Based on a comparison of Mr. Beckley’s plea agreement with Mr. Franzen’s plea agreement, I’m even more convinced that Mr. Beckley is not a co-operator.

First, let’s look at Mr. Franzen’s agreement. It contains the caveat that the sentence to be imposed is within the sole discretion of the US District Court and is careful to note that the USAO is not making any promise or representation about the sentence that Mr. Franzen will receive. (Mr. Beckley’s agreement has substantially the same language.) However, read the third paragraph on page 2 of Mr. Franzen’s plea. This paragraph sets out that Mr. Franzen is to do a number of things for the US Attorney further to this transaction. For example, he is to “truthfully and completely disclose all information with respect to the activities of himself and others concerning all matters about which this Office inquires of him, which information can be used for any purpose.” He is to attend all meetings at which the USAO requests his presence. Mr. Franzen is to bring to the Department of Justice’s attention “all crimes which he has committed, and all administrative, civil, or criminal proceedings, investigations, or prosecutions in which he has been or is a subject, target, party, or witness.” He is to provide truthful testimony at any trial—including, presumably, at the trial of John Campos and Chad Elie next March, if it goes forward—and at “any other court proceeding with respect to any matters about which this Office may request his testimony.” The essence of what this paragraph is after is in (b): that Mr. Franzen is to “cooperate fully with this Office, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and any other law enforcement agency designated by this Office.” In return for his co-operation, and notwithstanding that his sentence will be up to the court, the USAO will (at page 3) inform the probation department and the court, among other things, of Mr. Franzen’s plea agreement and “the nature and extent of Mr. Franzen’s co-operation with this Office.” This is why Mr. Franzen doesn’t yet have a sentencing date. The government is waiting to see how he performs as a co-operator first; that will be one of the factors affecting his sentence.

Now read Mr. Beckley’s plea agreement. It sets out the counts to which he pleaded guilty, stipulates that he agrees to forfeit $300,000, and establishes a schedule related to that forfeiture. It also contains stipulations related to the sentencing guidelines and (as discussed above) it leaves any term of incarceration up to the court. (The parties also agreed that Mr. Beckley’s stipulated guidelines sentencing range is 12-18 months.) But none of the extensive co-operating language in Mr. Franzen’s deal is in Mr. Beckley’s plea agreement. According to Mr. Beckley’s plea, he doesn’t need to testify before a grand jury or at trial or at any other proceedings. He need not give information about any other party in response to any queries put to him by the USAO. He doesn’t have to attend any meeting at the USAO’s request. In short, he doesn’t have to co-operate with the USAO, the FBI, or any other law enforcement agency under the terms of his deal.

It looks like all Brent Beckley has to do is show up to be sentenced on April 19, 2012.

Let’s see what happens in the spring. But based on the publicly-available documents, it appears that Mr. Beckley does not need to do anything to help the government in order to move ahead with his sentencing, and I’m even more confident that he’s not a co-operator. He also presently appears to have more of a final date for getting out of this case than any other Black Friday defendant.

A lot of you already know about BOOM: The Incredible True Story of Online Poker, produced by Cardrunners icons Taylor Caby and Jay Rosenkrantz. Now, also coming soon, we have ALL IN: The Poker Movie, produced by the relatively big-time 4th Row Films.

Apparently both Boom and All In were all (or almost) ready to go right before Black Friday … which kinda caused a narrative breakdown in their endings.

I sat for both these films (as a talking head) … but have no idea whether or not my parts ended up on the cutting room floor. Kinda bummed I didn’t end up in the teaser below for All In … but hey, I guess I can understand appearing lower in the credits than Howard Lederer and Annie Duke.

(Can only imagine how excited producers must have gotten over Bernie Madoff-level allegations against one of their “stars”!)

Release date (and New York premiere party?) scheduled for February 2012. I really can’t wait to see how it all ends … on the big screen as well as in real life.

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.

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.

FullTiltPoker 

Mini Series of Poker Event 31 starts at 15:20 ET. $30+$3 Pot Limit Omaha. $10,000 guaranteed. - http://ow.ly/5e5mF - 3 hours ago

Whether or not they crush the guarantee or there’s an overlay doesn’t really matter. But it does reveal something about Full Tilt’s confidence level, and imho shows a once-powerful entity crippled, having lost a few previous zeroes.

But it should make for vigorous discourse providing valuable information … kinda like a think-tank for couch-based researchers and analysts. Details on the academic equivalent to a call-in show:

Toll-free Dial-In Number: (866) 951-1151

International Dial-In Number: (201) 590-2255

United Kingdom +44 08003581576

Conference # : 4999006

Join us for this roundtable teleconference on Wednesday May 18, 2011 at 10:00am PT/1:00pm ET to learn more about the economics of the multi-billion online gambling market and recent US government gaming legislation.

Topics include:

1. The history of today’s online gaming market
2. How Las Vegas feels about online gaming
3. “Black Friday” and its meaning for the online gaming business
4. What the online gaming business will look like in 2012

Moderator:

Michael Damphousse, CEO/CMO, Green Leads

Panelists:

David G. Schwartz, Director of Center for Gambling Research-UNLV
Dan Michalski, Founder/Editor, Pokerati.com
John Pappas, Executive Director, PPA (Poker Players Alliance)
Greg Raymer, 2004 WSOP Champion and Lawyer

Pregame.com

The team over at Pregame.com not only addressed how poker players have been affected by the indictments but also got some insight of how other people in the poker industry are being affected thanks to their guest Kristen Bihr. Bihr, who is a writer for PokerStarsBlog.com as well as being the PCA Ladies Event Champion, discusses how the poker media industry is being affected along with her current predicament of having the majority of her Ladies Event winnings tied up online. You can listen to the show in its entirety on the Pregame.com site

Quad Jacks Interviews

Already running 6 days consecutively with numerous host the show is going to come to an end shortly after reaching the 7 day mark for some rest. Numerous guest have joined over the past week, including Shaun Deeb, Katy Leibert, Daniel Negreanu, Gary Wise, BJ Nemeth, Kevin “KevMath” Mathers, and our very own Dan Michalski to break down what the indictments mean to not only the poker community but also personally to themselves.

Along with being a part of the show this past week KevMath also took a few of the interviews from the past 6 days and made them available for download. These are not in iTunes but they are indeed safe files.

Chuck Kidd Interview
Shaun Deeb Interview
Daniel Negrenu Surprise call into the show

On a side note a few of our favorite podcast have different host this week due to the regular host choosing to step aside either due to honoring the request to not speak or out of fear of causing problems due to their affiliation. This week ESPN’s The Poker Edge went on without Phil Gordon, though he did provide a short message to listeners that was played at the beginning of the show. The other pro to step aside this week is Dennis Phillips, who also spoke briefly at the beginning of the show to give a brief statement before stepping aside for the rest of the show to go on.

The Final Table Poker Radio Show crew got kicked out of the poker room this week due to the start of the WSOP Circuit events in St. Louis. After discussing the recent happenings at the circuit event Dennis and Paul are joined by Pat Walsh who discusses his recent win at the Big Event Shootout. Mori Eskandami closes out the show discussing production of TV poker shows along with the host change for High Stakes Poker. You listen to the entire show or catch up on previous show by either visiting The Final Table site or on iTunes.

The Hardcore Poker Show:

This week’s show starts off with the guys talking about what they think Phil Ivey’s new site will be about and wether Ivey can teach the average Joe how to be like him. The show then moves on to a discussion about chopping tournaments before Jess Welman, who most will know from the two time award winning Poker Beat, joins the show. Welman discusses her recent second place finish at the Hollywood Poker Open and how she was one of the lone players that did not want to do a chop when the players were down to 18 players. After telling the stories of the names she was called because she did not want to chop Welman moves on to discuss recent poker news to close out the show. If you would like to listen to the show you can either download it via iTunes along with catching future shows every Monday from 8-9pm EST on Sirius Satellite Radio channel 98.

A Perspectives Weekly:

Coming out with a April Fools Day show this week the APCW crew come together discusses some new happenings at eCOGRA before moving on to discuss the deal between PokerStars and Wynn.

Andrew Feldman and Phil Gordon are joined this week by Chad Brown. Before getting to Brown the two discuss recent poker news and lay out some details for Feldman Challenge will Feldman will take on someone in 25 to 250 hands at $0.01/$0.02. After finishing up the news Brown comes on to discuss his recent battle with cancer, including how it was found and the surgery to remove the tumor. He also breaks down what the future looks like and equates giving himself the best chance to stay cancer free to poker. You can listen to the entire podcast on ESPN.com, or download it directly via iTunes.

Two Plus Two Pokercast:

It’s been a while since these guys made it on the roundup but this week they were joined by Pokerati’s own Scarlet “scarlet_lv ” Robinson. Robinson follows Daniel Negreanu and Alan Boston this week to discuss online regulation (at the 1 hour 52 minute mark) breaking down the recent state bills that have been in the news. Robinson also gives her thoughts on where things go from here and what happens if these bills do not pass along with her thoughts on the recent alliances that some online sites are doing with some Las Vegas brick and mortar casinos. Listen to the show at the Two Plus Two Pokercast site or download it on iTunes.

DonkDown Radio:

Continuing on the legal front our very own Dan Michalski has been on a podcast tour since the cancelation of The Poker Beat. This week he returns to DonkDown for a new segment called the Poker Power Hour. Michalski comes on around the 32 minute mark to bring some of the recent legal news to the show. After he leaves the show the guys attempt to make some calls to those involved in the UB scandal before being joined by Shane “Shaniac” Schleger. You can listen to the show at the DonkDown site or subscribe and download it via iTunes.

Our friends on the Rabbit Hunt podcast jump right into the middle of the Joe Sebok drama this week. The guys break down and criticize both sides of the drama, breaking down what both sides of did wrong. They also discuss why Paul Leggett will probably never agree to come to 2+2 to answer questions from the forum readers and how much work the moderators have had to do over the past few days. Take a listen to the show on either the Cardrunners site or download it directly from iTunes to listen to this interview.

The Bernard Lee Poker Show:

Making its first appearance in the roundup The Bernard Lee Poker Show welcomes mindset coach Sam Chauhan to their show. Chauhan speaks about being in the positive mindset in order to be successful. He also discusses about how he got started in the poker community with a short discussion that he had with Antonio Esfandiari in a restroom at the Rio. To close out the show the two discuss some of the tools that Chauhan uses with his students to keep them in the right mindset. If you would like to listen to this show you can either download it from Bernard’s site, listen to it directly on on Rounders Radio, or through iTunes.

I Am Nanonoko – Team Pokerstars Online Documentary:

OK, this is not a podcast but it was brought to our attention this week from our good friend Dr. Pauly from Tao of Poker. If you have ever wondered what it is like to be in the head of a Supernova Elite you definitely should check out this short documentary that was done on Randy “Nononoko” Lew. Also check out the brief blog that gives an introduction to the film.

Clearly I’ve got skillz … But I’m still headed to Deeb’s boot camp this weekend … because as anyone who’s played 1/2 with me recently in 2008-11 can attest, my live-action game might-could benefit from a little tweaking.

Gotta do something so I can hang at the real tables (without needing multiple rebuys) right? Check out the details at LivePokerTraining.com. (Scroll down to get to the goods.)

The guys from The Poker Edge are back this week with Daniel Negreanu in tow. First on topic is Erik Seidel’s recent run to the top of the all time money list and how the super high roller events are altering how he looks at the list. The discussion shortly turns to the SuperStar Showdown where Negreanu discusses his game plan against Isildur1. Negreanu also discusses the recent notNAPT event that was held at the Bike and PokerStars moving into poker regulation. You can listen to the entire podcast on ESPN.com, or download it directly via iTunes.

Poker Road Radio:

Are you looking for on the road radio with stops at most of the major tournament stops then you should be listening to Poker Road Radio. These guys have been at the WPT Bay 101 Shooting Star tournament the past week and have had guest such as Dwyte Pilgrim, The Royal Flush Girls, and final table player Mike Sexton. The highlight of the week was the show from March 15th where Joe Sebok discusses the recent Friedman/Haxton issues that have come to the forefront on Cerus network. Check out the show on the Poker Road Radio site or subscribe via iTunes.

Jess And BJ Show:

This show speaks for itself, Jessica Welman and BJ Nemeth from the award winning The Poker Beat join forces at all the US World Poker Tour events to record the Jess and BJ show. If you do not watch these shows you definitely should.

No, it’s not part of the plot line to a poker-politico version of “Almost Famous”.

Unlike the lobbyist-types communing in various state capitals for the purposes of *passing* online gaming legislation, this party is roadtripping to *repeal* the online gambling ban in Washington State.

Read about it via the following presser from PPA (but lol at the word “draconian”):

Poker Players Alliance Members Meet with Washington Lawmakers
Hope to Gain Support for Overturning State Ban on Online Poker

Olympia, WA (March 17, 2011) – Members of the Poker Players Alliance (PPA) from across the state of Washington are spending the day in Olympia today to ask their state lawmakers to overturn the draconian state law that makes Washingtonians felons for enjoying a hand of poker on their home computers. The PPA, the leading poker grassroots advocacy group with more than one million members nationwide and more than 20,000 in Washington State, has been leading the efforts in the state to protect players from potential criminalization and provide them with a safe, regulated, national environment in which to play online poker.

“Washington is the only state that makes it not only a crime, but a felony on par with child pornography, for its own citizens to play poker at their home computer. Surely, lawmakers in the state can recognize that penalizing their constituents for opting to enjoy a hand of poker on the computer versus at the casino down the street is not only illogical but ineffective,” said John Pappas, executive director of the PPA. “Our goal with this lobby day is to raise awareness of the incongruity of this law and identify alternatives for legislators to support that will remove this criminalization while providing a safe and regulated online poker market.”

Joining more than 20 Washingtonians in Olympia are three renowned professional poker players – Andy Bloch, Linda Johnson and Jan Fisher. The group of players will meet with at least 45 state legislators to discuss the impact of the state ban and how overturning the ban and supporting federal and perhaps even state regulation of online poker would result in consumer protections for players and millions of dollars in much needed state revenue.

The state law, passed in 2006 and recently upheld by the State Supreme Court, makes it a class “C” felony for an individual to play poker online from their home computer punishable by a $10,000 fine and/or five years in prison. A 2010 poll of Washington State voters found that an overwhelming 80 percent of them disagree with this law, and over half believe online poker should be licensed, regulated and taxed.

“We have the support of the public for overturning this ban. We have the support of the players. We hope that after today, we will have the support of state lawmakers as well and can begin the process of removing the criminalization of the individual players and establishing a safe, regulated online poker market in Washington State,” continued Pappas.

Ante Up Poker Magazine:

This is the first time that the guys from Ante Up have hit my roundup but I do not think that you will be disappointed with this show. The guys get started off talking about how poker terms are finding their way into movies or TV shows before moving into a discussion about the first episode of Season 7 of High Stakes Poker. The meat of this show is an interview with Nolan Dalla, who is the WSOP Media Coordinator, along with being a man of massive poker knowledge. Dalla talks about the growth of the WSOP Circuit along with the future of poker regulation. Check out the show on Ante Up’s site or on iTunes.

Rabbit Hunt:

With the latest UB scandal information being dropped the one side we have not heard from on the podcast scene was that of UB. Well this week the crew from the Rabbit Hunt podcast got UB Pro Joe Sebok to come on for an interview to speak for UB, as he has done for UB since he joined. Joe discusses how UB wants people to come forward with information like what Makar has brought forward over the past few weeks. Sebok states that UB has reached out to Makar wanting to get any and all information that he may have so that it can be fully released to the public. Take a listen to the show on either the Cardrunners site or download it directly from iTunes to listen to this interview.

DonkDown Radio:

The guys are back this week recapping the bombshell that was dropped on them by Travis Makar, skip ahead to around 45 minutes into the show to get straight to more UB talk. After a brief sidetrack to talk to some random female before talking about the SuperAllah registry key that was a tool used to allow people to see the whole cards. At near the 1 hour 4 minute mark the guys start to break down the Rabbit Hunt interview with Sebok. Spartan Fox joins the show at the 2 hour 13 minute mark to discuss his interview, just a few minutes in Spartan Fox states that Paul Legget had recently stated that even though they are missing ten percent of the hand histories they have one hundred percent of the finical data. You can listen to the show at the DonkDown site or subscribe and download it via iTunes.

Rabbit Hunt:

Our friends over at the Rabbit Hunt started off this weeks show with some news but the part we are all interested in starts at the 16:00 mark. The guys got mookman5, who is a wealth of information when it comes to the Ultimate Bet scandal, to come on the show and discuss the latest Travis Makar bomb that was dropped the week before. They discuss reasons why Makar would be coming out at this point and speculate on this lawsuit that he made mention to throughout the interview. Take a listen to the show on either the Cardrunners site or download it directly from iTunes to listen to this interview.

DonkDown Radio:

I usually do not repeat shows in back to back weeks, but these guys are at the center of the poker podcast world this week and have came back from last weeks bombshell of a show with a followup show that has a run time of over four hours. Do not be worried though, we will tell you where to skip ahead to so that you can save some time.

• 22:30 – Bryan Micon starts to discuss his meeting with Travis Makar, where he discusses some of the documents that he saw during the meeting.
• 45:10 – Brad Booth joins the show to discuss being cheated by the super-user accounts.
• 1:20:00 – Micon starts to break down the Addressing a Few Rumors on the UB Blog.
• 1:41:00 – Haley Hintze joins the show to discuss who may have actually made the payments to Zoltan “Brainwashdodo” Rozsa.
• 2:35:35 – Travis Makar calls into the show to ask Booth some questions, the first of which is how does he know that Russ Hamilton actually cheated him.
• 2:48:00 – Booth ask Makar what it is that he is truly looking for from bringing this information public.
• 3:19:36 – Dustin Woolf joins the show to discuss how he was cheated.

You can listen to the show at the DonkDown site or subscribe and download it via iTunes.

Finally, keep an eye out for a new episode of The Micros tonight, as it was posted on their Facebook earlier today that a new episode should be up tonight at around 9PM PT or 12AM ET.

Well that meeting happened yesterday and Micon was able to walk away with more than just some mental pictures of the documents. He actually got Makar to let him leave with one of the many emails that he made mention of during the interview. You can view that email and Micon’s thoughts of the meet-up over on the DonkDown Forums.

If you are still wanting some more information on the meeting then be sure to check out the DonkDown Radio show tonight at 10:30 PM ET where Micon will be giving more details and be answering questions throughout the show.

UPDATE: Meanwhile, UB COO Paul Leggett has posted his own response to the original Travis Makar interview here.

The guys were nice enough to publish a transcript from the interview that can either be found in their forums. Here are a few of the highlights from the transcripts:

• Makar says he knows where the missing hand histories are.
• According to Travis, Russ Hamilton is taking the fall for others.
• Not all of the names used to cheat have been released.
• Annie Duke borrowed money from Hamilton to buy a house but has never paid the money back.
• Company people were accessing random high roller players accounts, playing on them, and transferring any winnings. If they lost they lost.
• Travis is going to try and meet up with Micon to show him some of the documents.

We will keep our eye on this story and bring you all the new information as it becomes available.

Gill is known for his unashamed belligerence, politically incorrect rants, and a “FUCKITALL” attitude. I totally dig this guy, partly because he’s virtually a male copy of myself (so I “get him”) and partly because I respect his game. But a recent Facebook status update shed some new light on his true vagina character: “I really don’t want to go to jail… 14 days is going to be brutal,” he whimpered.

Shortly after publishing that comment, Gill’s ballsack threatened to tear itself off and run away in shame. I was really disappointed to see the him panicking over two short weeks behind bars. Let’s put this in perspective…getting fisted by Edward Scissorhands is brutal.  A coathanger abortion is brutal. Two weeks in a hillbilly jailhouse isn’t so much brutal as it is inconvenient

Keep your chin up, Carter; I’m sure the two weeks behind bars will come and go as fast as your bankroll does.

The guys over at DonkDown are known for their pursuit in getting to the bottom of things in the UB Poker scandal. This weeks show gets off to an unexpected start when Travis Makar calls into the show. For those not familiar with Travis he was linked to the scandal in the report put together by our friends over at Wicked Chops. Travis makes mention of the missing hand histories and recordings that are being used in a federal case. For those that are interested in just the UB part of the show should skip ahead to the 30:30 mark and enjoy the ride for around the next hour. You can listen to the show at the DonkDown site or subscribe and download it via iTunes.

Two Plus Two Pokercast:

This week the guys have one of the new team PokerStars members, Andrew Brokos, on the show but the main feature of the show is Eugene Katchalov. Eugene comes on and discusses his move to the US and some day trading before getting into the SuperStar Showdown that did not got his way. Eugene talks about how he prepared for the match by playing against Daniel Negreanu and then how the match actually went. Finally he discusses his Super High Roller win from the PCA. Listen to the show at the Two Plus Two Pokercast site or download it on iTunes.

PocketFives Podcast:

After giving you guys two podcast that have run times of over two hour each here is one that just eclipses the thirty minute mark. The guys over at PocketFives are joined by Lauren Kling this week to discuss her recent success, along with how she got started playing poker. Lauren also discusses how trying to make it in the poker world as a female can be difficult due to guys not wanting to give her the credit. Overall it is a good and short interview full of information from Lauren, check out the PocketFives Podcast on their site or via iTunes.