Gov. Brian Sandoval said Thursday he has held preliminary talks with other state governors on partnering with Nevada on Internet poker.

Sandoval didn’t name the states but gaming sources said Texas could be a target.

Sandoval, a Republican, supported Texas Gov. Rick Perry’s brief run for the GOP’s presidential nomination last year. Also, the Texas Legislature is considering the Poker Gaming Act of 2013, which would make it legal in the state to play poker online.

“I’ve talked with a few governors and I’m introducing the concept of compacting,” Sandoval said following a tour of the new corporate headquarters in Las Vegas for BMM International, one of two laboratories that tests gaming equipment for Nevada regulators.

“It’s very much in the early stages and we have a great opportunity because we have the infrastructure and other states have the players,” Sandoval said. “I’m hopeful we’ll continue to talk.”

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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.

The Nevada Gaming Commission is seeking public comment before drafting interstate online poker regulations under the recently passed Assembly Bill 114.

Signed last month by Gov. Brian Sandoval, AB114 allows Nevada to enter into compacts with other states to offer Internet poker and other online gambling in the participating states.

The five-member commission must draft regulations to implement the law.

People interested in or affected by the law have until April 12 to file comments that will be posted online. Replies to the comments will be accepted until April 19.

The commission is interested in what issues should be considered for inclusion in regulations of the interstate agreements, such as whether revenue sharing should be based on where a wager originated or the location of the servers.

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Jonathan Taylor
Photo: WSOP.com

Today’s Boxscore

Jonathan Taylor $138,938 – WSOP-C Lodge Casino Main Event
Allen Kessler $20,859 – WSOP-C Lodge Casino $580 NLHE
Dan Shak $450,000 – PartyPoker Premier League VI
Michael Harris $95,663 – HPT Belterra Casin Main Event

There were plenty of results posted around the world over the weekend with the PartyPoker Premier League VI wrapping up, the Heartland Poker Tour crowning another champion, and the WSOP-C handing out a few more rings.

Dan Shak seems to love the big action, big attention games. He defeated Sam Trickett to capture the PartyPoker Premier League VI title after a few days of play for $450,000. As expected, it was a stacked final table with Antonio Esfandiari, Jonathan Duhamel, Daniel Cates, and actress/poker player Jennifer Tilly. Negreanu made a big splash as he just missed the final table (video can be viewed below).

Jonathan Taylor is the latest World Series of Poker Circuit event winner, his 3rd ring ring of the 2012/2013 series. He topped the other 420 entrees in the tournament for over $138,000. Perhaps only interesting to me, the small buy-in WSOP-C event in Blackhawk, CO drew exactly 150 less entrants than a similar Heartland Poker Tour event held in the same town just a few weeks. Also notable during this WSOP-C stop was the stunning non-min-cash of Allen “Complainsaw” Kessler who won the $580 No Limit Hold’em side event for his 2nd career ring.

Next up for the WSOP-C is a trip to the great Northeast and 12 tournaments at the mammoth Foxwoods Casino.

Link Dump

Tweet(s) of the Day – Allen Kessler’s humble brag with the Matt Salsberg follow up needle. Good stuff, now where is my Entourage movie?

@allenkessler @wsop You put the ring on Craig’s list yet?

— matt salsberg (@msalsberg) March 26, 2013

Atlantic City’s Revel casino files for bankruptcy – This news isn’t very shocking. The latest, greatest, fresh casino in Atlantic City hasn’t been doing well since it opened. My one and only experience there left me wondering how quickly I could catch a cab to the Borgata. The Chapter 11 filing will help them try to cut debt and stay alive, but we’ve all heard those stories before.

Kane ‘Nascar_1949’ Kalas – Risks and Riches – As a Philly boy, I grew up listening to Harry Kalas call Phillies games but most sports fans probably know him as the “voice” of NFL Films. I had no idea his son has been a professional poker player/degenerate for years. “Friend of Pokerati” Remko Rinkema has a very in depth interview talking about all things gambling and sports.

UK’s online gambling sector worth £2bn in 2012 – An article detailing the size of online gambling in the UK, complete with a numbers for the stats junkies and pretty graphs for those less inclined towards words.

Louisiana To Study Possibility of Online Gaming – Louisiana adds it’s name to the list of states looking to follow in the footsteps of Nevada, New Jersey, and Delaware to pass online poker legislation. The more the merrier.

Emotions run high as poker pro Daniel Negreanu throws all his chips – WATCH THIS VIDEO is how Jesse May would extort you to view the following (I just see the words coming out of his mouth in all caps). Negreanu, the self appointed judge of all things poker etiquette, lost his mind a little when he caught a bad beat during PartyPoker Premier League VI action.

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.

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…

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.

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…

Adam Teasdale
Photo: WSOP.com

Today’s Boxscore

Adam Teasdale $194,040 – WSOP-C Atlantic City
Marcin Wydrowski €318,295 – WPT Prague
Ramzi Jelassi €835,000 – EPT Prague
Marvin Rettenmaier €365,300 – EPT Prague HR

It’s been a rough few days in the States but life goes on and the poker games keep flying. The latest stop on the World Series of Poker Circuit passed through scenic Atlantic City just a few weeks after Hurricane Sandy tore it up. Adam Teasdale is the latest WSOP-C Main Event champion and picked up nearly $200,000 along with a seat in the National Championship.

The powers that be in Prague finally had a brainstorm which hopefully spreads to the rest of Europe. The city held a World Poker Tour, European Poker Tour, and other events throughout most of December. This kept a lot of top poker players within their city for much longer than a hit and run. Marvin Rettenmaier, Ramzi Jelassi, and Marcin Wydrowski were just a few of the big winners.

# Learn to play the pokies! Secrets to winning at Australia’s national pastime. #

Link dump

NJ Assembly passes online gaming bill – New Jersey tries again to get online gaming in state when the Assembly passed another online gaming bill earlier today. Governor Christie took time away from his meat lovers pizza last year to veto the previous effort.

Internet poker bill effort dead, Reid says – The other side of the coin show the Reid/Kyl effort to legalize online poker has reached the predictable end of it’s run for 2012. Soon the U.S. Congress will go on their hardly earned, lengthy holiday.

Mass. Treasurer: Internet Gambling On Horizon – Massachusetts throws their name into the mix as the state Treasurer says their state in looking into the possibility of offering online gambling within the state.

WSOP Europe on the Move – Poker players are never completely happy with an event or festival, WSOP-E in Cannes was no different. Next year they’ll have a chance to check out a new venue as they move the series to Casino Barrière Enghien-les-Bains in Paris.

Happy Anniversary Bovada!! – If you don’t love Melissa Costello, you haven’t met Melissa Costello or you just don’t like to have fun. Here’s her attempt to earn a gig with Bovada and shows off her sick/crazy/twisted sense of humor. Team Trainwreck! Click here to vote for Melissa.

Photo: Associated Press

Today’s Boxscore

Barack Obama – 2012 U.S. Presidential Election
Brandon Cantu – 2012 Whiner Series of Poker

Perhaps you were visiting friends in Antarctica or stuck in a pesky coma if you missed the U.S. Presidential election this week. Incumbent Barack Obama easily handled GOP contender Mitt Romney after every politician across the board dumped a ton of money to blast my swing-state airwaves with constant ads. The jury is still out on how this will impact the future of online poker in the States, but I think they’ll have a few more important things to handle at the moment.

In far less exciting news, Brandon Cantu defeated Jon Aguiar in a replay of the controversial Mix-Max WSOP Europe heads up match. To refresh your memory, Cantu whined like a newborn after Aguiar beat him for the bracelet in September because of Main Event scheduling issues and then managed to stand in for an insta-classic PokerNews interview (linked at the bottom of this post).

While no stranger to acting a fool when it pleases him, Aguiar offered to play heads up after Cantu wouldn’t let up on the subject. They played for the difference between 1st and 2nd, but not for the bracelet, at Aria, where Cantu somehow feels vindicated after winning the match and ~$135,000. Lose/lose.

Link Dump

Tweet(s) of the Day – Following the match, Cantu showed his ass.

This teaches me a lesson that crying and complaining really does work in poker

— Brandon Cantu (@brandoncantu) November 8, 2012

@wsoptd will the Wsop be holding a bracelet ceremony for me now? Seems only right

— Brandon Cantu (@brandoncantu) November 9, 2012

Shuffle Up and Deal! Full Tilt Poker Opens for Real Money Online Poker – In the middle of all this excitement, maybe you noticed that Full Tilt Poker has returned to the world of the living. “Rest of World” players outside the U.S. (and various other freedom-bashing countries) are back check/raising the Donkeys/ATMs/Cowboys/Random other avatars.

Players Flock to FTP Tables Despite Cashier Bugs – Full Tilt is making an immediate impact in the poker world according the traffic site PokerScout. So again, congrats to all you players living outside of the States.

Destination Poker: Eight Things You Didn’t Know About Moving to Play Online Poker – Now that Full Tilt Poker is back (and insane Republicans after the election), even more people are looking to move themselves out of the country. PokerNews has a nice writeup of somethings you should consider.

Online Poker One Of 25 ‘Thorny’ Issues In Lame-Duck Session – CardPlayers takes a look at the chances of anything being done for online poker over the next few months of the Congressional lame-duck session. Not too rosy.

WSOPE 2012: Brandon Cantu Speaks his Mind – Brandon Cantu, channeling his inner Hellmuth, rambles in this glorious interview by Sarah Grant on PokerNews. This should be added to the Library of Congress.

WASHINGTON DC – Gov. Brian Sandoval went to bat Thursday for a federal online poker bill, breaking away from fellow governors ramping up to fight it.

Sandoval split with the National Governors Association, which told congressional leaders the proposed bill would restrict states from pursuing their own forms of legalized gaming, and the revenue gained would help fund schools and social programs.

A draft bill reviewed by the governors was unacceptable, according to Govs. Tom Corbett of Pennsylvania and Steve Beshear of Kentucky.

“We oppose the draft Senate legislation in its current form as an unnecessary pre-emption of state authority,” said the governors, who head the association’s economic development committee.

More…

Three companies were granted interactive gaming licenses by the Nevada Gaming Commission on Thursday as the lineup for the state’s potential online poker market grew more crowded.

Commissioners licensed Boyd Gaming Corp. the Golden Nugget ownership and Fertitta Interactive – which includes the owners of Station Casinos and operators of Ultimate Fighting Championship – to launch online poker websites as soon as the technology is approved.

The website can be accessed only by people age 21 and older playing on computers or mobile devices within Nevada.

Boyd Gaming Executive Vice President Bob Boughner told gaming commissioners the company believes online poker in Nevada will be a $180 million a year business and would damage the state’s live poker business.

More…

International Game Technology said Tuesday that its DoubleDown Casino on Facebook will partner with the Hard Rock Hotel, DoubleDown’s first deal with a land-based casino in Las Vegas.

DoubleDown Casino will have its application hosted on the Hard Rock Hotel’s website. DoubleDown Casino is a social gaming company that sells virtual casino chips and has online slots, poker and other games.

“Engaging through the website allows players to remain connected to the property … with DoubleDown Casino simply providing the gaming content,” said Eric Tom, executive vice president of global sales at IGT.

Terms of the contract weren’t disclosed. The deal with Hard Rock was announced about a week after IGT, which operates in Las Vegas and Reno, reached a similar deal with Jacobs Entertainment Inc.

More…

Anthony Gregg
Photo: World Poker Tour

Today’s Boxscore

Anthony Gregg $416,127 – World Poker Tour Parx Open
Ashly Butler $13,850 – $365 NLH WSOP Circuit Biloxi
John Dolan $7,580 – $365 NLH WSOP Circuit Biloxi
Ronald Givens $11,675 – $365 NLH WSOP Circuit Biloxi

Anthony Gregg is no stranger to tournament success but he finally has his first major win after capturing the WPT Parx Poker Open title in Philadelphia. Even though this is his first win, it ranks as his 2nd biggest cash behind his $1,700,000 runner-up finish in the 2009 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure. Gregg is a regular east coast grinder and another top notch player from the state of Maryland, continuing his great run in 2012 as the win puts him over $1,000,000 earned for the year.

500 players registered for the first WPT event held at the Parx Casino in Philadelphia and the next stop is the Legends of Poker Main Event at the Bicycle Casino on August 24th. The defending champion at Legends is Will “The Thrill” Failla, who is responsible for my favorite winner’s picture ever.

Also having a good week was 2010 November Niner John Dolan who won his first WSOP Circuit event at the IP in Biloxi, MS. It wasn’t the biggest field in the history of poker but it does put a ring on his finger and has him in the early mix for the National Championship.

Link Dump

Macau Police Raid Casinos, Hotels After Deadly Attacks – Amy Calistri reported earlier that Macau whales seem to be leaving their Asian paradise for the desert. This may be why. Murder, assault, blackmail, bribes, good times in China.

Online gamblers handed four months in prison – Just a little reminder. No matter how bad we think we have it in the States, you could be living some place like Jakarta where these guys were sentenced to 4+ months and fined Rp 7 million (that’s a whole $735 US) for gambling on Facebook. (h/t @Kevmath)

Maryland General Assembly passes legislation for Prince George’s casino – Some good news for east coast grinders and the hotbed of poker in Maryland as their General Assembly passed legislation to allow casinos, real honest-to-god table gaming casinos, within the state. It still needs to get past the voters in during the November elections.

Mezrich’s Next New Project: Online Poker – A new book about online poker from the author who brought us Bringing Down the House: The Inside Story of Six MIT Students Who Took Vegas for Millions, The Accidental Billionaires: The Founding Of Facebook, A Tale of Sex, Money, Genius, and Betrayal, and other books with insanely long titles. Jess Welman looks forward to it, Haley Hintze not so much. I’m leaning Haley’s way if Mezrich’s premise is the AP/UB boys created online poker and are now being persecuted (not prosecuted) for it.

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