Haven’t been this interested in actual tournament results since ’06 … but if the run-up to the 2011 WSOP is any indication … everybody’s gonna win! No? Well there were a some notable finishes for a few people starting their summers off right:

Friendly Faces at WSOPC National Championship
Caesars Palace, LAS VEGAS
As far as Pokerati’s concerned, La Sengphet is the player who made the WSOP-Circuit most fun to follow. Whether it be strong-playing “the Hammer” or testing the limits of “the Harris” … not since Dwyte Pilgrim has there been such an engaging minor-league pro story. La criss-crossed the country for months to earn her seat, where she finished 4th for $100k this weekend — staking her claim as the #1 most successful female on the 2010-11 WSOP Circuit. Also notable at the final table was Josh Evans, longtime friend of Pokerati and frequent opponent of La’s back in the Dallas Jackie’s days. He won $135k, finishing 3rd. Television coverage of the WSOP-Circuit leading up to this event event airs on Thursdays on Versus, starting June 2. NOTE: La kept her winning ways alive, chopping an Aria nightly four ways for $1,600 the following day.

Orleans Open Raising
The Orleans, LAS VEGAS
Another strong Pokerati lady player proving she can compete against fields with or without penises, Stacey Nutini had been moneying often in recent months in various small tourneys around town, and even tore up events online post-April 15 to pad her theoretical play-money bankroll. But yesterday, the defending LIPS Grand Champion — who’s probably taken more Maven Training than anyone else — showed she could turn it on with real money on the line. @LasVegasPokers destroyed a 166-player field in the $550 main event at the Orleans Open this weekend for a solid, WSOP-warming $24k score.

Poker Pro Wannabe FTW!
Caesars Palace/the Rio, LAS VEGAS
When not working undercover to confirm the whereabouts of Howard Lederer, new Pokerati on-and-off-the-felter Marie-Lizette admits she still has “the dream” … and to that effort took down an $85 nooner at Caesars for a $1,440 bankroll boost, and then binked a single-table-satellite for a seat in today’s WSOP Event #1, the casino employees event. (Added props to Pokerati alum Kevmath, who won the same Caesars daily the night before.) @MarieLizette to see her excitable tweets from the WSOP.

Elsewhere …

PokerStars, Made in China
Grand Lisboa Casino, MACAU
With the Macau Poker Classic underway this week, PokerStars is essentially saying if they can’t have America, they’ll be in China before Caesars … establishing a foothold where the WSOP can’t by staging their second MPC in three months — complete with three events determining the APPT “Official” Asian Player of the Year. Click here for the latest standings, and remember to divide by 8 for a rough conversion from HK to US dollars.

High Schooler Wins WPT Spanish Championship
Grand Casino, BARCELONA
18-year-old Lukas Berglund from Uppsala, Sweden is the youngest champion in the history of the World Poker Tour after winning the Season X WPT Spanish Championship. Berglund, who graduates from high school this week, scooped €206,000 after crushing the field and knocking out every single player on the final table en route to victory.

The Tao of Pokerati has officially returned for the 2011 WSOP. The trio of Dr. Pauly, Dan, and Benjo reunited for the first time since last summer and they recorded a special welcome back episode during a meal at a sushi joint away from the Strip.

2011 WSOP – Episode 1: Woe Is Benjo (3:59) – Pauly, Dan, and Benjo returned for their first episode of the 2011 WSOP. Dan and Pauly are upbeat about the upcoming summer, meanwhile Benjo reveals he’s not looking forward to the suicidal tendencies which crop up three weeks into the WSOP. Dan and Benjo also discuss a potential prop bet about whether or not Howard Lederer makes an appearance at the 2011 WSOP.

For more episodes, visit the Tao of Pokerati archives or subscribe to the Tao of Pokerati feed.

Someone will win the first bracelet of the 2011 WSOP today, before registration opens for event #1. We listed about 13 percent of the field as people who might be worth watching, just because, and three of them made it to the final table and ITM of the WSOP-freeroll championship … which I’m not sure whether or not qualifies for POY points but obviously should. You’ll have to just believe us that the guy who woulda been my 14th pick on that list was Huy Nguyen, who ended Day 2 yesterday by banking $27,500 for 10th place.

So cards just got in the air for the first televised event of the 2011 WSOP, and of the 10s of thousands of players who had a chance to be here, three of them are from Dallas (though one has since moved to Las Vegas), and one has been part of Team Pokerati since she got a lotta chips in the 2010 WSOP ladies event.

LIVE UPDATES here.

Go La Sengphet! Also go Josh Evans! And though for a while I wasn’t sure if I had first seen him at Jackie’s in Dallas or maybe was just confusing him with a guy seen once at the Venetian, go Charles “Woody” Moore! All three of these players and the others are anything but luckboxes in a sit-n-go … they are real grinders and rounders with skill … and a win here, my contention, is a ticket to the real big leagues … as the winner of today’s event will be known all around as a real real player, and will have the bankroll — $300k for first — to prove it for as long as they can hold as a true and successful pro.

More…

Don’t wanna say too much because, you know, don’t want any cooler-jinx factor in play … but La Sengphet is the chip leader going into today’s action for the WSOP-C National Championship. 97 players started … (three no-shows) … 35 remain. Top 10 ITM, $300k FTW.

We’ll save for later discussion of there being more Pokerati patches in the field than Full Tilt wearers … as well as jokes about Allen Kessler and the EV of a 97-way chop. For now, the story putting at least a few butterflies in stomachs in and around Caesars Palace … from WSOP.com powered by PokerNews:

Headlining today’s field is La Sengphet with an amassed 165,000 mainly courtesy of a huge call with second pair on a four-club board on one of the final hands of the day. Only two other players sit in the six-figure club with Huy Nguyen (122,700) and Jonathon Poche (121,400) snapping at Sengphet’s heels.

Charles ‘Woody” Moore (95,100), Curt Kohlberg (94,600), Doug ‘Rico’ Carli (72,800), Bernard Lee (70,900), Dwyte Pilgrim (36,300) and Allen Kessler (23,100) are just a handful of notables still in contention for capturing the $300,000 first prize and coveted gold bracelet.

Traci Brown (the only other woman to qualify for this event) and Pokerati pal Josh Evans are also still alive — though both small-stacked with about 33,000 chips and a chair.

Blinds are 600/1,200 + 200 as play gets underway right about now 20 minutes ago!

They play down today to a final table of 9. Follow along here.

Hands-On Entertainment, an award-winning entertainment company that develops and publishes social and mobile games, today announced it is offering fans of its WPT^® Texas Hold ‘Em Poker game on Facebook a chance at winning a 7-Day Exotic Eastern Caribbean Cruise hosted by the WPT Amateur Poker League. The cruise will take passengers to the Bahamas, U.S. Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico, and Grand Turk from September 25^th – October 2^nd, 2011.

“We continue to provide our players with great opportunities to advance their poker skills in a fun, unique environment and are committed to delivering the best prizes around”

The prize package includes a balcony cabin for two (port fees, taxes, and gratuities included); complimentary tickets to the “WPTAPL™ Members Party” with hors d’oeuvres and drinks provided; one entry to a $500 free-roll tournament; $1,000 spending cash; a “4 of a Kind” poker package featuring four daily raffle tickets for a chance at poker items; a “single table preparation” session with Nick Brancato from WPT Boot Camp; a WPT Boot Camp raffle ticket for a chance to win a private session with a pro; and a 2011 WPTAPL cruise t-shirt. More…

This week’s online gambling news sucks! More fallout from “Black Friday” has resulted in the seizure of ten more domain names from poker rooms, bingo sites, and sports books. Also, major payment processor QuickTender has been forced to shut down and leave customer deposits in question. Plus, affiliate program Best Casino Partner is leaving the market.

This past Monday, a panel at the IMGL Spring Conference addressed reform of gaming industry regulation. The session was moderated by Bob Faiss, Chairman of the Gaming Law Practice Group at Lionel Sawyer & Collins in Las Vegas and a leading gaming lawyer in the US. I found it fascinating and useful, with a view to effective bricks and mortar regulation and oversight of new and emerging technologies. The recommendations will be fleshed out in a forthcoming article co-authored by the panel and I’m not here to steal their thunder. However, the session was a public forum and the panel distributed hard copies of their 10 key recommendations. Here is what was issued by the panel at the conference:

More…

Live at the Bike continues to mix it up with another special episode at a special time.

On Thursday, May 26, 2011 at 7:30 p.m., the 2007 World Series of Poker Last Woman Standing Maria Ho will play host to her friends in her own special Live at the Bike No Limit Hold’em 1/3 cash game on liveatthebike.com. This may be your last opportunity to watch these rising stars in action before they migrate to Vegas for the 2011 World Series of Poker. Maria will be joined at the table by seven of her dear friends, including her bestie: Tiffany Michelle. More…

In Rabbit Hunt's 50th episode Mark and Matt look at the new internet gambling indictments and how they may further affect the US online poker landscape. Also, one of the 11 defendants has plead guilty in the Black Friday case, so what does that mean for the sites already under the DOJ microscope? All this and more on the 1-year anniversary of the Rabbit Hunt!

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We talk about the 2nd round of DOJ indictments, this time with Doyle’s Room, Bookmaker, and True Poker being the victims.  Neverheeb calls us to tell us of his car-jacking and pistol-whipping, an event covered by a Bay Area newspaper!  We prank call Bodog and try to get them to offer bets on the future of their own site.  The Cake Poker 60k confiscation fiasco is discussed.  Pokerati Dan joins us to talk more about the legal environment for online poker.  Druff announces that he’s quitting online poker until it becomes legal in the US.  An update on our WSOP media pass situation is given.  We talk about the situation with Pokerstars shills, including owner Isai Scheinberg, on 2+2 for the past nine years!  We discuss the Quicktender/Usemywallet collapse.  Micon shits the bed and his actual toilet during the show.

download

I’m back in the office after a great CasinoFest 9 in Tulsa and a fantastic International Masters of Gaming Law Spring Conference in Napa, California. I want to try to put pen to paper in the coming days and do blog posts for both of those events, so stay tuned.

For now, I’ll share the podcast that Sarah Klaphake Cords put together last week in Tulsa. Sarah did her usual wonderful job. Her first guest, Jason Lowry, Senior Director of Casino Operations at the Hard Rock in Catoosa, gave a great interview and had some fascinating thoughts on the dynamics of his local casino market. Sarah and I then chatted about the panel I was on in Tulsa later that day and on the current state of the Canadian gaming market, but Jason was a tough act to follow!

If you can’t get the embedded player to work, the interview is on the CEM site here. Enjoy.

I know it runs counter to conventional poker(ati) wisdom that this could be true, but, well, it kinda is:

Republicans offered some hope Tuesday to online poker players sidelined by the Obama administration’s “Black Friday” crackdown.

Rep. Joe Barton (R-Texas) is planning to introduce legislation that would legalize and regulate online poker and said he hopes the measure can pass both chambers of Congress this session.

“Poker is a game of skill,” Barton said in defense of the sites during a press conference outside the Capitol.

He suggested those who believe poker to be a game of chance should try playing with their own money against world champion Greg Raymer, who stood behind him at the press conference.

Shockingly, too, most Pokeratizens will probably find this curious:

Barton said he has spoken to the leadership of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, including Chairman Fred Upton (R-Mich.), and hopes to move a bill through the committee in the near future. Barton said the bill is being finalized in consultation with the Poker Players Alliance (PPA).

OK, that’s enough from me — I’m just a morlock, and I’ll probably be locked up for this, but hey…breaking news!

Via genes @ Big Bill Quick’s joint…who’s kind of got his headline wrong, unless I’m so drunk I can’t read the news.

Maybe people are just jonesing to click-and-raise or maybe various industry stalwarts are starting to see the new poker era that dawned upon us on April 15th isn’t all about tearing down Full Tilt and PokerStars [update: and now Doyle's Room] in their battle with the DOJ … it’s about building new structures that will become the basis for the game (and industry surrounding it) in the 21st century. (That’s how Vegas-style implosions work.)

Rise — those clothing makers who you may recall came onto the scene a while back as the people trying to remove the d-bagginess from poker fashion — has partnered with Poker Royalty, the pre-eminent poker representative agency, to launch a new fully legal play-for-free online poker site with real cash prizes. Though I do have to wonder when they say their new poker team will include “some of the most recognizable poker players in the world” … are they talking about pros who may or may not have deals currently with dot-net (lol) online sites or the likes of @kevmath?

ZEN Entertainment, the operation powering the new Rise Poker room, is the group that recently launched the Hustler Casino’s online poker site. Though we weren’t necessarily anticipating a clothing line getting in on the action before more casinos … and two doesn’t necessarily make for a statistical trend … Pokerati is feeling good about our newsy speculation that the upcoming 2011 WSOP may indeed be full of free online qualifiers, which would be kinda different from WSOP’s past.

Read below for the official announcement:

More…

The DoJ District of Maryland unsealed an indictment today charging multiple online poker and gambling sites of charges similar in nature to the Black Friday indictments last month. While the indictment itself has not been released publicly at this time, the DoJ has a press release describing the action. In all, two businesses and three people are charged, with 11 bank accounts seized around the world.

The following sites are in connection with this indictment:

• Bookmaker.com
• 2Betsdi.com
• Funtimebingo.com
• Goldenarchcasino.com
• Truepoker.com
• Betmaker.com
• Betgrandesports.com
• Doylesroom.com
• Betehorse.com
• Beted.com.

The biggest site poker players will see there is Doylesroom.com, of which their namesake Doyle Brunson left the site just a couple weeks ago. Whether it was excellent timing or Doyle was aware of what was about to happen we can’t be sure, but him leaving the site may, in hindsight, might have been a tip-off to the rest of us that something was off.

One big difference between this set of seizures and the Black Friday group is that the FBI actually opened a fake payment processor to get the business of the offending sites, only to flip when the time was right. An affidavit filed to support a seizure warrant during the investigation noted several laws as justification for the seizure. It should be noted that these are not necessarily the laws that the companies are being accused of, merely the laws used for justification for the seizure:

• 18 U.S.C 1955: The “illegal gambling business” statute that has already been used against the Big Three.
• Maryland Criminal Code Section 12-102: A betting statute that says, in essence, that a resident of the state may neither participate in a bet or wager nor hold money for any particular bet or wager. This is likely the state law that federal officials are using to tie the illegal gambling charges to.
• 31 U.S.C. 5363: Known as the UIGEA to the rest of us, this seemed like a given since money changed hands and the feds actually used a payment processor to gather evidence.
• 18 U.S.C. 1084: This is colloquially referred to as the Wire Act. The reason its being applied here and not in the other cases is because some of the sites involved processing sports bets.
• 18 U.S.C. 1956(a)(2)(a): This is a specific part of title 18 pointing to money laundering in connection with the illegal gambling activities. It appears that a specific law needs to be violated for money laundering to be attached, and the affidavit suggests a link to racketeering activity, and then to illegal gambling.

One notable absent law violation are the bank fraud charges that appeared in the SDNY case. It might be that the sites did things differently in this case, but its too early to tell without the indictment text. Finally, the press release noted a cooperation between the DOJ, IRS, and ICE. @Karak2p2, a regular on the Quadjacks Radio program, noted on twitter that the cooperation made sense, as the DOJ is after the federal law breaking, the IRS for money laundering, and ICE for the potential organized crime angle of running an illegal gambling business.

The indictment, when it is revealed, will contain more information as to the specific charges.

For more links and information about this fast-moving story, check out Scarlet’s post on the same subject.

EDIT (7:20 PM ET): The indictments have been posted online, the two companies have been charged seperately, or at least have separate indictments. Both have the same two counts, one for conducting an illegal gambling business (18 USC 1955) and one for money laundering (18 USC 1956).

ThrillX Systems (beted.com) Indictment

K23 Group Financial Services (BMX Entertainment) Indictment

The United States Attorney’s office from the District of Maryland took action against two more gambling businesses and three defendants today.  The indictments were unsealed this afternoon.

This is a summary of the situation from an article in the Baltimore Sun:

The indictments, returned late last month and unsealed Monday, are the result of a two-year sting operation by the Homeland Security Investigations in Baltimore, a division of U.S. Customs and Immigration enforcement. The agency set up a phony payment processing business in Atlantic City and spent two years infiltrating the world of illegal online betting.

Agents ultimately handled more than $33 million in transactions and uncovered a thriving criminal community in Maryland and beyond: “There are numerous individuals in Maryland who have authorized payments to these [foreign] businesses,” claims one agent’s sworn affidavit, filed with court records.

Charged in the indictments are ThrillX Systems Ltd. and owners Darren Wright and David Parchomchuk, both of British Columbia, Canada; and K23 Financial Services (known as BMX Entertainment), run by defendant Ann Marie Puig, of San Jose, Costa Rica. They’re all charged with running an illegal gambling business and money laundering through various Web sites seized Monday, including Truepoker.com and Funtimebingo.com.

Banners saying the sites had been shut down were expected to replace the websites Monday, though they had not yet been posted by mid-afternoon

The following links are the current stories on the subject:

Full DOJ press release -> OPERATORS OF INTERNET GAMBLING SITES AND THEIR BUSINESSES INDICTED FOR RUNNING AN ILLEGAL GAMBLING BUSINESS AND MONEY LAUNDERING (h/t @Kevmath)

Article in Baltimore Sun -> Baltimore feds target Internet gambling (h/t @GamingCounsel)

Article in The Republic -> Gambling web sites, international bank accounts seized in federal sting (h/t @Kevmath)

Maryland criminal code link cited -> Section 12-102 in Maryland Criminal Law Code (h/t @AlexRipps)