Poker News

by Haley Hintze

SOUTH POINT RECEIVES FORMAL NGC APPROVAL

 South Point Poker, LLC, the online counterpart to Las Vegas’s South Point Hotel, Casino & Spa, received the first official Nevada online-poker operator’s license in late August, following its previous passing of a suitability hearing. With software development already entering the testing phase, South Point will likely be the first Nevada online poker site to debut, probably before year’s end. Reno’s Monarch casino received Nevada’s second interactive operator license only moments after South Point, but has not aggressively pursued a market-entry strategy.

POKER DECLARED GAME OF SKILL IN EDNY COURT DECISION

by Ashley Adams

I have been reporting on poker in North Dakota, Montana, and Wyoming. I complete this four part series by describing my poker trip through South Dakota and back to Minneapolis where it began just a short six days earlier. I left the poker mecca of Wyoming for the legendary Deadwood, South Dakota—home to famed poker player and lawman Wild Bill Hickok. I had read a lot about the place—most recently in Jim McManus’ poker tome Cowboy’s Full. I wanted to experience the place for myself.

by Haley Hintze

SOUTH POINT ON FAST TRACK TO REALMONEY ROLLOUT

 Las Vegas’s South Point Hotel, Casino and Spa jumped ahead of the pack in the race to offer the first real-money online poker to Nevada residents when its multi-part application passed a Nevada Gaming Commission suitability in early August. The actual NGC approval is a virtual formality, and with services and software already in-house or under contract, South Point may be able to roll out its site before year’s end. Separately, Reno’s Monarch Casino also passed a suitability hearing, but has no software partner to date.

By Stanley R. Sludikoff, Editor/Publisher

 Back when Mike Caro and I started this newspaper, November of 1982; Mike was the Editor, and we discussed the idea of ranking tournament players. After much discussion, we abandoned the idea as having too many flaws to get an accurate ranking. Further, at that time, getting card rooms to supply the information needed was, at best, unreliable.

 Over the years we have seen other publications and individuals create ranking systems, each one more flawed than the next, while some favored certain players (or events) over others. So we desisted from this task. We even came up with what would probably be the most accurate ranking, a sort of batting average, but, again, it required complete information from card rooms, all card rooms holding qualifying events, to be possible. This would include the identification of all people who played, even those who didn’t cash. As an example, who would you say is the better player: someone like Phil Hellmuth, who played in 2000 No Limit tournaments and won 12, or John Doe, who played in 20 tournaments and won 5? Since we don’t really know how many events they played in and lost, how can we tell?

by Ashley Adams

In my last column I continued my tale of poker in the western prairie, leaving North Dakota for poker rooms in Montana. In this column I’ll continue with my journey and write about poker in Wyoming.

 Wyoming is a testament to the importance of government and the law. You see, as much as we gamblers may be civil libertarians at heart—preferring for the government to stay out of our lives— when push comes to shove—the right laws can make for the ideal poker environment. Such is the case in Wyoming.

Delaware Park’s poker room has been known as a favorite for tv personality, Montel Williams, and more recently, for Olympian, Michael Phelps. Though he’s used to swimming with the big fish of the competitive swimming world, it would be interesting to see how Phelps would fare in a competition requiring a different kind of endurance- perhaps the Ironman contest.

 Seneca Allegheny in Salamanca, New York is starting a poker league in September – more details to come soon. Usually the poker leagues I hear about are in underground rooms, so this one sounds innovative.

by Wendeen H. Eolis 

Initially, the media flares of July 31, 2012 put out by PokerStars, Full Tilt Poker (FTP), and the United States Department of Justice (DOJ), announcing a deal amongst them that would allow PokerStars to acquire the assets of FTP, ignited only a modest amount of fanfare; the poker community had already learned that the parties were poised to close the deal.

DOJ Stance on Settlement Agreement

 Within hours of the formal announcements, however, an assortment of lawyers, news analysts, protagonists, and pundits, began to weigh in on all that was left silent in the settlement agreement of the DOJ’s civil forfeiture claims against PokerStars and FTP.

by Haley Hintze

SOUTH POINT AWAITS NGC SUITABILITY HEARING

 Las Vegas staple, South Point Hotel, Casino & Spa moved forward with its announced plans to offer real-money online poker to Nevadans by year’s end after being slotted for one of the Nevada Gaming Commission’s suitability-hearing slots in early August. South Point and its owner, Michael Gaughan, have filed multiple applications covering all aspects of a new Nevada online-poker enterprise, and continue the development and testing of a new South Point Poker platform, to be rolled out in the coming months.

FULL TILT’S BURTNICK SURRENDERS TO US AUTHORITIES

 Only weeks after a surrender and plea deal for Full Tilt CEO Raymond Bitar, the firm’s payment-processing director, Nelson Burtnick, surrendered to US authorities on related “Black Friday” charges. Bitar and Burtnick were the subjects of a DOJ-authored “superseding indictment” which restricted and enhanced the charges against the pair, which were largely banking-and wire-fraud in nature. Burtnick was arrested at Newark Liberty Airport after returning from Ireland to face the charges, and was subsequently released on $500,000 bail.

Galen Kester of Tunica, MS won the main event at the World Poker Open, which just concluded at the Gold Strike in Tunica, Mississippi. There were 158 players in this 23rd event of the WPO, posting buy-ins of $3,000 + $150. Second place (of $91,000) went to Brad Peeples of Coffeyville, MS, while 3rd place of $50,000 went to Mike Postle of Rancho Cordova, CA. With the exception of Postle, all paid places went to residents living east of the Mississippi River.

 Heartland Poker Tour producers promised players and fans an exciting tournament for the 200th episode of the nationallytelevised poker show, and Route 66 Casino Hotel in Albuquerque did not disappoint. Greg “Fossilman” Raymer, 2004 World Series of Poker Main Event Champion, stole the show, advancing to the Final Table as the chip leader and leaving as the champion, with $71,875

 Raymer adds to over $7 million in career winnings. In contrast, runnerup, Robert Crawford of El Paso, Texas, listed his lifetime career winnings as “not much.” Crawford, who invested just $180 into the tournament and left with $42,500, considered the day a success. “I definitely didn’t expect to be playing heads up with Greg Raymer today,” he said.