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Archive for May, 2011
Tuesday, May 31st, 2011
Hedge Fund Manager and poker enthusiast David Einhorn is now a minority owner of the Major League Baseball team the New York Mets according to ESPN. Einhorn, best known in the poker world for his 18th place finish in the 2006 World Series of Poker Main Event, where he garnered a lot of TV time in what is still the largest poker tournament of all time –both in terms of entrants and prize-pool—put up a reported $200 million for his share in the New York Mets.
Einhorn’s money was not won at a poker table however, considering he is a well-known name on Wall Street and is the President of Greenlight Capital, which Wikipedia terms as a “long-short value-oriented hedge fund”. Einhorn is also a well known philanthropist who donates his time and money to numerous charities in the New York area in addition to sitting on the board of The Michael J. Fox Foundation as well as the board for Robin Hood.
In addition to his deep run at the 2006 WOP, where he cashed for $659,730 –all of which went to charity by the way, Einhorn has been a somewhat regular participant at the World Poker Finals at Foxwoods in Connecticut and has cashed twice; once in 2004 for $6,075, and again in 2008 where he won the $2,800 No limit Holdem tournament, collecting $89,475. A special thanks to thehendonmob.com for Einhorn’s career statistics.
Tags: Career Statistics, David Einhorn, Espn, Hedge Fund Manager, Major League Baseball, Major League Baseball Team, Michael J Fox, Michael J Fox Foundation, Minority Owner, New York Mets, Poker Main Event, Poker Table, Poker Tournament, Poker World, Prize Pool, Tv Time, Wikipedia, World Poker Finals, World Series Of Poker, World Series Of Poker Main Event
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Tuesday, May 31st, 2011
Tuesday, May 31, 2011 has been marked on nearly every poker player’s and poker enthusiast’s calendar for months now –ever since Harrah’s announced the 2011 WSOP schedule—considering it is the first day of the 2011 World Series of Poker.
The 2011 WSOP will get underway at noon local time at the Rio in Las Vegas with the Casino Employee Event, a $500 no-limit holdem tournament that has been a staple of the WSOP schedule for a decade now. However, the real WSOP action will commence at 5PM local time when some of the biggest names in poker take to the Amazon Room at the Rio to begin the $25k buy-in Heads-Up No Limit Holdem Championship –a first-time event at the WSOP!
As the second highest buy-in tournament of the 2011 WSOP –only the $50k Players Championship features a steeper entry-fee—the Heads-Up Championship should draw quite a crowd of poker players, as well as some pretty serious fan galleries similar to what you see at the NBC National Heads-Up Poker Championship.
The poker media may well be just as focused on who is NOT in attendance as they are on who is playing in the event. With Black Friday still stinging poker players at both ends of the spectrum, players still awaiting cash-outs from Full Tilt Poker and Absolute/UB Poker, and with the possibility of more indictments, some high-profile poker players may choose to stay away from the WSOP altogether in 2011.
For a look at the entire 58 event schedule for the 2011 WSOP you can head on over to www.wsop.com
Tags: Amazon, Black Friday, Fan Galleries, Full Tilt Poker, Harrah, Heads Up Championship, High Profile, Indictments, National Heads Up Poker, National Heads Up Poker Championship, Nbc, Nbc National Heads Up Poker, Players Championship, Poker Player, Poker Players, Staple, Time Event, World Series, World Series Of Poker, Wsop Schedule
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Monday, May 30th, 2011
Apparently with online poker effectively banned in the United States, would-be scammers and fraudsters have turned to the poker industry instead of its players as marks. In his most recent blog post, Dusty Schmidt recounted how the poker publishing company he co-owns, Imagine Media Inc., was the victim of credit card fraud.
According to Schmidt, a person using the name James Allen –which is likely a false name—purchased a large quantity of his newest book, Don’t Listen to Phil Hellmuth, using a fraudulent credit card.
Schmidt has turned the matter over to the proper authorities, but also listed his reasons for bringing the matter to light:
“My reasons for notifying the poker community about this issue are two-fold. First off, it would only seem logical that this thief is not so infatuated with my book that he needed a massive number of copies for himself! We are operating under the assumption that the theft occurred because the person purporting to be James Allen has the intention of selling the books to a third party… Secondly, it is definitely possible that Imagine Media isn’t the only poker company that this thief is targeting. I have no knowledge of his intentions, but it seems reasonable to think that this person will attempt to strike again.”
Schmidt is asking for the poker community to keep their eyes peeled on anyone trying to sell discounted copies of the book, and it should also be noted that the book is only legitimately available at a few distinct websites.
Tags: Assumption, Blog, Credit Card Fraud, Distinct Websites, False Name, Fraudsters, Fraudulent Credit Card, Intention, James Allen, Massive Number, online poker, Poker Online, Proper Authorities, Publishing Company, Scammers, Targets, Thief, Third Party, United States
Posted in Online Poker, Poker Industry News | No Comments »
Monday, May 30th, 2011
Pretty much every age-related tournament record seems to be set over in Europe, thanks to their minimum gambling age requirements being set at 18 in contrast to the US where players need to be 21 except in a few locales like Florida. So it should come as no surprise that the youngest World Poker Tour Champion was recently crowned at the WPT Spanish Poker Open where Lukas Berglund won the title at the tender age of 18.
Berglund put in a dominating performance at the final table, knocking out every single player on route to the Spanish Poker Open title, and in doing so picked up the €206k set aside for the winner as well as the $25k entry to the WPT Championship awarded to all WPT champions.
Here is a look at how the final table of the Spanish Poker Open, the inaugural event on Season X of the WPT, played out:
1. Lukas Berglund — €206,000
2. Romain Matteoli — €118,000
3. Frederic Bussot Fuentes — €64,000
4. Jorge Duffour — €47,000
5. Guillem Usero — €40,000
6. Alexander Sidorin — €33,500
7. Artur Koren — €27,000
8. Markus Ristola — €20,200
The WPT will now go on 3+ month hiatus as the World Series of Poker kicks-off on Tuesday. The WPT will resume on September 5th as the tour stays on the old continent, heading to Paris, France for the WPT Grand Prix de Paris at the Aviation Club de France.
Tags: Artur, Aviation Club De France, Berglund, Club De France, Dominating Performance, Europe Thanks, Grand Prix De Paris, Guillem, Hiatus, Inaugural Event, Koren, Matteoli, Old Continent, Paris France, Single Player, Tender Age, Tour Champion, World Poker Tour, World Series Of Poker, Wpt Championship
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Friday, May 27th, 2011
The Federated Sports + Gaming Poker League is going all out when it comes to changing the culture of poker tournaments. Not only is the league using a qualification process for all potential entrants –218 players were invited to compete on Season 1 of the poker tour—but the tournaments are also going to consist of a Pro-Am, a charity tournament, as well as the $20,000, rake-free, Main Events which will feature a number of different formats.
The latest addition to the FS+G Poker League was the announcement this week of a Standards and Conduct Committee, which according to a press release, “will work to ensure fair play, good character and integrity in every aspect of the league’s operation.”
Five players were honored with a position on the Standards and Conduct Committee including Eric Baldwin, Andy Bloch, Chad Brown, Joe Hachem and Nick Schulman. The remaining members of the committee are Tournament Director Matt Savage and an independent professional ethics advisor, Stephen Martin, as well as the League’s Commissioner Annie Duke –who is on the committee but not in a voting capacity. Among the duties of the Standards and Conduct Committee will be:
Monitoring the FS+G league member qualification and admission process.
Partnering in the development of league tournament rules and other membership policies.
Overseeing the continued eligibility of players to participate in the league after their initial qualification period.
Functioning as a league and player resource for establishing and maintaining the credibility and integrity of the league.
Overseeing player compliance with the league’s Code of Conduct, tournament rules and managing other related policies and procedures.
You can read the entire press release on the Standards and Conduct Committee at the FS+G website.
Tags: Andy Bloch, Annie Duke, Chad Brown, Charity Tournament, Conduct Committee, Entire Press, Eric Baldwin, Gaming Poker, Good Character, Initial Qualification, Joe Hachem, League Member, Matt Savage, Membership Policies, Nick Schulman, Poker Tournaments, Professional Ethics, Qualification Period, Sports Gaming, Tournament Director
Posted in Poker Industry News | No Comments »
Thursday, May 26th, 2011
With a turnout of 50-75 participants according to USAToday.com, the rally organized by the Poker Players Alliance (PPA) to bring the plight of poker players after the government crackdown on April 15 (Black Friday), has to be seen as a pretty big disappointment for both poker players, and the PPA as an organization.
How is it that boasting over 1 million members the PPA only managed to attract 50-75 participants for their rally, despite the fact that this has been in the offing for a few weeks! If this is the best the Poker Players Alliance can muster after arguably the worst attack on poker in the history of the United States, is this really a group we want to put our support behind?
While the rally did have a couple of high-profile pro-poker speakers –oddly enough they are both Republicans—I’m certain that the sparse turnout will not convince either John Campbell (R-CA) or Joe Barton (R-TX) that this is a major issue amongst their constituents.
Campbell has put forth online poker legislation with another pro-poker congressman, Barney Frank (D-MA) earlier this year, and Joe Barton –whose previous congressional highlight included apologizing to BP Oil over their treatment following the Gulf Spill—who is introducing a second online poker bill into Congress.
Other speakers at the rally included Women’s Poker Hall of Fame member Linda Johnson, 2004 WSOP Main Event Champion Greg Raymer, and PPA Chairman, and former Senator, Alphonse D’Amato.
Tags: 2004 Wsop, Barney Frank, Black Friday, Bp Oil, Congressman Barney Frank, Government Crackdown, Greg Raymer, Hall Of Fame, Hall Of Fame Member, History Of The United States, Joe Barton, John Campbell, Linda Johnson, Main Event, online poker, Poker Hall, Poker Legislation, Poker Players, Senator Alphonse D, Wsop Main Event Champion
Posted in Online Poker, Poker Industry News | No Comments »
Thursday, May 26th, 2011
After repeatedly saying they would be disallowing US players from playing at UB Poker and Absolute Poker, the Cereus Poker Network simply kept allowing US players at their tables, until finally they barred US players last week. While traffic dipped considerably, even with US players still populating their tables the network’s traffic numbers were down 83% according to PokerScout.com.
However, that was just the beginning of the Cereus Poker Network’s woes, considering that after finally barring US players we now have a good understanding why Cereus Poker stalled for so long, as the network has now lost 96% of its traffic since Black Friday according to the latest online poker traffic report from pokerscout.com.
It seems a foregone conclusion that the Cereus Poker Network is finished in the online poker world, but hopefully players will be able to get their money off the site before the end comes –although at this point this would appear to be nothing more than wishful thinking.
The only other major movement this past week was the Merge Gaming Network passing PokerStars.fr, and now sitting in the #8 spot in terms of overall traffic –although #7 and #6 are both Italian sites which are hard to quantify since they do not allow cash game players, just tournament players. So in my mind the merge Gaming Network is actually the #6 ranked online poker room/network.
Tags: absolute poker, Black Friday, Cash Game, Foregone Conclusion, Fr, Game Players, Gaming Network, Good Understanding, Italian Sites, Network Traffic, online poker, Online Traffic, Playing Poker, Poker Network, Poker Room Network, Poker World, Traffic Numbers, Traffic Report, Wishful Thinking, Woes
Posted in Online Poker, Poker Industry News | No Comments »
Thursday, May 26th, 2011
With 380 entrants the $10,000 buy-in PokerStars SCOOP Main Event shattered its $2.5 million guaranteed prize-pool, with the final tally hitting $3.8 million, and battling for the title on Day 2 of the tournament were some of the biggest names in poker including EPT winner Toby Lewis, online pro Sami “LarsLuzak/lrslzk” Kelopuro, EPT Berlin champ Ben “NeverScaredB” Wilinofsky, online star Matt “ADZ124″ Marafioti, and Team PokerStars Pro and 2005 WSOP Main Event Champion Joe Hachem.
In the end two of those players would wind up at the final table with one of them walking home with the SCOOP Main Event title –despite not winning the most prize-money thanks to a 5-way deal at the end of the tournament.
Sami “lrslzk” Kelopuro and Toby “810ofclubs” Lewis were both amongst the final nine players in the tournament, but it was Kelopuro who would go on to win the title, with Lewis finishing in 6th place and missing out on an equity chop made between the final five players.
Here is a look at the payouts for the final table of the 2011 SCOOP Main Event at PokerStars:
1. Sami “Lrslzk” Kelopuro (Finland) $504,691.09*
2. Tagult (Germany) $540,125,82*
3. StigR (Norway) $390,000.00*
4. altiFC (Germany) $369,581.05*
5. danskemann (Norway) $430,002.05*
6. Toby “810ofclubs” Lewis (United Kingdom) $167,200.00
7. GotURead (Netherlands) $129,200.00
8. el_klonkador (Sweden) $91,200.00
9. Hernan “HN Kakaroto” Novick (Uruguay) $66,500.00
*5-way deal
For more information on the SCOOP Main Event you can visit the PokerStars.com Blog
Tags: 2005 Wsop Main Event Champion, 5 Million, 8243, Adz124, Champ, EPT, Finland, Hn, Joe Hachem, Kakaroto, Larsluzak, Main Event, Norway, poker, Prize Money, Prize Pool, Scoop, Tally, Walking Home, Wsop Main Event Champion
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Thursday, May 26th, 2011
It was just a week ago that Doyle Brunson and his eponymously named online poker room DoylesRoom.com decided to part ways –details of any buyout/severance pay were not disclosed—and here we are on Monday learning that DoylesRoom.com is one of ten online gaming sites named in the second case filed by the DOJ against offshore gaming providers.
In an interview from March 1, 2010 with Nathan Vardi of Forbes.com, Brunson opined about the potential for trouble between the US Department of Justice and the online poker rooms, telling Vardi: “I don’t have a problem with the Justice Department, and I hope they don’t have a problem with me… At my age I really don’t care if they are going to cast the gauntlet… The poker industry as a whole is ready to have a fight,” From these comments it would seem that Brunson’s foreshadowing skills are as legendary as his poker skills.
Brunson was one of the most outspoken critics of former Party Poker founder/owner Anarug Dikshit who plead guilty to violating US gambling laws and reportedly paid a hefty fine in the $300 million range a few years ago, in exchange for not serving any jail time. At the time Brunson stated that he felt Dikshit had thrown the entire online poker industry under the bus by pleading guilty.
Now in the wake of Black Friday, it looks as if there will be more people who will be entering guilty pleas and working with the government, which was likely the reason for Doyle’s decision to depart Doyles Room –although he claimed to simply be a sponsored pro and leasing his name and image to help brand the site. However you slice, Doyle once again was dealt a Ten-Deuce off-suit and came out a winner thanks to some good timing and a whole lot of luck!
Tags: Black Friday, Deuce, Dikshit, Doj, Doyle Brunson, Doylesroom, Gaming Sites, Gauntlet, Guilty Pleas, Impeccable Timing, Jail Time, Offshore Gaming, Online Poker Rooms, Outspoken Critics, Party Poker, Poker Room, Poker Skills, Severance Pay, Us Department Of Justice, Vardi
Posted in Poker Industry News | No Comments »
Thursday, May 26th, 2011
On a day when two more online poker rooms saw their domain names seized by the US government as the crackdown against offshore online gaming providers continues in the US, one of the 11 people indicted on Black Friday, Bradley Franzen, entered a guilty plea on three charges and reportedly signed a cooperation agreement according to an Bloomberg article.
Franzen pleaded guilty to all three charges in a U.S. District Court in Manhattan, which included: conspiracy to commit bank fraud, accepting funds in connection with illegal gambling and conspiracy to commit money laundering. The charges carry a maximum sentence of 30 years in prison and very hefty fines, although the prosecution asked the court for leniency so long as Franzen cooperates with the investigation.
This is obviously very bad news for the other indicted individuals who will be dealing with two high-ranking payment processors working with the prosecution –Daniel Tzvetkoff already having been arrested and helping the government bring its case against the online poker rooms together.
Franzen admitted to illegally creating shell companies for the online poker sites, in order to process transactions with US banks. And it must be assumed that he has evidence –or can corroborate earlier testimony by Tzvetkoff—showing that the online poker sites knew they were processing these transactions in an illegal fashion.
While most US poker players had some inkling that the online poker rooms were using somewhat nefarious means to process transactions, the idea of shell companies selling flowers and golf balls was not really on the radar, but most US players were happy to turn a blind eye on the specifics of these transactions so long as their checks cleared.
Tags: Bank Fraud, Black Friday, Blind Eye, Cooperation Agreement, Crackdown, Domain Names, Golf Balls, Guilty Plea, Hefty Fines, Illegal Fashion, Illegal Gambling, Inkling, Leniency, Maximum Sentence, Online Poker Rooms, Online Poker Sites, Payment Processors, Poker Players, Shell Companies, Specifics
Posted in Poker Industry News | No Comments »
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