Shaun Deeb will always know what time it is

After winning his third SCOOP watch yesterday, Shaun Deeb is having perhaps the greatest SCOOP tournament series in PokerStars history. All three of Deeb’s wins have come in Stud tournaments and Deeb has pocketed over $125,000, the three Championship SCOOP watches, and looks to be on track for the Player of the Series award, considering he has another final table on his 2012 SCOOP resume!

We’ll have a full report on Deeb’s accomplishments in the coming days.

Jackie Glazier wins the Melbourne Poker Championships Main Event

Jackie Glazier is one of the top tournament players in Australia, and her poker resume just grew by nearly $100,000 after her win at the Melbourne Poker Championships Main Event. Just a week before Glazier finished in second place at the Joe Hachem Deepstacks tournament, pocketing $35,000 in the process. For her career Glazier has racked-up over 4400,000 in tournament winnings, almost exclusively in Australia.

Here is a look at the final table payouts from the event:

1. Jackie Glazier — $95,000

2. Simon Moshi — $67,000

3. Ryan Hong — $47,000

4. Liwei Han — $35,000

5. Nishi Gamage — $27,000

6. Simon Kidson — $21,000

7. Sherrie Gelberg — $17,000

8. Stelios Yenofkian — $13,000

9. Paul Schembri — $10,000

10. Ismail Ismail — $7,000

Serock picks up his first live tournament win

Joe Serock was one of 31 players who went to the PPC Aruba tournament, as the Poker Players Championship organizers attempt to bring major tournament action back to the island nation. While the turnout wasn’t quite what they were hoping for, Serock left happy, considering he picked up his first live tournament win, and over $40,000!

Here is a look at the payouts from the event:

1. Joe Serock – $40,594

2. Jesse Chinni – $24,357

3. Dave Poces – $15,336

4. Steve Karp – $9,923

IPT San Remo results

The Italian Poker Tour was in the poker hotspot of San Remo this past week, and in addition to a €200,000 prize in the Main Event, the tour also awarded a €73,500 prize to the winner of the High-Roller event where 41 players competed in the €5,000 buy-in tourney. Here is a look at the results from the two tournaments:

IPT San Remo Main Event

1. Davide Biscardi – €200,000

2. Philippe Clerc – €130,000

3. Jakub Michalak – €81,200

4. Mirko Schiano Di Tunnariello – €60,800

5. Christer Lagerstrom – €40,500

6. Scott Baumstein – €32,500

7. Pasquale Braco – €24,300

8. Alessandro Longobardi – €16,220

High Roller Tournament

1. Borge Dypvik – €73,500

2. Mustapha Kanit – €47,700

3. Carlo Savinelli – €27,800

4. Faraz Jaka – €19,900

5. Pier Paolo Fabretti – €15,900

6. Rocco Palumbo – €14,050

A hedge fund manager named Bradley Ruderman is currently in prison for operating the ponzi scheme, defrauding a number of clients. He has admitted to losing $5.2 million at the poker tables in the past. Maguire and other celebrities were known to have taken part in the games.

Back in November, Maguire reportedly agreed to pay $80,000 to settle the lawsuit filed over more than $311,000 he was paid by a convicted Ponzi scheme operator in Texas Hold ‘Em matches that included celebrities, businessmen and others”. Former “Welcome Back Kotter” star and professional poker player, Gabe Kaplan, has also agreed to pay $26,900 in connection to the scheme.

“All of the poker cases are now resolved,” bankruptcy trustee Howard Ehrenberg told The Post on Tuesday (May 15, 2012).

“We will recover approximately $1.75 million for the benefit of the creditors of the bankruptcy estate,” Ehrenberg said.

“I assume that the poker winners who had to turn over money are not happy about it, but the settlements were fair in my opinion. “

“The settlement of every poker related case without having had to incur the cost of taking any of them to trial means that the fund available for the victims has been maximized,” Ehrenberg told Celebuzz.

Ruderman’s victims, who filed 22 lawsuits, reclaimed a healthy chunk of the $5.2 million they had sought.

- Jagajeet Chiba

Isildur1 isn’t the only big named who is making hey in the 2012 SCOOP, joining Blom in the two-win SCOOP club was Shaun Deeb, who picked up his second SCOOP win in 2012 and his third overall this weekend, after capturing the Triple Stud tournament title.

Other players ripping it up in the SCOOP series include Lock Poker pro Paul “PaulGees” Volpe, George “Jorj95” Lind, George Danzer, Mickey “Mement_Mori” Petersen, and Steve “Gboro780” Gross.

Here is a look at some of the recent results from the PokerStars 2012 SCOOP series:

SCOOP #17-H: $2,000 No-Limit Hold’em 10-Max Shootout ($150K Guaranteed)

An absolutely stacked final table played for the SCOOP shootout title in Event #17.

1. Andrew “southrnctowl” Badecker — $60,000

2. Wizowizo — $40,000

3. as1025 — $27,000

4. Jason “jdtjpoker” Wheeler — $19,800

5. Ignat “0Human0″ Liviu — $14,000

6. Alex “MrKlout” Balaguer — $11,000

7. Shaun “shaundeeb” Deeb — $8,800

8. Eugene “E. Katchalov” Katchalov — $7,500

9. Jonathan “MONSTER_DONG” Karamalikis — $6,400

10. Jude “j.thaddeus” Ainsworth — $5,500

SCOOP #18-H: $1,000 Pot-Limit Omaha 6-Max w/ Rebuys ($200K Guaranteed)

A three-way deal between three very well known pros marked the conclusion of this wild tournament.

1. Julian “MrCoco” Gardner — $118,606.67

2. Jason Mercier — $114,606.67

3. Phil “MrSweets28″ Galfond — $114,606.66

4. O.Klunssila — $54,560

5. Joseph “subiime” Cheong — $40,920

6. Sira Al Aziz — $27,962

SCOOP #19-H: $2,000 Triple Stud ($50K Guaranteed)

Deeb’s second SCOOP win in 2012 was his second final table in two days (see above), and his third SCOOP win called for Deeb to get by a very tough final table.

1. Shaun “shaundeeb” Deeb — $44,200

2. Stephen “stevie444″ Chidwick — $28,560

3. Eugene “E. Katchalov” Katchalov — $20,400

4. JohnSmith — $13,600

5. PerpCzech — $10,200

6. GVOZDIKA55 — $7,480

7. Brian “$tinger 88″ Hastings — $6,120

8. Spokey — $5,440

Samtrickett1: “Just sent my form off to register for the $1m buy inn tournament.Now im excited for the WSOP………..” May 08 2012

Andrew_Robl: “Excited to play poker for big money and help charity by playing the $1,000,000 tournament for @ONEDROPdotorg at the WSOP this summer.”

Apparently the Macau cash-games have been good for the two poker pros, considering they are two of the players whose name is constantly mentioned as being in attendance at the ultra-high-stakes cash games.

The two players join a growing list of roughly 40 players (according to WSOP Executive Director Ty Stewart during a conference call on Tuesday), with a strict cap of 48 players set for the tournament.

Trickett recently announced that he would be ending his relationship with his most recent sponsor, Titan Poker, and went on to say that he would be repping Matchbook.com at the Big One for OneDrop tournament –Matchbook.com is partially owned by Trickett’s good friend and longtime backer James Bord, who is no poker slouch himself having won the 2010 World Series of poker Europe Main Event.

Trickett wasn’t the only poker pro to leave Titan Poker this week either, as German poker pro Marvin “MadMarvin” Rettenamier also announced his departure from Titan Poker last week. Titan released their first official statement on the loss of their two sponsored pros, who just happen to be two of the biggest names in poker. Here is a look at the statement from Titan Poker released on Thursday:

“Following a remarkable two year partnership with our Team Titan pros Sam Trickett and Marvin Rettenmaier, a mutual decision has been made to part ways. From our side, we are pursuing a new branding strategy which moves away from focusing on a pro team and emphasizes our appeal to main stream and recreational poker players (see Titan Rewards and Titan Treasures). Titan Poker wishes Sam and Marvin continued success in their professional poker careers and would like to thank them both for a great run.”

Robl is known more for his cash-game prowess than for his tournament results, but with a number of wealthy businessmen already registered for the $1,000,000 tournament it seems that “Good2Cu” as Robl is known online simply couldn’t pass up the chance at an estimated $15 million first-place-prize.

Chairman James Murren referred to the game as “Casino Mogul”, however, partners of the firm have not decided on an official name as of yet.

“Internet gaming is here!” Murren declared at the 19th annual Southern Gaming Summit.

Of course, Internet gaming for many has been around for the better part of 15 years but MGM has yet to take the bull by the horns. But this year, the state of Nevada finally passed a law regulating intrastate online gambling. Murren hopes federal legislation will be passed in the not-so-distant future.

“It is better at every level than a state-by-state solution,” he said. “You can more accurately regulate, enforce, tax. You can have a better crime prevention component to it.”

“It will be here this year,” Murren said of Internet gaming. “It won’t be here likely at a federal level because the federal government is doing what they are best at ˜ nothing at all.

“It will be done at a state-by-state level and we will be actively engaged.”

The odds of federal legislation being passed remain slim, according to Murren.

“And if it isn‚t happening don’t blame Sen. (Harry) Reid,” Murren said. “Blame the House Republicans. That‚s where it is being held up.”

- Aaron Goldstein

Respected poker pro Barry Greenstein has made a slightly tenuous link between the rights of gay couples to be married in the USA and the difficulties faced by internet poker players in the States.

US President Barack Obama stated on Wednesday that he backs same-sex marriage in his nation, ensuring that controversy erupted within the notoriously conservative country.

However, it is unlikely that Obama had any idea that Poker Hall of Famer Greenstein would weigh into the arguments by asserting on micro blogging website Twitter that the president should consider the problems faced by poker players in the States in the same manner.

The three-time World Series of Poker (WSOP) champion wrote: “@barackobama admitted he thinks gays should have equal rights. Will he also admit poker players deserve their personal freedom?”
Poker Hall of Famer Questions Political Support

The 57-year-old Team PokerStars Pro believes that the USA’s leading politicians support the efforts made by many individuals and pressure groups to legalise internet poker but are unwilling to publicly reveal their backing following the events of Black Friday last year when the US Department of Justice (DoJ) shut down numerous online poker rooms – including Full Tilt Poker, PokerStars and Absolute Poker.

Certainly, these efforts to gain new legislation have so far failed to gain any great level of political support in Congress, although numerous states are individually considering intra-state laws after the DoJ adjusted their attitude towards internet poker last year.

However, while many will agree with Greenstein, Stuart Hoegner – a gaming solicitor and accountant – has questioned that position, mainly due to the fact those issues faced by disgruntled poker players cannot really be compared to the basic human rights of gay couples to be wed.
Gaming Lawyer Questions Greenstein’s Claim

Hoegner said: “My problem is with the implication that the two rights are somehow equivalent. I support both rights, but they aren’t the same, nor are they equivalent. One is a fundamental issue of civil rights and human dignity.”

The lawyer continued by pointing out that, while American players’ freedoms to play online poker are important, as well as “an economic right and a personal freedom,” this issue cannot be “accorded the same level of urgency as a state law discriminating on the basis of someone’s sexual orientation.”

Hoegner – who also stated that enjoys playing online poker – added that he “would never say that my right to attend an online cardroom is as imperative as someone’s right to state recognition of and respect for one of their closest and most intimate relationships”, before emphasising that these rights are not “worthy of the same deference and protection”.
Twitter Blog Was Probably An ‘Off-The-Cuff’ Remark

Additionally, Hoegner pointed out that, while Greenstein is “an exceedingly smart guy, an incredible poker player, and a passionate advocate for the game”, he is almost certain that the poker star’s “off-the-cuff” comments were probably made without really thinking through what he was writing on Twitter.

No matter, Greenstein should probably prepare himself for something of a backlash from many pressure groups within the USA.

Another WSOP final event will also be broadcast live with the same delay. The player hole cards will also be revealed as part of the airing for both events on ESPN.

The million dollar buy-in “Big One For One Drop” will be televised live and is expected to draw some top name pros.

Doug White, ESPN’s Senior Director of Programming and Acquisitions, commented in a press release, “Fans know Tuesday night is poker night on ESPN. Beginning with the Big One for One Drop and the WSOP National Championship, and continuing on Tuesdays with the WSOP Main Event, we will set the stage for this intense competition and continue the excitement through the final table in October.”

Live coverage will be trimmed back from last year.

WSOP Executive Director Ty Stewart explained the rationale behind the move to cut back live coverage.

“We want to protect the high ratings in the Tuesday night window and there was definitely some erosion of the Tuesday night airings last year. Beyond that, we had to make several considerations in the production to keep the integrity of the game because it was a full-field event with multiple tables.”

Now, with a $1 million buy-in you may suspect that the bulk of the discussion centers on whether or not the tournament will reach the cap (and you’d be right in thinking this was the primary question of most people), but another debate has started concerning the cap itself, and what the WSOP will do if they reach the 48-player mark and more players are standing in line with $1,000,000 in hand?

The conventional wisdom was that much like the $250k Super-High-Roller event at the Aussie Millions, as long as you show-up (even late) with money in hand you can play. But for the Big One for OneDrop both the WSOP and the tournament’s creator Guy Laliberte (whose charity OneDrop will be the beneficiary of $111,111 from each buy-in) are holding to fats to the 48-player cap according to a recent interview in Cardplayer Magazine.

Laliberte told the poker news outlet: “It’s every show producer’s dream to always leave at least one person at the door, unable to buy a ticket. That’s how you know you have a really great show. It’s a fundamental principle of marketing. I remember when a special edition Ferrari came out. They calculated that there were 350 people in the world who would buy it, which is why they only made 349.” Laliberte then added, “By capping the field size, we allow these players to know what they are getting themselves into. Permitting more players after the fact would be unfair.”

However, not everyone is so certain that the cap will be kept in place, especially if registration for the tournament (scheduled for early July) continues at its current pace. On a conference call with the poker media on Tuesday WSOP Executive Director stated that ‘he thinks the cap will be reached’ adding that his optimism wasn’t simply him being a company man. The WSOP officials on the conference call also said that registration was already approaching 40 players.

Like most in the poker community I find it hard to believe that the WSOP or Guy Laliberte (whose charity benefits with every entry) would turn away even a single player since the buy-in is $1,000,000, let alone potentially turning away four, five, or ten players! One of line of thinking is that the cap was put in place to encourage early registration for the tournament, and that once the 48-player mark is met the cap will be increased to 54 or 56 players.

The bill’s co-sponsor, Sen. Ray Lesniak, D-Union, expressed disillusionment with Christie’s perceived lack of interest in moving forward with the initiative to bring online gambling and sports wagering to New Jersey during a brief meeting with the Governor’s aides last week.

“We were told … that the Atlantic City casinos have not made the case that Internet gaming is good for them,” Lesniak said of the meeting, which included bill co-sponsor State Sen. James Whelan (D., Atlantic). “Sen. Whelan and I were stunned. We were led to believe that there were only technical issues to clear up.”

Lesniak also sent out an email to the Philadelphia Inquirer where he accused Christie of playing politics.

“Christie is putting the future of A.C. in jeopardy because of his overriding concern for support from [Sheldon] Adelson, a right-wing money machine of Newt Gingrich and right-wing causes; Caesars, a huge contributor based in Nevada; and Woody Johnson, Jets owner and NFL opponent of sports gaming,”

The Adelson excuse doesn’t pass the “smell” test as Christie is not running for anything that would require the Vegas billionaire’s approval. Christie, after all, still has to answer to his constituents in Atlantic City, many of whom are not exactly enamoured with Adelson at the moment. The vast majority of casino executives, whether they be based in Nevada or New Jersey or anywhere in between, want online gambling legalized whereas Adelson seems to be the only one speaking out against it, supposedly on “moral” grounds.

Assuming Mitt Romney becomes the next US President this coming November, Christie would have to wait in line another 8 years for his shot at the Presidency, and presumably Adelson’s millions in campaign donations. By then, Adelson will be 86-years old, that is if he’s still alive.

There is an off chance Christie might feel inclined to bow to Adelson in the event Romney chooses the colourful Jersey Governor as his running mate. The emphasis is on the word “colourful” and, we will add, “outspoken”, sometimes “belligerent”. Just the idea of Christie as the number two on the ticket (as opposed to the number one) seems difficult to fathom. Christie is viewed in many GOP circles as a more “formidable” opponent than Romney is to President Barack Obama. Romney will want to choose someone who still appeals to the party without stepping on his toes (i.e. a Marco Rubio).

Brennan notes that Lesniak’s remarks come just days before a scheduled state Assembly Regulatory Oversight and Gaming Committee hearing will take place Thursday to discuss the online gambling/sports betting measure.

Brennan offers his own take on what is transpiring in New Jersey politics regarding this matter:

Such needling isn’t necessarily good for online betting supporters. Christie always has seemed lukewarm at best on such matters as it is, so he wouldn’t lose any sleep, it seems, on seeing gambling issues languish.

But this is Jersey, don’t forget – blunt talk is not foreign to politicians, and Christie and Lesniak battle one day and collaborate the next. For instance, the tax breaks that Christie lauds for getting the $2.4 billion Revel casino finished in Atlantic City last month was a Lesniak-sponsored bill.

For whatever reason, Christie seems reluctant to show his cards on gambling matters. He’ll have to make some decisions eventually – but maybe not until this fall, if the state Senate and Assembly don’t send him a revised online gaming bill by the time they take July and August off as their long summer break.

- Chris Costigan

Lock Poker to Leave Merge for CakeWell-informed rumours of Lock Poker leaving the Merge Network and taking control of the Cake Poker Network were confirmed late last night by Shane Bridges – the Senior Affiliate Manager at Lock Poker – who went online last night to state “I can confirm this, we will be sending out details shortly.”

Although details are still to be announced about “When, Where and How”, it is believed that Lock Poker will retain its currently identity on the network, while the existing Cake Poker room continues as a skin on the network along with other popular skins.

Other than a change of poker software, the new “Cake” deal is anticipated to have no financial effect on players currently registered with Lock Poker, as the online poker room has its own stand-alone cashier. Indeed, according to the rumours circulating before Bridges´ announcement, Lock Poker is going to drive forward with advanced technology, a more “aggressive” tournament schedule and an aggressive marketing program which will include better rewards and a return to Lock Poker rakeback.

According to claims made by Lock Poker, their recent marketing success has been one of the main reasons for the success of the Merge Gaming Network over the past twelve months. If, as Lock Poker allege, they are responsible for 40% of the traffic on the Merge Network, the transfer of players to the new Cake Network would see Cake become the number one network accepting players from the US.