Poker Guru Blog

The United States Department of Justice amended its civil complaint, accusing Full Tilt Poker's leadership (mainly Howard Lederer, Ray Bitar, Chris Ferguson and Rafe Furst) with the theft of approximately $443 million besides money laundering and bank fraud charges. The AGCC hearing continues today, but prospects don't look too good for Full Tilt Poker.

The Full Tilt Poker hearing took place in London 2 days ago. During the first two days, the DOJ amended its complaint adding three new defenants, Howard Lederer (who was found to be the most influential person in poker just half a year ago by BLUFF Magazine), Chris Ferguson and Rafe Furst. The memorandum published by the DOJ summarizes the amendments:

"The Amended Complaint alleges that one of the Poker Companies, Full Tilt Poker, not only engaged in the operation of an unlawful gambling business, bank fraud, wire fraud, and money laundering as alleged in the Complaint, but also defrauded its poker players by misrepresenting to players that funds deposited into their online player accounts were secure and segregated from operating funds, while at the same time using player funds to pay out hundreds of millions of dollars to Full Tilt Poker owners. Full Tilt Poker was able to accomplish this massive fraud, in part, because it illegally conducted business in the United States but maintained its personnel, operations, assets, and accounts principally overseas."

s part of his two months long European trip, Daniel Negreanu is currently in Budapest, Hungary, the home of his new girlfriend, Krisztina Polgár. In an exclusive interview with Rakerace.com, he talks about moving to Canada, the legalisation of online poker in the US and the Full Tilt Poker scandal.

 

In its latest statement of 14th September, Full Tilt Poker announces the cost cutting measures the company plans to take. In addition to the savings that may affect 250 positions, FTP also hints at negotiations with a number of possible investors.

In its previous issue of 30th August, Full Tilt Poker aimed to explain the reasons behind the room’s unstable financial background. Two weeks later, they now report on their measures of cost reduction.

As Rakerace.com reported, Australian poker pro David Saab was arrested this January when, with his two companions, he attempted to smuggle 14,6kg of Cocaine to Melbourne, Australia. Saab was sentenced to 14 years in jail for his crime.

David Saab has won over $550,000 throughout his career in live tournaments, and he managed to win the APT (Asian Poker Tour) Manila Main Event in 2008, winning $280,000. Apparently this wasn't enough for him, he took part in organizing a major shipment of cocaine (with a street value of between $6.5 million and $8.5, according to 9NEWS) from Vancouver to Sydney in January.

According to ’feruell’, a fixed limit high stakes regular, and his fellow players, 888 Poker Pro and WSOP winner Darren ’Dooshcom’ Woods may be involved in a collusion scam at 888 push or fold tables.

Darren ’Dooshcom’ Woods at WSOP 2011

In a recent blog post, fixed limit specialist ’feurell’ (aka’jama-dharma’ on PokerStars, aka ’ThrCnBeOnly1’ on 888 Poker) has claimed, in the name of a group of high stakes players at 888 Poker and iPoker, that WSOP 2011 $2,500 Limit Hold’em champion and 888 Poker Pro Darren ’Dooshcom’ Woods is involved in scamming his fellow players, colluding with unknown usernames ’liverfc123’, ’benhamcheese’ and ’benkaremail.’

The Finnish daredevil Ilari 'Ziigmund' Sahamies took down the biggest pot in the history of PokerStars: the young pro won $421,836 with his nut flush at the online high stakes tables. Ziggy is on a rollercoaster ride recently, he was down more than $800k this year, but it seems his dowswing ended. The PokerStars $200/400 PLO tables are hot this September; the nosebleed action is bigger than ever. Many well-known pros like Andreas 'Skjervoy' Tobergsen, Phil 'MrSweets28' Galfond, Rafi 'refaelamit' Amit, socutiesf, bernard-bb and Ilari 'Ziigmund' Sahamies (Ilari FIN on PokerStars) battle each other in a marathon 10 hour session last night.

Ziigmund

According to the data provided by HighstakesDB, Ziigmund emerged as the biggest winner leading with a $504,657 profit followed by Phil Galfond ($369,000) and Taiwanese 'socutiesf' ($114,000). The biggest loser came to be Torbergsen, who waved goodbye to $652,577. Ziggy's great results mostly come from a huge hand, where he took down the biggest pot in PokerStars' cash game history, $421,826.

The resumption of Full Tilt Poker's hearing, which was originally set for "no later than September 15th" is now set for Monday, September 19th, according to AGCC (Alderney Gambling Control Commission). The hearing is set to take place in London, at the Riverbank Park Plaza Hotel.

The AGCC hearing of FTP was adjourned in the "best interest of the customers of Full Tilt", as the poker room got more time to find investors in order to pay the users. Although the meeting was adjourned to "no later than September 15th", it is now officially set for Monday, September 19th. The location also changed, the July 26 event was held at the Park Plaza Victoria Hotel in London, the new hearing will be held at Riverbank Park Plaza Hotel at 9 a.m. local time.

Jake Cody was the biggest winner of this year's British Poker Awards, he took down the Best Tournament Player and the Player of the Year awards as well. The ceremony was held as the highlight of the 2011 Poker in the Park festival in London. As we announced, The British Poker Awards was held for the second time this year; awards were given in 15 disctinct categories. Richard Ashby scored the most nominations, namely for the Best Cash Game Player, the Best Online Player, the Best Mixed Game Player, and the Best PLO Player. However, Jake Cody managed to take down the most trophies, for being the Player of the Year and the Best Tournament Player.

It is not at all surprising that Jake Cody got the most votes (as the awards were mostly open to public voting), he won an EPT, a WPT and a WSOP title last year ($25.000 NLHE - Heads-Up Championship, $851.192), completing his first Triple Crown.

Full Tilt Poker, the world's second biggest online poker provider as of April 15, 2011 has finally released a statement concerning their situation since the DoJ closed the site. FTP basically blamed the U.S. Government and few of its payment processors for their financial problems. As Full Tilt Poker haven't been able to repay their customers since April 15, when the United States Department of Justice seized the domains of PokerStars, UB/AP and Full Tilt Poker. Then, as they were unable to do so, the AGCC (Alderney Gambling Control Commission) suspended their operating license, because they operated contrary to Alderney legislation.

Ever since, Full Tilt Poker remained silent, upsetting their costumers greatly. They tried to communicate with the public through poker forums and their lawyers, withouth much success. Now the company broke the silence releasing a long-awaited statement, which was published by Forbes.com yesterday. You can read the release in its entirety below.

The State of Nevada has proposed bills to regulate online poker within the state.

A few days after California declared that they will not deal with the regulation of online poker in 2011, the State of Nevada has issued bills in connection with online poker on the 24th August.

Among the bills, there is one regulating customer attendance and how to solve the problems concerning technological licenses and data entry. The bills will be refined in public 'workshops', the first of which will be held on the 26th September.

These steps that Nevada has taken can be the premonitory signs of the nationwide legalization of online poker. Mark Lipparelli, Chairman of the Gaming Control Board that has issued the bills mentioned above has briefly shared his thoughts on the topic:

“Internet poker has become a multibillion-dollar business around the world. The technology supporting it, while not perfect, has improved dramatically since introduction. There is no better home for ‘iGaming’ in the U.S. than in Nevada,[...] The Board has successfully regulated the gaming industry for more than 50 years and is clearly best positioned to establish and administer a balanced set of regulations that allows a new form of commerce to begin and upholds our regulatory principles protecting the betting public."

Nevada will strive to offer high-level online games for the players, “giving players as much confidence as possible in the entities and technologies that might eventually gain approval, [...]”

Mr. Lipparelli also mentioned that because they do not yet know what exactly the new laws will contain, they tried to handle regulations as flexibly as possible. They are looking ahead of a long process, and there is great chance that these bills will be modified multiple times.

Hastings has joined the ever-growing group of US online pros that try their luck in live games since Black Friday. He achieved his first live victory at a WPT Regional Summer Splash Side Event.

Brian played side Event #12, a $2,200 buy-in tourney at the World Poker Tour Summer Splash and managed to defeat a field of 391 players. He won $213,877.

More and more senators and casinos support the legalization of online gambling, and it seems that America is desperately in need of a new source of income.

By the end of 2011, the legalization of online poker could finally take place in the US. The support of the Congress and land-based casinos contributes to this, as does the American Government that is seizing every single source of income in today's financial crisis.

Casino Support

The Casino Lobby that reviewed and prevented legalization of online poker seems to have taken a 180 degree turn, and got into fight for legalization.

Gary Loveman, Caesars Entertainment Corporation CEO told press about the unexpected change in an interview in the beginning of August. Loveman emphasized, that the current bizarre laws prohibit American companies to offer online games, however, American citizens can play on sites that are maintained by other countries.

In the Quadjacks interview posted earlier, Daniel Negreanu also talked a bit about his personal life, which seems to have taken a twist since the World Series.

When Mike Matusow and Matt Savage started bullying Daniel, joking around, saying that he was gay, KidPoker assured them that he had no problems concerning his sexuality, and that he had actually just met his new girlfriend.

Daniel Negreanu: "I met my new girlfirend at the World Series. She plays poker too. She just came up, she was just saying hi, 'cause she knew some friends and stuff. So, we just started, you know, hitting it off, and she's super cool. She lives in Budapest, Hungary. She was Miss Earth Hungary in 2008. She's there now, but I'm gonna go visit in a bit. You will like her, Mike. Her name is Krisztina Polgár."

Krisztina Polgár is a Hungarian celebrity. As Daniel said, she won the prestigious beauty contest 'Miss Earth Hungary 2008', which, we can say, after taking a glance at her photos below, is not a title unduly won.

2007 Aussie Millions 2nd finisher Jimmy Fricke claims that every single ace of spades is easily recognisable from its back at the Bellagio.

Jimmy Fricke

US poker pro Jimmy Fricke has recently tweeted that certain cards are marked at the Bellagio, what is more, they are used even in the highest stakes games:

“Every single ace of spades is marked at Bellagio and no one gives a shit at all. I've pointed it out in 10ks and big cash and no one cares,” he wrote.

Renowned international poker action monitoring site Pocketfives.com has introduced a new leaderboard to its database: in addition to the already existing sliding, yearly, monthly and sortable PLBs, now you can observe the race of countries as well.

On the top of the leaderboard, which features 207 countries in total, stands the United States of America, even though US players have been unable to collect points since Black Friday. The runner-up is Canada, while the United Kingdom is the 3rd finisher. Brazil, Germany and Australia follow and the top 10 is complete with Hungary, Russia, Norway and Belgium.