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The World Series of Poker Europe 2011 is finally here, the first event already ended with the partipation of 11-time WSOP bracelet winner Phil Hellmuth. The hot-dog-riding Poker Brat finished 7th, missing a final table appearance at the €2,500 Six-Max NLHE event. Guillaume Humbert took down the main prize in the end.

The first event of this year's WSOPE attracted 360 players and amongst them there was our beloved drug-using hot-dog-riding Phil Hellmuth. The prize pool was huge, the winner would take €215,999 and a coveted WSOPE bracelet. The vast field narrowed down to just 12 in 2 days. The chipleader came to be Roy Finlay, who eliminated most of his table including David Benyamine, Anton Wigg and Bruno Benveniste. Then came Casey Kastle and Alexander Salabaschew, who didn't make it to the final 6. The bubble boy came to be our Phil Hellmuth, who could make it either, he finished 7th. He wasn't quite happy with his result, standing up from the table he said:

"I don’t play these things to finish seventh, I feel horrible. If I had won I would have called it my masterpiece but I guess I missed a few brush strokes along the way" - said Hellmuth bitterly. "When Picasso drew a masterpiece he didn’t have to deal with luck" - he added.

This, however is not nearly as big a tragedy as Hellmuth thinks; the poker community comes to accept him as one of the best poker tournament players ever, as after his scandals and bad plays he managed to recover, scoring 3 second place finishes at the 2011 WSOP.

The community at poker forum 2p2 has once again showed what they can do. This time, they dug up images of poker celebrities they are probably less then proud of. A collection of the Top 10 follows below.

No. 10. Annie Duke

On 4th October, Monday in the morning, representatives of Full Tilt Poker and the United States Department of Justice sat down in New York to start the negotiations that would pave the way for the acquisition of the room. FTP attorney Jeff Ifrah says players will be paid soon after the deal is made.

As reported, Full Tilt Poker announced on 30th September that they signed an acquisition agreement with the Bernard Tapie Group. This includes the BTG’s commitment to cover all the debts FTP has to its players, although in order for it to come into effect there are still some obstacles to be overcome. Of top priority among these is an agreement with the United States Department of Justice.

Will the players all get their money back after all?

Full Tilt Poker has recently announced in a press release sent to pokerstrategy.com that it has signed an acquisition agreement with the Bernard Tapie Group. The French group has thus acquired Full Tilt Poker and all its assets. This is the best possible news for players, as the agreement contains the full repayment of all Full Tilt Poker accounts world-wide. The Department of Justice still has to find everything in order, this being one of the more conditions of the agreement. The resolution, however, has never really been closer.

Read the press release below:

"Dublin, Ireland (September 30, 2011) Laurent Tapie, Managing Director of ‘Groupe Bernard Tapie’ announced today that the group has signed an exclusive agreement with the Board of Directors of FullTilt Poker to acquire the company and all of its associated assets.

‘Groupe Bernard Tapie’ has over 30 years of experience in the salvation of financially distressed businesses, with over 40 companies acquired and managed to profitability, the most well-known being the sport equipment giant, Adidas."

If all goes well, the FTP misery might just be over.

 As reported earlier, it was likely that the AGCC would suspend Full Tilt Poker's license after the poker room was not able to meet the requirements set out by ther Gambling Control Commission.

Last week, Full Tilt Poker lawyers were still denying the company working as a Ponzi-scheme, while Rafe Furst issued an open letter on the accusations received from the DoJ.

The DoJ accused Chris Ferguson, Howard Lederer, Rafe Furst and Ray Bitar of having paid themselves and their co-leaders of the company over $443 million from the players’ money. At the time, FTP spokespeople were denying the charges. Today, the AGCC released a statement, in which they declare that they have revoked Full Tilt Poker's license.

You can read the exact reasons of the Alderney Gambling Commission in this 26-page report.

As it can be read in the statement, "the revocation of FTP's licences does not, as has been suggested, prevent a reactivation of the business under new ownership and management".

We are curiously waiting what the French investors have to say about this. Stay tuned for more up-to-date news concerning the FTP scandal!

Phil Hellmuth is back. He really is. The Poker Brat had a very tough WSOP this year; he managed to finish 2nd three times. Now he's returned, and with his drugs, he's making some very good moves. Just watch.

The 11-time WSOP champion Phil Hellmuth was playing at the WPT Malta recently, where he played rather well. The American pro sat in a signed baseball cap, shades and headphones, winning. In a recorded hand, he made a good call, taking down the pot, after which he showcased his brand new medications, which must help him stay focused, or calm. Or both. It also explains his jolly boat ride on the huge hot dog on water:

Anyway, enjoy the video!

The mysterious group of French investors is currently in negotiations with the Alderney Gambling Control Commission (AGCC) as they wish to prevent revoking the licence of Full Tilt Poker (FTP). If they do not succeed, they may back out of the deal.

As reported, the AGCC hearing of FTP ended on 22nd September and an official announcement has been long overdue since. According to the first, unofficial news, the AGCC has been most likely to maintain the suspension of the room’s licence as FTP failed to meet any of the requirements until the deadline.

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.