Gov. Steve Beshear (D-KY) is almost single-handedly making sure horse racing interests gets their cut of online poker spoils.
I’m paraphrasing, of course, but I dunno man … it’s starting to seem inevitable that Antonin Scalia may eventually have to reveal his screen name and/or recuse himself to avoid violating any PokerStars T&C’s. But until then, the state of Kentucky is doing its part to make sure the Black Friday cases don’t go away.
The governor’s office put out a kinda strange press release last week, just to let people know, hey, don’t be confused by recent reports of certain online gambling cases achieving final settlement. The great Commonwealth of KY, you may recall, made the bold assertion in ’08 that it had a right to take over foreign web domains that failed to block access by Kentuckians. And now they would like you to know with extra certainty that Kentucky only let go of their claims against Absolute and UB (after a $6 million score) but have not otherwise released claims against poker sites that still have any money left, which they plan go after in full force.
CardPlayer Poker Tour? Who knew? Seems it slipped my mind CardPlayer joined the ranks of those creating a series of events around the smaller casinos for the smaller buy-in crowd and a more acceptable schedule for Joe “Poker Player” Smith who has a real job. I barely remembered BLUFF Magazine bought the Mid-States Poker Tour. I guess everyone took a look at the Heartland Poker Tour model and will try to mirror their success.
Without letting the Pollack fox in the henhouse of course.
The World Poker Tour is also kicking off their 11 season in lovely Cyprus this weekend in a non-televised event but still drawing interest thanks to the Mediterranean atmosphere. The WPT returns to Cyprus for the first time since 2009 when the buy-in was $10,300 and drew 181 players. This time it’s only $4,400 but involves re-entries for those who bust (or low on chips) on Day 1A.
Link Dump
Tweet of the Day – Matt Savage always knows how to rub it in, especially to those stuck back in the States with soaring temparatures and a closeup view of their neighbors (who should really keep their shirts on).
PPA Players Repayment Resource Center – The Poker Players Alliance set up a page with all the latest information for US player repayment following the PokerStars/Full Tilt settlement, which right now is a bunch of links with a big dash of hope.
Do we owe PokerStars our gratitude? – One of the interesting reactions to PokerStars buying Full Tilt is the almost universal genuflection at the feet of Stars. Because they did this out of the goodness of their heart and not because it was the best business decision.
Mizrachi: ‘I won $100K bet, but guy went bankrupt’ – Michael “The Grinder” Mizrachi blasted away on Twitter after the WSOP about getting stiffed on a 5-to-1 WSOP bracelet prop bet. Mizrachi was owed $100,000 but the losing player filed for bankruptcy. While some guessed the bad debt was belonged to a former member of Team Full Tilt, turns out it was Giorgio Medici. The Sun Sentinel even managed a quote from Seth Palansky on the matter.
The Micros! – The gang returns with their take on the PokerStars/Full Tilt buyout.
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Even without Pauly here, and Al skillfully holding down the Pokerati fort, I do show up at the Rio every once in a while for the free water and to work on my improv skills. Considering the Bluff Hedline Cam is pretty much just a way for @MartyDerby to pick up chicks, I feel priveliged that I hadn’t yet spilled anything on my shirt and the “air quotes” I added to the script made the cut … even if I do need to practice hand movement with a big honkin sizable microphone.
Oh yeah, and Hellmuth and Ivey continue to tear it up, “Philling” the final table in $10k HORSE. Boom, book it … that’s a wrap?
2012 World Series of Poker is underway and there’s already been some complaints and controversy. Plus the return of Phil Ivey. The WSOP always likes to make a big pop with their first open tournament and 2,101 players showed up for the $1,500 NLHE Event #2 on Monday. During these large events over the last few years, the WSOP staff (or perhaps it’s a Rio decision) had a policy to change the women’s room into a men’s room to accommodate the large field.
It’s a foolish thing to do and always draws well deserved complaints. This year it didn’t take long for the anger to force a change in policy after Vanessa Selbst, Linda Johnson, Jan Fisher, and a stream of players to raise their voice. Now we should cross our fingers and hope they don’t repeat the silly flash mob before the Ladie’s Event.
Tempest in a teapot controversy seemed to be John Kim accusing Casey “bigdogpckt5s” Jarzabek of incorrectly tweeting his bustout hand in Event #2 to deceive backers. Turns out it was the crippling hand he reported but it just means players are now policing the statements of other players spewed out on social media. Thank god we live in the future.
The big story was the long awaited return of Phil Ivey to the WSOP after staying away in 2011 because he’s a douche “I do not believe it is fair that I compete when others cannot.” Twelve months later and the Full Tilt players haven’t been paid back but Ivey’s righteous rage disappeared along with his lawsuit. Ivey has been back in full force playing every event he can fit into his schedule including double dipping today in the Stud/8 and Pot Limit Hold’em. No stories yet of big talking internet kids confronting Ivey.
Photo: WSOP.com
No open bracelets have been awarded yet but Event #2 will play out later tonight with Vanessa Selbst, Brent “bhanks11” Hanks, Andrew Badecker, and JP Kelly still in line for the title. Chiab “Chips” Saechao, a blackjack dealer from California, won the Casino Employees Event #1 for $70,859 and bragging rights for the year.
Today’s Boxscore
Chiab Saechao $70,859 – WSOP $500 Casino Employees
Phil Hellmuth $7,204 – Record 86th WSOP cash
$25k Fantasy – This has been running for a few years, a bunch of degens with cash burning a hole in their pocket getting together for a little fantasy poker along with the real deal poker. 11 teams put up the money to draft 8 players auction-style. Phil Ivey was the top player picked followed by Jason Mercier and Daniel Negreanu. Track along as you see fit. BLUFF Magazine’s Lance Bradley handicapped the teams and it looks like Casey Katz is the early favorite.
WSOP By the Numbers – These articles caused one of the sillier WSOP arguments in the media last year. Who cares who started it (or made the most from creative cut/pasting WSOP docs), Jess Welman always did it best. You say Jess isn’t doing them on BLUFF this year? Still worth the look.
Be sure to check out our new sponsors at Face Up Gaming. Legal, subscription-based online poker with plenty of great prizes including cash, WSOP seats, and poker trips. Sign up with Bonus Code pokerati.
We are all looking for the Big Casinos to benefit from online gamining legislation. But the parimutuel race tracks are also setting themselves up to be players.
Kentucky-based Churchill Downs, now owner of Bluff Magazine, operates TwinSpires, one of the country’s only legal online gambling sites (thanks to the UIGEA carve out for horse racing).
UK-based Betfair, owner of TVG, another legal online horse wagering site operating in the US, just completed a five-year naming rights deal with California’s Hollywood Park.
And now Las Vegas-based casino operator Pinnacle Entertainment bought a 75.5% stake in Retama Park in Texas for $22.8 million. Since Texas is one of the few states that hasn’t legalized gambling, Retama is an unlikely racino conversion. Pinnacle could, however, augment its revenues with an online wagering site.
In the not too distant past, parimutuel racing was a stagnant enterprise. But the industry’s UIGEA exemption has made it a gateway to online gaming revenues, initially from horse racing, and perhaps ultimately from poker.
I found this out via PartTime Poker, which seems to be doing a pretty cool monthly bit over there — breaking down player standings across four different ranking systems, each with their own calculation biases and level of subjectivity in determining the best poker players in the world.
Perhaps surprisingly, I still recognize most at least half of the 21 names comprising the four different Top 10s … but I’ll bet the rest of the world surely doesn’t. There’s a reason, after all, Jason Mercier doesn’t even have a Q-score.
So with subjectivity in mind … best player, winningest player, field strength, skill measurement, tournament luck, run-good ratios, late position likability, backer’s credit score …
We cover the many big and small stories of the week: UB collapsing, cheating in the LockPoker/BLUFF Challenge, the new WSOP almost-live coverage, Bellagio losing high limit action, Joy Miller’s vengeful plan to make people think we’re @AsianSpa, Mason Malmuth’s battle against PPA communists, and even jakz101’s missing portion of his finger. We talk to talonchick, and Druff tries to squash a nonexistent beef. BoDogAri and reggiman join us at points, and Pokerati does another informative online poker legality segment. AsianSpa joins us along with Jeff Madsen, as we try to prove to Madsen that we’re separate entities.
*THIS PODCAST ABRUPTLY CUTS OFF AT 2:20 MARK. WE APOLOGIZE FOR THIS. 80 MINUTES ARE MISSING*
Andrew Feldman of ESPN Poker has a Final Table Blog/Chat going on where you can chat and ask him questions as he live blogs the Final table. The live chat also has the twitter feed for all the players on the table along with some other pros, so should be a fun feed to follow throughout the day (ESPN Poker Live Blog).
Bluff gives the low down on the patches. With FTP coming into the day with 7 sponsored players and only 3 allowed to wear the FTP logo everyone was speculating what they would do. They definitely came up with a creative answer (Bluff Magazine).
Pauly over at Tao of Poker lets you know what happens during the break at the Main Event final table in his Semi-Live Blog (Tao of Poker).
Now in some non-November 9 News but definitely a good read:
Amy Calistri and Tim Lavalli took a deeper look back in 2006 into where 2 million extra chips came after they noticed a discrepancy at the end of Day Seven of the Main Event. They take a look at possible staff error to even the possibility of cheating between staff and players. (AimlesslyChasingAmy)
