Alex Rodriguez’s appetite for poker has created problems for him in the past. He’s facing more scrutiny this week involving a charity poker tournament from 2006. We’ll bring you that story, plus the latest on Zynga’s real-money online gaming plans, in this edition of the Nightly Turbo.

In Case You Missed It:

Online poker was legalized in New Jersey on Tuesday. When will the state have real-money games up and running? Matthew Kredell spoke with Sen. Ray Lesniak to find out.

Day 3 of the World Poker Tour L.A. Poker Classic wrapped up on Monday. 2012 Octo-Niner Jeremy Ausmus was the only player to eclipse the 1 million-chip mark.

CardRunners instructor Daniel “Markuis” Marks is a heads-up no-limit hold’em specialist. In his latest free training video, Marks discusses meta game, adjusting pot-to-stack ratios versus habitual three-bettors, making reads, and more.

Jonathan Tamayo won the 2012-13 World Series of Poker Circuit Palm Beach Kennel Club Main Event early Tuesday morning. Get the full recap here at PokerNews.com.

Web-based show Game Theory has become quite popular during its first three weeks of airing. Chad Holloway spoke with director Aidin Nakjai to find out more about the show.

A-Rod’s Error

In 2006, New York Yankees third baseman Alex Rodriguez teamed up with celebrities for a charity poker tournament to raise money for the Boys & Girls Club of Miami. The event, dubbed the 2nd Annual Dewar’s 12 Hold’em Poker Tournament, attracted a who’s who of A-list artists and athletes, including Michael Jordan, Shawn “Jay-Z” Carter, Lenny Kravitz, Vin Diesel, and Gary Sheffield. Phil Hellmuth was even invited to emcee and offer poker tips to the tournament’s 300 guests.

All proceeds from the tournament went to the A-Rod Family Foundation. When it was all said and done, the event raised more than $400,000 toward Rodriguez’s charitable foundation. It was deemed an incredible success.

But questions are now being raised about whether money raised in that event actually went where it was supposed to go.

According to a report by the Boston Globe, Rodriguez’s foundation only donated 1% of the money it raised from the poker tournament. The Globe reported that the foundation used the money to make a $5,000 donation to the Shawn Carter Scholarship Fund and a $90 donation to a Little League team in Miami. The rest? Your guess is as good as ours.

On top of that, the Globe reports that A-Rod’s foundation stopped submitting mandatory financial reports to the IRS later that year. Thus, it was stripped of its tax-exempt status.

Apparently, Rodriguez isn’t the only athlete to fall short on charitable promises. Read the full Boston Globe story for more.

Zynga’s Picus Addresses Real-Money Gaming

During a Morgan Stanley conference in San Francisco on Monday, Zynga CEO Mark Pincus discussed his intentions to launch real-money gaming in both the United Kingdom and the U.S. Although Pincus didn’t provide much new information regarding the company’s real-money gaming plans, he said that the company will offer something different from most gambling sites by focusing on making social gambling games.

“We’re not the company to win the hardcore real-money gamers,” Pincus said. “But we think we are for the mass market audience.”

The hype of real-money gambling stemmed from Zynga’s deal with U.K.-based poker company bwin.party Digital Entertainment last October. The deal will see the two companies launch real-money games such as poker, slots, roulette, and blackjack in the first half of 2013.

According to allthingsd.com, ZyngaPlusPoker and ZyngaPlusCasino are expected to launch in the U.K. by the end of June. Additional platforms are expected to launch during the first half of the year.

While Zynga’s plans in the U.K. move forward, the company has also begun the process of getting licensed as an operator in Nevada. As of Tuesday, only Nevada, Delaware, and New Jersey had approved some form of online gaming in the U.S., but others like California could soon follow suit. Zynga’s headquarters are located in San Francisco.

Despite the company’s ambition and partnerships, not all has gone smoothly for Zynga during the past year. The company announced on Monday that it was cutting about 30 employees and closing or consolidating offices in Baltimore, New York, and Texas. Baltimore was home to a game studio that focused on CityVille2, which is now shutting down because of poor performance. The company will also be closing Texas offices in McKinney and downtown Austin, but employees in those offices will be given the opportunity to relocate to Dallas and North Austin.

CNET.com has more.

Road to 100 Billion

PokerStars is about to hit another milestone en route to its “Road to 100 Billion” promotion. On Tuesday, the world’s leading poker site began the countdown to its 95 billionth hand. To celebrate the momentous occasion, PokerStars will be giving away up to $1 million in prizes!

More than 300 players will cash in on the promotion, with prizes being awarded to players dealt into every one millionth hand from 94,700,000,000 to 95,000,000,000. The winner of the Mega Milestone hand will collect at least $20,000, so if you’re playing in a regular ring game next week make sure that you keep an eye on the lobby for the real-time count on the number of hands dealt.

In November, PokerStars player “m1sspiggy” was the lucky winner of the 90 Billionth Hand promotion. At a six-handed $1/$2 no-limit hold’em table, “m1sspiggy” and five other players moved all-in preflop for a shot at the milestone prize, and the flopped two pair of “m1sspiggy” was good enough to win the $1,220 main pot, plus another $66,380 for winning the promotion. The other five players split $162,150, with each receiving at least $14,000.

“m1sspiggy” won the 90 Billionth Hand promotion

For more information on the 95 Billionth Hand promotion, check out PokerStars.com.

EPT Grand Final Schedule

PokerStars recently announced the details for the PokerStars and Monte-Carlo®Casino European Poker Tour Grand Final. The EPT’s end-of-season finale will take place at the Monte Carlo Bay Hotel and Resort in Monaco May 6 through 15, offering a range of side events and – for the first time – live cash games.

This year’s series will have a total of 50 events including the “100,000 Super High Roller, the “25,000 High Roller, the “10,300 High Roller Turbo, and a “1,000 buy-in event with a “500,000 guaranteed. As you may recall from last year, Dan Smith turned the EPT Grand Final side events into his own personal playground, winning three “5,000 buy-in no-limit hold’em tournaments for more than $488,000.

The series will close with the flagship “10,600 Main Event. Last year, Mohsin Charania added his name to a prestigious list of EPT Grand Final Main Event winners by beating Lucille Cailly heads-up for the $1,782,343.

For a look at the schedule, check out europeanpokertour.com.

Edible Poker Table

Chicago Bulls forward Richard “Rip” Hamilton celebrated his 35th birthday this past weekend. Apparently, the basketball star is a big poker fan, so his friends had this awesome cake made for him:

The four figures playing poker represent Hamilton during his playing days with the UConn Huskies, Washington Wizards, Detroit Pistons and Chicago Bulls. According to Hamilton, his mini depictions were even edible.

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

August 02 2012, Rich Ryan

On Tuesday, after months of negotiations with the United States Department of Justice, the poker world rejoiced as PokerStars acquired Full Tilt Poker’s assets. In 90 days, PokerStars will make available all outstanding balances – totaling $184 million – owed to the “rest of world” players who had money frozen on Full Tilt. American players – who are owed about $150 million – will be refunded separately. No timeline or payout process has been determined for the latter.

Prior to the acquisition being completed however, PokerStars will have to pay the DOJ $225 million before Monday, and founder Isai Scheinberg must step down from his role within the next 45 days.

Additionally, the settlements made by Full Tilt Poker and PokerStars do not constitute admissions of any wrongdoing, culpability, liability, or guilt by any parties. Thus, once online poker is legalized in the United States, PokerStars will have an opportunity to apply for a license and reenter the market.

1. PokerStars saves the day

Two years ago, if you told me that PokerStars was going to buy Full Tilt Poker, I would have laughed in your face. It what universe would the New York Yankees buy the Boston Red Sox? Why would Manchester United purchase Arsenal? Well, today it’s a reality, and it’s all thanks to the people at PokerStars.

Clearly the acquisition is a concentrated business move by PokerStars to solidify its customer base and make good with the DOJ, but it also shows how invested PokerStars is in the players. Scheinberg and the crew understand that legitimacy is paramount when it comes to online poker. If customers don’t feel safe playing on your site, then your traffic will always be limited. If customers trust you and remain loyal however, then the word will spread, your traffic will boom, and your income will be plentiful.

Ray Bitar and his cronies didn’t understand this concept, and they tried to maximize profits right before the ship went down. Before Black Friday, Full Tilt introduced multi-entry tournaments, which created massive field sizes, and after Black Friday, Full Tilt continued to rake the ROW players without the proper funds to pay them. Thankfully, the DOJ barred Bitar, Howard Lederer, Chris Ferguson, Rafe Furst, and Nelson Burtnick from working for PokerStars.

PokerStars plans to keep the Full Tilt Poker brand alive however, but Head of Home Games at PokerStars Lee Jones says that the company is not planning to seek licenses to operate in France, Italy, Spain, Denmark, Belgium, and Estonia.

Hundreds of players took to Twitter to react to the news. Here are some of my favorite Tweets:

Hopefully, once the repayment process for Americans is released, there will be further celebration. We’ll just have to wait, and thankfully I don’t think we’re in store for another 15-month nightmare.

2. Raymer ships HPT event

On Monday, the Heartland Poker Tour filmed it’s 200th episode at the Route 66 Casino in Albuquerque, New Mexico. 2004 World Series of Poker Main Event champion Greg Raymer entered the final table as the chip leader and eventually won, defeating Robert Crawford heads up to earn the title, $71,875, and 50 points in the HPT Player of the Year race. Raymer is currently tied for sixth in the race with Phil Collins, Will Failla and five others. The 2012 HPT POY will earn six HPT Main Event buy-ins and hotel accommodations for the 2013 season. According to the HPT’s recap of the event, Raymer’s opponents were delighted to play against the former world champion, and Raymer was equally excited to win.

Raymer won the Main Event eight years too soon. Coming off of the heels of Moneymaker, Raymer’s impact on the game was limited when he won in 2004. Any American-born player could’ve filled Raymer’s shoes and nothing would’ve changed, unless that player was non-white or female. Even then it’s hard to predict how different things would be had David Williams defeated Raymer heads up or a female was able to take it down. Raymer’s impact on the game came way after he had won, and it was self–imposed. He worked hard to create his image, whether it be with PokerStars or the Poker Player’s Alliance, and continues to carry the torch as an ambassador despite not having a sponsorship deal.

Being a Main Event champion is a lot like being a quarterback in the National Football League. You’re expected to lead, you’re expected to win, you’re expected to be motivated, and fans, writers and fellow players will magnify all of your mistakes, faults and shortcomings. Unlike the NFL however, there are no teams in poker – you represent yourself. There are sponsorship deals available, and most Main Event champions pursue deals, but they aren’t mandatory, and wearing a hat or a patch doesn’t make you an ambassador of the game. It just makes you money.

Main Event champions Jamie Gold and Jerry Yang were never great ambassadors. Neither Gold or Yang wanted to be a full-time representative for poker, but they risked money to play in the Main Event, they won, and like it or not, to the victor go the spoils. They have every right to do whatever they want with their money, and if that includes playing less than 10 poker tournaments a year, then so be it.

If a Greg Raymer somehow won the 2012 Main Event however, then his impact would be immediate. Just imagine if a 48-year-old, well-spoken, intelligent, skilled player, who’s also a strong advocate for legalized and regulated online poker was able to defeat a 20-something-year-old wizard heads up. Isn’t that a dream come true?

Even if Darvin Moon was able to defeat Joe Cada we could’ve benefited because the 25 to 54 demographic is so important. On average, 25 to 54-year-old males make more money than 18 to 24-year-old males. However, one can assume that 25 to 54-year-old males tend to be more worried about the shadiness of online poker, and may be unwilling to deposit their money, even when it becomes legalized and regulated.

Raymer is great for the game, and his support is nothing less than admirable. I only wish more professional players shared his passion for the industry and focused more on fostering, growing, and protecting the game of poker.

3. Bring on more Russians!

After 10 days of low-stakes raging on PokerStars, MicroMillions II came to a close last week. The winner of the Main Event was Argentinean “SoyDelGlobo,” however, even with his $157,218.68 cash, Argentina only netted $230,700.44 during the series. The country with the most money won was Russia with $1,119,518.12, followed by Germany ($1,009,509.88), the United Kingdom ($696,038.10), and Canada ($605,856.05). Russia also led the world in cashes by country with 24,046 (4,357 more than second-place Germany), final tables per country with 130 (30 more than second-place Germany), entrants by country with 211,968 (57,009 more then second-place Germany), and events won by country with 18 (five more than second-place Germany).

I want to believe that there’s a poker training facility in the heart of Russia that’s looping the Ivan Drogo/Rocky Balboa training montage from Rocky IV, while great poker players are being handcrafted by Alexander Kravchenko, Vladimir Shchlemev, and Vitaly Lunkin, but that’s just a little bit too far-fetched. Most of Russia’s success has to do with the size of its population, which is nearly double Germany’s population, but there’s still something to be said about the quality of the players. Brazil has 50 million more people than Russia, yet only two Brazilians won MicroMillions bracelets, and Brazil ranked sixth in money won by country.

Along with Kravchenko, Shchlemev, and Lunkin, the successes of Andrey Zaichenko, Alexander Kostritsyn, Ivan Demidov, Max Lykov, Kirill Gerasimov, Andrey Pateychuk, Leonid Bilokur and more have helped bolster the game in Russia. According to Hendon Mob, there are 19 players with over $1 million in career tournament earnings and 163 players with at least six figures. Only one Brazilian player, one Indian player, and two Chinese players have over $1 million in career tournament earnings.

The rise of Russian poker players is sure to continue over the next few years, and it will be interesting to see if one player in particular can step out and assume the role as a leader or an ambassador.

4. Ryan Young killed in car accident

Professional poker player and 2007 WSOP bracelet winner Ryan Young died in a car accident on Monday, according to numerous tweets from his friends and fellow professionals. The first player to mention the tragedy with Jared “TheWacoKidd” Hamby, and he was followed by a plethora of others:

Rest in peace, Mr. Young. My prayers are with you and your family.

5. Ronnie Bardah Seat Open Part II

Check out part two of our feature interview with 2012 WSOP bracelet winner Ronnie Bardah.

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