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 New Jersey legalizing online gambling, a Team PokerStars-versus-Team Full Tilt Poker heads-up battle, and more.

Poker Legislation

New Jersey Legalizes Online Poker

Tuesday was a huge day for online poker in the U.S. as New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie signed into law a bill to license and regulate online poker in the Garden State. New Jersey became the third state to authorize online poker behind Nevada and Delaware, and followed the latter as the only states to approve full casino-style online gambling.

The legislature passed the bill with the exact changes made by Christie in his conditional veto, the biggest of which were increasing the tax on gross revenues from 10 to 15 percent, raising the funds earmarked for compulsive gambling programs from $150,000 to $250,000 a year, and adding a time limit of 10 years for the authorization of online gambling unless re-established by law.

State Sen. Ray Lesniak said he is hoping the virtual cards will be ready to hit the air in September. First a lot of work will need to be done in testing software and vetting applicants, but Lesniak hopes the legislature’s urgency in approving the bill and the governor’s quickness in signing will indicate that they want these licenses issued as soon as possible.

“I think the fall is a somewhat aggressive timetable but certainly doable, particularly since we put our stamp of approval on this so quickly,” Lesniak said.

The law is expected to mark the return of PokerStars to U.S. soil. Its parent company, Rational Group, is currently seeking state regulatory approval to buy the struggling Atlantic Club Hotel Casino, which otherwise likely would have closed.

Only casinos located within Atlantic City will be able to host Internet gaming sites. Initially, they will only be able to serve people located within New Jersey’s borders, but the bill allows for the possibility that agreements could be made to allow the participation of other states and perhaps foreign countries in the future.

Read the full story here at PokerNews.com.

Another Online Poker Bill in California

As the largest state in the U.S., California presents a very compelling market for legalized online poker. And with Nevada, Delaware and New Jersey ramping up efforts to launch their own platforms, the Golden State doesn’t want to fall too far behind.

On Feb. 22, State Senator Lou Correa introduced SB 678, also known as the Authorization and Regulation of Internet Poker and Consumer Protection Act of 2013. The measure would authorize the operation of real-money Internet poker within the borders California.

Correa’s bill would require the California Gambling Control Commission to establish a regulatory framework for the licensure of eligible operators to run an Internet poker site. The bill would prohibit interstate compacts for now, but California and its 38 million residents would undoubtedly establish the best model for intrastate online poker liquidity in the U.S.

California now has two online poker bills in the legislature. In December, Sen. Roderick Wright reintroduced a poker-only online gambling bill. SB 51 is very similar to Wright’s SB 1463, which failed to gain any momentum last year before the legislative session ended in August. Wright hopes his latest measure will be heard later this year.

View SB 678 in its entirety at leginfo.legislature.ca.gov.

Iowa’s Push for Online Poker

On Thursday, an Iowa Senate subcommittee approved a bill that could eventually legalize online poker within state lines. The poker-only bill will be discussed by the Iowa Senate State Government Committee next week.

Senate Study Bill 1068 would allow licensed Iowa businesses to operate Internet wagering on poker. Once legalized, the industry would be regulated by the Iowa Racing and Gaming Commission.

Study bills in Iowa are generally developed to evaluate political reactions to a proposal before it is formally introduced in the legislature. Last year, the Iowa Senate approved a similar study bill to legalize and regulate intrastate online poker. However, the bill never moved through the House of Representatives because of a general lack of interest.

The legalization of online poker in the Hawkeye State could generate between $3 million and $13 million in state tax revenue, according to a study by the Iowa Racing and Gaming Commission last year.

The Des Moines Register has more.

Online Poker

Last week, Gus Hansen sent a spontaneous Tweet to Daniel Negreanu reminding “Kid Poker” of a famous hand they played on High Stakes Poker in 2006 (as if the hand will ever leave Negreanu’s mind).

The two superstars exchanged some friendly Twitter banter over the following days, but Negreanu upped the ante on Tuesday by challenging Hansen to a Team PokerStars-versus-Team Full Tilt Poker duel. Negreanu offered to team up with two members of Team PokerStars to face off against FTP’s “The Professionals” – Hansen, Tom Dwan and Viktor Blom – in a series of heads-up matches during EPT London on March 10.

Hansen and his FTP teammates accepted the challenge, and the Team PokerStars-versus-Team Full Tilt Poker heads-up challenge was born. Negreanu selected Team PokerStars Pros Isaac Haxton and Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier take take on Full Tilt Poker’s team dubbed “The Professionals.” The action will be played on Full Tilt Poker in a “battleship” style format with a best-of-three structure determining the winner. The victors of each match will collect $50,000 from his opponent and each member of the overall winning team will receive $10,000 in tournament buy-ins from the rival poker room.

The challenge kicks off on Sunday, March 10 at 10 a.m. ET and will be hosted online by Full Tilt Poker, allowing everyone to log in and rail the action.

Negreanu explained the full details in a video blog on Thursday:

Get the full scoop here at PokerNews.com.

Full Tilt Poker’s New Schedule

Beginning last week, poker players have been able to find an exciting new tournament schedule at Full Tilt Poker. The world’s second-largest online poker room is now offering prize pool guarantees on every single tournament, becoming the first and only online site to provide such an offer to its customers.

The new schedule will offer at least one guaranteed tournament every ten minutes and up to 225 guaranteed cash tournaments every single day. That includes up to 30 Rush tournaments, 20 multi-entry events, 15 re-entry tournaments, and eight multi-chance tournaments.

“From Rush tournaments to multi-entry events, Full Tilt Poker has always been the market leader in providing players with a huge range of diverse and innovative tournaments,” said Sarne Lightman, head of marketing at Full Tilt Poker.

“Full Tilt Poker’s scheduled tournaments already offer round-the-clock action every day of the week with a wide range of buy-ins and guaranteed prize pools to choose from,” Lightman continued. “The new schedule is another market first offering our players the only fully guaranteed schedule of any online site.”

During March, FTP will guarantee more than $25 million in tournament prize pools and will feature a range of satellites allowing players to enter the larger events like the daily $150 buy-in Tyrannosaurus Rex at 15:00 ET.

Players can also look forward to a new tournament lobby that will make it easier to find the tournaments they are interested playing.

The full tournament schedule (with some hilariously-named events) can be found at FullTiltPoker.com.

Poker Business

A-Rod’s Error

In 2006, New York Yankees third baseman Alex Rodriguez teamed up with celebrities for a charity poker tournament to raise money for the Boys & Girls Club of Miami. The event, dubbed the 2nd Annual Dewar’s 12 Hold’em Poker Tournament, attracted a who’s who of A-list artists and athletes, including Michael Jordan, Shawn “Jay-Z” Carter, Lenny Kravitz, Vin Diesel, and Gary Sheffield. Phil Hellmuth was even invited to emcee and offer poker tips to the tournament’s 300 guests.

All proceeds from the tournament went to the A-Rod Family Foundation. When it was all said and done, the event raised more than $400,000 toward Rodriguez’s charitable foundation. It was deemed an incredible success.

But questions are now being raised about whether money raised in that event actually went where it was supposed to go.

According to a report by the Boston Globe, Rodriguez’s foundation only donated 1% of the money it raised from the poker tournament. The Globe reported that the foundation used the money to make a $5,000 donation to the Shawn Carter Scholarship Fund and a $90 donation to a Little League team in Miami. The rest? Your guess is as good as ours.

On top of that, the Globe reports that A-Rod’s foundation stopped submitting mandatory financial reports to the IRS later that year. Thus, it was stripped of its tax-exempt status.

Apparently, Rodriguez isn’t the only athlete to fall short on charitable promises. Read the full Boston Globe story for more.

Zynga’s Picus Addresses Real-Money Gaming

During a Morgan Stanley conference in San Francisco on Monday, Zynga CEO Mark Pincus discussed his intentions to launch real-money gaming in both the United Kingdom and the U.S. Although Pincus didn’t provide much new information regarding the company’s real-money gaming plans, he said that the company will offer something different from most gambling sites by focusing on making social gambling games.

“We’re not the company to win the hardcore real-money gamers,” Pincus said. “But we think we are for the mass market audience.”

The hype of real-money gambling stemmed from Zynga’s deal with U.K.-based poker company bwin.party Digital Entertainment last October. The deal will see the two companies launch real-money games such as poker, slots, roulette, and blackjack in the first half of 2013.

According to allthingsd.com, ZyngaPlusPoker and ZyngaPlusCasino are expected to launch in the U.K. by the end of June. Additional platforms are expected to launch during the first half of the year.

While Zynga’s plans in the U.K. move forward, the company has also begun the process of getting licensed as an operator in Nevada. As of Tuesday, only Nevada, Delaware, and New Jersey had approved some form of online gaming in the U.S., but others like California could soon follow suit. Zynga’s headquarters are located in San Francisco.

Despite the company’s ambition and partnerships, not all has gone smoothly for Zynga during the past year. The company announced on Monday that it was cutting about 30 employees and closing or consolidating offices in Baltimore, New York, and Texas. Baltimore was home to a game studio that focused on CityVille2, which is now shutting down because of poor performance. The company will also be closing Texas offices in McKinney and downtown Austin, but employees in those offices will be given the opportunity to relocate to Dallas and North Austin.

CNET.com has more.

Poker Tournaments

Premier League Lineup Filling Up

Dan Shak, Marvin Rettenmaier, and Jennifer Tilly have been added to the list of players for next month’s PartyPoker Premier League VI. The three will join an impressive lineup that already includes Phil Hellmuth, Daniel Negreanu, Antonio Esfandiari, Tony G, Phil Laak, Dan “Jungleman” Cates, Scott Seiver, Luke Schwartz, and newcomer Jonathan Duhamel. The event kicks off at Aspers Casino in London on March 17.

Shak is on quite a roll in 2013, already making three final tables and cashing for more than $900,000. He hopes to tack on even more to that total in London. “I’ve been following the Premier League since its inception six years ago, and I’ve always been interested in playing and very pleased to finally be able to participate this year,” Shak told the PartyPoker Blog. “I always like the challenge of playing against the best players in the world and this certainly qualifies!”

“Mad Marvin” Rettenmaier is a back-to-back World Poker Tour winner who should be adding spice to the $125,000 buy-in game. He told the PartyPoker Blog, “It’s great to be in a position to play in the PartyPoker.com Premiere League this year. I’d be mad to turn down the offer! I hope I can do myself and my sponsors justice.”

And of course, there’s Jennifer Tilly: “The Premiere League is always a fantastic show filled with surprises. This year I am thrilled to be invited to be a part of this elite group.”

The 16-player event is part of the World Poker Tour National Series London festivities and will award the winner a cash prize of $450,000.

The PartyPoker Blog has more.

PokerStars to Premier Zoom Tournaments During MicroMillions IV

On Thursday, PokerStars announced the fourth installment of MicroMillions, a popular online tournament series that gives micro-stakes players the opportunity to win huge cash prizes. The 100-event online poker festival will run from March 14 through March 24 and features a range of buy-ins from 11 cents to $22.

The $22 MicroMillions Main Event is set for March 24 with a $1 million guarantee prize pool and $150,000 guaranteed to the winner. The series will also feature a wide variety of formats like turbos, rebuys, shooutouts, and two $11 Sunday Storm specials.

Zoom Poker will also makes its tournament debut with two events taking place on March 14 and March 17. It will have the same option to ‘Fast Fold’ and instantly be moved to a new table with the shared pool of tournament players. The difference is, during the final three tables, the remaining players will play out the tournament in standard fashion.

“As part of my $100 to $100,000 bankroll challenge this year, I’ll be playing a lot of MicroMillions tourneys over the next couple of weeks,” said Team PokerStars Online Pro Andre “acoimbra” Coimbra, who played all 100 MicroMillions events in the debut festival last year. “It’s such a fun series and it’s one where players of all abilities and bankroll levels can take part to win huge prizes.”

The third MicroMillions festival set a record as the largest online poker tournament series with a total of 1,308,994 entries. The biggest individual winner to date is MicroMillions II Main Event winner “SoyDelGlobo,” who turned his $22 buy-in into a $157,000 cash prize after besting 65,063 players.

For the full MicroMillions tournament schedule visit PokerStars.com.

EPT Grand Final Schedule

PokerStars recently announced the details for the PokerStars and Monte-Carlo®Casino European Poker Tour Grand Final. The EPT’s end-of-season finale will take place at the Monte Carlo Bay Hotel and Resort in Monaco May 6 through 15, offering a range of side events and – for the first time – live cash games.

This year’s series will have a total of 50 events including the “100,000 Super High Roller, the “25,000 High Roller, the “10,300 High Roller Turbo, and a “1,000 buy-in event with a “500,000 guaranteed. As you may recall from last year, Dan Smith turned the EPT Grand Final side events into his own personal playground, winning three “5,000 buy-in no-limit hold’em tournaments for more than $488,000.

The series will close with the flagship “10,600 Main Event. Last year, Mohsin Charania added his name to a prestigious list of EPT Grand Final Main Event winners by beating Lucille Cailly heads-up for the $1,782,343.

For a look at the schedule, check out europeanpokertour.com.

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Did you miss any of the day’s top poker stories? Well, you’ve come to the right place to get caught up. In this edition of the Nightly Turbo, we’re bringing you Phil Galfond’s huge cash-game wins at Full Tilt Poker, a new online poker bill in California, and more.

In Case You Missed It:

Calvin Anderson had an incredible Sunday on the virtual felts. Check out his results and more in the Sunday Briefing.

Did you miss Sunday’s World Poker Tour coverage on FSN? Read our WPT recap to get caught up.

Day 2 of the 2012-13 World Series of Poker Circuit Palm Beach Kennel Club Main Event came to a close Sunday evening. David Grandieri led the way with 30 players remaining.

Can poker players in the U.S. still expect a federal online poker bill to be passed? Matthew Kredell spoke with PPA Executive Director John Pappas about the recent optimistic comments made by Frank Fahrenkopf.

How did poker pro Jay Tan get her start in poker? Find out in the latest edition of Seat Open.

The World Poker Tour 2013 L.A. Poker Classic continued on Sunday at the Commerce Casino. Get the full Day 2 recap right here at PokerNews.com.

Galfond Makes His Weekend Count

After losing $630,000 at the high-stakes tables on Full Tilt Poker last Wednesday, Phil “OMGClayAiken” Galfond bounced back Saturday by booking a massive win and pushing his profits above $660,000 for the week.

Galfond began Saturday playing a heads-up 2-7 triple draw against Viktor “Isildur” Blom, and after only 20 minutes he had snatched $142,000 from his Swedish friend in just over 30 hands. Galfond then went on to win an additional $160,000 playing triple draw playing against Patrik “FinddaGrind” Antonius, “patpatpanda,” and Phil “Polarizing” Ivey, bringing his winnings to more than $300,000 for the day.

Later on, Galfond put in a five-hour session and won four of the five tables he played, adding another $185,000 to his daily total. His success over the weekend followed an impressive $362,000 win at the 2-7 tables on Thursday. Galfond is up more than $1.8 million this year, making him online poker’s top earner so far in 2013.

Blom spent more than six weeks as the year’s biggest online winner, but his recent cold stretch continued Saturday when he lost $450,000 playing fixed-limit Omaha hi/lo after already losing $238,000 at triple draw earlier in the day. After taking another huge hit, Blom was spotted playing lower stakes on Sunday and Monday, presumably looking to rebuild his bankroll.

Blom dropped down in stakes Monday, playing $200/400 limit 2-7 triple draw. He was playing as high as $1,500/3,000 last week

HighStakesDB.com has more.

Another Online Poker Bill in California

As the largest state in the U.S., California presents a very compelling market for legalized online poker. And with Nevada, Delaware and New Jersey ramping up efforts to launch their own platforms, the Golden State doesn’t want to fall too far behind.

On Friday, State Senator Lou Correa introduced SB 678, also known as the Authorization and Regulation of Internet Poker and Consumer Protection Act of 2013. The measure would authorize the operation of real-money Internet poker within the borders California.

Correa’s bill would require the California Gambling Control Commission to establish a regulatory framework for the licensure of eligible operators to run an Internet poker site. The bill would prohibit interstate compacts for now, but California and its 38 million residents would undoubtedly establish the best model for intrastate online poker liquidity in the U.S.

California now has two online poker bills in the legislature. In December, Sen. Roderick Wright reintroduced a poker-only online gambling bill. SB 51 is very similar to Wright’s SB 1463, which failed to gain any momentum last year before the legislative session ended in August. Wright hopes his latest measure will be heard later this year.

View SB 678 in its entirety at leginfo.legislature.ca.gov.

Rafa’s Last Longer

Team PokerStars SportStar Rafael Nadal hit the virtual felts over the weekend to participate in the PokerStars $11 Sunday Storm. The tournament attracted more than 43,000 entries, including Nadal and friend Joan Suasi, both of whom were looking to claim a share of the $300,000 guaranteed prize pool.

(c/o PokerStars Blog)

After studying and improving their poker game over the last several weeks, Nadal and Suasi upped the ante in the Sunday Storm by agreeing to a last-longer competition. Nadal shared the wager with his Twitter followers last week:

Nadal got off to a fast start in the tournament after making quads, and he was even kind enough to post the hand on the PokerStars BOOM! Replayer:

Eventually, though, Nadal’s stack dwindled down to five big blinds, and he got his remaining chips in with against . He was ahead before the flop, but the board brought a queen to end Rafa’s tournament. While Nadal did finish in the top half of the field, his friend Suasi won the last longer.

Read more about the bet at the PokerStars Blog.

Full Tilt Poker’s New Schedule

Beginning Feb. 25, poker players will be able to find an exciting new tournament schedule at Full Tilt Poker. The world’s second-largest online poker room is now offering prize pool guarantees on every single tournament, becoming the first and only online site to provide such an offer to its customers.

The new schedule will offer at least one guaranteed tournament every ten minutes and up to 225 guaranteed cash tournaments every single day. That includes up to 30 Rush tournaments, 20 multi-entry events, 15 re-entry tournaments, and eight multi-chance tournaments.

“From Rush tournaments to multi-entry events, Full Tilt Poker has always been the market leader in providing players with a huge range of diverse and innovative tournaments,” said Sarne Lightman, head of marketing at Full Tilt Poker.

“Full Tilt Poker’s scheduled tournaments already offer round-the-clock action every day of the week with a wide range of buy-ins and guaranteed prize pools to choose from,” Lightman continued. “The new schedule is another market first offering our players the only fully guaranteed schedule of any online site.”

During March, FTP will guarantee more than $25 million in tournament prize pools and will feature a range of satellites allowing players to enter the larger events like the daily $150 buy-in Tyrannosaurus Rex at 15:00 ET.

Players can also look forward to a new tournament lobby that will make it easier to find the tournaments they are interested playing.

The full tournament schedule (with some hilariously-named events) can be found at FullTiltPoker.com.

Schedule Change for PPC Aruba

The DeepStacks Poker Tour Players Poker Championship at Aruba is still on tap for 2013, but the series has been pushed to this fall. Tournament organizers announced this week that PPC Aruba is now scheduled for Oct. 2 through 9 at the Radisson Aruba Resort, Casino & Spa.

The same exciting schedule includes eight events, highlighted by the $2,500 buy-in Main Event which features a $200,000 guaranteed prize pool. The tournament has commitments in place from DeepStacks Pros Michael Mizrachi, Mike Matasow and Tristan Wade, and the final table will be live streamed online via DeepStacks.com and DeepStacks360.com.

The Radisson Aruba Casino will begin running PPC Aruba satellites in May during the newly announced 2013 PPC South America Poker Classic. The series will run May 4 through 9, 2013.

“Players Poker Championship is very excited about the new series schedule and dates that will benefit players from the United States to South America,” said Bryan Oulton, co-commissioner of the PPC. “Not to mention, the addition of the 2013 PPC South America Poker Classic will add a second exciting stop in Aruba.”

For more, visit PPCAruba.com.

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On Thursday morning, the Nevada Legislature met to discuss an online poker bill that would allow Gov. Brian Sandoval to expand the state’s customer base by entering into interstate compacts. Less than 12 hours later, Sandoval signed the bill into law, ending a whirlwind day in the Silver State.

The Assembly Judiciary Committee voted unanimously Thursday to amend and pass the bill that would allow Nevada to move forward with Internet poker as the state attempts to beat Delaware and New Jersey to the finish line. The bill then quickly moved through the State Senate and Assembly before making its way to Sandoval’s desk for final signature Thursday evening.

Nevada is the first state to sign an interstate online poker bill into law.

“This is an historic day for the great state of Nevada,” Sandoval said as he sat in front of the bill with pen in hand. “Today I sign into law the framework that will usher in the next frontier of gaming in Nevada. This bill is critical to our state’s economy and ensures that we will continue to be the gold standard for gaming regulation.”

With finances generated by casinos serving as one of Nevada’s leading sources of revenue, interstate agreements with regulated U.S. states would provide more tax revenue and boost local business. Licensed operators are preparing to launch in Nevada’s intrastate market, but liquidity is a cause for concern for the Silver State because it ranks 35th in the country in population.

The amended bill also addressed the licensing fee hike that was introduced by Assembly Majority Leader William Horne last week. Language in the bill sought to double online gambling license fees from $500,000 to $1,000,000 and the renewal fees from $250,000 to $500,000. However, Horne backed down from the fee increases after compromising with Sandoval this week. The two men sat side by side during Thursday’s legislative session.

Last month, after Gov. Chris Christie showed his support of online gambling in New Jersey, Sandoval stressed to Nevada lawmakers that the state’s online gambling be passed within 30 days. Sandoval said it was “critical” that Nevada move quickly on the bill now that other states are making progress on the issue.

We’ll have more on this story as it develops. Get all the latest PokerNews updates on your social media outlets. Follow us on Twitter and find us both Facebook and Google+!

Check out the original source here! Originally from PokerNews.com