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03 11th, 2010
Although the entire incident was caught on tape and broadcasted around the world through social media outlets like Twitter and YouTube, German police still have no leads and no suspects in the European Poker Tour (EPT) Berlin armed robbery.
According to the Berlin-based Berliner Zeitung newspaper, the suspects may have fled the scene in a swank black Mercedes. The Associated Press, a global media goliath, added that the crooks escaped through a nearby shopping mall before hopping into a getaway vehicle in a rare “Oceans 11”-like daytime casino heist. Meanwhile, as the story has gained attention around the world, the Toronto Star reported that the bandits looted EPT Berlin to the tune of $335,000. However, all prize money was ultimately paid out.
According to Bild.de, there are no new clues and no suspects in the case, which featured four gunmen assault the registration desk at EPT Berlin. No one was harmed during the incident, which marked one of the most bizarre series of events in modern tournament poker history. According to Berliner Zeitung, police in the German metropolis were busy examining every shred of evidence they could get their hands on, including footage from hotel surveillance cameras at the Grand Hyatt and a bevy of player and staff cell phone cameras.
Meanwhile, according to the same German news outlet, witnesses claimed that the gunmen threatened tournament staff with a hand grenade, although the Blog reported that only pistols and a machete were present. Even claims of an inside job surfaced after The Local and the New York Times both reported that an accomplice inside of the Grand Hyatt might have tipped the assailants off as to the timing of the attack.
The German news media quoted a police spokesperson as saying that it was obvious from flyers and publicity material when the end of registration was and therefore an “inside job” may not be likely. The attack occurred at 2:15pm local time on Saturday as a roomful of poker players competed for a €1 million top prize in the EPT’s first visit to Berlin.
Meanwhile, Bild.de noted that a security guard who tackled one of the thieves was 6’8” tall and had a shoe size of 14. Tournament participant Frank Betsch told local media, “I could see everything very well since, at the time, I stood on the side of the room because I wanted to watch the ladies game that had just started. I have never seen such a crime scene. I heard a sound and thought, ‘That was a gunshot.’”
The Star revealed that German Police Chief Rainer Wendt chastised PokerStars, the tournament’s organizers, for not having enough security. Purportedly, its guards were unarmed and a bevy of cash was on-hand at the registration area.
A unique insight into the poker robbery came from 10-time () bracelet winner , who commented in a recent blog on that he’s been through five heists during his lifetime: “The guys that robbed the EPT in Berlin made a nice score. They took 800,000 Euros at gunpoint. I’ve been there and done that 5 times in my life and believe me, it’s no fun. I’ll bet everybody that was there will remember it for the rest of their lives.”
American poker player Kevin “ImaLuckSac” MacPhee took down the EPT Berlin Main Event for €1 million. Then, MacPhee appeared in interviews on CBS’ “The Early Show,” BBC, and CNN. The burglary even received face time on ESPN’s original series “Around the Horn.” Stay tuned to Poker News Daily for the latest on the EPT Berlin robbery.
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It seems like it’s ladies night in the Nightly Turbo tonight. We’re bringing you the hottest girls of poker as decided by Maxim magazine and a ladies club promotion brought to you by PokerStars. Ok, we won’t single out the ladies, there’s news…
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The world of poker is dominated by men for the most part, but there are women who have made their mark on the felt. On many a poker forum, there is a debate as to who the “hottest” poker player in the game is – and that debate goes for the men in the game as well as the ladies. A top men’s magazine has recently taken on the challenge of naming the twenty hottest women in poker, albeit with some liberties taken along the way.
Topping the list of twenty women are two players who have earned their stripes on the tables and are sponsored poker players in their own right. UB.com’s heads the list of those who has made the move to the poker community while continuing to pursue a career as an actress. Michelle made her mark on the poker world in 2008 when she was the last woman standing in the Championship Event. Since that time, she has continued to excel at the poker tables and has appeared on “The Amazing Race” with fellow poker pro Maria Ho. Other movie and television credits for Tiffany include the movie “Semi Pro” with comedian Will Ferrell and the FX series “Nip/Tuck.”
Along with Tiffany, poker professional was included in the twenty woman lineup for “hottest woman in poker.” Rousso, who currently carries a sponsorship with website hosting company GoDaddy.com along with her sponsorship, also appeared in last year’s Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue. Rousso is one of the preeminent women players in the game today, with several six figure cashes in her career that include a victory at last year’s EPT Grand Final High Rollers event and a runner up finish to at the 2009 National Heads Up Poker Championship. She recently cashed at the ’s L. A. Poker Classic, finishing in 59th place.
Three other women have had or continue to have an intimate involvement with poker as well as maintaining an active career outside of the game. Top model Joanna Krupa is on the Maxim list as she maintains her modeling career alongside her hosting duties for the PokerStars North American Poker Tour events. Former spokesperson and model Serinda Swan makes the list along with actress Shannon Elizabeth, who has held sponsorship logos with both Poker and Doyle’s Room in her poker career.
For those that wonder where 2005 Women’s Champion is on the Maxim list, she is included along with other poker playing actresses such as Playboy model Jenny McCarthy and former “That 70s Show” performer Laura Prepon. Maxim also puts former “Baywatch” actress Pamela Anderson on the list, the second oldest member of the “hottest women in poker” behind Tilly. Anderson once was the face of her own online poker room, PamelaPoker.com, and allegedly settled a poker debt by marrying her opponent, former Paris Hilton paramour Rick Salomon, a marriage that was later annulled.
For those who remember the Bravo television show “Celebrity Poker Showdown,” many of its alumni appear on the Maxim list. Academy Award winner Mena Suvari, comedian Sarah Silverman, former “Beverly Hills 90210” actress Jennie Garth, “Austin Powers” star Heather Graham, “Party Of Five” actress Lacey Chabert, “The Office” star Jenna Fischer and actress Rosario Dawson all make their mark on the Maxim hot list as well as continue to play in charity events across the country. Rounding out the “hottest women in poker” are actresses Cameron Diaz, Jennifer Love Hewitt, Traci Bingham and Odette Yustman.
While it may not settle the arguments across the online forums, Maxim’s “Hottest Women In Poker” definitely adds fuel to the fire. Were there any ladies that the magazine missed on their list? Poker News Daily would like to know, so be sure to inform us of who Maxim should have featured on the list and who shouldn’t have been there.
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A German national residing in Naples, Florida was arrested last month for running online gambling payment processing businesses out of his home. According to the criminal complaint filed in the United States District Court for the Middle District of Florida, 29-year old Michael Olaf Schuett “did knowingly conduct, control, manage, supervise, direct and own an unlicensed money transmitting business.”
In fact, Schuett owns hundreds of business, nine of which are tied to payment processing. Those nine are MCM Capital Management Corp, MI Global Inc., South Naples Escrow Co., Southwest Florida Payroll Co., Woodhouse Systems, Mathew’s Trade Corp., and Internet Payment Services Group Inc. Schuett would receive wire transfers from two companies – the British Bluetool Ltd. and the German International Payment Systems – and would then send cashier’s checks, personal checks, or wires to customers located in the United States and Canada. While the exact composition of Schuett’s customer base is not exactly known, it is presumed that most, if not all, of his customers are online gamblers. UB.com and are both known to use MCM Capital Management as a payment processor and UB.com was mentioned (as Ultimatebet.com) in the criminal complaint.
It was the suspicion of shipping companies and bank employees that eventually led to Scheutt’s arrest. Examples of activities that raised red flags included:
- Schuett’s shipping of over 150 FedEx parcels from his home every week. FedEx employees opened some of the packages and discovered that each contained a check.
- Unusually high volume of wire transfers going in and out of Scheutt’s bank accounts, all with overseas companies.
- Some bank customers who attempted to cash checks written from an MCM Capital account told bank officials, when asked, that the checks were proceeds from playing online poker.
- Schuett told employees at one bank he used, Shamrock Bank, that his new account was to assist German nationals in purchasing real estate in Florida. The account’s activity was not consistent with what would normally be associated with real estate transactions.
All told, Schuett filtered millions upon millions of dollars from online gambling companies, through his companies and bank accounts, to customers in North America. An example of the sheer dollar volume involved can be seen with his Bank of America accounts. Since November 1st, 2007, Schuett opened approximately 40 accounts at the large national bank and transferred approximately $70 million in and out of them to about 23,000 customers.
Schuett is specifically charged with violating United States Code Title 18, Section 1960, which in part states, “whoever knowingly conducts, controls, manages, supervises, directs, or owns all or part of an unlicensed money transmitting business, shall be fined in accordance with this title or imprisoned not more than 5 years, or both.”
He is currently being held without bond in Lee County jail. Judge Sheri Polster Chappell denied bond because she believed Schuett could be a flight risk, as his visa expires in April, he is a German citizen, he has no employment in the United States, and one of the few things that might keep someone in the country, a spouse, may not be significant in this case. Schuett has only been married to his wife, 28-year old Jennifer Sherman, for one month and has only known her for nine months.
Naturally, concerns have been raised within the online poker community about what this means for players looking to receive funds from poker rooms. In the long run, many speculate that there will be no negative effect. Other poker rooms have experienced troubles with their payment processors, and while it does create payout delays in the short term, they always find other processors, making things fine in the long term. Perhaps most interesting is the idea that many payment processors that poker players imagine to be “legitimate” companies could really just be individual people receiving money from poker rooms and just mailing checks to players from their own private residences.
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On Tuesday morning, another 196 players bought into the World Poker Tour Bay 101 Shooting Star, creating a total field 332 players strong. Among the Day 1b starters were 25 namesake “Shooting Star” bounty players whose knockouts were worth $5,000…
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A total of 196 players took to the felts in San Jose, California for Day 1B of the ’s () Bay 101 Shooting Star tournament. Eugene Katchalov came out on top after the second starting day, earning a $10,000 cash bonus.
Katchalov finished with 131,500 chips, which will be the third largest stack after the survivors of Day 1A and Day 1B are combined for Day 2. When the cards hit the air today in the West Coast casino, 126 players will be seated. Overall, the tournament drew 333 entrants, down 15% from last year’s tally of 391. In 2009, took second to Steve Brecher and heading into Day 2, another female leads the way, Vanna Tea.
Shooting Stars, who have $5,000 bounties on their heads, doubled up left and right to close play on Tuesday at Bay 101. Poker front man was all-in with A-J of diamonds and up against pocket kings, but flopped one jack and turned trips to advance to Day 2. Lederer will have a stack of 20,600 chips when play resumes, the 109th largest tally.
Also doubling up late in the day was 2007 () Main Event champion Jerry Yang, whose 74,300 chips make up the 27th largest stack. Yang is fresh off an Elite Eight appearance in the National Heads-Up Poker Championship, where he fell to eventual champion .
Not as fortunate was 2008 WSOP Europe Main Event winner , whose pocket fours could not hold up against the A-K of Tyler Cornell. When the smoke cleared, Cornell made a Broadway straight to collect Juanda’s $5,000 bounty and autographed Shooting Star shirt.
Also falling short on Day 1B was Victory Poker pro , who was all-in pre-flop with a wired pair of nines against the pocket kings of Betfair pro Sorel “Imper1um” Mizzi and the A-3 of another player. The board ran out J-8-8-5-3, ultimately giving Mizzi a king-high flush, and Esfandiari was relegated to the rails. “The Magician” had tripled up earlier in the day with pocket kings against A-K and pocket nines. Meanwhile, Mizzi busted two players in the hand and owns the ninth largest chip stack entering Day 2.
UB.com pro and 11-time bracelet winner was all-in on a flop of J-5-3 with two spades holding A-Q of spades for the nut flush draw and two overcards. His opponent held 4-5 for a pair. The turn came a queen, saving the day for “The Poker Brat,” and a harmless nine fell on the river. Hellmuth ended the day with a stack of 62,800 chips, the 42nd largest tally in the WPT tournament. His talented company at Table 22 on Wednesday will include , Faraz “The-Toilet” Jaka, Justin “Boosted J” Smith, and Corwin “mig.com” Mackey. Talk about a tough draw.
Here are the top 10 chip stacks in the WPT Bay 101 Shooting Star event as play enters Day 2:
1. Vanna Tea – 143,900
2. Greg “FBT” Mueller – 132,800
3. Eugene Katchalov – 131,500
4. Timothy McDermott – 118,100
5. Grantland Hillman – 115,100
6. David Sands – 106,900
7. Oddie Dardon – 105,500
8. – 99,900
9. Sorel “Imper1um” Mizzi – 97,600
10. Yevgeniy “Jovial Gent” Timoshenko – 97,600
The winner of the event will take home an $878,000 grand prize, with the top 36 players finishing in the money. Here are the payouts for the six-handed feature table:
1st Place: $878,500
2nd Place: $521,200
3rd Place: $292,800
4th Place: $234,300
5th Place: $175,700
6th Place: $117,000
Other notable names appearing in the top 50 after two starting days include:
13. – 93,100
15. Hasan Habib – 89,700
16. Nick Schulman – 88,100
18. – 84,800
19. Chris “Fox” Wallace – 84,100
26. “Miami” John Cernuto – 76,700
27. Jerry Yang – 74,300
30. Phil Laak – 72,700
35. Chau Giang – 68,500
41. Steve “gboro780” Gross – 64,200
42. Phil Hellmuth – 62,800
45. Matt “All In At 420” Stout – 61,000
47. Brandon Cantu – 58,100
The WPT Bay 101 Shooting Star tournament will crown a champion on Friday. Stay tuned to Poker News Daily for the latest WPT results.
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03 10th, 2010
The PokerStars $2,000 cash freerolls are running through April.
Just sign up for a PokerStars account through PokerNews and earn at least 150 VPPs in March to receive a ticket which can be used to register for the $2,000 freeroll of their…
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03 10th, 2010
The weekend robbery of the European Poker Tour (EPT) Berlin event has garnered headlines around the world. On Monday morning, the tournament’s champion, Kevin “ImaLuckSac” MacPhee, appeared on CBS’ “Early Show” to break down the heist.
In one of the most bizarre events ever to take place during a poker tournament, masked gunmen stormed the Grand Hyatt Hotel in Berlin, nabbing a portion of the EPT’s prize pool. According to a Monday update issued by the Associated Press, the four thieves are still on the run and police have “no clear leads.” The perpetrators robbed the poker tournament’s registration area just after 2:00pm local time on Saturday in a midday assault and, according to the news outlet, escaped with a “low six-digit figure” of cash into a nearby mall. No one was harmed.
MacPhee told the millions of “Early Show” viewers live from Berlin, “It was one of the craziest days that I’ve ever experienced. There was a lot of panic in the room that day and then we were asked to come back and play for €1 million. It was very unusual.” Video of the robbery aired concurrently with MacPhee’s interview. A few hours later, participants returned to the tournament room and resumed their pursuit for the €1 million top prize.
MacPhee was seated at the feature television table with the scuffle began and recalled, “We weren’t really sure what was going on. I just saw a wave of people headed for the back exit. There was a lot of panic and the actual TV stage started to collapse. When that started to happen, all of the players got up out of their seats to see what was happening.” The commotion began out in the hallway and players funneled their way to safety within the tournament room, some seeking cover under tables.
The tournament’s eventual winner knew that someone with a gun was likely to blame for the near riot: “My first instinct was just to get down on the ground. I figured that there was only someone with a gun in the room that could cause that kind of panic. The gunmen didn’t even enter the poker room. They stayed near the tournament registration area, which was where the cash was. Thankfully, they didn’t come into the poker room and make it worse than it already was.” The tournament drew nearly 500 players.
News of the rare casino heist has made waves across the world’s largest media outlets. News outlets including the Sydney Morning Herald, Wall Street Journal, Huffington Post, and Toronto Star have all reported on the story, as have a variety of poker news outlets. According to The Local and reprinted in the New York Times, another assailant may be to blame: “Because the well-timed heist bore the signs of an amateur job, police told Berlin daily Berliner Zeitung that they now believe there was at least one other accomplice already inside the hotel who gave a signal to begin the raid.” Whether the accomplice worked for the Grand Hyatt Hotel remains to be seen.
Despite the financial loss, all players received their prize money and the tournament carried on to a conclusion. As for what MacPhee did to celebrate his rather eventful live win, the online poker player told “Early Show” viewers, “Sundays are our busiest day, so… I celebrated by playing more poker. I think I’ll get out in Berlin the next couple of nights and try to celebrate a little bit more.”
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Over the weekend, UB.com pro and Poker News Daily Guest Columnist became the first female winner ever of the National Heads-Up Poker Championship, which will air next month on NBC. Duke sat down to discuss her monumental win.
Poker News Daily: Your breakthrough match came against 2007 National Heads-Up Poker Championship winner Paul Wasicka, which featured you drawing out with A-10 against pocket aces and 8-5 against pocket jacks. Talk about the roller coaster of a match.
Annie Duke: I had Paul Wasicka ground down and then he doubled through me. We were about even in chips and I was slightly behind before I won with A-10 against aces. I sucked out and made a Broadway straight and he was crippled. I was horrified when I won that hand. It was an epically long battle. He said that whichever way this goes, we could both sleep well. He was so gracious and it was an amazing match.
PND: In a Guest Column on Poker News Daily, you lamented that neither nor you had much success in the invite-only tournament. How surreal was it to be playing against each other for the title?
Annie Duke: That was storybook. After I won my match against Wasicka and Erik won his match, we talked on the phone. I realized how close we were to playing each other in the finals. What an incredible feeling to know that you’re in the finals and whatever the result was, you’d be very happy. He said that this was the happiest he’s ever been coming in second and I’d have felt the same way. It was a very relaxing feeling and not the same as in the other matches. Erik Seidel might have the best poker mind out there.
PND: You drew 2009 () Main Event runner-up in the second round. How is Moon’s game?
Annie Duke: Darvin Moon was really nice. He’s just a good guy and he was talking about how happy he was to be there and how he’s living the dream. It was really pleasant to play with him. He knows that he doesn’t have the game of a player like . I was I happy to draw him, of course, but he wasn’t a pushover.
PND: You’re a former WSOP Tournament of Champions winner and have also captured a bracelet. Where does this rank among your various poker accomplishments?
Annie Duke: This is second to the Tournament of Champions. I’ve always ranked the Tournament of Champions above the bracelet and I would put this above the bracelet as well. It’s the timing. Given that I had just taken five months off, the timing was big. I feel like I’m standing with some pretty cool winners of this event, so I am pretty happy. I’m standing shoulder to shoulder with Huck Seed, , , , and Paul Wasicka. To have gotten to play Erik in the final was a really memorable experience.
In the Tournament of Champions, I was three-handed with my brother and Phil Hellmuth. Now, being able to play with one of my best friends and be among those winners is incredible. I think I needed the win and have been really focused since I got back into poker. I had a nice run at the L.A. Poker Classic leading up to this.
PND: In the L.A. Poker Classic High-Roller event, you were seated alongside Faraz “The-Toilet” Jaka. Tell us about his poker skill set.
Annie Duke: Playing heads-up against him helped me in the event I won. He’s very good at leveraging the chip stack of his opponent. He’s good at changing up his play and I watched what he was doing. I learned a lot from my match with him.
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Full Tilt Poker hosted some huge action this weekend, largely driven by the presence of everyone’s favorite online poker punching bag “Isildur1.” There were epic heads-up matches, swingy six-max games, and as many as eight tables of $300/$600…
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