Poker Guru Blog

According to Subject: Poker, Chris Ferguson has distributed close to $60 million from Full Tilt Poker’s accounts to ones held by Pocket Kings for him.

Chris Ferguson

In September, 2011 the United States Department of Justice amended its civil complaint, charging the Full Tilt Poker director board – Howard Lederer, Ray Bitar, Chris Ferguson and Rafe Furst, above all – with stealing around $443 million from the company’s players. They are accused of the theft of $41,856,010, $40,954,781, $25 million and $11,706,323, respectively.

Zynga Poker's spokesperson told the site AllThingsD that Zynga is indeed looking for partners in order to launch their real money poker solution.

Zynga Poker currently offers play money games only, but that is about to change, it seems. Last year, when asked about real money games, Zynga Poker's General Manager Laurence Toney refuted this. Now it seems the game has changed.

"We build games and experiences that our players want and love. Zynga Poker is the world’s largest online poker game with more than 7 million people playing every day and over 30 million each month. We know from listening to our players that there’s an interest in the real money gambling market. We’re in active conversations with potential partners to better understand and explore this new opportunity." - said the spokesperson to AllThingsD.

Zynga currently offers play money games only and lives off of advertisement and the selling of virtual goods (chips). They have announced the launch of a new game, Zynga Casino on Facebook in October, which is still yet to be released, but it hints that if the company will be able to offer real money games, they will offer a casino as well.

With the numerous changes since Toney's last comment on the issue such as the legalizations of online poker in a few states in the United States and the recent acknowledgement by the United States Department of Justice that the Wire Act, which prohibited gambling and betting since 1961 does not apply to online poker, the market opened up to legalized online poker rooms in states which have already done that. This open market is surely of interest to Zynga, who can realize a vast profit if they can migrate their players to their real money tables.

This is also great news to the poker pros, as never such a huge fish pond opened its gates in the history of online poker. Of course the rollout is still months away at best, and Zynga will have to find the proper partners and go through some major legal hurdles such as the acquisition of licenses and facilitating a secure environment for real money transfers, but it shouldn't be a problem for the biggest online poker provider in the world.

Will this be the next online poker boom?

IGT has recently purchased DoubleDown Interactive, developer of DoubleDown Casino for Facebook, for an amount that can reach $500 million.

Nevada-based slot machine manufacturer giant International Game Technology (IGT) expands further into the online domain by purchasing the developer of the Facebook gambling application DoubleDown Casino, DoubleDown Interactive, LLC. The DoubleDown virtual casino has been running since 2010 and currently entertains 4.7 million active users per month.

High stakes pro Phil Galfond offers a number of interesting ideas to improve online poker in his latest blog post.

Phil Galfond

A couple of weeks back Phil Galfond left Bluefirepoker where he had been working as a coach for long and also led his blog. One of the best PLO players in the world, Galfond did not leave his fans blog-less, however; on 8th January, philgalfond.com was launched, to provide room for his thoughts further on.

His latest entry bears the title “Let’s Make Some Changes” and it did not miss to instantly generate a constructive debate among forum members. The pro shared in it his own ideas and opinion about the possibilities and areas to improve in online poker.

The news broke yesterday that PokerStars' Chief Executive Officer is leaving his post at the largest poker room in the world. He is resigning to "pursue other opportunities". It was already rumored during the PCA (PokerStars Caribbean Adventure) that the company's CEO will resign shortly. This was confirmed on Monday, when PokerStars issued the following press release:

"PokerStars announced today that Gabi Campos has decided to step down from his position as Chief Executive Officer, effective Feb. 1, 2012, to pursue other opportunities. The company thanks Gabi for his hard work and commitment and wishes him the best in all his future endeavors. A search for Gabi’s replacement is under way."

Gabi Campos

The Ukrainian Leonid Bilokur took down the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure's (PCA) $25,000 High Roller Event, taking home a massive $1,1 million first prize. 2010 WSOP champion Jonathan Duhamel finished 2nd.

John Dibella, a satellite qualifier defeated Kyle Julius to win the Main Event of this year's PCA. The family man and day trader took home $1,775,000. Day 6, the final day of the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure kicked off with the remaining 8 players yesterday at 8 p.m CET, at the Atlantis Casino, Bahamas.

PCA 2012 Finalists

Ruben Visser was the first to be eliminated, he quickly lost his rather small stack, and in the end lost a flip against Julius.

Then David Bernstein had to go, and on the 33th blind level (20.000/100.000/200.000) the shortstack Anthony Gregg ran preflop all-in with 2.520.000 with A T from hijack, only Xuan Liu called with A Q on the neutral boardra Liu's better kicker held.

Mark Drover came in 5th, followed by Xuan Liu. Liu open shoved with A 7, Faraz Jaka sitting on a much larger stack called with A 6 and won with two pairs on the 3 A 6 5 2 board.

Faraz Jaka - 14.155.000
Kyle Julius - 11.670.000
John Dibella - 5.865.000

On the 35th blind level (40.000/150.000/300.000) Jaka lost a huge pot against Julius. Julius opened to 700.000, Jaka 3bet to K J with 1.850.000, Julius 4bet to 3.095.000, Jaka, after thinking a bit went 5-bet all-in, Julius called all-in with 10.470.000 and showed A K. The dealer dealt the 7 A K 9 8 board, Julius took the pot with two pairs. Jaka was left with 1.350.000, he was eleminated shortly after this.

After Jaka's elimination, Dibella took a major pot with a full house, he started the heads-up as the chipleader.

John Dibella - 18.585.000
Kyle Julius - 13.105.000

Dibella cornered Juliust even more, on the 36 blind level (50.000/200.000/400.000) the final hand was dealt. Julius raised to 825.000 from the button with 9 6, Dibella called with 6 5. The flop came A Q 3. Dibella checked, Julius bet to 725.000, Dibella quickly called. The turn came 8, both checked. On the T river Dibella bet to 1.000.000, Julius, trying to represent a huge hand shoved. Dibella snap-called, and won the tournament.

John Dibella

2012 PCA's Main Event almost came to its conclusion, the 8-handed final table was set yesterday with the chiplead of Faraz Jaka. PokerStars.tv will provide a live stream covering the event. The Final Table of this year's Pokerstars Caribbean Adventure (PCA) $13,000 Main Event almost came to its end, only 8 players remained, who will decide who takes the $2 million main prize home today.

Faraz Jaka

On Day 5 of the main event, 24 remaining players returned to their chips. Faraz Jaka sat on the biggest stack, 4.114.000. Right behind him was the MTT online pro, Alex 'Assasinato' Fitzgerald, 3rd was the high stakes cash game legend Phil 'takechip' D'Auteuil. PCA's 2009 runner-up Anthony Gregg was also at the table surrounded by players like Byron Kaverman (last year's $5k side event winner), Martin Jacobson, Xuan Liu, Ruben Visser and Danny Chevalier, who was the best poker player in New Zealand in 2011.

Purple Lounge officials revealed that on 16 January the room leaves the Microgaming Network, and will continue business as part of the Entraction Network. The poker industry is in constant flux, providers are constantly working to improve their services, therefore it is crucial to find a proper network to operate in. According to the latest news, our partner, Purple Lounge chose to change networks in order to provide an even better service to their registered users. The room currently is part of the Microgaming Network, but according to their officials, Purple Lounge will operate under the Entraction Network from 16 January.

The Entraction Network (most precisely its predecessor, B2B) was founded in 2000, it has been the subsidiary of International Game Technology (IGT). Entraction is one of the leading networks in the poker industry, currently it is the 13th biggest in the world. When the Nevada-based IGT acquired the company, the plans got even bigger, they pumped much money into the development of Entraction. Their aim is to get even higher on the list of networks and compete with iPoker for example.

PokerStars pro Randy 'nanonoko' Lew has set a new Guinness World Record yesterday at the PCA 2012's Main Hall; he played 23,493 hands in 8 hours with realizing profit. Randy Lew, the young PokerStars multi-table pro wanted to set a new Guinness World Record at the 2012 PCA. Which record to set, however, he left for the poker community to decide. PokerStars chose the "Most hands played in 8 hours with realizing profit".

Randy Lew grinding at 40 tables

Killer high stakes action went down yesterday at PCA's tables, the extraordinarily strong final table of this year's Super High Roller tournament ended with the victory of Viktor 'Isildur1' Blom. This is the young Swedish pro's first live tournament win. On Day 3 of the PCA 2012 $100,000 Super High Roller tournament, only 8 players remained, the awfully strong final table was lead by the chipleader Galen Hall, but huge names like Jonathan Duhamel, Daniel Negreanu, Viktor Blom and Dan Shak all were above a million chips to compete for the trophy.

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Seat 1: Humberto Brenes - 343.000
Seat 2: Scott Seiver - 556.000
Seat 3: Daniel Negreanu - 1.230.000
Seat 4: Jonathan Duhamel - 1.336.000
Seat 5: Mike "Timex" McDonald - 360.000
Seat 6: Dan Shak - 1.199.000
Seat 7: Viktor "Isildur1" Blom - 1.228.000
Seat 8: Galen Hall - 1.748.000

Being at the final table didn't mean an ITM finish, only 5 places paid. The unlucky ones came to be Humberto Brenes, Mike McDonald and Scott Seiver, after whose elimination the game started to get very interesting.

An extraordinarily strong final table formed yesterday at the PCA 2012 Super High Roller tournament, the chipleader Isaac Haxton was eliminated, Daniel Negreanu, Jonathan Duhamel and Viktor Blom are still in for the $1,254,400 first prize. As I reported yesterday, Day 1 ended in the Bahamas at the year's first major tournament, the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure's $100,000 Super High Roller tables. Yesterday's objective was to boil the table down to the final 8.

Viktor Blom

18 players started Day 2 yesterday. The american pro Isaac Haxton sat on the biggest stack of chips, 1.240.000. This, however, quickly changed.

Isaac Haxton leads the field at the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure's (PCA) $100,000 Super High Roller Event by the end of Day 1. Viktor Blom and Erik Seidel are also amongst the top players.

Isaac Haxton

The first big tournament of the year started yesterday as I informed you. 30 players registered for the $100,000 Super High Roller tournament, including poker superstars like Eugene Katchalov, Daniel Negreanu, Yevgeniy Timoshenko, Erik Seidel, Jonathan Duhamel, Viktor 'Isildur1' Blom, Bertrand 'ElkY' Grospellier, Jason Mercier and Scott Seiver. 12 players were eliminated during the first day, so now only 18 remain.

The first major tournament in 2012, the exotic PokerStars Caribbean Adventure, which happens to be EPT's only non-European tournament kicks off today in the Atlantis Resort, Bahamas. The tournament runs from until January 14, when a lucky player will take home more than $2 million. One of the most exotic live poker tournaments in a year is the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure. The event will be held where it is held since 2005, the luxurious Atlantis Resort on Paradise Island in the Bahamas. The popular event has grown year by year, in 2004 only 221 players participated in the main event, and the prize pool was $1,657,500. In 2010, 1529 registered players generated a  $14,831,300 prize pool. Last year's Main event was won by Galen Hall, who scored $2,3 million alongside his trophy, but more than 200 players shared just over $15,000,000 in prize money.

Atlantis Resort, Bahamas

Phil Ivey’s Tiltware LLC payment details have been published in the process of his divorce case. The eight times WSOP champion received a monthly fee of $920,000 from the company.

Phil and Luciaetta Ivey

In late 2011, Phil Ivey’s ex-wife Luciaetta went to the Nevada Supreme Court as she considered her share following their divorce in 2009 unfair. Ivey paid $2.2 million to her ($1 million in jewellery) and an additional alimony of $180,000 from January, 2010. Moreover, Luciaetta would receive a 40% cut of all of Ivey’s shares and other incomes, except for the Tiltware shares. An additional 40% of the sell price of their home went to her, besides a car and a down payment for a new apartment.