlos Mortensen, the World Poker Tour’s all-time money leader, will serve as its host. Remember, Full Tilt gladly accepts players from the United States and around the world. Visit Full Tilt for more details.

Blair Hinkle, Dwyte Pilgrim and Doug “Rico&r...

Blair Hinkle, Dwyte Pilgrim and Doug “Rico” Carli are all no strangers to the WSOP Circuit events around the country. All were playing at the World Series of Poker Circuit Event in Council Bluffs, which is right on the border of Iowa. To honor the cornfields of the heartland of America, the three engaged in a Corn Shucking Prop Bet to see who could shuck three corn stalks the quickest. The winner of this amazing prop bet wins the admiration of dozens, bragging rights over his poker peers in addition to the grand prize of an all expense paid dinner at the casino.

Blair Hinkle is a young live tournament pro who has a WSOP bracelet to his name, in the 2008 WSOP $2,000 No-Limit Hold’em event which won him over a half million dollars. He’s also won online, including the Full Tilt Online Poker Series (FTOPS) $216 No Limit Hold’em event for $146,288. At this particular circuit event he ended up winning the $1,600 Main Event which had 251 runners for a $88,000 payday. He also received a diamond and gold ring and $10,000 to buy into the 2011 WSOP Main Event, in addition to a seat at the Circuit National Championship.

Dwyte Pilgrim is the unofficial WSOP Circuit Master, with over $750,000 to his name in live tournament earnings. He is considered a rising star in the world of live tournament poker and someone to keep an eye out on at the 2011 World Series of Poker No Limit Hold’em events.

Doug “Rico” Carli is an old-school poker player hailing from Ohio who has a degree in mathematics. In addition to poker he’s known to be found at the local golf course or bowling alley.

In preparation for its forthcoming Championship Ev...

In preparation for its forthcoming Championship Event, World Team Poker has added 19 countries to its lineup, including Canada, Pakistan, and Spain. World Team Poker will even receive face time on Fox Sports Net when its tournaments begin debuting in January on Sunday nights for 13 weeks.

Team Canada promises to be among the fiercest in the 30-team field. Shawn Buchanan, Kyle Wilson, Eric Cloutier, Owen “ocrowe” Crowe, Daniel Idema, and Terrence “Unassigned” Chan will comprise the group, which features two-time World Series of Poker (WSOP) Greg “FBT” Mueller as its captain. Buchanan finished as the runner-up to new DoylesRoom Brunson 10 member Dan “djk123” Kelly in the $25,000 No Limit Hold’em Six-Max event at the 2010 WSOP, banking $813,000.

Hasan Habib and Faraz “The-Toilet” Jaka will co-captain Team Pakistan. A press release distributed by World Team Poker delicately explains, “Pakistan, which is known more for its cricket than poker players, has formed a formidable team of excellent poker talent.” Jaka is the reigning World Poker Tour (WPT) Player of the Year after recording two final tables and four top 20 finishes last season. Also on Team Pakistan are Ayaz Mahmood, Ozzy Sheikh, Owais Ahmed, Mohsin “chicagocards1” Charania, and former Ultimate Bet Online Championship (UBOC) Main Event winner Hafiz Khan.

Carlos Mortensen, the WPT’s all-time money leader, will captain Team Spain. Mortensen was the only announced player for the Spanish World Team Poker contingent, but the former WSOP Main Event champ has four WPT final tables to his credit along with three titles. Mortensen has $5.7 million in career WPT earnings along with $2.4 million from the WSOP felts, where he’s a two-time bracelet winner.

Team Caribbean Islands is also taking form, with three players having signed up to be part of the fun. Jean-Robert Bellande, a former Bodog pro and “Survivor: China” castaway, will compete for the island nation team alongside Jean “Prince” Gaspard and Amnon Filippi. Among their competition will be Team Germany, which consists of Dan Heimiller, John Galbraith, Kathy Liebert, Jennifer “Jennicide” Leigh, and Cyndy Violette. Liebert is being inducted into the Women in Poker Hall of Fame this evening, while Violette is already a member.

Victory Poker pro Antonio Esfandiari will captain Team Iran. Backing him up is an eclectic group of players that includes Reza Golestani, Mojgan Stringham, Shawn “Sheiky” Sheikhan, and Soheil Shamseddin.

Team USA has largely already been determined, with Doyle Brunson, Phil Hellmuth, Mike Matusow, Allen Cunningham, Annie Duke, Jennifer Harman, Chris Ferguson, Howard Lederer, and Erik Seidel taking the floor for the North American nation. Three online poker sites – DoylesRoom, UB.com, and Full Tilt Poker – will be represented.

The 30-team Championship Event will likely occur next month from Las Vegas, although the dates, times, and a location have not yet been announced. The inaugural World Team Poker tournament took place at the Golden Nugget in Downtown Las Vegas earlier this year and was won by Team China, whose impressive roster of pros includes former WPT Championship winner David Chiu, 10-time bracelet winner Johnny Chan, Winfred Yu, former “Amazing Race” contestant Maria Ho, Chau Giang, Rich Zhu, and Derek Cheung.

Here are the new team captains along with the countries they represent as announced by World Team Poker on Friday:

Greg Mueller: Canada Hasan Habib and Faraz “The-Toilet” Jaka: Pakistan Jean-Robert Bellande: Caribbean Islands Peter Costa: Cyprus Max Stern: Costa Rica Chris Bjorin: Sweden Martin Pollak: Austria Dan Heimiller: Germany Bruno Fitoussi: France Vivek “Psyduck” Rajkumer: India Toto Leonidas: Philippines Antonio Esfandiari: Iran Kevin Song: Korea Marco Traniello: Italy Lenny Martin: Russia Carlos Mortensen: Spain Roberto Rominelli: Wales Padraig Parkinson and Donnacha O’Dea: Ireland Vladimir Shchemelev: Ukraine

Visit WorldTeamPoker.com for more details.

Don’t bite the hand that feeds you. This ol...

Don’t bite the hand that feeds you. This old saying darted through my mind every time I read about the National Football League (NFL) lobbying against Representative Barney Frank’s internet gambling bill, HR 2267. Fortunately, the league ended its opposition to the bill in August because an amendment was added that would prohibit licensed online gambling operators from offering sports betting.

That doesn’t mean that the NFL’s stance on the whole issue is any less tilt-inducing to me, though. Before I get to my rant, I should say that given the NFL’s position on sports betting, I completely understand why the league, and other sports leagues for that matter, couldn’t care less about poker players. If a bill that legalizes and regulates online poker also does so for online sports betting, poker is unimportant collateral damage if the NFL manages to get the entire bill shot down. Guilt by association. I think most poker players feel the same way about sports betting. While we feel that people should be allowed to bet online, if throwing sports betting under the bus is the way for poker to come out on top, well…sorry sports bettors. Sucks to be you.

So, while I get why poker players are not a concern of the NFL, the league’s hatred of sports betting just doesn’t make sense to me. I mean, they hate it so much that they hired someone to lobby against Rep. Frank’s bill. They feel that sports betting hurts the integrity of the game. But as far as I know, there have never been any sports betting or game fixing scandals of note involving the NFL. Besides, while it’s of course possible, I find it extremely unlikely that an NFL player would be able to be influenced by criminal types to fix a game. Players get paid handsome sums of money for their skills, so the fee that someone would have to pay a player to, say, lose on purpose, would have to be pretty substantial. Plus, it would be quite difficult for a player to throw a game by himself without it being extremely obvious. I just don’t think it would realistically happen.

Getting back to my opening sentence, what really gets me is that without sports betting, the NFL wouldn’t be nearly as popular as it is today. Football season is like an extended Christmas shopping season for sports books and the Super Bowl is like Black Friday. Millions of people who either don’t have a strong rooting interest or whose team has no chance remain interested because they have money on the games. These people subscribe to DirecTV’s football package, make sure they get the NFL Network on cable, watch the commercials that feed the NFL’s coffers, and view the ads on the NFL’s website.

And all that doesn’t include fantasy football, which the NFL loves. The hypocrisy of that should be obvious. Fantasy football is gambling. It’s just in different form. Yes, many, if not most, people play fantasy for free and put no money into their leagues. But millions of people do bet at least a few bucks each season, hoping that their team will win the league and result in a nice payout. Of course it’s gambling. Fantasy players are betting on the performance of the players they draft, rather than on the performance of an NFL team. And the payouts come at the end of the season, instead of at the end of each game.

One big thing that the NFL is ignoring in its loathing of online sports betting is that it’s easier to catch game fixing and the like online than it is offline. Online, all wagering history is recorded and suspicious trends are tracked. For example, in 2007, millions of dollars were bet on the European sports book Betfair against tennis player Nikolay Davydenko in a match in which he was a strong favorite and had already won the first set. He then withdrew from the match in the third set with an apparent injury. Betfair, in accordance with its agreement with the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP), notified the ATP of this suspicious activity, and cancelled all wagers on the match.

What the NFL should do is partner with the online sports books to help fight sports betting crime. Over a dozen online sports books in Europe are members of the European Sports Security Association (ESSA), which has a “mandate to keep sport clean and free from manipulation.” The ESSA members alert each other if any irregular betting patterns are detected, and in turn, alert the sports leagues and regulatory bodies. A system like this seems so obvious. In the meantime, the NFL and other professional sports leagues in the U.S. would apparently rather have online sports betting go underground with no protections, either for the bettors or the leagues, in place.

I am pleased that the NFL has dropped its opposition to the Frank bill, but it still needs to get its head out of the sand and get with the times. It owes much of its popularity to sports betting. Accept it and embrace the technological advancements that will protect the game better than prohibition will.

Ever want to improve your Multi-Table Tournament g...

Ever want to improve your Multi-Table Tournament game to make more money? Obviously! Well never fear, CardRunners is here once again with another free training video exclusively for our loyal Poker News Daily readers. This time the video will take a look at playing $22 Rebuy tournaments that allow 1 add-on. These are extremely popular tournaments that run constantly on sites like Full Tilt Poker, PokerStars, PartyPoker and more. The fields are fishy, but do you have all the knowledge necessary to maximize your ROI? Watching this video just might help you figure that out.

The official CardRunners teaser:

New CardRunners MTT pro Augie is here showing you how to manage the final table bubble and increase your bottom line. Tune in to this exciting 2 parter of a $22 1 Rebuy/1 Add-on.

Here’s a comment from Augie about how to improve your game, which comes from the video response thread at CardRunners:

Yes tough decisions suck and are no fun. that was one of the big things holding me back when i was not very good at tournaments…i was afraid to make big decisions so i ended up just playing way too tight and relying on picking up good hands and coolering people. sometimes you have to step out of your comfort zone to make the right play. sometimes i have to really talk myself into pulling the trigger. luckily we’re playing online so at least we don’t have to hide our tells when we’re bluffing

Receive CardRunners for free through Truly Free Poker Training. Earn 5,500 points in a month playing on Full Tilt Poker and you’ll receive a free month of CardRunners. Earn a free week for only 1,375 points. No points are deducted and there is no impact on rake.

Twenty year-old Toby Lewis triumphed over the fiel...

Twenty year-old Toby Lewis triumphed over the field in the European Poker Tour’s (EPT) stop in Vilamoura, Portugal. Lewis banked a hearty €467,000 for his efforts in the €5,350 buy-in tournament, the largest ever held in the European nation.

The final pot of the night was a dramatic one. Facing off against fellow young gun Martin Jacobson, who is just 23 years old, Lewis raised pre-flop and received a call to see the first three cards come A-9-10. The action slowed down and both players checked to a five on the turn. Jacobson bet out for 180,000 and Lewis made it 525,000. Not to be outdone, Jacobson 3bet to 1.025 million and Lewis added another million on top of that. Jacobson tanked before 5betting all-in and Lewis made the call.

When the cards were revealed, Jacobson held 9-5 for bottom two pair, while Lewis held pocket fives for a turned set. Jacobson was drawing thin to a nine and whiffed on the river when another 10 came. Lewis held a boat and took down the EPT Vilamoura title. Don’t feel sorry for Jacobson, however, who pulled down €298,000 for his runner-up performance in the record-breaking Portuguese poker tournament.

American Jason Lee was EPT Vilamoura’s third place finisher. Lee shoved all-in pre-flop with A-5 of hearts, but ran into Jacobson’s A-10. No hearts came on the board and Jacobson turned a 10 to boot, bringing a 3:2 chip lead into heads-up play against Lewis. U.K. poker pro Sam Trickett, a former winner of the Grosvenor U.K. Poker Tour Luton Main Event, nabbed fourth place for €139,000.

Following his title, Lewis told EPT officials, “I’m pretty happy at the moment. This title means a lot to me. I was disappointed not to win IPT Venice, but this means even more. It wasn’t easy – Martin was a very hard player to beat.” Lewis finished seventh in the PokerStars-backed Italian Poker Tour (IPT) stop in Venice in July. Italian Tamas Lendavi took down the €2,000 buy-in tournament to the tune of €235,000.

World-renowned footballer Teddy Sheringham took fifth in EPT Vilamoura. The Friend of PokerStars 3bet all-in on a board of K-9-10-9 with K-Q for kings-up, but Jacobson tabled Q-J for the nut straight. No miracle card came on the river and Sheringham was sent into the streets of Vilamoura €93,000 richer for his wear. According to the HendonMob database, it was Sheringham’s largest live tournament cash ever. He finished 14th in the World Series of Poker (WSOP) Europe Main Event last year for £40,000.

Others who made the money included Luca Pagano, J.P. Kelly, and Rob Hollink. Here’s how the final table shook out. Six nations were represented among its eight participants:

1. Toby Lewis (U.K.) – € 467,836 2. Martin Jacobson (Sweden) – €297,985 3. Jason Lee (USA) €186,241 4. Sam Trickett (U.K.) – €139,681 5. Teddy Sheringham (U.K.) – €93,121 6. Frederik Jensen (Denmark) – €74,496 7. Rob Hollink (Netherlands) – €55,872 8. Sergio Coutinho (Portugal) – €37,248

The EPT is now on hiatus until September 28th, when EPT London kicks off. The London festival of poker plays out until October 4th at the Hilton London Metropole. The Main Event begins on September 29th with the first of two starting days and a massive crowd is expected for the £5,250 buy-in event. Last year, 730 players entered EPT London, forming the largest tournament ever held in the U.K. 2008 WSOP Main Event champ Peter Eastgate, now on a break from poker, finished second in the EPT London feature tournament.

Visit PokerStars for more details.

On today’s Daily Deal, the coalition of Cali...

On today’s Daily Deal, the coalition of California casinos clarifies its stance on internet gambling legislation, 888 reports its financial results for the first half of two-thousand ten, the World Series of Poker Main Event continues airing on ESPN and we find out who the final nominees are for this year’s Hall of Fame. It’s all ahead… faster than you can say, “I can dodge bullets, baby.”

Hello, I’m Sean Gibson and welcome to the Daily Deal by Poker News Daily.

Recently, the Commerce Casino, Bicycle Casino, Hawaiian Gardens, Hollywood Park, and the California Gaming Association joined in opposition Congressman Barney Frank’s HR 2267, which would create a full licensing and regulatory framework for the internet gambling industry in the United States.

The four casinos have found themselves in a war of words against the Poker Players Alliance, which has launched an online petition at PlayersBeforeProfits.com to reverse their stance against the groundbreaking legislation. Poker News Daily sat down with card room coalition spokesperson Waltona Manion to explore the coalition’s resistance.

Manion argued,

“We’re looking for Federal enforcement of the same strict licensing and regulation for online poker as U.S. land-based casinos abide by. This means that they have to license all of their employees and the physical operations should be in the U.S. In addition, the hardware and software should be tested and certified.”

She added, “Frank’s bill provides fewer industry regulations and player protections. It imposes lower taxes for foreign online companies than what U.S. casinos pay. It would enable illegal offshore companies to export significant money from our economy.”

We’ll keep you posted as this story develops.

888 Holdings, the gaming operator that owns 888 Poker, announced Tuesday that it will be cutting costs in order to address a loss in profits for the first half of 2010. The company has also decided to scrap its dividend in order to pay for acquisitions after the weak economy and World Cup caused a decline in poker revenue.

888’s first half financial results showed revenues were up 10.5% to one-hundred thirty million dollars, but pre-tax profit dropped by 56% to four point three million dollars. Poker revenue dropped 25% to nineteen point six million.

The WSOP Main Event continued airing on ESPN on Tuesday night with Day Two-B. Two one-hour episodes were devoted to the second Day Two and the feature table included Dan Harrington and Jeff Shulman, who were seated next to each other. Prahlad Friedman and Allied Network Solutions CEO Ted Bort tangled in a hand in which Bort called the clock after pushing all in. Friedman waited until the count reached one and quietly said, “I call,” but floor officials ruled that the clock had expired. Bort turned over top two pair and Friedman mucked.

A maelstrom of yelling ensued. ESPN aired a replay clearly showing that Friedman had called at the one-second mark and the dealer promptly said, “He called.” Nevertheless, another floor supervisor was summoned who also said the hand was dead. Don’t forget that Friedman was also involved in “Ante-gate” with Jeffrey Lisandro.

Finally, the nominees as voted by the fans are in for the Poker Hall of Fame. This year’s class is a who’s who of the poker world, all of whom have distinguished careers warranting their nominations. This year’s class of nominees, who will be voted on by the 16 living Hall of Fame members and a 17-person media panel. Only these 33 individuals cast votes for induction. The nominees are:

1. CHRIS FERGUSON 2. BARRY GREENSTEIN 3. JENNIFER HARMAN-TRANIELLO 4. DAN HARRINGTON 5. PHIL IVEY 6. LINDA JOHNSON 7. TOM McEVOY 8. DANIEL NEGREANU 9. SCOTTY NGUYEN 10. ERIK SEIDEL

Well, that does it for today’s edition of The Daily Deal, and we’ll be back with you on Tuesday of next week. Be sure to visit Poker News Daily every day for the latest poker headlines, and be sure to check us out at twitter dot com slash poker news daily. I’m Sean Gibson, thanks for tuning in, and we’ll see you next time. Now go crush those fish at the tables!

The results for APAT are in...

Eight Tournaments were held over five days attracting over 450 Poker players and 700 tournament entries from around the world to the host venue, Nottingham's DTD for the festival sponsored by Betfair Poker.
The results in full were as follows

World Amateur Poker Championship

The 425 runner event was won by Welshman Ben Young from Cardiff ahead of Steve Roderick and Wayne Parker:

28th August 2010

Entries 425

Buy In £100

Prize Pool £42,500

(England unless stated)

1 Ben Young (Wales) £9,000
2 Steve Roderick (Wales) £6,500
3 Wayne Parker £4,000
4 Mark Lassman (Zimbabawe) £1,200
5 Gareth Cash (Northern Ireland) £1,200
6 Jeldon Fernandes £1,200
7 William De-vanney £1,200
8 Berney Frankfort (Netherlands) £1,200
9 Ritesh Chauhan £1,200
10 Neil Lukins £750
11 James Jeffrey £750
12 Mohammed Javed £750
13 Luigi Belleri (Italy) £750
14 Martin Sieder £750
15 Stuart Pillinger £750
16 Phil Tompkinson £750
17 Richard Sheils £750
18 Philip Colls £750
19 Richard Baker £450
20 Derek Liddle (Scotland) £450
21 Marcin Rejmak (Poland) £450
22 Gordon Mcarthur (Scotland) £450
23 Alan Haysom £450
24 Duane Read £450
25 Matthew Whiting £450
26 James Rann £450
27 David Sykes £450
28 Glenn Hallam £300
29 Dave Butler £300
30 Gerard Smyth (Ireland) £300
31 Gary Phillips (Wales) £300
32 Neil Sillick £300
33 Cam Law £300
34 Tim Ryerson £300
35 Gerard Smyth Jnr (Ireland) £300
36 Richard Stevenson £300
37 Henry Griffiths (Wales) £300
38 Gareth Derbyshire £300
39 Jonathan Ellis £300
40 Mitchel Cooper £300
41 Yiannis Liperis (Cyprus) £300
42 Joe Gleeson £300
43 Andy Barnes £300
44 Don Roberts £200

Heads Up Championship

The 32 player event was won by the 2008 WCOAP Omaha Champion Dave Howard who beat Germany's Michael Koenig Heads Up, with the losing semi finalists Warren Jones and Paul Pitchford.

26th August 2010

Entries 32
Entry £50
Prize Pool £1,600
1st: Dave Howard £750
2nd: Michael Koenig £450
3rd: Warren Jones £250.
4th: Paul Pitchford £150

Stud Championship

The 45 runner APAT WCOAP Stud Championship was won by Ian Thompson ahead of David Llewellyn and Chen Tam.
27th August 2010
Entries 45
Entry £50
Prize Pool £2,250
1st Ian Thompson £950
2nd David Llewellyn £650
3rd Chen Tam £450
4th Gavin Kan £150

Omaha Championship

The 83 runner APAT WCOAP Omaha Championship was won by Max Kruis from the Netherlands, ahead of England's Craig Johnson and Paul Davis
28th August 2010
Entries 83
Buy in £50
PrIze Pool £4,150
1st Max Kruis £1,300
2nd Craig Johnson £750
3rd Paul Davis £500
4th Steven Robinson £250
5th Oluwashola Akindele £150
6th Carl Pilgrim £150
7th Linda Iwaniak £150
8th Dylan Herbert £150
9th Paul Robinson £150

6-Max Championship

The 81 runner 6 Max Hold Em Championship was won by Colin Young ahead of Andy Overton and Sam Popple
29th August 2010
Entries 81
Buy In £50
Prize Pool £4,050
1st Colin Young £1,300
2nd: Andrew Overton £750
3rd: Sam Popple £500
4th Baljinder Power £300
5th Michael Tracey £300
6th Anthony Williams £300
7th Carl Lybert £200
8th Andrew Barnes £150
9th Frank Moszkal £50
10th Daniel Phillips £50
11th Stuart Oliver £50

HORSE Championship

The 48 runner HORSE Championship was won by Stephen Wintersgill ahead of Jon Seal and Mathew Guy
30th August 2010
Entry £50
Prize Pool £2,400
1st: Stephen Wintersgill £1,000
2nd: Jon Seal £600 .
3rd: Matthew Guy £400
4th Paul McGuinness £200
5th: Kevin Shutt £200

APAT World Amateur Team Championship 2010

In this 12 team, 48 runner event Wales won ahead of Canada and Northern Ireland:
1st - Wales £2,600 + Team Gold Medals + engraved World Team Championship Cup.
2nd - Canada £1,400 + Team Silver Medals.
3rd - Northern Ireland £800 + Team Bronze Medals.
Wales: Dylan Herbert, Paul McGuinness, Dan Owston, Richard Rudling Smith
Canada: Craig MacInnes, Cath Gartman, Michael Christison, Sean Kasmarski
Northern Ireland Colin O'Prey, Martin Rice, Desi Graham, Gareth Cash

APAT Professional League Series

25 runners in this £255 Pot Limit Hold Em Event, won by Matt Russell ahead of Amar Morjaria:
27th August 2010
Entries 25
Entry £255
Prize Pool £6,375
1st Matt Russell £2,869
2nd Amar Morjaria £1,721
3rd Michael Jones £1,148
4th Steven Bayliff £638

Let’s pretend you’re a brand new poker...

Let’s pretend you’re a brand new poker player.  Maybe you’re in Las Vegas for a buddy’s bachelor party, you’ve seen some poker on TV, and although you’re saving a little for the strip clubs, you’ve still got an extra $500 for “discretionary expenses” in your pocket.  So, you sit down at the smallest game spread at the Venetian, fumble a big blind onto the felt, and play your very first hand of big-kid poker.

In this scenario, what would you say might be the very worst thing that could possibly happen to you?  You get stacked?  You get cheated?  You get into a drunken brawl with a guy nicknamed “Fancy Fists”?

What if I told you the very worst thing that could possibly happen to you that night is that you win?  And win big?

It seems counterintuitive, but there’s a very good reason why it might be dangerous for a budding poker player to have a wildly successful first session: the Primacy Effect.  The Primacy Effect is a cognitive bias – a psychological tendency for us to draw incorrect conclusions based on the ways our brains are wired rather than on the objective evidence.

This particular bias is the tendency for the first items presented in a series to be remembered better or more easily, and for them to be more influential than those presented later in a series.  For instance, if someone rattles off a long distance phone number, you’re most likely to remember the first few digits.   Job applicants seen early in the hiring process are often given higher marks than those in the middle, and all applicants are best remembered by their “first impressions.”

Opening scenes are critical to the success or failure of a movie or book.  And you probably have strong memories of and a special fondness for your first girlfriend or boyfriend.  Thanks to the Primacy Effect, anything that comes first in a series serves as a powerful anchor in our memories, indelibly etched and coloring our perceptions of everything that comes after.

There’s even evidence now that the Primacy Effect has considerable power over the results on “American Idol”-style shows that rely on votes from the at-home audience.  Over and over again, the contestants who appear first (and last, thanks to a different bias, the Recency Effect) get more votes than those appearing in the middle of the program.

Fans of these shows have occasionally voiced concern over potential voter fraud or judging biases, but if research on the Primacy Effect is correct, then results could actually be rigged in an even more diabolical way.  All the producers would have to do to make sure their favorites are well-received by the voting audience is put them first or last in the evening’s lineup.

And isn’t a poker career just a long series of individual sessions?  If we have this tendency to be overly influenced by the first item in a series, isn’t it possible that our entire perception of the game of poker could be distorted by what happens in the first few sessions?

The first time you played poker, you sucked.  We all did.  But thanks to the element of chance built into the game, there’s a very real possibility that you won in spite of your suckitude.  And if you won big, the Primacy Effect will make sure that you remember that session and let it influence your perception of the game for a long time to come.

You’re likely to believe that the game is easier than it really is, and that it requires less work than it really does, and that you’re naturally more talented than you really are.  The Primacy Effect will cause you to weigh the results of that first session more heavily than subsequent sessions, so even if you go on a long losing streak, you’ll constantly be comparing your results with that first success.

“How can I lose ten sessions in a row if I destroyed the game the first time I played?  I’m a great player with natural talent.  I must just be getting unlucky!”  And you may find it more difficult to accept the brutal realities of poker: the game is hard and to master it, you must put in a lot of time and effort.  What a glorious world it would be for the professional player if everyone won big the first time they played!  The experience would likely stunt the growth of their abilities and yet get them hooked on the game itself – a recipe for long-term donations.

What about the players who lose their shirts the first time they play?  They’re probably more likely to believe the game is more difficult than it really is – perhaps even unbeatable.  For many people, a big initial losing session is enough to make them quit forever.  But ironically, these players might be better situated for long-term success since they’ll likely have a better grasp of the amount of work necessary to master the game’s strategies.

There’s another way that the Primacy Effect skews our thinking on a daily basis.  After all, isn’t each individual session a series of hands?  So, by the same token, the results of your first big pot might influence your perception of the entire evening.  Personally, I have an irrational tendency to get into a very negative and self-destructive mindset if I lose a big pot early in a session.

And how often have you heard players say, “I can tell it’s going to be a great night” after raking a massive pot soon after sitting down?  Even though each hand is an independent, random event, psychologically speaking, we’re susceptible to letting our first impressions affect us long after the first hand has hit the muck.

Whether you won or lost in your rookie season, be aware that your perception of the game has likely been distorted by your initial experiences on the felt.

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World Series of Poker (WSOP) bracelet winner Blair...

World Series of Poker (WSOP) bracelet winner Blair Hinkle came out on top of the pack in the Circuit Championship at Council Bluffs, Iowa. The $1,600 buy-in poker tournament attracted a field of 251 players.

Hinkle’s reward for winning the Circuit Championship was $88,000 in cash, a diamond and gold ring, $10,000 to buy into the 2011 WSOP Main Event at the Rio in Las Vegas, and a seat in the Circuit National Championship in Sin City, the brand new $1 million tournament. The latter event is capped at 100 players and awards a WSOP bracelet to its winner. The price tags of the Main Events at each Circuit stop have been lowered to $1,600 and four Regional Championship sites feature $10,000 finales.

Hinkle’s bracelet came in 2008, when he took down a $2,000 No Limit Hold’em event to the tune of $507,000. He became one-half of the first set of brothers ever to win bracelets in the same year after his sibling Grant landed in the winner’s circle of Event #2 that year, a $1,500 No Limit Hold’em tournament. Grant faced some stiff competition at the final table of his bracelet event, including former November Niner James Akenhead, Full Tilt Poker pro Chris Ferguson, Theo Tran, and 2009 WSOP HORSE champ David Bach.

In the defining hand of heads-up play, Shiva Dudani bet 400,000 with the board reading 10-9-5-9. Hinkle called and the river was a benign deuce. Both players checked and Hinkle tabled A-8 of spades for ace-high, enough to take down the pot against Dudani’s king-high. Then, Dudani committed his chips on a board of 9-6-7-4-K with J-8 for a busted straight draw, while Hinkle made the call with K-6 for kings-up. The pot earned him $88,000 in cash and his first WSOP Circuit title.

The final table bubble boy at Council Bluffs was Poker News Daily Guest Columnist Bernard Lee, who moved all-in pre-flop with A-K. Dudani looked him up with a wired pair of kings and the better pre-flop hand held. Lee, a sponsored pro of Foxwoods, walked away from the Midwestern casino with $6,500 for his 10th place finish.

Thirty-three events played out at Council Bluffs with a total attendance of 4,056 players, a 12% growth year over year. The last time the WSOP Circuit came to the Iowa casino was in February, when the $5,150 buy-in Main Event drew a crowd of just 46 players for a total prize pool of $212,100. This year, attendance increased five-fold, with the prize pool mushrooming by 70%.

Also making an appearance at Council Bluffs was Doug “Rico” Carli, who has a ridiculous 42 Circuit cashes, the most of any player. Carli recorded five in the money finishes on the big stage during the WSOP in Las Vegas this year, including a $42,000 haul for taking 259th in the Main Event. He has nearly $900,000 in WSOP and Circuit Event earnings spread across 64 cashes, an average of $13,000 each, and is a two-time gold ring winner.

Here were the final results from the WSOP Circuit Championship at Horseshoe Council Bluffs:

1. Blair Hinkle – $88,555 2. Shiva Dudani – $54,715 3. Dwyte Pilgrim – $39,531 4. Matthew Lawrence – $29,092 5. Charles Moore – $21,795 6. Jack Do – $16,608 7. John Wakeen – $12,867 8. Daniel Biddle – $10,131 9. Kevin Calenzo – $8,103

Next up for the WSOP Circuit is a trip to Horseshoe Southern Indiana, located on the Ohio River just downstream from Louisville, Kentucky. The festivities get underway on October 2nd, with the Circuit Championship kicking off on October 10th and crowning a champ two days later. The buy-in for the Main Event is once again $1,600.

On Tuesday, Congressman Barney Frank (D-MA) appear...

On Tuesday, Congressman Barney Frank (D-MA) appeared on “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno.” Seated onstage alongside reality television icon Kim Kardashian, Frank discussed, among other topics, the recent success of HR 2267, the Internet Gambling Regulation, Consumer Protection, and Enforcement Act, in Committee. A lively debate with Leno ensued. Watch here.

The portion of Frank and Leno’s debate focusing on online poker and internet gambling spanned about four minutes. Frank opened the conversation by asserting, “If you have some guy who wants to play poker on the internet, we say it’s illegal… We could make billions of dollars a year by making it legal and taxing it.” The Federal Government could stand to rake in up to $42 billion over a 10-year period by legalizing and regulating the internet gambling industry in the United States.

Not everyone was onboard with Frank’s plan, including Leno, who argued, “Vegas works because you have to go to the desert to get there. You lose your money and you come home. You can’t go to the desert again until you get more money. If you’re sitting at home and you’re up late at night and you got your little credit card, next thing you know, it’s like a mini bar.”

Leno began saying something about potato chips, but Frank cut him off by noting that there are casinos everywhere in the country, not just Las Vegas. No desert surrounds Tunica and Atlantic City, for example. In addition, HR 2267 only allows for debit card and prepaid card payments.

Leno then reminded Frank that residents of many states were sold the lottery because all of the money that would go toward schools. Now, educational institutions across the country are struggling despite the influx of cash. Frank explained, “The problems that teachers and others face in schools can’t always be solved by money… The fact that someone oversells an idea doesn’t make it a bad idea, it makes them a bad salesman.”

Frank continued by arguing, “If you want to hit somebody or you want to burn somebody’s house or steal somebody’s car, then I want to stop you because you’re doing it to somebody else. If you want to be foolish with your own money, if you want to gamble, if you want to drink, if you want to smoke, I will tell you it’s a bad idea, but I think it’s a mistake for the government to try to stop you.” Frank has routinely argued that adults should be able to do what they want within the privacy of their own home.

The conversation then quickly digressed from internet gambling, with Leno explaining that smoking marijuana is essentially legal because everyone does it. If you’re caught, it’s only a small slap on the wrist. Frank responded, “I don’t want to say to the cops, ‘We say it’s illegal, but wink at it and go after this one.’ There’s also an element of racial discrimination in the way it’s enforced.”

One amendment to HR 2267 outlawed advertising internet gambling sites to children. The topic of kids not being exposed to internet gambling came up on “The Tonight Show,” with Frank claiming, “I do agree you can limit this to kids and in fact we’ve done that. Joe Camel has disappeared. As a general rule, the government shouldn’t be trying to live people’s lives for them. You protect people from other people hurting them.”

Congress is currently on recess until September 13th. Its target adjournment is October 8th in advance of the general elections in the United States, meaning that the legislative body will have just 20 days to tackle the internet gambling issue before elections. In all likelihood, a “Lame Duck” session will occur as well. Stay tuned to Poker News Daily for the latest headlines from Capitol Hill.

The International Poker Players Association (IPPA)...

The International Poker Players Association (IPPA) will present a championship event later this year with the biggest buy-in the world has ever seen. The Monte Carlo IPPA Championship, scheduled for Nov. 29 to Dec. 2, will be a $250,000 buy-in No Limit Hold-em Shootout featuring a prize pool of $12 million, with the winner taking home $5 million. Players participating in the televised event will be referred to as the “Elite 48.”

“This is the player’s championship, the pièce de résistance,” said IPPA President and CEO Yosh Nakano.

Thirteen of the biggest names in poker have already registered for the highly anticipated event: Johnny Chan, Freddy Deeb, Tony G, Bruno Fitoussi, Tom Dwan, Patrik Antonius, Allen Cunningham, Gus Hansen, John Hennigan, Phil Ivey, Huck Seed, Robert Mizrachi, and 2010 November Niner Michael Mizrachi. The field is also expected to consist of three sponsor exemptions and two qualifiers, including one from Los Angeles’ Bicycle Casino.

Players will have the opportunity to qualify for the high-roller event in a new satellite format called the Equity Rebuy Shootout. The first round of the shootout is played 10-handed, with the winners getting their $1,000 buy-in back and moving on to the second round. Players that busted out then have the option to rebuy for the value of a second-round seat.

“For as little as $1,000 – less if you win a satellite – a player can play in a qualifier and have an opportunity to win the $5 million first-place prize at the Monte Carlo IPPA Championship,” said Nakano, who worked several years as the poker manager at the Bicycle Casino.

The inaugural $250,000 IPPA Championship was supposed to take place last year, but ended up being canceled. The 2009 version featured H.O.R.S.E. and two rounds of No Limit Hold’em, but in order to gain more interest from players and television viewers, this year’s tournament will be No Limit Hold’em only.

According to Nanoko, the goal is to create a tournament with a deep structure that will allow the cream to rise to the top. “We wanted to produce a high-end poker tournament that offered a big buy-in event with quality play. We felt that we could do a good job at putting an event together that would provide the best all-around player in the world.”

Should the event happen this year, it will be the largest buy-in poker tournament by a long shot. The current leader took place in January 2010 at the Aussie Millions $100,000 Challenge, where 24 players participated to create a prize pool of $2.4 million. Dan Shak bested Ivey heads-up to win a prize of $1.2 million. Ivey took home $600,000, while Billy Jordanou ($300,000), Tony Bloom ($200,000), and Tony G ($100,000) also cashed.

Stay tuned to Poker News Daily for further news on the Monte Carlo IPPA Championship.

After a two-month long public voting period, Harra...

After a two-month long public voting period, Harrah’s officials unveiled the top 10 vote getters for the Poker Hall of Fame Class of 2010 on Wednesday. Now, the Poker Hall of Fame Governing Council will review the list and axe anyone deemed not eligible to enter.

Four criteria are required for a person to be considered for the prestigious Poker Hall of Fame: “A player must have played poker against acknowledged top competition; played for high stakes; played consistently well, gaining the respect of peers; stood the test of time; or, for non-players, contributed to the overall growth and success of the game of poker, with indelible positive and lasting results.”

Each of the 10 finalists appears to foot the bill. Last year, no women were among the final ten. This year, two are up for consideration, Linda Johnson and Jennifer Harman. Johnson, a Guest Columnist here on Poker News Daily, was an inaugural inductee of the Women in Poker Hall of Fame. Harman, meanwhile, will be enshrined on Friday as part of its Class of 2010. Johnson and Harman have taken up a considerable amount of charitable work and been responsible for the growth of the game among women.

Four former World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event champions will be considered as well. Full Tilt Poker’s Chris Ferguson (2000), Dan Harrington (1995), Tom McEvoy (1983), and Scotty Nguyen (1998) may find themselves as the center of attention at the Poker Hall of Fame’s induction during the November Nine weekend at the Rio in Las Vegas.

ESPN.com Poker Editor Andrew Feldman, who will join this author on the 17-member media panel that will vote for the Class of 2010, told Poker News Daily, “The nominees this year show the amazing diversity that we have in the industry and there are definitely some names that stick out above the rest. Every player on the list will definitely deserve some credit.”

Several younger players also grace the top 10, including Daniel Negreanu and Phil Ivey. The two are a combined 70 years old, nearly the same age as both McEvoy and Harrington. Ivey has eight WSOP bracelets, tied for the fifth most overall with fellow nominee Erik Seidel. Rounding out the list of 10 finalists for the Poker Hall of Fame is Barry Greenstein, whose generosity off the felts has not gone unnoticed.

WSOP Media Director Nolan Dalla shared many of Feldman’s sentiments, telling Poker News Daily on Wednesday, “I can’t imagine a better or more qualified group of 10 nominees than this. The only question I see on each of these names is not if they will make it into the Poker Hall of Fame because in the long-run most of them will inevitably be inducted. The real question is which one or two candidates will be inducted this year. The best thing about this list is there’s no question that he or she will be most deserving.”

A total of 102 “valid unique names” received nominations, 44 of which garnered multiple votes. On September 13th, the 16 living Hall of Fame members and 17 members of the media will receive a final ballot. The group of 33 will rank who they deem worthy of admission and the top two vote getters will be inducted in November. Each of the two finalists must have received at least 50% of the vote. Last year, World Poker Tour host Mike Sexton was the Poker Hall of Fame’s lone inductee; the threshold for enshrinement in 2009 was 75% of the vote.

Here are the 10 nominees for the Poker Hall of Fame Class of 2010 following the two-month public voting period:

Chris Ferguson Barry Greenstein Jennifer Harman Dan Harrington Phil Ivey Linda Johnson Tom McEvoy Daniel Negreanu Scotty Nguyen Erik Seidel

Visit WSOP.com for more details. I look forward to being part of the voting process once again this year.

On today’s edition of the Daily Deal, Barney...

On today’s edition of the Daily Deal, Barney Frank may step down as Financial Services Committee Chairman; the World Poker Tour and Fox Sports Net extend a partnership; and Gus “The Great Dane” Hansen gets taken to the cleaners by Phil Ivey and Cole South.

Hello, I’m Sean Gibson and welcome to the Daily Deal by Poker News Daily.

In November, the United States will hold its general elections. On Capitol Hill, the entire House of Representatives and one-third of the Senate will be determined. If after the elections Republicans gain control of the House, then Congressman Barney Frank’s time as the Financial Services Committee Chairman may come to an end, and in the worst case scenario he would be replaced by notoriously anti-gaming Congressman Spencer Bachus.

Frank has been one of the strongest supporters of the legalization of online poker and he is currently promoting HR 2267, the Internet Gambling Regulation, Consumer Protection, and Enforcement Act. The bill was marked up in the Financial Services Committee in late July and has received the support of seventy co-sponsors. Frank has been in the House since 1980 and served as the Financial Services Committee Chairman since 2007.

The World Poker Tour and Fox Sports Net announced this week that they will continue their broadcast and promotional relationship, settling on an agreement that will stretch until 2013. The World Poker Tour’s ninth Season will begin airing in January two thousand eleven, starting with the Bellagio Cup.

The broadcast will have several improvements, including new anchor Kimberly Lansing and the introduction of the beautiful Royal Flush Girls. Season nine will also debut a yet-to-be-named new analyst who will host a recurring segment called “The Raw Deal.”

New World Poker Tour CEO Steve Heller said: “This season promises to be unlike any previous incarnations of the WPT … The shows will be faster-paced and edgier, featuring the biggest names in poker mixing it up with more up-and-coming stars, pre-final table action, and, as always, poker’s greatest and most recognizable play-by-play commentary team of Mike Sexton and Vince Van Patten.”

HighStakesDB.com has reported that hyper-aggressive pro Gus Hansen lost over one million dollars last Sunday… to just two opponents.

Cole South of CardRunners fame and eight-time World Series of Poker bracelet winner Phil Ivey took Hansen for more than one point one million dollars, almost half of the “Great Dane’s” net losses on the year. HighStakesDB – which tracks the action at high-stakes online poker tables – reported that Hansen’s losses Sunday came primarily in two and four thousand Fixed Limit Omaha Hi-Lo. He lost nearly $400,000 to Ivey in that game along with $99,000 to South, and an additional three hundred and thirty five thousand in Omaha Eight or Better when it was part of a Seven Game rotation.

All told, Hansen is down $2.3 million dollars for this year, while Ivey has cashed $3.5 million on online play. South is up eighty thousand due to a recent downswing.

Guess we should be asking for holiday gifts from Ivey, South and Jungleman this year!

Thanks for watching The Daily Deal once again, and as always be sure to bookmark Poker News Daily for the latest in poker news. Be sure to add us to your twitter feed at http://twitter.com/pokernewsdaily. I’m Sean Gibson and may the flop be with you!

A bill, which is backed by one of the largest play...

A bill, which is backed by one of the largest players in the online gaming industry, is up for a vote in the California General Assembly that would open up online betting on horse racing for the state’s residents.

The proposed bill, named SB 1072 in the California legislature, would up the cut for the state regarding its percentage of the take of wagers on horse racing. More importantly, perhaps, is the provision in the bill that would allow for “exchange betting,” otherwise known as internet wagering. The bill was on the fast track to being enacted before opposition to the legislation delayed its passage.

The bill has been amended by California Senator Ron Calderon, a Democrat from Montebello serving Senate District 30, to alleviate the concerns of much of the opposition, which included California horse trainers, among others. Under Calderon’s amendments and his sponsorship, implementation of the law (if passed through the Senate and signed by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger) would be studied by the state legislature and the California Horse Racing Board for approximately 20 months to set the rules for implementation. This means that the law would not take effect until 2012 at the earliest.

European gaming conglomerate Betfair was critical in getting Calderon’s amended bill voted through, along with Magna International Developments. Betfair, who is also the sponsor of the World Series of Poker Europe, is the owner of the United States’ largest horse racing wagering site, TVG.com. The company sponsors races at New York’s Saratoga racetrack and, through TVG, offers internet wagering to millions of customers.

Intrastate gaming is a subject that the state of California, currently facing billions of dollars in budget shortfalls, is examining as a means of alleviating the situation. Along with the current bill that would open up wagering on horse racing, there is an ongoing drive to push for intrastate online poker, although a bill introduced earlier this year by Senator Rod Wright fell short over the California General Assembly’s summer session.

Wright’s bill, SB 1485, would have opened up the California online gaming market, in particular poker, to control by the state. The now dead bill would have authorized three “hub operators” to provide legal internet gambling outlets to California residents for a period of five years. The state would have taken 20% of the revenues monthly, which would have been paid to a specially created internet gambling fund. California residents also would have faced stiff penalties for playing on unauthorized sites.

The intrastate gaming debate has come forward as of late because of furor over the Commerce Casino’s stance against federal legislation that would fully legalize internet gaming. In testimony in July in front of the House Financial Services Committee regarding Congressman Barney Frank‘s Internet Gambling Regulation, Consumer Protection, and Enforcement Act (HR 2267), Commerce chairman Tom Malkasian came out against the proposed bill for several reasons.

Among the points cited by Malkasian was that the revenue generated by the new legislation would not stay in the United States, online companies would not face the same regulation that land-based casinos face, and jobs would be lost rather than created. His stance, which other top California card rooms such as Hollywood Park, the Bicycle Casino, and Hawaiian Gardens have stated they agree with, has angered many in the poker community.

888 Holdings, the gaming operator which owns 888po...

888 Holdings, the gaming operator which owns 888poker, announced Tuesday that it will be cutting costs in order to address a loss in profits for the first half of 2010. The company has also decided to scrap its dividend in order to pay for acquisitions after the weak economy and World Cup caused a decline in poker revenue.

888′s first-half financial results showed revenues were up 10.5 percent to $130 million (£85 million), but pre-tax profit dropped by 56 percent to $4.3 million (£2.8 million). Poker revenue dropped 25.2 percent to $19.6 million compared to $26.2 million in the first half of 2009. 888 also saw an increase in operating expenses from $41.6 million in 2009 to $45.8 million in 2010 as the search for business forced an increase in spending on marketing from $35 million to $48 million.

“Our business experienced a difficult first half against the backdrop of a challenging economic environment with trading impacted by a number of factors including general online poker weakness, adverse foreign exchange movements, and, in relation to Poker and Casino in quarter two, the FIFA World Cup,” said Gigi Levy, the chief executive of 888 Holdings.

To help alleviate the first-half losses, the company is putting in place $6 million of cost-cutting measures, reorganizing its technology divisions, and upgrading product offerings. It says the business has already started returning to seasonal trading patterns since the World Cup. “Trading in August has been significantly stronger than in July, with a double-digit daily revenue increase especially in casino and poker,” said Levy. “Poker has seen an increase of more than 15 percent in revenue in August.”

888poker had an eventful first half of 2010. The company announced the release of the sixth version of its poker software following a complete re-coding of the client with fresh new look and an online loyalty store. 888 also partnered with Microgaming, the worldwide leader in online gaming software, to gain a license to operate in the new French gaming market.

The company will continue to look for ways to boost poker revenue by upgrading its software and launching new marketing schemes. In the meantime, 888 will pay no dividend due to uncertainty about future regulation in its key European markets. France and Italy are already in the process of regulating online gambling and several others are expected to follow.

Said Levy, “In order to continue investing for future growth, and to support potential acquisitions, the board has decided not to declare an interim dividend at this time and finalize the full year dividend when the full year results are available.”

Following the recent merger between PartyGaming and Bwin, Levy stated his desire to try and consolidate 888 with other successful online companies, adding: “We look at consolidation as one of the possible routes to realizing our full value. We feel that longer term this is the direction the industry will take.”

Recently, the Commerce Casino, Bicycle Casino, Haw...

Recently, the Commerce Casino, Bicycle Casino, Hawaiian Gardens, and Hollywood Park joined in opposition Congressman Barney Frank’s (D-MA) HR 2267, which would create a full licensing and regulatory framework for the internet gambling industry in the United States. The four casinos have found themselves in a war of words of sorts against the Poker Players Alliance (PPA), which has launched an online petition at PlayersBeforeProfits.com to reverse their stance against the groundbreaking legislation. Poker News Daily sat down with card room coalition spokesperson Waltona Manion to explore the coalition’s resistance.

Many in the industry have asked what brand of internet gambling legislation the Commerce Casino and its allies in California would support, if any. Federal licensing? State licensing? Poker only? Manion explained that the coalition is not against internet gambling: “We’re looking for Federal enforcement of the same strict licensing and regulation for online poker as U.S. land-based casinos abide by. This means that they have to license all of their employees and the physical operations should be in the U.S. In addition, the hardware and software should be tested and certified.” The California Gaming Association also opposes HR 2267.

The coalition also supports not granting Federal licenses to any entity that has violated U.S. law. Manion added, “Another criteria would be poker only. The Frank bill as it’s currently written authorizes all types of gaming. That violates Federal law and breaks agreements of states and tribal nations. It would violate the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act.” One amendment to Frank’s HR 2267 prohibited online wagering on sports, leading to the NFL dropping its opposition to the bill. Manion also stated that states should have the right to continue to regulate gaming in their own jurisdiction.

Manion also expressed concern over the level of protections included in Frank’s measure: “Frank’s bill provides fewer industry regulations and player protections. It imposes lower taxes for foreign online companies than what U.S. casinos pay. It would enable illegal offshore companies to export significant money from our economy.” The tax companion bill to HR 2267 is Congressman Jim McDermott’s (D-WA) HR 4976, which has not yet been marked up in the House Ways and Means Committee.

Despite the spat playing out in the public arena, Manion told PND that the poker lobbying organization and the California casinos have not yet sat down and discussed their differences on HR 2267: “The PPA’s leadership were present during the Financial Services Committee hearing and said nothing to us. They did not contact anyone from the Commerce Casino or any of the card rooms. Had the PPA contacted the Commerce or the major card rooms in California and said they had major concerns or if they had read the testimony more closely, they would agree that most of what we’re talking about is valid.”

According to a 2009 survey by Fairbank, Maslin, Maullin, and Associates, 55% to 57% of Californians support the state collecting revenues from online poker. Among the most important factors to respondents were ensuring that minors don’t play, full transparency, independent audits, and cracking down on unauthorized sites. The West Coast state could be among the first to green light intrastate internet gambling given a sizable budget shortfall. California State Senator Rod Wright had introduced SB 1485 this year, but the bill ultimately stalled on its way to becoming law in July.

HR 2267 offers an opt-out provision for states and tribes that don’t want to take part in a Federal internet gambling scheme. However, Manion believes that the provision won’t stand up if reviewed by the World Trade Organization (WTO): “We don’t believe that the opt-out provision as currently written will hold up to WTO scrutiny. If they were to challenge HR 2267, that’d be the component that would be challenged. We should preempt that now so we don’t get a challenge from the WTO. It would leave state-regulated gaming vulnerable.”

Nevertheless, if HR 2267 were to become law before the end of the current legislative session, California could opt out of the legislation and go it alone in the online poker world. However, its lack of liquidity compared to the Federal model could result in its demise. Manion remarked, “Our immediate focus is amending the Federal legislation and also working with the state legislature on legislation they believe would ensure that California revenues stays in California. If the Frank bill passed, the opt-out provision would be in play and California could opt out. The California state legislature could also act in advance of Frank’s bill becoming law.”

HR 2267 was marked up and passed out of the Financial Services Committee on July 28th. Congress is currently in recess.

The PPA’s petition has lapped 7,200 players and talk of a boycott of the Commerce has arisen among poker pros. UB.com pro Annie Duke, for example, commented via Twitter, “I and some other pros are boycotting them as well. I will give my business to a place that supports the players.” What the next chapter will be in this ongoing saga is anyone’s guess.

On Tuesday night, action from Day 2B of the 2010 W...

On Tuesday night, action from Day 2B of the 2010 World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event aired on ESPN. Two one-hour episodes were devoted to the second Day 2 and the feature table included Dan Harrington and Jeff Shulman, who were seated next to each other. The former has recorded four WSOP Main Event final tables, while Shulman was a member of last year’s November Nine.

Four former Main Event champs were in action along with four members of last year’s November Nine. One of the first eliminations of the night went to “Seinfeld” actor Jason Alexander, who ran pocket jacks into pocket kings on his final hand. Full Tilt Poker pro Phil Ivey was crippled after running pocket queens into pocket kings. Ivey turned a queen to take the lead in the hand, but his opponent rivered a king to send his chip stack diving to less than five big blinds. He’d later be eliminated after an opponent flopped a set.

2009 WSOP Main Event runner-up Darvin Moon doubled up a player with pocket jacks against pocket kings and back at the feature table, Shulman doubled up after flopping a set of jacks against Tibor Hegedus’ top pair.

Ted Bort, the CEO of Allied Network Solutions, and Prahlad Friedman tangled in a controversial hand. Bort bet all-in on the river while continuously barking like a dog. With the board reading 6-J-9-5-2, Bort called the clock on Friedman, who called at the one-second mark. However, the floor said Friedman’s hand was dead since he didn’t call in time. Bort flipped over J-9 for top two pair and scooped a 160,000-chip pot, among the largest of the night. Watch the hand here.

ESPN aired a commercial break amid the controversy and, when the show resumed, Mike Mustafa and others at the table argued with WSOP staff that Friedman had indeed called before time expired. ESPN aired a replay clearly showing that Friedman had called at the one-second mark, with the dealer promptly saying, “He called.” Nevertheless, another floor supervisor was summoned who also said the hand was dead. Friedman was also involved in “Ante-gate” with Jeffrey Lisandro.

Harrington doubled up through Hegedus after flopping top set and, to close out the first one-hour episode, Moon was all-in with 10-9 on a flop of 4-9-2, all clubs. His opponent called and flipped over pocket aces and, with neither player holding a club, the board ran out K-5. Moon told his wife while leaving the Amazon Room, “At least the pressure’s off, honey.”

To open the second episode of the evening, which also featured Day 2B play, Chris Ferguson doubled up with pocket queens against another player’s pocket fours. Then, Tom Schneider doubled up with A-K against A-J. While raking his chips, Schneider pulled out his phone and played an audio clip of his wife Julie screaming, “Stack ‘em, stack ‘em, to the top!”

Josh Arieh joined the already impressive feature table lineup and Phil Laak, who was seated at Table 2, doubled up an opponent with K-10 against A-9. In two separate hands, Laak received cash payments of $20 and $40 to expose his hand. In the second one, he bluffed a player with second pair holding just six-high. Others in the field included Jean-Robert Bellande, Gavin Smith, J.J. Liu, and Deuces Cracked front man Jay Rosenkrantz.

Arieh doubled up through Harrington before promptly giving away most of his newfound chips to Shulman. The CardPlayer executive ran A-K of diamonds into pocket aces on his final hand to exit stage right. Also departing was DoylesRoom front man Doyle Brunson, who re-raised all-in on a flop of 4-8-3 with pocket sevens. An opponent called with pocket jacks and a running 4-6 sent “Texas Dolly” home. Brunson received a hearty ovation as he headed for the exit.

Pros dropped like flies down the stretch. Schneider ran pocket sevens into pocket aces after the money went in on an 8-4-6 flop. The turn was a six and the river was a jack, sending the former WSOP Player of the Year home. Then, Arieh, decked out in Full Tilt Poker gear, was all-in pre-flop with 5-4 of spades and up against Joe Hanna’s pocket queens. Arieh flopped an open-ended straight draw, but no ace or six came on the turn or river and Arieh was eliminated from the 2010 WSOP Main Event.

Next Tuesday, action from Day 3 will air. Catch the WSOP Main Event on ESPN on Tuesdays at 9:00pm ET.

Matt Vengrin, known as “Plattsburgh” o...

Matt Vengrin, known as “Plattsburgh” on PokerStars, is one of the hottest young online tournament professionals going today. He is known as “ENGMONEY” on UB.com, “mattyv” on Full Tilt Poker and “MATT_VENGRIN” on Absolute Poker. Vengrin has been playing professionally for a number of years and is a big supporter of PocketFives.com. A big win on his poker resume came in Event #7 of the 2007 FTOPS Series for $210,000 in addition to his second place finish at the PokerStars Sunday Million. He also finished in second place at a Full Tilt Poker $750k Guaranteed. Other impressive finishes include second place in the PokerStars Sunday Record Second Chance ($28,000) and third in the $1,000 Limit Event at the 2007 World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP) at PokerStars.

Vengrin’s largest live tournament score was at the 2008 World Series of Poker, where he finished in third place in the $3,000 No Limit Hold’em Event for a $168,000 payday. His most recent large score online came in March of 2010 as he finished in fourth place in a $100+$9 $40,000 Guaranteed for $12,870. According to various online databases, he has won over one million dollars in his poker career. He originally hails from Red Hook, New York but currently lives in the greater Los Angeles area.

In this interview with Dan Cypra, which was conducted just prior to the 2010 World Series of Poker Main Event at the Rio Hotel and Casino, Vengrin talks about his new look and new mental attitude which is helping him at the tables. He discusses his weight loss plan and how he continues a steady balance of eating right and working out when he’s not playing poker. In addition he talks about how this past WSOP circuit has gone for him and what his plans are in the future with poker.

Vengrin lists his favorite poker hand as 9T of spades in Hold’em.

We have a Winner!

Congratulations to our Survey Winner to the €100k Headhunter this Sunday:

leeson1

Names were picked at random from a hat yesterday and out of the 288 people who entered leeson1 was drawn as the winner.

Thank you to all who entered the survey - the results will be used to improve the DTD Online Poker site. Improvements are already being made - such as the new Online News Portal voted by you in the online survey. So watch out for more improvements heading your way - only at DTD Online Poker

Please look out for any future surveys / competitions we will hold on the DTD Online Poker site.

On today’s Daily Deal, the Durrrr Challenge ...

On today’s Daily Deal, the Durrrr Challenge resumes, the Full Tilt Doubles Poker Championship continues airing on GSN, and the fifth Ultimate Bet Online Championship comes to a close. It’s all ahead… RIGHT NOW!

Hello, I’m Sean Gibson and welcome to the Daily Deal by Poker News Daily.

On Monday afternoon, the action in the Durrrr Challenge between Tom “durrrr” Dwan and Dan “JungleMan12” Cates continued on Full Tilt Poker. Once again, Cates dominated and this time vaulted out to a $692,000 lead over Dwan. A total of 6,820 hands have been played.

It’s hard to believe that Dwan and Cates are nearly fifteen percent of the way through the fifty thousand hands required for completion. With the first incarnation of the Durrrr Challenge being nineteen months old, the second has thankfully seemed to zip by. Mid-afternoon play on Monday was the first between Dwan and Cates since late last week, when Cates jumped out to a five-hundred eighteen thousand dollar lead.

When the action will resume is anyone’s guess. Dwan had expressed interest in finishing the second installment of the Durrrr Challenge prior to the World Series of Poker Europe schedule beginning in two weeks. Meanwhile, he has been dominating the first running against Patrik Antonius, but there has been no play between the two since August third.

On Saturday night, the second round of regular season matches kicked off on the Full Tilt Doubles Poker Championship, which airs on GSN. Each of the thirty-two players in the field bought in for fifty thousand dollars and had already played out one match. Howard Lederer and Phil Galfond took down the first match shown, while Huck Seed and Annette Obrestad fought their way to a title in the second match. Sixteen of the Doubles Poker Championship’s thirty-two players will move on to the post-season.

Finally, in the grand finale of the fifth Ultimate Bet Online Championship, or UBOC, on Sunday, Charlie “CHAZ_MAN_C” Combes came out on top of the pack following a four-way chop and banked one-hundred thirty-six thousand dollars. A total of one-thousand thirty-two players coughed up the UBOC 5 Championship Event’s four-figure buy-in, or won a satellite to get in with the top 99 players finishing in the money.

Combes hails from the United Kingdom and, on the final hand of the tournament, shoved all-in with Queen-Deuce. UB.com member “TOOCURIOUSSO” made the call for his tournament life with King-Nine and was in prime position to double up. The flop of Three-Jack-Six didn’t change matters, but a queen on the turn paired Combes and held up at the river to seal his UBOC Five title. In March, he won both the Full Tilt Poker One-K Monday for $93,000 and the Titan Poker Two-Hundred Fifty K Guaranteed for another $59,000.

Here were the results from the UBOC Five Championship Event.

1. CHAZ_MAN_C – $136,178 2. TOOCURIOUSSO – $95,000 3. VENUSIGNA – $152,000 4. WALLABAER – $145,000 5. APATHY123 – $56,244 6. WAMMERMOUTH – $45,924 7. MST_MORPHEUS – $35,604 8. 1GENERAL_TAO – $25,284 9. DONRIKY – $17,544

That does it for today’s Daily Deal and if you haven’t added us to your twitter feed, you can do so by going to twitter dot com slash poker news daily. I’m Sean Gibson, thanks for watching and best of luck at the tables tonight!

For those in the world of poker that weren’t...

For those in the world of poker that weren’t involved in tournaments, the Emmy Awards on Sunday night provided a bit of a respite over Twitter. “Oh Crap! The Emmys,” Joe Reitman Tweeted as the show began. “I totally forgot 2 star on a show, hire a publicist & wear a tux so I could go 2 the awards & b judged on my looks 2nite.” Poker scribe Jess Welman was less than impressed when she chirped after the show’s start, “Not a good sign when we’re ten minutes into the Emmys and I’m already counting the minutes that could easily be shaved off the broadcast.”

The duo were able to find something to agree about during the Emmys, with both congratulating particular shows on the cable channel AMC that they enjoyed. “Big congrats to fellow USC Cinema School Class of ’05 alum Erin Levy for winning a frikkin Emmy for Mad Men,” Welman Tweeted in kudos to a friend. Reitman was proud for a former employee: “I am so happy my boy Aaron Paul of @breakingbad just won. I cast him in my short ‘LEO’ 5 years ago. He is the best actor of his generation.” UB.com’s Scott Ian also piped up about the run of the actors from “Breaking Bad,” Tweeting, “Bryan Cranston & Aaron Paul both won Emmy’s for Breaking Bad. You need to watch this show.”

Someone who had a memorable night for the Emmy Awards was online superstar Justin “Boosted J” Smith. “At Courtney Cox + David Arquette’s house in Malibu watching the Emmys on TV,” Smith Tweeted on Sunday evening. “Actors and producers here these guys are wild watching it! LOL.” Smith went on to describe the reactions of those in attendance: “It’s like watching European football and when an Emmy is awarded its like a GOALLLLLL!”

As the night wore on, Smith continued to channel his inner Phil Hellmuth with his Tweets. “Gave Jennifer Aniston a 4 hour poker lesson last night,” Smith recounted after the party on Monday. “If she learned a little bit more about who acts first and stuff, she’d be real good!”

There was plenty of action for those who were away from the television and on the felt over the weekend. The World Series of Poker Circuit event in Council Bluffs saw two prolific Tweeters, Bernard Lee and Blair Hinkle, making deep runs. “Money bubble broke – 27 players all in the $ – I have 450k,” reported Lee from the tables yesterday.

Both players continued their assault on the top of the leaderboard as the afternoon moved into the evening. “Unbelievable! After getting down to 275k, I sucked out again,” Lee Tweeted to his followers. “My 10-10 vs AA – 10 on flop – back up to 470k (aver 386k) – 13 players left. Play would be stopped soon after that with Lee reporting his stack as “339k.”

Hinkle had a slightly different adventure than Lee at the Iowa tables. “Ugh super crazy guy squeezes with 88 I shove with AT he calls I flop ace but he flopped 8 turn 8. 70k still,” he Tweeted during play on Monday. Although he didn’t detail how he did it, Hinkle was able to turn things around by the end of the night, Tweeting at the end of play, “Down to 13 players done for the night… 243k blinds starting at 2000ante 5-10000.”

Across the Atlantic, many top players were in the running at the European Poker Tour event in Vilamoura, Portugal, with Brandon Cantu – at first – having the time of his life. “I got 44 and shoved ak calls fours hold to break the bubble. 965k 56 left,” Cantu reported to his followers early Tuesday morning before the game took a fateful turn. “Unbelievable,” he Tweeted soon after the bubble burst. “331k aq with the ace of hearts vs 99 flop q32 all hearts turn 9… That’s the worst beat I have ever taken.” A couple of hours later, Cantu sounded the death knell by Tweeting, “Ak vs 99 ace in the door 9 to follow – out – most frustrating day I have ever had an indescribable feeling actually.”

To soothe his defeat, Cantu may want to head to Cannes for the Partouche Poker Tour’s event starting Thursday. Tweets were flying as many top poker pros announced their plans to head to the Mediterranean coast to play in the event. Eric Mizrachi (“Today is my last day in Israel, have a flight to catch in 8 hours to Romania then off to Cannes, France for main event!”), Mike Matusow (“Cannes is gonna be effing insane. Vitamins to. Lots and lots of vitamins”), Lacey Jones (“Vegas for less than 24hrs. Had the best time celebrating @DanFleyshman’s bday in 3 cities. Next stop… Cannes!”) and Liz Lieu (“Back in London for a couple days before heading to Cannes”) are just a few of the top pros who will be in France for the tournament.

For the best Tweets of the weekend, we have to start with “Hollywood” Dave Stann’s reports from his efforts in the Ultimate Bet Online Championship, or UBOC. “I like a challenge,” Stann Tweeted on Sunday. “Immediately out of 200k running my QQ into AA, then in UBOC main ran my QQ into KK for half my stack. Thanks for the memories, #UBOC. Should stand for Ur Bigpair Obv Cracked.”

Two players offered up their thoughts regarding Paris Hilton’s arrest in Las Vegas over the weekend for cocaine possession. “Really?,” Absolute Poker’s Trishelle Cannatella Tweeted. “The only thing that happened while I was away is Paris H is arrested for cocaine? SHOCKER! Drugs are gross. Especially if you’re 30.” Joe Sebok found the potential reason for his youthful indiscretions: “Paris thought the blow was gum. Now I know why I was so damn hyperactive in high school. Teachers, I TRIED to stop talking! I’m sorry!”

Finally, Jennifer “Jennicide” Leigh decided to step away from the tables, Tweeting, “Laying out for a bit… Cyprus got me addicted to sun! Definitely not going to miss my monitor tan!”

With lifetime winnings of over $4 million and two ...

With lifetime winnings of over $4 million and two World Poker Tour championships, Jonathan “FieryJustice” Little should be no stranger to any poker player.

Similar to many of today’s younger players, FieryJustice was introduced to online poker through playing Magic: The Gathering. The moment FieryJustice turned 18 he began playing online poker. He started on the lowest stakes available of Limit Hold’Em and worked his bankroll up to $20,000. This was done alongside attending college and working a day job. After two years of grinding and growing his bankroll he decided to quit his job working at Pensacola Aviation – where he was fuelling airplanes – and drop out of college to start playing professionally. He worked his way up to $30/$60 which at the time was the highest limit game available then he decided to shift focus from Limit cash to Single Table Tournaments, otherwise known as Sit n Gos.

It was the shift to SnGs that made his bankroll explode. FieryJustice signed up with popular poker forum TwoPlusTwo and started asking questions and making friends. Once he started playing Sit & Gos he was playing $200 buy-in games, allowing himself a 100 buy-in rule, and at the early stages all his play was at Party Poker. Fortunately for FieryJustice he was playing before the online poker boom so things like training sites were barely heard of, leaving him with pretty soft competition. Anybody that was playing online poker around 2004 and before will tell you the games were much softer and easier than they are these days. For a good player to grind a 10% ROI back then wasn’t too hard whereas now days it’s unheard of.

Because rakeback wasn’t big back then FieryJustice had to rely on volume to make good money. Once he learned how to continuously beat the games, he soon went from single-tabling to playing 16 games at once, which gave him profits of around $10,000 per month.

It wasn’t all smooth sailing for FieryJustice: at one stage he had a 30 buy-in downswing at the $200 games, which is when he not only took a step down in games but he invested in a analytical program for SnG players called SnG Power Tools. This purchase, combined with some coaching, helped FieryJustice find his game again.

When Party Poker closed to the US market and most players merged over to PokerStars, FieryJustice moved away from SnGs and started playing big buy-in Multi Table Tournaments (MTTs.) While FieryJustice aspired to play tournaments professionally; given his experience as one of the best  SnG players in the world the transition wasn’t too difficult. His first year wasn’t that profitable, but he met Tom Dwan who backed him for a while as well as helping him with his game.

FieryJustice had his career’s biggest win in 2007, taking home over one million dollars at the WPT main event at the Mirage Casino. He outlasted famous players at the final table including Phil Ivey and Darrell “Gigabet” Dicken. Five months prior to this he had also made a final table and finished fifth for a little over $300,000 at a PokerStars Caribbean Adventure tournament. His next big score came at the WPT North American Poker Championship where he sat at the final table with players such as Barry Greenstein and Scott Clements. He ended 2nd for $715,000, but this achievement also earned him the title of the WPT Player of the Year, making him the youngest player to ever receive this award.

These days FieryJustice continues to play WPT and WSOP events and can be seen at PokerStars playing under the name of Jcardshark. He is also a head coach at popular training site “Float The Turn”.

Next Monday, September 6th, catch a marathon of &l...

Next Monday, September 6th, catch a marathon of “High Stakes Poker” on GSN. Once the Labor Day barbequing has finished and the relatives have left, it’ll be all poker after hours on the popular cable station.

A total of eight hours of “High Stakes Poker” will air with episodes from the show’s recently completed sixth season. Players you can expect to find on the airwaves include Patrik Antonius, Tom “durrrr” Dwan, and Doyle Brunson. The action will begin at 7:00pm ET and run all the way through 3:00am ET. If you’re on the “Left Coast” of the United States, then catch the “High Stakes Poker” Labor Day marathon on GSN from 4:00pm PT to Midnight PT. It’s a great way to catch up if you missed any of the action from Season 6.

The sixth season of “High Stakes Poker” premiered in February and featured UB.com pro Phil Hellmuth going broke in the first episode. On a four-way flop of 7-6-4 with two hearts, Phil Ivey fired out a bet of $6,000 with K-9 of hearts for a flush draw and two overcards, while Hellmuth bumped the action to $25,000 with J-5 of hearts for straight and flush draws. Ivey called behind and the turn was the king of diamonds, pairing the 2009 November Niner, who checked. Hellmuth moved all-in for $82,000 and Ivey called. No saving eight came on the river and Hellmuth had blown through his $200,000 buy-in.

In an episode that appeared in March, four players were felted, including Daniel Negreanu, Dario Minieri, Gus Hansen, and Jason Mercier. It was one of the most memorable episodes of “High Stakes Poker” ever and followed a $1 million vegetarian prop bet forged by Ivey. With Ivey ultimately sitting with more than $1 million in the Golden Nugget’s “High Stakes Poker” soundstage after the four-man bloodbath, host Gabe Kaplan jokingly commented that Ivey could easily buy out of his bet: “He could have a whole barbeque if he wants.”

After six episodes of the sixth season, the ratings for “High Stakes Poker” were up big. Overall ratings among adults age 18 to 49 were up 27% compared to Season 5, while ratings among adults age 25 to 54 were up 25%. Among men age 25 to 54, a key demographic for many advertisers, the ratings had mushroomed 29% season over season.

The show held a Sunday night time slot and the sixth season began with the departure of longtime co-host A.J. Benza. In his place, GSN officials brought in Kara Scott to conduct interviews from the “High Stakes Poker” suite, while Kaplan flew solo in the booth. The change prompted a petition to bring back Benza that appeared on TwoPlusTwo and at one point had attracted over 400 respondents.

GSN has given no indication as to whether “High Stakes Poker” will be brought back for a seventh season. The show has traditionally been filmed in November, with the most recent installment making its home at the Golden Nugget in Downtown Las Vegas. Brunson, Negreanu, Victory Poker pro Antonio Esfandiari, Eli Elezra, and PokerStars front man Barry Greenstein have appeared in all six seasons of the high-stakes cash game show.

Speaking of PokerStars, the site sponsors the “Big Game” on Fox, an alternative cash game series that airs at 1:00am ET or 2:00am ET in most markets. However, the “Big Game” won’t feature any new episodes until October. Meanwhile, NBC’s “Poker After Dark,” which airs a mix of tournament and cash game cycles, will also return with new episodes on October. Currently, encore presentations of “Poker After Dark” air daily at 2:05am ET on NBC.

The Jerry Springer hosted “Baggage” will air from 9:00am ET to 7:00pm ET preceding “High Stakes Poker” on GSN on Labor Day.

Jonathan Duhamel is the chip leader among the Nove...

Jonathan Duhamel is the chip leader among the November Nine this year heading into the 2010 World Series of Poker Main Event final table. Duhamel hails from Montreal, Quebec in Canada and was on hand at the Foxwoods Resort and Casino for their recent tournament promotion. While there he met up with Poker News Daily correspondent Bernard Lee. The two talked and Lee found out that Duhamel likes to conduct a prop bet with his friends that travel with him over just about any debate that might come up during the trip. The way they settle the debate is through a game of Rock, Scissors, Paper. The winner gets their way with the argument and Bernard Lee was on hand to capture the latest in these high-stakes bets.

At stake in this prop bet, against Duhamel’s good friend Vincent, is who gets to sleep in the nice bed while the lose must take the bed that is next to the window. The two played a best of three edition of Rock, Scissors, Paper and Duhamel explains why him and his friends always prop bet anything they possibly can.

For those of you born in a cave, the game of Rock, Scissors, Paper is one often played by children or drunks trying to determine who is stuck with the bar tab. The game is simple, you “bounce” your hand while counting to three and when you say three out loud, you form your hand into a rock, scissors or paper. Rock defeats scissors. Scissors defeats paper. Paper defeats rock. Often times the game is referred to as rochambeaux.

Duhamel is currently sponsored by the world’s largest poker site, PokerStars. Previous to his amazing WSOP Main Event run, he bubbled the final table of the No Limit Hold’em EPT Championship in Prague for $55,000. He also cashed at the 2010 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure Main Event and qualified for the 2010 World Series of Poker Main Event through an online qualifier at PokerStars.

Bernard Lee is the official spokesperson for Foxwoods Casino and can also be seen on the ESPN.com web show “The Inside Deal”.

The World Poker Tour (WPT) and Fox Sports Net (FSN...

The World Poker Tour (WPT) and Fox Sports Net (FSN) announced Monday that they will continue their broadcast and promotional relationship, settling on an agreement that will stretch until 2013. Seasons 9, 10, and 11 of the highly popular WPT broadcasts will feature prime time national premiere airtimes of 8:00 PM and 11:00 PM on Sunday nights, as well as multiple repeat airings throughout the week on FSN.

WPT’s Season 9 will begin airing in January 2011 and kick off with Bellagio Cup IX. Several changes and enhancements will be made to the broadcast, including new anchor Kimberly Lansing; a new tour stop at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Hollywood, Florida; and the introduction of the beautiful Royal Flush Girls, who will serve as on-air fixtures during every show. Season 9 will also debut a brash, yet-to-be-named new analyst who will host a recurring segment called “The Raw Deal.” The WPT held auditions for the new position during the WPT Legends of Poker tournament on August 19 at the Bicycle Casino.

“This season promises to be unlike any previous incarnations of the WPT,” said Steve Heller, CEO of WPT. “The shows will be faster-paced and edgier, featuring the biggest names in poker mixing it up with more up-and-coming stars, pre-final table action, and, as always, poker’s greatest and most recognizable play-by-play commentary team of Mike Sexton and Vince Van Patten.”

Sexton and Van Patten return for their ninth season in the WPT broadcast booth and are excited about adding “The Raw Deal” host to the team. “We’re looking for sort of a Simon Cowell kind of character that’s not afraid to bring down even a Phil Ivey, a Phil Hellmuth, a Daniel Negreanu, if he feels like they made a bonehead play,” Sexton said to Poker News Daily’s Sean Gibson. “They need to have poker experience and knowledge to be capable of critiquing an excellent, superb poker player.”

FSN is composed of 16 regional television stations that reach over 80 million homes throughout the United States. The network acquired the rights to Season 7 of the WPT after GSN declined to pick up its option following Season 6. The first five WPT seasons aired on The Travel Channel.

“As a leader in sports programming, FSN has been a great champion of the WPT and we are thrilled to make this long-term commitment as we celebrate a new day for the WPT,” said WPT President Adam Pliska. “The better airtimes, improved promotion, and the increased number of repeat episodes promise to be a boon for fans and the perfect showcase for the exciting changes coming to the WPT starting in Season 9.”

Season 9 saw the first-ever WPT stop in London get underway Monday with a surprisingly low turnout as only 72 players entered Day 1a of the £5,300 buy-in event. Thirty-six players made it through the day, including Full Tilt Pros Phil Ivey, Praz Bansi, Huck Seed, and chip leader Erik Seidel. The tournament wraps up with the final table on Saturday.

Stay tuned to Poker News Daily for the latest news on the World Poker Tour.

The big live tournaments that make the poker headl...

The big live tournaments that make the poker headlines each week come and go, but the ring game tables never sleep. Action is always plentiful in the virtual poker world. Perhaps nobody knows this better than Gus Hansen, who is famous for his significant bankroll swings in online poker. In what was likely one of his worst days ever, HighStakesDB.com has reported that Hansen lost over $1 million dollars Sunday… to just two opponents.

Cole South and eight-time World Series of Poker bracelet winner Phil Ivey took Hansen for more than $1.1 million on the final weekend day of August, accounting for almost half of the “Great Dane’s” net losses on the year. HighStakesDB – which tracks the action at high-stakes online poker tables – reported that Hansen’s losses Sunday came primarily in $2,000/$4,000 Fixed Limit Omaha Hi-Lo. He lost $358,000 to Ivey in that game along with $99,000 to South, and to make matters worse, he even lost $335,000 in Omaha Eight or Better when it was part of a Seven Game rotation.

All told during 2010, Hansen is down $2.3 million according to the records kept by HighStakesDB. He started off the year strong, peaking at $2.3 million in the black in January. His current deficit is his low point of the year so far. Despite his poor run in the Omaha Hi-Lo portion of HORSE on Sunday, it looks like Hansen should stick to HORSE, as he is up over $1.7 million in the Fixed Limit format of the mixed game in 2010.

Ivey and South, on the other hand, have had good 2010′s so far, and of course, HighStakesDB only counts online games, so they could be doing even better in live games. Ivey is up an astounding $3.5 million in internet competition this year and is on the rise, as that mark is his high point. He hit his valley back in March, when he was down $117,000. Ivey’s best game has been Fixed Limit HORSE, in which he was won $1.5 million. He is at least break-even in each game type for which HighStakesDB has records.

South has not won nearly as much as Ivey, but it is safe to say that the average person would love to have made $78,825 through the first eight months of the year. It’s a far cry from his high water point in February, when he was up $3.5 million. Just last month, though, South was down $260,000, so being above break-even means that he has had a nice few weeks recently. Fixed Limit Omaha Hi-Lo has been South’s best game, netting him almost a half million dollars.

In November, voters in the United States will head...

In November, voters in the United States will head to the polls for general elections. On Capitol Hill, the entire House of Representatives and one-third of the Senate will be determined. If Republicans were to gain control of the House, then Congressman Barney Frank’s (D-MA) tenure as Financial Services Committee Chairman may come to an end.

A recent Financial Times article discussed the future of the lower Congressional body: “Polls show control of the House of Representatives is too close to call while the Democrats are expected to retain control of the Senate, albeit with a reduced majority.” Frank has been in the House since 1980 and served as the Financial Services Committee Chairman since 2007. Democrats currently control nearly 60% of the seats in the House and Senate.

Congressman Spencer Bachus (R-AL) serves as the Ranking Member of the House Financial Services Committee, although he apparently seems far from a lock to take over the Chair should the opportunity arise. However, the Financial Times revealed, “Mr. Bachus said, ‘I will be the chairman if we’re in the majority.’ [Congressman Jeb Hensarling (R-TX)] said, ‘My expectation is that Spencer Bachus will be the next Chairman of the House Financial Services Committee and I support him.’”

What’s the significance of this story for online poker players, you ask? Frank is internet gambling’s number one supporter on Capitol Hill, having offered up a handful of bills to legalize the industry in the United States. His latest effort, HR 2267, the Internet Gambling Regulation, Consumer Protection, and Enforcement Act, was marked up in the Financial Services Committee in late July and has received the support of 70 co-sponsors.

HR 2267 received about a dozen amendments during mark-up, ranging from ensuring that online sports betting would not be legalized to prohibiting existing sites that serve the U.S. market “illegally” from applying for a license. Now, the measure awaits its time on the House floor, although HR 2267 being attached to a must-pass bill later this year is a possibility. Ironically, the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA) was attached to an unrelated port security measure to become law in 2006.

Bachus remains one of the strongest opponents of legalized internet gambling. During HR 2267’s markup hearing on July 28th, Bachus opened the proceedings by arguing, “After all of the talk of the past year of shutting the casinos down on Wall Street, why would we take steps today to open casinos in every bedroom and every dorm room on iPods, Blackberrys, iPhones, and computers?”

In the meantime, HR 2267 has caused a rift of sorts in the poker community. The Commerce Casino’s Tom Malkasian was among those witnesses who spoke against the bill in a July 21st House Financial Services Committee hearing. In response, the Poker Players Alliance (PPA), the industry’s main lobbying voice, issued an online petition to force the Commerce to change its position. The petition, found at PlayersBeforeProfits.com, has received over 7,000 signatures.

The Commerce Casino then fired back, arguing in a press release distributed in Friday, “Nevada casinos, offshore companies, and Washington insiders don’t want California to benefit from its own market. Our economic future is not their concern. We support free enterprise, fair competition, and the principle that what plays in California, stays in California.” The Los Angeles casino also claimed support from the Bicycle Casino, Hawaiian Gardens Casino, and Hollywood Park Casino.

Several poker pros have suggested a boycott of the Commerce Casino, although one has not yet occurred. The Bicycle Casino is fresh off hosting the World Poker Tour’s Legends of Poker, which saw Andy Frankenberger walk away with the title and $750,000 top prize.

Stay tuned to Poker News Daily for the latest headlines from Capitol Hill and beyond.

On Monday afternoon, the action in the Million Dol...

On Monday afternoon, the action in the Million Dollar Challenge between Tom “durrrr” Dwan and Dan “JungleMan12” Cates continued on Full Tilt Poker. Once again, Cates dominated and this time vaulted out to a $692,000 lead over the youngster. A total of 6,820 hands have been played.

It’s hard to believe that Dwan and Cates are nearly 15% of the way through the 50,000 hands required for completion. With the first incarnation of the Durrrr Challenge being 19 months old, the second has seemed to zip by. Mid-afternoon play on Monday was the first between Dwan and Cates since late last week, when Cates jumped out to a $518,000 lead.

According to stats found on Full Tilt Poker’s blog, Cates has posted a win rate of 25.33 BB/100 and has taken down 61.4% of hands. Dwan, meanwhile, has mustered wins in just 37.9% of hands and lodged a VPIP (Voluntarily Put Money into the Pot) of 65.1%. Cates’ VPIP is 69.4% by comparison.

There were several major split pots on Monday given Dwan and Cates running it twice during the course of the challenge. In one, the money went in on a 7-2-4-J board with Cates holding pocket aces for an overpair and Dwan showing J-2 for top and bottom pair. The first river was a king, shipping half the pot to Dwan, but an ace on the second river gave Cates the other half of the $96,000 in the middle.

Dwan then scooped a $54,000 pot with K-10 for the nuts on a 7-J-8-Q-A board. Dwan also took down a $131,000 pot after turning a set of tens on a K-8-3-10-2 board. Cates’ cards were not revealed in the latter hand after calling the all-in. In a separate hand, Dwan was all-in with pocket queens after a flop of 5-J-4 with two clubs. Cates held A-10 of the suit for the nut flush draw, but amazingly none of the four turn and river cards brought a third club to the board. Dwan landed a $71,000 pot and seemed to be well off early.

After a 3bet pre-flop, Dwan and Cates checked the action to the river on a 2-10-K-5-7 four-heart board. Then, the fireworks went off. Holding 9-3 of spades, Dwan led out for $4,800 and Cates made it $15,600 with the nut flush. Dwan re-raised to $27,800 and Cates made the call to scoop the $62,000 pot. On why Cates just called the river with the nuts instead of coming over the top, one poster on TwoPlusTwo speculated, “jungle pbb knew durrrr wasn’t gonna call a shove & wanted to see his hand.”

Dwan started the encounter by posting on Twitter, “Playing jungleman again, hopefully it goes better than last time.” That obviously didn’t work, as Cates Tweeted after the match had wrapped up, “won another 173k, so far up almost 700k in almost 7k hands.” The thread following the match on TwoPlusTwo stood at nearly 150 pages at the time of writing as the poker community looked on in awe.

Around 3:15pm ET, Dwan exited the tables after the beat down, with one poster on TwoPlusTwo reporting, “Durrrr just completely sat out without any chat.” Another community member inquired, “What are the chances durrrr buys out of this after 1 or 2 more sesh’s like this one? I doubt he’d buy out no matter how bad he runs/gets owned, but this challenge could kick his ass pretty hard.”

When the action will resume is anyone’s guess. Dwan had expressed interest in finishing the second installment of the Durrrr Challenge prior to the World Series of Poker Europe schedule beginning in two weeks. Meanwhile, Dwan has been dominating the first running against Patrik Antonius, but there has been no play since August 3rd.

Happy Monday to everyone! On today’s Daily D...

Happy Monday to everyone! On today’s Daily Deal, the Commerce Casino receives support from several of its competitors, Daniel Negreanu fires insults at Annie Duke, and an important figure in the Senate comes out in favor of online poker legislation. It’s all ahead… right now!

Hello, I’m Sean Gibson and welcome to the Daily Deal by Poker News Daily.

Let the battle lines be drawn. Several days after the Poker Players Alliance issued a petition to reverse the Commerce Casino’s stance against pro-internet gambling legislation in the United States, more casinos have come onboard to strike down the bill. In a letter issued to the press late Friday night from Commerce Casino Board members, it was revealed that the Bicycle Casino, Hawaiian Gardens, and Hollywood Park casinos also oppose Congressman Barney Frank’s HR 2267.

The press release claimed, “Californians wager an estimated thirteen point four billion dollars annually. That makes California the largest internet gaming market in the world, and without state legislation to protect it, critically-needed billions will be captured by offshore and out-of-state operators never to return.”

Why the Commerce Casino, Bike, or any other California casino wouldn’t just apply for a license under HR Two-Two-Six-Seven remains to be seen. PPA Executive Director John Pappas speculated in an exclusive interview with Poker News Daily, “They don’t want to compete with existing online operators or Harrah’s or Wynn or Google or anyone else who may get involved in internet gambling. They prefer to have their own fiefdom in California… A lot of lawmakers went out of their way to address their concerns via amendments, yet they still continue to oppose the bill.”

Moving over to another bitter dispute, in an interview with PokerPlayer, PokerStars pro Daniel Negreanu fired off what many have deemed inappropriate comments against Annie Duke. In an article entitled “The Evolution of Daniel Negreanu,” he was asked about the two-thousand ten World Series of Poker Ladies Event in which more than a dozen men played.

Negreanu voiced his disgust at the whole situation and then went on a tirade about Duke, who has never been an advocate of the tournament:

“What irked me is that this woman has the audacity on her website to call herself ‘the best female poker player in the world.’ So I’m like ‘how offensive are you, you f***ing c***? You want to say you’re speaking for women, yet you claim superiority over all of them.’”

Wow. Well … after afterwards Duke issued an open letter to PokerStars about the use of the c-word and the site ultimately responded, “PokerStars does not support the use of derogatory or hurtful language directed at any other player. While this was a personal matter between two players, we wish that better judgment had been used in the choice of words.”

Duke’s brother Howard Lederer and Tony G have been among those pros weighing in on the spat.

Finally, according to the Reno Gazette-Journal newspaper, U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid claimed he would support the legalization of online poker in the United States. Reid also stated he would not support any other form of online gaming, including sports betting.

Reid also won’t support anything that hurts Nevada jobs, but the Senate Majority Leader will play a huge role in whether online poker is legalized. No progress has been made on legalizing internet gambling or online poker in the Senate, so having Reid as an ally could go a long way.

That does it for today’s Daily Deal, be sure to check back every weekday for a new episode of this show. Also be sure to check back with Poker News Daily throughout your day to find out the latest in poker news. I’m Sean Gibson hoping you have an amazing week at the tables!

The European Poker Tour (EPT) continues its progre...

The European Poker Tour (EPT) continues its progress across the European continent, once again having a record turnout for the most recent stop in Vilamoura, Portugal.

In its second stop at the Casino Vilamoura on the coastline of the Atlantic Ocean, 384 runners put up the €5,300 buy-in to contest, the latest championship of the EPT’s seventh season. The numbers vastly outpaced the 322 players who showed up in 2009, when Antonio Matias captured the inaugural title. A number of Team PokerStars pros and other top poker players were in attendance for the tournament, making the going difficult for the amateurs who qualified through PokerStars or bought into the event directly.

World Series of Poker (WSOP) bracelet winner David Williams made his first ever appearance at an EPT event as a member of Team PokerStars and many other pros from the stable were also in attendance. Also making his first ever appearance in an EPT event on European soil was EPT founder John Duthie.

Other Team PokerStars Pros such as Italy’s Dario Minieri, France’s Arnaud Mattern, British players JP Kelly and Vicky Coren, and Russia’s Alex Kravchenko filled out the tables. Top players such as Victory Poker’s Antonio Esfandiari, former WSOP Europe champion Annette Obrestad, and 2010 WSOP bracelet winner James “flushy“ Dempsey were also in attendance, looking to take down the latest EPT title and the €467,835 first place prize.

Action began on Saturday with 181 players lining up for Day 1A. Leading the action at the end of the day was one of the Team PokerStars Online pros, Portugal’s Andre Coimbra, who sat with a nice Day 1A stack of 157,600. Several pros were also on the Day 1A leaderboard, including Minieri (fourth, 131,400), Esfandiari (fifth, 127,800), and Mattern (sixth, 119,200).

Day 1B on Sunday was the more active of the two Day Ones, with a sizable lineup of 203 players stepping up for battle. By the time play finished late Sunday night, Russian PokerStars qualifier Leonid Bilokur had stacked himself with 161,200 to take the overall Day One lead. The pros made their presence felt through Sam Trickett (fourth, 132,600), Sorel “Imper1um” Mizzi (fifth, 132,200), and UB.com’s Brandon Cantu (sixth, 122,400).

The field came together for the first time on Day 2 with a total of 221 players surviving. Esfandiari got off to a terrible start, dropping to 40,000 in chips after riding high on Day 1A. “The Magician” was able to make some chips appear and rebounded to slightly over his Day 2 starting stack, but the same couldn’t be said for several other top professionals. Such players as EPT San Remo champion Liv Boeree, Lex Veldhuis, Mizzi, Coren, and Williams were dispatched during early action on Day 2.

According to the PokerStars blog at the midpoint of Day 2, Coimbra has added to his chip stack to sit at around 220,000, but several players have stormed past him to push him back to the middle of the Top Ten. Poland’s Grzegorz Cichocki  currently holds a slim chip lead over Cantu, with Kelly and Trickett also arranged on the upper reaches of the leaderboard. Poker News Daily will bring you all the latest from the battle at the EPT Portugal, including the crowning of the champion on Thursday.

In the grand finale of the fifth Ultimate Bet Onli...

In the grand finale of the fifth Ultimate Bet Online Championship (UBOC) on Sunday, Charlie “CHAZ_MAN_C” Combes came out on top of the pack following a four-way chop and banked $136,000. A total of 1,032 players coughed up the UBOC 5 Championship Event’s $1,050 buy-in or won a satellite to get in and the top 99 finished in the money.

Combes hails from the United Kingdom and, on the final hand of the tournament, shoved all-in with Q-2. UB.com member “TOOCURIOUSSO” made the call for his tournament life with K-9 and was in prime position to double up. The flop of 3-J-6 didn’t change matters, but a queen on the turn paired Combes and sealed his UBOC 5 title. Combes claimed a championship watch to boot. In March, he won both the Full Tilt Poker $1K Monday for $93,000 and the Titan Poker $250,000 Guaranteed for $59,000.

TOOCURIOUSSO finished with the smallest payout of the four dealmakers at $95,000. Pamela “VENUSIGNA” Quesada, who calls the Latin American nation of Costa Rica home, landed in third place and walked away with $152,000, the largest payday of the UBOC 5 Championship. In her final hand, Quesada was all-in before the flop with pocket sixes and up against Combes’ A-K of hearts. The board blanked out until an ace hit on the river, sending Quesada home in devastating fashion.

“WALLABAER” dropped a sizable pot with A-K against Quesada’s pocket nines to cripple his stack. On the next hand, WALLABAER’s 4-3 could not draw out on Combes’ 7-6 and he was relegated to the rails. Here’s a look at how the final table cashed out in the UBOC 5 Championship Event:

1. CHAZ_MAN_C – $136,178 2. TOOCURIOUSSO – $95,000 3. VENUSIGNA – $152,000 4. WALLABAER – $145,000 5. APATHY123 – $56,244 6. WAMMERMOUTH – $45,924 7. MST_MORPHEUS – $35,604 8. 1GENERAL_TAO – $25,284 9. DONRIKY – $17,544

Like you’d expect in a tournament with a $1,050 buy-in, a variety of brand name pros made deep runs. Joshua “PBDRUNKS” Van Duyn, who won the very first tournament of UBOC 5, took 50th in the Championship Event. Faraz “The-Toilet” Jaka, who had been in the running as part of a leaderboard competition to be a sponsored pro of DoylesRoom, hit the rail in 22nd place.

UB.com sponsored pro Billy “Patrolman35” Kopp bubbled the final table and finished in 12th in what likely would have been a coup of sorts for members of Team UB. Players who knocked out members of Team UB throughout UBOC 5 received 200 Tournament Dollars and a swank UBOC shirt. The tournament stretched for 12 hours, ending around 4:30am ET.

In the MiniUBOC Championship Event, “JLC123” banked $17,000 and came away with the win. The field of the $55 buy-in tournament numbered 1,684 and JLC123 bested fellow online poker player “BOOJIW” heads-up; BOOJIW grabbed a $10,000 consolation prize. The MiniUBOC 5 schedule offered the same slate of events as its high-stakes counterpart, but with more affordable buy-ins.

If you’re itching for more tournament series, don’t fear. The 2010 PokerStars World Championship of Online Poker, or WCOOP, will begin on Sunday, September 5th. The schedule offers a ridiculous $50 million in guaranteed prize money, including a $10 million guaranteed Main Event on September 26th. Every 2010 WCOOP tournament is open to online poker players from the United States.

Check out UB.com or Absolute Poker for full UBOC 5 results.

We’ve seen that poker is a great platform to...

We’ve seen that poker is a great platform to raise money for charitable events throughout the country.  I salute those players who help organize, put on, and participate in charitable poker tournaments.  I believe the time has come, however, to parlay those efforts where the “outside world” will see that poker can be a large contributor to worthwhile charities.  Thus, Linda Johnson, Jan Fisher, Lisa Tenner, and I created PokerGives in an effort to unify the poker community in this effort.

PokerGives is a charitable organization set up to benefit worthwhile charities and it’s done through the poker community.  The founders don’t make a dime and we expect 95% of all contributions to go directly to the charities we support.  Right now, we are supporting four charities, all very special to our hearts:  Paralyzed Veterans of America, Special Olympics, Intrepid Fallen Heroes Fund, and Step by Step Foundation.

With the support of players, card rooms, industry leaders, and the poker media, the poker world has an opportunity to make a significant difference to the lives of many and bring a well-deserved positive outlook on poker and the poker world.  Even those who oppose gambling and/or poker will take a step back and say, “Hey, those poker people are all right.  They’re contributing a lot of money to worthwhile charities.”

Most of us take our health and our freedoms for granted.  I wish every person, young and old, could go to a VA Hospital such as Walter Reed and see the paralyzed veterans, those who have been paralyzed as a result of serving in the Armed Forces to protect our freedoms.  I promise you that visit will impact you forever, change your thinking about life, and make you a better person.  The Intrepid Fallen Heroes have made the ultimate sacrifice for us, and their families have suffered. We can help them.

If you’ve never gotten involved or been to a Special Olympics event, do so.  It’s something you should put on your “bucket list,” especially those blessed with healthy children.  It truly is a moving experience.  Step by Step is an organization providing for the underprivileged children of the world.  Think how lucky you were to be born where you were.

The people who volunteer their time and money and those who work with these charities are special people.  To me, they are walking angels.  Through PokerGives, the poker world now has an opportunity to get involved, help these wonderful charities, and do it by doing what we love to do, playing poker.

September has been designated as PokerGives month.  Card rooms from across the country are holding PokerGives charity events where 50% of the prize money goes to PokerGives.  This is the first-ever PokerGives month and about 25 card rooms have signed up!  Please go to PokerGives.org to see when and where you can play in a PokerGives charity event.

We are so grateful for the card rooms that are supporting PokerGives and we’re hopeful that poker players everywhere come out and play in these events.  In addition, Poker Nation is hosting an online PokerGives tournament on Full Tilt on September 19th.  I guarantee you that if you play in a PokerGives event and get knocked out, you’ll still feel good because you helped out one of these worthwhile charities.

Winners of all PokerGives events will be put into a drawing and could win a number of prizes.  And the card room that hosted whoever wins the drawing will get a free seminar at their card room from Linda, Jan, and me.

We’re off to a good start with PokerGives and are excited about September, PokerGives Month.  A sincere “thank you” to all of the supporting card rooms and the players who play.  The potential of what we can do as an industry in charitable contributions through PokerGives is awesome.

Looking down the road, my dream would be to see all tournament players contribute 1% of their prize money to PokerGives and every card room and online site host PokerGives tournaments.  Can you imagine how much money we could raise for these charities if that happened?  By supporting Poker Gives, you’ve got the chance to make a Royal Flush in the game of life.

Pot Limit Omaha is one of the most exciting and ac...

Pot Limit Omaha is one of the most exciting and action-packed poker games you can possibly play. However, the game involves four cards and not just two like in Texas Hold’em, so many players find difficulty adjusting to new table dynamics. Our latest CardRunners strategy video dives into Pot Limit Omaha play and theory, by looking at some hands using Hold’em Manager.

The official CardRunners teaser:

Mindcirkus is here to analyze his own mind. Tune in as he goes over hands from his database and determines whether his play was optimal or if he changed his mind.

Comments from Mindcirkus about the video:

In some of my past videos I tried to speed things up and people told me not to, but I’m learning and getting better with each video. I think I’m going to do my next video at 2/4, either 4 or 6 tables. I was thinking about doing 20-50bb tables this time since my other vids have all been deepstacked, but if you guys prefer normal/deep tables just let me know.

I have always personally preferred to watch live play videos myself, but I wanted to show some hands in a replayer with the intent of showing some creative lines that would help players add some new things to their game beyond the basics and the standard lines that so many players take over and over again.

On Saturday night, the second round of regular sea...

On Saturday night, the second round of regular season matches kicked off on the Full Tilt Doubles Poker Championship, which airs on GSN. Each of the 32 players in the field bought in for $50,000 and had already played out one match.

In Match #5, which spanned the first 30 minutes of the one-hour GSN show, Howard Lederer paired with Phil “OMGClayAiken” Galfond, Mike Matusow teamed with Phil Laak, Andy Bloch teamed with Annie Duke, and Erick Lindgren teamed with former World Poker Tour Championship winner David Chiu. Players alternate action by street and each team is allowed one time out to talk strategy.

Matusow and Laak, by far the most talkative pair at the table, were all-in with K-10 against Lederer and Galfond’s A-9 of spades. The latter team flopped top pair on an ace-high board and never looked back, leaving Matusow and Laak with zero points towards the end-of-season standings. Matusow proceeded to exit stage left and then chucked a water bottle at his partner.

Bloch and Duke hit the rails in third place after the reigning National Heads-Up Poker Championship victor open-shoved all-in pre-flop with Q-8. Galfond peeked down at A-6 of diamonds and called for time to consult with Lederer, claiming, “You’re going to know better than me.” Lederer, Duke’s brother, told Galfond to make the call and the door card was an ace. The board eventually ran out 5-2-A-7-10 and Duke and Bloch hit the rail in third place, netting four points.

Lederer committed his team’s chips with J-5 pre-flop and Lindgren called all-in with A-6 in prime position to double up. The board blanked out until a six hit on the turn, leaving Lederer and Galfond with 11 outs heading to the river. Sure enough, a three came, giving the team a straight, the title in Match #5, and 20 points towards the regular season. Lindgren and Chiu each received 11 points.

On his 31 points after two regular season matches, Lederer told Full Tilt Doubles Poker Championship hostess Lacey Jones, “Obviously, after two rounds, it’s a great spot for us.” Galfond gave viewers a peek inside his chemistry with Lederer: “We have somewhat different styles, more on the early streets, but when it comes down to it, poker’s still poker.” The top 16 players from the regular season will advance to the postseason.

In Match #6, Huck Seed paired with Annette Obrestad, David Oppenheim paired with Gavin Smith, Vivek “Psyduck” Rajkumar paired with PartyPoker’s Tony G, and Justin “Boosted J” Smith paired with Tom Dwan. The second match covered the second half-hour of the one-hour GSN show.

After dropping a 46,000-chip pot by calling with ace-high, Dwan and “Boosted J” were all-in with Q-8 against Oppenheim and Smith’s 9-6 of diamonds. Oppenheim and Smith flopped middle pair, but faced a flush draw heading to the river. However, the final card was a brick and “Boosted J” and Dwan were the first casualty of Match #6. Dwan has yet to record a point towards the regular season standings.

Oppenheim and Gavin Smith ran 9-7 of hearts into pocket aces to double up Seed and Obrestad. Moments earlier, the latter pair had bickered after Seed put in a raise on a board reading 6-3-4-5 holding 5-4. Obrestad argued that Seed should have simply called behind. The two ultimately righted the ship after hitting a runner-runner straight to bust Oppenheim and Gavin Smith and set up heads-up play.

Obrestad and Seed continued to struggle to work as a team, receiving a one-round penalty after Obrestad talked strategy with Seed without holding cards. Nevertheless, they came out on top after spiking a flush on the river when Rajkumar and Tony G were all-in with pocket eights. Seed recorded his second straight Full Tilt Doubles Poker Championship win and has 40 regular season points. Obrestad and Rajkumar each have 31 points.

The action continues this Saturday at 9:00pm ET on GSN.

U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) had ...

U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) had long been on the fence regarding the legalization of online poker in the States. But when Reid sent a letter to Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and Federal Reserve Board Chairman Ben Bernanke asking for a delay for the enforcement of Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA) regulations in November of last year, it became clear that the influential politician was becoming more favorable toward poker on the internet.

This week, Reid showed even more support of online poker in the state of Nevada. According to the Reno Gazette-Journal newspaper, Reid claimed he would support the legalization of online poker in the United States during an August 16 meeting at the Atlantis Casino Resort Spa. Reid also stated he would not support any other form of online gaming, including sports betting.

The news was disconcerting to Nevada gaming executives, who fear that the legalization of online poker will result in a major loss of customers in brick-and-mortar casinos.

“It (online poker) is just the tip of the iceberg and could open up this state to more online gaming,” said Bill Hughes, the Marketing Director of Peppermill, to the Reno Gazette-Journal. “It will only draw more money out of this state, from our poker rooms and eventually other facilities.”

Reid has stated that he would not support anything that hurts Nevada jobs, but the Senate Majority Leader will play a huge role in whether online poker is legalized. The House Financial Services Committee passed HR 2267, the Internet Gambling Regulation, Consumer Protection, and Enforcement Act, in July and the bill is currently waiting on a vote by the full House. HR 2267 would effectively legalize online poker, overturning a 2006 law that bars offshore sites from accepting money from U.S. bettors.

Congress is on summer recess until September 8, at which point Congressman Barney Frank (D-MA) hopes the House Ways and Means Committee will mark up their tax companion bill, HR 4976, and bring both measures to the floor.

Meanwhile, gaming properties in Nevada, such as Harrah’s Entertainment and MGM Resorts International, are in the process of developing strategies to monetize the legalization of internet gaming. With the future of sites like PokerStars, UB.com, and Full Tilt Poker up in the air following the markup amendments of HR 2267, people like Jan Jones, Harrah’s Senior Vice President for Communications and Government Relations, seem to think online poker would improve Nevada’s gaming market.

“If you look at the businesses that are surviving today, they approach their customers in three ways,” Jones told the Gazette-Journal. “One is brick and mortar. One is direct marketing sales, and the other is the internet.

“The businesses that have not done that have gone out of business. Look at record stores. Look at newspapers. In the gaming industry, we need to realize, where are the X-Y generation customers? They are all on the internet. That is where they play. That is where they congregate, and if we don’t leverage the internet, then we run the risk of becoming an old person’s entertainment.”

Stay tuned to Poker News Daily for the latest news on Capitol Hill.

Team PokerStars Pro member Daniel Negreanu‘s...

Team PokerStars Pro member Daniel Negreanu‘s hurtful remarks about UB.com‘s Annie Duke during interview with PokerPlayer.co.uk have sent the poker community taking sides between the two superstars. Negreanu called Duke a “f***ing c***” during what Negreanu thought to be an “off the record” conversation with writer Mark Stuart last week. His comments were published, however, and a verbal spat between the two sides followed.

In the article, titled “The Evolution of Daniel Negreanu,” Negreanu was asked what irked him about the 2010 World Series of Poker Ladies Event in which more than a dozen men played. Negreanu voiced his disgust at the whole situation and then went on a tirade about Duke, who has never been an advocate of the Ladies Event as a believer of sexual equality at the poker table. “What irked me is that this woman has the audacity on her website to call herself ‘the best female poker player in the world.’ So I’m like ‘how offensive are you, you f***ing c***? You want to say you’re speaking for women, yet you claim superiority over all of them.’”

The article was quickly passed through forums and other social media networks and eventually made its way to Duke, who was astounded by the comments made about her. Responding to the verbal assault, Duke wrote on Twitter, “Thank you for the support. I was certainly shocked at the language myself. I welcome criticism, but not abuse.”

PokerStars received word of the remarks made by Negreanu, the site’s most famous spokesperson, and one member of the PokerStars support team replied to an e-mail sent by a player on the site: “Although Daniel Negreanu is a Team PokerStars Pro, he is an entity to himself and as such will always be encouraged to express his views and speak his mind as he would otherwise do so, PokerStars Pro or not.”

Needless to say, Duke wasn’t satisfied with that response. She fired back with an “Open Letter to PokerStars” on her website demanding some sort of reprimand: “I am not offended by Daniel’s opinion. He has a right to disagree with me and dislike me. And I, just like PokerStars, would encourage him to express his views and opinions. This is not about his views. It is about a particular word he chose to express those views. The word “c**t” is not an opinion, it is an abusive epithet, and PokerStars is completely ignoring the use of that term in their response.”

Duke continues, “But more distressing is the use of the word ‘encouraged’ here. So, PokerStars, you are encouraging Daniel to continue to express views in this manner, to conduct these public attacks using offensive slurs and inappropriate language? I am more than dismayed that PokerStars is making a statement here that they encourage this kind of behavior, this kind of language use. According to PokerStars, this kind of behavior enriches our community.”

PokerStars then answered with an official statement in response to Duke’s letter, saying that the first e-mail was not PokerStars’ official statement on the issue: “PokerStars does not support the use of derogatory or hurtful language directed at any other player. While this was a personal matter between two players, we wish that better judgment had been used in the choice of words.”

Several high profile poker players have weighed in on the conflict, including Duke’s bother and Full Tilt Poker pro Howard Lederer, who came to her defense with a Twitter update shortly after the article was posted. “Hey Daniel, nice job representing poker and reinforcing that our attitude towards women is still Neanderthal,” Lederer said. “I understand some agree w DN on the ladies poker event issue. Many do. But abusing those you disagree with is never cool.”

Even the brazen Tony G offered to act as a mediator. “Let’s smooth over this situation, let’s try and forget that it ever happened. I know this fantastic place in Utah where you can get away from the world and I will pay for you to both go there and relax and chill out,” the PartyPoker pro said in his blog Wednesday. “You are both important ambassadors for the game we love – please let’s resolve this in a diplomatic manner otherwise someone is going to get really hurt.”

Negreanu has yet to offer an apology to Duke, which will certainly cause even more tension at the tables in the future. It’s public knowledge that the two haven’t gotten along since even before the poker boom of 2003 and it’s certainly keeping the community talking. Stay tuned to Poker News Daily for more high-stakes drama.

Recently, the Poker Players Alliance (PPA), the ma...

Recently, the Poker Players Alliance (PPA), the main lobbying force for the poker industry, launched a petition at PlayersBeforeProfits.com to reverse the Commerce Casino’s stance on critical internet gambling legislation. HR 2267, dubbed the Internet Gambling Regulation, Consumer Protection, and Enforcement Act, was successfully marked up in the House Financial Services Committee last month and now waits for its time to be debated in Congress.

Nearly 7,000 players had signed the online petition at the time of writing and the PPA was shooting for 10,000. The push came as a result of an action alert sent by the PPA to its members and followed testimony in the House Financial Services Committee from the Commerce Casino’s Tom Malkasian. His testimony claimed in part that HR 2267 is “based on false revenue assumptions that would require removal of the right of any state or tribe to opt out of the bill in order to achieve the advertised tax revenue of $42 billion over ten years.”

Malkasian also highlighted that allowing illegal operators to receive licenses under HR 2267 equates to “locking in unprecedented market advantages that can undermine and destabilize the land-based casino gaming industry.” He also voiced concerns over HR 2267 conflicting with tribal compacts and allowing internet gambling sites to be located outside of the United States. The latter three concerns were each addressed during markup as part of a dozen amendments tacked onto the bill.

PPA Executive Director John Pappas told Poker News Daily, “They don’t want to compete with existing online operators or Harrah’s or Wynn or Google or anyone else who may get involved in internet gambling. They prefer to have their own fiefdom in California… A lot of lawmakers went out of their way to address their concerns via amendments, yet they still continue to oppose the bill.”

The PPA’s action alert merely called for players to contact the Commerce and express their disappointment with the casino’s stance towards the sweeping internet gambling legislation. Players took it upon themselves to suggest a boycott, which the PPA did not initially ask for. Pappas explained, “We felt that poker players can make those types of decisions on their own. We want to reserve a boycott and I don’t think it’s something we intended to call for. Should the Commerce continue to be obstinate, then we might revise our stance there.”

Pappas questioned why the Commerce wouldn’t be content to apply for a license under HR 2267 if the bill were to become law. The PPA’s main face speculated, “For a long time, they dominated the poker scene in California and they feel entitled to California’s online poker players’ money. Maybe they don’t feel that they’re as strong and won’t be able to compete.” On Friday night, Commerce Casino officials distributed a press release claiming support from the Bicycle Casino, Hawaiian Gardens Casino, and Hollywood Park Casino in opposition to Congressman Barney Frank’s bill.

As part of his House Financial Services Committee testimony, Malkasian likened legalizing internet gambling to legalizing marijuana, a comparison Pappas did not look kindly upon: “In essence, they’re calling the pro players endorsing sites drug dealers. That would offend me, especially when it comes from our purported friends. It wouldn’t have been shocking if it were from Focus on the Family or Congressman Bob Goodlatte, but when it’s coming from a supposed friend of poker because it doesn’t fit their business model, of course we’ll voice our concern.”

After an internal debate on the proper course of action, the PPA launched PlayersBeforeProfits.com. “We came to a decision after hearing from so many of our members,” Pappas told Poker News Daily. “We felt obligated to inform our members about it. Our goal is to get 10,000 signatures. We’ll go back to the Commerce and see if they’ve revaluated their position after we do.”

Stay tuned to Poker News Daily for the latest legislative developments.

On Sunday, the Championship Event of the fifth Ult...

On Sunday, the Championship Event of the fifth Ultimate Bet Online Championship, or UBOC, kicks off on the virtual felts of the CEREUS Poker Network. Players on the CEREUS Network sites UB.com and Absolute Poker will be vying for their share of a $1 million guaranteed UBOC 5 Championship prize pool. The tournament boasts a price tag of $1,050 and begins promptly at 4:00pm ET.

As if the seven-figure purse weren’t enough of a reason to sign up, the UBOC 5 Championship Event features 11-time World Series of Poker bracelet winner Phil Hellmuth as its host. The tournament comes with a Monster Stack format and a six-figure first place prize, so head to UB.com or Absolute Poker today at 4:00pm ET to get in on the fun. Both sites happily take action from United States online poker players.

The UBOC 5 Championship Event is the culmination of a 20-event tournament series that began back on August 18th. Since then, CEREUS Network pros like Annie Duke, Tiffany Michelle, and Mark Seif have hosted UBOC 5 tournaments, featuring poker games like Texas Hold’em, Omaha, and HORSE. This is the second time the UBOC has run in 2010, with the first cycle occurring back in January.

The lone six-figure payday of UBOC 5 so far went to Jeremy “DUHDUHDAISY” Fitzpatrick, who came out on top of the pack in a $1,050 No Limit Hold’em Six-Max Deep Stack event, the eighth on the schedule. A total of 583 players created a $583,000 prize pool, the largest to date heading into the Championship Event. Fitzpatrick owns the eighth spot on the PocketFives.com Online Poker Rankings and has also recorded wins in the Full Tilt $1K Monday and Bodog $100,000 Guaranteed.

In Event #8, Fitzpatrick edged out Danny “dannyills” Illingworth, whose second place consolation prize was worth $81,000. Illingworth calls Carlsbad, California home and finished second in the Absolute Poker $200,000 Guaranteed last month for $27,000.

Others at the final table of Event #8 of UBOC 5 included “UPAY4RHINOS” (third place for $54,219), “JOAOMATHIAS” (fourth place for $37,895), “LOCKDOWNTEX” (fifth place for $32,065), “POOLI” (sixth place for $26,235), “CRACKIN_TY” (seventh place for $21,571), “N0VASKY” (eighth place for $15,741), and “GR8PKRPLAYA” (ninth place for $9,911).

The opening tournament of UBOC 5 featured a field of 903 players for a $320 No Limit Hold’em Sniper event. A total of $200,000 was guaranteed, but the 900-plus player field swelled the total prize pool to nearly $250,000. The final table was stacked with brand name pros, including eventual winner Joshua “pbdrunks” Van Duyn, who banked $54,000. Rounding out the top three were Felipe “improved” Montenegro and Darren “darrenelias” Elias, who cashed in for $32,000 and $22,000, respectively.

Also taking place today on UB.com and Absolute Poker is the Championship Event of MiniUBOC 5. The smaller version of the grand finale comes with a $55 buy-in and a $50,000 guaranteed prize pool. “GUIGUI_88” will serve as its host and the MiniUBOC 5 Championship begins at 4:00pm ET. MiniUBOC 5 has featured the same slate of events as its high-stakes counterpart, but with reduced buy-ins for those players lacking deep pockets.

Blanca Games recently acquired the CEREUS Network, although the terms of the transaction remain a mystery. Tokwiro Enterprises, the former owners of UB.com and Absolute Poker, will likely send out a press release with additional details on the acquisition this week. Stuart Gordon is the main face behind Blanca Games, whose website simply notes that its operations “are conducted by subsidiaries and associated companies.” Blanca Games is based in Antigua and has offices in Costa Rica, where UB.com and Absolute Poker are located.

Visit UB or AbsolutePoker to sign up for the UBOC 5 Championship Event.

Let the battle lines be drawn. Several days after ...

Let the battle lines be drawn. Several days after the Poker Players Alliance (PPA) issued a petition to reverse the Commerce Casino’s stance against pro-internet gambling legislation in the United States, more casinos have come onboard to strike down the bill.

In a letter issued to the press late Friday night from Commerce Casino Board members Tom Malkasian and Haig Papaian, it was revealed that the Bicycle Casino, Hawaiian Gardens, and Hollywood Park also oppose Congressman Barney Frank’s (D-MA) HR 2267. None of the three additional casinos was quoted in any way.

Calling industry lobbying groups like the PPA “special interest groups receiving funds from illegal offshore gaming operators,” Malkasian and Papaian assert, “Poker players deserve to know the real facts so let us be clear: We support online poker and we are working hard to make sure it will benefit all Americans. America’s poker community should be united in opposing the Frank legislation that would ship jobs, revenue, and taxes beyond our communities. We need to work together to keep American dollars at home.”

The authors of the letter claim to employ more than 20,000 workers in California, a state that has been hit with a massive budget shortfall. It also cites a 2008 study from the California Public Policy institute saying that 70% of California residents use the internet and “according to another study in 2009, Californians wager an estimated $13.4 billion annually. That makes California the largest internet gaming market in the world, and without state legislation to protect it, critically-needed billions will be captured by offshore and out-of-state operators never to return.”

On Friday, PPA Executive Director John Pappas told Poker News Daily that 6,000 players had signed an online petition found at PlayersBeforeProfits.com to reverse the Commerce Casino’s stance. The organization was gunning for 10,000 names in total.

In response to the press release from the Commerce Casino Board members, UB.com pro Annie Duke chided via Twitter, “Your press release might be more credible if you got the bill number correct. It’s HR 2267.” The press release cites the Commerce Casino’s opposition to HR 4976, the tax companion bill to HR 2267 proposed by Congressman Jim McDermott (D-WA). However, Malkasian’s testimony in front of the House Financial Services Committee last month was wholeheartedly against Frank’s HR 2267.

In reaction to the harsh opposition set forth by the Commerce Casino, Pappas commented, “There are requirements in HR 2267 that companies set up at least 50% of their operations in the United States. On their concern of illegal operators, anyone who has been operating illegally won’t be able to get a license. It’s pretty clear their only concern is that they don’t want to compete.” A dozen amendments were added to HR 2267 in a markup hearing held one month ago to the day addressing many of the Commerce Casino’s concerns.

The Commerce Casino’s statements wraps up by saying, “We strongly support poker-only legislation. California lawmakers should be the first to bring an illegal enterprise under legal supervision, provide needed consumer protections, and capture revenue that can benefit our state first.” An e-mail address of supportonlinepoker@commercecasino.net is given for players looking for additional information.

Among the 6,000 poker players that have signed the PPA’s online petition are Patrik Antonius, Tom Dwan, Phil Ivey, John Juanda, Erick Lindgren, Joe Sebok, and new PokerStars pro David Williams. All that’s required to sign is your name, city, and state. The PPA has even gone so far as to provide an avenue for players to Tweet the Commerce Casino automatically. Alternately, you can leave your telephone number and the PPA will personally patch you through to the Commerce Casino.

The addition of the Bike, Hawaiian Gardens, and Hollywood Park may open the rift even further between online poker players seeking legislation and the brick-and-mortar casinos they placate. Calls for a boycott of the Commerce have surfaced and many of the aforementioned “illegal offshore gaming operators” sponsor pros like Ivey, Duke, and Sebok through their dot-net counterparts. The Bike and Commerce both hold World Poker Tour events, with the former fresh off crowning a champion in the Legends of Poker.

Stay tuned to Poker News Daily on Sunday for an exclusive response from Pappas.

Earlier this week, the Foxwoods Resort Casino wrap...

Earlier this week, the Foxwoods Resort Casino wrapped up the 17th running of its Mega Stack Challenge, with record-breaking fields and huge prize pools enticing all participants.

The tournament series, which took place from August 17th to 23rd, featured three different events that drew in more than 2,200 players. The Mega Stack Challenge XVII also featured quality poker talent, including 2003 World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event champion Chris Moneymaker, 2009 runner-up Darvin Moon, and 2010 November Nine chip leader Jonathan Duhamel. Also in attendance for the three events was Poker News Daily guest columnist Bernard Lee, who is sponsored by Foxwoods and considers the poker room his home turf.

The $340 No Limit Hold’em tournament was the largest event by the numbers, with 1,295 players eventually coming to the felt to battle for the title. Roslyn Heights, New York resident William Davis won the championship at the end of the two-day tournament, taking home $72,769. Battling valiantly was eventual second place finisher John Weiss of Stamford, Connecticut, who earned $45,787.

Rounding out the remainder of the final table were third place Edward Kiaer of East Boston, Massachusetts; Linda Swears of Fitchburg, Massachusetts; Edson Pap of Lynnfield, Massachusetts; Michael Forman of Farmington, New York; Michael Donegan of Center Moriches, New York; Jamie Wagner of Kittery, Maine; Matthew Pierce of Cohasset, Massachusetts; and Colin Maneval of Newton, Massachusetts. The tournament was guaranteed for $125,000, but that figure was tripled with the $376,845 prize pool.

The $560 No Limit Hold’em event featured a sizeable field of 663 that also surpassed its $125,000 guarantee, with the prize pool eventually reaching $321,555. Seventy players earned a return on their investment, with Moon taking a min-cash ($1,286) and veteran poker player Vinny Pahuja also making a small profit ($1,350).

The two-day tournament saw a deal reached after 14 hours of play in the Foxwoods tournament room, where 107 players started with a shot at the title on Day 2. The championship trophy and first place check of $35,615 was awarded to Brad Harper of Putney, Vermont. Khalid Riley of Norwood, Massachusetts; Jose Montes of Bronx, New York; David Felger of Lantana, Florida; and Mike MacIntosh of Crantson, Rhode Island took the second through fifth place slots and were each the beneficiary of $31,500 for their hard work after a chop.

In the $1,650 No Limit Hold’em Main Event, 320 players competed for a chance to earn a piece of the $465,600 prize pool (the tournament had a guaranteed purse of $250,000). Over the span of three days of play totaling 36 hours, the field was whittled down to the 35 players who would at least earn a min-cash of $3,817. The real prize, however, was the first place money worth $74,919 and the Mega Stack Championship trophy.

As action reached the final four of the three-day tournament, the players were fairly evenly stacked. With the hour growing late, the top four negotiated a deal that awarded Dan Suied of Billerica, Massachusetts a $72,072 cash and the title of champion. Although he finished second, Marc Podell of New York, New York took home the most money ($74,919) as a result of the deal. Mike Dentale of Brooklyn, New York finished third with $58,533 and Ross Santos of Carver, Massachusetts took the fourth place prize of $43,572.

Rounding out the final table for the event were Grant Lang of Danbury, Connecticut; Sam Haddad of Westwood, Massachusetts; Ben Bianco of Franklin Square, New York; Rodney Legendre of Randolph, New Hampshire; Robert Koerber of Waterbury, Connecticut; and Mike Perry of Oakland, Maine. The final nine players each took home a five-figure payday, with Perry falling just short of that in earning $7,915.

When all of the tournaments were completed, $1.164 million in prize pools had been distributed, making the Mega Stack Challenge XVII the largest version ever in its history. The popular Foxwoods poker room will play host to the World Poker Finals, including a World Poker Tour $10,000 event, in October.

On Thursday, the poker world learned that Blanca G...

On Thursday, the poker world learned that Blanca Games, which features Chief Executive Officer Stuart Gordon, had acquired the CEREUS Poker Network. UB.com and Absolute Poker both make their home on the USA-friendly network and the former features Joe Sebok as a sponsored pro. Shortly after the acquisition announcement, Poker News Daily caught up to the former “Poker2Nite” host.

One year ago, Sebok signed on with UB.com and immediately became involved in the site’s investigation into the superuser scandal orchestrated by former World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event champ Russ Hamilton. He’s remained one of the more visible UB.com pros in a roster that also includes Poker News Daily Guest Columnist Annie Duke and 11-time bracelet winner Phil Hellmuth.

Sebok gave us his reaction to the news that Blanca Games had taken control of CEREUS: “I couldn’t be more excited about it. It’s a further break from the past and fewer connections to the former owners of Ultimate Bet, not to mention my own excitement about bringing Blanca into the fold and beginning something new. Gordon has a proven track record and I think bringing them into the poker arena is only going to breathe some new excitement into our business.”

Who is Gordon, you ask? He’s the founder and operator of BingoMania.com and Helix Gaming International, both of which hold licenses from the nation of Antigua and the Kahnawake Gaming Commission. Blanca Games has its headquarters in Antigua and offices in Costa Rica. Sebok elaborated that despite the change in ownership, players should expect continued growth: “The player experience shouldn’t change one bit, except for all of the improvements that will come from us being bought by Blanca. I think we are really going to be able to do many more exciting things now.”

Text found on Blanca Games’ website does not shed much light on its identity, instead only offering up, “The operations of the Blanca Group are conducted by subsidiaries and associated companies.” According to whois.domaintools.com, BlancaGames.com was registered on July 15th, 2010.

Sebok explained that the timing of the sale with his one-year anniversary of joining UB.com is purely coincidental. That said, he is ready to put the past behind him and continue supporting the USA-friendly site and network: “I always knew that we needed to deal with the past, which we continue to do, but the really exciting period was always going to be growing the company and turning it into what we would like it to be. Soon, UB won’t be known for the scandals of the past, but rather for helping lead online poker into the future.”

Poker News Daily can independently confirm that no staffing or operational changes are expected in the new Blanca Games regime. Sebok added, “Blanca wanted, and needed, the entire operation and the offices and staff to remain largely the same.” In addition, Sebok revealed that no changes to the CEREUS Network’s rakeback or promotions would occur.

Some in the online poker community have questioned whether the fleet of UB and Absolute Poker pros may be turned over. However, Sebok told us that he’s staying put: “I look to continue my role and am excited about possibly taking on more. Anyone that knows me knows I like to get involved and get my hands dirty, so whatever UB asks of me, I would love to get involved with.” Sebok finished 56th in the 2009 WSOP Main Event, catching a wealth of face time on ESPN and $108,000 in cash to boot.

Given Victory Poker’s move from the Everleaf Network to the Cake Poker Network on September 1st, one wonders whether the CEREUS family of sites will follow suit with consolidation. According to PokerScout.com, the CEREUS Network is the sixth largest worldwide, with a seven-day running average of 1,760 real money ring game players. It includes just two sites and accepts action from the United States.

On the prospects of the CEREUS Network taking on additional sites given new ownership, Sebok told Poker News Daily, “The company’s strategy is not to have network partners. But, I think that more acquisitions in the future are not out of the question.” Also merging in the first quarter of 2011 are Party Gaming and bwin.

Tokwiro Enterprises, the former owners of UB.com and Absolute Poker, will issue a press release with more information about the transaction early next week.

We have an ACTION PACKED Friday edition of the Dai...

We have an ACTION PACKED Friday edition of the Daily Deal. Today, we talk about Jungleman12 starting up in the Durrrr Challenge, the CEREUS network being sold off and Victory Poker heading over to the Cake Poker Network. Get your popcorn ready!

Hello, I’m Sean Gibson and welcome to the Daily Deal by Poker News Daily.

Our headline story comes from Full Tilt Poker as the latest edition of the Durrrr Challenge started up last night. As we reported previously that Jungleman12 was just days away from starting up, the action hit the tables late last night around one-thirty a.m. eastern time. The two played four tables of two hundred / four hundred blind no limit texas hold’em heads-up. Both participants have expressed an interest in getting the 50,000 hand challenge done quickly so we expect a ton of action in the next couple of weeks. Although stats haven’t been released at the time of the taping of the daily deal, it looked like durrrr took about two buy-ins away from Jungleman12 during the first session.

The two got back together and Jungleman12 went on an EPIC run and after all was said and done at around 9 a.m. Friday morning the two had already played ten percent of the hands possible. The tally as it stands now (unofficially) after 5,829 hands is that Jungleman12 is up a stunning $518,202.75!!!!

As more breaks at the tables, we’ll be sure to recap the action right here.

In another huge announcement, On September 1st, Victory Poker, which currently makes its home on the Everleaf Network, will jump ship to the Cake Poker Network. The site, which features pros like Antonio Esfandiari and former World Poker Tour Player of the Year Jonathan “FieryJustice” Little, has become a force in the online poker world. It also happily accepts players from the United States.

Poker News Daily sat down yesterday with Victory Poker CEO Dan Fleyshman. We asked him why the popular site decided to jump to Cake and he responded,

“I’ve always liked Cake. It’s a great network and I met with their guys back in January at the London convention, but I had made my decision prior to that. I wanted to be a premiere site on a network when we launched and felt I’d be second or third at Cake. When I signed with Everleaf, they had so much passion, knew I’d bring players, and they worked hard. I’m happy with the way it all turned out.”

For those playing on the Everleaf Network right now Fleyshman told us that he believes the family of sites is in good hands even without Victory Poker and that they’ll keep improving and moving in the right direction … just without Victory Poker.

In our final bit of huge poker news, it broke late Thursday afternoon that Blanca Games had purchased the CEREUS Poker Network, which includes UB.com and Absolute Poker. An official press release is expected out early next week and for now, the purchase price and terms were not released. Stuart Gordon is the CEO of the CEREUS Network’s new parent company and commented on Thursday evening,

“The acquisition of CEREUS is a significant opportunity for us. CEREUS is a major platform of well-managed assets. Over the past few years, it has created new brands, like UB.com, that are extremely well-positioned in the most desirable demographic in our market: players in the 20s and 30s age brackets.”

Gordon founded and manages BingoMania.com and Helix Gaming International. Both of those sites, like UB.com, are licensed by the Kahawake Gaming Commission. Poker News Daily has independently confirmed that no staffing or operational changes are expected at UB.com or Absolute Poker during the transition to Blance Gaming. Gordon also commented that he does not expect any changes to occur in the playing experience for either site. Currently, the CEREUS network ranks as the sixth largest poker network online.

Well, that does it for a jam packed Friday here on The Daily Deal! Be sure to check back with us all throughout your day to catch the latest poker headlines. I’ll be back on Monday with a brand new episode of The Daily Deal. Until then, I’m Sean Gibson hoping you crush the competition and reel in those fish at the cash game tables this weekend!

In September, the fundraising engine Poker Gives w...

In September, the fundraising engine Poker Gives will hold the first ever National Poker Month. Card rooms across the United States will host tournaments in which half of the prize pool will be donated to charity, while the other half will be distributed to players. Poker Gives benefits the Paralyzed Veterans of America, Special Olympics of Nevada, Intrepid Fallen Heroes Fund, and the Step by Step Foundation.

Poker News Daily Guest Columnist and Poker Gives co-founder Mike Sexton commented in a press release distributed last week, “In addition to all the goodwill it will bring to poker when we are able to present such large checks to charity, the participating card rooms will be listed in Bluff Magazine and we will conduct a drawing from that list. Linda Johnson, Jan Fisher, and I will visit the winning card room and host a meet-and-greet and a free poker seminar.”

A total of 25 card rooms are holding events as part of National Poker Month at the time of writing including Harrah’s Tunica, Poker Nation Social Club in Phoenix, Quinault Beach Resort and Casino in Washington State, Venetian Las Vegas, Win River Casino in California, Golden Nugget Las Vegas, Seminole Casino Immokalee in Florida, Oceans Eleven Casino in California, Prairie’s Edge Casino and Resort in Minnesota, River Rock Casino in California, The Bike in Los Angeles, Binion’s Las Vegas, and the Canterbury Park Racetrack and Card Club in Minnesota.

Other National Poker Month events can be found at Aria Las Vegas, Hollywood Park in California, Jacksonville Greyhound Racing and Poker in Florida, Eureka in Mesquite, El Dorado in Reno, Northern Quest Resort and Casino in Washington State, Peppermill Reno, Wildhorse in Oregon, Paradise Cove Social Club in Arizona, Casino Marysville in California, and Isle Casino at Pompano Park in Florida. Full Tilt and Poker Nations are also teaming up for an online event on September 19th at 1:00pm PT.

Winners of each card room tournament and the names of each card room manager will be thrown into a hat and entered into drawings for prizes on October 4th. The loot up for grabs includes two seats into the World Poker Tour (WPT) Invitational at the Commerce Casino in California, a WPT Boot Camp seat, a Card Player Cruises vacation, and hour poker lessons with Sexton and Johnson.

Price tags for the various casino events range from $20 to $225. The online event is $20, half of which will go to Poker Gives, a 501(c)(3) non-profit charity organization. Poker Gives was founded two years ago and announced National Poker Month in a press release back in April. Its mission is to use poker, a popular social game, as a vehicle to raise money for charity.

Back in March, Full Tilt Poker hosted a $5+$5 charity tournament benefiting Poker Gives. The organization is the charity of choice for the Women in Poker Hall of Fame, which will host an induction ceremony for its 2010 class of Kathy Liebert, Jennifer Harman, and Billie Brown on September 3rd. $75 pre-event tickets are on sale through the Women in Poker Hall of Fame website along with $25 ceremony only passes. Brown will be recognized posthumously.

Card rooms interested in participating in September’s National Poker Month should contact Poker Gives via e-mail or phone at sassy@pokergives.org or 702-860-7413. Visit the official website of Poker Gives for more information.

Ali Nejad is the announcer for NBC’s Poker A...

Ali Nejad is the announcer for NBC’s Poker After Dark as well as the NBC National Heads-Up Poker Championship. He joins us from The Bicycle Casino in Los Angeles, where he talks about poker, his career and where he is hoping to branch out to in the future. He attended the World Poker Tour‘s recent “Raw Deal” open auditions which were held on August 19th, 2010. Nejad stated he felt he was a great fit for the segment because he knows poker and has a great sense of comedy.

Nejad is also a commentator on ESPN’s Pro-Am Poker Equalizer series and has done with with Ultimate Poker Challenge and on PCA 2009 episodes, working alongside poker pros Chad Brown and Daniel Negreanu along the way. Nejad was able to participate during an episode of Poker After Dark and was the first player knocked out as his flopped set of 4s were beaten by Gabe Kaplan’s flopped set of 10s. Nejad is a sponsored red pro over at Full Tilt Poker and has done work with Poker Road Radio.

In this interview, Nejad jokes around and shows off his comedic side on many different levels. He also talks some smack about some fellow poker players that auditioned for the part including Clownie Gowan and close friend Joe Sebok. This interview is a rare inside look into one of poker broadcasting’s rising stars.

Amid the furor of poker players regarding his test...

Amid the furor of poker players regarding his testimony in front of a Congressional committee, Commerce Casino board member Tom Malkasian responded late yesterday to Poker News Daily about the brewing controversy.

In the statement, Malkasian defended the position he made during testimony by saying, “The Poker Players Alliance is ignoring the grave threat that the federal and state legislation poses to everyday poker players. America’s poker industry should be united in opposing the Frank and McDermott legislation and keeping American dollars at home.”

Malkasian, who testified in front of the House Financial Services Committee in July during hearings for HR 2267 (the Internet Gambling Regulation, Consumer Protection, and Enforcement Act), continued to defend his stance by saying in the statement, “Federal and state regulation of online poker is coming and we can either fight to ensure that poker players’ interests are protected or allow illegal foreign operators, who are siphoning millions of American dollars out of this country, to dominate the U.S. market. We support the passage of federal and state legislation that will provide California poker players with a safe, secure, and well-regulated online playing environment.”

Malkasian said in closing. “If domestic card casinos do not defend themselves from offshore interests, we stand to lose not only revenue but also the loss of jobs. We are against the Frank and McDermott bills. (The) Poker Players Alliance should be against this, too.”

In his testimony in July, Malkasian said the position of the Commerce Casino was against the introduced legislation for several reasons. The proposed revenues of the new law, which have been quoted as high as $42 billion over a ten year period, are based on “false assumptions and conflicting representations,” according to Malkasian’s testimony in Congress. There are also questions over the regulatory nature of the bill as well as the opt in/out language that would set what states would be a part of the law if passed.

Poker players, backed by the Poker Players Alliance and several top pros, acted quickly to counteract Malkasian’s stance – and, by extension, the Commerce Casino’s position. A website called Players Before Profits sprung up offering an open letter to the Commerce Casino that decries their stance against the legislation. This letter has been endorsed by over 5,000 people, including several top poker professionals and hundreds of recreational players.

Twitter has also been an active battleground in the discussion, with many issuing Tweets spawned by the Players Before Profits site. As reported yesterday here on Poker News Daily, some players have even talked about the potential for a boycott of the games at one of California’s most popular (and largest) card room. Although he has signed the open letter to the Commerce Casino regarding its position, poker professional Barry Greenstein has used Twitter to clearly explain both sides of the issue.

Over the span of several Tweets, Greenstein discusses the issue fairly: “Commerce Casino management feels they are being unfairly singled out as the bad guys. Many CA casinos are against online (gambling). They seemed ok (with the proposed regulatory laws) if regulators will be as strict with shareholders of online casinos as with them.”

Greenstein also notes the positives of online play by Tweeting, “We can’t accurately measure the effect online poker has on the land based casinos, but I think it has been positive.” He finishes his Tweet series by saying, “Especially if we keep the trend of online qualifying for live tournaments. Online (poker) produces new players.”

The eventual outcome of the current rift between players and the Commerce Casino is, as of yet, unknown. Poker News Daily will continue to monitor the situation and provide updates as news comes available.

The poker world watched in earnest late last night...

The poker world watched in earnest late last night as the second installment of the Tom Dwan Million Dollar Challenge kicked off on Full Tilt Poker. Although no official tracking page exists, Dwan got off to a quick $130,000 lead over Dan “JungleMan12” Cates after 1,651 hands, according to the High Stakes DB and Dwan’s Twitter.

Whereas the first Durrrr Challenge, which has not yet been completed, pits Dwan against Patrik Antonius in $200/$400 Pot Limit Omaha, the newest installment will see $200/$400 No Limit Hold’em being played. A total of 50,000 hands will take place and Dwan outlined an important caveat on his blog: “Need to add on if below 75bb, can get up anytime effective stacks are >250bb.” In addition, the two have agreed to run it twice throughout the challenge, somewhat mitigating variance.

If Dwan is up $1 at the end of 50,000 No Limit Hold’em hands, then Cates will owe him $500,000 and he’s already escrowed the cash to Full Tilt Poker pro Phil Ivey. Contrastingly, if Cates is up $1 at the end of 50,000 hands, then Dwan will owe $1.5 million, as he laid 3:1 odds on his money. In either case, the victor will keep the spoils of the challenge.

In one hand, Cates made it $1,200 pre-flop and Dwan made the call to see a flop of 10-2-2 with two spades. Dwan checked, Cates led out for $2,000, and Dwan called to bring the nine of hearts on the turn. Dwan once again checked, Cates fired out a bet of $5,600 into a pot of $12,000, and Dwan made the call.

The river was the six of spades, putting three of the suit on the board, and Dwan continued to let Cates lead by checking. Cates bet $13,400, Dwan moved all-in for nearly $200,000, and Cates insta-called all-in for about $34,000. When the cards were revealed, Dwan showed Q-J for what ESPN poker commentator Norman Chad would dub “nuclear squadoosh” and Cates tabled K-8 of spades for the second nut flush. The pot was worth $86,000 after Dwan’s ill-timed bluff.

Over on the TwoPlusTwo poker forums, the railbirds were out in force watching the first day of action in the Dwan versus Cates Durrrr Challenge. A bevy of hands were posted, including one in which Dwan scooped a $104,000 pot with 10-8 for two pair after Cates’ flopped straight draw failed to hit. In a separate hand, Dwan’s A-J withstood pocket tens after the money went in a board of A-3-A-6. The river was run twice – both cards were kings – and Dwan collected a $119,000 payday.

On the official Durrrr Challenge stats page posted on Full Tilt Poker, a session at the challenge tables that began at 7:43am ET on Friday morning lasted three hours saw 1,323 hands played. “Antonius” is listed as its winner to the tune of $234,000, which in all likelihood means that Cates mounted a comeback.

Dwan posted on his Twitter feed to confirm that he was up nearly $130,000 after 1,651 hands. In addition, he had received some tasty brain food from his girlfriend: “My gf made this tasty pasta n rice dish which I ate a bunch of the last few days. Just saw mushrooms in it which I thought I hate – sik life.” He’s fresh off a 35-hour online poker session, making his early success against Cates even more impressive.

Cates recently signed with CardRunners, one of the industry’s top poker training sites. Stay tuned to Poker News Daily for the latest from the Durrrr Challenge.

Late Thursday, it was revealed that Blanca Games h...

Late Thursday, it was revealed that Blanca Games had purchased the CEREUS Poker Network, which consists of UB.com and Absolute Poker. A press release is due out early next week from former owners Tokwiro Enterprises. The purchasing price and terms were not released.

Stuart Gordon is the Chief Executive Officer of the CEREUS Network’s new parent company and commented in a press release distributed on Thursday evening, “The acquisition of CEREUS is a significant opportunity for us. CEREUS is a major platform of well-managed assets. Over the past few years, it has created new brands, like UB.com, that are extremely well-positioned in the most desirable demographic in our market: players in the 20s and 30s age brackets.” UB.com and Absolute Poker both accept players from the United States.

Gordon added, “From our perspective, we have acquired a large, sophisticated online gaming operation with state-of-the art capabilities, ranging from compliance to business intelligence to online marketing to customer service. We see a tremendous growth opportunity in this deal and beyond, as Blanca seeks additional acquisitions in the market.” Gordon founded and manages BingoMania.com and Helix Gaming International. Like UB.com, both sites feature licenses from the Kahnawake Gaming Commission, or KGC, and Stuart also owns licenses from the nation of Antigua.

Poker News Daily has independently confirmed that no staffing or operational changes are expected at UB.com or Absolute Poker with the transition to Blanca Gaming. In addition, Gordon commented that he doesn’t expect any changes to occur in the “playing experience” on either site. Blanca Games is based in Antigua and, according to its website, keeps offices in Costa Rica, where UB.com and Absolute Poker are based.

Gordon alluded to Blanca Games’ focus on security on the CEREUS Network going forward: “We intend to leverage the existing strengths of the CEREUS Poker Network, particularly in the areas of security and customer service. Although we are impressed with many of the new security features on the Network today, security is and will remain our top priority.” Both UB.com and Absolute Poker are fresh off high-profile superuser scandals. On the former site, over $20 million was taken from players in a heist featured on the CBS news program “60 Minutes.”

The CEREUS Network is in the midst of holding its fifth Ultimate Bet Online Championship, or UBOC. It’s actually the second time that UBOC has run in 2010 and a $1 million guaranteed Main Event will play out on Sunday. The tournament, hosted by 11-time World Series of Poker bracelet winner Phil Hellmuth, boasts a $1,050 buy-in and kicks off at 16:00 ET. The UBOC 5 Main Event is the culmination of a 20-event tournament series that began back on August 18th.

The CEREUS Network’s team of pros includes Hellmuth, Poker News Daily Guest Columnist Annie Duke, Tiffany Michelle, Trishelle Cannatella, Eric “basebaldy” Baldwin, and Brandon Cantu. No changes to rakeback, tournament schedules, and software were announced as of press time, but more details on the transaction and what it means for players may be given when Tokwiro issues its press release next week.

The CEREUS Network was officially launched in November 2008 after the player bases of Ultimate Bet and Absolute Poker were combined. One year later, Ultimate Bet was re-branded as UB.com.

Stay tuned to Poker News Daily for the latest on this breaking story.

On today’s Daily Deal, Poker News Daily visi...

On today’s Daily Deal, Poker News Daily visits the Legends of Poker final table, Sorel Mizzi finds himself in hot water once again, and the World Series of Poker Main Event Day 2A airs on ESPN. It’s all coming up… RIGHT AFTER OUR COOL INTRO!

Hello, I’m Sean Gibson and welcome to the Daily Deal by Poker News Daily. The World Poker Tour‘s Legends of Poker tournament from the Bicycle Casino in Los Angeles wrapped up late last night. Part time poker player Andy Frankenberger took the event down for seven hundred and fifty thousand dollars. Frankenberger told me before the event that the money didn’t mean much to him as he’s already done well for himself on Wall Street and that he was gunning for the win. Well, mission accomplished as he beat out pro Kyle Wilson heads up for the victory. The next stop for the WPT is London England for the London Poker Classic.

Recent activity across several of the online poker forums is once again indicating that noted pro Sorel “Imper1um” Mizzi may have been involved in an attempt to rig multi-table tournaments. In a conversation between Steve “thorladen” Weinstein and Mizzi that popped up over the weekend on TwoPlusTwo and PocketFives, Mizzi proposes to Weinstein the use of remote PC access programs such as GoToMyPC.com to access computers in different locations. These programs allow a person from one location to be able to use another computer – using the accessed computer’s IP address. Named in the potential scandal were Chris Dombrowski, known online as “cdbr3799” and Aditya “Intervention” Agarwal. However, both have responded on PocketFives saying that they had no part in any cheating. Mizzi attempted to shed some light on the subject by posting:

“The conversation in question contains bits and pieces of information from several conversations I’ve had with Thorladen and others over the course of about a year. It was quite a while ago, but if I had to guess I would say the conversations occurred from two-thousand eight to two-thousand nine while I was sponsored by Betfair.”

Wherever the truth is in the most recent hubbub regarding Mizzi, his track record in the poker world has been mixed. He has served multiple suspensions for various violations of the terms and conditions of PokerStars and Full Tilt. However, he’s also piled up three point two million dollars in live tournament earnings since 2006.

On Tuesday night, the World Series of Poker Main Event continued airing on ESPN. This time, Day 2A was highlighted and featured nine former Main Event champions gunning for a repeat performance. Embattled PokerStars pro Daniel Negreanu was seated at the feature table, with cash game specialist Patrik Antonius at Table Two.

One of the highlights of the night was Antonius cracking pocket aces with five-three after flopping two pair. ESPN poker commentator Norman Chad added, “Patrik and I go to the same health club. He just works out a few more days a week than I do.” You can catch the two-thousand ten World Series of Poker Main Event every Tuesday at Nine P-M Eastern Time on ESPN.

Thanks for joining us as always on The Daily Deal and if you haven’t already be sure to bookmark Poker News Daily and come back every day for the latest poker news. Catch us on twitter at www.twitter.com/pokernewsdaily. I’m Sean Gibson and until tomorrow have some great runs tonight in your tournaments!

Reacting to testimony by the vice chairman of the ...

Reacting to testimony by the vice chairman of the board of the Commerce Casino during hearings about online poker regulation in Congress, several top poker pros have taken on a protest of the card room.

During hearings in July in front of the House Financial Services Committee regarding HR 2267 – the bill Massachusetts’ Representative Barney Frank introduced called the Internet Gambling Regulation, Consumer Protection, and Enforcement Act – Tom Malkasian, who identified himself during his testimony as “an owner, board member and director of strategic planning of the Commerce Casino,” came out with a surprising opinion of the proposed law. In his testimony to the committee, he firmly stated, “I must testify in strong opposition to HR 2267 and urge Members of the Committee to vote against it, barring numerous and significant changes.”

Malkasian detailed in his testimony his opposition to the proposed law on several fronts. He first took on the proposed revenues that the law would bring in, saying that they were “built on false assumptions and conflicting representations.” He cites that some studies looked at the basis of operations for online gaming sites would be located in the United States, something that isn’t guaranteed in HR 2267. Malkasian looks at details demonstrating possible conflict regarding states opting in or out of the regulatory guidelines, leaving to question the actual revenues earned. Finally, Malkasian states that the regulatory framework is inadequate for the job at hand.

Malkasian’s testimony has riled many in the professional ranks of poker, to the extent of announcing a potential boycott of one of the top card rooms in California. The furor has reached a point that there is an actual website – called PlayersBeforeProfits.com – that people can visit to sign a petition. The site has also issued an “open letter” to the Commerce Casino to change its stance on HR 2267.

The letter states, “As dedicated poker players, both online and live, both professional and amateur, we are extremely disappointed in the position Commerce Casino has taken in opposition to federal legislation to license and regulate online poker. Your opposition puts your narrow corporate interests ahead of the interests of America’s poker players.”

The open letter goes on to tout the benefits of HR 2267, including the creation of “a U.S. regulated online poker framework in this country, requiring all online poker sites to measure up to strict safety and consumer protection standards – requirements that do not exist today. More importantly, this bill will create an open and competitive market, giving players a choice of many sites on which to play against others from across the country and the world.”

The statement finishes by saying, “It is disheartening that one of our own in the poker community is opposing good public policy that will keep players safe and preserve our rights to play poker online. We strongly urge Commerce Casino to support America’s poker players. Please change your position on HR 2267.”

The letter, which has been endorsed by nearly 1,100 people at the time of writing and signed by top pros such as former World Champions Doyle Brunson, Chris Ferguson and Greg Raymer, and players as diverse as “Poker After Dark” creator Mori Eskandani and online phenom Tom “durrrr” Dwan, has spurred reaction on several fronts. Through their Twitter feeds, several pros have also been ratcheting up the heat on the Commerce Casino to the point of a discussed boycott.

Poker News Daily guest columnist Annie Duke has been quite vocal over Twitter, saying “I and some other pros are boycotting them as well. I will give my business to a place that supports the players.” Rafe Furst sounded off on the controversy by Tweeting, “Tell @CommerceCasino to support poker players and change their position & support HR2267 – the online poker bill.” Daniel Negreanu waded into the waters as well by tweeting, “Boo @CommerceCasino testified against the online poker bill. Tell them to put players before profits & support HR 2267.”

Poker News Daily contacted the Commerce Casino and was told by an unnamed spokesperson that “a statement about the situation” would be forthcoming.

On Wednesday night, Andy Frankenberger, who entere...

On Wednesday night, Andy Frankenberger, who entered the World Poker Tour’s (WPT) Legends of Poker final table as the chip leader, emerged as its champion and banked $750,000. In addition, Frankenberger is now the proud owner of a WPT championship bracelet and a trophy of Wild Bill Hickok. The final table took 184 hands to determine a champion and ended shortly after 2:00am PT at the Bicycle Casino in Los Angeles.

After doubling up Tom Braband several hands earlier, Franco Brunetti was shown the exit in sixth place from the Legends of Poker. Brunetti moved all-in over-the-top of a raise by Kyle Wilson with K-3 offsuit and Wilson made the call with 8-6. I bet you can guess how this ends. A six hit on the flop to give Wilson the lead in the hand and no king came on the turn or river to save the day.

On the 77th hand of final table play, Jared Jaffee pushed all-in on a flop of J-7-4-7. Wilson tanked before calling and showed down 9-7 for trips, while Jaffee tabled Q-J for jacks-up. The river card was a king and Jaffee busted in fifth place for $86,000. The Legends of Poker marked Jaffee’s second WPT final table of 2010, as he finished fourth in the Southern Poker Championship in January for $135,000.

Twenty-three hands later, it was Braband’s witching hour. Braband 3bet all-in pre-flop and Wilson called, turning over pocket nines. Braband held K-J for an old-fashioned race and the board ran out Q-7-4-8-9. Braband picked up $109,000 from his first WPT final table. He finished 23rd in the Season 7 L.A. Poker Classic, his only other in the money finish on the WPT circuit.

Frankenberger, now the low stack at the table, doubled through Wilson with A-9 against A-7 and furthered his Legends of Poker title run by knocking out Tom Lee in third place. Lee open-shoved all-in pre-flop with A-8 and both Frankenberger and Wilson called in an attempt to knock him out. Frankenberger and Wilson checked the action down on a board reading K-9-4-Q with two clubs and, when the jack of clubs hit on the river, Frankenberger bet out 400,000 and Wilson folded. Frankenberger showed A-7 of clubs for the nut flush and Lee was relegated to the rails with ace-high.

Frankenberger held a 7:2 chip lead entering heads-up play against Wilson and the action ended just six hands later. Wilson 3bet all-in pre-flop with A-3 of diamonds and Frankenberger woke up with A-9 of clubs. Frankenberger flopped top pair on a nine-high board, while Wilson flopped a flush draw. However, no diamond came on the turn or river and Frankenberger took down the Legends of Poker.

Wilson earned $370,000 for his run in the five-day tournament and had a rail featuring Canadian poker pros Shawn Buchanan and Greg “FBT” Mueller. In 2008, Wilson took sixth in the Legends of Poker for $176,000. He also narrowly made the final table of the 2007 Bay 101 Shooting Star event, but went out in 18th place for $55,000.

Here’s how the final table of the 2010 WPT Legends of Poker cashed out:

1. Andy Frankenberger – $750,000 2. Kyle Wilson – $370,000 3. Tom Lee – $174,772 4. Tom Braband – $109,000 5. Jared Jaffee – $86,000 6. Franco Brunetti – $63,000

Next up for the WPT is the London Poker Classic, which will emanate from the Palm Beach Casino from August 30th to September 5th. Then, the WPT returns to U.S. soil on September 18th in Atlantic City for the Borgata Poker Open.

This interview was taped from the Red Carpet at th...

This interview was taped from the Red Carpet at the WSOP Ante Up for Africa charity event with founders Annie Duke and Don Cheadle. The charity event takes place every year from the World Series of Poker and raises money and awareness for those suffering in the continent of Africa. Ante Up For Africa is a not-for-profit organization founded by Don Cheadle, Annie Duke and Norman Epstein. They are dedicated to raising money and awareness for Africans in need.

Annie Duke is one of the most famous poker players in the world and is also known for her work in charity circles. At the felts, she has a WSOP bracelet to her name from the 2004 $3,000 Omaha Hi/Lo event. Her biggest tournament score was winning the WSOP Tournament of Champions, where she bested Phil Hellmuth heads-up for $2 million. Currently, Duke is a sponsored pro and spokesperson for UB.com.

Don Cheadle is one of Hollywood’s biggest names who grew to fame in the movie Boogie Nights. He later went on to star in the “Oceans” series of movies and had vital roles in important films such as “Crash” and received critical acclaim for “Hotel Rwanda” where he received an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor. Cheadle is also an avid poker player and has been spotted not only doing with with his Ante Up for Africa brainchild, but with other charitable poker organizations as well.

In this interview, Duke and Cheadle are asked about the tournament’s humble beginnings and the need not only for funds to help people in Africa, but for political awareness as well. Both talk about the importance of understanding the view a “World Citizen” has in the global community and how everyday people can get involved and help those in need.

You can learn more about Ante Up for Africa at their official website.

On September 1st, Victory Poker, which currently m...

On September 1st, Victory Poker, which currently makes its home on the Everleaf Network, will make the jump to the Cake Poker Network. The site, which features pros like Antonio Esfandiari, Andrew “good2cu” Robl, and former World Poker Tour Player of the Year Jonathan “FieryJustice” Little, has become a major force in the online poker world and happily accepts USA players. Poker News Daily sat down with Victory Poker CEO Dan Fleyshman to get the inside scoop on the move to Cake.

Poker News Daily: Thanks for joining us on the eve of your move to the Cake Poker Network. Why move to Cake?

Dan Fleyshman: I’ve always liked Cake. It’s a great network and I met with their guys back in January at the London convention, but I had made my decision prior to that. I wanted to be a premier site on a network when we launched and felt I’d be second or third at Cake. When I signed with Everleaf, they had so much passion, knew I’d bring players, and they worked hard. I’m happy with the way it all turned out.

PND: Tell us about working with Everleaf.

Dan Fleyshman: Everleaf was working their butts off, but it was a whirlwind for them. They went from having 100 to 200 active players at any time to 500 or 600 now. It was a big change for them.

PND: What about the Cake Poker Network makes it appealing?

Dan Fleyshman: There were only two networks we really considered, Cake and Merge. The other networks are more international like Entraction and Ongame. The Merge Gaming Network’s software is amazing, they have a great backend, and they have great management.

However, I decided on Cake because they have a Malta gaming license. Merge is going to have that also, but I didn’t want to wait for it. Cake also has the Gold Stacks rewards program, which I like a lot. They also have Doyle Brunson and Phil “The Unabomber” Laak and with us coming in, all of the pros will be at one network. Marketing-wise, we fit well there and I like what they’ve done over the years.

PND: How has the growth of Victory Poker compared to your expectations when you launched earlier this year?

Dan Fleyshman: It has been way better than I expected, which is another reason we had to move. We’re not going to stop growing. I’ve signed double the number of pros I had planned to and the boys are on television getting us exposure.

PND: How do you think the Everleaf Network will fare following the departure of Victory Poker?

Dan Fleyshman: They gained 50 skins during the time we were on the network. It puts them at around 80 or 90 skins total, so I think they’ll be fine. Even though they’re smaller skins, it doesn’t matter if there are that many. They’ll keep improving, fixing things, and moving in the right direction.

PND: Is Victory Poker trying to bring additional pros onboard?

Dan Fleyshman: I was happy when we had six or seven pros, but I was surprised that I was able to get some of the household names to come over. People were actually asking to come over because of the original guys we had like Antonio and Andrew. Then, international players started joining. I have certain characters I want, but am looking for international players at this point.

PND: We’re surprised we didn’t see more Victory Poker patches during the World Series of Poker (WSOP).

Dan Fleyshman: If I’m going to put a patch on someone, it’s because they’re part of my team. We’re getting the right exposure now. I went to the Amazon Room on the play down day of the Main Event and Full Tilt has to release (or at least not patch) four players at the final table. There are a few guys that we’ve been talking to and we don’t have a lot of competition for signing people.

Today’s Daily Deal comes form The Bicycle Ca...

Today’s Daily Deal comes form The Bicycle Casino, the home of the World Poker Tour‘s Legends of Poker event where the final table is being taped today. Our topics today include the PokerStars Big Game television show, Holland (otherwise known as The Netherlands) potentially legalizing online poker and Jungleman12 being the next participant in the DurrrrChallenge.

PokerStars Big Game has some amazing things going on this week. New cast this week and some big pots between Phil Hellmuth and Prahlad Friedman and between Eugene Katchalov and Dani Stern. There’s a huge pot between Hellmuth and Stern where Stern held pocket Kings and Hellmuth had pocket Queens. Fireworks during that hand to say the least. The PokerStars Big Game airs nightly on Fox and is PokerStars’ answer to GSN’s “High Stakes Poker”.

Holland Online Poker Legalization might be right around the corner. The story from Gaming Intelligence says the country’s Ministry of Justice created a special group called the Online Gaming Advisory Committee to look into the potential for expanding their current online gaming laws to include poker. The nation currently operates a state-run monopoly on online gaming, offering only sports betting and a national lottery through state-authorized sites. The findings from the Online Gaming Advisory Committee could affect the laws as they are currently written and enforced in the country.

Out last bit of news has to do with the Durrrr Challenge and the next competitor in Jungleman12. JungleMan12 says he shipped $500,000 to Phil Ivey for escrow, which is the amount of money he has to put up for the challenge in order to participate. Unlike the ongoing challenge between Patrik Antonius and Tom Dwan which has stretched for nearly two years, this challenge might just take a couple of weeks. There hasn’t been any action at the tables yet but we are expecting this new leg of the Durrrr Challenge to pick up potentially next week.

DTD made a real splash at the GUKPT Luton round of the DTD Road Trip

DTD made a real splash at the GUKPT Luton round of the DTD Road Trip with a total of 16 players. Huge congratulations to Keith Johnson who made it to the final 3 walking away with just under £30,000!

You can qualify exclusively with DTD for all our DTD Road Trip Events in Live and Online Satellites. Email alex@dtdgaming.com for questions or queries related to the DTD Road Trip. Keep your eyes peeled for the next satellites!

For online live updates follow all the Live Poker Action at Blonde Poker.

DTD Road Trip Players

26th August at 18:45

€4,000 + €500 in Bounties - Bounty Freeroll Tonight

This special freeroll tournament will have €4,000 in the prizepool with an extra €500 in bounties being added via our five €100 Bounty players. Do you go all out to hunt down the bounties or will you concentrate on making the final stages?

For more information visit the Summer Freeroll Flurry Page

Schedule Change

Due to popular demand we have chagned the Super50 on Sunday 5th September to an XXL £25 - £25 + £7 Buy-In - £2k GTD - 3:30pm. More information can be found on the XXL25 page.

On Tuesday night, the World Series of Poker (WSOP)...

On Tuesday night, the World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event continued airing on ESPN. This time, Day 2A was highlighted and featured nine former Main Event champions gunning for a repeat performance. Embattled PokerStars pro Daniel Negreanu was seated at the feature table.

On a board of 4-9-Q-A, Adam Fisher 3bet all-in with A-J and received a call from Negreanu, who held A-Q for top two pair. Fisher was drawing dead to the river and exited the feature table. Elsewhere in the field, 2009 WSOP Main Event runner-up Darvin Moon checked in on reigning champ Joe Cada and ESPN commentator Norman Chad drooled over cash game pro Patrik Antonius, who was seated at Table 2: “Patrik and I go to the same health club. He just works out a few more days a week than I do.” Interestingly, Antonius has never cashed in the Main Event.

Erik Seidel knocked out an opponent with A-K against K-9 to move to nearly double the starting stack of 30,000 and Daniel Alaei doubled up through Leo Margets after winning a race with K-Q against pocket sevens. Meanwhile, former Main Event champ Scotty Nguyen moved all-in with pocket fives on a flop of A-5-A and doubled up through a player with A-4. ESPN featured the progress of 1986 Under 10 World Youth Chess Champion Jeff Sarwer, who received more coverage than many brand name pros.

Negreanu promptly dropped one-third of his stack after bluffing with 7-6 of diamonds on a board of A-2-Q-8 with two clubs. A third club hit on the river to give Tony Utnage a flush and he scooped the 100,000-chip pot. Others in action on Day 2A that received face time on ESPN included reigning WSOP Europe Main Event champ Barry Shulman, Barry’s wife Allyn, and Pasha and Antonio Esfandiari.

Michael “The Grinder” Mizrachi and Robert Mizrachi both survived Day 2A in an impressive feat. Not so fortunate was Ted Forrest, who was all-in with pocket fives against A-K. His opponent spiked a king on the turn and ace on the river to send the weight loss prop bet winner to the rail. Also departing was Dennis Phillips, whose A-J could not draw out on pocket sevens.

During the second one-hour episode, which aired at 10:00pm ET on ESPN, Day 2A resumed with Johnny Chan laying it down in a hand against Vitaly Lunkin. Then, 2003 WSOP Main Event champ Chris Moneymaker called the clock on an opponent, but didn’t realize that the action was actually on him. Moneymaker eventually called and his opponent insta-mucked. Alaei hit the rails with A-2 against pocket eights when his foe flopped a set.

UB.com pros Eric “basebaldy” Baldwin and Billy “Patrolman35” Kopp continued their Day 2A march and on the Jack Link’s Beef Jerky Wild Card Hand, Negreanu scooped a pot holding just six-high. Negreanu’s nemesis Annie Duke took down a hand with a straight flush against a full house, while fellow female star Heather Sue Mercer won a pot. Mercer, a former college football kicker, sued Duke University for discrimination and was awarded $2 million. However, because of a Supreme Court decision saying that Title IX cases were not subject to punitive damages, she received no money.

Antonius, who is competing against Tom “durrrr” Dwan in the ongoing Durrrr Challenge, cracked pocket aces with 5-3. Antonius flopped two pair and ESPN commentator Lon McEachern noted, “Let the wamboozling begin.” Antonius’ chip stack rose to nearly 300,000 as a result, or 10 times the starting stack.

The feature table grew tougher with the addition of bracelet winner Praz Bansi and Negreanu’s failed bluffs continued. After check-calling a bet of 3,200 with K-J on a flop of 10-7-9, Negreanu and Charles Hook checked a four on the turn. When a five hit on the river, Negreanu bet 6,800 with air and Hook, holding 9-8 for a pair of nines, made the call. Negreanu’s chip stack was slashed to 29,000.

Next week at 9:00pm ET on ESPN, catch two hours of coverage devoted to Day 2B.

Andy Frankenberger owns a slight chip lead over th...

Andy Frankenberger owns a slight chip lead over the rest of the pack entering the final table of the World Poker Tour (WPT) Legends of Poker. His stack of 3.02 million represents the lone tally at the table over three million. At stake are a $750,000 grand prize and a seat into the end-of-season WPT Championship at the Bellagio in Las Vegas.

The Bicycle Casino in Los Angeles is playing host to the Legends of Poker. Since WPT final tables are played six-handed, the distinction of Bubble Boy went to Steve Reitzfeld, who busted in seventh place for $45,000. Reitzfeld moved all-in on a flop of 5-4-3 holding A-7 for two overcards and a gutshot. Tom Lee looked him up with a wired pair of nines and a running 3-J cemented the six-handed finale.

Online poker player Wade Woelfel hit the rail in eighth place after running pocket tens into the pocket queens of Lee. Following the back-to-back eliminations, Lee vaulted to 2.92 million in chips, good for second place at the Legends of Poker final table behind Frankenberger. The chip leader told WPT hostess Kimberly Lansing, “My strategy has been consistently inconsistent, so I’ll try to keep that up.”

Tyler “brainwash” Cornell was ousted from the WPT Legends of Poker in 11th place and picked up $24,000. Cornell open-shoved all-in pre-flop with A-8 and received a call from Frankenberger, who held pocket rockets. No help came for Cornell, who picked up his second WPT in the money finish. Cornell’s elimination set up the unofficial final table, as all 10 players remaining combined into one group.

Victory Poker’s Jonathan “FieryJustice” Little was gunning for his record-tying third WPT title on Tuesday. However, his bid ultimately came up short, as Little found the exit in 12th place. In his final hand, Little called all-in on a board of Js-6h-2d-7s-10s. Frankenberger flipped over 8s-6s for a runner-runner flush and Little exited stage right. He Twittered after the fact, “Ran into runner-runner flush of the table clown twice. Guess I just suck.”

The good news for Little is that, according to his Twitter feed, he won $1,500 in the Los Angeles airport while waiting for his Southwest Airlines flight back to Las Vegas: “Flying to LAS. Wheeeee. Somehow won $1,500 online in the airport despite being on monster tilt. Shiiiiippp.” Little has 11 cashes in WPT tournaments and was the Season VI Player of the Year after logging two final tables and bubbling a third.

Perhaps the most memorable ride on Tuesday belonged to Adam Schiffer. In a span of just three hands, Schiffer lost pocket queens to Lee’s A-Q and pocket kings to Jared Jaffee’s A-Q of clubs. In the latter hand, Jaffee flopped a pair of queens, but rivered a flush to deliver the bad beat to Schiffer. One player at the table noted, “[Schiffer] built up this great image where everyone thinks he’s bluffing, and then he traps them with strong hands – and loses.”

Here are the chip stacks of the six players remaining in the hunt for the WPT Legends of Poker title:

1. Andy Frankenberger – 3,015,000 2. Tom Lee – 2,915,000 3. Kyle Wilson – 2,854,000 4. Jared Jaffee – 1,006,000 5. Tom Braband – 968,000 6. Franco Brunetti – 800,000

The experienced final table includes Jaffee, who made the finale of the WPT Southern Poker Championship in January. Kyle Wilson took sixth in the Legends of Poker two years ago, while Lee finished sixth in this tournament 2004. For Frankenberger, Tom Braband, and Franco Brunetti, this year’s Legends of Poker marks their first WPT final table.

We’ll have full results from the WPT Legends of Poker on Thursday right here on Poker News Daily.

European Poker Tour (EPT) San Remo champion Liv Bo...

European Poker Tour (EPT) San Remo champion Liv Boeree is among several poker stars and celebrities expected to appear in London for Poker in the Park this September. Boeree, born in the United Kingdom, will open the festivities in Leicester Square on Thursday, September 2nd, with the festival running until late on Friday, September 3rd.

In its fourth year, Poker in the Park expects to attract 20,000 poker fans over two days, with tournaments, lectures from big name pros, tuition tents, stalls selling the latest poker merchandise, and much more. Bodog, one of the sponsors of the event, will host the Bodog Poker Dome, offering free hourly sit-and-gos at eight tables with the world famous Bodog Girls in attendance. Other attractions include the Red Hot Poker Plex, the Bluff Europe Heads-Up Challenge, and Victory Poker’s Wet ‘N Wild Dunk Poker, where players will have an opportunity to send a Victory Poker model into the dunk tank.

Among the stars already confirmed to appear at the Poker in the Park lecture theater are Dave “Devilfish” Ulliott, Roland De Wolfe, Jamie Gold, Neil Channing, Nik Persaud, and Phil Laak, with more big names expected to be confirmed soon. Boeree, Gold, John Tabatabai, and 2008 World Series of Poker Main Event Champion Peter Eastgate were among the speakers at last year’s event.

“Having guest speakers of such caliber is an incredibly important part of what we’re offering at Poker in the Park,” said event founder and organizer Michael Caselli. “For the fourth year running, we’re honored, and humbled, to have so many star names turn out to give their advice and share their fascinating stories to the possible poker stars of the future.”

Five-time World Heavyweight Champion, Evander ‘The Real Deal” Holyfield, will also be on site at The Real Deal Poker Arena, where players can go heads-up against the current WBF world titleholder. Players can work their way through qualifying rounds from the Lightweight division all the way up to the Heavyweight Championship, where they will play Holyfield for the belt. Said Holyfield, “Poker is a lot like boxing in that the mental preparation needs to be there for both. I will be focused, ready, and down to my fighting weight for this match.”

Here’s a full schedule of all of the tournaments taking place at this year’s Poker in the Park (All times BST):

Thursday, September 2nd

Bodog Poker Dome

16:30 – 18:30 Nuts Magazine

17:30 – 19:30 Masters Poker League

18:30 – 20:30 London Poker Meetup

19:30 – 21:30 REDTOOTH

20:30 – 21:30 BLAPO

Red Hot Poker Plex

16:30 – 18:30 Bluff Europe

17:30 – 19:30 Gambling.com

18:30 – 20:30 Rake The Rake

19:30 – 21:30 Punters Lounge

20:30 – 21:30 Red Hot Poker

Friday, September 3rd

Bodog Poker Dome

12:30 – 14:30 Nuts Magazine

13:30 – 15:30 The Royal Surrey

14:30 – 16:30 London Poker Circuit

15:30 – 17:30 Poker in the Pub

16:30 – 18:30 Get Noticed Poker

17:30 – 19:30 Champions Poker League

18:30 – 20:30 Nuts Poker League

19:30 – 21:30 The Poker Tree

20:30 – 21:30 Casino at the Empire

Red Hot Poker Plex

12:30 – 14:30 Red Hot Poker

16:30 – 18:30 Sport.co.uk

18:30 – 20:30 Poker news

19:30 – 21:30 Win Me A Seat

20:30 – 21:30 Red Hot Poker

The new Poker in the Park Website went live this month and has details on all of the events and attractions taking place. Visit www.pokerinthepark.com for more information.

Recent activity across several of the online poker...

Recent activity across several of the online poker forums are once again indicating that noted online/live poker pro Sorel “Imper1um” Mizzi and potential accomplices may have been involved in an attempt to rig multi-table tournaments.

Threads appeared on the TwoPlusTwo forum on two occasions over the weekend, with one being squelched by the moderators and a second taking on life and quickly zooming up to 537 posts. Another form of the thread came to life on the PocketFives forum over the weekend (and following the closing of the original thread on 2+2) and has blitzed its way to 282 posts. In both instances, the transcript of an IM chat between Mizzi and an alleged co-conspirator are the main topic of discussion.

This is one thing that the different threads have in common:  an undated AIM or MSN Messenger chat transcript allegedly between Mizzi and another top online poker player/backer, Steve “thorladen” Weinstein. In a rambling  discussion allegedly between the two, Mizzi and Weinstein discuss their issues with players who are in “makeup,” or owe money from backing arrangements. The conversation then allegedly has Mizzi making assertions to Weinstein about how to violate many of the terms and conditions of online sites using a common business tool.

Mizzi proposes to Weinstein the use of remote PC access programs, such as GoToMyPC.com, PCNow.com, or Laplink, to access computers in different locations. These programs allow a person from one location to be able to use another computer – using the accessed computer’s IP address – from a different location. Mizzi notes to Weinstein in the alleged conversation that usage of such programs “revolutionizes teaching/ghosting in poker (and) can also be used for multiaccounting.” Weinstein comments (verbatim) that “while im certainly interested in whatever u thinking, if u want me in, but obv I have to know woh knows cuz I cant get busted… I have alot of maoney online.”

As the alleged conversation continues, Mizzi goes on to name players who would be willing to take part in the suggested plot. Named by Mizzi as potential co-conspirators are such players as “cdbr” (FTOPS champion Chris Dombrowski) and “Intervention” (Aditya Agarwal). Mizzi goes on to allegedly comment to Weinstein the full context of the plan after discussing who could be involved.

“Now there’s more than 1 way we can profit from this program obv,” Mizzi allegedly says in the IM. “The most obvious is just watching and taking over for your stakes when they’re deep in a tournament. The beauty of it is ur not logging in from another IP, all you’re doing is controlling their mouse and keyboard and they can take it over again right away with the click of a mouse.” Mizzi allegedly also proposes a scheme where, “Hypothetically, imagine if 20+ PC’s were set up in various locations or in the same location but with various IP’s and different people could login to any of them at any given time?”

Although the alleged IM in question is undated, many on the forums have deduced that the time frame may have gone back as far as 18 months ago. At that time, Mizzi had been fleeced by cardsharps with a marked deck in Monte Carlo, leaving his bankroll decimated. It can be likely concluded, as many have done, that the alleged IM between Mizzi and Weinstein was to curry Weinstein’s backing for the escapade.

What has been remarkable about the discussions on the forums is the reaction from those potentially named in the discussion. Weinstein, under his “thorladen” handle on the PocketFives forum, simply states, “I have not engaged in this activity with Sorel. I would not engage in this activity ever. I am voluntarily cooperating completely with Full Tilt in an investigation of these alleged activities.”

Agarwal says in the same thread, “I wasn’t gonna post but general consensus among my frnds is tht I shud. Neither me or chris hv had any knowledge or been involved in any of the activities mentioned in the chat log, as everyone knows it was around the time period sorel was hving money issues, both me and chris hving cleared our MU voluntarily left sorel and went to vivek/yev and hv been with them since.”

Mizzi has made a statement regarding the subject on the TwoPlusTwo forums in an attempt to clear up the situation. “The conversation in question contains bits and pieces of information from several conversations I’ve had with Thorladen and others over the course of about a year,” Mizzi writes in his lengthy post. “It was quite a while ago, but if I had to guess I would say the conversations occurred from 2008 to 2009 while I was sponsored by Betfair.” Mizzi is now a Titan Poker pro.

Mizzi states that, in late 2009, he was contacted by a potential extortionist who was “threatening to release what he had fabricated if I didn’t send him money online. I chose to completely ignore the threats.” Mizzi also clears Dombrowski and Agarwal by writing, “As far as Chris and Adi go, they were my horses about 2 years ago and neither of them have ever been involved in any shady activity that I know of. They are both good guys and both very trustworthy/loyal, so much so that I allowed both of them to calculate their own makeup.” Mizzi also stands up to the continued attacks on his character by writing, “I strongly dislike coming on internet forums to read unfair, untrue, libelous BS judgments about my character. The only people who have the right to attack my character are the ones who know me well personally and I don’t think anyone who’s posted thus far does. I don’t blame them. As soon as anyone posts anything to defend me they get verbally attacked and accused of “sticking up for a cheater.”

He finishes his post on TwoPlusTwo by saying, “There are serious things that I’d like to address in a subsequent thread that I’ve been thinking about posting for a long time. I’m not sure whether or not I’ll post it because I truly don’t owe anyone here explanations about anything I do. But I’ll give it some serious thought.” Poker News Daily attempted to contact Mizzi, who is in Cyprus for the Full Tilt Poker Merit Poker Classic. At this time, Mizzi has not returned any request for comment.

Wherever the truth is in the most recent hubbub regarding Mizzi, his track record in the online poker world has been a turbulent one. He has served multiple suspensions for various violations of the terms and conditions of the top poker rooms, PokerStars and Full Tilt Poker, and continuously has to defend himself from the “cheater” tag. It is also apparent that Mizzi has an extreme poker talent; the Canadian has over $3.2 million in live tournament earnings since his first venture into the arena in 2006.

Sky Poker Tour Grand Final held at Dusk Till Dawn

The Sky Poker Tour Grand Final takes place for the second year running at DTD September 11th / 12th. This 10,000 chip deepstack 2 day event is expected to attract up to 250 players.

Opening Times:

Saturday 11th Sep: 12noon for 2pm start
Sunday 12th Sep: 1pm for 2pm start

You can win your seat to this event for a fraction of the buy-in by playing our exclusive Super Satellites, at 9pm on Friday 10th September. The Super Satellite is a £10 No Limit Rebuy, with 3 levels of rebuys and the opportunity to have a double add-on. Also we're guaranteeing an outstanding TEN seats, each worth £220!

The PokerStars Macau poker room at Casino Grand Li...

The PokerStars Macau poker room at Casino Grand Lisboa is set to host the quarterly Macau Poker Cup from Sept. 1-5. The series features six tournaments, including a charity event that benefits a local aid organization, plus live satellites to the flagship Red Dragon tournament, which will begin on Sept. 3.

The Macau Poker Cup’s Red Dragon tournament is a three-day event with the only regular high buy-in in Asia (HKD $10,000). The event attracts the top players from across the country and all over the world as the prize pool normally exceeds the guarantee of HKD $2,000,000 (approximately USD $258,000). The poker room will be holding satellites to the Red Dragon event beginning Aug. 30 and will run them until Day 1B of the tournament gets underway on Sept. 4.

Here’s a look at the schedule of events for the upcoming Macau Poker Cup:

Event #1 — Sept. 1: HKD $2,000 Knockout Tournament ($125,000 Guaranteed)

Event #2 — Sept 2: HKD $1,000 Charity Event ($50,000 added prizes)

Event #3 — Sept. 2: HKD $3,000 No Limit Hold ‘em Two-Day Event ($350,000 Guaranteed)

Event #4 — Sept. 3: HKD $1,500 Deep Stack ($100,000 Guaranteed)

Event #5 – Sept. 4-5: HKD $10,000 Red Dragon Event ($2,000,000 Guaranteed)

Event #6 – Sept. 5: HKD $5,000 No Limit Hold ‘em Event ($400,000 Guaranteed)

PokerStars Macau recorded its most successful Macau Poker Cup ever in July, awarding a total of HKD $4,257,400 in prize money during the six scheduled events. Kenichi Takarabe from Japan outlasted 295 players in the featured Red Dragon event and won HKD $620,100. Team PokerStars Pro Bryan Huang (Singapore) held the chip lead for the majority of the tournament but Takarabe overcame a chip disadvantage heads-up to win the trophy.

PokerStars Macau also recently hosted the Macau Millions this month, and the field of 714 players broke an Asia-based poker tournament record of 679 set by the PokerStars.net Filipino Poker Tour at the Metro Card Club. Hong Kong’s Justin Chan was crowned the champion, booking a win of $275,000 after five grueling days on the felt.

PokerStars Team Asia, made up of four up-and-coming young local Asia based players, is expected take part in the Macau Poker Cup Red Dragon event in September. The team includes the aforementioned Huang, one of the highest earning Singaporean players of all time at just 24 years of age, plus Raymond Wu, Tae Jun “Skat tilt” Noh, and Celina Lin, the lone female on the team and winner of the Red Dragon event in July 2009. Lin collected nearly HKD $400,000 for the victory, her largest win to date. She also won a HKD $1,000 No Limit Hold ‘em Rebuy event at the Macau Poker Cup in December 2008 and holds the all-time record for final tables at the Macau Poker Cup with nine.

Stay tuned to Poker News Daily for updates on the PokerStars Macau Poker Cup.

One month ago, Tom “durrrr” Dwan and D...

One month ago, Tom “durrrr” Dwan and Daniel “Jungleman12” Cates discussed the logistics of battling in the second installment of the Million Dollar Challenge on Full Tilt Poker. However, despite a 70+ page thread on TwoPlusTwo looking forward to the match, it has yet to take place.

Dwan told Cates in a chat on Full Tilt, “I can do two at once. Ship [Phil Ivey] $500k and we will work out details. Get my AIM from someone. I wanna crank out at least two of them before London if possible. We could obv play in like two weeks.” On August 16th, the discussion was back on, with Cates noting that he shipped $500,000 to Ivey, who will act as the escrow for the second incarnation of the Durrrr Challenge.

Dwan began trash talking in earnest, telling his purported new foe, “I can start talking &&%% since we’re booked and say that its cute you think you’ll ever have an edge.” Dwan added, “lmk if you wanna play if not we’ll start in a few days.” Now, the industry is simply taking a wait-and-see approach, as the Durrrr Challenge tables have been completely silent in recent days.

The existing Durrrr Challenge, which pits Dwan against Patrik Antonius, has stretched for a year and a half. The two last took to the felts on August 3rd following a hiatus for the 2010 World Series of Poker (WSOP) that saw 182 hands played. Dwan extended his lead by nearly $460,000 during the session and sits at more than $2 million in winnings off Antonius.

Dwan and Antonius have completed 39,436 hands out of 50,000, but the public’s patience with the series seems to have grown thin. In a poll posted on TwoPlusTwo succinctly titled, “Is the Durrrr Poker Challenge a Huge Letdown,” nearly three-quarters of the respondents answered “Snoozefest, wake me up when it’s over.” The challenge has gone several months at a time between sessions, as both players’ travel schedules have precluded them from playing.

One poster on TwoPlusTwo gave his opinion as to why the Cates/Dwan encounter has not yet happened: “I think it just got real to durrrr that not only could he lose the $500k, but a lot in the process, so after JungleMan showed up a few days ago saying ‘let’s go,’ he’s now vanished and probably is in PTR study mode along with his own histories. Hopefully this week, but it really does look like durrrr is avoiding starting it. Jm’s been sitting forever last few days.”

Dwan gave any Durrrr Challenge takers 3:1 odds on a $500,000 bet. Therefore, if Cates were up $1 after the end of 50,000 hands, Dwan would owe $1.5 million. If Dwan were up $1 at the end of 50,000 hands, Cates would owe his $500,000 buy-in. In either case, the victor keeps the spoils of the 50,000 hands played out.

Cates is an instructor at CardRunners, a popular poker training site. Dwan is a sponsored pro at Full Tilt Poker, but neither player’s employer has uttered a peep about a possible Million Dollar Challenge between the two. Meanwhile, in a chat posted on TwoPlusTwo featuring Cates, the youngster explains that Dwan is still trying to set up the new Durrrr Challenge tables at Full Tilt, which is the reason for the delay. Cates gave a timeline of a “couple days.”

The Million Dollar Challenge between Dwan and Antonius began in early 2009. Over $340 million has been wagered and Dwan has taken down 20,700 hands so far. Rest assured that when a new challenge fires up, we’ll have full coverage right here on Poker News Daily.

On today’s Daily Deal, PartyPoker unleashes ...

On today’s Daily Deal, PartyPoker unleashes a brand new September promotion, Huck Seed and Andrew “luckychewy” Lichtenberger dominate the Doubles Poker Championship, and PKR issues a major software upgrade for its fourth birthday. Sit back, relax, and enjoy today’s edition the Daily Deal…

Hello, I’m Sean Gibson and welcome to the Daily Deal by Poker News Daily.

In September, PartyPoker will hold the Snowball promotion, dishing out up to five thousand dollars in cash and one hundred thousand dollars in freeroll entries per person. PartyPoker officials have established fifteen different points levels for play between September 1st and 30th. As PartyPoker players move up in levels, they’ll keep everything they’ve earned in previous levels, making for a potentially lucrative payday. A total of five freerolls will be held and the Snowball promotion is open to every member of the site.

Also on the horizon for PartyPoker is the September running of the Monthly Million, which is slated to occur on the fifth. The tournament marks the first Monthly Million held since July Eighteenth as part of a revamped schedule in July and August. Qualifiers for the Monthly Million start as low as a dollar and the marquee PartyPoker event comes with a six-hundred forty dollar price tag. You can find it in the site’s lobby on the first Sunday of every month. As a reminder, PartyPoker does not accept real money action from the United States.

The Doubles Poker Championship rolled on over the weekend on GSN. Another two regular season matches were held beginning at nine o’clock PM Eastern Time on Saturday night. During the second half-hour of coverage, Andrew “luckychewy” Lichtenberger partnered with Huck Seed. Interestingly, Seed won the World Series of Poker Main Event in Nineteen Ninety-Six when Lichtenberger was just eight years old. Lichtenberger and Seed defeated Gus Hansen and Justin “Boosted J” Smith heads-up.

In the first match of Saturday’s Doubles Poker Championship coverage, Phil Gordon and Erick Lindgren edged out Annette Obrestad and Phil “OMGClayAiken” Galfond. Players bought into the unique team tournament for fifty-thousand dollars apiece and a regular season will take place before the playoffs. Catch the show weekly on GSN.

Finally, the online poker site PKR.com celebrated its fourth birthday on August Seventeenth. As part of the birthday celebration, PKR.com launched version Two Point Oh of its visionary software, which features an overhauled lobby that allows players to use a game finder wizard to locate the games and tournaments they want. Also included in the upgrade is a multi-table enhancement that allows users to play up to nine tables at once.

In even more PKR news, the site announced the dates and location of its popular PKR Live event. PKR Live Five returns November Twelfth through Fourteenth and will take place at a new home, the Fox Poker Club in London, England. The five-hundred dollar buy-in Main Event gets underway on November Thirteenth with an estimated prize pool of seventy-five thousand dollars.

That does it for today’s edition of The Daily Deal and be sure to catch us tomorrow night as I report from the Final Table of the World Poker Tour‘s Legends of Poker event. Be sure to catch our twitter feed at twitter dot com slash poker news daily. I’m Sean Gibson and thanks for watching!

In a story from Gaming Intelligence issued earlier...

In a story from Gaming Intelligence issued earlier today, Holland looks to be the latest country in Europe to open up its online gaming options to include internet poker.

The story from Gaming Intelligence says the country’s Ministry of Justice created a special group called the Online Gaming Advisory Committee to look into the potential for expanding their current online gaming laws to include poker. The nation currently operates a state-run monopoly on online gaming, offering only sports betting and a national lottery through state-authorized sites. The findings from the Online Gaming Advisory Committee could affect the laws as they are currently written and enforced in the country.

The group, formed in September of last year, is a six-member body that investigated the current market conditions in Holland and the application of the country’s laws toward online gaming. According to Gaming Intelligence, the recommendations from the committee support legalization of online poker in much the same way that France recently opened up its online gaming market. The reasons for the suggested changes are twofold, according to Gaming Intelligence’s reports.

First, Holland already licenses sports betting and a national lottery, which the committee found haven’t caused any problems under current national laws. Secondly, the committee found that “illegal” variants of online gaming (including poker) already exist and haven’t been inhibited by the current legal system. The only way for the country to prevent access to the online sites, the committee found, was for the different Internet Service Providers (ISPs) throughout the country to block the sites.

There are a couple of other reasons that the committee may have found to change the current stance in Holland. By blocking ISPs in the country, Holland would run afoul of the European Union’s free trade policies and treaties. This could lead to sanctions for such violations. It is also possible that the government committee saw another source of revenue that the country could bring into the fold during the current economically sluggish period.

The European Union has been battling the issue of online gaming since the industry first appeared in the late 1990s. Each of the 27 member states have signed treaties that promote free trade and commerce, but many nations have attempted to circumvent those agreements at various points over the last decade. The European Court of Justice, where disagreements are heard between member states, has repeatedly emphasized European Union law over individual nations’ laws regarding the question of online gaming and continuously questioned the different national monopolies that some nations, such as France and Holland, had established.

Earlier this year, France overhauled its three year old state run monopoly on gaming and created ARJEL, the country’s online gaming regulatory authority, to handle the dispersal of online licenses in sports betting, horse racing, and online poker. In June, ARJEL seamlessly handled the licensing of such online sites as PokerStars, PartyPoker, Everest Poker and bwin, among others. It is thought that Holland will be trying to implement a system much like France’s in the near future to handle their online gaming issues.

Brand new episodes of the PokerStars-sponsored &ld...

Brand new episodes of the PokerStars-sponsored “Big Game” are airing this week on Fox. The high-stakes cash game series pits five poker sharks against a “Loose Cannon” online qualifier staked with $100,000. Each “Loose Cannon” plays 150 hands, with a $50,000 North American Poker Tour passport on the line plus whatever spoils they’ve earned from the table.

The action on the “Big Game” is Pot Limit before the flop and No Limit thereafter. The blinds are $200/$400 with a $100 ante paid entirely by the player on the button. Every player began the week with a $100,000 bankroll, save PokerStars front man Daniel Negreanu, who came armed with $200,000.

This week’s “Loose Cannon” is Andre Capella, a 76 year-old retired racecar driver from Tennessee. Appropriately, the action was fast-paced from the starting line. DoylesRoom Brunson 10 member Dani “ansky” Stern made it $1,200 pre-flop with K-Q and Eugene Katchalov came along with A-K. Capella also called and the flop came 5-5-4. Stern fired out a continuation bet of $2,300 and Katchalov called.

The turn was a 10 and didn’t change matters. Stern fired a second barrel, this time $6,200, and Katchalov once again called to bring a king on the river, pairing both players. Stern bet $16,600 and Katchalov called with the better hand. In the second hand of the week, he scooped a $54,600 pot, the largest of Monday night’s “Big Game” episode.

Negreanu peeked down at pocket aces and pocket kings in the first three hands, perhaps solidifying his table image for the rest of the one-hour episode. Then, poker rapper Prahlad Friedman raised to $1,200 pre-flop with K-9 of hearts and UB.com’s Phil Hellmuth came along with A-8. The flop came K-2-8 and both players rapped the table.

The turn was the seven of hearts, putting two of the suit onboard, and Hellmuth fired out $2,600 with second pair. Friedman, now holding top pair and the second nut flush draw, called behind. Hellmuth called for a three of diamonds to hit on the river, but instead, another king came. In an interview with “Big Game” staff after the fact, Friedman revealed that Hellmuth’s comment signaled that he held a hand like A-8.

On the river, Hellmuth bet $4,400 and Friedman min-raised to $8,800. Hellmuth reluctantly called, saying that Friedman’s queens were good, and Friedman raked in a $26,000 pot. Despite the battle between Hellmuth and Friedman, Katchalov remained the most active at the table, sporting a VPIP (Voluntarily Put Money into the Pot) of 50% and a PFR (Pre-Flop Raise) of 31%. He was also up $24,000 about three-quarters of the way through Monday’s kickoff episode.

In the final pot of the night, Negreanu raised to $1,500 with pocket fives and Katchalov called with 10-9. The flop came 4-9-6 with two diamonds and Katchalov donk-bet $2,200. Negreanu called and the turn was the deuce of diamonds. Katchalov bet $2,600, Negreanu raised to $11,100, and Katchalov tanked for a minute before electing to call. The river was another deuce and both players checked. The $30,400 bounty was pushed towards Katchalov, who raked in the two largest pots of the night.

At the end of Monday’s installment of the PokerStars “Big Game” (29 hands), Katchalov was up $39,000, while Stern had dropped $42,000 of his $100,000 buy-in. Meanwhile, the “Loose Cannon” had lost $10,800. Catch the PokerStars “Big Game” nightly on Fox. The show airs at 1:00am ET or 2:00am ET in most markets.

The Doubles Poker Championship rolled on over the ...

The Doubles Poker Championship rolled on over the weekend on GSN. Another two regular season matches were held beginning at 9:00pm ET on Saturday night and David Tuchman and Brandon Adams had the call. Full Tilt Poker sponsors the series.

Each team received 50,000 in starting chips and the blinds began at 500/1,000. Every player coughed up a $50,000 buy-in and two-person teams were randomly drawn. The action alternated players by street and every team received one 30-second time out to talk strategy.

In the first four-handed match of the hour, Annette “Annette_15” Obrestad teamed with fellow young gun Phil “OMGClayAiken” Galfond, Mike Matusow teamed with Chris Ferguson, Phil Gordon partnered with Erick Lindgren, and PartyPoker’s Tony G teamed with eight-time bracelet winner Erik Seidel. The latter two were the first to go after their K-Q could not draw out on Gordon and Lindgren’s A-10. They received no points toward the regular season standings.

Matusow committed his team’s chips pre-flop with A-5 of spades and Gordon isolated with a wired pair of sixes. Gordon and Lindgren flopped a full house when the first three cards came 2-2-6 and no help came on the turn or river for Matusow and Ferguson, who collected four points toward the regular season standings. Lindgren and Gordon entered heads-up play against Obrestad and Galfond with a 2:1 edge.

Obrestad and Galfond quickly doubled up with A-3 against K-2 to take the chip lead, but Gordon and Lindgren struck back. Gordon shoved with 9-7 pre-flop and Obrestad insta-called with A-10. Gordon and Lindgren flopped a nine and never looked back to double up. Then, Obrestad and Galfond were all-in pre-flop with Q-7 against Lindgren and Gordon’s A-Q of spades. The board filled out 6-2-6-4-8 and Lindgren and Gordon claimed 20 points for the regular season standings after knocking out each team in their match, while Obrestad and Galfond earned 11 points.

During the second half-hour of coverage, former World Poker Tour (WPT) Championship winner David Chiu teamed with Jennifer Harman, UB.com pro Annie Duke teamed with David Oppenheim, Gus Hansen teamed with Justin “Boosted J” Smith, and Andrew “luckychewy” Lichtenberger partnered with Huck Seed. Interestingly, Seed won the World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event in 1996 when Lichtenberger was just eight years old.

Duke and Oppenheim were the first casualties of the second match of the night. Hansen raised to 8,000 pre-flop with pocket fives and Duke moved all-in for 24,200 with A-K of diamonds. Hansen called and the board came five cards 10 or lower. Duke and Oppenheim received the goose egg for points as a result. The top 16 players at the end of the regular season will move on to the playoffs.

Seed raised to 45,000 with 10-8 and Chiu came all-in over-the-top for 53,900 with A-K. Seed called and Chiu and Harman stood to double up until a 10 hit on the river. The pair received four points as Seed’s pre-flop aggression paid off.

In the final hand, Smith pushed all-in for 70,200 with A-J and Seed made the call with A-Q. Seed and Lichtenberger were a 71% favorite to win pre-flop and the board filled out 3-4-6-7-7. Seed told Full Tilt Doubles Poker Championship floor reporter Lacey Jones, “It was a lot of fun. I thought [Lichtenberger] played very well. I thought we played very well together.”

The tournament was filmed at the Golden Nugget in Downtown Las Vegas. Catch the Full Tilt Doubles Poker Championship every Saturday night on GSN. Check your local listings for more information.

This strategy video from CardRunners discusses spe...

This strategy video from CardRunners discusses specific betting strategies and goes into when to employ the donk bet. For those of you that do not know, a donk bet is when a player leads out on a street where on the previous street it was his opponent that made the bet and he just called.

The official preview of the video:

There’s nothing worse than flopping top pair on a dangerous board and getting led into. Do they have a combo draw? Protecting flopped two pair? Air? In this 50/50 Classroom/Replayer video, Marshall goes through all the logic of donk betting: what it means, when you should do it, how to make it valuable, and more!

More videos like this one can be found at the popular poker training site CardRunners. Visit them today at CardRunners.com.

In September, PartyPoker, an independent online po...

In September, PartyPoker, an independent online poker site, will hold the Snowball promotion, dishing out up to $5,000 in cash and $100,000 in freeroll entries per person. Why is it called the Snowball, you ask, when winter in many parts of the globe has not yet set in? Text found on PartyPoker’s website explains the wintry name: “The Snowball gives you the chance to pick up a huge amount of prizes as you gather momentum.”

PartyPoker officials have established 15 different points levels for play between September 1st and 30th. As PartyPoker players move up in levels, they’ll keep everything they’ve earned in previous levels, making for a potentially lucrative payday. The minimum point level is five, which will earn its achievers a $5,000 freeroll entry. When a player hits 25 Party Points, they’ll leap to a $10,000 freeroll entry; plus, they’ll still be able to vie for $5,000.

Point levels exist at five, 25, 50, 100, 200, 500, 1,000, 2,000, 5,000, 10,000, 15,000, 20,000, 30,000, 40,000, and 50,000. The granddaddy of prizes – given out to players who can accrue 50,000 Party Points in September – is $5,000 in cash plus entries into $100,000 worth of freerolls. Cash prizes kick in at the 500-point level, with a minimum payout of $20 up for grabs. Palladium Lounge players are more than welcome to participate in the Snowball promotion.

The $5,000 Snowball freeroll will take place on October 4th. The next day, a $10,000 freebie will play out. On October 6th, a $15,000 freeroll will be held, while on October 7th, the prize pool will jump to $20,000. The largest freeroll, totaling $50,000, will take place on October 8th. Each freeroll will issue its starting command at 14:30 ET.

Also on the horizon for PartyPoker is the September running of the Monthly Million, which is slated to occur on the 5th. The tournament marks the first Monthly Million held since July 18th as part of a revamped schedule in July and August. Qualifiers for the Monthly Million start as low as $1 and the marquee PartyPoker event comes with a $640 price tag. You can find it in the site’s lobby on the first Sunday of every month.

Every day, PartyPoker hosts a $70 buy-in Monthly Million qualifier that offers up at least 19 seats. On Fridays, look for a $55 Mega Friday Satellite that guarantees 20 seats to the $640 spectacular. Two other qualifiers, each with a $35 buy-in, take place on Saturdays, one at 09:00 ET and the other 14:30 ET. Combined, the Saturday qualifiers guarantee 18 seats.

Daily points qualifiers and country-specific freerolls can also stamp your ticket to the Monthly Million on PartyPoker. The tournament offers a Championship blind structure and its field boasts some of the top players that Europe and other areas outside of the United States have to offer.

PartyPoker, once the largest site in the industry, features a team of sponsored pros that includes World Poker Tour host and Poker Hall of Fame Class of 2009 inductee Mike Sexton, bad boy Tony G, and “High Stakes Poker” hostess Kara Scott. Its parent company, Party Gaming, is publicly traded on the London Stock Exchange and will likely merge with rival site bwin.

Snowball your way to $5,000 in cash plus $100,000 in freeroll entries in September. Visit PartyPoker to learn more.

On today’s Daily Deal the World Poker Tour L...

On today’s Daily Deal the World Poker Tour Legends of poker starts with a bang, the voting for the Poker Hall of Fame is underway, the FBI confiscates funds from online payment processors and Joe Sebok looks back on a year with UB.

Hello, I’m Sean Gibson and welcome to the Daily Deal by Poker News Daily.

The two thousand and ten installment of the World Poker Tour Legends of Poker attracted 462 players, 66% more than last year’s tally of 279. That said, since the buy-in was slashed from $10,000 to $5,000, the actual prize pool went down to just over $2 million. Nearly 300 players took to the felts on Saturday for the second of two starting days in the Legends of Poker. The day began with WPT officials honoring Kathy Liebert, who was playing in her 100th WPT tournament. Unfortunately, Liebert was eliminated late in the same day.

As the Bicycle prepares for day 2 of the legends of Poker, Poker News Daily will keep you informed of the latest developments.

As of today, one hundred and eighty-one different individuals have received nominations for the Poker Hall of Fame Class of two thousand and ten. Nominations will be accepted through August 31st on the official website of the WSOP. In mid-September, the 16 living Poker Hall of Fame members and a small media panel will determine who will be enshrined in two thousand and ten. In a change from last year, the top two vote getters will become part of the Poker Hall of Fame this year as long as they garner at least fifty percent of the vote. Last year, a 75% threshold was required and, as a result, only World Poker Tour host and WSOP bracelet winner Mike Sexton was inducted.

What are the requirements for entry?

“A player must have played poker against acknowledged top competition; played for high-stakes; played consistently well, gaining the respect of peers; stood the test of time; or, for non-players, contributed to the overall growth and success of the game of poker with indelible positive and lasting results.”

I’m guessing by those terms my nomination is (Sarcastic!) MOMENTS away (eye roll!).

The owner of two payment processors for online poker sites has agreed to forfeit over thirteen million dollars seized by the FBI in June of last year. Ahmad Khawaja, together with his two firms, Allied Systems and Allied Wallet, reached a civil settlement with the U.S. Government this week in order to keep from getting into further legal trouble.

Khawaja’s two payment processors were at the forefront a federal case involving online gambling fund transfers. Allied Wallet and Allied Systems actively processed funds to players from sites such as PokerStars, the world’s biggest online poker site.

PokerStars wasn’t exactly stoked when word of the settlement between Khawaja and the government was released.

“PokerStars does not condone efforts by processors to conceal the nature or purpose of funds used to play online poker,” a spokesperson for PokerStars said. “PokerStars has taken steps to ensure that processors properly disclose the nature of their business to their relevant financial institutions.”

Finally, Joe Sebok wrapped up his first year as a sponsored player with UB.com and closed the book on his personal investigation into the prior misconduct on the site.

Sebok said that he put in was excited to be able to hopefully close this chapter and move on to the next and as of right now, doesn’t see any deeper levels he can possibly get into the scandal or do anything else to put it to an end. He had hoped to get names and track down all the handhistories during the cheating scandal.

Thanks for joining me on The Daily Deal. Don’t forget to visit PokerNewsDaily.com and be sure to follow us at Twitter.com/PokerNewsDaily for the latest in poker news. This is Sean Gibson, good luck on the flop!

With August in full swing, poker players have gott...

With August in full swing, poker players have gotten over their post-World Series of Poker lethargy and entered back into card rooms around the world. Many of those players have been keeping their fans up to date on all their activities through 140-character bursts on Twitter.

The Legends of Poker drew a nice field of 462 players and several popular Twitter-peeps were in action over the weekend. “Down to 96 at The Bike… its gonna be a long night!,” World Poker Tour hostess Kimberly Lansing chirped prior to the start of play on Sunday. Several players hovered around the leader board as the numbers began dropping.

Erica Schoenberg made a significant move during the day, but faced an unfortunate problem for play through Sunday. “Still in the WPT at the bike,” Erica tweeted her followers. “Still no IPod. Can’t stop humming Xmas tunes!” The dilemma of no music didn’t seem to sidetrack Schoenberg, however, as she reached the end of the day and tweeted, “Still in the tourney. 245k. Guess I won’t be listening to the IPod much in the future. Jingle bells!”

“Ended the day with 430k and in really good shape with 60 left blinds going to 1500/3k,” tweeted J. C. Alvarado at the close of play on Sunday. Perhaps the remaining contestants at the Legends of Poker should start worrying about Alvarado as he closed his Tweet by saying, “Starting to get a good feeling about this.” Other players who were also in the mix in Los Angeles included Joe Sebok (“Sick run to close the day out. From 28k all the way up to 196k to end. Riding my usual coaster, but ended at my high point. Back tomorrow”), former WPT Player of the Year Jonathan “FieryJustice” Little (“Ended at 305200. Guy open pushed 40bbs and I called with AK and beat his JJ. Great last few levels. We play down to 27 tomorrow”) and Amit “amak316” Makhija (“138k to end a very card dead day. Tomorrow is a new one”).

In the Mediterranean Sea, several top pros turned up for the second annual Full Tilt Poker Merit Cyprus Classic. On hand for play was John Robert Bellande, who passed along a Twitvid of “Level 2 day2 Cyprus. Karina (Jett), Chino (Rheem), John Racener” in action. Jennifer “Jennicide” Leigh continued her comeback by playing the tournament, but unfortunately tweeted to her followers, “Was up to a little over 11k and now I’m out… back to sleep for me.” Antonio Esfandiari was also one of those players dismissed from the event, tweeting, “Just busted Cyprus tournament 62nd place. Pretty tilted.”

Also having fun in Cyprus were the Mizrachi brothers. Although November Niner Michael “The Grinder” Mizrachi was eliminated early from the tournament, he hung around to follow brother Eric’s play. “Back from break, have 60k, 39 players left, Avg is 144k, chips are flying here!,” Eric noted over Twitter during a break in play early this morning. As of this afternoon, Eric is still in action in the Cyprus tournament.

On the odder side of poker in Twitter, players Eric “basebaldy” Baldwin and Shannon Shorr – both noted baseball fans – decided to head out to Dodger Stadium following their eliminations from the Legends of Poker. “Nick Lachey 4 seats from us,” Baldwin tweeted from the park during the game. “Rob Lowe also just pointed out one section over. Was afraid to tweet fearing Hellmuth-like tweet accusations.” The defending CardPlayer Magazine Player of the Year also noted that, “Nick looked depressed. Likely from missing Jessica’s intellectual stimulation.”

Things got hazy is late in the evening. Shorr tweeted Sunday evening, “@basebaldy and I legit locked in dodger stadium. stayed at bar too long. 2 of last 5 non-staff members on campus.” Providing either further insight to what happened – or perhaps clouding the waters even further – Baldwin tweeted later, “Got a cop drunk. Locked inside dodger stadium. Barbed wire fence jumping. Improvised ride home. Should have made Day 2 instead!”

When it comes to best Tweets from the weekend, Joe Sebok has to take honors for his viewpoint on his run at the WPT Legends of Poker. “Today is a win-win. either keep going deep in the WPT bike, or I have @davematthewsbnd tickets in Hollywood. can’t lose.” Annie Duke joked with Sebok, “Nice chip count @JoeSebok. Don’t come in 7th!” Finally, European poker reporter Tatjana Pasalic opined through Twitter, “Xmas ads on TV and Halloween party invitations on FBK. What the hell, people? Can’t you live in the moment? #wsop2011 ftw!”

Online poker site PKR.com celebrated its fourth bi...

Online poker site PKR.com celebrated its fourth birthday on August 17 and celebrated some impressive achievements since its launch in 2006. The next generation 3D poker room has amassed more than 3,750,000 registered players on the site, with as many as 15,850 people playing online at once, and a total of $2,925,816.31 has been given away in freerolls.

Along the way, PKR.com has produced its own poker magazine, started its own TV show, and sponsored London’s first licensed live poker venue. PKR.com has also assembled a talented group of players for its Team PKR Pro, which is made entirely of up-and-coming players from the site. Among the pros representing PKR.com are Adrien “zlatan35 Allain, Kai “kingkai84″ Paulsen, James “james666″ Sudworth, and Sofia “welllbet” Lövgren, the First Lady of Team PKR.

“We’re very proud of our achievements to date,” said PKR.com marketing director Simon Prodger. “We came against a lot of pessimism for being so innovative when we launched, but our customers have shown that they enjoy playing in our true to life environment and really appreciate the community feel.”

As part of the birthday celebration, PKR.com launched version 2.0 of its visionary software this week, which features an overhauled lobby that allows players to use a game finder wizard to locate the games and tournaments they want. Also included in the upgrade is a multi-table enhancement which allows users to play up to nine tables at once.

Leon Walters, PKR.com’s Chief Operating Officer said, “Version 2.0 of PKR has been in the pipeline for almost a year, and it’s just the start of what we have planned. Version 2.0 is all about making PKR easier and more enjoyable to play.”

In even more PKR.com news this week, the site announced the dates and location of its popular PKR Live event. PKR Live V returns November 12-14 and will take place at a new home, the Fox Poker Club in London, England. The $500 buy-in 150 runner Main Event gets underway on Nov. 13 with an estimated prize pool of $75,000.

“The countdown for PKR Live V begins! It’s great that for our fifth outing we have a brand new venue and some fantastic new events in store for the players,” PKR.com Marketing Manager Erika Schwartz said. “It’s a weekend we all look forward to, players and staff alike, and we’re planning to make this the best one yet.”

Gábor “Gab1988″ Vasvenszki took down the PKR Live IV Main Event at London’s Loose Cannon Club last year, collecting $20,000. Before him, Vincent “vd12345″ Diver won the third event, Karl “discomonkey” Fenton was victorious in the second event and Phillip “escalope” Coneller was the first ever winner of PKR Live.

Stay tuned to Poker News Daily for the latest PKR.com news.

The World Poker Tour‘s Executive Producer, J...

The World Poker Tour‘s Executive Producer, Joe Grimm, is interviewed from The Bicycle Casino in Los Angeles which is hosting the Legends of Poker WPT event. Grimm was on hand at “The Bike” to watch auditions for a new segment which will appear during Season 9 of the WPT, dubbed “The Raw Deal”. The segment will feature a fresh face to the world of poker, who will offer up raw edged opinions about those that appear at the final table. Auditions for this new team member to the WPT family were open, meaning anyone could come by The Bike on August 19th and try out for the part. In addition to the live auditions, for people that couldn’t make it out to Los Angeles, the WPT set up a Facebook page where people could upload their own videos with the general public voting for their favorites.

During this interview with our own Sean Gibson, Grimm talks about the audition process and who’s impressed him so far and the response the WPT has gotten to the process. He also talks about why the Legends of Poker tournament is one of his sentimental favorites and why it makes for compelling television.

Joe Grimm has been the Executive Producer for the World Poker Tour since 2002 and is a graduate from the prestigious Theater Arts program at the University of California, Los Angeles. Grimm graduated Summa Cum Laude, Phi Beta Kappa.

The World Poker tour is in its ninth season and aires in the United States on Fox Sports Net. The Legends of Poker event is held annually from The Bicycle Casino in Bell Gardens, CA (inside Los Angeles County) with the 2010 event buy-in being reduced to $5,000, down from the historical cost of $10,000. This year’s event attracted 462 participants to create a prize pool of $2,151,072.

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The co-hosts of the World Poker Tour join us from ...

The co-hosts of the World Poker Tour join us from the auditions for “The Raw Deal” at The Bicycle Casino in Los Angeles. Poker Hall of Famer Mike Sexton and Vince Van Patten were on hand in the audition area to see some of the try-outs from the general public to see who would get a call-back. Joining them at the judges table is Sean Gibson who asked them about this opportunity for anyone off the street to potentially find themselves a role on Season 9 of the WPT. Vince Van Patten, no stranger to the Hollywood audition scene as he comes from an acting family, talks about a few “clunkers” that have already come through. He also talks about the right and wrong way to audition for a part and gave some comments about the entire process.

The “Raw Deal” is a new segment coming on the World Poker Tour which will showcase a new, fresh and edgy poker personality who will hold no punches when it comes time to criticize players on the WPT broadcasts. The production team has stated many times over that they are looking for the next Simon Cowell (former American Idol judge) who is funny, smart and charismatic who at the same time is known for being brutally honest but gives praise when it is due. The segment will be for about 45 seconds and according to reports appear in 12 to 15 episodes for Season 9.

At the auditions it was not just random people looking for a break in the TV industry that tried out, but many actors in the Los Angeles area looking to get a break came out as well. In addition, some notable pros we’ve seen on television before also threw their name in the hat, such as Joe Sebok, Clonie Gowan, Ali Nejad and Bryan Devonshire. During the interview both Van Patten and Sexton comment on the caliber of poker player that auditioned during the process. For those those people that couldn’t make it out to Los Angeles, a Facebook submission process was held with fans getting to vote for their favorite. The top vote getters will get an invitation to the call-backs before a final decision for the new host is made.

The World Poker Tour is hosted by Mike Sexton and Vince Van Patten and is now in its ninth season and can be seen on Fox Sports Net in the United States.

Earlier this week, Poker News Daily reported on th...

Earlier this week, Poker News Daily reported on the allegations of a cheating scandal on the site regarding its “Double or Nothing” (DoN) sit and gos. At the time, the world’s largest site had not responded to Poker News Daily’s requests to answer some questions on the issue. After the story was posted, however, PokerStars quickly answered our questions via e-mail.

In the original story, we mentioned a thread on the popular poker forum Two Plus Two that addressed the issue in excellent depth. A player using the name “Jane0123” stated that their account had been closed due to alleged collusion (through the use of the “whipsaw” technique) with a ring of players from China in the month of January. The thread went on to detail how, over a tw0-month span earlier this summer, PokerStars handled the case and how some players were upset over the situation.

Late Wednesday evening, a member of the Game Security team by the name of “Jackson” answered six questions posed by Poker News Daily regarding the ongoing issue. While the spokesperson did not answer how long the ring had been in operation, Jackson reported that PokerStars first discovered the activity of the ring soon after the reports in the original January Two Plus Two thread (a supplemental condensed version of the case was started in July) began. “PokerStars discovered the illicit activity in early February 2010,” Jackson stated in the e-mail. “Whilst conducting our review during this period, accounts associated with this situation were closed.”

The Two Plus Two thread stated that the ring colluded on the higher level DoN sit and gos, but PokerStars says they found evidence that the cheating went on over a much larger scale. “The cheaters were active across many stakes, some as low as our $10 and $20 DoNs,” the PokerStars spokesman reported. “However, the vast majority of the collusion occurred at both the $50 and $100 levels” (Writer’s note: These are the largest DoNs offered by PokerStars).

What was important to many involved in the situation – how many players were involved with the ring, how much money was taken, and what restitution has been made to affected players – was reported in detail by the PokerStars spokesman as possible. When it came to the issue of the number of players involved in the collusion ring, PokerStars says, “Overall, PokerStars closed 38 accounts in this case.” This is a lower number than the Two Plus Two thread states (46). Additionally, PokerStars did not provide any information as to the player identities.

The compensation issue for players affected does line up with the 2+2 report. PokerStars spokesman Jackson states, “The colluders net profit was $494,000, and despite this, PokerStars has paid a total of $2,100,000 in compensation.” Although not exact, these numbers are close to those stated by posters on the forum; however, no actual numbers of players who earned compensation – or how much – was discussed by PokerStars.

The most critical issue of game security is something that PokerStars feels they have now adequately addressed. “We agree that we have room for improvement in relation to collusion detection, and alongside our internal discussions about this particular individual case, we are also very actively discussing various techniques to improve our performance here,” Jackson stated in the e-mail. “We have various ideas about how we can improve our prevention and detection methods, but we’re always open to listening to feedback from players on the site.”

To combat the possibilities of further problems with the games, “PokerStars has introduced a new security function to prevent players from certain countries from playing in the same Double or Nothing events together,” Jackson reported. “This restriction will ensure that only one player from each of several countries (those countries involved in this restriction were not given) will be able to play in these events.” The PokerStars spokesman goes on to say, “We continue to monitor the games for collusion and we do feel that they are now adequately secure, otherwise we wouldn’t offer them. The investigation of the accounts involved, as well compensation to players, have since been finalized.”

Victory Poker, which currently makes its home on t...

Victory Poker, which currently makes its home on the Everleaf Network, will soon be leaving for the more populated Cake Poker Network, a source who wished to remain anonymous told Poker News Daily. CalvinAyre.com published a story on potential landing spots on Thursday, adding some fuel to the speculation.

Victory Poker officials may be opting for a network with a larger player base in order to offer a wider variety of tournaments and cash games. The Everleaf Network, which boasts a family of sites that includes Everleaf Poker, Minted Poker, and Poker4Ever, ranks as just the 22nd largest worldwide in terms of real money ring game traffic according to PokerScout.com. Over the past seven days, the Everleaf Network has hosted an average of just 370 cash game players. Its traffic is on par with that found on win2day.

Contrastingly, the Cake Poker Network is the 16th largest worldwide in terms of real money ring game players. Despite being just six spots higher in the PokerScout.com traffic rankings, the Cake Poker Network averages 840 cash game players, more than twice as many as the Everleaf Network. The Cake Poker Network includes rooms like Cake Poker, DoylesRoom, Only Poker, Power Poker, Red Star Poker, and Phil Laak’s Unabomber Poker, which launched earlier this year.

Both the Cake Poker Network and Everleaf Network accept players from the United States. A story that appeared on Thursday on CalvinAyre.com detailed a possible move for Victory Poker: “Victory Poker CEO Dan Fleyshman has publicly promised to make ‘an exciting Victory Poker announcement’ at his birthday party in London September 1st, Dan has been spending an usually large amount of time in Vancouver over the past month, and two major poker networks – Cake and Merge – have offices in Vancouver.”

Victory Poker’s team of sponsored pros includes Antonio Esfandiari, who co-starred with Laak on MOJO’s prop betting show “I Bet You.” The two remain close friends, but whether Laak’s involvement with the Cake Poker Network was a factor in the move of Victory Poker remains to be seen. Other Victory Poker pros include Keith Gipson, Brian “tsarrast” Rast, Andrew “good2cu” Robl, Dan Bilzerian, former Playboy Playmate Sara Underwood, and poker coach David “The Maven” Chicotsky.

Other sponsored pros of Victory Poker include Lee Markholt, Paul Wasicka, Alec “traheho” Torelli, James “Andy McLeod” Obst, and former World Poker Tour Player of the Year Jonathan “FieryJustice” Little. Joe Navarro and mind coach Sam Chauhan also work with the site.

One of Victory Poker’s more distinctive promotions involves one lucky player each week battling against a site pro. On the line is a $500 cash prize and the opportunity to play for the jackpot goes to the winner of Victory Poker’s weekly rake race. The heads-up event takes place at 23:00 server time each Tuesday night.

A small thread on TwoPlusTwo focused on the CalvinAyre.com story, with one poster asserting, “I hope Victory does move, particularly to the Merge Network.” Poker News Daily can independently confirm that Victory Poker will indeed head for the Cake Poker Network instead of the Merge Gaming Network, whose flagship site is Carbon Poker.

Stay tuned to Poker News Daily for the latest developments in the rumored departure of Victory Poker from the Everleaf Network.

If the first tournament is any indication, the fif...

If the first tournament is any indication, the fifth Ultimate Bet Online Championship, or UBOC, is shaping up to be one of the largest ever. The kickoff $320 No Limit Hold’em Sniper tournament generated a starting grid of 903 entrants, which meant that a $243,000 prize pool was up for grabs.

UB.com, one-half of the USA-friendly CEREUS Network, guaranteed a $200,000 purse for the first event, meaning that the actual prize pool was about 20% larger than its guarantee. In the end, Joshua “pbdrunks” Van Duyn, a longtime member of the online poker community, trumped the pack and banked nearly $55,000. Two years ago, Van Duyn took down the PokerStars Super Tuesday for $71,000, his largest online poker cash to date according to PocketFives.com.

Heads-up, Van Duyn defeated longtime poker pro Felipe “improved” Montenegro, who walked away with $33,000. Montenegro is a three-time Triple Crown winner on PocketFives.com, which entails winning three $10,000 prize pool tournaments across three sites tracked for the site’s Online Poker Rankings in a one-week span. Montenegro owns the 51st spot in the aforementioned Rankings and has banked over $3 million in his online poker career.

Another brand name pro finished third in the $320 No Limit Hold’em Sniper event, the first on the UBOC 5 docket. Darren “darrenelias” Elias cashed for $22,000, adding to a tournament resume that includes a jersey in a $200 Cubed No Limit Hold’em event held during the February 2009 running of the Full Tilt Online Poker Series, or FTOPS. Here’s a look at how the final table of UBOC 5 Event #1 shook out:

1. PBDRUNKS – $54,760 2. IMPROVED – $32,792 3. DARRENELIAS – $22,309 4. MESCALIN8 – $15,726 5. MURIBE – $13,288 6. POOPLUS – $10,850 7. LUFTMENSCHEN – $8,411 8. 9BARELL – $5,973 9. MARIO_BASLER – $4,145

In January, UB.com member “AnteSvante” took down the PokerStars Sunday 500 to the tune of $90,000. Flash forward to Thursday, when he defeated Jesse “toohottotrot” Haabak heads-up in UBOC 5 Event #3, a $320 No Limit Hold’em Four-Max affair. “AnteSvante” walked away with a $29,000 cash prize, while Haabak boosted his online poker bankroll by $18,000. Others at the final table included “TIGGER2” and “eliasharris,” who took third and fourth, respectively:

1. ANTESVANTE – $29,079 2. TOOHOTTOTROT – $18,309 3. TIGGER2 – $11,847 4. ELIASHARRIS – $8,616

If you missed out on the first three UBOC 5 tournaments, don’t fret. A total of 19 will play out before the series’ $1,050 No Limit Hold’em Monster Stack Main Event on August 29th at 4:00pm ET. The final event, hosted by UB.com front man Phil Hellmuth, sports a $1 million guaranteed prize pool.

Running concurrently with UBOC 5 is MiniUBOC 5, which boasts the same slate of events, but with shrunken buy-ins. UBOC 5 events are open to players from the United States. Visit UB.com or its sister site, Absolute Poker, to enter today.

The owner of two payment processors for online pok...

The owner of two payment processors for online poker sites has agreed to forfeit $13.3 million seized by the FBI in June of last year. Ahmad Khawaja, together with his two firms, Allied Systems and Allied Wallet, reached a civil settlement with the U.S. Government this week in order to keep from getting into further legal trouble.

Khawaja’s two payment processors were at the forefront a federal case involving online gambling fund transfers. Allied Wallet and Allied Systems actively processed funds to players from sites such as PokerStars, the world’s biggest online poker site. The companies also transferred money from outside the U.S. through wire transfers from people who understood that the money was being exchanged as part of the gambling operation.

According to a civil forfeiture complaint by the U.S. Government, the funds constituted proceeds of operating an illegal gambling business that were deposited between January 2009 and May 2009 in an account at Goldwater Bank in Scottsdale, Arizona. Those funds were traceable to PokerStars and other offshore online gambling companies, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation confiscated all $13.3 million at Goldwater Bank in June 2009.

The government has not bothered offshore online gambling sites since the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA) was signed into law, instead primarily focusing its efforts on the payment processors that are aiding in completing the financial transactions. PokerStars wasn’t pleased when word of the settlement between Khawaja and the government was released.

“PokerStars does not condone efforts by processors to conceal the nature or purpose of funds used to play online poker,” a spokesperson for PokerStars said. “PokerStars has taken steps to ensure that processors properly disclose the nature of their business to their relevant financial institutions.”

Payment processors like Khawaja’s are being watched even more closely since the UIGEA’s regulations went into effect in June of this year. The law, passed in 2006, aims to stop online gambling by preventing credit card companies and banks from processing fund transfers for unlawful internet gambling. The fight to regulate online poker in the U.S. took a big step last month with the passage of Barney Frank’s H.R. 2267, the Internet Gambling Regulation, Consumer Protection, and Enforcement Act. However, there’s still a long climb ahead in order to turn the bill into a law, leaving sites like PokerStars concerned in the meantime.

Even if legislation were to pass, there’s no guarantee PokerStars would even be allowed to conduct business in the U.S. One of the amendments added to the legislation during the markup phase was that any company that that has illegally done business in the U.S. would be prohibited from getting a license to operate in the States. PokerStars, Full Tilt Poker, and UB.com would fall under that category and likely be forced out of the U.S. gaming market if that amendment held up.

Stay tuned to Poker News Daily for the latest from Capitol Hill.

As of Wednesday, 181 different individuals have re...

As of Wednesday, 181 different individuals have received nominations for the Poker Hall of Fame Class of 2010. According to Harrah’s officials, the voting trend is similar to last year.

On the Poker Hall of Fame nominating process, World Series of Poker (WSOP) Communications Director Seth Palansky told Poker News Daily, “It’s going well and we’ll have a good batch of candidates to mull over and see who gets in.” In order to submit a vote, poker fans need only enter their first name, last name, address, country, date of birth, e-mail, the name of the nominee, and any comments to support their choice. The latter entry can be up to 250 words in length.

Nominations will be accepted through August 31st on the official website of the WSOP. On September 1st, Harrah’s will release the names of the top 10 nominees. Then, the list will then be sent to a Hall of Fame nominating committee to review. Last year, the committee weeded out Tom “durrrr” Dwan on the grounds that he had not stood the test of time, one of five criteria required for entry.

In mid-September, the 16 living Poker Hall of Fame members and a small media panel will determine who will be enshrined in 2010. The group will rank only those on the final nominating list that they deem worthy of being included in the Poker Hall of Fame. In addition, every Hall of Fame member can write in one candidate that will automatically be added for consideration next year.

The votes will be sent to the Hall of Fame nominating committee, who will resolve any ties or errors that may creep up. In a change from 2009, the top two vote getters will become part of the Poker Hall of Fame this year as long as they garner at least 50% of the vote. Last year, a 75% threshold was required and, as a result, only World Poker Tour (WPT) host and WSOP bracelet winner Mike Sexton was enshrined.

The induction ceremony will take place during the November Nine weekend at the Rio All-Suite Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas. The event promises to be a grander affair this time around. Last year, more than 100 attendees turned out to an induction dinner to listen to speeches from Jack Binion, former Main Event champ Tom McEvoy, T.J. Cloutier, and Tom Sexton. Players in attendance included Howard Lederer, Phil Hellmuth, and Phil Ivey, the latter of which was in the midst of competing for the 2009 WSOP Main Event title.

What are the requirements for entry, you ask? Text found on the WSOP’s website explains that in order to be considered for a Poker Hall of Fame nod, “A player must have played poker against acknowledged top competition; played for high-stakes; played consistently well, gaining the respect of peers; stood the test of time; or, for non-players, contributed to the overall growth and success of the game of poker with indelible positive and lasting results.”

A ballot of nine names was sent to Hall of Fame members and the media panel last year: Sexton, Ivey, McEvoy, Daniel Negreanu, Erik Seidel, Dan Harrington, Scotty Nguyen, Men “The Master” Nguyen, and Barry Greenstein. Dwan turned 23 years-old when he received a nomination for the Poker Hall of Fame. The high-stakes staple may be beginning the second installment of the Durrrr Challenge this week.

The list of media members to be part of the panel in 2010 has not been made public, but this author is among the group for the second year running. I am looking forward to being part of the process again and determining the Poker Hall of Fame Class of 2010. Submit your nominee now.

PokerStars, the world’s largest online poker...

PokerStars, the world’s largest online poker site, has been granted an activity license in Estonia. The Isle of Man-based company is among the first license holders in the country’s newly regulated gambling market, just months after the Estonian Tax and Customs Board blocked access to foreign online poker sites. PokerStars will next shift its focus toward obtaining an operational license in Estonia.

“Applying for a license is always a complicated process and I am therefore very happy that PokerStars has successfully met all the necessary criteria to obtain an activity license in Estonia,” said Tomas Larsson, PokerStars’ Baltics country manager.

Poker has been thriving in Estonia and the small country remains a prime target market for the world’s largest poker room. The PokerStars European Poker Tour (EPT) recently stopped at Estonia’s capital, Tallinn, as the eighth season of the popular series got underway last week. The €4,250 buy-in Main Event attracted 420 players from 40 countries and was won by Norway’s Kevin “kevboystar” Stani, who took home €400,000.

“In addition to Estonia having excellent players and tournament organizers, Tallinn is also a new and truly attractive destination for many top players,” Larsson said. PokerStars Team Pros such as Luca Pagano, Arnaud Mattern, Ivan Demidov, Ville Walhlbeck, and Katja Thater participated in the Tallinn’s Main Event.

PokerStars has made also significant investments in Estonia during the last few years, contributing to the development of the local sports and cultural life. PokerStars is the main sponsor of the Estonian national volleyball team that last year battled its way to the final tournament of the European Championship.

PokerStars was approved for an operational license in France earlier this year after the country proposed new laws to regulate and tax internet gambling. PokerStars.fr launched in June, offering French citizens the chance to participate in games operated by the world’s leading poker site. According to PokerScout.com, which monitors real money cash games, PokerStars.fr ranks ninth in the world in online traffic, one spot ahead of EverestPoker.fr, the second largest site in France.

The new Estonian gambling law came into effect on January 1st. The first operating license granted was to the Olympic Entertainment Group, which uses Playtech’s software for its online casinos. AS Pafer, which organizes gambling on board ships, became the second company to receive the long-distance gambling operator license. PokerStars remains blocked to Estonians until it is granted an operating license, but hopes to obtain one in the near future.

PokerStars has more than 36 million registered players from all over the world and is gearing up for its annual World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP) in September. The 2010 WCOOP will run 62 events, including three High Roller tournaments, and will conclude with the No Limit Hold’em Main Event with a guaranteed prize pool of $10,000,000. The series kicks off with a Six-Handed No Limit Hold’em event on September 5th.

Stay tuned to Poker News Daily for the latest PokerStars news.

After its buy-in was slashed from $10,000 to $5,00...

After its buy-in was slashed from $10,000 to $5,000, the 2010 installment of the World Poker Tour (WPT) Legends of Poker attracted 462 players. Last year, a total of 279 entered, meaning that the field grew by 66%. However, the total prize pool of the marquee WPT event dipped from $2.63 million to $2.15 million, a fall of 18%.

The top 45 poker players will finish in the money, with the top spot scheduled to pay out $750,000. Last year, poker rapper Prahlad Friedman banked a little over $1 million after besting World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event November Niner Kevin Schaffel heads-up. Todd Terry, Toto Leonidas, Sam “KingKobeMVP” Stein, and Mike Krescanko also made the final table in 2009.

Nearly 300 players – including 16 former WPT champs – took to the felts on Saturday for the second of two starting days in the Legends of Poker, which emanates from the Bicycle Casino in Los Angeles. The day began with WPT officials honoring Kathy Liebert, who was playing in her 100th WPT tournament. According to the WPT’s website, Liebert is the female record-holder for most final tables made with six, most cashes logged with 15, and most money won with $1.75 million. However, she lacks a WPT title.

Despite the fanfare, Liebert was eliminated late in the day, as was Lock Poker’s Matt “All In At 420” Stout. The internet player dropped his stack with A-J of diamonds against Shawn Buchanan’s pocket sevens to hit the rails. UB.com pro Phil Hellmuth, meanwhile, took a three-hour dinner break on Saturday and returned to chat it up with fans rather than play cards. He finished the day with a stack of 66,850, or 167 big blinds, good for the 50th largest tally in the room entering Day 2.

PokerStars pro Daniel Negreanu lodged a particularly memorable Day 1B. Negreanu dropped to 10,000 in chips after running into a royal flush and eventually hit the rails after his A-J fell to 8-2. On the latter hand, the flop came A-2-3, giving his opponent bottom pair, but another deuce on the turn and an eight on the river didn’t help matters.

Joe Sebok and stepfather Barry Greenstein have both made waves in the WPT Legends of Poker, entering Day 2 in 17th and 19th places, respectively. Also vaulting up the leaderboard on Saturday was Allen Cunningham, who tripled up to 90,000 after cracking pocket aces and pocket kings by flopping a boat. Cunningham candidly Tweeted following the monster pot, “Holy Macintosh, I just flopped a full house vs AA and KK to triple from 30K to 90K.”

Here are the top 10 players in the WPT Legends of Poker entering Day 2 on Sunday:

1. Manuel Reyes – 205,350 2. Vinny Vinh – 180,000 3. Raymond Dolan – 165,500 4. Justin Young – 138,950 5. Max Casal – 138,500 6. Micah Raskin – 135,000 7. Philip Stark – 132,575 8. Ari Goott – 129,000 9. Ken Michelman – 125,200 10. C. Zadfar – 125,000

Other players remaining in the top 50, including their chip counts, include:

17. Joe Sebok – 108,650 19. Barry Greenstein – 100,675 32. Jonathan “FatalError” Aguiar – 78,125 33. Soi Nguyen – 77,250 36. Allen Cunningham – 76,500 37. Tom “Kingsofcards” Marchese – 76,350 39. Marco “CrazyMarco” Johnson – 75,225 45. Jeff Madsen – 70,800 47. J.J. Liu – 70,700 50. Phil Hellmuth – 66,850

Day 2 kicks off at 1:00pm PT on Sunday from The Bike, with 241 players remaining in the hunt for the WPT title. The Legends of Poker will crown a winner on Wednesday.

In his personal blog on PokerRoad.com, Joe Sebok w...

In his personal blog on PokerRoad.com, Joe Sebok wrapped up his first year as a sponsored player with UB.com and closed the book on his personal investigation into the prior misconduct on the site.

Sebok begins the heartfelt posting by saying, “Roughly one year ago, I signed with UB and pledged to put in as much effort as was possible to do three things: 1) Get the account names involved in the super-user scandal released; 2) Get all the hand histories out to those who requested them during the cheating scandal; and 3) Attempt to get out the physical names of the actual cheaters, and those who helped them cheat, released to the public.” Over the past year, Sebok has spent an inordinate amount of time on the above issues and notes some of the success he has had as well as some of the pitfalls.

“We were able to accomplish #1 fairly quickly,” Sebok stated, but he also indicated that he had difficulties with the other two goals on the list. The hand history requests, he notes, “have proven more difficult for a number of data reasons on the CEREUS Network side. It seems there were many issues when the network was began and the old data/servers were migrated/changed/what have you.” Sebok says that Paul Leggett, the Chief Operating Officer of the CEREUS Network, will be addressing the issues on his blog at a future date.

Sebok said that legal issues beset the final part of the UB scandal – naming those who were actually behind the situation: “To say that the information was murky and many individuals who were directly involved would never talk to us is certainly an understatement.” Through the efforts of “Mookman” from the Two Plus Two forum and the online blog Wicked Chops Poker, Sebok’s investigation revealed the names of those allegedly responsible for a case that ended up costing UB.com millions of dollars in restitution to those who were affected.

In the Wicked Chops exposé, the previously alleged mastermind, former World Series of Poker Main Event champ Russ Hamilton, is named as the main player in the game. Other names associated with Hamilton, including software developer Greg Pierson, former Ultimate Bet fraud manager Carolyn Heick, and associates Bonnie Leinhos and Travis Makar, were implicated as alleged cohorts in the scam.

Those that have been cleared of wrongdoing through Sebok and Wicked Chops’ multi-part story include two of UB’s most prominent faces, 11-time bracelet winner Phil Hellmuth and reigning National Heads-Up Poker Championship winner Annie Duke, as well as Freddy Deeb, David “Devilfish” Ulliott, Antonio Esfandiari, Layne Flack, and Robert Williamson III.

As a part of Sebok’s work on the investigation of the scandal, he released to Wicked Chops a list of players who were a part of the Ultimate Bet scam. These “super users” – called that because of the program that allowed them to see hole cards of their opponents – featured 117 user names among 23 different accounts. All totaled, it is estimated that those involved in the scam took $22 million from recreational players to top pros such as Mike Matusow, Prahlad Friedman, and Brad Booth.

Although Sebok has been able to discover who was behind the UB scandal, he notes that there is little chance those involved will ever be punished for the crime. “I wish we were a police force, but we are not,” Sebok writes. “I wish we could really round up all of these people and interrogate them, but we can’t. I believe we did as much as we possibly could to this end though. I also wish we were a court and we could try them all and jail the convicted, but again, we cannot do this. The poker community would be a better place if we could, but as of right now this just isn’t possible. If it was, believe me, I would be working on it.”

Sebok closes his blog by saying, “With that said, I am excited to be able to hopefully close this chapter and move onto the next. Now, if anything else pops up I will be happy to get back into it and delve further, but as of right now, as of August 2010, I don’t see any deeper I can get into this scandal or any more we can do to close it.”

Dusk till Dawn are happy to secure a number of seats for next weeks APAT festival

Players can register direct through the DTD cashdesk.

Main Event Day 1a (£100) - 37 seats

Main Event Day 1b (£100) - 8 seats

Stud Event (£50) - 44 seats

PLO Event (£50) - 2 seats

HORSE Event (£50) - 5 seats

Pro League Event (£255) - 42 seats

Full Schedule Details available here

On today’s Daily Deal, the next installment ...

On today’s Daily Deal, the next installment of the Durrrr Challenge may start this week, MMA Week debuts on NBC’s “Poker After Dark,” and CardRunners signs one of the most successful tournament players around.

Hello, I’m Sean Gibson and welcome to the Daily Deal by Poker News Daily.

Even though Tom “durrrr” Dwan and Patrik Antonius seem to be at a standstill in the first Durrrr Challenge, the next installment might only be a few days away. CardRunners instructor Daniel “JungleMan12” Cates has agreed to step up to the plate and face Dwan. In fact, the two could begin their 50,000 hand match as early as this week.

Dwan and Cates were seen discussing the details of their impending bout in a Full Tilt Poker chat box on Monday. JungleMan12 told Dwan that he had shipped the challenge’s $500,000 buy-in to Phil Ivey, who will act as its escrow. Full Tilt Poker, which hosts the Durrrr Challenge tables, has remained completely quiet on JungleMan12’s involvement. Meanwhile, Dwan and Antonius have been playing for nineteen months.

On Monday, MMA Week debuted on NBC’s “Poker After Dark.” The show, which airs at 2 a.m. Eastern Time nightly for one hour, pitted three staples of the MMA world against three poker pros. Representing the world of Mixed Martial Arts were UFC ring announcer Bruce Buffer, former UFC champion Randy Couture, and “Ultimate Fighter” coach Dan Henderson.

Representing the world of poker were Patrik Antonius, Howard Lederer, and Erick Lindgren. Watch new episodes of “Poker After Dark” every night this week on NBC. On Saturday following “Saturday Night Live,” catch a special recap episode featuring interviews with all of the players involved.

The popular poker training site CardRunners has inked two-time Full Tilt Online Poker Series event winner Mickey “mement_mori” Petersen. The new arrival owns the top spot in the Bluff Online Poker Player of the Year leaderboard and is the fifth ranked player on PocketFives.com.

Petersen is fresh off a win in a two-hundred sixteen dollar No Limit Hold’em Rush tournament held during FTOPS Seventeen. He banked thirty-seven thousand dollars in the process and outlasted a field of nearly eight-hundred entrants. In the previous FTOPS, which played out just before the start of the World Series of Poker, Petersen took down a two-hundred sixteen dollar No Limit Hold’em Six-Max event for eighty-six thousand dollars. Two FTOPS jerseys later, he finds himself in elite company.

Petersen joins a talented team at CardRunners that includes Durrrr Challenge participant “JungleMan12” and John “Jimmy Legs” Wray, who produces the popular “Brian Fail” series. Wray, who authored a popular strategy article for Poker News Daily entitled “Poker and the Endowment Effect,” released the eighth installment of “Brain Fail” on Monday. This week’s edition focuses on why certain players like PhilIvey have managed to keep a low profile despite record winnings.

Well, thanks for joining us for another edition of The Daily Deal and be sure to come back every weekday for a new episode. Be sure to check out our twitter page at twitter dot com slash poker news daily. I’m Sean Gibson and I’ll see you tomorrow!

In an ongoing scandal that covers most of this yea...

In an ongoing scandal that covers most of this year, a collusion ring based in China has been found on PokerStars, with the company providing few answers as to the depth of the alleged cheating or how their players were affected.

In a highly detailed thread on the Two Plus Two forums, the conspiracy involving “Double or Nothing” (DoN) sit and gos is laid out, including insight into the reactions from the leading poker room in the industry. In these particular PokerStars tournaments, half of the players who enter win double whatever the buy-in may be, with the other half of the field earning nothing. The alleged cheating ring based in China apparently targeted the higher end DoN sit and gos, which ran in buy-in from $52 to $104.

The thread, started on July 1st by poster “frobush,” recaps the DoN collusion scandal into a easier to read version than the previous unruly thread that had developed. On May 24th, a poster named “Jane0123” states that their account had been frozen since January 2010 and eventually closed by PokerStars. “Jane0123” – who can no longer be found through searches of the Two Plus Two forum – states in the original thread that they were questioned regarding “a relationship with 46 other players” who allegedly were located in China and, in particular, Hangzhou.

Upon closing the account, “Jane0123” is informed by PokerStars that “In reviewing hands it is clear that you routinely made team plays to create situations where you were supposed to benefit. You and your friends routinely played four and five players deep, and squeezed the blinds between two or more cooperating players (writer’s note – a technique known as “whipsawing”). After reviewing several hands, for several players, it became obvious that this was part of some kind of agreed-upon strategy.” The poster takes some flak from forum members regarding “being a cheat” before disappearing from the scene.

Several players post that they have played “thousands” of the DoN games, leading to many requesting information from PokerStars regarding the situation the next day. PokerStars responds to these requests with a form letter that states, “Due to the complexity of the situation to which you refer and the number of accounts involved, we have not yet begun to pay out compensation for this case. We expect that we will begin to process compensation within the next week, and players who receive a payout will get an email in due course.”

Over the course of June, the saga takes several interesting twists. One of the players allegedly on the original “Jane0123” list reappears in the DoN games, and many other posters note an influx of apparently China-based players having greater than normal success in the arena. PokerStars attempts to head off any issues by having one of its employees post in the thread stating that “the investigation is taking longer than normal due to the unusual nature of the case.” The employee, who is listed in the thread as “Michael J” from the PokerStars Game Security team, also goes on to say that players will be fairly compensated for the actions of the collusion ring.

By the end of June, PokerStars had set up a pool for compensating those players affected by the scandal. The amount of money in the pool is based on several factors involving the games and including a $250,000 bonus added by PokerStars. The final amount of money handed out by PokerStars eventually reaches $587,000, with roughly 4,000 players reportedly receiving refunds ranging from $5.20 to $8,424.13. In August, poster “nicegame” reports that PokerStars has anted up another $1.5 million to bring the total restitution pool to over $2 million.

The ongoing scandal apparently is still in progress, with players allegedly from the Chinese ring still in action on the DoN felt. Many players have detailed their playing schedule for the time in question (originally only January 2010, but now apparently stretching as far back as November 2009 and to as recently as April) and have been less than pleased with their compensation. Others allege that the ring was in operation for a much longer time span.

Poker News Daily contacted the Game Security division at PokerStars to ascertain where the case is at this point, including the length of time the collusion ring was active, how many accounts were in question, the official status of the security of the games in question, and the state of the investigation to date, among other issues. Although the questions are sensitive and a quick disclosure would reflect well on the company’s efforts to quell this issue, PokerStars has chosen to add this to their regular queue and not respond to Poker News Daily’s inquiries as of this afternoon.

This Friday, August 20th, marks the start of the M...

This Friday, August 20th, marks the start of the Main Event of the World Poker Tour (WPT) Legends of Poker at the famed Bicycle Casino in Los Angeles, California. The $5,000 ($4,800 + $200) No-Limit Hold’em Championship is slated to run through August 25th, with Day 1 split into two flights.

This is the first year since 2005 that the WPT Legends of Poker Main Event buy-in will be less than $10,000, a change that needed to be made to boost attendance at WPT events. At 279 players, last year’s Legends of Poker field was 25% smaller than in 2008. Despite the precipitous drop, though, first place still paid just over $1 million and the top five finishers all made at least six-figures.

Poker pro Prahlad Friedman won the 2009 WPT Legends of Poker, besting 2009 World Series of Poker November Nine member Kevin Schaffel heads-up. All things considered, it was not that long of a final table, lasting just 127 hands (keep in mind that WPT final tables are six-handed). Friedman was the third largest stack going into final table play, in fairly comfortable shape with 1,476,000 chips. He sat behind Schaffel and Todd Terry, who were in a virtual dead heat with 2,234,000 chips and 2,219,000 chips, respectively.

But Friedman knocked out Mike Krescanko, Toto Leonidas, and Terry over the course of final table to enter the heads-up portion of the competition with a sizeable 7:2 chip advantage. Schaffel battled his way back to even, but Friedman eventually ruled the day, eliminating Schaffel with A-Q versus K-J. For his runner-up finish, Schaffel won $471,670.

The WPT Legends of Poker is more than just the No-Limit Championship. There have already been 22 preliminary events with buy-ins ranging from $225 to $545. Most events have featured No-Limit Hold’em, but there have also been Limit Hold’em, HORSE, Pot-Limit Omaha 8 or better, Limit Omaha 8 or better, half Stud half Omaha Hi-Lo, and Seven Card Stud Hi-Lo tournaments in Shootout, Deepstack, and Re-entry formats. After the Main Event, there will be three more events before the entire poker festival wraps up on August 29th.

For those in the Los Angeles area, there will be satellites held on Wednesday and Thursday at the “Bike” for the No-Limit Hold’em Championship. Super Satellites will cost $120 to enter, while Mega Super Satellites will run $535. Players must register in person, as online registration is now closed.

Vanessa Selbst is interviewed at the PokerStars co...

Vanessa Selbst is interviewed at the PokerStars cocktail party from the World Series of Poker at the official gathering announcing that she is now a member of Team PokerStars Pro. She joins the team along with David Williams, who was coming off a win at the WPT Championship at the Bellagio in Las Vegas. Selbst herself was coming off a win at the PokerStars sponsored North American Poker Tour, otherwise known as the NAPT which was aired on ESPN from the Mohegan Sun. Her first place finish in that $5,000 tournament earned her a cool $750,000. Back in 2008 she won the Los Angeles Poker Classic WPT Ladies Event ($1,000 entry), defeating fellow pro Erica Schoenberg. A professional poker table with numerous final tables to her name, Selbst won the 2008 World Series of Poker $1,500 Pot-Limit Omaha event. She plays online at PokerStars under the name “V. Selbst” often found in the major tournaments at PLO tables.

Selbst is a native of New York and graduated from Yale University. She is currently attending Yale Law School with the intention of becoming a lawyer in the field of civil rights law, all the while playing poker professionally. Selbst is known to many online players through her many training video series, specifically ones for Pot Limit Omaha, at Deuces Cracked where she is an Executive Producer.

In this interview with Sean Gibson, Selbst talks about the notoriety she receives at tables due to her coaching videos and how it’s come to bite her, specifically in the $5,000 Pot Limit Omaha WSOP tournament this year. She also discusses how the deal with PokerStars came about and what it means to be a part of their list of sponsored pros.

To date, Selbst’s total live tournament earnings amount to slightly more than $1.67 million and her seven cashes in World Series of Poker events amount to just over $600,000 of that amount.

On Tuesday night at 9:00pm ET, coverage of Days 1C...

On Tuesday night at 9:00pm ET, coverage of Days 1C and 1D of the 2010 World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event aired on cable station ESPN. The first hour of coverage was devoted to Day 1C and featured reigning Main Event champ Joe Cada and 11-time bracelet winner Phil Hellmuth.

Eight former Main Event champs took to the felts for Day 1C and Cada was seated at the feature table. ESPN aired several hands in which Cada flopped sets, perhaps playing on his “lucksack” image from 2009. Meanwhile, back-to-back Main Event winner Johnny Chan scooped a massive pot in a set-over-set situation to move to 61,000 in chips. Chan is part of the $50,000 buy-in Full Tilt Doubles Poker Championship, which is airing on Saturday nights on GSN.

Elsewhere, fellow Main Event winner Scotty Nguyen was seen living it up on Day 1C, while a 3bet from PokerStars pro Daniel Negreanu was good enough to take down a pot. Then, Hellmuth was seen entering the fray dressed as an MMA fighter and took a seat at Table 2. ESPN commentator Norman Chad was not impressed by Hellmuth’s entrance, which featured several hundred spectators.

UB.com pros Eric “basebaldy” Baldwin and Billy “Patrolman35” Kopp found camera time, as did Darvin Moon, who was sweating Dennis Phillips. High-stakes cash game pros Patrik Antonius and Tom “durrrr” Dwan were also seen competing for the top prize of nearly $9 million. The latter donned a button that displayed fellow pro Peter Jetten hugging a koala and hit quads with pocket fives. Dwan played in 52 events during the 2010 WSOP in an attempt to collect on a variety of high-dollar bracelet bets.

Cada scooped a 39,000-chip pot after flopping a boat against Nils Bardsley’s nut flush. Then, in a lively Jack Link’s Beef Jerky Wild Card Hand, in which the hole cards of one player at the table are concealed, online poker pro James “croll103” Carroll spiked the nut flush against Hellmuth, who spouted off, “Worst player at the fucking table.”

At an outer table, Chau Giang doubled up courtesy of Victory Poker front man Antonio Esfandiari. However, Esfandiari had the last laugh, making a full house on the river to send Giang packing. Despite his heralded success in high-stakes cash games, Giang has cashed in just one WSOP Main Event in the last 14 years.

Back at the feature table, Cada rivered a boat against Tommy Miller’s king-high diamond flush to rake in another 21,125 chips. Cada then knocked out Bardsley with pocket queens against A-J to shoot up to 61,000 in chips. Next door, Hellmuth hit the rails in a three-way pot with pocket jacks against A-K and pocket queens when an opponent hit a flush on the river. Hellmuth was less-than-gracious in his exit. Also finding the rails was Dwan, who promptly threw his button onto his chair and left the Amazon Room.

The second one-hour episode featured coverage of Day 1D. After railing one day prior, Moon took center stage this time around and played relatively tight poker. He tangled with Miguel Gonzalez in pot after pot, dropping the first one shown. Then, viewers railed eight-time bracelet winner Phil Ivey. Also in the field were fellow 2009 November Niners Jeff Shulman, Antoine Saout, and Eric Buchman.

NFL rushing leader Emmitt Smith gave the “Shuffle up and ‘play’” command, but was later sidelined. Back at the feature table, Moon checked the nuts on the river in order to see what his opponent had, but due to an anti-collusion rule, was given a one-hand penalty. Moon claimed he didn’t know about the rule and added, “I learn something new every day.”

Actors Hank Azaria (“The Simpsons”) and Jason Alexander (“Seinfeld”) were shown in the Day 1D field, as was DoylesRoom namesake Doyle Brunson, who took a seat at Table 2. Elsewhere, Jason Mercier hit a boat on the river to bust an opponent holding a straight and Bob Lang, a Vice President of In-N-Out Burger, eliminated 2009 WSOP Player of the Year Jeffrey Lisandro. Lang flopped a set with pocket queens to draw out on Lisandro’s aces.

2010 WSOP Player of the Year contender Frank Kassela tangled with Penn Jillette’s wife Emily, while Pascal LeFrancois sent 2005 Main Event winner Joe Hachem to the rail. At the feature table, Moon led out for 2,500 with A-9 on a flop of 10-8-5. Gonzalez check-raised to 7,550 with pocket kings and Moon made it 17,000. Gonzalez came all-in over-the-top for just 4,300 more and Moon called despite knowing he was dominated. Last year’s runner-up caught lightning in a bottle on the river when an ace hit to send Gonzalez packing.

The Day 2s of the Main Event will begin next Tuesday at 9:00pm ET on ESPN. If you missed this week’s episodes, they will repeat throughout the week on ESPN’s family of stations.

On this week’s edition of the ESPN.com poker...

On this week’s edition of the ESPN.com poker news program “Inside Deal,” UB.com pro Eric “basebaldy” Baldwin joined the set throughout the duration of the episode. Featured was discussion of Days 1C and 1D of the 2010 World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event, which aired on Tuesday night on ESPN.

Baldwin sported his trademark mustache during the show and told ESPN “Inside Deal” hosts Laura Lane, Bernard Lee, and Andrew Feldman why he chose to rock the distinctive facial hair: “It’s impossible to have a bad day when you have a mustache because you look in the mirror and laugh at yourself.” Baldwin was not armed with a mustache during the 2010 WSOP Main Event.

Why did he choose to play on the third starting day of poker’s most prestigious tournament? Why not enter on the relatively sparse first day or the wildly populated Day 1D, which sold out last year? Baldwin provided the following insight: “Day 1D – I didn’t want to deal with the biggest crowd. It’s an absolute circus there. At the same time, I felt like a lot of soft players are leaving their day jobs to come out to Las Vegas to play in the Main Event, so they’re going to choose one of the later starting days to miss fewer days of their home jobs.” Days 1C and 1D each attracted over 2,300 players.

ESPN cameras showed Baldwin sparingly during coverage of Day 1C; one of his longest spots on the small screen came as he folded a hand. Baldwin stressed the importance of not forcing yourself to be in the spotlight of Day 1 of the WSOP Main Event: “The important thing is not to press because it’s such a good structure and such a long tournament that if you try and force something, you’ll be kicking yourself out the door.”

Following the discussion of the WSOP, major gambling and sports scandals were reviewed. The b-roll segued to the UB.com scandal, which resulted in over $22 million being paid to players by September 2009. WickedChops’ Steve Preiss was brought in via phone: “Russ [Hamilton’s] story that he told to the senior-ups that started Ultimate Bet was that he wanted to be able to have an auditing tool that could see hole cards to enable him to catch cheaters on the site… Eventually, the tool was modified so that he could go into ‘God Mode’ and actually see hole cards.”

Priess also assessed whether poker pro Freddy Deeb was intricately involved in the cheating or merely a bystander: “A lot of people came to Russ requesting money to play high-stakes games online. People would go to Freddy, knowing he was tight with Russ, and request funds. Did Freddy not know this was dirty money? Who knows? What we do know is that Freddy was not, at this stage, tied to being a superuser himself.” UB.com, then known as Ultimate Bet, was a high-stakes hot spot prior to the action moving to Full Tilt.

Baldwin’s start in poker entailed diligent dissection of books, including the “Harrington on Hold’em” series, which he claimed was the most influential read: “I consider myself to be a book guy or a study guy. I legitimately took a couple of poker books, took notes on them, and treated them like textbooks. I definitely put some hard work into it and luckily it’s paid off.” Baldwin won his first bracelet in 2009 in a $1,500 No Limit Hold’em tournament, getting the proverbial monkey off his back and banking $592,000.

Baldwin is one of the most free-spirited players you’ll meet. We’ve known him long before he was highly successful. Amazingly, he has remained completely down to Earth. The UB.com pro admitted, “I can’t believe it when people say what a grind [poker] is or how burnt out they are. To me, it’s so enjoyable every day. You get up and go in to play a game with eight or nine interesting characters at your table. To me, that’s not a grind. To me, that’s fun and I feel incredibly fortunate to do that for a living.”

Finally, given the theme of this week’s “Inside Deal,” Baldwin revealed why he signed with the embattled site as opposed to a competitor like PokerStars or Full Tilt: “I like the challenge it represented of being able to rebuild from a checkered past and help them grow. They cleaned house, re-branded the whole site, and I really like the direction everything is headed. It’s exciting to be a part of.”

Rounding out the show was a review of the new live poker laws in Florida, which went into effect back on July 1st. Catch “Inside Deal” featuring Bernard Lee, Laura Lane, and Andrew Feldman every Tuesday on ESPN.com.

Today’s Daily Deal comes from the floor of t...

Today’s Daily Deal comes from the floor of the Bicycle Casino in Los Angeles, CA and the site of the World Poker Tour‘s Legends of Poker tournament.

Hello, I’m Sean Gibson and welcome to the Daily Deal by Poker News Daily.

A collusion ring based in China has apparently been found on PokerStars, with the company preparing to initiate payouts to affected players. In June, PokerStars stated, “the investigation is taking longer than normal due to the unusual nature of the case”. In August, poster “nicegame” reported that PokerStars has brought the total restitution pool to over two million dollars. The ongoing scandal apparently is still in progress, with players allegedly from the Chinese ring still in action on the Double or Nothing felt.

Norwegian poker pro Kevin “KevBoyStar” Stani outlasted a talented final table early Monday morning to capture the first event of the European Poker Tour’s seventh season in Tallinn, Estonia. The largest tournament in the history of Estonian poker saw four hundred and twenty players, each of whom contributed four thousand two hundred and fifty Euros to the prize pool. Italian PokerStars pro Luca Pagano made EPT history by making his 15th EPT money finish, the most by any player over the seven years of play. Stani beat Russian Konstantin Bilyauer for a prize of four hundred thousand euros and his first EPT championship.

This Friday, August 20th, marks the start of the Main Event of the World Poker Tour Legends of Poker at the famed Bicycle Casino in Los Angeles. The five thousand dollar Championship reflects the world’s economy: this is the first time since 2005 that the WPT Legends of Poker Main Event buy-in will be less than $10,000. The WPT Legends of Poker is more than just the No-Limit Championship: the twenty two preliminary events have also featured Limit Hold’em, HORSE, Pot-Limit Omaha 8 or better and other poker variants.

Thanks for joining me on The Daily Deal. Don’t forget to visit PokerNewsDaily.com and be sure to follow us at Twitter.com/PokerNewsDaily for the latest in poker news. This is Sean Gibson, good luck on the flop!

As long as poker has existed, there have been play...

As long as poker has existed, there have been players trying to cheat the game. And in today’s age of internet poker, players have more opportunity to attempt different methods of cheating, especially collusion. With the ability to communicate on the phone, via instant message, or Skype, players can easily communicate their hole cards to one another and discuss cheating strategies.

While it is easier to collude online than it is to do it live, most cheaters are not skilled enough to get away with it. Plus, the poker rooms have all the hand histories with which to track the colluders down, and the increasingly sophisticated hand analysis software makes shady play easily evident.

You should still always be on the lookout for the bad guys, though, and to detect them, you need to know what they are doing. So, here are the three most common ways players collude.

Softplaying

In cash games, softplaying could arguably considered the least problematic form of collusion, but it is still cheating and still hurts the game. Softplaying is just what it sounds like – two (or more, but usually two) players do not play aggressively against each other, for whatever reason. Chances are, they are friends, but they could also be two strong players familiar with each other, choosing to pick on the weaker players at the table instead of each other. If you play enough hands with softplayers and remain observant, it’s not the most difficult thing in the world to spot. Softplayers will rarely raise each other when in a heads-up pot and will very frequently just check it down through the river, even if they both have premium hands. It is tough to softplay with any frequency without getting noticed, as it looks fishy when there’s barely any betting in the hand and one player shows Aces and one shows Kings. Like I said, while still bad, it’s not as damaging in cash games as it is in tournaments, although I know I wouldn’t be thrilled if I stacked a player only to realize later that he could have had more chips for me to take had he not softplayed his friend on a prior hand. In tourneys, softplaying is particularly offensive because it potentially delays the elimination of one of the cheaters, making it harder for the honest players to make the money.

Squeezing

This one is wrong no matter which way you slice it. Two players (again, it could be more, but two is the most common number) will cheat by teaming up on an innocent player in an effort not to beat him with the best hand at showdown, but by forcing him to fold and surrender his chips. A typical collusion hand using the squeeze method goes like this:

Colluder A raises pre-flop, Victim three-bets, Colluder B four-bets, Colluder A five-bets, Victim folds, Colluder B calls. At some point after the flop, one of the cheaters will eventually fold, with the other winning the pot, which includes the pre-flop victim’s chips, as well as any blinds or antes. Alternatively, Victim may be the original raiser, with Colluder A and Colluder B both re-raising after him. The latter method guarantees that the cheaters will find a patsy. The former tactic is riskier, but offers the opportunity to bilk the innocent opponent out of more money.

The reason that the colluders won’t often take the hand all the way to showdown is that at least one of them will almost certainly have a junk hand. After all, if they waited to both have great hands, it wouldn’t really be cheating, as it would make sense to raise and re-raise with premium holdings. Remember, the whole point of the squeeze is not to have the best hand, it is to get the victim to raise and then fold. It is an intimidation play.

The squeeze cheat is especially troubling when it is done on the bubble of a single table tournament. With blinds very high relative to the chip stacks, every hand is important. Squeezing an opponent out of a hand after he raises just once can swing the tournament strongly in the cheaters’ favor.

Aside from simply keeping an eye on your opponents and noting if the same two players demonstrate this betting pattern on a somewhat regular basis, there is one way to really sniff them out. Call their raises. If you can get one or both of them to showdown and see that their hands are crap, you will have a nice piece of evidence of their cheating.

Chip Dumping

In cash games, chip dumping is generally a means for two players to transfer funds to one another, and is relatively harmless to the other players. In tournaments, though, it is a means to give one of the colluders the upper hand on the rest of the table. When chip dumping, one cheater will purposely lose his stack to his partner. While the first cheater is eliminated from the tournament, the other has now doubled-up and has a significant advantage the rest of the way. It’s not as easy to detect chip dumping as it might seem, as it is usually just a one-time thing in any given tournament (the dumping could occur in stages, but that’s less likely). The dumper does it, gets eliminated, and that’s it. It could appear to just be a silly donk blowing off steam. Aside from noting the players’ screen names and trying to track them down in other tournaments, my best advice would be to e-mail the poker room if you suspect chip dumping. The poker room will be able to find any other instances of those players sitting at the same table and will be able to determine if this was a one-time deal or a pattern of cheating.

While I just described three methods of collusion so that you have the knowledge necessary to spot this type of cheating, keep in mind that not all strange play is collusion. A single instance of what might seem to be softplay, squeezing, or chip dumping is not necessarily collusion (especially squeezing, since the squeeze play is a legitimate strategic move). But if you see repeated instances of any of these by the same players, it may be worth shooting off a message to the online poker room.

Daniel “Jungleman12” Cates is taking t...

Daniel “Jungleman12” Cates is taking the online poker world by storm. Only 20 years old, he has already won more money than most people will see in a lifetime. His current winnings exceed $2.2 million.

In early 2008 he was playing heads up No Limit Hold’em with blinds of $.25/$.50. Within 10 months he had gone from micro stakes to high stakes, playing blinds of $25/$50. He admits his move into high stakes was very aggressive, as started playing $25/$50 with 40 Buy-ins. Jungleman12 has said that the two main factors to his success were a very aggressive bankroll management system and the willingness to play anyone.

It was Jungleman12’s openness to play and thirst for knowledge combined with natural talent that have made him soar through the stakes faster than almost any other player online.

One barrier that stops many players moving up in stakes is fear of having so much money on the table in a single seating. Jungleman12 has been able to condition his mind to detach himself from thinking of it as money and seeing it as numbers on a screen. Thanks to this ability he is able to play so objectively in some of the highest games online. Focus on the game, not the money

However his growth wasn’t all smooth sailing. Jungleman12 had one day after moving up to $25/$50 where he lost ¼ of his entire bankroll. It was then he decided to re-evaluate his bankroll strategy.

Another huge setback Jungleman12 had to face was his matches with the famous player “Isildur1”. Jungleman12 has had his biggest losses to Isildur1, including a single day session where he lost almost $500,000.

On the positive side, some of Jungleman12’s best bankroll injections have come from players such as “fullflush1”, “aejones”, Tom “durrrr” Dwan and Phil Ivey, just to name a few.  Dwan is currently down over $775,000 to Jungleman12.

Jungleman12 has played the biggest names and stakes at Full Tilt Poker for over two years and has fast become one of the most talked about players in today’s games.  He is currently in 3rd place for top earners for 2010, just behind Tom Dwan and Phil Ivey.

When he’s not playing, Jungleman12 can also be found at popular training site Card Runners, where he is one of the featured coaches, charging sometimes over $1000 for a single coaching session.  Given his own results, it should be well worth it.

If you own a Mac, then your options for playing on...

If you own a Mac, then your options for playing online poker on a Mac are growing quickly. Existing rooms are offering a variety of ways for you to fire up the virtual felts, ranging from a fully downloadable client similar to what your Windows counterparts use to a browser-based alternative. The latter – dubbed “Instant Play” by most sites – has become one of the most widely used ways for Mac online poker players to access the world’s top sites. It’s safe to say mac poker sites are more popular than ever.

Web-based clients have a lot of drawbacks, however. On Bodog, for example, only one cash game table can be opened at a time, cutting off Mac tournament players entirely and limiting the potential to “grind.” On UB.com and Absolute Poker, several features are lacking and, although the web-based client receives upgrades, its capabilities are capped. PartyPoker, which does not accept real money action from the United States, was one of the first sites to offer an “Instant Play” option.

Despite its limitations, web-play clients are convenient. Most of them are compatible with Safari and Firefox; just make sure you have the latest version of each browser installed on your Mac. Many Windows and Linux users have even employed “Instant Play” to avoid having to download any software. If you’re away from your home computer or are in a situation where downloading UB.com, for example, may be frowned upon, web-based interfaces provide an easy way to access major sites.

Two online poker rooms, however, have gone well above their counterparts and offered a fully functional downloadable client, the best solution that a Mac poker player can hope for. Surprisingly, the two sites to offer feature-packed downloads are the two largest in the industry and home to a variety of high-stakes pros.

PokerStars

PokerStars is the world’s largest online poker site and is home to tens of thousands of cash game players at any given moment. PokerStars is where Main Event champions play, including Tom McEvoy (1984), Chris Moneymaker (2003), Greg Raymer (2004), Joe Hachem (2005), Peter Eastgate (2008), and Joe Cada (2009), all of whom are sponsored site pros.

PokerStars offers some of the industry’s richest promotions and runs two major tournament series annually, the Spring Championship of Online Poker (SCOOP) and World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP). Total prize pools for these have topped $50 million in the past, making for life-changing paydays and challenging competition. PokerStars also sports one of the top customer service teams in the business.

Another reason to play on PokerStars is access to major live poker tournaments. PokerStars sponsors roving tournament series in North America, Latin America, Asia, Australia and New Zealand, United Kingdom, Italy, Russia, and the entire European continent. Its signature event is the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure, held each January in the Bahamas. It’s a prime opportunity for cold weather poker players to make their way to one of the globe’s top tropical destinations and, with a legal gambling age of 18, the event attracts a variety of young guns from North America.

For more information about Poker Stars, please read our Poker Stars Review.

Full Tilt Poker

Play with the pros – literally – at Full Tilt Poker. If you’re looking for the industry’s most recognized professionals, then look no further. Play alongside Chris Ferguson, Howard Lederer, Phil Ivey, Tom “durrrr” Dwan, Patrik Antonius, Huck Seed, Erick Lindgren, Phil Gordon, and others at the world’s second largest online poker site.

Full Tilt is a tournament player’s haven four times a year during the Full Tilt Online Poker Series, or FTOPS as it’s commonly called. The quarterly tournament extravaganza attracts the top players in the industry and features a variety of games including Hold’em, Omaha, HORSE, Stud, and Razz.

Full Tilt also is a Mecca for high-stakes players. With David Benyamine, Dwan, Ivey, and Antonius headlining much of the action, Full Tilt has also had players like Justin “Boosted J” Smith and Mike Matusow join its team to liven up the high-stakes scene. The only drawback to playing on Full Tilt Poker – and its fully downloadable Mac client – is a lax customer service team that falls well short of PokerStars’.

Nevertheless, if you’re a Mac online poker player, be sure to sign up for PokerStars and Full Tilt Poker. Both happily accept players from the United States and host games that will fit your bankroll and budget around-the-clock.

For more information about Full Tilt Poker, please read our Full Tilt Poker Review.

Visit Apple.com for more information about Mac computers or to buy your Mac today.

The WPT is holding it's inaugural UK event in London at the Palm Beach casino with 2 day 1's starting August 30th through to September 5th, buy in is £5300 .

DTD will be holding a £100 + £12 NL rebuy super satellite this Friday August 20th at 9pm with 1 £5300 WPT seat guaranteed ,in addition to this the WPT are holding an STT Saturday 28th at 8pm at the Palm Beach casino 30 Berkeley Street London W1J 8EH with seats valued at £530 each and we have 3 of these to add for places not receiving a WPT seat.

Opening Times

Monday: 1:30pm
Thursday: 1:30pm
Friday: 1:30pm
Saturday: 1:00pm
Sunday: 1:00pm

The WPT will be held in London at the Palm Beach casino 30 Berkeley Street London W1J 8EH August 30th to September 5th, buy in is £5300.

On Saturday 28th at 8pm there will be a 10 handed STT to win a WPT Main event seat, each seat value is therefore worth £530 . We are adding a £530 seat to this STT for the winners of both our £25 and £60 tournaments this week, could be the ultimate spin up !

DTD are delighted to be hosting the Sky Poker Tour Grand Final for the second year running.

This event will be held over the weekend September 11th / 12th starting 2.30pm with 10,000 chips, 45 minute clock.

Usually the only way to get seats is qualification or direct via Sky Poker but we have managed to secure 20 seats for our players and these can be won in the following super satellites.

Friday September 10th 9pm:

Each Super Satellite will be £10 + £5 No Limit rebuy, 1500 chips, 24 minute clock, rebuys for first 3 levels then 1 add on, 10 x £220 Sky Grand Final seats guaranteed.

August Schedule Changes

Due to popular demand we have changed our schedule slightly. Please see the changes below:

We have added a Super 50 on Sat 21st Aug at 3:30PM - £5k guarantee

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Starting Thursday 19th August: