Robbie Renehan
Photo: PokerStarsBlog.com

Today’s Boxscore

Robbie Renehan $147,877 – LAPT Colombia
Blake Barousse $15,757 – $365 NLH WSOP Circuit Biloxi
Elisa Burkett $15,449 – $580 NLH WSOP Circuit Biloxi
Travis Johnston $7,956 – $365 NLH WSOP Circuit Biloxi
Caufman Talley $29,743 – $365 NLH WSOP Circuit Biloxi

There’s something pretty cool about a guy winning a poker tournament wearing a Big Lebowski t-shirt. If you’re going to dress down for a final table, at least be interesting. Also cool is a guy in Ireland winning an LAPT package on the cheap, travelling to the safest city in the world (Medellin Columbia is a walk in the park, correct?), and boosting his career tournament earnings from $5,000 to $150,000.

The Dude abides.

Also starting is the next round of WSOP Circuit events with a series of tournaments at the IP in Biloxi, MS. Not to be confused with the IP in Las Vegas where you’re more likely to get stuck to the floor before you lose your bankroll. On top of the great food and music, Biloxi will offer 12 tournament including the $1,675 Main Event.

Link Dump

Exclusive: Michele Clayborne, Former Consulting Head of PR for Full Tilt Poker, Releases Statement – Part of her statement concerning FTPDoug: “Until this announcement, I too was not aware of this person’s identity”. Booshit. I knew she wasn’t FTPDoug but I would be damned shocked if she didn’t know who it was. There are plenty of stories about what a pain it was to deal with Clayborne and I have quite a few myself. Doubly painful since we were both collecting a paycheck from the same company.

Department Of Justice Looks For Aid With About 1.3 Million ‘Potential U.S. Victims’ Of Full Tilt Poker – CardPlayer reports the DOJ is looking for a third party processor to take care of the ~$139,000,000 of payments due former US players at Full Tilt Poker. They are saying potentially 1.3million possible “victims”.

Claims Administrator—Full Tilt Poker – Unemployed, the Department of Justice might have a spot for you. Double checking Michele Clayborne’s LinkedIn profile to see if she’s qualified.

If sports betting is so obviously beneficial to the sports leagues, why do they still oppose it? Insiders weigh in – Everybody from New Jersey to Washington state has taking their bats to the gaming industry and the boys at QuadJacks decided to take a look at why sports leagues oppose betting.

The Micros – The gang wants to take advantage of the PokerStars Full Tilt Poker buyout. For real, can someone please sponsor these guys again so we can get back to the episodes?

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.

You get a sense that something Full Tilty is coming to a close, officially, for good. Not only has Ray Bitar surrendered to authorities in the United States, but now Michele Clayborne, longtime gatekeeper to Team Full Tilt pros and poker industry dominatrix circa 2004-2011, is apparently looking for work. According to her LinkedIn profile, all dealings with FTP are in the past (as of January 2012).

Choose your own irony in the effort to take skills honed at Full Tilt and apply them to the non-poker world in: 8 PR Tips for Conducting Business Globally. (Published in June.) Perhaps surprisingly, blacklisting certain blog sites isn’t one of them, nor is posting falsehoods on internet forums that can be used against your former boss in US federal court.

But good on Michele for turning lemons into lemonade. There’s almost a reality show in it — Online Poker Industry Exiles or something — when the world you helped create comes crashing down, who will come out unscathed, and who still has something to hide!? (Bumpbuh buh!) OK, gotta workshop that concept, obv. But for various reasons different people who made livings in poker off the table are dropping out and/or moving on. And for Full Tilt’s primary spinstress, putting the past behind her means not having to admit (yet) to various Full Tilt shenanigans, which at some point would’ve became her job, as “Head of International PR for Full Tilt Poker.net,” to cover up.