Poker Blog and Poker Gossip

The online poker industry and poker community in the US appears to be gradually disintegrating and any effort on the part of senators and poker organizations to get a bill supporting the regulations and legislation of online poker in the US is just not getting to the floor.

Las Vegas Review-Journal writer Howard Stutz, one of the biggest names in the poker news community, does not seem to believe that anything will happen for US online poker legislation this year. “One Wall Street analyst opinion: Internet poker legalization not being attached to the payroll tax bill means the issue is dead for 2012,” stated Stutz to his followers on Twitter.

Stutz also discussed his interview with gaming analyst Chad Beynon, from Macquarie Securities. Beynon believed that individual states will have to take up the issue rather than waiting for online poker legislation in the US to happen. As of now, the state of Nevada is already making plans to move this forward.

The proposal for online poker legislation in the US had been tied into the Payroll Tax Extension bill which was seeking to establish terms on payroll tax cuts and outline unemployment benefits. And as a result, US official dropped it since they did not want it to hold up more important issues involving unemployment benefits and payroll tax.

The efforts of Barney Frank which had the poker community planning happily for a future for poker sites in the US went to nothing and ended Frank quitting and going into a retirement of sorts. It now seems that Harry Reid will also find his suggestions for a bill on online poker legislation in the US will go in the same direction. However, it must be pointed out that the latest effort to secure online poker legislation in the US was not planned well.

Matthew Glantz, a top poker professional who is reputed to be one of the best high stakes US poker players in the world, announced recently that he had heard from Full Tilt Poker shareholders regarding the situation. Although all the information he had gotten was not official, Glantz reported that he had been in contact with several shareholders since his initial blog and shared what he had learned.

The latest update in the Full Tilt Poker situation according to Glantz is that the shareholders have been cautioned against making a public statement on the risk of causing any deterrent to the Tapie deal. They do not want to be blamed for saying anything that might cause the deal to fall apart. It remains to be seen if their silence will have helped the deal between Tapie and Full Tilt Poker, or hindered the buy-out by destroying their reputation with the poker community.

Glantz also reported that insiders in the organization were not too optimistic about the deal. “Even though most of the insiders seem to conclude that there is almost no chance of this deal going through at this point, they don’t want any perception that their words caused the deal to fail,” Glantz stated.

Glantz also decided to support FTP. “I am going to stick to FTP as a whole and the Tapie deal. This is what’s important when it comes to the players getting their money back.”

In his earlier blog post, Glantz had reproached the Full Tilt Poker site for its silence. “Your continued silence is a disgrace. It is not only irresponsible, but also thoughtlessly unfair to the thousands of poker players who have money tied up in your ongoing debacle,” he stated.

Many poker players have spoken up against the Full Tilt Poker, including Negreanu, but were unable to get even a hint of response either officially or “off the record” from the site. For some reason, shareholders have spoken to the fair-minded Glantz and this bit of information may give the poker community much relief.

Poker players who are angry with Full Tilt Poker and are still struggling with trying to get their money out of the accounts will be happy to know that they have a spokesperson in Daniel Negreanu.

Negreanu has been known to be quite vocal about different issues in the poker industry and the US online poker and Full Tilt Poker scam has not escaped his sharp eye. In a recent video that Negreanu posted on YouTube, the poker player sand blasted Howard Lederer, Ray Bitar and Chris Ferguson for not having the decency to respond to player queries or make a statement regarding Full Tilt Poker’s insolvency and inability to pay back players.

All three men, Lederer, Bitar and Ferguson are c- owners of the Full Tilt Poker company and had been marketing themselves as the faces of Full Tilt, inviting players to come and “chat with the pros.”

Negreanu begins on a slightly humorous note regarding Full Tilt Poker. “In a recent blog, I made some comments about Howard Lederer, Chris Ferguson and Ray Bitar, mentioning that something to the effect of old-school Vegas-style baseball bats to the groin for what they’ve done. And you know, I’ve come to realize those comments are pretty harsh, and I’ve had some time to think about what I’d said, and yeah, I think they were absolutely appropriate,” Negreanu stated.

A little later Negreanu turned a little red in the face and spouted steam at them calling them scumbags – an opinion that hundreds of FTP players may in all likelihood agree with.

“I waited a long time, I really didn’t say anything for months, hoping you guys could rectify the situation, but you are scumbags, absolute flat-out scumbags, for ignoring the poker world that you fleeced for as much money as you did, and now you have nothing to say? Are you freaking serious?” he asked angrily.

The only thought that brought Negreanu out of his tirade was an upcoming trip to Brazil and Ireland.

A recent news report discussed the eventuality of a possible poker legislation not being included in the Congressional bill for payroll taxes.

US poker players were excited about the possibility of poker regulations being passed in the payroll tax bill, but these clauses of the bill were dropped. And, however, disappointing the news may be to the poker community, it would appear that this was done for a good and valid reason.

The original bill was to focus on payroll legislation outlining payroll tax cuts and unemployment benefits for Americans. According to a source as mentioned by www.parttimepoker.com, “Airdropping this into the payroll bill wouldn’t sit well with a whole bunch of people from a process standpoint.”

Indeed, the outrage following the UIGEA and the way its altered rules on online gambling payments to offshore sites had been sneaked in to a Congressional bill, fully altering the state of affairs of online poker in the US is a good example of why not to do this. It should also be noted that the payroll tax bill has enough riding on it without the addition of a hot topic like that of regulating online poker in the US being “airdropped” on it and jeopardizing the entire thing.

However, since US lawmakers like Senator Harry Reid are actually entertaining ideas on setting up regulations for online poker, it may be a good idea to formulate a bill exclusively for online poker explaining and outlining its regulations, requirements and legislation perimeters. A spokesperson from Sen. Reid also made a statement to Politico confirming for a fact that internet poker legislation will not be a part pf the payroll tax bill.  In the meanwhile, players will have to wait for another Congressional session and another bill to take this issue to task.

Vadzim Kursevich emerged as the champion of the Deauville Main Event of PokerStars.fr European Poker Tour (EPT) 2012, after beating a huge field of 889 players. He rose from the main event final table, which came to an end on Monday night, with a large prize of EUR875,000.

When the finals commenced, Mick Graydon who held the shortest stack of chips was knocked off after two hours. The chip leader at the time was Paul Guichard. The next poker player to be knocked off the table was Luca Pagao, a member of Team PokerStars Pro. Olivier Rogez and Bruno Jais finished in the sixth and fifth places, respectively.

This was followed by a one-hour break after which the game commenced, more exciting than ever. This time Trong was the chip leader, but he lost most of them to Kursevich during the course of the game. With Trong off the table, Kursevich could concentrate on defeating all the short-stacked players at the table. Thus, Yorane Kerignard found himself out of the game.

During the final phase of the tournament, Guichard and Kursevich were left playing heads-up against each other. Although Kursevich had the larger stack of chips, Guichard played so well that the chip stacks appeared more or less equal. However, the odds worked in Kursevich’s favor, and since he displayed a stronger hand, the tournament came to an end with Kursevich finishing first and Guichard finishing second.

According to the final results, the champion of the game Vadzim Kursevich won a cool prize of €875,000. Paul Guichard, who finished second, and Vuong Than Trong, who finished third, won €557,000 and €328,000, respectively.

Yorane Keringnard, Bruno Jais, and Olivier Rogez, who finished fourth, fifth, and sixth won €260,000, €200,000, and €155,000, respectively. Luca Pagano and Mick Graydon, who finished seventh and eight won €110,000 and €67,200, respectively.

According to Laurent Tapie, the managing director of Groupe Bernard Tapie (GBT), the French investment company, the acquisition of Full Tilt Poker (FTP) will be completed by February end if everything goes as planned.

Full Tilt Poker collapsed after the US federal government cracked down on US online poker in mid-April last year, seized the site’s domain names, and indicted its chief executive officers on counts of money laundering, bank fraud, and illegal gambling.

Tapie also said that, according to the acquisition deal, GBT will renew FTP’s Alderney Gambling Control Commission (AGCC) license after acquiring the online poker room for around $80 million from the Department of Justice (DoJ).

Meanwhile, Leonard B. Sand, the US federal judge, has delivered a verdict, in which the class action complaint filed against Full Tilt Poker and companies and individuals associated with it has been dismissed. The defendants are Full Tilt Poker, Filco, Pocket Kings Limited, Vantage Limited, Ray Bitar, Tiltware, Nelson Burtnick, and professional Full Tilt Poker players such as Allen Cunningham, Patrick Antonius, Gus Hansen, Andy Bloch, Mike Matusow, and others.

The judge has dismissed this case because it is not clear whether the plaintiffs are unable to gain access to their funds because of the DoJ crack down or because of firms associated with FTP, or poker pros.

According to the court ruling, the case can be continued against Vantage Limited, Filco, and Pocket Kings, but not against the individual professional poker players mentioned in the list of defendants. Judge Sand stated that Pocket Kings, Filco, and Vantage Limited together maintained the FTP website, owing to which it can be inferred that they prevented the plaintiffs from gaining access to their poker funds.

The judge therefore dismissed the class action suit against all defendants except Filco, Pocket Kings, and Vantage. The case against Pocket Kings Consulting and Tiltware stands dismissed.