Absolute Poker in Court

Nevada Passes Intrastate Online Gambling—A month after the news of proposed online gaming legislation was announced, the state of Nevada passed gaming legislation with a unanimous vote. Several Nevada based companies have applied for licenses under the new online gaming law. They include International Game Technology, Cantor Gaming and Caesars Entertainment. It seems the license application processing will open up early next year. Many legislators have expressed concerns about legalizing online gaming at the state level and Nevada attempts to answer those concerns with the guidelines and rules that come with licensing. Site will have to have certain information on their websites regarding problem gambling, tax information and an avenue for conflict resolution. The licensed sites will be thoroughly examined and must make effort to ensure only in state residents of legal age utilize their website.

Wire Act Clearly Defined—After a question of the legality of selling state lottery tickets online the federal government was forced to clarify what was actually covered by the Wire Act. The verdict came back that the Wire Act applied to sports related betting only and had no sway over the selling of state lottery tickets. And because poker has recently been recognized as a card game of skill and so is not considered a sport in the literal or Wire Act sense. This is great news to poker players and pro poker organizations seeking passage of federal laws regarding online poker. The Poker Players Alliance (PPA) has been working with legislators for the last few years in an attempt to have federal regulation of the online poker industry. The hope is to legalize online poker in the United States and provide regulations and consumer protection for players. And although the deadline has passed to get federal regulation through the house this year, 2012 is looking a lot more promising.

Influential Casino Owner Does NOT Support Online Gaming

Global Poker Index for Week Ending December 5, 2011

1. Bertrand Grospellier 2534.45

2. Erik Seidel 2526.35

3. Jason Mercier 2415.32

4. Eugene Katchalov 2405.03

5. Samuel Stein 2317.85

6. Shawn Buchanan 2219.40

7. Sam Trickett 2164.90

8. Chris Moorman 2051.57

9. Fabrice Soulier 2019.80

10. Matt Waxman 2014.07

Prague Settled Martin Finger Wins—Over the weekend the PokerStars European Tour in Prague came to a close and German player Martin Finger was named the overall winner. Winning came after a long day of poker play but came with the reward of a bracelet, a trophy, a title and of course, a little cash to sweeten the pot.

Here’s the final table results as reported by pokernews.com:

1. Martin Finger €720,000
2. David Boyaciyan €535,000
3. Nicolas Levi €270,000
4. Guillem Usero €205,000
5. Denys Drobyna €160,000
6. Ari Engel €125,000
7. Andreas Wiese €90,000
8. Mads Wissing €66,700

Federal Online Gaming Hearing Success—This week saw a discussion and hearing on American online gambling and the possibility of federal regulation held by a subcommittee of the US House Energy and Commerce Committee. Overall the hearing is being viewed as a positive step forward.

After opening statements by the Subcommittee’s chairwoman, the subcommittee on Commerce Manufacturing has six people with different gambling related backgrounds speak about the state of American gambling and what steps should be taken to move the country forward. The speakers were:

Parry Atfab, Chairwoman of the Board of Advisors of FairPlayUSA

Ernest Stevens, Jr., Chairman of the National Indian Gaming Association (NIGA)

Keith Whyte, Executive Director of the National Council on Problem Gambling

Alfonse D’Amato current Chairman of the Poker Players Alliance

Kurt Eggert, Professor of Law at the Chapman University School of Law

Dan Romer, Associate Director of The Annenberg Public Policy Center at the University of Pennsylvania and the Director of its Adolescent Communication Institute.

The hearing had no legal outcome but it does provide a foundation to build upon for positive and well research consumer protection laws and Internet gaming regulation.

Maryland Lottery Proponents Say No to Online Poker—The Super Committee of six republicans and six democrats have been formed into a think tank and have to find $1.5 trillion to help fix the national budget. Governor O’Malley of Maryland opposes legalizing online gaming in his state as he fears it will take money away from the long established state lottery. His argument against online poker continued as he pointed out that live slot machines and casinos contributed greatly to the funds for Maryland’s public education. If folks turned to the online version of things that money would be lost or at least have to be found from somewhere else in the budget. O’ Malley’s opinions have not found favor publicly or among online poker fans.

Bloomberg Supports Online Poker Legislation—Bloomberg.com, well established and widely regarded economics and news site published an op-ed piece supporting the passing of online poker legislation. In fact the folks over at Bloomberg showed the logicality of supporting online poker over other forms of gambling such as state lotteries. They explain how seeing online gaming regulation as a moral issue is without logic. The article continued by explaining to readers a little more about the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA). It also explained the happenings of Black Friday for those not yet in the know and basically presented the current state of online gambling and gaming in America. It was nice to see the comments following the article were for the most part positive and well formed. Having the endorsement of such a large news and finance medium can only help the cause of online gaming legislation. The reach of Bloomberg includes public education, private businesses, the world of stocks and shares not to mention television media. If more influential economic formats and companies would get behind poker legislation it would be easier to pass through the House. After all online gaming is a money maker and its legalization can only improve the national economy. As the economy improves in one area it will effect others such as budget issues, unemployment numbers and getting the country back on track.

Full Tilt Offers Another Press Release of Excuses

Entraction Network Bans Five Countries From Play—Both Donkr.com and PokerNews.com have stated that the Entraction Network, an umbrella company for a number of poker sites, will be banning play from several countries by the end of September 2011. Entraction Network houses such online casino sites as Devilfish.com and Bettson.com and has until recently been accessible in several countries. But as of September 29, 2011 players from Canada, Israel, Norway, Russia and Turkey will no longer be able to access the network or the sites and poker deals that come with them. The company spokesperson explained that the changes they are making in their markets and structure will help them better prepare for coming changes in online gaming laws. Perhaps the countries banned from the network are in some way going to hinder Entraction from making the switch to licensed online gaming in the future.

Epic Poker League Pro/Am Tournament Results—This is the second tournament held by the newly formed Epic Poker League. It is taking place at the Palms Resort and Casino in Vegas and has attracted 97 players. This no limit hold em tournament runs four days with professional players going to head with amateur winners from satellite tournaments. Phil Hellmuth, Kathy Leibert and Greg Mueller are just a few of the big names enjoying the event. As of this writing Greg Mueller held the chip lead for the second day in a row.

Who’s on Top on the Global Poker Index—for the week ending August 30, 2011 the top ten players in the poker world are as follows: 1. Jason Mercier, 2. Erik Seidel, 3. Betrand Grospellier, 4. Eugene Katchalov, 5. Fabrice Soulier, 6. Samuel Stein, 7. Thomas Marchese, 8. Sorel Mizzi, 9. Scott Seiver, 10. Daniel Negreanu. Source: http://www.globalpokerindex.com/

Aaaah the Michael Mizrachi blow. WSOP had just ended and all anyone could talk about was the stellar performance of Mizrachi throughout the professional season. He enjoyed his victory with new endorsements, getting his debts paid and starting his own poker tip blog.

The WSOP Women’s Dilemma. Last year’s women’s event at the WSOP became quite a controversial affair overshadowing much of the Main Event’s air time. Annie Duke stood up for her rights to be treated as an equal with specialty minority status in the world of poker. Pretty sure she remains one of the best players in the world.

Speaking of Annie Duke, the queen of poker went before congress last summer to plead the case of an online gaming bill that would offer consumer protection to players. Well, don’t we all wish that bill had passed a little sooner huh? Oh we’re still waiting? Sheesh.

The London Poker festival took place in late summer attracting players from all over the world. Back then it wasn’t the virtual dilemma players faced it was the cost of parking in downtown London.

Poker’s Social Network. New poker apps and being able to play online poker at your social networking sites was all the rage this time last year. It was all about bigger, better and more ways to connect with the virtual casino. Weird. Many folks these days are actively avoiding it.

And my absolute favorite news worthy event from last summer was the announcement of Pokerstars new CEO. Talk about sitting at the captain’s table of the sinking ship right? These days all we hear from Pokerstars is “the check’s in the mail.”

Funny how quickly the worm turns huh?

Feds Seize Major Poker Sites

Scarborough Wins WPT Hollywood —Despite the fact that Erik Seidel was his opponent in the heads up part of the WPT Hollywood final table, Mike Scarborough won the event. He took home a nice chunk of change ($273,664 to be precise) and made his name by beating the man of the professional poker year. According to the folks at pokernewsdaily.com the final results of the WPT Hollywood open were as follows.

1. Mike Scarborough – $273,664
2. Erik Seidel – $155,103
3. William Reynolds – $110,788
4. Tom Marchese – $77,551
5. Andy Whetstone – $62,041
6. Ali Eslami – $50,962

Mike Scarborough hails from Cincinnati, Ohio and the WPT Hollywood Open was his second professional tournament.

Nevada Passes Initial Gaming Bill— Nevada proposed an intrastate online gaming law that would regulate online poker for Nevada players and Nevada companies, create jobs and pave the way for future federal regulations. The initial bill has passed through the state senate with a unanimous vote.

The original bill proposed by senator William Horne established guidelines for interstate as well as intrastate gaming regulations. To pass through committee unchallenged the interstate language had to be left out. By establishing the foundation of an intrastate gaming law, Nevada is paving the way for its eventual interstate and federal gaming laws.

Proposed Legislation in Florida— This week the politicians down in Florida are looking at two separate bills that could effect the game of poker in the sunshine state. The first bill, SB 1594 is directly related to dog tracks in Florida. SB 1594 hopes to eliminate the requirement that dog tracks must have live races in order to have a casino on their premises. The proposed law is in favor of helping dogs and their owners survive a tight economy. The second bill, SB 812 is like many others we’ve seen lately and targets the issue of intrastate online gambling. Despite a little opposition both bills passed through the first level of voting

Alan Sternberg Wins the WPT Bay 101 Shooting Star—Alan Sternberg take home over a million dollars after some nail biting play this week. He went heads up with Steven Kelly. Steven Kelly was a formidable competitor for Sternburg and took home a nice chunk of change for his trouble. Second place and $595,000 in your pocket is nothing to sneeze at. Here’s the final ranks and results as posted by the folks at pokernews.com.

First Place: Alan Sternberg—$1,039,000

Second Place: Steven Kelly—$595,300

Third Place: Mike Matusow—$369,800

Fourth Place: Vivek Rajkumar—$295,800

Fifth Place: Casey McCarrel—$221,800

Sixth Place: Mike Sexton—$148,000

Another WPT event is set to take place in April 9-13 in Lawrenceburg, Indiana.

Another Try at Federal Gaming Bill—John Campbell a republican from California and Barney Frank a democrat from Massachusetts have come together to create a bill that would create federal regulation of online gaming including taxes and licensing requirements. The basic concept of the bill was established last July in the House of Financial Services but stalemate because of concerns from both sides of the aisle. The new proposed gaming bill concentrates on licensing and consumer protection. There would be a lot of background research conducted on online casinos that wanted to have a license as well as a list of “bad” or illegal sites published for public information. Underage gambling is mentioned as a item that needs attention as well as the use of online banking for gambling. There would be limits set on casino deposits in an attempt to weed out excessive play.

Poker Pros website—

Cheating-–2010 WSOP main event winner John Racener accused Sorel Mizzi, the man named player of the year by Bluff magazine of cheating during a recent tournament. It seems during the recent PokerStars Caribbean tournament back in January Racener and Mizzi got into some side games with rules they invented as they went along. The problem occurred when Racener observed Mizzi’s card shuffling that left the two bottom cards stationary every time. Racener accused Mizzi of cheating and demanded his money back. Mizzi denied the accusations online although his long history of alleged cheating incidents doesn’t really play in his favor. In fact Mizzi, despite being 2010 player of the year, only received permission to play on Full Tilt again after a 2.5 year ban in recent days.

NBC Heads Up—Its always great to hear about poker getting some face time on a major network and the seventh annual NBC Heads Up Poker Championship is no exception. This year’s competition will be held in Las Vegas at the Caesars Palace Casino. There are a total of 64 players confirmed for the contest that will take place March 4 through March 6.

Casino Robbery— A robbery occurred at the Rio All Suites Hotel and Casino last Thursday morning tightening security across the Vegas strip. Last time the thief stole 1.5 million. This time the men left with just over $30,000. This was a gunpoint robbery from a single man who entered the casino in disguise. The gun was not fired but was pointed at a man who tried to intervene in the robbery. Initial rumors said the man arrived and left in a taxi. Steven Gao was the man behind the bad disguise and as of the posting of this blog he has still not be found. His two accomplices were arrested on Friday morning. One of the co-conspirators was Edward Land who told police that Gao owed him $15,000. Because he didn’t have the money he robbed the casino taking double his debt. Hiroyuki Yamaguchi was the second man arrested in connection with the incident. He was driving the taxi that was Gao’s getaway car. Both men were well aware of Gao’s intentions before the crime happened.

Poker Legislation Back on the Table: Despite past objections, disgruntled politicians and anxious poker fans the online gaming legislation is about to be back on the table. Barney Frank D-MA has teamed up with John Campbell R-CA to propose the passage of an online gaming bill. The bill would regulate the online gaming industry, provide consumer protection and of course stimulate the economy with an influx of tax money and new jobs. The new and improved bill has removed the black out period that had so many proponents of regulation backing away from the legislation. With the blackout period language eliminated, the proposed bill is much more sellable to politicians and their constituents. New language in the bill provides for equality in casino regulations that work with U.S. players and tax structures that help out both players and the states they live in.

Female Victory in France: The WPT World Tour was in Paris this week and it was Russian player Natalia Nikitina that took home the grand prize. 188 players took part in the tournament and Nikitina went home with a cool $330,500 in her pocket. It took four and a half hours for the first player to leave the final table. Nikitina worked her way from the middle of the table to the top going heads up against French poker star Alexandre Brivot. It was touch and go for a while with Nikitina losing chips to Brivot a little too often. In the end she took home the title with a A-3. Brivot had moved all in with K-J but it was just the wrong combination of cards. He took home a comfortable 174,00 euros for his trouble.

PokerStars Old and New: In the last week, PokerStars chose 15 people out of 4,500 applicants to make up the new online poker team. Those lucky 15 are: Dale ‘Daleroxxu‘ Philip, Tyler ‘frosty012’ Frost, Mikhail ‘innerpsy‘ Shalamov, Javier ‘El Cañonero‘ Dominguez, Sigge ‘ClarkKent89’ Reichard, Richard ‘Tzen1’ Veenman, Freddy ‘sirfreddy83’ Torres, Kevin ‘WizardOfAhhs‘ Thurman, Mer ‘PeachyMer‘ Brit. Andrew ‘foucault82’ Brokos, Clayton ‘cnew27’ Newman. Yu-Reng ‘AmPHisbaenA‘ Peng. Kwangsoo ‘PiS.ToTo‘ Lee Shane ‘shaniac’ Schleger, and Jorge ‘Baalim’ Limon.

Leaving the PokerStars sponsorship world are: Grey Raymer, Julian Thew, Darus Suharto.

Data Mining Blocks: Bodog poker sites have joined the ranks of Pokerstars and Full Tilt and publicly denounced the practice of data mining in their online casinos. Collecting hand histories and player stats has been a common practice in the Internet poker world for many years. Many site owners feel it gives semi pros and pros an unfair advantage during what are supposed to be recreational games.

WSOP Announce 2011 Schedule

Poker Players Drug Smuggling Arrest—David “zanderfish” Saab, Robert “remo_04″ Reemeus, and Darren Hughes are being held in an Australian prison for allegedly smuggling cocaine. They have not applied for bail. They were in court Tuesday to be officially charged. The event went down back on January 17^th when a ship traveling from Canada to Australia was found to contain 46 pounds of cocaine. Apparently Reemeus and Saab smuggled the drugs in the machinery of the ship and then gave it to Hughes. The cocaine street value is somewhere in the region of $4 million Australian dollars.

The poker players are looking at 25 years or more in jail and fines that could be more than a few years poker winnings.

Aussie Millions— this year’s tournament brought a record breaking change for the world of professional poker. The super high roller game was added to the mix with a $250,000 buy in. This ensured the top players and a real chance to see the pros play together under the microscope. Here are the results of the two most anticipated events.

2011 Aussie Millions Main Event Results

1. David Gorr – AUD$2,000,000
2. James Keys – AUD$1,035,000
3. Jeff Rossiter – AUD$700,000
4. Michael Ryan – AUD$450,000
5. Randy Dorfman – AUD$325,000
6. Samad Razavi – AUD$225,000
7. Chris Moorman – AUD$175,000
8. Patrik Antonius – AUD$130,000

2011 High Roller Results

Just a day or so after it was announced that the Aussie Millions tournament would be host to the largest buy in in recorded poker history, Erik Seidel went ahead and won the title. It seems the $250,000 buy in was worth it for Seidel who went home with $2.5 million Australian dollars. This latest edition to the poker hall of fame proved his worth last Thursday evening in Melbourne, Australia.

1. Erik Seidel $2,500,000
2. Sam Trickett $1,400,00
3. David Benyamine $1,100,00

Doyle’s Room Merger—Having made a number of moves in the world of poker networks in the last few year’s Doyle Brunson’s online casino is moving once more. The popular site run by the poker veteran is leaving cake poker and signing up with Yatahay Network, the home of True Poker.

Many players were upset by the change worrying that player funds may be in jeopardy and the games would change. The worries were unfounded of course as the move means player accounts and bankrolls will now be backed up by True Poker and their affiliate BetCris.

For players, the next time they log into their account on Doyle’s Room, the download of the Yatahay software will start automatically. There will be a change to game play but the network assures players that they can stay with the Cake network if they so choose.