BUSTED POKER ORGANISER ADVERTISED ON THE INTERNET
2011-02-25
Chesapeake police raid homes following tip-off
Police in Chesapeake have charged three men with running illegal poker games at two houses, reports the Virginia-Pilot newspaper, naming Paul Klingbeil, Robert Lee Richardson and Galloway P. Martinez.
According to official documentation, the police have been monitoring Klingbeil following a tip-off in November last year. The informant described playing poker at Klingbeil's house for four years on Saturdays, Sundays and Mondays. Games were advertised through text messages and on the Internet, the affidavit reveals.
The informant told police Klingbeil ran as many as three poker tables at a time with as many as 20 to 30 players, and the operation resembled a casino, with armed security, free liquor and security cameras mounted outside the house. The defendants took a rake of 10 percent on every poker hand dealt, it is alleged.
Earlier this year the police surveillance identified Martinez and Richardson, who advertised professional poker games on the Internet and listed their phone numbers. This led to the development of a sting operation involving an undercover officer, the affidavit says. The detective played for three hours and saw Martinez and Richardson dealing poker and taking 10 percent from every hand; on a later date he reported again visiting the premises under cover and seeing Richardson dealing hands and Klingbeil and a woman trading cash for chips.
PPA COMMENTS ON POSSIBLE U.S. LEGALISATION OF INTERNET POKER
2010-12-08
Cautions that Reid draft still has a long way to go
The Poker Players Alliance, an action body with over 2 million members that has long lobbied for the legalisation of internet poker, issued a statement this week on Senator Harry Reid's new proposal to regulate and licence the popular pastime in the United States.
Executive director John Pappas cautioned that the proposal was an evolving process. "Draft bills that have been circulated are already outdated and the legislation continues to be refined," he noted.
"As always, the PPA is actively working with lawmakers to ensure any legislation that is introduced protects the freedom of Americans to play poker online and provides a safe, regulated U.S. market in which to play.
"While no bill will give players 100 percent of what we want and deserve, I do believe the legislation will be a victory for the poker playing community over the long-term.
"The status quo is not tenable and legislation is needed to clarify and correct current laws and provide a regulated U.S. marketplace for players. Failing a federal legislative solution, the future of Internet poker remains unpredictable.
"However, a regulated market that offers competition, consumer protections and clarity will undoubtedly provide the greatest benefit for the players and long-term stability to the Internet poker experience.
"With the support of millions of Americans, and a growing bipartisan contingent of lawmakers, we are optimistic that Congress can get this done before the end of the year. We urge lawmakers to take action now and not let this important opportunity be missed."
WSOP Event 49: Linn Assassinates the Quiet Assassin
2010-07-26
On the 32nd day Of the World Series Of Poker, $1,500 No-Limit Hold’em, Event 49 of the Tournament of Champions was held. It continued for a stretch of three days with numerous bad beats & lucky final cards, only to see Michael Linn emerge as a champion & winning the coveted bracelet.
A total of 2,543 players enrolled for this game, which included notable players as well as novices. However, the game called out for the elimination of more than two thousand players with only 290 players returning for the 2nd day, that is, the money day.
An action-packed game followed with players such as JP Kelly, Matthew Matros, Allen Kessler, Ari Engel, George Lind, Shane Schleger, Marc Naalden and David Pham making an early exit before the third day, until only twenty-three players were.
On day three Taylor Larkin retained the maximum lead of casino tokens as nine players were left in the game. Twenty minutes into the match on the third day & Tyler Cornell was out of the game. Erle Mankin, Justin Zaki, Alexander Kuzmin and Chadwick Grimes were also all gone during the course of two levels.
As four players were left at the table, Larkin was still up ahead but Mihai Manole & Michael Linn had quite bridged the gap & were reaching up to him. At this point Benjamin Smith tried to trick the people with the idea of a short stack but was unsuccessful & fell out on the fourth spot. Gathering himself up Linn collected so many chips, that they were double that of his two opponents thereby, outdoing Manole when he outdrew his ducks.
A gruelling match followed next, amongst the final two players. For two whole hours they battled it out, with Linn moving from a two-to-one lead to a four-to-one lead before doubling up Larkin twice to keep him in the match.
Family, friends & random onlookers that were all at the sideline, watched at the 12th hour of the event, Linn finally steam-rolling Larkin with his Ace-Quacks & claiming $609,493 due his worth. On the other hand, Larkin went home with $378,905, Manole with $268,189 & Smith with $193,418.
And the WSOP action isn’t over yet. www.sportsbook.com has the lines for the final table even held in November. The current longshot is Jason Senti at +2000. Are you ready to take a shot at the longshot, or maybe the favorite John Dolan at +250? Head over to Sportsbook.com today and get into the action!
Top Five Favorites to Win the 2010 WSOP Championship
2010-06-25
World Series of Poker has been one of the most renowned events in the world of poker. After a glorious history of 40 years, we’re all set to see the 41st WSOP kick off in style in the Rio poker rooms.
The main event of the 2010 WSOP will kick off on July 5th, 2010, in Las Vegas, while the $500 Casino Employee event will be formal outset of the WSOP. The WSOP is one of the biggest poker betting events across the globe wherein millions of betting professionals try their luck by backing their favorite poker players.
If you’re relatively inexperienced in the poker betting world, here are the top five favorites to win the 2010 WSOP Championship, and you may try betting on one of these top players as they play at the Rio poker rooms.
Top Pick: Phil Ivey
Phil Ivey has been pretty consistent in the past few seasons, but it is a bit surprising that he has got 80 to 1 odds in the initial betting odds released off-late. He has had a glorious run in the past few seasons, and it makes perfect sense to back him up to make it all the way to the finals. But, there are many other contenders like Daniel Negreanu to bag the main event of 2010 WSOP; so, do make an informed decision rather than backing Phil Ivey blindly to win the main event.
Other Top Contenders
Gus Hansen and Allen Cunningham have bagged the second best odds for the 2010 WSOP as per the initial betting odds. The odds for these players are close to 100:1.
Phil Hellmuth is yet another strong contender for bagging the 2010 WSOP title, and you’ll get 125 times return, if you decide to back him up. However, the bad part of the story is that despite the fact that Phil Hellmuth has great potential, he has never won the main event in his life; this is an important aspect to consider, especially if you’re planning to go out on an all-out kill, and back him to win the main event. On the brighter side, he has bagged seven bracelets already, and he may be a nice option to bet on, to secure a spot in the final table once again.
Phil Ivey, who is the pick of the lot so far, has low odds of just 33 to 1; nevertheless he may serve as an easy way to make some serious money in this WSOP competition. Daniel Negreanu stands next in the betting league with odds of about 40:1, followed by Gus Hansen that has 50:1 odds. Gus Hansen, popularly famous as "The Great Dane" is a 36 years Old Danish poker superstar, who has bagged total cash of $7,205,743. He has had 8 first place finishes, and he had finished at 23rd place in the No Limit Hold'em Aussie Million event.
Daniel Negreanu who is famous as the "Kid Poker" is the local favorite in Las Vegas, NV, and his total winnings of $12,511,333. He has had 33 First Place finishes, and 4 WSOP Bracelets. His past track record makes his a great favorite to secure the 2010 WSOP main event.
Allen Cunningham is yet another local favorite from Las Vegas, NV, with total winnings of $9,923,700, and 17 First Place finishes. Allen made his entry into the poker scene in style way back in 1998, alongside Daniel Negreanu, John Juanda, Layne Flack, Phil Ivey, and other top poker players. He has bagged 5 WSOP Bracelets already, and this 33 year old poker master is very much capable of bagging another WSOP main event this year!
2010 WSOP is all set to explode, and the abovementioned top five favorite players are most likely to win the 2010 WSOP championship. So, have a wonderful time betting on your favorite poker players in the 2010 WSOP main event, and try to capitalize on this scintillating event.
Are you ready to try your skills at one of the top online poker rooms on the net today? Head over to www.sportsbook.com/poker now to get in the action today!
SUNDAY SCOOP
2010-05-03
$45 million available in the latest Pokerstars online tourney
Online pokerheads will be keenly anticipating the start of the latest edition of Pokerstars’ Spring Championship of Online Poker (SCOOP) this Sunday. The three-tiered tournament series features low, medium, and high-dollar buy-in tournaments and an overall prize pool of $ 45 million this year.
This is the second edition of the popular tournament, which debuted last year with a prize pool of $ 38 million and generated some 200 000 buy-ins on three levels over 22 events throughout the tournament, according to Pokerstars.
US players were the main beneficiaries last time round, snapping up $ 20.6 million of the available prizes – the lion’s share of the prize pool. German players came next, winning $3.3 million and Canadians were third most successful, scooping up $3.2 million.
Last year’s SCOOP main event high-bet winner j,Thaddeus collected $963 000 (see previous InfoPowa report), and the mid-stakes winner enjoyed a $502 000 payday.
The opening program for Sunday’s first day events includes:
13:00 ET: Event #1
Low: $22 NLHE Six-Max, $250,000 Guaranteed
Mid: $215 NLHE Six-Max, $1 Million Guaranteed
High: $2,100 NLHE Six-Max, $1 Million Guaranteed
17:00 ET: Event #2
Low: $22 NLHE Two-Day Event, $500,000 Guaranteed
Mid: $215 NLHE Two-Day Event, $2 Million Guaranteed
High: $2,100 NLHE Two-Day Event, $2 Million Guaranteed
Check the Pokerstars website for details of other events during the forthcoming week.
PARTY POKER.COM PREMIER LEAGUE IV FINAL TABLE UNDERWAY
2010-02-19
Exciting action as six of the best get down to business
The final table is set for Party Poker's Premier League IV, after Daniel Negreanu saw off JC Tran, while Roland De Wolfe secured a final table berth after winning a titanic tussle with Team Party’s Ian Frazer in heads up matches.
For each point a player earned during the preliminary heats, they get 10 000 in chips. The chip counts at the start of play this week were as follows:
Phil Laak – 480,000
David Benyamine - 380,000
Giovanni Safina - 290,000
Luke Schwartz – 290,000
Daniel Negreanu – 260,000
Roland De Wolfe – 220,000
Joining the star names on the final table is Italian lawyer Giovanni Safina, who qualified for the Premier League for just Euros 100 through an online satellite on Party's dedicated Italian website.
Blinds start at 1000/2000 and final table payouts look like this:
1. $400,000
2. $200,000
3. $100,000
4. $80,000
5. $70,000
6. $50,000
SHARK OR FISH? iPOKER SKINS MAY HAVE TO DECIDE
2009-12-21
The drive by major online poker networks to introduce fresh blood continues
The respected online poker message board twoplustwo has been discussing the drive by several Internet poker networks to force skins to produce more losers than winners (see previous InfoPowa reports on fines levied on skins with more withdrawals than deposits), and this week the debate took a more defined turn when a particpant posted a perspective from one of the skins.
Poster Limp_J claimed to have contacted a poker manager at the Victor Chandler skin who told him that the new year could see punitive measures by some networks that would force skin operators to ratchet up the requirement for more losers by categorising players as either
"fish" or "shark" in order to meet a mandatory minimum fish/shark ratio if they wished to avoid fines.
With the old system only big winners were banned, but if the new system is implemented the indications are that even small players could be banned in order to adjust the technical deposits/withdrawals ratio.
At post 33 on http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/showpost.php?p=15475728&postcount=33 Limp_J takes the discussion from speculative to a clearer picture, posting the following response from an unidentified Victor Chandler poker manager:
"The truth of the matter is that we have restricted the cash game stakes at which a number of players can play and which effectively means we will lose these players.
"The reason why we have done this is because iPoker will be implementing a new policy in the New Year which will class every player on a monthly basis as a fish or a shark, and which will penalise card rooms that have too many sharks in relation to fish.
"As it stands, we are top heavy with sharks and, despite the fact that our win/loss ratio is fine, we stand to be fined heavily by iPoker under this new scoring system, and so we have had to reduce the number of sharks that we have in order to comply and avoid penalisation.
"It really galls us to have to do this not only because of the negative feedback and the inconvenience to the players but because the fish to shark scoring system is a farce in as much as even losing players can be classed as a sharks.
"Ridiculous isn’t it – when did you ever hear of a losing player being called a shark? What’s more, if the categorisation of the players was such that only winning players were classed as sharks we wouldn’t have had to make these account restrictions in the first place and so this whole topic has been created by the absurd scoring system about to be introduced by iPoker."
Watch this space - there are bound to be ructions if/when this system is introduced.