December 01 2011, Brett Collson

The high-stakes action in Macau has been the talk of the poker world this week, but rumors of a $100 million tournament in Macau were killed by a reputable source on Thursday. Meanwhile, a study on Internet poker was issued in Iowa, and ESPN released its latest edition of The Nuts. Read about those stories and more in the Nightly Turbo.

In Case You Missed It

On Dec. 17, Phil Hellmuth will host the 2nd Annual Hellmuth’s Hold’em with Agrace HospiceCare. Here’s a look at what the charity tournament is all about.

In a span of two months, poker pro Kane “Nascar_1949″ Kalas went from playing $.50/$1 cash games to becoming a regular at $25/$50. Kristy Arnett spoke with the “Poker Phenom” about about playing small pocket pairs in six-max no-limit hold’em cash games in the latest Strategy with Kristy Podcast.

The Global Poker Index released its rankings as of Nov. 28. The top 10 remained unchanged, but Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier is closing in on the top spot.

Iowa Study Could Open Door for Intrastate Online Poker

On Thursday, a study issued by the Iowa Racing and Gaming Commission (IRGC) outlined several ways the state could set up and regulate the online poker in the state. The report was requested by the Iowa legislature last session to determine the practicality and potential income Internet poker could generate for the state.

The objective of the report was to give the legislature information to work with if it ultimately decided to set up an online poker infrastructure in the next session. For example, based on the projections of the IRGC, approximately $13 million to $60 million in rake was paid annually by Iowa online poker players before Black Friday. Assuming a tax rate of 22 percent, the projections indicate approximately $3 million to $13 million in potential tax revenue for the state annually, according to the IRGC.

The commission also examined the different systems that could be put in place to offer an intrastate platform. The IRGC consulted with several experts to discuss measures and controls for online poker, including age verification, geo-location and money laundering. It also spoke with Iowa Lottery officials to get a perspective from lottery interests of internet poker regulation.

In March, a state Senate committee approved a bill designed to make online poker legal in Iowa. However, lawmakers weren’t in complete agreement over the bill and requested the IRGC produce a report for the bill to be amended.

The full IRGC study can be found at Iowa.gov.

ESPN’s The Nuts

The latest edition of ESPN’s The Nuts was released Wednesday. The monthly blog post ranks the best poker players in the world at the moment. The 10-person panel includes PokerNews’ Editor in Chief Elaine Chaivarlis, PokerNews’ Tournament Reporting Manager Don Peters, ESPN’s Andrew Feldman, Gary Wise, and Bernard Lee, among others.

Team PokerStars Pro Jason Mercier held the No. 1 spot for the sixth straight month as he was given six of the 10 first-place votes from the panel. Erik Seidel, who went all of November without cashing in a tournament, landed at No. 2 having earned three first-place votes. Eugene Katchalov and Ben Lamb were ranked third and fourth, respectively. Lamb gained no ground on the top three despite finishing third in the World Series of Poker Main Event.

The biggest mover in the top 10 was Sam Trickett, who shifted five spots to No. 5 after a win at the Partouche Poker Tour for $1.3 million. Trickett now has more than $4.2 million in winnings in 2011 and recently passed David “Devilfish” Ulliott as Britain’s all-time money earner in live poker tournaments.

Trickett’s friend and fellow UK pro Chris Moorman picked up the final first-place vote and was seventh on the list, up two spots from last week. Moorman recently became the first player ever to surpass $7.5 million in online tournament earnings and added some more big scores to his total in November.

If you want to find out what the rest of the list looks, check it out at ESPN.com.

World’s Richest Poker Tournament = Publicity Grab

In Wednesday’s Nightly Turbo, we brought you a story about a rumored $100 million poker tournament in the works in Macau. We were skeptical right off the bat. Are 500 people going to put up $200,000 each to play a tournament when the Super High Roller events at the PCA and Aussie Millions barely reached 30 entrants?

Our doubts were confirmed on Thursday when Tom Hall, CEO of Asia Logic (which owns and operates the Asia Poker Tour), posted his thoughts on TwoPlusTwo.com:

“This to me seems to be utter garbage. Nobody sensible I know in Macau knows anything about it. None of the casinos, poker room managers, big game players, junket room operators or media guys has heard anything credible. You also have to get any poker event approved by the DICJ (Macau regulator) in conjunction with the hosting casino. Also, as gambling on TV is highly restricted in China and promotion of gaming generally frowned upon, why would Chinese institutions support it. Publicity grab.”

There you have it. It doesn’t appear this will ever get off the ground. It’s a shame, too, because we were looking forward to hearing Daniel Negreanu’s thoughts on the winner of the event taking over first place on poker’s all-time money list.

Check out the entire thread at TwoPlusTwo.

Estrellas Poker Tour Returns for Season 3

Concerns about the future of the Estrellas Poker Tour were eased this week as PokerStars announced the return of the popular Spanish tour for a third season. There were worries that the tour would be cut because of the adoption of new online gambling regulations in Spain, but all doubts were dispelled with the release of the 2012 schedule on Tuesday.

Season 3 will feature five stops across Spain, kicking off in Madrid in January and culminating with the Grand Final in Barcelona in August. Each venue will host a “1,000 + “100 Main Event and a full schedule of side events.

Said Team PokerStars Spain Pro Ana Marquez: “I’ve only played a few Estrellas, because so far my career has focused on the U.S. Tour, but whenever I’ve taken part I’ve enjoyed playing against good players. So I look forward to the beginning of the third season, which will be the first whole season I play, and I’m hoping for some good results!”

Players can qualify for the Estrellas Poker Tour events in online satellites at PokerStars.com. Learn more by reading the PokerStars blog.

PokerStars 10th Anniversary e-Magazine

In celebration of its 10th anniversary, PokerStars has released an e-magazine looking back at the past 10 years of the world’s largest poker site. The e-magazine is available in six languages and is packed with stories, interviews from players and people who have worked at PokerStars through the years.

We were especially impressed by the look and feel of the online mag, and the stories are a must-read for anyone who’s played at PokerStars in the past decade. One story in particular that made us chuckle involved one-time poker room manager Lee Jones ordering pizzas to be delivered to players at a PokerStars high-stakes limit hold’em game because he was afraid they weren’t leaving their seats to get food.

You can download the PokerStars e-magazine at the PokerStars Blog.

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Follow Brett Collson on Twitter – @brettcollson

September 27 2011, Elaine Chaivarlis

It wouldn’t be a typical day around here if there wasn’t a story on Full Tilt Poker to report - even if it is just a rumor. We’ve got the latest buzz surrounding the company, and we’ll tell you what the Nevada Gaming Control Board has to say about Internet poker in the state, and more.

In Case You Missed It

On Monday, a champion was crowned at the PokerStars Australia New Zealand Poker Tour Melbourne. Lee Nelson emerged victorious, confirming his nickname – “Final Table.”

After 23 days and 62 events, the 2011 PokerStars World Championship of Online Poker is officially over. If you missed any of the live coverage of the Main Event, or want the short and sweet version, check out our WCOOP recap.

Last week, the poker world was inundated with Full Tilt Poker news. In our latest Five Thoughts piece, we take a look everything related to Full Tilt Poker from last week.

Since the inception of the World Series of Poker November Nine, the success of the players during their “off months” is tracked closely. Does winning a major title in the off months correlate to a better run in November?

The days until the 2011 November Nine are dwindling and we’re always curious to find out how the members of the prestigious Final Table are spending their time. We recently talked to Martin Staszko to find out how he’s preparing for poker’s biggest stage.

The Rumor Mill Churns

Tuesday morning while perusing the Internet for the top poker news stories of the day, we stumbled upon a piece on HighStakesDB that made us stop – “Full Tilt Poker Has Been Sold?”

According to HighStakesDB, TwoPlusTwo Pokercast host Adam Schwartz tweeted earlier on Tuesday that the sale of Full Tilt Poker was allegedly complete.

Shortly thereafter, Schwartz posted in the FTP Discussion Thread on TwoPlusTwo.

“I was told by what I feel <and most of you would too btw> is a very reputable source. This person doesn’t want me to say their name. Obviously I wouldn’t have said it if someone sitting next to me in the $1/2 game told me. If some of you are unhappy that i tweeted it, what can I say, I felt it was worthy of some confidence.”

Schwartz is backing this story though, saying he heard from a trusted source, and replying to a tweet asking if he thought it was true, by saying, “I would be very surprised if it wasn’t. Someone very close to the negotiations would have had to lie to him.”

Is it true? We don’t know. We reached out to Full Tilt Poker and have heard nothing back (not that we were really holding our breath). As always, if we hear anything, you all will be the first to know.

HighStakesDB.com has more.

Gaming Control Board at Ease

On Monday, the Gaming Control Board in Nevada listened to public input regarding proposed gambling regulations – which also includes Internet poker. According to the Las Vegas Review-Journal, discussions were “peaceful.” Maybe it was the feng shui in the room, or Internet poker isn’t that touchy of a subject.

“I think we have a solid foundation for regulations,” said control board chairman Mark Lipparelli.

Anthony Cabot, a gaming attorney, suggested “the regulations carry some type of language that they could not be used for intrastate wagering until a federal ban on Internet gambling is lifted or there is a clarification from the U.S. Department of Justice.”

Cabot also asked that “gaming customer would have the ‘seamless ability’ to transfer gaming funds between a casino account and an interactive gaming account, if they were operated by the same company.”

Read more at LVRJ.com.

Added to the Schedule

PokerStars has added a deepstack event to the European Poker Tour Prague schedule. According to the PokerStars Blog, the “300 + “30 buy-in, “30,000 guarantee event that was added to the schedule will double as the Eureka Poker Tour Grand Final.

If you thought that Season 1 of the Eureka Poker Tour was looking to add another stop, Romania, you would have been correct, but tax issues stopped those plans.

Last season’s EPT Prague attracted 563 entrants, and in the end, Roberto Romanello emerged victorious and pocketed “640,000.

Read more on at PokerStarsBlog.com.

For the Sports Fans

On Tuesday, DraftDay.com was launched. DraftDay, a daily fantasy sports website, is the brainchild of poker pros Taylor Caby and Andrew Wiggins.

“Taylor and I started tossing around the idea of a fantasy sports website years ago, but the timing was never right,” said Wiggins. “After I won my MLB league last season, I took it as a sign that we needed to push the idea toward reality. DraftDay is a unique fantasy sports experience that you won’t find anywhere else. There’s no season long commitment and there’s always a draft available.”

DraftDay allows sports fans to test their fantasy sports skills and offers daily games for fantasy football, baseball, basketball, and hockey. Buy-ins range from freerolls to $500.

“There is a social aspect to fantasy sports that you also find in poker. It’s competitive, stats driven and an adrenaline rush. It’s also a great way to make a hobby into something really profitable,” said Wiggins.

“There’s nothing better than sweating out a ballgame knowing one or two key plays can earn you money and bragging rights,” Caby said.

Read the press release for more.

PSA: Watch the WSOP

ESPN’s coverage of the 2011 World Series of Poker Main Event continues this week with Day-6 action. It all kicks off at 10 p.m. EDT with the final 142 players in the race for the final table. There’s also a feature on doppelgangers this week where pros like Jean-Robert Bellande, Daniel Negreanu, and Jason Mercier will tell you who they’ve been told they look like.

Follow PokerNews on Twitter for up-to-the-minute news.

Follow Elaine Chaivarlis on Twitter – @LaneyLV