November 06 2012, Brett Collson, Pamela Maldonado

Tuesday was a historic day for online poker as Full Tilt Poker came back from the dead, launching real-money games in much of the world. We’re bringing you that story, plus Chris Moorman looking for a live tournament title, in this edition of the Nightly Turbo.

In Case You Missed It

Will WSOP Main Event champ Greg Merson be a good ambassador for poker? Rich Ryan touches on that topic and more in his latest Five Thoughts piece.

Full Tilt Poker wasn’t the only online gaming site to launch on Tuesday. The Northern Bear Casino opened the world’s first tribal real-money tribal online casino.

Will the results of the U.S. elections have a major impact on the future of online poker? Matthew Kredell takes a look at the potential outcomes.

The 2012-13 World Series of Poker Circuit River Rock Main Event played down to 30 runners on Monday. Sonny Sekhon led the way going into Day 3.

Back in Business

Many in the poker community didn’t think this day would ever come. But on Tuesday, Full Tilt Poker relaunched real-money games in much of the world, picking up where it left off when the site was shut down last June.

The highly anticipated reopening took place at 7:00 ET (12:00 GMT), and within minutes cards were being dealt to more than 10,000 real-money players. According to PokerScout.com, Full Tilt Poker immediately vaulted back into the No. 2 spot in the online poker traffic rankings behind its new sister site PokerStars. FTP saw a peak of 14,773 real-money cash game players on Tuesday, as reported by PokerScout.

Among those hitting the virtual felt early on were Full Tilt Poker Team Pros Gus Hansen and Viktor Blom. Hansen jumped right back into the site’s highest stakes, playing $1,000/$2,000 Limit 2-7 Triple Draw. Blom, meanwhile, took a seat at a $.50/1 cash game before hopping into $50/100 pot-limit Omaha to play against Hansen and others later on in the day.

Blom even posted a picture of one of his $.50/1 tables. Check out the new avatar:

Tom Dwan, the third member of Full Tilt’s elite team of sponsored pros, is in the U.S. for the next week and was unable to participate in the reopening of the site. We expect to see the “durrrr” moniker at the high-stakes tables sooner rather than later.

For now, real-money games are not available those located in segregated markets like France, Spain, Denmark, Estonia and Belgium, but those players can withdraw their balances though PokerStars. Players in the U.S. and Italy do not yet have access to their funds.

We’ll be providing news, views and reactions throughout the week, so be sure to keep locked in to PokerNews.com.

Moorman Takes Another Crack at Title

When the PokerStars United Kingdom & Ireland Poker Tour (UKIPT) Bristol kicks off on Wednesday, eight players will hit the felts to play out a final table with £254,840 up for grabs. The first ever UKIPT online tournament began on Oct. 14, with 587 players putting up the £770 buy-in at PokerStars.com. After two days of play, the event was paused so the eight-handed final could be played in a live setting in Bristol on Nov. 7.

Chris “Moorman1″ Moorman, considered one of the best tournament players in the world, has the first-place £77,126 prize in his sight as he will begin the final table third in chips with 562,818. Despite boasting more than $11 million in online and live tournament cashes, Moorman has yet to achieve any major live wins. He has come close by placing second a few times, once at the 2011 WSOPE Main Event where he cashed for “800,000. The also took second at the 2011 WSOP $10,000 six-handed championship for $716,282, and again at the “10,000 EPT Berlin 8-max event, banking “145,000.

Moorman will be on display in Bristol as he looks to claim that elusive live Main Event win and add to his $2,700,162 in live tournament cashes.

Leading the Wednesday’s final table in chips with 1,530,528 will be 37 year-old Rafael “zugzwang16″ Haber, who placed third in the “2,100 SCOOP-H event at PokerStars earlier this year. In second place with 1,524,837 chips is Wojtek “piper_kl88″ Barzantny.

Also at the final table are Joep “Pappe_Ruk” van den Bijgaart (545,565 chips), Sregey “Seradja” Sergeevich Prostakov (490,798), Dan “danloulou” Smyth (485,659), David “komisch99″ Lenz (369,562), and Ben “gs08bjohnson” Jenkins (360,233).

Here a look at the UKIPT Online Main Event final table payouts:

For more on each of the final table members, visit the PokerStars Blog.

Rossiter Warms Up in Macau

The Asia Championship of Poker (ACOP) is taking place in Macau this week, and on Tuesday Jeff Rossiter kicked the series off by winning the HK$25,000 buy-in ACOP Warm-Up event for HK$1,777,000 (US$227,821).

A total of 358 players entered the Warm-Up event, generating a prize pool of $7,986,980 (just over US$1 million). Rossiter bested a talented field of pros that included the likes of Johnny Chan and Joseph Cheong, both of whom reached the final table. Chan exited in seventh place when his couldn’t improve against Rong Fan‘s , and he collected $291,500 (HKD). Cheong was eliminated in third place after he moved his short stack all-in preflop with and came up short to Rossiter’s .

That left Rossiter playing heads-up against David Martiryosan for the title. On the final hand of the tournament, Rossiter limped his button and then snap-called a shove from Martiryosan. Rossiter’s was way out in front of his opponent’s , and the board brought an end to the three-day event.

Here’s a look at the final table results from the ACOP Warm-Up event:

The ACOP Main Event kicks off on Wednesday, so be sure to read our live updates here at PokerNews.com. For in-depth coverage of the Warm-Up event, check out the PokerStars Blog.

Everest Joins iPoker Network

On Tuesday, French online gaming group Betclic Everest announced that it has officially joined Playtech’s iPoker Network, making its products available in France and international markets on ipoker.fr and ipoker.com, respectively.

Playtech, a leading provider of software and services for the online and mobile gaming industry, also confirmed that the Everest Casino brand is scheduled to launch in early 2013.

Everest and Betclic poker will continue to share their liquidity pool and have improved on their rake structure to benefit their French players, which will enhance the player’s experience. Playtech Chief Executive Mor Weizer is happy with the move, stating: “We anticipate that the enlarged liquidity pools on iPoker.fr and iPoker.com will attract further brands to the growing stable of well-established operators and contribute to our future success.”

Ignacio Martos, CEO of the Betclic Everest Group, said: “We are pleased to offer the best of breed technology to our poker players. Larger liquidity and state of the art features will give our players a superior experience, in line with our strategy of offering nothing but the best to our community of players. Playtech offers a market-leading range of products including a world-class casino, which Everest will be taking full advantage of in 2013. Betclic will maintain its program of investment in technology and innovation, focusing on major regulated markets to sustain profitable business growth.”

Read more at InterGameOnline.com.

Randy Lew in Macau

Last year, Team PokerStars Online’s Randy “nanonoko” Lew won his first major live title at the PokerStars.net Asia Pacific Poker Tour Macau Main Event. Before beginning his title defense in Macau this week, Lew posted some video footage of last year’s trip over at PokerStars.tv. If you’ve never been to Macau, this is definitely worth a watch:

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November 06 2012, Chad Holloway

After being offline since June 2011, Full Tilt Poker relaunched in much of the world Tuesday at 7:00 ET (12:00 GMT). The company, which was acquired by FTP’s former competitor PokerStars, is once again offering real-money gaming on the same platform while making available $184 million in balances.

“The return of Full Tilt Poker fills a hole in the community that’s been felt by millions of players,” FTP Team Pro Gus Hansen said in a press release. “A lot of people have been waiting for this day to come and now that it’s here we can all look towards a brighter future.”

The relaunch has been in the works since the Rational Group, operator of PokerStars, acquired the assets back in July in a deal that included the United States Department of Justice. As part of the deal, PokerStars agreed to pay back worldwide customers while forfeiting $731 million to the DOJ, which will be in charge of repayment of U.S. players through a remission process.

Operations actually recommenced on Wednesday, October 31 when FTP allowed players to sit down at play-money tables, view their balances, and transfer funds to their PokerStars account. It was also at this time that Shyam Markus, FTP’s Poker Room Manager, provided additional information, answered questions on TwoPlusTwo, and highlighted the ability to link their account with PokerStars.

Players in segregated markets like France, Spain, Denmark, Estonia and Belgium are unable to play real-money games on Full Tilt Poker at this time, but they can withdraw their balances though PokerStars.

“Full Tilt Poker is now a sister site to PokerStars, whose parent company acquired Full Tilt Poker this summer,” said the FTP press release. “One of the advantages of the sister sites is a new feature which enables players to quickly and easily transfer cash between Full Tilt Poker and PokerStars to play in an even larger selection of games and tournaments and participate in the promotions that interest them most. The two sites represent the largest pool of online poker players in the world, making it possible to offer the greatest number and variety of cash games and tournaments.”

In preparation for the launch, FTP geared up its promotional efforts. They highly publicized the signing of a group of ambassadors known as “The Professionals” that includes Hansen, Viktor Blom and Tom Dwan, who are all expected to fuel the high-stakes action. However, FTP will not be offering the famed $500/$1,000 tables upon launch, so they’ll have to settle with the highest stakes being offered-the still healthy $400/$800 games.

In addition, FTP is “offering a series of promotions, including $250,000 in freerolls and $300,000 in added FTOPS tickets. A ‘Happy Hour’ promotion allows players to earn double player points ‘around the clock’ and every player will be receiving a minimum $200 ‘Deal Me In’ bonus.”

“Full Tilt Poker is back and better than ever,” said Sarne Lightman, Head of Marketing for Full Tilt Poker. “We are bringing back to the players everything they loved about the site and we invite them to help us celebrate by joining our ‘Deal Me In’ launch promotions.”

While residents of the U.S. and some other countries are unable to play for real money on FTP, they can still sit down at the Play Money-only site FullTiltPoker.net.

Stay tuned to PokerNews.com as we bring you news, views and reactions of the Full Tilt Poker relaunch throughout the week.

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