If you had cash on Full Tilt shortly before Black Friday, you’ve got until this weekend to inform government contractors that you’d like your money back, please. Check out what I got in the mail recently from the poker world’s new-good friends at Garden City Group, who are handling Full Tilt remissions on behalf of the DOJ, whom you may or may not recall earmarked nearly $200 million of PokerStars money for paying back Full Tilt player/ponzi victims.

Curious though, their effort to contact me, as my email has been the same since I signed up in 2004 … and I’m almost certain I maintained a negative balance on Tilt ever since I stopped playing there in like ’09. (According to my records I was in the red for about $300, but hey, I’m standing in solidarity with Erick Lindgren; I called “not paying!”)

Presuming I didn’t unknowingly luckbox into some sorta secret errant money transfer, I think this postcard campaign reveals a GCG serious about covering various asses should someone and their lawyer(s) can come back later and claim ignorance when trying to get a piece of any FTP payout pie. Otherwise you gotta wonder … they didn’t have my email address — the one that just about everybody remotely connected to poker has? (You know, the one that has been the same ever since signing up with Full Tilt in ’04?) And yet they were able to track me down through a postal address that didn’t even exist for me or Pokerati until after Black Friday? It wasn’t anything I ever provided to Full Tilt Poker, PokerStars, Garden City Group, nor the DOJ, as far as I know. In fact, I could be wrong here, but I think the only federal agency that would have this address for me is the IRS.

Hmm … makes you wonder what kinda sit-n-gos the NSA really might be playing!

If you haven’t yet submitted your online poker DNA to Uncle Sam and you still want a chance at seeing your Full Tilt bankroll ever again, visit http://fulltiltpokerclaims.com/.

It has certainly been another eventful time in the fight for poker rights. I encourage you to view a terrific video by PPA Executive Director John Pappas. In it, he shares insights from Capitol Hill and the progress being made. This video was sent to 2013 members last week and is a great example of the timely insider information you can get by becoming a 2013 PPA member. Please join today.

Instructions for Finding Your Full Tilt Poker Balance
Full Tilt Poker Claims Administrator Garden City Group will start accepting applications for remission of Full Tilt Poker balances on September 16th. You may wish to check and see what they have on record as your balance. To find your current Full Tilt Poker balance, you will have to download your account history. I downloaded mine and it was pretty straightforward. Here’s how to do it:

More…

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.

Click here to read the whole press release.

Below is a quick Cliff’s noting some peculiars:

More…

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Today’s Boxscore

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

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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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Link Dump

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…

— Jason Koon (@JasonKoon) April 12, 2013

Online poker industry still reeling two years after federal ‘Black Friday’ crackdown – Looking at the game two years after the US government and the DOJ slammed shut the door of online poker.

Online poker players gambling on a life abroad – The Toronto Star with a look at the trend of players moving away from the States to practice their craft since Black Friday.

Chad Elie Files Malpractice Lawsuit Against Former Full Tilt Poker Attorney Jeff Ifrah – Chad Elie, currently serving time from the Black Friday indictments, filed a malpractice lawsuit against a one time FTP lawyer over a legal opinion on the legal status of third party payment processors.

Two San Francisco Public Utilities Commission workers fired over porn, online gambling – Online gambling and (oh my god!) porn caused a few poor workers to get fired in San Francisco. Wonder which of the two weighed heavier in the firing decision.

Looking Inside Poker’s Greatest Minds with Ivey, Negreanu, Hellmuth and More – Very funny video from the minds at PokerListings down at the WSOP APAC. Then ChipBitch showed up and stole the clip.

Courtesy of Nathan Vardi, today comes news that Chad Elie, a Black Friday defendant now serving federal time, has sued Washington D.C. lawyer Jeff Ifrah and his law firm, Ifrah PLLC, whom Elie alleges were retained to represent him. The complaint was filed yesterday in the District Court in Clark County, Nevada; a copy of the complaint is available here.

Part of the complaint is devoted to Ifrah’s defence (or purported lack thereof) of Elie in a prior case commenced in Nevada state court and subsequently removed to federal court.

But the potentially explosive part of the claim concerns alleged payments that Ifrah received payments from Elie’s LLC (21 Debit) as “commission[s] on procuring the deals with the banks which processed poker transactions.” In so doing, Elie alleges that Ifrah acted in a conflict of interest vis-a-vis Elie and his other clients and withheld critical information from Elie about the illegality of payment processing for online poker in the United States. Elie states that Ifrah received $100,000 per month as his cut for this processing and more than $1M in total therefrom.

The other incendiary claim is that Ifrah disclosed privileged and false information to the US Attorney for the Southern District of New York “in order to avoid indictment from the US Attorney’s office for his own illegal activities.”

This is just a complaint at this stage; none of this is evidence and nothing has been proved in court. Ifrah will doubtless respond. Given the seriousness of the allegations, the response should be every bit as good a read as the complaint.

 

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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

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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.

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Rio’s Bottle Package
Get The Party Started!
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www.riolasvegas.com

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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 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).

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.

The Department of Justice has brought in a third-party claims administrator to help eligible American online poker players reclaim funds that were lost to Full Tilt Poker after the companys access to the United States was cut off in April 2011.

U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York Preet Bharara said Wednesday that bringing aboard Garden City Group was a significant step forward in the process of compensating victims of the Full Tilt Poker scheme.

More…

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Today’s Boxscore

Kai Chang $1,138,350 – Bay 101 Shooting Star Main Event
Nick Schulman $270,480 – Bay 101 Shooting Star High Roller

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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.

Link Dump

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.

The winners are Tweeting!Spot the guy who didn’t win… #TiltVsStars twitter.com/ScheckTwit/sta…

— John Caldwell (@ScheckTwit) March 10, 2013

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.

As States Embrace Online Gambling, Questions Arise – But somebody has to be Chicken Little during the online poker discussion and NPR presents their “questions” in a short, relatively benign article.

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.

Poker Terms IRL-London Edition – PokerNews and Sarah Grant with a fun video from the EPT London.

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Today’s Boxscore

Paul Klann $1,004,090 – 2013 WPT LA Poker Classic
Jonathan Tamayo $206,020 – WSOPC Palm Beach Kennel Club
Rodger Johnson $182,315 – 2013 LAPC High Roller
Jon Turner $27,750 – 2013 LAPC 6-Handed PLO with rebuys

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The 2013 LA Poker Classic wrapped up it’s Main Event last night with Paul Klann overcoming a big chip deficit against Paul Vople. The WPT LAPC drew 517 entrants this year which is another annual drop, from 549 a year ago, at one of the biggest stops on the tour. Klann collected over $1,000,000 for the win which includes the WPT Championship buyin, but 7-digits is much prettier than 6.

Next big tournaments on the schedule include the popular WTP Bay101 Shooting Stars event, the WSOP-C series at Caesars in Atlantic City, and the always huge Heartland Poker Tour in Blackhawk, Colorado.

Link Dump

Tweet(s) of the Day – Not everybody is in love with the Commerce Casino, David Bach is isn’t the first or last player to comment on some of the shadier aspects of playing there. I still standby the breakfast burritos at the Cafe.

I say this with reservation: because of course there are plenty of honorable people in poker. But…. This Commerce Casino is the:

— david bach (@gunslingerbach) February 28, 2013

Scumbag capital of Poker. I cannot count how many angles and examples of dishonesty I have seen here in my 3 week stay. Just Disgusted.

— david bach (@gunslingerbach) February 28, 2013

Epic Anniversary – One year ago FS+G filed for bankruptcy killing Epic Poker along the way with a bunch of unpaid invoices (yours truly included). It’s still a touchy subject with some of us but Short-stacked Shamus has a nice recap. Check back to his site later for some of his article I published on the Epic website

A Look at Poker’s Falling Fortune in Las Vegas – The sky is falling, the sky is falling! It’s either that or the Vegas poker rooms are feeling the crunch of the online poker crackdown. We’ll see what happens when new players can be pulled in via online poker when it returns.

Team PokerStars v Team Full Tilt: Don’t Believe the Hype – Daniel Negreanu “called out” Gus Hansen, now there will be a HU battle in London. Not nearly the big brouhaha as it would have been prior to Black Friday and the PS/FTP buyout.

Pretty Broad Podcast – Three favorites from PokerNews (Kristy Arnett, Lynn Gilmartin, and Sarah Grant) started their own website PrettyBroad.com. It’s a fun concept from a fun group who get to travel to great places around the globe. Give them a look and listen to their first full podcast.

Former World Series of Poker champion Chris Ferguson, whose career has been derailed for almost three years following the U.S. government’s crackdown on Internet poker, has settled with federal prosecutors.

According to court documents, Ferguson agreed to forfeit millions of dollars he earned as a founder and principal in Full Tilt Poker, one of three online gambling businesses whose access to American customers was cut off in April 2011 following a slew of criminal indictments.

The eight-page settlement was signed by Ferguson and his attorneys and federal prosecutors on Tuesday. U.S. District Judge Kimba Wood of New York City approved the agreement Thursday.

The case stems from a civil lawsuit filed by the U.S. Justice Department in September 2011, which alleged Ferguson, fellow poker player Howard Lederer and other Full Tilt owners defrauded online customers out of $443.8 million.

Government prosecutors labeled Full Tilt Poker nothing more than a giant Ponzi scheme. The website’s owners and operators were accused of diverting funds from gamblers into their own pockets.

More…

Poker superstar Howard Lederer, facing a $42.5 million civil lawsuit filed by the U.S. Department of Justice over his leadership role with a tarnished online gambling company, agreed Tuesday to settle the case, forfeiting more than $2.5 million in cash and assets.

In a stipulated settlement filed at the U.S. District Court in New York City, Lederer, once one of the most revered players on the poker circuit, did not admit to any wrong-doing in the case that stemmed from the April 2011 crackdown by federal prosecutors on illegal Internet poker operations.

However, Lederer, 49, who was nicknamed “The Professor,” by the poker world, agreed to a two-part money settlement with the government, which includes a civil money-laundering penalty of $1.25 million and $168,000 that will be liquidated from various bank accounts.

Lederer agreed to pay the penalty in two installments, due 18 months and 36 months from now. The penalties are secured by Lederer’s two Las Vegas homes in the ultra-exclusive The Ridges area of Summerlin.

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WASHINGTON – A bill to legalize online poker that is being written in Congress and that Nevada senators are trying to pass by the end of the year could be challenged in court and found unconstitutional, according to a legal analysis by a former top government attorney.

The bill would set up a framework to license and regulate Internet poker companies, and to nourish a U.S.-based online poker industry. But former U.S. solicitor general Paul Clement said he found flaws in segments of the bill that seek to punish overseas providers that ran games in the United States and continued to take bets from U.S. players even after Congress enacted online restrictions in 2006.

The so-called “penalty box” provisions would prohibit those companies from applying for an online poker license for five years, and from selling their trademarks or software to others seeking a license.

Clement said the bill being formed by Sens. Harry Reid, D-Nev., and Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., “raises serious due process concerns.”

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When it comes to federal relief efforts, the fate of America’s online poker money supply surely doesn’t rise to the level of import seen with Superstorm Sandy … but we are all victims (well you are, not me) … and accordingly the DOJ has responded to poker player beefs about Full Tilt monies in limbo …

http://www.justice.gov/usao/nys/vw_cases/pokerstars.html

November 20, 2012—Victim Update. The United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York is evaluating applicants for the position of Claims Administrator to handle petitions for remission for U.S. victims of the alleged fraud that Full Tilt Poker committed relating to player funds. The United States Attorney’s Office expects that the Claims Administrator will be selected and begin work in January 2013.

Of course now that we can see everything about the remission process will be “by the book,” we know it will all be handled, er … by the book … which, frankly, may or may not lead to negative results for many of you (not me).

But we’ll see. Surely the DOJ understands how good it would be (for soooo many people!) if everyone could get paid back in time for the 2013 WSOP.