Ten days ago, the U.S. Department of Justice cited Rafe Furst, Chris Ferguson and Howard Lederer as defendants in its civil indictment against Full Tilt Poker. In short, this gives the DOJ legal recourse to sue the three individuals for everything they’re worth.
Since then, poker professionals the world over have taken to social media sites and blogs to voice their opinions on the matter. The highlights are below:
Tom Dwan: “Super happy with the DOJ’s actions today. Restores a little faith in government for me.”
Brian Hastings: “Paying players is most important but having words ‘Ponzi scheme’ tossed around in online poker article is very bad for future in U.S.”
…and a few days later…
“FTP management just baffles me. Longterm EV for owners would be infinitely higher if they ran it well rather than taking all the profits. So essentially they screwed customers over while also hurting personal EV and risking jail time. Brilliant.”
JC Alvarado: “This is what happens when you leave $443 million in the hands of people who’s maxim all through the 90s was, ‘if you can’t spot the sucker…’”
Perhaps the single best reaction belonged to Mike “Timex” McDonald, who in on the committee that decided to suspend Ferguson and Lederer from the Epic Poker League: “When I got ‘Howard Lederer’s Secrets of NLHE’ DVD for my 15th birthday,” he said, “I never imagined that one day I’d be voting him out of a poker league.”
Another amusing quote came from Adam Junglen: “If I ever get my FTP money my family is getting the sickest Christmas ever.”
Other players including Daniel Negreanu, Dan O’Brien, Kathy Liebert, Tony Dunst and Tony G sounded off as well, with the consensus being disgust that FTP was paying dividends to their sponsored pros with player deposits, not company profits.
What’s your reaction to the ongoing Full Tilt Poker saga? Let us know in the comments section below.
Sep 29 2011
Grzegorz Gosk Victorious in Estrellas Poker Tour Ibiza
written by: James Comments: Comments Off
The second season of the Estrellas Poker Tour, sponsored by PokerStars, came to a conclusion last weekend in Ibiza, Spain, an island known for its all-night club-hopping and thriving dance music scene. A total of 426 players convened at the Casino Ibiza, each paying buy-ins of 1,000 Euro to generate a 372k Euro prize pool.
After five days of intense action, it was Grzegorz Gosk of Olstyn, Poland who emerged victorious to win the title along with the 92k Euro grand prize, an impressive feat indeed considering the highly skilled, Spanish-dominated final table makeup.
Gosk, a 20-year-old information technology student, has only been playing poker since the age of 17. Gosk played a tight game throughout the tournament, ending Day 1 with the chip lead and maintaining a respectable stack through Day 5.
Final table action began with Gosk fifth on the leaderboard. He quickly eliminated Rael Paez, who held pocket kings, on a risky call with A-J. Eventually, Gosk finished heads-up play against Alvara Santamaria, arguably the most dangerous player in the Estrellas Poker Tour, with ace-queen over ace-four. Santamaria received buy-in packages to all EPT Season 3 events for his runner-up finish.
A number of Spanish poker pros made deep runs in the tournament, including Juan Manuel Pastor and Juan Macieras of Team PokerStars Pro in addition to Nacho Guerra, Mikel Allende, Maria Macieras, Alvaro Marino and Leo Margets. A few international pros made appearances as well, including Sam Rasavi and Christophe de Meulder.
Tournament organizers were especially good to the contestants, paying for their evenings at clubs such as Space and Pacha. An official party was even held at Privilege, one of the largest night clubs in the world. Season 3 of the Estrellas Poker Tour will kick off early in 2012.
Sep 29 2011
Full Tilt Attorney “Investors are totally committed”
written by: Steve Comments: Comments Off
On Tuesday, Full Tilt Poker released another statement via one of their attorney’s Jeff Ifrah. Ifrah spoke to the poker website PokerStrategy.com –the second such instance that Full Tilt poker has released an exclusive through PokerStrategy.com—where he explained the current situation regarding the possible sale of Full Tilt Poker to a group of French investors:
“The investors are totally committed to doing this- we’ve met with them and seen the funds. Their primary concern right now is the AGCC’s decision on Full Tilt’s license. The investor’s position is that if Alderney revokes the license, they won’t go through with the deal because it makes things too difficult.”
“They called and volunteered to discuss their commitment directly with the commissioners. Without hesitation, they are prepared to review the terms of their offer. Additionally, they’ve hired a prominent and respected lawyer in the gaming industry and are setting up a meeting with the DOJ to try and work out the issues Full Tilt has in the U.S.”
It’s strange to see that the stated sticking point has to do with Full Tilt Poker’s AGCC license. The license itself is simply suspended, and the AGCC would obviously reinstate it once players’ funds were released. Any assurance by the investment group would likely be enough to persuade the AGCC to sign-off on reinstating the license once the deal is complete.
It should be noted that this is not the first time that a representative of Full Tilt poker has claimed a deal was imminent, so take the news for what it is. But any hope at this juncture will be a welcome relief to Full Tilt poker players who still have substantial sums of money frozen on the site.
Sep 29 2011
European Poker Tour Season 8 Continues Today in London
written by: Will Comments: Comments Off
The eighth season of the European Poker Tour (EPT), sponsored by PokerStars, continues on September 29th, and the professional poker community is gearing up for what could be the best event of the series. The event in question is the EPT London Festival of Poker, which will be held through October 6th at the famous Hilton London Metropole. The Festival of Poker’s Main Event comes with a 5,250 pound buy-in.
A number of Team PokerStars Pros have finalized their plans to register for the EPT London Festival of Poker, including Liv Boeree, Jason Mercier, Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier (who currently tops in EPT Leaderboard in terms of points), Daniel “KidPoker” Negreanu and online poker phenom Viktor “Isildur1″ Blom. Fatima Moreira de Melo and tennis legend Boris Becker of Team PokerStars SportStars are also set to make appearances.
There’s still no definite word on whether David Vamplew, the winner of the 2010 EPT London Main Event, will return to defend his title. Vamplew earned the title and an incredible 900k pound grand prize after besting 848 runners, including John Juanda in heads-up play. Other former champions including PokerStars pro Vicky Coren along with Joseph Mouawad, Michael Martin and Aaron Gustavson.
Aside from the aforementioned Main Event, EPT London will feature a 5,250 pound Heads-Up event, a 550 pound Women’s Event, a 2,150 pound 8-Game Championship and a ridiculously-priced 20,500 pound High Roller. A number of NLHE and PLO events with more affordable buy-ins are planned as well.
Three additional EPT Season 8 events are scheduled for 2011: EPT San Remo in Italy from October 21st through 27th, EPT Loutraki in Greece from November 15th through 20th, and EPT Prague in the Czech Republic from December 5th through 10th.
PokerStars was giving away a mountain of prizes to the top three finishers in the 2011 World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP) Player of the Series race, and it was Joel Adam “2FLY2TILT” Gordon who would take home the lion’s share of those prizes after capturing the coveted title.
Gordon edged out a player using the screen-name “Big_Nemo” to claim the Player of the Series title, while a very well-known player finished in the #3 spot on the strength of 12 overall cashes in the tournament series; that player being the face of Team PokerStars Pro, Daniel Negreanu.
Gordon picked up a number of different prizes for the win including a 2012 PCA package, a 2012 EPT Grand Final package, a SCOOP Main Event entry, a PokerStars WCOOP Player of the Series trophy, and a commemorative chip set. “Big_Nemo” will walk away with a SCOOP ticket, a PCA package, and a commemorative chip set for finishing second on the Player of the Series leader-board. Team PokerStars Pro Daniel Negreanu will take home a SCOOP ticket and a commemorative chip set for his 3rd place finish in the Player of the Series race
In other WCOOP news: Two players managed to pick up their record third WCOOP wins this year: Dan “djk123” Kelly and Anders “Donald” Berg, joining Ryan “g0lfa” D’Angelo as the only three-time WCOOP winners. Kelly won two WCOOP tournaments, as well as the Player of the Series award back in 2009, while Berg not only won WCOOP bracelet #3, but nearly picked up his fourth WCOOP win in 2011 as well, finishing in 2nd place in Event #47.
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