Poker News

Top Ten Poker Events of the Decade: Part 1

As 2009 prepares to fade into the pages of history, it will also close the doors on a decade that has been like no other for the sport of poker.

When the Third Millennium began a short ten years ago, poker could arguably be said to be on life support. A poker room in a casino was hard to find, there was only one prominent tournament schedule on the poker professional’s calendar, and the game had no place in the media. Poker was reviled as a pursuit of degenerate gamblers; those considered to be the best at the game had very little attention paid to them.

A decade later, the situation has completely reversed itself. Even the smallest casino, wherever it may be in the world, has a poker room. Bookstores have dedicated sections to house their wares of poker books and poker programming airs daily on television. Instead of just one tournament schedule, there are several offerings that require players to choose which one to participate in. Finally, poker pros are respected as adventuresome mavericks whose abilities, education, and intelligence are critical to their success.

With this in mind, Poker News Daily decided to look back at the last decade in an attempt to figure out what were the catalysts for such a return to prominence and what nearly derailed it.

10. Poker Rooms Make a Comeback

At the start of the 21st century, casinos across the United States didn’t consider poker to be a moneymaker for their operations. With that in mind, poker rooms were closed and slot machines began to invade their territory.

By the end of the decade, poker rooms, which had been near extinction only ten years earlier, obtained a greater prominence than they ever had in a casino. The live poker room should continue to be a staple of the casino world in the future.

9. Ultimate Bet and Absolute Poker Superuser Scandals

The ugly head of corruption and scandal arose when two of the most popular online poker rooms in the industry, Ultimate Bet and Absolute Poker, succumbed to “superuser” cheating rings. These cheating scandals allowed players to see their opponents’ hole cards, making it impossible to lose a hand. These rings - the Ultimate Bet group, which was allegedly led by former World Champion Russ Hamilton, and the Absolute Poker team allegedly led by former employees Scott Tom and A. J. Green - took millions of dollars off of unsuspecting players and gave ammunition to anti-poker zealots in the war against the game.

After outrage from the online poker community, both organizations made financial amends to those affected, but didn’t prosecute anyone for the operation of either scam. Today, the two sites are part of the same network and have seemingly recovered some of their former respect (including the recent certification from eCOGRA, the online gaming watchdog). Still, the scandal could have had a devastating effect on the online game and it has cast doubt as to the legitimacy of online poker, much like the Mississippi riverboat games of centuries ago almost stopped poker from becoming what it is today.

8. Amateurs Dominate WSOP Main Event

Throughout its early history, poker, and in particular the World Series of Poker (WSOP), it was the bastion of professional rounders willing to live life on the edge, to take thousands of dollars out of their own pockets and risk that they were the greatest poker player in the world. With the advent of satellites and online poker, where a player could get into a tournament for a significantly smaller fee, amateur poker players began to take a shot at the upper echelons of the game.

Since 2002, an amateur or previously unknown player has won the $10,000 Main Event at the WSOP and been crowned World Champion. Some, such as Jerry Yang and Jamie Gold, have stayed on the peripheral of the poker world and have arguably not done much since their victories. Others, such as Greg Raymer, Joe Hachem, and Chris Moneymaker, have continued to be at the forefront of the game, advocating in political circles for the regulation of online poker as respected professionals in their own right. Whether they have experience or not, amateurs have become a part of the WSOP.

7. New Blood Infuses the Game

All forms of business need an infusion of new customers to continue to drive their endeavors. Poker is no different. For some time, older players, mostly men, populated the game and the required influx of “new blood” was seemingly missing. Through the development of online poker, new players, both male and female, have made their marks.

In what was perhaps the most stunning tournament win of the decade, Annette “Annette_15” Obrestad’s victory at the inaugural WSOP Europe Main Event made her the youngest player to win a major championship and demonstrated that the youth movement in poker had arrived. In the last two WSOP Main Events, Phil Hellmuth’s longstanding record as the youngest ever champion has been eclipsed twice. As we look at the next decade, young players will continue to make their names in an arena that previously had been dominated by the “Old Guard” of the game.

6. Twice is Nice – Dan Harrington, Mike Matusow, and Jeff Shulman

With the growth of the WSOP Main Event, the odds of a player repeating as champion, as Johnny Chan did in 1987 and 1988, are nearly infinitesimal. The feat of making two final tables is nearly as difficult, but three men - Dan Harrington, Mike Matusow, and Jeff Shulman - managed to pull off the feat. While none won the tournament, the ability to make two final tables during the decade, against such sizeable fields, is definitely a significant achievement.

Harrington’s feat is arguably the best of the three players. Battling through, at the time, the two largest WSOP Main Event fields ever, the 1995 champion nearly captured his second title in consecutive years (2003 and 2004). Matusow announced his presence on the game with his first final table in 2001 and marked his resurrection as a poker player by returning in 2005. Shulman finished seventh in 2000 and came back in 2009 with a fifth place finish.

The Sunday Briefing: “ran77″ Banks a Sunday Million Win, Pros Perform Well

It was an exciting Sunday of online poker as well-know players performed well all across the virtual felt. The largest score of the day in the PokerStars Sunday Million was $238,685.72, and in the Full Tilt $750,000 Guarantee it was...

Poker’s popularity fading in Britain?

The Independent, one of the most popular newspapers in the UK, asked whether or not the poker boom in the UK was busting, describing the Mintel report on online poker as calling the industry a “busted flush”.

Online Poker Discussed in Massachusetts Committee Hearing

On Thursday, the Massachusetts Joint Committee on Economic Development and Emerging Technologies held a hearing to review proposals to expand gambling within the Commonwealth. Speaking on behalf of the online poker industry was Poker Players Alliance (PPA) Massachusetts State Director Randy Castonguay.

The PPA representative traveled to Boston to speak at the Gardner Auditorium. The goal was to include language in any casino bill that licensed and regulated online poker, which will likely bring in over $40 million per year in revenues to the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, according to figures released by the PPA. Castonguay told Poker News Daily prior to Thursday’s hearing, “Initially, we tried getting internet poker put on this year’s ballot. We were going to have the voters decide whether it should be regulated and taxed to protect the consumer.”

The Boston Globe newspaper noted that 17 bills focused on gambling would be heard on Thursday and that lawmakers were expected to remain in the city “well into the night” listening to proposals. The PPA has 25,000 members in Massachusetts out of more than one million total.

When the Commonwealth took up the issue of gambling, a provision in the proposed casino bill made playing online poker a crime. Castonguay explained in his testimony, “While the game as evolved, the way politicians think about it has not. It is hard to believe that when gaming expansion legislation was introduced two years ago and again this year, the bills included provisions that make poker on the internet a crime punishable by two years in prison and a $25,000 fine.”

On this year’s version of the casino gambling bill, Castonguay told Poker News Daily, “We want to get the language criminalizing online poker out of the current casino bill. Essentially, they took last year’s bill, made a few changes, and put it back in. They didn’t take out the language that criminalizes internet poker. We think that’s ridiculous.” Massachusetts’ inclusion is similar to the Washington State’s stance on internet gambling. There, playing online poker constitutes a Class C felony.

Castonguay tried to submit a copy of a petition backed by the PPA that calls for the regulation of online poker in Massachusetts. He explained, “Unfortunately, our petition was not certified by the Attorney General’s office due to a disagreement with our language. Fortunately, however, this Committee and our State legislature can regulate internet gambling through the formal lawmaking process.” PPA Executive Director John Pappas explained that the disagreement was with “how the petition was drafted and whether it could be put into a sensible ballot initiative.”

Castonguay’s focus was on advocating online poker as opposed to broader initiatives like internet gambling or online wagering on sports. The Massachusetts State Director explained, “We are advocating regulation of internet poker, not internet craps or roulette. And as every member of this Committee knows, unlike craps or roulette, poker is a game of skill that has been played in the home since the dawn of the game.”

A separate Globe article noted that a new casino bill is expected in January. Proponents have argued that allowing casino gambling in Massachusetts will bring badly-needed jobs and revenue to the Commonwealth, while adversaries argue that addiction and other societal ills will increase.

Congressman Barney Frank (D-MA) has introduced a similar measure on the national level. HR 2267, the Internet Gambling Regulation, Consumer Protection, and Enforcement Act, was introduced in May and has attracted 62 cosponsors. The measure outlines a complete licensing and regulatory framework for the internet gambling industry in the United States.

Read Castonguay’s online poker testimony.

PokerStars’ WCOOP Exceeding Guarantees, Crowning Champions

The 2009 PokerStars World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP), which started on September 3rd, has had several of the opening tournaments break their guaranteed prize pools to this point in the schedule. As the tournament grinds its way through its first weekend, eight WCOOP bracelets have been awarded in several different disciplines of poker.

Of the eight events that have been played to this point, only three tournaments - Event #4, the $215 buy in No Limit Single Draw 2-7 with rebuys, Event #7, the $215 buy in Pot Limit Five Card Draw, and Event #8, the $215 Limit Hold’em - have failed to reach their guaranteed prize pools. For those events, PokerStars has provided the overlay of around $30,000 for each tournament. With the performance of the other five events played in the WCOOP so far, however, PokerStars has had no problems with covering these overlays.

As the first eight events have played out, $5.1 million has been paid out to the combatants during this run of the WCOOP. Players have been turning out in droves to take part in the 2009 schedule, with 33,236 buy-ins paid and 24,487 unique players taking part in the tournaments. The worldwide scope of the WCOOP has also been shown, with 124 countries taking part and 82 of those countries earning something back for their efforts by making it into the money.

Leading the pack as far as earnings for this year’s schedule is the champion of Event #1 - the $215 Six Handed No Limit Hold’em tournament - “ChopSueyyy.” With that victory, “ChopSueyyy,” who calls Finland home, earned a payday of $234,421.82 for defeating a sizeable field of 8538 players. Following “ChopSueyyy” on the earnings board are France’s “MMalipo,” Event #6 ($109 No Limit Hold’em) champion “vakAAttack” from Greece, the United States’ “DHUSTLER15” and Canada’s “Futuro.” All of these players have been able to take home six figure paydays for their efforts during the WCOOP.

Other players who have taken down a bracelet during the early events of the WCOOP include “MUSTAFABET,” who won the $215 Six Handed Pot Limit Omaha tournament (Event #3), “2FLY2TILT” (Event #4), “FireGoblin” (Event #5, $109 Eight Game Mixed Event), “CesarSPA” (Event #7) and Kevin “iacog4” Iacafano (Event #8). Top professionals who have been in the mix during the first eight events include Team PokerStars professional Barry Greenstein, J. C. Tran, Scott “BigRiskky” Clements, Jon “PearlJammer” Turner, WSOP bracelet winner Brandon Cantu and Aaron “GambleAB” Bartley, who final tabled Event #4.

Today’s tournament action promises to be quite busy as three events take place on what would normally be the big Sunday tournament day for many of these players. Event #9, the $215 No Limit Hold’em tournament with a $1 million guaranteed prize pool, will be overshadowed somewhat by Event #10, the $10,300 buy in High Rollers No Limit tournament with a $2 million guaranteed prize pool. Event #11, a $530 No Limit Hold’em event will finish the day out with the first of two days of play.

Over the next two weeks, another thirty events will be taking place with buy ins from $109 to the $25K High Roller Heads-Up tournament. The capstone of the schedule will be the two day $5200 Championship Event, which was won last year by Carter “ckingusc” King. Poker News Daily will continue to monitor the action and report on the World Championships of Online Poker as they play out.

Guy Laliberté - Spend $35 million to poker or space flights?

Cirque du Soleil founder and the high-stakes nosebleed poker player Guy Laliberté has been rumored to be the main candidate for the next commercial astronaut.

Various sources tells that he’s going to pay a visit to the International Space Station in September - this would make him the seventh private space explorer. Laliberte would be aboard of a Russian Soyuz spacecraft if everything goes as planned.

It has been speculated that Laliberté wants to celebrate and promote Cirque du soleil’s 25th anniversary with his quite expensive flight. Nevertheless this big celebration would cost him $35 million which is the same amount what he has “donated” in poker in the past years - at least according to all rumors circling around his poker games.

Undoubtfully some of the high-stakes players at FullTilt Poker would like to see Laliberté staying on Earth and spend those big dollars to online poker as he is famous of his nosebleed games against top poker professionals online.

According to Forbes Magazine Laliberté is one of the 50 richest billionaires in the world, with a net worth of $2.5 billion, so we can take a guess that his poker career isn’t over after the flight to the stars.

You can find Laliberté on Full Tilt Poker using one of his poker nicknames (not 100% confirmed): “lady marmelade”, “noataima”, “patatino”, “elmariachimacho”, “Bleachbum” and “ahtata”.

You just read Poker News from HighStakesNews.com

Guy Laliberté - Spend $35 million to poker or space flights?

Pappas Discusses the Details of PPA’s Fight for Online Poker

As the executive director of the Poker Players Alliance, John Pappas is the man ultimately responsible for getting everything in place for the poker community's fight to reverse the finalized regulations of the UIGEA. Pappas became the executive director of the PPA in late 2007 after serving...