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Tobey 'Spiderman' Maguire Sued for Illegal Poker

Tobey Maguire was sued by hedge fund manager Bradley Ruderman for playing in an illegal poker game. Ruderman wants his $311,200 back, which he lost to Maguire. Ruderman plans to tie other celebrities to his complaint.

Tobey Maguire

Bradley Ruderman is currently in a federal prison serving his 10-year sentence for operating a ponzi scheme (an illegal investment fraud). Apparently, he lost nearly $25 million of his investors' money, who are now trying to regain some of it.  Through the Trustee of his company, Ruderman Capital Partners (which is currently bankrupt) Ruderman filed a complaint against Tobey Maguire to return his $311,200, which he won in illegal game, to pay some of his investors back. Since the arranger of such home games, Molly Bloom Inc, is not a licensed poker provider in California, the games were illegal, therefore the winnings are illegal as well.

SuperStar Showdown: Blom Beats Cao for $150,000

Viktor Blom has won a clear victory over Rui Cao in last Sunday’s SuperStar Showdown session, taking his opponent’s entire challenge bankroll of $150,000 in 2,257 hands.

Viktor 'Isildur1' Blom
Viktor 'Isildur1' Blom

After a long break, the PokerStars SuperStar Showdown continued on 19th June, the promotion in which the challengers of Viktor ’Isildur1’ Blom can play 2,500 hands with the PokerStars Pro on four tables. Blom’s latest opponent was Chinese born French player Rui ’PepperoniF’ Cao, one of this year’s most successful PLO players with a profit of $1,395,471 at PokerStars and $359,380 at Full Tilt Poker.

PokerStars Saturday Line-Up: New Events Launch on 25th June

PokerStars has introduced the Saturday Line-Up, a new set of tournaments kicking off on 25th June. The Line-Up includes seven new, weekly events that range from $2.22 to $55 in buy-ins. All tourneys have at least $20,000 guaranteed prize pools.

PokerStars Saturday Line-Up

PokerStars launches the Saturday Line-Up on 25th June: a new set of seven weekly contests. The one with the smallest buy-in is the Saturday Splash, a $2.22 re-buy tournament with a $50,000 guaranteed prize pool; also for those with a modest bankroll is the Saturday Micro, a $30,000 guaranteed freezout with a $3.30 buy-in. The Saturday Omaha ($30,000 guaranteed) is the most expensive of all; it costs $55 to enter.

Patrik Antonius Wins Tennis Prop Bet Against Brandon Adams

As the two players agreed in January, Brandon Adams and Patrik Antonius indeed played their prop bet tennis match in Las Vegas. Brandon Adams didn't have a chance of winning, Antonius defeated him 6-0, 6-1. The two poker pros faced each other not at the poker tables as they usually do, but on the tennis court at the International Tennis Center in Las Vegas, as they agreed this January. If Adams won, he would make $295,000, but if Antonius managed to beat him, he would only win $30,000.

Even though Brandon Adams is a decent tennis player, he was no match for Antonius, who worked as a tennis coach for years, and played tennis professionally. He was a great talent and a very promising player, right until he injured his back, and had to stop professional sports. He didn't forget too much though, he defeated Adams easily to 6-0, 6-1.

Adams wasn't too satisfied with his performance, he tweeted after the match:

"I should have played more high pressure matches. Match play for money is like a different game; I'm not used to playing when juiced up"

Tom 'durrrr' Dwan was there to see his fellow players' match, plus he tried the game himself against Adams. I would advise him to stick to poker though, he's much better at that.

BOOM: The Incredible True Story of Online Poker - Coming in 2012

The newest poker documentary I already informed you about, "BOOM: The Incredible True Story of Online Poker" created by Jay Rosenkrantz and Taylor Caby is growing even bigger. Now they released the first trailer, which looks rather promising. It is coming out in 2012.

Boom

The documentary set out "to use key events to chronicle the evolution of online poker and examine its impact on the lives of a handful of online poker players from around the world." Rosenkrant says they are intending to explore "the nuances of the subculture, from 2p2 to poker training sites, along with the psychological implications of the online poker lifestyle and the themes that have made poker so popular throughout time," as Rosenkrantz wrote in his blog on October 18, 2010. However, many things changed since then. April 15, known as the Black Friday changed the face of online poker forever. The producers had to change their plans and incorporate the recent events into the documentary as well.

Andrew Robl Criticizes Ivey’s Statement

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 Robl
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.

Ivey Not Too Happy About Full Tilt

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
Phil Ivey

Ivey’s statement reads as follows:

FTP Still Doesn't Pay, But Not Bankrupt

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."

full tilt poker

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."

Dwan Not Available - Macedo Wants to Play with Blom Instead

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
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.

Thomas Kremser Leaves EPT

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

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.

Ongame Network Switches to 6-Handed and 9-Handed Tables

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.

ongame network

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 Moves North

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
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.

“Poker” by Rémi Gaillard

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!

 

Doyle Brunson leaves DoylesRoom.com

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
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."

Infamous Cheater at the WPT Championship

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.

Ali Tekintamgac
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)
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