PokerStars may be without a CEO for the time being, as Gabi Campos, who assumed the chief executive position in 2010, reportedly is no longer big boss of the largest real-money online poker site in the world. While it’s not quite clear who told whom to eff off (and Stars has yet to put out a press release insisting all is hunky-dory) … if confirmed, Campos’ ouster/skeedaddling marks the fourth major executive departure at PokerStars since Black Friday.

First to be disappeared (amid some controversy) was veteran EPT Tournament Director Thomas Kremser in May; then last month, EPT founder John Duthie left. And now supposedly Jeffrey Haas, top dog at Global Poker Tours Limited (parent company for PokerStars live events) has been, er … moved on. (Haas’s LinkedIn page lists GPTL as “Past” … and “Director of New Platforms, Mobile & Social Gaming for Pokerstars.com” as current — sounds like “big-money suit demoted to glorified blogger” to me, but hey!)

UPDATE: Interestingly, Campos’ LinkedIn-from-Israel doesn’t list PokerStars as a past or present employer … says he his now working for 888-subsidiary Dragonfish, which we know, of course, in 2010 became an online partner to the WSOP.

What if anything might be behind this extended shakeup on the international live tournament poker scene is hard to say. Read Wendeen Eolis’ report in Poker Player Newspaper here.

Despite Black Friday, PokerStars has maintained its position as the world’s biggest, arguably most important, and possibly most highly regulated and therefore internationally legitimate online poker site. (And they set a Guinness World Record to boot!)

The US Department of Justice, meanwhile, maintains that PokerStars’ success was built on the ill-gotten gains of an illegal enterprise with ties to organized crime … and their founder is still, according to the DOJ, the #1 most wanted online poker criminal.

Peter Eastgate Jumps in a River

We begin in Denmark, with a former WSOP champion once again demonstrating the sort of unhinged character required to succeed at poker’s most toppest level. Despite already earning enough money to cover Phil Ivey’s divorce settlement, Eastgate couldn’t resist putting his health on the line for an extra $6k. His fellow Danish degenerates bet he couldn’t jump into a freezing river, leap out, and then run to the home of fellow pro Kasper Cordes. Once again, however, Eastgate bested all comers (and hypothermia) to complete the challenge in a mere 20 minutes. [Poker Nyhederne]

Joe Hachem Bids Stars Adieu

Just like every WSOP champion since the poker boom erupted, Eastgate is a member of the PokerStars stable of sponsored players. An illustrious club that included Joe Hachem, until he announced his resignation this week. The second post-Moneymaker World Series winner, Hachem is still Australia’s most recognisable player, even if he hasn’t made any major waves since winning a WPT title in 2005. Hachem claims he is leaving in order to, “pursue other career opportunities,” but the spectre of Black Friday is likely to have factored into his decision. [Card Player]

PokerStars Turbo Explosion

If you find long sessions of poker excessively dull, you’re probably already an ardent proponent of turbo tables. With levels that last less time than it’s taken me to type this sentence, players can be in and out of a tournament in minutes. This week, PokerStars announced plans to string a whole bunch of them together into what will undoubtedly be the fastest online poker series in history. The TCOOP is scheduled to run from Jan. 19th – 29th and will feature tournaments with buy-ins and prizes and things. [Poker News]

Legal Danish Gambling in Effect

Having given Peter Eastgate some time to dry off, we’re back to Denmark for our final story of the week. Following in the footsteps of France and Italy, the Danish have activated their new online gaming legislation, which seeks to operate the kind of regulated market that will have U.S. grinders staring lustily across the ocean. After jiggling all their knobs into place, the government have just handed out their first batch of gambling licenses to companies including PokerStars, PKR, and bwin.party. [Gambling Kingz]

Time for me to curl up into a Christmas coma and absorb rich food, presents, and relentless good cheer. I hope you all have a similarly indulgent Christmas and a New Year’s Eve so excellent you are unable to remember all but the barest details. If not, at least have some good luck. Ho, ho, ho!

Megabucks in Macau

All eyes turned to the East last week, as the global poker media witnessed the long awaited return of Phil Ivey. Turns out, he’d been there all along, sat in a $1,300/$2,300 cash game chocked full of rich Chinese businessmen. Apparently ‘The Big Game’ has permanently moved continents and if the high rollers are still in town come 2013, they’ll be first in line for a 500 player tournament organized by Macau big wigs. The event, which has the support of local businesses, is mooted to feature an incredible $100 million prize pool. [Poker News]

PokerStars Join Soccer Brawl in Germany

PokerStars has recently joined soccer on the list of things the rest of the world enjoys more than Americans. To commemorate this fact, the world’s largest online poker site have recently announced a sponsorship deal with the German football team, VfB Lübeck. However, this not only a straightforward business arrangement. PokerStars have been vocal supporters of planned gambling legislation introduced by the state of Schleswig-Holstein, in which Lübeck is located. Rules which would fly in the face of those proposed by the German government. [CardPlayer]

Gambling on Facebook coming to the UK

Our final news nugget for today is undoubtedly the shiniest. Social networking megaliths Facebook have made detailed plans to provide real money online gambling in the UK. Soon, the denizens of this sceptred isle will be able to ‘like’ an inane photo of their gurning acquaintances and then stack off their entire bankroll all on the same platform. The likes of 888 are reportedly in talks to acquire a Facebook license, with FB credits being used in place of the pretend dollars we’ve been playing with up until now. [Tech Crunch]

At the end of this column I often say something like, ‘if I’m still here next week’ preceded by a flippant comment about one thing or another, but this time, I’m genuinely concerned for my well being. My fiancée has passed into another hemisphere for two months and there’s a very real chance that in seven days time I will be buried under my own ineptitude. So, if I’m still here next week…

PokerStars Outplayed on Landmark Hand #

PokerStars are still top dogs in the world of online poker and, just to rub it in, they decided to celebrate their 70 billionth hand by giving whoever won it lots and lots of cash. Two enterprising players decided to game the system by continuously folding to each other across multiple heads up tables. Their sneaky plan worked to perfection and they joyously scooped up the prize money. Whether you think they were geniuses or cheats depends on your outlook. Youtube polemicist EVhero definitely falls on the angry side of the argument. [Youtube]

Playtech and William Hill Lock Horns #

I reported a few weeks ago on the mass walkouts at William Hill Online’s Israeli offices. At the time it appeared to be a simple labour dispute, but the Financial Times suggests deeper concerns. The online gambling company is co-owned by Playtech and British bookmakers William Hill. Relations between the two firms are frosty at best, with concerns about split loyalties among staff in worldwide offices. [Financial Times]

Bwin.party Profit From Italian Renaissance #

Meanwhile, Bwin and PartyGaming are still enjoying a blissful honeymoon period. Recently released financial reports indicate an increase in revenue of 3% to 201.1 million euros. The company credits increasingly relaxed Italian gaming laws for the rise in profit. Not to mention picking up their fair share of poker refugees in the wake of Full Tilt’s Black Friday debacle. [Reuters]

British Poker Pros Enjoy the Spotlight #

Finally, a quick word from the BBC. Earlier this week, the unimpeachable British bastion dedicated a quiet corner of its news website to UK poker players. Written just before the start of the November Nine, the reporter’s hopes for Sam Holden were sadly premature, but it still represents a rare chance to see poker pros in the media without any appended bleating on the dangers of online gambling. Plus, you can watch Sam and Liv Boeree play heads up for a delicious Wispa bar. [BBC]

I’m off to search London for a Wispa Gold, the confectionery equivalent of a WSOP bracelet. I’ll keep my beady eye peeled for any stray bits of news that are blowing across the pavement, while you keep your gaze fixed firmly on Pokerati. I’ll know if you move.

At the time, many wondered if this marked the end of online poker, which had been booming at a rate that woulda had virtually the entire planet + Jupiter playing by now. Ironically, what was supposed to be a death knell for online poker would actually be what made several of my friends and colleagues (temporarily) rich … and the principals of Full Tilt and PokerStars and Ultimate Bet (momentarily, in the scheme of things) extremely powerful.

Let’s have a little flashback, shall we … to slightly more innocent-til-proven-guilty times … commemorating this uber-significant day in poker history:

Poker Faces in the Crowd
October 16, 2006

Online poker is kinda-sorta illegal now. Pokerati wanted to know America’s thoughts … so we asked the question, How has the new law affected you?

Jennifer Cortez
Account executive

“I think it’s just wonderful. My boyfriend played that PartyPoker like all the time. But now we will be able to see the latest Jennifer Aniston movie, and we can take more walks while holding hands. Do you know how many baby showers we’ve missed because Christopher was ‘near the bubble’?”

Ghassan Abdulhamid Bibi
Starbuck’s barista

“This is total bullshit! I have been playing AQpoker.com step tournaments for two years in an effort to qualify for the WSOP and help Al Qaeda make enough money to purchase nuclear weapons from North Korea. The plan to sneak them through America’s weak ports was almost ready to go, but now we have been foiled again. Damn you George Bush! Allah Akbar al-Poker!”

Maurice Nelson
Quadriplegic

“The new law is clearly discriminatory and violates my rights under the Americans with Disabilities Act. It’s hard to play in a casino when you can’t use your arms.”

Mrs. Michalski
Occasional Pokerati reader

“Dan, I know you’re upset, hon, but try to see the bright side. I think this will be really good for you, because from what I’ve read on the internet, you almost always lose at poker. Will you be coming over for Thanksgiving?”

“Choad”
Official ferret of Kappa Alpha, University of Arkansas

“Uh, poker what? I have no idea. Why are you asking me? I am frickin’ ferret. Look, over there, socks!

Jeffrey Schmollack
Fake WSOP Commissioner

“Off the record? We’re talking off the record? OK, dude, let me tell you, this is so awesome. I mean AWEsome! We didn’t have a fucking clue how we were ever going to handle 12,000 [players at the next WSOP]. And let me tell you something else … those online sites … they made a lot of money. Like billions, man. Give us two years and you’ll see, with soft money greasing the right pockets and the Brits out of the equation, it can all belong to Harrah’s. Why do you think we want that WSOP.com website so bad?”

I was working for Party Gaming in 2006, as chief editor of PokerBlog.com … There, albeit briefly, sadly, I had the freedom to hire and deploy a team to write about whatever we wanted, wherever we wanted, and however we wanted … so long as the content was rich with searchable keywords about poker. Or at least that was the plan pre-UIGEA.

In my time with Party, only one post would get pulled from Pokerblog — my semi-satirical response to this brand new industry-altering US law (above). There would be no argument or debate — the order to remove supposedly came from the very top, Mitch Garber, Party’s relatively new CEO.

“Just put it on Pokerati if you think it’s that important,” my boss in London relented.

Which I did, eventually no longer scratching my head as to why that post may have been such a big deal.

That’s hard to say, but regardless, you can still look stylish in your nonchalance with this 2010 edition WCOOP T-shirt commemorating the events from back in the Poker Cold War days:

Generic WCOOP Shirt by Pokerati

But a few recent stories of particular significance that might otherwise get buried amid PokerStars/WSOP/WPT press releases, 2+2 NVG threads, and the mashup of Jungleman cheating buzz:

Ring-fenced funds: Full Tilt debaucle explained
ALDERNEY
Check out this story in Poker Player Newspaper about a regulatory matter of new relevance called “ring-fenced funds”. It helps one understand a little better why Full Tilt found themselves in tighter straits than PokerStars post-Black Friday (even though PokerStars is the big boy the DOJ most wants) … and leaves one to wonder why senior executives and on-duty attorneys representing both Party Gaming and PokerStars flew in from Gibraltar, Israel, and the United States to observe the proceedings firsthand. Perhaps they thought they were coming in to witness an execution?

Online gambling goes national
WASHINGTON DC
Big talk all over the internet about a piece in the New York Post that points out how stars seem to be aligning for online gambling legalzation in the US — from the Kyl/Reid letter requesting DOJ assistance in squelching offshore operatives and state initiatives alike, to a Boehner aide taking on a VP role with the American Gaming Association, to a warming friendship between House Majority Leader Eric Cantor and Venetian pooh-bah Shelly Adelson.

It all supports my belief that online gambling will indeed be a national issue in coming months (assuming people behind a rumored Senate bill want it to be). There’s no mention, however, of the player-friendly Barton Bill, nor much anything about poker specifically — the writer talks of “gambling” — which suggests this story could be a plant by media operatives for the AGA, who we know, of course, represent Big Casinos and likely have Harry Reid’s office on speed dial. It also supports contentions that the effort to bring back online poker (thanks PPA and Joe Barton!) will likely become a push for full-on legal online casinos as bills move forward.

Nevada regulators prepping for Poker+ …
LAS VEGAS/CARSON CITY
Meanwhile, unbeknownst to many, Nevada Gaming authorities are in the midst of sweeping changes to state regulations — with very specific language updates on matters of foreign partners, “suitability”, server location, mobile gaming platforms, slot machine networks, money transfers, tax collection, you name it … The new rules currently taking shape in Nevada touch on just about every issue brought up in the online gaming political sphere over the past five years. Whether revolutionary or standard as far as procedure goes, if you really wanna know what the future of online gambling (and therefore poker) will look like — and/or place your bets on who the corporate winners will be* — follow the public work of the Nevada Gaming Commission and State Gaming Control Board here in coming weeks.

* for entertainment purposes only: smart bet is Caesars, William Hill, and Cantor-Fitzgerald.

Play Late!

ACTION ALERT: Pokerati Game — 1/2 NLH/PLO — gets underway tonight at 7pm! Goes until whenever …

However, one thing catching my attention — not because of the results, but simply because they’re playing the game — Isildur1′s high-stakes No-Limit Hold’em/Pot-Limit Omaha Mix. (Hey, I know that game … we play it at the Palms! “High-stakes action for low-stakes players” is the buzzphrase I like to throw around.) Pretty sure because it’s heads up they don’t have an “ultimate button straddle” the way we do at the Palms … and I’m not sure if they can run-it-twice … as the nature of the match suggests they’re not necessarily interested in reducing variance.

But still, sounds like Isildur1 is playing it pretty close to the right way.

SuperStar Showdown

Team PokerStars Pro Viktor ‘Isildur1’ Blom enjoyed another SuperStar Showdown win on Sunday, when he defeated Norwegian player Terje ‘Terken89’ Augdal.

The match, which was a mix of No Limit Hold’em and Pot Limit Omaha, was over in slightly more than 1,500 of the scheduled 2,500 hands, as Blom blew his opponent away to rake in Augdal’s entire $150,000 Showdown bankroll.

Despite losing $10,000 in the opening hand, Blom quickly got on top and showed his dominance throughout, his win taking his total SuperStar Showdown profit to $651,941. It also means he now has an impressive 9-2 winning record (7-2 versus high stakes opponents) in the SuperStar Showdown matches.

For a full report, including replays of some of the key hands, check out the [report of the match at PokerStars Blog].

US Rep. Joe Barton (R-TX) will be in Las Vegas for Friday’s shuffle-up-and-deal … and possibly to unveil his new online poker (only) bill.

The Texas Republican has taken the baton from Barney Frank (D-MA), by way of John Campbell (R-CA), to lead the charge for licensed and regulated online poker in the House, with a new bill his office says he plans to “drop” either Friday or closer to the July 4th weekend.

It’s still probably too early to make decent predictions, prognostication, and prop bets — haven’t even seen a draft yet — but the forces lining up this go-round are indeed different than before.

This time we’re talking about an online poker-only bill, with a different committee path, and a conservative Republican — perhaps looking to put a bipartisan feather in his cap before the ’12 elections — charged with rallying support on his side of the aisle.

The Frank bill was initially about all online gambling, which brought necessary concessions to the NFL and others — forcing Frank to dilute his argument that his bill was a matter of 21st century consumer protections and civil liberties. The Reid bill was poker-only but something different altogether — arguably a strategic bone or carrot or pawn in bigger political games. But it did provide valuable data on who still needed checks from Caesars and MGM to properly play ball where various members stood.

When Barton symbolically took over the cause last month at the PPA’s Washington DC fly-in, he wasn’t exactly addressing a groundswell of revolt … at least not one ready to amass on the Washington mall screaming “give me PokerStars or give me death!” But to that extent, the real story, imho, wasn’t so much who was there, but who wasn’t …

No Full Tilt, no PokerStars, and certainly no UB, lol.

For all the good these banished poker sites may or may not have done since the UIGEA, it had become apparent that they also complicated the political effort they championed. So now, with a bill conceived before April 15th but written afterwards, Barton may be addressing the same poker players Barney Frank spoke to before him, but he will be navigating a different mix of motivated interests in the effort to make online poker special.

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

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

Or maybe I’m just jaded.

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

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

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

Unfortunately, I don’t really think so. Throughout the first week, the staff has seemed as attentive and responsive to players as I’ve ever seen, and I feel like they’re really working to make this year’s series something special. Sure, the much-hyped grudge matches fell a little flat in real life, but those can be fixed in post. And they took place on that massive, mothership feature table set, which should look awesome in high def. (I fully expect someone will figure out how to replicate the last five minutes of Close Encounters of the Third Kind on that thing before the Series is done.)

Bright lights and forced drama aside, it just feels like Caesar’s is fighting an uphill battle against forces that are out of their control. I mean, when the biggest story of the week is about the player who’s boycotting the WSOP as a big FU to his sponsor, you’ve got some problems on your hands.

It’s way too early to label this year’s WSOP a disappointment, but my hunch is that the suits behind the scenes are getting a little worried about how this year’s Series is going to play on TV and in the press. Without some big names making some deep runs in the next few days, it’s going to be hard for them to convince the general public to pay attention to what’s happening on the felt rather than looking behind the curtain to focus on what’s happening in the courts.

So come on people, lighten up. Sure, you’re playing for a shot at fame, glory and life-changing money, but really, do you have to take things so seriously?

Mark Cuban may have been willing to take heat from the NBA, but not so much the DOJ.

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

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

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

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

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

WSOP 2011 Bonus: the Tupac Edition

download

And this one … knowing the tensions we’ve seen between California card rooms and the poker sites we used to think of as the “good guys” (before government officials said, “no no they Full Tilt and PokerStars are the bad guys!”) … well, hmm, call me @JeffMadsenObv, but is it coincidence that California’s first brick-and-mortar card room to open an online poker site did so on April 15?

Aha. Exactly.

Likewise, might we see more California casinos opening up online outposts soon … and how many similar ops across the country will be trying to entice players to their no-money real-money tables with WSOP seats? Also kinda curious … a $7,500 cash buyout option for the winner. (That seems pretty good, no?)

ZEN ENTERTAINMENT AND HUSTLER CASINO ANNOUNCE $10,000 WSOP SEAT
Lucky Online Poker Winner Will Play in the Big Game

LAS VEGAS, MAY 12, 2011  — ZEN Entertainment Network (http://www.ZENEntertainment.com) , a leading social entertainment company that has been developing free-to-play games since 2006, and Larry Flynt’s Hustler Casino Los Angeles are excited to announce the creation of a $10,000 World Series of Poker seat available exclusively to online poker players at http://www.HustlerCasinoLA.com/FREEPOKER.

“We’re thrilled to be able to make this offer to our loyal fans and players,” said Stephanie Cota, chief marketing officer of ZEN Entertainment. “Some of poker’s biggest stars have come from online play, and we’re confident that the player who wins our online tournament will soon be a household name.”

Qualifiers

The Basic Seat Qualifier runs from May 3 to June 21, with daily qualifiers at 1:50 a.m., 5:04 a.m., 11:08 a.m., 2:24 p.m., 8:08 p.m. and 11:04 p.m. (all tournament times are Eastern Standard Time). It is open to all members with a buy-in of 250 points. The top 10 winners will receive an invitation to the $10,000 WSOP Main Event Championship and points based on the prize matrix.

The VIP Qualifier runs from May 3 to June 21, with daily qualifiers at 8:18 a.m. and 5:12 p.m. It is only open to VIP members and no buy-in is required. The top 15 winners will receive an invitation to the $10,000 WSOP Main Event Championship.

Championship

The invitation-only $10,000 WSOP Main Event Championship will be held June 22 at 10 p.m. The grand prize winner will receive a $10,000 Main Event seat on July 7 at the Rio Casino and Resort in Las Vegas, NV; an exclusive cocktail reception held in his or her honor; a professional photo shoot and $750 cash. (The winner may also elect to choose a $7,500 buy-out.)

All tournaments are announced with a display in the lobby one hour prior to the start. Each tournament is 3 hours long, with 4-minute-long breaks every half-hour.

ZEN players join the free-to-play network through the Hustler Casino website. Once they enter the network, they are directed to Hustler Casino’s tournament landing page where they can participate in Texas Hold ’em, Royal Hold’em, Triple Play Video Poker and more, while also viewing Hustler Casino’s messaging and branding. ZEN’s technology also creates natural pauses between hands, allowing players to click and explore banners, videos, take surveys and much more. The result is massive-player engagement sessions that last, on average, 67 minutes.

“Since the recent launch of ZEN Entertainment’s social gaming on our site on April 15, the response has been overwhelming,” said Al Underwood, Hustler Casino L.A.’s director of marketing. “Our customers are now able to enjoy the Hustler Casino experience wherever they are, whether they’re at home or even on the road and using their mobile devices.”

ZEN Entertainment Network is a 100 percent U.S.-legal, free-to-play online poker and video poker contest and sweepstakes site. It offers partners a fully branded, turn-key online presence with shared prize pools and instant player liquidity. Consumers enjoy a fun, social and competitive environment where they vie for $100,000 in monthly cash and prizes, creating a true win-win situation for everyone. ZEN continues to enjoy a powerful position in the marketplace, and its platform will continue to offer B2B partners play that conforms to U.S. laws.

For more information, please visit:

·         Casinos: http://www.zenentertainment.com/casinos

·         Blog: http://social.ZENentertainment.com/

·         Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Zen-Entertainment/206074156088729

·         Twitter: @ZEN_Network

About ZEN Entertainment

Founded in Las Vegas in 2008, ZEN is a leading global developer of casino-style and tournament-style game platforms and games, uniting brands and communities in 100 percent legal, online poker games for fun and prizes. ZEN’s flagship product, the ZEN Tournament Network, is the leading free-to-play games network. The ZEN Tournament Network is deployed alongside third-party brands, such as Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE), casinos and others.

ZEN’s platform is based on a completely U.S. legal, free-to-play social and casual games environment, featuring tournament-style poker and video poker. The company’s platform consistently demonstrates high performance metrics, including 67-minute average user sessions and 10-plus hours of session play per month per user. ZEN provides each player with a diverse selection of tournaments to enjoy, many of which are sponsored by celebrities, national brands and manufacturers, movie studios and other marketers seeking to present their products to ZEN’s highly engaged casual-game audience.

To find out more about ZEN Entertainment Network, please visit www.ZENEntertainment.com.

About Larry Flynt’s Hustler Casino Los Angeles

Hustler Casino is a luxurious casino with Monte Carlo-style décor and open 24 hours a day, every day of the year, specializing in classic card games like blackjack, Texas Hold ‘em, three card poker, pai gow poker and more, with over 50 dedicated poker tables and over 30 table games. Hustler has long been home to the largest seed progressive poker jackpots in the California, with a facility matching the plushest Las Vegas casinos, and offering fantastic food and attentive service that compares to the finest hotels. We are located just 15 minutes south of downtown Los Angeles and the Staples Center, in the celebrated city of Gardena.

On yesterday’s show they talk to Pauly — one of the Top Two Podcasters on Tao of Pokerati — who lets it be known that while player money from PokerStars may indeed be filtering back to American players via US banks … affiliates got a form letter saying they would not be paid, and I think it sounds like he’s saying they have no intent to in the near future or ever.

Check with the Tao of Poker to see if he (or someone else) posts this letter. Until we see it I can’t know if Pauly — who removed his PokerStars affiliate banners — is simply speaking the aggressive truth or just playing squeaky-wheel hardball or both. He is a New Yorker, after all — from the Southern District no less!

UPDATE: He has posted it.

Tony G, the owner of PokerNews is next on the show — and really, for all the voices that have been clamoring since “Black Friday”, he’s one of the biggest names in poker with a direct connection to the money-flow from Full Tilt, Stars, and others to do an in-depth, candid interview.

Here’s a clip from the show to give you a taste.

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And click here for the whole episode.

Controversial for sure … but his words seem to be less publicity-whorey than usual. The G says any American depositing money on any site is high-risk, and payout could be unlikely. While believing that Stars seems to be making good, he sees signs that Full Tilt accounts could be in greater jeopardy — and calls out Howard Lederer and Phil Ivey specifically to address the issue (either in public or private) and possibly offer up their personal assets to take care of players.

You do have to take Tony G with a grain of salt, as potential conflicts of interest abound — he represents PartyPoker, for one … but also owns PokerNews, which does (or did) a lot of business with Full Tilt and PokerStars as well as the WSOP. He also could just be looking to fill a “good guy” power vacuum in poker … but this interview doesn’t seem loaded with the usual G bluster for attention; he conveys sincere concern in his offer to “help” and admits that he feels some responsibility to players that his site sent to Full Tilt.

He also says repeatedly that “No US company has ever survived a DOJ prosecution.”

Yeow. I have no clue if that’s accurate or not … (I’m still looking around for verification of the 92 percent conviction/guilty plea DOJ success rate I’ve been touting) … but it’s probably not far from reality. Whether or not there’s any competitive tattle-tales in play, it seems a good bet that in the coming weeks we will see more facts emerge that simply can’t be spun in a positive light … which may already explain the silence by some.

And while in some ways this graph looks like the inverse of Party Gaming’s graph in ’06 come the UIGEA and their subsequent, calculated US pullout. But zoom out and you’ll see today’s rise for Party (now officially Bwin.Party Digital Entertainment) is merely a token blip in their long-term efforts to get back atop the online gaming world.

Click here to see for yourself.

The “bull case” they make, interestingly, is a scenario where both Stars and Tilt end up in full collapse.

The DOJ dropped an A-bomb on the online poker industry Friday, and, as you’d expect, the impact was devastating. Within hours of the DOJ’s indictments, PokerStars and Full Tilt Poker had shut down real money gaming in the US, effectively killing online poker and leaving millions of customers with nowhere to play.

And while the sites are scrambling to readjust to a world where approximately 40 percent or more of their business just disappeared and mount legal defenses for themselves and their executives, the fallout from Friday’s bombshells continues to spread far and wide from its epicenters in Dublin and the Isle of Man.

I could go on, but I’ll just end up depressing myself and that’s no fun.

While Full Tilt and Stars were certainly the two biggest poker sites operating in the states, their reach extends far beyond the virtual felt. Until Friday, these sites were the drivers of a whole industry that revolved around their players, television programs and live tournaments around the world. With the sites gone, the poker economy they supported is sure to follow.

As I write this, a number of my friends are getting trashed on Pisco Sours down in Peru, where they’re covering the end of an LAPT event for PokerStars and PokerNews. The sad fact is, though, this may be the end of poker reporting as we know it.

Providing live tournament coverage is expensive and resource-intensive, and sites like PokerNews can’t exist without financial underwriting provided by sites like Stars and Tilt. With those players now out of the US market, there’s no reason for them to be spending resources on tournament reporting when that money can be better spent on the high-priced legal teams they’re undoubtedly going to need to put in place. Bottom line – that WSOP coverage that everyone has been gearing up for next month probably isn’t going to happen.

Of course, that may not be the worst thing in the world as today’s crackdown will surely impact the size of this year’s WSOP. All those online qualifiers that send thousands of hopefuls to Vegas every summer? Yeah, they’re gone. And online players who were thinking of raiding their bankrolls to finance this summer’s live shenanigans in Vegas? They’re not going to be seeing that money anytime soon.

Who else will fell the impact of Friday’s bombshell? How about the folks who produce all of the great poker programming we like to watch? Do you really think there will be any new episodes of Poker After Dark or The Big Game? Don’t you think that ESPN is suddenly rethinking their plans for their coverage of this year’s Main Event? You can bet that the production companies and TV networks are all going to be hedging their bets and looking for new programs to fill their production and broadcast schedules.

Let’s not forget the poker mags like Bluff and CardPlayer who live on advertising revenue provided by the big online sites. With no US players, there’s reason for the sites to spend money on new ad buys, which means those publications will probably make it to press a few more times before their money runs out.

Other folks who will probably be scrambling for new revenue streams are the people who run online poker training sites like CardRunners, PokerVT and the like. Their US customer base just disappeared along with the ability to sit at real money tables. While I’m at it, I should probably mention folks like the agents at PokerRoyalty who just saw their commissions go down the drain. And the players who make their living by spending their days grinding online all day. I’m sure there’s a whole group of 20-somethings in Panorama Towers who are all learning how to say “Would you like fries with that?”

I could go on, but I’ll just end up depressing myself and that’s no fun. So, I’ll leave you all with this thought; What happened [Friday] was most definitely bad for poker in the short term, but if it prompts Congress to finally take a serious look at the regulation of online poker, then there may be some long-term benefits.

http://www.scribd.com/doc/53170382/3bb-Civil-Complaint-DOJ-vs-PokerStars-Full-Tilt-UB-AP-et-al

The Feds’ allegations tell a rather compelling narrative of illegal gambling, bank fraud, money laundering, and conspiracy to circumvent US law — that if proven calls for the forfeiture of not just domain names, but also:

$1.5 billion from PokerStars
$1 billion from Full Tilt
$500 million from UB/AP

The court documents also spell out the details on the 76 bank accounts money allegedly passed through … in multiple countries and currencies, making USA vs. PokerStars+ not just a federal case but also an international one. And with the US Feds seeking to freeze these accounts, industry types get a hint of which Stars- and Tilt-funded paychecks may soon be in jeopardy … if they aren’t already.

With the criminal indictment and civil complaint together, federal prosecutors Arlo Devlin Brown and crew, seem unafraid to telgraph their intent: People have to go to prison and we take their money, but if that’s not gonna work, we’re at least gonna get $3 billion guaranteed … and we now have two tries to take it down!

(I use the term we because these cases are technically “the people of United States of America vs.” … thus it really is you and I and my dad and grandma and her priest and the electrician and Bristol Palin and Justin Bieber … claiming that all those online poker spoils are rightfully ours.)

The regulated online poker-only “Reid bill”, if you recall, promised to generate $1 to $4 billion a year for the US government. So you gotta figure $3 billion in forfeitures buys another year for the forces who do wanna see fully legal licensed and regulated online poker — and other casino games — to craft a bill to their liking.

The warrant directs the .com registrar (VeriSign) to direct the name servers to the addresses specified in the warrant or such other name servers or IP addresses as directed by the FBI.

These domains have been locked by the registry (and by the registrar in the case of www.ultimatebet.com – this domain remains with GoDaddy pending a final disposition of the domain seizure case in Kentucky) and now cannot be moved without a court order or the consent of the Department of Justice. I understand that the rest of the domains (save and except for www.ultimatebet.com) are registered with foreign registrars.