Another quick round of poker news action including two sides of the partypoker coin, the sixth bracelet for Chris ‘Jesus’ Ferguson, and a busy week for the High Rollers.
It’s been a week of contrasting fortunes for partypoker.
The online poker room looked like they were capable of waltzing through a minefield at the beginning of the week. The team ended PokerStars’ three-year stranglehold on the EGR Poker Operator of the Year award, announced plans to launch a dedicated poker Tv channel on Sky, and partnered with the Fitzwilliam Casino & Card Club in Dublin.
And then suddenly they were in the middle of a fart-filled crowded elevator, and everyone was staring in their direction.
A player going by the name DukeofSuffolk shared his concerns with the partypoker security team that there was a collusion ring in the High Roller MTTs, and the newly minted Poker Operator of the Year found that it was true.
partypoker banned the cheats for life and are now preparing to divide the funds confiscated from those accounts between those wronged. I sat down with Tom Waters, MD, partypoker to ask him a few questions about the collusion ring and this is what he had to say.
Moving on from a startling revelation to a not so startling one and this week PokerNews owner iBus Media finally admitted that The Stars Group owned a ‘large majority’ of the news media site. According to a company-wide call, Stars Group (then called PokerStars) began buying equity from Tony G in 2010. The European Parliament Member (MEP) is no longer affiliated with the company.
Three more pieces of online poker news for you.
Representatives of the Italian gambling industry’s primary stakeholders LOGiCO have gone on the defensive after the Italian Democratic Party Senator, Franco Mirabelli, promised to annihilate plans for France, Italy, Portugal and Spain to share online poker liquidity.
Not only did LOGiCO provide a broad range of rebuttals for every point of conjecture spewed forth by the Senator, but they also offered a peace pipe: if you still believe that opening up liquidity is fraught with danger then let’s begin with tournaments and not cash games.
And we will end with two individual online achievements.
Chris Moorman won his 26th Online Triple Crown, and Johannes “Greenstone25” Korsar became the sixth player to exceed $10m playing in online multi-table tournaments (MTTs).
Live Tournament Round-Up
The High Rollers have racked up some air miles this week.
The PokerStars Live poker room at the City of Dreams in Macau hosted the 2017 Asia Championship of Online Poker (ACOP), and it was the largest event in the tour’s history.
Tournament organisers distributed HK$160 million ($20.5m) in prize money, and that was mainly thanks to the High Roller community who were kept busy for the week.
Alan Lau defeated 308 players to take the first prize of $692,066 in the ACOP Main Event. Adrian Mateos won over a million dollars at ACOP including a victory in the Mini High Roller for $297,927, and Dmitry Yurasov won another High Roller for $456,270.
After the majesty of Macau, the High Rollers jumped on a jet plane and flew to the World Series of Poker Europe (WSOPE) in Rozvadov, Czech Republic. The first of two heavy-hitting events was the €25k High Roller, and at the time of writing Claas Segebrecht, Niall Farrell, Ryan Riess, and Ben Pollak are fighting for the first prize of €745,287 from a field of 113 entrants.
The main story this week at the WSOPE has been the form of Chris ‘Jesus’ Ferguson. The maligned former WSOP Champion won his sixth career bracelet after topping a tiny field of 92 entrants in the €1,650 Pot-Limit Omaha Hi-Lo 8 or Better, to take a stranglehold on the WSOP Player of the Year race.
In the aftermath of Ferguson’s win, Phil Hellmuth thought it would be wise to take a photograph of the former Full Tilt head honcho with the words “Welcome Back to the Winner’s Circle, Chris Ferguson.”
Welcome back to the @WSOP winners circle Chris Ferguson!! #ChrisFergusonsSixthWSOPWin #WSOPBraceletHunting #POSITIVITY pic.twitter.com/8ucqlOI1du
— phil_hellmuth (@phil_hellmuth) November 2, 2017
Of course, the tweet sent a chill to the marrow of poker player’s bones all over the world, to which Hellmuth declared that Ferguson was innocent and deserves forgiveness. May I suggest, if Ferguson wants forgiveness that he explains his role in the scandal so we can decide if he is innocent or not.
Other winners this week include Lukas Zaskodny taking down the €2,200 Pot-Limit Omaha event for €93,677 (He beat Allen Kessler heads-up), and Theodore McQuilkin won the €1,650 No-Limit Hold’em 6-Handed event for €88,043.
In other live tournament news from across the globe, Daniel Lowery won a fifth gold ring at the World Series of Poker Circuit (WSOPC) in Lake Tahoe, Upeshka De Silva banked $67,675 for winning the WPTDeepStacks Main Event in San Diego, and Robert Carvallo won the Punta Cana Poker Classic for $97,590.
Colin Bidwell beat 316 entrants to win the Unibet UK Poker Tour in Brighton for £11,540, and Tom Marchese ($116,000), Scott Seiver ($270,000), and Barry Woods ($256,500) were all standing on the highest podium during the Aria High Roller Series.
Bits and Bobs
Catena Media acquired the online poker data site PokerScout.com for $350,000 in a move made in readiness for the newly formed online poker market in Pennsylvania, the Israeli tax man wants to suck professional poker players dry and does not believe backing money should be classed as expenses, and we caught up with Luke “LFMagic” Fields to learn how he manages to rock it playing Heads-Up PLO Hypers on PokerStars.
Time ladies & gentlemen, please.
Someone has just called the clock.
