We don’t really know the affiliate world here at Pokerati, but we still sometimes get their emails. And this one reveals, I think, another important cog in the Full Tilt machinery grinding to a halt. Either that or it’s nothing … but I’m not really believing people these days who tell me what seems like something is nothing.

You tell me. It’s different, that’s for sure … I do know Poker Affiliate World is a pretty big mega-affiliate that at least at one point was owned (at least in part) by PokerNews … and with or without Tony G’s involvement, a huge chunk of online poker signups pass through PAW in some capacity.

From: Poker Affiliate World
Date: June 7, 2011 6:01:44 PM PDT
To: Pokerati.com
Subject: Full Tilt Withdrawal Option Disabled – Temporarily

Dear Affiliate,

Due to recent issues with Full Tilt Poker in regards to “Black Friday” we have temporarily removed Full Tilt player transfer from our withdrawal options until further notice.

We are confident of a resolution in the near future so please feel free to use another method or wait until this option is reinstated.

Regards,

The PAW Team

Hoping someone who understands this stuff better than I can clue me in to what I’m missing between the lines.

Meanwhile, Tony G is saying that he might skip the 2011 WSOP … supposedly because he can’t keep up with the young players. Ahh, if only it could be that simple this year.

Maria Ho started the Day 4 Final Table of the 4th event of the 2011 World Series of Poker ($5K NLHE) as the shortest stack, while Allen Bari came to the table with a dominant chip lead. Although Maria was able to chip up and double through the elimination of Nicholas Blumenthal, Allen kept his monster stack healthy by eliminating Sean LeFort before the a heads-up confrontation.

Allen had Maria’s 15 big blinds covered 8 to 1 when Heads-up play began, and although she played her heart out, the cards favored Allen. It finally came down to Maria’s A♠4♠ vs. Allen’s 8♥8♠. The board ran dry and Maria was eliminated in 2nd place. While not quite the coveted bracelet, the $540,020 payout she received represents the second-highest cash figure ever won by a female player in WSOP history. Translation, the 2007 World Series of Poker Main Event Last Woman Standing can now add the highest WSOP cash ever won by a female player on this side of the pond to her brag list. Only Annette Obrestad, the WSOP Europe Main Event champion (2007), has had a bigger payout.

Special Monday afternoon program where we focus on Travis Makar’s latest bombshells about the UB scandal, as well as questions for Travis from Barry Greenstein.  Greenstein also confronts Druff about alleged mistreatment of his stepson Joe Sebok.  Druff talks about his unwillingness to confront Annette Obrestad at the WSOP for wearing a Full Tilt patch.  Micon obsesses over bitcoins.  We talk about Men the Master’s fracas with Hollywood Dave at a WSOP table.

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One week of the WSOP has wrapped up, and Mark and Matt have all the details. They look into the winners of the past week, as well as other coverage, from the new $1 million WSOP event for next year, and how the changes to the rules have affected the players. All this and more on the Rabbit Hunt!

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It’s WSOP-time, of course … and that means the poker-y license plates in Vegas are out in full force. It’s kinda hard not to see them somewhere in Clark County, but extra kudos to those sending in their shots conscious of what the background also does for the pic.

From PokerGrump on the 215, presumably returning home from the WSOP:

And here’s one seen in a fast-food drive-thru, across the street from Casino Dealer School, sent to us via @KBBMT:

Inspired by a conversation with Jesse May… Dr. Pauly and Benjo decide to buy pieces of the Sahara…

2011 WSOP – Episode 7: Sahara Liquidation with Remko (6:12) – Benjo and Pauly discussed the Sahara Casino liquidation sale/auction with one of the members of the Dutch press, Remko. Both Remko and Benjo expressed a keen interest in acquiring a slot machine for super cheap, while Pauly has his eyes set on a Pai Gow table. Meanwhile, Benjo and Remko try to figure out how to ship a slot machine from Vegas to France and Holland.

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

So many people on tilt these days … and while it’s kinda fun to watch certain players without patches bearing down with renewed intensity … we’re also likely to see petty poker matters bring storied pasts to the fore. Such was the case in last week’s vocal brouhaha between Men Nguyen and Dave Stann in a $1,500 Omaha Hi-Lo event, with (unsubstantiated) accusations of cheating flying, all inspired by a rather simple split pot.

Marco from QuadJacks sat with Men to discuss, and in the process of getting the Master to address those willing to publicly feed old rumors based on hearsay, we get an interesting glimpse at a venerable character in the WSOP who recently cashed for his 71st time.

Check it out … I’ve also learned how to insta-timestamp videos so you can press play right at the interesting spot.

Maybe Caesars corporate has a greater sense of humor and love for irony than I give them credit for …

Visitors to the WSOP will likely notice this painting in the central dome area of the Rio convention center, near the entrance to the Pavillion room, by Shane McDowall, the artist from “On Tilt” who designs the WSOP bracelets. Supposedly this is just a place-holder for what will be a more dynamic installation, some sorta electrified Roy Lichetenstein meets Lite Brite display.

We love fine art as much as fine scandal here at Pokerati, of course … but I did find it rather curious that WSOP brand protectors would go for an Ace-up-a-sleeve so closely attached to images of their proprietary chips.

While this painting’s narrative presumably tells the story of a cheater foiled, or one who just can’t win (and thus is “on tilt”) … McDowall said he received no blowback from Caesars corporate about the Ace or any insinuations of crooked play or even violent outbursts. However there was a fair amount of concern, he said, about the altered font in the official World Series of Poker logo.

(Eventually proper suits agreed with the artist that cartoonified lettering was essential to the authenticity of this representation of the WSOP.)

Dan and Dr. Pauly are back with a new episode…

2011 WSOP – Episode 6: Ivey’s Lawyer (4:17) – Dan and Pauly chat about the Ivey drama that transformed the opening days of the WSOP into the “World Series of Phil Ivey.” Dan also shares some inside info on Ivey’s lawyer, renown criminal attorney David Chesnoff.

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

Glitz. Glamor. Excitement. So far, the 2011 WSOP has had none of these things, and honestly, I’m finding the whole thing kind of sad. It’s not the World Series of Poker we all know and love… it’s more like the World Series of Meh.

The thing is that after spending a number of hours wandering around the Rio during the first week, it’s hard to put a finger on what’s different about this year’s event. Maybe it’s fallout from Black Friday and the fact that sites like PokerStars and Full Tilt Poker don’t have their usual suites. Maybe it’s the fact that the first week’s events were tailored more toward professional players and featured more mixed games and higher buy ins than the casual player is comfortable playing.

Or maybe I’m just jaded.

The halls feel emptier, the rails aren’t as jammed, and people just seem more serious than usual. Event numbers have been good, but no one appears to be having any fun.

Still, jaded or not, the fact remains that the Rio just doesn’t have the same excited vibe that I’m used to feeling during the first week of the Series. The halls feel emptier, the rails aren’t as jammed, and people just seem more serious than usual. What makes the feel of this year’s Series even stranger is that the event numbers have been good. People are playing cards, but no one appears to be having any fun.

So, is there anything that the Rio and WSOP staff can do to loosen things up and pump some more excitement into the proceedings?

More…

Comes now Phil Ivey with a complaint against Tiltware, LLC and a number of as-yet unnamed individuals and corporations. The suit is dated May 31st and was filed in the Nevada District Court on June 1st. It sets out six of what are styled separate causes of action, inluding breach of contract and tortious interference with prospective economic dealing, but some of the causes seem more like requested remedies than distinct causes of action compelling relief. In any event, the pith and substance of Ivey’s claim appears to be:

1. that Tiltware breached its contract with him on a number of fronts;
2. that certain contractual covenants are over-broad, oppressive, and contrary to public policy; and,
3. that Full Tilt’s actions separate and apart from the contractual breach have damaged Ivey’s reputation.

For this, Ivey essentially wants in excess of $150,000,000 in damages and a declaration that the non-competition covenants in the contract are void. Ivey’s contract with Tiltware is not included with the filings, which isn’t unusual, but presumably a copy will come out if this action grinds on long enough; that should be a compelling read when it surfaces.

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If you haven’t read it yet, here’s the civil complaint of Phillip Dennis Ivey, Jr. vs. Tiltware LLC and 10 Team Full Tilt John Does and/or Roe corporations. It’s a narrative tear-jerker for sure, the surface of a tale that scratches beyond matters of non-compete clauses and mishandled player monies.

The attorney who filed the suit, David Chesnoff, is kinda a big deal. He’s the former law partner of Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman, has been an ABC Legal News analyst, and recently secured walks for Bruno Mars and Paris Hilton on cocaine charges. Other celebrity clients have included Vince Neil, Jamie Foxx, Mike Tyson, the Jackson family, Leonardo DiCaprio, Shaquille O’neal, Andre Agassi, Martha Stewart, Suge Knight, Nate Dogg … the list goes on and on — mostly criminal cases, some civil. But beyond having an A-list media component to his practice, Chesnoff is also a semi-regular high stakes poker player in Las Vegas — no stranger to the banter in Bobby’s Room and thus the inner workings of the poker world — with a remarkably successful record, legally, against the Feds.

More…

Back in the early poker-boom days, it became well-known around higher stakes circles in Dallas that a few of the Mavericks liked to play Texas Hold’em. Thus it was no surprise, back in ’06, when Mark Cuban and the Mavs did business with PokerStars.com. This was before the UIGEA, mind you … so the poker industry as we know knew it was still taking shape. But already the standard was becoming that dot-net was acceptable to advertise, dot-com was not. (The Feds had just seized a few million dollars from the Discovery Channel network, parent to the Travel Channel, for ill-gotten ad revenues from Paradise Poker … dot com.) Thus, though few recognized it at the time, it was kinda a big deal when Cuban was willing to *go rogue* and use his NBA basketball team to advertise the web domain with higher affiliate conversion rates.

(I seem to recall that deal lasted only a few months, if not less; not confirmed though.)

Anyhow, a little flashback to a more innocent era … reminding us where we (as in poker) were just five years ago. Nolan Dalla, then a representative for PokerStars, sat down to explain the difference between dot-com and dot-net, long before poker sites would learn the true power of a dot-gov. You’ll have to excuse the added music … I was still learning how podcasts worked at the time. And poker for that matter:

Jason Terry began dreaming of Championship rings and WSOP bracelets thanks to PokerStars.com.

From Pokerati, May 2006 (Maverick Poker, Take 2)

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OK, so the Mavericks are in the playoffs. And not only do the Mavs kick ass … but also they love poker. You’ll notice plenty of advertising and sponsorial relationships between the team and online poker sites. But what you may or may not notice is that while ESPN, Fox Sports, GSN, Travel Channel, et al. run ads for nameyourpokersite.NET … the Mavs advertise the previously declared illegal (by the U.S. Justice Dept.) dot-COM varieties.

WSOP 2011 Bonus: the Tupac Edition

Dan and Pauly recorded an episode while standing on the fringe of the featured TV table…

2011 WSOP – Episode 5: Norman Invasion – Dan and Pauly try to hang out at the final table of the $25,000 Heads-Up Championship between Jake Cody and Yevgeniy “JovialGent” Timoshenko. However, they got stuck around a gaggle of drunken Brits supporting Jake Cody and then find themselves getting in the way of ESPN’s camera crew while they taped a stand-up for Lon McEachern and Norman Chad.

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

Shocking… Dan and Dr. Pauly actually watch one of the events from the rail at the WSOP, and Dan actually recognizes a few players.

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2011 WSOP – Episode 4: Team Pokerati Update and the Men the Master/Hollywood Dave’s Fracas (4:58) – Dan and Pauly hang out on the rail of Event #3 $1,500 Omaha 8 after the money bubble bursts. They discuss updates on Angry Julie, a member of Team Pokerati, along with detailing the highlights of argument that almost turned into a brawl when Men the Master (ironically) accused Hollywood Dave of being a cheater.

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