Kinda interesting here to watch his heads-up thinking giving lessons while playing ZeeJustin:

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We haven’t seen the legal docs yet, but named in the lawsuit: Chris Ferguson, Mike Matusow, Howard Lederer, and Phil Ivey (a November Niner).

From TMZ.com:

Poker Legends Sued for Robot Fraud

For all the obvious attempted shakedowns and plausibly legit payment beefs, this one (not sure how much they are seeking in damages) could be downright fascinating — on its surface at least — because it cuts to some key issues that are super-relevant to the past, present, and future of online poker … where the decisions any court renders (assuming there’s at least a smidgen of factual basis for the claim) affect not just the plaintiffs and defendants, but 10s of thousands if not millions of players.

I remember thinking when that PokerStars WCOOP 2007 champ, TheV0id, got her $1.2 million prize-money re-distributed, and ZeeJustin for that matter … they have theoretical American dollars ganked from them for alleged rule violations, and yet no recourse should they disagree with the site’s ruling nor a valid, independent avenue of dispute. It’s like Guantanamo Bay in Pokerstarzistan, man, and likewise for Full Tilt, which can serve as judge, jury, and executioner when it comes to deciding what to do with its players’ money.

The ironic thing … Howard Lederer, who seems to be the guy-with-the-money attorneys always have their sights set on, is arguably THE BIGGEST fighter for an American regulatory system that would remove this power from online poker sites, his own included. In the world he’s pushing for (and spending shitloads of money on), Full Tilt and PokerStars would essentially have to relinquishcontrol over matters of fiscal disagreement with their customers.

Top it off with claims in this suit that Full Tilt may seat bots at its own tables. Supposed word is that Full Tilt absolutely does not — and if that’s the case the suit becomes questionable. I don’t have an opinion on whether or not that would be a good or bad thing … but it’s a reality that will have to be dealt with in the future. Does your American-friendly site use bots? Is that OK? Should they have to disclose their identities? And if not, why don’t real human players get to use under multiple accounts and/or screen names?

We’ll have to see how much Omotoy and Kennedy are suing for. That will tell a lot about whether they’re just throwin’ shit against the wall to see what sticks or if they have a legitimate beef in wanting to prove that, hey … we’re not bots, give us our friggin’ money back and/or let us take our business elsewhere.

A few things jump out at me from the pieces … 1) be sure to read Johnny Hughes’ comment about the old days with slim; 2) his declarations of octogenarian impotence — “Back when I could have sex, I don’t have it anymore – I can’t help that – I would have had it when I could. How come I waited until I was impotent to do something like this?”; and 3)

There was a site [WickedChopsPoker] which called me a pedophile. I’m considering suing them if they don’t publish a retraction because none of it is true.

Libel cases are, thankfully of course, difficult for plaintiffs to win. He’d have to show:

1. Blatant disregard for the truth … that should be no problem with WCP, they do that all the time! But it’s also arguably part of their shtick, so …
2. Financial damages … easy enough. Without a doubt, Amarillo Slim missed out on plenty of sponsorship opportunities because of his poker-boom reputation as an extra-dirty old man. But is Wicked Chops any more responsible for this than, say, 2+2 or any other blogs that reported the same things with similar verbiage?
3. Malicious intent … and this is probably what saves Wicked Chops from legal trouble — he’d have a near-impossible time proving The Entities had it in for him and therefore were specifically out to do him harm.

With all this said, am I the only one who thinks there might be more to AS’s coming clean/defending himself? The WSOP is coming up, and World Championship buy-ins can be pretty darn expensive. Being able to wear a patch promoting an online poker room would certainly help the cause, and that simply wouldn’t be/hasn’t been possible with a sexual predator stigma hanging over him.

But now with the likes of Russ Hamilton and Ernie Scherer III out there, and dudes like ZeeJustin being welcomed back at PokerStars, the timing seems right for him to remind the world that, hey, I’m endorsable, too! I’m predicting a Doyle’s Room patch … but wouldn’t it be kinda funny if he ended up as Bodog’s partyin’ grandpappy?

UPDATE: Erick Lindgren says Bonomo is “the future of poker.”

Where is Josh Arieh? According to his stats, he’s doing well. His Hendon Mob stats show that he has over $4.5 million in lifetime tournament earnings thus far, including two WSOP bracelets. In 2007, he made close to $200k, and he stands at $71,682 for 2008 so far. But he has been dropped from the Bodog roster because the company wants to move in a “different direction.” Quite possibly, that direction is away from married guys with kids, which probably doesn’t fit the definition of living the so-called Bodog lifestyle.

In the meantime, Evelyn Ng stays on the team. Her lifetime tournament earnings are… wait for it… $301,957. And in 2008 alone, she has made nothing. Nada. Zip. In 2007, she made $17,457.

Bonomo is a good choice for Bodog. He’s taken his online poker successes to the live circuit and done well with over $1.1 million so far. Yes, he was embroiled in a bit of a scandal during his younger online days, but he has made a sincere effort to overcome that stigma and become a respected member of the poker community.

What leaves me shaking my head is the decision to drop Arieh and keep Ng. If anyone has an answer other than, “She’s pretty,” I’d love to hear it.

Sadly, however, Antonio Esfandiari seemed to be on a bad run this evening, then took a hit from Kyle Burnside, and just got eliminated. He’s had a great week with the announcement of his partnership with WPT, but a shot at a second WPT LAPC title would have been icing on the cake. It wasn’t meant to be, but there’s the NBC Heads-Up in a few days, along with the WPT Invitational next weekend. Momentum could take him far if he lets it.

Click below for some semi-gossip-y notes:

Mark Newhouse (eliminated today) is meeting with a lawyer this week to discuss a lawsuit against Dustin “Neverwin” Woolf. Newhouse first discussed his problems on his Wise Hand Poker blog, and it seems that the problems have never been resolved. When I asked him if I should keep the lawsuit information private, he responded, “I don’t give a shit. Tell everybody.” Ummm, ok.

Isabelle Mercier was sporting a blond hair color at the LAPC. I’m not sure if it’s her color, but it’s her head of hair.

Carlos Mortensen was sporting a hot chick on his arm during the LAPC. The divorce has long been done, so why not?

David Benyamine looks markedly thinner. Maybe fiancee Erica Schoenberg teaches him health and exercise while he teaches her poker? She had several cashes at the LAPC, including a second-place finish in the ladies event. I’ve always thought they were a good couple.

Jean-Robert Bellande had a Bodog patch on his shirt and was telling folks that he was sponsored by Bodog. Justin Bonomo also had a Bodog patch. Still trying to find out if Bodog was doing some one-time sponsorship deals or if these are permanent – no press releases from Bodog yet.

Bellande also played WPT video hostess Kimberly Lansing in a heads-up match. The winner will get to choose an outfit for the other to wear at Bay 101 for an interview on camera. Bellande won. Shocking.

So wow, so much is going on right about now. A lot of smart people doing a little bit more than just geeking out about poker and the industry’s/game’s/lifestyle’s future. Wish I could be everywhere:

We’ve got the Global Poker Thinking Society getting together at Harvard — featuring Howard Lederer, Charles Nesson, and Crandall Addington.

And then this weekend is the California Poker Conference — where speakers include WSOP Commish Jeffrey Pollack, PPA Executive Director John Pappas, and some influential old-timers such as Mike Caro, Lou Kreiger, Barbara Enright, and many others.

And then on the next day, Pappas heads back to Washington DC, where he’ll be hosting the Poker Player’s Alliance DC Fly-in — a little Beltway lobbying fest on behalf of pro-poker legislation. This is the one I really want to be at — and we’ll try to stay on top of things from afar — because twisting Congressional arms enlightening our representatives is a lot of fun. I gotta say, it also kinda makes me proud to know that our success wooing Rep. Pete Sessions (R-TX) as a co-sponsor to HR 2610, the Skill Game Protection Act, kinda inspired it.

From CardPlayer:

JP: We had a really great meeting in August with Congressmen Pete Sessions in his Dallas, Texas, office. It was myself and a number of our local PPA members, including Clonie Gowen, who’s a Dallas, Texan, and Robert Williamson III, another Dallas, Texan. We went in and sat down with him and talked to him about the Wexler bill and why it just didn’t make sense that a game of skill is being outlawed on the Internet. And it really resonated and it really came through and what I saw was, wow, this is something we need to replicate, this is something we needed to do more of. Based on that meeting, I thought we needed to get people out to Washington. Whether we make 20 meetings or 200 meetings, I think it’s going to be a worthwhile event.

Very cool! (And well done, Pokeratizen politicos!) Good times, all around. And indeed, we should do more of that.

I’ll be in Vegas … assuming I make my flight, which leaves in — yeow! — four hours, to do the TV Co-hosting thing with Tom Schneider for the inaugural Poker Bowl. This should be a pro-studded affair … even Doyle Brunson will be playing, along with Greg Raymer, Scotty Nguyen, reformed self-colluder ZeeJustin … and Absolute spokesman Mark Seif. Like seriously, we have so much to talk about!

And so little of it to do with how to play [cards]As Ks[/cards] in middle position.

This is nothing like the rumor I heard of a guy walking into an apartment to find two guys playing four accounts in the same online cash game. I’ve been warned many times by pros and online industry people to stick with heads up and multi-table tournaments.

David Levi ended the first day without increasing his starting stack while Scott Fischman was in worse condition ending with only 17k in chips. Yet, Scott and David stepped up to bat on day two and hit several home runs placing them currently in 8th and 9th.

But they better not slack tomorrow because Phil Hellmuth, Carlos Mortensen, Paul Wasicka, Roland De Wolfe & Paul Lee are apparently wanting to win this little tournament.

Today’s notable eliminations were Lyle Berman (WPT Chairman of the board), Justin Bonomo and Dan’s crush.

Beyond the Table – 4/11/07[display_podcast]

This week, you’ll get the clickable privilege of hearing, Tom, Karridy, and Dan enlighten you about:

Segment 1

• Chris Moneymaker urinating during an interview
• Covering the WSOP as a blogger / “working” the WSOP as a player
• Getting stood up by Cash Poker, and other televised cardsy infomercials
• World Poker Tour moves from Travel Channel to GSN.
• Deal or No Deal strategy
• ZeeJustin kicking simultaneous ass online by playing two tourneys at once
• Criminal poker and the lack of recourse

Segment 2

• Tom heading to Bellagio for the 5-star WPT Championship
• The mathematics of buying in (or not) for $25k
• California players vs. Arizona players
• Poker strategy at The World Series of Golf
• Tom grows up, technologicially speaking

Segment 3

• One-name wonders in Poker (and Soccer)
• Googlefight.com while Tom takes a leak
• Annette_15 — underage online PokerStars phenom, top-ranked online player in the world, and not seeing Gavin Griffin’s penis
• Gavin Griffin wins the EPT Championship
• Teaching Tom to use google to stalk Annette Obrestead
• Males vs. Females online, and lack of interest in Dan’s proposed “Male Minority” tournament

Kinda interesting, considering PokerStars is one of the sites that banned him and removed winnings from his account. Can only imagine the behind-the-table hubbub as he won and then threatened to make it to TV in the Caribbean big one.

UPDATE: Bluff has a good story on the ZeeJustin resurgence, giving a glimpse at some of the poker-biz buzz as the accused cheater* advanced through various fields.

* In an unregulated, legally questionable online poker environment, it’s difficult for sites to formally prosecute offenders, and likewise, the accused have little to no recourse if a site unilaterally decides to gank allegedly ill-gotten funds out of a player’s account.

And check out this kinda cool video that shows most of the entire day in about a minute. Nice riff:

While there are lots of well-known poker entities in solid chip position, one player of particular note is ZeeJustin Bonomo — the disgraced PartyPoker self-colluder. He has been around the Bellagio all week — and doing well having made a final table. In an earlier tournament, the CardPlayer video children crew stopped him for an interview, and asked him all the standard questions about how his event was going. But they failed to ask, essentially, “so what’s it like to be back on the poker scene after your self-imposed hiatus upon being ‘busted’ for online cheating?”

Is it that hard, CP? It’s a legitimate question — one we all want to know the answer to. And what benefit is it to you by not asking such questions?

When the hot little CP video chicky (derisive, sexist undertones intentional) was asked why she didn’t inquire about ZeeJustin’s public return to poker, she allegedly replied, “Because we’re not allowed to. We can only ask non-controversial questions.” Ahh, we see. And that, CardPlayer, is why, even though you do plenty of good stuff on your confusing, selfish, non-linky website, we will continue to see you as journalistic pussies deserving our respect scorn and contempt.

It’s also why we will always opt to send our readers to PokerWire whenever possible for the same coverage you try to provide. Just an FYI in case you care, which presumably you don’t.

UPDATE: ZeeJustin is doing really well at the 5-Diamond … having made three final tables in the past week-and-a-half. CardPlayer has the stats — something they actually do a good job with. Now if only his bio page linked out to various hedlines giving real scoop on punk-bitch methods and related (important) discussion about real threats to poker fairness that exist online …