Archive for the ‘News’ Category

Sep 22 2011

David Williams Leads on Day 2 in WPT Borgata

written by: James Comments: Comments Off

The Borgata Casino in Atlantic City, New Jersey once again played host to the World Poker Tour Borgata Poker Open on Tuesday, but this time for Day 2 action. At the start of the day, Abe Korotki led a field of 786 remaining players with 260,100 in chips. His lead didn’t last long and he was ultimately replaced by David Williams, a past WPT champ, as the chip leader.

Vanessa Selbst actually led for much of the day, but was finally passed by Williams shortly after the 14th level of play. Williams finished the day with over 700k chips, and he’s looking very strong for Day 3 despite the encroaching presence of Jack Schanbacher, Erik Cajelais, David Diaz, Eric Haber, Darren Elias and Maurice Hawkins, all of whom are major pros with dangerous chip stacks as well.

A number of other famous poker professionals are also in the running, albeit with smaller chip stacks. This includes Will “The Thrill” Failla, Lee Childs, John Racener, Robert Mizrachi and Matt Glantz. Although they’ll need to put in some serious effort and run into more than a little luck to reach the final table, they could all easily cash as the money bubble extends all the way to 100th place.

Several other pros weren’t so fortunate on Day 2. Maria Ho hit the rail early despite a good showing on Day 1b, and she was joined by Matt Brady, Matt Matros, Christian Harder, Ali Eslami, Steve Dannenmann, Jason Young, Tuan Le, Hasan Habib and Gavin Smith.

With the field whittled down to just 170 players in total, it seems likely that the money bubble could be broken during Day 3. Prizes range from $8,386 to $922,441, one of the biggest live tournament jackpots of the season.

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Sep 21 2011

DOJ names Lederer and Ferguson as Full Tilt owners

written by: Steve Comments: Comments Off

The poker world has long suspected that many of the poker pros on Team Full Tilt poker were shareholders in the company, and after yesterday’s bombshell dropped by the US Attorney for the Southern District of New York, Preet Bahrara, there is little doubt as to the involvement of some of poker’s biggest names in regards to the inner workings of Full Tilt Poker.

Officially named in an amendment to the civil cause that was unsealed on Black Friday were Howard Lederer, Chris Ferguson, and Rafe Furst. Another owner/player that was referred to only as “Player Owner 1” in the amendment is almost assuredly Phil Ivey based on the payment amounts and evidence of millions of dollars in loans, some of which remain unpaid –a story first broken by the website Subject: Poker.

It seems that Furst, Lederer, Ferguson and Ray Bitar were named based on their role with the company (sitting on the board of directors) while Ivey and other owners –the DOJ claimed Full Tilt poker had over 20 shareholders—were not named, possibly because they had very little control/knowledge of the day-to-day operations of the site.

According to the DOJ Lederer owns 8.6%, Bitar 7.8%, Furst 2.6%, and Ferguson 19.2%. A possible reason for Ferguson owning nearly 20% of the company likely stems from his having a major hand in developing the software –as well as being one of the very first investors. “Player Owner 1” received similar compensation to both Lederer and Bitar, (in the $40 million ballpark) so it would seem that this person (possibly Phil Ivey) owned in the neighborhood of 8% of Full Tilt Poker.

While the new charges are only being sought in the civil case –not the criminal case—yesterday’s news does not bode well for the three named players, or for Full Tilt Poker.

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Sep 21 2011

z81ima and Mike Telker Shine on WCOOP Day 16

written by: Will Comments: Comments Off

A total of five players received bracelets on the 16th day of the PokerStars World Championship of Online Poker, and double that number received six figure scores for their performances.

First up was WCOOP 40, a $200 NLHE tournament played over two days. Over 8,300 players attended to create a $1,666,400 prize pool, easily beating the $1 million guarantee. Mike “goleafsgoeh” Leah made a deep run to complement his success in several other WCOOP events, but ultimately busted in 20th for $3,883. The top three spots belonged to z81ima ($225,385), Ryan Daut ($208,500) and bendeauville ($133,312).

Next was WCOOP 42, another two-day NLHE event, but this time with a $1k buy-in. 2,207 players generated a prize pool of exactly $2,207,000. Po77a, who led the field heading into Day 2, managed to hold onto much of his momentum and finished in 4th for $136,834. Mike “munchenHB” Telker took first place for a whopping $353k, and was followed by Joe “joejoe1337″ Whittaker ($265k) and FlipflopUK ($198,630).

HonestPete also received a six figure score in WCOOP 43, a PLO 6-Max Re-Buy with a $300 buy-in. 593 entrants created a prize pool work $539,700. HonestPete singlehandedly eliminated every player at the final table to earn $102,543.

WCOOP 44 was a $300 NLHE Second Chance tournament with a guaranteed $400k prize pool. The event followed the custom of easily besting the guarantee, with 2,080 players contributing to an $811k prize pool. Daniel Negreanu made a respectable run, but ultimately finished 17th for $3,449 after his A-3 fell to A-Q. z0di@c ultimately won the title for just under $130k.

Finally there was WCOOP 45, an NLHE Turbo Knockout with a $250 buy-in. The title belonged to ChernyAV, who finished first to receive $107,891, the single largest tournament cash of his career.

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Sep 21 2011

Madsen Returns from Rail to Lead WPT Borgata Day 1b

written by: Will Comments: Comments Off

The World Poker Tour Borgata Poker Open, currently being held in Atlantic City, New Jersey, is using an unusual format in which players eliminated on Day 1a are allowed to re-enter on Day 1b, so long as they’re willing to pay a second buy-in. Jeff Madsen, one of the early eliminations from Day 1a, took advantage of that rule to great effect on Day 1b. He’ll head into Day 2 with just under 217,000 chips, along with $5,000 cash just for leading the second starting flight.

Madsen was accompanied on Day 1b by 852 other entrants, 143 of whom were also eliminated on Day 1b before deciding to buy in an additional time. This brought the total contestant field to 1,313 with an incredible $922,441 set aside for the winner.

Several players weren’t as fortunate as Madsen. Dwyte Pilgrim, who won the Borgata Poker Open last year, bought in a second time, but was eliminated once again. Pilgrim was drawing dead to an open-ended straight, but received no help on the turn or river and fell to the pocket 10s of his opponent. Chris Klodnicki, Dan O’Brien and Allen Bari met a similar fate.

Some of the players that bought in for the first time on Day 1b and failed to make the Day 2 cut included Michael Mizrachi, Josh Brikis, Olivier Busquet, Nick Frangos, Steve Zolotow, Tony Dunst, Scott Selver, Brett Richey and Ryan D’Angelo.

Maria Ho, Matt Affleck, Robert Mizrachi, Mark Gregorich and David Williams all performed impressively and will return on Day 2 with dangerous stacks. Jennifer Leigh made the cut as well, though she’ll bring less than 6,000 chips to the third official day of action.

The 245 remaining players from Day 1a will join with 545 from Day 1b to form a total field of 786 on Day 2. Only the top 100 finishers will receive a money prize, with $8,386 reserved for 100th place.

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Sep 21 2011

Poker world awaits news from Full Tilt Poker hearing

written by: Steve Comments: Comments Off

QuadJacks.com has turned into one of the top investigators of the Full Tilt Poker saga, evidenced by the site’s recent article linking a cousin of Howard Lederer to the Full Tilt poker store, and QJ.com once again having a representative at the Full Tilt Poker/AGCC hearing taking place at the Riverbank Park Plaza Hotel in London, England.

However, this time around the meeting is taking place behind closed doors (the first meeting was scheduled to be public but was quickly taken behind closed doors as well) so there is little in the way of updates to report on, and neither side has issued any statement at this point.

One scrap of information the QuadJacks reporter was able to pick up on was that the hotel was booked for 48 hours as the QuadJacks Twitter feed stated: “Update: room @ Park Plaza booked for 48 hours, possibly till Wednesday. Hearing today expected to end by 5pm local time, though not certain”

It’s hard to read into this revelation (perhaps the AGCC wanted to do some London sightseeing on the second day, or maybe they just like the Park Plaza Hotel room service) but it would appear that the hearing was scheduled to take place over a two-day period.

Regardless of the reasons, or what is being talked about privately between Full Tilt Poker and the AGCC, it would appear that nothing will change in the aftermath of the meeting: Full Tilt Poker’s AGCC license will likely remain suspended, and the beleaguered online poker room will probably continue to shop around for new investors.

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