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.

Ryan Stevenson
Photo: WSOP.com

Today’s Boxscore

Ryan Stevenson $204,795 – WSOP-C Tunica Main Event
Mervin Chan AU$1,600,000 – Aussie Millions Main Event

The poker world is done for now on one continent and immediately hops over to another one. Mervin Chan was the big winner in the 2013 Aussie Millions Main Event for a nice AU$1.6 million payout after knocking out popular (and fan girl favorite) Patrik Antonius in 3rd place. The field was down a bit from last year but that might have been due to the NHUPC and the smaller buy-in, much closer WSOP-C in Tunica.

While the Aussie Million Main Event attendance was down, the Tunica WSOP-C event drew a devilish 666 players for an uptick from last year. Ryan Stevenson dominated the final table by taking out every player from 6th place on down to win the title, collect over $200,000, and a seat in the National Championship.

The WSOP Circuit isn’t taking any time off as their next series is already underway in South Africa. It will be interesting to see what big names make the trip after spending a few weeks Down Under. The African circuit event will also have to compete with the popular EPT Deauville Main Event which drew 782 players.

Link Dump

Tweet of the Day – Poor poor Matty, always the victim. Except for win he’s set his phasers to blast and off his meds.

People talk about me, make songs about me, + form false opinions about me, b/c I actually matter to them, and you don’t. The truth hurts!

— Matthew Marafioti (@Adzizzy) February 5, 2013

I love people. I am extremely affected by how much hate + negativity I have received for things that aren’t even true about me. #IWorkSoHard

— Matthew Marafioti (@Adzizzy) February 5, 2013

Nuts: Hot start to ’13 for Selbst, Seiver – ESPN’s Andrew Feldman back with his monthly look at the top players in the game with some of your favorite poker beat writers. I’m a little surprised to see Hellmuth down in the #2 spot but Selbst is also worthy.

The WTO Loads Antigua’s Slingshot – Who knew this little battle was still going on between the U.S. and Antigua. The WTO ruled in Antigua’s favor and now the little Caribbean island is looking to make big noise.

State suspends licenses at several poker rooms – Michigan’s biggest poker room was among those closed after problems with them following charity regulations.

3 young Oklahoma City children left in car while dad played poker, police say – Meanwhile in Oklahoma, a moronic video poker player. No word on WhoJedi and his Caveman Keno addiction.

EPT9 Deauville: Here’s your f***in’ tour! – God bless Kristy Arnett’s little heart.

Dan Smith
Photo: PokerNews.com

Today’s Boxscore

Dan Smith €962,925 – EPT Barcelona Super High Roller
Jonathan Taylor $12,434 – $365 NLH WSOP Circuit Biloxi
Ben Mintz $30,000 – $1,125 NLH WSOP Circuit Biloxi
Patrick Smith $13,689 – $365 NLH WSOP Circuit Biloxi
Kyle Cartwright $107,992 – WSOP Circuit Biloxi Main Event

Dan Smith is having himself one hell of a year and it continued this weekend when he won the EPT Barcelona Super High Roller. He has 7 final tables, 5 tournament wins, and now over $3,000,000 in tournament earnings in 2012.

He beat a small but distinguished field in the €50,000 Super High Roller during the EPT Barcelona festival including a final table featuring Erik Seidel, JC “PrtyPsux” Alvarado, Mike “SirWatts” Watson, Ilari “Ziigmund” Sahamies, and Mike “Timex” McDonald. Smith picked up €962,925 for the win.

The WSOP Circuit Main Event in Biloxi wrapped up on Monday with Kyle Cartwright continuing a fine year (plus a few months) of his own when he won the WSOP Circuit Champions Ring and a 6-digit payday. This is his 5th ring over just 16 months and ties him with Mark Smith for most titles. As Jess Welman points out, the math averages out to one WSOP-C victory every 96 days.

Not too shabby.

On an interesting research note, I’m wondering how many people could tell you who won the most cash in WSOP Circuit events.

Would anyone guess none other than Chris Ferguson?

Update: I’m obviously an idiot since Kevmath and Michalski both snapped off the answer.

Link Dump

Tweet of the Day 1 – My favorite tweet of the weekend and it wasn’t even close.

ordered an egg mcmuffin.. fire up @pokerstars mobile to pay for egg mcmuffin.. lost 257 egg mcmuffins before first bite of egg mcmuffin

— William A. Reynolds (@ReynoldsXO) August 18, 2012

Tweet of the Day 2 – Right around the time I forget a fair number of pro players are narcissistic jackholes, I get another reminder.

I might come offdouchey in my Stars interviews, mainly because I didn’t want to do it. Fuck ’em they should be paying us for this shit.

— JC Alvarado(@JCAlvarado1) August 19, 2012

Mercier Sweats, Mercier Flames, Exposing Deals – The 3-Bet articles are always a bit of fun for the poker readers. This time around it has Mercier complaining (shocker) about the heat in Barcelona but correctly setting Jeff Pollack and Annie Duke on blast for Epic Poker. Perhaps he’ll aim his phasers at a few other nozzles around poker.

Poker Hall of Fame Nominations – Nominations are open for the Poker Hall of Fame Class of 2012. Check out the criteria, make your nominations, wait for the results. Those elected will be inducted in the Hall of Fame during the Main Event final table. Let’s get some overlooked European players in there.

Five Things We’ll Miss About Full Tilt Poker – Not the strongest article in the world, listed here more because I found it interesting there was something written (and posted) on the Yahoo Sports page.

I’m Such an Awesome Guy – It goes against my personal ethos to make light of those with mental illness. Unless it involves Matt Marafioti and then I’m all for it. Video magician SrslySirius takes his shots at Adzizzy this time around.

Poker World reconstruction moves forward … not just off the felt, but on it, too. Taking a quick scan of the current GPI 300, the name that stood out to me as in a “holy heck he’s not just good he’s apparently really good” is Matt Marafioti.  Who knew?! A kid putting himself at the center of poker controversy while declaring cheating to be alive and well but chivalry to be definitively dead … presuming he doesn’t end up in a ditch or arctic fjord in the near future, @adzizzy’s presence on the Global Poker Index is a reminder that a new generation of poker players — top poker pros — really is upon us. (LOL those damn Millenials!) Remember the days when Phil Hellmuth’s whining and Mike Matusow’s psychological instabilities were enough to entertain us? They seem quaint by comparison.

Also interesting to see how few Full Tilt pros are on the list. So many players who we once believed were anything and everything maybe really weren’t? Or at least aren’t any longer, without your money to buy them into $20,000 televised sit-n-go’s.

Considering the number of pros here born in the 80s (and even 90s, soon) … a new era, new generation, new rules … welcome poker’s new wave?

Excuse me while I shed my Union Jack trousers and put this flag back into its pouch. The Olympics are over and the unseasonal wave of athletic patriotism that has washed over the UK is finally abating. It’s a relief, let me tell you. Now we can get back to moaning about the transport network and being rained on. If only the sun would stop shining.

Worldwide Tournament Update

We start this week with some glorious victories. First up there was Robbie Renehan proving true the maxim that ‘Wherever you go, you will always find the Irish’. He somehow managed to outlast a horde of locals to win the Colombian National Poker Championship, which forms part of the Latin American Poker Tour. [OnlinePoker.net]

Doing even more winning is Marvin Rettenmaier, who has garnered praise for becoming the first person ever to win back-to-back WPT events. PokerNews have even penned this paean to his glory, detailing his recent results and tournament strategy. [PokerNews]

Fresh Scandal on 2+2

A slew of worrying, but frankly engrossing, cheating accusations are unravelling on 2+2. It all begins with an anonymously posted chat log which alleges that poker pro Matt Marafioti and reported hacker Samer Rahman had been colluding to steal money from other online pros by installing a program on their computers that revealed their hole cards. The discussion has now evolved into claims by several Swedish pros that they have been scammed and threatened by a notorious biker gang with ties to Rahman. [2+2]

Euro Council Enshrined

PokerStars has set up a European Players Council to look out for the needs of its EPT competitors. It follows the example laid down by the WSOP equivalent, whose founding members included such trusted names as Chris Ferguson and Howard Lederer. [Card Player]

Facebook Gets Real Money Bingo

The online gambling world has been going all social lately, so it was only a matter of time before the social media sphere went all gambley. Facebook has allowed the first ever real money gambling app onto its platform. The horrifically named Bingo Friendzy has only launched in the UK so far. [The Telegraph]

London Poker Festival on the Horizon

The London Poker Festival is on the horizon, featuring a cavalcade of card-slinging endeavours, including the (sort-of) prestigious British Poker Awards. London’s various casinos and poker clubs are running a huge number of tournaments, including the English Poker Open and various GUKPT events. [British Poker Festival]

Bye-Bye Blom

Despite completing their Full Tilt takeover, it’s not all been roses for PokerStars, as they this week bid farewell to volatile high-stakes phenom Viktor Blom. After rocketing into the spotlight with his insane swings as the anonymous Isildur1, Blom has gone on to become one of the online game’s most captivating players. [PokerNews]

Ah! I forgot that we still had the Paralympics to come. It’ll take me a full week to reaffix all my British paraphernalia. Which is conveniently just about the right amount of time for the wider world of poker to generate enough news for another post. Serendipity at its finest.

Marvin Rettenmaier
Photo: World Poker Tour

Today’s Boxscore

Marvin Rettenmaier $287,784 – WPT Merit Cyprus Classic

It looks like Marvin Rettenmaier might have a pretty decent handle on this poker thing. On Thursday he became the first player to ever win back-to-back World Poker Tour events when he captured the WPT Merit Cyprus Classic title. This was the first tournament of the WPT Season XI but he picked up where he left off after winning the WPT World Championship to wrap up Season X. In between his two titles, he only cashed seven times during the WSOP including a final table in the Mix-Max tournament.

Rettenmaier grabbed $287,784 for his win and perhaps can now afford to dress like a grown man.

This story was a little too much to be pushed down into the link dump and also an example why I continue to believe legalized online poker is a long ways off. Mister and Missus Smith still equate poker with those evil negative EV games sitting in the casino pits where the house has a huge edge.

Mike Florio of ProFootballTalk on NBCSports.com played the puppet for locked out NFL officials when he wrote a piece called Locked-out officials plan to point out replacement official’s poker past.

Per a source with knowledge of the situation, the locked-out officials will soon be making it known that Shannon Eastin, who will become the first female official to work an NFL game, has played in the World Series of Poker.

Multiple links containing reports from the 2007 event mention Eastin.

Holy crap, stop the presses! A person of legal age participated in a legal poker tournament so she must be willing to fix an NFL game for a Binion’s Daily buy-in and a corn dog. In 2007, East finished 17th in a $1,500 NLH event and also cashed in the 2006 Ladies Championship.

Link Dump

FTPDoug returns to TwoPlusTwo – The infamous FTPDoug made his triumphant 2+2 return after taking his leave following the Full Tilt disaster. He is back and answering questions about the FTP relaunch after the PokerStars buyout. He also settles the question of whether it was actually Michele Clayborne posting as FTPDoug (told ya so).

Matt Marafioti Online Hacking Allegations – Marafioti is clearly off his rocker, that’s no big secret. But if these allegations of account hacking turn out to be true then he’s a blatant, delusional thief who is off his rocker.

Cantor Gaming launches Wi-Fi sports wagering in Nevada – And just like that, you can legally place a sports bet online in Nevada as long as you have a Cantor Gaming account and the ability to turn on your Wi-Fi adapter.

The British Poker Awards – Branded “the UK’s official poker awards” so it must be true. Award ceremonies for poker still seem a little odd because the ultimate award is cash in the hand and maybe a bracelet on the wrist. Now get off my lawn.

Best Poker Player Party ever? – I don’t know about the best party ever, I barely remember a PokerStars party at the WSOP with Mr. Snoop Dogg. But it still looks like a blast and Savage managed to once again find himself on camera.