PCA 2012 Kicks Off Today

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
Atlantis Resort, Bahamas
 

Phil Ivey Received $920k per Month from Tiltware LLC

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
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.

PokerStars Withdraws – Rake Calculation Method Remains Unchanged

Under pressure from the player community, PokerStars has withdrawn from changing its rake calculation method from dealt to weighted contributed. The distribution of VPPs, however, does change in 2012.

PokerStars

As I have recently written, PokerStars has released an official statement to announce the implementation of the weighted contributed rake calculation method in place of the current dealt system. After the release earlier this week, the room withdrew its plans yesterday, due to major discontent with the expected consequences from the high stakes community’s part. Several PS players even started to organise a strike (occupying tables then sitting out).

PokerStars Officially Switches to Weighted Contributed Rake Calculation

In the first days of January, 2012, PokerStars introduces the weighted contributed rake calculation in place of the old dealt method. Additional improvements are also scheduled for the first half of next year.

PokerStars

As reported, PokerStars is about to follow many of the major poker rooms in changing its rake calculation method to weighted calculated. Currently, the market leader company uses the dealt calculation, which means each player dealt into a hand gets even share of the rake. In the weighted contributed method, players share the rake in proportion to their contributions to the pot.

Bjoerni89 Sets New VPP Record at PokerStars

Bjorn ‘Bjoerni89’ Schneider earned 3,058,660 VPPs in 2011 at PokerStars, breaking Kevin ‘WizardOfAhhs’ Thurman’s record from 2010.

Bjorn 'Bjoerni89' Schneider
Bjorn 'Bjoerni89' Schneider

PokerStars online pro and HU SNG specialist Bjorn ‘Bjoerni89’ Schneider has been pretty open about his intention to break Kevin ‘WizardOfAhhs’ Thurman’s record of 3,055,385 VPPs, set in 2010. He has communicated this over several interviews, although he would usually add that he has not been obsessed with doing this at all costs.

Jonathan Duhamel Attacked in Home

As the Canadian media reports, 2010 poker world champion Jonathan Duhamel was attacked yesterday by two men in his home. The pro was taken to hospital, but he has been released since with no major injuries.

Jonathan Duhamel Wins WSOP 2010
Jonathan Duhamel Wins WSOP 2010

Wednesday in the morning, 2010 WSOP Main Event champion Jonathan Duhamel was attacked in his Boucherville home. Although the Longueuil police have only confirmed that there has been an attack, they have not released any specific information; Duhamel’s agent Yves Bouchard, however, has announced that his client is the victim.

PokerStars About to Change Rake Method

It seems that PokerStars is about to follow major poker providers like PartyPoker and iPoker, and change their rake calculation method from dealt rake to weighted contributed rake method. The news is unofficial yet.PokerStars has sent out the following email to its partners in the last 24 hours:

"On January 1, 2012, we will be changing the way we calculate revenue share for affiliates. When calculating revenue for commission purposes, instead of rake being split between all players dealt into the hand, rake will now be calculated based on the players who contribute to the pot. This has been updated in the Terms and Conditions, which you can review at: https://www.pokerstarspartners.com/public/about/termsAndConditions.html"

Brand New Series at PokerStars - Turbo Championship of Online Poker (TCOOP)

In January 2012, PokerStars is starting a new series of online events. The first Turbo Championship of Online Poker (TCOOP) will contain 50 events.

According to the announcement made by PokerStars on Monday, the series will start on the 19th January 2012 with four events, and will consist of 50 altogether. All of the tourneys wiull have a turbo blind structure. 
 
Turbo Championship of Online Poker
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The main event of the series will be the $700 NLHE Main Event organized on the 29th January, but players will also find several Hold'em, Omaha and Stud variations, HORSE and 8-game events and a $2,100 NLHE High Roller event as well. The full guaranteed prize pool of the series is $10,000,000. 
 
Of course, PokerStars will also organize satellite tournaments for the events, which will soon be available in the PokerStars lobby. 

Phil Ivey's Ex-Wife Gets Millions and More In Divorce Settlement

Phil Ivey had already divorced from his wife Luciaetta Ivey in 2009, but their divorce settlement is still an issue today. Luciaetta, however came out well of the situation, according to a document filed this month she received items worth millions and also an alimony of $180,000 per month.

Phil Ivey and his wife Luciaetta
Phil Ivey and his wife Luciaetta

The couple married In May 2002, but after 7 years, they filed for divorce in 2009. On 29 December 2009, the Judge Bill Gonzalez granted the divorce, both parties agreed. But Luciaetta was not satisfied with the decision, she decided to take the case to the Nevada Supreme Court and filed a petition asking the court to disqualify Gonzales on the grounds of the fairness of her divorce settlement. She did so, because according to the petiton, she learned that her ex-husband contributed $5,000 to the re-election campaign of Judge Bill Gonzalez.

According to the settlement, Ivey's wife received "her car, her life insurance policy, 40 percent of a stock account, a down payment for a new residence, half of the proceeds from the sale of the couple’s home, and 40 percent of all business interests “with the exception of Tiltware, LLC."

Furthermore, as it turned out from Ivey's official reaction to the filed documents Luciaetta received a purse collection worth more than $1,2 million, jewelry worth around $1 million and an alimony of $180,000 from January 2010 to April 2011. As Phil Ivey stopped receiving funds from Full Tilt Poker after the Black Friday, the agreement stated receiving funds from Tiltware, Luciaetta Ivey's alimony "will cease."

First-Eagle Won the Biggest PokerStars Sunday Million Ever

A Canadian player, 'First-Eagle' took down the biggest PokerStars Sunday Million ever, winning an amazing $1,146,574 in the deal. The original first prize would be $2 million.

Sunday Million

Yesterday PokerStars held its biggest Sunday Million ever; the $215 buy-in big-money tournament offered a $10 million guaranteed prize pool with $2 million guaranteed for the first place. Satellites ran for as much as $1 to qualify for the event, which in the end drew 62116 players, who generated a total prize pool of $12,423,200. This is condidered the new record, as the largest participation recorded so far was the 59,128-strong field that played the event on March 6, 2011, helping to create a prize pool of close to $12,000,000, that was surpassed now. The amazing first prize was won by a relatively unknown Canadian player playing under the screen name 'First-Eagle'.

EPT Berlin Robbery Mastermind Sentenced for 6 Years in Prison

Ibrahim al Moussa, the mastermind between the EPT Berlin robbery that took place in 2010 has been sentenced to 6 years and 4 months of jail yesterday. At the 2010 EPT Berlin, 4 masked gunmen attacked the cashier and managed to escape with €245,000. Police arrested the suspects rather quickly, 6 persons were taken into custody; the 4 robbers and the two organizers, Mohammed Abou-Charka and Ibrahim al Moussa. Abou-Charka played in the tournament, to provide his associates with internal information, while al Moussa drove the vehicle they used to escape.

video

Groupe Bernard Tapie and FTP Shareholders Reach Agreement

After FTP and GBT have come to an agreement, the United States Department of Justice can now acquire the assets of Full Tilt Poker so that GBT can buy it from them, completing the transfer. In addition, the DoJ is to dismiss the civil charges against the room, Subject: Poker reports.

Groupe Bernard Tapie

As reported, the DoJ and GBT stroke a deal in mid-November, eliminating the last major obstacle in the way of purchasing the poker room. In accordance with the agreement, the Department is to take possession of the FTP assets and sell it to Tapie for $80 million. The DoJ has agreed to see to the repayment of US players after that, while the Groupe recompenses non-US ones. In addition, the Department would dismiss the civil charges against the FTP companies (but not against “the individuals named in either the civil or criminal complaint,” according to Subject: Poker).

Groupe Bernard Tapie To Get Spanish Licence

Groupe Bernard Tapie joined Bwin and PokerStars applying for the Spanish gambling license required to operate in Spain. This means that Full Tilt Poker is very close to be reopened and players will soon be paid. As Rakerace.com reported, Spain legalized online poker, which means another nation segregates itself from the global poker market. Any poker provider who wishes to offer their services in Spain is requred to apply for a license, have an office in the European Union and have to delegate a Spanish representative. Also, they will only be allowed to advertise their services on separate .es domains, and need to provide access to their servers' data to the license providers and financial institutions and pay a 25%-30% tax after their income. The bill is effective from 2012.

Groupe Bernard Tapie

Nanonoko To Break a Guinness Record at PCA 2012

PokerStars pro Randy 'nanonoko' Lew is in a competive mood; he stated he wants to set a new Guinness World Record at the 2012 PCA. Which record to break, however, he leaves the poker community to decide. One of the most prestigious poker tournaments in the year, the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure (PCA) 2012 kicks off on 5 January. Of course nanonoko will be there, but he wants to up the ante by wanting to break a Guinness Record. However, he doesn't yet know which record he will break, he called the poker community to decide.

nanonoko
nanonoko

UB Reacts to Player Data Leak

Last week, a link was published on the 2p2 forum through which personal data of UB players were available to download. After 9 minutes, administrators removed the post but an unpredictable number of downloads could have already occurred by the time. UB now responds to the issue.

Hacker

A formerly unknown user posted in the 2p2 forum’s Cereus topic a link last week, through which UB account owners’ personal data were available to download. The list contained information on about 2 million US, 319,000 Canadian, 137,000 British and close to 1 million players from other countries. Neither password and debit/credit card information, nor UB’s twin site Absolute Poker player data have been compromised.

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