According to the website Subject: Poker, the Merge Gaming Network is soon to become the latest victim in the ongoing crackdown against US online poker rooms initiated by the Department of Justice on April 15, 2011: Henceforth known as Black Friday. According to the report in Subject: Poker the Department of Justice will be cracking down on the merge gaming network and associated payment processors in mid to late September.
While the precise actions that will take place are unknown, Subject: Poker is reporting that:
“the US Attorney’s Office for the District of Maryland plans to seize the assets of payment processors who facilitated transactions between the Merge Network and its US customers. It is unclear exactly which payment processors are reportedly being targeted, whether indictments are planned in addition to seizures, or whether the DOJ intends to seize domain names as well”
While the initial reports seem to point to payment processors being the main targets, it’s unclear how the Merge Gaming network sites will fit into all of this. The Merge Gaming Network has been somewhat cooperative with the DOJ in the aftermath of Black Friday, but many of the sites still allow US players to partake in their games, as long as they registered before Black Friday.
The Merge gaming network is currently the largest online poker site(s) still accepting US players, despite the site stopping new US registrants beginning in May.
We will keep you abreast of any new details as this story continues to develop.
Sep 13 2011
Annie Duke promotes EPL and new book on late night talk circuit
written by: Steve Comments: Comments Off
It’s not too often that a poker player warrants an appearance on the late night talk show circuit –typically this requires winning the World Series of Poker Main Event—but Annie Duke bucked that trend this week as she appeared on the Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson to tout her new poker book Decide to Play Great Poker as well as the Epic Poker League.
Duke’s segment came at the tail-end of the show, and even though Ferguson tried to move the conversation all over the map (he’s obviously not a poker aficionado) including into the legality arena, at one point asking if poker was illegal, Duke was able to keep the interview focused on the Epic Poker league as well as her book.
Duke is a bit of veteran when it comes to television, and handling the talk show circuit, having been a finalist on the Celebrity Apprentice, so it should come as no surprise that she acquitted herself quite well, which may lead to a few more poker players getting the chance to plug upcoming projects on the late night talk scene. To find the last great poker spokesman you’d have to go back all the way to Amarillo Slim in the late 70’s and 80’s, when the colorful Texan was something of a regular on the Tonight Show.
The Epic Poker League and the Late Late Show both appear on CBS –likely a major reason Duke was able to get booked on the show. You can watch the segment on CBS.com, Duke comes in at about the 32 minute mark.
To say that Ilari “Ilari FIN” Sahamies, the player better known by his “Ziigmund” handle on Full Tilt Poker, has turned his year around would be an understatement. In the spring, online poker forums were rife with speculation that Samamies’ bankroll was almost depleted given a series of downswings. This past week, Sahamies made history twice when he won the biggest and second-biggest pots ever recorded on PokerStars, the world’s biggest online poker site.
The first pot came in a game of PLO at the $200 / $400 stake level, against incredibly talented players including Andreas “Skjervoy” Torbergsen, bernard-bb, Rafi Amit, Phil Galfond and socutiesf. Sahamies scored an ace-high flush to dominate bernard-b’s triple aces, winning a stunning $421,826 in the process.
A little while later in that same game, lightning struck a second time for Sahamies when he completed a straight draw on the turn after both Torbergsen and socutiesf pushed all-in. This time, the pot totaled $283k, making it the second-largest pot awarded in a cash game on PokerStars.
Although some of the money obviously continued to change hands throughout the 10-hour game, Sahamies remained largely dominant and ended as the week’s biggest winner, adding an incredible $545k to his bankroll. Fellow Finlander Jens “Jeans89″ Kyllonen had a strong showing as well, earning just over $248k across 7,785 hands to finish in the 3rd-place position. The aforementioned socutiesf did even better, earning over $387k to finish second for the week. Phil Galfond rounded out the top four with $181k in positive earnings.
The week wasn’t so kind to fan favorites Torbergsen and Viktor “Isildur1″ Blom. Torbergsen bore the brunt of it, losing a staggering $491,610 in 78 sessions comprising 5,480 hands. Blom didn’t fare much better, dropping $439k. Blom’s relative lack of volume (only 2,776 hands) may explain some of his misfortune.
After five days of furious action (including two starting flights on separate days) at the Epic Poker League’s second Main Event, Mike “Timex” McDonald emerged as champion. He bested 96 opponents to win an EPL champion’s ring and a first-place prize worth $782,410.
The final table included some of the brightest stars in live tournament poker, with McDonald up against names including Nam Le, Isaac Baron, Sean Getzwiller, Dutch Boyd, Erik Seidel, David Steicke and Fabrice Soullier.
Eliminations began shortly after play kicked off for the day. Dutch Body hit the rail after Erik Seidel’s pair of aces bested his pair of jacks. Getzwiller, the last remaining Pro/Am qualifier, was next to go. His impressive performance will allow him to buy into EPL Main Event 3 directly instead of through a Pro/Am.
Isaac Baron and Nam Le were the next players to hit the rail, the latter elimination occurring on just the 46th hand for the day. The pace of play slowed considerably from here on out with five hours passing before Erik Seidel was bumped from the tournament in the 4th place position. Seidel is now one of the most dominant players in the EPL, given his 2nd-place finish in Main Event 1.
Another extended period passed before the next elimination. Fabrice Soullier finally bowed out when his A-10 suited hand couldn’t hold up against McDonald’s A-Q offsuit.
With only two players remaining, the rest of the Main Event would be relatively brief at just 23 hands. When heads-up play began, Steicke and McDonald had similar chip stacks. After a couple of minor battles, Steicke pushed all-in with K-2 only to be beaten by McDonald’s A-4, given a board that offered no help to either player. Steicke earned a respectable $506k for his runner-up finish.
The second official day of action at the Epic Poker League Main Event 2 played out yesterday at Las Vegas’ Palms Resort Casino. Exactly 50 players started the day and the field was whittled down to just 23 with several levels of action.
Fabrice Soulier is the player occupying the top spot on the leaderboard, with a healthy chip stack of just over 453k.
A good portion of Soulier’s chips came in a massive pot taken from Greg Mueller. Soulier boldly called with 9-9 against Mueller’s Q-J suited. The board was no help for either player, giving Soulier the pot and Mueller the rail. A similar incident occurred later on, when Andrew Robl pushed all in with Q-10 suited against the K-6 suited of Soulier. Kings on both the flop and the river secured the pot for Soulier and eliminated Robl.
A number of other hugely popular fan favorites were sent to the rail as well, including Huck Seed, Tom Dwan, Mike Matusow, Phil Hellmuth and current WSOP November Niner Ben Lamb. All but three of the Pro/Am qualifiers are now eliminated as well, with the exceptions being Sean Getzwiller, Nam Le and Jaime Kaplan. Kaplan wasn’t as strong as on Day 1, but still managed to carry 245,000 chips into Day 3.
Some of the more notable names that still remain in the tournament include Matt Giants, Isaac Baron, Adam Levy and Erik Seidel, all of whom cashed in EPL Main Event 1. Chino Rheem, the outright winner of Main Event 1, remains as well. They’ll need to make the top 12 in order to be payed out this time.
Players will reconvene for Day 3 tomorrow, when the remaining players will be pared down to a final table of eight. A total of $2.3 million is up for grabs.
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