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Ben Lamb Ranks First in Card Player’s POY

Ben Lamb, who came in third place in the Bluff Magazine Player of the Year Award, did a little better in the Card Player Magazine Player of the Year rankings—three places better-coming in first place. Lamb also won the 2011 World Series Poker Player of the Year award. Thanks to his superior run in the WSOP in which he landed his first bracelet and cashed an addition four times, not to forget his third place finish in the Main Event Championship.

Only one other player, Daniel Negreanu, has won both the WSOP POY award and the Card Player Magazine POY in the same year. Chris Moorman, from the UK, took the second place spot on Card Player’s POY list. Eugene Katchalov, who took first place in the Bluff Magazine Poker Player of the Year rankings, placed ninth in Card Player’s rankings. The reason for a variance in players across the various POY lists is the formulas used by each to determine points for tournaments won, final table finishes, and cashes. There are a couple main players though who managed to make both the Card Player list and the Bluff Magazine list.

Bluff Magazine POY Award Goes to Eugene Katchalov

The 2011 Bluff Magazine Player of the Year race was one of the closest races yet, but Team PokerStars Pro Eugene Katchalov was ultimately victorious over Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier by only 18 points.

Katchlov started out the year with a bang at the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure, taking the first place title from Daniel Negreanu in the $100K Super High Roller event and winning a $1.5 million purse and foreshadowing what would be a year of epic success for the almost 31-year-old native Ukrainian native raised in Brooklyn, New York.

Katchalov went on the win his first World Series of Poker bracelet at the 2011 WSOP, make the final table at another 2011 WSOP event, and final table the Epic Poker League Main Event. He also finished third in the European Poker Tour Barcelona Main Event, all the while blazing past $7 million in career tourney earnings, putting him at the 36^th spot for all-time money earner.

He finished out the year with 1,089 points on the Bluff Magazine Player of the Year standings. Grospellier took the number two spot with 1,071 points; Ben Lamb came in third with 988 points. Pius Heinz, 2011 WSOP Main Event Champion, came in 10^th place with 892 points for the year.

The first Bluff Magazine Player of the Year Award was given to Phil Ivey in 2005. Since then, the Bluff POY listing has become a prestigious and creditable catalogue of the year’s most successful poker tournament players. The 2010 award went to Sorel Mizzi.

DOJ’s Stance on the Wire Act is Merely an Administration’s Opinion

Is the recent news from the DOJ regarding the 1961 Wire Act and its application only to sportsbetting (not online poker) too good to be true? Some legal analysts say don’t count your chickens before they’ve hatched.

An online gaming expert and Las Vegas attorney with Lionel Sawyer & Collins, Greg Gemignani, says of the recent DOJ announcement, “This is just an opinion of the Department of Justice and only reflects what the Obama administration would bring charges on. Future departments of justice could interpret the Wire Act differently.”

The opinion of the DOJ can at any time be reversed and withdrawn. Courts can intervene, voiding the DOJ’s memorandum. If Congress passed the DOJ’s ruling into law, then the “opinion” would become permanent, but for now, it’s merely opinion.

An attorney who specializes in gambling laws with K&L Gates LLP in Pennsylvania, Linda Shorey, says, “An opinion of the Office of Legal Counsel can be withdrawn or changed, although it is not often done. Under the US Constitution, only the courts have the authority to determine whether the Wire Act applies to poker wagers. The Department of Justice memo is not binding on the courts.”

In the past, the Wire Act has been ruled in a New Orleans court of appeals that the Wire Act only applied to sportsbetting, but a federal judge in Utah did not share view and ruled opposite. Hopefully Congress will take some action now though to clear things up, though controversial matters such as online gambling are not well received this close to an election.

The executive director of the Poker Players Alliance (PPA), however, believes this is still positive ground for the cause. He says, “This ruling gives states the confidence to move forward with intrastate Internet poker.”

The PPA does however still support federal level legislation rather than intrastate laws.

Pappas adds, “Efforts at the Federal level are going to increase as well. There are a number of lawmakers that feel like it is time for Congress to step in.”

Absolute Poker and Ultimate Bet Players May Get Some Money Back

When the Department of Justice shut down the four biggest online poker sites in the US online poker market on April 15^th of this year, millions of online poker players were locked out of their favorite sites, as well as screwed out of whatever funds they had in their player accounts.

Since April 15^th, known as the Black Friday of online poker, the DOJ has filed charges of money laundering, illegal online gambling, and fraud, and the cases are currently being tried. One major element of these cases is the frozen bank accounts that contain massive amounts of online poker funds that actually belong to individual US players. Since the freeze, players have been left to wonder if they will ever see their money again.

Online poker sites affected by Black Friday, Absolute Poker and Ultimate Bet, now shut down to the public, may be trying to pay players back, according to confidential info found by PocketFives’ Adam Small. Apparently, the two sites are beginning proceedings to close down operations officially, which will begin to pay players back funds that have still been sitting in the frozen bank accounts. And while players may not be getting back their full account values, something is better than nothing at this point when pretty much all hope was otherwise lost. Repayment might be as low as 25 cents on the dollar.

Brent Beckley, co-founder Absolute Poker, has plead guilty to charges put against him by the DOJ. Whether or not there will be future legal avenues for players that will help them get all the money owed to them is unclear, but as they now have nothing, 25 cents on the dollar should be considered better than where they are at now.

California Legislature to Possibly Approve Intrastate Internet Poker

While California is one of the more liberal states, with its legalization of medical marijuana use, it would seem typical for it to be one of the first states to allow intrastate online poker. The state is in fact set to pass new legislation that will make online gambling legal in the state of California, and while this is in obvious opposition to the federal government’s stance on Internet poker, the feds have not yet made an official statement on their position regarding this legislation. The silence has done nothing but encourage speculation that the feds may not be that concerned with trying to stop it.

It is no secret that California has issues with its economy, and online gambling would do nothing but boosts its otherwise struggling state. In fact, California by far holds the biggest state economy in the country and contributes 13% to the nation’s Gross Domestic Product, but it also has a deficit of more than $26 billion.

State Senator Lou Correa says that if legalized within California, it could generate up to $1.4 billion in the next 10 years and create up towards 1,300 jobs for California citizens, a state that now has an unemployment rate of about 11.7%, which is about 3% higher than the national average.

The news regarding legal intrastate online poker in California is being well-received by the online poker community, especially by many online poker pros, who have claimed that they will move to California because they cannot otherwise play in their own home state. This will in turn generate more tax rev for the state. A similar bill was recently introduced in the state of Massachusetts, which if passed would allow a certain number of Internet poker sites to operate legally within the state.

DOJ Deems Online Poker Excluded from the Wire Act

You may have heard the buzz about the next step toward Internet poker becoming legal in the US or seen the story on television news, and many people are seeing a light at the end of the tunnel when it comes to regulating online poker in the United States. A recent statement released by the Department of Justice is at the root of all the talk. The statement touched on the Wire Act of 1961, clarifying its standpoint on Internet gambling and online poker, and actually reveals that online poker is not covered under the Wire Act whatsoever. In the future, this will make it easier for companies that exited the Internet poker market in the US because of violations of the Wire Act, including Full Tilt Poker, pending the transfer of funds from the DOJ to the Bernard Tapie Groupe that is taking over the former online poker room.

In the statement, US Deputy Attorney General James Cole made a comment regarding the statement that said, “The Department’s Office of Legal Counsel (“OLC”) has analyzed the scope of the Wire Act, 18 U.S.c § 1084, and concluded that it is limited only to sports betting.”

The fact that the Wire Act doesn’t apply to online poker is pretty much the best news that the online poker community, the Poker Players Alliance, the American Gaming Association, and online poker sites aside from Internet poker being deemed legal in the US.

Following the statement by the DOJ, the AGA is currently seeking federal legislation for Internet casino gambling and Internet poker. The AGA says, “The Department of Justice’s interpretation regarding the scope of the federal Wire Act validates the urgent need for federal legislation to curb what will now be a proliferation of domestic and foreign unlicensed and unregulated gaming websites without consistent regulatory standards and safeguards against fraud, underage gambling and money laundering.”

The AGA believes it’s in the job of the federal government to set up a federal regime that would regulate and license Internet poker, rather than leave it to the individual states. They feel that multiple laws at the state level would limit customer choice across the country and leave gaps in control, which could lead to under-age gambling online, money laundering, and fraud. They also see problems with potential revenue, as state limits on player pools would be dictated by intrastate laws.

In order to prevent these potential negative outcomes that would only hinder the success of the industry, the AGA is attempting to implement “federal legislation that protects states’ rights, establish uniform safeguards to protect US consumers, keep children from gambling on the Internet and provide the tools law enforcement needs to shut down illegal Internet gambling operators.”

The PPA has also responded to the DOJ’s statement. It says, “This is a much needed clarification of an antiquated and often confusing law. For years, legal scholars and even the courts have debated whether the Wire Act applies to non-sporting activity. Today’s announcement validates the fact that Internet poker does not violate this law.”

Brent Beckley Pleads Guilty to Avoid 30-Year Jail Sentence

Absolute Poker co-founder Brent Beckley, one of the 11 individuals named in the Black Friday indictments handed down by the US Department of Justice on April 15^th earlier this year, has pleaded guilty to illegal gambling operation charges and money laundering.

Thirty-one-year-old Berkley, a resident of Costa Rica admits, “I knew it was illegal to accept credit cards from players to gamble on the Internet.”

Referring to the allegations that he hid online poker payments by listing these transactions as other items like jewelry, golf equipment, flowers, etc., Berkley said, “I knew it was illegal to deceive the banks in this way.”

He admitted to Judge Ronald Ellis in Manhattan Federal Court earlier this week that he accepted credit card payments from 2006 through 2011 for deposits for online poker player accounts at Absolute Poker.

Transactions allowed by Beckley to go under the radar were in violation of the UIGEA, which deems it illegal for payment processors to process transactions for online gambling purposes. Ira Rubin assisted Beckley in concealing these transactions, also indicted on Black Friday.

Sentencing is set to go down on April 19, 2012, and Beckley could serve only one and a half years in jail, thanks to his plea deal, which will keep him from having to serve the max 30 years.

PokerStars Introduces Turbo Championship of Online Poker

PokerStars has recently announced a brand new online poker tournament series that will compete with all other online poker tourney series, the Turbo Championship of Online Poker (TCOOP). This series will feature 50 individual events and will run for 10 days from January 19^th through 29, 2011 with at least four events each day throughout the series.

The TCOOP will offer a multitude of online poker games featuring a fast-paced turbo blind setup. Buy-ins will range from $5 up to $2,100 (the High Roller event on January 29^th).

The series will culminate on Sunday the 29^th with a Main Event that will cost a $700 buy-in to play that will be followed by a Hyper-Turbo “Wrap Party” tourney with a buy-in price tag of $215.

TCOOP Schedule:

Thursday, January 19, 2012
Event 1: $22 NLH [6-Max]
Event 2: $33 NL Omaha Hi/Lo
Event 3: $134 NLH [Knockout]
Event 4: $33 NLH

Friday, January 20, 2012
Event 5: $22 PL Draw
Event 6: $55 NLH [6-Max, Shootout]
Event 7: $22 NLH [Rebuys]
Event 8: $55 NLH [Big Antes, 2x Chance]

Saturday, January 21, 2012
Event 9: $55 PL Omaha [Knockout]
Event 10: $21 NLH [Rebuys, 3x-Turbo]
Event 11: $109 NLH [Heads-Up]
Event 12: $33 Triple Stud
Event 13: $33 TCOOP Special — Saturday Speedway

Sunday, January 22, 2012
Event 14: $55 NL Omaha Hi/Lo [6-Max, 2R1A]
Event 15: $55 NLH [6-Max, Hyper-Turbo]
Event 16: $55 NLH [Knockout]
Event 17: $109 NLH [1R1A]
Event 18: $22 PL Omaha [6-Max, Rebuys, 2x Turbo]
Event 19: $215 TCOOP Special — Sunday Supersonic [Hyper-Turbo]

Monday, January 23, 2012
Event 20: $55 PL Omaha [6-Max, 1R1A]
Event 21: $44 NLH [4-Max]
Event 22: $82 FL Omaha Hi/Lo
Event 23: $153 NLH [6-Max, Hyper-Turbo]

Tuesday, January 24, 2012
Event 24: $109 PL Omaha Hi/Lo [6-Max]
Event 25: $215 NLH
Event 26: $22 Stud
Event 27: $22 NLH [Rebuys, 2x-Turbo]

Wednesday, January 25, 2012
Event 28: $82 NLH [2x Chance]
Event 29: $109 NLH [Shootout]
Event 30: $11 PL Omaha [6-Max, Rebuys, 3x Turbo]
Event 31: $22 Stud Hi/Lo

Thursday, Januayr 26, 2012
Event 32: $33 NLH
Event 33: $55 NLH [Rebuys, 2x-Turbo]
Event 34: $22 Stud
Event 35: $215 NLH [2x Chance]

Friday, January 27, 2012
Event 36: $82 NLH [6-Max]
Event 37: $55 PL Omaha [6-Max, 2R1A]
Event 38: $55 NLH [Ante Up!]
Event 39: $109 FL Hold’em [6-Max]

Saturday, January 28, 2012
Event 40: $109 HORSE
Event 41: $109 PL Omaha [Heads-Up]
Event 42: $33 NLH [Rebuys, 2x Turbo]
Event 43: $109 NL Omaha Hi/Lo [6-Max, Hyper-Turbo]
Event 44: $33 TCOOP Special — Saturday Speedway

Sunday, January 29, 2012
Event 45: $109 NLH
Event 46: $215 NLH
Event 47: $2,100 NLH  [High Roller]
Event 48: $320 8-Game
Event 49: $700 NLH Main Event
Event 50: $215 TCOOP Wrap Party [Hyper-Turbo]

Read more: http://www.pokernews.com/news/2011/12/pokerstars-announces-turbo-championship-of-online-poker-tcoo-11665.htm

2012 WSOP will Feature a $1 Million Dollar Buy-in Charitable Event

As part of 2012’s 43^rd annual WSOP that will take place next summer at its usual Rio All-Suites Hotel & Casino venue, the Big One for One Drop featuring a $1 million buy-in will be added to the lineup. The tentative date for the Big One for One Drop is July 1^st through 3^rd, 2012, and there are already 22 players signed up, which meets the minimum requirement of participants to form an official WSOP bracelet earning event.

Interestingly enough, the creator of this baby was Cirque du Soleil founder Guy Laliberté, who approached the CEO of Caesars Interactive Entertainment, Mitch Garber, with the idea to combine the charitable character of the poker player base and mix it with the WSOP’s expertise and global outreach in order to host the world’s biggest ever live poker tournament in an effort to raise awareness on the worldly need for clean water.

Jonathan Duhamel, who is already committed to participating says, “I am absolutely thrilled to participate in the biggest poker event ever organized. One million dollars is a lot of money but my participation comes naturally, being a spokesperson for ONE DROP and because of my attachment to such a great cause. Life starts with water and because of its uneven distribution, a person dies every 20 seconds. The Big One for One Drop will raise $111,111 per participant, which will definitely prove the poker community attachment to ONE DROP. As for me, I personally commit to give 5% of my winnings from this tournament to ONE DROP.”

Minus the $111,111 of each buy-in that will go to helping a country in need of more accessible clean water, the million-dollar buy-in of each player will leave $888,889 left to the prize pool, which is now estimated at around $20 million. The maximum amount of players allowed to participate will be 48.

The NLH event will award a special edition platinum bracelet and will be televised on ESPN. An expected 20% of the field will cash out, about double of a typical tourney payout.

Confirmed players include Guy Laliberté, ONE DROP Chair and founder of Cirque du Soleil; Phil Ruffin, owner of Treasure Island Resort of Las Vegas; Bobby Baldwin, four-time gold bracelet WSOP and CEO of MGM-Mirage Resorts; Daniel Negreanu; Gus Hansen; Patrik Antonius; Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier; Andy Beal; Tom Dwan; Johnny Chan; Tony Guoga; and Duhamel, along with others.

Billionaire Casino Mogul Denies Online Poker

Las Vegas Sands CEO Sheldon Adelson, who has a great deal of clout when it comes to the legalization for online gambling with Republican lawmakers due to his large donations to political campaigns, made a comment last week that Internet gambling technology isn’t advanced enough to prevent underage gambling. Adelson is especially tied to Senator Jon Kyl, Republican from Arizona, who happens to be a big supporter of the UIGEA and the opposition against US Internet poker.

Adelson’s statement has outraged poker players, who have decided to boycott the Venetian Poker Room at the Sands and are urging others to stay out of the room as well.

Spokesperson for the Poker Players Alliance (PPA) Richard Muny urged radio broadcast listeners to send messages via Twitter straight to the Venetian telling them of their displeasure with Adelson’s statement.

Seventy-eight-year-old Adelson is on Forbes list for richest American, ranking 8^th, 16^th in the world, and is estimated to have a net worth of $21+ billion, taking in an estimated 80% of the $2.4 billion in quarterly earnings from the Las Vegas Sands, and casinos in Macau and Singapore.

Adelson traveled to Asia just recently in support of casino legalization in Japan and Vietname and is also backing a Miami casino resort property in hopes that Florida will legalize gaming. Before he went to Asia though, he visited DC to notify the American Gaming Association (AGA) and Kyl of his opposition to the regulation of Internet poker.

Despite the attempt by other Las Vegas casino owners to change Adelson’s opinion based on the potential $5+ billion in possible annual revenue that regulated online poker would generate, the billionaire casino mogul refuses to change his mind.

While many big casino operators in Vegas have already formed partnerships with successful overseas Internet poker companies, Adelson has not. Many insiders, including Internet poker pro and poker writer Zach Tracy, believe Adelson is so strongly opposed to regulated online poker because he has not yet made any connections and is not in a position to compete with these other brands.

Tracy says, “He is in opposition because all of his industry ducks are not in a row yet to compete in a new market. I think he is trying to block competitors from getting a bill through.”

Recently inducted into the Gaming Hall of Fame, Adelson may be only hurting himself by alienating his brand from its customer base and the rest of the online poker community for that matter. Despite his obvious business sense that has brought him this far, many do not believe this is the best decision for his company because of the far-reaching impact it may have on the cause to regulate online poker in the US.

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