interesting … seeing some new buttons and blanks, but am not sure which installation has added them. scott, if you see this i am slightly lost without you …

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Hi, my name is Al. You may know me on twitter as @AlCantHang, or not. Doesn’t much matter. I recently found myself with a lot of time on my hands when the latest job to support my nomadic lifestyle ended up in the bankruptcy courts. I suppose that is a little better than my other former employer who is currently under indictment by the Department of Justice. That was my situation when Dan asked if I was available to do a little technical work behind the scenes on the Pokerati engine and do a little writing in my spare time, old school blogger style. The poker world is changing and I just hope at least one poker blog doesn’t forget the indepent coverage we found so desirable.

The WSOP held their annual Media Conference Call on Tuesday, gathering together a captive audience to listen as they highlight their latest and greatest branded poker ideas along with policy/rule changes. There is very little difference between this call and any other corporate press conference full of rainbows but avoiding anything too shocking. All of which could have been delivered via email or press release.

But for some reason people still call in each year. Dave Ferrara covered it here for Pokerati and you can find his recap in his post “A Bigger, Louder WSOP for 2012?”. Dave is one of the new kids on the block around these parts. Not the overrated 80′s boy band but a solid writer who will provide quality updates from around the Vegas poker rooms throughout the summer. He’ll take the high road and I’ll continue to find my way through the sea of degenerates.

If the initial call wasn’t enough, Dan joined POKERGSSP, Kevmath and Rich Ryan on QuadJacks to spend two hours talking about a one-hour conference call. Proving once again, if you gather enough scribes in one place they will talk a thing to death until their time is up or the bartenders announce last call.

Download

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It’s a global gambling show, with industry news from England, France, Belgium, Germany, Antigua, and the USA! Stories include licensing, trade disputes, and the collapse of a spread betting firm.

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  Perspectives Weekly

I was never an online poker rock star. At the height of my online career I was mid-stakes PLO grinder on Pokerstars and FTP. The low expenses and generous player incentives made this a comfortable lifestyle for La and I, who also made her living grinding online mtts. Decent bankroll management and a few well timed live scores prior to April 15th 2011 left us in better shape than most when our virtual bankroll was frozen, but our lives were still drastically altered after our freedom to play online poker was taken away.

Our average pre Black Friday day consisted of waking up whenever, having “breakfast”, and grinding out sessions in the upstairs war room. We lived a good life in a nice house close to our friends and family in DFW. A few times a year we would travel to a deep stack tournament series for a change of pace, but the majority of our working hours were spent at home in our boxers and bathrobes. When we went on the road we would take our laptops with us. If there was no action after we busted a live event we could supplement our income with online sessions.

After Black Friday our war room got turned into an arcade.

Dressed up for a day at the office

I used to tease my 9 to 5 friends about my “commute” from the bed to the office upstairs, “traffic was good today” I’d say and laugh. Well, karma is a son-of-a-bitch. After Black Friday we started spending more than half our year on the road. Our “commute” involves lugging 90+ pounds of luggage to an airport, catching a flight with multiple plane changes and layovers, and often ends with extra hours in a shuttle or rental car to reach our remote destinations. We then spend the next two weeks grinding out 14 hour days. Our expenses have tripled and our average “commute” takes the better part of a day each way. I’m a lil jealous of my 9 to 5 friends half hour drive to work now.

The extra expenses and extended travel schedule made keeping a 2600 sq foot house in Texas an untenable burden. It didn’t make sense to spend 2k+ a month on a house when we only spent a week or two of the average month staying there. We moved half our furniture into storage at the end of 2011 and moved into a 1300 sq foot house our friends had available. This location is much less central than our old spot, but it is closer to both the airports and much more affordable for the time we are home.

Our poker room in the old house was a casualty of Black Friday

The decision to stay in a non-poker friendly state like Texas was a tough one, but being close to our friends and family is important to us. Being able to recharge and reconnect, even a few days out of the month, has been invaluable to our motivation and sanity while following this hectic schedule. Being home also allows us to be there for loved ones. My grandfather recently passed away and our decision to stay based in Texas allowed us to be with him and my grandmother in his last days. I’m so glad we didn’t let the DOJ take away these last days together.

My Grandfather and Grandmother’s 70th anniversary

Life on the road has been tough, but there have been positives on our new journey too. Online poker can be very isolating, it’s not so bad for an introvert like me, but La is a social butterfly and needs the interaction. Through her we have met so many wonderful characters and made lots of great friends that are now part of our traveling family. From the PTC crew, the media, players, photographers, writers, and local casino staff we have been lucky to find so many special people to share our time with. We might have met only a handful of these friends if Black Friday hadn’t pushed us out the door.

Just a few of the many friends we share our time on the road with:

In addition to pushing us out the door, Black Friday made me rethink my life. Being forcefully unplugged gave me time to try new things like blogging, investing, and starting a small business. Clearly I have a long way to go with all these endeavors, but the invigorating new directions have brought more depth to a life that used to be dominated by a fairly monotonous routine.

Life on the road can be repetitive too, after awhile all the casinos start to blend together. Ultimately these trips have taught me its not where you are, but how you approach life that determines what you get out of it. Our time on the road has shown me that there is potential everywhere, and when one spot goes away there are always more to replace it for those willing to look. I hope that online poker comes back to the US in a big way, if it doesn’t though, this last year has taught me there are plenty of new games to play.
__

Original content located at whoisdavidclark

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Via WordPress app – just a photo taken off my phone.

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hmm, so the media uploader seems easy enough. let’s do a picture and video.

that was simple enough. now a youtube vid embedded with uploader:

marcos video

manually embedded

now lets try short codes

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This is being posted from my iPhone. With geotagging turned on. Let’s see how it looks, and maybe even add. Photo.

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That set of poker chips you got a few years back may have worked fine when you were playing for peanuts on the kitchen table. But you’ve stepped up in life and need something more befitting a home-game player competing at higher stakes. This mahogany chip case — complete with 500 heavy-weight, 13.5 gram chips — is a perfect living room or office talking-piece to encourage your guest to suggest getting up a game. (Click to buy.)

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Sample Hedline with Link to self
lorum ipse blah blah

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Do you often find yourself strategizing or calculating odds and your friends frequently ask for your advice on how to play poker? Think you know a lot about this game? Well, why not share your experience with the world?

The Pokerist.com application is holding a competition for the best poker strategy article. Take part in our competition — share your tips on how to increase chances of winning this game and become a winner yourself!

Your work may be written, recorded as a voice or video (provided it is a good quality recording) or drawn as a scheme. It must be in English, but you may also write it in your native language as an addition. All works must be original. In order to win the contest not only the content must be informative but it should be entertaining, too. All contestants must post their works on their personal Facebook page, blog, YouTube or MySpace with a reference “Made for Pokerist.com”. The winner will be determined by the number of likes/retweets.

Send links to your works to contest@kamagames.com.

Authors of the first three best guides will receive an offer to join the Pokerist.com team as writers, and their works will be posted on our website with reference to them.

Remember to “Like” this post so your poker buddies can see this too!

Pokerist is a virtual-money application providing Texas Hold’em worldwide on Facebook, Mac, iPhone, and iPad.

I’m back in the office after a great CasinoFest 9 in Tulsa and a fantastic International Masters of Gaming Law Spring Conference in Napa, California. I want to try to put pen to paper in the coming days and do blog posts for both of those events, so stay tuned.

For now, I’ll share the podcast that Sarah Klaphake Cords put together last week in Tulsa. Sarah did her usual wonderful job. Her first guest, Jason Lowry, Senior Director of Casino Operations at the Hard Rock in Catoosa, gave a great interview and had some fascinating thoughts on the dynamics of his local casino market. Sarah and I then chatted about the panel I was on in Tulsa later that day and on the current state of the Canadian gaming market, but Jason was a tough act to follow!

If you can’t get the embedded player to work, the interview is on the CEM site here. Enjoy.

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I know it runs counter to conventional poker(ati) wisdom that this could be true, but, well, it kinda is:

Republicans offered some hope Tuesday to online poker players sidelined by the Obama administration’s “Black Friday” crackdown.

Rep. Joe Barton (R-Texas) is planning to introduce legislation that would legalize and regulate online poker and said he hopes the measure can pass both chambers of Congress this session.

“Poker is a game of skill,” Barton said in defense of the sites during a press conference outside the Capitol.

He suggested those who believe poker to be a game of chance should try playing with their own money against world champion Greg Raymer, who stood behind him at the press conference.

Shockingly, too, most Pokeratizens will probably find this curious:

Barton said he has spoken to the leadership of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, including Chairman Fred Upton (R-Mich.), and hopes to move a bill through the committee in the near future. Barton said the bill is being finalized in consultation with the Poker Players Alliance (PPA).

OK, that’s enough from me — I’m just a morlock, and I’ll probably be locked up for this, but hey…breaking news!

Via genes @ Big Bill Quick’s joint…who’s kind of got his headline wrong, unless I’m so drunk I can’t read the news.

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You can now embed a video as an Author:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=04KQydlJ-qc

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Maybe people are just jonesing to click-and-raise or maybe various industry stalwarts are starting to see the new poker era that dawned upon us on April 15th isn’t all about tearing down Full Tilt and PokerStars [update: and now Doyle's Room] in their battle with the DOJ … it’s about building new structures that will become the basis for the game (and industry surrounding it) in the 21st century. (That’s how Vegas-style implosions work.)

Rise — those clothing makers who you may recall came onto the scene a while back as the people trying to remove the d-bagginess from poker fashion — has partnered with Poker Royalty, the pre-eminent poker representative agency, to launch a new fully legal play-for-free online poker site with real cash prizes. Though I do have to wonder when they say their new poker team will include “some of the most recognizable poker players in the world” … are they talking about pros who may or may not have deals currently with dot-net (lol) online sites or the likes of @kevmath?

ZEN Entertainment, the operation powering the new Rise Poker room, is the group that recently launched the Hustler Casino’s online poker site. Though we weren’t necessarily anticipating a clothing line getting in on the action before more casinos … and two doesn’t necessarily make for a statistical trend … Pokerati is feeling good about our newsy speculation that the upcoming 2011 WSOP may indeed be full of free online qualifiers, which would be kinda different from WSOP’s past.

Read below for the official announcement:

RISE Poker Launches Rake-Free Legal US Online Poker Site
For Displaced Online Poker Players

May 19, 2011 (Las Vegas, NV) – It is a new day for online poker. RISE Poker (www.risepoker.com) today announced the upcoming launch of a U.S. legal, rake-free poker site where players can compete for up to $100,000 in monthly cash and prizes.

RISE Poker is scheduled to launch on Tuesday, May 31, 2011. In addition to $100,000 in cash and prizes, RISE Poker members will have the opportunity to compete for a $10,000 Main Event championship seat at the World Series, a $5,000 kick-off bounty tournament, and other specialty events.

The RISE Poker team will include some of the most recognizable professional poker players in the world. The site will foster a community environment so members can interact with each other and the pros. RISE Poker members will also have access to strategies and tips from the world’s top poker pros and be eligible to receive other valuable benefits and rewards.

“The market could not be better for a new, innovative rake-free site to fill the massive void created by the recent U.S. departures of the largest offshore online gambling sites. RISE Poker will offer these players a safe, secure, U.S. legal option that still offers the thrill of competing for real money cash and prizes,” said Steve “Chops” Preiss, RISE
Poker Executive Vice President of Business Development.

“We plan on changing the way people perceive traditional subscription poker sites and build a brand with long-lasting value for our members,” continued Preiss. “Members can regularly play against and connect with some of the best professionals in the world, improve their game through strategy and training, and be eligible for tangible short- and long-term benefits and rewards.”

Other key highlights of the RISE Poker launch include:

• Tiered membership levels: Members can play for free or pay a $19.99 monthly “Grinder” membership fee for additional benefits. There is also a free Alternative Means of Entry option associate with each membership level.
• Cash and prizes: At launch, RISE Poker will offer members up to $100,000 in real cash prizes, plus opportunities to win entry into premier live poker tournaments.
• Access to top poker personalities: RISE Poker is building a roster of pros who will actively play on the site through bounty and other special tournaments, as well as interact with members.
• Ability to improve your game: Members will have access to training content provided by PokerVT, as well as RISE Poker Team Pros.
• Legal & Secure: RISE Poker is available to customers in 48 U.S. states and additional eligible international markets.
Strategic partners for RISE Poker include:
• ZEN Entertainment, Inc. – The site will reside on the ZEN Entertainment Network®, the leading free-to-play online game network in the industry.
• Poker Royalty – As the industry’s premier talent agency, Poker Royalty will exclusively handle pro sponsorships for RISE Poker.
• RISE Clothing – The poker-inspired lifestyle apparel company will license its brand to the platform and supply VIP club members with gear and other benefits.

ZEN Entertainment CEO Craig Billings said of the venture: “The RISE Poker group is comprised of the preeminent minds in poker today. Working with them represents an exciting endeavor for ZEN. We are impressed with how RISE Poker is going about building its brand and a unique, player-centric approach to its customers. ZEN looks forward to providing best-of-breed, rake-free poker software to power RISE Poker.”

RISE Poker will announce the first Team Pro members in the coming weeks. Register early and be eligible for a $1,000 kick-off free-roll and receive special promotional offers by visiting risepoker.com and entering your email address.

To learn more about RISE Poker, visit www.risepoker.com.
To learn more about RISE Clothing, visit www.riseclothing.com.
To learn more about Zen Entertainment, visit www.zenentertainment.com.

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The DoJ District of Maryland unsealed an indictment today charging multiple online poker and gambling sites of charges similar in nature to the Black Friday indictments last month. While the indictment itself has not been released publicly at this time, the DoJ has a press release describing the action. In all, two businesses and three people are charged, with 11 bank accounts seized around the world.

The following sites are in connection with this indictment:

• Bookmaker.com
• 2Betsdi.com
• Funtimebingo.com
• Goldenarchcasino.com
• Truepoker.com
• Betmaker.com
• Betgrandesports.com
• Doylesroom.com
• Betehorse.com
• Beted.com.

The biggest site poker players will see there is Doylesroom.com, of which their namesake Doyle Brunson left the site just a couple weeks ago. Whether it was excellent timing or Doyle was aware of what was about to happen we can’t be sure, but him leaving the site may, in hindsight, might have been a tip-off to the rest of us that something was off.

One big difference between this set of seizures and the Black Friday group is that the FBI actually opened a fake payment processor to get the business of the offending sites, only to flip when the time was right. An affidavit filed to support a seizure warrant during the investigation noted several laws as justification for the seizure. It should be noted that these are not necessarily the laws that the companies are being accused of, merely the laws used for justification for the seizure:

• 18 U.S.C 1955: The “illegal gambling business” statute that has already been used against the Big Three.
• Maryland Criminal Code Section 12-102: A betting statute that says, in essence, that a resident of the state may neither participate in a bet or wager nor hold money for any particular bet or wager. This is likely the state law that federal officials are using to tie the illegal gambling charges to.
• 31 U.S.C. 5363: Known as the UIGEA to the rest of us, this seemed like a given since money changed hands and the feds actually used a payment processor to gather evidence.
• 18 U.S.C. 1084: This is colloquially referred to as the Wire Act. The reason its being applied here and not in the other cases is because some of the sites involved processing sports bets.
• 18 U.S.C. 1956(a)(2)(a): This is a specific part of title 18 pointing to money laundering in connection with the illegal gambling activities. It appears that a specific law needs to be violated for money laundering to be attached, and the affidavit suggests a link to racketeering activity, and then to illegal gambling.

One notable absent law violation are the bank fraud charges that appeared in the SDNY case. It might be that the sites did things differently in this case, but its too early to tell without the indictment text. Finally, the press release noted a cooperation between the DOJ, IRS, and ICE. @Karak2p2, a regular on the Quadjacks Radio program, noted on twitter that the cooperation made sense, as the DOJ is after the federal law breaking, the IRS for money laundering, and ICE for the potential organized crime angle of running an illegal gambling business.

The indictment, when it is revealed, will contain more information as to the specific charges.

For more links and information about this fast-moving story, check out Scarlet’s post on the same subject.

EDIT (7:20 PM ET): The indictments have been posted online, the two companies have been charged seperately, or at least have separate indictments. Both have the same two counts, one for conducting an illegal gambling business (18 USC 1955) and one for money laundering (18 USC 1956).

ThrillX Systems (beted.com) Indictment

K23 Group Financial Services (BMX Entertainment) Indictment

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The United States Attorney’s office from the District of Maryland took action against two more gambling businesses and three defendants today.  The indictments were unsealed this afternoon.

This is a summary of the situation from an article in the Baltimore Sun:

The indictments, returned late last month and unsealed Monday, are the result of a two-year sting operation by the Homeland Security Investigations in Baltimore, a division of U.S. Customs and Immigration enforcement. The agency set up a phony payment processing business in Atlantic City and spent two years infiltrating the world of illegal online betting.

Agents ultimately handled more than $33 million in transactions and uncovered a thriving criminal community in Maryland and beyond: “There are numerous individuals in Maryland who have authorized payments to these [foreign] businesses,” claims one agent’s sworn affidavit, filed with court records.

Charged in the indictments are ThrillX Systems Ltd. and owners Darren Wright and David Parchomchuk, both of British Columbia, Canada; and K23 Financial Services (known as BMX Entertainment), run by defendant Ann Marie Puig, of San Jose, Costa Rica. They’re all charged with running an illegal gambling business and money laundering through various Web sites seized Monday, including Truepoker.com and Funtimebingo.com.

Banners saying the sites had been shut down were expected to replace the websites Monday, though they had not yet been posted by mid-afternoon

The following links are the current stories on the subject:

Full DOJ press release -> OPERATORS OF INTERNET GAMBLING SITES AND THEIR BUSINESSES INDICTED FOR RUNNING AN ILLEGAL GAMBLING BUSINESS AND MONEY LAUNDERING (h/t @Kevmath)

Article in Baltimore Sun -> Baltimore feds target Internet gambling (h/t @GamingCounsel)

Article in The Republic -> Gambling web sites, international bank accounts seized in federal sting (h/t @Kevmath)

Maryland criminal code link cited -> Section 12-102 in Maryland Criminal Law Code (h/t @AlexRipps)

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I have a feeling the inaugural WSOP million-dollar freeroll might feature some of the best poker we’ll see throughout the WSOP. The unofficial kick-off for the 2011 WSOP activities — and perhaps opening testament to the dramatically reduced relevance of typical patch players this year — gets underway this Friday.

Below is the official list of who gets to play — final save for point and money totals on the nine players who locked up seats yesterday and played (or are still playing) the Southern regional championship at Harrah’s New Orleans today.

NOTABLE:

Plenty of interesting names qualified for 1 of 100 seats over the course of the ever-expansive WSOP-circuit 2010/11 season. And I’m sure some of the best stories come from winners we’ve never heard of … but regardless, several well-known players and a few special-to-Pokerati players will be fighting for 10 payouts ranging from $27,500 to $300,000, including …

La Sengphet (one of only two women who qualified)
David Clark
Josh Evans
Charles “Woody” Moore
Dwight Pilgrim
Allie Prescott
Allen Kessler
Tim West
Bernard Lee
Ali Eslami
Traci Brown (the other female qualifier, also from Texas)
Brandon Adams
Shannon Shorr
Andy Frankenberger

. Player Qualification Points Rings Cashes Winnings . James Anderson Midwest Regional Champ 500 1 1 $525,449 . Chris Bell Eastern Regional Champ 500 1 1 $358,295 . Ali Eslami Western Regional Champ 500 1 1 $282,242 . Chris Klodnicki Eastern Regional FT 475 0 2 $253,757 . Gabe Patgorski Midwest Regional FT 375 0 1 $324,770 . Tim West Western Regional FT 375 0 1 $174,443 . Bernard Lee Midwest Regional FT 320 0 2 $242,950 . Ketan Pandya Eastern Regional FT 300 0 1 $159,851 . Duane Blanchard Western Regional FT 300 0 1 $124,204 . Curt Kohlberg Midwest Regional FT 275 0 1 $174,807 . Micah Raskin Eastern Regional FT 275 0 1 $117,457 . Steve Brecher Western Regional FT 275 0 1 $90,223 . Dwyte Pilgrim Western Regional FT 275 0 4 $86,015 . Dave Sands Midwest Regional FT 250 0 1 $131,299 . Todd Terry Eastern Regional FT 250 0 1 $87,808 . David Peters Western Regional FT 250 0 1 $66,834 . Kurt Jewell Hammond Main Event Champ 242.5 2 6 $285,378 . Matthew Waxman Harrah's AC Main Event Champ 235 1 3 $158,353 . Shannon Shorr Midwest Regional FT 235 0 2 $101,171

. Miller Dao Western Regional FT 230 1 3 $88,734 . Kyle Cartwright Tunica Casino Champ 227.5 3 5 $207,205 . Andy Frankenberger Eastern Regional FT 225 0 1 $66,758 . Dana Kellstrom Western Regional FT 225 0 1 $50,455 . Charles "Woody" Moore S. Indiana Main Event Champ 210 1 7 $145,027 . Brandon Adams Midwest Regional FT 200 0 1 $77,556 . Jason Burt Eastern Regional FT 200 0 1 $51,607 . Tom Franklin At-large 197.5 1 8 $74,929 . Huy Nguyen Choctaw Main Event Champ 190 2 4 $271,536 . Brett Schwertley At-large 187.5 2 10 $120,420 . Tony Hartmann Midwest Regional FT 180 0 2 $63,695 . Nicholas Mitchell Eastern Regional FT 175 0 1 $40,538 . Dylan Wilkerson Western Regional FT 175 0 1 $30,397 . Mstr Lynch Rincon Casino Champ 170 2 4 $157,227 . Kevin Calenzo At-large 170 0 8 $94,586 . Roland Israelashvili At-large 170 1 6 $64,433 . Nick Jivkov At-large 165 1 5 $105,202 . Tuan Bui Le At-large 165 2 7 $56,001 . Jeremy Schwartz At-large 162.5 1 4 $75,238 . La Sengphet At-large 155 2 7 $67,094

. Shiva Dudani At-large 152.5 1 5 $73,799 . Mark Owens Midwest Regional FT 150 0 1 $48,615 . Seth Fischer Eastern Regional FT 150 0 1 $32,362 . Joshua Evans At-large 140 0 7 $85,142 . Seneca Easley Rincon Main Event Champ 135 1 5 $81,413 . Drazen Ilich At-large 135 1 4 $70,272 . Joel Merwick At-large 135 0 7 $43,516 . Samuel Barnhart Tunica Main Event Champ 132.5 1 4 $154,357 . Ian Wiley Hammond Casino Champ 132.5 1 4 $64,360 . Justin Kruger At-large 132.5 1 6 $41,113 . Brian Ali Caesars AC Main Event Champ 130 1 2 $158,911 . Mark Sykes At-large 130 0 5 $69,952 . Matt Lawrence At-large 130 0 10 $52,781 . Peter Ippolito At-large 130 1 5 $40,962 . Bobbie Talbot IP Biloxi Casino Champ 125 0 6 $63,444 . Trevor Deeter At-large 125 0 9 $30,398 . Jessie Bryant At-large 125 2 5 $29,770 . Brent Keller At-large 125 2 3 $25,207 . Brian Walsingham New Orleans Casino Champ 120 2 4 $111,144 . Will Souther At-large 120 1 4 $64,312

. Bruce Hoyt At-large 117.5 1 6 $16,665 . David Clark At-large 112.5 1 9 $59,525 . Steve Zolotow At-large 112.5 0 3 $43,034 . Michael Foster At-large 112.5 0 7 $42,893 . John Holley At-large 112.5 1 4 $31,436 . Peter Mavro At-large 112.5 0 11 $16,200 . Christopher Johnson Caesars Palace Main Event Champ 110 1 2 $157,426 . Travis Lutes IP Biloxi Main Event Champ 110 1 2 $96,855 . Stanley Quinn Lake Tahoe Main Event Champ 110 1 2 $88,438 . Dennis Summers At-large 110 1 3 $39,317 . Scott Clark At-large 110 1 4 $18,233 . Robert Georato Council Bluffs Casino Champ 107.5 1 6 $33,696 . Michael Traylor At-large 107.5 0 7 $54,941 . Matthew Lope At-large 107.5 1 4 $50,807 . Nadir Babck At-large 105 1 7 $26,835 . Brett Richey At-large 105 0 2 $25,574 . Casey Hayes At-large 102.5 0 4 $35,158 . Doug Carli At-large 102.5 0 8 $16,839 . Jonathon Poche NOLA Main Event Champ 100 1 1 $121,017 . Kenny Nguyen Chester Main Event Champ 100 1 1 $94,901

. Blair Hinkle Council Bluffs Main Event Champ 100 1 1 $88,555 . Stephen Kats At-large 100 0 7 $43,522 . David Paredes At-large 100 0 1 $39,346 . Dan Perper At-large 100 0 1 $39,346 . Jesus Cabrera Harrah's AC Casino Champ 95 0 2 $77,440 . Adam Hui Caesars Palace Casino Champ 95 0 3 $60,860 . Andrew Barber Lake Tahoe Casino Champ 95 0 4 $20,744 . Robert Scott Chester Casino Champ 92.5 0 3 $61,369 . Mun Nguyen Caesars AC Casino Champ 87.5 1 2 $33,831 . Kevin Manley S. Indiana Casino Champ 87.5 1 2 $25,498 . Phil Stelzer St. Louis Casino Champ 82.5 0 2 $63,703 . Traci Brown Choctaw Casino Champ 75 0 1 $143,462 . Mike Morton Palm Beach Casino Champ 75 0 1 $130,057 . Harry Cullen Southern Regional FT TK TK TK TK . Allie Prescott Southern Regional FT TK TK TK TK . A.J. Jejelowo Southern Regional FT TK TK TK TK . Kunal Patel Southern Regional FT TK TK TK TK . Gary Friedlander Southern Regional FT TK TK TK TK . Jeremy Gaubert Southern Regional FT TK TK TK TK . Allen Kessler Southern Regional FT TK TK TK TK

. Scott Lipshutz Southern Regional FT TK TK TK TK

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• Team Pokerati’s La Sengphet Wins WSOP-Tunica Event $32k valentine victory with his-and-her circuit rings for Dallas poker couple
• Dallas Pokeratizens Tearing Up Early Choctaw EventsWSOP-circuit ring for David Clark proves he’s not just La’s railbird

This week’s online gambling news included several poker pros as the latest victims of “Black Friday”. Plus, some of the stupidest stories we could find… with a Chuck E. Cheese lawsuit and the end of life on this planet!

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The signs of Rapture are all around us. No, I’m not talking about the idiot who spent his life savings putting up billboards around the country to tell everyone the world was going to end on May 21st. I’m talking about the world in which I exist, the poker world, where we’re clearly in a time loop, as the same things happen over and over again and nobody seems to notice. Déjà vu was certainly the theme for this week’s winners in poker.

Scott Seiver Breaks Through On WPT; Seidel Wins Another High Rzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
WPT Championship & Super High Roller, Bellagio, Las Vegas, Nevada

C/O WPT

There are times in the poker world in which a situation goes beyond explanation. Sometimes players, for no better reason than running bad or random chance, a player will go an extended period of time without a big score. Michael Mizrachi’s previous results at the WSOP leading up to last year’s explosion comes to mind. A player of the caliber of Scott Seiver doing no better 19th place in 5 years of WPT tournaments defies explanation. Unless the explanation was that he was saving up all his rungood for this past week’s $25,000 WPT Championship.

Seiver beat an impressive collection of players in the final six, including 2011 PCA Champion Galen Hall, Justin Young, and Farzad Bonyadi. For his breakthrough WPT performance, Seiver raked in an impressive $1,618,344.

In news that can’t possibly surprise anyone who knows anything about poker, Erik Seidel took down the inaugural WPT Super High Roller Event. 28 of the sickest gamblers of the world decided to put up $100,000 to vie for second place to Seidel. The lucky second place finisher was fellow Team Full Tilt member Erick Lindgren, but the human cybernetic organism that is Erik Seidel walked away with another score of over $1 million, bringing his total for the year to over $5.4 million. Nice life.

Freitez Wins EPT Season 7 Finale; Mercier Wins PokerStars Sponsored zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
EPT Grand Final, Madrid, Spain

C/O PokerStars

The EPT Grand Final, a €10,000 event to conclude an interesting season for the crown jewel of the PokerStars tours featured a “live” broadcast with hole cards on a two-hour delay, sequestering players until their eliminations had “happened” on TV. It’s interesting to see the lengths that they had to go to to broadcast this table on a delay, while the WSOP was able to negotiate just a 30 minute delay between play and broadcast, with no sequestering, but that’s another story for another day.

Two members of Team PokerStars made the EPT Grand Final final table, with Brazilian Alex Gomes chasing a triple crown and Juan Maceiras trying to become the first Spanish-born EPT champion. Both players found the rail early on in Final Table play. Venezuelan player Ivan Freitez was the last man standing, claiming €1,500,000 (about $2.2 million) in the swan song for the EPT’s seventh (!) season.

The following day’s action saw winners from the EPT’s first seven seasons compete for a first place prize of €50,000 in buy-ins to the next season of the EPT. In what should come as a surprise to absolutely no one, Jason Mercier was the champion.

Chris Porter Tops Station Event With for $60K
Sunset Station Casino, Las Vegas, Nevada

C/O Station Casinos

The Station Casinos have created an interesting series of poker tournaments at their various Las Vegas properties. They’re running four separate $1,100 events at four different casinos, each with a $200,000 guarantee, and the top 25 finishers at each casino will compete in a championship event with a $200,000 guarantee of its own, to create a prizepool totaling $1 million for the five events. The most recent event, taking place at Sunset Station, brought in over 200 players, with FullTilt player representative Chris Porter taking down the top prize of $60,000, and a chance at some more in the championship event.

Matt Legard “Positions” Himself For Big Win in New Game at Bellagio
Bellagio Prelim Event, Las Vegas, Nevada

C/O Position Poker

As much as the popularity of poker continues to flourish, there are some innovative minds thinking of “the next step” in the evolution of the game. Most of the time it’s an innovation in bringing in more players or changing the pace of the game, but certain developments, including Rush Poker, have completely changed the way poker can be played. An exciting new version of live poker made its debut during the preliminary events at Bellagio a few weeks ago, and this one is called Position Poker. The key variation of the game is that the player winning a pot gets to act after the button on the following hand. There are a few other intricacies, which you can check out at their website here. The winner of the first ever event was Matt Legard, who won $18,000 for his efforts.

NOLA Wraps the WSOPC With Scramble For Points(+2 rings +Team Pokerati Update +National Championship update)
WSOPC Harrahs New Orleans, Louisiana

C/O WSOP

With the conclusion of the WPT Championship, all eyes in the poker world have turned towards New Orleans, where the last few entries to the $1 million WSOPC National Championship have been grinded out over the last week and a half. There are three methods by which players earned their seats in this event; the grinders who have followed the circuit around all year tried to accumulate enough points for one of the at large spots (including Team Pokerati member Dave Clark, who seems to have squeezed his way in with a few key points at this final stop).

Another option was to be the “Casino Champion” by accumulating the most points at this stop. That spot was snatched up by an impressive performance by Brian Walsingham, who locked up two rings inside of a week. In Event 4, a $355 No Limit Hold’em event was the first ring he won, and in Event #8 he really cashed in. The $1,085 tournament generated a prize pool of over $340,000 and Walsingham took the lion’s share of over $78,000. He also gave himself a chance at $300,000, the top prize in a field of less than 100 that will take place in Las Vegas in the coming week.

The third method? Outlasting 75 players and make the final table of the $10,000 Southern Regional Championship, ensuring yourself of one of the last nine seats in a $1 million freeroll. At the time of publication, there are 12 players left, including Allen Kessler, Allie Prescott and Shannon Shorr. Once the final nine is finalized, we’ll throw a quick update your way.

UPDATE: The Final Nine was just set. The unlucky bubble boy was Shannon Shorr, who ran pocket kings into the pocket aces of Allie Prescott to go out in tenth. Prescott punches his ticket to the National Championship, as do Harry Cullen, Allen Kessler, Jeremy Gaubert, Gary Friedlander, Kunal Patel, Matt Waxman, AJ Jejelowo and Scott Lipshutz. The overall field for the freeroll is unofficially set, but you can look here to see who has “officially” qualified and here to check out how the National leaderboard for at-large qualifiers shook out.

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We thought it was a big deal when PokerStars got T-pain for a night, and then a bigger deal when they brought in @SnoopDogg for a party that certainly won’t be one-upped at this year’s WSOP … but what’s the point with Lady Gaga becoming a farmer?

In many ways it’s a disheartening reminder of what Phil Hellmuth can never be … and possibly indicative of poker’s future direction. Say what you will about the struggling American family farm, clearly there’s more money in virtual harvesting than poker, and hence the biggest name in poker (as far as Google is concerned) — and the most powerful celebrity in the world thanks in part to a song talking about poker — has moved beyond Texas Hold’em to sign with Farmville — and the parent company of the biggest online poker site.

Implications are clear … Zynga is planning to take over American agriculture by introducing poker players to the concept that money can indeed grow on trees. It should play great with the kids (who love Lady Gaga).

At a minimum you can see how Zynga’s at least thinking along the similar lines as Caesars:

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  Even more Poker Faces

UPDATE: It’s official, both La n DC qualified! For the inaugural minor-league Champions League NIT 2011 WSOP-Freeroll World Championship. Whatever it turns out that people end up calling it … we can only hope here at Pokerati for a high-stakes poker lovers’ quarrel at the final table.

La N Dc
MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!! Finally heading HOME! After 3wks of grinding I am happy and proud to say my Baby has successfully crawled his way into the 10k seat freeroll. Great job Baby, so proud of you!! We now have 2shots at 300k

For at least a few players, today is a day kinda like when high-school kids wait to get their college acceptance/rejection letters … waiting to see the final points tally to be official, so they know whether or not they qualified for the WSOP-Circuit National Championship — the $1 million freeroll that will kick off the 2011 WSOP.

Click here for the national leaderboard to see who’s got a seat for sure, and who looks likely as we wait for WSOP officials to turn orange squares into red

Team Pokerati’s La Sengphet is a lock (8th among non automatic qualifiers with 155 points, 2 rings, 7 cashes, $67k) … yay La! You go girl! … and, of course, she also won a non-points pendant for her 1st place finish in the WSOP-Caesars ladies event. And it looks like her other half, David Clark, also will make the cut but just barely (112.5 pts – 1 ring, 9 cashes, $59.5k) … DC made a final table in a non-ring PLO/8 event at WSOP-NOLA for good measure without the points … and he finishes just ahead of Steve Zolotow, who qualifies with the same point total, no rings, just 3 cashes, and $43k in earnings to give you an idea who got in at the bottom of the field.

At the very bottom, interestingly enough, with 100 points, is John Riordan, who won a ring and $210k in Florida. But he will not get a seat this year because he is not yet 21. Will be curious to see how the WSOP handles this case … will he simply get a rain check for when he comes of age? Because if so, when will we see bona fide WSOP-Teen events?!? You know, of course, that I am in the minority willing to admit that I think poker is good for kids.

Another late qualifier is longtime friend of Pokerati’s Josh Evans … who finished 3rd in the WSOP Southern Regional championship last week at Harrah’s New Orleans. Thrilled about that, as it gives us another excuse to re-run that highly acclaimed but not quite award-winning film we created about Josh as he got 6-figure deep in the ’07 main event:

[CORRECTION: Josh got 3rd in the WSOP-NOLA $1,600 main event ... which still gives him enough to qualify (140ish pts, 7 cashes $81k) but did not give him the guaranteed seat as just making a Regional Championship final table does.]

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Remember how awesome SNL and the Onion were when they finally re-emerged after September 11th? Kinda the same thing, but with less death to navigate in the punchlines. Possibly the best episode yet, imho. (And a reminder for all that while we may take our poker seriously, we prolly shouldn’t take ourselves too seriously unless you want to end up like Durrrr and his flamingo.)

I won’t even list the humorous nuggets embedded in the Chase vs. ROFLs matchup … just watch and occasionally press pause when you see small print for refreshingly funny stuff.

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Continuing the trend of poker players signing with brick-and-mortar (and in the case of WinStar tent) casinos … Maria Ho joins Greg Raymer as a celebrity endorser of WinStar Casino in Far Far North Dallas, Oklahoma. Just in time, btw, to begin pimpin their upcoming big River Tourney. Apparently the satellites are about ready to open … and this year they are guaranteeing a $3 million prize pool.

This tournament has grown and grown into one of the biggest of the year in the country … and not that it would be all Ho and Fossilman’s doing … but I have a feeling this year people outside of Texas and Oklahoma will start to take note.

Here’s a little behind-the-scenes vid of Maria’s commercial shoot with the Chickasaw … who by the way, just officially bought Lone Star Park in Grand Prairie, presumably changing the dynamic of Texas gambling legislation, but that’s a story for another time … right now it’s all about the value of Asian poker hotties playing the role of high-stakes cash game player. That and/or being a WSOP main event champion still seem to play well in the poker endorsement world.

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In the Summer of 2009, the Federation Internationale de Poker Association (FIDPA) announced that the Bellagio Cup was the first tournament played under their International Poker Rules. The tournament players and media in attendance were unfamiliar with the FIDPA’s International Poker rules and requested copies, yet none were available.

Several years have since past and the FIDPA almost drifted from memory. However, earlier this week Luske and Lau announced the launch of their new FIDPA website, www.fidpa.com and the publication of  The International Poker Rules (The IP Rules).

FIDPA was founded by professional poker players, Marcel Luske and Michelle Lau, who continue to promote and implement the IP Rules. The IP Rules are a standardized set of technical rules, policies and procedures for tournament play, which incorporate and reference the latest version of the Poker Tournament Directors Association (TDA) rules.

Michelle Lau

“In wake of the recent Black Friday developments in the United States, concerning the ban of online poker, we felt that it was critical to launch the FIDPA website at this time. We believe that poker players and the industry will be well served by a standardized set of written rules. The IP Rules will help bridge the gap, as players make the transition from online to live tournaments, here in the US and when travelling around the world.” ~ Michelle Lau.

The IP Rules consist of 81 technical rules, policies and procedures, in a user friendly format. FIDPA states that The IP Rules are modifiable, seamlessly integrated and intended to provide poker players and the poker industry with a base set of rules. FIDPA assures that subscribers to the new website will be able to view and search FIDPA endorsed card rooms and partners, as well as their modifications to the IP Rules. The FIDPA website promises to provide registered subscribers with official updates to The IP Rules and will be offered the rules in French, Dutch, German, Spanish and many other languages. Card rooms, tournament organizations and service providers can apply online for an endorsement from FIDPA on the new website.

Marcel Luske

“The new FIDPA website and The IP Rules will ultimately have a worldwide impact on the poker world. Poker has become an international sport and it’s time that the industry comes together to operate like it. It is ridiculous that all around the world, we play poker by an unwritten set of rules, not knowing what to expect. Our goal from the beginning was not to dictate how a Tournament Director or card room operates, but rather create a set of player friendly rules and to point out those in the industry that are willing to run fair and friendly poker. As poker players, we need to ask the industry to disclose what those rules are and we need to have a base set of rules so we can easily take notice of their changes. We believe the new site provides the best way for players learn the rules and to help the game of poker to continue to grow.” ~ Marcel Luske

FiDPA International Poker Rules

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  What Did You Think It Stood For?!

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I am not the sort of person that would ever turn a blind eye to information. More importantly, it would be unfair to my readers to suggest that they form an opinion without first providing them with all the information that I have available to me.

There are two sides to every coin. In response to my prior article: “New Coaching Site? or Another PTN Ponzi Pyramid!,” Chris Levick (PokerDomeAA) offered the following dialog on Twitter:

Moreover, any inference that Mr. Levick’s website was unavailable for insidious reasons would appear to be unfounded. As promised by Mr. Levick, his website (www.chrislevick.com) is back up and running again, with all of the original content that I found in the cache.

Accordingly, below are the original blog posts about the Poker Player Academy in Mr. Levick’s own words, including one that I previously missed.

Time For Vegas – Work & Wynn Classic

Vegas is calling and this time I am listening! On Monday I depart Australia’s shores to commence the real work for Poker Player Academy. As many know, we are locating our offices in Las Vegas Nevada so we can be right in the middle of all the action. Poker Player Academy is in the process of [...]

Poker Player Academy Update

Hello Everyone, I was wanting to give you an update on the most exciting opportunity to hit the poker scene in years. It’s called Poker Player Academy. As most of you may already know, last week I signed on as CEO to Poker Player Academy. Since my signing on as CEO, there have been a number of exciting [...]

Historic Deal

An historic deal was concluded this week when I travelled to Thailand. Poker Player Academy LLC is about to be launched, it wont just be another poker training site like all the rest. This business will be using cutting edge web based training methods never before seen. This technology has been described by senior educators [...]

Hopefully this information will help you decide whether or not The Poker Player Academy is a campaign that you should embrace. (I offer this advice to The Poker Player Academy: invest a few moments of your time and add a publicly available “About Us” page to your website so that the general populous can glean some idea about who you are and what you hope to accomplish.)

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