Calling the Clock: Baazov Steps Down; Dreyfus Steps Up, and Much More

Calling the Clock: Baazov Steps Down; Dreyfus Steps Up, and Much More

In this week’s Calling the Clock we bring you news of David Baazov’s decision to step down temporarily from his position at Amaya Gaming, schedule information and wildcard details from the Global Poker League, and much more.

The David Baazov saga continued this week after the chairman/CEO of Amaya Gaming temporarily stepped down from his position so he could ‘focus on preparing an offer to acquire Amaya and to avoid a distraction for the company’.

The ‘distraction’ Baazov refers to is the range of allegations of insider trading fired at him by Quebec’s Autorité des marchés financiers (AMF). Baazov will continue to draw a salary during his holiday. Rational Group CEO Rafi Ashkenazi will take over the CEO responsibilities on a temporary basis. Amaya director Divyesh Gadhia will handle the chairman bits and bobs.

Calling the Clock: Baazov Steps Down; Dreyfus Steps Up, and Much MoreThe story carved out an exciting open loop this week after a Montreal rag revealed that Baazov’s older brother Josh was one of 13 people named in a separate AMF action. The reports claimed that Baazov the Elder used information falling out of the mouth of his younger sibling to benefit from inch perfect stock trades in cohorts with Craig Levett. The amount bandied about is $1.5m in illicit profits. It will be interesting to see ho this particular loop closes.

This shit is better than Batman v Superman. If you can’t afford a ticket, or suffer from motion sickness, then check out Steven Stradbrooke’s superlative highlights of the Baazov affair here and here.

Sticking with the Amaya Gaming theme and PokerStars planned rake changes went ahead on Monday. The poker community was keen to hear what Daniel Negreanu had to say on the matter, and he didn’t let anyone down.

Writing on his personal blog at Full Contact Poker, Negreanu didn’t have a whole lot to say on the matter except that it was purely a business decision, had nothing to do with ‘improving the ecosystem’, and if players didn’t like it, then they should go and find a different game.

One person who won’t be leaving PokerStars in search of another game is Jason Somerville. This week he celebrated 10 million views on his Run It UP! Twitch show. Somerville deserves all the plaudits he is currently receiving for the work he is doing to lift poker’s head above the icy water, but there is no rest for the wicked. According to data gleaned from Socialblade.com the most prolific Twitch streaming site RiotGames has dragged in close to 817 million views.

From Twitch to Ask Me Anything (AMA) and the 2014 World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event Champion, Martin Jacobson, opened himself up to scrutiny over at PokerVIP this week. It was an interesting 72hrs. I was particularly interested in Jacobson’s openness about his use of the nootropic known as CILTEP.

Jacobson will represent the Global Poker League (GPL) side Montreal Nationals this yearand I am sure as the GPL grows in stature so will the need to regulate and officiate to a higher degree, and I believe that may see the death knell sound for the use of so called ‘brain enhancing’ supplements.

From AMA to MMA and Terrence Chan hit the news this week after hitting Joco Mabute very, very, hard in the face. Chan was in Manila to face Mabute in a Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) bout. It was Chan’s sixth fight and sixth win, after forcing his opponent to submit in under two minutes.

Who will be Chan’s next opponent?

I’m sure that this week there were a lot of people hoping it would be Ray Bitar. The former CEO of Full Tilt Poker who was forced to forfeit $40m in cash and goods in connection with Black Friday, had his wedding photos featured on PokerUpdate.com with the photographer calling the event a ‘million dollar wedding’.

And she’s hot.

Not bad for a skint man with a dodgy ticker.

The Global Poker League Schedule Details

The Global Poker League (GPL) was in the news a lot this week. Alex Dreyfus and his team announced the full schedule for the first season and there is a visit to Wembley Arena on the cards for the four finalists.

The action will be divided into four separate events.

The GPL Regular Season – 6 Max action taking place on the GPL’s online platform.

The GPL Summer Series – 33 heads-up matches live from the GPL’s yet to be built Las Vegas studios.

The GPL Playoffs – Where eight teams will become four. Dates and venues yet to be announced.

The GPL Finals – the final four teams will square of in The Cube live from Wembley Arena.

The full GPL Schedule can be found here.

In addition to schedule announcements the wildcard picks started to drip feed to the media.

At the time of writing, the Rome Emperors (Max Pescatori & Todd Brunson), London Royals (Liv Boeree & Sam Trickett), Moscow Wolverines (Anatoly Filatov & Igor Yaroshevsky), Paris Aviators (Fabrice Soulier & Alex Luneau), the Berlin Bears (Bill Perkins & Daniel Cates), and the San Francisco Rush (Faraz Jaka & Jonathan Jaffe) have all completed their lineups.

Two more additions were announced to the GPL roster this week. Sam Grafton and Griffin Benger have been hired to commentate on every GPL game this season.

Partnerships

The World Poker Fund Holdings (WPFH) were in the news again this week. The last time we were writing about the newest kids on the block they were hiring Jamie Gold as brand ambassador and advisor. This week they inked a $1.2m deal with the PR firm 1800pr.

The WPFH weren’t the only outfit shaking hands this week. Raising for Effective Giving (REG) and Matchbook also placed skin on skin. The betting exchange and the effective altruists have vowed to do a lot of work together in the future, and they will start by donating all commissions gained on the Dan Bilzerian bike bet to charities recommended by REG.

Individual Praise

As usual, we finish this week’s news round-up with a few personal pat on the backs. The first one goes to Antonio Esfandiari who won his first World Series of Poker Circuit (WSOPC) gold ring this week when he defeated Jamie Gold in heads-up action to win the first prize of $226,785 at the Bicycle Casino, Los Angeles.

On the slightly colder side of the pond Daniel Wilson won the €150,000 top prize at the 2016 Irish Open in Dublin beating Michael Conaty in heads-up action.

Time ladies & gentlemen, please.

Someone has just called the clock.