November 07 2012, Brett Collson

Doyle Brunson tweeted Tuesday that he is once again battling cancer. We’re covering that story, plus big news for poker players in Maryland, in this edition of the Nightly Turbo.

In Case You Missed It

Full Tilt Poker reopened on Tuesday. Which pros will be keeping their bankroll on the site to play? PokerNews’ Chad Holloway found out.

With the year coming to a close, Dan Smith still has a huge lead in the Global Poker Index Player of the Year race. Mickey Doft takes a look at some of Smith’s closest contenders.

On Tuesday, the World Poker Tour released the 2013 schedule for its 11th season. Take a look at all of the stops here at PokerNews.com.

The PokerNews Podcast returned to the airwaves on Wednesday. This week, the crew discussed the conclusion of the WSOP Main Event, the relaunch of Full Tilt Poker, and more.

The 2012-13 World Series of Poker Circuit River Rock Main Event played down to a final table on Tuesday. Find out who is contention for the ring in our WSOPC recap.

The 2012 PokerStars.net APPT Macau: Asia Championship of Poker HKD$100,000 Main Event kicked off on Wednesday. Take a look at the leaders from Day 1 in our ACOP recap.

Doyle’s Fight

Doyle Brunson has faced many tough challenges in his life, but none more grueling then his long bout with cancer.

On Tuesday, Brunson revealed via Twitter that was recently diagnosed with Squamous cell carcinoma, a form of skin cancer. It was the fourth time Brunson has been diagnosed with a life-threatening illness. He described this particular type as a “slow growth that is usually OK but it’s still something you’d rather not hear.”

Brunson has beaten cancer three times in the past 50-plus years and seems confident that he’ll do it again. Each time, he’s been told the illness is malignant, but the 79-year-old continues pushing forward, beating some of the toughest cash games in the world along the way.

Doyle received a large amount of support on Twitter Tuesday:

Maryland Gets Dealt In

The most expensive political advertising campaign in Maryland’s history has resulted in the passage of a measure that will legalize table games like poker at the state’s casinos.

On Tuesday, Maryland voters passed Question 7, also known as the Gaming Expansion Question, by a 52 percent to 48 percent margin statewide. The measure needed to be passed both by state voters and by voters in Prince Georges County, where it succeeded by a 59 percent to 41 percent margin.

According to WBAL in Baltimore, more than $90 million was spent by opponents and supporters of the Question 7 issue. Among the rivals of the measure is Penn National Gaming, which said Wednesday that it was “disappointed” in the results of the ballot. Penn National operates a casino in West Virginia and is hinting at taking legal action against the measure, according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal.

“There remains a question as to the validity of the outcome given a legal challenge that has been filed by an outside group as to what constitutes a ‘qualified voter’ in this election,” the company said in a statement. “We’ll be exploring that issue in the coming days.”

If all goes as planned in Maryland, table games could be introduced at the state’s three existing casinos early next year and when a new casino opens in Baltimore near M&T Bank Stadium, home of the NFL’s Ravens. Tuesday’s measure will also allow for a new casino to be constructed at National Harbor along the Potomac River near Washington, D.C.

Maryland is the home of some of the top poker minds in the world, including Christian Harder, Anthony Gregg, and 2012 World Series of Poker Main Event champion Greg Merson, who expressed his excitement after the measure passed Tuesday evening:

USA Today has more.

Roothlus Contest Winner

Two weeks ago, Adam “Roothlus” Levy teamed up with 99designs and launched a contest to see who could design the best personal logo for the professional poker player’s personal website. In the end, a total of 23 designers submitted 102 different logos, and fans voted for the winning logo:

“Helsing,” the winning designer, earned $200 for being selected. This is the fourth contest that Helsing has won on 99designs.com, and the designer has earned $690 in the process.

For more on the competition, check out the article here at PokerNews.com. And check out Levy’s site at Roothlus.com.

Moorman Falls Short

Chris “Moorman1″ Moorman is the all-time winningest tournament player in online poker history, cashing for more than $7.5 million. But even thought he’s added another $2.7 million in live tournament cashes, Moorman has struggled securing a major Main Event win on the live circuit, finishing runner-up in events like the World Series of Poker Europe Main Event and WSOP’s $10,000 Six-max Championship in Las Vegas.

Moorman got another chance at glory Wednesday at the PokerStars United Kingdom & Ireland Poker Tour Online Main Event in Bristol. The British superstar entered the final table third in chips after securing his set online last month, and eventually found himself heads-up with Wojtek Barzantny. However, after a lengthy back-and-forth battle, Moorman came up short again when his was upended by Barzantny’s . Moorman collected £55,471 for yet another runner-up finish, and Barzantny earned £77,126 and a seat to the champion of champions event.

Here’s a look at the final table results of the inaugural UKIPT Online Main Event:

For more on the UKIPT, visit the PokerStars Blog.

Welcome to Macau!

The 2012 PokerStars.net APPT Macau: Asia Championship of Poker Main Event kicked off on Wednesday. Before hitting the tournament floor, Lynn Gilmartin took a tour around the “Oriental Las Vegas.”

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November 07 2012, Donnie Peters

Day 1 of the 2012 PokerStars.net APPT Macau: Asia Championship of Poker HKD$100,000 Main Event came to a close after a short day on the felt Wednesday. The buy-in was a fairly hefty one, but a very solid field of 184 runners made the trip to the Grand Waldo Entertainment Complex, generating a prize pool of HKD$17,305,200. Topping the pack as the early favorite to take home the HKD$4,240,000 first-place prize was Yue Hin Lam with 122,525 in chips.

Lam’s stack fluctuated early in the day, but he managed to double up to really pick up momentum. From middle position, Marc Convey opened with a raise to 425. Shengqing Zhu called from the cutoff seat, and Richard Chow called on the button. Then, Lam reraised to 1,775 from the small blind. After the big blind folded, things got a bit tricky.

The dealer began to pull in all the original bet amounts of 425. Then, Convey and Zhu called the reraise, and the dealer pulled those in, but Chow was still to act. After a couple minutes of reconstructing the pot, Chow made the call and all four saw a flop.

The flop came down , and action checked around to Chow. He bet 2,300, and the three-bettor Lam moved all in for 11,875. After Convey and Zhu folded, Chow thought for a minute, then called. Chow held the for a combo draw, but Lam had flopped trips with the . The table seemed to be quite surprised with the two hands that were turned over in this big, three-bet pot. The turn was the , and the river was the . Lam’s trips held up, and he won the pot to more than double his stack.

There weren’t a ton of tables in play on Day 1, but there were plenty of notable faces filling up the seats all around the PokerStars Macau tournament room, including several Team PokerStars players. Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier, Eugene Katchalov, Raymond Wu, Bryan Huang, Angel Guillen, Viviam Im, Celina Lin and Max Lykov represented Team Pro, while Randy Lew, the defending champion, and Naoya Kihara were sporting the Team Online patch.

Other notables in the field were Joseph Cheong, John Juanda, Johnny Chan, David Steicke and Jeff Rossiter. Cheong and Rossiter played late into Tuesday night in the HKD$25,000 Warm-Up event. Rossiter went on to win the event for HKD$1,777,000, while Cheong took third place. But Rossiter’s luck ran out in the Main Event on Day 1, and Cheong finished with 101,850 in chips while Rossiter made his exit. Juanda and Chan were also eliminated on the day.

Cheong was the beneficiary of an early double-up that really got his day off to a fast start. According to Cheong, one player raised to 275 from early position, and Cheong reraised to 825. The original raiser four-bet to 2,525, and Cheong called.

The flop came down with two diamonds and one heart. Cheong’s opponent bet 2,600, and Cheong made the call to see the land on the turn. With two hearts now joining the two diamonds on the board, the first player checked, and Cheong bet 5,600. The player raised, and Cheong responded by reraising all-in. His opponent called with for top pair, top kicker, but Cheong’s held a hammerlock on the hand with a wheel. The river blanked off, and Cheong doubled up.

With 145 players remaining, play will resume Thursday at 5:00 p.m. local time in Macau for Day 2. PokerNews will be on hand for all of the action, and we hope to have you right here following along on our Live Reporting pages.

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