September 04 2011, Elaine Chaivarlis

There was no shortage of poker news this week, and if you missed any of the Nightly Turbos, then this is your best bet to catch up. We understand that sometimes you forget to check it out, but you can always sign up for the Nightly Turbo newsletter below and get it in your inbox. As for what you missed, the PokerStars European Poker Tour announced a new stop on Season 8 of the tour, a couple of Royal Flush Girls resigned, and more.

It’s All Greek to Us

On Thursday, PokerStars.net announced a new stop to the eighth season of the European Poker Tour. From Nov. 15 through 20, the EPT will be stopping at Club Hotel Casino Loutraki in Greece.

“This is great news that the EPT will visit Greece. I’m truly excited to have such a prestigious tournament taking place in my country. Fellow Greek players have an opportunity to compete in a high calibre tournament with large numbers, and players visiting Greece will enjoy the beautiful Greek landmarks and famous hospitality,” said Greek pro George “gkap13″ Kapalas.

The five star beach resort will host the EPT’s debut in Greece with a five-day “4,400 Main Event and a myriad of side events. This EPT stop was planned after two successful PokerStars sponsored Greek Poker Cup events were held earlier this year.

“We are very happy to extend our strategic partnership with PokerStars.net, after two very successful Greek Poker Cup tournaments. The EPT’s debut in Greece is a very exciting development for Loutraki as a top tourist destination, for our casino, and for Greek poker in general,” said CHCL general manager Alexandros Doukas.

Find out more about this exciting new stop on the PokerStars Blog.

Iglesias and Banzer Depart

If you’re a Royal Flush Girl fan, specifically Melanie Iglesias and Michelle Banzer, you might want to sit down for this. On Monday night, both Iglesias and Banzer announced they were leaving the World Poker Tour.

Iglesias was the first to make the announcement via Twitter:

Shortly thereafter, Banzer also announced her resignation:

The ladies received plenty of comments regarding their departure, most of their fans saying they would cease watching the WPT broadcasts. Hello guys, we know these two ladies are awesome, but you’re forgetting the rest of the RFGs.

No reasons were given, Iglesias only tweeted this response to one of her followers:

As for a statement from the World Poker Tour, it’s kind of what we expected, “Melanie and Michelle were both interested in pursuing other opportunities. We thank them for their hard work during Season IX and wish them the best in their future endeavors.”

Free Gold

On Friday, Jamie Gold announced the launch of his online poker site, FreeGoldPoker.com. The 2006 World Series of Poker Main Event champion opened the free poker site on the ZEN Entertainment Network.

“This is an amazing opportunity for me to create a fun, accessible and unique experience for the poker community. As importantly, I will be able to continue to accomplish meaningful, vital and life-changing charitable goals with the additional support and commitment of the ZEN platform,” Gold said in the press release. “It will also provide my dedicated partners a platform beyond anything I could have imagined as we are now able to create targeted demographic promotions.”

The site boasts $100,000 in prize pools per month. According to Gold’s agent, Randy Kasper, endorsement deals and charity partnerships will be announced in the future and will be integrated into the events on the free poker site.

“After Black Friday and all the negativity surrounding online poker, I asked myself what I could do to help our community enjoy playing a game they love legally while at the same time elevate awareness about the fantastic brands and amazing charitable opportunities I come into contact with on a daily basis. Creating FreeGoldPoker.com was the clear answer,” Gold said.

Read the entire press release at CasinoCityTimes.com.

Bwin.party Partner

According to eGaming Review, bwin.party will announce its U.S. strategic partners by the end of the year.

Bwin.party CEO Jim Ryan spoke with eGaming Review and said, “You will definitely hear from us in the second half.” Ryan also hinted that the partner the company was finalizing agreements with on the state and federal levels could be the same.

“The structure of the deals we are likely to do will be joint venture partnerships. We will be exploiting our brands, and our JV partner will be exploiting their brands. A poker network that would have Party, WPT, Poker Room, and then the brands of our partners,” said Ryan.

EGaming Review reports that bwin.party has been “strongly linked with providing a poker platform in a regulated U.S. market for four land-based casino groups with properties in Atlantic City, including Boyd Gaming.”

But before it would be able to supply a network for a U.S. casino group, eGaming Review says bwin.party would have to complete sustainability reviews on the state and federal levels.

“We will have to go through suitability review, assuming there is a federal bill, based on whatever legal construct they come up with. At a state and a federal level, we will have to go through suitability,” Ryan said.

Read more at EGRMagazine.com.

#WhenWillItEnd

The latest installment of ESPN’s The Nuts is back. The monthly blog post ranks the best players in poker at the moment. The Panel includes PokerNews’ Editor-in-Chief Matthew Parvis, PokerNews’ Tournament Reporting Manager Don Peters, ESPN’s Andrew Feldman, Gary Wise, and Bernard Lee, among others.

Jason Mercier has a stranglehold on the top spot. “I see no way of Jason Mercier falling out of the top spot in the next year. His results speak for themselves, and he is clearly the best tournament poker player in the world,” Parvis said.

Erik Seidel is still sitting pretty in second place, but the player in third place made the biggest jump of the month. Eugene Katchalov vaulted from sixth to third, no doubt because of his eighth-place finish in the Epic Poker League and his final-table appearance at the European Poker Tour Barcelona.

Vanessa Selbst finds her way in the top 10 again, in eighth place. “It was a mistake she wasn’t on this list a month ago and thanks to two cashes, Selbst is back where she belongs,” said Feldman. Phil Ivey is still hanging on in the top 10 in ninth place, even though he hasn’t played in months and Daniel Negreanu rounds out the top 10.

If you want to find out what the middle of the list looks like or who bubbled, you’ll have to head on over to ESPN.com.

PokerStars WCOOP Radio

PokerStars is set to bring you tons of WCOOP coverage. The World Championship of Online Poker kicks off on Sept. 4, and to make sure you stay in the know, PokerStars is launching WCOOP Radio and Inside WCOOP, a PokerStars.tv series.

WCOOP Radio kicks off Sept. 7 and runs through Sept. 27. It will feature guest appearances and player interviews, and be interactive, complete with competitions, quizzes, and exclusive tournaments for listeners. WCOOP Radio will be broadcast in English, German, Russian, and Spanish. Adding to the coverage, every Tuesday, beginning Sept. 13, Nick Wealthall and Joe Stapleton will host Inside WCOOP. The show will cover the latest news and action from the WCOOP schedule.

Stay on top of the WCOOP schedule and news at PokerStars.com.

Lock Poker Explains

PocketFives.com is reporting that Lock Poker issued a statement explaining the Malta Lotteries and Gaming Authorities claim that it did not issue a license to Lock Poker. The controversy surrounds the LGA logo on LockPoker.eu. As we told you earlier this week, the LGA said, “The Lotteries and Gaming Authority (the ‘Authority’) would like to inform the public that the website http://lockpoker.eu/ has no connection whatsoever with the Authority and therefore any mention of the Authority or license issued by the Authority on the mentioned website is false and misleading.”

Lock Poker told PocketFives.com that because the Merge Gaming Network received “a letter of intent for a Class 4 license from the LGA” that “Merge allowed its licensees, including Lock Poker, to display the LGA logo on their site once they had opted into the agreement and updated their Terms and Conditions on site.”

According to PocketFives.com, Lock Poker is working to resolve the issue shortly. “Merge Gaming Malta Ltd. is now working with their key official in Malta to resolve issues that have arisen in the past two days. Merge Gaming Malta Ltd. can also confirm that Lock has in fact provided all required documentation to Merge Gaming Malta Ltd. in relation to this process.”

Read more at PocketFives.com.

Trying to Get Out

EGaming Review reported Friday that lawyers Jeff Ifrah and David Deitch are attempting to withdraw “as attorneys of record” from an ongoing class action lawsuit involving Team Full Tilt players. Ifrah and Deitch represent the eight defendants from Team Full Tilt.

“[C]ontinued representation of Defendants would create unreasonable difficulty for us to carry out our employment effectively and would result in an unreasonable financial burden to our law firm,” stated the motion.

Ifrah and Deitch also filed a motion to dismiss the defendants and companies affiliated with Full Tilt from the class action lawsuit earlier this month, but according to eGaming Review the motion has not yet been acted on.

While Ifrah is seeking withdrawal from the class action lawsuit, he will continue to represent Full Tilt Poker, as well as its CEO Ray Bitar.

Read more at EGRMagazine.com.

Follow us on Twitter for up-to-the-minute news.

Follow Elaine Chaivarlis on Twitter – @LaneyLV

September 03 2011, Chad Holloway

On Sunday, Sept. 4, 2011, PokerStars will host the 10th Annual World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP). Spanning three weeks with 62 events, this year’s WCOOP guarantees $30,000,000 in prize pool money and is one of the most anticipated events of the year. In fact, the WCOOP is so prestigious that many pros residing in the United States, who were subsequently affected by Black Friday, have relocated in order to play the series, including Adam “Roothlus” Levy and Brian Hastings, just to name a few.

While the WCOOP will draw a laundry list of pros, perhaps no one is more excited than Team PokerStars Pro Daniel Negreanu. It’s no secret that Negreanu has diligently worked to improve his online game over the past couple of years, and a WCOOP title would certainly validate all of his hard work. The Canada native had some success last year when he place 11th in Event #61 $10,000 8-Game for $28,595. That event saw 133 entrants and drew some of poker’s biggest names including Scott “BigRiskky” Clements (18th – $17,290), Allen “albari” Bari (17th – $17,290), David “WhooooKidd” Baker ($16th – $17,290), and Andrew “good2cu” Robl (15th – $17,290).

While Negreanu outlasted all the aforementioned players, he barely missed out on a final table that included Brett “get crunk” Richey (8th – $43,225), Pat “Pat Pezzin” Pezzin (7th – $43,225), Jon “PearlJammer” Turner (5th – $86,450), Jose “nachobarbero” Barbero (3rd – $172,900), and eventual winner, Alexander “Kravchenko” Kravchenko (1st – $345,800). Fresh off an appearance at the European Poker Tour Barcelona, PokerNews caught up with Negreanu to get his take on the upcoming WCOOP, including his schedule, preparation, and plan of attack.

What sorts of things are you doing to prepare for the WCOOP?

Well, me personally, last night I actually was grinding some $400/$800 mixed games because it’s just not hold’em; it’s a wide variety of games and everyday is a different mix. So just getting sharp and my feet wet. Again, it’s been a long time since Black Friday and since I’ve had a chance to play.

I’m actually super stoked about it. I’ve always kind of liked the WCOOP and wanted to try, but I feel like I’m going to try even harder. Also, the biggest thing is time zone, and I’m going to be in Europe for the whole time, so I won’t have any issues with that.

*WCOOP Events are scheduled on EDT time

Being on the road and away from home, what is your “grind station” going to be like?

You know, when I was multi-tabling, when I was four tabling “Isildur1” heads up, I needed a grind station, but to play WCOOPs, the most that I’ll be playing is three at a time, I can handle that these days because I’m such an online guru now. I’m going to be in a hotel in Montenegro, and then I’ll be in Budapest, so that’s where I’ll be grinding from.

What WCOOP event are you looking forward to the most?

For me, it’s always going to be the 8-game. I think it’s $10K and the same day as the Main Event, so that’s going to be quite a bit, playing both of those. I’ve got my eyes on those two.

That was the same event you finished 11th in last year, correct?

I think I did. I had like four cashes, I really didn’t have much luck late, but I did come in 11th in that. Felt like I should have done better.

What is it about the WCOOP 8-Game mix that you like so much?

First of all, I always pride myself on being an all-around player, I don’t just play hold’em, I play everything. That’s how I built my bankroll originally, before tournaments, so I love it. I think a lot of new players are starting to see how fun it is. It breaks up the monotony of playing the same game over and over, and it’s just a good value for me and an opportunity for me to win because I don’t really have a weak game in the mix.

What’s your daily schedule like during the events?

Unfortunately, that’s an issue. I will be doing a little bit of travel like I said. I’m going to be on the beach in Montenegro, just in a hotel room. Krisztina* has an event, I won’t be playing that, and then I’ll just be in Budapest hanging out probably at her apartment. I’m just praying that the Internet connection is good in Montenegro and Budapest.

But, yeah, I don’t really have a set schedule like during the afternoon. I could exercise, you know I always say I will, but will I? Hmmmm.

Do you have any superstitions for the WCOOP, or online poker in general?

I wouldn’t say superstitions, but I’ll never forget being really, really deep in it, I don’t remember which event it was, and there was this sick hand. I was laying on my couch, have my little mouse trigger finger, and I was top three in chips with like 70 left. A guy raised under the gun, I call with on the button, small blind reraises, I get up off my couch to like move and go to the bathroom [and misclick], and before I know it I see all my chips in the middle. Both of them went all-in, and so I ended up getting in a shitload of chips with and losing that pot to the only guy at the table who could put a dent in my stack.

I guess if anything, I’m super, super careful now with my mouse, and making sure I’m folded correctly. It’s not a superstition, it’s just going to be a force of habit.

This year there are 62 events, how many of those do you expect to play?

Well I’m going to try to play every day, except for [when] I have to travel from Barcelona to Montenegro, then Montenegro to Budapest. Then I have an event I’m doing in Budapest one day, so those will be the only three days I plan on missing. I actually have something special planned. I plan on playing, I would say, well over 50 percent of the events.

As far as poker titles go, where would a WCOOP bracelet rank for you?

I’ll be completely honest, two years go if you asked that question I’d have been like ‘Who cares?’ Now, it’s really cool, I really like that the PokerStars Blog tweets out these kind of stats, and I’m a stats geek, total stats geek. It’s becoming more special. Unlike the FTOPS which are like up to FTOPS 880, or something like that, [the WCOOP] is very, very special because it’s once a year. So it’s similar to the World Series of Poker in that sense, and really for online poker it’s essentially the world championship, and I love that.

It would mean a lot to me, specifically, because I have never had a lot of success online and that’s like a new frontier for me that I want to break through.

What can you tell us about the WCOOP Radio?

It’s going to be kind of fun. From Sept. 7 to 27, Joe Stapleton, who everyone loves from the Big Game, and Nick Wealthall are going to do a radio show every single night. They’re going to recap the action from the day, they’re going to go over some of the sicker hands, they’re going to focus in on some of the sicker tables and what not, and they’ll have guests throughout the whole thing breaking down hands and stuff like that. So it’ll probably be like a 30-minute lesson, and they’re going to have that running through the entire WCOOP. So tune in!

*Visit WCOOP Radio here

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Follow Chad Holloway on Twitter – @ChadAHolloway