November 28 2011, Brett Collson
The long Thanksgiving weekend is behind us, and we hope you (and your credit card) survived the second “Black Friday” of 2011. Plenty happened during the holiday weekend, including a settlement in Tobey Maguire’s Hollywood poker lawsuit, the retirement announcement of Congressman Barney Frank, and a new champion crowned at the World Poker Tour. We’ll cover those stories and more in the Nightly Turbo.
In Case You Missed It
John Stolzmann won the World Poker Tour World Poker Open in 2005 for $1.49 million. What has he been up to since? We caught up with Stolzmann to find out in the latest edition of Where Are They Now.
How did the Sunday Majors play out on PokerStars? Who took home the biggest win? Find out in the Sunday Briefing.
Phil Collins is coming off a fifth-place finish at the World Series of Poker Main Event. We asked him about some of his favorite hobbies away from the table in the latest Off The Felt piece.
When did Team PokerStars Pro André Akkari get his big break in poker? Find out that and more in the second part of Seat Open with André Akkari.
Tobey Maguire Settles Hollywood Poker Lawsuit
Earlier this year, Spider-Man star Tobey Maguire was one of 22 people sued for their winnings in a high-stakes Hollywood poker game organized by a criminal Beverly Hills hedge fund manager. On Nov. 22, Maguire reportedly agreed to an $80,000 settlement with a bankruptcy trustee who is trying to recoup more than $30 million in lost funds, the Associated Press reported on Monday.
Maguire was being sued for more than $300,000 for winnings he earned from the invitation-only games organized by businessman Bradley Ruderman, who is serving a 10-year prison sentence for running a Ponzi scheme to pay off debts. Ruderman operated a wire-fraud and investment-adviser fraud scheme that lost investors $25 million, and then allegedly lost another $5.2 million in the high-stakes cash games trying to win the money back.
According to the Associated Press, 14 of the 22 people sued have agreed to settlements in their cases. Former High Stakes Poker host Gabe Kaplan also agreed to pay $26,900 after he was sued to try to recoup nearly $63,000 in winnings, according to the AP report. All of the money recouped will be used to repay the victims of Ruderman’s Ponzi scheme.
Read the full Associated Press story at the Washington Post.
Barney Frank To Step Down
On Monday, Barney Frank (D-Mass.) announced that he will not return to Congress for a 17th term in 2012. Frank, one of the major political advocates for the legalization of online poker, cited changes to the new congressional map as a major factor in his decision to step down.
“I was planning to run again, and then the congressional redistricting came,” Frank, 71, said at a press conference in his hometown of Newton, Mass.
During his time with the House Financial Services Committee, Frank has introduced several bills pushing for online poker legislation in the U.S. In his most recent venture, Frank served as a sponsor for Congressman John Campbell’s Internet Gambling Regulation, Consumer Protection, and Enforcement Act (H.R.1174). The proposed bill was referred to the House Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, and Homeland Security in June, but no action has been taken since.
Frank also recently testified on behalf of Internet poker at a House Energy and Commerce subcommittee hearing. He has arguably been the biggest driving force behind the legalization of online poker since the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA) was passed in 2006.
Read more about Frank’s retirement announcement at the Wall Street Journal.
Mohamed Ali Houssam Wins WPT Marrakech
Mohamed Ali Houssam bested a field of 246 players to win the “3,000 World Poker Tour event in Marrakech over the weekend. Houssam, playing in his home country of Morocco, entered the final day as the chip leader and emerged as the champion to collect $267,011 and his first WPT title.
The nine-handed final was stacked with well-known pros, including Team PokerStars Pros Jonathan Duhamel, Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier and Arnaud Mattern. Grospellier (eighth place) and Duhamel (seventh place) hit the rail early, and Mattern was eliminated in fourth place when his ace-eight couldn’t improve against the pocket sevens of Maksim Martinov.
Martinov was sent packing in third place after taking a brutal beat to Toufik Ourini, setting up a heads-up match between Houssam and Ourini for the title. The two players began with nearly identical stacks, but Houssam secured the win by flopping a set of eights against Toufik’s top pair on the final hand of the tournament. With the victory, Houssam also received a $25,000 seat into the WPT World Championship at Bellagio in May.
Final Table Payouts
Rush Poker Not Patentable?
While it will likely be a while before players can fire up some Rush Poker tables at Full Tilt Poker, a new online poker room will soon be launching its own version of the popular fast-paced variant. The InstaDeal Poker Network is set to introduce a similar form of Rush Poker after drawing on legal advice that Full Tilt Poker did not meet the necessary requirements to patent the concept.
Full Tilt Poker applied for a patent on Rush Poker in several global markets back in 2007, but InstaDeal Chairman Per Hildebrand recently told eGamingReview that Rush Poker “was never patentable” as Full Tilt only met one of the three criteria required to be granted a patent. Hildebrand claims that the feedback he received from his attorneys gave him enough security to move forward with his own project.
“From that time on we were confident they were never going to get a patent for it,” Hildebrand told eGamingReview.
Hildebrand, the former chief executive of the Entraction Network, says he’s surprised that no other online poker room beat him to the punch. “PokerStars has suggested launching something similar and no one really knows what they’re up to but we gather that they’re looking into the legals. In all honesty I’m a little surprised that they haven’t launched anything yet,” Hildebrand added.
Read more about this story at eGamingReview.
Kahnawake Gaming Commission Suspends 24Poker License
Online poker room 24Poker had all of its games blocked late last week after its license was suspended by the Kahnawake Gaming Commission. The Microgaming network, which provides the software for 24Poker, released the following statement about the decision:
“Microgaming today announced that all game play on the 24Poker website has been blocked due to the Kahnawake Gaming Commission suspending 24Poker’s gaming license. Both Microgaming and the Kahnawake Gaming Commission have tried without success to contact the 24 Poker Management Team. Further announcements will be made as additional information becomes available.”
Players began having cash-out problems at 24Poker beginning in September and weren’t receiving any responses to e-mails regarding the issues. The site, which is owned by BPRServices Limited, had been licensed by the KGC since 2004. Its license was not due to expire until January 2012.
The KGC’s press release regarding 24Poker can be found at gamingcommission.ca.
PokerStars Announces $10K High Roller
PokerStars has added another event to celebrate its upcoming 10th anniversary. The site has announced a $10,300 High Roller tournament that will run alongside the first-ever $10 Million Sunday Million, making for what will be one of the most exciting Sunday grinds online poker has ever seen.
The High Roller event will feature a $500,000 guarantee and gets underway at 1530 ET (2230 GMT) on Sunday, Dec. 18. Two players are already registered — Toby “810ofclubs” Lewis and Team PokerStars Online Pro Mickey “mement_mori” Petersen — and dozens more will likely sign up before registration closes.
Get more information on the 10th Anniversary $10K High Roller at the PokerStars Blog.
WAG Diaries From Macau
In the latest edition of the WAG diaries, Lynn Gilmartin catches up with Team PokerStars Pro Bryan Huang to test how much he knows about his soon-to-be wife, Summer Ha.
Are you following PokerNews on Twitter? Like us on Facebook while you’re at it, and sign up for the newsletter. You know you want to.
Follow Brett Collson on Twitter – @brettcollson
2011
Nov 16
November 16 2011, Brett Collson
Online poker hits Capitol Hill again this week with a pair of hearings to discuss potential online poker legislation in the U.S. Across the pond, poker is being showcased as part of the London Mind Sports Festival to prove that poker is a skill game. We’ll provide details on those stories and more in this edition of the Nightly Turbo.
In Case You Missed It
Who topped the Day 1b field at the PokerStars European Poker Tour Loutraki Main Event? Find out in our recap.
Poker player Martin “phasE89“ Balaz made a bet that he could play 24,000 Fifty50 sit-and-gos on PokerStars in October and finish with a profit. Find out whether he was able to pull it off.
Bryan Devonshire joined the PokerNews Podcast this week. The poker pro talked about his 12th place finish in the World Series of Poker Main Event and his plans for the future.
The PokerStars European Poker Tour is headed to Prague this month. If you’re planning a trip, then find out all you need to know in the PokerNews Jet Set.
On Wednesday, Massachusetts state legislators passed a bill allowing for the construction of three Las Vegas-style casino resorts. We discuss what that means for the state in the latest Inside Gaming.
Online Poker Hearings in Senate and House
Online poker will be discussed at two hearings on Capitol Hill this week, first in the Senate Indian Affairs Committee on Thursday and then in the House Subcommittee on Commerce, Manufacturing and Trade on Friday.
Thursday’s oversight committee hearing is called Future of Internet Gaming: What’s at Stake for Tribes? The hearing is likely to focus on testimony from representatives of various tribes and tribal groups. Poker Players Alliance Chairman Al D’Amato will testify before the Senate Indian Affairs Committee. Other witnesses will be primarily made up of tribal representatives.
Friday’s hearing will be the second go-around by the House Subcommittee on Internet poker. The subcommittee first met Oct. 25, 2011, to discuss the safety of online poker. Representatives Frank Wolf (R-VA), John Campbell (R-CA) and Barney Frank (D-MA) will be on hand Friday to discuss the potential of future regulation in the States. They will be joined by Nevada Gaming Control Board Chairman Mark A. Lipparelli, who recently told VegasInc.com that the Nevada State Gaming Control Board will be accepting applications for online poker licenses beginning in February of next year.
Thursday’s Senate hearing gets under way at 2:15 p.m. EST, and Friday’s House hearing will begin at 9 p.m. EST. More information can be found at the websites of the Senate Indian Affairs Committee and House, Energy and Commerce Committee.
Poker’s Biggest Names to Compete in Nations Cup
The International Federation of Poker (IFP) is set to host the inaugural Nations Cup this week as part of the London Mind Sports Festival. The event will kick off on Thursday, Nov. 17, in London.
Twelve teams consisting of some of the world’s best poker players will face off in an innovative variant of team poker called “duplicate poker,” which the IFP says will keep the element of luck in the game to a minimum. The winner of that event will be crowned the champion of the Nations Cup this weekend.
“Rather than competing against those at their table, duplicate poker pitches players against opponents dealt exactly the same cards in exactly the same position on neighboring tables,” says the IFP. “With all players in a particular seat given the same allocation of cards the only determining factor in the result of the tournament is how skillfully each player uses them.”
Among the countries participating in the event will be the United States, Spain, Germany, Holland, Denmark, Australia, and Ireland. Online gaming giant Zynga will also have a team. Some of the poker pros taking part include Tony G, Antonio Esfandiari, Barry Greenstein, Gus Hansen, Vanessa Selbst, David Benyamine, Liv Boeree, Sam Trickett, and 2011 November Niners Sam Holden and Eoghan O’Dea.
Following the conclusion of the Nation’s Cup, the IFP World Championship will take place on Nov. 19 with 130 of the world’s top players squaring off for a top prize of $250,000. The event, known as “The Table,” will be filmed for a worldwide audience.
Details on the Nations Cup and the IPF World Champions can be found at the International Federation of Poker’s website.
PartyPoker Premier League Nears
The final table of the PartyPoker Premier League Mixed Game Championship is nearly in place after both groups competed in their third and final heat on Wednesday. The 12 players faced off in a round of pot-limit hold’em at the Playboy Club London. Group A completed their heat in the evening, but played was paused in Group B with three players remaining.
Feared U.K. mixed-games specialist James Dempsey won his second heat of Group A to earn a spot at the final table. He will be joined at the final by Max Pescatori, who won the other heat in Group A, and Matt Giannetti, who used three consistent performances to earn enough points to secure a seat.
In Group B, Andrew Feldman and Andy Frankenberger locked up seats to the final, but the last seat is still up for grabs. Sorel Mizzi moved past Mike Sexton and is still alive in Heat 3, but Yevgeniy Timoshenko can pass Mizzi with a victory while earning double points with his double-up card.
It will come down to those two players when play resumes in London Thursday morning. Here’s a look at the current standings:
GROUP A
PlacePlayerPoints
| 1 |
James Dempsey |
24 |
| 2 |
Max Pescatori |
20 |
| 3 |
Matt Giannetti |
19 |
| 4 |
Tony G |
10 |
| 5 |
Luke Schwartz |
6 |
| 6 |
Jen Tilly |
6 |
GROUP B
PlacePlayerPoints
| *1 |
Andrew Feldman |
19 |
| 2 |
Andy Frankenberger |
18 |
| 3 |
Mike Sexton |
9 |
| *4 |
Sorel Mizzi |
8 |
| 5 |
Ben Carpenter |
4 |
| *6 |
Yevgeniy Timoshenko |
1 |
*denotes players still competing for points in Heat 3
All the action from the PartyPoker Premier League Mixed Game Championship can be found at PartyPoker.com.
Venetian Deep Stack Extravaganza IV Update
The Venetian Deep Stack Extravaganza IV is past the midway point as 25 of the 43 events had crowned winners through Monday. Among the notables taking down tournaments since our last update: Tyson Marks, Brent Hanks, and Eric Baldwin.
The series runs through Nov. 22 and concludes with a $2,500 Main Event. Here’s a look at the results since Nov. 5:
Venetian Deep Stack Extravaganza IV Results
The Best View in Loutraki?
The European Poker Tour is in Loutraki, Greece, this week. PokerNews’ Sarah Grant took some time away from the tournament floor to get a close look at the Oceanos Restaurant inside the Club Hotel Casino Loutraki.
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Follow Brett Collson on Twitter – @brettcollson
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