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Florida May be the First State to Regulate Online Poker

The question of legalizing and regulating online poker has been raised time and time again across the United States at both the state and federal level. New Jersey has actually passed an online gambling bill while California legislators have proposed legislation to regulate Internet poker.

Now Florida has moved through the red tape and may actually become the first state to legally offer online poker, and this could all be reality by July of this year. Rep. Joseph Abruzzo has introduced legislation that will be discussed by Florida lawmakers beginning March 8th. If approved, Internet poker would likely be legal in Florida before New Jersey and California.

Gaming Analyst Steve Schwartz notes that “It is likely with a $4 billion budget deficit that Florida legislators will approve the online gambling bill. The revenue may be too much to ignore for lawmakers looking to win over public support.”

The problem though is that for Abruzzo, his party is the minority in Florida, and the Republican party has been against the idea of gambling expansion. However former Gov. Charlie Crist was able to negotiate a contract with the Seminole Indians that moved the industry forward.

The time is now for Florida to expand gambling to the online sector, as millions of gamblers are already betting online at unregulated online poker clubs while millions dollars that could potentially be taxed goes back and forth to other countries. Abruzzo’s argument is that he wants to protect those gamblers, as well as bring in some much needed revenue for the state. “We want to legalize it,” Abruzzo said. “Regulate it, and bring revenue to Florida. To me it’s common sense to protect our players.”

Future of Online Poker Tracking in Jeopardy

As of late, it seems that Full Tilt Poker may be moving to prohibit datamining sites from collecting information from Full Tilt players. After complaints were filed last year against PokerTableRatings and their coverage of Full Tilt games. Sites like PTR, known as dataming websites, track real money cash game data at online poker sites. Some data is free to those who subscribe, but some is not free and must be paid for, such as hand histories.

In a post on the 2+2 poker forum, a Full Tilt rep suggested that the online poker room had taken measures to prevent PTR from collecting data from their site, which explains why there has been little reports released by PTR regarding Full Tilt players and games. There has not, however, been any official statement made by Full Tilt regarding this issue. Nor has PTR released a statement, though they have acknowledged that this is a problem, especially for their paying users.

The problem with the datamining lies with those players who do not subscribe to a tracking site and who do not rely on these types of advantages. They say it is unfair to the everyday player that online poker sites ultimately markets to. The available data is very valuable to those players who do use it, especially at the mid to high stakes levels where the same players ¬¬¬return again and again. It is also useful in poker coaching and staking.

Since little is known about the extent to which Full Tilt Poker and other big online poker sites like PokerStars will go to prevent datminers from collecting information off of their sites, it is hard to say whether or not it may soon be something of the past. While the online poker industry is still young, but continues to grow and advance in light years, it must adapt and amend itself along the way to compensate for fairness and the overall security of its players. This may be a big step for the industry as a whole that site after site will follow, or it may prove to be just a passing issue. However, the latter is unlikely, as once a big force like Full Tilt takes something on, it doesn’t usually get swept under the rug.

Another Mysterious Swede Now Playing at Full Tilt

A mysterious player showed up at Full Tilt Poker the other day and had the posters at 2+2 online poker forum buzzing. An unknown player, “Lindqvro” just happened to be taking Dan “Jungleman12” Cates by storm at the $25/$50 PLO tables. This Lindqvro had a lot of money and was using an ultra aggressive style to take Cates for quite a bit of money—somewhere in the neighborhood of $300K on four tables at once.

The fact that this unidentified player was from Sweden led many to believe that it was none other than Viktor Blom, who after recently signing with PokerStars, would not be able to use his regular handle “Isildur1” anymore, as rights to that name belong to PokerStars according to the sponsorship contract between Stars and Blom. After about five hours of posts on 2+2, poker community enthusiasts believed to have had it all figured out. The bankroll, the playing style, the “mysterious Swedish player” were all too familiar. Signs pointed towards Blom, who until recently was unknown to the world as Isildur1, but came out during the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure, as a publicity stunt after signing a contract with the online poker room.

It is not yet known who Lindqvro actually is, nor is it clear whether or not he will continue to appear at Full Tilt Poker. Only time will answer these mysteries, but if it is Blom, it would seem as if he got some enjoyment out of playing in anonymity, which is already starting to be the first tell that it is him. If he wishes to continue to play in secret, he may have to take up a second residence somewhere. Eventually though, his secrecy will become familiar due to the fact that no one else just randomly shows up and then proceeds to play so aggressively and have the bankroll to back it up.

Team UB “New and Younger”

While Team UB has lost a couple key players as of late (Annie Duke and Phil Hellmuth), they’ve gained just as many. After acquiring Prahlad Freidman last month, Team UB has confirmed Eric Baldwin for two additional years after a successful first year partnership that began in December 2009.

Baldwin says, “Signing again with UB.com was a no-brainer. I like the direction that the site is headed and I’m really feeling the new, younger Team UB. I’m excited to continue to be a big part of it.”

It is an obvious plus for UB.com to re-sign with Baldwin. The poker pro landed $1.4 million in winnings in live tournament cashes alone. He was just as successful in 2009 and named Card Player Magazine’s Player of the Year. He landed in the 6th place spot in Bluff Magazine’s 2010 Player of the Year list, and he also got first place in the NAPT LA Bounty Shootout which earned him more than $157K. He also finished in 59th place in WSOP Main Event, cashing out with $138K+. He also finished in the money in three other WSOP events in 2010. He took home a bracelet in 2009 as well in the $1,500 NLH event, for which he earned more than half a million dollars. Baldwin’s career winnings total more than $4.2 million.

Despite the loss of two of the brand’s biggest named pros, UB.com seems to be reinventing itself as a younger and fresher online poker club and recovering from the cheating scandals that once plagued the brand.

Greg Raymer No Longer Associated with PokerStars

While no official statement has been released from PokerStars, the buzz is going around that the 2004 WSOP champ Greg Raymer is no longer affiliated with the online poker room. His pic is off the site and his name is no longer listed as “PokerStars Pro.”

Furthermore, Raymer made the following post on the 2+2 poker forum:

There has been a lot of discussion about my representation of PokerStars, and it is true that right now I am not representing them. In the near future, I will have a more detailed statement discussing this situation, but I have no further comment at this time. For those of you who have been reading about and discussing this situation, I appreciate all of the positive comments I have received. It is very gratifying to hear so many nice things from so many good people, and I am touched by your support.

It is rumored that Raymer left due to compensation discrepancies.

Now PokerStars is one less WSOP champion (they already lost Peter Eastgate, 2008 champ, last year when he retired), but they still have five former WSOP Main Event champions on their pro list, including Chris Moneymaker, Tom McEvoy, Joe Cada, Joe Hachem, and Jonathan Duhamel, among other big-name poker pros including the recently signed Viktor “Isildur1” Blom and long-time Stars por, Daniel Negreanu.

Raymer had been one of the more visible of the PokerStars Pros, taking in more than $6.5 million in live tourney winnings ($5 million of that for his WSOP victory). Raymer is also a board member of the PPA. He is reportedly still playing at PokerStars, just without the red star by his name.

2011 World Series of Poker Line Up

The official 2011 WSOP schedule has been announced, and the series will commence on May 31st and run through July 19th. Jack Link’s Beef Jerky will be the presenting sponsor again, and the venue will once again be the Rio All-Suites Hotel & Casino located in fabulous Las Vegas, Nevada. ESPN will have exclusive press rights, and there will be a total of 58 WSOP bracelets to be won—that’s one more gold bracelet than last year.

The opening event will take place at 5:00 p.m. on May 31, 2011 and will feature a new event—the $25K NLH event will be a heads up championship open to a max 256 player field.

The opening weekend also includes a $1K NLH event that is expected to see at least 6,000 players, as is typical of past tournaments. Following weekends in June will also offer low buy-in events popular among the general weekend tournament-goers.

The Main Event will feature the $10K NLH Championship to start on the 7th of July at noon and reach the final players on Tuesday, July 19th. At this time, play will be suspended until Tuesday, November 5th.

Jack Effel, WSOP Tournament Director for the sixth year in a row, says, “Something for everyone is the best way to describe the 2011 World Series of Poker schedule. It’s staggering to think that last year alone the WSOP hosted nine of the 17 largest tournaments in poker history. We had 44 events produce more than a $1 million prize pool, so we can’t wait to get at it again and offer players at all levels the best poker action on the planet.”

2011 WSOP Pre-registration will be available at the Main Cage in the Rio Casino and online at wsop.com starting February 7th.

Season 7 of High Stakes Poker to Air in February

High Stakes Poker, one of the most popular and longest running poker television show will air its seventh season this year. The show returns to the Game Show Network on February 26, this time on Sunday evenings rather than Saturday evenings like last season.

This will be the first season that offers more of a surprise of cast members. Although the show was filmed last December at the Bellagio in Las Vegas (the show was formerly taped at the Golden Nugget), it’s been rather hush hush as to the details, as there was no press invited. In the past, interviews with exiting cast members were allowed, but this was not the case for season seven.

One thing we can assume is that because Full Tilt Poker had boycotted High Stakes Poker due to the fact that PokerStars got the official sponsorship for the show, there will be no Full Tilt Poker representation. Another tidbit of info on the boycott is that PokerStars purchased the old High Stakes Poker episodes in which Full Tilt Poker pros weren’t shown wearing the Full Tilt logo. Therefore, Full Tilt believes that viewers watching the shows on PokerStars will become confused about player affiliates when they see Full Tilt pros appearing without logo representation.

Based on Twitter and Facebook, though, there are some confirmed players like Phil Laak, Doyle Brunson, Antonio Esfandiari, Phil “OMGClayAiken” Galfond, Barry Greenstein, Haralabos Voulgaris, Jonathan Duhamel, Vanessa Selbst, Jason Mercier, David “Viffer” Peat, and maybe Scotty Nguyen. It would be Nguyen’s first appearance on High Stakes Poker.

Isildur1’s Identity Revealed

As promised, Isildur1made his identity known to the public last weekend, and as expected, he revealed that he was in fact Viktor Blom. It was rumored that the Swedish online phenomenon had not disclosed his identity to save himself from having to pay Swedish taxes, and now that he is a real person, he may be facing some severe tax bills.

Isildur1 made a name for himself after winning and losing millions of dollars and participating in 12 of the biggest online poker pots in history.
When the mystery player signed a deal with Team PokerStars, he knew he’d have to reveal himself to the world sooner than later. He made the decision to unmask himself at the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure in the Bahamas last weekend. Blom is only 20 years old and is from western Sweden by the Norwegian border. He is the youngest of four and currently resides in London. Blom has been playing poker since he was 14 and has an older brother who plays poker as well.

Blom explains, “In the beginning, it was just for fun,” but he was playing online poker 15 hours a day by the time he was 18.

“I deposited $2,000 (14,000 kronor) and within three weeks, I had $2 million,” he states. Extreme aggressive play style quickly got him noticed and he soon became one of the most well-known players in the business.

In November ’09, Blom had lost $3.2 million to Phil Ivey in only one week. After just a day, he lost $3 million to Patrik Antonius, only to win $2 million back from Antonius the very next day. And days like these continued with wins and losses.

“I had some rough days. But I’m not worried. I know I can always win money,” said Blom.
Now that he’s outed himself, he may be facing unfinished business with the tax authorities in Sweden. One publication suggested he may owe up to the equivalent to about $149 million, though the tax authorities wouldn’t confirm that they were interested in going after Blom.

“Internet poker is something we’re looking into and I know this poker player, but I can’t comment on whether we’ve opened a case,” Erik Boman, tax agency spokesperson, said.

Freidman Replaces Hellmuth & Duke at UB.com

In the past, Prahlad Freidman was the victim of the UB.com super-user scandal, but it’s just that—in the past. He is now on the roster with UB.com as a sponsored pro player. It doesn’t come as a shock that UB is trying to fill in the blanks on the heels of Phil Hellmuth and Annie Duke’s abrupt departure from the brand on New Year’s Eve 2010. What is in fact a surprise though is that Freidman is joining the site that scammed him.

When he once stated, “I guarantee you’ll never see me with a poker site or casino logo…I don’t know what they do behind the scenes and who they’re screwing over…The only logo I’d ever wear is some completely green cause, or some charity or No War shirt.”

Now he says, “I was happy because UB came at an angle of me having a lot of creative control and being a front-runner for the company. Whereas the other sites I’d just be like a pawn. The other sites have thousands of pros. I felt that with other sites I wouldn’t really get the forefront. I’ve always played basketball, been the point guard and always been the leader in most things that I do. I feel like I’m more of a leader than a follower so this is just a perfect fit for me.”

Despite the cheating scandal, 32-year-old Friedman, who is originally from California, has made a fairly successful poker career for himself, which includes a WSOP bracelet and well over a million dollars in career winnings.

He recently tweeted, “I said I would never sign with a poker site. Should I ever reconsider? What y’all think? I would have to get over the fact that I’m ‘selling out.’ I’m the only player in the world that hasn’t wanted a deal that I know of.”

Isildur1 to Reveal Himself Today

Could it really be? According to various sources, the world will soon know the true identity of Isildur1, recently signed anonymous PokerStars Team Pro and online poker player. Supposedly, before the day is over, the unidentified poker player will reveal himself to the poker community at the commencement of the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure (PCA) Main Event which will take place at the Atlantis Resort in the Bahamas. A press conference has been scheduled for 7:00 p.m. Bahamas time.

For almost a year now, many have believed that the mysterious, unnamed Swedish character is in fact Viktor Blom, a very successful cash game player who is very well respected in the European poker circuit. Online, Isildur1 is known for the dramatic swings that involve bets worth millions of dollars. Not known in the live circuit for having high stacks of cash, attention was raised when Blom became one of 38 players competing in the $100K High Roller Event at the PCA. Once the news of Isildur1’s supposed appearance started buzzing around at the PCA, people started to make a connection.

Over the past year, Isildur1 has held his own against some of the biggest and boldest high-stakes online poker players to ever play the game. Isildur1 has swapped huge pots with such players as Patrik Antonius, Tom durrrr Dwan, Gus Hansen, and Phil Ivey at the high-stakes tables over at Full Tilt Poker before he signed with PokerStars.

And as if there wasn’t enough hype surrounding the PCA this year, Tony G has expressed interest in taking on Isildur1 for a rematch after losing against him at the SuperStar Showdown, a series created by PokerStars specifically designed for those who wished to try their hand against the anonymous player. Tony G just might get that chance at the PCA.

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