Instapoker

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.