Kevin Eyster
Photo: World Poker Tour

Today’s Boxscore

Kevin Eyster $660,395 – WPT Seminole Hard Rock Shootout
Joseph Cheong $1,343,370 – HK$1,000,000 Manila Millions
Pieter De-Korver $190,594 – EPT Berlin Cup

Joseph “subiime” Cheong had one heck of a time this last week with a couple big pops to his bankroll. He started off finishing second to Philipp Gruissem in the A$50,000 WSOP APAC High Roller rebuy event for $534,776 and followed up with by winning the Manila Millions for HK$10,428,000 ($1.3million and change, thank you exchange rate). Not a bad way to make his way through Asia.

Kevin Eyster is the latest WPT champion after winning the Seminole Hard Rock Shootout in Hollywood, FLA. Several big names made the Sunshine State trip including Jeff Madsen making his 2nd WPT final table with Faraz Jaka, Matt Giannetti, Doug Lee, and Dan Suied just missing the TV action. The top two in the race for WPT Player of the Year made the money but Matt Salsberg outlasted Paul Volpe to take over the lead with just a few events remaining. Next stop for the WPT is the bestbet Open in scenic, never boring Jacksonville, FLA.

Tweet of the Day – It has nothing to do with poker, instead it’s the rather quick TV career of sports reporter AJ Clemente. Plus I will take every chance to show Kevmath cursing.

In the words of @clementeaj, I start off my today with – “Fucking shit!”

— Kevin Mathers (@Kevmath) April 22, 2013

QuadJacks to Relaunch Under New Management – Marco leaves QuadJacks for GPI, QuadJacks goes in the crapper, Marco jumps ship back to run QuadJacks to assemble the Avengers of Poker (or that’s what I’m going to call it until he comes up with a proper name).

Online Poker Choking in the Grey Fog of Legislative Uncertainty in Europe – The UK version of the Huffington Post takes a look at the world of online poker in Europe. I’m mostly adding the link dump for the awesome headline.

N.J. Treasurer Estimates $1.2 Billion in First Year Internet Gambling Revenue, Legislators Divided – Not too shabby of a forecast from the state treasurer, I think that would make some people happy.

Foxwoods owner signs online gambling partnership – Everybody is gearing up for online gambling in the US. Opponents would be better off just stepping aside and sticking their hand out. Foxwoods sign a partnership agreement with London-based GameAccount Network.

Joseph Mckeehen
Photo: WSOP.com

Today’s Boxscore

Joseph Mckeehen $174,147 – WSOP-C Caesars AC Main Event
Teresa Hemingway $226,463 – HPT Golden Gates Casino

It was a good weekend for the mid-stakes, local friendly Heartland Poker Tour. Their Golden Gates Casino event in Black Hawk CO ran at the same time as a World Series of Poker Circuit Main Event, then proceeded to outdraw them despite bad weather and the fact it was located in Black Hawk CO.

The HPT event was hampered by severe winter weather and drew less entrants than the same event a year earlier but still managed to create a 7-digit prizepool. The WSOP-C Main Event was probably hampered by it’s location in Atlantic City and the number of entrees was down to 540 from 635 in 2012.

Teresa Hemingway became just the 3rd woman to win a title on the Heartland Poker Tour but she picked up one of their biggest prizes after getting in the event on a $360 satellite seat. Next stop for the HPT is somewhere in the middle of Iowa while the WSOP-C takes their turn in Black Hawk, CO at the Lodge Casino. Let’s see if they can match the HPT success in the area.

Link Dump

Tweet of the Day – Negreanu still having fun with the whole joining a cult by accident thing.

8 oz of Kool-Aid, lamb blood and cayenne pepper- breakfast of champions! Off to play the 10k 8-Game should be fun!

— Daniel Negreanu (@RealKidPoker) March 13, 2013

DOJ Appoints Administrator to Assess Individual Full Tilt Poker Claims – One step closer to US-based Full Tilt players getting their money back. Check out Full Tilt Poker Claims Administration for details.

Online gambling deals boost Zynga, Glu – Online gambling is getting a little more attention from the mainstream medai, this time from CNN in their Money section.

Losing-hand progressive poker jackpot hits, paying out $600,000 – After two months of running their multi-casino, bad beat jackpot, Caeasars finally had to pay out. Nearly $700,000 was chopped up between the winner, loser, and other players around their poker rooms.

Winamax Poker Tour : les résultats complets – My knowledge of the French language is limited to what I remember from that high school French class and what dirty words Benjo taught me. The important take away from this link is the World’s Greatest Poker Trophy in the Entire History of Poker. Also, god bless hyperbole.

Approval of Internet gaming bills in Nevada and New Jersey less than a week apart helped fuel investors’ interest in the gaming industry during the last half of February.

The largest beneficiary was Caesars Entertainment Corp.

Nevada and New Jersey began implementing online gaming websites directed at customers gambling on computers or mobile devices within state borders.

Gov. Brian Sandoval signed Nevada’s interactive gaming bill Feb. 21 after less than one day of debate. Not to be outdone, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie signed his state’s online gaming bill Tuesday after state lawmakers approved changes suggested by the governor when he vetoed the initial legislation.

Caesars owns four of Atlantic City’s 12 casinos. In Las Vegas, Caesars operates 10 casinos on or near the Strip.

But the company also owns the popular World Series of Poker.

More…

Shooting Star Champion Kai Chang
Photo: Bay101News/WhoJedi

Today’s Boxscore

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.

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.

Christina Lindley
Photo: Venetian Poker Room

Today’s Boxscore

Christina Lindley $4,920 – Venetian DSE Ladies Event
Matt Giannetti $298,304 – WPT Lucky Heart Poker Open
John Dolan $19,200 – 2013 LAPC $1,600 Bounty Event

Nothing like a little friendly competition to get legislation on the fast track. With New Jersey governor Christie getting close to putting his state in the market, Nevada moved quickly yesterday to pass an online gambling bill and get it signed into law putting them ahead in the game.

Amazing how fast the system can work when they want it.

Opinions vary about the impact of the new law including how soon and how effective the systems will be without opening up their games to other states. Success will depend on the size, diversity, etc of the player base and this law allows Nevada to negotiate with other states to offer internet poker. Even more companies are now lining up in Nevada to get in the game and hopefully other states follow along.

Smarter people than myself will be posting here soon with their thoughts.

Link Dump

Tweet of the Day

.@briansandoval signing Assembly Bill 114, internet gaming legislation. twitter.com/BrianSandoval/…

— Brian Sandoval (@BrianSandoval) February 22, 2013

Dusty Schmidt: This Is My Brain, This Is My Brain On Poker – Who knows what any of this CardPlayer post means for all the other players, but Dusty Schmidt thinks online poker is frying his brain and willing to use an old drug commercial catch phrase to get your attention.

PokerRoom.com Closing – End of an Era? – They gone.

The Poker World Reacts to the Passing of Jerry Buss – This week saw the passing of LA Lakers owner and legendary poker player Jerry Buss. TimTern pulled together a fine list of the statements from around poker.

Meet the world’s top NBA gambler – ESPN the Magazine with an excellent (and lengthy) article on gambler/poker player/handicapper Haralabos Voulgaris.. Despite it’s length, only one mention of poker

WPT Baden – Day 1B : Sledding and Snowboarding – Kara Scott (and company) on the slopes during WPT Baden. Yes please, and thank you.

It hasn’t been the best of times for Atlantic City.

The question now is whether intrastate online gaming is the panacea that revives the Boardwalk.

Union Gaming Group managing director Bill Lerner believes the state’s Internet gambling bill sitting on Gov. Chris Christie’s desk could benefit the two Las Vegas gaming companies that own Atlantic City’s largest resort.

But the bill, which would allow Atlantic City casinos to operate a full catalog of online games — not just poker — would have different results for Boyd Gaming Corp. and MGM Resorts International.

The Borgata, which is now 50-50 owned by Boyd and MGM Resorts, is the market leader in Atlantic City — collecting roughly 20 percent of Atlantic City’s $3.05 billion in gaming revenues in 2012 — and figures to hold the same role in a potential Atlantic City Internet gambling space.

More…

Nevada’s budding Internet poker market could eventually accept wagers from players in other states under a proposed legislative change in the Silver State’s interactive gambling regulations.

In a bill draft submitted to the Legislature, the Gaming Control Board wants to amend interactive gaming regulatory language that would allow Nevada’s governor to enter agreements with other states that legalize Internet poker.

Conceivably, the interstate gaming compacts would allow Nevada-based Internet poker websites to accept bets from gamblers from states with similar interactive gaming laws, considerably growing the size of the potential player pool.

Under Nevada’s interactive gaming regulations, websites in the state can accept wagers only from players gambling on computers or mobile devices within the state’s borders.

More…

WASHINGTON – Its dim prospects finally fading to black, Sen. Harry Reid pulled the plug [last] Friday on the effort in Congress to legalize Internet poker this year.

With only days remaining in the session, and with consensus far from reached on a bill that sought to reshape the landscape of online gaming, “we have simply run out of time in this legislative calendar,” he said.

“I am disappointed,” Reid said, adding he and Sen. Dean Heller, R-Nev., “remain committed to this issue and it will be a priority for us in the new Congress.”

Reid’s comment in a statement came shortly after his chief of staff, David Krone, said in an interview that “this bill for this year is dead.”

The poker bill was a priority for several Nevada casino companies seeking a lucrative new and national market for their brands and for poker players seeking legal and federally regulated online games accompanied by consumer protections.

More…

October was one those “mixed bags” for the gaming industry.

Compared with a year ago, that average daily stock prices for 12 publicly traded gaming companies are down collectively 8.5 percent.

However, more than half of the companies followed by Las Vegas-based financial adviser Applied Analysis for the firm’s monthly gaming index, experienced moderate increases in their average daily price.

The index, which tracks some 300 market variables, grew 10.5 percent.

“The sector’s annual performance moved in an opposite direction compared to the broader equities market,” Applied Analysis principal Brian Gordon told the firm’s clients in a research report. “Gaming stocks appear to be making up ground.”

More…

Today’s Boxscore

Phil Hellmuth €1,022,376 – WSOP Europe Main Event
Mike Watson €1,000,000 – Majestic Super High Roller
Greg Raymer $121,973 – HPT River City Casino

Phil Hellmuth is the best poker player in the world, just ask him. He now has one more reason to brag after picking up his 13th WSOP bracelet at the World Series of Poker Europe Main Event. Hellmuth outlasted a green-friendly field of 420 players with a combination of skill and ridiculous luck to become the first player history to hold a WSOP Main Event bracelet in Europe and the United States.

The Main Event final table included Jason Mercier and former November Niner Joseph Cheong with top players Scott Seiver, Timothy Adams, and 2005 WSOP runner-up Steve Dannenmann just missing the final table. Play ran for almost 9 hours from start to finish which included a strange 4 hour break in the middle for TV business reasons. Hellmuth had plenty of his classic blowups at the final table providing amusement for those in attendance and watching on TV/internet as well Lon McEachern and Antonio Esfandiari in the commentator booth.

Hellmuth’s 13th bracelet comes on the heels of him picking up number 12 during this summer’s WSOP in Razz, the first non-hold’em bracelet of his career. It also puts him 3 bracelets clear at the top of the leaderboard ahead of the 10 held by Doyle Brunson and Johnny Chan. Hellmuth now holds a commanding lead Greg Merson in the 2012 WSOP Player of the Year race, Merson must win the 2012 November (will never call it October) Nine in a few weeks to prevent the world from viewing a POY banner of Hellmuth in the Rio halls.

Hellmuth also picked up €1,022,376 for the win but is among just a few people in the world who can say the bracelet is more important than the cash.

Link Dump

Tweet of the Day – Kevmath sums it up nicely. Hellmuth is on a roll.

Fire up the “14” and “15” gear. RT @j_stoffel:I wonder how much “12” gear PH will have to give to charity lol

— Kevin Mathers (@Kevmath) October 5, 2012

Tweet of the Day 2 – Greg Merson tells Hellmuth, not so fast.

@phil_hellmuth well done phil, enjoy the next 26 days until i wither away your dreams one by one

— Greg Merson (@Gregy20723) October 5, 2012

What eSports Can Tell Us About the Future of Online Gambling – Interesting article on Forbes.com this week taking a different look at the future of online gaming. “The only thing certain is the culture of playing competitive games online is evolving at warp speed. eSports tells us that the likely winners in the online gambling market will be not only the obvious casino players, but also others that embrace the full spectrum of entertainment and social media around it.”

Online Poker Payment Processor Gets Five Months in Prison – The list of the free range indicted from Black Friday continues to shorten after Chad Elie was sentenced to 5 months following his guilty plea in March.

Gus Hansen First to Rep New Full Tilt Poker – It was only a matter of time before the new look, getting ready to launch Full Tilt Poker started bringing player reps on board and Gus Hansen seems to be a good choice. He’s respected and not one of those heroes who still owe money to their Irish overlords.

Tony G Joins GPI Betting Ring – Dan wrote earlier about Negreanu making a bet about his GPI ranking come the 2013 WSOP, well now Quiet Tony G is in the mix offering odds on his website of not only “Kid” Poker but also Phil Hellmuth, Vanessa Selbst, and Marvin Rettenmaier. More on this one later.

WSOPE 2012: Tom Dwan Talks Full Tilt – Tom Dwan (and his creepy mustache) took time out of his busy High Roller schedule to speak with PokerNews about FTP, Lederer, and Hansen.

WASHINGTON – A rift between Nevada’s senators widened Monday over a high-stakes bill that would clear the way for Nevada casinos to offer legal online poker to gamblers nationwide.

The split between Sens. Harry Reid and Dean Heller elevates the already steep odds that Congress could pass a lucrative yet controversial gaming bill in the waning days of this year’s session.

Reid, the Democratic Senate majority leader, has readied an online poker bill and has been seeking a way to get it passed, even as Senate officials acknowledge it is 15 votes or so short of the necessary majority.

Reid had set a deadline of Monday to see whether enough votes could be gathered for the bill to move in the less than three weeks remaining before Congress recesses for the November elections. It is expected to return for a lame-duck session after Election Day.

More…

J Todd is back in the saddle with online gambling news from Zynga and tribal gaming. Plus, new audits and returning members!

Rumor has it that J Todd is recovering from a heart attack. Could the online gambling news be that exciting? Maybe it was one too many bacon sandwiches. We also have stories from the horse racing industry, rumors about poker legislation, and another sentence in a Black Friday case.

Buzz all over the internet spectrum about what may or may not happen in Washington DC with a Reid-Kyl online poker bill and the Barton Bill’s now-or-never moment and Sen. Dean Heller (R-NV) rallying GOP support and everyone else coming to grips with the reality that PokerStars will not be sponsoring the next One Drop event in an effort to save the world’s water supply.

But the one FACT representative of real movement on issues important to poker players (online or otherwise) is the hearing this week in the Senate Indian Affairs Committee:

OVERSIGHT HEARING on Regulation of Tribal Gaming: From Brick & Mortar to the Internet

Thursday, July 26 2012
2:15PM
Senate Dirksen Building 628

Eastern Time, obv.

Pokeratizens know that figuring the Indians’ rightful place in an online poker future is an essential part of getting the legally regulated landscape all have been clamoring for since the days of Howard Lederer was the game’s Washington DC ambassador. And yet the Indians have been one group that hasn’t really been able to agree on what they want and need.

Presumably the point of this hearing is to more officially assure everyone is on the same page — or at least currently reading the same chapter. Poker players can feel good that they have a seat at this table, which we should note and remember is covering all tribal gaming, not just online poker some day at the WinStar. Former Rep. Jon Porter (R-NV) is a PPA consultant — your special interest contributions at work! — and thus well aware of various player issues, from non-payment of Full Tilt players to cheating at UB. He’s sixth (out of six) on the witness list … putting players in a good position, and possibly in the role of the poker representative making closing arguments.

This week we look at two additional companies taking the next step to get licensed for internet gambling in the state of Nevada. Plus, Ray Bitar is out on bail, and William Hill wants social gaming regulated.