March 25 2012, Brett Collson

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 the new innovative tournament series iSeriesLive, Bertrand “Elky” Grospellier joining the loaded Premier League V lineup, and much more.

Poker Tournaments

Introducing iSeriesLIVE

Degens are in for a real treat as Poker Royalty has announced its new poker series: iSeriesLIVE.

iSeriesLIVE will be a groundbreaking new concept whereby fans will be able to bet on the action as it’s happening. The series will include some of the game’s top pros, including Daniel Negreanu, Phil Hellmuth, Maria Ho and Carlos Mortensen, facing off in a number of different tournament formats.

Viewers will be able to follow live hole-cam feeds online while they bet on the action. The real gamblers out there will even be able to bet on red or black flops. All betting will be done online through sportsbook giant PaddyPower.

For the entire series, the pros will be without cell phones or outside access to Internet, so there will be no way for them to check out the feeds themselves. The first event is set to take place on April 5 at 1700 GMT (1300 EST).

For a closer look at iSeriesLIVE, check out our article at PokerNews.com.

Premier League Gets French Flavor

Didn’t think the lineup for the upcoming PartyPoker Premier League V could get any stronger? Think again.

Triple Crown winner Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier added his name to the mix on Wednesday. The no-limit hold’em specialist with more than $8.7 million in live tournament earnings joins superstars like Tom Dwan, Patrik Antonius, Vanessa Selbst, Sam Trickett, Tony G, Luke “FullFlush” Schwartz, and Erik Seidel who are putting up the $125,000 buy-in when the event kicks off on April 4 in Vienna, Austria.

“This will be the first time I have taken part in the Premier League and I’m super excited to compete with all those great players in such a unique and interesting format,” Grospellier told the PartyPoker Blog on Wednesday.

Read more at PokerNews.com.

Poker Legislation

Another One Bites the Dust

On Tuesday, Hawaii Representatives Joseph Souki and Angus McKelvey told PokerNews that a group of bills aimed at legalizing online gambling in Hawaii have been put to rest, temporarily ending the state’s hopes for an online poker platform.

Earlier this year, House Bill 2422 was introduced in the Hawaii state legislature. The bill intended to create an Internet lottery and gaming corporation, and the state-run lottery would then be authorized to offer games of chance and games of skill, including poker and casino games, on the Internet.

The bill, which was co-sponsored by Representatives Souki, McKelvey, and Faye Hanohano, failed to advance in the legislature.

Hawaii and Utah remain the only two states without any form of gambling. While Hawaii has made efforts to legalize the activity, Utah has been strongly opposed to any gambling measure. Rep. Stephen Sandstrom recently introduced a bill intended to prevent online gaming in Utah if and when the U.S. Congress legalizes online gaming.

Hawaii, Mississippi, Iowa and the District of Columbia have failed to pass online gaming measures this year. Washington, D.C. was the first U.S. jurisdiction to approve and operate a Web wagering system, but the legislation was repealed last month.

U.K. Changes Gambling Tax

In an attempt to encourage offshore operators to return to the United Kingdom, chancellor George Osborne announced Wednesday that online betting operators around the world will be forced to pay taxes on gross profits generated from customers based in the U.K.

The U.K. tax regime currently in place allows offshore gambling operators like Ladbrokes and William Hill to avoid paying duties. The new system will enforce taxes on a point of consumption, meaning operators will no longer benefit from their offshore locations.

“Ninety percent of online gambling consumed by our citizens is now supplied from outside the UK, and the remaining UK operations are under pressure to leave,” the chancellor said. “This is clearly not fair – and not a sensible way to support jobs in Britain.”

It’s important to note that the new tax regime will not affect online poker players in the U.K. who do not pay any tax on winnings.

The Financial Times has more.

Poker Business

Tzvetkoff to Testify

The Australian entrepreneur accused of bringing down online poker in the U.S. is set to testify in the trial of two Black Friday principals.

Daniel Tzvetkoff, whose company InstaBill processed more than $1 billion in illegal online poker transactions in the U.S., is set to appear as a witness in the trial of John Campos and Chad Elie on April 9 in New York. The 29-year-old businessman was facing up to 75 years in prison after his arrest in Las Vegas in 2010, but he struck a plea bargain with prosecutors and provided vital evidence incriminating PokerStars, Full Tilt Poker and Absolute Poker. He has since been living in hiding under FBI protection as the star informant in the case.

According to the Australian Associated Press, Tzvetkoff has handed more than 90,000 documents over to prosecutors, including confidential emails to and from Elie, a former business partner. Elie is facing up to 85 years in prison on nine charges, including conspiracy to commit bank fraud, money laundering and violating the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA). Campos, meanwhile, could spend 35 years in jail on six charges.

Get the full story at PokerNews.com.

FTP, PokerStars and AP Given More Time to Respond

While the world continued waiting for the pending deal between Groupe Bernard Tapie and Full Tilt Poker to be completed this week, the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York granted another extension to FTP and other respondents of an amended civil complaint regarding last April’s Black Friday indictments.

After the previous deadline of March 19 passed, PokerStars, Absolute Poker, Howard Lederer, Ray Bitar, Rafe Furst and payment processor Chad Elie were given until May 14, 2012, file a response. The extension is another on a growing list since the respondents’ original response date of the indictment passed on Nov. 30, 2011.

Read more at PokerNews.com.

Adios, Bodog

Bodog was back in the news this week after announcing that it is exiting the Spanish market ahead of the country’s new gambling market. The company released a statement to players in Spain about the decision:

“We would like to inform you that due to recent regulatory changes, we are no longer able to offer our betting or wagering services to residents of Spain or Spanish territories. Your account will be disabled on the 31st of March 2012 and as of today; you are no longer able to make any further deposits to your account.”

The new gambling regulations in Spain are expected to go into effect later this year. More than 60 companies have applied for operating licenses. Among the online poker rooms interested in the space include PokerStars, bwin.party, 888 and Ladbrokes. Groupe Bernard Tapie also reportedly submitted an application before the Dec. 14, 2011, deadline.

Poker Players

Doyle’s Tales of the “Old Days”

It’s no surprise that Doyle Brunson gets a lot of requests to tell tales of the “old days” of poker. Back in the 1950s and 1960s, most card games were held in back rooms and smoky pool halls where armed guards protected the players from intruders. The illegal games were often run by members of organized crime, and rules weren’t always enforced. Obviously, poker has come a long way since then.

Brunson took to his blog on Thursday to recount the first of five times he was robbed at gunpoint. Brunson said he was 24 years old and playing games on a dangerous street in Fort Worth, Texas, when four gunmen posing as cops busted into the room and began pocketing his money.

“We were used to being arrested, taken down to the police station and paying a fine for gambling, then being released,” Brunson recalls. “It was part of the risk of illegal poker, but when these guys started taking our money from the table and searching us for more, we realized those ‘policemen’ were really robbers.”

According to Brunson, the armed guard protecting the game was thrown off by the police uniforms and dropped his gun, allowing the gunmen to escape with all of the money. “The robbers left and we never heard any more about them,” he said. “On Exchange Avenue those type of things never got reported to the real police. We accepted it as part of the price of our lifestyle.”

You can read the whole story at doylebrunson.com.

Another Viktim

Five days after blowing a massive lead against Isaac “philivey2694″ Haxton, Viktor “Isildur1″ Blom faced off against high-stakes regular Alex “Kanu7” Millar in the PokerStars SuperStar Showdown last Sunday.

Millar isn’t well known outside of the high-stakes online realm but has fared well against some of the toughest competition in the game. Millar accepted Blom’s challenge to play 2,500 hands of $100/200 no-limit hold’em on Sunday, but he handed over $37,687 to the Swede when the match was all over.

In the biggest (and sickest) hand of the match, Blom raised to $600 preflop and called Millar’s $2,600 three-bet. The flop brought and Millar fired 4,000 into the pot. Blom called, and the fell on the turn. Millar led out again, this time for $11,500, and Blom put in a call. The hit the river and Millar moved all in for his last $32,350. Blom decide to call and showed a meager for bottom pair, but Millar tabled just . The $100,900 pot gave Blom a lead he would never relinquish despite a late surge from Millar.

Blom is 9-4 in 13 SuperStar Showdown matches and boasts winnings of $534,090. Here’s a look at his results since last December:

SuperStar Showdown Breakdown

Total SuperStar Showdown Profit to Date: $534,090

For a detailed recap of Sunday’s SuperStar Showdown, check out the PokerStars Blog.

Daniel’s Weekly Rant

This week, Daniel Negreanu opens his video blog with an explanation of iSeriesLIVE, a new project he’s involved with. Something in this video blog was apparently enough to get Negreanu temporarily banned from the popular poker forum, TwoPlusTwo.

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Comments

March 20 2012, Rich Ryan

If you’ve ever railed the final table of a major, live tournament, then you’re probably aware of how much betting is done off of the felt. Live poker is, well, boring, so instead of simply watching the action, players would rather gamble and bet props. The most popular game is red-black, where the participants bet on the flop texture.

Clearly it’s a skill game.

Well, now you don’t have to travel to the nearest major tournament circuit stop to get in on the action, because Poker Royalty has teamed up with PaddyPoker to bring you iSeriesLIVE.

1. Wait, you can seriously bet red-black online?

Starting on April 5, a handful of pros, including Daniel Negreanu, Phil Hellmuth, Maria Ho, David “Devilfish” Ulliot, and Marvin Rettenmaier will take part in a series of tournaments. Because the players will be sequestered with no audience or phones/laptops/tablets allowed, the tournament can be streamed live with hole cards visible, so viewers outside of the United States (standard) will be able to wager on numerous things like red-black.

The odds will obviously adjust themselves based upon the market’s reaction, but at the moment, I love Ho at 10/1 and Jaka and Rettenmaier at 8/1. In this kind of made-for-TV sit-n-go type format, where the blinds will probably increase somewhat rapidly, it’s anyone’s game. There’s no reason to give up value for someone who may be slightly better – although I’m not sure anyone is better than Jaka – when this is going to be a high-variance game.

According to the site, you can also bet on the aforementioned red-black, updated odds to win, winner of the next hand, last-longers, next elimination, pair on flop, trips on flop, straight on flop, flush on flop, straight flush on flop.

As long as the betting limits aren’t too high, this is a phenomenal idea. Interactivity is the key to a better user experience, and in-game wagering and live streaming poker are a great fit. Is it a little degenerate? Sure, but as long as the limits are low and viewers can wager a few Euros here and there, it will be very enjoyable, even if people lose a little.

2. Isildur-won

Vikor “Isildur1” Blom competed in his 13th SuperStar Showdown match this past weekend, beating Alex “Kanu7” Millar out of $37,687. The win gives Blom a 9-4 record in the series, and he’s profited $534,090.

According to the PokerStars Blog, Blom won the only six-figure pot in sick, Blom fashion. The Swede opened to $600 with the button, Millar three-bet to $2,600, and Blom called. The flop fell , and Millar led out for $4,000. Blom called. The turn was the , and Millar fired a second bullet worth $11,500. Again, Bloom called. The completed the board, and Millar emptied the chamber, moving all in for $32,350. Blom called, and Millar tabled for seven-high.

Blom showed for bottom pair, and was shipped the $100,900 pot. Boom.

To date, Blom has defeated every player he’s faced except for Isaac “philivey2694” Haxton. I will be the first to admit that I thought Blom would be fish fodder for the sharks on Stars, but he’s no longer the reckless “spaztard” who used to frequently donate to the former members of Team Full Tilt Poker. Blom still applies crazy amounts of pressure, and while he’s down a little over $66,000 in 2012, he profited nearly $1.5 million last year. He still has his moments however – he blew a $100,000 lead against Haxton in last week’s SuperStar Showdown while also losing over $400,000 playing both $100/$200 heads-up NLHE and PLO at the same time.

What we can all agree upon is that Blom is a must-watch whether he’s on the virtual felt or the actual felt. Let’s not forget, he also won the $100,000 Super High Roller at the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure in January. Fingers crossed, he’ll grace us with his presence at the 2012 WSOP.

3. We need more rivalries

The PartyPoker Blog sat down to talk with Andrew Robl bout Tony G and the upcoming PartyPoker Big Game VI in Vienna next month. Robl told them, “I look at things very rationally and in my mind if Tony G is in Vienna I have to go as I need to make money – that’s the bottom line.”

Shot’s fired!

Even if Tony G and Andrew Robl don’t really have a beef – Tony G is the master of entertainment – these two chirping at one another makes the Party Poker Big Game more appealing.. As a matter of fact, if you sit and think about it, what is the most appealing thing in poker right now? It’s whatever or whoever Negreanu has a beef with, whether it be Annie Duke, Jeffrey Pollack, Epic Poker, Full Tilt, or meat products. His vlog has become mandatory if you’re in the industry, and one of the main reasons is because he has “enemies.”

Music, hip-hop especially, garners more attention when there are clashing groups or bands. Who is the greatest rapper of all time? Forty-five percent of you just said, Tupac, another 45 percent said Biggie, and the other ten percent of you are probably hipsters.

We love rivalries. We love picking sides. Does this mean that a well-known player should take to his or her blog and put another player on blast? No. Should somebody go Sam Grizzle and start throwing punches? Absolutely not, but we want some competition. We want two polarizing figures to split the poker world.

Unfortunately, nobody wants to be the villain (see: LeBron James). Even Phil Hellmuth has toned down the “Poker Brat” mantra. C’mon poker players, even Hulk Hogan turned heel. One of you needs to step up and be the enemy, even if it’s only for a short while.

4. Alec Torelli talks about perspective

If you haven’t been reading Alec Torelli’s blog posts here on PokerNews, you’re missing out. In his latest, two-part venture, he discusses the pain of losing and how to combat it both physically and mentally. He also offers an anecdote about Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce playing blackjack at the Bellagio. I don’t want to ruin the story, so let’s just say it’s not as baller as you would think.

Torelli admits that the biggest hand he’s ever lost is $475,000, and the biggest downswing he’s ever had is $1,000,000. He also introduces a very interesting term called “happiness expected value” (hEV). Torelli argues that happiness trumps everything, and says that poker players shouldn’t make decisions based upon mathematical EV, rather hEV. He also advises players to count their losses in order to move to acceptance and then recovery.

Pieces like these from guys that have been there are extraordinary reads. You can lurk forums and read a paragraph here and there about guys who’ve gone from nothing to something, or visa versa, but Torelli is an excellent writer and both his pain and his pleasure can be felt reading the words he’s penned.

If you haven’t already, go ahead and read both Part 1 and Part 2 of his most recent post.

5. Frosty012 the poker player

Ryan Firpo is at it again, this time his subject is PokerStars Team Online member Tyler “Frosty012″ Frost.

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