November 30 2011, Brett Collson

If you missed the biggest news stories today, you’ve come to the right place. It was a busy Wednesday in the poker world as Epic Poker signed a content deal with a major nationwide publication, Facebook is planning to offer real-money gambling in the United Kingdom, and much more.

In Case You Missed It

Poker players are always looks for easy, quick snacks to consume during their daily grind. Lynn Gilmartin reveals some popular recipes in the latest Stay Stacked piece.

It was a bad week for casino operators in Las Vegas. Get the latest on the Hooters and Hilton properties in Inside Gaming.

Need a new book to read at the tables? Check out our review of Andrew Seidman’s Easy Game 3rd Edition.

The Rise and Fall of Ray Bitar

As you already know by now, Ray Bitar was the one of the key figures behind the operations at Full Tilt Poker for many years. He helped guide the startup online poker room into a billion-dollar gambling giant and signed some of the most famous pros in the game to represent his budding brand.

However, even still to this day, not much is known about Bitar. He worked behind the scenes at Full Tilt and, unlike fellow board members Chris Ferguson and Howard Lederer, always shied away from the spotlight.

On Tuesday, Wicked Chops Poker published a lengthy feature story about Bitar called In Other’s Words: The Rise and Fall of Ray Bitar. The story, written by Dave “F-Train” Behr, includes anonymous interviews with former Full Tilt employees, sponsored pros and associates who had business relationships with Bitar.

The feature takes some time to get through, but it is certainly worth your time if you’re even a little interested in the inner workings of the Full Tilt business model. Here’s one interesting excerpt from a former employee of Full Tilt Poker:

“Ray Bitar was not an especially impressive executive. When Howard Lederer was president of Tiltware, it was hard to tell that Ray was CEO [for early hires like myself] as most people assumed that Howard was in charge and Ray took his orders from Howard. At the very least, Ray seemed careful not to make any decision, no matter how trivial, without getting Howard’s input and buy-in. Part of this is that Howard was far more technically oriented than Ray, and in a company that is primarily a software development company, Howard was able to better understand the technology.”

You can find the full story in the Insider section of Wicked Chops Poker.

Epic Poker Partners with USA Today

On Wednesday, Epic Poker announced a content partnership with the USA Today Sports Media Group and Big Lead Sports that will see the Global Poker Index (GPI) published weekly in both the print and online editions of USA Today.

The GPI, which ranks the top 300 live tournament players in the world on a weekly basis, will be presented to readers as the “USA Today Global Poker Index.” In addition, Epic Poker will be the exclusive content provider for Big Lead Sports.

“Our work with the USA Today Sports Media Group and Big Lead Sports will help drive poker deeper into the mainstream news cycle and further position the game right alongside other professional sports content,” said Jeffrey Pollack, executive chairman of the Epic Poker and Federated Sports + Gaming.

The first season of the Epic Poker League has crowned two Main Event champions thus far, with the third event beginning on Dec. 14, 2011, at the Palms Casino Resort in Las Vegas. David “Chino” Rheem won the first event in August for $1,000,000, and Mike “Timex” McDonald took down the second event in September for $782,410.

Read the full Epic Poker press release at marketwatch.com.

Facebook Considers Real-Money Gambling

According to a report by eGamingReview, social media giant Facebook is developing plans to offer real-money gambling in the United Kingdom as early as 2012.

Facebook, which hosts the free-to-play Zynga Poker, has already begun exploratory talks with U.K. operators to launch real-money online gambling and is already in discussions with 888poker and Gamesys. EGR says the plan is for Facebook to offer eight licenses to U.K. operators who want to offer their gambling platform on Facebook.

PokerNews contacted Facebook for a comment and received a response from a company spokesperson. “We’re always in discussions with companies about lots of different ideas, but we don’t comment on future plans or speculation.”

Read more at PokerNews.com.

Bodog Unveils Anonymous Tables

Earlier this year, Bodog announced plans to “bring the fun back to poker” for the casual player by implementing a Recreational Poker Model. The growing poker room took a major step in that direction this week by introducing new poker software that will, among other things, prevent players from accessing any data on how opponents play.

Bodog’s all-site anonymous tables will protect the casual player from opponents picking up information via the use of HUDs and other data mining sites. The software change comes two months after Bodog began removing full tables from the lobby and thus stopping data sites from accessing statistical information on players.

Among the other features included in the new software are a rabbit cam, several new tournament formats, and the ability to play up to 20 tables at the same time.

“We believe that introducing these features makes the Bodog Recreational Poker Model a pioneer in the online poker world and offers all players of all abilities the fairest place to play,” said Bodog VP Jonas Ödman. “To my mind the software and Bodog’s Recreational Poker Model is a genuine game changer.”

Read more about Bodog’s new software at CalvinAyre.com.

Martin Staszko Signs with PokerStars

2011 World Series of Poker runner-up Martin Staszko is the newest member of Team PokerStars. Staszko, 35, joins Martin Hruby as the only players from the Czech Republic on the PokerStars roster.

“I’m really happy to sign for PokerStars and join such a talented team of poker players, said Staszko, whose contract will officially begin on Dec. 1. “I’m playing in my home country at EPT Prague as a Team PokerStars Pro and looking forward to playing many big live and online tournaments in 2012 like the PCA and WCOOP. My main focus is to win a mixed-game event at the next WSOP, becoming the first Czech player to win a bracelet.”

PokerStars will officially introduce Staszko as part of the team on Dec. 4, 2011, at the Prague Hilton Hotel as part of the 10th Anniversary Guinness World Record celebration. His first tournament as a PokerStars Pro will come the following day, Dec. 5, at the European Poker Tour Prague Main Event.

More on this story can be found right here at PokerNews.com.

Qualify for the 2012 Aussie Millions

Looking for a way to qualify for the 2012 Aussie Millions? Crown Poker and several online poker rooms are offering a wide variety of satellites into the $10,000 Main Event on Jan. 22, 2012.

Crown Poker, which hosts the Aussie Millions each year, is offering a handful of different avenues to the Main Event: a direct entry event, a “Fast Track Satellite, a $550 Deepstack qualifier, or a Phase 3 Supershot Satellite. With the Phase 3 qualifiers, players can parlay a $65 Phase 1 buy-in into a Main Event seat by advancing through each of the steps.

Each qualifier will run daily at Crown from the end of November, and online players can also win Main Event seats at PokerStars, PartyPoker, 888poker, Titan Poker, Mansion Poker, Winner Poker, and Poker770.

Learn more about the satellites to the 2012 Aussie Millions at PokerNews.com.

Lederer, Furst File Claims for Seized Bank Accounts

On Wednesday, PokerNews discovered that Full Tilt Poker board members Howard Lederer and Rafe Furst had filed claims with the U.S. District Court of the Southern District of New York asserting title and interest to various seized bank accounts.

In September, the FBI was authorized to seize assets belonging to Chris Ferguson, Ray Bitar, Lederer and Furst for their involvement in the fraud and money-laundering allegations in the amended civil complaint originally unsealed on Black Friday. Bitar and Ferguson had already filed claims with the U.S. District Court Southern District of New York, and Lederer and Furst followed suit this week.

The amount of money in the bank accounts was not revealed, but each claim lists the names of the bank accounts that were seized. The account belonging to Furst was held in Switzerland, while Lederer’s claim listed an account with Wells Fargo Bank and another in the Isle of Mann.

Get the full story at PokerNews.com.

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Follow Brett Collson on Twitter – @brettcollson

November 05 2011, Matthew Kredell

There was a lot of anger in the poker community back in 2006 when PartyPoker pulled out of the U.S. market after the passage of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act.

For years, it appeared that Party had made a huge mistake. The site’s market share tumbled along with the company’s stock price. PokerStars and Full Tilt Poker took over as the top dogs of online poker and thrived.

It’s a much different story today. Perhaps PartyPoker knew what it was doing after all.

An agreement was announced Monday that Bwin.party would team up with U.S. casino operators MGM Resorts and Boyd Gaming if online poker is ever explicitly legalized in the country.

The move indicates a probable return to the U.S. market for PartyPoker if online poker legislation passes in coming years. The partnership is likely to still receive some scrutiny, but support from the influential and respected MGM should help.

It’s the same sort of agreements made early this year by PokerStars with Wynn Resorts and Full Tilt Poker with the owner of Station Casinos. Those ties were severed after owners of PokerStars and Full Tilt were indicted by the Justice Department on Black Friday, an event that forced the sites out of the U.S.

PartyPoker avoided all of that trouble and now is poised to return to the U.S. at the first opportunity. PokerStars and Full Tilt, with the legal troubles and reputation hit taken on Black Friday, might find the road back to America much more difficult.

Will PartyPoker’s return be triumphant? Most of the bad will the poker community held for PartyPoker after the withdrawal has dissipated. It felt like PartyPoker was abandoning us at the time, but hindsight has proven it was the right move for the company. All the troubles players have had in getting their funds out of Full Tilt and Absolute Poker remind us of how well PartyPoker handled its reimbursement of players, right down to the VIP points.

The one issue that shouldn’t be forgiven so easily is that, in a settlement with the DOJ in 2009, PartyGaming admitted to providing illegal Internet gambling services to U.S. customers prior to 2006 despite there being no federal law that declares online poker illegal.

If a PartyPoker-MGM-Boyd site attracts the fish Party once did, the poker community is likely to quickly forgive that one transgression.

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