Poker Blog and Poker Gossip

Daniel Negreanu shocked the poker community with his comments about Annie Duke, when he called her a “F***ing C***” in a public interview. Although Duke has been known to have occasionally rubbed people the wrong way on account of her strong personality and has been the subject of criticism by many, Negreanu’s choice of words has left poker fans all across the world quite disappointed in him. Some have even called the player a misogynist.

Ms. Duke, a poker champion in her own right, has starred on the show Celebrity Apprentice and is known for her charity work in Darfour. Negreanu made these remarks in response to a question related to the Ladies WSOP, which recently permitted men to attend Apparently, Negreanu was incensed at the use of tampon shaped clips as card holders and Shaun Deeb who wore a dress to the event. Duke was supposed to have commended the players on getting into the spirit of things ands said, ‘Good for you, men, standing up for sexual equality.’ Negreanu called her words “baloney,” and told his interviewer that duke had later posted a statement on her blog where she claimed that the Ladies WSOP should have been abolished. Negreanu did not like this any more than he approved of her website message and said, “What irked me is that this woman has the audacity on her website to call herself ‘the best female poker player in the world’. So on one side of the coin she’s fighting for, ‘Oh, we’re all equal, there shouldn’t be any gender thing,’ but when appropriate she decides to call herself the best female poker player in the world.

So I’m like ‘how offensive are you, you f***ing c***? You want to say you’re speaking for women, yet you claim superiority over all of them.”

Negreanu is known to be a bit of “big mouth” and has fallen under public criticism for some other comments related to racism that he had made concerning the BET channel. What this mouth off will cost him is yet to be seen.

Alexa Fisher, may look like an ordinary little girl, but is in fact a poker professional in the making. Her favorite game is Omaha and when asked to choose between Disneyland and the World Series of Poker, this seven year old opted to visit the WSOP events in Vegas! So far, she has defeated Annie Duke (in a game of rock, paper and scissors) had ice cream with Barbara Enright and met Phil Hellmuth, Vanessa Hellabuyck and Johnny Chan.

Although she is too young to compete in poker tournaments, this little poker prodigy knows how to play more poker games than your average poker player. She has already mastered the rules and game play of over H.O.R.S.E., Omaha, Badugi and Deuce-to-seven lowball. Reportedly the little girl knows all poker disciplines to compete in the WSOP, but naturally will not be allowed to compete until she is legally of age in 2024.

She currently plays poker with her parents and has been taught to play real money games with them. And, despite not being able to properly pronounce the word “professional,” this adorable little girl aspires to be one. According to Alexa, “I know how to shuffle and deal the cards, raise, check, fold, and bluff. I also know how to play deuce-to-seven lowball, H.O.R.S.E., and badugi. I can now play any poker game with the best poker players in the world!”

Currently in first grade in Sippel Elementary in Texas, Alexa is straight-A student and has a fondness for mathematics –which may do her good in poker when she learns more complicated sums as she grows up. Her father is quite proud of his daughter and spoke about her poker skills saying, “She goes in levelheaded, and leaves levelheaded.”

Alexa is in no way a master poker player, and admits losing to her parents – although she has won sometimes as well. However, little Alexa also has a poker bankroll of her own and has played in charity poker games with some of the best poker players in the industry.

Samuel McMaster Jr, an ex insurance and securities agent and a professional poker player, was recently apprehended on 26 counts of felonies in the state of New Mexico. McMaster stands to face a maximum of 12 years on prison for charges of fraud, selling unregistered security while he was an unlicensed broker-dealer.

His sentence is pending for May 2011, giving McMaster almost 6 months to acquire the money and pay his victims back. The court is allowing the convicted felon to travel in the US and play poker in an effort to win the money for his 20 or more victims.

In this strange case of irony, McMaster who apparently liked to play poker with other people money will now have no choice but to play poker with his own funds and earn that same money back or face a sentence of 12 years. A 12 year sentence may almost end up a life sentence for McMaster who is currently 59 years old, leaving his victims with justice but no money. This may be why the court has allowed the felon to play poker and win back the money.

McMaster who had worked with the Santa Fe Financial Group, has stolen almost half a million dollars from the firm’s clients to fund his poker games. According to Phyllis H. Bowman, the lead Prosecutor “the financial records showed a lot of withdrawals from ATM machines at different casinos and we have lots of evidence to show he likes to play poker.”

McMaster has made a lot of money at the tables over the years, made an unusual plea to the court stating that he would pay $7,500 per month in restitution to those clients he had wronged. John Rhinehart, who is McMaster’s lawyer, came up with this deal which allows the felon to play poker tournaments and cash games in the US, but not get involved in the security industry.

“We do have the unusual case here where we are agreeing to delay sentencing for a period of time to allow Mr. McMaster to set a track record as to whether or not he can pay back $400,000 in restitution,” said Bowman.

Longest. Post Title. EVER.

Alright, so i read
today in “The Financial Times of London”(note, the link sucks, as after about 20 seconds you have to register
to read the article….i’ll summarise, but you can feel free to click
to the source if you can handle the registering…i barely could..)
that Full Tilt Poker is currently being investigated by a Federal Grand Jury in Manhattan.  The investigation is solely structured around weather specific gambling and or civil laws have been broken by the online poker room.

From the Financial Times:

FBI
agents or prosecutors have spoken to at least two people involved in
disputes with Full Tilt, paying special attention to the possibility of
money-laundering violations, those familiar with the inquiry say.

As
the investigation is under way at the moment (and, has apparently been
ongoing for a little while..) no one is commenting and no direct
information is getting out.  There have, however, been allusions to the
investigation looking to prosecute or consequence any pro players who
are associated with Full Tilt poker.

Now, in my opinion, this looks like a scare tactic brought on by the short time left before UIGEA comes into effect.  If you make the public see poker as an evil, addictive, money-laundering and illegal pass time, you will have more public support to muscle ahead with the outdated UIGEA.
If on the other hand, if people see all the good poker players do
(there are many reports of poker sites participating in fund-raisers for Haiti, as well as many other acts of selflessness), and realise that it is an acceptable pass time for most American’s, they will have a very difficult time holding back Barney Frank, the PPA, and all the others who see the potential for poker to do more good even than it does now.

A lot has been said about Isildur1.  He burst onto the scene in 2009,
and quickly went to the highest stakes of Full Tilt’s tables, facing
off against some of the biggest names in live and online poker.  PhilIvey, Patrik Antonius, Tom Dwan and many more have traded blows regularly with Isildur1, so much so that Isildur1 has become known for his wild swings as much as his mysterious real life identity.

He is generally accepted, and referred to as “the Swede” on Bankrollboost and other publications, but over the last year and a half it has been suggested his identity is Todd Brunson, Jonas Danielsson.  No one knows for sure who he is, but Viktor Blom the 19 year old Swede is first on most peoples lips, and it seems for good reason.  Luke “FullFlush” Schwartz, a fellow high stakes player has come out as “confirming” Blom is Isildur1.  This is what he said with regard to the question is Viktor Blom Isildur1?

Yes,
yes, yes. He’s probably one of the best – if not the best – no-limit
heads-up player in the world but he can still go broke every single
time he opens the laptop. He’s younger than me, he’s 19 so that’s going
to happen to him for a few years. I’ve matured as a player and I’m not really looking to have the hugest swings at the moment.   He’s only ever got a maximum of 20 buy-ins for any game he’s playing and [because] he doesn’t ever quit he can’t book a win. That’s a massive problem some players have. Isildur1
can play a 48-hour session, be up $5m at one point, but then in the
last two hours it’s all gonna go. He’s obviously got degenerate
problems like that but he’s also got a big heart for the game, likes to
gamble and he’s very, very good.

That’s a far cry from Viktor publicly confirming his identity, but appears to put on record that most people who play against both Isildur1 and Blom can pick up similarities in their game play.  It seems that the general opinion in the professional poker world is that it’s Blom…now he just needs to confirm it. 

Forums and Poker Blogs are swirling with the unconfirmed story that an 8 year old named “littlepokerwizard” has won $500,000 on an unidentified poker site. 

The story originated from a Tumblr.com blog, and has snowballed from there.  Absent are any details that can be verified, the current claim is that there is a legal suit running in New Delhi that pits and 8 year old “poker prodigy” against an unidentified online poker site.  The complaint?  They are refusing to pay out a win of 22,912,500.38 Rupees ($500,000) due to account fraud.  ApparentlyAashish Nanak signed up to the poker site through his uncle, although how he won the money is another detail left out of the original post. 

The case is (apparently) in an unspecified court as the poker site is refusing to pay due to a breach of standard industry Terms of Service re: underage play and account fraud.  However, the legal team for the 8 year old argues: “that the registration details belong to Aahish’s uncle and that at no time was it stated that Aashish could not play in the games.”  The lawyers for the gambling website, however state “that legally they do not have to pay out the winnings, as Aashish is under age, and are accusing him of entering false details.”

Is this an early April Fools joke? Is this an 8 year old poker prodigy?? I’m not really sure yet….given the lack of information and vagueness of the information that was given, i’m going with early April fools joke!