Poker Guru Blog

Online poker pro Andrew ’Good2CU’ Robl posted on his blog he considers Phil Ivey’s statement to be “solely self-serving” and that he was deeply disappointed in Ivey, who is one of his personal heroes.

Andrew 'Good2CU' Robl

As I wrote, Phil Ivey filed a lawsuit against Full Tilt Poker and announced he would not participate in WSOP 2011 as long as FTP did not initiate cash outs for their US players. The pro contacted Las Vegas lawyer David Z. Chesnoff who sued FTP parent company Tiltware in the District Court of Clark County, Nevada. According to the lawsuit, Ivey is suing for breach of contract and for lost business opportunity and income as well as for damaging his professional and personal reputation. In all, these are worth over $150 million; approximately the amount of money Full Tilt Poker owes its US players. Ivey is most likely planning on paying US players from the money, but this is just an assumption.

Phil Ivey announced via Facebook that he was deeply disappointed in Full Tilt Poker for failing to initiate cash outs for their US players. The eight-time WSOP champion sued the room and does not play in this year’s championship. Today’s number one poker player, Full Tilt Poker Pro Phil Ivey, has issued a statement for the first time since Black Friday. Although he is not the kind of player to overuse social media, like Twitter or Facebook, he did use the latter to make his announcement that evoked intense reactions from the poker player society.

Phil Ivey

Ivey’s statement reads as follows:

Full Tilt Poker released yet another statement concerning their current state, to clarify some misconceptions about the company and its situation. Unfortunately, not much new has been revealed, there is no specific timeframe for payouts. Full Tilt Poker, the second biggest poker room in the world was affected in the Black Friday's events as many of you already know all too well; but it seems the company faces several problems. Their rival site, PokerStars already facilitates cashouts, all U.S. players could get their money out. Full Tilt Poker, however, as they mentioned in a previous press release "Full Tilt Poker faced numerous challenges and hurdles to ensuring the smooth operation of its international business and the orderly return of US player funds."

The statement was posted on twoplustwo.com, a popular online poker forum by Full Tilt Poker representative 'FTPDoug':

"We acknowledge that our lack of communication reflects poorly on us, and rightfully so. We have been too optimistic in estimating how long it would take to sort through the issues we have faced since Black Friday. And as frustrating as the delays have been for us, we recognize that it cannot compare to the frustration you have been feeling.

We further recognize that our lack of communication has led to much speculation and many unsubstantiated rumors, which have often been contradictory. With this message, we hope to clear up as much confusion as we can, while at the same time keeping in mind the constraints imposed on us as a result of the cases brought in the Southern District of New York."

Since the Black Friday of poker makes the durrrr challenge 3 impossible, Jose 'Girah' Macedo would challenge Isildur1 to a heads-up game, possibly as the next installment of the SuperStar Showdown.

Jose Macedo

As Rakerace.com published in March, the Portuguese Poker Prodigy as many call him, now a Lock Poker pro, contacted his favourite player, Tom Dwan on twitter,  asking him whether he is interested in a durrrr challange against him. At first Dwan seemed to be interested in the the challenge that would last 50,000 hands, but then he didn't reply to Macedo. On April 14, Macedo gave it another try to contact Dwan on twitter:

"Hey, sorry to keep pushing this, but can you give me a final answer on whether you'll be taking any more Durrrr challenges or not?" Macedo asked.

Let's start this week with some less-than-serious news: poker pros Erick Lindgren and Erica Schoenberg got married in Santa Barbara yesterday. Many poker professionals attended the event.

Erica Schoenberg - Erick Lindgren posted by Daniel Negreanu

We wrote about Erick Lindgren a week ago, when he finished second at the WPT Championship, where Erik Seidel has beaten him. Now, however, Lindgren is a clear winner: he and Erica Schoenberg tied knots yesterday in Santa Barbara, Florida. Many poker pros attended the event, Daniel Negreanu and Phil Hellmuth even posted some pictures of the wedding to their Twitter.

Thomas Kremser, Tournament Director for EPT has terminated his relationship with the European Poker Tour after 7 years of partnership. He stated he wants to explore new adventures in the poker industry.

Kremser is considered one of the most accomplished of tournament directors and has been in charge of events like the World Poker Tour, European Poker Tour, Late Night Poker and many others. He founded TK Poker Events, his company, with which he worked as the tournament director of the EPT with his own team of floor staff and dealers for the last 7 years. According to the press release TK Poker Events released, Kremser contacted PokerStars several weeks ago about some negotiation to review the nature of their relationship, because Kremser and his staff wre quite unsure about the Black Friday's aftermath. The negotiotiations broke down, TK Poker Events will no longer be associated with The European Poker Tour.

The Ongame Network has decided to catch up with the industry standards; from this June, they are exchanging their short-handed tables to 6-handed ones and their full ring tables to 9-handed.

Many bwin/betsson/betfair and Red Kings Poker players noticed that their software was updated by Ongame developers significantly, and has already been released. Whether the new software is better or worse, opinions vary; but most of the players welcomed the change.

Ongame will issue another update on June 16, which will:

• change the 5-handed SH (Short Handed) tables to 6-handed
• change the 10-handed FR (Full Ring) tables to 9-handed

With such measures, the network might be trying to implement the industriy standards used by the leading poker sites, which all employ 6 and 9-handed tables. This way, they might attract more players, who didn't register because of the unusual seating options.
 

Cole South, former CardRunners coach and Full Tilt Poker pro is one of those U.S. pros, who were affected by the ban on online poker after the Black Friday. He seems to have solved the problem though; according to recent news, he moved from Washington DC to Canada.

Cole South playing from Canada

Cole South was spotted playing at a $200/400 PLO Full Tilt Poker table against a player called 'Esvedra', who many suppose is Guy Laliberte. According to HighstakesDB, his partnership with Full Tilt Poker hasn't been much of a success, the database shows that South lost around $1 million. We hope Canada brings him more luck.

For chilling out a little as we are nearing the end of this gloomy Monday, here is a bounty hunt promotion video from our favourite and also the craziest French guy, Rémi Gaillard. For those who do not know him, this is a must; for those who do, it is equally so.

Attention! Strong language!

The withheld Sunday Million winnings of $518,402 of the Dutch player zeurrr will not be distributed among the final tablists; PokerStars released a statement in which they say the money is contributed to "charitable organisations which specialize in preventing underage gaming". As Rakerace.com reported in March, PokerStars has withheld the $518,402 prize a Dutch player, 'zeurrr' won in the 5th Annual Sunday Million Tournament. It turned out later, that the screen name belongs to the 17 years old Jimmy Jonker, who clearly violated the room's regulations that do not allow underage persons to play at the site, because it is illegal.

One of the biggest poker legends of our time, Doyle Brunson has parted ways with his website, DoylesRoom.com. The rumors were circulating for a few days now, but a representative of DoylesRoom confirmed that Brunson is indeed out. The Brunson 10 also seems to be sacked.

Doyle Brunson

In an exclusive interview for Gambling911.com, Doyle Brunson issued the following statement:

"Reluctantly, I have decided to terminate my endorsement contract with Doylesroom.com. It pains me to leave at this time. I have aspirations of reentering the online poker business when the United States Government passes legislation, that officially legalize online poker sites. Doylesroom management has decided to continue to serve U.S. customers. Although they believe they have the right to market the name Doylesroom and to use my name and likeness for a period of time, I have asked them not to. Good luck-Shuffle up and deal."

You may remember Ali Tekintamgac, the player who got disqualified from the Partouche Poker Tour after investigations revealed that he had probably cheated on several occasions, having “journalists” and “cameramen” signal him his opponents’ hands. Tekintamgac is now an entree at the WPT Championship which is the source of a considerable amount of tension.

Daniel Negreanu’s picture of Ali and his comment:
"This is a picture of the cheater. Its mind boggling that HE is being protected. Makes no sense."
(from poker-king.com)

Bill Rini, an recognized expert in the poker industry wrote a blog post yesterday about the shortcomings of the Poker Players Alliance. He criticizes the alliance for their way of argue for the legalization of online poker.

Bill Rini

As Rini writes, even though that he was among the first people, who joined the PPA, soon after it was founded in 2005, he is quite unhappy with the fact that the alliance tries to convince politicians with the wrong arguments. As he puts it:

"The PPA continues to make the logical argument that poker is a game of skill, and therefore not gambling –more on par with Golf or Chess than Roulette or Keno—but we all know how well politicians do with logic.

Secondly, there are the people that comprehend the skill factor in poker, but since this only applies to the top 5-10% of players, the other 90-95% of poker players are considered gamblers! For these players, poker is no different than Roulette, Slots, or Blackjack, and depending on their disadvantage in the game they are probably right. If you don’t know the general concepts and theories of the game, or take the time to read books, study, and work on your poker game than you are in fact simply gambling when you play poker –I’ve played with many a person who would have held on to their money longer if they were at a Blackjack table or playing Caribbean Stud."

As it was somewhat expected, as a next step in UB's downfall, the parent company of UB and Absolute Poker, has released a statement in which they announced that the entire roster of pros were let go by the company.

Prahlad "Firedman"

Blanca Gaming issued the following statement about Team UB recently:

"This was a difficult task for Blanca’s management, and we are very disappointed that we have been compelled to sever ties with our sponsored pros. Over the years, the Company has been successful in gathering a group of young, extraordinarily talented and brand-appropriate poker professionals who have proudly sported its logos. We are truly saddened that circumstances have dictated this course of action, and we regret that we are no longer in a position to partner with our sponsored pros, or to provide them with a source of income for playing the game that they love. We appreciate their significant time and dedication shared with us, and we thank them for the loyalty and patience they have continued to show us even during the unsettling events of the past few weeks. We respect and admire them for their many accomplishments, both at the poker tables and away from them, and we will always be grateful for their valuable contributions to building the UB and Absolute Poker brands and to creating a rock-solid community at the pair of online poker rooms."

11 players are affected by this decision, namely Joe Sebok, Prahlad Friedman, Eric Baldwin, Maria Ho, Brandon Cantu, Tiffany Michelle, Scott Ian, "Hollywood" Dave Stann, Adam Levy, Bryan Devonshire and Trishelle Cannatella. They all can look for new jobs from now on.

She loves playing and popularizing poker, hosts a show, has her video blog, covers events and on the top of that all, she is incredibly hot: Tatjana Pasalic (27) has already had a fairy-tale career so far in the world of poker and she is not about to stop just now.