PokerStars have added four new stops to the growing United Kingdom and Ireland Poker Tour (UKIPT). The addition of stops in Swansea, Cork, Edinburgh and Dublin doubles the amount already announced and sees the tour hitting four different countries. UKIPT president Kirsty Thompson revealed to Bluff Europe: “We are delighted to bring the UKIPT to Wales for the first time and further extend the reach of the UK and Ireland’s largest poker tour.”

The dates now go as follows:

Galway – Radisson Hotel, February 16-20

Nottingham – Dusk Till Dawn, April 12-16

Dublin – CityWest, May 17-21

Newcastle – Aspers, September 6-10

Swansea – Aspers, November 22-26

Edinburgh – Balmoral Hotel, January 17-21, 2013

Cork – Rochestown Park, February 14-18, 2013

London – TBC, March 8-12, 2013

Not content with just announcing two poker tours, Stars went for the trio by setting dates for the upcoming Australia and New Zealand Poker Tour (ANZPT). The fourth season kicks off at The Star Casino in Sydney from March 22-25 ($2,200 main event) before moving onto Queenstown for the ANZPT Snowfest 2012 from July 24-29 (NZ$3,000 main event). The Grand Final takes place in Melbourne from August 31 to September 3 with a $5,000 main event.

An official announcement by Everleaf is expected Friday. Meanwhile, MintedNeil claimed that Everleaf and representatives from its regulator, the Maltese Lotteries & Gaming Authority, “will now commence proceedings” with US officials “as to how these funds are returned to players.” MintedNeil maintained that all European funds were safe and operations in Europe would continue, but funds would be converted to euros. The only other noticeable change will be the absence of US players, who reportedly made up 20% of the network’s liquidity.

In other poker news, ChiliPoker has protested its appearance on the Belgian Gaming Commission’s first ‘blacklist’ of online gambling operators that internet service providers are required to block. That list, issued Wednesday, featured Chillipoker.com along with nine other sites, but Chilipoker CEO Alexandre Dreyfus has been making the rounds, claiming that the company didn’t accept (or had deceased accepting) Belgian players, and thus its inclusion on the blacklist was unwarranted.

Sticking with Belgium, QuadJacks reported (via Belgian newspaper Het Laatste Neiuws) that the International Stadiums Poker Tour (ISPT) has officially registered a holding company in Brussels. The ISPT is the goofy 30k-players-playing-poker-via-electronic-tablets-in-Wembley-Stadium pet project of Laurent Tapie, his dad Bernard and colleague Prosper Masquelier. However, the details of the ISPT’s inaugural event remain as murky as the state of the pending deal for Groupe Bernard Tapie to acquire the assets/carbon-frozen-corpse of Full Tilt Poker. According to the Belgian media, the Belgian Gaming Commission has yet to be “informed about the creation of this company.” Given recent events, we half expect GBT to send out its lawyer to issue comments about how Wembley owes the ISPT millions of dollars and the fate of the tournament hinges on the stadium coming across.

With over a million Philippine Pesos’ worth of casino chips rattling around in what must have been extremely deep pockets; Zheng made it to the final table managing to dodge several eliminations.

It was all touch and go during the heads round where both Zheng and Razavi were all in on the first hand. Zheng held two pairs but Razavi had a king flush. Then a stunning river card had Zheng crush Razavi’s flush with a full house.

It was the very next hand that lead to Zheng’s victory, with his flush kicking Razavi’s butt right back to Blighty.

However, the top 10 leader board finalists all left with something other than fine memories of the Asian Poker Tour. Here’s the final table payouts:

1^st Tan Tai Zheng PHP 3,623,000
2^nd Samad Razavi PHP 1,925,000
3^rd Miika Viholainen PHP 906,000
4^th Bjoern Wiesler PHP 679,000
5^th Tan Gay Peng PHP 566,000
6^th David Evans PHP 453,000
7^th Bernie Ho PHP 340,000
8^th Alistair Duff PHP 226,000
9^th Goh Hanruo PHP 215,000
10^th Bae Han Su PHP 193,400

Congrats to Zheng on his big win. Who’d bet on his return to the APT Asian Series next year?

I remember when my agent called and said we have sealed the deal – I was jumping up and down, calling my friends and family, and more importantly, thinking how I’m gonna treat myself.

Ever since, I have had nothing but fun with Bodog – playing my first WSOP Main Event – that excitement is hard to describe!

Sitting with some of the best players in the world, talking strategy with my friends every break, becoming a part of the community…then, just as I thought things can’t get better, I got an invite to go to Dominican Republic and meet up with Amanda and Evelyn for a glamorous photo shoot.

Boy, were we treated like royalty! Makeup artist, stylist, photographer…we spent the week being pampered with champagne, massages and I felt like a real supermodel – the only job that week was to be happy.

Unfortunately, I did not make the money in Punta Cana, but our qualifier did and it was so much fun to rail him throughout his final table. Even though he finished second, we celebrated as if he won because that’s what our team does – we support each other in good and bad times.

Of course, you might ask yourself – but where is the playing part? And you would be right after all, I am the Team Pro.

After a few months of coaching, I came back to the tables in Dublin and outlasted over 200 players – one loose call and I lost my coin flip. But, I will win my coin flips one day and you will see me on some final tables before you know it!

So, why am I reviewing my year now? No, I am not leaving – I am inviting a girl to join me. Yes, that’s right; Bodog is looking for another girl to join our fabulous team. We need somebody who is fun, plays poker and lives outside of North America because I need some backup – Amanda and Evy have taken that part of the world!

So, if you think you can handle our poker, party and travel lifestyle, send us and email and join Team Bodog! I cannot wait to get another sister.

Tash xxx (@tattytats)

Editors Note: Bodog Poker is looking for a new Poker Pro to join Tatjana on Team Bodog but they aren’t looking for just anyone. Like a good dating profile, they were pretty specific in the type of person they want to join the Bodog Poker Pro team.

Bodog is looking for an attractive female poker player who is a fresh face in the industry. Bodog is not looking to teach a playboy model how to play poker so poker experience is necessary. 

One last thing, sorry this invitation is not open to Americans.

If you or someone you know wants to apply to be the newest member of team Bodog send an email to Pro@bodogbrand.com to find out all of the details.

Henderson builds his case by first scanning Gingrich’s history for evidence that the former House Speaker supports gambling. The best he can do is to cite Gingrich’s connection to Sheldon Adelson, the billionaire CEO of Las Vegas Sands who has donated $10 million to Gingrich’s super PAC this year, and two votes from the mid-1990s that were beneficial to the casino industry. He also mentions Gingrich’s more recent comments about the perils of gambling for the poor, but then quickly dismisses them because Gingrich could easily be swayed if Adelson were to change his mind. But Adelson is on the record as being morally opposed to online gambling, and a sudden shift from him on that point seems unlikely. In the absence of any other voice suddenly having his ear, Gingrich is likely to stay with his more recent anti-gambling bias.

“As a Mormon, the Church of Latter Day Saints expects Romney to toe their religious line which bans gambling, alcohol and even coffee,” writes Henderson. On the surface that sounds good, but Romney’s Mormon faith isn’t highly likely to be the deciding factor if online poker legislation crosses his desk. Yes, hard-line conservative Mormons are against gambling. But not all Mormons take that kind of stand, especially Mormon politicians who aren’t from Utah and have to worry about winning elections among a diverse population. The best example of this is the man who is considered to be the gambling industry’s best friend in Washington – the former chairman of the Nevada Gaming Commission and current United States Senate Majority Leader, Harry Reid, who like Romney is a Mormon. Rather than his religious affiliation, Romney’s long track record of doing whatever is politically expedient at a given moment is the best predictor of what he would do as president. Siding with so-called “job creators” like the gaming industry is a lot more expedient right now than opposing economic expansion on religious grounds. Factor in the likely method of passage for any online gambling legislation (attached as a rider to a must-pass bill, much like the UIGEA was in 2006) and the likely content of such a bill (allowing states to opt in or out of online gambling rather than requiring it) and it’s hard to see Romney’s religion being any bigger an obstacle for gamblers than the myriad other stumbling blocks that are already out there.

Instead of opposing Mitt Romney by siding with Gingrich, gamblers would be better off considering the payout from a longer-game approach of getting – and staying – behind Ron Paul. He regularly rails against establishment politics, but Paul doesn’t tend to go after the former Massachusetts governor individually. As the Washington Post’s Amy Gardner reported February 1st, Paul and Romney became friends when they both ran for the presidency in 2008 and have a strategic alliance to stay away from attacking each other during this campaign; Paul benefits by getting a seat at the table when it comes time to put together the party platform, and Romney benefits by earning the support (however begrudging) of the Texas congressman’s fervent base. Compare that with the ego-driven Gingrich, who has made self-aggrandizement and launching broadsides at the front-runner his modus operandi during this election season, and ask yourself who’s more likely to have Romney’s ear at the GOP convention and beyond.

“The contrast with Governor Romney will get wider and wider and clearer and clearer in the next couple of weeks,” Gingrich told supporters in Nevada on Saturday night after Romney trounced him in that state’s caucuses. And for once, there’s no doubt that he’s right: Mitt Romney is going to continue to pull ahead and draw more support as his front-runner status shifts to that of a presumptive nominee, while Newt Gingrich is going to continue lagging behind, hoping for some improbable stroke of luck that will be enough to make him the winner by default. Gamblers can tie themselves to Gingrich in the hope that he’ll contort himself into a position favorable to them on the whim of a billionaire, or they can support Paul, who actually believes they have a right to play games for money and has a strategic alliance with the presumptive nominee.

Such players were billed as having an extra talent that others didn’t possess and then the marketing people turned them into celebrities in the hope the brand would be swept long in their wake.

Previous to the recent revelations, even the ever forthright poker forums would take enormous exception to suggestions that the big name pros were anything other than just that.

Sadly, as the smoke clears from the horrendous business failures in the online poker industry of the past year it is increasingly obvious that the biggest poker celebrities were in fact unable to pay debts or cheated to ‘win’ their tag as a poker professional. The latest examples of Phil Ivey and Erick Lindgren thought to be owing $4,000,000 each paints a very different picture to that of the clever, aspirational characters the marketers sold us. Even the ‘pro’s pro’, Barry Greenstein, has admitted that he is unable to pay around $400,000 of debt for many years.

The poker pros have also often been vocal about how poker should be run and some have even tried ventures of their own, in almost every case the result has been the same and the list is a long one including; Phil Laak (Unabomber), Dave Ulliot (Devilfishpoker), Doyle Brunson (Doyle’sRoom) and to certain extent FullTilt itself.

While we don’t pretend for a second we envisioned this personal implosion of the poker pros when the Bodog Poker Network first started working on the Recreational Poker Model back in 2009 one of the first realisations was that the players we wanted to attract knew they were never going to become ‘pros’. Indeed, they did even not aspire to be one. As a result we started looking for people who really represented our brand best. Yup, pretty girls, still work! The most recent addition to the Bodog team, Tatjana Pasalic, is not just a pretty face though. She knows poker and poker people but she is also approachable and friendly unlike most of the recently discredited ‘celebrity’ names of the past.

What is now evident is the gravy train that was the ‘sponsored pro’ is coming to an end. Many of those that still enjoy a sponsorship are at very reduced amounts and even some of the best players in the world, even those without debt skeletons, like Phil Helmuth, remain unsponsored. Of course, we have seen a dramatic drop in the value of ‘pro’ players as TV programmes with huge audiences in the US are no longer viable and poker rooms realise they don’t drive the right kind of revenue, if any at all. They simply suck money out of the eco-system.

Poker marketing looks to have changed forever and once again we will see a reinvention of how the game is sold to a more mainstream audience. Once again there will be winners and losers and (once again) it will be fascinating to see whose strategy wins out.

PokerStars Macau

PokerStars didn’t reveal any information regarding the reasons for not renewing the agreement with Grand Lisboa, part of SJM Holdings portfolio. PokerStars Director of Live Operations in Asia-Pacific, Danny McDonagh, did have something to add on the matter, though. He said in a report by MacauBusiness:

“Our current agreement to operate PokerStars Macau events and tournaments at Casino Grand Lisboa will expire in March. We will provide an update on Macau Millions and live poker tournaments in the near future.”

Nevertheless, The Macau Poker Cup: Red Dragon will still be taking place as planned, commencing 18 February until the 26^th.

Over in Europe, however, things couldn’t be more different for Pokerstars. The Pokerstars European Poker Tour Deauville is in full swing and after five days of play, the final table is set. Head over to our news round-up of the event so far to find out more.

In other Macau gambling news, two out of the three gaming operators – Wynn Macau, SJM Holdings and MGM China Holdings – are all waiting for government approval to break ground in Cotai are rubbing their fingers together. That’s because the head of the Lands, Public Works and Transport Bureau, Jaime Carion, said on Friday that the casinos may get the thumbs up at some point this year. Still, sounds a little vague to us.

Also hitting the final table is the European Masters of Poker Prague, with nine players battling for the €59k first prize. Sweden’s Nils Jarefjäll is chip leader with 1.195m while the rest of the pack lines up as follows: Kevin Spillane (809k); Roman Ondrusek (628k); Sven Bahnsen (500k); Connie O’Sullivan (341k); Martin Safarik (339k); Pavel Býma (304k); Pim van Wieringen (264k) and Martin Dragún (244k).

Oleksii Kovalchuk has earned €175k for taking the Italian Poker Tour San Remo main event. It’s Kovalchuk’s second IPT title, having taken the Nova Gorica main event in September. Kovalchuk is continuing his 2011 hot streak, which saw him win his first WSOP bracelet and a third place finish at the Partouche Poker Tour main event in November. Andrea Vitale earned €110k for being the last to fall at Kovalchuk’s hands, while Alberto Spigalon took €68k for finishing third.

Juan Miguel Tomé won the Estrellas Poker Tour Madrid main event, earning €70k. The first stop on the Estrellas’ third season attracted 482 players over five days of play. Runner-up Luis Rufas earned €88k, while Germany’s David Kolmberger earned €65k for finishing third. Next up for the Estrellas is a stop in Valencia starting March 28.

Thomas Butzhammer has been crowned the Grand Series of Poker Live Salzburg champ, outlasting a 252-strong field to earn almost €63k. Markus Jenisch takes home €40k for finishing second, while Manfred Ronacher took third and €27k.

William Dorey won the Asian Poker Tour’s inaugural visit to the UK. The APT was a long way from home, which may account for the smallish 125-person field at London’s Fox Poker Club, but then again, we’re still waiting for the European Poker Tour to touch down in Hanoi. Dorey collected £17k for defeating heads-up opponent Mark Karoullas, who earned £13.5k.

The Eureka Poker Tour is coming back for a second season, starting with a stop in Zagreb, Croatia beginning April 9. The action moves to the Casino & Hotel International Golden Sands in Bulgaria starting June 4, and finishes up at the Royal Casino in Riga, Lativa starting October 1.

Stateside, Kevin Calenzo earned $197k for outlasting his 661 competitors at the World Series of Poker Circuit main event at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas. The 28-year-old pro defeated 33-year-old amateur Ian Mack heads-up to earn the shiny WSOP-C gold ring and a spot at the WSOP-C National Championship at the end of the current season. Mack earned $122k for placing second, while Sean Getzwiller took third place and $89k. The WSOP-C has since touched down in Tunica, Mississippi, with that stop’s main event starting Feb. 11.

Down under, the Australia New Zealand Poker Tour announced its season four schedule. The action starts March 22 at the Star City Casino in Sydney, followed by an event in June at a still-to-be-confirmed locale, then the Queenstown Snowfest starting July 24, and finishing up in Melbourne for the Grand Final beginning Aug. 21.

Now that February is here, we’re beginning to close in on the one-year anniversary of Black Friday. The political landscape in the United States with regard to online poker has changed a lot since then, going from “aligned against all things poker” to “hey, we can make a lot of money off of this” in the span of just a few short months.

Nowhere has this political shift been more pronounced than in the state of Nevada, where the biggest gaming companies in the world are headquartered. The American Gaming Association, which represents most of those companies, has historically been opposed to the expansion of gambling into cyberspace. But few states have been hit as hard by the American financial collapse as Nevada, so the opportunity to seize a proven market led the AGA to change its stance. Then in late December of last year two things happened to tip the balance toward legal online poker. First, Nevada passed a law to allow online poker within its borders should the federal government decide to allow such a thing within the United States. Then, a few days later, the Department of Justice released an opinion that the Wire Act of 1961 – which it has historically relied on as a basis for its anti-online-gambling stance – only applied to sports-betting. Advantage: Vegas.

In the absence of any federal actual law prohibiting online poker, the DOJ’s opinion on the Wire Act was enough reason for talk to start up again in several other states about legalizing and taxing the shit out of online poker. Of course, it’s not as simple as just saying “it’s legal!” or Americans would already be back to playing online by the millions. The brick-and-mortar gaming industry is going to want to be protected against competition, a goal that will be accomplished through the regulatory process. Local, state and federal political entities of all sorts are going to want to get their due – for the state through those same regulatory processes, and for themselves individually through campaign contributions and other means. And then there’s the matter of sorting out the business of what to do with those who weren’t willing to wait for a government imprimatur to jump into the online gambling business.

In other words, it’s going to take some time before Americans are playing online poker on AGA members’ servers. There are still miles of road to be traveled, and a lot can happen between here and there. The past two weeks saw five stories emerge that gave us a slightly better, though not crystal clear, idea of how far away the light at the end of this particular tunnel really is.

1. Nevada online license applications continue to pile up

The number of corporate entities that have requested permission to play ball went up by two late this week when MGM and Boyd Gaming filed their applications with the state to become fully licensed operators in the coming Nevada online poker market. Both companies applied as Operators, one of the four categories eligible for a license. (The other three are Distributors, Manufacturers and Service Providers.) On the heels of their October online poker deal with Pwin, this could very well signal confidence from MGM and Boyd that Pwin is going to win approval from Nevada when it eventually applies for a license. Then again, they might be preparing to do business with another Service Provider altogether. For now, 12 companies – including Nevada’s MGM, Boyd, Caesars, Monarch Casino, South Point Poker and Fertitta Interactive – have filed for consideration by the state, which still has not released a timeline for issuing of licenses.

2. Ferguson supports Tapie deal

Former WSOP Main Event winner Chris “Jesus” Ferguson was one of the central figures named in US Attorney Preet Bharara’s indictments against Full Tilt for defrauding poker players of $440 million. If Ferguson’s latest dealings are any indication, that kind of money helps you lawyer up pretty well. Ian Imrich, Ferguson’s attorney, told Card Player this week that his client expects to have his case settled early this year – not bad for one of the supposed masterminds of a “global Ponzi scheme.” Along the way, Imrich took exception with a Subject: Poker report last week that Ferguson was threatening the closure of the Groupe Bernard Tapie deal by seeking reimbursement for millions of dollars in Full Tilt’s post-Black Friday expenses. Instead, Imrich said that Ferguson was requesting an accounting of any money that CEO Ray Bitar may owe to Ferguson. “In short,” said Imrich, “Chris’ request has nothing to do with Tapie or the agreement reached with [Full Tilt] and DOJ, which my guy supports.”

3. Ivey, Lindgren, other pros owe Full Tilt millions

So what is holding up the GBT-Full Tilt deal, then? Could it be the money owed to the site by some of its former sponsored pros? Card Player reported this week that a number of poker players, including Phil Ivey and Erick Lindgren, collectively owe $18 million to Full Tilt Poker. Ivey and Lindgren reportedly owe the site $4 million each. David Benyamine and Layne Flack both reportedly owe $2 million, while Barry Greenstein, Mike Matusow and others are said to owe smaller amounts. Greenstein quickly took to 2+2 to explain his debt, but no one else has stepped forward with any sort of explanation of their situation. An attorney for Groupe Bernard Tapie told PokerStrategy.com that if “the money doesn’t come in, it creates a serious obstacle to completion of the deal,” and that the players’ debts aren’t “the only issue with the takeover,” but that they are “substantial.” It’s unlikely the deal will be scuttled over an issue of this size – but GBT certainly seems to have a handle on using it as a bargaining chip.

4. Senate hearing scheduled – in Indian Affairs Committee

One group with a serious stake in a future American online poker market is the numerous Native American tribes that operate casinos throughout the U.S. They get the least attention when people start talking about, but outside of the Las Vegas corporate interests they’re the ones who have had the most impact on Washington’s discussions of online poker. Both of the Congressional online poker hearings in 2011 were led by Rep. Mary Bono-Mack, whose district includes seven Indian casinos, and the National Indian Gaming Association’s Ernest Stephens was the first witness to testify before her committee. Now the senior legislative branch is also using the tribes’ lens to examine at the issue, in the form of a Feb. 9 hearing before Senate Committee on Indian Affairs. As Mr. Stephens made clear in his testimony last year, the tribes do not plan to roll over and give up their hard-won foothold in the casino business as it transitions to the internet – and that means the tribes will be a major force in the future of American online poker.

5. Jon Kyl getting his

Perhaps no figure still active in the U.S. government today has had as much influence on the current state of the American online poker market as the senior senator from Arizona. Kyl’s been an anti-gambling warrior for decades, and along with former Tennessee senator Bill Frist he was one of the major forces behind UIGEA. Since then he’s also been a stumbling block in the Senate, where the gaming industry’s best friend, Harry Reid, is in charge of setting the agenda. Now down to his last year in office, Kyl appears to be signaling his willingness to deal with Reid on allowing online poker legislation, telling the National Journal that “Quite possibly something will be done” with regards to online poker this year. This is Kyl’s last chance to wring some private benefits (such as a legacy that impacts the online gambling industry in America) out of changing his position, so it’s not terribly surprising for him to strategically shift. Whether or not that translates that into a win for Vegas concerns is another matter, but Kyl is getting his and bodes well for Reid, too.

So what’s the upshot of all these stories? On one hand, we’re still stuck in a tunnel. On the other hand, we’re closer to the exit than we were just a few weeks ago. Take all that for what it’s worth when you’re trying to figure out what to think about that light in front of us.

The player in first place will receive PHP 538,900 and AsianPokerTour.com reported today that the player currently closest is Denmark’s Kristian Faering, who finished day 1B as chip leader on an 88,500 stack.

Faering is followed by Day 1A’s chip leader William Nuneza (82,300), Singapore’s Shazly (73,100), Michael Hyun Wok Cho (73,000) and then Hung Doo Sok (57,100).

92 players remain in the Cebu Cup and will be battling out tomorrow from 1pm local time. The APT Asian Series Cebu PHP 108,000 High Rollers event will be running alongside, starting at 3pm local time. Who you betting on?

In other Poker news, police in Quebec have recovered about half of the money that was stolen from poker champion Jonathan Duhamel’s home when he was burgled, beaten and tied up in his condo in December.

The statement said around $80,000 in cash was found in a mailbox in the Montreal suburb of Longueuil on 6 January after officers acting on an anonymous tip. A padded envelope containing Canadian and U.S. dollars, Euros and pounds sterling was discovered – which isn’t much considering thieves made off with about $160,000 in cash, a $10,000 Rolex watch and Duhamel’s custom-made 2010 World Series of Poker bracelet.

Nevertheless, those behind the crime – his ex-girlfriend and three alleged accomplices -were arrested about a week later and were denied bail last month. Justice!

Other notable players in the series’ first day included Sangeeth Mohan, Victor Chong, Dave “El Blondie” Colclough, Jay Lubas, Richard Marquez, Tetsuya Tsuchikawa and Hirotoshi Nakabo.

Nuneza’s rise to the top came courtesy of Kim Michael Enriquez in one of the final hands of the evening. Unfortunately for Enriquez, he ran into Nuneza along with a short-stacked opponent, sending both Enriquez and the short stack to the back of the dinner queue and boosting Nuneza to the top spot.

Here’s the top 10 chip counts at the end of the tournament’s first day:

1. William Nuneza (Philippines) 82,300

2. Gerry Flores (Philippines) 67,700

3. Hung Doo Sok (Korea) 57,100

4. Jason Walker (United States) 50,300

5. Ernesto Juano (Philippines) 48,400

6. Mars Espera (Philippines) 45,700

7. Lukasz Jankowski (Poland) 40,600

8. Arnius Galkinskas (Lithuania) 38,600

9. Adrian Jayme (Philippines) 36,700

10. Kang Dong Woo (Korea) 35,400

The series continues tomorrow with its Day 1B event tarting at 1pm. Who you backing to win?

House Bill 108, if passed by both houses of the Utah legislature and signed into law by Republican Governor Gary Herbert, would prevent residents in the state from gambling on the Internet. It will encompass computers, handheld devices and any other way that players might want to skirt the ban.

“Without courageous leadership to block Internet gaming, Utah could see Indian casinos popping up statewide in just a few years,” Sandstrom said.

“Utah is only one of two states that prohibit any form of gambling, Hawaii being the other. Unfortunately, this could change soon because Hawaii is currently considering legalising gaming leaving Utah to fight the principled fight against legalised gambling on its own,” he added

Professor I. Nelson Rose cited Utah in a recent radio interview as one state that wouldn’t cozy up to the gambling industry with Alabama being the other one in the exclusive club. Sandstrom has first started doodling this bill in late December – when most other states were rejoicing over the decision to repeal the wire act.

Caesars

The dates were posted to TwoPlusTwo by awesometown with event #1, Casino Employees NLHE, getting underway on Sunday, May 27. The NLHE Main Event starts on Saturday July 7 and runs for nine days. It will then resume in October, likely from 28-30.

European Poker Tour’s (EPT) stop in Deauville got underway yesterday as 350 players descended on the town’s aptly named Casino Deauville. As is par for the course most of those taking part on day 1a were purely bothered about qualifying. This would give them the extra day to do whatever it is you do with a free day in Deauville – boating on the marina we’d assume. Among those falling on day 1a was former WSOP Main Event champion Jonathan Duhamel. The lead was grabbed by Estonian Kristijonas Andrulis on 162,600 chips. He is 400 ahead of second placed Philippe Ma and there’s no guarantee either of them will be top of the pile after day 1b later today.

Brian Mattingley, deputy chairman at 888, stated: “888 has taken a prudent approach to regulation, which culminated in the successful review conducted by the NGC, putting 888 and Dragonfish in pole position for the US market. This gives us a strong platform to roll out our cutting edge, turnkey solution to other potential partners as the market opens.

“We are delighted to be extending our relationship with CIE into the much-anticipated US market, and we are proud to be providing them with the technology and tools to leverage and monetise their powerful brand.”

The company Mattingley heads has already handed the Nevada Gaming Control Board a service provider licence application and will be hopeful they endorse of this deal given the Nevada Gaming Commission approving the original 888/Caesars tie up.

Mitch Garber, CEO and Caesars, added: “888 has been successfully driving the World Series of Poker brand in the UK for the past three years, and with current momentum toward either a Federal or State by State regulatory environment, 888 is uniquely positioned to support either outcome, without delay.”

We’re starting to see justification of Panmure Gordon getting so excited over 888 shares in the post-Xmas/pre-NYE window. They’re also of the opinion the Department of Justice (DoJ) won’t go after the firm for taking pre-UIGEA bets. If this is the case it will be quite the turn around for a firm that last-April was reeling after failing to doll itself up sufficiently to get Ladbrokes into the sack. It now leaves Lads CEO Richard Glynn red-faced. The realization for both 888 and CIE is that persisting with the only post-Black Friday partnership to survive was in the best interests of both parties. That’s if the DoJ doesn’t decide to go after 888, which is starting to look less likely. We’ll know more once the markets open in Europe and react to the 888/Caesars vow renewal. For now 888 looks to have escaped the shit of 2010/11 and is living up to the adage with the smell of roses emanating from their direction.

Phil Ivey narrowly missed a final table Main Event spot, finishing in 12th place for $100k. But he made up for it by winning the $250k Super High Roller event, besting a field of 16 to earn $2m. That’s not only the largest cash of Ivey’s storied tournament career, it’s more than he allegedly received in two whole months of payments from Full Tilt Poker for doing, er, something. Patrik Antonius was runner-up, earning $1.2m, while Gus Hansen earned $800k for placing third. The other 13 entrants, including Daniel Negreanu, Tom Dwan, Jason Mercier, Erik Seidel, Sam Trickett, Sorel Mizzi, John Juanda and some deep-pocketed Macau businessmen, earned bupkis.

Stateside, Abraham Araya earned $270k for winning the $1,600 main event at the World Series of Poker Circuit Choctaw Durant in Oklahoma. The event attracted 978 entrants, a 21% bump from the previous year’s tally. After three days of play, it came down to Araya and Daniel Lowery, who earned $167k for finishing second. Michael Sanders took third and $123k. In Las Vegas, the WSOP-C Caesars Palace main event is currently underway, with 662 players each kicking in $1,600 over two Day 1’s. Jeff Fielder currently leads the chip count.

In other poker news, Sweden’s Entraction Network is to be rebranded as IGT Poker, following International Game Technology’s $115m acquisition of Entraction last year. PokerStars may launch the oft-delayed public beta of its rumored Rush Poker variant in “early March”, if a 2+2 post by rep “PokerStars Stefan” is to be believed. Stefan says development on the company’s “fast moving ring games” product, tentatively titled Zoom Poker, is “progressing.” And finally, Season X of the World Poker Tour will debut on FSN on Feb. 12.

One of the earliest of these tournaments was the $100,000 Challenge at the 2006 Aussie Millions. It drew 10 players and was won by John Juanda, who took home $1 million. By 2011 interest (and the poker economy) had grown enough to support a pretty incredible field of 38 players. That kind of success led the tournament’s organizers last year to to put on a $250,000 Challenge. That drew 20 players and was won by Erik Seidel, who picked up the same kind of cash ($2.5 million) that most other players will only see if they win a particularly large EPT or WPT tournament.

Super High Roller tournaments are great for a number of things. More than anything they’re excellent fun for poker fans who like to see their favorite players on television, battling it out over huge sums of money with other players of the same caliber. They’re also great for making big, attention-grabbing headlines – and the more money there is at stake, the better. But at the bottom line, what Super High Roller tournaments are really great for is exploding career tournament winnings numbers, which is fantastic for making top players even more promotable in these inflationary times.

The value of setting the big-money sponsored pros apart from the masses of tournament-poker millionaires created over the last decade shouldn’t be underestimated. Much of tournament poker’s appeal is that anyone can win, and by this point just about everyone has won thanks to the democratizing juggernaut that is the WSOP Main Event. When you filter the all-time money list to only include open events with buy-ins of less than $50,000 – excluding the made-for-TV events and High Roller tournaments – 19 of the top 100 players who have ever won a single dollar playing poker are people whose primary (and sometimes sole) poker accomplishment is a final table appearance in the WSOP Main Event during the last decade.

That single ten-year span of one tournament’s final table payouts so heavily dominates the money rankings that the all-time top 100 money list leaves out 709 other people who have won at least $1 million playing tournament poker. It doesn’t include some of the biggest names in poker history, like Chip Reese and Stu Ungar. (Neither was primarily a tournament player, but both earned substantial sums from tourneys.) It also doesn’t include a number of highly accomplished players of more recent times like Annette Obrestad and Eric Baldwin. In other words, it’s harder than ever to stand out from the crowd just by being excellent at poker. Throw in a few $4 million scores against fields of less than 50 players, though, and the picture begins to change.

That alone means these events are unlikely to go away as long as poker rooms are still sponsoring players. The number of players who take part in these tournaments, however, doesn’t appear likely to grow very much in the near future. The $100,000 Challenge was on the Aussie Millions schedule again for 2012 – it ran last week and drew just 22 entries compared to last year’s 38. The $250,000 Challenge is also on the schedule – it begins today and won’t likely top last year’s field of 20. Similarly, the 30-player field for the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure’s $100,000 Super High Roller event was down from its inaugural 2011 field of 38.

The downswing can in large part be attributed to the overall state of the poker economy, which isn’t nearly as flush as it was pre-Black Friday. But there are other factors at play, too. For starters, the crowded international tournament calendar these days means there’s a lot of competition among tournament series; the Aussie Millions and the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure don’t actually take place at exactly the same time, but they both take place during the month of January so they still end up competing with each other for players’ buy-ins. If there were only one of these events per year the field might actually grow quite a bit, but the more of them there are the smaller they will be since they’re placing a high level of stress on the poker economy. There’s also no way for anyone who to qualify for them through any kind of satellite process, which is one of the easiest ways to help a tournament field swell. And as long as the current online poker situation continues in the United States – where most of the world’s winningest tournament players still reside (for the time being) – the chance of serious growth in Super High Roller fields has a pretty low ceiling.

• The Mega-Rich (Dan Shak, David Steicke, et al.) – These guys are going to play in the biggest games around regadless of the price tag – and in fact, the higher the price tag the more likely they are to play, under the same logic as Andy Beal taking on the Corporation: the more you take a player out of his comfort zone, the more likely he is to make mistakes you can capitalize on. Smart thinking, but there just aren’t that many of these guys out there, so they’ll never make up a truly significant part of the tournament’s field.

• Sponsored players (Daniel Negreanu, Tony G, Viktor Blom, Jonathan Duhamel, et al.) – The most popular pros need continual success to stay where they are, and there’s no better route to success in tournament poker than small fields. (It’s much easier to beat a field of 30 than a field of 300 or 3,000.) When you keep the buy-in high, winners still earn the kind of money they might take down in the average $10K tournament. As long as these guys keep their sponsorships, they’ll play in every big event there is – especially if they’re on Team PokerStars and the event is being held during the PCA or on one of the many global poker tours owned by their sponsor.

• Unsponsored elite tournament players (Erik Seidel, Michael Mizrachi, et al.) – Whether it’s from their own pockets or from other players who are willing to back them, these are some of the only poker players in the world who have access to the kind of money it takes to regularly enter tournaments with buy-ins of $100,000 and up. You could probably also include Phil Ivey in this category if the whole Full Tilt mess ever gets cleaned up.

• Players on hot streaks – Some players go on a hot streak, winning or making the final table of several big events in the course of a year. They’re either willing to dip into their own newly flush bankrolls, trying to play the rush, or they’re able to raise the buy-in by selling off action to other players who wouldn’t necessarily buy in for such a tournament themselves. This category has probably the smallest membership of all, given that it’s dependent on somebody a) doing really well for an extended period of time and b) also having the sort of mindset that allows one to plunk a quarter-million dollars down for a poker tournament.

courtesy of joehachem.com

AsianLogic Limited, the parent company of the Asian Poker Tour, announced this past weekend its new partnership with 2005 WSOP Main Event winner Joe Hachem. “I will be working with the Group in several areas, initially as a new ambassador for the Asian Poker Tour to further the growth of poker and to assist them with several strategic opportunities in Australia and the Asia Pacific Region,” the former world champion said in a press release.

Though his full role with the company won’t be revealed for a few months, the champ’s first assignments is to be the newest APT Ambassador. On that count, score a win for the APT. Hachem is one of the most recognizable non-American poker players in the world. His WSOP Main Event win in 2005 came at the height of the poker boom, the televised images of him wrapping himself in the Australian flag, cheered on by crowds of his countrymen chanting “Aussie Aussie Aussie, Oi Oi Oi!!!” were a big catalyst for the growth of the poker industry in Australia.

Even though that victory has receded into the history books to some degree, Hachem has proven his ability to compete in major tournaments in the intervening years, unlike some other modern WSOP Main Event winners. With that big win and more than $4 million in tournament winnings since the summer of ’05, including a WPT title at Bellagio in ’06 and numerous WSOP, WPT and EPT cashes, the Lebanese-born Hachem ranks 9th on the all-time money list.

His worldwide appeal is probably only topped by the national and regional appeal he has within Australia and throughout the rest of the Pacific Rim. In his adopted home country, Hachem is something of a national hero. He is far and away the winningest tournament poker player Australia has ever produced, at more than two and a half times the earnings of Tony G and three and a half times those of Mel Judah. He has a tournament series at the Crown Casino in Melbourne named for him. He partners with Australian cricket legend Shane Warne for charity poker tournaments at the Aussie Millions. In Australia, Joe Hachem is poker.

There are lots of past poker champions out there, but not many of them handle the position with quite the same ease as Hachem. A lot of that comes from his background – before he was a world champion poker player he was a working man poker player. A chiropractor by trade, he ended up having to leave his job because of a medical condition. That goes a long way toward explaining the casual and easy attitude he has with the fans who turn up anywhere he’s playing poker.

Just from the standpoint of trying to find someone popular to help promote a growing brand in a developing market, the APT scores a win with Joe Hachem. But there’s an extra level of synergy that makes that win get even bigger since the former world champion is a great fit with the APT’s mission of growing the game. The Joe Hachem Deep Stack Series, which has now run eight times in Australia, features low-cost tournaments with a cap of $550 and is comparable to what the APT started in 2011 with its APT Asian Series festivals and affiliated events like the Manny Pacquiao tournament held in the Philippines this past December.

As many things as he brings to the table in helping to grow the game, it’s the second part of Hachem’s initial announcement – “to assist them with several strategic opportunities in Australia and the Asia Pacific Region” – that will probably end up being the most lucrative in the long run, both for Hachem and for AsianLogic. In the same press release Hachem hints at the possibility of regulatory changes coming in Australia, changes which will require “a different focus from that adopted for the general international poker market.” That’s exactly the kind of opportunity for the champ to make himself useful to an up-and-coming entity in a market whose full potential has yet to be realized, meaning a series of well-timed moves could keep both Hachem and AsianLogic firmly planted there for years to come.

There have been quite a few departures from PokerStars lately, so it will be interesting to see how many more announcements like this one there are in the near future – and which companies are making them. Picking up on anyone who has experience working with a market leader is a good way to position yourself to emulate that success in the future. They won’t all have as much credibility at the tables as Hachem, but they’re definitely used to playing for a winner – and that’s an asset in any kind of market.

Ödman’s philosophy is simple: there are only three ways money moves around the online poker ecosystem. Money flows in via player deposits and flows out via player withdrawals or through the poker company’s rake. While many winning players generate a lot of rake through their constant play, they may literally go years without making a new deposit into the system. It’s the net depositors – players who deposit more money than they withdraw – that provide the oxygen necessary for the ecosystem to thrive. From that perspective, it’s in everyone’s interest to make sure these net depositing players have the most positive playing experience possible.

The most controversial aspect of the Bodog Network’s efforts to preserve this positive playing experience was the institution of anonymous tables. In recent years, the use of automated tools and hand history databases to exploit players’ weaknesses has become commonplace among winning players. Casual players — most of whom are unaware these digital tools even exist – have found the playing field tilted even more sharply against them. They lose quicker than ever, leaving them with the impression that online poker (a) really isn’t all that much fun, or (b) really is rigged.

The Bodog Network’s negation of these automated tools has enhanced casual players’ experience, but it also pissed off a lot of winning players, who now find it harder to dominate their casual competition. Ödman thinks the winning players’ anger is shortsighted, because although reading one’s opposition has undoubtedly become more difficult, the long-term effect will be a healthier poker ecosystem, i.e. more opposition to read. Ödman rejects claims that the Bodog Network is on some kind of crusade against winning players, as Ödman himself is a winning player, and has been since his high school days (and he certainly doesn’t hate himself).

Ödman admits that the implementation of the Bodog Network’s changes did produce a drop in overall player numbers, but the drop was lower than he expected. Better still, the improved playing environment is attracting more of the casual players the Network hoped to attract. Ödman believes that other poker networks will eventually come around to his way of thinking, and he’s not the only one who believes change is necessary to ensure online poker’s survival. As Kim Lund (@InfiniteEdgeKim) recently tweeted: “When playing online poker is apparently either about winning money OR about having fun, poker’s future is neither winning nor fun.”

The Grosvenor UK Poker Tour (GUKPT) 2012 season kicks off in Manchester on Jan. 23, and will continue over 11 legs across the UK, plus an additional two stops in Ireland and Belgium (a GUKPT first). The full list of season six events is as follows: Walsall (March 11); Stockton (April 8); Thanet (April 22); Dublin (May 6); Belgium (June 3); Plymouth (July 1); Bolton (July 15); Coventry (Aug. 19); London Victoria (Sept. 16); Luton (Oct. 14) and Blackpool (Nov. 4). The Grand Final will also take place at the London Vic.

GUKPT Coventry 2010 titleholder Stuart Rutter has been added to Sky Poker TV’s roster of analysts, which includes recent additions Ryan Spittles and Julian Thew. In addition to his online successes, the Birmingham native and Oxford maths graduate Rutter has tallied almost £500k in live tournament winnings and final tabled twice at the 2010 World Series of Poker (seventh place in a $2,500 Seven Card Razz and third place at a $5k NLHE Shootout). Rutter made his Sky Poker TV debut Thursday night.

In case anyone missed it, the US-facing Yatahay Poker Network – home to America’s Cardroom, True Poker, BetCris, Bookmaker, 5Dimes and other online sportsbooks – changed its name to the Winning Poker Network last week. We’re not convinced rebranding with a worn Charlie Sheen meme is the best way to go, but what the yatahay…

Finally, poker film geeks will have to make do a little longer with their worn DVDs of Rounders, the 1998 poker flick starring Matt Damon, Edward Norton and John Malkovich. Late in 2010, reports suggested a Rounders sequel was in the works for a 2012 release, but the Internet Movie Database has revised the new flick’s release date to 2014. Bad beat…

Duhamel’s PCA triumph is even sweeter given he closed out 2011 on the receiving end of a vicious beatdown during a robbery orchestrated by his ex-girlfriend. But if an AIM chat German pro Martin Finger had with a friend is accurate, the hits just keep on coming. In the transcript posted to the 2+2 forums, Finger claimed that he and Duhamel had got into a verbal tussle at a PCA PokerStars party, which resulted in Finger being ejected. Finger then waited outside on the street for Duhamel to emerge, and when the French Canadian stepped onto the pavement, the German punched Duhamel in the face.

Duhamel subsequently told QuadJacks.com’s Marco Valerio that while he may have been “a little bit” drunk at the Stars’ party, he hadn’t been looking for trouble, particularly as he’d never really spoken to Finger prior to that evening. Duhamel confirmed that Finger had “sucker punched” him outside the bar, and that Finger immediately ran away before an “angry like hell” Duhamel could retaliate. Duhamel maintains that he has no idea why Finger chose to engage in this “pretty stupid” behavior, but suggested that “the world is full of stupid people, and we just have to deal with it.” Just don’t mention the war…

On the plus side, Duhamel appears to have made it home with his winnings, unlike three US college students who tried to sneak their $26k of poker money past the eyes of US officials at Lynden Pindling International Airport in the Bahamas. The trio had staked a few friends playing in the PCA, one of which had cashed. Alerted by the visible ‘sweating’ of the youngest member of the trio, the authorities didn’t have to press too hard to get the 18-year-old to cough. The trio pled guilty to falsely declaring the amount of money in their possession to an officer of the US. They were neither fined nor imprisoned, because, as Deputy Chief Magistrate Carolita Bethell observed, “the confiscation of funds is punishment enough.” D’oh…