LOW TRIUMPHS IN BORGATA
SUMMER OPEN MAIN
Flushing, NY’s Tyng Low found a $211,484 payday waiting after taking down the 2011 Borgata Summer Poker Open’s main event. Low triumphed after flopping a straight while his outchipped opponent, runner-up Farid Jattin of Miami, flopped a gutshot and a flush draw. When the flush failed to appear, Jattin was out in second with $117,481 and Low had his largest-ever title. Third place went to Maryland’s Austin Johnson. Johnson finished atop the Summer Poker Open’s leaderboard and collected a $3,500 entry into this fall’s WPT Borgata Poker Open Championship.
AGA TO BACK POKER-ONLY BILL, FAILS TO
SUPPORT BARTON MEASURE
Hopes that the poker industry would unify behind recent legislation introduced by Rep. Joe Barton were dashed when the American Gaming Association announced that it would not back the bill introduced by Barton in June, and would instead support a separate online poker-only measure to be introduced this fall. The AGA’s preference, according to several reports, is a regulatory framework that would carve a higher percentage of revenues toward those states where regulatory agencies would likely be centered, notably Nevada and New Jersey.
BANKER BEAL LOSES BIG AGAIN?
Texas banker Andy Beal, who took on a group of veteran Vegas pros called the “Corporation” in two different series of legendary ultra-high-stakes limit hold’em matchups, might have experienced another mighty downturn at the tables. The New York Post recently reported that Beal lost “up to $50 million” in a recent series of million-dollar buy-in games during 2011. A Beal spokesman failed to deny the games occurred but disputed the reported the amounts loss, suggesting that Beal’s long-awaited third attempt at topping Vegas’s best has already occurred.
AS THE FULL TILT TURNS, PART 1:
LICENSING WOES IN UK, FRANCE
Citing operations running contrary to Alderney legislation, the UK-based Alderney Gambling Control Commission (AGCC) suspended the license of several hosting and software components associated with the operation of Full Tilt Poker, causing that site to cease almost all operations immediately, pending a resolution of alleged massive cash shortages. Days later the French gambling authority ARJEL revoked similar licensure for Full Tilt’s France-only (.fr) site. The Alderney decision cited the United States’ “Black Friday” indictments as part of the reason for Full Tilt’s operational suspension.
AS THE FULL TILT TURNS, PART 2:
EUROPEAN INVESTORS RUMORED, IVEY
DROPS LAWSUIT
Among the elements under consideration by the AGCC were a possible white knight bailout by undisclosed European investors. While rumors are wideranging and largely unsubstantiated, a secondary AGCC report confirmed that some sort of negotiations were ongoing, and the outlook was promising enough to allow long-time FT spokesman Phil Ivey to drop his own suit against the site’s parent company.
AS THE FULL TILT TURNS, PART 3: PLAYERS
LAUNCH CIVIL CLASS-ACTION CHALLENGE
Four American poker players brought a civil class-action against Full Tilt Poker in an attempt to force the site to resume payments to American customers. The four players, Steve Segal, Todd Terry, Nick Hammer, and Robin Hougdahl, named a large contingent of recognizable names and supporting corporate entities in the action, including Team Full Tilt members Howard Lederer, Chris “Jesus” Ferguson, Phil Gordon, and Andy Bloch, plus company co-founders Ray Bitar and Nelson Burtnick.
AS THE FULL TILT TURNS, PART 4:
POKERSTARS CLAIMS TWO-THIRDS OF
FORMER TILT CUSTOMERS
So where have Full Tilt’s customers gone in the wake of that site’s shutdown on the European front? According to traffic monitoring sites, the answer is PokerStars. About 40 percent of all Full Tilt’s non-US players kept right on playing, and most of them moved to Stars, with smaller portions shifting to PartyPoker and to other European networks. Veteran poker-industry writer/editor Haley Hintze is the author of an upcoming book on the Absolute Poker and UltimateBet online cheating scandals, to be released later this year.
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