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US Marine Wins WSOP Title

A US Marine, who served his country for 10 years in various posts around the world such as Iraq, Ken Griffin, deservingly won the 45^th gold bracelet this year at the World Series of Poker. Now as a defense contractor, Griffin spends time traveling to Iraq and Afghanistan. He only arrived in the US a few days ago to decide at the last minute to attend the WSOP. Good thing he did.

Event #45, the $1,000 No Limit Hold ‘em event saw 2,890 players register. Three days later, a winner emerged, and that winner was Griffin. Winning a $455K+ prize made Griffin’s year, and his first gold bracelet will look great with all of the military medals and honors he’s won.

From Houston, Texas, Griffin is 34 years old. With his prize money, he plans to see to his mother’s medical needs, who was just recently diagnosed with a serious illness.

“I’m going to take care of her and be closer to home,” Griffin said after winning the tournament.  “I’m going to be transferring money into her account as soon as I get it. You know, she’s a senior, working-class, she’s going through some chemotherapy and medicine is expensive. She lives paycheck to paycheck, so I’m really looking forward to helping her out.”

Griffin is the fifth amateur poker player to win a bracelet this year and the third of those to call Texas home. It is his one and only WSOP cash, but his third year and his third event at the WSOP. It was his first tournament of 2011.

When asked how he got into poker, he replied, “Actually, my little brother taught me to play real poker.  I dabbled with my friends and I came home on leave and my little brother had gotten into poker, and so I started going to card rooms with him and learning what real poker was and listening to my brother. You know, from there I just started reading and playing and it just grew from there.”

His brother was with him when he won.

Full Tilt Poker Closed Globally

Unfortunately for Full Tilt Poker players, all Full Tilt Poker operations have been suspended indefinitely, and not by the FBI this time, but by the Alderney Gambling Control Commission (AGCC). According to a statement issued by the AGCC, by violating US laws regarding Internet gambling, Full Tilt Poker in turn violated their own licensing agreements with Alderney.

The AGCC statement reads: “The decision to suspend these licenses follows a special investigation prompted by the indictments unsealed by US Attorney General’s Office in the Southern District of New York on 15th April 2011, during which grounds were found to indicate that these licensees and their business associates were operating contrary to Alderney legislation.”

So early this morning, all online poker on Full Tilt Poker’s virtual tables came to an abrupt halt, which means even more players, now global, will be without their bankroll, as all operations have been suspended, including account withdrawals. According to the statement, “The nature of the findings necessitated the taking of immediate action in the public interest.”

Until a decision has been made (no court date has been set), Full Tilt Poker can no longer accept new players, take deposits from any players, cash out any player accounts, nor allow any poker or gambling activity to take place through their site. So they are pretty much out of business for now.

Full Tilt Poker has had nothing to say about any of this all day other than a message on their site that reads, “Scheduled Maintenance In Progress – The system is currently down for maintenance. Please check back soon!”

Isle of Man Gaming Commission and PokerStars did make a statement though, reassuring all PokerStars players that the Isle of Man district is separate from Alderney, and PokerStars is in accordance with all licensing agreements, which means player funds are safe over at PokerStars.

Russian Poker Player Wins $2,500 No Limit Hold’em

Event #36, which lasted a little over four days and ended on June 24^th, was the $2,500 No Limit Hold ‘em event. It was perhaps one of the most rowdy crowds of any WSOP event to date. In the midst of it all was Russia’s Mikhail Lakhitov, who ultimately took the title from 1,733 other entrants and won almost $750K and a WSOP bracelet.

A bracelet was just a matter of time for Lakhitov, as this was his fifth cash at this year’s WSOP. His lifetime career earnings now total almost $1 million, but his story isn’t typical. Prior to becoming a poker pro, Lakhitov was in the Red Army on active duty. During down time, he learned poker and spent a lot of time playing it and thinking about it. Once he was discharged, he decided to try his hand at pro status, and now he has no regrets.

Thirty-year-old Lakhitov’s first WSOP was only last year, and he didn’t even realize winners of events walked away with a gold bracelet in addition to cash money. After learning that each champion received a bracelet to commemorate his win, he vowed to win one for his wife. Apparently, he’s a man of his word.

He explained, “Last year in 2010, I finished near the top in one tournament and came in eighth place.  I did not know there was such a thing as a gold bracelet.  Later, I saw there were pictures with the winner and the bracelet.  So, this year on my way to Las Vegas, I promised to my lovely wife that I would win a gold bracelet.  That was my motivation.”

Lakhitov is very proud of where he comes from. He says, “I like to show that I am from Russia. It makes me very proud.”

Second place in this event was Hassan Babjane, a Boston, Massachusetts resident, who took a $463K+ prize.

Vegas Based Poker Pro Wins WSOP Bracelet

Event #42, the $10K Pot Limit Omaha championship featured Ben Lamb, who won first place and raked in the biggest prize pool in Pot Limit Omaha history. A Vegas based poker pro, Lamb won $814K+, but he isn’t new to the WSOP. In fact, back in 2009 he placed 14^th in the Main Event. He also took a fifth place cut at an event last year. Then this year, he’s already finished in second place in the $3,000 Pot Limit Omaha event. Now he’s finally proved himself and owns a shiny gold WSOP bracelet.

Lamb rose above 361 other Pot Limit Omaha player, cheered on by friend, many of whom have won bracelets themselves. Lamb says, “Some of my friends would tell me that I’m a great player. But then, they would point to their own wrist and say, ‘Oh wait—I’ve won my gold bracelet. Where’s yours?”

Now the 26-year-old player has one of his own.

Originally from Oklahoma, Lamb has been playing poker at the pro level for about five years now. He’s best known as a cash Pot Limit Omaha player online and live, but he has limited experience in live tournaments. This is all relative now though, as shows his success over the past few years at the WSOP.

Lamb said of his win, “It feels great. The money is good. But this bracelet stays with me forever.”

Frenchman Fabrice Soulier Wins WSOP Bracelet

The US has brought home quite a few WSOP bracelets this year, but another country who came to win is France. So far, the French force has won three bracelets this year, the third title taken by Fabrice Soulier in Event #37, the $10,000 HORSE Championship for which he won more than $600K for h is first place win. Bertrand Grospellier and Elie Payon are also French bracelet winners this year.

It’s been a long road for Soulier, who first played in the WSOP in 2000 and has won his first bracelet only this year, but the wait made it all the more sweet for his French fans watching on the sidelines when he won his bracelet Friday afternoon at an unscheduled fourth-day final table. It finally came down to Soulier and Canada’s Shawn Buchanan, but alas, Soulier’s two pair was enough to win the final pot of the tournament. Finishing fifth was Tom Dwan.

After winning the WSOP bracelet, Soulier said, “I feel very emotional right now. I almost cried when I won. I had to hold back my tears. I feel great. This is the best day of my poker career, by far.”

Soulier is a 42-year-old poker pro who can speak both French and English and is a fan of cinema, favoring directors Ingmar Bergman, Stanley Kubrick, and Martin Scorcese. Before he went pro poker, he actually worked in television and film as a director’s assistant. Later he directed TV shows, many that were quite popular in his country and won awards in France. He eventually grew bored of working in TV and took a liking to poker. It didn’t take long for him to become one of the most successful players in France. He comes from the Aviation Club, the most famous poker room in Paris. He now lives in Las Vegas after moving from France a few years back.

Though Soulier has always managed to cash at least once in the WSOP every year he’s been, this is his first bracelet. In addition to his one win, he’s got six final table appearances and 18 cash finishes in WSOP histories. In total, he’s won more than $1.1 million in WSOP earnings alone.

In keeping with a growing trend, particularly with players from other countries, Soulier was cheered on by a ban of French fans singing songs and making for a positive and festive environment that brought him across the finish line.

In live tournament winnings, Soulier is almost at the $4 million mark, his first big win being at the 2001 Euro Finals of Poker. In all, he has 10 major tourney win in the last 10 years.

In all the years of the WSOP, there have been seven French winners. These include Soulier, Grospellier, and Payan, along with Patrick Bruel, David Benyamine, Gilbert Gross, and Vanessa Hellebuyck. On 2011 being France’s big year at the WSOP, Soulier says, “I hope it is.  We have a lot of good players now, and more and more are coming.  Some of them we do not even know yet.  But they are very good.  I think this is the start of France being a big nation for poker.”

He also spoke on other poker players who he respects: “There are plenty of them. It’s hard for me to name any without forgetting some. In France, it’s Elky (Grospellier), David (Benyamine), Nicholas, Luc, and others. I also play with John Juanda, Allen Cunningham, and these are all gentlemen. I wish I could look like them at the poker table. They are all so great, and I admire all of them.”

Soulier says he meditates to get his mind right for playing poker. He says, “I am very emotional as a player. It is very demanding for me. I have to control myself and work on this part of my game. In this tournament, I did pretty well. I went to yoga many times. I did meditation. It cooled me down a little bit and maybe it allowed me to win today.”

First North Dakotan WSOP Bracelet Winner

Event #39 this year at the 2011 World Series of Poker was the $2,500 Pot Limit Hold ‘em/Pot Limit Omaha Mixed Championship. It was a long, grueling, three-day battle that saw 40-year-old Mitch Schock win his first WSOP bracelet, and the first ever bracelet won by a North Dakotan. He collected more than $310K for his first place win.

Three three-hour long heads up finale between Schock and Rodney Brown ended with a bang when Schock won the hand. Schock’s ship finally came in, who has been playing poker professionally since 1996. The single father has three kids ages 9 to 15. Schock not only plays poker, but he has organized quite a few tournaments in North Dakota, specifically charity tournaments for which he emcees. He’s also invested in heads-up poker machines and a bar poker league.

Schock has read more than 100 books about poker and has attended the WSOP for six years in a row now. This marks his first WSOP win, though he’s had five WSOP final table appearances and 20 WSOP cash finishes. His career WSOP earnings alone total more than $900K. Three of those final table appearances have been this year, and he’s cashed five times this year as well. He is now in the top five for WSOP Player of the Year 2011.

Schock says of winning, “This is great. There are probably like 500 people following me online back in North Dakota. I know a lot of different people in poker from many of the things I do. And so, I think I am the first player from North Dakota to win. There was a kid who is very good who came in second a few years ago, but I think I am the first. So, I am going to go back home with the gold bracelet and everyone is going to be patting me on the back—and buy me free drinks.”

Another WSOP Bracelet Win for the US

This year, despite speculation that attendance would be down, traffic at the World Series of Poker continues to be up from last year’s numbers. More than 51,000 people have already showed up to participate in the series, and these players represent more than 100 different countries, which just goes to show how trivial the Black Friday fiasco was in the grand scope of things.

Event #41, the $1,500 Limit Hold ‘em Shootout championship was carried out recently and awarded a WSOP title to Justin Pechie. In fact, this was Pechie’s first gold bracelet win. He was able to come out ahead of a 538-player field and win a $167K+ paycheck.

Twenty-six-year-old Pechie is a US player from Putnam, Connecticut and has been playing online poker for about six years. He is one of the many US poker pros that was affected by Black Friday, which threatened his income, but it didn’t stop him from coming to the World Series of Poker and taking home a bracelet. He now is considering moving to Canada to keep his day job at the online poker tables. Good thing he made it a priority to make it out to Vegas before he moved. With his WSOP payout, it’ll be much easier to afford the relocation expenses.

This tournament was the last of three shootout tournaments hosted at the WSOP this year. That means that the players advance in the tourney based on wins in a series of table matches. The format of a shootout tournament is single elimination. The number of matches you face depends on the amount of players who register for the tournament. The winner in this tournament had to win three consecutive tables to take the title, which Pechie did.

Fifth Canadian Bracelet Winner at 2011 WSOP

In 2010, Canadian poker pro Matthew Jarvis made the final table of the Main Event at the World Series of Poker, and while he didn’t win the Main Event (fellow Canadian Jonathan Duhamel did), he’s back at the WSOP tables this year and has won his first WSOP bracelet in the $5,000 6-Handed No Limit Hold ‘em event, which came with an $808K pay check, event #40.

Twenty-six-year-old Jarvis placed 8^th in the 2010 WSOP Main Event, but withstood 7,311 other players and still took home more than $1 million in final table winnings. This year, he’s one of five other Canadians to win gold bracelets winners. This is Jarvis’s second final table appearance, third cash finish, and first bracelet. This was his 10^th WSOP event, though he almost skipped the WSOP this year when his father was diagnosed with cancer. His father, who is doing well, talked him into going to Vegas to play, and it’s a good thing he did.

According to WSOP.com, on winning his first bracelet, Jarvis said, “You dream of a moment like this from the first time you start playing poker. To win an event like this with as tough a field as this was, is an amazing feeling.”

It’s only been eight months since the final table of last year’s series was played out. Jarvis said, “It’s been a really crazy. I did win two (live) tournaments. I also won a major tournament online. It’s been a really good year for me, so far. I just hope it keeps going.”

He is also extra proud of his fellow Canadians who have really done very well at the WSOP this year. He said, “There are so many great players coming out of Canada, especially in Vancouver. It’s amazing to be a part of that group that is doing so well here this year.”

Jarvis is definitely one to watch. His skill and sheer determination have got him pretty far and will undoubtedly carry him even further.

Third Ukranian Wins Bracelet at 2011 WSOP

Event #38 in the 2011 World Series of Poker was played out recently and the bracelet went to Arkadiy Tsinis, who is better known in the chess and backgammon circuit than the poker community. He has been a world renowned chess champion for more than a decade now, but has only been playing poker since 2004.

Tsinis switched from chess to poker for the pay increase. Fortunately, Tsinis has been able to make a much better living playing poker. Thus far, he’s won almost $800K in live poker tournaments and has cashed 11 times at the WSOP including the $540K paycheck he landed and his first gold bracelet in the $1,500 No Limit Hold ‘em event.

Tsinis is originally from the Ukraine and is now the third Ukranian to score a WSOP bracelet this year. The other two being Oleksii Kovalchuk and Eugene Katchalov. Tsinis now lives in New York and has followed his good friend Ylon Schwartz from chess to poker. Schwartz has earned more than $4.3 million in his live poker career. He says, “There’s not a great living in chess unless you’re in like the top 20 in the world.”

Schwartz continues, “You’re trained to sit and you’re trained to study and you’re trained to memorize things which are all applicable to poker. It’s cute to be a chess player and be broke when you’re in your 20s but when you hit 30 you’ve got to switch.”

US Politicians Still Trying to Regulate Online Gambling

Despite the controversy that the online poker market has seen over the past two+ months, US politicians are still hammering away at legalizing Internet poker. Washington’s Representative Jim McDermott just presented a new bill that puts forward ideas about taxing online gambling.

The proposed Internet Gambling Regulation and Tax Enforcement Act delineates ways online gambling operators would pay taxes, and while it doesn’t actually legalize online gambling for real money at online casinos, it is a step in the right direction and offers a platform to begin with by outlining the standards that would ultimately regulate the online gambling market in the US. It’s a new approach at an old game.

In addition, McDermott’s bill puts forth the notion that Internet gambling operators would be required to supply a list of all the names and addresses of their players to the federal government, as well as reporting all gross wagers, wins, and losses to the US Treasury Department every day. Players’ deposits, withdrawals, and taxes would also be have to be accounted for.
Another bill drafted by John Campbell and Barney Frank entitled the Internet Gambling Regulation, Consumer Protection and Enforcement Act will accompany McDermott’s bill. Collectively, the two bills will be presented in front of Congress as an effective solution to the regulation of online gambling dilemma in the US. The tax benefits alone are just too much to pass up. With every day that goes by, more and more much needed tax opportunities pass the US government by.

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