Believe it or not, I’m playing online poker again. I’ve bought in three times already, so yay, it works (and is super-easy to play for real money), but cannot yet report on the cash-out process, because you know … damn river.

But now that we have online poker in Nevada definitively running and here to stay, I’ve started paying a little more attention, and it seems a lotta eyes are on New Jersey right now. Not only do you have Gov. Chris Christie making an aggressive, courts- and DOJ-challenging push for fully legalized and legitimized sports betting inside his borders, but also you have poker-loving state senator Ray Lesniak committed to making the state a global leader in online gambling (sports betting included) and start welcoming international players into the virtual borders of the Garden State without having to show a passport. Sure, Atlantic City may be closing down casinos, but sometimes you gotta get rid of the chaff. And that’s kinda what we could be seeing as two big poker tournament main events in New Jersey — one live and one online — coincide with all the semi-related New Jersey casino-world buzz.

The live tournament is the WPT Borgata Poker Open — a poker-world stalwart that has been serving up big-time televised final tables since Season 2 of the World Poker Tour. (They’re now in Season 13.) This year’s main event is a $3,500 buy-in, with $3 million guaranteed. They expect a good turnout based on preliminary events and online qualifiers that have been running on partypoker in New Jersey as well as partypoker worldwide.

But also going on simultaneously is partypoker’s Garden State Super Series — an online event open to anyone within New Jersey borders that’s shaping up to be the largest online tournament series in New Jersey history, and for that matter US history of the licensed and regulated sort. Both main events kick off on Sunday, with the GSSS guaranteeing $250,000 in prize pool — it’s a $200 buy-in — and $50,000 minimum for the winner.

More…

Ray Henson
Photo: WSOP.com

Today’s Boxscore

Reece Lewis £80,000 – WPTN London Main Event
Ray Dehkharghani $235,931 – 2013 Wynn Poker Classic
Ray Henson $16,128 – WSOP-C The Lodge Casino Prelim

The week has finally come to an end with a good number of gambling degenerates from the poker world glued to the television watching, betting, cursing the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament. It’s a fun time of year for those who like to diversify their gambling dollar but not so much for those on Twitter who only endorse messages about things which interest them.

This week saw Ray Henson win his 2nd WSOP-C ring of 2013 at a place called The Lodge in Colorado (not to be confused with the old Pokerati games at The Lodge back during the golden old days). The WSOP-C Main Event is now underway with 3 starting days and a $1,675 buy-in. Also underway is the overly-complicated PartyPoker Premier League VI in London featuring a ton of your favorite players and a super live stream with Kara Scott. The only outcome noticed so far was a bad beat on Daniel Negreanu to send him back to Vegas before the WSOP-APAC.

Link Dump

Tweet of the Day – You can’t argue with the tongue-in-cheek sentiment. So when/what/where is this Ivey Poker thing going to happen? (h/t @Kevmath)

It seems like IveyPoker and Nevada are in a race to see who can have the largest group of people doing nothing.

— Pokerlolz (@pokerlolz) March 22, 2013

Highway to Hell – An interesting read about old school gambling in Texas along the Jacksboro Highway complete with stories/quotes from Doyle Brunson.

Parx Takes Lead In Monthly Poker Revenue – As an east coast boy I find this pretty shocking. When Pennsylvania began opening casinos and card rooms, everyone shrugged their shoulders saying it would have little impact on the games in AC. I guess they might have been wrong and kudos to Matt Glantz for getting Parx ahead.

Phil Ivey To Captain Team Americas in WSOP Asia-Pacific Caesars Cup – The WSOP Asia Pacific series is just a few weeks away and they’ve announced the captains for the latest effort to make the Caesars Cup something interesting. Phil Ivey (Team Americas), Sam Trickett (Team Europe), and Joe Hachem (Team Asia-Pacific) will now “draft” their teams.

Vertical Rush from PokerStars.com – I’m not exactly sure what I’m watching in this video other than it’s a bunch of people running up 42 floors of some building in London, includes Liv Boeree, and appears to have been recorded using mid-1990’s video technology.

Here in London, I’ve been doing warm-up stretches for over a month just in case I’m called up to the Olympic poker team at the last minute. People keep telling me that poker isn’t in the Olympics, but I know they’re only testing my bluffing reflexes. I’ve got their number, let me tell you. Just for now, however, I’ve suspended my gruelling training regime in order to put together this collection of worldwide pokery news. I hope you appreciate my sacrifice.

Bwin United

Taking pride of place this week are my beloved Manchester United, who I have supported through thick and slightly less thick since I arbitrarily picked them as my team at the age of 7. They’ve sidled their way into the column by virtue of new shirt sponsor, Bwin. The Austrian half of Bwin.Party already have a big name sponsorship on their books, as the primary sponsors of Spanish giants Real Madrid. Although that contract expires at the end of the 12/13 season. Forbes recently rated United the world’s most valuable sports team, so it should generate Bwin, and online gambling in general, a lot of of exposure. [Online Casino Reports]

Norway’s Maiden Fair

For a few days we all held our breath, hoping that at least one of the two (extremely marketable) women would make it to the final table of the World Series of Poker. Alas, it wasn’t to be, but that hasn’t prevented 11th place finished Elizabeth Hille from reportedly picking up a sponsorship deal with Betfair. Hille is expected to join former champ Peter Eastgate and former WSOPE runner-up John Tabatabai on the Betfair squad. [WPT Magazine]

The Irish Omission

The details of new online gambling bills are always big news, but it’s what’s missing from proposed tax laws in Ireland that’s most interesting. The mooted legislation makes no mention of poker, which is particularly strange for a country that formerly cradled the headquarters of Full Tilt Poker in its Guinness soaked arms. [PokerNews]

‘Abandon hope all ye who enter here’

Disgruntled users have taken to the internet to report serious poker troubles at BetOnline. There have been frequent server outages and, most worryingly, players have been told that they will be unable to cash out any money before September at the earliest. [4Flush]

Meanwhile Poker 5050 are delisting themselves from the Swedish Stock Exchange after being dumped by software provider Microgaming. The company are on their way into liquidation, with a paltry 15% of player funds the best they can offer their shafted user-base. [Compatible Poker]

Party Poker Lower the Stakes

There are no more nosebleeds at Party Poker following the closure of their highest high-stakes tables. Party chiefs claims it has to do with improving their “poker ecology” which roughly translates as: Forcing the fish with big bankrolls to dump their cash at lower limit tables. [Card Player]

Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to fine tune my soul-staring muscle in time for the opening ceremony. I’ll see you again next week when we call admire my shiny gold medal.

Another good interview from the WPT-London Poker Classic, which seems to be going on for about as long as the Durrrr Challenge. Wha? Nevermind, it’s the PartyPoker World Poker Open … more poker in the same London Palm Beach Casino … but technically a different event.

Anyhow, London-London-London … that’s the hottest spot in the poker world this month. And everyone loves Durrrr (many in a strangely homosexual way according to YouTube comments) … and forget the Patrik Antoniuses and Gus Hansens … now Jungleman seems to be the only non-Ivey nosebleed opponent that matters.

I personally dig his talk of the two games he plays — no limit hold’em and pot-limit Omaha.

After a quiet period in the poker community, the tournament circuit has come back to life with a variety of tournaments spanning the world. Some highlights:

WPT Legends of Poker

Andrew Frankenberger defeated Kyle Wilson to take down the title at the Bike in LA, collecting $750,000 for the win. Notables who finished in the money: Former WPT Player of the Year Jonathan Little (12th), Allen Kessler (20th), Erica Schoenberg (30th), Joe Sebok (32nd), November Niner Soi Nguyen (34th) and Joe Hachem (43rd). Click here for results.

WPT London Poker Classic

Monday is day 1a of the first WPT event in the UK, with the £5,000 + £300 buy-in London Poker Classic at the Palm Beach Casino. Jack McLelland from the Bellagio is helping run the tournament, with registration remaining open until 1:30pm on Wednesday. Live updates available over at PartyPoker’s blog here.

EPT Villamoura

Day 2 of the PokerStars.net European Poker Tour stop in Portugal starting with 384 players, creating a prize pool of €1,862,400, with the winner collecting €467,835. Currently, less than 130 players remain, with the current chip leader is Grzegorz Cichocki of Poland with 312,000 in chips. Other notables still in the field: 2008 EPT Grand Final winner Pieter de Korver, Brandon Cantu, Liv Boeree, Sorel Mizzi, Lex Veldhuis, David Williams among many others. Follow the live updates and pictures of players enjoying the sun (as photography is banned inside the casino) at PokerStarsblog.com

WSOP Circuit – Council Bluffs

The first $1,500 Main Event of the WSOP Circuit started on Sunday with a field of 251 entries, creating a prize pool of $361,440, with the winner cashing in for $88,555 and entry into the $1,000,000 National Championship in May. Day 2 resumes today with 75 players playing down to the final table. Another way to earn a seat is to be the “Casino Champion” at each tour stop, to the player who earns the most points in the 10 WSOP-C ring events. To view the “unofficial” leaderboard after 8 events, check it out here. WSOP Circuit legend Dwyte Pilgrim won one of the many non-ring events that support the WSOP-C for a mid-four figure sum. For results so far check out the WSOP site and PokerPages for the non-ring results.

The River @ Winstar Casino

As noted in an earlier post, the Winstar Casino in Thackerville, OK is in the midst of their River $3,000,000 Guaranteed tournament series. What passes as results for Winstar is to show the points earned for those that make the final table, without stating how much each player received.

Gulf Coast Poker Championship – Beau Rivage

Another major series that got underway over the weekend is the Gulf Coast Poker Championship at Beau Rivage in Biloxi, Mississippi. Their main event takes place Sept. 4th with a $5,000 NL Holdem Main Event. Their schedule can be found on the beaurivage.com website here.

Commerce Holdem Series

Matt Savage returns Sept. 1st to the Commerce Casino in Los Angeles for the Commerce Holdem Series, featuring several guaranteed prize pools events as well as the $1,100 Ironman tournament. More details available here.

Partouche Poker Tour – Cannes

One major tournament that starts later in the week when the French Partouche Group of casinos have their Main Event in Cannes Sept. 2nd. The 8,500 Euro buy-in event has a 3,000,000 Euro guaranteed prize pool with 1,000,000 Euros guaranteed for first. Like the WSOP Main Event, their final table will be delayed, taking place in late October and aired live across Europe on the EuroSport network. I believe there’s also live streaming available (in French) during the tournament. Further details available on the PPT site.