Sorel Mizzi Wins 2010 Bluff Player of the Year Title

Titan Poker pro Sorel “Imper1um” Mizzi is the 2010 Bluff Magazine Player of the Year, officials announced on Friday. Mizzi entered the top spot in the Player of the Year rankings in March and never relinquished his lead.

The 2010 CardPlayer Player of the Year, Tom Marchese, finished in second place in the Bluff standings. Mizzi ended the 2010 calendar year with a whopping 1,777 points, the highest score ever turned in, while Marchese racked up just 1,257 during the stanza. Others in the top 10 included PokerStars pro Vanessa Selbst, recent World Poker Tour (WPT) event winner Dwyte Pilgrim, and UB.com pro and former CardPlayer Player of the Year winner Eric “basebaldy” Baldwin.

Mizzi got the 2010 calendar year started off on the right foot by taking third place in the Aussie Millions Main Event for $659,000. Tyron Krost took down the marquee poker tournament and Mizzi quickly ratcheted his first six-figure score of 2010. Mizzi then won two preliminary events during the PokerStars European Poker Tour (EPT) Snowfest stop in March for nearly $150,000 total.

In April, Mizzi’s victory parade stopped off in Atlantic City, where he won the East Coast Championship Event during the Borgata Spring Poker Open for $170,000. That tournament drew 62 players and featured a top nine that included Chris “SLOPPYKLOD” Klodnicki, David “Davidp18” Peters, and former Full Tilt Poker pro Lee Markholt.

At the end of April, Mizzi final tabled the High Roller Event during the EPT’s Monte Carlo Grand Final for $190,000. Two weeks later, he ran deep in another High Roller Event, this time at WPT Paris. Just footsteps from the Eiffel Tower, Mizzi played second fiddle to Absolute Poker pro Freddy Deeb and walked away with $159,000.

In August, Mizzi placed second in the EPT Tallinn High Roller Event for $98,000. He concluded 2010 by bubbling a pair of WPT final tables, taking seventh in the Foxwoods World Poker Finals for $88,000 and grabbing ninth in the Doyle Brunson Five Diamond World Poker Classic at the Bellagio for $59,000. Remember, televised WPT final tables are played six-handed.

All told, Mizzi racked up nearly $1.9 million in earnings from live tournaments tracked by the Hendon Mob database last year. Along the way, he provided poker coaching to November Niner Matt Jarvis, a fellow Canadian. Jarvis ultimately bowed out in eighth place in the $10,000 buy-in tournament in Las Vegas for over $1 million.

Mizzi, who has been linked to several incidents on online poker sites in the past, has nevertheless remained a central figurehead in the industry. He told Poker News Daily in an interview in November that surrounding himself with talented poker friends has been critical: “I think it’s one of the most important things… That is how I got my start. I found players and tried to pick their brains. You know, it’s like anything in life, that’s the best way of learning, you find mentors. At least, for me, [it’s been] finding people where you want to be and trying to pick their brains as much as possible.”

Here were the top 10 players in the 2010 Bluff Player of the Year standings:

1. Sorel “Imper1um” Mizzi – 1,777.77 points
2. Tom “Kingsofcards” Marchese – 1,257.30 points
3. Fernando Brito – 1,060.53 points
4. David Peters – 1,009.26 points
5. Vanessa Selbst – 986.77 points
6. Eric “basebaldy” Baldwin – 943.92 points
7. Dwyte Pilgrim – 896.23 points
8. Chris Bjorin – 889.25 points
9. Jason Mercier – 882.40 points
10. Chris Bell – 879.63 points

Jason Mercier took down the 2009 Bluff Player of the Year title. Other past winners have included John “The Razor” Phan (2008), Bill Edler (2007), Chad Brown (2006), and Phil Ivey (2005).

Poker News in Brief: Dec. 27, 2010- Jan. 2, 2011

That meant a few of poker's smaller stories may have slipped through the cracks.

Fortunately, we caught them and compiled them in our weekly Poker News in Brief feature below.

This week, Poker After Dark returns, the World Cup captains are named, UB goes back to Montreal and more.

Poker After Dark Returns

The new season of POKER PROductions' Poker After Dark returns to NBC this week.

POKER PROductions inked an agreement with NBC Universal extending the late-night poker show through 2014 in 2010 and the seventh season, filmed at the new Aria Resort and Casino at the City Center complex in Las Vegas, begins airing Jan. 3.

This season will feature more cash games than ever before. Most will be no-limit hold'em, but two weeks will also be devoted to Pot-Limit Omaha with a lineup that should impress fans.

Names like Mike Matusow, Chris Ferguson, Michael Mizrachi, Phil Hellmuth, Antonio Esfandiari, Annette Obrestad, Eli Elezra, Phil Galfond, Phil Ivey, Tom Dwan, Patrik Antonius, and David Oppenheim will all appear this season.

There will only be three weeks following the traditional Freezout format this season, including this week's "Big Heat," a $100,000 buy-in event featuring John Juanda, Erick Lindgren, Huckleberry Seed, Ivey, Dwan, and Galfond.

Leeann Tweeden will once again serve as the show's host with Ali Nejad providing commentary.

Fifty50 Sit & Go's

PokerStars has launched a new online poker Sit & Go format called Fifty50.

Although the tournaments end when half of the entrants have been eliminated, Fifty50's differ from the Double or Nothing format in that half of the prize pool gets split between the winning players equally and the other half is awarded based on chip counts.

Fifty50 events are currently running at the $10 level, but will soon be available at many different stakes.

World Cup of Poker Captains Named

The identities of the team captains for the seventh annual World Cup of Poker have been announced.

Last year, Chinese Taipei took the title. This year it will be Argentina, the Philippines, the United Kingdom, Spain, Slovakia, Italy, France, Ukraine and the United States battling it out for a $100,000 first prize at the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure.

Slovakia’s team will be led by Team PokerStars Pro’s newest member Dag Palovic. EPT San Remo winner Liv Boeree will lead the UK team while Argentina’s captain is back-to-back LAPT champ Nacho Barbero.

2009 APT champion Neil Arce will lead the team from the Philippines while the Spain squad will be headed up by Team PokerStars Pro Juan Manuel Pastor.

Luca Pagano leads Italy and Arnaud Mattern will captain the team from France.

And Finally, Vanessa Selbst will lead the USA while EPT Kiev runner-up Alexander Dovzhenko captains the Ukrainian side.

The action gets underway in the Bahamas Jan 14.

UB Returns to Poker Pro Canada Classic

For the second straight year, UB will be sending over twenty players to compete in the running of Montreal's biggest poker event, the Poker Pro Canada Classic.

The $1500+150 buy-in No Limit Hold 'em event runs Jan. 27-30, 2011 at the Four Aces Poker Club.

UB is running a series of super satellites and freerolls Jan. 2-16 giving players a chance to win a $2500 prize package that includes a seat plus $850 for travel expenses.

300-plus players and prize pool of $500,000 is expected in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.

Top Ten Stories of 2010: #2, Online Poker Legislation

Online Poker 2011: Make Your New Year Profitable at the Tables

Biggest Poker Surprises of 2010

Last week, Poker News Daily ran an article recapping the top poker news stories of 2010.  This, we were charged with the task of coming up with the top ten surprises of the past year.  As fate would have it, the biggest shocker of 2010 came on December 30th, making the top surprise a no-brainer.  Read on to find out.

10) Hip-Hop Hellmuth – Normally, I wouldn’t put an attention grab by Phil Hellmuth on a list of the year’s biggest surprises, but this one was phenomenal.  The “Poker Brat” made a cameo appearance in a hip-hop music video by Ludacris donned in UB.net garb and raking in UB.net chips.  Filmed at the Palms in Las Vegas, the video’s plot was supposed to be similar to that of the hit movie “The Hangover.”  The song is called “Sex Room.”  I’ll just leave it at that.

9) No Rest for the Weary – A crazy record not many people knew about before this year was broken not once, but twice.  In June, Phil Laak set the poker endurance record by playing $10/$20 Hold’em at the Bellagio for a staggering 115 consecutive hours, breaking Paul Zimbler’s 72-hour mark from late 2009.  Nobody would ever be silly enough to try to top Laak, would they?  Of course they would.  In November, Christie Teki-Reu and man who goes by the nickname “Chopper” played for 117 hours in the casino at the Grand Hotel in New Zealand as part of an organized effort to set the record in a special charity tournament.  Afterwards, Teki-Reu slept for five hours, was up for two hours, then slept for another ten hours.  Well deserved.

Kessler Max-Cashes – Well, almost.  Allen “Chainsaw” Kessler is a very good poker player, but he is known to play to make the money in tournaments.  He has definitely gone deep in tournaments and made a couple of WPT televised final tables, but for the most part, the poker community jokes about Kessler taking the conservative route and always looking to “min-cash.”

At the 2010 WSOP, poker players and fans lived vicariously through “Chainsaw” as he not only made the money in the $10,000 Seven Card Stud Hi/Lo event, but also continued to move up in the standings, making the final table and then finally reaching heads-up.  He eventually lost, but the $276,485 payday was far from a min-cash.  He finished with eight cashes, tied for most at this year’s WSOP.  Sure, some were min-cashes, but his second place run was one of the most memorable and surprising moments of the 2010 WSOP.

7) Security Fail – In May, it was discovered that the CEREUS Network had a major security hole.  The network did not have SSL encryption implemented, resulting in a vulnerability that made it possible to intercept network traffic and see an opponent’s hole cards.  In July, the same flaw was found on the Cake Poker Network.  It is unbelievable enough that one poker network could fail so miserably at something that should be so basic, but two networks dropping the ball?  Sad.

6) WSOP is Healthy – With the down economy and the struggles of online poker in the United States, it would have been reasonable to expect WSOP attendance figures to decline.  Not so.  2010 saw 72,966 players participate, the most in WSOP history by a wide margin and besting last year’s record by 20%.  The total prize money was the highest of all-time as well, reaching $187,109,850 and beating 2008′s high mark by 3.5%.  The Main Event was the second largest of all-time with 7,319 players, second only to 2006, which was the last WSOP Main Event before the UIGEA was passed.

5) Isildur1 is a Star – Isildur1, the nameless online nosebleed-stakes phenom, signed with PokerStars in December.  His signing with an online poker room isn’t all that surprising, considering that whenever he plays, he attracts scores of railbirds who love watching his million-dollar swings.  The shocker is that all of his high-stakes play has been at Full Tilt Poker, PokerStars’ closest rival.  Stars must have given him a sweet deal.

4) Resurgence of “The Grinder“ – While Michael Mizrachi had a few strong performances on the live tournament circuit in 2008 and 2009, his cachet had appeared to have worn off since he made his mark on the WPT in 2005 and 2006.  He also ran into major financial troubles this year.  But then the 2010 WSOP came along and he exploded back onto the poker map.

“The Grinder” won the $50,000 Player’s Championship for over $1.5 million, placed fifth in the Main Event for more than $2.3 million, and along the way became one of the biggest rooting interests of the summer.  To top it off, his three brothers – Daniel, Robert, and Eric – all cashed in the Main Event.  Robert also placed fifth in the Player’s Championship and made two other final tables.

3) Partying Has its Limits – In February, PartyPoker suddenly placed a cap on the number of play money chips members could have in their accounts.  Overnight, players with millions of chips had their accounts reset to the 250,000-chip maximum.  Party cited the sale of play chips as the main reason for the decision as well as instances of players with overwhelming numbers of chips making enormous bets and disrupting games.  The reaction was one of almost unanimous outrage by play money customers, many of whom had taken great pride in building up their accounts over several years.

2) Peter Eastgate Takes a Break – Nowadays, we have come to expect WSOP champions to serve as faces of the game and continue playing live tournaments around the world.  Not so with the 2008 champ Peter Eastgate.  Eastgate, who just turned 25, announced this year that he was taking an indefinite break from live tournament poker.  So far, it appears that it has been a break from poker in general.  His WSOP win set him up financially, which was enough for him.  To top it off, he auctioned off his WSOP bracelet in November and donated the proceeds to charity.

1) Duke and Hellmuth Leave UB – Annie Duke leaving UB, to me, was easily the most surprising moment in poker this year… until Phil Hellmuth did the same a few hours later.  Two of the biggest names in poker, the faces of UB since it was founded in 2001, left their online home on the same day.  Through all of UB’s controversy over the last few years, Duke and Hellmuth stood by the poker room and took tons of heat within the online poker community.  For better or for worse, they seemed like they were going to be with UB for life.

Prahlad Friedman Joining Team UB.com?

It’s been a chaotic week for the CEREUS Network online poker room UB.com. Thursday saw the departure of its two highest profile pros, 2010 National Heads-Up Poker Championship winner Annie Duke and 11-time bracelet winner Phil Hellmuth. According to UB.com pro Joe Sebok, however, a new pro will be announced next week, and all signs point to Prahlad Friedman joining the team.

Sebok posted on his blog on Thursday, “While it’s true that two of our members have moved on, don’t think that we aren’t restocking the talent. We’ll be announcing our newest Team UB member next week and I am crazily pumped about it.” Possible free agents in the poker market include CardPlayer Player of the Year Tom Marchese, Faraz “The-Toilet” Jaka, and Friedman.

Sebok added that Team UB.com will have a brand new look in 2011: “UB has, and will continue to have, a whole new look and feel for our team and our newest signing exemplifies that, so stay tuned for that announcement next week. Going to be a bit of a doozy.” The team appears to be of a younger breed right now and includes players like Sebok, Tiffany Michelle, Maria Ho, Eric “basebaldy” Baldwin, and Adam “Roothlus” Levy.

Speaking of Friedman, Bluff Magazine was among those who sourced two Tweets from Friedman in late November that questioned whether he would ever ink a deal with an online poker site. Friedman pondered, “I said I would never sign with a poker site. Should I ever reconsider? What y’all think? I would have to get over the fact that I’m ‘selling out.’ I’m the only poker player in the world that hasn’t wanted a deal that I know of.” Friedman, 32, has a World Series of Poker (WSOP) bracelet and a World Poker Tour (WPT) title under his belt.

In a screen shot posted on TwoPlusTwo, posters who typed in the URL of Duke’s biography on UB.com were met with text for “Prahlad Friedman,” leaving many to believe that the youngster will be the newest sponsored pro. When we visited the same web page on Friday morning, our browser instead forwarded to the default Team UB.com landing page. Poker News Daily has learned that the announcement of the room’s newest pro could take place as soon as Monday.

The Russ Hamilton-led cheating scandal on Ultimate Bet affected Friedman, among others. As such, his signing, according to one TwoPlusTwo poster, could signal the end of an era: “I think, for many of us, UB is forever tainted. However, in the world of PR, signing Prahlad would be a very, very good move as a sign of different times ahead.”

Other members of the online poker community took the opposite line. One TwoPlusTwo regular questioned, “Why would Prahlad accept this offer from UB? I mean, the company that stole money from you and now you are accepting their sponsorship deal. I just can’t understand!” Whether Friedman will actually become the next sponsored pro of the CEREUS Network poker site remains to be seen.

Friedman has been involved in two incidents at the annual WSOP that have both played out on ESPN. In 2006, “Ante-gate” erupted between Friedman and Jeffrey Lisandro over a possible missed ante by the latter. Friedman asked Lisandro whether he put out his ante, which led to a war of words. In 2010, Friedman clearly said, “Call,” after tablemate Ted Bort called the clock on him. However, Rio floor staff ruled the hand dead and Bort tabled two pair. Friedman quickly mucked what he claimed to be a weaker two pair, leading to a swarm of controversy.

Stay tuned to Poker News Daily for the latest.

December 31st – Weekly News Update

Welcome once again to the Poker News Daily weekly news update. I’m your host Sean Gibson and I’ll be delivering the top headlines for the week in the world of poker – and what a week of news it was!!

Our first story rocks the world of online poker as superstars Phil Hellmuth and Annie Duke are officially parting ways with UB.com for different reasons. Both have been the faces of UB.com and represented for nine years. We did get a comment from Annie Duke about HER decision to leave UB.com:

“After some thought, I made a decision to leave UB.com because I would like to explore other avenues of business and personal growth. I realized I needed to spend my time on other things.”

Duke has stated that she has no intentions of signing on with another poker site. She said that she is moving on from UB.com to persue other projects on a full time basis. Hellmuth continues to be one of the biggest names in the world of poker and his departure, although rumored in the last few weeks, still comes as a huge shock. As more develops in this story, stay tuned right here at poker news daily for the latest.

Another online poker industry icon is moving on as Lee Jones earlier this week announced his resignation from Cake Poker. Jones posted on the TwoPlusTwo forums on Tuesday:

“This is a brief announcement to let you know that, as of yesterday, I have resigned my position at Cake Poker and will not be making any further posts here. Their management has made some strategic decisions with which I’m not comfortable.”

Jones, who also is a guest columnist here at our site told us that he simply wasn’t comfortable with some of the decisions that the Cake management was making. Jones refused to comment further but added that he hopes to remain in the poker industry and says he has a couple of irons in the fire. Jones rose to fame in the online poker industry originally in roles with PokerStars, the EPT and at CardRunners.

For those of you that can’t get enough Isildur1 action, the next SuperStar Showdown match has been announced. Coming off a loss to Isaac Haxton, Isildur1 will now face the notorious Tony G in a high stakes battle. You might remember that it was Tony G that supposedly staked Isildur1 for a comeback bid and reportedly knows the Swedish player’s identity. The match will take place on Sunday, January 2nd at 4pm eastern time on PokerStars. The game will be half no limit hold’em and half pot limit Omaha at $50-$100 blind stakes. Interested parties can rail the action at PokerStars by looking for tables labeled showdown under the Omaha tab or under the Holdem, No Limit all tables tab.

Jon Friedberg, known online as pokertrip will be debuting a new talk show right here, exclusively on Poker News Daily. Friedberg will host the new show, called “The Showdown” every week here at PND, and promises to feature some of the game’s most prolific names. Set to start during the first week of January, Friedberg’s first guest will be former Survivor castaway Jean-Robert Bellande. When asked about his new home here at PND, he stated:

“I see myself not as a member of the media, but rather a fellow poker player who sees eye-to-eye with players I interview. I don’t have any problems asking questions that other poker media might be scared to address. My passion is to share the lifestyles, strategies, and thought processes of poker players.”

Be sure to catch the first episode of “The Showdown” right here at Poker News Daily next week!

In recent days, Party Gaming and bwin announced merger plans to form a giant online gaming group that will become effective sometime in the first quarter of 2011. It’s expected that this merger will create the biggest largest listed online gambling business. The new company will operate worldwide with its existing brands and both bwin and Party Gaming will retain most of the core of their brands but be operated under a new umbrella company. Bwin’s CEO had this to say:

“Our products and target markets complement one another perfectly, and we can continue to expand our technology lead in all key product segments: sports betting, poker, casino, bingo, and games.”

Now that the year is over, CardPlayer has officially crowned Tom Marchese the 2010 CardPlayer Player of the Year. His epic run in 2010 saw him make 11 final tables in major live tournaments to the tune of over $2 million in profits. The highlight of 2010 for Marchese was the win at the NAPT Venetian Main Event for over eight hundred thousand dollars. He beat out Dwyte Pilgrim, Sorel Mizzi and Vanessa Selbst for the award. Marchese had four six-figure paydays in 2010 with final tables at the European Poker Tour, World Poker Tour and World Series of Poker.

Well that wraps up a very exciting and busy week in the world of poker as well as our last weekly news report of 2010. Be sure to come back to poker news daily for all the latest poker headlines every single day and as a reminder, be sure to catch John Friedberg’s new show, “The Showdown” right here next week along with another episode of our weekly news recap. I’m Sean Gibson wishing you a very happy and safe new years!

jungleman12 Caps Incredible 2010

Cates, who was already the overwhelming biggest winner of 2010 with $4.9 million in profit, played a marathon 1,172-hand session of heads-up $300/$600 Mixed HA.

Initially Cates lost $250k but he eventually erased the deficit and went on a world-class heater against Patrik Antonius and luckexpress10.

After last night Cates is up $5.4 million in 2010 and barring a catastrophic meltdown he will be this year’s biggest winner.

As of today Norwegian player Andreas “skjervoy” Torbergsen is a distant second with $3.7 million, Tom “durrrr” Dwan is third with $3.6 million, Phil Ivey is fourth with $3 million and finally harrington25 is up $2.2 million.

Unfortunately for Cates, he’s not even close to what the top players have made in previous years. Antonius won an astounding $8.9 million for top honors in 2009 while Phil Ivey raked in $7.3 million in 2008.

In other high stakes news from last night Gus Hansen had a strong outing, winning $149k. It looks as though the Great Dane will fall short of getting even for 2010 since he’s still down $1.6 million but he made up considerable ground over the last few months of the year.

Other winners from last night included hal0zination (+$68k), KobeYard85 (+$57k) and Urindanger ($38k).

On the losing side was Patrik Antonius, who poured $382k on to the tables last night. Most of Antonius’ loses were to Cates.

Antonius will likely finish 2010 with a respectful $550k in profit but down considerably from last year.

Some of the other players who had forgettable nights were DrugsOrMe (-$150k), luckexpress10 (-$120k) and harrington25 ($94k).

For information about the high stakes action from last night check our online poker stats section.

Hellmuth, Duke Leaving UB

Seperate statements regarding the departure of each were released on the UB blog Thursday.

The statement regarding Duke, who gained some noteriety finishing runner-up to Joan Rivers in Donald Trump's Celebrity Apprentice on NBC in 2009, claims she has decided to pursue "other projects" on a full-time basis.

“I have nothing but positive things to say about UB and my experiences with the brand, management and the incredible people who work hard daily to deliver a terrific online poker experience,” she said.

Hellmuth, who's $11,445,927 million in career earnings put him fourth on poker's all time money list and 11 WSOP bracelet wins still marks the most of any player, will apparently remain a regular on the poker circuit, despite a few lean years recently.

"Today we are announcing that UB.com and Phil Hellmuth have mutually parted ways," the statement read.

"It has been great working with Phil over the last decade and we know we’re with the rest of the poker world when we say that we look forward to Phil’s next move on the world poker circuit."

The statement on Hellmuth also says Team UB will continue building with young, aggressive poker pros who today’s online poker players can identify with.

Some additions to Team UB, rumored to include Prahlad Friedman, Dwyte Pilgrim, and Tom Marchese, are expected in early 2011.

Phil Hellmuth Leaves UB.com in Major Shakeup

It’s been a busy day for all of us in the online poker community. Just hours after Annie Duke announced her exit from UB.com to pursue non-poker business interests, site icon Phil Hellmuth departed as well. A statement posted on UB.com reveals that the two sides “mutually parted ways.”

Hellmuth was recently seen on ESPN’s coverage of the PokerStars North American Poker Tour’s (NAPT) Los Angeles Bounty Shootout wearing patches for the Aria Casino in Las Vegas and the World Series of Poker (WSOP) Academy. Curiously absent were any logos for his home poker site, UB.com. Hellmuth also appeared on NBC’s “Poker After Dark” devoid of UB.com logos, leading many to believe that he was on the outs with the USA-friendly CEREUS Network room.

Duke left UB.com earlier today in order to extend her foothold in the business world. She commented in a statement posted on UB.com, “I have nothing but positive things to say about UB and my experiences with the brand, management, and the incredible people who work hard daily to deliver a terrific online poker experience.” Duke and Hellmuth had been with UB.com since 2001, the year the online poker site was launched as Ultimate Bet and two years before the modern poker boom.

Duke told Poker News Daily that she does not plan to sign with a competing online poker site; whether Hellmuth feels the same way is not yet known. Duke’s brother, Howard Lederer, is one of the main faces of Full Tilt Poker, which also accepts action from the United States. Hellmuth, who is widely regarded as one of the top tournament players on the planet, could also head to a site like PokerStars or Victory Poker.

Hellmuth owns the record for the number of WSOP bracelets won at 11 and number of WSOP cashes at 79. Along the way, he’s racked up $6.2 million in WSOP earnings alone and is a rumored contestant on the 2011 installment of the ABC reality series “Dancing with the Stars.” He’s one of the top marketable faces in the poker industry and has coined several memorable phrases including “I can dodge bullets, baby” and “Idiot from Northern Europe.”

Hellmuth won the 1989 WSOP Main Event at age 24 and, for the next 20 years, held the record as the youngest champ ever of the $10,000 buy-in poker tournament. Before anyone knew who Chris Moneymaker was, Hellmuth had already amassed seven bracelets; in fact, he racked up three pieces of hardware in 1993 alone.

In 2009, November Niner Jeff Shulman asked Hellmuth to help him with his short-handed game in preparation for the Main Event final table. As a result, Shulman took fifth place for $1.9 million.

Today’s two high-profile departures leave UB.com stocked with a pro roster that includes PokerRoad’s Joe Sebok, bracelet winner Eric “basebaldy” Baldwin, and Tiffany Michelle and Maria Ho, the Last Women Standing in the 2008 and 2007 WSOP Main Events, respectively. Also remaining on the Team UB roster are Bryan “badbeatninja” Devonshire, Brandon Cantu, Adam “Roothlus” Levy, and Anthrax’s Scott Ian, among others. The group appears to have become noticeably younger sans Hellmuth and Duke.

Prior to announcing his exit from UB.com, Hellmuth Tweeted the prices of several sports tickets he was monitoring: “New Years Eve L.A. Lakers/Sixers tix, Row 5, center court trading for $460 apiece. Tix for once a year Rose Bowl on 40 yard line, 44 rows up: $350 apiece!”

Earlier this week, Lee Jones announced his resignation from Cake Poker as its Card Room Manager, citing “strategic decisions with which I’m not comfortable” made by Cake management. Cake Poker Tournament Director Serge “andanthar” Ravitch followed suit in what is traditionally a slow week for poker news.

Poker News Daily has heard rumblings that UB.com may add another pro to its roster early next week. Who that could be remains to be seen, but rumors seem to indicate that it’s Prahlad Friedman. Stay tuned to Poker News Daily for the latest on this developing story.

Annie Duke Leaves UB.com

In breaking news, former “Celebrity Apprentice” runner-up Annie Duke has parted ways with UB.com. A blog revealing that she had left the online poker site appeared around 1:30pm ET on Thursday. Duke had been with UB.com for nine years, including both the pre- and post-Chris Moneymaker era.

Duke told Poker News Daily, “After some thought, I made a decision to leave UB.com because I would like to explore other avenues of business and personal growth. I realized I needed to spend my time on other things.” Duke, the sister of Full Tilt Poker front man Howard Lederer, has over $1.1 million in career World Series of Poker (WSOP) earnings and scooped a bracelet in 2004 in a $2,000 Omaha High-Low Eight or Better tournament that featured Erik Seidel and Todd Brunson at the final table.

Also in 2004, Duke was the last person standing in the inaugural WSOP Tournament of Champions, an invite-only, winner-take-all tournament that featured 10 players. Duke banked $2 million for the win and received nearly instant poker fame. Her company at the Tournament of Champions table included Chip Reese, Main Event champ Greg Raymer, Doyle Brunson, Lederer, and former UB.com colleague Phil Hellmuth, who was the runner-up. This year, Duke bested Seidel in the National Heads-Up Poker Championship, which aired on NBC.

Duke wished the crew at UB.com nothing but the best going forward, telling Poker News Daily, “I wish them all the best and wish nothing but good things for the brand. I think that UB.com started some of my development as a businessperson. That was very much the most enjoyable part of it. I wanted to do more of that. I wanted to do much more of that than I had an opportunity to.” Among Duke’s other endeavors are MyMixedNuts.com – a custom trail mix outfit – and Ante Up for Africa, a charity that brings money and attention to the victims of the crisis in Darfur.

Duke explained to Poker News Daily that she does not plan to sign with another online poker site in the future.

Duke made a name for herself last year by competing in the hit NBC reality series “Celebrity Apprentice.” The Donald Trump-led show, which raises funds for various charities, saw Duke finish as the runner-up to comedian Joan Rivers, who at one point compared the former UB.com pro to a Nazi and called the poker playing community “trash.” Rivers and her daughter, Melissa, were both contestants on the series.

Duke was one of the main faces of UB.com, a site that now features players like former “Poker2Nite” host Joe Sebok and former “Amazing Race” contestants Tiffany Michelle and Maria Ho as its primary pros. Duke and Hellmuth had served as the central figures of UB.com since the site’s inception nine years ago, long before anyone knew the name Moneymaker.

According to PokerScout.com, which logs online poker room traffic, the CEREUS Network, which includes UB.com and Absolute Poker, is the seventh largest worldwide, with a seven-day running average of 2,100 real money ring game players. At its peak, around 3,000 cash game players call the Network home. CEREUS is the third largest family of sites to accept action from the United States, trailing only PokerStars and Full Tilt Poker in that department. The Network was created in 2008 after the player bases of UB.com and Absolute Poker were merged.

We’ll have more for you on this story as it develops right here on Poker News Daily.

Isildur1 to Battle Tony G in Second PokerStars SuperStar Showdown

At 4:00pm ET on Sunday, January 2nd, new PokerStars pro Isildur1 will face off against his rumored former backer Tony G in the second running of the SuperStar Showdown. The stakes will be at least $50/$100 No Limit Hold’em and Pot Limit Omaha and text found on the PokerStars Blog succinctly sums up what we can expect: “Well, this should be good.” Both Tony G and Isildur1 are expected to buy in for $150,000.

Tony G is a sponsored pro of PartyPoker and, earlier this year, tried to bring the mystery Swedish player to the Big Game IV. Isildur1 agreed, but then ultimately pulled out of the appearance, leaving Tony G to lament in a PartyPoker blog entry, “To say I am disappointed is an understatement. I have spent so much time talking to him and reassuring him recently, but he’s just not going to come.” Tony G had offered to lend Isildur1 his Kermit the Frog outfit to preserve the Swede’s anonymity.

Posters on TwoPlusTwo were largely looking forward to the master versus apprentice showdown on Sunday. One member of the online poker community exclaimed, “OMG this is going to be freaking awesome. Isildur1 will pump up the variance and Tony will never fold, especially at these stakes. Can’t wait!” Another poster remarked, “I seriously doubt [Tony G] can keep up with the pace at two tables, let alone four. He doesn’t care about money at $25/$50 anyways. I will be very surprised if Isildur1 doesn’t win this.”

Other posters, however, were not content with the $50/$100 stakes set forth in the SuperStar Challenge, which sees players battling for 2,500 hands. One TwoPlusTwo member explained, “It’s kind of awesome that Tony G is facing off against Isildur1, but why can’t they play real high stakes?”

Weighing in on the upcoming SuperStar Showdown was PokerStars front man Daniel Negreanu, who noted that he won’t be facing off against Isildur1 anytime soon: “I’m very excited to see this match; should be entertaining either way. I don’t plan on challenging Isildur1 because I’m just not good enough, especially four-tabling, but I do want to practice these matches at small stakes, 2,500 hands at maybe $5-$10, and see if I can get used to it. If that goes well, I may try this challenge next year, we’ll see. I’d be comfortable doing a challenge like this in Eight Game if there were people interested, $400-$800.” Negreanu is a four-time World Series of Poker (WSOP) bracelet winner.

Last week, Isildur1 squared off against Isaac Haxton in the inaugural SuperStar Showdown. In the end, Haxton booked $41,000 in profit over 2,500 hands and was declared the winner. The rail featured a hodgepodge of poker talent, including Kevin “ImaLucSac” MacPhee and Chad “lilholdem954? Batista, and resulted in a 90-page thread on TwoPlusTwo.

According to PokerStars, the loss to Haxton resulted in Isildur1’s PokerStars bankroll plummeting to just $10,000. However, he has since parlayed that sum into over $300,000. Many believe the identity of Isildur1 to be Viktor Blom; however, Blom has not issued confirmation that he is the man behind the curtain. Blom took 16th in the 2010 WSOP Europe Main Event for £33,000.

The SuperStar Showdown may travel to the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure in January for a live installment, according to the PokerStars Blog. Interested challengers can fire off an e-mail to showdown@pokerstars.com to toss their hats into the ring for a shot at Isildur1 and eternal poker glory.

Online Poker Legislation: The Year in Review

SuperStar Showdown: Tony G Steps Up

On Jan. 2 Tony G and Isildur1 will each put $150,000 on the line in 2,500 hands of half No-Limit Hold’em and half Pot-Limit Omaha.

The winner is the player who finishes up after 2,500 hands or completely exhausts the other player’s $150k stack.

Isildur1, who is rumored to be Swede Victor Blom, was defeated by Isaac Haxton in the first edition of the SuperStar Showdown last week.

There were several significant swings in the session but when the final card was dealt, Isildur1 was down $40k to Haxton.

Tony G and Isildur1 already have some history with each other.

Last spring Tony G offered to stake Isildur1 in the PartyPoker Big Game IV in London. Apparently Isildur1 initially agreed to play but backed out at the last minute.

Meanwhile Tony G will be facing a red-hot Isildur1. After racking up some big losses in previous weeks, Isildur1 is currently up more than $300k in the high stakes games on PokerStars this week.

The match is set to go off at 4 p.m. ET this Sunday on PokerStars for anyone who is interested in railing the online poker competition. We’ll also have complete coverage and results on Monday.

NAPT LA Montage

The PokerStars North American Poker Tour’s Los Angeles stop saw some of the biggest names in poker come to The Bicycle Casino. Our cameras caught some of the action in progress as it happened on the felt and we put together a montage of some of the players we saw.

The Bicycle Casino hosted the NAPT LA tour stop to rave reviews. The Bike has also hosted numerous televised World Poker Tour events in recent years.

In the montage we first see the action kick-off as the cards hit the air for the first day of the Main Event. The first pro we saw was Annette Obrestad, known online as “annette15″ who has drawn the eye of the entire poker industry as potentially the next big player in the industry. Next we see Antonio Esfandiari who had a very solid 2010, including a final table at a World Series of Poker event and a win at the World Poker Tour.

Our next pro was Isaac Haxton, who played in this event prior to taking on Isildur1 and beating him to the tune of over $40,000 during the first SuperStar Showdown on PokerStars. After him we see two time WSOP bracelet winner Scott Fischman who has been somewhat under the radar for the last couple of years. Last time we saw Scott, he was … well … a bit on the lighter side.

Matt Affleck was seen sporting a retro Seattle Sonics NBA jersey, representing the Emerald City, his native hometown. His bad beat to eventual WSOP Main Event winner Jonathan Duhamel ranks as the most heartbreaking moment of the 2010 poker calendar.

Also on hand was Lauren Kling, one of the many rising female poker stars we’ve seen in 2010. She had several deep runs and had a budding friendship with November Niner Joseph Cheong. Speaking of Cheong, he too was on hand and the next pro our cameras caught, playing it cool behind his 1980s-style sunglasses as always and sporting his Full Tilt Poker sponsorship patch.

We found Andrew Lichtenberger, known as “LuckyChewy” online, doing exactly what his online name suggests – chew away. For a good 12 consecutive seconds we see LuckyChewy chew and gnaw on something in his mouth, finally solving the mystery of where his online name might have originated from.

Other pros we found include Matt Jarvis, Men “The Master” Nguyen and Scott Clements.

Gibraltar Raises Taxes on Online Gambling Companies

The British territory of Gibraltar has announced that it will be drastically inflating its taxes on all online gambling firms starting in January, a decision that could prove costly for several online poker sites. Online gambling companies are currently paying just a 1% tax in Gibraltar, with a ceiling of £425,000, but starting next month, they’ll be forced into the same 10% tax rate as other Gibraltar businesses pay.

Gibraltar has been an ideal location for many online gambling sites due to the low tax rate and has become something of an “online gambling capital” as a result. Poker rooms such as PartyPoker and 888poker currently hold their headquarters in the territory and the online bookmakers Ladbrokes and William Hill made the move to Gibraltar in 2009 – a decision that was expected to cost the Treasury of the United Kingdom about £12 million per year.

Gibraltar’s first minister, Peter Caruana, said the tax increase has been called for by Gibraltar government’s decision to conform to European law. “To comply with EU law, we must phase out the tax exempt company in 2010,” Caruana said. “However, in order to sustain our successful economic model, we must retain a commitment to a very competitive corporate tax model.”

Party Gaming, which owns and operates PartyPoker from Gibraltar, recently released details concerning its long-awaited merger with online gambling giant bwin. Party Gaming said in a statement that it would keep its headquarters in Gibraltar while bwin continues to operate in Austria. Whether the news of the tax increase changes those plans remains to be seen. “We’ve known about this for some time and we’ve factored it in,” said Party Gaming spokesman John Shepherd. “The tax is still going to be very low.”

According to a report in The Guardian, while online companies will now pay the standard 10% tax rate paid by other businesses, they will still not be subjected to any Value Added Tax (VAT), meaning that Gibraltar will remain an attractive setting for gambling companies. VAT is a consumption tax only on the “value added” to a product, material or service – similar to the state sales tax that most U.S. residents pay.

Many experts seem confident that the tax increase won’t cause companies like Party Gaming to flee to other locations. Victor Chandler, Chairman of independent bookmaker Victor Chandler International, expressed his assurance in an interview with regional newspaper El Pais: “Nobody will leave, although we’ll all complain about the tax going up.” Chandler began his U.K.-based company in 1946 that does much of its business online, including sports betting, casino games, and poker.

The decision will likely add up to big things for Gibraltar in the near future. Under the current 1% tax rate, Gibraltar collected £10.5 million in revenue from online gambling taxes in 2009. So long as online gambling firms decide to stay put, the government can expect to see that number magnify in the coming years.

Online gambling has proven to be an extremely important source of revenue for Gibraltar and it is believed that 2,000 people currently work in the sector, which is around 12% of the island’s workforce. The industry has also helped to protect the local economy against neighboring Spain’s harsh economic conditions. Of Gibraltar’s 30,000 residents, only 600 (2%) are unemployed. The bordering Spanish city of La Línea de la Concepción is estimated to have 10,000 of its 65,000 inhabitants (15%) out of work.

Lee Jones Resigns from Cake Poker

In breaking news from the world of online poker, Lee Jones has stepped down as Card Room Manager of Cake Poker, effective immediately. Jones posted in a thread on TwoPlusTwo around 3:00pm ET on Tuesday, “This is a brief announcement to let you know that, as of yesterday, I have resigned my position at Cake Poker and will not be making any further posts here. Their management has made some strategic decisions with which I’m not comfortable.”

Despite departing the site, Jones, who is also a Guest Columnist here at Poker News Daily, spoke highly of his former colleagues: “Please direct any questions or concerns to the Cake support staff; they are top-notch people.” Cake Poker is the flagship site of the USA-friendly Cake Poker Network.

Also departing Cake Poker concurrently with Jones is Serge Ravitch, who is known in the online poker world as “adanthar.” Ravitch served as Cake Poker’s Tournament Director and Jones affectionately dubbed him the “Minister of Tournament Arts” in homage to the Harry Potter franchise. Ravitch was one of the figureheads in uncovering the cheating scandal at Absolute Poker.

Ravitch posted in the same TwoPlusTwo thread on Tuesday, “It sincerely pains me to say that, for the same reasons, I am also no longer affiliated with Cake in any way. I wish them the best of luck going forward.” What “strategic decisions” Jones and Ravitch alluded to were not clear at the time of writing. In addition, Cake Poker has not released any statement.

Jones could only tell Poker News Daily on Tuesday afternoon, “I’m just not comfortable with some of the decisions that the Cake management was making.” However, the veteran of the poker world hopes to remain in the industry, explaining to us, “I have a couple of irons in the fire. I certainly have every intention of staying in the poker business, so I’ll have to see what pans out.” Jones formerly brought customer service to new heights while with PokerStars and also worked with the European Poker Tour and CardRunners.

In TwoPlusTwo’s “Cake Poker Feedback Thread,” which is where Jones dropped the bombshell, posters weighed in en masse. The first responder explained, “This isn’t totally unexpected. Best wishes in your future enterprises.” Another poster predicted that Jones and Ravitch would land on their feet: “Lee and ‘adanthar’ are top-notch in my opinion and won’t need luck, but agreed nonetheless.”

According to PokerScout.com, which keeps tabs on online poker room traffic, the Cake Poker Network is the 24th largest worldwide and boasts a seven-day running average of 740 real money ring game players. Its peak traffic passes 1,100 cash game players and the family of sites happily accepts action from the United States.

Besides Cake Poker, other rooms on the Network include the Doyle Brunson-fronted DoylesRoom, Only Poker, Poker4Green, Ilari “Ziigmund” Sahamies’ Power Poker, Red Star Poker, Phil Laak’s Unabomber Poker, and Victory Poker, the latter of which joined in August.

The holidays have not been kind to the Cake Poker Network, which has not eclipsed the 1,300-cash game player mark since December 21st. In the 30 days prior, it passed 1,300 ring game players 14 times.

Stay tuned to Poker News Daily for more developments on this breaking story.

UB.com Returns as Sponsor of Poker Pro Canada Classic

UB.com has announced that it will once again be the title sponsor of the second annual Poker Pro Canada Classic.  The tournament, which will be held at the Four Aces Poker Club in Montreal, Quebec, is scheduled to run from January 27th to January 30th.

Co-sponsored by the leading poker magazine Poker Pro Canada, the Classic will feature a $1,500 + $150 buy-in and, like most major tournaments, will be a No Limit Hold’em event.  With more than 300 players expected to register, the prize pool could get up to $500,000 or more.

Poker Pro Canada Editor-In-Chief John “Johnny Quads” Wenzel is understandably excited about the upcoming tournament and commented in a press release, “The first Poker Pro Canada Classic back in April was a huge success, so we couldn’t wait to hold the second edition.  Four Aces was a terrific venue and I can’t wait to get back there.”

While the Poker Pro Canada Classic is a freezeout, it is not a freezeout in the traditional sense.  There will be three Day 1s and, while there are no intra-day rebuys allowed, anyone who busts out will be permitted to plunk down another buy-in and try again on a subsequent starting day.  Play will be stopped each day once the field gets down to 25 players.  Seventy-five total players across Days 1A, 1B, and 1C will return on Sunday, January 30th to compete for the championship.  Players will start with 20,000 chips and blinds will increase every hour.

As one might expect in a live tournament sponsored by an online poker room, UB.com will be running super satellites to the event during the month of January.  Here is the super satellite schedule:

· Sunday, January 2nd at 4:05pm ET: $200 + $15, Three packages guaranteed
· Wednesday, January 5th at 9:00pm ET: $200 + $15, Three packages guaranteed
· Sunday, January 9th at 4:05pm ET: $200 + $15, Three packages guaranteed
· Wednesday, January 12th at 9:00pm ET: $200 + $15, Three packages guaranteed
· Thursday, January 13th at 8:30pm ET: $300 + $20, One package guaranteed
· Sunday, January 16th at 8:30pm ET: $300 + $20, One package guaranteed

Players who find the super satellite buy-ins too rich for their blood will have the opportunity to qualify via lower buy-in satellites on UB.com.  More of these qualifiers, which will go as low as $10 + $1, will likely be added as the Poker Pro Canada Classic gets closer.

UB.com will also be holding six special Regional Freerolls open to residents of the Quebec and Ontario provinces of Canada and the states of New York, Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine.  The freerolls will take place on January 2nd, 9th, and 16th at 4:05pm ET and on January 5th, 12th, and 19th at 8:05pm ET.  Each freeroll will award a single prize package to the winner.

The 20 total prize packages are valued at $2,500 apiece and include the $1,650 buy-in for the Poker Pro Canada Classic as well $850 for travel expenses.

The inaugural Poker Pro Canada Classic saw 246 players duke it out for a share of the $370,000 prize pool.  Team UB.com members Mark “Poker H0″ Kroon and “Hollywood” Dave Stann were in attendance, but the title went to local Montreal resident Oliver Baksic, who took home $118,000.  Also of note was Canadian Heads-Up champ Benjamin Lablond, who placed third.

The Four Aces Poker Club is located in the Kahnawake Mohawk Territory, just a few minutes south of Downtown Montreal across the Mercier Bridge.  In addition to tournaments, the Club spreads low-stakes cash games every day of the week.  Free food and beverage are provided to all cash game players.

Full Tilt Poker Super Sit and Go Madness Returns January 7th

Start 2011 off on the right foot by heading to Full Tilt Poker, the site of Super Sit and Go Madness. This popular promotion returns once again to Full Tilt and is offering over $150,000 in cash and prizes. Full Tilt Poker happily accepts players from the United States and is the second largest online poker room in the business.

Super Sit and Go Madness begins on Friday, January 7th at 16:00 ET and will run for 48 hours until Sunday, January 9th at 16:00 ET. The sit and gos you can take advantage of are highlighted in green in the Full Tilt Poker lobby and divided into four groups. The first, dubbed Group A, consists of sit and gos with buy-ins ranging from $1 to $2. Group B consists of sit and gos with buy-ins ranging from $5 to $11 and Group C contains single-table tournaments with $20 to $35 price tags. The final Super Sit and Go Madness group is Group D, which contains high roller $50 to $110 buy-in sit and gos.

The Full Tilt promotion is divided into 24 two-hour time blocks. Points will be awarded to players based on their performances during those periods and at the end of every 120 minutes, cash prizes will be awarded to the top seven players on each Group’s leaderboard, ranging from $1 to $500. A total of 28 players will walk away with money every two hours, giving Full Tilt faithful plenty of opportunities to boost their bankrolls.

In addition to the two-hour leaderboards, an Overall Leaderboard will be kept for every Group; each will contain the best performances of every two-hour time block. Text found on Full Tilt’s website details how the Overall Leaderboards work: “So, if a player in Group A earns 100 points for the 22:00 ET to 00:00 ET period on Friday and then 150 points for the 00:00 ET to 02:00 ET period on Saturday, it’s only the 150 points that will be reflected on the Overall Leaderboard.” The top two players on each Overall Leaderboard will stamp their tickets into a $5,000 freeroll to be held on January 15th at 15:05 ET.

Action junkies can check out Super Turbo Sit and Gos that dole out starting stacks equal to just 10 times the big blind. A typical Super Turbo Sit and Go lasts about 15 minutes and any points you earn in them for Super Sit and Go Madness leaderboards count for two-fifths as many points.

Full Tilt Poker players who are fortunate enough to capture victories in three separate Super Sit and Go Madness tournaments will earn entry into a $75,000 Freeroll. The freebie takes place on January 15th at 16:50 ET and any players who receive a tournament ticket are eligible to vie for a $75,000 prize pool.

Finally, the Madness Raffle returns and offers up more than 1,000 prizes. When you cash in a Super Sit and Go Madness tournament, you’ll receive a ticket for the Madness Raffle, a drawing for a grand prize of a Full Tilt Poker Deluxe Home Game package that includes a tricked-out standalone poker table, a 500-piece poker chipset, and two poker deck cases.

In addition, a total of 210 Steps tickets and 900 pieces of Full Tilt gear will be given out through the Madness Raffle. Remember, only tournaments that appear in green in the Full Tilt Poker lobby are tracked for Super Sit and Go Madness, so choose wisely.

Visit Full Tilt Poker for more details.

Devilfish Poker Sold to The Weather Lottery

After several years of solo operation, Devilfish Poker has been sold to an English gaming group in an effort to expand that company’s profile further into the online gaming world.

The sale was announced prior to the Christmas holidays. The Weather Lottery offers lotto operations as a method of fundraising and, in July, entered into the online sports betting world under the FC BETZ flag. When it opened FC BETZ, it announced a deal with one of the founding clubs of the English Premier League, Coventry City and other soccer outlets.

What the company lacked, however, was an online poker operation that would allow it to expand fully into the online poker world. With the purchase of Devilfish Poker, The Weather Lottery will have such an outlet. The deal is worth a reported £330,000, with £40,000 of the purchase in cash and the remainder to be offered in stock.

In an article in the Yorkshire Post, The Weather Lottery chairman Tim Razzall put forth the reasoning behind the purchase of Devilfish Poker. “The board considers its acquisition at a time when there is still considerable untapped potential for development fits in with our gaming strategy. Devil Fish Poker has an established brand name in a sector that is complimentary to the existing gaming operations of TWL.”

Because the company didn’t previously host an online poker room, Razzall feels that Devilfish Poker is the “missing link” in its chain of products: “We have a growing database of users in both FCBetz.com and FC Lotto, some of whom will wish to take advantage of the Devilfish Poker products.”

The legendary English player David “Devilfish” Ulliott, who has been the face of the company since its inception, founded Devilfish Poker. At one point, it was a part of the UB.com brand, but after Ulliott’s sponsorship with the online poker room wasn’t renewed, it became its own entity under the Devilfish Gaming PLC banner. It also received a great deal of attention from Ulliott’s shrewd promotional character.

During the 2005 Full Tilt Poker Invitational, which was broadcast live from Monaco, Ulliott raised the ire of Fox Sports Net, the broadcast outlet for the show. Although Fox Sports Net had a policy against any dot-com advertising on its airwaves, Ulliott managed to get a plug in for Devilfish Poker through a strategically placed advertisement on the inside of his jacket. The resulting plug earned Ulliott a ban on playing in any Fox Sports Net poker production.

According to the story in the Yorkshire Post, Devilfish Poker did not show a profit on its books. At the end of June, operating losses of £106,331 on gross profits of £783,353 were reported, with Devilfish Poker showing liabilities at the sale date of £10,802.

The Weather Lottery is actively traded on the London Stock Exchange under the symbol TWL. After the announcement of the purchase of Devilfish Poker, the company’s stock showed a sizeable increase in trading, reaching a high of 89 pence on Christmas Eve. By the end of the trading day, it had settled to 66 pence, a 10% increase over its starting price.

Party Gaming and bwin to Retain Brands Following Merger

In recent days, Party Gaming and bwin announced merger plans to form a giant gambling group that could become effective toward the end of the first quarter of 2011. The merger, which had long been rumored before the companies signed an implementation agreement in July, is expected to create the world’s largest listed online gambling business.

The new company will operate worldwide with its existing brands under the name of bwin.party Digital Entertainment plc in which current bwin shareholders will hold a 51.6% stake, while current Party Gaming shareholders will hold 48.4%. Both bwin and PartyGaming will retain most of the core of their brands, but will be operated under the new umbrella company, which will be based in Gibraltar and listed on the London Stock Exchange. Party Gaming will keep its main headquarters in Gibraltar, while bwin will continue to operate from Austria.

The companies issued a 478-page document to shareholders on Thursday giving a detailed outline of the planned merger. Shareholders will vote on the merger at a joint annual general meeting on January 28th. Should the general meetings of both bwin and Party Gaming approve the merger, all shareholders holding bwin stock when the merger is effective will receive 12.23 Party Gaming shares denominated in GBP for each bwin share.

“The online gaming industry is going through a phase of consolidation, making market players’ size and geographic diversification more crucial than ever,” said Norbert Teufelberger, Co-CEO of bwin. “Our products and target markets complement one another perfectly, and we can continue to expand our technology lead in all key product segments: sports betting, poker, casino, bingo, and games.”

According to the document, the merger would create a business with unaudited net revenues of €696.2 million, unaudited clean EBITDA of €193.7 million, unaudited profit after tax of €99.4 million, and unaudited net assets of €1.27 billion after consolidation adjustments for the year 2009.

Jim Ryan, Chief Executive Office of Party Gaming, will join Teufelberger to become Co-Chief Executives of the merged company. Current bwin Co-Chief Executive Manfred Bodner will become a Non-Executive Director on the Board of the enlarged group. Said Ryan, “This is a transformational opportunity for both our companies to create the world’s largest listed online gaming business. With market-leading positions in poker, sports betting, casino, and games, the enlarged group will have a winning formula to exploit the growing online gaming market, supported by a strong balance sheet, significant cash flow generation, and a highly experienced management team.”

The merged company will continue to focus on business-to-consumer products, an area in which it enjoys considerable strength. However, because of the financial gains added through the merger, the company will also encroach into business-to-business and business-to-government endeavors. Teufelberger explained, “Our many years of online know-how, healthy balance sheet, and one of the largest pools of poker liquidity in any regulated market will make us an attractive business partner.”

There will also be focus on regulated and newly opened markets, as the company intends to make plans to enter the U.S. market if and when the current situation changes for the better. In 2006, bwin stopped taking bets from U.S. residents due to the passage of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA). Party Gaming, which operates the popular online poker room PartyPoker, followed shortly thereafter.

Gus Hansen Strikes for $71k

The Great Dane logged 247 hands on the site, all in heads-up $500/$1,000 Cap PLO, and managed to record victories against Erik “DIN_FRU” Sagstrom, URnotINdanger2 and Urindanger.

Despite his win Hansen is still down $1.6 million this year and it now appears almost impossible that he will get even by the end of 2010.

It’s not all bad for the Team Full Tilt Pro as he did reduce his deficit by nearly $2 million over the last two months of the year.

Hansen is also in considerably better shape than Brian Townsend (-$2.5 million), Ziigmund (-$2 million) and cadillac1944 (-$1.8 million) as we round the final lap of the year.

Action was slow on Full Tilt this weekend but Tom “durrrr” Dwan found time to win $37k while DrugsOrMe added $21k and Andrea Benelli won $15k.

The aforementioned Urindanger was the biggest loser last night dropping $70k. kerendream (-$52k), COCOMIEL (-$14k) and URnotINdanger2 (-$13k) were also in the losing column last night.

For more information on the high stakes online games last night be sure to check out our online poker stats section.

The Sunday Scoop: Mizzi Just Warming Up

Not satisfied with the huge 2010 he's had playing live, including $1,895,430 in tournament earnings and Bluff Magazine's Player of the Year honors, Canadian Sorel "zangbezan24" Mizzi went looking to bolster his online poker numbers in the post-holiday haze.

Playing in the PokerStars Sunday Warm-Up for only the second time since he won it earlier this year, Mizzi found himself deep again yesterday.

Unfortunately for him, the run didn't end with a second Sunday Warm-up title as the Titan Poker pro was bounced third ($72,039.00).

Once he was gone, Scandies proFile and MuppetKing chopped for $114,358.59 each, leaving a $10k prize for first that proFile would end up collecting.

As usual, the 4,366-player field the Warm-Up drew paled in comparison to the 8,947 who came out for PokerStars' Sunday Million.

All told, a $1,789,400 guarantee-smashing prize pool was created.

Canadian Team PokerStars Pro Pat Pezzin made a run at the title finishing 16th ($4,473.50) and by the time it got down to the final three in the final Sunday Million of 2010, a chip-chop deal was struck leaving $30,000 for first.

pageh656 had the lead at the time and ended with it, collecting a total of $249,054.88 as jpous ($165,518.36) and Dick_Fosbury ($162,065.77) finished second and third.

In the meantime, the PokerStars Sunday 500 drew a healthy 1,050.

diicman grabbed the title and nearly six-figure $90,615 first-place prize, but it was no easy task.

Well known pros Phil "USCphildo" Collins ($36,540) and Jon "apestyles" Van Fleet ($25,987.50) both made the final table, finishing fourth and fifth respectively.

Over on Full Tilt, a crowd of 3,955 hopefuls helped the $750k Guaranteed easily avoid overlay, creating a $791,000 prize pool that paid 522 spots.

When all was said and done, rob131986 took the title and 140,046.55 first-place prize.

Meanwhile, The Sunday Brawl drew 2,574 players making for a $514,800 prize pool from which banana skirt took $104,504.40 and the title.

Yevgeniy “bballer88? Timoshenko finished sixth for $17,503.20.

The Sunday Briefing: 2010 Online Sunday Season Ends With Page “pageh656″ Harris Claiming Top Score

It’s Time for a Change by Mike Sexton

I think it’s time for casinos that host big buy-in tournaments, such as WPT events, and the players in them to take a look at what’s happening out there today.  Due to “player demand,” events have gotten longer since players are starting with deep stacks and friendlier structures.  The result is that fields are getting tougher and smaller.  And due to the large number of big buy-in tournaments these days, if something isn’t done about it, I see that trend continuing.

This will certainly be the case until online poker gets regulated – and when that happens, we’ll see another poker boom.  Big buy-in live events will expand their numbers substantially because so many people will be able to qualify online for $50 or $100.  But that’s “if and when,” and we need to worry about right now.

On a side note, one of the biggest myths in poker is about deep stack tournaments.  It doesn’t matter how many chips you start with; what matters is the size of the blinds in proportion to the size of your chip stack.  But this article is not about deep stack tournaments; it’s about why event attendance is declining in big buy-in events, what to do to about it, and why it will benefit both players and casinos to change the current trend.

You lose value when you shut out the players you want in the tournaments, such as the businessman who cannot take a week off work and amateurs who can’t be away from their families for a week.  And cutting down the buy-ins at some events may actually increase the prize pool because of the larger number of entrants.  Just look at the recent WPT events at Borgata and Foxwoods.  Borgata had a $3,500 buy-in and was the largest field in WPT history with 1,042 players, creating a $3.5 million prize pool.

Foxwoods had a $10,000 buy-in with 240 players, creating a $2.4 million prize pool.  Generally speaking, larger fields provide more value for players and, obviously, more people in the casino can only be better for the casino.  An additional value of lesser buy-in tournaments is that you can run a lot more satellites, providing more people an opportunity to play and increasing value in the tournament.

How can we increase fields and create more value for the player?  The first step that needs to be taken is to shorten the events.  With the exception of the $25,000 buy-in WPT Championship, I’d suggest cutting every event on the WPT back to four days – and just as importantly, start them on a Saturday (with the final table on Tuesday).

In my opinion, this would be a win-win situation for everybody.  Amateurs can play on the weekend and would only miss one day of work (two if they make the final table, but that would be an extremely beneficial day off for them).  The casinos will get more players in their events, which would have much more value.  And you don’t have to play ungodly hours the first three days.  You do have to cut back starting chips from 30,000 to 20,000, cut levels back to 45 minutes, or eliminate five or six levels along the way.  By doing this, pro players will actually earn more in the long-run, as value in the tournaments would increase substantially.

I’ve been to every event in the history of the WPT.  At least 80% to 90% of the time, the top players get eliminated in a race or a bad beat – and it doesn’t matter if it’s a three-day tournament or a week-long tournament.  As a player, if you knew you were going to race for your money near the end of a tournament, wouldn’t you rather have that race at the end of three days rather than at the end of six days?  Wouldn’t you like to have an extra few days to enjoy life?

The argument some players will make is, “Because of the long structure, I was able to survive and put myself in a position to have a race at the end of six days.”  That argument has some merit, but I don’t believe it outweighs the added value in tournaments of allowing more amateurs to play.

Players and casino management must recognize that shortening the days of play will benefit everyone.  Decreasing buy-ins at some venues would be beneficial as well.  For this plan to succeed, however, it’s going to take a strong recommendation by the WPT, the vision of casino management (which shouldn’t be hard since they’ll make more juice and get more people in their casino), and the support of top players with leadership that see the light, especially those in the youth brigade who will help lead the charge.

Where’s Nike when you need them?  “Let’s Do It!”

Potential “Big” Hiatus in Durrrr Challenge

According to a conversation initiated by DoylesRoom Brunson 10 member Dani “ansky” Stern that found its way to TwoPlusTwo, we may see a hiatus in the second incarnation of the Durrrr Challenge featuring Tom “durrrr” Dwan and Dan “JungleMan12” Cates. There has been no action in the ongoing challenge since December 16th.

The chat was posted on December 24th on TwoPlusTwo and featured Stern asking Cates, “Are you and Tom playing any time soon?” In response, Cates took three messages to write, “idk… Seems like there will be a big hiatus… Tom is hard to work with.” With Christmas on Saturday and New Years Day next weekend, it’s possible that we might not see more play in the Durrrr Challenge until the calendar turns to 2011.

Posters on TwoPlusTwo did not take well to the possibility of the Durrrr Challenge taking a break. One poster wrote about the potential wrath of Full Tilt Poker front man Howard Lederer: “[Dwan] should approach it in a more professional way. Or else Howard’s gonna call and say, ‘Dude that’s twice now that you made us announce that challenge big time and then you let us down by not playing it. PokerStars snatched Isildur1 and he’s playing. You’re making Full Tilt look like the site that that doesn’t deliver; that disappoints the players. We’re cutting your allowance by 50% until you finish them both.’”

Not everyone on TwoPlusTwo was critical of “durrrr,” however. One poster came to Dwan’s aid: “He obviously has a ton of commitments, combined with a social life and girlfriend. When you have as much money as he does, playing a challenge like this isn’t a number one priority.”

Other members of the online poker community offered up suggestions for future cycles of the Durrrr Challenge: “If this format wants to have any future, there has to be a clause that it has to be finished in 3-6 months or something like that. And if it isn’t finished by then, they have to play the rest of the hands in one session. If someone gives up during that session, he automatically loses.”

The first installment of the Durrrr Challenge featured Dwan squaring off against fellow Full Tilt Poker pro Patrik Antonius. The last play in that match-up occurred in August. Through nearly 40,000 hands out of the 50,000 required for completion, Dwan has profited $2.1 million off Antonius. The lack of action and a steep deficit have led many in the industry to believe that Antonius has accepted a buyout, although Full Tilt has not given any official word that a deal has occurred.

In his match against Cates, Dwan is down by $500,000 after 14,190 hands. Cates and Dwan are battling in No Limit Hold’em, whereas Antonius and Dwan are dueling in Pot Limit Omaha. The latter match is nearing the two-year mark.

Dwan spent Christmas Day in New Jersey watching a family member utilize Full Tilt’s Rush Poker Mobile application. He Tweeted, “At Christmas w/ my family and just saw Rush Poker on my cousin’s phone, pretty crazy.” Meanwhile, Cates revealed that he was by himself this Christmas: “Roommates went home, going to be by myself for couple days. It’s better and worse in a couple ways.”

If Dwan is up by $1 or more at the end of the 50,000 hands, then Cates will owe $500,000. If Cates is up by at least $1 at the end of the Challenge, then Dwan will owe $1.5 million after giving any taker 3:1 on his money. In either case, the winner keeps the spoils of the 50,000-hand marathon. Visit our sister site, DurrrrChallenge.com, for more details.

Poker News in Brief: Dec. 20-26, 2010

All that action made for a busy week in the PokerListings news room and there a few stories that didn't quite make it to the front page.

Fortunately, we've complied them below in our weekly Poker News In Brief feature.

This week Dag Palovic signs with PokerStars, the LAPC gets mature, PKR names it's Player of the Year and more. 

Palovic joins Team PokerStars

Slovakian Dag Palovic has joined Team PokerStars Pro.

The 37th place finisher in the 2010 World Series of Poker Main Event has two EPT final tables on his resume and more than $750k in career live tournament earnings.

He is also the number one ranked player on Slovakia's all time money winners list.

Betfair Live!

Betfair Live just wrapped up in Vienna, Austria where the main event attracted a robust 595 players.

Markus Stoeger took first and over €30k in prize money.

Online poker satellites for the next Betfair Live events in Kiev, Ukraine (Jan. 17-23) and London, UK (Feb. 12-13) have begun on the site.

Commerce to Host LAPC Senior Championship

Commerce Casino will host the first ever LA Poker Classic No Limit Hold'em Senior Championship Feb. 23.

Only people aged 50 and above will be allowed to compete in the $545 buy-in event.

"By giving our more mature players an opportunity to compete against others more in keeping with their own mindset, playing style, speed and experience, we create an environment that is exclusive and yet more relaxing," said Tournament Director Matt Savage.

The event is just one of 53 set to go off during Commerce's 2011 LA Poker Classic.

PokerStars Macau Announces 2011 Calendar

PokerStars Macau at the Casino Grand Lisboa has released its events calendar for 2011 this week.

The schedule features the Macau Poker Cup series beginning Feb. 21; the Macau Poker Cup Championship Oct. 7-16; the Macau Millions Apr. 2-10; and the annual Asia-Pacific Poker Tour (APPT) Macau event in November.

For the complete schedule please go to www.pokerstarsmacau.com.

PKR names POY

PKR asked its players to cast votes for the 2010 PKR Players of the Year awards and the results were released this week. The Tournament Player of the Year award went to Norway's Ovnis, who accumulated $80,000 in tournament winnings including 12 major titles and 23 cashes of $1k or more.

The Cash Game player of the Year award went to PKR Team Pro Beyne, the first player to cash-out $1 million on the site this year.

Finally, Forumite of the Year honors went to Ireland's Pkr1princess.

The Best of Online Poker Between Christmas and New Years

Twas the Night Before Christmas: Poker Style

Tomorrow morning, good little boys and girls all over the world will wake up, run downstairs, and marvel at the bounty that Santa Claus has left them under the Christmas tree.  But, for online poker players in the United States, this will not be the best Christmas of all-time.  Despite making it through the House Financial Services Committee, Barney Frank’s bill that aimed to legalize and regulate internet gambling lost momentum as the year wound down.

Then, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid was unsuccessful in getting a poker-only bill passed in the lame duck session.  Reid’s bill had some serious flaws, so many people are happy about its death, but large portion of the poker community would rather see online poker legalized and regulated than not.

What I would like to do, though, is take that disappointment and turn it into something fun.  So here you go, my poker version of Clement Clarke Moore’s (or Henry Livingston’s, depending on what you read) classic poem, “The Night Before Christmas.”

‘Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house
iPoker was silent, no keyboard, no mouse;
The chips were stacked up on the table with care,
In hopes that St. Brunson soon would be there;
The children were nestled all snug in their beds,
While visions of “Rounders 2” danced in their heads.
And mamma in her hoodie, and I in the same,
Had just settled down for a quick heads-up game,
When out on the lawn there arose such a clatter,
I sprang from the bed to see what was the matter.
Away to the window I flew like a flash,
Tore open the shutters and threw up the sash.
I was hoping for Santa or maybe an elf,
But instead ’twas a man saving me from myself.
Logic had failed him in each word that he said,
And same for his minions wearing ties colored red,
With Arizona plates and a know-it-all smile,
I knew in a moment it must be Jon Kyl.
Following lockstep behind him, they hated our game,
And he whistled, and shouted, and called them by name:
“Now, Bachus! Now, Frist! Now, Goodlatte and Leach!
Gather ’round, come closer, remember my speech!
Online Poker is bad! It hurts our fine youth!
We must speak out against it; spread lies and untruth!”
According to them laundered funds we all hide,
And one third of students attempt suicide.
Sample size be damned, they have one guy to thank,
When he went busto in poker he done robbed a bank!
They don’t care to learn what the game is about
‘Tis the root of evil, of that there’s no doubt.
“Won’t anyone think of the children?” they say,
While lotteries pay for our schools every day.
I can watch porn, build bombs, and trade stocks on the Net,
But these fogeys don’t want me to place one little bet.
Correction! I can, in fact, still play the ponies
‘Cause the horse lobby pays Goodlatte and his cronies.
These guys, they think the game of poker’s all luck,
To that I say let’s play and see who loses a buck.
But even games of pure chance, as long as they’re fair,
Should be my business to play – why should they care?
‘Tis my money, my home, my business, my time,
So screw you for wanting it to be a crime.
I pay taxes, raise my kids, put food on the table,
I should be allowed to play from home if I’m able.
Poker is fun, ’tis a game, for some ’tis their jobs,
So just let us play in our undies like slobs.
Regulating the market is the wise move,
But apparently Kyl has something to prove.
His words sound of contempt, so proud of his work,
And filled with such crap, he’s a bit of a jerk.
And raising his finger, the middle one, with flair,
And giving a laugh, his broom took to the air.
Drunk with power, to his team gave a whistle,
Congress was adjourned; it was time for dismissal.
We didn’t win this year, but victory’s not out of sight,
Happy Christmas to all, and keep fighting the fight!

Tom Marchese Wins 2010 CardPlayer Player of the Year Title

In 2010, Tom Marchese claimed the CardPlayer Player of the Year honors, edging out Dwyte Pilgrim. At the time of writing, Marchese had garnered 6,738 Player of the Year Points and amassed more than $2 million in live tournament earnings during the 2010 calendar year. In 2009, UB.com pro Eric “basebaldy” Baldwin was CardPlayer’s Player of the Year.

Marchese also signed with Poker Icons, a popular management firm. Marchese commented in a press release that he was delighted to be receiving such a distinguished honor: “I’m ecstatic over being CardPlayer’s Player of the Year! It’s something that I have been working so hard for all year. Signing with Poker Icons will really help my poker career and I look forward to working with Poker Icons in the future.”

Lars Kollind, President of Poker Icons, welcomed Marchese to the family: “He is an awesome player and one of the biggest names Poker Icons has signed this year. I believe that Thomas will be one of the truly big superstars of poker for a long while.”

In the November release of the ESPN poker rankings dubbed “The Nuts,” Marchese claimed the sixth spot on the leaderboard, with ESPN’s Andrew Feldman commenting, “A year ago, you couldn’t pay anyone on this panel to pick Tom Marchese out of a crowd. Now, none of us would be able to miss him. He’s had 15 cashes this year for over $2 million in earnings and most likely will become CardPlayer’s Player of the Year.”

Marchese started off 2010 in style, taking third in the Borgata Winter Poker Open Main Event for $190,000 in February. Three weeks later, he was crowned the champion of the PokerStars North American Poker Tour (NAPT) Venetian Main Event for $827,000. The latter aired on ESPN, giving Marchese exposure to a wealth of poker fans around the United States.

In May, Marchese took fourth in the High Roller Event held as part of the European Poker Tour’s (EPT) stop at Monte Carlo for $350,000. In the famed Monaco casino, Marchese battled against a final table that included Sorel “Imper1um” Mizzi, Allen Bari, former World Poker Tour (WPT) champ Olivier Busquet, and eventual winner Tobias Reinkemeier.

We’re not done there. During the 2010 World Series of Poker (WSOP), Marchese final tabled the $10,000 buy-in Pot Limit Hold’em Championship to stash away another $123,000. Four months later, he hopped “The Pond” and finished seventh in the EPT London Main Event for $157,000.

Marchese’s final six-figure score of the year came in another televised tournament, the WPT Foxwoods World Poker Finals. Marchese finished third, banking $211,000 in an event that saw Mizzi, Jason Mercier, DoylesRoom pro Hoyt Corkins, Mohsin “chicagocards1” Charania, Keven “Stamdogg” Stammen, and eventual champ Jeff Forrest all make the top 15.

Taylor “ambiguosity” Paur leads the way in the 2010 CardPlayer Online Player of the Year race with a week to go in December. Paur is the only player on the leaderboard with over 10,000 Online Player of the Year Points and has earned over $1 million on the virtual felts in 2010. Paur’s largest online cash in 2010 came by virtue of winning a $163 No Limit Hold’em with Rebuys event during the 16th Full Tilt Online Poker Series (FTOPS) in June for $192,000.

Here’s how the top 10 players in the CardPlayer Player of the Year standings look at the time of writing:

1. Tom Marchese: 6,738 points, $2,068,658 in earnings
2. Dwyte Pilgrim: 5,576 points, $1,074,997 in earnings
3. Sorel “Imper1um” Mizzi: 4,851 points, $1,524,371 in earnings
4. Vanessa Selbst: 4,608 points, $2,803,013 in earnings
5. John Racener: 4,493 points, $5,863,856 in earnings
6. Harrison Gimbel: 4,080 points, $2,530,000 in earnings
7. Andy Frankenberger: 4,010 points, $1,173,853 in earnings
8. Jeffrey “jpapola” Papola: 3,870 points, $1,176,919 in earnings
9. John Juanda: 3,717 points, $1,598,858 in earnings
10. Jonathan Duhamel: 3,600 points, $8,944,138 in earnings

Congratulations to Marchese on his 2010 CardPlayer Player of the Year honors.