April 20 2012, Brett Collson, Donnie Peters

Phil Ivey is often referred to as the “Tiger Woods of Poker.” Will the two superstars collide on the felts next week? We’ll bring you that story, as well as the results of the inaugural Manila Millions, in this edition of the Nightly Turbo.

In Case You Missed It

Jonathan Little was one of countless poker pros affected by the events of Black Friday. Chad Holloway caught up with Little to find out how Black Friday changed his life.

Do you have what it takes to make it in poker? Alec Torelli’s latest blog focuses on finding a passion for what you do.

The European Poker Tour Berlin Main Event played down to a final table on Day 4. Davidi Kitai held the chip lead and was in position to win his third leg of poker’s Triple Crown.

William Hill’s license application in Nevada has been delayed again. Read about that and more in the latest Inside Gaming.

Is data mining good or bad for the online poker industry? Rich Ryan takes a look at the feud between PokerStars and Poker Table Ratings.

Day 2 of the World Poker Tour Seminole Hard Rock Showdown Main Event concluded on Thursday. Clyde Hinton held the chip lead, but poker pros Tommy Vedes and John Dolan were close on his heels.

How was the high-stakes action at the PokerStars tables this week? Read the Online Railbird Report to find out the week’s biggest winners and losers.

@AsianSpa was back with his latest blog on Friday. This week he talks about Black Friday, a robbery in Las Vegas, and more.

Did you miss anything from the past week? Don’t worry, we’ve got you covered. Lynn Gilmartin and Laura Cornelius break down all the big stories in the PokerNews Weekly.

Tiger’s Poker Night

Golf legend Tiger Woods will be hosting a charity poker tournament at Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino in Las Vegas on Friday, April 27, 2012. The event will benefit the Tiger Woods Foundation, a program that raises college scholarship money for underprivileged youth.

The $10,000 entry fee includes a seat in the poker tournament plus a guest to attend Tiger’s Poker Night, one suite at THEhotel at Mandalay Bay for Friday and Saturday nights and two VIP tickets to attend Tiger Jam, featuring Jon Bon Jovi and Friends on Saturday, April 28.

The event will bring out the best of the best as Phil Hellmuth will emcee the poker tournament and Doyle Brunson will also be on hand to take part in the action. That’s 21 World Series of Poker titles right there; Tiger has 14 Major Championships of his own.

The winner of the tournament will receive a foursome (of golf) with Tiger Woods. Other prizes include a putting lesson with Woods, Pro-Am spots at PGA TOUR events, golf rounds at exclusive courses across the country, autographed memorabilia items, and a Nike Golf custom club-fitting.

For more information, check out the Tiger Woods Foundation website.

Self-made Millionaire

On Friday, the inaugural HKD$1,000,000 (USD$129,000) buy-in Manila Millions Super High Roller took place at Resorts World Manila’s Genting Club in the Philippines. The prestigious event attracted 30 players, including poker pros Tom Dwan, Phil Ivey, JC Tran, Johnny Chan, Nam Le, John Juanda and Joe Hachem.

Surprisingly, all of the aforementioned pros busted out before the money bubble, where the remaining five players were left battling for a top prize of HKD$13,080,000 (USD$1.685 million). After American pro Keith Gipson busted out in fifth place, Macau regular Richard Yong exited in fourth place. According to Poker Portal Asia, Yong was all in preflop with pocket eights against Allan Le’s pocket queens and was unable to improve on a king-high board.

China’s Sun Sheng was the next to bow out, leaving Le and Devan Tang competing for the title. A swingy heads-up match ended when a short-stacked Tang shoved on the button for 800,000 with and Le called with . The brought no help to Teng, who collected just over USD$1million for his runner up finish. Le’s USD$1.7 million score is far and away the largest of his career.

Manila Millions Results

The last player standing in the way of Liu and the win was Larry Abrams. On the final hand, Liu set Abrams all in for his last 750,000 holding the with the blinds at 60,000/120,000/10,000. Abrams made the call with the looking to double up. After the flop gave Liu the lead when the rolled out, the on the turn and on the river left Abrams with the losing hand and a second-place finish.

Borgata Spring Poker Open Final Table Results

Prior to this victory, Liu had $158,913 in career tournament earnings and his largest score was $42,734. This is also his first victory on the felt since November 2009.

For more information, visit the Borgata Spring Poker Open blog.

World Poker Tour Hits Spain

The Main Event of the WPT National Series Marbella kicked off in Costa del Sol, Spain on Friday. The “1,650 tournament at Casino Marbella runs through April 20 and offers players a chance to re-enter if they are eliminated on Day 1a.

Raúl Mestre, Kent Lundmark, Tomeu Gomila, Daniel Hernández, and Juan Maceiras were among the 166 players in the field on Day 1a. Friday’s action was winding down with less than 100 players still alive as of press time.

The World Poker Tour has also WPT National events in Mauritius, Denmark and France this year and expects to announce partnerships with a number of additional venues. Winners do not qualify for a WPT title, Player of the Year points or a WPT World Championship buy-in, but the affordable buy-ins allow players to compete for big prizes against some of the top players around Europe.

For more information on the WPT National Series events, visit the World Poker Tour website.

Girls on Film

Gaëlle Garcia Diaz is one of the hosts of the European Poker Tour television production. Lynn Gilmartin gets to know more about Gaëlle in the inaugural edition of Girls on Film.

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April 19 2012, Brett Collson, Donnie Peters

It was a busy Thursday in the world of poker. The AGCC set a hearing to discuss a Full Tilt Poker gaming license, PokerStars ended its long feud with a data mining site, and a Massachusetts lawmaker is urging the state to adopt an Internet poker platform. We’ll cover those stories and more in this edition of the Nightly Turbo.

In Case You Missed It

The World Poker Tour returned to Hollwood, Florida, on Wednesday. For a look at Day 1 of the Seminole Hard Rock Showdown, check out our daily WPT recap.

All In: The Poker Movie is still generating buzz in theaters across the world. Writer and producer Doug Tirola recently sat down with PokerWorks’ Linda Geenen to discuss the documentary.

Looking for some podcasts to help your day move along quicker? You’re in luck. The PokerNews Podcast and Strategy With Kristy both hit the airwaves on Thursday. You can find them both, along with all of our other podcasts in the PokerNews Podcast archives.

Day 3 of the 2012 PokerStars.com European Poker Tour Berlin Main Event came to a close on Thursday evening. Only 24 players remain, and several notables are still in contention for the “825,000 top prize.

For the first time since the inception of the Global Poker Index, Erik Seidel was not ranked in the Top 20. Mickey Doft breaks down this week’s shift in the rankings.

The Big One for One Drop at the upcoming World Series of Poker will be stacked with wealthy amateurs. Rich Ryan explains why poker pros should be harvesting funds together to compete in the $1 million buy-in event.

Before Black Friday, Blair Hinkle won the FTOPS XIX Main Event for more than $1.1 million. How much was he able to cash out before the site was seized? We asked him that and more in the Black Friday Chronicles.

Massachusetts Lawmaker Pushes for Online Poker

Nevada, New Jersey, California, and Delaware are currently in the process of developing intrastate online poker platforms. Is Massachusetts next?

On Thursday, the Boston Herald reported that Rep. Dan Winslow is urging Massachusetts to create three licenses for intrastate internet poker. Winslow is promoting the idea that online poker will infuse revenue and new jobs into the state. He hopes the recent Department of Justice opinion on the Wire Act will allow his plan to gain traction before Congress breaks for recess.

The Herald reports that each license would require a minimum $10 million, and operators would pay a 25 percent tax on proceeds.

“Internet poker is a game of skill that fits our high tech job profile perfectly,” Winslow said in a statement, according to the Herald. “We can create new, high paying tech jobs by leading the launch of this new industry in the United States.”

The Boston Herald has more.

AGCC Hearing on Full Tilt Poker License

Laurent’s Tapie’s goal to re-launch Full Tilt Poker by the end of this month may have been a pipe dream. But his vision might not be far off.

Over the past few months, Tapie has been working with the Alderney Gambling Control Commission (AGCC) to resurrect FTP’s operating license. On Thursday, the AGCC set a public hearing for a Category 2 license application submitted by Full Tilt Poker subsidiary Orinic Limited. Orinic had its non-operating Category 1 license suspended for six months last year. A Category 2 license would allow the new Full Tilt Poker to operate a gambling business.

The hearing will take place on Thursday, May 3 at the Braye Beach Hotel in Alderney.

With the pending deal between Groupe Bernard Tapie and FTP growing closer by the day, many are wondering what Full Tilt Poker will look like under new management. Daniel Negreanu gave his take on the latest news over at Full Contact Poker on Thursday.

For more on the license hearing, check out the story at PokerNews.com.

Advantage: PokerStars

The legal battle between PokerStars and data-mining website PokerTableRatings.com has apparently come to a close. On Wednesday, Poker Table Ratings announced in a blog that it will fully comply with the cease and desist order issued by PokerStars. All PokerStars player profiles and statistics have been removed from the website, and searches are met with the following message:

“Stars has requested that you not view your poker player profile on PokerTableRatings.com. Please contact Stars support if you would like to see your profile made public again on PTR.”

The decision ends a multi-year war between the two sides. PTR tracked millions of hands on PokerStars and provided data that gives its users an advantage at the online poker table. After it failed to block PTR’s data mining at a technical level, PokerStars enforced legal action against PTR, which resulted in the decision to adhere to the cease-and-desist order.

Read more at PokerNews.com.

Judge Accepts John Campos’ Guilty Plea

On Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Lewis A. Kaplan accepted the guilty plea of Utah banker John Campos, one of the 11 men indicted by the Department of Justice on Black Friday. Campos pleaded guilty to a single misdemeanor bank gambling charge last month, but Kaplan refused to accept the plea until the prosecution explained why they let Campos plead guilty to a misdemeanor rather than a felony.

The judge accepted the plea agreement after prosecutors submitted a letter saying Campos’ involvement in illegal online poker transactions was minor. Campos was facing six charges and up to 35 years in prison, but he entered a last-second plea agreement with prosecutors in March.

Campos is the sixth Black Friday defendant to enter a guilty plea. The others are Absolute Poker co-founder Brent Beckley and payment processors Ira Rubin, Ryan Lang, Bradley Franzen, and Chad Elie, who was set to go to trial with Campos this month.

Read more at the Salt Lake Tribune.

Voting is Open!

Season 8 of the European Poker Tour will wrap up in Monaco next month, which means the EPT awards are right around the corner. This week, the EPT released its short list of nominees for the Players Choice Award, which will be voted on by players who competed on the tour throughout the season.

The nominees include a number of Team PokerStars Pros, as well as several others who had success on the EPT during the past year. Here’s a look:

If you played any events on the EPT during Season 8 (including side events), you’re eligible to vote! Voting is open until April 23, the first day of the PokerStars and Monte-Carlo®Casino EPT Grand Final Festival of Poker. Visit the EPT Awards ballot website to submit your vote.

Stacked Final Table at Borgata

The 2012 Borgata Spring Poker Open $2,500 Championship Event played down to the final table on Wednesday evening. From the starting field of 520, there were just 10 players remaining vying for the $312,483 first-place prize. Jia Liu held the chip lead heading into Thursday’s final table, and he was joined by notables Chad Batista, Matt Woodward and Cliff “JohnnyBax” Josephy.

Borgata Spring Poker Open Final Table Seat Draw

Everyone at the final table locked up a minimum payday of $16,315. Last year, Russell Crane won the event for $276,949 after besting a field of 447 entries.

For more information, please visit the Borgata Spring Poker Open blog.

Pierre Neuville’s Poker Champs

Team PokerStars Pro Pierre Neuville busted from the EPT Berlin Main Event on Day 2. So, why was he roaming the halls with board games on Day 3? PokerNews’ Lynn Gilmartin found out.

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