Since Tuesday’s Full Tilt hearing, a surprising amount of misinformation has been swilling around the internet. Surprising, because so few details emerged in the first place. After just 45 minutes, press and public were frogmarched from the building, leaving everyone to pore over a few snippets of legal jargon. Trawling through internet forums and Twitter feeds, I’ve noticed that people seem particularly confused about the £250,000 in unpaid licensing fees owed by Full Tilt.

[CORRECTION: oops, £250,000, as in British pounds ... not $250,000 as originally reported. £250k is roughly equal to US$400k.-dm]

Perhaps I shouldn’t be that shocked that those without direct access to the hearing have picked up misconceptions. The internet has an incredible ability to play Chinese Whispers with even the smallest morsel. Still, you’d expect someone sat a few rows behind me to have the right end of the stick.

Harry Demetriou is fast becoming a folk hero among disgruntled Full Tilt customers. When the Alderney Gambling Control Commission announced that proceedings were to continue in private, he rose to his feet and charged from the room, accusing the panel of protecting a “corrupt” organization. On Wednesday he posted an open letter to the Commission, in which he makes mention of the “250k licence fee that Full Tilt Poker have promised to pay you in the next seven days.”

This is wrong. I was in the room when this topic was raised, so I’ll do my best to clarify. Let’s run through the chain of events as they occurred.

After a long explanation of why he believed that a motion to adjourn should be held in private, Full Tilt lawyer Martin Heslop ceded the floor to a pair of AGCC lawyers. At this point, no mention had been made of the missing money. Speaking slowly into their microphones, Alderney’s legal team took a few moments to express ambivalence towards a private hearing. Just before handing back to the panel, they noted that there were two allegations to be made regarding the suspension of the license. In addition to problems related to Black Friday, there was the small point of a missing $250,000 licensing fee.

The commission were ready to move on, before Heslop interjected, asking if he could make a response. Stoic chairwoman Isabel Picornell leant over to her legal advisor, who responded with a quick nod of approval. In his rebuttal, Heslop offered to explain why the $250,000 had not been paid. He claimed that Full Tilt knew their license was approaching suspension and therefore decided it would be foolish to fork over the cash.

This is the point at which Harry diverges from reality. Heslop closed by adding that Full Tilt would be happy to pay the quarter of a million within seven days, should the license be reinstated. There was no offer to pay in the next week regardless of whether or not Full Tilt were back in business. If they return to Alderney they will need new investment. Demetriou need not be worried that the AGCC are, “going to cause an even greater shortfall in the funds needing to be paid back to the players.”

Some have interpreted the offer as a bribe. A large cash incentive to get the AGCC to arbitrate in their favour. I can’t totally rule this out, but it seems pretty unlikely. Full Tilt’s non-payment is part of why their license was suspended in the first place. There’s no way Full Tilt can ask to be let back into town, but then refuse to pay the upkeep. The AGCC know this. It’s their rule. It would be like trying to bribe the government by offering to pay your taxes.

Rage against Full Tilt to your heart’s content, but don’t expect to get any facts if you don’t have any to start with.

Extra long 5 1/2 hour show, comprised of a “main” show and a bonus 2nd part.  We attempt to mediate a running dispute between DonkDown friend Melanie Weisner and a guy she claimed scammed her.  Venetian dealer “Jill” comes on to air her grievances against the card room and says that Men the Master is selling his bracelets.  We touch on the situations with Bodog leaving the US market in 2012 and the lame Alderney hearing for Full Tilt.  lakingsfan12 heckles Annie Duke, and Hollywood Dave is none too pleased.  Brandon walks off the show near the end.

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NO PLAYING AROUND, but who then is toying with whom?

LONDON — Those hoping for a definitive answer on the future of Full Tilt and their funds will have to wait a little longer. After a full day of packed public hearing and nearly six hours of private deliberations at the Victoria Plaza Hotel, the Alderney Gambling Control Commission granted Full Tilt’s application to have the hearing adjourned. The AGCC says it will reconvene replacement proceedings no later than September 15th.

Panel chairwoman Isabel Picornell said the commission were convinced that a delay was “in the best interests of FTP customers” — primarily because Full Tilt could use that extra time to complete any investment deal. The AGCC understand, she continued, that exposing commercially sensitive information rides roughshod over hopes of a bailout that refunds players.

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You’d think practically living at the Palms with @Ziggy_Susan from Epic Poker League for the past, um … summer … that I might get a little inside info hook-up, but alas, I have to read about it in the “Hollywood media” upon retweet from @Mark_Gahagan. I’m away for barely a week and outta-sight outta-mind, I guess?

Anyhow, so Epic Poker League … the one with a $1,500 Pro-Am that I won a seat into and will air in Heartland Poker syndication … continues to develop, and it looks more and more like a real poker contender, with the league now having locked down the “pro” part of their TV deal.

Major network CBS will be airing Epic’s big $20k invitational events, with ousted WSOP film crew 441 Productions handling camera duties under the aegis of former NBC Sports exec David Neal. Longtime real-sports dude Pat O’Brien will be the TV host, with Ali Nejad as his analyst sidekick.

In my mind, this is yet another part of “the reconstruction” of poker we are currently witnessing, and testament to what can be may have to be done without the help of traditional online poker sites that previously pushed poker on TV but now face criminal indictment.

Also in with this deal is additional TV coverage — live-minus-30 maybe, or is that just wishful thinking on my part — on a soon to be relaunched Discovery B-side channel called Velocity. It’s supposed to be “a turbocharged network for an upscale male audience” now, according to the network … which, I dunno, haven’t seen yet so not gonna diss — channel launches in October; real, fully legal advertisers to follow — but sounds kinda, um, Epic?

On this week's show, Mark and Matt try to sort out the mess that was the AGCC hearing on Full Tilt, as well as Bodog pulling their brand out of the US. Then, Annie Duke comes on the program to discuss the Epic Poker League and how things are looking heading into their first event.

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The Full Tilt section 49 hearing in London is continuing. The hearing commissioners are apparently considering whether to continue the proceedings in camera (i.e., in private), further to Full Tilt’s lawyers’ strong contention that the hearing should not be held in the public glare. Joseph Ewens has written a good update on what’s happening here.

Right now, there is a great deal of frustration – even anger – at the prospect of the proceedings continuing behind closed doors. That’s understandable. Players are going on minimal information and want answers about what happened to their funds and when (if) they’ll be paid back. They also want to know if and how the AGCC could have monitored Tilt more closely.

Balanced against this are the facts that two alleged principals of Full Tilt are facing serious federal charges in the United States. Counsel to Tilt will do everything possible to avoid prejudicing those individuals’ interests in the SDNY proceedings. Furthermore, if there are – and I hope there are – negotiations to purchase assets and (crucially) assume player liabilities, there are likely confidentiality provisions embedded in those discussions. The confidentiality clauses are likely drafted such that they don’t apply to information ordered to be disclosed under applicable law by a court or administrative tribunal of competent jurisdiction. (If they’re not, the confidentiality provisions may be inapplicable, in part.) Let’s assume that the Alderney regulators fit this definition. Even so, counsel to Tilt can hardly be blamed for wanting to keep this outside of the public eye unless and until there’s a deal to report out.

I’m sympathetic to those who want this to continue in full view of an interested and informed public. I think the bottom line, however, is that I don’t necessarily see public hearings as being conducive to a transaction (again, if one is in the works). Unfortunately, I believe that the best hope for players getting paid back is for someone else to step in and cover the bill. If that means a private hearing to give a confidential update to the AGCC for now, we should endorse that – not happily, or enthusiastically, but in order to be realistic about the facts as we find them right now.

If this goes forward in camera and it turns out there’s no deal in the works or it turns out to be a stalling tactic, I expect that the Gambling Control Commission will throw this back into a public hearing, among other actions that they can take. For now, I think we should respect the process. There are some who feel that the AGCC can’t be trusted and is discredited for ‘allowing’ things with Tilt to get to this stage in the first place. I’m also sympathetic to that line of argument, but I don’t think that the possibility that US players’ interests will be served by having these proceedings go forward behind closed doors should be dismissed out of hand.

LONDON — I am sat here, closeted in a London cafe, writing. Across the street, in the Park Plaza Victoria Hotel, Full Tilt’s lawyers are arguing forcefully to have their hearing with the Alderney Gambling Control Commission adjourned. I would be there, along with the assembled media, public, and business representatives, but we were all thrown out.

Full Tilt’s lawyers, lead by Martin Heslop QC of Jeffrey Green Russell, began proceedings by announcing that they would like the hearing to be adjourned. He then launched into a precise run down of why that application for an adjournment should be held in private. Never mind the application for a delay, Full Tilt’s lawyers wanted to prohibit all onlookers before the hearing got anywhere close to starting.

I’ll delve deeper into their arguments later on, but highlights involved Heslop claiming that the “publicity would be prejudicial to the interest of justice,” and that a secret hearing was in the best interests of Full Tilt’s customers. He even went on to invoke the Human Rights Act.

The meek pair of Alderney lawyers made a brief response, indicating that they would neither support or oppose any motion to adjourn. With that sentiment lingering in the air, the three Commissioners retired to a back room to consider Full Tilt’s proposal.

The Alderney posse did raise the interesting issue of $250,000 in unpaid licensing payments. Although enforced secrecy means I can’t access all the information, it was interesting to hear Martin Heslop reply that Full Tilt did not fork over the cash, because they saw no value in paying for a license that was going to be revoked.

When the AGCC reps returned, their approval of Heslop’s request was not met with overwhelming support. Veteran UK pro Harry Demetriou was so outraged that he stormed from the room, accusing Full Tilt of corruption. After a round of applause from the disgruntled onlookers, we trudged demurely for the exit as Heslop and co. looked on triumphant.

The panel are expected to announce their decision regarding an adjournment in the next hour. While there’s still room for a surprise, the forecast is grim.

The numbers for Live-minus-30 coverage of the WSOP on ESPN are in. About a half million viewers on ESPN 2, 23 million minutes of click-friendly eyeball time on ESPN 3, and a “cute” little 646,00 viewers for two hours during prime time on ESPN 1.

Clearly poker is no women’s soccer, but still … those returns seem high enough that ESPN will probably do it again — though nothing in the ESPN press release assures as much — and low enough that next year ESPN and the WSOP will easily be able to report massive growth in whatever numbers prove most beneficial for them to deliver.

It’s hard to determine a success with a new type of coverage … but these numbers do set a certain bar, and at a minimum dohelp quantify the size of the true-poker-geek market. And thus, with results of the Pokerati love-it-or-hate-it poll, combined with the television numbers, I’m relatively convinced that if ESPN doesn’t expand their “live” poker coverage in the future … somebody else will.

(It really is all in the announcing.)

Read below for the official Nielsen data presented by Jack Link’s Beef Jerky, er … I mean:
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LONDON–There’s nothing more exciting than mysterious European investors. The kind of people who turn up in blurry photographs, wearing sunglasses while looking into the middle distance.

At least that’s how I imagine the potential saviours of Full Tilt Poker must look. The beleaguered online poker provider is currently locked in negotiations with a secretive group of moneymen, who have designs on a portion of Full Tilt’s Euro operation. Ahead of next week’s landmark hearing in London, these briefcase wielding millionaires could be the last hope for the ‘Home of the Pros’.

An official announcement on the deal was expected late last week. No such missive emerged, but the news hounds at EGR Magazine did manage to rustle up a ‘source connected to the suspended poker company.’

Most important, the insider indicates that the buyout will have “nothing to do with [Full Tilt’s] stateside activities.” That would leave thousands of U.S. players waiting for Howard Lederer to refund their frozen bankrolls weeping on the sidelines.

The linchpin of the sale could be Pocket Kings, the company responsible for Full Tilt Poker’s software and marketing. The value of the actual Full Tilt brand is amorphous at best and will depend heavily on the outcome of Tuesday’s hearing.

The former online poker behemoths are being held to account by the gambling commission of Alderney, a small island off the coast of France, where their gambling operations are licensed. Following the events of Black Friday, the Alderney Gambling Control Commission revoked their license, effectively shutting down the entire network.

As a member of the Channel Islands, Alderney is governed by UK law, so the AGCC are taking a short plane trip to London to present their evidence in public. I’ll be entrenched on location, sneaking out morse code transmissions tweets (@JoeOE18) to keep you in the loop. Keep your eyeballs glued to Pokerati for hard hitting analysis as the hearing continues.

Special thanks to Tricat in Vegas, who snapped a video of Pokerati Game, the Movie, as it played on the big screen outside on Flamingo. It’s an epic saga of … er … it’s an action/adventure in NLH/PLO told as a silent film of about 12 seconds. Powerful stuff:

And speaking of the game … congrats to TJ Downing and @JaKatkin … who won president and vice president in our Pokerati Game “election” on Thursday. For the wins, TJ will be representing in tonight’s $340 satellite* to the $1,500 Epic Pro-Am at Palms Poker Room … and Katkin will be taking a stab in a Sunday $180.

* special bounty tournament

This week’s online gambling news includes an unusual bipartisan letter to the US Department of Justice. Plus, industry news from the United Kingdom, and a potential setback for regulated gaming in Washington DC.

I really hope everyone had a great time this summer playing 1/2 No-Limit Hold’em/PLO at the Palms. I know I did … even though my own poor performance over the past couple weeks kept my summertime bankroll graph a little below sea level. But still, it was great to sit down for just some good old-fashioned poker with so many friends, colleagues, old Dallas players, low-stakes Vegas grinders, poker media hangers-on … as well as various new players from multiple continents with whom I got to enjoy some incarnation of sucking out. Thanks to all who played and especially thanks to those who embraced the Pokerati Game commitment to keeping the best low-stakes action in Vegas douchebag-free. (A bigger challenge than you might think.)

Tonight, we’ve got a little game-sweetener: The two best players in the game will get satellite seats for the Epic Pro-Am (also at the Palms) — one for a Saturday $340 and one in a Sunday $180.

And to determine who these players are, we’re gonna vote. Totally subjective and very unscientific, befitting of my ongoing social poker experiment, aka The Pokerati Game … and hey, if you don’t like the way we do it, you’re welcome to heckle from the rails. (2-drink minimum, though.)

That’s pretty much it. We’ll be playing the game as usual tonight — 1/2 NLH/PLO round of each, $100 min $400 max buy-in, game changes on the one seat, option to run it twice in both games, $5 button straddle gets ultimate last action — except everyone who plays will also get a ballot. And on that ballot they get to cast two votes:

+1 ____________

-1 ____________

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Mark and Matt are closing out the WSOP on this week's Rabbit Hunt. They go over the November Nine, looking to see might have an advantage early on, as well as who came out on top and who didn't over the course of the entire series.

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We discuss Pete Lubrano’s weird obsessive hatred for Micon and DonkDown.  Micon and Druff debate the merits of the 30-minute-delayed holecard TV coverage in the WSOP.  Jewdonk calls several times (while in a parking lot) and freaks out, likely either drunk or high on crack.  We play an interview with Joe Sebok where he looks and acts beaten down, and give our commentary.  Alvin Finklestein reports to the Aria that his clients have Legionnaire’s disease, and that they caught it from the hotel.  We break down some of the action at the WSOP Main Event, and talk about the November 9 final table.  Brandon tells the story of having a laptop stolen at gunpoint a few weeks ago.

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One of the new things with this latest World Series of Poker (as significant as ESPN’s live coverage, imho) was the introduction of sports-book bets on WSOP outcomes. Think about how much effort went in to making that possible — first, changing the law such that Nevada sports books could expand their offerings to include non-athletic contests … then running specific bets through Nevada Gaming regulators … all so non-Caesars casinos could spread action on the WSOP? That’s not exactly the kinda thing done on a whim … especially when the introduction of “live” TV coverage adds a whole new element of necessary oversight for GCB enforcement.

The Wynn seems to be wanting to take the lead on spreading such non-athletic “exotics”, with Race and Sports Book Director Johnny Avello establishing himself as the go-to guru for entertainment-based wagers — having set for-entertainment-only odds (with remarkable accuracy) for the Oscars, beauty pageants, Dancing with the Stars … even fashion at the British Royal Wedding, and the breed of dog to win the Westminster Dog Show.

Read below for more official word on Wynn Las Vegas/Encore’s WSOP offerings:

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