From OnlinePokerReport.com for the week of May 20th

STORIES TO WATCH THIS WEEK

#1. PokerStars came out on the losing end of last week’s legal battle with the Atlantic Club Casino. But given the latest statement from PokerStars, and the fact that they’ve sunk $10mm+ into the deal to date, I expect PokerStars to file new litigation in the days ahead.

#2. iPoker has given skins until May 20th to verify the identity of all players referred by certain affiliates. Sources report the action is linked to suspected VPN play from banned countries – including the United States.

Watch iPoker’s traffic – and the traffic of major US-facing sites – this week for clues to the scope of the issue. Based on back-channel chatter, it’s potentially huge.

#3. Iovation will continue to be a story to follow. Nevada regulators are reportedly planning to take a closer look at the company, which has been linked directly to the cheating scandal at Ultimate Bet, most recently in secret recordings released by Travis Makar.

+ THE WEEK THAT WAS

• Lock Poker’s CEO gave an “interview” that failed to resolve player questions. And the room’s cash out rating continued to trail far behind industry standards.
• NV Gov Sandoval suggested Texas as a potential poker partner.
• A draft of Illinois’ standalone online gambling bill was released.
• Merge Network further segregated player pools.
• The DHS took action against the world’s largest Bitcoin exchange.
• A consortium of CA tribal gambling interests released an online poker bill proposal.
• WSOP.com announced plans to launch by summer 2013.

OPR OUTPUT

The latest edition of poker news podcast Rabbit Hunt (sponsored by CardRunners) is now available on iTunes.

PICKS

#GoodRead – Interesting commentary on the relative wisdom of buy in spreads from Kim Lund at QuadJacks. And PokerFuse has a fascinating take on The Rising Concern of Forced Disconnection Attacks.

More from Chris Grove: @OPReport / Google +

State gaming regulators are looking into the relationship between 2-week-old Internet poker website Ultimate Poker and an unlicensed service provider used to identify new players.

In an email, Gaming Control Board Chairman A.G. Burnett said gaming agents are working with officials from Ultimate, which is majority owned by Station Casinos.

Over the weekend, Ultimate Gaming, parent of Ultimate Poker, said in a statement through a spokesman that on Thurday , it “discontinued” using services from Iovation. The company according to poker news resources, was linked to a 2008 online cheating scandal that brought down Ultimate Bet, which is not related to Ultimate Poker.

Burnett said Iovation was not a registered service provider with Nevada but the company’s services were utilized by CAMS, an Nevada-approved service provider.

More…

Steve O’Dwyer
Photo: PokerStarsBlog.com

Today’s Boxscore

Steve O’Dwyer €1,224,000 – 2013 EPT Grand Final
Steven Silverman €775,000 – 2013 EPT Monaco High Roller
Paul Volpe €130,000 – 2013 EPT Monaco 6-Max

Steve O’Dwyer has been making a lot of noise in Europe for a longtime but it wasn’t until Sunday night that he was able to capture his first EPT title. He won on their biggest stage against arguably one of the toughest final table is major poker tournament history. O’Dwyer defeated Andrew Pantling for the title but that was just one hurdle at a table which included Daniel Negreanu, Jason Mercier, Noah Schwartz, Jake Cody, Grant Levy, and Johnny Lodden. It was a well earned victory for one of the favorites on tour.

***

Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the last few days, and that is certainly a possibility with Mother’s Day weekend, you would have noticed Travis Makar released some secret Ultimate Bet recordings which have set the world all a-twitter and might be the situation to cause 2+2 to implode upon itself. There is a ton of information to be derived from the recordings and you can find some of the best in the link dump below.

The winner of the week? Jen Larson who now finds Lock Poker to be the second biggest story in poker at the moment. Have no fear, the Eye of Sauron will be back on them soon enough.

Link Dump

Travis Makar Releases Damaging Ultimate Bet Recordings – The best writeup I saw with a breakdown of the recordings and all they contain. Pretty damning information for a lot of people involved and this is a good to start understanding it all.

Poker’s Watergate Moment – Another great recap by poker blogger “Grange95” with his take on the UB tapes including links to the actual recordings.

Phil Hellmuth statement on UB – Phil Hellmuth (or more accurately, his agent Brian Balsbaugh) released a statement about the recent revelations in the UB recordings via Kevmath and the 2+2 forums. He gives the entire thing a bit of the soft touch and not much in the way of an explanation. He might get a little more attention with the WSOP about to kick off.

Ultimate Poker Severs Ties with Iovation – The news this weekend also had an impact on newly launched Ultimate Poker when it came to light they were using former UB-tainted Greg Pierson’s company Iovation for player verification.

Gambler won £7.8m by ‘reading’ the back of cards – In different news, the story of Phil Ivey and the UK casino holding back his winnings has spewed forth more (and actually interesting) material. So who is this mystery woman who can read cards like this?