March 14 2011, Elaine Chaivarlis

If you’re looking for the top poker news stories of the day, you’ve come to the right place. Over the weekend, Prahlad Friedman tossed out some allegations on his Twitter account, so we’ll tell you more about that, a New York Times article on poker bots, and more.

In Case You Missed It

While in Copenhagen for the European Poker Tour, PokerStars set up a hard-wired room for its pros to set up Home Games. In the latest Sunday Grind, Florian Langmann tells us a little more about PokerStars Home Games.

The European Poker Tour’s next stop is Saalbach-Hinterglemm for Snowfest. We take a look at some of our favorite Snowfest moments in the latest Video Vault.

If you’ve been following the news (and even tweets) over the weekend, you know about the devastating earthquake and tsunami in Japan. The poker community has reached out to help already, check out what players have done to get involved in donating, and how you can donate as well.

Another Sunday has passed and you know what that means: a few players have added six-digit scores to their bankrolls — 12 to be exact. Find out who in this week’s Sunday Briefing.

FSN’s coverage of the World Poker Tour continued on Sunday with the Borgata Poker Open. If you missed the action, the WPT recap will get you up to speed.

If your DVR failed to record the latest episode of High Stakes Poker, you should get a new one. Until then, catch up on what you missed with our HSP recap.

Full Tilt Poker has just announced a six-event, high-stakes tournament series. Find out more about the Onyx Cup and what some of the members of Team Full Tilt have to say about it.

Prahlad Not Avoiding Drama

Over the weekend, Prahlad Friedman took to his Twitter account to express his concerns about a player he was playing against recently online. Friedman alleges that he told Issac Haxton he didn’t want to play him online. Soon thereafter, Friedman started playing a random player online and after looking up that player’s stats, found out they were identical to those of Issac Haxton. Friedman goes on to say, that the radom player, “xxtrmsk8rx,” had a different style of play on the first day the two played. Friedman believes two different people were playing on that account. He alleges that it is Haxton and Justin Bonomo.

Friedman was then bombarded with tweets from various poker players voicing their opinion on the situation. As of now, Haxton hasn’t responded to the allegations.

TwoPlusTwo has a thread going about the situation.*

*Not “THE Situation”

Times to Talk Bots

The New York Times ran a story over the weekend detailing player’s run in with a poker bot ring. Bryan Taylor suspected he was playing against computers when he noticed that three of the opponents he frequently played against were acting oddly and playing in similar ways. He brought this issue to the attention of PokerStars and the site concluded that the opponents were in fact bots and shut down the ring.

“PokerStars is continuing to invest substantial resources to combat bots,” Michael Josem, a security manager at the site, said. “When a player is identified as a bot, PokerStars removes them from our games as soon as possible.” Their winnings are confiscated, he said, and the company will “provide compensation to players when appropriate.”

The NYT author also spoke with the owner of a bot company, Brian Jetter, who says that, “Full Tilt Poker had seized more than $50,000 of his customer’s money.”

It was also reported that since reporting his suspicions to PokerStars, Taylor has secured a job with the online poker giant, helping the site protect the integrity of its games.

Read more at NYTimes.com.

World Team Poker Headed Back to Las Vegas

It was just announced that the World Team Pokers Championship Event will be held at the South Point Hotel, Casino and Spa May 24 through 26.

There are 21 teams scheduled to play so far, including teams from the USA, Australia, Greece, England, Russia, Italy, and a wild-card team of celebrity poker players that will be captained by Los Angeles Lakers owner, Jerry Buss. Other teams have expressed interest in playing but are still in the process of finalizing their rosters.

Among those players who will be attending are, Annie Duke, Doyle Brunson, Phil Hellmuth, Tony Guoga, Maria Ho, Johnny Chan, and Annette Obrestad.

To find out more about the event and the players you can head on over to WorldTeamPoker.com.

Dealer Saves Player

Steve Parigian was starting his first shift as a poker dealer at Raynham Park’s poker room over the weekend. Parigian was also an EMT in training. A man collapsed in the poker room just hours into Parigian’s first shift at the poker room. He and two other patrons jumped in to give the man CPR. When the Raynham fire and resue team arrived, they said that the initial help was what saved the man’s life.

“Those gentlemen who were there – they did an amazing thing by jumping in,” Matt Ryan from the Raynham Fire Department said.

The victim has since been moved to a hospital in Boston to recover.

Check out the interview with Parigian from WHDH.

Recapping The Big Event

The Big Event is officially over. If you haven’t been keeping up with all the action, you can see the highlights and outtakes from the week.

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March 16 2011, Elaine Chaivarlis

Tired of rewatching Lucky You when you need your poker movie fix? (Who are we kidding, you don’t watch that.) But in case you do, you’ll need to toss that and pick up Hitting the Nuts. We’ll tell you where to find it, give you the details on the upcoming PartyPoker Big Game V, where you can get your shot at taking on Tony G and others, and more.

In Case You Missed It

Day 1b of the World Poker Tour Bay 101 Shooting Star kicked off Tuesday and 273 players took their seats in hopes to make it to Day 2 and collect some bounties. Check out the WPT recap to find out who’s making it to Thursday’s Day 2.

Ever wonder what some of the high-stakes regulars are thinking when they’re betting multiple thousands of dollars on hands? We do, too, and that’s why we discuss strategy with them, like in this hand analysis with David Benefield.

There is plenty of news in the gaming industry, what with the Sahara closing, and the Ho family drama in Macau. Don’t know about it? Find out more in the latest Inside Gaming.

Full Tilt Poker announced the Onyx Cup Series on Monday. This sparked a debate between Rich Ryan and Chad Holloway. Is the Onyx Cup Good for Poker? Check out the debate and let us know what you think.

The PokerNews crew is fired up about the Onyx Cup, Twitter wars, and more. Find out what they had to say in the latest PokerNews Podcast.

PartyPoker Big Game V

Last year, the PartyPoker Big Game took place at the Les Ambassadeurs club in Mayfair, London. This year, there will be a change of scenery. The PartyPoker Big Game V will take place at Dusk Til Dawn casino in Nottingham from April 15 through 17.

Tony G, David “Viffer” Peat, Annette Obrestad, Jennifer Tilly, James Bord, Neil Channing and Sam Trickett are among those players who will take part in the 48-hour cash game.

“I’m really looking forward to playing in my home town of Nottingham – Dusk Till Dawn is a fitting venue for a prestigious event like the 48 hour cash game,” Trickett said. “The line up is even sicker than last year, so I’ll have to be on my A-game!

PokerNews will be there bringing you all the news and gossip from the set. We’re also sponsoring the PokerNews Pots to spice up the game a little.

Wishing you could take part in the action? You can. Qualifiers are running on PartyPoker and nine $15,000 packages will be awarded.

For more on the event, head on over to UK.PokerNews.com.

Hitting the Nuts on DVD

If you’re a frequent reader of the Nightly Turbo, you probably remember that we told you about the poker-themed comedy, Hitting the Nuts. (If you’re not a frequent reader, we could tell you a thing or two, but we don’t have time for that right now.)

Hitting the Nuts, the independent poker comedy, has won numerous awards at film festivals all over the U.S., and if you didn’t get a chance to attend one of them and see it, you can soon watch it in the comfort of your home. The movie will be released on April 15.

“We made a ridiculous movie on purpose,” director Joe Boyd said. “The poker community has been burnt by a series of unpopular, terrible movies over the last five years. I think people like this movie so much because it takes nothing seriously. It’s a complete silly farce. It’s like the movie Airplane…if Airplane was a fake documentary about poker.”

The production company, Rebel Pilgrim Productions, has decided to self-distribute the DVDs and there is a limited number available. Pre-orders start March 16.

You can find out more about purchasing the DVD in the press release on the Rebel Pilgrim Productions website.

I Used to be Like You

Recently, Jesse May caught up with British poker phenom Sam Trickett for the latest episode of The Poker Show.

Trickett discussed the World Poker Tour National Series in Paris, teaching poker in Cape Town, and the $250,000 Super High Roller at the Aussie Millions, among other things.

He also recounted a moment he had with Phil Ivey while they were both in Australia for the Aussie Millions. While playing against Ivey during the $250,000 Super High Roller, Ivey was short-stacked and turned to Trickett and said, “I used to be like you, when I was 24 or 25. I used to win all of my all-ins.” Trickett said he turned to him and said, “Are you really giving bad beat stories,” giving Ivey a chuckle.

To listen to the entire interview, head on over to the PartyPoker Blog.

There’s an App for That

Wouldn’t it be nice to lounge back while you’re playing poker online and use a remote control to make your bets instead of being tied down to a computer keyboard? Yes, we know you’re thinking – but that invention is already out – the Poker Controller.

Well, if you’ve got an iPad, iPod Touch, or an iPhone, there’s no reason to add an extra piece of technology to your bag. Poker Controls, the U.K. developer of the Poker Controller, has developed an app that will turn your iPad, iPod Touch, or iPhone into a poker controller.

The app comes with bet, check, and fold buttons, a plus/minus bet slider, x2, x3, x5, pot, and all-in buttons as well. You can also switch tables from the app, and sit in and sit out. There’s also a mouse touchpad that is configured to the app, so you can play across different sites at the same time.

You can find the app on the iTunes store and read the press release on ResponseSource.com.

Rock Bottom

To a lot of you, the screen names of our bloggers that you’re all familiar with from our Live Reporting are just that, screen names. Well, our PokerNews Team is multi-faceted.

Check out this music video that Dana “danafish” Immanuel starred in, which was shot and directed by PokerNews cameraman/editor Alexander Bradley. We guarantee checking it out will bring you some run-good.*

*not a real guarantee

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