Playing from Feb. 17 to Feb. 20, the third annual PartyPoker Sports Stars Challenge will bring 36 players to the 3 Mills Studio in London to play in poker heats. The winners of each heat will move on to the final table and a shot at thousands of British pounds in cash.
The soccer heat will feature seasoned poker players Teddy Sheringham and Tony Cascarino as well as Norman Whiteside, Steve Sedgely, John Adridge and Lee Sharpe.
Representing the cricketers at the felt will be Mark Ramprakash among others, and the snooker players' heat will see the likes of Steve Davis, Willie Thorne and Mark Wiliams.
Darts stars trying to become the ultimate sports star at the poker table will include Phil "The Power" Taylor, Michael Van Gerwen and Peter "One Dart" Manley.
The rugby players will include Matt Dawson, Jamie Peacock and Robbie Paul. There will also be some sports presenters showing off their poker muscle in the event. Andy Goldstein, Chris Kamara, Alan McInally, and Agnieszka Rylik will all take part.
Each player will sit down with £1,000, and each heat winner will get £6,000. Then they'll head to the final table where first place will receive £20,000, second will get £10,000 and third will win £5,000.
New this year, PartyPoker is also hosting a stand-along soccer fans tournament made of six players who qualified online through special tournaments.
"We are expecting the standard of play to be very high. Many of the sports stars are good enough to play on the professional circuit," said a PartyPoker spokesman. "The strongest contenders look like the snooker players and footballers but on their day there are so many players capable of taking this title down."
Coverage of the event will be exclusively produced by Matchroom Sport and will be aired in the United Kingdom later this year on Sky Sports and distributed internationally.
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PKR adds monthly $75k guaranteed
The PKR Masters will take place on the last Saturday each month at 8 p.m. (GMT) and feature the biggest prize pool ever seen on PKR.
With a $75,000 prize pool guaranteed each time, the winner will walk away with at least $18,000 from the tournament. All it takes for a shot at the money is a $250 buy-in, or players can get into daily satellites for the event for as little as $1.28.
"The PKR Masters offers players an exciting new prize pool to aim for in a highly playable format that allows the cream to rise to the top," said Neil Wright, PKR cardroom manager.
When players sit down at the PKR Masters, their buy-in gets them a starting stack of $5,000 in chips. Plus there is a 20-minute clock and broader blind structures that will bring more playability for the tournament according to PKR.
"We're really excited about this and are looking forward to offering players ever increasing guaranteed prize pools as PkR's player base continues to grow," Wright said.
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FTOPS VII: H.A., Razz find winners
First up was the $200+$16 H.A. (Pot-Limit Hold'em and Pot-Limit Omaha) event hosted by Rino Mathis. With 777 players showing up for the event, the guaranteed $100,000 prize pool was boosted to $155,400.
Paying out to 72 places, the person who benefited the most in the event was Gigid. The Canadian took the top spot and the $37,296 first-place prize.
The top 10 players in the event were:
| Place | Name | Prize |
| 1st | Gigid | $37,296 |
| 2nd | Teledonk | $23,310 |
| 3rd | Nate Jizzle | $17,482.50 |
| 4th | guillaumezur69 | $13,209 |
| 5th | 1shini1 | $10,101 |
| 6th | Bedard | $6,993 |
| 7th | BrickMaterial | $4,817.40 |
| 8th | theGrooouuuch | $3,729.60 |
| 9th | sactophillycnxn | $2,797.20 |
| 10th | StackemDeep | $1,554 |
Also making it into the Money was Scott Fischman. He came in 51st place for $427.35. This is his fifth cash in the FTOPS VII so far, with his best be 12th place in Event 2.
The second event on the agenda Thursday was the $300+$22 Razz tournament hosted by Huck Seed. Even with a relatively low turnout of 592 players, the guaranteed $150,000 prize pool ended up at $177,600. That paid out to 64 spots with first place receiving $41,185.44.
It was American player scotyno who proved he knew how to play the low hands best and was the beneficiary of the first-place prize.
The top 10 players in the event were:
| Place | Name | Prize |
| 1st | scotyno | $41,185.44 |
| 2nd | DrOfDonkology | $27,084 |
| 3rd | Q_Q_Q | $18,825.60 |
| 4th | TheOriginalLP | $12,076.80 |
| 5th | Snowpeak | $7,459.20 |
| 6th | dreamguy4real | $5,150.40 |
| 7th | 1BIGpoppapump1 | $3,907.20 |
| 8th | mman_status | $2,664 |
| 9th | Keysus84 | $1,864.80 |
| 10th | MattyDaCobra | $1,864.80 |
Full Tilt Poker pro Chip Jett also managed to crack the money, coming in at 63rd.
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Canadian Journal of Psychiatry: Problem gambling reversable
A study published by the Canadian Psychiatric Association challenges several of the prevailing assumptions regarding the intractable nature of gambling addiction. The study, titled Stability and Progression of Disordered Gambling:Lessons From Longitudinal Studies, reviewed recent research regarding problem gambling and drew several conclusions that challenge the ��...full article
A study published by the Canadian Psychiatric Association challenges several of the prevailing assumptions regarding the intractable nature of gambling addiction.
The study, titled Stability and Progression of Disordered Gambling:Lessons From Longitudinal Studies, reviewed recent research regarding problem gambling and drew several conclusions that challenge the conventional view of gambling addiction. Excerpt:
Results: Our review found no evidence to support the assumption that individuals cannot recover from disordered gambling (that is, the persistence assumption), no evidence to support the assumption that individuals who have more severe gambling problems are less likely to improve than individuals who have less severe gambling problems (that is, the selective-stability assumption), and no evidence to support the assumption that individuals who have some gambling problems are more likely to worsen than individuals who do not have gambling problems (that is, the progression assumption).
Conclusion: Contrary to professional and conventional wisdom suggesting that gambling problems are always progressive and enduring, this review demonstrates instability and multidirectional courses in disordered gambling.
Bad day for pros at FTOPS VII
Joe Beevers hosted Event 15: $2200+$16 NL Hold'em 6-Max although he was no where to be found in the results. The event attracted 1,815 players creating a prize pool of $363,000. The Full Tilt team would have been shut out if it wasn't for the efforts of Erich Kollmann who finished 58th for $726.
FTOPS VII Event 5 winner Bedard continued his strong showing at FTOPS by finishing 71st for $617. It eventually came down to Canadian YoungSupremacy and Yahoobie who faced each other in heads-up play. YoungSupremacy proved victorious and won $72,600 for his efforts. Not bad at all. Below are the top nine finishers:
| 1 | YoungSupremacy | $72,600.00 |
| 2 | Yahoobie | $46,645.50 |
| 3 | ShermHoy | $32,670.00 |
| 4 | Goods123 | $24,321.00 |
| 5 | 0madison7 | $17,424.00 |
| 6 | ozwaldo 82 | $11,797.50 |
| 7 | DonkShizerAlert | $7,332.60 |
| 8 | G de Ipanema | $7,332.60 |
| 9 | TheTouni | $4,827.90 |
Event 16 gave stud players a chance to strut their stuff with a $200+16 ante. Stud events are typically less popular than Hold'em at the FTOPS but 565 players paid their buy-in and sat down to pay some antes. David Chiu handled the hosting duties but was also held scoreless on the results sheet. In fact, not one player on the Full Tilt team made it into the money. Perhaps there was a really big cash game going on somewhere?
At the end of the day metaphyzix beat mikeyb444 heads-up to rake the $26,204 prize for first place. Below are the final table payouts:
| 1 | metaphyzix | $26,204.70 |
| 2 | mikeyb444 | $17,232.50 |
| 3 | a_zuzolo | $11,978.00 |
| 4 | Dantes_11 | $7,684.00 |
| 5 | Phil Curtis | $4,746.00 |
| 6 | pooli | $3,277.00 |
| 7 | justcarol | $2,486.00 |
| 8 | carsonanchad | $1,695.00 |
| 9 | CrayonBox | $1,186.00 |
With just four events left in the FTOPS VII keep checking PokerListings.com to see how this one finishes. Event 17: No-Limit Hold'em 2-day started on Saturday and will finish up tomorrow. Event 18 finished on Saturday but the results are still coming in. Event 19: No-Limit Hold'em Knockout kicks off today and finally the one everybody has been waiting for - the $2 million guaranteed main event - will start later today.
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The Poker Boom Part 4: U.S. lowers the boom
As we have examined in the first three parts of this series, online poker was a major catalyst for the growth of poker's popularity around the world from 2002 onward. Several online gaming companies went public on the London Stock Exchange thanks to the boom, and their futures appeared bright.
In 2006, however, several developments in the United States would change that situation.
U.S. arrests foreign nationals
Online gaming has stood on shaky ground in the United States for several reasons. The U.S. Department of Justice has always held Internet gambling in any form is illegal, basing its opinion on the Wire Act, a law from the 1960s banning sports betting over state lines.
However, the DOJ opinion has never been tested and no federal law specifically addressing the legalities of online gambling has ever been passed. Adding to the confusion, even if an activity isn't illegal under U.S. federal law, the Constitution grants individual states the right to make their own laws.
So while there is no federal law banning online poker, the state of Washington, for instance, has a law that makes playing online poker a Class C felony (the same legal category as crimes like rape, child molestation, and animal cruelty).
This patchwork legal system led to the arrests of several figures from online gambling companies in 2006.
In July 2006, the FBI detained British citizen and BetOnSports CEO David Carruthers in Dallas, Texas, as he was changing aircraft on the way to Costa Rica. The DOJ held Carruthers on 22 charges of conspiracy, racketeering and fraud.
Then in September 2006, federal agents apprehended British citizen and Sportingbet PLC chairman Peter Dicks at Kennedy International Airport in New York. The feds were acting on a warrant issued by the state of Louisiana, charging Dicks with violating state laws prohibiting operating an online casino, bookmaking or poker operation.
The DOJ claimed it was simply enforcing the law, but many were convinced that the U.S. government had begun a witch hunt.
Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act
Ever since the Internet became readily accessible to the average American in the mid-1990s, anti-gambling organizations in the United States have sought to have Congress ban online gambling.
Those groups enlisted a handful of congressmen, but they were never able to gather enough support to enact a ban. Then in 2006, the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act was passed.
The UIGEA didn't expressly outlaw any forms of Internet gambling. Instead it banned the transfer of money from U.S. financial institutions to online gambling sites.
Previous attempts to ban online gambling
Online gambling opponents had previously tried to influence legislation by supporting three men in Washington who were sympathetic to their cause: Rep. Jim Leach (D-Iowa), Rep. Robert Goodlatte (R-Va.) and Sen. Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.).
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In 1997, Kyl introduced the Internet Gambling Prohibition Act (IGPA) before the Senate. Goodlatte soon followed suit by introducing similar legislation in the House of Representatives. Neither bill passed.
In 1999, Goodlatte sponsored a new version of the IGPA in the House that called for a ban on all Internet gambling, with exceptions for horse racing and jai-alai interests. (Interestingly, Goodlatte had accepted substantial campaign donations from the Virginia horse racing industry.)
The 1999 version of the IGPA never passed the House thanks to Rep. Tom DeLay (R-Texas). DeLay used a procedural move known as the "suspension calendar" to require that the bill meet a 2/3 majority for passage, a total it was unable to muster.
Revised versions of the IGPA never gathered enough support to pass the House either.
Playing by different rules
Playing by the normal rules of procedure in Washington hadn't produced results for anti-gambling advocates, so they changed their strategy. In 2006 they found a powerful friend in Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.).
Working with Kyl, Frist attached the language now known as the UIGEA to the SAFE Port Act, a measure intended to strengthen port security against terrorist threats. The SAFE Port ACT had passed through the House by a vote of 421-2 and the Senate by a vote of 98-0, showing the final bill coming out of conference would pass easily.
The SAFE Port Act was the opening anti-gambling advocates had been looking for.
At midnight on the day Congress adjourned for the 2006 elections, without any debate, the Senate passed the SAFE Port Act with the UIGEA language included. The act banned financial transactions involving online gambling sites, with exemptions for fantasy sports, horse racing and state lotteries.
Exodus
The UIGEA and the arrests of foreign nationals created a chilling atmosphere for online gaming in America.
Online poker was particularly affected as the bulk of the industry's profits at the time came from virtual card rooms. It wasn't long before the "new rules" also had an effect on U.S. poker players.
Poker sites abandon the U.S. market
Passage of the UIGEA created a tough situation for a number of international, publicly traded companies that had profited from the online poker boom.
Despite their status as legal, regulated entities in other countries, companies based their net worth on their value as perceived by the stock market. Regardless of whether the U.S. law was justified, or even enforceable, violating it would be viewed in a negative light by stockholders.
PartyGaming, parent company of market leader PartyPoker, quickly issued a statement after passage of the UIGEA:
"After taking extensive legal advice, the Board of PartyGaming Plc. has concluded that the new legislation, if signed into law, will make it practically impossible to provide U.S. residents with access to its real-money poker and other real-money gaming sites.
"As a result of this development, the Board of PartyGaming has determined that if the President signs the Act into law, the Company will suspend all real-money gaming business with U.S. residents, and such suspension will continue indefinitely, subject to clarification of the interpretation and enforcement of US law and the impact on financial institutions of this and other related legislation."
This announcement was followed by similar statements from 888 (owner of Pacific Poker), Sportingbet (owner of Paradise Poker) and Cryptologic (owner of the Cryptologic network of poker rooms). Privately-owned rooms such as PokerStars, Full Tilt Poker, and Bodog Poker, meanwhile, vowed to stay in the U.S. market.
Overnight, the majority of the online poker rooms had abandoned the U.S. market, despite the fact that America had been the source of the majority of their income.
Payment processors follow suit
Several smaller payment processors announced shortly after passage of the UIGEA that they would cease business with U.S. customers. While these companies impacted the options available to U.S. poker players, the future of online poker in America hinged on what Neteller would do.
Throughout the first wave of the poker boom, the payment processor of choice had been Neteller. However, Neteller was particularly vulnerable to the UIGEA because the law was directed toward payment processors.
On Oct. 19, 2006, six days after the UIGEA was signed into law, Neteller announced that it would cease accepting funds transfers from U.S. customers to gambling Web sites "within 270 days" - the same period given to the Treasury and the Federal Reserve Board to create regulations for enforcement.
The U.S. government forced Neteller's hand in January 2007 when, it arrested the company's Canadian founders, Stephen Lawrence and John David Lefebvre. Neither man currently worked for Neteller, but that didn't stop Neteller from quickly announcing a full withdrawal from the U.S. market.
The company also turned over "not more than $55 million" in Neteller customer funds to the U.S. Attorney's Office.
According to Neteller's statement, these funds were "largely in the process of being transferred from the Group to its U.S. customers or vice versa." The money would eventually be returned to Neteller's customers.
Conclusion
The online poker boom created vast wealth for a number of companies around the world, based mostly on the strength of the game's appeal to Americans. The tactics of a small group of American lawmakers, however, forced those companies to shift their business strategies if they wished to stay profitable.
In Part Five of this series we will look at how that shift affected online poker and the major tournament series it had fueled for the previous four years.
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PartyPoker Premier League, Day 6: Kravchenko, Luske Secure Grand Final Seats
The final two preliminary heats of the 2008 PartyPoker Premier League kicked off on Friday, with some players vying for extra chips at the Grand Final match while others hung on for a chance at the playoffs. Tony G and Andy Black started...
Titan Poker celebrates Leap Year with tournament
All players have to do to get an invite to this tournament, which is only open to 29 players, is play in 29 scheduled Hold'em tournaments during the month of February.
Silver VIP players and above are eligible for this special promotion, and the tournaments they play in must take place Feb. 1-27. Those eligible tournaments include freeroll tournaments and points buy-in tournaments, but sit-and-go tournaments are not included.
The players who qualify will be notified by e-mail.
If you're not already a player at Titan Poker, now is as good a time as any to become one. There's still a chance to qualify for the Leap Year Tournament, and by signing up through PokerListings.com players will have access to all sorts of great benefits.
First off, PokerListings.com offers players the world's best sign-up bonus at Titan Poker, offering an exclusive $600 sign-up bonus at 200% match. Plus, players that deposit more than $100 will get a $50 bonus up front.
Once signed up, PokerListings.com players have access to exclusive tournaments as well. Titan Poker has a monthly $5,000 freeroll for PokerListings.com players that qualify, and the two sites have teamed up to offer $180,000 in World Series of Poker prize packages between now and the Main Event.
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