February 24 2012, Brett Collson

Before you kick back and start enjoying your weekend, the Nightly Turbo is here to bring you the biggest poker stories of the day. Today we’ve got Matt Glantz speaking out about Full Tilt Poker, the WSOP Africa handing out its first championship ring of 2012, and more!

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.

Brian Hastings earned “legend” status when he won more than $4 million from Viktor “Isildur1″ Blom in one day in 2009. But it hasn’t been all smooth sailing for Hastings, who discussed his first huge downswing in the latest edition of My First.

A final table was reached at the PokerStars.com European Poker Tour Copenhagen Main Event on Friday. Find out who is still in contention in our daily recap.

Browsing poker forums can be a daunting and time-consuming task. To help you out, Rich Ryan takes a look at some of the top threads on the Internet in his This is How We Troll piece.

What has been going on between Wynn Resorts and its largest shareholder? And why didn’t anyone show up for the Hooters Casino auction? Get the details on those stories and more in Inside Gaming.

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

Matt Glantz Pessimistic About Sale of FTP

Poker pro Matt Glantz’s stance on the situation at Full Tilt Poker has gone through a complete transformation in recent months. The high-stakes regular was one of the few players to defend Full Tilt Poker after Black Friday, but it seems that Glantz has officially lost his patience with the company.

In a recent blog post, Whispers From Full Tilt, Glantz said that he’s reached out to a number of Full Tilt Poker shareholders, most of whom said they’ve remained silent about the issue so as to not catch blame for interfering with the sale of the site.

Glantz says he believes that the pending deal between Full Tilt Poker and Groupe Bernard Tapie is looking bleak, especially now that Tapie has publicly revealed the list of players who allegedly owe money to Full Tilt Poker.

“Unfortunately I feel based on their recent actions, I believe it is inevitable that Tapie will be backing out,” Glantz wrote. “It looks to me that for whatever reasons they have no real interest in acquiring FTP … The truth is that some if not most of the players Tapie has outed do not have the money to pay the company back and it is not going to happen. One can assume that Tapie is only doing this to save face, so when they officially back out of the deal they will have public names to blame.”

To read the full blog, check out mattglantzpoker.com.

Gregory Ronaldson Wins Opening Event at 2012 WSOP Africa

The 2nd Annual World Series of Poker Africa is under way at the Emerald Casino in Johannesburg. The first of six champions on the 2012 schedule was crowned on Friday when Gregory Ronaldson won the opening event, a $350 no-limit hold’em event which saw 324 players compete for a prize pool of $92,200.

After three days of play, Ronaldson, a 28-year-old poker pro from Johannesburg, found himself heads-up against Jaco van Tonder for the title. On the final hand, Ronaldson’s pocket eights held up against van Tonder’s , and Ronaldson collected nearly $23,000 for his efforts. It was the second title for Ronaldson in a month. He took down the $5,000 Heads-Up Championship at the 2012 Aussie Millions for $82,358 on Jan. 23.

Here’s a look at the final table results from the opening event of the 2012 WSOP Africa:

2012 WSOP Africa Event #1 Final Table Results

There are still five events on the 2012 WSOP Africa schedule, including the $3,300 Main Event beginning on Friday, Feb. 24. Visit wsop.com for detailed recaps of each event.

Vanessa Selbst Wins Star-studded $5,000 LAPC Event

The $10,000 Main Event at the Los Angeles Poker Classic kicked off on Friday, but a prelim event was getting all the attention at the Commerce Casino late Thursday night. A stacked field in the $5,000 no-limit hold’em event played down to a winner, and Team PokerStars Pros Vanessa Selbst and Jonathan Duhamel were the last two standing from a field of 98.

After notables like Josh Brikis, Stephen Chidwick, Faraz Jaka, Matt Stout and McLean Karr exited the final table, Selbst and Duhamel decided to cut a deal. Selbst then went on to take down the title and a top prize of $140,295, while Duhamel collected $121,115 – his fourth six-figure score of 2012.

Here’s a look at the final table results of the 2012 LAPC $5,000 no-limit hold’em event:

2012 L.A. Poker Classic Event #45 Final Table Results

For an in-depth look at how the final table played out, read the recap here at PokerNews.com.

Galfond Selling Apartment

Phil Galfond moved to Vancouver last year following the DOJ’s crackdown on online poker, so he didn’t see the need to hang onto his multimillion dollar grinding pad in New York City. According to the Wall Street Journal, Galfond is asking for just under $4 million for his duplex penthouse apartment located in Manhattan’s East Village.

Galfond’s apartment comes with two bedrooms, four baths, elevator entry, and a helical steel slide connecting the two floors. Yes, that’s right – a slide. It was even featured in Design Milk last year.

For a look at the listing of Galfond’s apartment, check out the Wall Street Journal.

Everleaf Confirms U.S. Authorities Seized Funds

Nearly two weeks after making a hasty exit from the U.S. market, Everleaf Gaming broke its silence with a statement to the media on Thursday. The company confirmed that player funds had been seized by U.S. authorities but reassured all affected players that all the funds will be refunded in full.

Everleaf players residing in the U.S. were prohibited from playing on any of the network’s 100-plus skins beginning on Feb. 9, 2012. Everleaf did not release an explanation for the stoppage, but a representative from Minted Poker revealed that the network received a cease and desist order from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and faced legal action if it continues to facilitate its services in the U.S.

Everleaf said in the statement that the seizure occurred in the U.S. and only affects U.S. players, and that business in other markets will continue to run as usual.

Everleaf’s statement can be found right here at PokerNews.com.

Andrew Robl, Alec Torelli Leave Victory Poker

On Friday, poker pros Andrew Robl and Alec Torelli both took to their blogs to announce their departure from Victory Poker.

“I’m parting ways with Victory Poker to pursue other business opportunities,” wrote Robl, who joined Team Victory Poker when the site launched in February 2010. “I had a great time representing Victory Poker and wish them continued success in everything they do. I no longer have any association with the company or any associated businesses/products.”

Torelli wrote a similar entry, thanking the site and wishing the company “continued success in the future.”

Victory Poker closed its poker room last June. The site moved its international poker player base to the Cake Poker Network after Black Friday, and CEO Dan Fleyshman had plans to run an affiliate site providing “news, strategy, videos, and reviews.”

Check out the blogs from Robl and Torelli for more.

PokerStars LAPT Gears Up for Season 5

Season 4 of the PokerStars.net Latin American Poker Tour came to a close on Monday, but the tour is already getting arrangements in order for Season 5. The next season will get under way on March 25, 2012, from the Vina del Mar Enjoy Casino and Hotel in Chile.

The LAPT returns to Vina del Mar for the third time and has lowered the buy-in for the $1,000 Main Event in hopes of besting last year’s field of 621 players.

“For this third visit to Chile, the capacity for the Main Event has been increased to allow up to 1,000 players, so we can cater for the entire Latin American and international poker community,” said Carolina Elchiver, the venue’s corporate marketing manager. “In addition, the seven side events will also have an increased capacity.”

You can find the full Season 5 LAPT schedule at PokerNews.com.

Mega Poker Series Hits Nottingham in March

The second event of Poker 770′s Mega Poker Series 2012 is set to take place from March 7 through 11 at the Dusk Till Dawn Poker Club at Nottingham. With a buy-in of just “770 and various live and online qualifiers available, the deep structure of 77,000 starting chips and 77-minute blind levels offers players one of the best-valued tournaments of the year.

In addition to the great tournament, Poker700 will be hosting an exclusive VIP Players party on Saturday, March 10. Players can earn their VIP status by accumulating 1770 Points on Poker770 or by qualifying for the Main Event through an online satellite.

For more information on how to qualify online, check out Poker770.com.

Grand Final Thoughts

Earlier this month, we found out that the EPT Grand Final will be headed back to Monaco after a one-year hiatus. Sarah Grant caught up with some of the players at EPT Copenhagen to get their thoughts on the move back to the Monte Carlo Bay Hotel & Casino.

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January 27 2012, Brett Collson

Is Phil Ivey destined to win the 2012 Aussie Millions Main Event? If so, you can be sure the Crown Casino will have the high-roller craps tables ready for him. While several members of the PokerNews team are in Melbourne covering the finale of that event, we’re here to bring you the other big stories of the day, including a poker bot competition, Washington, D.C.’s debate over online gambling, and more.

In Case You Missed It

Phil Ivey advanced to Day 5 of the 2012 Aussie Millions Main Event on Friday, but he ended the day as the short stack. For details on the hand that got him there, check out our daily Aussie Millions recap.

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 World Series of Poker Circuit Caesars Main Event is under way in Las Vegas. PokerNews’ Chad Holloway previews the Main Event and breaks down the results from the preliminary events.

Miss anything this week? We’ve got you covered. Nicki Pickering gets you caught up on the latest news, views and gossip in the PokerNews Weekly.

Rise of the Machines

Students participating in an online poker course at MIT this semester will be competing in the MIT Pokerbots Competition next month. Teams of one to four students have been given one month to program a completely autonomous “pokerbot” to compete against other teams, with more than $30,000 in prizes up for grabs. Nearly 50 teams have already signed up for the computerized poker tournament, which is set for Monday, Feb. 6.

More than 200 students are taking the poker course, which is instructed by former online poker pro Will Ma (pictured above). The three-week seminar discusses mathematical strategies needed to be a long-term winner at no-limit hold’em tournaments. Students are evaluated by their performance in a PokerStars Home Game league (for play money, of course).

Ma is a former instructor at CardRunners, but he might be best known for his victory at the 2007 “10,000 Grand Prix De Paris Main Event for “422,560. He also has more than $1.7 million in online tournament earnings, much of which came under the name “CutiePi314″ at PokerStars.

More information about the Pokerbots Competition can be found at mitpokerbots.com.

Online Gambling on Hold in D.C.

The District of Columbia was the first U.S. jurisdiction to pass online gambling last April, but officials in the nation’s capital are still divided on whether the government should move forward with the venture.

Online gambling became legal in D.C. last year when a councilman inserted language into a budget bill that would allow poker and other games to be played on the Internet within the jurisdiction. A 30-day objection period ended without any obstruction from Congress, turning the bill into a law.

On Thursday, council member Jack Evans said at a public hearing that there is no rush to roll out an online gambling operation, even though D.C. lottery officials said they could potentially launch a website to offer a test run within 30 days. “Given where we are now, should we go back and revisit it or not? That’s what I’ll decide,” Evans said, according to an Associated Press report.

Nevada and D.C. remain the only jurisdictions to approve online gambling within their borders, but a repeal bill introduced last year by D.C. council member Tommy Wells could ultimately amend the law in the District. Other states, including Nevada, have hinted at the possibility of offering online gaming by the end of the year.

Read more at the Washington Post.

TCOOP Winding Down

The inaugural PokerStars Turbo Championship of Online Poker (TCOOP) is hitting the homestretch as 35 of the 50 events were completed through Thursday. That left only 15 events on the slate heading into the weekend, including the $2,100 buy-in High Roller and $700 Main Event on Sunday.

Here’s a look at the results from Thursday:

Event #32: No Limit Hold’em 3x Turbo w/ Rebuys ($100K Guaranteed)

The smallest buy-in of the TCOOP saw nearly 17,000 players combine for around 70,000 rebuys and add-ons, creating a prize pool of $429,065. Team PokerStars Pro Alex Kravchenko exited short of the final table in 19th place, and Romania’s “i.love.ri” won the title outright for $50,196.

Event #33: Razz ($50K Guaranteed)

More than 2,000 players took part in the $33 razz event, which took less than four hours to complete. “Wintyara” won the title and biggest payout of $9,518 after a three-way deal at the final table.

Event #34: No Limit Hold’em 2x Chance ($400K Guaranteed)

The richest tournament of the day attracted 2,459 players to generate a prize pool of nearly $700,000. Germany’s “WorDN” won the tournament and just over $100,000 after a heads-up deal with Mexico’s “OBVAMENTS.”

Event #35: Pot Limit Omaha 4-Max ($25K Guaranteed)

Alex Kravchenko made his second deep run of the day in this one but again fell short of his first TCOOP title, finishing 26th. Austria’s “Sisnleicht?” went on to win the event for $17,804.

For more details on each event, check out the PokerStars Blog.

Online Poker Traffic Report

PokerScout.com released its online poker traffic rankings earlier this week. The tracking site reported an overall drop of 2 percent as seven of the top 10 sites saw declines from the previous week.

The Merge Gaming Network took a 10 percent hit after its $1 million bad-beat jackpot hit last week. Still, Merge is dominating the rest of its competition in the U.S. market. PokerScout reports that since Bodog introduced anonymous tables last month, the site has lost 5 percent of its traffic. In that same time frame, the Merge Gaming Network has gained 14 percent and the Cake Poker Network is up 5 percent. Bodog also renamed its U.S.-facing business to Bovada late last month.

As for year-over-year numbers, PokerScout’s ACES indicator reports that online poker traffic (with the exception of Italy) decreased by 32 percent in the past year. Full Tilt Poker and the CEREUS Network can be blamed mostly for that number, but the Entraction Network (down 52 percent) and the International Poker Network (down 47 percent) have seen significant drops since last year. The biggest climbers since January 2011 are the Merge Network (up 82 percent), 888poker (up 69 percent) and Bodog (up 45 percent).

Read the full report at PokerScout.com.

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