June 24 2012, Brett Collson

Did you miss any of the top poker news stories this week? Well you’ve come to the right place to get caught up. We’re covering the latest in Nevada’s efforts to legalize online poker, Rafael Nadal joining Team PokerStars, and more.

Poker Legislation

Big Steps for Nevada

Nevada is making progress in achieving real-money online poker in the near future.

On Thursday, slot machine developers Bally Technologies and International Game Technology (IGT) were approved for online gaming licenses by the Nevada Gaming Commission. The licenses were the first of their kind in U.S. history, and the door is now open for more operators to receive licenses in the state.

Bally and IGT will offer online poker and other interactive games to Nevada casinos looking to compete in the market. First, though, the companies need to have their technology tested by the board and the state before being given authorization to provide real-money games.

“We are grateful to the State of Nevada for this opportunity,” said Bally Technologies CEO Richard Haddrill on Thursday. “We look forward to Bally expanding its leadership role in this exciting new arena of online gaming.”

Read more at PokerNews.com.

New Jersey Bill Moves to Assembly

A bill that would permit online gambling in New Jersey advanced through a legislative committee on Monday and will now move to the Assembly for a full vote.

The Assembly Budget and Appropriations Committee passed A2578 by a vote of 6-0 with three abstentions. The bill allows for licensed casinos located in Atlantic City to offer authorized games – including poker – to residents of the state. Supporters of the bill believe it will help boost Atlantic City’s casinos which suffered the biggest revenue drop in the country last year at 9.5 percent. Casinos in neighboring Pennsylvania and Delaware have been siphoning business from New Jersey since 2006.

Another Internet gambling bill is making its way through the Senate, but New Jersey State Sen. Raymond Lesniak told PokerNews last month that the bill likely will not be voted on until fall because of Gov. Chris Christie’s “ambivalence” on the issue. Lesniak had predicted that online poker would be up and running in New Jersey by the end of the year, but Christie has gone back and forth on Internet gambling since last year.

Read more at NJ.com.

Online Poker

Poker’s New Ambassador

Spanish tennis icon Rafael Nadal is the newest member of Team PokerStars.

The seven-time French Open winner and 2008 Olympic Gold Medalist has joined Boris Becker, Fatima Moreira de Melo and Marcus Hellner on Team SportStars. Nadal will devote time to playing online at PokerStars once his tennis season slows down later this year.

“It’s no secret that I love to compete and try my very best in everything, whether that’s tennis, golf or video games,” Nadal said. “When I discovered the game of poker, I chose to join PokerStars because they understand what it takes to be the best and associate themselves with the qualities of champions. I’m very happy to be working with them.”

Nadal will no doubt serve as the front man for PokerStars’ marketing campaign in Spain. Poker was legalized in Spain earlier this month, and online poker rooms are battling for a share of the burgeoning market. Before signing Nadal, the Team PokerStars Spain roster was made up of Ana Marquez, Juan Manuel Pastor and Poli Rincon. As of Thursday, however, Nadal was listed as a United Kingdom Pro in the PokerStars lobby.

For more, read the story at PokerNews.com.

iPoker Splitting

The iPoker Network has announced a new policy that will see the network divided into two tiers beginning in September.

iPoker is the world’s largest online poker network with more than 40 skins, each sharing the same player pool. However, under the new policy, iPoker skins which fail to meet a certain set of criteria will be downgraded to a sub-network, limiting them to a secondary liquidity pool. Beginning July 1, skins will be required to maintain a base of at least 6,000 active players, as well as 850 new real-money players per month. According to Playtech, which operates the iPoker Network, “failing to meet any of these standards will cause a separation of the card room from the network main liquidity pool.”

PokerScout.com’s online poker traffic rankings have iPoker ranked second worldwide, trailing only PokerStars. William Hill, Titan Poker, Paddy Power Poker and Bet365 are among the bigger skins residing on the network, but only time will tell whether they land in the upper tier come September.

Read more at Pokerfuse.

Poker Tournaments

Availability for the $1 million buy-in Big One for One Drop event is drying up fast, but professional gambler Haralabos Voulgaris was able to find a gainful way to enter the event last the weekend.

On Sunday, PTPRPoker reported that Voulgaris purchased a One Drop ticket from Carlos Nahas, who won his $1 million seat in a $25,000 satellite in Montreal last month. Voulgaris reportedly negotiated a deal with Nahas and Keith Hamilton, who had won his seat to the $25,000 One Drop qualifier via a slot-machine contest and let Nahas play for him.

Voulgaris had mentioned on Twitter in past weeks that he was interested in playing the highly anticipated tournament. He told PTPRPoker that his main motivation for playing was the value in playing against a weaker field. “It’s a high buy-in tournament, so that aspect of it is very exciting,” said Voulgaris. “In addition the field isn’t exactly replete with professionals. There are a lot of casual players entered in this tournament so I think it’s quite possibly one of the highest EV tournaments ever.”

David Einhorn, a hedge fund manager from New York, has also been confirmed as one of the entrants in next month’s $1 million buy-in Big One for One Drop at the World Series of Poker.

Einhorn is the founder and President of Greenlight Capital, a $7.8 billion hedge fund in Manhattan. Bloomberg News reported Friday that Einhorn is one of at least 42 confirmed participants in the One Drop event, and he plans to donate all of his winnings in the tournament to City Year, a charity focused on keeping kids in school and on track to graduate.

The prize pool for the Big One for One Drop sits at more than $37,000,000. The event is expected to meet its 48-player cap, with the winner receiving more than $16 million.

Celina Lin Wins Macau Poker Cup

Team PokerStars Pro Celina Lin won her second Macau Poker Cup Red Dragon Main Event on Monday. Lin outlasted a field of 391 players in the HKD $10,000 event to secure a payday of HKD $854,000 ($107,605) and her second Red Dragon trophy in less than three years.

Lin won a back-and-forth heads-up battle against Qi Ming Fan to lock up the title. On the final hand of the tournament, Fan was all in with on a board of and was trailing Lin’s . The river brought the and Lin’s two pair held up to give her the victory.

Lin last won the event in July 2009, defeating a field of 168 players to win HKD $394,800 ($50,932). She also took third in the Red Dragon Main Event in October for HKD $145,800 ($18,731).

“I always wanted to be the first female champion, but I thought it was impossible to win it twice,” Lin told the PokerStars Blog Monday.

Here’s a look at the final table results:

Read the full event recap at the PokerStars Blog.

Ivey is #1

It took 17 weeks to supplant Jonathan Duhamel atop the Global Poker Index Player of the Year race. Leave it to Phil Ivey to handle the dirty work.

Ivey climbed nine spots to No. 1 in this week’s GPI Player of the Year standings after an incredible start to the 2012 World Series of Poker. Ivey made four final tables in the span of 10 days, including a runner-up finish in the $10,000 Pot Limit Hold’em Championship for $279,559. Combined with his success at the 2012 Aussie Millions, Ivey boasts a GPI score of 629.12 – more than 30 points better than Duhamel’s total of 595.68.

Duhamel, Dan Smith, Marvin Rettenmaier and Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier rounded out the top five of the rankings, respectively. Grospellier jumped three spots with the help of a sixth place finish in the $3,000 No Limit Hold’em Six-Handed event at the WSOP. Grospellier now has four final tables in 2012, including a victory at the European Poker Tour Berlin Eight-Max tournament.

Here’s a look at the Top 10 of the Global Poker Index Player of the Year standings:

The Global Poker Index Player of the Year, presented by PokerNews, honors the player who has the strongest performance in live tournaments during the calendar year, according to the USA Today Global Poker Index point system.

For the full GPI Player of the Year standings, head on over to EpicPoker.com.

Jungleman WSOP Challenge Update

The cutoff date for Dan “Jungleman” Cates’ WSOP Main Event Challenge has passed, and Cates is leaving it up to the poker community to determine the winner.

Last month, Cates offered to give away Main Event seat to a person who performs a good deed and records it on video. More than 30 videos were submitted to Cates before Wednesday’s deadline. The winner will also receive free air travel and a free room at the Rio, as well as free poker lesson from Cates himself.

Here’s a look at one of the entries:

For more, visit PartyPoker.com.

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June 18 2012, Matthew Kredell

Online poker’s opponents have ramped up efforts over the past month with 25 religious and family values groups sending two letters to congressional leaders asking for stricter laws against Internet gambling.

These are many of the same groups that pushed for the passage of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act in 2006 – reason enough for poker players to view them as a threat to personal freedom.

Now these groups see federal and state governments considering online poker regulation in light of the DOJ’s opinion that the Wire Act applies only to sports betting, and they are asking for Congress to strengthen the Wire Act and UIGEA to stop that from happening.

“Six years ago, Congress voted overwhelmingly to protect vulnerable communities within our country as well as the integrity of professional sports by stopping the expansion of gambling on the Internet,” stated one letter dated May 17 sent to Speaker of the House John Boehner from 12 groups that included the Christian Coalition. “Unfortunately Congress’ clear intent in the Unlawful Internet Gambling Act of 2006 is now under assault and we are writing to urge you to work once again to protect those most at risk from the proliferation of illegal internet gambling.”

A second letter was sent at the beginning of this month by family values groups in 13 states.

John Pappas, executive director of the Poker Players Alliance, doesn’t think the letters will have much of an impact on his organization’s push for regulation of Internet poker in the U.S.

“I don’t think the letters were taken very seriously,” Pappas said. “This position is one they’ve held for a long time. I don’t think their position comes as a surprise to anyone who opened and read the letter. I think their position will come under advisement and hopefully serve as rationale for compromise that would allow for Internet poker with strengthening for other activities.”

The positions of these groups and the PPA aren’t that far off. The PPA is advocating legislation like the Internet Gambling Prohibition, Poker Consumer Protection, and Strengthening UIGEA Act proposed by Rep. Joe Barton (R-Tex.) in Congress.

That bill strengthens UIGEA against most forms of Internet gambling, as these groups want, while providing safeguards and consumer protection in the currently unregulated U.S. online poker market. Pappas indicated that the PPA has tried to reach a common ground with some of these groups in the past without success.

“It does not appear as if they are willing to accept any form of regulated Internet gaming,” Pappas said. “They would like it to continue as unregulated, offshore and out of their eyesight. I think they are more than happy to live their lives with their heads in the sand.”

These religious groups do have sympathetic representatives in the House. There is a danger that this push could lead to one of those congressmen introducing legislation to strengthen UIGEA and specifically ban online poker. There hasn’t been a bill in Congress targeting online poker since UIGEA.

“That’s definitely a possibility,” Pappas said. “We just need to be aware of it. When and if it does happen, the PPA and our membership have to aggressively try to defeat it.”

The difference now from six years ago is that there is a more organized and vocal poker community, as well as many Congressmen who support online poker legislation.

“I think the idea that Congress will pass a bill in this area that doesn’t address regulation is very unlikely,” Pappas said.

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June 13 2012, Brett Collson

Phil Ivey has returned to the World Series of Poker with a vengeance in 2012. As a result, he’s emerged as a sudden contender in the Player of the Year races. We’ll cover that story, plus the latest business-to-business online poker partnership, in this edition of the Nightly Turbo.

In Case You Missed It

Two more bracelet winners were crowned at the World Series of Poker on Tuesday. Find out who won in our Day 16 WSOP recap.

Phil Ivey was leading Event #24 at the WSOP going into the final day. Read about that story and more in PokerNews’ WSOP What To Watch For.

Looking for a fun, behind-the-scenes perspective of life at the WSOP? The Muck is providing several daily stories from inside the Rio, so check it out!

Here Comes Ivey

There were no changes atop the 2012 Global Poker Index Player of the Year rankings on Wednesday, meaning Jonathan Duhamel occupied the top spot for the 16th straight week. But Duhamel better beware – poker’s most formidable figure is now in his rear-view mirror.

Phil Ivey vaulted into the top 10 this week after a fantastic start to the 2012 World Series of Poker. Ivey took seventh in event No. 15 and then finished runner-up to Andy Frankenberger in Event No. 16, collecting $275,559 in the process. He began the year with a victory at the Aussie Millions Poker Championship $250,000 Challenge for more than $2 million, and followed that up with a 12th-place finish at the Aussie Millions Main Event.

Duhamel, meanwhile, has just one cash since March, a 21st place finish in a $1,500 no-limit hold’em event at the WSOP this month. But the Canadian pro’s astonishing run to start the year gave him a comfortable lead right out of the gate and he has yet to relinquish control. He’s followed in the top five by Dan Smith, Marvin Rettenmaier, Andrew Badecker and Steve O’Dwyer.

Here’s a look at the Top 10 of the Global Poker Index Player of the Year standings:

The Global Poker Index Player of the Year, presented by PokerNews, honors the player who has the strongest performance in live tournaments during the calendar year, according to the USA Today Global Poker Index point system.

For the full GPI Player of the Year standings, head on over to EpicPoker.com.

Bally, Aristocrat Prepare for Nevada’s Online Poker Market

On Tuesday, Bally Technologies Inc. and Aristocrat Technologies Inc. announced a business-to-business partnership with Shuffle Master to create a joint iGaming platform ahead of legalized online poker in Nevada.

Under the agreement, Shuffle Master’s Ongame interface will be integrated into Bally’s iGaming platform. Shuffle Master purchased Ongame from bwin.party for “19.5 million back in March with plans to expand into the U.S. online poker market.

“We are confident that this relationship between Shuffle Master, Ongame, and Bally will create the opportunity for gaming operators to control their data, establish liquidity, and ensure their suppliers are truly committed to a B2B model,” said Shuffle Master CEO Gavin Isaacs. “It is relationships such as this that made us truly excited about bringing Ongame into the Shuffle Master family and opportunities like this only build momentum before the pending closing of our acquisition.”

Bally and Aristocrat teamed up earlier this year to offer a third-party platform for online poker providers once the activity is legalized in the U.S. Under the strategic alliance, the two have been working to secure arrangements with leading poker providers that will then be added to Bally’s and Aristocrat’s iGaming platforms.

Last week, Bally met with the Nevada Gaming Control Board and was given a unanimous recommendation to receive an intrastate online gaming license. The company will next meet with the Nevada Gaming Commission on June 21 for final license approval.

Read more in the press release at BallyTech.com.

Jen Harman’s Team Poker Tournament

Poker pro Jennifer Harman will be hosting a charity poker tournament on Nov. 10 at the Atlantis Casino Resort Spa in Reno, Nevada. The event will raise funds and awareness for local charities, with 100 percent of the net player entry proceeds going back to all the charities involved.

The Jennifer Harman Charity Poker Tournament will feature a unique ten-player team format with a buy-in of $250 per individual ($2,500 per team). Among the pros expected to take part include Harman, Marco Traniello, Karina and Chip Jett, Linda Johnson and Jan Fisher.

“I love animals and all the joy and love they bring into our lives,” said Harman. “My teams will be playing for the Nevada SPCA who ensures these once abandoned and abused animals are cared for, adopted, or live humanely in Nevada SPCA’s no-kill shelter for the rest of their lives. I am looking forward to raising much needed funds for these special animals.”

For more information on the event, visit CharityKnockout.com.

Insta Learning With Insta Poker

In poker, results-oriented thinking can be destructive to a player’s game. You can make an optimal move and still lose the hand. The important thing to consider is the long-term result of each play and ensuring it has a positive expectation.

Now, there’s a new app available for the iPhone that rewards poker players for making the right play, regardless of the outcome. Insta Poker is a new poker strategy game that challenges you to make the right move every time and rewards players with in-app currency. Better yet, your play is evaluated by poker pros like Antonio Esfandiari, Huck Seed, Daniel O’Brien, Jonathan Little, Amir Lehavot and Matt Berkey.

Insta Poker does not require a network connection to play and includes free plays consisting of hand scenarios crafted by poker pros and designed to demonstrate winning strategies. As you earn ProCoins for quality play, you can redeem them to unlock “Bonus Packs” to learn even more secrets of the pros.

The new app is available at the iTunes store, so be sure to check it out!

Intimacy With a Twi$t

There thousands of dating sites out there, but only one caters to the poker playing lifestyle focusing on Mutually Beneficial Arrangements.

Start your summer off with a bang at ArrangementFinders.com

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Calling The Clock on Jennicide

In another World Series of Poker edition of Calling the Clock, Sarah Grant catches up with Jennifer “Jennicide” Leigh.

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