The presents have been opened, champagne bottles have been emptied, and Antonio Esfandiari has survived two New Year’s Eve parties. Now, it’s time to get back to the daily grind here at PokerNews. In the first Nightly Turbo of 2013, we’re covering a proposed Texas bill that would ban online poker, the nominations for the European Poker Awards, and more.

In Case You Missed It:

The 2013 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure is set to kick off later this week. Chad Holloway takes an all-inclusive look at the first 10 years of the Main Event.

What can the poker world expect in 2013? Rich Ryan makes 10 bold predictions for the coming year.

Another year is in the books, and little progress was made in legalizing online poker in the U.S. Matthew Kredell examines in his 2012 Legislative Year in Review.

A number of 2012 Player of the Year awards are being handed out this week. Dan Sun received the honor from the Mid-States Poker Tour.

Texas Considers Online Poker Ban

The Texas Gaming Act of 2013 will be up for discussion once again when the state’s legislation reconvenes on Jan. 8, 2013.

Originally proposed in December 2012, the revised bill would regulate land-based poker rooms while banning online poker. The measure also prohibits electronic poker tables, which were supported in the earlier bill.

Sponsored by State Sen. Eddie Rodriguez (D-Austin), the Texas Lottery Commission would get a new poker division that would permit licenses to existing pari-mutuel facilities, bingo halls and tribes. Tribes and pari-mutuels could offer poker around the clock, while bingo halls would be limited to having poker games only during normal hours of operation.

In the proposed bill, tournaments would have a suggested $100 max buy-in that would eliminate any major series from passing through the state. Also included are provisions for bad-beat and promotional jackpots.

According to the bill, operators would be taxed a mere maximum of 18 percent of gross revenues with a portion going to the Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs to aid homeless and low-income residents of the state.

Having similar proposals in the past, Texas remains conservative to gambling interests despite the state lending its name to poker’s most popular game.

CalvinAyre.com has more.

Mad Marvin Leads European Poker Awards Nominations

The nominations for the 2013 European Poker Awards have been announced and the list is loaded with talented poker pros.

Marvin Rettenmaier, who already won the honor of 2012 European Global Poker Index Player of the Year, tops the list with nominations for Best Tournament Performance and Poker Personality of the Year.

Also receiving nods for various awards are Chris Moorman, Viktor Blom, Gus Hansen, Bertrand Grospellier, and Tony G.

Hosted by Kara Scott, who is also up for Poker Personality of the Year, the ceremony will take place at the Elysee Biarritz in Paris on Jan. 22, 2013 as part of the Euro Finals of Poker Series in the French capital. The ceremony will be sponsored by the Global Poker Index, which partnered with the European Poker Awards in the latter half of 2012.

The winners will be selected by a panel chaired by Nic Szeremeta, creator of the event. The panel will also include Stephan Gollubits, Jérôme Schmidt, Barry Carter, Joe Beevers, Alexandre Dreyfus, Michael Michelin and Jesse May.

The full list of nominations is as follows:

Rookie of the Year – Gaëlle Baumann, Lucille Cailly, Aubin Cazals, Ole Schemion

Best Tournament Performance – Davidi Kitai, Rocco Palumbo, Marvin Rettenmaier, Ole Schemion, Sam Trickett

Europe’s Leading Lady – Gaëlle Baumann, Liv Boeree, Lucille Cailly, Elisabeth Hille

Internet Player of the Year – Viktor Blom, Jens Kyllönen, Chris Moorman, Ilari Sahamies

Poker Staff Person of the Year – Dave Brannan, Nicolas Fraioli, Neil Johnson, Simon Trumper

Rob Gardner Memorial Award for the Poker Personality of the Year -
Neil Channing, Bertrand “Elky” Grospellier, Tony Guoga, Gus Hansen, Marvin Rettenmaier, Kara Scott

Best European Event of the Year – EPT Barcelona, Irish Poker Open, Prague Poker Festival, WSOPE Cannes

Read more about the event at GlobalPokerIndex.com.

PokerStars Launches Zoom Poker Tournaments

Zoom Poker tournaments are the new craze at PokerStars after the world’s leading online poker room launched a beta test of the new format on New Year’s Day.

Similar to Full Tilt Poker’s Rush Poker tables, Zoom Poker is a fast-paced poker format that allows players to play hundreds of hands per hour and (potentially) increase profits. The game plays exactly the same way as any other online cash game except for one huge difference – as soon as you fold, you are removed from the table you were seated at and placed at a new table with different players. You can fold at any point when you are facing a bet, or click “Fast Fold” to fold even when it is not your turn to act.

While Zoom tournaments are still in the developmental stage, the events offered since New Year’s Day proved to be a hit among players. As many as 12 real-money Zoom Poker tournaments are on the daily schedule throughout this week. All of them can be found in the Micro stakes tab in the PokerStars lobby.

Zoom Poker has been very popular since it launched last spring. Said Team PokerStars Pro Daniel Negreanu: “Zoom Poker offers people a different way to play poker. Recreational players, who want more constant action, will be able to fold instantly and wait for better hands, while pro grinders will be able to get in hundreds of more hands an hour and win more. On top of all that, it’s just so much fun to play!”

More Records in Macau

Macau’s casinos set more records in 2012, raking in $38 billion in gambling revenue – a 13.5 percent increase over 2011 ($33 million).

The number was boosted by a monthly revenue growth of 19.6 percent in December, a new record for the Chinese gambling mecca. According to the Macau government, the $3.43 million generated in December was the highest ever.

The Las Vegas Review-Journal reports that the $38 billion yearly figure is higher than the $35.64 billion collected by the entire U.S. commercial casino industry in 2011. Last year, Macau pulled in about 5.5 times the gaming revenue of Las Vegas.

Macau has been the home to many of poker’s biggest cash games and tournaments over the past two years. Top pros like Tom Dwan, Patrik Antonius, Gus Hansen and Sam Trickett have been regulars at the Poker King Club, playing cash games as high as HKD $30,000/$60,000 (USD $3,850/$7,700). In August 2012, Stanley Choi won the biggest-ever buy-in tournament in Asia, the $260,000 buy-in Macau High Stakes Challenge, for $6.5 million.

The Las Vegas Review-Journal has more.

PPC at Aruba

In May, the DeepStacks Poker Tour will make its first trip outside the U.S. for the 2013 DeepStacks Poker Tour Players Poker Championship at Aruba. The $2,500 Main Event will run from May 6 through 9 and boasts a $200,000 guarantee.

On Wednesday, the PPC unveiled a promo for the event:

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

January 02 2012, Brett Collson

Now that the presents have been opened, the champagne bottles have been emptied and the New Year’s resolutions have already failed miserably, it’s time to get back to the daily grind here at PokerNews. In the first Nightly Turbo of 2012, we’re bringing you the latest on the Phil Ivey divorce settlement, another attempt by New Jersey to pass an interstate online gambling bill, and more.

In Case You Missed It

What was Liv Boeree’s life like before she became a global poker superstar? Find out that and more in Part 1 of the latest Seat Open series.

How did the first Sunday Majors of 2012 play out on PokerStars? Who took home the biggest win? Find out in the Sunday Briefing.

Behnam Dayanim is a Washington D.C.-based attorney representing Groupe Bernard Tapie’s interests in the United States. Chad Holloway sat down with Dayanim to discuss GBT’s interest in acquiring Full Tilt Poker in the latest edition of The Insiders.

New Jersey Next in Line?

New Jersey is making progress to become the second state to legalize interstate online gambling. According to a report by the Associated Press, Sen. Raymond Lesniak is attempting to push a bill through the legislature and onto Gov. Chris Christie’s desk before the current session ends on Jan 9, 2012.

Christie vetoed a similar bill in 2011, fearing that it would violate federal law, but his position could be swayed now that the government has changed its stance on Internet gambling within state borders.

As with the recent law passed in Nevada, New Jersey’s law would require players to be at least 21 and physically located within the state to gamble on the Internet.

On Dec. 22, the Nevada Gaming Commission approved regulations for interstate online poker, making Nevada the first state in the United States to do so.

More on this story can be found at the Miami Herald.

Phil Ivey’s Monthly Paycheck

A new document filed by the ex-wife of Phil Ivey reveals that the eight-time World Series of Poker bracelet winner received approximately $920,000 a month from Tiltware before Full Tilt Poker ceased operations last year.

Luciaetta Ivey has expressed her unhappiness with the couple’s 2009 divorce settlement since she discovered that Phil Ivey had contributed donations to the judge assigned to their case. Luciaetta claims that there may have been favoritism involved in the original judgment.

According to court documents, Luciaetta Ivey received about $180,000 a month as taxable alimony from Phil’s Tiltware payment, while Phil kept the remaining $740,000. Luciaetta claims the spousal support payments stopped in April 2011, around the same time Full Tilt Poker’s operations in the U.S. were frozen by the Department of Justice.

Phil Ivey filed a response in December showing that alimony for Luciaetta was taken from money Phil received from Tiltware. However, if the payments from Tiltware ended, Luciaetta’s alimony would cease, according to the response from Phil Ivey’s attorneys.

We have more on this developing story at PokerNews.com.

Dusty Schmidt Returns to Golf

One of online poker’s most respected grinders and instructors has decided to put poker on hold and return to his first love in 2012. Late last week, Dusty “Leatherass” Schmidt wrote in his blog that he plans to take another shot at professional golf, a career he was forced to give up seven years ago after suffering a heart attack.

“I came to the realization that I love golf infinitely more than I love playing poker,” Schmidt wrote. “With that, I have decided to return to golf and use all of what poker has taught me to try and become the best I can be (whatever that is) at the game of golf.

“At this point in my life, I am 30 years old and the chances of having a career on the PGA tour are fading fast, but it isn’t over yet. My chances are infinitesimally small of making the big time, but I have overcome far longer odds before in my life. I won’t let that intimidate me.”

Schmidt has won more than $3 million playing online poker and boasts of never having had a losing month on the felt. In his teens, Schmidt was a top-ranked golfer and even broke two of Tiger Woods’ junior records. In his first golf tournament of 2012, Schmidt will travel to California to compete in the Golden State Tour event at Temecula Creek on Jan. 3.

Read Schmidt’s full blog at dustyschmidt.net.

PokerStars Changes VIP Model for 2012

If you’ve noticed anything different at PokerStars’ ring games since the turn of the new year, it’s likely because the site made some changes to its VIP Program on Jan. 1.

Late last week, PokerStars announced that it was changing its VPP program from the “dealt” method to the “weighted contribution” method, which significantly changes how VIP points are allocated at a ring game table. With the new system, players who contribute a lot of money to pots will receive a larger portion of the VPPs than tighter players will.

The previous “dealt” method awarded VPPs to everyone dealt into a hand, regardless of whether they contributed any money to the pot. Now, players who don’t put any money into the pot won’t receive any part of the VPP distribution.

Get more information about the new program at PokerNews.com.

Webcasts Return for PokerStars Caribbean Adventure

The PokerStars Caribbean Adventure returns to the Bahamas this week, and those unable to make the trip to Atlantis will again be able to catch the action on near-live webcasts during both the $10,000 Main Event and $25,000 High Roller.

Joe Stapleton and James Hartigan will be joined by Daniel Negreanu in the commentary booth when the Main Event final table airs on Friday, Jan. 13 at 1340 EST (1840 GMT). They’ll return for the High Roller final table on Saturday, Jan. 14 at 1340 EST (1840 GMT). Both webcasts will be hosted on PokerStars.tv and aired in English, Spanish, German and Russian.

The PokerStars Blog has more.

We Are Poker

Last week, PokerStars launched a new global ad campaign by introducing a pair of flashy adverts featuring several members of Team PokerStars Pro. Among the players appearing in the minute-long ads include Daniel Negreanu, Vanessa Rousso, Liv Boeree, Jose “Nacho” Barbero, Ivan Demidov and Bertrand “Elky” Grospellier.

The ads were announced via Twitter and instantly grabbed the attention of the poker community. One ad, titled East vs. West, features Negreanu playing heads-up against Demidov in a warehouse in front of several onlookers. The other, named Nacho vs. Brazil, shows Barbero facing off against an opponent in the raucous streets of Brazil.

PokerStars says the ads will be hitting television screens globally in the near future. Here’s a look:

Read more about the We Are Poker campaign, and watch the Nacho vs. Brazil ad at PokerStars.com.

Follow Brett Collson on Twitter – @brettcollson