Author: elizabeth

Vadzim Kursevich Makes EPT History By Winning EPT Deauville

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Vadzim KursevichWhen Vadzim Kursevich made it to the final table in Deauville during the most recent stop of the European Poker Tour, he had already made poker history. He was the only Belorussian player to make the final table at more than one EPT event, and he did it in back-to-back seasons. Kursevich sat at a table of Frenchmen and Italy’s Luca Pagano, who has long been a regular at the EPT tables (and has been in the top three on the EPT All-time Leaderboard pretty much from the very beginning of the tournament series), so while his presence didn’t go unnoticed, no one really expected him to win. Even though he entered the final table second in chips and there was no clear “strongest player” at the table before the game started, when poker commentators were making their guesses about the outcome of EPT Deauville, Kursevich’s name rarely came up.

The first player out was Irishman Mick Graydon, who went all in on Ac9h and lost it all on what would become a battle of the high cards (Guichard held AdKc). It took two hours for first blood, and the game would prove to be a long one before the night was done.

EPT favorite Luca Pagano performed in this final table as he has in most other final tables. This is the seventh time that the Italian has made it to a final table at the EPT, and he closed out the day in seventh place. While his performance at the final table was unimpressive, he made it over the two million dollar mark for live tournament earnings and boosting his rank on the all-time Italian Money List.

Three and a half hours into the game, Olivier Rogez was sent home with sixth place and €155,000 (another out by Guichard), and two hours later, Than Trong sent someone else home: Bruno Jais was out in fifth. The players took a much needed hour break, and when they returned, the tone of the game shifted, and the players took off the gloves (perhaps they were simply tired from playing for six hours already).

Kursevich made his first elimination of the evening by taking out Yorane Kerignard when his KJ came out higher than the Frenchman’s Q9 (the board showed trip 5s and nothing else of use to either player. Not content with one notch in his belt, Kursevich gunned for Than Trong, taking him out in third place, Ace high to King high.

Finally, the game was down to only two– Kursevich and Frenchman Paul Guichard. On the final hand, Guichard held pocket 5s and Kursevich held 3h6h for a flush/straight draw. The board read Js-7h-5d-9h, and the 8c on the river busted Kursevich’s flush draw, but gave him the straight that he needed to win the hand and the game, sending Guichard home with only (only!) €557,000 for second place.

The final places and amounts won are:

  • Vadzim Kursevich – €875,000
  • Paul Guichard – €557,000
  • Vuong Than Trong – €328,000
  • Yorane Kerignard – €260,000
  • Bruno Jais – €200,000
  • Olivier Rogez – €155,000
  • Luca Pagano – €110,000
  • Mick Graydon – €67,200

The European Poker Tour has announced that this season’s Grand Final will once again take place in Monte Carlo, Monaco, after last year’s segue to Madrid. Kursevich has scored himself a seat at that event with this win, and one thing is for certain: should he make it to the final table in another EPT event, he won’t be overlooked again.

Full Tilt Sale Stalled By Big Name Players

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Full Tilt Poker NewsFull Tilt Poker, it seems, is bound and determined to stay in the news, one way or another. The ongoing negotiations between Groupe Bernard Tapie and the United States Department of Justice are making news again– this time because several professional poker players still owe the site a hefty debt that is throwing a wrench into the sale of the company.

Groupe Bernard Tapie’s lawyer, Behnam Dayanim, has stated that the debts owed by big-name players (almost all of whom were at one point Full Tilt Pros) are only one among a number of problems that are stalling the company’s purchase of the now-defunct poker site from the DOJ, but when certain pro players owe FTP somewhere between 10 and 20 million dollars, it’s certainly a big issue, and one of the hardest to address.

Dayanim broke it down like this: “The analogy that I like to use is that if you think of the target as a shiny apple. At the start of the diligence process, you expect that there are going to be some bruises on that apple, but after you finish your diligence, the problem here is that there are more and deeper bruises than we had anticipated. The professionals’ obligations to the company are a larger and deeper bruise than we had hoped, and we have had less success than we had hoped in trying to brush off that bruise.”

Phil Ivey Full TiltIt’s no wonder that GBT’s lawyer uses the apple analogy, as FTP has been less than forthcoming about their finances, and these debts only came to light due to extensive searching by the prospective buyers. Dayanim stated that very few of the players who owe money to FTP have made any effort or expressed any willingness to pay it back. These players include Phil Ivey, David Benyamine, Barry Greenstein, Erick Lindgren, and Mike “The Mouth” Matusow, although there’s speculation that the debts extend all the way through the lineup of recent Full Tilt Pro players.

Will the Full Tilt Poker sale be completed as hoped, or will negotiations fall through because of this? If the sale is the only way that players can hope to get their money back, what does it mean if the GBT sale doesn’t happen? Perhaps most importantly, if the other issues can be resolved but the big-name pros who owe the company money refuse to make good on their debts, can we expect a backlash against these players by the little guy who may never see his money again? Let’s face it– if you leave a drowning company with a few million of the company’s money, you’ve come out ahead, but if the company is holding onto your funds, then you’re at a loss. Doesn’t it seem like the wins and losses should be the same across the board, rather than the more famous players being blatantly privileged?

The US Department of Justice has issued a resolution deadline of February 29th– stay tuned as we bring you news of the latest developments in this and other poker news.

WSOP 2012 Schedule Announced, New Surprises Unveiled

Posted on by elizabeth

Fans of the World Series of Poker will be disappointed that the promised end of the November Nine is not a return to the ways of old, but rather a rescheduling due to the 2012 elections. The WSOP 2012 Main Event final table will be moved up a week, making it the “Very late October Nine,” which we suppose just doesn’t have the same ring to it. There’s still a substantial delay between the final table play and the rest of the tournament, and there’s no telling if we’ll see a return of the November Nine in years when the United States isn’t holding presidential elections. All of this seems a little misleading, especially after the WSOP let their Twitter followers to believe that they could expect a real change with their Tuesday tweet: “A few hints on WSOP schedule coming tomorrow…you won’t find the November Nine returning.”

Fans have been speaking out since continuous play in the WSOP stopped back in 2008, and loud criticism coupled with the added pressure on poker tournaments to maintain the public’s interest in the wake of Black Friday was thought to be enough to return the schedule to its previous format, but apparently not. The 2012 WSOP will break for 14 weeks instead of 15, a change that does little to allay the concerns of players and spectators and comes off as more than a little patronizing.

Like the 2011 WSOP, next year’s Main Event final table will also be aired on a 15-minute delay. One of the starting days of the Main Event has been dropped from the lineup, along with the scheduled day off. The folks in charge of scheduling the WSOP aren’t making any friendds with decisions like these. Many poker pros will have been playing consistently throughout the tournament, and the scheduled break has long been a way for them to get their bearings and catch up on missed sleep so that they can bring their A game. Chances are, many players will be annoyed at the implication that poker should evolve into a stamina-based sport.

Lots of new events have been added to the 2012 World Series of Poker Schedule, including some new bracelet events: $3,000 Heads-Up No Limit Hold’em/PLO Tournament, $5,000 Mix Max No Limit Hold’em Tournament, $2,500 4-Handed No Limit Hold’em Tournament, $1,500 Ante-Only No Limit Hold’em Tournament, and the $1,000,000 Big One for One Drop Platinum Bracelet Tournament.

The One Drop Tournament is one of the most significant changes to the WSOP lineup, as it will potentially offer the biggest prize in poker history. There are 48 seats open for this incredibly high-stakes game for charity ($111,111 of each $1,000,000 buy-in will go to raising awareness about lack of drinkable water in large parts of the world). If the seats fill up, the first place winner will be looking at over $17 million in prize money, while second place will walk away with $9 million– both are amounts larger than Pius Heinz, the 2011 Main Event winner, earned during his victory. It will be interesting to see how this shift in prize money also shifts the attention of the players and viewers– if it takes too much attention away from the Main Event, that 14 week wait is going to seem even more cumbersome.

Stay tuned as Max Poker Bonus brings you more WSOP updates as they become available.

European Poker Awards Names 2012 Winners

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No small number of fierce competitors were up for the 2012 Player of the Year title at the European Poker Awards– in fact, the competition has been deadly all around, with names of major players appearing in every category. Even though very few of the players could actually attend the EPAs this year because they were playing in the Aussie Millions (while the Paris location of the EPAs at the Aviation Club de France was convenient for any players hanging out in Europe between European Poker Tour events, it was a bit out of the way for those in Melbourne, playing in the largest tournament happening at the time), awards were still given out, usually to proxies who had been sent to the awards in the stead of their friends and fellow players.

Individual Poker Player Awards

Sam Trickett

Player of the Year: Sam Trickett

Sam Trickett took the Player of the Year title, snatching it away from fellow nominees Pius Heinz, Eugene Katchalov, Andrey Pateychuk, Jake Cody, and Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier– all of whom one could argue are the best players of the last year. Trickett is an English specialist in high-stakes games (which explains why he was in Australia for the tourney there and had to send PokerStrategy blogger Barry Carter to pick up his award there), and his massive wins in last year’s Aussie Millions (first place in the 100,000 No Limit Hold’em, which brought a little over $1.5 million, and second in the 250,000 Super High Roller No Limit Hold’em, which added another $1.4 million to his bankroll) and the Partouche Poker Tour Main Event in Cannes (first place again for another $1.36 million) made him this year’s winner.

Pius HeinzBest Tournament Performance: Pius Heinz

It would be a crime to send Pius Heinz away empty-handed after his WSOP Main Event win (after all, he took home $8.72 million dollars there). This German’s performance in the largest poker event of the year earned him the Best Tournament Performance title.

Rookie of the Year: Andrey Pateychuk

Pateychuk may not have taken Player of the Year, but he claimed the well-deserved Rookie of the Year title. With a strong and impressive run in the World Series of Poker Main Event, along with first place wins in the EPT San Remo and WPT Prague events (and a sixth place finish in the EPT Prague re-entry), saying that Pateychuk has had a good year is a massive understatement. It’s truly hard to believe that Pateychuk appeared on the poker scene only a year and a half ago, and it will be interesting to see where he goes from here.

Europe’s Leading Lady: Natalia Nikitina

Russia’s Natalia Nikitina beat out fellow nominees Liv Boeree and Victoria Coren of England, Nesrine Kourdourli and Barbara Martinez of France, and Cecilia Pescaglini of Italy. Pescaglini finished second in the World Poker Tour event in Malta in September, while Martinez took the WSOP Europe Ladies’ event in Cannes.

Internet Player of the Year: Ilari ‘Ilari FIN’ Sahamies

Ilari Sahamies took the Internet Player of the Year title away from Ireland’s Jude Ainsworth, Viktor Blom of Sweden, France’s Rui Cao, and England’s Chris Moorman.

Lifetime Achievement: Jesse May

American Jesse May was also up for the Poker Personality award, a title that fits him perfectly, because Jesse May has personality and he has it in spades. He’s been one of the fundamental voices of poker, appearing on television and tournaments as a commentator as well has having a past poker career. He’s frequently called “The Voice of Poker,” and this year, he is honored with the Lifetime Achievement award for his contributions to the game.

Bertrand GrospellierRob Gardner Memorial Award for the Poker Personality of the Year: Bertrand ‘ElkY’ Grospellier

France’s Grospellier beat out two very vocal poker celebrities– Jessie May and Tony G– for the Poker Personality of the Year award. While the category was full of solid nominees, it seems almost like the EPAs were giving Grospellier a consolation prize for his loss in the Lifetime Achievement category, because while Grospellier is a poker icon, he’s not really known for his personality– at least not to the extent of several of the other nominees.

Winners were announced in two other EPA categories this year:

  • Best European Event of the Year: WSOP Europe Cannes
  • Poker Staff Person of the Year: Warren Lush (international public relations department at bwin.party)

Poker Pros To Ultimate Bet: “sorry Isn’t Good Enough”

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Cereus Poker NetworkEight professional poker players have filed a lawsuit against Ultimate Bet for a scam that the company ran three years ago, which allowed the Cereus Network (which owns Ultimate Bet and Absolute Poker) to embezzle 20 million dollars from UB players. The players are out to crucify Ultimate Bet for a violation of the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO), a piece of legislation originally created to allow the government to prosecute organized crime.

These are not the first RICO charges that have been brought against the site or its parent network. Ultimate Bet has been in dire straits since Black Friday, which became a turning point for the poker world not because the United States Department of Justice closed down three of the leading online poker sites, but because of the way those various sites reacted. The problem that Ultimate Bet faces now is not unlike the problems facing Full Tilt Poker– just on a smaller scale. It all boils down to a company taking money from players, knowing full well that what they were doing was not legal, and then refusing to give it back.

The difference in this particular case is that last time, it was the government who was angry, as they didn’t get their piece of the pie while UB schemed to get around US government regulations. This time, it’s the players who are out for blood for unfair play. While Ultimate Bet previously held the upper hand and could play the victim in a big governmental misunderstanding, putting the blame on the US Department of Justice, this time, there’s no one else to blame, and the players are backing away from a site that they believe has done the unforgivable. To scam a government is one thing (come on– poker has always been a game of rebels), but to scam your clients, your paying customers– that’s another thing entirely.

The eight who have brought this case against UB include well-known Canadian player Brad Booth and notable American players Tom Koral, Daniel Ashman, and Dustin Woolf, along with Greg Lavery, Dave Lizmi, Joseph Sanders, and Daniel Smith. The suit represents players from three different countries in their attempt to recover their lost money as well as an injunction and damages from emotional distress, fraud, negligence, unfair business practices and other charges associated with RICO, and the potential economic damage that the players suffered.

John Doe 1-10The complaint filed last week refers to a number of unnamed defendants, known as John Doe 1-10. This anonymity is not due to an effort to maintain privacy surrounding the lawsuit, but because the plaintiffs don’t actually know who is directly responsible, due to the coverup for which they’ve cited a RICO violation:

At this time, plaintiffs suspect but do not know the identities of Does 1-10. Evidence, some of which is discussed below, has arisen that some of the founders and management of UltimateBet and Excapsa, including Greg Pierson, Jon Karl, Jack Bates, Russ Hamilton, and others who formerly operated (and may continue to be involved in the operation of) UltimateBet were likely aware of or involved the conspiracy to cheat players. However, because the identities and activities of UltimateBet and those who have profited from its operations has been intentionally shielded though numerous agents, subsidiaries, and foreign corporations, it will be necessary to conduct significant discovery before a complete list of defendants can be identified. After such discovery, plaintiffs will seek to amend the complaint to add additional defendants.

The real question about this lawsuit is this: why have the defendants waited until now to file this lawsuit? Why the three year delay after Ultimate Bet has already admitted fault and made efforts to repay players? The answer to this seems more closely related to Black Friday than it would seem at first glance: “Sorry” simply isn’t good enough anymore.

Gabi Campos Steps Down As PokerStars Ceo

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Gabriel Campos WoslovskyThe last year has been a rough one for PokerStars. First, they were hit with Black Friday, causing them to pull out of the American online poker market and wrestle through negotiations with the United States Department of Justice. In May, Thomas Kremser, the director of the European Poker Tour since 2004 left, stating that the “time is right to explore new adventures”. Now, in the last month, PokerStars has lost not only John Duthie as the CEO for the EPT (and brains behind its conception) and member of Team PokerStars Pro, but now Gabi Campos, the CEO of PokerStars, has decided to leave the company as well.

Campos came to PokerStars after Black Friday when the previous CEO was indicted by the US DOJ in the events surrounding Black Friday. The previously family-controlled business sought out Gabriel “Gabi” Campos Woslovsky, a former member of Mossad, the Israeli Intelligence Agency, who had extensive experience managing computing and IT teams throughout Israel. Campos made a career change and joined up with PokerStars competitor 888 Poker in 2007, becoming the managing director of Dragonfish in 2009. PokerStars does not currently have a replacement lined up for Campos, although they have announced that they will be actively searching while he stays on until February 1st of this year. This is a surprising turn of events, as Campos, while a part of PokerStars since late July, only took over operations in early October.

A lot of speculation is circling regarding Campos’ departure. Many are pointing to Campos’ history, stating that this sudden departure seems very similar to 15 months ago, when he cut ties 888 Poker to “pursue new challenges”. Even the wording this time around is similar, as PokerStars has released a statement that his departure is due to plans to “pursue other opportunities”– does this mean that Campos is hopping over to another poker giant?

However, it’s hard to look at Campos’ departure without taking into consideration that he is not the only PokerStars loss recently. Recent news articles make it seem like a lot of important people are jumping ship from PokerStars, all citing vague reasons such as “other opportunities” and the predicted poker boom that may or may not result from the return of online gambling to the United States. Players Greg Raymer and Joe Hatchem have also ended their relationships with the site in the last year, and Hatchem also fed the media a line about his departure, citing, like the others, that it was “time to pursue different career opportunities.”

PokerStars has received a lot of criticism lately from players due to a proposed rake structure change which was tossed out due to player protests. PokerStars is changing their VIP program and contributed rake method however, and a lot of players are openly unhappy with these changes. Could the changes at PokerStars, both at the tables and in the offices, be an indication of trouble in paradise? Maybe, but maybe not. Only time (or insider information) will tell exactly what’s going on over at PokerStars.

Melanie Weisner Is Lock Poker’s Newest Rising Star

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Melanie WeisnerLock Poker has added a new star to their LockPro Elite lineup: Melanie Weisner has become the latest name to join the poker site’s team of pros, adding to an already impressive lineup that includes Chris Moorman and Matt Stout, along with many others.

Lock Poker has had a pretty good streak since Black Friday, picking up a lot of the slack after Full Tilt and Absolute Poker collapsed and PokerStars struggled momentarily. While they were forced to pull out of the US market for a few months, Lock Poker opened once more to its American customers on October 13, 2011, and they’ve held the number one spot in the United States since then. Not only has Lock Poker largely cornered the American market, which holds a large percentage of the world’s professional poker players, but they’ve improved their software design, upped the deals and specials that they offer to frequent visitors, and worked hard to hone their image by adding new professionals to their team– most recently, Melanie Weisner.

The 25 year old got her start at New York University after watching her brother doing well with poker. Considering that a poker career might be more lucrative than her current musical theatre and vocal performance degree track, Weisman focused on the game, quickly working her way up the ranks of PokerStars’ Multi Table Tournaments (MTTs). What’s unusual about Weisman, however, is that she’s not only an ace at MTTs, but she’s an expert at heads-up games as well– she’s been ranked #1 across all the ranked sites for heads-up sit-and-go players. She’s had quite the history on both Full Tilt Poker and PokerStars, but with both sites pulling out of the US market, she’s made the switch to Lock Poker. Weisman has accrued over $1.2 million dollars playing poker online. You can expect to see her some more around PokerStars, however– with her extensive travel schedule and current tournament cruising in Europe, she still has plenty of opportunities to play across sites, despite her American citizenship and new sponsorship.

Lock PokerSince her quick start in poker, she’s appeared on both Poker After Dark during “Idol Week,” where she came in 3rd place in a $50k buy-in winner-take-all, and Late Night Poker, where she competed in a sit-and-go with a $10k buy-in. Weisman also managed to score six money finishes in the last two years of the World Series of Poker and four so far in the 2010 and 2011 seasons of the European Poker Tour. She’s taken home over $350k from her various live tournament wins in the last year.

Lock Poker CEO Jennifer Larson had this to say about their new LockPro Elite member:

Melanie is a perfect fit for Lock. Passionate, relentless in her dedication to the game and incredibly intelligent… Players like Melanie give us the true insight into the product and player experience that we need to become the best. Partnering with our players is the true path to greatness.

As one of the fastest rising stars of poker, Weisman is also quickly climbing to the top of the women’s poker charts, a fact which is sure to please Larson, an owner/CEO operating in what is still largely a male-dominated industry. Weisman is currently ranked 43rd on the Women’s All Time Money List, and she’s ranked 83rd on the Global Poker Index.

Lock Poker has also recently added Leo Margets of Spain to the LockPro Elite team. Margets was the WSOP Main Event’s last women standing in 2008). Regardless of whether or not this woman-owned company is actively trying to create an environment where young female poker players can thrive and shine, Lock Poker is certainly developing a female roster that could hold its own against any takers.

WPT Ireland Title Goes To David Shallow

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David ShallowThe first ever World Poker Tour event in Dublin, Ireland, has gone to Brit David “Dubai” Shallow, who fought his way past the 337 other entrants to nab the title and $289,031 first place prize. In addition to the cash and recognition, Shallow also leaves Dublin with a seat at the WPT World Championships worth $25,000. This is by far the biggest win of Shallow’s career, and it makes up the vast majority of his $325k career tournament earnings.

Shallow entered the final table with a stunning chip lead– enough so that his eventual victory doesn’t come as an overwhelming surprise. He held over 60% of the chips in play when the final table began, holding 5 times as many as Steve Watts, who started with 1,600,000, and around 8 times as many as Ronan Gilligan, who started with the least chips at 775,000. The other two players at the final table were Patrik Vestlin with 1,100,000 and Charles Chattha in fourth place with 835,000. While poker is certainly anyone’s game, a spread like that is certainly a challenge for any player to overcome, and Shallow entered the final table confident and collected. While the final table should have had six players, Shallow’s elimination of both Steven Moreau and Shaun Conning on the last hand the day before meant a short-handed final table.

Shallow struggled at first during final table play, letting his chip stack dwindle to under 4.5 mil as he doubled up both Gilligan and Vestlin. Gilligan took advantage of his increase in chips and took on Steve Watts. Watts went all in with a pair of tens against Gilligan, who was holding out for an outside straight. The river gave Gilligan Broadway and another 1,130,000 chips and sent Watts to the rail as the first player out of the final table with $51,063. Vestlin would be out next, taking home $68,396, and he was also eliminated by Gilligan, who became the chip leader after eliminating two players during the first hour of final table play.

Gilligan continued the aggressive play that had served him so well early in the match, but when he called Shallow’s all-in on a hand that could easily go either way, he found that his luck had run out. Shallow knocked Gilligan out in third and vaulted to 7,280,000 chips as heads-up play began against Chattha, who held 2,860,000.

Just as Gilligan’s overconfidence bit him when he went up against Shallow, Shallow’s confidence and secure position caused him to make some less than ideal choices during the heads-up play, and at one point, he and Chattha were almost even in chips. Shallow made a few gains, and then the final hand happened: Shallow was sitting on pocket Queens while Chattha had pocket 9s. Shallow raised before the flop, and after raise and a re-raise, Chattha went all-in. Shallow called, and the flop came down K-K-2 with an 8 and 3 on the turn and river. All in all, the final table was over in under three hours, and David Shallow is the newest WPT title holder, and the first winner of a WPT Ireland main event!

The next World Poker Tour event will be in Venice, Italy, in early February.

Viktor Isildur1 Blom Takes Pca High Stakes Game

Posted on by elizabeth

Viktor “Isildur1” Blom, known around the poker world for his love of high stakes poker games, has made poker history by beating out the rest of the competition in the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure Super High Roller event. This is his first win in a major tournament, and it may herald a new era of action for this Team PokerStars Pro, who has never before been known for his live game.

Victor BlomBlom had to beat out some pretty heavy competition to win this particular title– sharing the final table with him were Daniel Negreanu, fellow Team PokerStars Pro Humberto Brenes, Galen Hall, who won the PCA Main Event in 2010, and 2010 WSOP Main Event winner Jonathan Duhamel, who was back on his feet not a month after the notorious violent attack against him. Brenes was the first player out at the final table, followed by Mike “Timex” McDonald and Scott Seiver in the bubble seat. Negreanu made the first money finish and left with $250,900, while Duhamel followed him to the rail and would go home with $313,600. Hall held on a while longer, finishing in third place with $470,400, and the head to head play was ultimately resolved by Blom’s ability to hang in there longer than Dan Shak, who was eventually booted as the runner up. Shak made a hefty $846,700, however, which isn’t shabby for a day’s work. Blom made an impressive $1,254,400 for his first place win.

Because Blom can best be described as a rather volatile player, whose record is filled with big (online) wins and losses alike, the poker community’s big question is whether or not Blom will hold on to any of his winnings for very long. Most assume that he can’t, and that his winnings will stay in the poker community and will be cycled into the hands of other players pretty quickly. To date, the record most commonly cited in reference to Blom was his substantial losses at the hands of Patrik Antonius (the $1.4 million pot was the largest online pot at the time) and Brian Hastings, who cleaned his clock for $4.2 million, the largest gain/loss in a day of online poker. Whether or not his old habits stick with him, the 21 year old Swede certainly seems to have a promising live career ahead of him.

Blom has been laying low for the past several months, presumably to build up his bankroll and go through his now almost ceremonial retreat to lick his wounds following a rousing defeat. Now that he’s back, fellow players are asking themselves if he is simply up to his old tricks– catching opponents off guard and putting them in tight spots, being persistently aggressive– or if something has changed about him. Since his return, Blom hasn’t seemed like a new player– just a slightly better version of the player that he used to be. He’s snatched money from some of the biggest names in poker during the last month, and with his most recent win, we can expect to see a lot more of Blom in the live poker scene during the coming year. 2012 will also be the first year that the Swede will be old enough to participate in the World Series of Poker, and it would be a good idea to keep your eye on this player. If there’s one thing we know about Viktor Blom, is that anything is possible.

Agcc Washes Hands Of Full Tilt, Recommends Police Action

Posted on by elizabeth

Full Tilt Poker NewsThe Alderney Gaming Control Commission (AGCC), from whom we’ve heard a great deal during the course of the Full Tilt scandal, has issued a new statement to British citizens, urging them to take action. While the AGCC doesn’t come out and say that British players who are still owed money by Full Tilt Poker (some of the 440 million dollars in player funds that have been held by the company for almost a year now) should press legal charges, they certainly imply it. The most recent press release from the gaming commission informs players that they should contact their local authorities if they feel that they have been the victim of a crime, and also reminds them of the many legal cases currently pending against Full Tilt– just in case some British citizens are starting to think that they should get in on that action.

It’s been a while since the AGCC has released a statement, and countless former Full Tilt players have been waiting for quite some time for news regarding the company’s outstanding balance. All in all, there has been little for anyone to report, as Full Tilt Poker still seems to be stalling, despite a change in ownership and an alleged deal between Groupe Bernard Tapie and the US Department of Justice. The DOJ shut down Full Tilt, along with PokerStars and Absolute Poker/Ultimate Bet back in April of last year, and FTP remains the one company who hasn’t at least partially resolved the problem. Groupe Bernard Tapie struck a deal with the US Department of Justice so that they could purchase the struggling company for $80 million in November, but there has been radio silence since the acquisition.

The AGCC explains its silence in their most recent statement: because the group no longer licenses or is attempting to restore the license of Full Tilt, they are unable to mediate or intercede in problems with the former poker giant (except for customers who are registered in Switzerland). Since they can no longer offer any help to their fellow British citizens, the AGCC offered this statement:

Players may have the following alternative options:

  1. Full Tilt has been requested to provide a specific player contact: this is awaited and will be incorporated here upon receipt.
  2. Any player who believes they are a victim of crime, as a result of their dealings with Full Tilt, should in the first instance contact their own local police in their country of residence and report the matter to them. These reports will then be coordinated centrally.
  3. It is understood that a number of civil actions have been initiated by players against Full Tilt, some as class actions representing multiple players by UK, US and Canadian lawyers. Details of the firms concerned can be found through internet search.

The AGCC also mentions that they have been collecting incident reports on behalf of the police, and that customer complaints have been and will continue to be taken and turned over to the authorities. This is perhaps the nature of this “centrally coordinated” police action against Full Tilt– it seems like the company is soon to have a lot more problems than it had before. If its troubles with the DOJ and the numerous class action lawsuits were insurmountable obstacles before, Full Tilt may end up wishing that they’d cashed in and given up when they had the chance.