This week’s poker news round up brings you up to speed on online poker’s chances in New York, the creme of the crop coming up trumps on the World Series of Poker Circuit, and much more.
Is the Big Apple going to be the next American State to regulate and legalise online poker?
I’m more likely to guess the winning numbers of the lottery, but we do know that New York’s Senate has approved a budget proposal containing the possibility of leveraging an online poker market to raise some new beans.
On Monday, both the Assembly and Senate begin chopping both budgets down to one. It’s anybody’s guess whether online poker will make the cut. If you believe there is more chance of a lumberjack getting a job in Atlantis, then at least if it happens it will feel like Christmas.
My grandma gave me that advice, and I am pretty sure if she were alive she would have given me this advice.
Don’t hang around with Dan Bilzerian.
Earlier this week, Bilzerian celebrated International Woman’s Day by posting a photograph of him eating sushi off the back of a topless model wearing a thong:
“It’s International Women’s Day be grateful they are good for so many things.” Wrote Bilzerian.
And then to make matters worse, Bilzerian tweeted ahead of Cate Hall’s Grudge Match against Mike Dentale that he didn’t care who Cate Hall was facing, she wouldn’t win because women can’t play poker.
Full Flush Poker Domain Name Acquired
Moving from one piece of bad news to another and this week an unidentified group purchased the domain name of the dead online poker skin Full Flush Poker.
The new owners posted a notice on the website clearing themselves of any wrongdoing and distancing themselves as far away from the previous owners as possible. They also poured scorn on Game Protect’s plans to try to help players take legal action against the former online poker room.
The reason for the acquisition of the domain name is unknown.
A representative from Game Protect advised me that the amount of proved claims currently stands at $248,000, with over $300,000 claimed by former players of the site. The site will pay for claimants court fees as long as they join their free Bitcoin monthly leaderboards.
Global Poker League Inks Deal With Juzhong Joy
The Global Poker League (GPL) will be hoping none of that gambling controversy will be tainting their brand as they make deeper dives into the fruitful waters of the Chinese gaming industry.
This week, the GPL’s parent company, Mediarex Sports & Entertainment signed a five-year deal with Juzhong Joy in Beijing. The Chinese company will help do the donkey work as the GPL China project starts to take shape. Alex Dreyfus, Founder of Mediarex and the GPL, also announced plans to launch regional GPL’s in both India and Latin America.
World Poker Tour News
The GPL might be climbing into bed with China, but South Korea has their legs firmly shut.
The World Poker Tour (WPT) was forced to cancel their upcoming WPT National Festival in South Korea after the two nations butted heads over a deal that allowed the US to install a missile defence system on Korean land.
Both countries reacted by curtailing flights and cruises to each other’s backyards, costing the tourism industries of both countries billions of dollars in lost revenue. The WPT made the wise decision to cut their losses and run given that the large percentage of the field would have been Chinese.
Sticking with the WPT theme and this past weekend saw the TV release of Season XV on Fox Sports Network (FSN), and Sam Panzica won his second WPT Main Event title of the season when he took down the Bay 101 Shooting Stars event. Panzica earned $1.3m for the win and is now second in the Player of the Year race behind Benjamin Zamani. Chino Rheem made the final table finishing third. Had he won he would have become the most successful WPT Champion of all time.
World Series of Poker News
Moving from the World Poker Tour to the World Series of Poker and three big names earned gold rings at the recent World Series of Poker Circuit (WSOPC) event at The Bike in California. Mike Leah picked up a side event win, Dylan Wilkerson won the Main Event, and Valentin Vornicu picked up the Casino Championship title after winning his record-tying ninth gold ring in the final event of the festival. Vornicu ties with Alex Masek and Maurice Hawkins in the race for gold ring #10.
News From The Online Poker Giants
PokerStars went a little mental this week when a hardware fault prevented thousands of people from accessing their tournaments for two hours. The online poker room apologised and promised to roll 90% of the tournaments forward, and have 10% rolled back, meaning everyone inconvenienced will be compensated in some way.
Petr Svoboda, Vladimir Troyanovskiy, and Boris Kuzmanovic were the big winners at the PokerStars Festival Rozvadov this week. Svoboda took down the Main Event for €124,346. Troyanovskiy won the Big Daddy High Roller for €52,208. And Boris Kuzmanovic won the Little Boy High Roller for €37,791.
And over in Panama for the PokerStars Championships, Ben Tollerene won the $50,000 High Roller for a smidgen over half a million, and Stephen Chidwick won the $25,500 Single Day High Roller for $366,500. It was the British Pro’s first major High Roller victory. UFC star Tito Ortiz, and Argentine rugby player, Lucas Gonzalez Amorosino, appeared in the PokerStars Championship Main Event.
Partypoker showed that they mean business this year by releasing their MILLIONS schedule with £8m in guarantees, including the £6m Guaranteed Main Event with a million for first. The new schedule includes two High Rollers each having a million pound guarantee.
And the first Sunday Title Fight of April will be huge after partypoker announced plans to make it a million dollar guaranteed event with $150,000 reserved for first. One wonders of this could be a regular thing if the numbers come rolling in?
888Poker announced plans to host their third 888Live event in Barcelona. Everything is bigger than previous stops in London and Rozvadov including the €1,000 buy-in Main Event that now carries a $550k Guarantee.
And on the other scale of things the Swedish up and comers Unibet return to Brighton on the weekend for the start of the 2017 UK Poker Tour. The £220 buy-in Main Event carries a £40k guarantee, and yours truly is going to win it and retire from life.
Time ladies and gentlemen please.
Someone had just called the clock.
