July 06 2012, Brett Collson

We’re only one day away from the start of the World Series of Poker Main Event. The question on everyone’s mind: How many players will put up the $10,000 buy-in? Well, we learned of one superstar athlete who’s participating this weekend. We’ll cover that story and more in this edition of the Nightly Turbo.

In Case You Missed It

How close is Konstatin Puchkov to making World Series of Poker history? We cover that story and more in our Day 40 WSOP recap.

Two WSOP final tables were put on hold late Thursday night. We take a look at the players returning to play for a bracelet in Friday’s What To Watch For.

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.

Antonio Esfandiari won the largest prize in poker history this week. “The Magician” is one of the subjects in Rich Ryan’s Five Thoughts piece.

Does poker involve more luck or skill? The PokerNews video team asked poker pros for their opinion on Thursday.

Looking for a fun, behind-the-scenes perspective of life at the WSOP? All Mucked Up has daily stories from inside the Rio, so check it out!

Luongo Antes Up

Vancouver Canucks goalie Roberto Luongo has announced he will be playing in the World Series of Poker Main Event this weekend. The NHL netminder joins a number of sports superstars like Paul Pierce, Shawn Marion and Antonio Tarver to compete in poker’s most prestigious tournament.

Luongo, who guided the Canucks to the Stanley Cup finals in 2011, has been a poker enthusiast for a long time. In 2009, Luongo competed in the PokerStars.net NHL Charity Shootout during the WSOP. He, along with NHL stars Alex Ovechkin and Jeremy Roenick, got a chance to rub elbows with some of the best players in the poker world.

Last October, Luongo signed a controversial sponsorship deal with a government-owned British Columbia Lottery Corp. While some opponents argued that Luongo wasn’t serving as a role model for children, Luongo decided to represent Playnow.com at a number of gaming events, including the World Series of Poker, where his buy-in is paid for by the company.

“Businesses commonly partner with celebrities or sports figures to help strengthen their brand image,” a BCLC spokesperson said in a statement Thursday, according to the Vancouver Sun. “Roberto Luongo is a well-known celebrity in our marketplace, and a natural fit for this type of a marketing approach.

Luongo expressed his excitement about playing the Main Event via Twitter this week.

The Vancouver Sun has more.

Testing the Bluff

A study by Duke University has determined that poker players use a special region of their brain when executing a bluff at the poker table.

Scientists at the Duke Center for Interdisciplinary Decision Science studied how poker players bluff in different situations by hooking 20 people up to scanners and studying their neural reactions while they played a version of one-card poker. Researchers found that activity in a certain part of brain predicts whether the subject would bluff based on information that was unique to making decisions about who might be a worthy opponent. The test subjects played the game against another human and a computer.

The results could help scientists learn more about human emotions in the future.

“Often the brain is considered to have an entire ‘social network’ comprising a number of regions that help us interact with others in social contexts,” said Scott Huettel, a professor of psychology and neuroscience at Duke. “Our analyses looked at all of those regions and found that all but one responded in essentially the same way against the human and computer opponents.”

Read more at the Boston Herald.

Belgium’s Blacklist Grows

The Belgium Gambling Commission has updated its list of blacklisted online gambling operators. The latest additions include Bet365, www2.bwin.com, 7Red.com, Maaslandgames.be and SJbet.at.

In May, Belgium blacklisted 30 nonlicensed sites including Bwin, Betsson, Betfair, William Hill and 888. Under the Belgian Gambling Act, players are only allowed to play on licensed sites, and the nation’s four largest Internet service providers are in the process of barring unauthorized domains.

Among the sites granted licenses to operate in Belgium include PokerStars, Partouche, Unibet and Casino777. Meanwhile, PartyPoker.com and iPoker, two of the biggest online poker sites in the world, have called the Gambling Act “unenforceable” because it leaves issues of taxation unresolved.

Get Onnit

Interested in earning some free money during the World Series of Poker Main Event? Sarah Grant stops by the Onnit booth to talk about their product Alpha Brain and the Last Sticker Standing competition during the WSOP.

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February 27 2012, Brett Collson

Major tournaments have been popping up all over the globe this month. We’ll bring you highlights from a handful of them, plus a story about the return of Poker After Dark, in this edition of the Nightly Turbo.

In Case You Missed It

Phil Ivey bubbled the World Poker Tour L.A. Poker Classic on Monday, but there were still plenty of notables to keep an eye on going into Day 4. Find out who led the way in our daily LAPC recap.

The race is on for the Republican presidential nomination, and the result could greatly affect online poker legislation. Matthew Kredell takes a look at the four candidates and their views of online gaming.

Did you miss Sunday’s World Poker Tour coverage on FSN? Read our WPT recap to get caught up.

Phil Collins took fifth place in the 2011 World Series of Poker Main Event. The man known as “USCPhildo” talked about that and more in Part 2 of the latest Seat Open series.

Twenty-one players survived Day 2 of the World Series of Poker Circuit Palm Beach Kennel Club Main Event. Roman Valerstein led the way, but Brian Hastings and Jeremy McLaughlin were still in contention.

The Epic Poker League Mix-Max event debuted on CBS over the weekend. If you weren’t able to catch the coverage, take a look at our recap.

Joe-Boy Rahme Wins WSOP Africa Main Event

South Africa’s Joe-Boy Rahme added his name to the World Series of Poker history books on Monday when he won the $3,300 WSOP Africa Main Event. The Johannesburg based poker pro bested a field of 218, which included names like Scotty Nguyen, Mark Vos, Eric Herschler, and defending champ Warren Zackey.

James Parker began the final table with the chip lead, followed closely by Gregory Ronaldson, who had already won a WSOPA ring at this year’s series. Ronaldson and Parker had more than half the chips in play when the day commenced, but the two behemoths ultimately fell in fifth and fourth place, respectively. Jason Strauss, who had also won a WSOPA ring this year, finished third after taking a horrendous beat from Rahme. Strauss’ failed to stay ahead of Rahme’s , leaving Rahme and Ivan Pakkiri to duel for the title.

The heads-up match lasted only a few minutes as Pakkiri was quickly all-in preflop with against Rahme’s pocket jacks. The board provided no help to Pakkiri, and Rahme was awarded $158,595 and the coveted WSOP Circuit Gold ring.

“This feels great, I’ve been working toward a WSOP championship for 25 years,” Rahme said after the win. “This is fabulous.”

Here’s a look at the final table results:

2012 WSOP Africa Event Main Event Final Table Results

For a detailed recap of the WSOP Africa Main Event, visit wsop.com.

Poker After Dark Returns

The effects of Black Friday did a number on several televised poker shows in the U.S., including the popular Poker After Dark program on NBC. However, according to various reports, the NBC Sports Network will soon air 24 Poker After Dark episodes that were shot before the show was cancelled last September.

The broadcasts are expected to begin on March 5, featuring four weeks of a cash game and one week (six episodes) of a sit-n-go. There hasn’t been an announcement about the taping of future episodes, but this is certainly a good sign that poker could ultimately make a comeback to mainstream television.

PokerNews will be speaking with Mori Eskandani of Poker PROductions on Tuesday, so stay tuned. Read here for more.

Elie, Campos File Another Motion Before Trial

When Black Friday principles John Campos and Chad Elie appear in court next month, they hope they’ll be allowed to plead their case to a jury that poker is a game of skill.

According to LegalPokerSites.com, Elie and Campos have filed a motion in limine that requests that they be allowed to present evidence to the jury that online poker is a game of skill. The two men face charges of money laundering, fraud, and violating the Unlawful Gaming Enforcement Act (UIGEA) and Illegal Gambling Business Act (IGBA), among other charges, for their roles in the illegal transactions between offshore poker sites and players in the U.S.

Attorneys for Campos and Elie argue that poker is not gambling; therefore, both men should be excluded from the charges regarding the IGBA and UIGEA.

Early this month, Campos and Elie submitted files to motion for dismiss based on the Department of Justice’s opinion that the Wire Act of 1961 pertained only to sports betting. That motion was denied by federal judge Federal Judge Lewis Kaplan, who said the following: “The defendants’ argument that poker is not gambling fails, at least at this stage.”

Read more at LegalPokerSites.com.

California Introduces Online Poker Bill

California took a big step toward legalizing intrastate online poker last Friday when Sen. Darrell Steinberg (D-Sacramento) and Sen. Roderick Wright (D-Inglewood) introduced Senate Bill 1463.

After numerous failed attempts to push an online poker bill through the legislature, this latest effort could see success because of recent changes in the Department of Justice’s interpretation of the 1961 Wire Act.

The bill states that only online poker would be permitted for the first two years of regulation. Upon becoming a law, operators will be able to apply for a 10-year license once the regulatory framework is in place. If approved, operators will pay licensing fees of $30 million, credited against gross gaming revenue proceeds for the first three years of operation.

Read more at PokerNews.com.

Chicago Poker Classic Under Way

Last year, the Chicago Poker Classic at the Horseshoe Casino in Hammond, Indiana, smashed records by drawing more than 6,700 players and awarding $2.5 million in prizes. If the start of the 2012 series is any indication of things to come, those records will be shattered in no time.

The opening event of the 2012 Chicago Poker Classic saw 2,621 entrants take to the felt – more than double last year’s total for the same $240 No-Limit Hold’em Re-Entry event. The massive turnout generated a prize pool of $523,409, and 51-year-old entrepreneur and writer Paul Gibbons went on to take the title and top prize of $97,192.

In the second event of the series, a $350 no-limit hold’em tournament, Paul Han bested an 868-person field to capture the $56,861 first prize. The 26-year-old is a former WSOP Circuit champion but said he was due to win another big tournament.

“It’s about time,” Han said after his victory. “Every year they have this I get far and then run bad at the final table. I’m so happy I shipped one.”

This year’s CPC will award $50,000 cash to the overall points leader of the 12-day series. In addition, a 2012 Chevrolet Camaro V8 will be awarded to the champion of the six-event turbo series, which got under way on Monday.

Check out the Horseshoe Hammond website for the full schedule of events at the Chicago Poker Classic.

Nicky Tao Jin Claims Top Honor at Macau Poker CupMacau Poker Cup

The 2012 Macau Poker Cup came to a close Sunday with the conclusion of the Red Dragon HK$11,000 Main Event. The PokerStars-sponsored event at the Casino Grand Lisboa drew 635 players and, after three days of play, China’s Nicky Tao Jin collected the hardware and top prize of HK$1,092,500.

Jin held a slight lead over Abhishek Goindi when heads-up play began, but the two players took a short break to make a deal. After an agreement was in place, it took only three hands for Jin to put his opponent away. On the final hand of the match, Goindi got his stack in the middle with on a board, but Jin held for bottom set. The turn and river failed to help Goindi, and Jin was declared the winner of the 4th Annual Macau Poker Cup Red Dragon Main Event.

The nine-event Macau Poker Cup set new records for overall player attendance and prize pools as 2,153 players turned up during the nine-day poker festival to create a prize pool worth HK$12.86 million.

The PokerStars Blog has more.

PokerStars Dominates EPT Copenhagen

PokerStars Team Online’s Mickey Peterson bested Team PokerStars Pro Pierre Neuville heads up to win the European Poker Tour Copenhagen Main Event during the weekend. PokerNews’ Sarah Grant caught up with the online superstar after his big win.

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