Poker News

The iPad and its Potential With Online Poker

Although most online poker players use Windows PCs, there has been a growing swell of players using Apple Mac computers like MacBook Pros and iMacs.  The Mac-centric poker niche is growing, with four major sites having native software clients: PokerStars, Full Tilt Poker, UB.com, and Absolute Poker. The popular hand history tracking utility PokerTracker 3 came out recently with a Mac OS X beta edition of its software.  With the release of Apple’s tablet computer, the iPad, there has been plenty of speculation about the machine's future with online poker.

When thinking about the iPad and its potential for being used for online poker, we need to keep the following questions in mind:

• What are the hardware specs of the iPad?
• Is the interface going to be applicable to an online poker software program?
• Will the screen quality and resolution level make online poker practical?
• Does the iPad have enough bandwidth to have a lag-free online poker experience?
• Is the iPad OS something that a poker site can work with to create an App?
• Will the legal environment allow a poker site to release an App?

The iPad is a high-resolution 9.7-inch LED-backlit computer that weighs just 1.5 pounds.  It’s touted as being perfect for web browsing, watching movies, and viewing photos.  The unit works in either portrait or landscape mode, very similarly to an iPod Touch or iPhone.  The multi-touch screen on the iPad is based on the current iPhone technology, but has been totally re-engineered for the larger surface to be more precise and responsive.  The battery life is said to last up to 10 hours by using a special lithium-polymer technology.  The iPad uses an A4 chip that was custom designed by Apple engineers to be extremely powerful, but at the same time very power efficient.  Units will have an option for 16, 32, or 64 GB of internal flash storage.

All iPad units will have built-in WiFi with 802.11n, which is currently the fastest wireless protocol available.  In addition, there will be 3G models with data speeds up to 7.2 MB per second on the AT&T network for coverage anywhere without a WiFi network, but with a 3G signal.  Units are expected to start shipping at the end of March and the base version costs just $499.

The iPad interface is the multi-touch screen that has been made more precise and responsive to help counter the potential problems it would face with a much larger screen.  The resolution of the iPad’s 9.7-inch screen is 1024x768, which is a bit inferior to what most experts predicted it would be.

With all the glitz and glamor of the iPad now out in the open, as poker players, we’re wondering about its capabilities for online poker.  The unit, on the surface, seems like a great little online poker machine.  The touch screen appears to be perfect for interfacing with a poker table.  You could use the bet slider with the flick of a finger, fold or check by tapping the appropriate button, and even muck your cards by flicking them into the middle of the table.  Interface-wise, there’s no question that the touch-screen of the unit will work splendidly.

The next question for whether or not the iPad would be feasible for an online poker player is how a table would look on the screen.  There’s plenty of screen available for a single poker table to load up in the 1024x768 space.  In fact, it’s probably feasible to have four tables load up at the same time.  The graphics capabilities of the unit were rather impressive during Apple CEO Steve Jobs’ presentation with a few video games, so we know it can handle the minimal graphics required by many of the poker rooms.

Another question we have to answer is about the iPad bringing the necessary bandwidth to play one or even four tables at the same time.  Since most poker rooms only require a dial-up connection, which is surpassed in spades by both WiFi and 3G connections, there’s absolutely no concern about the unit not having enough bandwidth to handle the rigors of playing online poker.

The iPad uses a new operating system that works very similar to the iPhone OS, with more capabilities to take advantage of the unit’s more robust power.  Because the development kit is already available to software developers, there wouldn’t be much of a stumbling block to developing a solid iPad version of the software.

With the all of the questions answered fairly positively when asking the question whether or not the iPad will work with online poker, we’re down to our final one: Will the current legal environment allow it?  Since Apple is based in California and controls the App Store, the worldwide distribution of Apps for the iPad will be based on U.S. laws.  The legal environment in the United States is murky at best with online poker, with virtually no chance of Apple approving an App created by a major poker site for real money poker play.  With that being the case, it would seem foolish to expect a poker site to invest money and resources toward a project that would only meet failure.

The potential future of the iPad and real money online poker is bright.  The unit is perfect for those who want to sit on their couch, relax, and play a few hands of poker.  Maybe you’re stuck at the airport or who knows where and you want to log on and play a few hands.  The iPad certainly has the technological power to handle the task.  The only stumbling block is left up to the legal environment.  For now, we’ll probably just enjoy whatever random Texas Hold’em video games Apple approves in the iPad App Store to satisfy our poker craving.

Online Poker Community Donates $1.5 Million to Haiti Earthquake Survivors

The online poker community has raised $1.5 million for victims of the magnitude 7.0 earthquake that rocked Haiti earlier this month, according to a press release distributed by the Poker Players Alliance (PPA).

Full Tilt Poker saw 22,785 donations come in from concerned members of the industry for total donations of $293,211. In a gracious showing, the world’s second largest online poker site doubled contributions from its patrons for a total donation of $586,423, or over one-third of the figure cited by the PPA. Aid for Haiti play and no-play tournaments were held on Full Tilt Poker and a special user account was created to accept incoming transfers benefiting the relief efforts.

As expected, PPA Chairman Alfonse D’Amato, a former three-term Republican Senator from New York, was elated to see the giving mood of the online poker community. In a press release distributed by the lobbying organization this week, D’Amato commented, “Like the rest of the world, the poker community is eager to do anything it can to aid Haiti in the wake of the devastating earthquake. I applaud PokerStars, Full Tilt Poker, and Cake Poker for providing poker players across the globe an easy way to make a contribution. The generosity online poker players are showing makes me even more proud to be part of this community.”

PPA Executive Director John Pappas echoed D’Amato’s sentiments in an interview with the online poker forum PocketFives.com, calling the massive effort “a tribute to the generosity of the poker community.” Pappas added that the seven-digit donation mark does not include private contributions made by poker pros and other members of the industry to organizations like the Red Cross and UNICEF, which hit the ground in Haiti shortly after the epic January 12th tremor.

The PPA revealed that 50,000 online poker players have donated a total of $760,000, an average of about $15 each. With online poker sites matching the funds dollar-for-dollar, the total amount generated surpasses $1.5 million. On PokerStars, donations are being accepted until January 31st at Noon ET. No-play Haiti Earthquake Relief tournaments have buy-ins ranging from $1 to $1,000. Text found on PokerStars’ website succinctly explains, “You will not need to play an actual tournament; instead, all of the 'entry fees' go straight to the fund.”

PokerStars, the world’s largest online poker site, also created a special player account called “Haiti Fund.” Users can transfer funds to the account and PokerStars will match all money raised for the relief effort. The website, which has campaigned for a variety of charitable causes like Ante Up for Africa over the years, reminded its clientele, “PokerStars has been quick to facilitate this after previous disasters, and once again it is giving you an easy way to donate cash.”

Meanwhile, Cake Poker, a USA-friendly site that features Lee Jones as its Poker Room Manager, is taking donations until Midnight ET on January 31st. Five “holding tanks” were created for players to donate to the cause in $5, $25, $100, $200, and $500 increments. Past charity efforts by Cake Poker include involvement in the Aces and Angels Celebrity Poker Tournament and Oregon’s West Side Poker Club.

Other sites, including RedKings, UB.com, Absolute Poker, and DoylesRoom held poker tournaments last week to raise money for the cause. On the CEREUS Network, 717 players turned out for a $5 rebuy benefiting earthquake victims. In addition, customers on the Network’s two sites, UB.com and Absolute Poker, can donate their player points in each room’s store. On DoylesRoom, a special Haiti Bounty saw Academy Award nominee Mickey Rourke hit the felts.

A magnitude 5.9 aftershock hit Haiti shortly after and the Red Cross noted that three million people may have been affected. We’d like to salute members of the poker community who donated.

Online Poker Player wins 2nd Sunday Million

Every Sunday evening PokerStars has their big game, the Sunday Million. With a guaranteed prize pool of $1Million, it attracts several thousand players. Most online poker players dream of winning this game.

Poker2Nite Pays Homage to Amir Vahedi

Wednesday night’s installment of the Fox Sports Net poker news show “Poker2Nite” featured a stirring tribute to the late Amir Vahedi. Layne Flack paid a visit to the UB.com sponsored series, which airs at 11:00pm ET on Wednesdays.

“Poker2Nite” host Joe Sebok recapped his trip to the 2010 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure (PCA) in the Bahamas. When asked by fellow host Scott Huff where he finished in the Main Event, Sebok jokingly explained, “They don’t keep finishes in the first three hours.”

Two key hands were recapped. In the first, Sebok held 7-8 on a flop of 7-7-5 and was up against a player with pocket sixes. His opponent bet 1,200 and Sebok made it 4,000. The player with the wired pair of sixes called and the turn was a four. His opponent check-called a bet of 8,000 to a six on the river. Sebok’s foe had made a boat and fired out a bet of 11,000. Sebok called with a straight and promptly lost two-thirds of his stack.

In Sebok’s final hand at the 2010 PCA Main Event, the player in the small blind raised to 1,900 and the “Poker2Nite” host, in the big blind, shoved for 8,500 with pocket tens. However, his opponent made the call and flipped up pocket aces. The board ran out 5-6-7-J-9 and Sebok was eliminated from the $10,000 buy-in tournament.

Attention then turned to the passing of Vahedi. Footage of Vahedi was shown and Sebok commented, “Amir Vahedi was one of the sweetest men in poker. He was always there with a laugh and always there with a word of encouragement. In my poker infancy, he was always there.” “Poker2Nite” closed with Huff telling viewers that Vahedi was the first player he ever interviewed. A portion of the 2005 questioning then aired, with Vahedi noting, “This is my job. I’m having fun while I’m doing it. That’s my personality.”

Flack opened his segment by squaring off against Huff in an arm wrestling match. The six-time World Series of Poker (WSOP) bracelet winner is also a two-time Montana state arm wrestling champion. Flack gave Huff a spot before quickly polishing off the broadcaster. Flack won two bracelets in 2002 and two more the following year before going on a dry spell until 2008. On his streakiness, Flack told his “Poker2Nite” fans, “I used to be such a strong offensive player. When the internet became involved, we had these younger players who were firing hard and going at it. I had to devise a defensive strategy.”

2009 WSOP Main Event runner-up Darvin Moon, donning a blurred out New Orleans Saints cap and a gray hoodie, went “Into the Tank” to recap a hand against eventual winner Joe Cada heads-up in last year’s tournament. Cada flopped top pair, but Moon turned a higher pair to give him the chip lead momentarily.

A segment called “High Stakes, Low Profile” reviewed several highly successful live and online poker players who receive little to no hype. First up was Amnon Filippi, who was the runner-up to Vadim Trincher in the World Poker Tour (WPT) Foxwoods World Poker Classic last April. Huff explained, “He shares information with some of the biggest and best minds in poker and it’s paid off.” Next up was Justin Young, who was the runner-up to Chino Rheem in the 2008 WPT Doyle Brunson Five Diamond World Poker Classic. Sebok noted, “Sneaky, good player. Another guy with a brain trust.”

Scott “BigRiskky” Clements already owns two WSOP bracelets and two WPT titles, yet his name is overlooked in many poker circles. Sebok added, “I don’t know why everyone and their mother doesn’t know who he is.” Last up was DoylesRoom Brunson 10 member Amit “amak316” Makhija, who Sebok boasted might have “the most No Limit Hold’em potential out of all of these guys.”

Finally, Dana Workman dished out the “Weekly Misdeal,” featuring a satirical look at the week’s poker news. Topics included rumors of former Playboy Playmate of the Year Jayde Nicole dating Cada, PCA amfAR charity tournament participants, and the L.A. Kings alumni poker tournament.

“Poker2Nite” airs on Wednesdays at 11:00pm ET on Fox Sports Net. Check your local listings for more information.

Online Poker Funding Methods for the U.S. Player

It is the year 2010. The Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA) has been on the books in the United States since late 2006. While the deadline for implementing its regulations has been pushed back to the middle of this year, many financial institutions have already begun clamping down on transactions to online poker rooms. Options for American players have become limited. In this article, I will present several funding methods that are still available to U.S. online poker players. Even though they aren’t all inexpensive, foolproof, or even widely available, there should be suitable options for everyone.

Credit/Debit Cards

Most online poker rooms accept VISA and MasterCard credit cards nowadays, as well as debit cards with the VISA or MasterCard logo. These are hit or miss, though, as many card issuers block online gambling transactions. Before the UIGEA passed, credit and debit cards were actually oddities as deposit methods for Americans, as there were plenty of reliable e-wallets to use. Many card companies didn’t allow gambling transactions on their cards back then, not because of any laws, but because they didn’t want to expose themselves to increased chargeback risks. Post-UIGEA, as other funding methods began to dry up, online poker rooms began looking for ways to get credit and debit card transactions to go through.

e-Checks

Personally, I have found e-Checks to be the easiest and most reliable online poker funding method at those poker rooms that use it. The two largest online poker rooms, Full Tilt Poker and PokerStars, readily accept e-Checks, which is likely one contributing factor to their market dominance.

e-Checks are just what they sound like, electronic checks. You just enter the information found on your check, including the bank account number and routing number, and the funds hit your poker account instantly.

e-Wallets

Back in the day, before that nasty UIGEA, most online poker players used e-Wallets to fund their poker accounts. For those unfamiliar with the concept, an e-Wallet is an online account from which you can transfer money to and from poker rooms and your bank. It really is just like a wallet; you take money from your bank account, put it in your wallet, and then take that money and use it at a store. With online poker, you transfer money from your bank to your e-Wallet and then move some or all of it to a poker room. E-Wallets are great for keeping track of your online poker funds, as you can stash your bankroll all in one place and quickly move it in and out of poker rooms.

Unfortunately, most of the good e-wallets, namely Neteller and ePassporte, have left the U.S. market since the UIGEA. The ones that do accept U.S. customers are now few and far between (eWalletXpress is one that several poker rooms still use). The big problem is that they all are typically fee-heavy; there are fees to move funds from your bank to the e-Wallet and fees to transfer funds out. There are no fees, however, to transfer to and from online poker rooms. To minimize the impact of fees, I recommend making the largest deposit you are comfortable making when you are being assessed a flat fee.  Also, some deposit fees are lower or even eliminated if you are willing to wait for your transfer to clear rather than having the funds appear in your account instantly.  If you can be patient, you can save a little bit of money.

Western Union/MoneyGram

If you don’t want to give your bank account information to an online poker room or e-Wallet and don’t want to try a credit card, then sending money via Western Union or MoneyGram can work very well. I won’t go into the whole procedure here, but in a nutshell the poker room will give you their recipient information, which you then take with your cash to a Western Union or MoneyGram location. When that’s done, you log into your poker account with some additional information from the retail location and you’re all set. As with e-Wallets, there are fees involved, but you can usually deposit $1,500 or more per day, so if you max it out, the fees aren’t too bad. You actually have to leave the house to do it, however, which can be a drawback for some players.

The four deposit options I just detailed aren’t the only ones out there, but they are the most common and usually the quickest. In today’s online poker environment, sometimes we just have to take what we can get.

Chris Moorman (moorman1) Wins PocketFives.com Yearly PLB Title

DoylesRoom sponsored pro Chris "moorman1" Moorman stormed through the competition in 2009, capturing the Yearly PocketFives.com Leaderboard (PLB) title. In addition, he claimed the Monthly PLB for December, his second of 2009.

Moorman’s claim to fame during the year came in August, when the British online poker pro chopped a Full Tilt Online Poker Series (FTOPS) $322 No Limit Hold’em with Rebuys event for $204,000. His second largest cash to date on the virtual felts came in April, as Moorman made the final table of a PokerStars Spring Championship of Online Poker (SCOOP) event for $113,000. In February, Moorman was in the winner’s circle of the PokerStars $100 Rebuy for a cool $88,000.

Moorman was a beacon of consistency throughout 2009. In the first Online Poker Rankings update on PocketFives.com, which occurred on January 7th, Moorman sat at number two worldwide. Three weeks later, the youngster overtook Alex “AJKHoosier1” Kamberis for the Rankings’ top spot, a position that he held until February 25th. On that date, Steve “gboro780” Gross, CardPlayer’s Online Player of the Year winner for 2009, ascended to the top of the PocketFives.com Rankings, pushing Moorman back to second worldwide.

Gross had a stranglehold on the top spot in the Rankings until August 12th, when Shaun “shaundeeb” Deeb overtook him. Deeb, of course, announced in mid-November that he was retiring from tournaments due to burnout. On September 23rd, Moorman was back on top in the same month that he officially became a member of the Brunson 10, the group of online poker players handpicked by Doyle Brunson to represent DoylesRoom. Moorman held the top spot in September for a week until the 30th, when Gross once again led the way.

On November 25th, Dan “djk123” Kelly stole the top spot from Gross just in time for the Thanksgiving holiday in the United States. Moorman then ascended to the head of the class on December 30th, with the next Rankings update to be released on Wednesday, January 6th. The Rankings encompass tournaments with at least 100 entrants and prize pools of $1,000 or more. Each event must have a buy-in of at least $1 and only scheduled tournaments are tracked. Only non-satellite tournaments with real money buy-ins are counted across some of the world’s largest online poker sites like Absolute Poker, Betfair, Bodog, Cake Poker, Carbon Poker, Full Tilt, PartyPoker, PokerStars, Titan Poker, and UB.com.

On the PocketFives.com Yearly PLB for 2009, Moorman logged 20,850 points, comfortably edging out Kelly, who netted 18,606. Moorman’s largest score was 716 points, whereas Kelly’s single greatest PLB tally was double that. Gross took third on the Yearly PLB for 2009. Here were the final results:

1. Chris “moorman1” Moorman – 20,850.97
2. Dan “djk123” Kelly – 18,606.93
3. Steve “gboro780” Gross – 18,472.42
4. Shaun “shaundeeb” Deeb – 18,061.15
5. Tony “D1rtyR1v3r” Nardi – 17,616.29
6. Kevin “ImaLuckSac” MacPhee – 17,514.48
7. David “Doc Sands” Sands – 17,354.60
8. Jeremy “daisyxoxo” Fitzpatrick – 17,167.12
9. Felipe “improved” Montenegro – 17,134.04
10. Ben “NeverScaredB” Wilinofsky – 16,323.68

Moorman finished fourth on both CardPlayer’s and Bluff’s Online Player of the Year leaderboards for 2009. He joined the Brunson 10 in September, becoming the fourth member of a talented group of players that already included Amit “amak316” Makhija, Zachary “CrazyZachary” Clark, and Alec “traheho” Torelli. In November during final table play of the World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event, the Brunson 10 welcomed “2 Months, $2 Million” cast member Dani “ansky” Stern to its ranks. Stern was the youngest personality to appear on the G4 online poker reality show.

DoylesRoom happily accepts customers from the United States as a member of the Cake Poker Network. Other site pros include Todd Brunson, Hoyt Corkins, and “The Mad Genius of Poker” Mike Caro.

Dominating Fantasy Football Week 17 with Online Poker Skills

Week 17 of the National Football League (NFL) will feature a hodgepodge of players competing for their spot on rosters in 2010. Players like Curtis Painter and Arian Foster will become household fantasy names on Sunday. How can you use your poker skills to navigate the murky waters?

Live and online poker players are top-notch when it comes to researching their competition. Ask any player in tournaments like the National Heads-Up Poker Championship and they’ll tell you that they research their foes prior to every match. Although Full Tilt Poker recently punished Brian Townsend for compiling hands Swedish poker pro Isildur1, the practice, even though it may be against the Terms and Conditions of many sites, is still somewhat commonplace.

Think about how much information exists on players. Online, sites like PokerTableRatings.com and HighStakesDB.com offer a significant amount of information on a player, including major hands played, notorious opponents, and career earnings. Behold the power of the internet, as more information than you can possibly stomach is at your fingertips. To survive Week 17 of the NFL in a one-week league or in the traditional fantasy playoffs, a bevy of research is needed.

Poker News Daily has partnered with Fantazzle.com, which specializes in one-week fantasy sports games, to bring our readers a free Week 17 contest with a $20 prize. If you win this “freeroll” and make a deposit of $50 using PayPal or a major credit card, you’ll take home five times the value of your prize. Fantazzle.com founder Ryan Parr told Poker News Daily, “Week 17 is all about strategy and skill. At a high level, any poker player thinks they have a chance of winning money. You know football, you think you know fantasy football, and you come on Fantazzle.com to win money because you’re more intelligent than the guy sitting next to you. Some days may be a little rough and some days you won’t get a feel for the guys you’re playing against.”

Fantazzle.com offers football, baseball, racing, golf, hockey, and basketball. The latter two sports are just getting into full swing, so even as the football season winds down, there’s still plenty of fantasy action to be had. Baseball is the second most popular fantasy sport behind football and its season kicks off in April.

If you think Week 17 in the NFL is a breeze to navigate, think again. In Week 16, the Indianapolis Colts, gunning for an undefeated season, pulled their starters in the third quarter and, as a result, were thumped 29-15 by the New York Jets and handed their first loss of the season. Fantasy managers who had their seasons riding on players like Peyton Manning, Reggie Wayne, and Dallas Clark instead watched Donald Brown and Joseph Addai scamper for touchdowns and Painter throw a pick-six. Clark had four grabs for 57 yards, while Wayne had a paltry three catches for 33 yards.

Meanwhile, the Chicago Bears versus Minnesota Vikings game turned out to be the shootout of the week, as the Bears won 36-30 in overtime. Minnesota had given up more than 30 points just once all season. Chicago quarterback and Vanderbilt University graduate Jay Cutler threw for four touchdowns for just his second multi-touchdown performance since Week 9. Vikings running back Adrian Peterson, who leads all tailbacks in fumbles with six, coughed the ball up in overtime to set up the game-winning score. If you think you know what’s going to happen on the field, think again.

Put those researching skills to the test. Who will dominate Week 17 in the NFL? Will the Colts, Green Bay Packers, and Arizona Cardinals rest their starters? Poker players should head to Fantazzle.com and give it a shot.

Full Tilt Poker Crashes on Sunday

It was an unusual Sunday for online poker players all over the world, as Full Tilt Poker, the world's second largest online poker site, had its server crash during the heart of its heavy-traffic period. The site’s stoppage affected everyone playing on the site, including those still alive in Full Tilt's flagship Sunday tournament, the $216 buy-in $750,000 Guaranteed.

The crash occurred at 7:45pm ET and players were booted from the site and unable to log back in. When attempting to open the Full Tilt client, players received a message saying, "Unable to connect to server." This went on for hours and the poker community erupted.

Full Tilt posted the following message on its site shortly after the crash occurred: "Unscheduled Maintenance In Progress: We recently experienced a network outage. We expect to be operational shortly." After failing to get the site back up in a timely manner, Full Tilt Poker cancelled all running tournaments at 9:41pm ET. Then, at approximately 11:15pm, ET, the site's support staff sent the following e-mail to players who were still playing in tournaments:

When a tournament is cancelled before it reaches the money, according to tournament rule 31.2 (http://www.fulltiltpoker.com/tourRules.php):

-All players still in the tournament at the time of the cancellation will be refunded their tournament buy-in and tournament fee. Players will have their buy-ins refunded in the tournament prize pool currency.

-In addition, the remaining prize pool will be divided and distributed according to chip count - (Remaining Prize Pool)*(Your Chip Count)/(Total Chips in Play) = Your Share of Remaining Prize Pool.

The reimbursement policy for rebuy tournaments is slightly different and several players expressed their confusion regarding Full Tilt's procedure. PocketFives.com forum member "MattElsarelli" posted the following concerning a tournament he was playing: "Does anyone know their policy on refunding for rebuys? I'm like 15 buy in deeps in the $20 rebuy, do I get refunded all of them?"

He got his answer from a fellow poster who laid out Full Tilt's Tournament Rules: "In a Rebuy tournament - the number of rebuys or add-ons a player has made does not affect the payout if a tournament is cancelled. If a tournament has not reached the money, all players will have their initial tournament buy-in and fee returned, as described in bullet 31.2. In addition, any other money in the prize and Cashout pools where applicable (excluding guarantees and money added by Full Tilt Poker), will be divided and distributed to the remaining players, based on their respective chip counts."

For tournaments that awarded a non-monetary prize, such as a live tournament package (like a World Poker Tour event), Full Tilt Poker assigns a monetary value to the prize and distributes it in cash to the remaining players based on their chip counts. In ring games, the hand being played at the time of the stoppage was considered dead and all bets were returned at the point of the crash.

As of Monday morning, Full Tilt Poker was operating as normal.

PokerTracker Releases Omaha, Mac Support

Just days before the beginning of 2010, the popular poker tracking and analysis software PokerTracker turned a new leaf of its own, releasing Omaha and Mac supported versions. The so-called Beta 30 was announced in the PokerTracker forums.

Mac poker software is quickly growing in popularity as more and more online poker players switch to the alternative computing system. Poker aficionados who received new Mac laptops for the holidays can now use PokerTracker with ease, as the programming team released support just in time for the new decade. Auto-import of hand histories for the new PokerTracker release is available for PokerStars, Full Tilt Poker, and Ongame Network clients.

In addition to the Mac-supported version, another growing area of the marketplace received support from PokerTracker, Omaha. The up-and-coming game’s support on PokerTracker is still somewhat patchwork, as Auto-Rate is not yet functional and only hands from PokerStars, Full Tilt Poker, PartyPoker, and the iPoker Network will import to the poker tracking tool. In addition, Table Tracker does not yet support Omaha. Text found in the PokerTracker forums notes, “The Omaha beta is freely available to all owners of the Holdem version and to all trial users. For those of you who do not own PT3, but have an expired trial, Omaha will be getting its own trial separate from the Holdem one soon, so please be patient.”

Beta 30 also received an extreme makeover in the form of a Setup Wizard. In an effort to make configuring PokerTracker as easy as possible, the program’s developers had the foresight to include a setup tool to add sites. A process that sometimes required a player posting on poker forums like PocketFives.com and TwoPlusTwo.com may soon be a breeze thanks to the Setup Wizard. Novice PokerTracker users and customers setting up additional online poker sites to the mix will be able to take advantage of the new feature.

Players transitioning from the Windows-based version of PokerTracker to the Mac utility can employ the software’s new backup and restore feature. Now, layouts, reports, stats, notes, and buddies can all be placed into one central zip file. This essentially creates one point of reference when switching versions or computers.

Because the new version remains in beta, a variety of bugs are expected. In fact, one day after Beta 30 was announced, PokerTracker programmers rolled out Beta 30.1, which addressed issues with the software’s Heads-Up Display (HUD), PartyPoker hand imports, and database names containing characters that sent the program into a tizzy. The site frankly states, “There's a very good probability that there will be bugs. If you aren't willing to deal with bugs and help us locate and fix them, please wait until the stable release is out.”

Bugs fixed in the Beta 30 release included importing hands from the Microgaming Network, tournament import issues on Full Tilt, and rebuy and add-on support for PokerStars. Support for heads-up tables was added for Bodog and tournament bounty support was also added across several sites. Improvements to sanity checks and keyboard shortcuts were also added.

Along with Holdem Manager, PokerTracker represents the industry-leading tracking and analysis software. At the time of writing, PokerTracker and Holdem Manager were the third and fourth highest rated programs by users of PokerSoftware.com, respectively, and both are used by thousands of online poker players. Holdem Manager launched an Omaha client, Omaha Manager, earlier this year. Poker Copilot serves as the staple tracking program for Mac players.

Posters on PocketFives.com have reported a bevy of bugs in PokerTracker’s Mac version. Member “diesel83” remarked, “It seems to be picking up my hands and results fairly well, but the HUD is worthless right now. At least it is here. Going back to fusion to run Windows until next update though.”

The Full Version of PokerTracker runs $89.99, while the Micro-Stakes Edition will set players back $44.99.

PokerTableRatings Announces Player of the Year Race

Many in poker work hard to attain various Player of the Year awards from several publications and associations, ranging from the World Series of Poker (WSOP) to PocketFives.com.  Although there are a myriad awards set aside for the year’s best tournament poker players, none have existed for those who play in cash games. This year, PokerTableRatings is giving the opportunity to all poker enthusiasts to vote for the 2009 Player of the Year for both Hold’em and Omaha cash games.

The intention of the Player of the Year race at PokerTableRatings was to finally reward grinders making money at the cash tables with some much-deserved recognition.  Instead of simply awarding titles to those who just made the most money or put the vote to an elitist group of individuals, the site has decided that the public will determine the vote.

There are ten awards that will be given out for both Hold’em and Omaha games.  The stake levels are:

Nosebleeds: $100-$200 and up
High Stakes: $10-$20 through $50-$100
Mid Stakes: $2-$4 through $5-$10
Low Stakes: $0.5-$1 through $1-$2
Micro Stakes: $0.25-$0.50 and below

Players who have played a minimum of 10,000 hands at each level qualify to receive votes.  If a player has played more than the minimum required across several stakes, they are eligible to receive votes at all qualified levels.

Each registered user of PokerTableRatings will receive ten Player of the Year votes.  Registration to the site is completely free and without obligation.  To vote for someone, users visit the profile page of a given player and select the radio boxes for the award they want to vote for and hit the “Submit” button.  Each checked box counts for one vote and players can vote multiple times for any given player.  Once a vote is cast, however, it cannot be changed and the site has gone on record saying it will not grant additional votes.  The voting is currently underway and will conclude on December 31st.

Once the votes are counted, the players with the most in each category will be declared the PokerTableRatings Player of the Year for that level.  Each player winning an award will receive a special badge for his or her profile page.

The current results page is updated every 20 minutes and displays the current vote totals for all categories.  Since voting is open to all registered voters, some have voted for their favorites, friends, themselves, and those who they feel best exemplify the title of Player of the Year.

Currently, “Isildur1” leads the vote totals for both the Hold’em and Omaha categories despite losing $2.65 million this year in Nosebleed stakes games.  He holds a slight edge over Tom “durrrr” Dwan in both categories, with the winner still yet to be determined.

In the High Stakes and Mid Stakes Hold’em categories, one player holds the leading votes for both categories in “nanonoko.”  In both stakes, the margin is extremely wide and, with over $1 million in profits this year, he looks like a lock to take the award down.  The same phenomenon is happening for the High Stakes and Mid Stakes Omaha awards, as “Skjervøy” leads both categories in voting.  Although his margin is not as great as the one that “nanonoko” enjoys, “Skjervøy” remains the odds-on favorite to win both categories.

In the Low Stakes Hold’em category, “water boat” holds a huge margin over the rest of the competition thanks to some apparent self-promotion.  One of the odds-on favorites to win the award before voting began was “jrockhaf” from PokerStars, who currently sits in seventh place with 160 votes after taking own more than $90,000 in just low-stakes action.  On the Omaha side, “TheOrangeman” leads by a nice margin over players such as “kazor” and “GaussPoker” from Full Tilt Poker.

The Micro Stakes has losing players currently in the lead for both Hold’em and Omaha categories.  Current leader “MartinK1979” from PokerStars leads despite his -$875 showing for the year over second place “GalloFX” from Full Tilt Poker, who has lost $3,560 in 2009.  Obviously, these votes might be more sentimental in nature more than anything, but it will be interesting to see who wins out in this category.  Finally, in the Micro Stakes Omaha category, “MRobot” from PokerStars leads despite his -$534 result in 2009.

All online poker players are highly encouraged to visit PokerTableRatings and cast their ten free votes to have a voice in the Player of the Year race.  Winners will be announced shortly after voting concludes on New Year’s Eve.

Team PokerStars Online Announced

After 2,000 online poker players sent in applications to become members of Team PokerStars Online, the group’s 23 inaugural players were announced on Wednesday, just in time for the holidays.

Eighteen countries are represented among the 23 founding members of Team PokerStars Online. Those on the list include Steve Jacobs, known in online poker circles simply as “stevesbets.” The poker player is perhaps best known for winning the 2008 PokerStars World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP) $25,000 buy-in Heads-Up event for a staggering $560,000. Also in the mix is Thomas “Boku87” Boekhoff, who was involved in a challenge of his own on the world’s largest online poker site to turn a $5 bankroll into $100,000. Boekhoff is one of the world’s premier grinders, but he’s also had success in the brick-and-mortar poker scene, including a 14th place at the European Poker Tour’s (EPT) Monte Carlo Grand Final in 2008.

Grayson “spacegravy” Physioc is another member of Team PokerStars Online. He’s a former winner of the site’s high-stakes $200 rebuy and recently finished as the runner-up in the PokerStars $10,000 Guaranteed for $11,000. Many will remember Nichoel Peppe from her deep run in the 2009 World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event, where she took 75th place for $69,000. Known in the online world as “NicP,” the favorite of ESPN’s Main Event coverage now takes per place among the team of PokerStars-backed online poker pros.

Anders “Donald” Berg finished 37th in the 2008 EPT Monte Carlo Grand Final and took down an event held as part of the Irish Winter Festival of Poker in 2005. In November, he won the PokerStars $100 rebuy for $26,000 and, one month prior, took down the site’s $50,000 Guaranteed for $15,000. Berg hails from Norway and is a veteran of the poker industry. You can find him roving the virtual felts of PokerStars as an online team member.

To say that Team PokerStars Online constitutes an eclectic group would be an understatement. Here are its inaugural members, listed alphabetically: Andres Alisievicz (lobojiji), Jorge Arias (JorgeArias), Boumaaza Bachir (Chiren80), Anders Berg (Donald), Alvaro Blanco (VARICO), Thomas Boekhoff (Boku87), Diego Brunelli (vgreen22), Andre Coimbra (acoimbra), Mathew Didlick (chipstar1), Ta-Chih Geeng (socutiesf), Andrew Goetsch (Kid Nebraska), Martha Gonzalez (marene), Keiran Harris (K_Man2307), Steve Jacobs (stevesbets), Randy Lew (nanonoko), Karlo Lopez (elmagopr), Alexey Makarov (LuckyGump), Kristian Martin (CharismA3), Grzegorz Mikielewicz (DaWarsaw), Nichoel Peppe (NicP), Grayson Physioc (spacegravy), Sebastien Sabic (Seb86), and Amanda Thomas (ROXY24).

A press release distributed by PokerStars on Wednesday reveals that Team PokerStars Online will receive new members in 2010. In addition, modifications to the software client’s lobby will allow easier location of PokerStars-sponsored pros when they hop online. A range of games and stakes are represented in the Team PokerStars Online roster.

This weekend, just two days after Christmas, PokerStars is hosting a Guinness World Record attempt for the largest online poker tournament in history. The standing mark is 65,000, set by PokerStars in July, and the site has upped the ante this time around. The record-setting $1 buy-in tournament will kick off at 14:45 ET on Sunday and feature $300,000 in the prize pool. The event will take on a turbo format and first place may see as much as $50,000 come their way for their $1 investment.

PokerStars is the world’s largest online poker site, with a seven-day running average of 28,400 real money ring game players, according to PokerScout.com. During its peak hours, which occur in the evening throughout North America, nearly 50,000 cash game players call the site home. PokerStars happily accepts real money wagers from the United States and is based in the Isle of Man.

Bodog Running 12 Days of Poker Promotion

With the Christmas holiday upon us, many poker players have presents lined up under their trees waiting to be opened. In keeping with the holiday spirit, top online poker room Bodog is offering more presents for players as part of the 12 Days of Poker promotion.

Due to end on December 27th, the promotion gives out entries to players who participate in cash games and tournaments on the site through the accumulation of Bodog Poker Points. For every 25 and 75 Bodog Poker Points that a player earns, they will be entered once for prizes being awarded that day.

Some of the prizes that have been dished out so far over the first few days of Bodog’s 12 Days of Poker promotion include a Sony Bravia 52" HDTV, a Sony Home Theater system, a Sony PlayStation 3 (which was won by Bodog player “lionking2x”), and a TomTom GPS system (won by “salsx”). If these prizes aren’t big enough, Bodog has also handed out 25 seats to its weekly $100,000 Guaranteed, which has been dubbed by many as one of the best value buys for online poker players due to its perennial overlay.

With about a week to go in the Bodog 12 Days of Poker promotion, there are still plenty of great opportunities to pick up a Christmas gift from the online poker site. Up for grabs on Monday are five seats to the $100,000 Guaranteed and a Sony Vaio laptop. Over the remaining run of the promotion, Bodog will give away two more Sony Bravia HDTVs, a Sony Vaio Desktop Computer, a Samsung 55" LED LCD TV, a Sony HD Camcorder, a Canon PowerShot camera, and more seats into the Sunday $100,000 Guaranteed.

Even though there are some highly valuable prizes available, the $100,000 Guaranteed tickets might be one of the most coveted rewards during Bodog’s 12 Days of Poker. In the most recent $100,000 Guaranteed, played on December 20th, 451 players showed up for battle on Bodog’s virtual felts. With the $150 buy-in, this meant that Bodog added over $32,000 from its pockets for the tournament’s guarantee to be met. Of the players who entered in the $100,000 Guaranteed, it was first place finisher “mattlee3” who walked away with the $25,000 grand prize, with runner up “cbo187” ($15,000), and third place finisher “Suraj128” ($9,500), also taking away large chunks of cash.

With the 12 Days of Poker promotion, Bodog is looking to share the holiday spirit with its patrons and spread its own Christmas cheer. For a full list of the prizes being offered each day, visit Bodog and get in on the action.

Applying Online Poker Skills to One-Week Fantasy Football Leagues

We’re in the midst of the fantasy football playoffs in many leagues and, with some managers not a part of the post-season, the popularity of one-week contests has ballooned. Online poker players, in particular, should be quite successful in these games.

Fantazzle.com has partnered with Poker News Daily to help our readers enter the world of one-week fantasy games and put their online poker skills to the test. Most weekly fantasy sites, in fact, have online draft lobbies that look nearly identical to the ones you’d find on your favorite poker room, showing the maximum capacity and number of players already registered. Familiar buy-ins like $5, $10, and $20 parallel sit and gos nicely, especially as it relates to understanding payouts and rake.

At Fantazzle.com, two different types of one-week fantasy sports leagues exist. The first is a salary cap format whereby each manager receives a set number of dollars with which to buy players. How does this relate to poker, you ask? In poker, you have to be able to spot value and weakness in opponents. In fantasy football, it’s the same way. If Jamaal Charles (RB - Kansas City Chiefs) is going for only $30,000 and plays the Cleveland Browns in Week 15, he might be a better one-time play than DeAngelo Williams (RB – Carolina Panthers), who might have a price three times larger and also has a tougher match-up in the Minnesota Vikings, one of the league’s top run defenses.

In poker, it’s all about spotting value. Knowing when you can profitably make a play at a pot is key, as is mathematically understanding whether a play is in line with expected value. Being able to spot value in tournament registrations, such as overlays, is also extremely important. If a tournament like the Bodog $100,000 Guaranteed has a perennial overlay, knowing this information and then registering for it increases your value in an event. In fantasy drafts, understanding value in the middle and late rounds is especially vital to your success.

Fantasy football is really all about exploiting match-ups. Who plays who typically pre-destines success or failure in a given week. If your fantasy players face off against the likes of Detroit, Oakland, and Seattle, then chances are you’ll be flying high. However, if your quarterbacks are locked down against teams like Pittsburgh, Baltimore, or the New York Giants, then look out. In one-week drafts like those you’ll find on Fantazzle.com, understanding the match-ups and compiling your team accordingly is what determines your relative success. In poker, some of the top players in the world are heads-up specialists, capitalizing on their skill relative to others in order to make a living.

Fantazzle.com has been in business since 2008 and its owner, Ryan Parr, told Poker News Daily, “You will be assigned to a group of people. You don’t have to wait around for others to come.” Unlike a poker sit and go, you won’t have to stand by until a table fills up to play. As soon as it’s game time each week, you’re off to the races. While many fantasy football managers are currently shut out of the playoffs, at Fantazzle.com, everyone is able to participate. Metaphorically, all you need is a chip and a chair.

Online poker sites are all about building credibility. Using names like Phil Ivey and Daniel Negreanu to sell a site’s viability results in players swarming the online poker room left and right. At Fantazzle.com, the New York Giants’ Steve Smith foots the bill, as the wide receiver is lending his autograph to tournament winners each week. Smith leads the Giants in receiving yards and receptions by a large margin and has found the end zone five times in 2009, tied for the second most on the team.

Visit Fantazzle.com today and put your online poker skills to good use!

CNBC Illegal Gambling Feature to Air on Wednesday

On Wednesday night at 9:00pm ET, CNBC will air a one-hour exposé entitled, “The Big Business of Illegal Gambling.” The report from CNBC’s Melissa Francis will put the multi-billion dollar industry into focus and include a segment on internet gambling.

Wednesday’s show marks one of the most high-profile television programs about internet gambling since “60 Minutes” aired a feature on the cheating scandals at the online poker rooms Ultimate Bet and Absolute Poker one year ago. According to a preview found on CNBC’s website, the show will “take viewers inside this high-stakes business that brings some people immense wealth, while others pay the ultimate price.” Francis is co-anchor of the CNBC show “The Call,” which airs for one hour beginning at 11:00am ET during the week.

The CNBC description begins, “The one-hour program delivers an in-depth look at just how mainstream illegal gambling has become.” Francis will speak with a bevy of industry representatives, including a bookmaker simply named “Paul” and a professional gambler named "Vegas Runner." Among those CNBC will speak to with a first and last name is Nick Sarillo, whom the show describes as “a restaurant owner who freelances as a bookie [and] crosses the Mob and pays a heavy price.” These three will likely be offline gamblers.

Then, Francis and company will explore the world of internet gambling. The preview of the CNBC special explains, “Technology has made illegal gambling much more accessible and the same computer used for work or to connect with family and friends can also be used to wager outside the law.” Among those to be interviewed is Jay Cohen, the co-founder of the World Sports Exchange who was found guilty of violating the Wire Act of 1961. He was sentenced to 21 months in jail and fined $5,000; World Sports Exchange boasted revenues of $200 million and he was freed in 2004.

Also featured is Scott Damiani, the Executive Director of the Outreach Foundation. The show’s website explains, “Illegal gambling costs Scott Damiani is home, business family... and almost cost him his life. After hitting rock bottom, he picked his life back up and now devotes his time to helping other gambling addicts as the Executive Director of the Outreach Foundation.”

Poker News Daily has also learned that Tokwiro Chief Operating Officer Paul Leggett filmed an interview for the CNBC program. The two Tokwiro-owned online poker rooms, Ultimate Bet and Absolute Poker, were at the heart of a ten-minute feature by the CBS news program “60 Minutes” over Thanksgiving weekend in 2008. The report questioned why no one had been prosecuted in the case and ended with segment reporter Steve Kroft calling Russ Hamilton’s home in Las Vegas. Hamilton, who won the 1994 World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event, was fingered as the main man responsible in the Ultimate Bet cheating scandal. To date, no one has been convicted.

Finally, Francis will dive into a high-spirited internet gambling debate featuring Congressmen Jim McDermott (D-WA) and Bob Goodlatte (R-VA). Online poker players can thank the latter for helping to bring the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA) to life back in 2006. McDermott, meanwhile, has authored legislation seeking to extract 2% of deposits from licensed internet gambling companies in the United States under legislation proposed by Congressman Barney Frank (D-MA). Curiously, Frank’s name does not appear on the preview for the CNBC program despite being legalized internet gambling’s number one proponent on Capitol Hill. Also absent is the Poker Players Alliance (PPA), the industry’s main lobbying group.

Poker News Daily will have a recap of the show after it airs on Wednesday night. Video clips, slideshows, and even an illegal gambling quiz can be found on CNBC’s website.

Bodog Founder Calvin Ayre Featured in National Post

On Saturday, the National Post ran an article entitled “Calvin Ayre online gaming tycoon,” a profile of the founder of the popular online poker room, casino, and sports book Bodog. Ayre donned a Bodog Fight shirt for the interview’s image.

Diane Francis was tasked with interviewing Ayre in Antigua and the news outlet described the internet mogul as “semi-retired.” The article begins with Francis asking Ayre about the 2006 Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA), approved by better than a 3:1 edge in the House of Representatives before being attached to the SAFE Port Act at the urging of then-Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-TN). When asked if Canadian authorities had pursued Ayre in any capacity related to the 2006 law, he told the Post, "No. I haven't lived in Canada for ten years or been in the Canadian tax system. The legal system did not allow me to do this in Canada. Now I like living in the tropics.”

Ayre revealed that he owns the rights to the domain name Bodog.com and licenses the rights to the network to affiliates located around the globe. In the United States, for example, Morris Mohawk Gaming Group, a Canadian outfit, owns the rights to market the brand. After recently releasing “Survivor: China” castaway Jean-Robert Bellande, Bodog’s stable of poker pros currently stands at three: Evelyn Ng, Justin “ZeeJustin” Bonomo, and David Williams.

The Post then inquired about Bodog’s revenue figures. Ayre explained, "My current deals aren't revenue based and are all different structures which I don't talk about. Forbes audited our books and based the number on the same multiple that the British public companies were trading at, or more than $1.5 billion. In 2006, Bodog made US $320 million in revenues and 25% profit." After the UIGEA was passed into law, online poker sites with publicly traded parent companies like PartyPoker and Pacific Poker exited the market, leaving sites like Bodog, PokerStars, and Full Tilt Poker to pick up the slack.

On the current legality of online poker in the United States, Ayre told the Post, “Poker is not illegal to bet online in the U.S. because it's considered a skilled game. It's a gray area, but there are lots of American companies with poker sites.” This year, Bodog forged its own poker network and will purportedly begin accepting non-Bodog domains into its ranks next year. Jonas Odman, Vice President of the Bodog Network, told Poker News Daily that a “unique solution” to rakeback will help differentiate the family of sites from others in the industry.

In September, Ayre served as the keynote speaker at the Budapest Affiliate Conference. He told event organizers at the time, “I’m very flattered to have been asked to be this year’s keynote speaker in Budapest. The iGaming space is the birthplace of the Bodog brand, and it remains one of the must dynamic and fascinating sectors in the entertainment space.” In addition to Morris Mohawk, Bodog’s licensees include Bodog Europe and Bodog Asia. The former recently opened its doors to Canadian online poker players.

According to PokerScout.com, which keeps tabs on online poker room traffic, Bodog is the 15th largest site or network worldwide with a seven-day running average of 860 real money ring game players. During its peak hours, around 1,500 cash game players call the site home. Its traffic is comparable with that found on PKR and every Sunday, the site hosts its $100,000 Guaranteed, a $162 buy-in event that kicks off at 4:00pm ET. The tournament regularly sees a $20,000 to $30,000 overlay, with $29,000 kicked in by the site last week.

Read the entire Calvin Ayre interview with the National Post.

FBI Issues Online Poker Findings; PPA Responds

Online poker players tuned into last week’s House Financial Services Committee on internet gambling can recall a letter cited by Congressman Spencer Bachus (R-AL) that claimed online poker games could be compromised.

The memo, dated November 13th and written by FBI Cyber Division Assistant Director Shawn Henry, addresses six questions put forth by Bachus regarding the current state of affairs in the online poker world. The report states, “The technology exists to manipulate online poker games in that it would only take two or three players working in unison to defeat the other players who are not part of the team.” Henry’s analysis speculates as to whether online poker sites would spend the time and money needed to combat these tag team maneuvers: “It really comes down to a cost analysis for the vendor. How much money will I make or lose by detecting cheating and implementing safeguards?”

The letter from Henry then addresses money laundering possibilities in private online poker tournaments before Bachus asked if “qualified personnel” existed to regulate the game should it be legalized. Henry responded, “FBI investigative resources are focused on our highest priorities, that being counterterrirosm, counterintelligence, and cyber threats to critical infrastructure.” No mention of online poker or internet gambling is given in Henry’s response to this question.

Henry questions the age and location verification mechanisms that online poker sites currently have in place. Henry responds, “For age verification, the possession of a credit card is usually the only validation these sites require. Credit card numbers are easily compromised and can be bought by the hundreds on several ‘underground’ websites.” On the question of location verification, Henry asserts, “While geolocation can be accurate when used to determine the physical country of residence, it becomes exponentially less accurate when determining the city or zip code.”

Also discussed in the letter from the FBI Cyber Division official are bots, programs against the Terms of Service of most major sites. In addition, Bachus asks whether U.S. law enforcement officials have had any conversations with their counterparts overseas where internet gambling is regulated about “potential vulnerabilities.” Henry emphatically claims, “The FBI has not engaged in this discussion with our foreign partners.” On casino bot programs manipulating online games, Henry admits, “While casino software could very easily be employed to manipulate games, the FBI has no data in this area.”

The Poker Players Alliance (PPA) was quick to point out the pitfalls of Henry’s letter. Its Executive Director, John Pappas, charged, “Every concern the letter raises is better addressed by licensing and regulation than by prohibition. The letter misconstrues much about the current state of online poker, but it does so in a way that clearly makes the case for why federal oversight is necessary. Licensing and regulation is the most protective measure we can take to ensure the online community can be properly monitored while maintaining our internet freedom.”

The PPA added that Congressman Peter King (R-NY), the current Ranking Member and former Chairman of the Committee on Homeland Security, conveyed that money laundering and terrorism financing were not taking place through internet gambling. The PPA explains that online poker sites use credit databases to address age and location and that the Department of Justice has never found evidence that organized crime benefited from internet gambling. In total, the lobbying group notes, “In defense of Mr. Henry’s letter, it is intended to address the status quo, not the internet poker landscape under HR 2267.”

Age verification was one of the many issues discussed at last week’s hearing, which focused on HR 2267. The bill, proposed by Congressman Barney Frank (D-MA) crafts a complete licensing and regulatory framework for the internet gambling industry in the United States.

Internet Gambling Expert Reacts to UIGEA Regulations Delay

Over Thanksgiving, mandatory compliance with the regulations of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA) was postponed six months to June 1st, 2010. Poker News Daily sat down with internet gambling expert Nelson Rose to get his take.

Poker News Daily: What were your thoughts on the postponement of mandatory financial services industry compliance with the regulations of the UIGEA?

Rose: When powerful Congressmen like Barney Frank (D-MA) and Harry Reid (D-NV) tell administrative agencies to do something, they’re going to pay a lot more attention to it than when out of power members of Congress like Jon Kyl (R-AZ) weigh in. They also know that the UIGEA is a piece of garbage that was dropped on their heads. That happens to administrators: Congress passes something undoable and makes agencies figure it out.

PND: Talk about some of the pressures put on the Federal Reserve and Treasury to make this decision.

Rose: It was the Federal Reserve and Treasury, but they made a big point of saying that they consulted the Department of Justice, which they were required to do. That means that the Attorney General of the United States signed off on this.

Under President George W. Bush, we had some right-wing religious fanatics who were anti-gambling in charge, but we also had the Department of Justice that understood there were higher priorities. They knew they didn’t have a lot of good law on their side, so they were running a war of intimidation. Now, we have a sane Department of Justice led by people who understand priorities and that internet gambling isn’t a big deal compared with all of the other criminal problems in the world. Yet, there are still offices that have gone further than they did during the Bush administration by seizing the money of online poker players.

PND: Do you foresee sensible internet gambling legislation being passed in the next six months?

Rose: I think that this is the start of the process. The Democrats won’t do what Bill Frist (R-TN) did and try to ram this through when no one is looking by attaching it to a must-pass bill. They’ll have hearings, but unfortunately for everyone who is interested in it, it’s still a very low priority.

PND: What would have happened if the December 1st UIGEA compliance deadline stood?

Rose: I think nothing would have happened. I’ve talked to some banks and payment processors. They’re taking it very seriously, but they understand that the UIGEA rules specifically say don’t look at individual transactions, so they’re not going to do that. They’re concerned with setting up new accounts and no one is setting up illegal gambling operations in the United States.

PND: Give us your thoughts on overblocking, which crept up when legal online lottery transactions in North Dakota and New Hampshire were being denied.

Rose: The regulations make it clear not to look at individual transactions, but there are a lot of operators involved in things like horse racing, skill games, and free entry games that they would not do business with if they didn’t have legal opinions like the ones I’ve been writing. That’s the reason I think the regulations are actually helpful: they create a safe harbor that the banks can use to say that they’re in compliance with the UIGEA because they’ve sought out legal opinions.

Full Tilt Poker Players Rushing to Claim Holiday Hundred Bonus

Only a few days remain in the Full Tilt Poker Holiday Hundred promotion, offering online poker players a $100 bonus on the world’s second largest site. The room has seen its high-stakes action balloon in recent weeks thanks to Isildur1.

Happy Holidays from Full Tilt Poker. One month before poker players awake on Christmas morning or participate in Hanukkah and Kwanzaa festivities, Full Tilt members can claim a special $100 Holiday Hundred bonus. Players have until the end of the day Eastern Time on December 6th to cash in. All they have to do is open the Full Tilt Poker Mac or Windows client, log in, and click “Requests” on the top menu bar. Then, select “Check My Bonus Offer” and click on “Accept Offer.”

Full Tilt Poker members have 30 days to release their bonus money by earning Full Tilt Points (FTPs) in real money ring games and tournaments. Every FTP earned means that players will claim $0.06 of the Holiday Hundred bonus, which will be paid out in increments of $10. Simple math will allow you to calculate that 167 FTPs are needed to clear each $10 increment and 1,667 are required for the full bonus to be unlocked. For each dollar that Full Tilt rakes from a pot, every player who was dealt cards in the hand receives one FTP. Each $1 paid in tournament entry fees means that players will earn seven FTPs.

Now, for the fine print. Players who have never deposited on Full Tilt Poker before should sign up for the site and clear the initial 100% first-time deposit bonus by the end of the day on November 30th. Then, Full Tilt will issue the Holiday Hundred bonus by December 2nd and players must accept it by the 6th. Full Tilt Poker customers who already hold active bonuses have until the end of the day on November 30th to clear their full value. Then, Full Tilt will place the Holiday Hundred bonus in their accounts by December 2nd and it must be accepted by the 6th.

The world’s second largest online poker site has seen its high-limit table action increase since the beginning of the month after the arrival of Swedish online poker mystery man Isildur1. The newcomer has battled a bevy of Full Tilt Poker pros in Pot Limit Omaha and No Limit Hold’em games. His cast of opponents has included newly-minted site pro Tom “durrrr” Dwan, 2009 World Series of Poker Main Event November Nine member Phil Ivey, Durrrr Challenge participant Patrik Antonius, and CardRunners pros Brian Townsend and Cole South.

According to PokerScout.com, which tracks online poker room traffic, Full Tilt boasts a seven-day running average of 18,800 real money ring game players. During peak hours, the site approaches 30,000 cash game enthusiasts. It’s the second largest site worldwide behind PokerStars and happily accepts customers from the United States. Besides Ivey, Dwan, and Antonius, other members of Team Full Tilt include Howard Lederer, Gus Hansen, Andy Bloch, Jennifer Harman, Andy Bloch, and bad boy Mike “The Mouth” Matusow.

Full Tilt Poker is gearing up for the second running of the Mini Full Tilt Online Poker Series (MiniFTOPS), which kicks off on December 9th and wraps up 11 days later.

Poker Industry Reacts to UIGEA Regulations Delay

Twenty-four hours after it was revealed that mandatory financial services industry compliance with the regulations of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA) would be delayed by six months, the poker industry has had a chance to react.

The Poker Players Alliance (PPA) was one of several organizations that successfully petitioned U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke to push back conformity with the UIGEA rules until June 1st, 2010. The 1.2 million member strong lobbying organization’s Chairman, Alfonse D’Amato, commented in a press release distributed on Friday, “We are thankful to our co-petitioners, the National Thoroughbred Racing Association and the American Greyhound Track Operators Association, and for the dozens of members of Congress who voiced their support for this petition through letters to Secretary Geithner and Chairman Bernanke. The PPA looks forward to working with regulators and legislators to pass legislation that protects consumers and the great game of poker.” News of the extension originally broke on Wednesday.

The two horse racing outfits co-authored a letter with the PPA to Geithner and Bernanke outlining the potential for overblocking by financial institutions, which could have led to legal online wagers being denied by companies like Visa and MasterCard. According to the PPA, the possibility of an extension beyond the current six-month time frame exists. Ideally, Congress would formulate proper internet gambling legislation before June 1st.

To that end, Safe and Secure Internet Gambling Initiative (SSIGI) spokesperson Michael Waxman commented, “This decision is the latest evidence that momentum is building for a shift in policy and a rewrite of U.S. internet gambling laws to provide for regulation and taxation instead of prohibition. Over the next six months, Congress should act to create a framework that regulates internet gambling to protect consumers and collect billions in much-needed revenue for critical federal and state government programs.”

Congressman Barney Frank (D-MA), whose House Financial Services Committee will host a hearing on two internet gambling bills next Thursday, gave his two cents on the UIGEA compliance date being postponed: “The Department of the Treasury and the Federal Reserve Board of Governors deserve a great deal of credit for suspending these midnight regulations promulgated by the Bush administration which would curtail the freedom of Americans to use the internet as they choose and which would pose unrealistic burdens on the entire financial community. This will give us a chance to act in an unhurried manner on my legislation to undo this regulatory excess by the Bush administration and to undo this ill-advised law.”

On the PocketFives.com online poker forum, Rich “TheEngineer” Muny, who serves as the Kentucky State Director for the PPA, broke the news early on Black Friday. While many online poker players were out hunting for deep holiday discounts, PocketFives.com member “mordan” was on the message boards candidly responding, “Everyone in the poker community just won a 30/70 with this development. Although this doesn’t guarantee regulation in the future, our odds have significantly increased with the U.S. Treasury recognizing problems with this bill.”

The future of the legality of games like online poker remains up in the air. In the PPA forum on TwoPlusTwo, poster “Distajo” questioned, “Was the delay granted more for the clarity of the UIGEA rules? Thus, being more beneficial for banks? Like don’t fund poker accounts, but allow horseracing wagers?” Past attempts to clarify the UIGEA have mandated that “laundry lists” of legal activities be created. If a bill like Frank’s HR 2267 is passed, much of the industry seems likely to be legalized and regulated in the United States.

Stay tuned to Poker News Daily for the latest UIGEA headlines.

UIGEA Regulations Officially Delayed Six Months

Online poker players in the United States have a lot to be thankful for this holiday season. On Friday, CNBC and the Associated Press confirmed that U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke had granted requests to delay the mandatory compliance date of the regulations of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA) by six months to June 1st, 2010.

Word of a potential delay first broke on Wednesday from Interactive Media Entertainment and Gaming Association (iMEGA) Executive Director Joe Brennan. However, no official comment had been handed down from Geithner, Bernanke, the Poker Players Alliance (PPA), or the office of Congressman Barney Frank (D-MA). Around 12:15pm ET on Friday, cable station CNBC ran a segment touting the successful six-month delay and an Associated Press article had hit cyberspace 15 minutes earlier.

The six-month delay will take the internet gambling industry to June 1st, 2010. In the interim, the theory goes that sensible legislation governing the industry in the United States will be passed. Frank introduced HR 2267 back in May. The bill, which has attracted 63 co-sponsors, establishes a full licensing and regulatory framework for online gaming outfits to solicit U.S. customers.

An Associated Press article sourced both the Treasury and Federal Reserve as saying that the UIGEA’s regulations would indeed be pushed off until mid-2010. The news service explained, “The delayed rules would curb online gambling by prohibiting financial institutions from accepting payments from credit cards, checks or electronic fund transfers to settle online wagers. The financial industry complained that the new rules would be difficult to enforce because they did not offer a clear definition of what constitutes internet gambling.” Since the UIGEA was approved in 2006, a Third Circuit Court of Appeals ruling stated that the legality of internet gambling may depend on state law, similar to the way that the brick-and-mortar version is governed.

Next Thursday, December 3rd, the House Financial Services Committee will hold a hearing discussing the merits of HR 2266 and HR 2267. The former bill delays mandatory industry compliance with the UIGEA regulations by one year to December 1st, 2010. Its relevance given Friday’s confirmation that the regulations would be pushed back six months is up in the air. The hearing kicks off at 10:00am ET in Room 2128 of the Rayburn House Office Building. Witnesses for the informational hearing have not yet been announced and the proceedings can be followed via a live webcast accessible from the Committee’s website.

Potential overblocking by credit card companies like Visa and MasterCard led the PPA, two horse racing organizations, and members of Kentucky’s Congressional delegation to petition Geithner and Bernanke, urging that the regulations of the UIGEA be shuttled back to December 1st of next year. PPA Executive Director John Pappas told Poker News Daily, “Many believe what you’ll see is overblocking of legitimate transactions. It’s not a good thing for players. It won’t just affect poker; it’ll affect horse racing, lotteries, and other online entities.”

Around 1:00pm ET, the PPA confirmed the news. The organization’s Chairman, Alfonse D’Amato, commented in a press release, “The PPA is extremely pleased with the decision by the Federal Reserve and Treasury to grant the six month extension. This is a great victory for poker, but an even greater victory for advocates of good and fair public policy.”

Stay tuned to Poker News Daily for the latest news and events from Capitol Hill.

Poker2Nite Talks Isildur1, Annie Duke Charity Poker Tournament

The second installment of the UB.com-sponsored poker news show “Poker2Nite” hit televisions on Thanksgiving Eve in the United States on cable station Fox Sports Net. Scott Huff and Joe Sebok host the show.

“Poker2Nite’s” second episode began with a discussion of the $1.3 million Pot Limit Omaha hand between Patrik Antonius and Swedish online poker player Isildur1. The hand was replayed on-screen, with Antonius flopping a straight and Isildur1 calling all-in with a series of higher straight draws. However, none of them hit and Antonius raked the largest pot in the history of online poker. On the hand, Sebok commented, “Keep in mind that we’re not talking about No Limit Hold’em, which is what everyone is used to. We’re talking about Pot Limit Omaha. You have four cards, a million possibilities, and it completely changes the complexion of the hand. Truthfully, when Isildur1 got his money in, he was only a 45% dog on the flop.”

On playing poker for extreme high-stakes on Full Tilt, Sebok commented, “Sickness. Madness. I’m wondering if we’re going to fit these guys for straightjackets soon. At the end of the day, they feel like they have an edge over whoever they’re playing.” Other online poker players involved in the high-stakes action besides Antonius and Isildur1 in recent weeks have included Tom “durrrr” Dwan, Brian Townsend, Brian Hastings, Phil Ivey, and Cole South.

So who is Isildur1? That’s the question that has weighed heavily on the minds of the online poker community since the Swede burst onto the high-stakes scene earlier this month. Sebok speculated, “I think this is a kid we’re going to see more and more of. He’s already probably a top five Omaha player in the world. The only problem he’s running into is he’s playing maybe #1 and #2 with Phil Ivey and Patrik Antonius.” Sebok also commented that Isildur is a character from “Lord of the Rings.”

Attention then turned to the Annie Duke Celebrity Poker Night benefiting Decision Education Foundation. GreasieWheels’ Lisa Wheeler organized the event, which saw Tournament Director Matt Savage oversee the operation. Full Tilt Poker pro Andy Bloch won and was also the featured speaker as part of a Poker Skills for Life seminar. On why he was selected to speak, Bloch, the in-studio guest for “Poker2Nite,” told Huff and Sebok, “The DEF is all about teaching people to make good decisions and in poker, you have to make a lot of good, quick decisions. You have to do that in life too sometimes. In poker, you’re studying and teaching yourself how to make better decisions when you’re at the table.”

Bloch took down the event and explained what he earned for coming out on top of the pro- and celebrity-laden field: “I didn’t win any cash, but I did win a bracelet, so for everyone who makes fun of me for not winning a bracelet, I won a bracelet.” Bloch also recapped his now-infamous bet with Ivey that the “Tiger Woods of Poker” would win the Main Event: “At the end of Day 2 with about 2,200 players left, Phil Ivey had about four times the average [chip stack] and he offered me 100:1 on him winning the Main Event. I negotiated it down to 99:1 [for $20,000]. Normally, I wouldn’t worry, but $2 million is kind of a lot.” Ivey ultimately took seventh in the $10,000 buy-in tournament, avoiding a $2 million payout by Bloch.

“Poker2Nite” also featured the “Weekly Misdeal” with Dana Workman, which takes a satirical approach to reporting the news. Team UB.com’s Brandon Cantu getting tazed was featured as well, with the footage appearing on national television.

“Poker2Nite” airs at 11:00pm ET on Wednesdays on Fox Sports Net, although its airtime varies by market. It also replays several times throughout the week. Check your local listings for details.

UIGEA Hearing Scheduled for December 3rd in Financial Services Committee

In breaking news from the House Financial Services Committee, a hearing to discuss two pieces of legislation related to the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA) will be held on Thursday, December 3rd at 10:00am ET.

Interested online poker players can check out the hearing via a webcast found on the official website of the Committee. The hearing, which will be held in Room 2128 of the Rayburn House Office Building, will cover two pieces of legislation introduced by Committee Chairman Barney Frank (D-MA), HR 2266 (Reasonable Prudence in Regulation Act) and HR 2267, the Internet Gambling Regulation, Consumer Protection, and Enforcement Act. The longtime Massachusetts Congressman introduced the measures on the same day in May.

On December 1st, two days prior to the hearing, the financial services industry in the United States must come into full compliance with the regulations of the UIGEA, which were officially approved as midnight rules by the outgoing Bush administration back in January. Several days ago, Poker Players Alliance (PPA) Executive Director John Pappas told Poker News Daily that he expected a hearing to come soon: “Chairman Frank has told us that he intends to have a hearing and mark up HR 2267 as soon as he’s done with financial regulation reform bills. We think it might be in January, but there’s a good chance we could have a hearing in December. It depends on the Congressional schedule.”

Christmas has come early for the PPA, which has lobbied on several fronts for HR 2266 and HR 2267 to be marked up. It is unclear at the time of writing as to whether any markup will occur, as the proceedings next Thursday appear to be purely informational in nature. HR 2266 delays the regulations of the UIGEA by one year to December 1st, 2010. As it stands now, the industry has merely a week to brace for their effects on payment processors. HR 2266 has 53 co-sponsors on both sides of the aisle, including Steve Cohen (D-TN), Jim McDermott (D-WA), Ron Paul (R-TX), and Robert Wexler (D-FL).

Frank’s other bill, HR 2267, has 63 co-sponsors and creates a full licensing and regulatory framework for internet gambling and online poker outfits to solicit real money customers from the United States. A companion bill introduced by McDermott in May, HR 2268, taxes online gaming operators 2% of deposits. Although several estimates have been made as to how much revenue internet gambling could bring to the United States Government, the most recent study, which came from the Joint Committee on Taxation, pinned the figure at $42 billion over a ten-year period.

Witnesses for the December 3rd hearing and their prepared testimony were not given on the House Financial Services Committee website at the time of writing. Next Thursday will mark the first major movement on the internet gambling front in the Financial Services Committee since September of 2008, when Frank’s HR 6870 was approved by a 30-19 margin. The bill sought to clarify what activities were permissible under the UIGEA. It was not acted on during the 110th Congress and therefore was declared dead entering 2009.

A total of 41 Democrats and 29 Republicans make up the Financial Services Committee. The latter are headed by Spencer Bachus (R-AL), who, along with Senator Jon Kyl (R-AZ) recently authored a letter to U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke urging that the regulations of the UIGEA be enforced on December 1st as scheduled. Recently, members of the Kentucky House delegation implored Geithner and company to delay UIGEA regulation enforcement due to overblocking by credit card companies, potentially stunting legal online horseracing wagers.

We’ll have more information on the December 3rd hearing as it unfolds right here on Poker News Daily.

Jean-Robert Bellande Out as Bodog Sponsored Pro

Former “Survivor: China” contestant Jean-Robert Bellande is no longer a sponsored pro of Bodog, according to a representative from the online poker room. His current agreement expired at the end of October and was not renewed.

Only three sponsored pros currently appear on Bodog’s website: Evelyn Ng, Justin “ZeeJustin” Bonomo, and David Williams. The runner-up in the World Poker Tour’s (WPT) Ladies Night Event in 2003, Ng also took 11th in the Season IV Borgata Poker Open for $64,000. That same season, Ng grabbed 39th in the WPT Championship for $73,000.

Bonomo is one of the industry’s top online poker players, but has also dominated on the brick-and-mortar felts. Bonomo won the World Series of Poker (WSOP) Circuit Event Championship at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas in April for $227,000. One month later, he final tabled the $40,000 buy-in No Limit Hold’em tournament commemorating the 40th running of the WSOP for a colossal $413,000.

Rounding out the shrunken crop of Bodog pros is Williams, who boasts the only bracelet of the trio. Williams captured his piece of hardware in 2006 by virtue of taking down a $1,500 buy-in Seven Card Stud tournament for $163,000, defeating a talented final table that also included “Miami” John Cernuto and 10-time bracelet winner Johnny Chan. Text found on Bodog’s website still refers to “four pros,” but only three profiles appear.

“Jean-Robert Bellande’s deal with Bodog Poker expired at the end of October and the decision was made not to renew the deal. It has been an absolute pleasure having Jean-Robert as one of Bodog.com’s Poker pros and we wish him all the best,” the room’s Poker Manager told Poker News Daily. In February, Poker Royalty, which represents Bellande, boasted that the pro had renewed his sponsorship agreement with the USA-facing site. At the time, Bellande commented, “I am thrilled to continue my relationship with Team Bodog. Bodog is a fantastic organization and I am excited to continue with such a select team of world-class poker players.”

During the 2008 WSOP, Bellande finished as the runner-up to Matt “mattg1983” Graham in a $1,500 buy-in Limit Hold’em Shootout for $173,000. The final table of the marathon tournament wrapped up after 7:00am at the Rio in Las Vegas. In 2005, Bellande grabbed third in the Rio’s WSOP Circuit Event Championship for $210,000 in a contest that saw Doug Lee and Full Tilt Poker pro Jennifer Harman battle heads-up.

Bellande was one of 16 contestants to head to China for the 15th cycle of the CBS reality series “Survivor.” Bellande was the eighth player voted out of the popular program and became the second member of its jury, the group of seven castaways who selected flight attendant Todd Herzog as the show’s $1 million winner. Bellande was on the Fei Long tribe both before and after a tribal switch-up; the group then merged to become Hae Da Fung.

In 2006, Bellande made waves by competing in the WPT’s Bad Boys of Poker against the likes of Tony G, Mike “The Mouth” Matusow, Phil Hellmuth, Men “The Master” Nguyen, and Gus Hansen. In the end, Tony G triumphed over the invite-only six-handed table and earned $25,000. All told, Bellande owns over $75,000 from WPT felts.

According to the tracking site PokerScout.com, Bodog is the 14th largest site or network worldwide with a seven-day running average of 930 real money ring game players. It features a 24-hour peak of 1,411 cash game players and, at the time of writing, which is around 8:30pm ET on a Sunday night, 1,359 combatants have taken to its ring game felts. Bodog is the fifth largest site or network that accepts U.S. action, trailing PokerStars, Full Tilt Poker, CEREUS, and the Cake Poker Network.

Joe Cada Praised by National Media for WSOP Main Event Win

Following his victory in the 2009 World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event, which aired on ESPN on Tuesday night, Joe Cada received an overwhelming amount of praise from U.S. media outlets.

The Detroit Free Press, Cada’s hometown paper, reported on their hero’s run through the 2009 WSOP Main Event, which ended with a heads-up showdown against Darvin Moon. The newspaper cautioned against other Michigan natives looking to strike it rich in the world of poker: “Cada wants anyone thinking about making a living at playing cards to be warned: For every high, he has experienced the lowest of lows.” Cada told the media outlet, “It definitely can be a living, but it’s one of those things: You have to be very careful when you decide to make it a living. More people lose than win.” Cada became the youngest WSOP Main Event winner ever late Monday night and earned $8.5 million.

The Detroit News was also on-hand in Las Vegas to cover the local participant. The youngster told the paper, which noted that Cada was a severe underdog in chips at the final table, “It helped being down before and having no chips earlier at the final table. I thought about that and I continued to stay focused and tried not to make any mistakes. I just remained calm and it worked out well.” After doubling up CardPlayer Magazine Editor Jeff Shulman with A-J against A-K, Cada’s stack sank to 2.3 million, or less than five big blinds.

TIME Magazine candidly explained, “This time last year, Joseph Cada couldn’t legally order a cocktail. But today, the Shelby Township, Mich., native sits on top of the poker world as the champion of the World Series of Poker’s Main Event.” Playing online, as well as trips to Canada and Costa Rica, helped fund the underage Cada’s bankroll before he turned 21.

Even the Poker Players Alliance (PPA) chimed in on Cada’s win, noting that the PokerStars-sponsored player wore the lobbying organization’s patch throughout the Main Event final table. A press release distributed by the PPA on Tuesday featured Chairman Alfonse D’Amato praising the Michigan native: “On behalf of PPA members, I congratulate Joe on his historic WSOP win and thank him for being such a strong advocate for the game, especially online poker.” Cada added, “Poker is not gambling. There is decision-making, there’s logic, there’s math, and I think that taking away online poker takes away peoples’ rights. I am very supportive of the Poker Players Alliance.”

On the PocketFives.com online poker forum, poster “illinicubs23” weighed in on a debate as to whether Cada’s victory will improve or deride poker’s reputation as a skill game given his improbable run: “cada will at least continue to be seen around the tournament circuit – something moon wouldnt have done – and help promote pokerstars. hopefully he will inspire a lot more young 20 somethings to take up the game and help feed the poker economy for years.”

While online poker players salivated at the thought of new blood entering the game, the Michigan media continued to caution against those expecting the same success as Cada. Dennis Martell, Coordinator of Health Education at Michigan State University, told the Free Press, “What worries me more is that we’ve got a perfect storm going with this Michigan economy, and a point-and-click generation that wants instant gratification, that thinks they can get lucky and, in many cases, really needs the money.” In September, Michigan’s unemployment rate topped 15%, which the Free Press noted was the highest in the United States.

Prior to play beginning on Monday, Cada told Poker News Daily what it was like seeing his image plastered across Detroit newspapers: “It’s a lot different seeing the newspaper and actually seeing you in it. It’s been fun.”

ESPN.com Poker Editor Andrew Feldman, who spent a week in Las Vegas covering the finale of the 2009 WSOP Main Event, summed up his thoughts on the industry’s new face: “Last week, Cada was just another player from Michigan. On ESPN’s WSOP coverage, he said, ‘I’m just a kid with a dream.’ Now, he is ‘The Kid’ and a poker superstar. Congratulations on your run to WSOP gold, Joe. We’re looking forward to seeing what you have to offer as your poker career truly begins now.”

MrElPaso reigns supreme at Bodog Open IV

MrElPaso outlasted a field of 256 players and a tough final table that included "Bodog Ari" Engel to take down a first place prize of $36,337.

"With the Bodog Poker Open IV, Bodog.com has given online poker players of all stripes the chance to win big while garnering the exposure they deserve," said Bodog poker pro David Williams.

"I'd like to personally congratulate MrElPaso for his impressive victory in the Bodog Poker Open IV. His win cements his status as one of online poker's newest stars, and I'm confident we'll be seeing him at plenty of final tables to come."

It isn't the first time that MrElPaso has had success on Bodog. In 2008, he final tabled the $100,000 guaranteed on the site and made $9,100 for coming in third.

The final table of the $500 buy-in Bodog Open VI main event was no cakewalk with notable players UFpokerStar, nevertilt22 and the aforementioned Engel. The smart money was likely on Engel who has $359,835 in live tournament earnings, but he eventually bowed out in third for $16,182.

The fourth installment of the Bodog Open drew several notable pros including Williams and Evelyn Ng. Bodog threw in an extra $25,000 to pump the overall prize pool up to $145,790.

As part of winning the Bodog Open VI championship, MrElPaso will also receive a guaranteed spread in an International poker magazine.

Here are the complete payouts for the Bodog Open VI main event:

1. MrElPaso - $36,448
2. dvbronco - $24,420
3. ari - $16,182
4. JazzyFace - $11,663
5. bklynzto81 - $8,456
6. naskoxx - $6,561
7. ello - $5,103
8. ShuMoneyTonite - $3,645
9. LIVIN LOUD - $2,478

 

Visit PokerListings.com

New features added to iPoker software… finally

Just as we thought PokerStars and Full Tilt were running away with all the online poker players, Playtech, the company behind the iPoker network, has unveiled a host of new player friendly features for their sites that should keep some of the fish away from the dangers of the open ocean... for now anyway.

Poker Community Reacts to 2 Months, $2 Million Finale

Season 1 of G4’s “2 Months, $2 Million” came to a close last week and the result was an outburst of chatter in the poker community regarding the innovative reality show. The cast landed well short of its $2 million goal, but the majority of viewers seem to be pleased with the overall product that G4 presented.

Jay “SEABEAST” Kinkade, a high-stakes tournament specialist from Australia, followed the series closely all the way through the season finale and was able to relate to the lives of the cast members as a fellow professional poker player. “I think the show did a great job of striking a difficult balance and as someone who has stayed in a house in Vegas two years in a row, it rings very true to my own experiences,” Kinkade explained. “I expected the show to suck and I think it’s awesome. I think all four guys came across great on TV.”

The main subject that has generated speculation since the season finale is whether G4 would bring along the same four members for a potential Season 2 or reach into the bag of high-stakes cash players for a new group. Online poker player “QuadSuited” gave his input on the matter: “Not that I wouldn’t like to see the same cast again in Season 2, but I would like to see at least three seasons a year with a different cast of players every season. I think it would be a great move for keeping a fresh interest in the show on a consistent and growing basis. That being said, I did enjoy this season, although I would have liked to see more poker.”

Some names being mentioned as possible replacements or full-time additions include Andrew “luckychewy” Lichtenberger and Aaron “aejones” Jones, both of whom made cameos during the show’s first season. Lichtenberger gained fame following one episode when he sweet-talked a female into giving him her underwear in order to win a bet against members of the “2 Months, $2 Million” crew.

“I think Krantz (Jay Rosenkrantz), ansky (Dani Stern), and flawless (Brian Roberts) are all awesome,” said poker player “ryanaw19.” “The only person I’d change would be whitelime (Emil Patel); I would swap him for someone who plays higher stakes. It would give them a better shot at actually winning $2 million. I’d go for someone like luckychewy, who plays $25/50 and higher and grinds high-stakes tournaments… chewy would also bring a ton of laughter.”

TwoPlusTwo poster “ralef” enjoyed the show, but agrees that the team should focus on reaching its $2 million goal in Season 2. “The show works because the life of super successful online poker players is interesting and fun,” ralef commented. “Want to make next season better? It’s pretty easy: play bigger against bigger names and do absurd things with your money. Maybe if you don’t want to show poker all of the time, throw in a bunch of prop bets. Also, the drama of ‘Will they or will they not reach $2 million?’ disappeared pretty fast. For most of the season, it felt like ‘Can Krantz carry them to $2 million? No, he can’t.’ Everyone else was usually up or down $10,000 to $50,000… until the last two episodes. Even then, the results depended mainly on how Krantz did.”

An issue that became a concern for many viewers was the length of each episode. “2 Months, 2 Million” ran for 30 minutes, as compared to NBC’s “Poker After Dark” and GSN’s “High Stakes Poker“, which air for an hour. “Next season: longer episodes,” said TwoPlusTwo member “StraddleBet.” “Everything seemed so rushed.”

As of yet, there is no news regarding another season, but Poker News Daily will be there with any updates about the future of “2 Months, $2 Million.”

Bodog Cancels Sunday Tournaments, $100,000 Guaranteed

Players logging into the popular online poker room Bodog on Sunday to play in the weekly $100,000 Guaranteed flagship tournament found the site down due to technical difficulties.

On the PocketFives.com online poker forum, the trouble for many users began shortly before 5:00pm ET when one frustrated person posted, “Anyone else having problems logging into bodog?” The site’s $100,000 Guaranteed begins at 4:00pm ET each Sunday and comes with a $162 buy-in. On October 18th, a total of 469 players entered, creating an overlay of nearly $30,000. Overlays of over $20,000 are common in the event, which has become a haven for the world’s top online poker pros looking to claim their share of the dead money in the prize pool.

Players battling in the $100,000 Guaranteed at the time attempted to diagnose the problem, with PocketFives.com member “dirtydonzo” taking it upon himself to call Bodog’s customer support. The response: “Just called them. No real information. Lady said they are having technical difficulties and they are working to fix the problem. She didn’t have any specific details and didn’t know when the site might be back up.” The post was time stamped at 4:53pm ET, less than one hour into the $100,000 Guaranteed.

Meanwhile, PocketFives.com member “MarkFSU1” relayed his story, which was echoed by several other players: “I got a message saying the 100k was canceled because [there were] not enough players.” Customer support purportedly told some concerned Bodog members that the $100,000 Guaranteed would be rescheduled.

One player who attempted to log in while the melee was unfolding received an error message notifying him of maintenance: “Bodog is down for regularly scheduled maintenance and/or software upgrades. We expect to be back up shortly.” At 7:09pm ET, about two-and-a-half hours after issues were first reported, Bodog representative Rebecca “BodogBecky” Liggero appeared and claimed, “Tonight, Sunday, October 25th, Bodog Poker had to cancel all tournaments because many players were experiencing disconnection problems. Players will be compensated according to Bodog Poker rules, i.e. players will be paid a percentage of the prize pool based on their stack size when the tournament was canceled.”

According to Bodog’s Terms of Service, when a guaranteed prize pool tournament is canceled prior to hitting the money bubble, “the payout will be based on the prize pool composed of buy-ins only,” meaning that the guarantee is not factored in. Half of the purse is distributed evenly among all players remaining in the tournament, while the other half is dished out based on chip counts. Liggero instructed concerned online poker players to contact the individual Bodog licensees.

Liggero told Poker News Daily that the site is looking to right the ship this weekend. She relayed a statement from the Bodog Network claiming, “Bodog has more customers than ever and yesterday this caused some problems with our database. To repair the problems, we were forced to cancel all ongoing tournaments, including our flagship $100,000 tournament. All players have been compensated in accordance with our tournament cancellation policy. On top of that, we will invite all affected players to a $10,000 freeroll on Sunday. They will all receive an email with the details.”

A similar occurrence took place during the $100,000 Guaranteed five weeks ago. On September 20th, about 90% of players in the event were disconnected and blinded off. In a post made two days later, Liggero explained, “At 8:09pm EST on Sunday we had to restart our servers, and after that many players, but not all, were blinded out of the 100K tournament. At the time of the restart, 43 players were left in the 100K tournament, and all were already in the money. Since the tournament was not stopped, the result will stand and everyone will keep their prize money.” The statement added that Bodog officials should have halted the tournament at 8:09pm ET and so an additional 35 players would be compensated accordingly.

Players logging into the site on Monday were met with a small software update and the $100,000 Guaranteed is scheduled for Sunday, November 1st, the same day as the start of the fourth Bodog Poker Open. Bodog accepts players from the United States and features a stable of pros that includes Justin “ZeeJustin” Bonomo, “Survivor: China” castaway Jean-Robert Bellande, Evelyn Ng, and David Williams.

PokerNews Playlist: Volume #13

For both serious and casual online poker players, Sundays are (hopefully) a long grind. For those who don't want to play in a meditative state, music can be the perfect middle ground between total silence and the distraction of television. Don't...

Kentucky Supreme Court Hears iMEGA Internet Gambling Case

Playing out on the floor of the Kentucky Supreme Court this morning were oral arguments in a case pitting the state’s Justice and Public Safety Cabinet, headed by J. Michael Brown, against the Interactive Media Entertainment and Gaming Association (iMEGA), among other parties.

The hearing will determine the fate of 141 internet gambling domain names, including those belonging to industry giants like PokerStars and Full Tilt Poker. Commonwealth attorney Eric Lycan took to the podium shortly after 11:00am local time and noted that the lower court ruling ordering the sites in question to halt operations in Kentucky or risk losing their domains altogether has yet to bear fruit: “None of these domain names has been stopped from operating… When this action was filed, many of them attempted to take their domain names registered with registrars in the U.S. and transfer them to another overseas registrar.”

Lengthy comparisons were made to drug seizures and pornography throughout the proceedings. In terms of whether iMEGA and the Interactive Gaming Council (IGC) had standing to sue in the case, Lycan explained, “There is not a single person in this room who will claim to operate a domain name. You have illegal gambling trade associations.” One of the six justices in attendance retorted, “This is not like cocaine, which is inherently illegal.” The Kentucky Supreme Court grilled both sides with questions.

If successful, the domains would be inaccessible not only in Kentucky, but also around the world. On why the Commonwealth would remove access to the URLs for the rest of the world, Lycan explained, “That’s how Judge Wingate’s order was tailored and it’s only if they refuse to cease operations in Kentucky. It’s only those who continue to defy the Commonwealth that will be forfeited.” Lycan revealed that the domains would be put up for public auction if they were successfully forfeited.

Up for debate is whether the domain names were properly seized under the grounds that they were “gambling devices,” a term traditionally reserved for tangible objects like slot machines and roulette wheels that you’d find in an underground casino. Also argued were whether due process was violated and whether the Commonwealth had jurisdiction to act in the first place. Lycan noted that there have been instances of URLs being seized before: “They have been seized by the IRS and auctioned off. This is not a new thing that the Commonwealth has undertaken. It’s complicated by the fact that it’s not tangible property, but it’s still property.”

Lycan’s testimony lasted for 30 minutes and was followed by Bill Johnson’s oral arguments. Johnson, who represents a contingent that includes Sportsbook.com, argued that the case should not have proceeded as far as it has. He then noted that the State should have pursued a criminal case against domain name owners, not a “hybrid” civil forfeiture proceeding. Johnson also called out the Kentucky State Legislature for not clarifying the Commonwealth’s gambling laws: “Sometimes it’s necessary for the legislature to spell out what the law is. If the legislature had amended the statute, which it’s had the opportunity to do since 1974… our situation would be different.” Legal online wagering on horse racing appears to be legal in Kentucky, as TwinSpires.com, which allows such bets, is owned by the parent company of the Churchill Downs racetrack.

Jon Fleischaker, attorney for iMEGA, gave an animated argument that began with the following statement: “What the Commonwealth and what the Secretary are doing is really unheard of. They have taken a statute that has been repealed… and have tried to make it a hybrid with a criminal process for forfeiture. That is really wrong.” Fleischaker also blasted the State’s lack of due process, noting, “There has been no process. There has been no attempt at process. It was a secret proceeding. Nobody had standing at the proceedings in front of Judge Wingate.” Word spread of the seizure last September and Wingate upheld the Commonwealth’s actions in a decision released nearly one year ago to the day.

Finally, John Tate, attorney for VicsBingo.com and the IGC, asserted that the Commonwealth’s actions violated the 14th Amendment of the United States Constitution. He explained, “The internet did not arrive yesterday. We’ve wrestled with internet-based jurisdiction for some number of years now… The only jurisdictional bases for the assertion of in rem were manufactured by the Secretary.” Tate argued that the Commonwealth’s agents had to use an internet search to find VicsBingo.com, which should be frowned upon. Lycan countered that the appellate admitted 13,000 online poker players made their home in Kentucky as members of the Poker Players Alliance (PPA).

The proceedings lasted about 90 minutes and iMEGA expects a decision to be handed down within four months. Rich Muny, Kentucky State Director for the PPA, said the organization, which filed an amicus brief in the case, thought a decision would be rendered within 60 days.