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.

Get all the latest PokerNews updates on your social media outlets. Follow us on Twitter and find us both Facebook and Google+!

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

The 10th edition of the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure begins Saturday. Which champion from 2012 won’t be defending his title? We’ll bring you that story, plus an innovative poker format created by Roberto Romanello, in this edition of the Nightly Turbo.

In Case You Missed It:

How was the high-stakes action at the online tables at the end of 2012? Read the Online Railbird Report to find out the year’s biggest winners and losers.

Fresh off its partnership with PokerNews, the Mid-States Poker Tour will kick off Season 4 at Running Aces Harness Park in Minnesota next month. Take a look at the full MSPT schedule here at PokerNews.com.

We all know what poker players do on the felt, but what about in “normal” life? In the latest from the Off the Felt series, we talk to Andy Frankenberger about his hidden talents, John Cusack, and more.

It’s Friday, which means we’re only one day away from the NFL’s Wildcard Weekend. Rich Ryan offers his picks for each game in the Pigskin Diaries.

Romanello’s Multi-Prize Pool Poker

Poker pro Roberto Romanello has created a new poker tournament variation set to debut Jan. 10 at the Dusk Till Dawn poker club in Nottingham, United Kingdom.

Romanello has trademarked Multi-Prize Pool (MPP) poker, a format with three buy-in levels and three separate prize pools, allowing low-stakes players to compete with the higher-stakes pros, and vice versa.

As explained by U.K. PokerNews editor Matthew Pitt, “Each MPP tournament offers three buy-in levels, which creates three prize pools. If the buy-ins were £25/£50/£100, players could choose to buy into Prize Pool 1, Prize Pool 2, or Prize Pool 3. In this example, Prize Pool 1 is the default prize pool, and the first £25 from any buy-in goes into this prize pool. Any player buying into Prize Pool 2 (£50) will first have £25 invested in Prize Pool 1 and £25 invested in Prize Pool 2. Finally, any player buying into Prize Pool 3 will have £25 invested in the first prize pool, £25 in the second prize pool, and £50 invested in Prize Pool 3.”

Roberto Romanello

The tournament structure would remain the same, with each player starting with the same number of chips. The only difference is the payout structure. A player invested in Prize Pool 1 could only win money from that pool. A player who bought in to Prize Pool 2 could win money from both Prize Pool 1 and Prize Pool 2. A player who bought into Prize Pool 3 could win money from all three prize pools.

“I came up with the idea of MPP three years ago,” Romanello told U.K. PokerNews. “But I didn’t know how to develop it from an idea into an actual product. I approached Rob Yong and Simon Trumper (live tournament manager) because of their success with Dusk Till Dawn and I am delighted that I did and that they are both on board. Rob’s expertise and guidance has turned my idea into a reality. Simon is working tirelessly to get the necessary software up and running and his talents in the live poker world are second to none. I honestly do not know where my idea would be without these two and I am so grateful for their continued help.”

Both recreational players and pros can benefit from this new concept because it would attract more of the everyday player, allowing for a softer field while allowing that same player the opportunity to sit aside his poker heroes. MPP tournaments would also have an increased guarantee benefiting those who can afford the higher buy-ins.

Romanello will have a soft launch for his idea Jan. 10. The tournament will feature three prize pools of £25, £50 and £100. You can expect a full report of how this event panned out as our own Matthew Pitt will be competing in all three prize pools.

Read more about Romanello’s concept at U.K. PokerNews.

Blom Skips PCA

We’re one day away from the start of the 2013 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure. Most of the PokerNews live reporting team is already in the Bahamas ready to bring you all of the action from the $10,000 Main Event, the $25,000 High Roller, and the $100,000 Super High Roller, which kicks off tomorrow.

Among the players already committed to play in Saturday’s six-figure buy-in event are Phil Hellmuth, Daniel Negreanu, Jonathan Duhamel, Eugene Katchalov, Jason Mercier, Scott Seiver, and Ike Haxton. We also saw Antonio Esfandiari, Erik Seidel and Mike “Timex” McDonald arrive in the Bahamas on Thursday, but none are officially confirmed for the event.

One player not making the trip to the PCA this month is Viktor “Isildur1″ Blom. Last year, Blom picked up $1,254,400 and a Shamballa Jewels bracelet for besting 32 entries in the $100,000 Super High Roller. However, according to a Full Tilt Poker representative, Blom will not attempt to defend that title this year. Instead, the Swede will be “laying low and playing online” until the NBC National Heads-Up Poker Championship later this month.

Team PokerNews is pumped and ready for the start of the PCA. Are you? Maybe this video provided by PokerStars will get your blood flowing:

Sebok’s New Venture

Joe Sebok has been virtually absent from the poker circuit since being vilified by many in the poker community for his involvement with Ultimate Bet. Sebok, who compiled nearly $1.9 million in live tournament winnings since 2005, hasn’t cashed in a tournament since June 2011. Once a popular and important figure at the tables and in poker media, Sebok had completely fallen off the map.

We learned this week that Sebok has put poker behind him and turned to other interests. According to the San Francisco Chronicle, Sebok recently moved to the Bay Area from Los Angeles and joined Vinify, a custom grape-crushing winery in Santa Rosa. During his time there, he participated in some grueling hard labor, including punch downs involving punching the top layer of grapes to the bottom of a fermenting bin and “pumpovers,” the pumping of wine from one holding tank to another. His labor-intensive activities included a typical workday from 4 a.m. to 4 p.m. that led to his losing 17 pounds over a three-month harvest.

“I did typical cellar rat stuff,” Sebok explained. “Basically, I came up here and got my ass kicked.”

Now, the PokerRoad.com founder says he’ll be looking for a marketing or social media job in the wine business. Sebok explains, “The game of poker is great and has been good to me over the years. But at the end of the day, if you’re not doing other stuff, all you are doing is counting money.”

The San Francisco Chronicle has more.

Denmark Extends Online Gaming Licenses

One year after issuing its first batch of online gambling licenses, the Danish Gambling Authority (DGA) issued four-year extensions to 25 operators this week. Among the operators receiving extensions were PokerStars, bwin.party, Betfair, Betsson, bet365, Sportingbet, Ladbrokes, and Unibet.

Denmark launched new regulatory framework on Jan. 1, 2012, at which point the DGA granted licenses to qualified applicants. Under the new regulatory guidelines, operators that didn’t receive a license were ordered to cease operations. The DGA confirmed this week that a number of operators complied, but 20 illegal sites were blocked following the ruling of a Danish court in July.

“The scope of illegal websites in Denmark is estimated to be rather limited,” said Tina R. Olsen, head of legal division at the Danish Gambling Authority. “The fact that 20 illegal websites have been blocked in 2012 illustrates that the Danish Gambling Authority performs its obligation to monitor the Danish gambling market in order to protect both consumers and the legal operators on the market.”

Read more at iGamingBusiness.

Get all the latest PokerNews updates on your social media outlets. Follow us on Twitter and like us on Facebook today!

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