Specifically, what jumped out was:

No Betfair. Nothing scandalous or controversial here. Harrah’s and Betfair simply finished out their three-year contract (’07-’09). Pokerati lost its deal with Betfair, too, around the same time. Bummer, but all good. The peeps we worked with at Betfair were some of the finest we’ve encountered in the industry … and we were happy to create the “WSOP World Standings” with them — a year before anyone else — even though it inevitably would get co-opted WSOP.com. (Just meant less work for me!) Harrah’s reports a similarly pleasant and positive relationship. Suppose all Betfair’s absence really means is that we might be seeing fewer emails about a Queen made of Legos or Buckingham Palaces of cards.

Online satellites / WSOP.com. Hmm, you’d think this might be the most important component — the first ever official online satellites for WSOP bracelet events on WSOP.com — but I almost missed it down in paragraf #10:

For the first time since WSOPE was formed, real money poker is available online to UK residents at WSOP.com.  Unique and exciting offers will be tied to WSOP Europe participation for UK residents including satellites.  If you are a UK resident, check out WSOP.com for the latest details on how to qualify for the 2010 WSOP Europe.

I guess it only makes sense now, why the new HIE wouldn’t try to extend a relationship with one of their most cooperative, non-litigious table-felt sponsors … at a time when any additional sponsorship money might seem extra-desirable. I suppose there’s only so much space around the final table with Harrah’s self-sponsoring this year — with WSOP-E officially presented by WSOP.com, CaesarsCasino.com, and CaesarsBingo.com.

Those are the real “sponsors” in London this year; Harrah’s officials told me as much  – even though we haven’t yet gotten press releases championing the landmark signage possibilities.

Partnering with mini-Harrah’s-UK. Actually, the relationship between Harrah’s and London Clubs International isn’t new at all either — it’s been around since December 2006, when Harrah’s acquired LCI for about $530 million. I guess I’ve just never noticed it before, nor seen quotes from their CEO, and info about their Player Rewards (a la Total Rewards). Interesting … 10 casinos in the UK, two in Cairo, and one in Jo-berg, South Africa.

Lots of PLO. It’s just one bracelet event, a big one at £5k, sure, but it’s nothing new … I just notice PLO happenings these days more than before. If you’re not already dabbling in Texas Hold’em’s 4-card cousin, you really should be … and Pokerati’s 1/2 NL/PLO at the Hard Rock is the perfect place to get your feet wet with the game.  We play round-of-each, with small initial buy-ins, sporadially recurring $50 splash pots, and run-it-twice. We had a great turnout last week, so good that I’m thinking about hosting the game on Tuesday, too. Feel free to weigh in on said matter, and send me a text or email if you’d like to start a virtual interest list.

OK, here’s the press release accompanying the 2010 WSOP-Europe schedule many have been clamoring for:

World Series of Poker Europe (WSOPE)

Announces 2010 Tournament Schedule & Dates

EVENT RETURNS TO CASINO AT THE EMPIRE IN LONDON

WSOPE Set for September 14^th to 28^th in London

LAS VEGAS – June 7, 2010 – The fourth annual World Series of Poker Europe^sm has solidified its tournament schedule, Harrah’s Entertainment, Inc., owner and operator of the world’s most prestigious poker tournaments announced today.

The 2010 World Series of Poker Europe will feature five bracelet tournaments this year – the most ever offered at this prestigious event.

“We held steady at 57 events in Las Vegas despite last year’s record attendance,” said WSOP vice president Ty Stewart.  “The increase here is thoughtful and consistent with the growing stature of this event.”

Capitalizing on excitement created for the Las Vegas championship of the discipline, a special Six-Handed No Limit Hold’em event will kick off the tournament on Tuesday, September 14, and feature a £2,500 buy-in and a 3-day structure.

The popular £5,000 Pot Limit Omaha and £1,000 No Limit Hold’em events will be the 2^nd and 3^rd bracelet events on the schedule and then a new £10,000 Heads-Up tournament has been added on Tuesday, September 21 to precede the fifth and final event, the £10,000 Main Event Championship.

The £10K heads-up will be the highest buy-in heads-up tournament ever contested in Europe and even higher than the Las Vegas counterpart.

“We are really excited about the 2010 schedule for WSOP Europe,” said Stewart.  “The WSOPE has found its place as a tournament about prestige, where the best of the best come together to  HYPERLINK “http://www.wsop.com” play poker.  We think the new heads-up event will resonate with the worlds top players and the six-handed event is something that is becoming synonymous with the WSOP. “

The WSOPE will be held from September 14-28, 2010 in the heart of Leicester Square at the Casino at the Empire in London, England.   The Casino at the Empire has been a hotbed of poker activity since hosting the WSOPE, with regular cash games and tournaments running around the clock.  The casino now stays open 24-hours a day and has begun offering satellite tournaments for the WSOPE.  Visit HYPERLINK www.lciclubs.com www.lciclubs.com for more details.

“We are so excited to welcome the  HYPERLINK “http://www.wsop.com/players/index.asp” top poker players from all over the world to WSOPE 2010 – Europe’s most prestigious poker tournament and the only event outside of Las Vegas at which players can win a coveted WSOP bracelet,” said Michael Silberling, CEO of London Clubs International. “This is the fourth year we have hosted the event at Casino at The Empire, which has rapidly become London’s premier poker venue, and we have every expectation that the 2010 event will be bigger and better than ever before.”

Players can pre-register for the WSOPE at any London Clubs International (LCI) venue in the UK or at the Rio All-Suites Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas.

For the first time since WSOPE was formed, real money poker is available online to UK residents at WSOP.com.  Unique and exciting offers will be tied to WSOP Europe participation for UK residents including satellites.  If you are a UK resident, check out WSOP.com for the latest details on how to qualify for the 2010 WSOP Europe.

These five tournaments will be sanctioned gold bracelet events.  Non-stop cash games will also be scheduled during the tournament, as well as a bevy of satellite tournaments in the weeks leading up to each event.   The Casino at the Empire does not require membership for admission.

The 2009 World Series of Poker Europe was broadcast on ESPN/ESPN2 in the United States, Channel 4 in the UK and various broadcasters around the world.

During the WSOP in Las Vegas (May 27 – July 17), players can pre-register for WSOP Europe at the tournament cage.

WSOPE in London complements the WSOP held annually in Las Vegas.   During the first three years of the WSOPE, eleven gold bracelets have been awarded along with £15,110,500 in prize money.

The biggest names in poker have participated in WSOPE including:  Doyle Brunson, Johnny Chan, Annie Duke, Phil Hellmuth, Dave “Devilfish” Ulliott, Daniel Negreanu, John Juanda, Gus Hansen, Eric Seidel, Mike Matusow, Joe Hachem, Vanessa Rousso, Andy Bloch, David Benefield, Ivan Demidov, Sorel Mizzi, Jennifer Tilly, Layne Flack, Andrew Black, Barry Greenstein, Tom Dwan, Chris Ferguson, Scotty Nguyen, Max Pescatori, Chris Bjorin, Allen Cunningham, Phil Ivey, Howard Lederer, Patrik Antonius, John Phan and Annette Obrestad.

ABOUT WSOPE

Launched in 2007 by Harrah’s Entertainment, owner of the World Series of Poker (WSOP), the WSOPE is the first international tournament extension of the world’s richest and most prestigious gaming event.  WSOPE is held in London, England annually at London Clubs International’s (LCI) Casino at the Empire and awards the same coveted gold bracelets that the WSOP awards annually in Las Vegas.  In its first three years, WSOPE has awarded eleven gold bracelets, the first bracelets ever awarded outside the United States, of which nine different nations have claimed.  A total of 2,994 entrants have competed for £15,110,500 in prize money.  Please visit  HYPERLINK “http://www.wsop.com” www.wsop.com for more information.

ABOUT LCI
London Clubs International is a market leader in the UK casino industry, having owned and operated casinos for over 40 years. LCI currently owns 10 casino properties across the UK and also operates two casinos in Cairo, Egypt and one in Johannesburg, South Africa. LCI offers casinos for all tastes and every level of play. LCI casinos in the UK include The Casino at The Empire (London), The Rendezvous (London, Brighton and Southend), The Sportsman (London), Golden Nugget (London), Manchester235 and Alea (Nottingham and Glasgow and Leeds). LCI is focused on offering great value and service to its customers and has recently introduced a new loyalty programme across the group, Player Rewards. The group operates its own Code of Commitment, a public pledge to its employees and customers. In December 2006, Harrah’s acquired London Clubs International. Harrah’s Entertainment, Inc. (Harrah’s) is a casino-entertainment provider.
For more information, please visit  HYPERLINK “http://www.lciclubs.com” www.lciclubs.com.

HYPERLINK “http://www.WSOP.com” www.WSOP.com

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Fun! Now we get to see the types of numbers that Harrah’s, as a private company, would probably prefer to keep private … and we get to watch our friends at WSOP headquarters scramble for a new sponsor while, two months before the 2010 Series, they learn that an $8.4 million check they were expecting is not going to arrive.

From the Las Vegas Sun:

UIM says that in 2008 it agreed to sponsor the World Series of Poker for payments of $6.2 million for the 2008 tournament, $7.9 million for the 2009 tournament and $8.4 million for the 2010 tournament that begins May 27 at Harrah’s Rio hotel-casino in Las Vegas.

[...]

UIM says in the lawsuit it paid the amounts due to Harrah’s for the 2008 and 2009 events, but that on Thursday it notified Harrah’s it is pulling out of the 2010 tournament.

UIM said that’s because in previous years Harrah’s breached the sponsorship deal when ESPN broadcasts of the tournament by an affiliate in France, television channel RTL9, failed to display Everest’s name and logo and instead featured the name and logo of Everest competitor Full Tilt Poker.

French TV has caused poker troubles before. Previously an unresolved matter of translations supposedly resulted in Daniel Negreanu’s removing himself from the Poker After Dark line-up … the problem being that the French television station airing the show was claiming that Negreanu played exclusively at Full Tilt, when in fact he is clearly a PokerStars guy.

Meanwhile, Pokerati now knows we saved $7.899992 million getting our logo on the WSOP felts in 2009 … and thus we’re not too pissed that this image has not yet made it onto French TV:

UPDATE: New reality show idea … 2 Months, $10 Million … the Harrah’s crew are ready to put on the biggest show in poker after having promised to just give away money to their top players, but then a French TV dispute leads to what poker players would call a “bad beat” … can Team WSOP pull it all together and save the Series before cards go in the air? Tune in next week to find out. A

UPDATE: Funny take on it all + a photo of the French TV shenanigans at the center of this WSOdisPute.

photo: BJ Nemeth

A shocker but not really … Jeffrey Pollack and Harrah’s are breaking up.

The WSOP Commissioner, President, and Twitterer in Chief‘s last day with Harrah’s and the World Series is today.

“I’ve made the decision after four years of successfully leading the WSOP as a global sports and entertainment property,” he says. “[Today] is my last day. Friday the 13th.”

Pollack — who has never played a poker tournament — took over the reigns shortly after the 2005 WSOP, the first year Harrah’s ran the 35-year-old tournament series bought from Binion’s.

The list of accomplishments under his aegis include drawing more competitors from more countries (putting it on par with the Olympics in terms of numbers), supporting women in poker, helping Don Cheadle and Annie Duke build Ante Up for Africa into a Hollywood A-list charity event, and working closely with players (via the Players Advisory Council) to steadily improve what is undeniably the biggest and arguably the best annual festival of poker tournaments in the world. He credits his team for incorporating TV broadcasting (most recently securing a new long-term contract with ESPN), new media, sponsorship, licensing, and summer-time side events that have made the Rio a real home for the WSOP and part of sure-to-endure poker lore.

“I’ve achieved everything I set out to do and more,” Pollack says.

WSOP 2005

WSOP 2006

photos:
Flipchip / LasVegasVegas

WSOP 2009

In his 4 1/2 year stint, Pollack shepherded the World Series through it’s biggest boom year, 2006, and then its recovery period after the UIGEA. In 2008, WSOP-parent Harrah’s went from a publicly traded company to a private one, and in May of this year, created a new corporate step-parent — Harrah’s Interactive Entertainment — with attorney-turned online gambling exec Mitch Garber at the helm.

“All organizations change over the years,” Pollack says.

The new boss, Garber, of course, has navigated through the same turbulent industry waters … as the former CEO of PartyGaming (the WSOP’s biggest online gaming partner in 2006) and before that as Executive Chairman of FirePay and president and CEO of its parent, Optimal Group, an online gambling payment processor that settled two weeks ago with the US government for pre-UIGEA transgressions for $19.2 million.

A WSOP spokesman says: “We appreciate Jeffrey’s contributions over the past four years and wish him the best in the future. The World Series of Poker remains the market leader with this year’s tournament exceeding all expectations, and we are well positioned for the future. There is no intention at this time to replace the Commissioner role.”

Pollack describes the split amongst suits as amicable but “bittersweet”. The team he worked with — Ty Stewart, Seth Palansky, Craig Abrahams, Jack Effel, and many others — are all staying on board. Pollack is not sure what he will do next. He says possibilities include media, sports, entertainment, poker, and gaming.

“I’m very bullish on the future of poker. The industry is just hitting its stride,” he says.

“Maybe I’ll even play the main event next year.”

For the past couple years, Bluff has been running the WSOP website — they actually paid them for the privilege. But now Harrah’s has said we don’t want your stinkin’ money! what, you can’t keep paying us? Fine then, we’ll run it ourselves … and the keys to the WSOP internet machinery (now a division of Harrah’s Interactive Entertainment) have since been handed over.

Hat tip to “riverdance” on 2+2 for the link.

Phil Hellmuth — fresh off the announcement of his coaching relationship with Harrah’s-hater Jeff Shulman and apparently still on tilt about having to pay for his own room at the WSOP this summer — appeared on the Hardcore Poker Show today (on the internet and Sirius 98) to reveal a Glenn-Beckish unease amongst some big-time pros about the WSOP’s intent to launch its own online poker site … and hints that Full Tilt, PokerStars, and Ultimate Bet might be talking about colluding cooperating to start their own WSOP alternative … a move he suggests could make the WSOP “worth nothing”.

Phil Hellmuth on Hardcore Sports Radio – excerpts
Sep 23 2009

“There’s a huge battle brewing …”

Find the whole interview here.

In addition to the warning, Hellmuth calls out Harrah’s for “not giving any of [money] back to the players” and takes a pop at Jeffrey Pollack for not reassuring him that everything is gonna to be alright; but it seems, without naming names, that his fear and vitriol is really directed at Mitch Garber — FTP, Stars, and UB’s old rival at PartyPoker, who’s never really played nice with any of them before.

My question: How did UB outplay Doyle’s Room for third position in the unofficial alliance of American-friendly online poker rooms?

Gaming Intelligence reported that Harrah’s signed a deal with Dragonfish, a subsidiary of online giant 888, to support Harrah’s entry into the online market with the World Series of Poker and Caesars Casino.

“This is a ground breaking deal for 888 and demonstrates our ability to provide real value to globally renowned, land-based casinos and their leading brands,” said Gigi Levy, Chief Executive Officer of 888.

“We have the structure in place to realise our B2B division’s full potential over the next 18 months and beyond and today’s announcement of our partnership with an industry giant is further vindication of this strategy.”

Mitch Garber, CEO of Harrah’s Interactive Entertainment, added: “As we develop and roll out our interactive strategy, we have chosen to work with 888, primarily for their world-class technology, scalability, and a strong commitment to compliance, and responsible gaming,” said Mitch Garber, Chief Executive Officer of HIE.

No specific time frame was given for the official launch.