October 28 2011, Brett Collson

Depending on who you ask, the Philadelphia Eagles have either been running poorly or performing horrendously on the football field this season. Eagles Pro Bowlers Asante Samuel and DeSean Jackson are set to showcase the opposite at the poker table next month, and we’ll give you all the details in this edition of the Nightly Turbo.

In Case You Missed It

The World Poker Tour Foxwoods World Poker Finals kicked off Thursday with its $10,000 buy-in Main Event. Get all the details from Day 1 in our daily 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.

Sunday is almost here and that means football. Find out which teams are good, bad and ugly this week in the latest Pigskin Diaries.

Poker Royalty’s Brian Balsbaugh is one of the most influential figures in the poker industry. Read about what Balsbaugh had to say about Donald Trump and the future of online poker in the latest edition of The Insiders.

Miss anything this week? Kristy Arnett and Laura Cornelius get you caught up on the latest news, views and gossip in the PokerNews Weekly.

*Photo courtesy of Sports Illustrated

Poker Not Protected by First Amendment

A defunct poker club in Wallkill, N.Y., received some unfortunate news from the U.S. Second Circuit Court of Appeals on Friday. The court rejected arguments that the poker club’s activities were protected under the First Amendment, and agreed with a lower court ruling that the poker club’s lawsuit against the town of Wallkill should be dismissed.

The AK Tournament Play club alleged that by interfering with their Texas hold’em tournaments, the town of Wallkill violated their first amendment right to “Freedom of Association.”

It claimed that the town unsuccessfully tried to condemn a portion of the commercial space it occupied in 2007 and engaged in additional “threatening and coercive conduct.” The club, which at one point had 130 members, discontinued its activities after its membership dwindled following the town’s legal action.

“Even assuming arguendo that there might be some circumstances under which a poker club’s activities could involve sufficiently expressive or political content to merit protection under the First Amendment, plaintiff’s conclusory and vague complaint fails to set out facts from which a court could draw that conclusion here,” the appellate court found, as reported by the Wall Street Journal.

More on this story can be found at the Wall Street Journal.

Play Poker with the NFL’s “Dream Team”

Philadelphia Eagles cornerback Asante Samuel is offering fans a chance to play poker with him in a charity poker tournament on Tuesday, Nov. 15. The event will be held at the Whisper nightclub in Philadelphia and proceeds will benefit the Bring It Home Single Moms Foundation.

Samuel will join Eagles wide receiver DeSean Jackson, tight end Brent Celek and longsnapper Jon Dorenbos at the event, which will run from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. NBA players Udonis Haslem and Keyon Dooling will also participate in the charity tournament. Tickets range from $100 to the elite level of $1,000, which will guarantee you a seat at the table with a professional athlete.

Samuel, a two-time Super Bowl champ, founded the Bring It Home Single Moms Foundation this year. In May, he made a $25,000 donation to the Habitat for Humanity office in Miami and did some of the physical labor on a new home for a single mother with two children. Samuel created the foundation as a tribute to his mother, who raised him as a single mother in Miami.

Read more on the charity tournament at the event’s Facebook page.

CEREUS Network Proposes Plan to Reimburse Players

The Kahnawake Gaming Commission released a statement Thursday saying that the CEREUS Network has proposed a plan to the U.S. Department of Justice to allow the reimbursement of all of players from Absolute Poker and UB. Blanca Games, which acquired the CEREUS Network in August 2010, has purportedly been in “close and regular discussions” with the KGC about a solution to facilitate the payments, a process that’s been ongoing since Black Friday

The CEREUS Network has been virtually silent since it came to an alleged agreement with the Department of Justice on May 10. However, with a deadline of Oct. 31 to respond to the amended civil complaint filed last month, it was only a matter of time before we heard from the embattled company.

Read the full release at the KGC’s website.

Support Cerebral Palsy at the All-In for CP Charity Event

The Fourth Annual All-In for CP charity tournament will take place on Dec. 9, 2011, at the Venetian in Las Vegas. The event, which attracts many top poker pros and several celebrities, will raise funds to ease the lives of those with cerebral palsy.

The All-In for CP will feature a buy-in of $540 with unlimited rebuys for the first 90 minutes. Among the celebrities and poker pros expected to attend are Sam Simon, Jennifer Tilly, Shannon Elizabeth, Montel Williams, and Mekhi Phifer. Antonio Esfandiari, Dan Fleyshman, Dennis Phillips, Phil Laak, and Barry Greenstein.

Get more on this story at PokerNews.com.

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Follow Brett Collson on Twitter – @brettcollson

October 28 2011, Chad Holloway

One of the World Poker Tour’s most prestigious and historic stops every year is the World Poker Finals at Foxwoods Resort and Casino. Past champions of this event include Howard Lederer (Season I), Hoyt Corkins (Season II), Tuan Le (Season III), Nick Schulman (Season IV), Nenad Medic (Season V), Mike Vela (Season VI), Jonathan Little (Season VII), Cornel Cimpan (Season VIII), and reigning champ, Jeff Forrest.

The first $10,000 buy-in tournament of Season X of the WPT kicked off on Thursday and drew a field of 185, including many of the aforementioned champions. Registration is open until the Day 2 begins, so that number is expected to grow. With a kind structure and a stacked field, it wasn’t surprising to see some elite poker action. Some players who were in action, and managed to survive the day, include David Williams (16,775), Lee Markholt (37,175), Dwyte Pilgrim (63,400), and Erik Seidel (69,500); however, each of them trails the Day 1 chip leader, Thomas Schreiber, who bagged up 104,000.

There were some crazy hands throughout the day as evidenced by Greg Lang’s once-in-a-lifetime feat of flopping a royal flush, holding the in a heads-up pot. Unfortunately, he didn’t get paid off because his opponent checked behind on the flop and then folded to Lang’s small turn bet.

In another intriguing hand, four players limped for 200 preflop only to have Tony Sinishtaj raise to 1,500 from the button. According to the World Poker Tour Live Update Team, three players made the call and the players saw a flop of . Action checked to Sinishtaj and he fired out 2,500. An early-position player called, and then Nikolai Yakovenko check-raised to 6,500 from middle position. Peter Polianto called from the cutoff, Sinishtaj folded, and the early-position player came along for the ride.

When the hit the turn, the early-position player and Yakovenko checked, opening the door for Polianto to bet 13,000. The early-position player called all-in for 12,000, and Yakovenko folded face up.

Showdown
Early-Position Player:
Politano:

It was an action flop as the early-position player hit a full house but was second best to Politano’s quad threes! What’s more, the river would have given Yakovenko a straight flush; instead, it was Politano who chipped up to 62,000.

Some players thrived, but others failed to survive. Among the players who fell on Day 1 were Micah Raskin, Jason Somerville, Jonathan Aguiar, John Cernuto, David Paredes, and Justin Schwartz. The last player on that list met his demise in Level 5 when an early-position player raised to 725 and Dwyte Pilgrim called from the cutoff. Schwartz responded by moving all-in for 5,850 from the button, Jason Mercier called from the small blind, and the other two players folded.

Showdown
Mercier:
Schwartz:

Schwartz was behind and even more so when the flop fell . Neither the turn nor river helped Schwartz, whose elimination came at the hands of the man many consider to be the best tournament poker player in the world. It would be hard to argue with that if Mercier can somehow add a World Poker Finals victory to his résumé.

On Friday, the remaining 141 players will return to action at 1200 EDT (1600 GMT). In the meantime, here’s a look at the top stacks at the end of Day 1:

Top 10 End of Day 1 Chip Counts

*Photo courtesy of the World Poker Tour.

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Follow Chad Holloway on Twitter – @ChadAHolloway

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