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New Time Tourney Format at PokerStars

Now that online poker is business as usual (outside of the US anyway), Internet poker technology is once again thriving. The new Time Tourneys at PokerStars have everyone flocking to see what all of the buzz is about, and there hasn’t been this much buzz about a new online poker feature since Rush Poker.

Time Tourneys sets a time limit on the game, so that instead of playing until all your chips run out, you play until your time runs out. When time is called, the prize pool is divided among the remaining players according to their chip stacks at that time.

Time Tourneys feature an array of buy-in ranges from as little as $1, so anyone can try this new poker trend out. Just visit the PokerStars lobby and hit the “Tourney” tab. Once there, you will find the new Time Tourneys marked with a stopwatch icon.

Betrand “ElkY” Grospellier says, “Time Tourneys are going to be so much fun. I often want to play a tournament but don’t have hours to spare, so these are just perfect. I think Time Tourneys are also going to be intense, because as the clock ticks down there’s going to be even more action. I can’t wait to get playing them!”

So that everyone can try these new tournaments out, PokerStars is giving out free tickets worth $5.50 each to anyone who makes a deposit of at least $30 by October 28th.

Also new to PokerStars is the Saturday Countdown, a $22 buy-in time tourney with a $10K guaranteed prize pool. The first Saturday Countdown will take place this Sunday, October 22 at its regular 13:00 ET time.

WSOP Main Event to Air Live on ESPN

Due in part to the extremely successful coverage of the World Series of Poker this past summer, ESPN and WSOP officials have announced a change in the way the WSOP Main Event will be aired. Aside from a mere 15-minute delay, the WSOP will pretty much be televised live beginning November 6th when the final nine players vie for the coveted WSOP Main Event championship bracelet and first place title.

Viewers at home will be able to view the last leg of the $10,000 buy-in NLH WSOP Main Event at home as the action unfolds. There will be no need to watch online updates or wait for coverage to air later, which is huge for televised poker, especially since much of the televised poker series were previously cancelled this year.

The first place finisher will earn an $8.7 million payout, and the entire world will experience the win right along with those at the event, well only 15 minutes later anyway. There will be no need for spoiler alerts this year, as those watching on television will know the outcome about the same time the results are posted online. WSOP exec Ty Stewart said, “This coverage shifts the paradigm for poker’s potential on television and will showcase our championship with unprecedented richness and scale.” He also said, “For the first time, we will truly be represented as live sport versus just being broadcast on a live sports network.”

The November Nine will commence play on November 6th at 11:30 a.m. at the Rio All-Suites in Las Vegas, Nevada. The final three will come back on November 8th at 5:00 p.m. until a winner is determined. Eight of the nine are guaranteed to become millionaires, while the 9th place finisher will leave with more than $780K.

Tzvetkoff to Testify for Prosecution in Federal Case against Online Poker Execs

Fake payment processor operator Daniel Tzvetkoff is now reported to be a star witness on the side of the prosecution in the case against the 11 Internet poker execs that were accused of money laundering and illegal gambling activity by the feds back in April—the very same individuals who helped him make his illegal fortune. Tzvetkoff was actually the one who led police to arrest the 11 execs, so it’s not surprising that now he’s going to go ahead and testify against them in order to receive a lesser sentence for himself.

According to reports, Tzvetkoff is hiding out in New York, where he was spotted for the first time in months. Some believe, he’s already received his sentence, but the details are being kept secret due to the bigger case against the executives of PokerStars, Absolute Poker, and Full Tilt Poker.

When the three biggest online poker sites in the world were shut down and the indictments were handed down, it was a sad day for online poker, especially in the US. Only one of those three poker sites is still in operation today, and Tzvetkoff is to thank. He, who made billions of dollars by hiding online poker transactions and was just as guilty as any other, will likely end up in witness protection to save his butt after he helps bring down some of the biggest online poker figures in the history of online poker. If it weren’t for these men, the industry would not exist in the capacity that it does throughout the world, as online poker is much bigger than the US now. It is unfortunate that it all had to go down the way it did.

National Heads-Up Poker is No More

NBC’s National Heads-Up Poker was started in 2005 and has run every year since, but for no longer. The invitation-only televised tournament series featured 64 pro poker players who played in a bracket style competition, reducing down to six players, one of which was pronounced winner, has been cancelled by NBC.

This isn’t the first poker TV cancellation though, as Poker After Dark was ended earlier this year by NBC, and the Fox Network has also ended PokerStars’ The Big Game, though it can still be viewed online on PokerStars TV.

Despite this though, the long-standing deal between the World Series of Poker and ESPN means there will be some poker on TV in the US, along with the World Poker Tour, now in its 10^th season. WPT airs on Fox Sports Networks. In addition, the new Epic Poker League debuted on CBS and new Velocity network recently.

Fans of the NHUPC hope that the tournament does continue even without its TV spot, as it yielded a $750K first place payout and allowed the best of the best poker pros to play each other live. Since PokerStars and Full Tilt were the main sponsors of the event, it’s not too surprising that the show will not continue in 2012. It was however the top ranking poker show throughout its seven-year run with an average 1.5 rating.

It may not be cancelled forever though, as Adam Freifeld, NBC Sports Senior Director of Communications, suggested that they were continuing to evaluate poker programming on the network.

Leaf Trading Cards Introduce Poker Cards Series 2

Sports card trading industry has seen better days, but the Leaf trading card company is taking its chances with a second series of poker trading cards that feature poker pro celebrities complete with autographs.

The new series is very similar to the first series released last year. The 2011 set features around 60 poker players and multiple card types with at least one autograph on each card. The basic set has cards with photographs of poker greats like Phil Helmuth, Daniel Negreanu, and the godfather of poker, Doyle Brunson. Other players featured on their own cards include Orel Hershiser (former MLB pitcher and baseball star) and Jason Alexander (actor from the show Seinfeld).

Special cards include the “Stacked Deck” series is an autographed collection of playing cards. Each player has signed one full deck of cards. Also, the “Pocket Pair” series has two players on one card with both players’ signatures. Featured “Pocket Pair” players include Hellmuth and Johnny Chan, among other famous pairs.

The series titled “Classic Nicknames” will present 10 players who are otherwise known by their nicknames such as Michael “The Grinder” Mizrachi. The “Final Table Signatures” set will feature signatures on actual poker table felt.

The rarest of all the collections are nine redemption cards that are randomly inserted and actually serve as a ticket to an online poker tournament. The winner of this tourney will receive an authentic 2006 World Series of Poker bracelet. This is like the poker version of the Willy Wonka golden ticket.

All cards are individually numbered with limited autographs. There are four levels of cards available, and some cards have more copies made than others. For instance, the “Classic Nicknames” cards will have print runs of 25 or fewer.

A full set of the 2011 Leaf Poker trading cards will be more difficult to come by than you may think. A case of 12 boxes (5 cards in each box), for a total of 60 cards is only a little over $800.

Full Tilt Poker: The Saga Continues

While Full Tilt Poker has little to nothing left to its name, Groupe Bernard Tapie, the French investor that is planning to take on the debts of the Full Tilt Company and rebuild the broken brand, is taking action to secure what is left. A conditional clause included in the acquisition agreement dictates that an independent party must oversee any financial transactions that the existing board of directors authorizes on top of typical operating costs.

So Groupe Bernard Tapie is now interviewing for this position. The Chief Restructuring Officer’s priority will be to guard what little is left of the Full Tilt Poker conglomerate, having the power to veto any major financial decision made by the board. Meanwhile, acquisition negotiations are still in the works, which is now 10 days in. The Full Tilt board has yet to vote on the terms set forth by GBT. The structure of the corporation dictates that more than 2/3 of the Tiltware shareholders must agree. Unfortunately Ray Bitar, CEO, is more concerned with the current state of his own assets (still frozen) than working on saving the company, and board members Howard Lederer and Chris Ferguson are nowhere to be found.

And the Alderney Gambling Control Commission (AGCC) has quieted the numerous complaints of disgruntled online poker players calling to complain about how they are owed money by Full Tilt, despite the fact that the AGCC made a statement that they were no longer going to be involved in matters of Full Tilt Poker. Their updated statement now reads, “At the request of the police, ACGG will continue to log incoming player complaints: these records will be made available to the police.”

Poker Hall of Fame Nominees Announced

Ten possible Poker Hall of Fame nominees for the Class of 2011 have been introduced based on the strict criteria that such an honor requires. Criteria states that a player must have played poker against top competition, played high stakes, played will consistently while gaining the respect of his or her peers, stood the test of time, or be a non-player who has in one way or another contributed to the growth of the game with lasting and positive results. Nominees must be at least 40 years old.

The nominees include Barry Greenstein, Annie Duke, Jennifer Harman, Marcel Luske, Scotty Nguyen, John Juanda, Linda Johnson, Huck Seed, Tom McEvoy, and Jack McClelland.

Greenstein, who is known as the “Robin Hood of Poker” for donating all his poker tournament winnings to charity (he supports himself on his cash game winnings), has won more than $7.5 million in tourney winnings. He has three WSOP bracelets and two WPT championship titles.

Duke is up for her high profile as a multi-million dollar career winner over the past decade, which has garnered her a WSOP bracelet and the 2004 WSOP Tournament of Champions title. She also won the National Heads-Up Poker Championship in 2010 (a $500K win) and has been a poker proponent and spokesperson, as well as a successful player. She was also runner up on NBC’s Celebrity Apprentice 2009.

Harman is known for her high-stakes play and some believe is the best cash game female player of all time. She has two WSOP bracelets and $2.6 million in career tournament winnings.

Luske, also known as “The Flying Dutchman,” has about $4 million in career winnings, but is best known for his table antics. He finished 10th in the 2004 WSOP Main Event.

Nguyen is the winner of the 1998 WSOP Main Event, a 2006 WPT title, and the $50K WSOP HORSE event in the 2008 WSOP. He has more than $11.4 million in career earnings for tournaments.

Juanda has five WSOP bracelets and is the 6th place all-time money winner with around $12 million in career tournament earnings, not counting his cash earnings. He is one of the most accomplished tournament poker players in the world.

Johnson has one WSOP bracelet from 1997, and while she hasn’t won much of anything else since, she has been a major contributor to the game of poker over the past couple decades. She was the former publisher of CardPlayer magazine and co-founder the Tournament Directors Association. She is a poker writer and organizer for CardPlayer Cruises. She also co-founded the PokerGives.org charitable organization in 2009. She was named the “First Lady of Poker” by Mike Sexton.

Seed was the 1996 WSOP main Event winner and the 2009 National Heads-Up Championship winner, as well as the 2010 WSOP Tournament of Champions winners. He is well known for his part in amusing prop bets.

McEvoy, winner of the 1983 WSOP Main Event, was the first Main Event winner to win his seat through a satellite. In all, he’s won four WSOP bracelets, but is best known as a poker author.

McClelland is the Tournament Director for both the WSOP and the WPT.

A 17-member media panel plus the 18 living Poker Hall of Famers will choose the Poker Hall of Fame Class of 2011. The winner(s), if any, will be announced later this month and will be formally presented with the honor during the November Nine.

Land-Based Casinos Positioning Themselves for Legal Online Poker

South Point Hotel Casino & Spa located in Las Vegas will launch a free Internet poker site for members of its loyalty program for casino goers this week to go live to the public on October 17. Should online poker become legal, a real money feature will be added.

Casino owner Michael Gaughan told the Associated Press that the site hopes to be a step ahead if and when federal and/or state legislature makes Internet poker operations legal in the US.

Getting a foot in the door now is key to being up and running when the time comes. When the flood gates open, South Point Casino and other Vegas giants like MGM will be prepared to take real money bets once they obtain licensing and meet other necessary steps that will allow them to operate online gambling and online poker sites via the Internet.

While lawmakers are still going back and forth on regulation proposals, it’s only a matter of time before Internet poker and other online gambling activities will become legal. These companies that are positioning themselves within the free online poker market now, are readying themselves for the move to real money poker later. Their strategy is a good one, as once US laws make online poker legal in the US, it will only be a matter of a few loose ends to make the transition to real money Internet poker; whereas, all other operations will have to start from square one.

French Takeover of Full Tilt a Possibility

French businessman Bernard Tapie seeks to take over Full Tilt Poker, online poker site that was closed down last April by the US Department of Justice. Attorney Behnam Dayanim said in an email yesterday, “The precise extent of ownership that Groupe Bernard Tapie may acquire remains to be finally determined, but the Groupe does intend to acquire a controlling interest.

Apparently Laurent Tapie, Bernard Tapie’s son, will be directly involved in running the company, according to Dayanim’s email.

As a condition of the agreement between the French investors and Full Tilt, Full Tilt Poker must settle its legal problems with the US DOJ. Last month, the online poker corporation was accused of stealing $440 million of players’ money and using it to pay board members; they were accused of operating a Ponzi scheme by the Southern Manhattan’s US attorney’s office.

They said that Full Tilt had “defrauded players by misrepresenting that their funds on deposit in online gambling accounts were safe, secure, and available for withdrawal at any time.”

The original lawsuit against Full Tilt that was filed back in April as part of a national crackdown on online poker was refilled on September 20 and now includes the accusations of a Ponzi scheme operation.

Full Tilt owes more than $300 million to players throughout the world—not just in the US.

The Tapie Group said last week that if talks continue, they may take a minority stake of 5 to 10% in the company. Dayanim says that they may offer players who are owed money stake in the company, which would be better than what they have now.

And the Masters of America Winner Is…

The third season of the European Masters of Poker is going strong. Its most recent stop in Spain saw Norwegian poker player Andreas Hagen take the championship title after outlasting 454 other players recently in Barcelona at the Gran Casino. He landed €90,310 for his win, but he did cut a deal when he went heads up against Robin Appell. The two decided that Hagen would take €80,310 and Appell would get €70,310, and the two would play for the last €10,000. In just 15 minutes, Hagen had a hand worthy of a 400,000 bet, and Appell went all in. Hagen’s pocket 7s landed him a full house when the board was dealt: A/5/2/5/7. Appell’s K/6 didn’t stand a chance.

The European Masters of Poker tour continues now to Riga, Latvia, where play will commence at the Royal Casino Spa & Hotel. This will be the last stop and will from November 17^th through November 20^th. Entraction Network poker rooms are running qualifiers right now. The buy-in is €1,650, but online qualifiers are running for as little as €2.

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