Chris Reslock
Photo: WSOP.com

Today’s Boxscore

Chris Reslock $18,200 – WSOP-C Harrah’s Philly $580 NLH
Chris Reslock $8,820 – WSOP-C Harrah’s Philly $365 NLH
Jae Kyung Sim $98,700 – APPT Cebu Main Event

Chris Reslock is having a good week at the WSOP Circuit series in “Philly”. The Atlantic City regular tied Alex Masek for Circuit victories with his 6th ring on Thursday and then took the overall lead early this morning with his 7th title in the short-field $365 NLH tournament. On top of his seven WSOP-C rings, Reslock also has nine other Circuit final tables on his resume, including two runner-up finishes, and a World Series of Poker bracelet in 2007.

In the online world, Ultimate Poker held it’s first “major” tournament with the regularly scheduled Sunday $10,000 guarantee event. The field hit it’s 200 player cap and the first big winner on the site was “d4heals” for just over $4,000. Meanwhile on PokerStars, “friend of Pokerati” Katie Dozier scored her biggest online title for $10,624 (and a soft drink) in their $30,000 2x-Turbo.

Link Dump

Tweet of the Day – Good to see Marafioti is staying well grounded heading into his summer at the WSOP including some weird bet with Yevgeniy Timoshenko. Can’t wait for the 2013 version of the Adzizzy Bunny Hop.

People on 2+2 talk about me non stop. I’m the most talked about, hated, + imitated player in the game. #QuietInPerson+JealousOnline! #UMad?

— Matthew Marafioti (@Adzizzy) May 4, 2013

PokerStars Files Suit Against Atlantic Club, Cites “Bad Faith” and Requests TRO – Things are heating up in the PokerStars/Atlantic Club saga with The Rational Group filing suit against the casino after it terminated the sale contract. I’ll leave the legal analysis up to those with bigger brains than myself.

Lock Poker Shadiness 101 – Lock poker did not have the Best Week Ever. Never a big fan on linking up a 2+2 post because I’m afraid it won’t wash it off the Silkwood shower, but this seems to be the most comprehensive list of things going south for Lock Poker, player cashouts, and the pros who support it via Todd Witless and h/t to @Kevmath.

Delaware names vendor for online casino gambling system – With Ultimate Poker leading Nevada into the online poker world first, Delaware picked 888 Holdings to launch that state into the market.

The British poker ace, the ‘perfect’ murder he got away with for 16 years – and how his luck finally ran out – The interesting story of Marcus Bebb-Jones, the UK poker player who enjoyed himself with the occasional hooker and blow, and how he managed to get away with murder for 16 years until he was finally caught.

Speeding through Monaco like a race car – The EPT Grand Final is underway in beautiful Monaco and Sarah Grant takes a close look at the legendary race course for the PokerStars Blog.

Blair Hinkle
Photo: WSOP.com

Today’s Boxscore

Blair Hinkle $121,177 – WSOP-C Council Bluffs Main Event
Roger Campbell $131,681 – Heartland Poker Tour St. Louis
Terry Fan HK$1,771,000 – Red Dragon Main Event
Daniel Pidun €880,000 – EPT Berlin Main Event

A historic day here in the States for online poker with the live launch of the Station Casinos/UFC backed Ultimate Poker. The client was opened to the public this morning and the first hand was dealt shortly after 9am Vegas time. Which prompted someone to immediately complain about a bad beat after busting on that very same hand. Welcome back online poker to the States!

Some questions have been answered about the process involved with the Nevada based site. Players do not need to be located within the state to signup and create an account, thus preventing another unprofitable hack from stealing the AlCantHang username. Players can deposit on the site from outside Nevada, which will allow them to load up on the site before traveling and play as soon as they are within the state lines. Deposit options include MasterCard, echeck, real check, bank wire, and the option to walk up to the main cage in any of the 16 Station Casinos in Nevada.

It seems the only downside so far, besides the small player base currently offered, is the system judging a player’s geographic location based on their cell phone signal. Verizon customers are unable to access the site and word is coming out about other smaller carriers being blocked as well. I can only assume these issues are being dealt with to allow everyone access.

All things considered, it’s a pretty big day for online poker back in the US. The first step in the process which includes interstate compacts and hopefully Federal regulations as quickly as possible. WSOP grinders can start loading up their accounts because they now have a legal online solution for playing away from the Rio.

~~~~~

In non-online poker news, poker good guy Blair Hinkle won his 2nd career WSOP Circuit ring at the Council Bluffs Main Event. He became the first player to win the same Circuit event twice with the first ring coming there in the summer of 2010. This 2nd ring will go along nicely with his WSOP bracelet for 2008, setting him nicely for a big run at the 2013 WSOP.

Link Dump

Tweet of the Day – Ultimate Poker pro Antonio Esfandiari tweets a screencap of the first hand played on the site. For the record, I want to play every one of these min-raising (redacted) online players.

Could not be more excited!! @ultimatepoker deals FIRST HAND OF REAL MONEY POKER IN THE US! #pokersback #letsdothis ! twitter.com/MagicAntonio/s…

— Antonio Esfandiari (@MagicAntonio) April 30, 2013

Nate Silver: The man who correctly predicted US elections – The man just keeps getting interviewed. This time around it’s the BBC who sat Nat Silver down for a talk about statistics, the election, and some poker in the mix.

Two California men get prison terms in pro poker ‘sextortion’ scheme – Opening the door for bottom feeders all over the forums, the Joe Sebok extortion trial was finally wrapped up last week with the two men receiving time in the big house. Hopefully this closes a sad chapter in poker and Micon can go back to shilling his BitCoins.

Duke on Decisions – Seems my former Epic Poker boss has been making her rounds on the corporate speech circuit. Short-stack Shamus has a run down of a recent article about Annie Duke’s latest appearance.

PokerStars Blog turns eight years old – I remember running off to the Bahamas years ago to provide a little moral support to Otis during the PCA (and cause myself severe liver damage) and now the PokerStars blog has turned 8 years old. The site has long been a strong supporter of the poker writing community and deserves all the kudos they receive.

Phil Ivey is God – A deleted scene from the upcoming BET RAISE FOLD documentary, this one all about Phil Ivey. It’s good to see a flashback to Gloria Balding on camera along with Dr. Pauly and Jesse May.

Rio’s Bottle Package
Get The Party Started!
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From OnlinePokerReport.com for the week of April 29th

STORIES TO WATCH THIS WEEK

#1. Lock Poker has apparently cancelled a substantial amount of cash out requests. A rep from the room blames players “abusing the transfer tool” for the cancellations. Expect the pressure to grow on Lock and its sponsors this week as the situation continues to play out.

#2. Illinois politicians, reportedly set to remove online gambling from the casino expansion bill, will now have to come up with a Plan B to regulate online gambling. With only a handful of working days in the session, I expect we’ll see either a new standalone bill this week or some further tweaking of SB1955, which has a IL Senate committee hearing this week.

#3. Massachusetts  is approaching their budget deadline for FY 2014, and online poker is still part of the process. That’s after the MA House passed their version of the state budget with online poker regulation tacked on as an amendment. This week should provide some indications of the MA Senate’s attitude toward the House budget in general, and online poker specifically.

+ THE WEEK THAT WAS

• Details of tribal plans for online poker in California emerged.
• The full text of PA’s online gambling bill was released.
• Alternative poker site SkillBet announced plans to shut down.
• A law that could shutter live card clubs was introduced in Oregon.
• Nevada regulators approved the first registered hosting center in the state.
• Ohio lawmakers announced a coming crackdown on Internet cafes.
• The details of Bitar’s forfeiture agreement were released.

I also wanted to make a special mention of the PokerFusePro launch last week. They’ve put together an excellent product that will likely be of interest to most on this list – click to see more.

OPR OUTPUT

I broke down what I think are the realistic projections for year one online gambling revenues in New Jersey. And the latest edition of poker news podcast Rabbit Hunt is now available on iTunes.

PICKS

#GoodRead – PokerFuse breaks down why their subscription-based news product is worth your consideration.

@Follow  – @JoeTall had some great coverage of last week’s GiGse 2013.

More from Chris Grove: @OPReport / Google +

Kevin Eyster
Photo: World Poker Tour

Today’s Boxscore

Kevin Eyster $660,395 – WPT Seminole Hard Rock Shootout
Joseph Cheong $1,343,370 – HK$1,000,000 Manila Millions
Pieter De-Korver $190,594 – EPT Berlin Cup

Joseph “subiime” Cheong had one heck of a time this last week with a couple big pops to his bankroll. He started off finishing second to Philipp Gruissem in the A$50,000 WSOP APAC High Roller rebuy event for $534,776 and followed up with by winning the Manila Millions for HK$10,428,000 ($1.3million and change, thank you exchange rate). Not a bad way to make his way through Asia.

Kevin Eyster is the latest WPT champion after winning the Seminole Hard Rock Shootout in Hollywood, FLA. Several big names made the Sunshine State trip including Jeff Madsen making his 2nd WPT final table with Faraz Jaka, Matt Giannetti, Doug Lee, and Dan Suied just missing the TV action. The top two in the race for WPT Player of the Year made the money but Matt Salsberg outlasted Paul Volpe to take over the lead with just a few events remaining. Next stop for the WPT is the bestbet Open in scenic, never boring Jacksonville, FLA.

Tweet of the Day – It has nothing to do with poker, instead it’s the rather quick TV career of sports reporter AJ Clemente. Plus I will take every chance to show Kevmath cursing.

In the words of @clementeaj, I start off my today with – “Fucking shit!”

— Kevin Mathers (@Kevmath) April 22, 2013

QuadJacks to Relaunch Under New Management – Marco leaves QuadJacks for GPI, QuadJacks goes in the crapper, Marco jumps ship back to run QuadJacks to assemble the Avengers of Poker (or that’s what I’m going to call it until he comes up with a proper name).

Online Poker Choking in the Grey Fog of Legislative Uncertainty in Europe – The UK version of the Huffington Post takes a look at the world of online poker in Europe. I’m mostly adding the link dump for the awesome headline.

N.J. Treasurer Estimates $1.2 Billion in First Year Internet Gambling Revenue, Legislators Divided – Not too shabby of a forecast from the state treasurer, I think that would make some people happy.

Foxwoods owner signs online gambling partnership – Everybody is gearing up for online gambling in the US. Opponents would be better off just stepping aside and sticking their hand out. Foxwoods sign a partnership agreement with London-based GameAccount Network.

From OnlinePokerReport.com for the week of April 22nd

STORIES TO WATCH THIS WEEK

#1. Pennsylvania  representative Tina Davis (finally) introduced a bill to regulate online gambling late last week. Expect more specifics to emerge this week; early word is that the license fee is $5m and the tax rate is 28%.

#2. Illinois members of the PPA just received a survey concerning PokerStars, leading one industry observer to speculate that Stars is considering buying their way into Illinois’ online gambling market. PokerStars wouldn’t need to take over a full casino to get in; electronic gaming license holders and advance deposit wagering license holders are also eligible to apply under proposed online gambling regulation in Illinois.

#3. Caesars is reportedly considering a sale of NJ property Showboat  – and the eligibility to apply for a New Jersey online gambling license that goes with it. It will be interesting to follow the story (and reaction from the markets) in the coming days. Will Caesars get a premium for the online component? And, if so, will that spark the sale of more New Jersey land-based properties?

+ THE WEEK THAT WAS

• Marco Valerio returned to QuadJacks.
• Ray Bitar completed his plea and avoided additional jail time.
• PokerStars completed their New Jersey license application.
• bwin.party announced plans to shut off new signups from 18 countries.
• An amendment to MA’s budget bill that seeks to regulate online poker was filed.

OPR OUTPUT

I took a look at the state of online gambling regulation across the United States. And Mark & I got our first episode of The Rabbit Hunt in the books. Finally, I joined Rich Muny for a panel discussion on PokerAdvocacy.

PICKS

#GoodRead – Dave Behr is setting the bar with his coverage of the federal indictment that’s reached into the world of high-stakes poker.

@Follow – @CAGamingLawyer had some great Twitter coverage of the Tribal Internet Gambling legal conference in Scottsdale, Arizona last week that’s worth reviewing.

More from Chris Grove: @OPReport / Google +

From OnlinePokerReport.com for the week of April 15th …

STORIES TO WATCH THIS WEEK

#1. Ray Bitar completed the first step of a deal with the US Government last week. Word is his sentencing hearing could come this Friday. Jail time seems unlikely, but isn’t completely off the table …

#2. Illinois state senator Terry Link proposed a new path to online gambling by amending SB1995 last week to allow the Illinois Lottery to offer online “draw-based games,” defined as “games where a series of numbers or characters are determined to be the winning numbers or characters by a mechanical or computerized random number generator at a drawing time specified by the Department.”

In the week ahead I’ll be watching the bill for additional amendments and also for opinions on whether online poker can be crammed into the above definition.

+ THE WEEK THAT WAS

• Chad Elie sued Jeff Ifrah.
• WSOP.com invited players to test a beta version of their online poker client.
• A push to ban online gambling in Kansas fell short.
• Poker satirist SrslySirius signed on with Bluff Magazine.
• The DoJ released a lengthy indictment focused on the Legendz online sports book .
• Zynga appeared to have little impact on traffic at PartyPoker.

RECENTLY FROM OPR

I’m happy to announce that I’ll be filling Matt Kaufman’s chair on Rabbit Hunt, CardRunners’ weekly poker news podcast. It’s available on iTunes here.

PICKS

#GoodRead – An amicus brief filed by a roster of poker notables makes a compelling argument for poker as a game of skill.

@Follow  – @AlexandraBerzon covers the casino industry for the WSJ.

Follow OPReport: @OPReport / Google +

Kevin Saul
Photo: Foxwoods / WhoJedi

Today’s Boxscore

Kevin Saul $194,178 – WSOP-C Foxwoods Main Event
Bryan Piccioli $211,575 – WSOP APAC Event #1
Jim Collopy $69,662 – WSOP APAC Event #2

The World Series of Poker brand had themselves a fine time over the last few days on different sides of the globe. Big names, new tournaments, and interesting results. The WSOP APAC is underway in Australia while the WSOP-Circuit at Foxwoods wrapped up their Main Event.

Professional player Brian Piccioli captured the first ever WSOP APAC bracelet in a brand new event, something called the “Accumulator” at the Crown Casino in Melbourne. The tournament took reentry events to the next level, where players could not only enter each of the three starting days but could also play even if they had chips at the end of previous days. Whatever part of their stacks remained after Day 1A/B/C were combined and play continued on Day 2. Piccioli won they event with only his Day C stack after busting both A and B but worked it will for the $211,575 prize and gold bracelet.

Long time professional and former online master Kevin Saul is the latest WSOP Circuit Main Event Champion. There were 615 entrees into the inaugural Foxwoods WSOP-C tournament and Saul made quick work of the final table to pick up his shiny new ring, the near $200k payday, and his entry into the WSOP National Championship coming up in New Orleans.

History could be made later today when the WSOP APAC Mixed Event is played to a winner. Phil Ivey leads the final table with Daniel Negreanu right behind him. Ivey will be trying to capture his 9th WSOP bracelet while Negreanu is looking to break his 5 year bracelet slump to pick up his 5th.

Rio’s Bottle Package
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Two Night Min./ Rates Vary
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Link Dump

Tweet of the Day – Just because Hellmuth is halfway around the world in Australia, that doesn’t mean the internets can’t get their little taste of his wrath. Things don’t seem to be going well down under for the 13-time WSOP champion.

Busted 24th: I SO wish I wasn’t completely ANGRY now! Feeling unlucky, and running EVERY SINGLE HAND in my mind over-and-over-and-over…

— phil_hellmuth (@phil_hellmuth) April 9, 2013

Full Tilt Poker Ex-Chief to Plead Guilty – Ray Bitar, poster boy for Black Friday, reached an agreement with the US Attorney General’s office where he’ll pony up $40million but avoid any jail time as he’s in desperate need of a heart transplant. This naturally generated its own share of twitter jokes, mostly in bad taste.

WSOP.com Real Money Poker Beta – Feel like test driving the first legal poker site in the States. Things aren’t quite to the point of the real deal but WSOP is offering up the chance to beta test their software and shake out the bugs. Closer and closer.

East Falmouth man wins $10m in ‘poker’ game – The word poker is encased in well-deserved quotation marks but the headline still caught my eye. The Mass lottery created some bizarre luck of the draw, fake poker game that awarded a $10,000,000 check. You can’t win that kind of money in your local no-skill-to-win 2/4 limit game.

Bet Raise Fold: The Story of Poker – The documentary previously known as BOOM from the minds of Jay Rosenkrantz, Taylor Caby and Ryan Firpo has been renamed and the new trailer is out.

From OnlinePokerReport.com for the week of April 8th …

3 STORIES TO WATCH THIS WEEK

#1. Zynga is now offering real-money gambling in the UK via the bwin.party poker and casino platforms. Early traffic reports aren’t suggesting much of a bump for Party’s poker lobby. This week should provide a better sense of whether Zynga can actually move the needle at a real-money online poker room.

#2. Illinois has been relatively quiet in recent weeks, but negotiations over gambling expansion continue behind the scenes. Expect more of those private discussions to spill over into the media this week.

#3. Apple has yet to reply to an Australian Senator’s demand that Apple remove PokerStars’ real-money poker app from the App Store. How the parties involved settle the matter could have serious implications for the industry as more and more online gambling is routed through third-party platforms like the App Store and Facebook.

+ THE WEEK THAT WAS

• A compact agreement in Oklahoma sought to ban online gambling in the state.
• Kansas also took legislative steps toward banning online gambling.
• The WSOP announced a partnership with Fantasy Poker Manager.
• iPoker rolled out anonymous tables.
• Intrade announced a $700k cash shortfall.
• PokerStars signed Ronaldo.

PICKS

#GoodRead – Marco Valerio surveys the post-Black Friday world in a piece for TwoPlusTwo Magazine.

#Neat – Chicago Tribune slideshow of illegal gambling images from Illinois’ past.

Follow OPReport: @OPReport / Google +

Rocco Palumbo
Photo: World Poker Tour

Today’s Boxscore

Rocco Palumbo $180,097 – 2013 WPT Venice Main Event
Zachary Donovan $48,112 – WSOP-C Foxwoods Re-entry
Daniel Chan $48,521 – WSOP-C Foxwoods Prelim

With that subhead above, thus concludes the only attempt on my part to do anything for April Fools’ Day. Carry on.

There was plenty of potential for a first-class WPT Venice final table but instead it was just relatively historic. With just two tables remaining, the field still included WSOP bracelet winner Mike Sexton, former November Niner Martin Staszko, former EPT Champion Ludovic Lacay, poker player/producer/writer extraordinaire Matt Salsberg, and our bestie Kara Scott.

Unfortunately for televised poker history, all of them would be eliminated before the official final table except for Mike Sexton. This was the 2nd final table for the WPT commentator on their tour after his 2011 Bay 101 appearance. He collected just shy of $70,000 for his 3rd place result with the victory ultimately going to Italian Rocco Palumbo.

Link Dump

Tweet of the Day – I feel bad for poor Geno, friend of Pokerati and former professional poker writer. Not only is he stuck living in Pennsyltucky but he also fell for a prank on this of all days.

Just fell for an online April Fool’s joke. Want to burn the Internet to the ground, salt its fields, foul its wells, etc.

— Gene Bromberg (@genebromberg) April 1, 2013

‘Ship It Holla Ballas!’ … Tracing The Rise And Fall Of Internet Poker And Its Most Unlikely Stars – Considering the date, and this was published on a Yahoo! Sports pages, I could be forgiven in thinking this was an internet April Fools’ Day gag. I seemed to have missed the news about a book coming out named (cringe) “Ship It Holla Ballas!” about the young guns of online poker back in the golden days just a few short years ago.

Apple’s poker app may be illegal here – News from Australia isn’t all sunbeams and wallabies. Word from Down Under that some bigwigs in government aren’t too happy with Apple and PokerStars since their mobile app is available for download in Australia complete with real money deposits and games.

Digging into the AGA / PokerStars New Jersey War – Missed this link a few weeks ago but worth a spot in the link dump. Haley Hintze gives her opinion on the battle in New Jersey between the American Gaming Association and PokerStars. Nothing is ever clear cut when it comes to all the players involved.

Google Glass At the Poker Table? – There’s been some interesting oh-god-we-are-living-in-the-future talk about Google Glass, headgear which looks/acts like something out of Star Trek. The gang over at CardChat took an amusing look at what it would be like have Google Glass at the poker table.

Jonathan Taylor
Photo: WSOP.com

Today’s Boxscore

Jonathan Taylor $138,938 – WSOP-C Lodge Casino Main Event
Allen Kessler $20,859 – WSOP-C Lodge Casino $580 NLHE
Dan Shak $450,000 – PartyPoker Premier League VI
Michael Harris $95,663 – HPT Belterra Casin Main Event

There were plenty of results posted around the world over the weekend with the PartyPoker Premier League VI wrapping up, the Heartland Poker Tour crowning another champion, and the WSOP-C handing out a few more rings.

Dan Shak seems to love the big action, big attention games. He defeated Sam Trickett to capture the PartyPoker Premier League VI title after a few days of play for $450,000. As expected, it was a stacked final table with Antonio Esfandiari, Jonathan Duhamel, Daniel Cates, and actress/poker player Jennifer Tilly. Negreanu made a big splash as he just missed the final table (video can be viewed below).

Jonathan Taylor is the latest World Series of Poker Circuit event winner, his 3rd ring ring of the 2012/2013 series. He topped the other 420 entrees in the tournament for over $138,000. Perhaps only interesting to me, the small buy-in WSOP-C event in Blackhawk, CO drew exactly 150 less entrants than a similar Heartland Poker Tour event held in the same town just a few weeks. Also notable during this WSOP-C stop was the stunning non-min-cash of Allen “Complainsaw” Kessler who won the $580 No Limit Hold’em side event for his 2nd career ring.

Next up for the WSOP-C is a trip to the great Northeast and 12 tournaments at the mammoth Foxwoods Casino.

Link Dump

Tweet(s) of the Day – Allen Kessler’s humble brag with the Matt Salsberg follow up needle. Good stuff, now where is my Entourage movie?

@allenkessler @wsop You put the ring on Craig’s list yet?

— matt salsberg (@msalsberg) March 26, 2013

Atlantic City’s Revel casino files for bankruptcy – This news isn’t very shocking. The latest, greatest, fresh casino in Atlantic City hasn’t been doing well since it opened. My one and only experience there left me wondering how quickly I could catch a cab to the Borgata. The Chapter 11 filing will help them try to cut debt and stay alive, but we’ve all heard those stories before.

Kane ‘Nascar_1949’ Kalas – Risks and Riches – As a Philly boy, I grew up listening to Harry Kalas call Phillies games but most sports fans probably know him as the “voice” of NFL Films. I had no idea his son has been a professional poker player/degenerate for years. “Friend of Pokerati” Remko Rinkema has a very in depth interview talking about all things gambling and sports.

UK’s online gambling sector worth £2bn in 2012 – An article detailing the size of online gambling in the UK, complete with a numbers for the stats junkies and pretty graphs for those less inclined towards words.

Louisiana To Study Possibility of Online Gaming – Louisiana adds it’s name to the list of states looking to follow in the footsteps of Nevada, New Jersey, and Delaware to pass online poker legislation. The more the merrier.

Emotions run high as poker pro Daniel Negreanu throws all his chips – WATCH THIS VIDEO is how Jesse May would extort you to view the following (I just see the words coming out of his mouth in all caps). Negreanu, the self appointed judge of all things poker etiquette, lost his mind a little when he caught a bad beat during PartyPoker Premier League VI action.

From OnlinePokerReport.com for the week of March 25th …

3 STORIES TO WATCH THIS WEEK

#1. Full Tilt Poker’s traffic slide just won’t quit. PokerStars has tried bonuses, splashy promotions and even PR stunts to prop up Full Tilt, so it will be interesting to see how PokerStars reacts this week – if they react at all – to FTP’s recent drop into 4th place (by cash game traffic).

#2. PokerStars & NJ: The online poker giant has yet to complete its NJ application. But the PR war between PokerStars and the AGA continues, and looks set to escalate as NJ marches closer to launching real-money online gambling.

#3. NY will almost certainly abandon their brief legislative flirtation with online poker this week when the state’s budget is finally passed.

A week filled with official holidays should ensure that the legislative lull of last week continues through the end of April.

+ THE WEEK THAT WAS

• A Florida bill threatened Internet cafes – and online poker along with them.
• Kentucky announced plans for online lottery sales (around 2015).
• PokerStars introduced a few new Omaha variants.
• bwin-party released 2012 results. And PokerFuse provided some color on the earnings call.
• Bitcoins took a step toward “respectability”.

RECENTLY FROM OPR

Check out my latest article for Casino Enterprise Management – Five Things Full Tilt Poker Got Right.

PICKS

#GoodRead – CalvinAyre.com published what is sure to be one of many pieces prescribing a remedy for what ails Full Tilt.

Neat – LIFE slideshow of unpublished photos taken around Vegas in 1955 (h/t @BrianPempus).

Ray Henson
Photo: WSOP.com

Today’s Boxscore

Reece Lewis £80,000 – WPTN London Main Event
Ray Dehkharghani $235,931 – 2013 Wynn Poker Classic
Ray Henson $16,128 – WSOP-C The Lodge Casino Prelim

The week has finally come to an end with a good number of gambling degenerates from the poker world glued to the television watching, betting, cursing the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament. It’s a fun time of year for those who like to diversify their gambling dollar but not so much for those on Twitter who only endorse messages about things which interest them.

This week saw Ray Henson win his 2nd WSOP-C ring of 2013 at a place called The Lodge in Colorado (not to be confused with the old Pokerati games at The Lodge back during the golden old days). The WSOP-C Main Event is now underway with 3 starting days and a $1,675 buy-in. Also underway is the overly-complicated PartyPoker Premier League VI in London featuring a ton of your favorite players and a super live stream with Kara Scott. The only outcome noticed so far was a bad beat on Daniel Negreanu to send him back to Vegas before the WSOP-APAC.

Link Dump

Tweet of the Day – You can’t argue with the tongue-in-cheek sentiment. So when/what/where is this Ivey Poker thing going to happen? (h/t @Kevmath)

It seems like IveyPoker and Nevada are in a race to see who can have the largest group of people doing nothing.

— Pokerlolz (@pokerlolz) March 22, 2013

Highway to Hell – An interesting read about old school gambling in Texas along the Jacksboro Highway complete with stories/quotes from Doyle Brunson.

Parx Takes Lead In Monthly Poker Revenue – As an east coast boy I find this pretty shocking. When Pennsylvania began opening casinos and card rooms, everyone shrugged their shoulders saying it would have little impact on the games in AC. I guess they might have been wrong and kudos to Matt Glantz for getting Parx ahead.

Phil Ivey To Captain Team Americas in WSOP Asia-Pacific Caesars Cup – The WSOP Asia Pacific series is just a few weeks away and they’ve announced the captains for the latest effort to make the Caesars Cup something interesting. Phil Ivey (Team Americas), Sam Trickett (Team Europe), and Joe Hachem (Team Asia-Pacific) will now “draft” their teams.

Vertical Rush from PokerStars.com – I’m not exactly sure what I’m watching in this video other than it’s a bunch of people running up 42 floors of some building in London, includes Liv Boeree, and appears to have been recorded using mid-1990’s video technology.

Matt Hennig
Photo: HPTPoker.com

Today’s Boxscore

Ruben Visser £595,000 – EPT London Main Event
Justin Schwartz $112,582 – Foxwoods Poker Classic
Matt Hennig $57,709 – HPT Iowa-Prairie Main Event

Turned out to be a very interesting few days with some big runs and one impressive comeback. Allen “Chainsaw” Kessler made the HPT Iowa-Prairie final table with as much applause as the fanboys could muster. Unfortunately he was eliminated in 9th place for a quick exit. I’m sure his table banter has improved and it would have made for some interesting television.

Ryan Eriquezzo continued his nice run over the last few months with a final table appearance at the Foxwoods Poker Classic. He finished runner-up to Justin “Stealthmunk” Schwartz who earned another 6-digit payday, moving one step closer to owning a big boy wardrobe.

The most compelling story recently was the return of Danish poker legend Theo Jorgensen to a tournament field. Jorgensen and his family were the victim of a vicious home invasion last December where he was brutally beaten. After some long stays in the hospital, he returned to the game for the EPT London Main Event and picked up right where he left off. He finished in 4th place for a nice £183,000 welcome back bonus. Howard Swains has the excellent Theo Jorgensen comeback story over on the PokerStars Blog.

Link Dump

Tweet of the Day – The initial reaction to this post was skepticism followed by thinking it was practical jokery followed by a chuckle. Turns out it’s true and Allen Kessler has joined 30 others pros (so far) on Team Ivey.

Hot @iveypoker News: @allenkessler joins #TeamIvey! See live final table coverage of him playing @hptpoker here: bitly.com/wliEDz

— IveyPoker (@iveypoker) March 18, 2013

Caesars Fined for Role in 2007 Gambling Spree – Man tears through $120 million on a Las Vegas gambling spree and the state of New Jersey fines Caesars Entertainment for it’s part in letting it happen. Seems reasonable, congrats New Jersey.

Nevada Gaming Commission is seeking your help – The NGC is looking for public comments about interstate agreements to expand online gaming. I expect they will get a lot of responses to this request. Have at it.

U.S. says cocaine and Internet gambling are the main sources of money laundering in Costa Rica – Nothing like throwing in online gambling in the mix with cocaine, human trafficking, and corruption. Well played Costa Rica, nice hand.

Tony G Leaves PartyPoker, Stirring Pot As He Exits – God bless Tony G and that jaw of his which never stops moving. Done at PartyPoker to concentrate on his own gambling site and then takes a few pot shots at other players on the way out the door.

EPT9 London: Team PokerStars Theo Jorgensen – Sarah Grant from PokerNews caught up with Theo Jorgensen about his comeback and EPT final table.

From OnlinePokerReport.com for the week of March 18th …

3 STORIES TO WATCH THIS WEEK

#1. The Revolution Network is dealing with two unresolved stories – one regarding lengthy payment delays to a skin and one regarding a possible software bug related to hole cards – as the Lock-fronted network continues to lose ground.

#2. Empire (State) Poker: NY’s tentative step toward regulated online gambling will thrive or die between now and April 1st, the deadline for the state’s budget. Gov. Cuomo seems open to the idea, but we should get a good sense of what support the initiative actually has in the days ahead.

#3. IL and PA. This week could pass with no movement in PA, where a few soft deadlines for the introduction of an online gambling bill have come and gone. But the pressure for legislative progress on the larger issue of casino expansion is significant in IL and should result in a quicker timetable for online poker – one way or the other.

+ THE WEEK THAT WAS

• Caesars Interactive announced they’re hiring a poker room manager for WSOP.com (and a handful of other positions).
• The DoJ named a company to handle repayment of (Zombie) Full Tilt’s U.S. customers (get email alerts at the link).
• A mac-compatible version of PokerTracker 4 launched.
• Ultimate Poker announced the signing of Terrance Chan (first publicly announced pro signing by a regulated U.S. online poker site).
• 888 announced the formation of a U.S. company to spearhead the operator’s American efforts.
• PokerStars responded to the AGA’s petition in NJ.

RECENTLY FROM OPR

A quick FAQ on Full Tilt repayment. And Marco Valerio’s interview with Salim Adatia, CEO of GLI Interactive – the company behind software testing in Nevada. Plus an update to my Illinois FAQ to reflect last week’s changes to the bill’s “bad actor” clause.

PICKS

#GoodRead – The New York Times has a good write up of the uncertain environment surrounding daily fantasy sports. Much of it should sound familiar to followers of online poker.

@Follow – @Pokeraddictnet. Often first to news on U.S. facing rooms + regulatory developments at the state level.

Joseph Mckeehen
Photo: WSOP.com

Today’s Boxscore

Joseph Mckeehen $174,147 – WSOP-C Caesars AC Main Event
Teresa Hemingway $226,463 – HPT Golden Gates Casino

It was a good weekend for the mid-stakes, local friendly Heartland Poker Tour. Their Golden Gates Casino event in Black Hawk CO ran at the same time as a World Series of Poker Circuit Main Event, then proceeded to outdraw them despite bad weather and the fact it was located in Black Hawk CO.

The HPT event was hampered by severe winter weather and drew less entrants than the same event a year earlier but still managed to create a 7-digit prizepool. The WSOP-C Main Event was probably hampered by it’s location in Atlantic City and the number of entrees was down to 540 from 635 in 2012.

Teresa Hemingway became just the 3rd woman to win a title on the Heartland Poker Tour but she picked up one of their biggest prizes after getting in the event on a $360 satellite seat. Next stop for the HPT is somewhere in the middle of Iowa while the WSOP-C takes their turn in Black Hawk, CO at the Lodge Casino. Let’s see if they can match the HPT success in the area.

Link Dump

Tweet of the Day – Negreanu still having fun with the whole joining a cult by accident thing.

8 oz of Kool-Aid, lamb blood and cayenne pepper- breakfast of champions! Off to play the 10k 8-Game should be fun!

— Daniel Negreanu (@RealKidPoker) March 13, 2013

DOJ Appoints Administrator to Assess Individual Full Tilt Poker Claims – One step closer to US-based Full Tilt players getting their money back. Check out Full Tilt Poker Claims Administration for details.

Online gambling deals boost Zynga, Glu – Online gambling is getting a little more attention from the mainstream medai, this time from CNN in their Money section.

Losing-hand progressive poker jackpot hits, paying out $600,000 – After two months of running their multi-casino, bad beat jackpot, Caeasars finally had to pay out. Nearly $700,000 was chopped up between the winner, loser, and other players around their poker rooms.

Winamax Poker Tour : les résultats complets – My knowledge of the French language is limited to what I remember from that high school French class and what dirty words Benjo taught me. The important take away from this link is the World’s Greatest Poker Trophy in the Entire History of Poker. Also, god bless hyperbole.