November 16 2011, Brett Collson
Online poker hits Capitol Hill again this week with a pair of hearings to discuss potential online poker legislation in the U.S. Across the pond, poker is being showcased as part of the London Mind Sports Festival to prove that poker is a skill game. We’ll provide details on those stories and more in this edition of the Nightly Turbo.
In Case You Missed It
Who topped the Day 1b field at the PokerStars European Poker Tour Loutraki Main Event? Find out in our recap.
Poker player Martin “phasE89“ Balaz made a bet that he could play 24,000 Fifty50 sit-and-gos on PokerStars in October and finish with a profit. Find out whether he was able to pull it off.
Bryan Devonshire joined the PokerNews Podcast this week. The poker pro talked about his 12th place finish in the World Series of Poker Main Event and his plans for the future.
The PokerStars European Poker Tour is headed to Prague this month. If you’re planning a trip, then find out all you need to know in the PokerNews Jet Set.
On Wednesday, Massachusetts state legislators passed a bill allowing for the construction of three Las Vegas-style casino resorts. We discuss what that means for the state in the latest Inside Gaming.
Online Poker Hearings in Senate and House
Online poker will be discussed at two hearings on Capitol Hill this week, first in the Senate Indian Affairs Committee on Thursday and then in the House Subcommittee on Commerce, Manufacturing and Trade on Friday.
Thursday’s oversight committee hearing is called Future of Internet Gaming: What’s at Stake for Tribes? The hearing is likely to focus on testimony from representatives of various tribes and tribal groups. Poker Players Alliance Chairman Al D’Amato will testify before the Senate Indian Affairs Committee. Other witnesses will be primarily made up of tribal representatives.
Friday’s hearing will be the second go-around by the House Subcommittee on Internet poker. The subcommittee first met Oct. 25, 2011, to discuss the safety of online poker. Representatives Frank Wolf (R-VA), John Campbell (R-CA) and Barney Frank (D-MA) will be on hand Friday to discuss the potential of future regulation in the States. They will be joined by Nevada Gaming Control Board Chairman Mark A. Lipparelli, who recently told VegasInc.com that the Nevada State Gaming Control Board will be accepting applications for online poker licenses beginning in February of next year.
Thursday’s Senate hearing gets under way at 2:15 p.m. EST, and Friday’s House hearing will begin at 9 p.m. EST. More information can be found at the websites of the Senate Indian Affairs Committee and House, Energy and Commerce Committee.
Poker’s Biggest Names to Compete in Nations Cup
The International Federation of Poker (IFP) is set to host the inaugural Nations Cup this week as part of the London Mind Sports Festival. The event will kick off on Thursday, Nov. 17, in London.
Twelve teams consisting of some of the world’s best poker players will face off in an innovative variant of team poker called “duplicate poker,” which the IFP says will keep the element of luck in the game to a minimum. The winner of that event will be crowned the champion of the Nations Cup this weekend.
“Rather than competing against those at their table, duplicate poker pitches players against opponents dealt exactly the same cards in exactly the same position on neighboring tables,” says the IFP. “With all players in a particular seat given the same allocation of cards the only determining factor in the result of the tournament is how skillfully each player uses them.”
Among the countries participating in the event will be the United States, Spain, Germany, Holland, Denmark, Australia, and Ireland. Online gaming giant Zynga will also have a team. Some of the poker pros taking part include Tony G, Antonio Esfandiari, Barry Greenstein, Gus Hansen, Vanessa Selbst, David Benyamine, Liv Boeree, Sam Trickett, and 2011 November Niners Sam Holden and Eoghan O’Dea.
Following the conclusion of the Nation’s Cup, the IFP World Championship will take place on Nov. 19 with 130 of the world’s top players squaring off for a top prize of $250,000. The event, known as “The Table,” will be filmed for a worldwide audience.
Details on the Nations Cup and the IPF World Champions can be found at the International Federation of Poker’s website.
PartyPoker Premier League Nears
The final table of the PartyPoker Premier League Mixed Game Championship is nearly in place after both groups competed in their third and final heat on Wednesday. The 12 players faced off in a round of pot-limit hold’em at the Playboy Club London. Group A completed their heat in the evening, but played was paused in Group B with three players remaining.
Feared U.K. mixed-games specialist James Dempsey won his second heat of Group A to earn a spot at the final table. He will be joined at the final by Max Pescatori, who won the other heat in Group A, and Matt Giannetti, who used three consistent performances to earn enough points to secure a seat.
In Group B, Andrew Feldman and Andy Frankenberger locked up seats to the final, but the last seat is still up for grabs. Sorel Mizzi moved past Mike Sexton and is still alive in Heat 3, but Yevgeniy Timoshenko can pass Mizzi with a victory while earning double points with his double-up card.
It will come down to those two players when play resumes in London Thursday morning. Here’s a look at the current standings:
GROUP A
| 1 | James Dempsey | 24 |
| 2 | Max Pescatori | 20 |
| 3 | Matt Giannetti | 19 |
| 4 | Tony G | 10 |
| 5 | Luke Schwartz | 6 |
| 6 | Jen Tilly | 6 |
GROUP B
| *1 | Andrew Feldman | 19 |
| 2 | Andy Frankenberger | 18 |
| 3 | Mike Sexton | 9 |
| *4 | Sorel Mizzi | 8 |
| 5 | Ben Carpenter | 4 |
| *6 | Yevgeniy Timoshenko | 1 |
*denotes players still competing for points in Heat 3
All the action from the PartyPoker Premier League Mixed Game Championship can be found at PartyPoker.com.
Venetian Deep Stack Extravaganza IV Update
The Venetian Deep Stack Extravaganza IV is past the midway point as 25 of the 43 events had crowned winners through Monday. Among the notables taking down tournaments since our last update: Tyson Marks, Brent Hanks, and Eric Baldwin.
The series runs through Nov. 22 and concludes with a $2,500 Main Event. Here’s a look at the results since Nov. 5:
