09 1st, 2010
On Tuesday night, action from Day 2B of the 2010 () Main Event aired on ESPN. Two one-hour episodes were devoted to the second Day 2 and the feature table included 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. Poker pro 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 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 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. .
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 .
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, 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!”
joined the already impressive feature table lineup and , 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, , 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 front man , 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 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.
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08 31st, 2010
The 29-year-old pro from Vancouver, Washington has taken the chip lead in Portugal with 70 players remaining and will be looking for more than just his first EPT cash when play resumes just 14 spots off the money.
Cantu’s last big score was a win in the 2010 Wynn Classic this past March where he added $363,844 to his more than $3 million in career tournament earnings.
Team Online’s Andre Coimbra, originally from Portugal, is the closest player to Cantu.
Also among the leaders is Team PokerStars Pro JP Kelly and Friend of PokerStars and England football legend Teddy Sheringham, looking for his third EPT cash.
The €5,300 EPT Vilamoura Main Event drew 384 players to the Porteguese resort area, making it the largest poker tournament ever held in Portugal.
A total of 56 players will earn pieces of a €1,862,400 prize pool with €467,835 reserved for first.
The tournament will run through Sept. 2 at Casino Solverde on Portugal’s Algarve coast.
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08 21st, 2010
Nicolai Henschel is the unfortunate player to miss out on the money.
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08 21st, 2010
Neil Channing is at his entertaining best as he slowly but surely eeks out chips.
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08 20th, 2010
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 , 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 () 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, , and 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.
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08 17th, 2010
In the largest poker tournament in the history of Estonian poker, 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 (EPT) seventh season in Tallinn, Estonia.
420 players stepped up with the €4,250 necessary for the buy-in, easily becoming the largest poker tournament in the history of Estonia. As the first event on the EPT Season Seven calendar, the Tallinn event replaced last year’s kickoff event in Kiev as the focal point for European poker. Top professionals turned out in droves for the tournament, while only a few had significant success.
56 total players were able to walk away from the Swissôtel Tallinn with a little extra cash in their pockets from the experience. Most notably, Italian Team pro Luca Pagano made EPT history by finishing in 26th place for €8,000. The cash was Pagano’s 15th career EPT in the money finish, the most by any player over the seven years of play.
Other top pros made deep runs in the tournament before being eliminated from the fun in Tallinn. Two players who were in the top 10 throughout the early going, 2008 November Niner and 2007 Swedish Open Poker Championships Main Event victor Johan Storakers, battled valiantly through the field before coming up short of the final table. Demidov was eliminated in 22nd place and Storakers dropped from the event in 15th place. Once the United Kingdom’s Jonathan Weekes was dispatched in ninth place, the final table was set for play on Sunday.
Coming into the final table, several of the 40 nations that comprised the field for the EPT Tallinn were represented. Only one country – Russia – featured two players, with Lebanon, Italy, the Netherlands, Finland, France, and Norway making up the rest of final table. Former EPT champion Arnaud Mattern was the chip leader at the final table with 3.7 million, but Stani lurked in the second slot with a stack of 2.5 million.
Play started at 1:00pm on Sunday and the players wasted little time in getting to business. One of the two Russians in the tournament, Konstantin Bilyauer, cut almost 700,000 chips from the stack of Mattern before the Frenchman replenished his stack by eliminating Lebanon’s Bassam Elnajjar in eighth place. Mattern continued to press his advantage through the early going, maintaining his chip lead before Bilyauer began to assert himself four hours into the final table.
Bilyauer, Stani, and Mattern proceeded to fight it out for the next two hours before heads-up action was determined. In what turned out to be the hand that determined heads-up action, Mattern suffered a cruel beat at the hands of Stani after the duo pushed their chips into the center pre-flop. Dominating Stani’s pocket threes, Mattern faded the flop with his pocket queens. A decisive three on the turn, however, put the Frenchman behind and left him looking for a queen or another heart to complete a flush. The river blanked for Mattern, though, eliminating him in third place and denying the EPT of its first two-time champion.
Down to heads-up play, Stani held slightly more than a 2-1 lead over Bilyauer, but it still took more than two hours to determine a champion. Stani extended his lead in the early going only to double up Bilyauer after he caught a king against Stani’s pocket sevens to continue the battle. Bilyauer continued to chip away at Stani before the twosome reached the penultimate hand.
On the final hand, play started innocently enough with a 3-9-2 rainbow flop that both players checked. When a four appeared on the turn, Stani check raised Bilyauer’s 375,000 bet to 875,000, only to see him call. Another seemingly innocuous card, an eight, popped up on the river and Bilyauer opened the action with a strong 1.2 million chip bet. Stani then moved all-in, leaving the Russian with a decision for his tournament life. He made the call, only to muck his hand after Stani turned up a dominating 6-5 offsuit for the straight and the championship.
1. Kevin Stani (Norway) €400,000
2. Konstantin Bilyauer (Russia) €250,000
3. Arnaud Mattern (France) €160,000
4. Dmitry Vitkind (Russia) €120,000
5. Mikko Jaatinen (Finland) €80,000
6. Steven van Zadelhoff (Netherlands) €63,000
7. Nicolo Calia (Italy) €47,000
8. Bassam Inaja (Lebanon) €32,000
Europe will be the center of the poker world’s attention in the next couple of weeks with two tournaments that should draw stellar fields. With the completion of Tallinn, the EPT will move onto its next stop in Vilamoura, Portugal, for a €5,300 event running from August 28th to September 2nd. In addition to this tournament, the will be making its first ever stop in London for a €5,300 tournament from August 30th to September 5th.
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08 17th, 2010
This past Friday, All In Entertainment LLC held a casting event for a new poker-based reality show centered around Fatty’s Poker Club, located in New York City. The program, “Fatty’s: Where Poker Gets REAL,” will follow the club’s owner, Mike “The Nose” Castaldo, and his band of regulars as they live their lives and play in cash games at the club.
, who Wicked Chops dubbed the “Hottest Woman in Poker,” was on hand to evaluate those who auditioned for a spot at the Fatty’s tables and will also appear in episodes along with some of her celebrity friends. In a press release, Castaldo praised Jones, saying, “We are all thrilled to have Lacey Jones involved in this project. She is a highly regarded poker player with a great personality and will be a perfect fit with the unique characters that play at our members-only club. Lacey has a flair for bridging the gap between amateur poker players and the top pros of the world.”
Many readers may recognize the name “Fatty’s” from the 2010 (). A group of ten players representing the club, four other “characters” who will be in the television show, and five contest winners all played in the Main Event wearing a team uniform of sorts. While the main purpose of the trip to Las Vegas was to publicize the show, they were still there to play. Each of the ten Fatty’s players made it out of Day 1, with one, Kenny Hofmann, eventually making the money, placing 278th for $41,967. The other big highlight of Fatty’s team at the 2010 WSOP Main Event was when Scott “Mayhem” Einiger eliminated on Day 2.
Einiger is also a Senior Partner with the New York law firm Abrams Fensterman, which represents All In Entertainment LLC.
In an added twist to typical reality programming, Fatty’s Poker has teamed up with Fantazzle Fantasy Sports Games to give viewers a chance to sweat the players on the show. Details of the fantasy contest have not been released, but it will likely be similar to games that Fantazzle has run in which contestants select a “team” of poker players in an effort to pick the ones that will have the most combined success in a given tournament. Fatty’s and Fantazzle plan to award seats at the club’s tables and the 2011 WSOP.
“Fatty’s: Where Poker Gets REAL” is currently in production, but has yet to be picked up by a network. Target networks include Starz, HBO, FX, ESPN, and SPIKE. Those interested in appearing on the program will have another chance to audition sometime in the near future at a yet-to-be-revealed Atlantic City casino.
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08 17th, 2010
The popular poker training site CardRunners has inked two-time Online Poker Series (FTOPS) 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 $216 No Limit Hold’em Rush tournament held during FTOPS XVII. He banked $37,000 in the process and outlasted a field of 778 entrants. In the previous FTOPS, which played out just before the start of the 2010 (), Petersen took down a $216 No Limit Hold’em Six-Max event for $86,000. Two FTOPS jerseys later, he finds himself in elite company.
In May, Petersen officially placed second after chopping a $2,100 No Limit Hold’em Big Antes tournament during the Spring Championship of Online Poker (SCOOP) for $169,000. That tournament drew a talented field of 590 players and those who finished in the money included Ravi “govshark2” Raghavan, Justin “Boosted J” Smith, Brunson 10 member Steve “gboro780” Gross, and WSOP bracelet winner Corwin “mig.com” Mackey.
Also in May, Petersen final tabled a SCOOP $1,050 Rebuy event for another $72,000. He owns the second largest PLB score on PocketFives.com, but his 10th place in the Pro Poll drags him down to #5 worldwide behind Gross (#1), Chris “Getting Daize” Oliver (#2), Adam “Squee451” Sherman (#3), and Taylor “taypaur” Paur (#4).
Petersen has already submitted a video to CardRunners covering the $100 Rebuy, one of the most challenging online poker tournaments in existence. He starts in eighth place out of nine players at the final table and text found on the training site details the video’s contents: “It’s not every day that one of the world’s top tournament players decides to drop in and upload a video. So it must be the dawn of a new era at CR… mement_mori brings you his full analysis from the final table of a $100 Rebuy. Starting 8/9 at the FT, he shows you how he works his magic and maneuvers his stack.”
Petersen joins a talented team at CardRunners that includes rumored 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 “,” released the eighth installment of “Brain Fail” on Monday. This week’s edition focuses on why certain players like have managed to keep a low profile despite record winnings.
CardRunners also operates TrulyFreePokerTraining.com, which offers free poker training for players on Full Tilt. 5,500 Full Tilt Points, or FTPs, will get you one month of free CardRunners training. In addition, partial memberships are available in 25% increments. The best part is that no FTPs are deducted from a player’s account; instead, they are merely a way to keep track of activity on the virtual felts.
In an interview posted on CardRunners’ website, Petersen explained the significance of winning a pair of FTOPS jerseys: “It’s pretty cool because by now FTOPS has run so many times that a lot of the good players have won one. Two, however, is a way smaller and more exclusive club. Hopefully I can add another one to the collection next time it runs.” Only a handful of players have ever accomplished the feat.
Visit CardRunners today for more information.
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08 13th, 2010
On today’s edition of the Daily Deal, the COO of answers some lingering questions about the two thousand and eight cheating scandal, the Main Event begins airing on ESPN, and decided that on his birthday he prefers to give rather than receive.
Hello, I’m Sean Gibson and welcome to the Daily Deal by Poker News Daily.
Paul Leggett, the Chief Operating Officer of UB.com’s parent company Tokwiro Enterprises, posted a blog on Monday responding to questions regarding the cheating scandal that occurred on what was known as between two thousand and four and two thousand and eight. Leggett opened his blog by clearing the names of anyone associated the current owners of UB.com.
“I wanted to start off by confirming that no individual who has been linked to any cheating works for Tokwiro or any of its subsidiaries,” stated Leggett. “When I took the COO position with Tokwiro… the result of the AbsolutePoker investigation required Tokwiro to demonstrate to the Gaming Commission, and their auditors, that a list of certain individuals were no longer working for the business and that they had no ownership of any kind”
In two thousand and nine, The Kahnawake Gaming Commission stated that it had found convincing evidence that former World Series of Poker Main Event champion Russ Hamilton was the main person responsible for multiple cheating incidents at Ultimate Bet. Leggett supported this accusation:“Some people have a hard time believing that Russ was the only person involved in the cheating. The truth is that all of the data facts pointed to him. The cheating was occurring from places where Russ lived and worked, the money was being moved through accounts he controlled himself or through people who reported directly to him or his close friends”
On Tuesday night, the two thousand and ten World Series of Poker Main Event began airing on ESPN with a pair of one-hour episodes. The first one-hour episode covered Day 1A and had a feature table that included Poker pro and bracelet winner Jason Lester. The second episode featured the exits of pros Bertrand “” Grospellier, , , and on Day 1B. Also featured on Day 1B was Norwegian prodigy and her much-publicized Las Vegas debut. However, she ultimately busted from the Main Event after running ace-jack into pocket queens The internet whiz finished with four cashes and no final tables at the two thousand and ten WSOP.
Ten-time World Series of Poker bracelet winner, back-to-back WSOP Main Event champ, and “The Godfather of Poker,” Doyle Brunson, celebrated his seventy-seventh birthday on Tuesday, and he is the one who will be handing out presents. Texas Dolly’s online poker room, , held a special $50,000 Birthday Bounty tournament on Wednesday night.
In the weekly Doyle’s Room Bounty tournament, any player who knocks out a marked site pro takes home a one thousand dollar cash prize. If anyone eliminates two of the three pros, they’ll win ten thousand dollars. And if someone is fortunate and skilled enough to send all three bounties to the rails, that player will bank a massive fifty thousand dollar prize. The winner of the entire tournament receives five hundred dollars in casino chips to use at Doyle’s Casino in addition their first prize money.
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, and may the flop be with you!
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08 11th, 2010
On Tuesday night, the 2010 () Main Event began airing on ESPN with a pair of one-hour episodes highlighting Days 1A and 1B. A stirring introduction by reigning Main Event champ touted the feature table as “the table where dreams come true.”
The first one-hour episode covered Day 1A of the Main Event, with a feature table that included pro and bracelet winner Jason Lester. Every player received 30,000 in chips and Matusow donned an “I Am McLovin” shirt for his kickoff day. “The Mouth” has recorded four top 100 finishes and two final tables in the Main Event since 2001. Christopher Mintz-Plasse, who plays McLovin in the movie “Superbad,” turned 21 two weeks prior to the Main Event kicking off this year.
Out in the field were a variety of pros, including , , and , the latter of whom doubled up John Bennett with top pair against a set. The hand dropped Raymer to just 1,200 in chips and he was later eliminated with pocket eights all-in pre-flop. Raymer, who gave the Day 1A “Shuffle up and deal” command, signed over his signature fossil and departed the Amazon Room at the Rio in Las Vegas.
, in the midst of competing in a $2 million weight loss prop bet, doubled up and, over at Table 2, eight-time bracelet winner tangled with Taylor Larkin. Seidel 3bet to 2,325 with A-6 and Larkin, holding A-K, made it 6,500. Seidel responded by 5betting to 17,000, or over half of the starting stack, and Larkin moved all-in for 17,000 more. Seidel thought briefly before laying his hand down.
Hands featuring Scott Seiver, , Peter “Nordberg” Feldman, Dallas Mavericks star Shawn Marion, and Abe Mosseri were shown and, back at the feature table, ESPN chronicled Matusow’s vital stats. “The Mouth” boasted a VPIP (Voluntarily Put Money into the Pot) of 32% and an Aggression Factor of 40%. However, he promptly dropped half of his stack to Allen “AawwNutz” Carter when he whiffed on a diamond flush draw.
After and Ray Romano were shown the door, Matusow followed suit by running top pair into Carter’s middle set. Just prior, a dealer error had resulted in Matusow’s dealt ace being exposed. After looking at his other hole card, which was also an ace, Matusow became quite perturbed.
The second episode profiled Day 1B of the 2010 WSOP Main Event. The feature table hosted Gavin Smth and , while Table 2 sported 2007 WSOP Europe Main Event champ , who was playing in her first WSOP Main Event on U.S. soil. Obrestad’s run featured multiple exclamations of “So sick,” as she flopped a boat and ran into a higher boat in one hand. Then, Obrestad doubled up with pocket nines after check-raising all-in on a 10-high board. She received a call from an opponent with pocket jacks, but Obrestad hit a nine on the turn to stay alive.
Former pro , cancer survivor Thuy Doan, and ’s better half were all in the field. The comment of the night belonged to ESPN commentator Norman Chad, who introduced Schoenberg as follows: “Like me, she is a former model and personal trainer.” Lindgren hit the rail immediately after Chad’s intro, raising all-in on the flop with a flush draw against a player with two pair. Lindgren hit the flush on the turn, but his opponent rivered a full house.
Elsewhere in the field were Jean-Robert Bellande, Unabomber Poker pro , and Deepstacks instructor Tristan “Cre8ive” Wade. At the feature table, Smith doubled up after check-raising all-in with middle set on a flop of 7-9-Q. Smith turned a full house and the river was no help to his opponent.
The exits of Bertrand “” Grospellier, , , and Boeree on Day 1B were highlighted. Then, Obrestad moved all-in less the chip protecting her cards with A-J on a flop of 2-2-9. Two-time bracelet winner Chris Bjorin called with pocket queens. A jack hit on the turn and an eight came on the river, sending Obrestad into the Las Vegas night. The internet whiz finished with four cashes and no final tables in the 2010 WSOP.
Action from the Main Event continues next Tuesday on ESPN at 8:00pm ET. Once again, two one-hour episodes will air.
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