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, Chad Holloway

After being offline since June 2011, Full Tilt Poker relaunched on Tuesday with real-money gaming while making available $184 million in balances to non-U.S. based players. More than a year and a half after Black Friday, the return of FTP under the guidance of PokerStars marked a rare bright day in the online poker industry, a sentiment largely shared by players and industry insiders alike.

With that said, there were numerous hurdles in the early hours of launch. A quick look at the TwoPlusTwo forums reveals that some players are having troubles with their passwords, syncing their accounts, making deposits, and having the software freeze. Despite these early frustrations, the forums are also full of posts praising FTP’s return.

PokerNews has taken the opportunity to scour social media outlets and have compiled some of the more notable reactions and comments we feel represents the general feeling of glee towards FTP’s relaunch. We also asked a number of pros whether they’d opt to take the pay and cash out or continue to play on FTP.

Twitter

TwoPlusTwo

randie: “Omg.. After playing on IPoker lately the FTP software is looking lightning fast and silky smooth.. It’s like heaven : )”

Disorienter: “Feels like the population so far is 90% regs that found their money, now we await the commercials to do their trick and lure back the value”

ico2525: “For Americans searching this thread looking for answers: Called 1-866-874-8900, the number for the DoJ Southern District of NY’s Victim and Witness Services. Recorded greeting tells you that if you’re calling about FTP / Stars, wait for an anouncement about remissions. Gaw dayum the gov’t is slow.”

Pay or Get Paid?

Phil Galfond: “My understanding is that as a US player, my balance won’t be waiting for me when FTP launches. If it were waiting, I’d absolutely play with it, for the same reasons I play every day on Pokerstars. I trust the people behind it and the safety of my money, and the software and games will be great. Why wouldn’t I play?”

Andy Moseley: “Had never played on there seriously! If I did, I would leave the money on if the games were good. To not play on it out of principle and cost myself EV is something I wouldn’t do.”

Timothy Adams

Timothy Adams: “I had quite a lot on FTP and plan on keeping the majority of my money on the site. PokerStars has had basically an unblemished record in my eyes, and I feel quite secure with them in control of the new FTP.”

Ignat “0Human0 Liviu: “I have a bankroll on Full Tilt , and I actually can’t wait to play again there. Of course I trust the site now that PokerStars is behind all.”

Terrence Chan: “I no longer play the big high-limit games like I did to accumulate my Full Tilt balance, so I’m planning to cash out the majority of it. I’ll probably play medium stakes and tournaments on there, so I’ll keep some money, but the rest I’ll likely put in my investments. And have a little bit of a spending spree.”

Kyle Julius: “I didn’t have too much money on there that I recall, but it would be hard to resist playing, that’s for sure.”

Jason Wheeler

Jason Wheeler: “Yes, I do have a Full Tilt balance and what I am doing is the following: Cashing out 30 percent of it and playing with 70 percent of it. Had any company but PokerStars bought FTP, I probably would have cashed out 80-90 to 100 percent of the balance, but now that Stars owns Tilt and is allowing inter-site account transfers via your paired accounts, I feel secure about leaving money on the site and excited about being able to play a bigger MTT schedule. Some people may not like goliath getting bigger in the industry, but having a company as reputable as Stars taking over tilt is one of the best things that could have happened to the industry as a whole in terms of bringing regulated legalized online poker to the U.S. With that said, I have a lot of friends who have money tied up via the DOJ process and I really feel for them but feel confident they will be made 100 percent when it is all said and done. Then we can all finally move on from one of the ugliest chapters in online poker history. That’s my two cents.”

Ben “milkybarkid” Grundy: “I don’t have much of a balance on there, but I’ll definitely play on Full Tilt when it relaunches.”

Andrew Seidman: “I’ll probably withdraw at least half of it to return to my comfortable old lifestyle. The other half I will probably keep online somewhere, though whether I play with it on FTP/Stars or move it to another site is a totally different question. One of the biggest things Black Friday took from me – and other poker players – was my sense of stability and freedom, so it will be nice to recover some of that. I am, also, looking forward to playing some tournaments again on FTP, though I’m not sure exactly when I’ll dive back into that. I’m not really worried about the quality of the site or its integrity currently; I’m sure it will look, feel, and play, like the FTP of old.”

Ben Yu

Ben Yu: “I do plan to reinstate my Full Tilt Poker account and redeposit by transferring over PokerStars funds. I am excited to get back on the grind – I know a lot of professionals complained about how lackluster FTOPS was every time it rolled onto the schedule – but I always enjoyed it as an opportunity to play large field/big first place money tournaments in every game. I can’t wait for the 1st FTOPS to roll around. I’m not sure why people would still have reservations about playing on FTP at this point, if it is simply related to the Black Friday scandals. I have no problem playing on FTP with the full force of the PokerStars name/management team behind it.”

While residents of the United States are unable to play for real money on FTP, they can still sit down at the play money only tables at FullTiltPoker.net.

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