In a story that was originally reported in August, Canadian payment processor Douglas Rennick pleaded guilty in New York City to a charge of processing offshore bets to US residents and forced to forfeit $17,100,000.

Sentencing for Rennick is scheduled for sentencing on September 15th, with a prison term of six to twelve months expected.

Currently listening to last week’s episode of The Poker Beat. Hadn’t yet heard the second half of the show. Always love the parts I’m not on, because it’s where I actually learn something. Not so excited about hearing me and BJ talk about the WSOP Conference Call (no offense, BJ) … but definitely want to hear Gary and Jess break down what happened early last week at the confluence of FTOPS and SCOOP. Supposedly there are some disputes over whether or not 20+ hour tournaments are unfair to players or just begging for Terms of Service violations and other shenanigans. And of course can’t wait to get to Stapleton’s Tight Laydown … to hear what he decided to go with for the Annette15 joke!

The Poker Beat
5/6/10

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It really amazes me sometimes that I’ve played more beer pong in the past couple years than I did throughout college. (Chandeliers was our drinking game of choice, along with just drinking.) Anyhow, as all start gearing up for the WSOP, the first off-poker event of many to follow is right around the corner … The Brunson Beer Pong Challenge 3.

Fun brackets & barbecue good times at Hogs & Heifers in downtown Vegas … hosted primarily by Doyle’s Room and the longstanding beer-pong team of Doyle Brunson and Hoyt Corkins. There’s still room for some 15 more booze-pounding twosomes to compete … invites limited to poker pros or poker industry types, however. I’ve partnered with Katkin, who should be training hard for the event, as I expect him to anchor our team.

Click below for enlarged details …

And click here to RSVP via Facebook.

Interesting: This event used to be called the World Series of Beer Pong, until the poker people presumably decided there wasn’t enough in the pot to put up a fight for that official name.

Swear I’m not mocking. Less than 12 hours ago, after all, I re-potted with two-pair in some 1/2 PLO at the Hard Rock, and then when the original pre-flop raiser check-shoved all-in, I felt I had to call …

But just a couple months ago I was watching Jean-Robert Bellande seemingly tear it up in the high-stakes room at the Commerce, sitting with easily 40 or 50k in front of him. But now, by his own admission on twitter, @BrokeLivingJRB is busto. Super-busto it seems. Terrible timing as we approach the WSOP.

Be sure to check out his twitter feed.

Name Jean-Robert Bellande
Location Las Vegas
Web http://WorldSerie…
Bio Poker Pro. Track my crazy swings as I take my bankroll from zero to a million.

Hmm, didn’t quite work out that way — or at least hasn’t yet. It’s so hard not to root for this guy. He knows himself, and just can’t control himself (?) … but still insists on being a “survivor” … and is willing to share his glorious collapse with all. Reading his tweets in reverse chronological order provides quite the revealing story about a poker unraveling … something all of us who aren’t consistent winners and don’t have real regular jobs may or may not wanna think about.

I didn’t intend to go here, but while looking up where J. Todd got his information about the $5.2 million spent on online gambling lobbying in Q1 2010, I dug a little deeper into the Bola Verde report (“Business Intelligence for Intelligent Business”) on the IGaming Special Interest in Washington.

(Just a little deeper … the 96-page report itself, which was written in February and updated a week ago, costs $1,200.)

Click here for a detailed summary.

You’ll see that the online gambling lobbying spend is actually down from Q4 2009, but mostly because of cuts from the US Chamber of Commerce. (Had no idea they were even on our side … nor that they were allowed to lobby, lol! Go jobs?)

Also, a breakdown of who’s dropping the dough:

Harrah’s topped the list of spenders at $1.22 million followed by Poker Players Alliance ($785,000), UC Group ($717,239), USCC ($664,442) and the Interactive Gaming Council ($412,580).

More…

I can always count on the APCW to keep me updated about issues and shenanigans related to the affiliate side of the poker (and general online gambling) industry … and in this week’s episode of Perspectives Weekly, J. Todd gives what I think is one of the best, most concise summaries of the UIGEA storyline — from 2006 to 2010 — and where that leaves us today:

I agree with just about everything he says in his analysis here. If all stories have a beginning, middle, and end, you can see why he believes (as do I) that we are clearly in Part 3 … and that the law we’ve long bawked about really is on its way out by no later than October 2011.

More…

Old news, but first time I’m seeing it … (thanks KevMath for the embed code) … a very positive-for-poker segment on Good Morning America, with George Stephanopolous playing a private Poker After Dark sunrise sit-n-go against Annie Duke, Phil Hellmuth, Jason Lee, and Steve Begleiter. George played admirably and finished 3rd, after getting it in with the best hand.

Nice. What I couldn’t help but notice:

• Sweet mini-gig for Ali Nejad, getting to host an event on Good Morning America.
• Duke, who understands a thing or two about Washington and proper patching up, wore no UB.
• Hellmuth did however — and not just UB.net, but dot-COM. Did Phil miss a memo or something?

Seriously, not to take away from the respectability of this sorta TV play … nice job by all, and hearing Stephanopolous declare his excitement about playing Ante Up for Africa-DC probably couldn’t have been a better result. But really … UB.COM? Notably either bold, ignorant, or inconsequential.

The scandal-plagued Cereus Network, home of Absolute Poker and Ultimate Bet, took another hit on Thursday regarding their encryption procedures. Poker Table Ratings issued a “security alert” advising players not to play at AP/UB as they revealed a major security flaw as Cereus was using XOR encryption rather than the poker industry standard SSL protocol for all network transmissions.

An example of what PTR found is in the video below:

Cereus COO Paul Leggett issued a response shortly after the PTR report came out Thursday evening and posted a status update just a few minutes ago stating that they’ve issued an update to their software earlier Friday and are working with PTR on the new encryption and the eventual release of a more advanced solution using the Open SSL protocol, scheduled to be available in one week.

Looks to be yet another fun night of 1/2 NLH/PLO round of each at the Hard Rock this evening. The Maven has been showing up on Thursdays with a few students lately. Apparently they think the Pokerati tables are easy pickins a ripe training ground or something? Though aggressive, the Mavenites aren’t really a threat once you figure out the whole of his poker training is basically push and re-push with any two cards. (Jk David … you’d never do that with Queens or better, right?)

The Pokerati Game — which started off mostly as a bunch of media donks and an uber-tight dude named Jackson — also seems to be becoming (as I’d like it to be) something of a must-play for out-of-towners … awesome 1/2 action that you simply can’t find anywhere else in Vegas. Seriously. Go ahead and try. It’s not the same game … And that doesn’t even get into all the promotional perks the Hard Rock has been feeding us.

Three tourists I know today are already gonna be there, which of course draws the vulturey locals who claim to “make a living” playing 1/2, but haven’t yet found enough success to be playing 2/5 or bigger. These Vegas grinders, I gotta say, are an interesting group … they don’t say much other than to call floor, appear to live for comps and free coffee, and may or may not have rent riding on an all-in with top set against the nut flush draw and a wrap … Run it twice!

Anyhow, after playing sporadically beta testing @HardRockPoker for about six months, and running into / working through all the nitty situational question marks that spring up, we’ve finalized and formalized the rules. So now, anytime the game gets going — as it did on its own Tuesday around midnight! — everyone can be on the same page about how we play Pokerati half-and-half at the Hard Rock.

Click here for an updated PDF of Pokerati Game rules suitable for posting on your bedroom wall. Or click below to see more immediately how we play it:

More…

A semi-ironic old photo (l to r) of Phil Hellmuth, Clonie Gowen, and David Williams.

I woke up this morning (really – WSOP media conference call) and noticed a few murmurs on twitter. But surely it was just a poorly worded joke … then ran into a power problem that prevented me from digging for more. But then late tonight, I heard details from a generally reliable source, definitely reliable on this …

And indeed, David Williams is no longer a Bodog pro. What, winning the WPT World Championship and wet-cementing himself as truly one of the top-top players in the game isn’t quite the “Bodog Life”? Maybe his minglings with hot chicks and celebs at Vegas nightclubs doesn’t count as much if he ain’t drinking hard?

Williams (go Dallas poker!), of course, was one of the longest-lasting Bodog pros. The site recently scrapped Jean-Robert Bellande and Justin Bonomo, but they kept Evelyn Ng. Who woulda thunk that second place in a 2004 six-player ladies sit-n-go could ever mean so much!

Oh, and the big news somehow related to it all … Bodog did sign Amanda Musumeci, a hottie-ish 25-year-old American who built her microstakes bankroll into nearly $200k online. (Click for her Betty Page-meets-online-grinder pics.) She goes by the name “Manderbutt“, btw. Kinda looks like a Manderbutt, no?

Anyhow, new chick aboard + Evybaby = Team Bodog. It’s hard to determine if this was a pre-arranged firing or maybe Williams, who proudly wore his Bodog patch during the WPT, initiated the break-up? Perhaps it was as simple as Bodog not being willing to pony up the price Williams, now a WPT World Champion, could get elsewhere and thus they split amicably? They almost always split amicably, right? (Save for Clonie …)

I’m pretty sure we’ll discuss this a little more on the next Poker Beat … but you gotta think whatever was behind this move — again, more crazy industry shifting — it makes @dwpoker one of he hottest commodities in the game.

Unless of course he decides to vigorously declare his online poker independence and run all Darvin Moon with his newfound free agency.

If you haven’t noticed yet, the folks at CardRunners just completed a major overhaul of their newly expanded poker training website. Now more than just Brian Townsend’s blog … lol, you mean there was more to it all that time? Anyhow, now with a slicker interface and an even bigger library of training videos for players seeking either quick, situational refreshers or more serious studies on reads and subsequent actions throughout a game …

This week, I vid’d up with Markuis, apparently quite the low-stakes heads-up no-limit specialist. He must be good … because the bets and hands all seem to work out right for him on four separate, simultaneously running tables. I suppose it’s my task to figure out how … and maybe why.

To fast-track your path to success, get a little drinky before “school” and you could be 8-tabling his action. (Double the knowledge?)

Put in your own table-time for even more full-length CardRunners video lessons — Markuis heads-up excerpt below — at TrulyFreePokerTraining.com.

Matt Savage, host of the new Las Vegas Poker Series at the Hard Rock, served as tournament director in the 2007 movie Lucky You. Don’t hold that against him.

Storied tournament director Matt Savage is stepping back into Las Vegas poker events — for the first time since 2004 — bringing the Las Vegas Poker Series to my weekly donk-stomping grounds at the Hard Rock, August 13-22.

The LVPS will feature low buy-in events ($230-$550), most of which count toward CardPlayer Player of the Year standings … with the Savage-tested deep structures (as opposed to deep stacks) that just about all players except Allen Kessler vigorously applaud. Also a money leaderboard of some sort is in play, though I’m not yet sure if this is about crowning an overall champion or qualifying for a player-appreciation freeroll … more TK as the schedule and other PR info gets released.

More…

While the date and location of the 2010 WSOP Europe has not yet been announced, PokerNews is reporting that the World Series of Poker will hold their first tournament at the Emerald Resort and Casino in Vanderbijlpark, South Africa.

An article from the Times Live newspaper in Johannesburg notes that there will be two events will be held during WSOP Africa. The first event is a three-day PLO event, capped at 200 players, with a $1,100 buyin, $300 rebuys and a $400 add-on running from Oct. 24-26. The “main event” will be a $5,000 buy-in NL holdem event from Oct. 27-31, with the field capped at 500 players. No word yet of any television deals or if these will be considered bracelet events, but more details to come over the coming weeks.

UPDATE: According to a conversation PokerNews had with the WSOP, the event is possibly being considered as a WSOP Circuit event, and will definitely NOT be bracelet events.

The latest Poker Beat was a bit of a clusterfucky episode for us on the backend — computer breakdowns and internet snafus during a week where the only meaty topic we had for a full segment was David Williams’ stepping up to a new level of poker bad-assness by winning the WPT World Championship … and even that devolved into a Gary/Dan vs BJ spat about whether or not the mind coaching of Sam Chauhan has any tournament value or is just an Extenze-like sales success story for his brand of hypnotic snake oil.

But before we even get to that, we break down all sorts of poker buggerings … Daniel Tzvetkoff denied bail, poker recognized as a mind sport, Adam Junglen’s prosthetic leg, Cole South bowing out of CardRunners, PokerStars buying up abandoned poker blogs, Harrah’s selling the Rio, a new right-wing poker+politics show, and a study saying online gambling leads to jobs.

It was one of those episodes where so much was going wrong before we even got started that the crew just had to rely on shooting the shit about what we may or may not know … all while Huff attempted to keep the ship from running aground. I think it worked!

The Poker Beat
4/29/10

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