Poker Tour of the Americas

Date: Wed, Oct 8, 2008

Vega Promotional Systems, Inc. has announced a revised schedule for the first season of the Poker Tour of the Americas. While clearly it is a difficult task to promote a poker tour in five or six different countries for the first time, this is one in a long list of announcements from Vega on the PTA. Here's hoping the tour is now ready to successfully launch and will attract reasonable attendance in its inaugural year.

Vega's plan is to hold five tournaments during the Tour's 2009 season, with plans to expand the Tour to six tournaments in season two. The "tentative schedule for season one" is as follows:

February 21-27 Guayaquil, Ecuador
April 10-17 San Jose, Costa Rica
June 5-12 Vancouver, British Columbia
August 15-21 Cartagena, Colombia
October 24-30 Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

I can't help but wonder if they will be using the tournament rules of the Federation Internationale de Poker Association.

Gone from the earlier "tentative schedule" is a stop in Tunica, Mississippi in the United States. There will also be a year ending Tournament of Champions to crown the 2009 champion of the PTA, which will be held somewhere in North America at a date and location to be announced.

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Federation Internationale de Poker Association (FIDPA)

Date: Tue, Oct 7, 2008

This past summer in July, the Federation Internationale de Poker Association (FIDPA) announced that the Bellagio Cup was the first tournament played under the FIDPA tournament rules. Many of the players wondered what those rules were exactly, so we asked for a copy--none were available.

Now another tournament is underway at Bellagio, this time its the Festa al Lago. Again the FIDPA is creating a lot of publicity about another major tournament operating under the international rules. Again, we asked for a copy of the rules and again--not available.

Interesting, they are using rules for a big poker tournament but no one has a copy of the rules. By the way, Jack McCelland the tournament director at Bellagio and perhaps the most respected TD in the United States is a member of the FIDPA board.

The FIDPA is an organization founded by Marcel Luske and Michelle Lau in 2007, to: "establish a standardized set of rules and procedures that would bring consistency to tournament play, throughout the world." Not a bad idea but we are now seeing another tournament at Bellagio, played under FIDPA rules and we still can't get a copy of the rules. The website FIDPA.com, we were pointed to, does not exist. By the way Marcel Luske also founded the International Poker Federation (IPF) in 2002. Everyone seems to be giving Marcel a pass on performance because he is such a nice guy.

Does the poker world really need yet another group of poker players with no experience at organizational practices making up a name (XYZ) and talking and acting like they are going to do something for "all of poker." We have already seen the limp results from the World Poker Association (WPA) with their executive infighting and tea party poker etiquette rules.

Was there something wrong with the Tournament Director's Association (TDA)? They have strong support, actual printed rules and an open format for discussion and evolution of those rules. Do we need the FIDPA? Does it actually exist or is this just some PR pipedream talked about during long airline flights between international poker events.

So simply question for the FIDPA: Where the hell are these rules?

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WSOP/ESPN Main Event Coverage: Day 4

Date: Tue, Oct 7, 2008

Day Four of the 2008 World Series of Poker main event runs on ESPN and other international channels for the first time tonight. The massive field is now under 500 players, all in one room and all in one section of the main room at the World Series. "Celebrity Coverage" is over and hopefully we will be seeing more poker and less fluff for the next four weeks.

One thing to look for now is how quickly ESPN is able to pick up coverage of the eventual "November Nine", thus far only David "Chino" Rheem has made an appearance and that was because he was moved to the ESPN feature table on Day One.

Here is the remaining "first run" schedule for the telecast:

October 7th: Day Four (474 players)
October 14th: Day Five (189 players)
October 21st: Day Six (79 players)
October 28th: Day Seven (27 players)
November 4th: ESPN Final Table preview show
November 11th: Nearly Live Final Table (9 players)

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WSOPE Marathon Champion: John Juanda

Date: Thu, Oct 2, 2008

Playing through a long night and early into this morning, John Juanda took down a strong final table and won the main event of the 2008 World Series of Poker Europe. Russian Stanislav Alekhin finished second after he and Juanda battled for over seven hours and 241 hands heads up. John Juanda was down to a final river card on hand #399 but he caught a miracle straight to stay alive.

This WSOPE final table took 484 hands (a WSOP record for most hands at a final table) and 22 hours (including dinner and other scheduled and unscheduled breaks) finishing after 10 AM local time in London.

Fellow Russian Ivan Demidov finished in third place, Demidov is one of the "November Nine" who will be playing for the WSOP main event championship next month.

Here is how the final nine finished:

1 £ 868,800 John Juanda
2 £ 533,950 Stanislav Alekhin
3 £ 334,850 Ivan Demidov
4 £ 271,500 Bengt Sonnert
5 £ 217,200 Daniel Negreanu
6 £ 171,950 Scott Fischman
7 £ 135,750 Robin Keston
8 £ 108,600 Toni Hiltunen
9 £ 81,450 Chris Elliott

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World Series of Poker Europe: Final Table

Date: Wed, Oct 1, 2008

They are down to the final nine in London at the World Series of Poker Europe. Daniel Negreanu is there as is John Juanda. The most interesting player to notice is Ivan Demidov. Why? Because Ivan has another final table to play next month in Las Vegas. Ivan Demidov is one of the November Nine, still in the running for the 2008 WSOP main event bracelet. Now wouldn't this be a double win that would be talked about for a long, long time.

Seat 1: Robin Keston 849,000
Seat 2: Daniel Negreanu 1,002,000
Seat 3: Chris Elliott 281,000
Seat 4: Bengt Sonnert 385,000
Seat 5: John Juanda 1,349,000
Seat 6: Ivan Demidov 1,006,000
Seat 7: Toni Hiltunen 386,000
Seat 8: Scott Fischman 732,000
Seat 9: Stanislav Alekhin 1,278,000

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World Series of Poker Europe: Final 24 players

Date: Wed, Oct 1, 2008

They are down to 24 players in the main event of the World Series of Poker Europe. Still a fair number of big names in the hunt with John Juanda leading the field into Day Four. They will play down from 24 to 9 tomorrow.

Here are the survivors:

Juanda, John - Las Vegas 657,500
Negreanu, Daniel - Las Vegas 653,000
Smith, Justin - Kissimmee, FL 624,500
Rouas, Phillippe - San Francisco, CA 573,000
Lodden, Johnny - Orpezano Italy 478,000
Townsend, Brian - Santa Barbara, CA 424,500
Sonnert, Ben - Linkoping Sweden 346,500
Hiltunen, Toni - Lahti Finland 321,500
Kongsgaard, Soren - Aarhus Denmark 316,500
Demidov, Ivan - Moscow Russia 316,000
Bloch, Andy - Las Vegas 301,000
Fischman, Scott - Las Vegas 298,000
Bergius, Perttu - Espoo Finland 261,000
Judah, Mel - London 254,000
Shakerchi, Talal - London 225,000
Alekhin, Stanislav - Moscow Russia 215,000
Neff, Peter - Los Angeles 213,500
Adams, Brandon - Miami, FL 212,000
Elliott, Christopher - Alloa UK 181,500
Matusow, Mike - Las Vegas 147,500
Seidel, Eric - Las Vegas 85,000
Torsvik, Kim-Andre - Bergen Norway 78,500
Keston, Robin - London 74,000
West, Tim - Los Altos, CA 63,500

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PartyPoker.com 36 Hour Poker Den Live!

Date: Tue, Sep 30, 2008

You can follow the live action from the 36 hour marathon Party Poker Poker Den from the Matchroom site. The event is underway now in London, with a huge line up of professionals in town for the WSOPE. The format is a $10,000 buy-in with $50/$100 blinds and eight seats at the table. Players may come or go as they like with an interesting group ready to take any empty seats.

Currently playing (at hour 20 of 36):

Neil Channing*
Chris Parker (second session)
Phil Laak
Richard Wheatley
Chris "Smitty" Smithy
Roberto Romanello
Josh Ladines
Andrew Feldman (second session)

*Original participant from hour 1.

Also played:
Ilios Kamatakis (busted)
David Williams (busted)
Ian Frazier (out)
Jennifer Tilly (left game a winner!)
Robert Williamson III (out)
Barny Boatman (out)
Bodo Sbrzesny (out)
Roland de Wolfe (out after two sessions)
Sammy “any two” George (out after 15 hours)

There is a $1,000 added "Party Pot" once an hour, which seems to stimulate a lot of action. The first Party Pot got up to $17,000.

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World Series of Poker Europe down to 62

Date: Tue, Sep 30, 2008

The World Series of Poker Europe main event is down to 62 players from the starting field of 362. With so few starting runners compared to the thousands in the Las Vegas WSOP, it is not surprising that the leader board is still full of big name professionals. Here are the players at the top entering day three.

1 Bloch, Andy - Las Vegas 321,600
2 Townsend, Brian - Santa Barbara, CA 290,100
3 Seidel, Erik - Las Vegas 282,300
4 Juanda, John - Las Vegas 252,500
5 Rouas, Phillippe - San Francisco 233,300
6 Elliott, Christopher - Alloa UK 231,900
7 Moorman, Christopher - Brighton UK 219,500
8 Smith, Justin - Kissimmee, FL 217,700
9 Negreanu, Daniel - Las Vegas 203,700
10 Adams, Brandon - Miami, FL 190,000
11 Sointula, Jani - Helsinki Finland 184,800
12 Sonnert, Ben - Linkoping Sweden 184,600
13 Matusow, Mike - Las Vegas 180,300
14 Demidov, Ivan - Moscow Russia 176,200
15 Moreira, Tome - Porto Portugal 165,800
16 Alekhin, Stanislav - Moscow Russia 164,000
17 Williamsson, Christofer - Gothenberg Sweden 163,500
18 Fischman, Scott - Las Vegas 152,800

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29 September 2008: Ultimate Bet Cheating Scandal Update

Date: Mon, Sep 29, 2008

(MOHAWK TERRITORY OF KAHNAWAKE – September 29, 2008) Kahnawa:ke Gaming Commission ("KGC") Chairman Dean Montour today announced the initial findings of the audit conducted on licensee Ultimate Bet, as well as the sanctions to be imposed.

According to KGC Chairman Montour, the Commission has reviewed the information provided to it over the past months from Frank Catania of Catania Gaming Consultants of New Jersey; Gaming Associates, an Australian game testing company; and the permit holder. Chairman Montour said, "The Commissioners have made several findings of fact with regard to the cheating that occurred on the Ultimate Bet web site that included the identification of some of the individuals responsible for these incidents as well other significant violations of the Kahnawa:ke Interactive Gaming Regulations."

The Commission found clear and convincing evidence to support the conclusion that between the approximate dates of May 2004 to January 2008, Russell Hamilton, an individual associated with Ultimate Bet's affiliate program, was the main person responsible for and benefiting from the multiple cheating incidents. Furthermore, the KGC is currently in contact with the appropriate law enforcement agencies and intends to fully cooperate in the prosecution of all individuals involved in the UB cheating incidents.

Mr. Catania states,

"My intention is to provide further information as it is uncovered, although the information already submitted to the KGC relating to Ultimate Bet warrants the KGC taking the actions it has today. Any further evidence uncovered with regard to cheating, withholding or destroying records in our continuing investigation will be reported to the KGC and the proper agency for appropriate action."

.
As a result of the KGC's findings of fact, the Commission called a special meeting, at which time it was unanimously decided to impose the following sanctions against Ultimate Bet:

1. Ultimate Bet is directed that by November 3, 2008 it shall, under the close supervision of the KGC, its employees and agents, commence refunding all players accounts found to have been adversely affected by the cheating of individuals under the control and supervision of the licensee. It is estimated that Ultimate Bet has to date reimbursed $6.1 million USD to players' accounts found to have been adversely impacted by the cheating activity

2. Ultimate Bet is directed that by November 3, 2008 it is to remove any and all persons deemed as "unsuitable" by the KGC from all involvement with the company, which shall include all levels of ownership, management and operation. Ultimate Bet during that time period until November 3, 2008 is required to continue to provide complete details of all day-to-day operations of the company. These shall include financial as well as daily gaming records to Frank Catania and or his assigns. It is anticipated that this action will provide full disclosure and prevent any further improprieties or wrongdoing from occurring while ensuring that the public is being offered fair and honest games and all player monies will be protected.

3. Ultimate Bet's control system as defined in section 9 of the Kahnawa:ke Interactive Gaming Regulations has been modified to prevent any further incidents of cheating or related improprieties.

4. Ultimate Bet will not delete or modify any logs including but not limited to web logs and game logs as required by the Kahnawa:ke Interactive Gaming Regulations and will continue to have those logs immediately available for inspection by the KGC or its agents.

5. Ultimate Bet shall immediately pay a fine of $1.5 Million USD to the KGC for its failure to implement and enforce measures to prohibit and detect fraudulent activities.

6. Ultimate Bet's failure to comply fully with these measures will result in the immediate revocation of its KGC gaming permit.

Murray Marshall
Senior Advisor
Kahnawa:ke Gaming Commission

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Asia Pacific Poker Tour

Date: Sun, Sep 28, 2008

Lost in the glow of the World Series of Poker Europe is the Asia Pacific Poker Tour event in Seoul, Korea. While Southeast Asia remains a difficult area of the world to bring big poker tours to, because of various national laws and controls. There is both an Asian Poker Tour and competing Asia Pacific Poker Tour. The APPT main event in Seoul is down to a final table of nine players today and unlike many tournaments, this one has not been dominated by either youthful internet players or big name professionals. While most of the "name" players are in London or on the rail here in Seoul for the final table, the field was full of internet qualifiers, but age and experience seems to have won out at the APPT, thus far. Only one player under 21 years of age will take a seat for the championship. Here is the line-up for today's final table.

Seat 1: Dan Williams, Canada (42,000 in chips): This 29-year-old is playing in his first live tournament.
Seat 2: Daniel Schreiber, Seoul, South Korea (253,500): At the age of 22, he arrived in South Korea in 2004 to compete as a professional StarCraft gamer.
Seat 4: Fam Yat, Singapore (66,500): A 28-year-old primary school maths tutor.
Seat 5: David Horvath, Szodliget, Hungary (124,000): A 29-year-old experienced poker player, who qualified online.
Seat 6: Yuji Masaki, Hiroshima, Japan (13,500): A 45-year-old pharmacist, he also qualified via an online satellite.
Seat 7: Sam Faqiryar, Calgary, Alberta, Canada (185,000): Just 20 years of age, but he calls himself a full time professional poker player.
Seat 8: Brian Kang, Toronto, Ontario, Canada (394,000): This 29-year-old financial analyist was born in Canada to Korean parents.
Seat 9: Hidenari Shiono, Tokyo, Japan (269,000): A 39-year-old president of a hardware company.
Seat 3: Yoshihiro Tasaka, Osaka, Japan (226,500): This 49-year-old service industry employee has been playing poker for over 30 year. LATE UPDATE: Yoshihiro Tasaka is the winner of the APPT Seoul Championship.

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Pondering Poker

Date: Sat, Sep 27, 2008

There has been some interesting and sometimes strange news around the poker world this week. Here is a glimpse and a glance at some of the more or less interesting tidbits.

The World Series of Poker Europe has been running this week with three preliminary events and today's first of two Day Ones in the main event. The Events are being "double numbered", they are WSOPE 2008 Events 1-4, as well as 2008 WSOP 56-59. We have heard only minor grumbling about "diluting" the value of the WSOP bracelet; I mean they give out 55 bracelets in Las Vegas every summer, so what are four more. The question may be raised in 2009 when rumor has it, there may be a WSOPE group of tournaments in both London and Barcelona. Then again, it is supposed to be the World Series of Poker.

Next item, the State of Kentucky in the United States is attempting to seize control of 141 poker websites because.... well you can read the legal background but it comes down to yet another moralistic fundamentalist who believes that politicians have the right to restrict the freedoms of citizens based on their own irrational fears and beliefs. Wars have been fought over such morality or immorality based legislation.

A new study was found that interest in poker, at least among youth, has fallen. Indeed, according to this study: "interest in poker peaked in 2005" and has been falling dramatically since then. The reason? Poker was trendy and like all trends the novelty wears off. So poker will go the way of backgammon and the macarena?

One final report, gaming revenues for July in the State of Nevada were off again. The total "take" or "win" for the casinos was down 14% year over year and this includes the Las Vegas Strip casinos, which account for 50% of the total gaming revenues in Nevada. Poker revenues were down just slightly more than were the overall gaming totals. There is some doubt about whether all of the revenue from the World Series of Poker was included in these numbers, since the WSOP does not technically end until November 11th.

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"Poker site cheating plot a high-stakes whodunit"

Date: Wed, Sep 24, 2008

I remember over five years ago having the "online cheating" argument with my poker buddies. They would argue that the online sites would not cheat for "a couple of extra bucks" when they were already making millions on the rake. I would argue that money is money and since cheating was so easy from inside the server firewall that it just had to be happening. We had this same argument every time we got together on one of our poker road trip. Guess what! They don't argue with me any more. Not after both Ultimate Bet and Absolute were caught cheating.

Now to be fair, some of the details of both of these scandals are still unclear but the bottom line is not. Cut away all the accusations and finger pointing and you have the unrefuted fact that insiders with "super user" accounts were able to see the hole cards of other players and they cheated them out of millions of dollars. No one, any longer, denies this happened.

Did either site try to cover up the facts? Was it the 'previous owners' committing these crimes? Is there any jurisdictional basis for anyone to go to jail? Was any of the cheating erased from the databases? Who ultimately is responsible?

If you would like to know just how convoluted this mess really is... I want to point you to the MSNBC article from last week: Poker site cheating plot a high-stakes whodunit. For the first time in the "non-poker media" there is an honest treatment of just what may have happened in this case. The article ought to convince you not only of what did happen but of how legally difficult it might be to hold anyone accountable for the fraud and theft.

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U.S. Poker Players: Action Alert

Date: Tue, Sep 23, 2008

The federal elections in the United States are less than 45 days away. This is the time, once every four years, when elected officials actually listen to voters. If you are a poker player and you want the right to play poker online, then you need to take two minutes to go to the Poker Player Alliance website and fill out this form, which will be sent to your Congress person and both of your Senators. This is a new legislative notice, if you have written in the past, please do it again today. Might I suggest that you add a line or two at the beginning of the pre-packaged message. Here is what I wrote:

"This year, I am a single issue voter. You either fully support my right to play poker online or you are against me. No half-ass political double-speak. If you fully support the right of all Americans to do with their money and time whatever they see fit, then you have my vote. If you don't, then your opponent gets my vote. I wanted to keep it simple, so you understand. You are for us or against us and my vote will reflect your position. If I do not hear from you before the election or if you send some non-committal bullshit about further studies, I am voting for the other guy. I hope we are clear on this issue."

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European Poker Tour Adds Tournaments

Date: Mon, Sep 22, 2008

The European Poker Tour has added two events to its previously announced 2008-2009 tournament schedule. The Hungarian Open in Budapest is a new event. EPT has also put the Caribbean Adventure back on its official schedule after some talk of moving that tournament to the North American Poker Tour. The Caribbean event will again be held at the Atlantis Hotel and Casino.

Here is the current EPT 2008-2009 schedule:

Barcelona Open (Casino Barcelona) - Sept 10-14, 2008 - €8,000
London (Victoria Casino) - October 1-5, 2008 - £5,200
ADDED: Hungarian Open (Budapest) - Oct 28-Nov 1 - €4,000
Polish Open (Hyatt Regency, Warsaw) - November 15-19, 2008 - 20,000 PLN
Prague (Hilton Hotel) - December 9-13, 2008 - €5,000
ADDED: Caribbean Adventure - Bahamas - January 1-5, 2009 - $8,000
Deauville (Barrière Casino) - January 20-24, 2009 - €5,000
Scandinavian Open (Casino Copenhagen) - February 17-21, 2009 - 50,000 DKR
German Open (Casino Hohensyburg) - March 10 - 14, 2009 - €5,000
San Remo (San Remo) - April 18-23, 2009 - €5,000
Grand Final (Monte Carlo Bay Hotel & Resort) - April 28 - May 3, 2009 - €10,000

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