Poker News

Online betting exchange Betfair, in a wave of thorough revision of their sport sponsorship activities, has ended its sponsorship contract with UEFA Champions League 2010/11 winner FC Barcelona and signed four sport stars for brand ambassadors. Marketing magazine reports.

Alasdair Wright, former Head of Marketing and Strategy at BSkyB and Head of Customer Marketing at AOL, was appointed Global Head of Customer Marketing and Loyalty at Betfair two months ago and it is his duty to oversee the marketing activity of the company. Hence the shift from a tendency of deals and contracts with top European soccer clubs, including Manchester United and FC Barcelona, to introducing retired sport aces as brand ambassadors. Nevertheless, Betfair remains the official betting partner of the 'Red Devils.'

The 9-hour-long Friday Night Podcast of Quadjacks saw Daniel Negreanu, Matt Savage, Mike Matusow and Tony G talk extensively about the current issues in poker.

A lot of interesting topics have been discussed, including the WSOP 'No Talking' rule, the Epic Poker League, Full Tilt's current situation and Subject:Poker's article.

New data has surfaced indicating that Phil Ivey borrowed money from Full Tilt poker on many occasions and it seems like he has not paid it back yet.

Subject:Poker has recently published a report that contains all the player transactions made between Ivey and Full Tilt. This data shows that he owes the poker room more than $5 million. It is important to note here, however, that we do not know anything about other possible transactions which would be necessary to tell what the truth is.

It is a fact, though, that Phil Ivey filed a lawsuit against Full Tilt Poker (more specifically Tiltware, its operator) in early June, to which Full Tilt replied that Ivey owes a large sum of money to the site.

The report that has just been published states that between June 2009 and April 2011, Phil Ivey borrowed money from Full Tilt at least eighteen times (making $10,715,000) and repaid money at least five times, totalling around $5 million. So the assumption is, that Ivey still owes Full Tilt around $5 million.

Full Tilt Poker's AGCC hearing is underway in London, Victoria Park Plaza Hotel, but not publicly as it was announced: Full Tilt lawyers managed to take the case private. Full Tilt Poker owes AGCC £250,000 in license fees, and wants to adjourn the hearing, as they are still in talks with their alleged investors.

The Alderney Gambling Control Commission revoked the operational license of Full Tilt Poker on June 29. The reason for this decision was that Full Tilt Poker was unable to pay their U.S. players since the Black Friday (April 25), which is clearly a breach of their AGCC license agreement. They owe $150 million according to reports. FTP is offline for all since their license has been revoked.

A few days later, the Los Angeles Times reported that Full Tilt Poker has struck a deal with European investors, who are willing to buy the majority of Full Tilt Poker, backing them financially to be able to pay the $150 million to players. This news, however, proved to be premature, because as we now know it, no deal has been struck, only negotiations were underway.

Phil 'OMGClayAiken' Galfond, one of the most popular online poker players and instructors, cash game specialist thought it was time to get back to his loved online poker; according to his recent tweet, he moved to Canada to be able to play.

Rakerace.com wrote about Cole South, former CardRunners coach and Full Tilt Poker pro, who decided to move to Canada after the United States Department of Justice seized the domains of Full Tilt Poker and PokerStars, making playing online poker impossible in the U.S.

Phil Galfond

Phil Galfond seems to have followed suit as it was rumored; the pro already expressed his intention of moving this April. 3 hours ago he tweeted:

PhilGalfond
"Really happy to be back playing at @PokerStars. They've been extremely helpful and responsive with getting everything setup again."

A new website has been launched, under the name fulltiltscrewed.me. The owners of the site are collecting petitions from those who have their bankroll stuck on Full Tilt. The petition will be handed over to the Alderney Gambling Control Commission (AGCC) at an open trial on the 26th July.

AGCC will sit down to negotiate with Full Tilt Poker representatives on the 26th July in the Park Plaza Victoria Hotel in London. Here, all the documents will be presented that played a role in the shutdown of FTP. This is when AGCC will receive the petition from fulltiltscrewed.me.

Here is the text of the petition:

We, the undersigned, demand that the Alderney Gambling Control Commission enforces it’s legal obligation to ensure it’s Licensee, Tiltware (trading as Full Tilt Poker), returns all player funds on deposit without further delay pursuant to the Alderney eGambling Regulations 2009.

(a) to an account with a financial institution in his name; (b) to an account with an associate of the Category 1 eGambling licensee in his name; or (c) by providing a non-negotiable instrument marked ―account payee made out in his name and forwarded to his address as recorded in accordance with regulation 227, pursuant to the terms and conditions governing the customer relationship and as set out in the Category 1 eGambling licensee’s approved internal control system.

Bwin has been offering an iPhone client to their Austrian and British customers, but now they opened up to an even bigger market: they released their client for Android smarthphones as well, which is available to all Bwin customers all around the world. The Ongame Network felt the time has come to venture into the mobile market. They now allow their poker rooms to develop their poker clients to smartphones. The biggest ongame room, Bwin reacted first, after the January release of their iPhone app, they rolled out the their app for Android phones as well. In January, Berthold Kao, head of product management RNG & mobile commented:

"At this stage we are just looking at making the best app we are capable of. We went for two legally safe markets [the United Kingdom and Austria] and it went through. Other operators have seen their apps dismissed in other markets but we do not know why. (...) This does not mean we’re not focusing on Android, but there are a couple of reasons why iPhone seemed to be a more mature solution."

PLO champion Ben Lamb is still competing in the Main Event, and with his current results he has overtaken Phil Hellmuth on the Player of the Year (POY) leaderboard.

Ben "Benba" Lamb is performing fantastically at this year's WSOP. The PLO and NLHE pro played his first final table on the 20th June and became second at the $3,000 PLO event behind Sam "KingKobeMVP" Stein. Then, on the 28th June, he could not be stopped by anyone and won the $10,000 PLO championship ($814,436).

Ben also got ITM at the $10,000 No Limit Hold'em - Six Handed event: he became 12th and won $56,140. Another final table came on the 7th July, when Ben finished 8th at the $50,000 Players Championship for $201,338. His total WSOP winnings so far this year make $1,331,832, but let us not forget that he is still competing in the main event. In fact, he is starting day 7 from teh second place where there are only 57 players left. If he became the first to get busted, he would already win $130,997, but we an surely count on him to reach a higher prize. A betting office would probably pay higher if you bet on Ben not making the November Nine than the other way around.

Here's an interview with Lamb after Main Event day 2:

At the start of the Main EVent, Phil Hellmuth was leading the POY list with five ITM finishes (threee of which were second place results). In order to take over, Lamb had to get into the top 138 in the ME, which he has confidently accomplished. With this, he became best player of the WSOP, but not yet Player of the Year, as, for the first time, WSOP Europe results will also count in the POY leaderboard, and these could still change POY standings. Hellmuth has already let us know that he will be there in France to take over the lead again.

Ben Lamb told interviewers that he intends to take part in the European tourneys as well. When asked about "his secret", he emphasized the importance of standing on the better side of variance, and he also said that luckily he is able to concentrate solely on poker this summer.

We wish Ben good luck at the final day of the Main Event!

The Poker Players Alliance (PPA) has recently issued a legal guide on how exactly Full Tilt Poker, UB and Absolute Poker players can try to legally retrieve their money.

The poker sites mentioned above have not yet taken steps to rebate players suffering from the events that have occured during 'Poker Black Friday'. The only site until now that has managed to settle the issue is PokerStars, and US players are raging and fearing that they will never get back the millions of dollars from these poker sites.

PPA informs us that it is impossible for them to enter court as an organization, but there exists a legal procedure by which the companies behind these poker sites can be sued by players.

It is definitely not an easy issue, but for those determined to take action, this might be something worth considering. US players are strongly recommended to read through the more-than-twenty-page synopsis, which can be accessed from here, and initialize a lawsuit if considered worthwile. 

Full Tilt Poker was entirely shut down on June 29th, when the AGCC (Alderney Gambling Control Commission) suspended its operating license. Players had to find a new place to play, this is shown by the latest traffic reports: PartyPoker's traffic increased by 35%, Cake Poker's by 40%.

Such changes in the traffic leaderboard have only happened when the UIGEA (Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act) was introduced in 2006. According to the latest report published by PokerScout.com, since June 29th, many drastic and notable changes went through. Full Tilt Poker's biggest competitor, PokerStars registered +3,382 players, which is a 17% traffic boost. But nearly all other rooms and networks profited from the Full Tilt's downfall. PartyPoker, now the second biggest poker site after the PokerStars boasts +1,246 new players, constituting a 35% growth in just two weeks.

The unluckiest man at this year's WSOP, the 11-time bracelet winner Phil Hellmuth almost overslept his second day at the Main Event. He didn't realize that he was scheduled to play for the day. However, a friend is always on guard.

Phil Hellmuth arrived at the 2011 WSOP Main Event in a quite subdued manner. Over the years he made a fool of himself with his rather funny and unpleasant entrances. He walked into the Rio Casino as a cage fighter, Caesar himself, a racecar driver and so on. This time around he dressed as an ESPN reporter, holding a microphone and did a live broadcast as he approached the poker rooms. This is of course a much more subtle way to enter a casino, I, however, feel it a bit unnecessary.

Darrell Roberts won a nice pot under quite funny circumstances at the World Series of Poker Main Event. Roberts sat down at his table after returning from the bathroom

What he did not notice, however, was that his table (table 308) had actually been moved to the ESPN main stage section during Roberts' break. So, after returning, Darrell started playing at seat 4, table 303, which at the moment incidentally had an empty seat just where Roberts had sat earlier with about the same amount of chips as well. It is no wonder that he immediately leapt into action and won a pot. And this was the moment when the real occupant of the seat appeared, and raged about someone playing with his stack. 

Despite the early predictions, this year's World Series of Poker turned out to be the largest in history. The 42nd annual WSOP, with a record-breaking 75,672 entries and 58 events created the largest prize pool in the history of the Series: $191,999,010. 6865 players registered for the Main Event, which is currently underway.  According to WSOP.com's official press release, this year's World Series of Poker broke many records, and is the "largest in history". The 75,672 entries generated a whopping $191,999,010. This is 3,7% more than last year's 72,966 and $187,109,850 (2,6%).

Many predicted after the Black Friday, attendance of the WSOP will see a serious drop. This, however did not happen, many records were broken. Ty Stewart, World Series of Poker Executive Director was rather happy about this:

"This summer underscores the appeal of the game and the power of this event. We're so thankful for all those who came from around the world to demonstrate that poker continues to grow. All across the board at the 2011 WSOP, from our signature gold bracelet events to cash games to satellites and daily tournaments, records were made to be broken."

This is the third time Harrah’s Entertainment picks inductees for the annual Poker Hall of Fame based on an open nomination process.

Harrah’s Entertainment is expecting votes between 5th July and 14th August on nominees from whom the inductees of the 2011 Hall of Fame will be picked. In addition to naming the player you would like to see among the best of the best, you need to provide a short explanation about why you think that particular person is suitable for the title.

The dust doesn't seem to settle around Full Tilt Poker these days; today's breaking news is that the company has been bought by European investors. As a consequence, Phil Ivey dropped the lawsuit against Full Tilt. As Rakerace.com reported yesterday, the situation at Full Tilt Poker is rather hopeless; the room cannot operate without a license, and even though they are negotiating with AGCC (Alderney Gaming Control Commission) and KWG (Kahnawake Gaming Commission) about their license, the players are highly upset and disappointed.

The situation changed however, according to an article in the Los Angeles Times, Full Tilt Poker has been bought by European investors, who are willing to pay the nearly $150 million debt towards U.S. players, which Full Tilt was unable to pay to this day, which, in the end caused their license to be suspended by the AGCC.