A spokeswoman for Berlin police — who did not give her name in keeping with department policy — said the suspect had been set free due to a lack of evidence. The suspect, who was detained late Friday, denied throughout several hours in questioning having taken part in the heist at the Grand Hyatt hotel in the capital.

Hmm. While it briefly seemed like the case might be unravelling for the robbers, maybe not so much … apparently just because a guy robbed one casino in Germany doesn’t mean he committed all casino robberies in Germany.

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Police have arrested a man in connection with last weekend’s armed robbery at the Grand Hyatt during EPT Berlin:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/35849559/ns/world_news-europe/

Few details on the suspect himself, other than that his arrest has something to do with info police received about a black Mercedes getaway car … and that he may have been a guy convicted and sent to prison for a casino robbery in 2004.

The thugs made off with $331,000 in the daytime heist, pulled off as cameras rolled at the biggest poker tournament in German history.

Supposedly, we’re also hearing, the robbers left behind a lot of clues, and more arrests are likely to follow. Police don’t think it was an inside job, but are looking into whether or not there was an accomplice who entered one of the events.

UPDATE: A little more news from Germany … the heist took place while guards were on break and the money was being prepared for transfer to the casino’s main cage. Also, from TheLocal.de:

The arrested man was thought to have taken part in another high-profile robbery in 2004. That January four armed masked men stormed the casino at the top of the Park Inn on Alexanderplatz in central Berlin. They were later arrested and convicted, receiving jail terms of between two and four years.

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They also get into the personalities at the NBC Heads-Up Championship for a bit, and talk about the peculiar appeal of Luke Schwartz — what’s behind FullFlush’s rising star in the UK, and why is he more than just a 2+2 blowhard?

Really good stuff from a new (to audio) voice serving a necessary role in the poker world. He clearly does it all for the glamour:

KevMath on The Poker Show

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Spoiler alert:

10. WPT LA Poker Classic (Los Angeles)
9. PCA (Bahamas)
8. WSOP Heads-up Championship (Las Vegas)
7. EPT Grand Final (Monte Carlo)
6. WSOP Main Event (Las Vegas)
5. WPT Championship (Las Vegas)
4. NAPT Bounty Shootouts (??)
3. WSOP-Europe Main Event (London)
2. WSOP $25k Six-handed Event (Las Vegas)
1. $50k WSOP Players Championship (Las Vegas)

Click here for Negreanu’s explanations of what makes each of these events special.

Numbers 4 and 2 are the only ones that seem possibly questionable to me. The Bounty Shootouts, indeed, are likely to become great. But it’s not even clear yet where the real championship will take place. (The upcoming version at Mohegan Sun will be the first open one of these.) Likewise for the WSOP’s new $25k six-handed event. High-roller and fast no-limit hold’em action, sure … but again, can you really put something at #2 when it hasn’t even happened yet? I’d rather see an Ironman tourney on that list … even though they aren’t big, yet, I think all who have battled in them can attest they are tough.

UPDATE: Anyone else finds Daniel’s omission of the NBC Heads-Up curious? I wouldn’t think much about it had he not included WSOP Heads-up as #8. Now I gotta wonder if his list woulda been different had he been in the final four this weekend / Annie Duke not won.

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PokerStars has just released a statement with an update on Saturday’s robbery at EPT Berlin along with clearing up various rumors:

“Yesterday at approximately 2.15pm, an armed robbery took place at the European Poker Tour (EPT) event in Berlin. Nobody was seriously injured. Four armed men were involved in the robbery which targeted the tournament registration desk outside the tournament area.

No shots were fired and the suspects quickly fled after a security guard intervened. The police investigation so far has shown that the suspects had a handgun and a machete. Contrary to tabloid reports, no Kalashnikov assault rifles or hand grenades were used. The suspects did not enter the tournament area and the money taken was substantially less than what has been reported.

The tournament resumed after a few hours and a police investigation is now under way. The tournament is taking place on the first floor of the Grand Hyatt Hotel at Marlene-Dietrich-Platz and is being held by SPIELBANK Berlin Casino.

The police are working closely with the EPT and SPIELBANK Berlin. Police are asking anyone who has information, video footage or photographs that might aid the investigation to contact them.”

Micon over at DonkDown had a Skype-chat with an eye-witness — brings up some more details from the robbery itself about how the action played out at the Hyatt and the cash situation on hand.

JUST HAD THIS CHAT W/ONE OF THE REPORTERS THAT WAS @ EPT BERLIN

[4:30:46 PM] Bryan Micon: did u see this shit?
[4:31:00 PM] ANON EYE WITNESS:Yeah. I was down the hallway when that happened. When the dude in black runs to the right off screen he runs towards us and we ran the other way.
[4:31:06 PM] Bryan Micon: what is the word? inside job?
[4:31:11 PM] Bryan Micon: did they make off w/the $?
[4:31:31 PM] Bryan Micon: also will u be on radio on Wed?
[4:32:00 PM] ANON EYE WITNESS: Just rumors right now. But we heard one of the staff members actually knew who it was or at least recognized them because she said they were players.
[4:32:13 PM] ANON EYE WITNESS: Wearing the same clothes they wore when they played in some events.
[4:32:39 PM] Bryan Micon: wowsers
[4:32:45 PM] ANON EYE WITNESS: And we’ve heard anywhere from $0 to $700k stolen.
[4:34:30 PM] Bryan Micon: check this vid
[4:34:54 PM] Bryan Micon: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iu2e7yiX … r_embedded
[4:35:11 PM] ANON EYE WITNESS: Haha, yeah, saw it.
[4:35:18 PM] ANON EYE WITNESS: Lived it, hha.
[4:35:52 PM] ANON EYE WITNESS: Here’s what happened in the video.
[4:36:13 PM] ANON EYE WITNESS: Right at the beginning you see Noah Boeken walk back into the tournament ballroom through the door.
[4:36:25 PM] Bryan Micon: y
[4:37:26 PM] ANON EYE WITNESS: It’s because there was some commotion outside and he ran out to see if there ws a fight as did a lot of people. Turns out, nothing was going on when they went outside so they started coming back in, hence his smile and laughter.
[4:37:49 PM] ANON EYE WITNESS: But the guy with the camera kept going and stayed in the doorway.
[4:38:00 PM] Bryan Micon: then all hell broke loose
[4:38:19 PM] Bryan Micon: dude is THROWING THE BOOK AT HIM
[4:38:23 PM] ANON EYE WITNESS: While the security guard fought two of the guys. The one in red had a gun and the other guy had a machete.
[4:38:34 PM] ANON EYE WITNESS: The guy in black had the machete, you can see it in the video.
[4:38:51 PM] OTHER GUY IN CHAT: lol machetements
[4:39:01 PM] ANON EYE WITNESS: About 20 secs into the video you see the guy in black take off to the right and go down the hallway.
[4:39:06 PM] ANON EYE WITNESS: That’s where we were.
[4:39:25 PM] Bryan Micon: omg
[4:39:33 PM] ANON EYE WITNESS: I was walking back to the media room which is down that long hallway when there was some yelling behind me and some guys running towards me.
[4:40:07 PM] ANON EYE WITNESS: They were yelling in German so we didn’t really understand them, but it sounded like they were saying “rough, rough!” So I thought a “rough” was a fight.
[4:40:22 PM] ANON EYE WITNESS: So we turned back and started walking back to see the fight and possibly report on it or whatever.
[4:40:50 PM] ANON EYE WITNESS: We got about halfway down the hallway when the guy came running down it towards us as you see him in the video when he darts to the right off screen.
[4:41:27 PM] ANON EYE WITNESS: I saw what I thought was a big knife and a guy in a mask and yelled oh my god and just turned and booked it back to the media room.
[4:41:45 PM] Bryan Micon: jesus
[4:41:54 PM] ANON EYE WITNESS: We all got in, like the four or five of us that ran back and there was about 20 others already in the room.
[4:42:01 PM] ANON EYE WITNESS: We shut the doors and barricaded it with some chairs.
[4:42:17 PM] Bryan Micon: :good decision
[4:42:52 PM] Bryan Micon: 1 of the vids shows chips everywhere on 1 tbl
[4:43:06 PM] ANON EYE WITNESS: Meanwhile, Noah was in the tournament room hiding behind these wooden window shade things.
[4:43:14 PM] ANON EYE WITNESS: As were a lot of people.
[4:43:55 PM] Bryan Micon: and the dude that was tackled?
[4:44:04 PM] Bryan Micon: him and the others all got awaay?
[4:44:15 PM] ANON EYE WITNESS: Well, you see him get tackled and the guard holds him.
[4:44:21 PM] Bryan Micon: y
[4:44:23 PM] ANON EYE WITNESS: And the gun is on the ground right next to him.
[4:44:37 PM] Bryan Micon: then homeboy comes in video game style
[4:44:53 PM] Bryan Micon: the guard is throwing something at red guy
[4:45:18 PM] ANON EYE WITNESS: Then the guy with the machete comes running back at him and a third guy grabs one of the rope poles like a bat and goes after the guard as well to free his friend.
[4:45:26 PM] ANON EYE WITNESS: So the guard let him go and they took off.
[4:45:41 PM] Bryan Micon: they got out?
[4:45:44 PM] ANON EYE WITNESS: Yeah.
[4:45:48 PM] ANON EYE WITNESS: Haven’t been caught.
[4:45:55 PM] Bryan Micon: damn
[4:45:59 PM] Bryan Micon: and they got
$?
[4:46:19 PM] ANON EYE WITNESS: Supposedly some but no one knows for sure.
[4:47:04 PM] Bryan Micon: then they restarted the event after this shit?
[4:47:12 PM] ANON EYE WITNESS: Sam Chartier recalled Johannes Strassmann bursting through the doors back into the room leap frogging chairs and tables and yelling in German. Although Chartier said he couldn’t understand what Strassmann was saying because of the language barrier, he noticed that everyone who did understand him was panicking. Tables were flipped so people could hunker behind them while chips flew all over the floor.
[4:47:34 PM] Bryan Micon: wowsers
[4:47:37 PM] ANON EYE WITNESS: Yeah, I mean given the circumstances I think the tournment staff handled is as best they could.
[4:47:43 PM] ANON EYE WITNESS: Even better than everyone expected,
[4:47:53 PM] Bryan Micon: like, put the table right side up
[4:47:57 PM] Bryan Micon: everyone how much chips did u have?
[4:48:13 PM] ANON EYE WITNESS: Well, the Main Event tables didn’t get flipped.
[4:48:20 PM] ANON EYE WITNESS: The chip stacks just got knocked over on those.
[4:48:44 PM] Bryan Micon: lolz how do u make a ruling on that!?
[4:49:00 PM] ANON EYE WITNESS: So the players, TDs, and dealers all worked together to figure out how many each person had and they made sure everyone voted on each chip stack basically and agreed on it.
[4:49:12 PM] ANON EYE WITNESS: If someone argued, they went over it again,
[4:49:16 PM] Bryan Micon: tough but fair
[4:49:23 PM] ANON EYE WITNESS: That took like 45 minutes.
[4:49:36 PM] Bryan Micon: lolz that’s pretty good imo / obv avg chips stack off by 2%
[4:50:14 PM] Bryan Micon: and that place @ the beginning of video where red is (and where German guard throws the book at him) is that the cashier or buy-in area?)
[4:52:05 PM] ANON EYE WITNESS: Yeah. There was no money kept there until today because today the High Roller event was held. 10k Euro for the buy in and you had to pay cash, you couldn’t buy in with Stars money or anything.
[4:52:12 PM] ANON EYE WITNESS: So they just had all that money from those guys there on site.
[4:52:22 PM] ANON EYE WITNESS: Obv not thinking this would hppen.
[4:53:01 PM] Bryan Micon: wow
[4:53:24 PM] ANON EYE WITNESS: It was crazy scary.

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14 clock in Berlin’s luxury hotel “Grand Hyatt”: The European Poker elite has the honor. It is the biggest tournament in Germany. Prize money: one million euros! Even Boris Becker was as an advertising face of Pokerstars.de at the table there – until he is rausflogen on Thursday. In addition, author Charlotte Roche ( “Wetlands”). Today I want to photograph the friend of Poker Europe champion Sandra “Black Mamba” Naujoks (28). He had lost a bet, now disguised as a woman sitting at the table. So far, so ordinary.

While so much can get lost in Google translation, sometimes it spits out pure poetry. The robbers haven’t even gotten there yet, and it would be Theater of the Absurd if it weren’t about to become so real.

For a firsthand account via second-hand language filter, the translated version of Benjo’s blog also becomes must-read, obv:

And that’s exactly what it is: a story that I tell surely in abundance in my back, emphasizing the amusing details. But on the stroke during the two minutes that lasted the confusion, I fear the belly.

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Everyone left guaranteed at least $25k in pursuit of the $500k first prize.

The payout breakdown:

Champion $500,000
Runner-Up $250,000
3rd & 4th Place $125,000
5th – 8th Place $75,000
9th – 16th Place $25,000

Click here for how they got to this point. WSOP Main Event champs representing. Where’s Varkonyi!

Coming up:

Chris Moneymaker vs. Erik Seidel
Peter Eastgate vs. Jamie Gold

Phil Laak vs. Jason Mercier
Annie Duke vs. Paul Wasicka

By my count, that’s six Main Event champs, one Main Event-Europe champs, and one guy who thinks he was main event champ.

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Let the heads-up fun begin. Ali Nejad and Leann Tweeden called out the pairings at Pure in Caesars Palace last night. Here’s a print-outable PDF of the official bracket for the 2010 National Heads-Up Championship, which gets underway today at 1 pm pacific.

Make your own picks via Pokerati’s bracket-tracker to see how our various predictions compare. We’ve got about nine five hours to come up with some sort of contest … a T-shirt is always standard, but I have to admit we’re running low on Pokerati shirts for really-really large men.

Big ups to @JessWelman who kept us posted live on Twitter, and @BarryGreenstein who accidentally sent a private tweet to Phil Ivey for all the public to see. (Gavin Smith plays small-ball; should walk into Ivey’s wheelhouse.)

The matchups are below:

Clubs
Patrik Antonius vs. Chris Moneymaker
Leo Wolpert vs. Eric Baldwin
David Williams vs. Joe Cada
Erik Seidel vs. Huck Seed
Dan Ramirez (online qualifier) vs. Erick Lindgren
Peter Eastgate vs. Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier
Stephen Quinn (online qualifier) vs. Ted Forrest
Dario Minieri vs. Jamie Gold

Spades
Gavin Smith vs. Phil Ivey
Richard Edwards (Caesars qualifier) vs. Scotty Nguyen
Shawn Rice (Caesars qualifier) vs. Joe Hachem
Gabe Kaplan vs. Johnny Chan
Daniel Negreanu vs. Jason Mercier
Pieter de Korver vs. Mike Sexton
Phil Gordon vs. Tom Dwan
Phil Laak vs. John Juanda

Hearts
Jesper Hougaard vs. Allen Cunningham
Eli Elezra vs. Greg Mueller
Annette Dworski (online qualifier) vs. Chris Ferguson
Kara Scott vs. Dennis Phillips
Brock Parker vs. Doyle Brunson
JP Kelly vs. Don Cheadle
Howard Lederer vs. Phil Hellmuth
Annette Obrestad vs. Orel Hershiser

Diamonds
Barry Greenstein vs. Vanessa Rousso
Sam Farha vs. Antonio Esfandiari
Jennifer Harman vs. Jennifer Tilly
Jerry Yang vs. Mike Matusow
Darvin Moon vs. Bill Huntress (online qualifier)
Andy Bloch vs. Annie Duke
Andrew Wilson vs. Paul Wasicka
Gus Hansen vs. Greg Raymer

[via Bluff Magazine]

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Decent structure, too. 12k chips for $250 ($225+25) … with a $100 rebuy or add-on for 5k chips. (I didn’t take it. My starting table was soft.) Seriously, it’s not a huge tourney, but it’s a good one, with good payout possibilities. Starts at 6 pm. Details here.

And, of course, they’re always happy to spread 1/2 NLH/PLO … and they usually have enough people interested in dipping their toes into 4-card hold’em waters to make it happen. Just ask them to put your name on the list for the Pokerati game and they’ll be sure to accommodate. You can always text “pokerati” to 25287 and you’ll get a text whenever this game is running. I won’t be able to make it this week, but next week I’m back in action, so you probably need some practice.

UPDATE: Tournament didn’t make. Not sure where the fine print may or may not come in for “guarantees”.

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The official word, via @PokerStarsBlog:

The PokerStars.net Latin American Poker Tour (LAPT) regrets to announce that the 2010 LAPT Viña del Mar, Chile poker festival has been cancelled. The festival was scheduled to be held at the Enjoy Viña del Mar Casino and Resort from March 19-23, 2010.

All players who have qualified or bought-in to the event will be fully refunded their buy-ins and any out-of-pocket expenses*.

This cancellation follows a devastating 8.8-magnitude earthquake that struck Chile approximately 175 miles south of Viña del Mar on February 27, 2010. The cancellation of the festival has been forced by the effects of the earthquake and in light of the rescue and recovery efforts now taking place throughout Chile.

Everyone at PokerStars.net and the LAPT offers their thoughts and condolences to all of those affected by this tragic natural disaster.

The LAPT sincerely apologizes for this cancellation to the players that had planned to attend the festival.

*Players should contact lapt@pokerstars.com with any queries

You gotta chalk natural disaster up to a bad beat, but man, the LAPT seems to really be having troubles getting off the ground (even with all the soccer stars they’ve got pimping). I could see LAPT dropping down from a projected #2 spot to a #4 in terms of prestige amongst the PokerStars tours … behind EPT (obv), NAPT, and APPT.

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@BigRussPoker was unavailable for comment on whether or not he would be considering a move should the measure make it to law. But it’s an interesting concept, if this intrastate thing starts to take hold and spread … might you see some old-fashioned rounders traversing the country looking for the best action?

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Totals:

Full Tilt – 21
PokerStars – 15
UB – 4
Victory Poker – 2
PartyPoker – 2
Doyle’s Room – 1
Bodog – 1
Betfair – 1
Expect – 1
bet365 – 1
Cake (Unabomber Poker) -1
Non-Poker (GoDaddy) -1
Unknown / Undecided / For Sale – 8

Should be interesting to see how at least a few of these unknowns end up. (Darvin Moon, for example, and Jamie Gold.) Click below for a breakdown by player …

The entire field (alphabetical order):

Patrik Antonius – Full Tilt
Eric Baldwin – UB
Andy Bloch – Full Tilt
Doyle Brunson – Doyle’s Room
Joe Cada – PokerStars
Johnny Chan – ???
Don Cheadle – Full Tilt
Allen Cunningham – Full Tilt
Pieter de Korver – PokerStars
Annie Duke – UB
Tom Dwan – Full Tilt
Peter Eastgate – PokerStars
Eli Elezra – Full Tilt
Antonio Esfandiari – Victory Poker
Sam Farha – ???
Chris Ferguson -Full Tilt
Ted Forrest – Full Tilt
Jamie Gold – ???
Phil Gordon – Full Tilt
Barry Greenstein – PokerStars
Bertrand Grospellier – PokerStars
Joe Hachem – PokerSTars
Gus Hansen – Full Tilt
Jennifer Harman – Full Tilt
Phil Hellmuth – UB
Orel Hershiser – PokerStars
Jesper Hougaard – bet365
Phil Ivey – Full Tilt
John Juanda – Full Tilt
Gabe Kaplan – ???
John Paul Kelly – PokerStars
Phil Laak – UnabomberPoker (Cake)
Howard Lederer – Full Tilt
Erick Lindgren – Full Tilt
Mike Matusow – Full Tilt
Jason Mercier – PokerStars
Dario Minieri – PokerStars
Chris Moneymaker – PokerStars
Darvin Moon – ???
Greg Mueller – Full Tilt
Daniel Negreanu – PokerStars
Scotty Nguyen – Expekt (?)
Annette Obrestad – Betfair
Brock Parker – ???
Dennis Phillips – PokerStars
Greg Raymer – PokerStars
Shawn Rice – UB
Vanessa Rousso – GoDaddy / PokerStars
Kara Scott – PartyPoker
Huck Seed – Full Tilt
Erik Seidel – Full Tilt
Mike Sexton – PartyPoker
Gavin Smith – Full Tilt
Jennifer Tilly – ???
Paul Wasicka – Victory Poker
David Williams – Bodog
Leo Wolpert – ???
Jerry Yang – Full Tilt
ONLINE QUALIFIERS (7)

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Longtime friend of Pokerati and poker pro Gregg Merkow took a rough beat early yesterday morning when fire engulfed two of his restaurants in Dallas. A four-alarm blaze destroyed The Hurricane Grill and the Greenville Bar & Grill, owned by Merkow, along with Mick’s bar and Terilli’s, the Italian restaurant where the fire reportedly started. It’s one of the most historic blocks of Dallas nightlife on Greenville Avenue — and thus citizens are concerned about saving what they can of the buildings even after they burnt virtually to the ground.

More on the fire and its aftermath here.

Because we care about poker players, and due diligence, we’d throw our friends under the bus in a second for a scandalous hedline + Google juice, we couldn’t help but ask whether or not perhaps he’d been running bad lately and this fire, started at a time when the structure was safely empty, might not have been a nefarious play for insurance dollars. Turns out that Merkow didn’t even have insurance on these legendary properties that may or may not have helped launch a poker career.

While non-poker people in Dallas debate how that could be (and who should ultimately be responsible), one of the players in his regular 10/25/50 NLH/PLO game explained, “It’s Merkow. He’s a gambler.”

Our sympathy for his loss … sucks, dude. Merkow speaks with the Associated Press shortly after the fire that had nothing to do with poker here:

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So … they strongly suggested I work on my game. “If you ever want to be taken seriously as a player you have to actually improve, Dan. You can’t go burning through your entire bankroll trying to learn PLO,” said a CardRunners representative about three steps removed from Brian Townsend. “And stop talking all this garbage about Isildur!”

So I agreed — at least to the part about my advancement in poker. I had to start by writing “I will not raise with weak starting hands against strong players in middle position” 100 times in permanent marker on a whiteboard, and then had to promise to study the video lessons available via TrulyFreePokerTraining.com.

The basics:

Preface
You might wonder why there is this page. Well, I also have the services of Michael Schuett, alias adopted USAG24 Inc. and has been cheated a lot of money. Meanwhile, there are quite a lot of people who feel the same way.

The people who have resisted and have published their case as the Internet, were then put massive pressure from Michael Schuett and most have agreed to the cancellation of their websites. This of course happened after agreeing a settlement, for example, was paid some money from Michael Schuett so that the matter is created from the world. Most of these people have only received a fraction of the lost money again and had to return the sites to take from the net.

Thus Michael Schuett is still continuing its Betrügerein. I will not comment on such a comparison and the money had already been written off as dearly as I will have to deal with this person any more. However, I would keep everyone else from dealing with that person and any company business.

Your USAG24-dupe

Now for all we know this is just one disgruntled ex-colleague. But he’s had a twitter feed set up for the past three months just to track the whereabouts of this one person. @usag24betrug has three followers.

And here’s a half-hour lifestyle documentary on Michael Schuett, apparently chronicling his move to Florida:

Very strange. Might online poker sites be a victim of a fraud here? Or just tangled up with the wrong guy? I’m still not sure what to make of it all, but I do get the sense now that this situation may turn out to be about more than online poker …

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Here’s the story from the Naples News:

Feds investigate Naples man in money laundering probe tied to online gambling

It may or may not be coincidental that the the Feds have arrested Michael Olaf Schuett’s for money transfers directly related (allegedly) to online poker just as the state is taking a closer-than-ever look at the game with eyes on its revenue potential. It’s also not clear if Schuett’s been charged with anything yet, or is just being held because he is a foreign national flight risk with felony charges pending.

Here are some plausibly relevant names, and highlights that jump out at yours truly:

• Michael Olaf Schuett, or Schütt, is the guy they’re after. He’s a 29-year-old German whose visa expire in April. A federal judge has ordered him held in Lee County jail without bond.
• He lives in a pretty sick oceanfront condo.
• He’s been married only a month to a 28-year-old woman he’s known for only nine months. Her name is Jennifer Sherman.
• Feds allege that since opening accounts in 2007, Schuett has transferred about $70 million to 23,000 people, mostly Americans and supposedly online poker winnings.
• The giveaway was dozens of checks being received daily via Fed Ex.
• People cashing checks sent to them from Schuett claim they are online poker winnings.
• Secret Service is the law enforcement agency involved.
• Agents are seeking to execute search warrants and seize allegedly ill-gotten property, such as fancy cars and watches.
• The complaint lays out a web of money transfers between businesses and banks and players.
• Lots of American and Canadian banks in play. Key company serving as go-between: Bluetool Ltd. out of Germany.
• Supposedly no direct allegations in the complaint against any online poker sites, but the Naples News reporter was able to connect them to transactions from Full Tilt, PokerStars, and Absolute.
• Three specific players — Corey Drury, Darren Elias, and Derek Dubois — get named as receiving money through Schuett’s legally questionable operation. All three have public profiles on BluffMagazine, PocketFives, CardPlayer, and PokerPages.
• As banks became hip to the set-up, Schuett tried to create a new accounts to hold the money, claiming to be a real estate investor — a story the banks didn’t buy.

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It’s still been fascinating to watch the mainstreaming of a hand over the years. I hope I don’t get crucified for disparaging the sacred 7-deuce (as no longer seen on High Stakes Poker) … but perhaps the jumping-the-shark moment for the Hammer came when UB took it on?

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That’s when TDA honcho Matt Savage stepped up to say, wait a minute, let’s take a look beyond the first few levels, maybe these perceived Deep Stacks in a lot of instances aren’t all everyone says they’re supposed to be. Just about any educated “outsider” I’ve talked to who has taken a close look at the prevalent blind structures of the day contend that, indeed, while the non-bastardized Venetian Deep Stacks set-up is good, Savage’s not-so-deep-stacks structure as seen at the LAPC are indeed some of the best in the business — a model for other tourney directors to emulate.

After Day 1 of the WPT-Commerce main event, Daniel Negreanu agrees. Read more as he explains a bit why.

NOTE: I learned a good rule of thumb about antes from Negreanu, and where they fit in to breed action in “slower” events.

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(Thanks to all looking out for this site’s good name.)

6:54 pokerati: maybe we can get uyou involved somehow with some streams like this..
6:54 WhoJedi: Pokerati is Dan, is this Dan?
6:54 WhoJedi: That would be cool.
6:54 pokerati: nosir
6:55 pokerati: i did NOT no there was a pokerat that wud be cinfused
6:55 pokerati: i am NOT impostering
6:55 WhoJedi: lol
6:55 WhoJedi: no worries
6:55 pokerati: my twit name is DservAA
6:55 pokerati: i dnt want ppl thinkn im trying to solicit ppl using anown name
6:55 WhoJedi: I am whojedi on Twitter, find me and send me a message…
6:55 pokerati: i need everything to be as legit as poss for this to go throughj
6:55 Kevmath: who’s left of the final 3?
6:56 WhoJedi: cool
6:56 WhoJedi: they are on break, be back in a few minutes, I am gonna try and find out who the three are…
6:56 jcpoker: jedi kesller in?
6:57 pokerati: believe so
6:57 WhoJedi: yes
6:57 jcpoker: k what position
6:57 jcpoker: chip countg
6:57 pokerhag: why are you using pokerati when you are not Dan??
6:58 pokerati: how are they allowing you to film this?
6:58 jcpoker: hes getting attention for a film
6:58 jcpoker: using a known name
6:58 jcpoker: ha
6:58 pokerhag: kind of sucks
6:58 WhoJedi: Kessler has 23,600
6:58 jcpoker: k thanks
6:58 jcpoker: he went way down
6:59 jcpoker: good thing he sold 25 of his action
6:59 JamesDaBear: WhoJedi… that’s what I thought too at first… Because I follow pokerati on twitter too
7:00 JamesDaBear: hey
7:00 JamesDaBear: i don’t think that’s what he is doing at all
7:00 JamesDaBear: nice dance
7:00 pokerati: jcpoker that was NOt cool..
7:00 WhoJedi: three players left in the $1K NLHE is Ryan Hughes, Robert Kalteux and Ray Henson.
7:00 JamesDaBear: nice
7:00 pokerati: can i chng my name here
7:00 JamesDaBear: thanks
7:01 jcpoker: how do yu randomly come up with pokerati?
7:01 jcpoker: ha
7:01 pokerati: illuminati
7:01 pokerhag: I think you should change it….not good
7:01 pokerati: pokeraati
7:01 pokerati: simple..
7:01 jcpoker: k
7:02 jcpoker: james believes you
7:02 pokerati: could be subconscious maybe sam it on 2p2 or twitter, small wrld now
7:02 pokerati: i will chng, im sry..but thats weak that you thinks its shady
7:02 pokerati: i will try
7:03 jcpoker: i dont
7:03 jcpoker: i dont care
7:03 jcpoker: i just think its funny
7:03 jcpoker: naive
7:03 JamesDaBear: pokerati is not some brilliant thing that Dan Michalski can claim as his own lol
7:03 pokerati: mee too..F that im not chngng anything
7:03 jcpoker: yea
7:04 jcpoker: take a stand
7:04 pokerati: what if i workd at the ATi gas station dwn the road
7:04 pokerhag: fraud
7:04 JamesDaBear: most people do use their twitter name on here
7:04 pokerati: or for advanced teletronics incorporated
7:06 Kevmath: he never said he was dan michalski, i admit it’s confusing but it’s not intentional
7:06 pokerhag: you are misrepresenting yourself.sir.
7:07 JamesDaBear: so it would be cool to change your name… so the cynics will start having real conversations instead of this crap
7:07 pokerhag: now he has the facts and should change it especially since he is pushing a project
7:07 WhoJedi: Funning thing is, Dan is here with me…lol…He got a kick out of it, no harm no foul…
7:07 JamesDaBear: lol
7:07 JamesDaBear: funny
7:07 Kevmath: that’s what made me think it was dan, since i know he’s in la this weekend
7:07 pokerhag: me too
7:07 WhoJedi: I’ll have him wave to the camera in a minute…
7:08 Kevmath: looks like heads-up
7:08 pokerati: arhghh tech supprt says i need new email
7:08 JamesDaBear: nice
7:08 Kevmath: i assume it’s klateaux v hughes?
7:09 pokerati: dammit..WHO IS DAN BROFLOWSKI AND WHY ARE YOU HAUMNTING ME!!!!!!!!
7:09 WhoJedi: Here comes Dan, say hi…
7:09 pokerati: lol, i cant chngn!!!!!!
7:09 pokerati: im sorry dude, blind mistake..i dank bet the river..unintentionally
7:09 jh00k: wolfman!!!
7:09 WhoJedi: No worries…
7:10 Kevmath: er kalteux and hughes

***7:03 JamesDaBear: pokerati is not some brilliant thing that Dan Michalski can claim as his own lol***

Point of order to JamesDaBear … ok, “not some brilliant thing” I’ll give ya, but when it comes to claiming the phrase as my own in “online journals, namely blogs, featuring information and opinion on poker” technically I can.

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More to come as the field takes shape tomorrow/today Friday. Last stretch of satellites going on now.

I’ve been following this event multimedially via the 147 emails a day they send me and via the official LAPC blog.

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Episode 5: ATM Roulette

This would be our last episode of the book on the 2010 WPT Celebrity Invitational. In the end, cards didn’t fall my way as I finished sans audio and had to twitter in my results:

@Pokerati Out to vince van fuckhead. All in preflop my AQ < 57s. I respect his play
12:55 AM Feb 21st via txt

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Episode 4: A Roomful of (Hollywood) Cliches

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Go Massachusetts Skillaments, but elsewhere, far more is at stake for states that could care less about the nuances of what is and is not technically gambling amongst avowed gamblers. Thus, PPA Executive Director John Pappas has been crisscrossing the country addressing states considering intrastate online poker, trying to persuade them not to muddy the online semi-gambling waters with legislation that comes to the table inherently flawed, legally and from a competitive market standpoint.

Pappas was in Florida last week, addressing a Senate committee on regulated industries. Florida, as we know, has been working on more and more legal poker for the past five or six years with much success, so why not extend that to the internet? Well, Pappas explains, because problems needing fixin’ at the federal level first. Without it, anything any one state creates, he says, automatically will exist in a a legal gray area that could be challenged in a variety of federal ways. And because of this gray area, and the way poker works, regulated “state monopoly” sites will struggle to compete against the unregulated likes of Full Tilt and PokerStars. (He doesn’t mention those sites by name, but players know that’s who he’s talking about.)

It’s an important argument to begin honing, because right now we have California and Florida moving aggressively in the intrastate direction — supposedly with Iowa and Wyoming about to jump on the bandwagon. Legislation can be a rather cut-and-paste enterprise these days, so if those four states go, then it’s only a matter of time before some 40+ others follow suit, which could undermine, or at least complicate, years of work on by poker’s favorite grassroots advocacy group.

Have a listen. In addition to bringing the California arguments to Florida, for the first time we hear the PPA start to lay out some of the details on how internet poker taxation would work under either the Frank or Menendez bills — with provisions included for individual states to receive their revenue share from the federal regulatory system. We also learn of a new organization — the Poker Voters of America — that has effectively brought the idea of intrastate online poker to the Florida legislature. On its surface, the PVA doesn’t look too different from the PPA. But strategically, they’re fighting the UIGEA in a much different way. Well-meaning but misguided is the gist; can we have your donor list?

I’m not sure I’m making the case here any better than Pappas is. We know what he’s saying, of course … no, man, don’t go the Italian monopoly route … go poker, but that’s no good!

But you can see how statewide advocacy groups could be hearing, “Yo, don’t fuck with our shit dudes! This is our turf here!” To which the Floridians would say, You’ve had long enough and gotten us nowhere. Our state needs money now, so we’re gonna go it alone while you figure your federal shit out. PokerStars.Fl.gov. Yeah, I like it. Do you know how much our state could make just as an affiliate!?!

Ultimately, the reason to eschew the intrastate model is the same reason a guy like Ron Paul supports the PPA-backed federal bills … because we believe in free markets and open markets. Anything else is detrimental to the American economy. But with the kinda money at stake and shady people we’ve all smelt at the table, we can’t have financial anarchy. So the way for us to make this work in a way that protects American freedoms and makes fiscal sense is to have the PokerStars/Full Tilt model … all the people in the world able to sit at the same table and play a game. (I like to think of it as the online poker=world peace model.) But you simply can’t have it with any state trying to limit the behavior of its citizens within its borders as if it were China or Kentucky. If I’m in Florida and want to play legal online poker, why can’t I play against a guy in Swtzerland looking to do the same thing? And it’s downright unAmerican if I can’t compete against a Texan!

ALT HED: Something about the Commerce Clause #nottobeconfusedwithCommerceCasino

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We’ll see how any new embedding options work, and what else may or may not change with the new channel. But glad to see the industry still able to support two semi-independent poker television news shows … the other, of course, being ESPNs The Inside Deal presented by PokerStars.

The new season begins on Wednesday, March 3, supposedly at 11 pm … though I am thinking that must be Eastern Time since the Cox Las Vegas listings say it airs at 8 pm and re-airs on Fridays at 2:30 pm. Channel 38.

And a little bubbling-under semi-related to the show … Cohost Sebok says he tried to buy out of his face-tattoo prop bet with Gavin Smith and Jeff Madsen, but they wouldn’t accept … which you know how that works … makes him the odds-on favorite to win the permanent lasts-longer bet for the LAPC main event.

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They already offer online lottery tickets, online bingo, sports betting, competitive crossword puzzles (for money), and online mini-golf. While we may want to balk at newcomers trying to get in on the international action with their own localized version of it, ALC could be an interesting group to watch. They’ve already got mobile platforms in play, partnerships with brick and mortar casinos, and have some quite different sorts of marketing ideas to the table. For example, currently spreading the viral word of ALC’s games is a money contest catering to those with social media prowess to get your dog featured on a lottery ticket.

Why do I think that no matter what does or doesn’t pass legislatively around the world in the next few years that online poker will look very different in the not-too-distant future? Kinda shocked that we haven’t yet seen the Spuds McKenzie of Poker.

RELATED: This comes in the wake of Quebec planning on its own provincial online poker set-up — an attempt to “cannibalize illegal gambling sites” — before (temporarily?) pulling the plug just last week at the frantic request of health officials fearing major addiction problems for certain Canadian hosers.

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Episode 3: Newcomer’s Welcome

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(Looks like a hodgepadge of patches, including one non-poker website … presenting sponsor GoDaddy.com.)

Patrik Antonius
Eric Baldwin
Andy Bloch
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Peter Eastgate
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Jamie Gold
Phil Gordon
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Bertrand Grospellier
Joe Hachem
Gus Hansen
Jennifer Harman
Phil Hellmuth
Orel Hershiser
Jesper Hougaard
Phil Ivey
John Juanda
Gabe Kaplan
John Paul Kelly
Phil Laak
Howard Lederer
Erick Lindgren
Mike Matusow
Jason Mercier
Dario Minieri
Chris Moneymaker
Darvin Moon
Greg Mueller
Daniel Negreanu
Scotty Nguyen
Annette Obrestad
Brock Parker
Dennis Phillips
Greg Raymer
Shawn Rice (Caesars qualifier)
Vanessa Rousso
Kara Scott
Huck Seed
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Mike Sexton
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Paul Wasicka
David Williams
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Jerry Yang
ONLINE QUALIFIERS (6)

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Episode 2: Commerce She Bangs

While you listen, be sure to check out some more detailed WPT Invitational tales on Tao.

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It’s kinda a tough sell when you think about it … the buzzwords in influential conservative circles these days are all about less government, not more. So here we have poker’s Libertarian ambassador trying to persuade GOPers to: forget the moralists in favor of personal freedom (ok, probably doable), set up a new government bureaucracy to monitor our financial activity on the internet (what the …?), and tax him a lot more personally. (”OK, now we gotta hear this; hey Jeb get over here, I think the guy who showed up in your office this summer wearing shorts and sandals with socks is gonna tell a joke!)

Vanity Fair seemed to find it a little bit mockworthy. But according to Time magazine, what really matters is that poker players do know how to party:

But probably the coolest parties that first night at CPAC were secret ones — invite-only passes palmed to a select few. The first one was hosted by the Poker Player’s Alliance and included CPAC’s “It” kids, James O’Keefe of Acorn pimp fame and his three cohorts who were recently entangled with the law for messing with Louisiana Senator Mary Landrieu’s phone lines; anti-tax champion Grover Norquist; conservative media personality Andrew Breitbart; and 2004 World Poker Champion Greg Raymer. The open bar at Medaterra got quite a workout with young conservatives ordering everything from beer to shots of Redheaded Sluts, a crimson concoction involving Jagermeister. (After some debate, no one was game enough to try a flaming Redheaded Slut.) Breitbart and the rest of the Louisiana Four — as they were fondly hailed by many at CPAC — then headed over to a party hosted by Mike Flynn, editor of the website Big Government, at Morton’s Steakhouse. Flynn not only had an open bar tab but stacks of fine cigars for guests to chuff on.

BTW, check out CPAC’s straw poll to see what issues matter most to people who consider themselves true conservatives in 2010. You’ll see on page 11 that the runaway favorite for president amongst these folks is Ron Paul (R-TX), who generally hates all things more-government, but as a co-sponsor to the Barney Frank bill, could prove a critical ally.

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Episode 1: Slumming It in Not-So-Beverly Hills

BTW, if you want to hear a different side of Dr. Pauly, be sure to check out his Lost Vegas podcast episodes. A lot more sex and drugs in those.

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