From OnlinePokerReport.com for the week of March 18th …

3 STORIES TO WATCH THIS WEEK

#1. The Revolution Network is dealing with two unresolved stories – one regarding lengthy payment delays to a skin and one regarding a possible software bug related to hole cards – as the Lock-fronted network continues to lose ground.

#2. Empire (State) Poker: NY’s tentative step toward regulated online gambling will thrive or die between now and April 1st, the deadline for the state’s budget. Gov. Cuomo seems open to the idea, but we should get a good sense of what support the initiative actually has in the days ahead.

#3. IL and PA. This week could pass with no movement in PA, where a few soft deadlines for the introduction of an online gambling bill have come and gone. But the pressure for legislative progress on the larger issue of casino expansion is significant in IL and should result in a quicker timetable for online poker – one way or the other.

+ THE WEEK THAT WAS

• Caesars Interactive announced they’re hiring a poker room manager for WSOP.com (and a handful of other positions).
• The DoJ named a company to handle repayment of (Zombie) Full Tilt’s U.S. customers (get email alerts at the link).
• A mac-compatible version of PokerTracker 4 launched.
• Ultimate Poker announced the signing of Terrance Chan (first publicly announced pro signing by a regulated U.S. online poker site).
• 888 announced the formation of a U.S. company to spearhead the operator’s American efforts.
• PokerStars responded to the AGA’s petition in NJ.

RECENTLY FROM OPR

A quick FAQ on Full Tilt repayment. And Marco Valerio’s interview with Salim Adatia, CEO of GLI Interactive – the company behind software testing in Nevada. Plus an update to my Illinois FAQ to reflect last week’s changes to the bill’s “bad actor” clause.

PICKS

#GoodRead – The New York Times has a good write up of the uncertain environment surrounding daily fantasy sports. Much of it should sound familiar to followers of online poker.

@Follow – @Pokeraddictnet. Often first to news on U.S. facing rooms + regulatory developments at the state level.

Recapping Thursday night’s action, with the final bracelet event before the WSOP starting this afternoon:

Welch jams Eaton for 3k Triple Chance bracelet

After a lengthy heads-up match, Ryan Welch secured his first WSOP bracelet, winning the $3,000 No-Limit Holdem Triple Chance tournament, earning $559,371. Eaton earned $344,830 for his runner-up finish, Guillaume Darcourt finished 3rd for $223,459 and Will “The Thrill” Failla coming in 4th for $163,352. Full results and Nolan Dalla’s tournament report are available at wsop.com.

Kenney leads 25k NL 6-max into money

Day two of the $25,000 No-Limit Holdem 6-max finished with 18 players remaining with John Juanda being the unfortunate bubble boy. When play resumes at 3pm, Bryn Kenney will start the day as the chip leader with 2,425,000. Among the notables: Abe Mosseri (1,035,000), Daniel Negreanu (860,000), Isaac Haxton (835,000), Justin Bonomo (576,000) and Carlos Mortensen (484,000). Full chip counts and updates during the afternoon at wsop.com.

$1500 Limit Shootout Final Table

Day two of the $1,500 Limit Holdem Shootout started with the disqualification of Yueqi “Rich” Zhu, for making a deal heads-up when he won his shootout table on Wednesday. Zhu explained to PokerNews he was feeling ill, and decided to make a deal with his opponent. After that was taken care of, the remaining 63 players at the eight shootout tables playing down to a winner. The final table will start at 3pm today with this lineup, each starting with 450,000 chips:

Jonathan Little
Terrence Chan
Mike Schneider
Joe McGowan
Ben Yu
Brian Tate
Brendan Taylor
Sijbrand Maal

Follow the updates for this event at PokerNews.

Dempsey leads day 1a of 1k NL

Day 1a of the final $1,000 No-Limit Holdem tournament of the WSOP drew 2,340 entrants Thursday afternoon to the Amazon and Pavillion rooms at the Rio. Play finished halfway through level 9 with 331 players to return Saturday afternoon. James “Flushy” Dempsey leads the day 1a field with 144,100 in chips. Among the notables returning: Shannon Shorr (45,000), Toto Leonidas (31,475), Jena Delk (23,175) and Liv Boeree (16,575). A full list of chip counts is available at PokerNews.

Paino leads 10k PLO Day 1

The $10,000 Pot-Limit Omaha got underway Thursday afternoon with a field of 346 players taking the felt. After eight levels of play, 166 will return at 3pm, with the final 36 players making the money with the winner taking down $780,599. Antonio Paino leads the returning players with 240,000 in chips, with James Akenhead (181,100), Fabrice Soulier (151,200), Noah Boeken (114,400), Annette Obrestad (106,900), Tom Dwan (103,800) and Michael Binger (97,200) among the big names in the upper half of the leaderboard. The full list of chip counts is now available at wsop.com.

Friday’s tournament

Besides day 1b of the $1,000 No-Limit Holdem event starting at 12pm, the 5pm tournament is the $2,500 No-Limit Holdem event. Last year, Keven Stammen won this event in a field of 1,088 for $506,878.

Here’s a look at Saturday evening’s WSOP action, starting with the two bracelet winners:

Men Master’s Stud for Bracelet #7

The $10,000 Seven Card Stud World Championship was won by Men “The Master” Nguyen defeating Brandon Adams heads-up to win his 7th WSOP bracelet and $394,807, moving him into a tie for 5th place with Phil Ivey and Billy Baxter. The full results and Nolan Dalla’s tournament report are now online at wsop.com.

Dempsey Flush with a Bracelet

James “Flushy” Dempsey wins his first WSOP bracelet, in the $1,500 Pot-Limit Holdem event, defeating Steve Chanthabousay heads-up to win $197,470. A complete list of results plus Nolan Dalla’s report is at wsop.com.

Dwan Durrrrable in $1,500 NL

Day 3 of the $1,500 No-Limit Holdem has Tom “Durrrr” Dwan the chip leader (1,068,000) with 21 players remaining. Play resumes at 2:30pm to play down to a winner and PokerNews will be following all the action.

Lucky Thirteen Going for Limit Bracelet

Day 3 of the $1,500 Limit Holdem event has 13 players returning at 3pm to play down to a winner. Jason Potter moves into the chip lead (371,000) followed by day 1 chip leader Jameson Painter (307,000) in second. Terrence Chan (288,000), Matt Matros (272,000) and Frank Kassela (162,000) are the other notables returning this afternoon. Find all chip counts and live updates this afternoon over at PokerNews.

The 15% Solution

Day 1a of the second$1,000 No-Limit Holdem played about halfway into level 9 this morning, with 278 players, about 15% of the field, returning Monday at 2:30pm. This decision was made after last weekend’s $1,000 event had players getting eliminated too quickly, a problem Tao of Pokerati discussed with Ty Stewart. The current chip leader is Andy Black (90,275), with Phil Gordon (44,225), Jena Delk (34,300), Shaun Deeb (26,850), Victor Ramdin (23,350) and An Tran (20,350) are some of the recognizable names returning Monday at 2:30pm. The full list of players and their chip counts is now available over at PokerNews.

Binger Best in 2-7 Lowball

A field of 67 returns Sunday afternoon at 3pm for day 2 of the $1,500 No-Limit 2-7 Lowball, Single Draw with Nick Binger the leader with 54,300 in chips. Scott Seiver is in 2nd with 46,875, with Chino Rheem in 3rd with 42,725. Other notables include Dario Minieri (31,725), 2-7 Triple Draw Lowball winner Peter Gelenscer (21,925), Michael Binger (17,350) and Erick Lindgren (16,600). Only 28 make the money, with the winner earning $92,817. The full list of players counts is at PokerNews.

Sunday’s Bracelet Action

Starting at 12pm is day 1b of the $1,000 No-Limit Holdem event, will there be a smaller field like last week? The 5pm tournament starts the $10,000 Seven Card Stud Hi/Lo World Championship. Jeff Lisandro won this event last year in a field of 164, one of the three he won in 2009. Plenty of big names are expected to turn out for their chance to win a bracelet without so many donks in the field.

photo: @cgowen

Considering that Texas poker players helped build the third-largest friggin’ casino in the world (literally under a tent in Thackerville, OK) we can take some pleasure in knowing a bunch of Texans kicked butt in The River tourney this weekend and will be sending back home some riches made in El Norte.

WinStar reportedly threw in a $580,000 overlay to make their $3 million guarantee. Not sure about the buy-in details — I think they upped it to $2k? — nor overall results. The best “coverage” has come via 2+2 here, mixed in with some Facebook, Twitter, and direct txt msg buzz. (Thanks KevMath and Harris, as always, for the info!)

1,210 players overall.

The winner: Bobby Hempkins, aka “Shooter” in the Dallas poker boom days. (And now your source for residential real estate in the North Texas area.) $710k win. Nice!

5th place finisher Brian @ZBTHorton provided regular updates from the final table, such as:

8 left, these people suck (4pm)

Apparently tax issues may or may not have complicated chop discussions — though sounds to me that the Chickasaw nation is under similar corporate-legal restrictions as the WSOP.

7th place reportedly went to a guy named Lance. Paid $95k. Sounds like a nice prize distribution (at the final table, at least). Not too flat, not too steep.

Blind structure was supposedly relatively fast, however.

Pros who made the trek for this event included: Clonie Gowen, TJ Cloutier, Michael Mizrachi, Eric Mizrachi, Kido Pham, Terrence Chan, Michael Binger, Men the Master, Allen Kessler, and Dmitri Nobles. The real @EskimoClark was also supposedly milling around.

pic: @EWeE420

Well, this just didn’t go as planned. The idea was to make some solid picks mixed with some off-the-wall choices for 2009 World Series performances, with the results proving me to be somewhat of a genius. Whoops.

Some of my players have done well and could very well tear up the Main Event, but I could have possibly done better than, for example, picking my dentist’s nephew. Here’s a little rundown of my eight players through the end of the preliminary events:

Daniel Negreanu – Clearly the best of the picks, Daniel had an excellent series, though possibly not by his own high standards. With eight cashes, two of which were in world championship events and two of which were final tables, he cashed for more than $330K in the series.

Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier – One of the favorites in many player pools this year, ElkY cashed twice during the series but could not quite pull a final table. He did make the cover of Bluff Magazine, though, with the article written by fellow Frenchman Benjo.

Terrence Chan – He came into the WSOP with a hot online poker streak that simply didn’t translate into WSOP bracelets, only walking away with one cash in the preliminary events.

Kara Scott – Besides being a talented and professional EPT hostess, the woman can play some poker as well. She played one preliminary event – a $1,500 NLHE – prior to the Main Event and cashed in 58th place.

Luca Pagano – My favorite Italian player did not cash. Viva Italia next year and all that.

Jonathan Dull – My dentist’s nephew had one cash in a $1,500 NLHE event, but, well, I won’t have much to report to my dentist in July.

Dwyte Pilgrim – After 13 cashes in WSOP Circuit events over the past year, Dwyte ran cold at the WSOP in Vegas and wasn’t able to cash in the prelims. But his record over the past year doesn’t lie, so it’s just a matter of time, guy I’ve never met buddy.

Whit Blanton – Pokerati player Whit made a run at one event and didn’t find his way to the money. But he still loves Pokerati, and isn’t that what matters?

Bonus pick Mekhi Phifer – Ummm, where was he?

The Main Event is just kicking into gear, so at least one of my picks still has a chance to go deep. (Go Kara!)

The final Day 1, as Dan noted is already over 2,500 entrants with players now being registered into Buzio’s. The first three days had players seated at nine-handed tables, but is it possible they’ll have to start today ten-handed to accommodate as many players as possible? There’s still six hours to find out the answer to that question.

Back to Day 1c, 1,106 players will return Wednesday afternoon to join the Day 1d survivors for Day 2b, playing 4 two-hour levels. The day 1c chip leader is Joseph Cada, with 187,225 in chips. Other notables with chips: Jeff Lisandro (146,950), Tuan Le (110,000), Justin Bonomo (103,425), Alex Bolotin (92,500), Pat Poels (87,200), Adam Junglen (80,475), Terrence Chan (67,075), Dennis Phillips (63,325) and Dan Shak (55,200). To see the complete list of chip counts, click on this link.

To see how they squeeze in all those players, check out Pokerati during the day, and be sure to follow the updates from www.wsop.com, Pauly, and Pokerati during the day.

That’s right. I’ve got picks. I didn’t participate in any official draft or betting pool, just chose players to watch this year and listed them here. That makes them official, Pokerati-style.

The purpose of picking a team of players at the 2009 WSOP is that it gives me a variety of players to stalk follow and track results. Some of them are well-known on the poker tournament circuit, while others are just beginning to make their marks and may not garner much publicity from the major media outlets. Here? They’re all stars because I dub them so. I’ll be trying as best I can to keep up with them.

Daniel Negreanu – While some argue that he is not particularly focused this year due to the health of his mother and other factors, I contend that the grind will lock him into place at the WSOP and that he will be looking to score big to bring some extra smiles to his mom’s face.

Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier – He is a given. He has been on fire for several years and will undoubtedly be a force at the Series as he looks to add a WSOP bracelet to his list of serious poker accomplishments.

Terrence Chan – Not only is he a friend of friends of mine, but he caught my eye when he won two PokerStars SCOOP tournaments on the same night a few months ago. It was impressive, and with his motivation to do well this summer, his momentum/skill combo might be enough to get him there.

Kara Scott – She recently placed second in the 2009 Irish Open main event, and her list of tournament successes is growing consistently. Add to that a relationship with a certain poker pro, with whom intimate discussions of flops and raises can only help. And after a deep run in the 2008 WSOP main event, I look for her to do well in numerous events this year.

Luca Pagano – My favorite Italian player has also had some significant finishes, though 2008 was a better year for him than 2009. Even so, his game has been improving, and he appears due for a big finish this summer.

Jonathan Dull – His record shows that he has accumulated nearly $455K in his career. The young player has potential, but how did he make my coveted list? He is my dentist’s nephew, and my dentist is awesome.

Dwyte Pilgrim – The guy is on fire. Over the past year, he came onto the poker scene and began tearing up WSOP Circuit events, posting 13 cashes overall over the past season, many of which were final tables and one – Harrah’s Rincon – championship victory. Seems he does well in any tournament with WSOP in the name.

Whitney Blanton – Not only is he a faithful Pokerati reader and patch-wearing “preferred player”, but also he’s my Facebook friend and has been having a good poker year. He hopes to bring a WSOP bracelet back to Texas this year, and providing he gets out to Vegas soon to play some events, he has a good chance.

For good measure, in addition to my top eight players, I will add Mekhi Phifer as a bonus pick. What fun is stalking without the man who feared my very presence at the 2008 WSOP? (Just kidding; security was never actually called.)