Miss any of the day’s biggest poker stories? You’ve come to the right place. In this edition of the Nightly Turbo, we’re covering a heads-up match between two of poker’s high rollers, the return of a Playboy-branded online poker room, and more.

In Case You Missed It

The Full Tilt Online Poker Series (FTOPS) resumed on Thursday. Which well-known pro won his second FTOPS jersey? Find out in our FTOPS XXI Day 12 recap.

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

Did you miss anything from the past week? Don’t worry, we’ve got you covered. Kristy Arnett and Sarah Grant broke down all the big stories from the tournament circuit in the PokerNews Weekly.

Need advice about how to play ZOOM Poker at PokerStars? In the latest CardRunners teaser video, instructor Dylan “dintyo” Tollemache plays four tables while commentating on his decision making.

The 2012/2013 World Series of Poker Circuit Harrah’s Rincon Main Event kicked off on Friday. Chad Holloway took a look back at the winners of the preliminary events at Rincon.

Cates Versus Rast

Daniel “Jungleman” Cates is regarded as one of the best NLHE heads-up players in the world. The 23-year-old poker pro has won more than $5 million playing high-stakes cash games online, and is possibly best known for leading Tom “durrrr” Dwan by more than $1 million in the second Durrrr Challenge match prior to Black Friday.

Last October, Cates even issued an open challenge to anyone willing to go heads-up for a minimum of “100,000 at the Prague Poker Festival. No one accepted in Prague, but Cates has finally found a challenger in the U.S.

The Dover Downs Poker Room in Delaware announced this week that Cates will participate in a live heads-up match with Brian “tsarrast” Rast on Feb. 1, 2013. The match will be a $100,000 buy-in with $100/$200 limits and will be open to the public.

Rast is recognized for his tournament success, having won two bracelets at the 2011 World Series of Poker and making the final table at this summer’s Big One For One Drop. But ring games are his bread and butter, and there’s no doubt he has more live game experience than Cates.

These two also have some history against each other, as you’ll see in the following video (action starts at the 1:35 mark):

For more on the showdown, check out the Dover Downs website.

Playboy Brand Returns to Poker

Amaya Gaming Group Inc., a technology-based gaming provider and new owner of the Ongame Network, has signed a global licensing agreement with Playboy Enterprises to assist in creating a variety of poker and lottery “Playboy” branded products beginning in 2013. With its brand stamped on products in retail stores and entertainment venues, the iconic Playboy trademark will now be growing into digital areas including online gaming.

“This is a giant global brand for Amaya to partner with online,” said David Baazov, CEO of the Amaya Gaming Group. “With its tremendous online audience and boasting one of the highest unaided global awareness and social media user engagements of any brand, we’re confident that our collaboration with Playboy will be a recipe for success and look forward to guiding them in their online endeavors.”

“The Playboy lifestyle is about indulging our passions, and we are focused on bringing content, products and experiences to consumers around the globe that define this lifestyle,” said Scott Flanders, CEO of Playboy Enterprises. “Gaming is an ideal fit with our strategy and we’re delighted to partner with Amaya on this project, combining a leading global brand with a strong technology partner to offer what we believe will be exciting online gaming experiences.”

This isn’t Playboy’s first run at online gaming. In 2006, Playboy signed a three-year deal with Cryptologic to offer a Playboy-branded Internet casino powered by CryptoLogic’s casino software. The deal ended in 2009, and Playboy elected to exit the online gaming industry after enactment of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA).

The full press release can be found at Yahoo.com.

Bwin.party Enters Belgium Legally

Online gambling firm bwin.party digital entertainment has entered an agreement that will allow it to operate legally in Belgium. On Friday, bwin.party announced a partnership with Partouche-owned gambling company Belcasinos in which the two companies will collaborate to offer online sports betting, poker and casino games to consumers in the country.

The announcement comes just weeks after bwin.party co-CEO Norbert Teufelberger was summoned for questioning by Belgian authorities while attending the Responsible Gaming Day conference in Brussels. Teufelberger’s detainment stemmed from the Belgium Gambling Commission’s (BGC) view that bwin.party was in breach of the country’s gambling legislation. The company was placed on Belgium’s gambling blacklist in May but continued offering its services in the country.

“We are excited to have reached an agreement with Partouche to offer our market-leading products under license to consumers in Belgium,” said bwin.party co-CEOs Teufelberger and Jim Ryan. “Following recent developments in Belgium and after further dialogue with the local regulator, we have put our differences of opinion behind us and are now focused on the immediate commercial opportunity.

“Together with our new partner we are now in the process of securing the necessary approvals to meet the requirements set by the BGC and do not expect any interruption to our service for customers in Belgium.”

Bwin.party said in a press release that after the deal with Partouche, the BGC agreed to drop all pending legal disputes and will lift bwin’s websites from its blacklist. Bwin.party added that it has begun to adapt its systems to comply fully with the current licensing regime.

Read the full press release at bwinparty.com.

Bernard Lee Gives Back

Bernard Lee, an established New England player, will offer the gift of giving again this holiday season. Lee will be donating 20 holiday packages to 27 families with 53 children in the Lawrence, Massachusetts’s area as part of The Full House Charity Program.

Each family will receive a gift certificate to a local restaurant and a cheddar sampler pack from Cabot Cheese. Children will receive a holiday package that includes winter clothing, a hat and gloves, books, toys, ball/game, art supplies, holiday sweets, a stuffed animal and a Cabot Cheese children’s fun pack.

“In the spirit of the holiday season, my hope is that these packages bring joy to struggling families. I feel so grateful for my family that I want to share some holiday cheer with families other than my own,” said Lee. “Giving back to the community is the mission of the Full House Charity Program.”

Read the full press release here.

Prague Knows How To Party

PokerStars is known for throwing some crazy parties at each European Poker Tour stop. Sarah Grant caught up with some poker players during the latest soirée in Prague.

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

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

October 26 2012, Brett Collson, Pamela Maldonado

In Case You Missed It

How was the high-stakes action at the PokerStars tables this week? Read the Online Railbird Report to find out the week’s biggest winners and losers.

The October Nine is right around the corner. What has Jeremy Ausmus done to prepare for the biggest final table of his life? Find out in his interview with PokerNews.

Dominik Nitsche added a World Poker Tour title to his WSOP bracelet on Friday. Take a look at his domination of the WPT South Africa final table in our WTPSA recap.

Kristy Arnett returned with her Strategy With Kristy strategy podcast on Friday. This week, Kristy was joined by Andrew Moreno and Lincoln Garner for Part 2 of her Live Cash Game Grinders series.

The 2012 PokerStars.net Australia New Zealand Poker Tour Melbourne Main Event kicked off on Thursday. High-stakes regular Billy Jordanou enjoyed a great day in his hometown, finishing Day 1a as the chip leader.

Rich Ryan went 8-0 in his NFL bets last week. But he learned a valuable lesson after this week’s Thursday Night game. Ryan discusses that and gives his picks for the rest of Week 8 in the latest Pigskin Diaries.

Did you miss anything from the past week? Don’t worry, we’ve got you covered. Lynn Gilmartin broke down all the big stories in the PokerNews Weekly.

Inside Ungar’s Mind

Stu Unger is often regarded as the greatest poker player ever. Affectionately known as “The Kid,” he is one of only two players to win the World Series of Poker Main Event three times. He was inducted into the Poker Hall of Fame in 2001, three years after he passed away from a heart condition.

Up until recently, there was little visual evidence of Ungar’s abilities at a poker table. Aside from limited television coverage of Ungar at the WSOP, most of what we about him comes from those who played against him during his prime. Mike Sexton, for example, once called Ungar the “most talented player who’s ever walked on the planet Earth.”

Last week, however, WSOP.com Managing Editor Jess Welman stumbled upon some pieces of poker history that offer some insight into Ungar’s playing style. While doing some research for the upcoming WSOP Main Event final table, Welman found the hand-for-hand coverage of WSOP Main Event final tables from 1995 until 2000. The reporting was done by Tom Sims, who relayed all of the action into a micro-cassette recorder and later wrote it down.

Welman shared the pieces of poker history with the community this week. And taking it one step further was poker pro Clayton Newman, who looked over each hand from the 1997 WSOP Main Event final table won by Ungar and examined the play using statistics and data used in the analytical approach to today’s game.

Newman’s findings shed some light on why Ungar was levels above most poker players of his time. “Ungar played like a solid lagTAG, vpip in the low thirties and PFR in the low twenties,” Newman said after studying the entire final table. “I also like that he kept his raises on the smaller side (3.5x to 3x), as I’m told most live pros would routinely 4x or 5x it and would have inconsistent preflop raise sizing (3x with 55, 6x with AK etc). Ungar stayed consistent and on the smaller side.”

We highly recommend taking the time to read through Newman’s analysis. You can find it in his blog at LeggoPoker.com.

2012 Prague Poker Festival

The 2012 Prague Poker Festival is set to kick off in one month, and tournament organizer Living it Loving it has unveiled three-week schedule that includes more than 30 poker tournaments from the World Poker Tour, PokerStars European Poker Tour, Grand Series of Poker (GSOP), and more.

The festival kicks off on Tuesday, Nov. 27 with a “2,200 buy-in World Sit ‘n’ Go Masters Main Event, and concludes with the “1,100 buy-in Grand Series of Poker Main Event final table on Saturday, Dec. 15. Sandwiched in between those events will be the “5,300 EPT Main Event and the “3,300 PartyPoker WPT Prague Main Event, as well as tournaments organized by King’s, 888 and Planet Win 365.

Organizers of the Prague Poker Festival announced that they will be handing out free seats to the World Poker Tour Prague Main Event to show gratitude to the players for their continued support of the festival. Any player who busts on Day 1a of WPT Prague can head to the cage and register for a Day 1b freeroll where a Main Event seat for Day 1C will be given away for every 11 entries into the freeroll.

If you’re interested in taking part in the action in Prague, check out the schedule at PraguePokerFestival.com.

PokerStars’ Prompt Payouts

Earlier this month, non-U.S. Full Tilt Poker customers were reassured they would be repaid by PokerStars on Nov. 6 as part of the deal with the U.S. Department of Justice. But payday could come sooner for FTP players who reside in France.

According to CasinoChoice, French poker players with money still frozen on FullTiltPoker.fr could begin the reimbursement process as early as next week. French regulator ARJEL said in a statement Thursday that “the date of effective implementation of the reimbursement process of players is Nov. 2, 2012.”

Last month, the ARJEL issued a statement indicating that PokerStars has set up a trust fund to ensure that repayment of FullTiltPoker.fr players goes smoothly. Members of the ARJEL board formed a procedure by which players could verify their identities and transfer funds to their bank accounts. That procedure will be in place by Nov. 2, according to the report.

Once the reimbursement process in France is ready to go, players will transfer the funds from their Full Tilt Poker account to their PokerStars.fr account. Full Tilt Poker customers living in Spain, Denmark, Estonia, and Belgium will be also repaid through the locally licensed PokerStars platform. In all other markets (except the U.S. and Italy), Full Tilt Poker customers will have full access to their accounts when FullTiltPoker.com relaunches.

PokerStars is continuing to work with Italian regulators, and the details will be announced as soon as possible.

CasinoChoice has more on the story.

COPA Crumbles

They were all-in, but now it’s all over for the California Online Poker Association (COPA).

The California group, created two years ago to lobby for online gambling, folded its efforts this week after legislators failed to pass a handful of bills. COPA barreled $1.2 million on lobbying in the first half of 2012 alone, outspending companies like Chevron and the California Teachers Association.

During COPA’s two-year run, a handful of proposed bills fell through the cracks as interest dissipated or the state could not agree upon the financial rewards for who would be involved.

The COPA operating agreement stated the organization would dissolve if advancement within legislation had not been made by Jan. 2, 2013. “The decision was based upon insufficient progress within the Legislature toward the passage of an online poker bill,” Ryan Hightower, the group’s spokesman, said in a statement.

The San Manuel and Morongo tribes are two groups involved with COPA that are keeping the faith in seeing online gambling happen in California. But both believe it will just take time. “The politics over Internet poker over the last two years simply has not caught up with modern technology’s inroads into California gaming economics,” said San Manuel Chairwoman Carla Rodriguez.

Efforts within the group might be reassessed if legislation makes some headway in 2013′s proceedings.

Read more at the Sacramento Bee and The Press Enterprise.

Full Tilt Poker’s Ad Campaign

Full Tilt Poker’s growth in becoming the world’s second largest real-money poker site had a lot to do with its television ads. The sleek, black and white images of high-profile pros like Tom Dwan, Phil Ivey and Patrik Antonius are forever entrenched into the minds of many poker enthusiasts.

As the popular saying goes, “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” On Thursday, FTP unveiled some of the new TV spots set to debut outside of the U.S. after the site’s relaunch on Nov. 6. They might look a little familiar:

Check out all four ads at Youtube.com.

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