Andrew’s coming off a discouraging min-cash in a Venetian Deep Stack event, Dave just can’t seem to win no matter what he plays, and Dan’s the one noting an impressive Vegas grinder hourly? In this episode, we discuss table buzz about the major New York sports betting busts, Ivey and Negreanu’s Australian bracelet wins (is it the death of poker’s middle class?) and introduce our growing international listenership to Awesome Andrew’s Vegas Social Calendar — just in time for the opening of Hakkasan! But then we really do have to drill down on Dave’s recent woes at the table … to help you find your best way out of your poker holes before an extended downswing becomes a downward spiral of total life despair. And our HOTW … pocket 9s under the gun! Do you know a better way to address the pressing societal issue of open-raising vs. limping in early position with small-to-medium pairs? That’s what we thought. (Enjoy the extra links while listening …)
Daniel Negreanu $1,038,825 – WSOP APAC Main Event
Phil Ivey $51,840 – WSOP APAC Mixed Event
Philipp Gruissem $825,000 – WSOP APAC High Roller
Aaron Lim $233,800 – WSOP APAC Six Handed
It was a fun weekend in Australia as two of the biggest names in poker captured WSOP APAC braclets. Phil Ivey won his 9th career bracelet in the Mixed Event, a tournament on the smaller side but impressive none the less. This win puts him in a tie with poker legend Johnny Moss and just one behind Doyle Brunson and Johnny Chan. After his run at the WSOP in 2012, there will be a lot of money on him winning another this summer.
Daniel Negreanu ended his 5 year WSOP drought by taking down the APAC Main Event for this 5th career bracelet. The title puts him in a tie with a boatload of other top players including Allen Cunningham, Ted Forrest, Scotty Nguyen, Jeff Lisandro, John Juanda, and the late great Stu Ungar. This was Negreanu’s second big chance to win a WSOP Main Event title after finishing 2nd at the WSOP Europe in 2009. It was probably fortunate he had to battle Daniel Marton heads up instead of having Barry Shulman own his soul.
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Tweet of the Day – Down goes Hellmuth! As captured by Jason Koon.
Heard a large thump. Look over and Hellmuth is laying in the floor. You’re welcome. twitter.com/JasonKoon/stat…
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 Get The Party Started!
Two Night Min./ Rates Vary
www.riolasvegas.com
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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…
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.
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.
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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?
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.
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.
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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.
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.
Kai Chang $1,138,350 – Bay 101 Shooting Star Main Event
Nick Schulman $270,480 – Bay 101 Shooting Star High Roller
Another big WPT event finished up, this time in North Cali at the Bay 101 Shooting Star tournament. The price reduction from $10,000 buyin to $7,500 had a double positive impact with both an increased field and prizepool. Paul “paulgees81” Volpe (West Chester, PA represent) continued his hot streak with his 2nd straight WPT final table and 3rd place finish for $435,610. That puts him just over $1,000,000 in tournament earnings for $17,500 worth of buyins for the last two WPT events, not a bad ROI.
Kai Chang won the tournament for $1,138,350 plus a seat in the WPT Championship for topping the 643 entrants. No word on how many bounties he collected during the event but it probably was a decent addition as well.
Some big results expected in the next few days from the Heartland Poker Tour and WSOP-C. The HPT had another successful event at Black Hawk with over a $1,000,000 prizepool and the WSOP-C Caeasers Atlantic City Main Event will give away another ring within days.
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Tweet of the Day – Euro-Schecky tweets from the completely spontaneous, not-at-all corporate set up, Full Tilt Poker versus PokerStars Heads Up competition. Rumor has it PokerStars stars won the day.
My Choice Center Experience – Daniel Negreanu responds to the article from Bryan Micon about the Choice Center. It’s totally not a cult and completely legit, guys, because he said so. I was finally convinced after he also told me I inherited a million dollars from some guy in Nigerian.
Illinois Bill Would Legalize Online Poker – Another state trying to get into the online poker business. Keep expanding and maybe we’ll all be back in business before too long.
Dusk Till Dawn to Guarantee €1 Million to the Winner of ISPT Wembley! – More news from the International Stadiums Poker Tour, now with a €1,000,000 guarantee for first place. Points taken away from PokerNews by our impartial judges for using @#$^@$ exclamation point in a headline.
Chris Reslock $25,480 – WSOP-C Caesars NLHE Prelim
Martin Bader £56,000 – GUKPT London Main Event
There were less than 200 entrees into the WSOP Circuit $580 NLHE event at Caesars in Atlantic City, but the final results were worth notice. AC and east coast legend Chris Reslock joined a very small club when he won the tournament and captured his 5th WSOP-C ring. He joins Ari Engel, Kyle Cartwright, Mark Smith, and Kurt Jewel in the 5 ring club and just one victory behind Alexandru Masek. Reslock has one WSOP bracelet as well, in the 2010 $3,000 H.O.R.S.E. tournament, and over $1,000,000 in career tournament earnings.
Also underway this week is the price-reduced WPT Bay 101 Shooting Star tournament, the buy-in reduced from $10,000 to $7,500. It looks like the discount is producing similar results as seen at the Borgata when they dropped their price to draw in more people yet still end up with a larger prizepool. Moon Kim is the defending champion.
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Tweet of the Day – Tournament Director extraordinaire Matt Savage made it “official” with this tweet, the Bay 101 Shooting Star will top attendance and prizepool numbers from last year’s event.
Not too late to jump on a plane and get out to @bay101casino @wpt. Prize pool is bigger than last year already at a smaller buy in $7,500!
Casino Industry Opposes PokerStars’ Bid for New Jersey License – The American Gaming Association doesn’t seem too thrilled with the idea of PokerStars buying the Atlantic Club Casino in AC. The AGA sited PokerStar’s troubles with the DOJ and thinks this should prevent them from buying the old haunt.
Daniel Negreanu & Antonio Esfandiari For Choice Center Las Vegas Scam-Cult – Say it ain’t so Daniel! Someone who uses all his might to shout down all the evil people in the world can’t possibly be a shill for a Las Vegas scam company. It’s just not possible, unless it is. Bryan Micon attempts to piece it all together.
2013 WSOP Registration is open – Avoid those crazy, small buyin, weekend registration lines at this summer’s WSOP by registering for your events early and online. Registration is now open.
Remi Castaignon €770,000 – EPT Deauville
Michael Mizrachi $101,267 – WSOP Circuit South Africa
Tyler Patterson $19,080 – 2013 LAPC NLHE Escalator
Big tournaments finished this weekend all over the planet, from Europe to South Africa and across the US. Michael “The Grinder” Mizrachi was already having pretty nice results over the last 12 months including a nearly $1.5 million victory in the 2012 WSOP Poker Players Championship. Now he can add WSOP Circuit ring winner to his resume after winning the 116-player Main Event at the Emerald Casino in South Africa.
Remi Castaignon is the latest EPT Champion for what is apparently his first tournament cash ever with a victory in the EPT Deauville Main Event. €770,000 is a fine way to get his first entry on HendonMob and it looks like he cruised to the win after entering the final table with 40% of the chips in play.
The 2013 LAPC continues to chug along with their preliminary events pulling in good numbers for the Savage structured grind. Plenty of big names are making their way to final tables including McLean Karr, Bryan Devonshire, Matt Affleck, and Tyler Patterson who managed a win along with the traditional ugly, 500 pound trophy. Elsewhere in the world, the WPT Seminole Hard Rock will play down to their champion in a few days with Matt Salsberg once again in the running with 36 players remaining.
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Tweet of the Day – Mizrachi wins and Andrew Felman reminded to remind himself that everyone forgets The Grinder. Perhaps people could start giving the man his props now?
I won the Main Event @emeraldpoker@wsoptd @wsopLove you South Africa.Ty every 1.Every 1 Here is Great.Thanks again !!
Poker / By Alex Outhred – Hey, look who has a poker strategy article in the world renown Buffalo News! Good friend, and one of the good guys, Alex Outhred. (Part congrats, part needle, all complimentary)
Daniel Negreanu and Phil Hellmuth arrive for the NBC Heads-Up draw party, even though Negreanu opted out to spend the weekend with friends.
NBC’s $25,000 buy-in National Heads-Up Poker Championship invitational tournament is decidedly made-for-television .
The draw party Wednesday night felt like little more than a chance to hobnob with the who’s who of televised poker and online wunderkinds, from Brunson to Hellmuth to Jungleman and ZeeJustin.
But after a Black Friday-induced hiatus, some in the poker world say the return of the event to the Caesars Palace poker room signals a step forward for poker in the U.S.
Caesars Entertainment Interactive, which recently acquired a license to operate online poker in Nevada, presented its wsop.com as part of the event for the first time since the tournament began in 2005.
Mori Eskandani, the producer of the show, called it ‘good news’ for the industry that NBC wants poker back.
The matches start Thursday afternoon, and they’ll crown a champion on Saturday.
This year, Phil Hellmuth, who arrived to the party Wednesday night in his dictator coat, squares off against Mike Sexton in round one. Daniel Negreanu, meanwhile, has opted out to spend the weekend with friends. That made room for David “Doc” Sands, who put up something of a fit after he didn’t get a direct invite.
Joseph Stiers $318,104 – Borgata Winter Poker Open NLHE
Aaron Massey $57,326 – Borgata Winter Poker Open NLHE Re-entry
Jason Bundy $29,000 – 2013 LAPC NLHE Double Stack
The two big festivals on opposite coasts are fully underway with the Borgata Winter Poker Open in absolutely frigid Atlantic City and the LAPC at the stylish Commerce Casino. The Borgata continues to draw great numbers despite less than ideal weather including the first event which nearly doubled it’s $1,000,000 guarantee. Joseph Stiers won the event to multiply his career earnings by 100.
In other news, the National Heads-Up Poker Championship had a sudden change in the field when Daniel “20 years too old to be called Kid Poker” Negreanu withdrew from the tournament. David “Doc” Sands was a top snub on the original list but will now take Negreanu’s spot. The tournament kicks off on January 24th.
Meet the 2013 NHUPC Snubs – Andrew Feldman has his list of the NHUPC snubs which is lead by David “Doc” Sands but includes Tom Marchese who somehow managed to slip my mind. I like the idea of a Brandon Cantu/Jon Aguiar match, The Whine Bowl 2013.
Analyzing the NBC National Heads-Up Poker Championship List – PokerNews also presents their (extended) analysis of the NHUPC including quotes from every single writer on staff. They present “Mad Marvin” Rettenmaier as a top snub which is a solid pick.
Christie Has Doubts About New Jersey Online Gaming Bill – And now a couple looks at the NJ Online Gambling Bill currently awaiting action (or inaction) by Gov. Chris Christie. First up is Dave Behr writing for Bluff Magazine with his take.
WSOP VIDEO: Cover Story with Kara Scott – The Global Poker Index Awards were presented last night and the only winner worth noting would be Kara Scott for Poker Personality of the Year. So today’s video is from Bluff Magazine this summer during the WSOP.
Marcel Luske $18,500 – 2013 PCA H.O.R.S.E.
John Dibella $69,780 – 2013 PCA NLHE Turbo
Vladimir Zakharau $68,200 – 2013 PCA PLO Turbo
Christopher Frank $55,720 – 2013 PCA NLHE Bounty
The 2013 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure is well underway with the Main Event down to 30-ish some players depending on when/if you read this. Owen Crowe is the big name up on top of the leaderboard with Joe (don’t you dare call me Sebok) Serock and Eddy Sabat among the names on his tail. The Main drew 987 entrants this year, down a bit from last year which drew over a thousand, and the winner will have to figure out how to get $1,859,000 out of the Bahamas.
The next big tournament stops include the WSOP Circuit events at Choctaw, a WPT Regional event somewhere in Florida called Coconut Creek, and the return of the WPT big production to the Borgata Winter Open. Things are definitely back in full swing with the new year.
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Tweet of the Day – The Heartland Poker Tour made the big announcement today, their structure for the upcoming season has been updated by none other than Daniel Negreanu. The new structure is a great tweak to an already fantastic tour, but no word from top shelf nit Allen Kessler.
HPT Unveils New Structure Designed by Daniel Negreanu fb.me/2yYTZewG5
Lottomatica, Golden Gaming recommended for interactive gaming licenses – Two more companies, Lottomatica and Golden Gaming, received recommendations for online gaming licenses by the Nevada Gaming Commission. The players are starting to take the field, will be interesting to see how this all turns out.
Michael Phelps is playing poker, looking interesting – God bless the USA Today for completely missing the point that a top class athlete was in the Bahamas competing the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure, instead focusing on how he was dressed.
International Stadiums Poker Tour Changes Format – The ever changing ISPT is back at it again, this time announcing that “Day 1” will be played online between Feb 3rd to May 19th. Innovative or nuts? I guess we’ll find out.
The Micros aren’t dead, even though American online poker kinda is (for just a little while longer?). But they do have, you can see, a new relationship with PokerStars — though they explain in the episode write-up that it’s just a one-off for now …
Spoiler alert: cameos this episode from Nanonoko, Negreanu, Phil Galfond, Vannessa Selbst, Chris Moneymaker’s bobblehead, and Noah Stephens-Davidowitz.
Extra LOL for As the Button Moves, a “Photoshopera” on the NVG network.
Ari Engel $55,503 – WSOPC Hammond $1,125 NLHE
Eddie Ochana $44,281 – WSOPC Hammond $1,125 NLHE
Matthew Weber $135,475 – Punta Cana Poker Classic
Another week in the books and players are scattered around the globe 5-bet shoving their way to glory. The World Series of Poker Circuit Hammond Main Event is underway with an impressive showing while a several hundred players have taken the long flight to Johannesburg, South Africa for their first World Poker Tour event. Players in Hammond have to worry about less than stellar facilities/rulings while those in South Africa are going on safaris and dodging wild animals.
Coin flip if you ask me.
After these festivals are done, players will blast off to populate other tournaments in Florida (WPT), Barcelona (WPTN), Albuquerque (HPT), and Iowa (MSPT) for the next in eternal search of temporary glory.
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Tweet of the Day – So the oldest kid in poker would not kick Howard Lederer out of his game but probably forgets telling his fanboys that he deserved “few swift baseball bat swings to the groin area”.
To answer other questions: if HL sat down in my game I would not run him off. The other players want him in the game for obvious reasons.
Poker Hall of Fame Announces Class of 2012 – After the public and media rounds of voting, the WSOP announced Eric Drache and Brian “Sailor” Roberts as the latest inductees into the Poker Hall of Fame. Disappointed to not see Scotty Nguyen or Chris Bjorin on the list but these two are worthy. The induction ceremony will once again take place during the Main Event final table circus.
PokerNews Op-Ed: What Happened To Poker? – Donnie Peters penned an Op-Ed lamenting the demise of fun at the poker tables. As someone usually having too much fun at the tables, I generally agree with him. Although if serious money were on the line, I’d likely be up on assault charges when Ted Bort barked in my ear.
Liv Boeree @ WSOPE Cannes 2012 – This video runs a lot longer than most videos but since it involved Liv Boeree, metal, and Liv Boeree playing metal I deem it worthy of your attention. Fast forward to around the 3:30 mark if you just want girl on guitar action.
Benjamin Spindler €288,000 – EPT San Remo High Roller
Andy Denick $138,187 – HPT Daytona Beach
Karim El Rharbaoui €44,000 – FPS Sunfest
‘Twas not a terribly exciting weekend in the poker world but there were a few results around the world including the Heartland Poker Tour in Daytona Beach, San Remo High Roller, and the French Poker Series in Morocco (on a different continent not far far away from France). Our friends at HPT had another great turnout at the Daytona Beach Kennel Club and Poker room with a 35% increase over their last event, the winner Andy Denick with a nice 6-digit win.
The rest of the poker world stood by with baited breath as the poker world’s greatest ambassador* Daniel Negreanu promised to publish another rant** about all things Full Tilt Poker, Howard Lederer, Erick Lindgren, and everything else causing the slightest angst among the poker players of the world.
Instead we have this calm, clinical breakdown on his thoughts about just Lederer.
* – Not really
** – If that was a rant, Negreanu needs to adjust his meds
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Full Tilt Poker affiliates won’t get paid – It’s a big, but not completely unexpected, punch to the gut of former FTP affiliates after the new company comes out with a statement saying “not my problem” when it comes to back payment.
Full Tilt Poker Signs Tom Dwan and Viktor Blom as “Professionals” – They haven’t even launched but FTP is already getting things lined up for those massive nosebleed cash games again. Dwan and Blom were two of the game regulars and neither has a whiff of controversy so this looks like another no-brain signing after Gus Hansen.
Official FTP (Pre)Relaunch Thread – Anyone who knows me will bear witness to my feelings about poker forums, but I suppose it’s about time to link up the 2+2 FTP Relaunch thread which contains some interesting information from Shyam “formerly FTPDoug” Markus. Surrounded by endless posts by mouth breathing nit-monkeys.
South Point Poker job openings – Want a job with a U.S. based online poker company? Your options are pretty slim out there but now it seems South Point Poker is hiring for a few positions. The “Poker Investigator” job could be interesting. Click the link to check them out.
The Final Table – Episode 2 – Another episode of The Final table with Russell Thomas and his November Nine prep team led by Jason Somerville.
Greg Raymer $121,973 – HPT River City Casino
Mike Watson €1,000,000 – Majestic Super High Roller
Ludovic Lacay €744,910 – EPT Sanremo Main Event
Benny Spindler €253,000 – EPT Sanremo High Roller
Ludovic Lacay has been known as one of the best European players and now has a major championship to his credit after winning the EPT Sanremo Main Event. The French professional had booked over $2,000,000 in career earnings before this series but was having an admittedly bad run in recent months. The event drew a tough field by attracting many top pros to the casino on the Mediterranean coast and Lacay picked up €744,910 ($961,807) for outlasting them all.
Side note: Is the town spelled Sanremo or San Remo or Sanrœmu. All very confusing and PokerStarsBlog.com didn’t help my muddled brain. Back to your regularly schedule blathering.
Completely made up Phil Ivey quote: “I am deeply disappointed and embarrassed that Crockford Casino players have not been paid money they are owed. I am not playing in the World Series of Punto Banco as I do not believe it is fair that I compete when others cannot. I am doing everything I can to seek a solution to the problem as quickly as possible.”
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Tweet of the Day – Negreanu can’t go 5 minutes without finding himself in the middle of something. This time it was a blog post from Haralabos Voulgaris (linked below) calling out “Kid” Poker for his less then enthusiastic response to Erick Lindren being a deadbeat, broke dick. Negreanu earns another Deflection Badge of Honor.
People are empathetic to drug addicts, but consider gambling addicts fools/deadbeats. Studies show gambling is a similar illness for some.
Heroes and Villains in Poker – Voulgaris lays it out on the table about Full Tilt Poker, Black Friday, Erick Lindgren, and Negreanu’s soft touch with his friend’s situation. Some more big numbers thrown around and it makes you wonder what a lot of these guys in deep are leaving off.
Full Tilt Poker Receives Isle of Man Operating License – It looks like one of the last hurdles to the new/improved/non-thieving Full Tilt Poker has been cleared with the company being granted their operating license. Plans are for a launch on November 6 and wasting no time by jumping into a new FTOPS series on December 2nd.
New Entourage-Style Show Based on Poker Circuit – Matt Salsberg, winner of the WPT Grand Prix de Paris, will be using his Hollywood skills to create a poker-related poker show. The brains behind Entourage and Weeds also spoke with our friends at PokerListing about results, movies, and Black Friday.
FeltStars Leaves Online Poker – Another poker site hits the bricks as FeltStars shutters operations on the Merge Network. For those few who still trust their money on U.S. facing poker sites, it’s another hit to their game. There were quite a few top name players signed on as FeltStar pros including Matt Brady, David “Devilfish” Ulliot, and Ylon Schwartz.
The Final Table – Episode 1 – Looks like there will be a nice series of online episodes as Russell Thomas prepares for the 2012 WSOP Main Event final table with coach Jason Somerville and a cast of characters including “Friend of Pokerati” B.J. Nemeth.
