November 02 2011, Brett Collson

With the World Series of Poker Main Event Final Table just days away, many of the November Niners have touched down in Sin City to begin preparations for the biggest spectacle in poker. In the meantime, The Nightly Turbo brings you the latest from the Groupe Bernard Tapie agreement with the Department of Justice, a new list of the hottest women in poker, and more.

In Case You Missed It

Kevin Schaffel was a member of the 2009 November Nine but hasn’t been around much lately. We caught up with Schaffel to find out what he’s been up to in this edition of Where Are They Now.

The PokerStars Asia Pacific Poker Tour is headed to Macau this month. If you’re planning a trip, then find out all you need to know in the PokerNews Jet Set.

Did you miss Tuesday’s coverage the World Series of Poker on ESPN? Check out our recap to find out who made the 2011 November Nine!

Late last week, Genting opened New York City’s first casino. Read more about that and the recent gaming growth in Asia in the latest edition of Inside Gaming.

Daniel Santoro is the latest World Poker Tour champion after winning the World Poker Tour Finals at Foxwoods Tuesday night. Get all the details of the final table in our daily recap.

The World Poker Tour stop in Amneville kicked off Tuesday with Day 1a of the “3,200 Main Event. Nicolas Babel led the charge as 114 of the 176 players survived the first day of play.

Tapie: FTP Purchase Could Be Finalized Within 15 Days

On Wednesday, Laurent Tapie confirmed to iGamingFrance that the principle agreement between Groupe Bernard Tapie and the Department of Justice had been reached. Tapie, who serves as the Managing Director of the French investment group, says that an agreement for the purchase of Full Tilt Poker could be finalized in the next 15 days.

The deal stipulates that Groupe Bernard Tapie will repay Full Tilt Poker customers outside of the United States, and the Department of Justice will reimburse players in the U.S. Tapie didn’t reveal the exact terms of the agreement, but he told iFranceGaming that the payment terms are “defined.”

The news comes one day after Subject:Poker released an email from Tiltware CEO Ray Bitar to shareholders about the sale of the company. Final details are currently being worked out between Groupe Bernard Tapie and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York. Once a deal is in place, Groupe Bernard Tapie will be able to propose a deal to the Full Tilt Poker shareholders.

You can find more about this story at iGamingFrance.com.

Jennifer Harman is the Hottest Woman in Poker

In response to an article in WPT Magazine that listed the “Top 20 Hottest Women In Poker,” Woman Poker Player magazine came up with its own list of the “hottest female poker players” this week. This list, though, isn’t ranking women by their physical attributes. Writer Earl Burton orders the women based on their accomplishments at the poker table.

Two-time bracelet winner Jennifer Harman topped the list, and the controversial Annie Duke came in at No. 2. Team PokerStars Pro Vanessa Selbst was listed third, and Kathy Liebert and Linda Johnson rounded out the top five. Johnson, who was recently voted into the Poker Hall of Fame, doesn’t measure up to the aforementioned women as far tournament earnings go, but we’re not about to question the merit of the “First Lady of Poker” on any poker-related top 10 list.

The bottom half of the top 10 was occupied by J.J. Liu, Victoria Coren, Barbara Enright, Lucy Rokach and Cyndy Violette, respectively.

We were a little surprised to see Liv Boeree, Annette Obrestad and Vanessa Rousso missing from the list. Obrestad and Rousso are both among the top five on the all-time money list for women, and Boeree isn’t far behind. And where is Shaun Deeb?

Read more at WomanPokerPlayer.com.

Online Poker Traffic Update

The online poker traffic numbers from last week have been released. PokerScout.com reported a worldwide increase of 2.2 percent from the prior week, mostly because of PokerStars and its 70 Billionth Hand promotion.

Traffic at PokerStars climbed nearly 6 percent for the week as the site maintained a stranglehold on the No. 1 slot. PartyPoker held a slim advantage over iPoker at No. 2, while 888poker and OnGame rounded out the Top 5.

The Merge Network continued to see an increase since re-opening its doors to new U.S. customers, but the growth level tailed off a bit after rising 21 percent over the previous two weeks. Last week’s traffic increase at Merge was just 1 percent, but the network held its position above the Entraction Network, iPoker.it and Bodog for the No. 10 ranking worldwide.

As for year-over-year numbers, PokerScout’s ACES indicator reports that online poker traffic (with the exception of Italy) has decreased by 31 percent in the last year. That number is mostly due to the stoppage at Full Tilt Poker and the CEREUS Network, but OnGame.fr (down 36 percent) and the Cake Poker Network (down 22 percent) have also seen significant dips since last November. 888poker (up 84 percent) and Bodog (up 63 percent) are among the biggest climbers over the past year.

Get the full report at PokerScout.com.

L.A. Poker Open Under Way

The L.A. Poker Open kicked off at Commerce Casino on Wednesday with the first of 20 events on the slate. The series will run through Nov. 21 and conclude with a $2,085 buy-in Championship Event with a $600,000 guaranteed prize pool. The winner is expected to take home at least $150,000.

The L.A. Poker Open is offering a wide variety of games during the series, including seven card stud eight or better, Omaha eight or better, H.O.R.S.E., and a smaller buy-in ($125) no-limit hold’em turbo event, which is offering a $200,000 guaranteed prize pool.

“Many players are expanding the types of poker they are playing and it’s our goal at Commerce Casino to offer tournaments for every player in every type of poker play,” said Commerce Casino manager Jeff Harris.

The full L.A. Poker Open schedule can be found at CommerceCasino.com.

PokerNews Nominated for Affiliate Award

The nominations are in for the Fifth Annual iGB Affiliate Awards, and we’re excited to announce that PokerNews.com is up for the award of Best Poker Affiliate! The honor recognizes the poker affiliate that has excelled most in 2010-2011. When selecting their choice, voters are asked to consider criteria such as volume of traffic, innovation, reputation with players, and brand power.

Wait… did someone say power?

Voting will be open until Monday, Dec. 12, 2011. Cast your vote for PokerNews!

Are you following PokerNews on Twitter? Like us on Facebook while you’re at it, and sign up for the newsletter. You know you want to.

Follow Brett Collson on Twitter – @brettcollson

November 02 2011, Donnie Peters

The World Poker Tour World Poker Finals at Foxwoods concluded on Tuesday after an eight-hour, 200-hand final table. At the end of the night, Daniel Santoro took down Christian Harder heads-up to claim the $449,910 first-place prize.

Coming into the official WPT final table, Steven Brackesy held the chip lead. The shortest stack was former WPT champion and Player of the Year Andy Frankenberger. Falling in sixth place, though, was the second shortest stack entering the day, Eli Berg. He was eliminated on the third hand of the day.

According to the WPT Live Update Team, Berg raised under the gun to 36,000 with the blinds at 8,000/16,000/2,000. Harder made the call from the button and Frankenberger called from the big blind. The flop came down and Frankenberger checked. Berg fired a continuation bet of 73,000 and Harder called. Frankenberger folded.

The turn brought the and Berg checked. Harder bet 104,000 and Berg made a check-raise for all of his chips. Harder called and showed . Berg held . The river was the and Harder’s aces won the pot to knock out Berg in sixth place for $83,580.

Frankenberger fell in fifth place, on the 13th hand of the final table, and took home $99,585. Start-of-the-day chip leader Brackesy raised from under the gun to 37,000. Santoro called from the cutoff seat, Harder three-bet to 127,000 from the button, and then Frankenberger reraised all-in from the big blind. After Brackesy and Santoro folded, Harder snap-called with . Frankenberger tabled . The flop, turn and river ran out and Harder won the pot.

Ten hands later, Brackesy hit the rail in fourth place. It was still the same level and he was eliminated by Santoro. Brackesy was all-in preflop with after six-bet shoving into Santoro.

Brackesy made it 43,000 to go from the small blind, Santoro reraised to 110,000 out of the big blind, Brackesy four-bet to 243,000 and then Santoro five-bet to 440,000. Brackesy moved all-in and Santoro called holding . No help came for Brackesy as the board ran out . He was eliminated and earned $129,816 for his finish.

Falling in third place was Bob Carbone and he took home $166,271. The blinds were up to 15,000/30,000/5,000 and Santoro min-raised to 60,000 from the button. Carbone moved all-in from the big blind, but got snap-called by Santoro who held . Carbone held . A rather uneventful board followed and Carbone was eliminated.

With the tournament now down to two players, Santoro was pitted against Harder for the title. Santoro held the chip lead going into heads-up play with 4.49 million in chips to Harder’s 1.23 million.

Around 28 hands into the match, Harder lost a big pot to Santoro and was knocked down to just nine big blinds. He was able to double up on the very next hand, but still only had 780,000 in chips to Santoro’s 4.94 million. After getting ground down a bit more over the next couple of hands, Harder found another double to 1.21 million on Hand No. 130.

Several hands later, Harder lost another big pot to Santoro and was back under one million. Much like before, he doubled on the very next hand and got back to 1.71 million in chips. Shortly after that, he won a big pot worth 1.8 million in chips to get nearly even with Santoro. On Hand No. 153, Harder took a slight lead for the first time in the match.

Although Harder made a very strong comeback from the short stack, Santoro stuck to his guns and ground Harder right back down. Then, on Hand No. 185, Harder doubled to take the lead of 3.99 million to 1.68 million. He didn’t hold onto the lead for too long, though. On Hand No. 189, Santoro doubled back and took the lead again with 3.18 million to 2.49 million. The chips stayed right around the same before the final hand came up on Hand No. 200.

The blinds were up to 40,000/80,000/10,000 and Harder min-raised from the button to 160,000. Santoro reraised to 425,000 and then Harder reraised all-in for right around 2.5 million. Santoro instantly called with . He was in a flip with .

The flop was and Harder’s tens stayed in front. The turn didn’t change anything and left Santoro needing an ace or a king on the river to knock out Harder and win the title. On the river, Santoro got just what he wanted when the hit the felt and gave him the win. For his runner-up finish, Harder took home $248,962.

Final Table Results

For his win, Santoro took home $449,910 along with a $25,500 WPT Championship seat.

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*Photo courtesy of WorldPokerTour.com

Follow Donnie Peters on Twitter – @Donnie_Peters