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Gus Hansen Turns it around Again

Following his huge loss last week, poker pro Gus Hansen has landed back to his feet on Full Tilt Poker this week.

The 39-year-old Danish poker player has developed a downswing pattern running in the millions, but he seems to always remain motivated. Following the big loss of over 1 million last week, he admitted that he gained about $811,000 in one day earlier this week.

Halfway through the month, Gunsen showed the stuff he’s made off by beating his opponents and bagging a cool $1.5 million in a single day. However, this win was short lived as late last week he went through his usual downhill path and lost $1.64 million to the regulars. Nevertheless, the pro made a comeback this week.

He started by playing against Frenchman Alex Luneau (Alexonmoon), taking him in the $1,000 / $2,000 Limit Deuce-to-Seven Triple Draw to win about $370,000. Next, in the $2,000 / $4,000 Limit Omaha High-Low, he beat Patrik Antonius (FinddaGrind), Kyle Ray (KPR16) and samrostan to garner $185,000. The Dane then resumed at the Draw Lowball Tables and ended up with a daily balance of $811,000.

Gus Hansen ended up being not only the player with the highest wins on Monday, but also the top player in the rankings of the last days. When it comes to the monthly performances, Gus is also out of the red zone. The biggest losers since Friday seem to be Kyle Ray (- $289,400) and Alex Luneau (- / $297,800).

Mentalist Banned from UK Casinos

Mentalists have a reputation for highly developed intuitive and mental acuity, and few rank as highly as 42 year-old television and stage celebrity Derren Brown in the UK. The British illusionist recently encountered a snag due to casinos’ adversity to calculating and crafty customers.

It came as no surprise when on Saturday night, Derren Brown was escorted from the Broadway Plaza Casino in Birmingham shortly after attempting to have a go at Blackjack on a private table. It so happens that he visited the casino with a couple of friends immediately after finishing his live show Infamous. However, in fear of losing their profits, the Broadway Plaza Casino did not take long to pull the plug on the showman’s fun, opting to escort him out of the gaming halls.

Later, as Derren commented on the incident to AGE, he said, “I went in after the show and sat down to play blackjack. They were very nice, served me food, but they wouldn’t let me play. So I watched the others for a bit and then left. I was escorted out by a member of staff and the manager.”

As a matter of fact, the mentalist had already been banned from most UK casinos before his name became famously anonymous with illusionism. Nikki, a casino worker, recounted one story of how Derren’s situation came about on derrenbrown.co.uk. Apparently, Derren would sit for a really long time at a blackjack table in a casino without playing. When he finally placed a bet, his wins would be with a 100% regularity.

It did not take long before the polite and very charming Briton had gained popularity with patrons, who were eager to know more about him. He also drew the attention of the pit bosses who would have preferred that he didn’t show up at their casinos at all. These casinos wouldn’t risk scandal in the eyes of their customers, so they banned him one at a time. Eventually, Derren Brown found himself unwelcome at most gambling venues in the country.

Regarding The Broadway Plaza Casino incident, Derren’s comment was that, “Over the years I’ve been banned from playing at most of the UK’s casinos, so I wasn’t unduly surprised.”

Wembley Stadium Hosts ISPT

The International Stadiums Poker Tour (ISPT) is headed for the home of English football, Wembley Stadium, where its Day 2’s first plays out on Friday on the hallowed turf. A recent blog by the Dusk Till Dawn (DTD) owner Rob Yong makes it very clear that the ISPT will have tremendous value to the players.

The ISPT is a new and unique event that Yong promotes, taking time to address 10 most commonly asked questions on the DTB website. In an open and frank blog, he sheds light on the issue of attendance figures and prize pool figures.

Yong answered the question, “How many runner have you got, how many do you think you will get?” with: “At the time of writing this (4.22am Tuesday morning) we have 373 player names – this equates to a prize pool of just over €1 million euros, with more guaranteed seats over the next 4 days. But how many players will buy-in directly for €3000 on Day 2a Friday and Day 2b Saturday – this is the million dollar question – literally!”

Yong went on to explain, “I heard 700-800 players bought in for €5K at this year’s  EPT Berlin - but the EPT’s are established, prestigious events so maybe it’s not correct to compare? When we partnered with ISPT they had around 30 players in Day 2 with only 12 weeks to go. At the time I said to the press that 500 runners would be a disaster, 1000 would be okay, 1500 a job well done and 2000 a miracle from the poker gods, so I am just praying that all the of hard work done by the ISPT team in promoting the event in so many different countries will pay off.”

In terms of potential overlay from a player’s point of view, it will be a ridiculous overlay on the cards if there are low numbers. “If 1,000 players buy in there will be €460,000 added to the prize pool, which will surely be one of the largest overlays in the history of the game of poker. Should that figure be even lower, at say 500 entrants, the cost to DTD will be enormous; the overlay could potentially top the scales at €730,000!”

The payout structure of the tournament is expected to be extremely high, so ISPT and DTD have decided to allow making of deals once the final table is reached. The nine finalists are allowed to flatten the payouts in case they want to, but under the Tournament Director Simon Trumper’s watchful eye.

Ongame and Amaya Hire Former Absolute Poker Exec

Amaya, Canadian international online gambling brand, has hired Paul Legget, former Absolute Poker front man, to replace Paul Bartilsson as head of online gaming. Legget will not only serve as head Amaya’s online gaming, but will also be a consultant to the company as well.

Legget’s new role includes overseeing Ongame Network, a new acquisition by Amaya. Previously, Bertilsson managed Ongame Services, and Legget is expected to head the online division of Amaya. He is also in charge of all the online activities of Amaya. Legget comes in with broad experience in the same position and industry.

The future duties of Ongame and Legget could raise eyebrows within some states like Nevada, in which recently enacted poker legislation entails a five-year provision for post-UIGEA, the US friendly sites.

Absolute Poker, which initially owned UB.com, stopped operations after the Black Friday in April 2011. This was due to the US crackdown that left huge amounts of money unpaid to players, especially those from America. At the passing on of the Black Friday’s indictments, many cited Legget as UB.com’s COO.

The Ongame Network is among the oldest poker networks that operated in the US before the  UIGEA was passed. It was the previous home to sites such as PokerRoom.com, Hollywood Poker, and bwin. Initially, BetAndWin operated the network but they merged to form bwin.party in 2011.

With an excess of gaming assets after merging, bwin.party started searching for the Ongame buyer. First, they sold the network to Shuffle Master, but he got out of the deal later. Amaya then bought Ongame at a reduced cost. Afterwards, Shuffle Master (SHFL) negotiated with Amaya for use of the Ongame platform.

Amaya also struck a deal with Bally Technologies, which is already licensed for the new poker regime in Nevada. Whether the hiring of Legget offers any superseding concerns for the Nevada regulators or not remains to be seen.

EPT Releases 2013/14 Schedule

With the Grand Finale of Export Poker Tour (EPT) underway in Monaco, EPT’s schedule for the 10^th anniversary season has been announced. The 2013/2014 tour will be running from August to May and will kick off in Barcelona on August 28. Although some dates have been flip-flopped, the familiar spots still remain on this tour.

The EPT London for 2013 has been shifted to October, and it switches the dates with the EPT Sanremo that will run come April 2014. The Berlin event is scheduled for March and it took place in April before the 2013’s Grand Finale. Edgar Stuchly, the EPT President announced that they decided to put their focus on stability. He further reported that in the successful Season 9, they chose to host bigger and fewer events that integrated the national tours.

EPT coordinators have paid attention to feedback from players who seemed to value spending more time in playing and less time travelling. Given that the Sanremo tournament occurs shortly before April’s EPT Grand Final, players will have the entire month of April to be on the glamorous Riviera.

The new season entails €10,000/£10,000 High Roller activities at London, Barcelona, Berlin, Prague, Deauville, and Sanremo, in addition to €50,000/£50,000 events in London and Barcelona. The Grand Final and PCA will host the $25,000/€25,000 High Roller plus the Super High Roller – $100,000/€100,000. Season 10’s online satellites commence on May 15.

Although information regarding the preliminary events is yet to come out, every tour’s spot has a main event of €5,300 except for 2014 PCA’s €10,300 main event at Bahamas and Monaco’s €10,600 main event for the 2014 Grand Final.

You can watch the events as they’re streamed live at the EPTlive Webcasts through PokerStars.tv. Season 10’s airing dates are yet to come out though. After the schedule is posted, you will find it on europeanpokertour.com/tv.

MGM Contemplates Profits in Online Poker

The management of MGM Resorts International reported that the company was yet to decide whether it will be launching a poker website in Nevada or not. Their report said that the state could not be large enough to offer a productive online market by itself.

In February, Nevada authorized online poker and this week, it was the first to go live as the Station Casinos inaugurated their first offering called UltimatePoker.com. Delaware and New Jersey have legalized online gambling too, and are working on plans to go live.

As MGM continues to pursue a licensing and regulatory process in Nevada and New Jersey, the MGM management believes that state compacts or federal legislation can help to draw more gamblers and raise the liquidity, resulting in a great market that will ultimately generate greater revenue for local governments and companies.

The operators of big casinos would favor state compacts or federal standards because they would offer bigger and uniform markets that would attract more gamblers and bring in greater revenue. State based legislation could result to more regulations and varying tax rates.

The prediction of some analysts is that the online gambling market in Nevada will produce between 50 and 250 million dollars in annual revenue. The larger New Jersey may generate between 500 million and 1 billion dollars annually. Earlier, the MGM officials reported that if done properly at the state level, online gambling will indeed perform better.

MGM reported unexpected profits during the first quarter resulting from the Las Vegas rebound and continued to improve in Macau, China. The casino generated $6.5 million (1 cent a share) though earlier on, it got a loss of $217.3 million (44 cents a share). On average, analysts had predicted that the company would get 10 cents per share as loss.

MGM and Boyd have collaborated with other poker companies such as Bwin.party to offer software and other gaming services in the U.S. The MGM officials are optimistic that Nevada may perform better because of its renowned history in gambling regulation and nearness to bigger states like California, which are also considering gambling legislation.

The End of Lock Poker?

Lock Poker, a Revolution Gaming Network’s struggling flagship poker site, has seen better days. The online poker room has been having issues, starting with cash outs that have just not been there, and most players have gone without their earnings. Withdrawals processed more than one month ago are still yet to be paid. There have also been complaints that the company has not been paying commission to affiliates.

A year ago, Lock Poker took over Cake Poker Network, making the Revolution Network to be the greatest online poker network in the US. When the struggling network received new management, people were hopeful. The continuing failure may ultimately affect the whole poker industry within the US market.

The issues will go beyond Revolution Gaming. This time, US players have four main options. There is Revolution Gaming, Bovada, Winning Poker, and Merge Gaming. The end of Revolution Gaming may reduce the established US poker options to only three. With low competition, players will receive fewer promotions.

Bovada provides players with few benefits. Merge Gaming had to drop rakeback early in the year, thus leaving Winning Poker Network the best option. Players outside the United States become more hesitant to take part in US friendly sites, creating a negative impact on the liquidity of these networks.

Cereus players lost their cumulative earnings amounting to about $45 million in 2011 after the indictment of the network. The same might happen to Revolution Gaming, whose network deposit amount is between $15 and $20 million. The ordeal would affect the U.S. players’ confidence in online poker.

Ongame Poker Network to Service US Players

Recently, Aristocrat Technologies and Amaya Gaming Group announced a new partnership, which would see Aristocrat provide the Amaya based Ongame poker platform to the U.S. online gaming customers.

Amaya bought Ongame from bwin.party in October 2012 to boost its own product portfolio. Gamers will now be able to access the Ongame poker platform through the nLive – the online gaming solution that belongs to Aristocrat. This solution provides land-based operators an important option of providing their clients with a virtual based online casino. The platform can be quickly accessed for the free games and gamers can instantly switch to the real money option after putting regulatory approvals in place.

David Baazov, The Amaya Gaming Group CEO, said that Amaya and Aristocrat have a common vision to integrate land-based gaming with Internet gaming. He further said that integration of the online poker into the Aristocrat nLive category will open up new opportunities within the United States. It is a strategic move in the world’s most promising gambling market.

Amaya Gaming rolled out the fourth quarter of its 2012 financial results recently. The overall revenue of the company for the year grew by about 316 percent to $75.88 million. Nevertheless, it still registered an overall loss of $7.05 million in 2012.

According to Baazov, 2012 was a year of transition for Amaya. Its latest business to business acquisition of Cryptologic and Ongame will definitely offer major growth for the company in the United States in future.

Baazov said that they’ll continue to focus on extending their footprint through strategic partnerships within the United States, in which there is evolution of online gaming. Three states, Nevada and New Jersey included, recently authorized online gaming. More states have tabled similar legislations that would have the same impact for online gaming, especially for their in-state players.

Recently, Aristocrat Technologies and Amaya Gaming Group announced a new partnership, which would see Aristocrat provide the Amaya based Ongame poker platform to the U.S. online gaming customers.

Amaya bought Ongame from bwin.party in October 2012 to boost its own product portfolio. Gamers will now be able to access the Ongame poker platform through the nLive – the online gaming solution that belongs to Aristocrat. This solution provides land-based operators an important option of providing their clients with a virtual based online casino. The platform can be quickly accessed for the free games and gamers can instantly switch to the real money option after putting regulatory approvals in place.

David Baazov, The Amaya Gaming Group CEO, said that Amaya and Aristocrat have a common vision to integrate land-based gaming with Internet gaming. He further said that integration of the online poker into the Aristocrat nLive category will open up new opportunities within the United States. It is a strategic move in the world’s most promising gambling market.

Amaya Gaming rolled out the fourth quarter of its 2012 financial results recently. The overall revenue of the company for the year grew by about 316 percent to $75.88 million. Nevertheless, it still registered an overall loss of $7.05 million in 2012.

According to Baazov, 2012 was a year of transition for Amaya. Its latest business to business acquisition of Cryptologic and Ongame will definitely offer major growth for the company in the United States in future.

Baazov said that they’ll continue to focus on extending their footprint through strategic partnerships within the United States, in which there is evolution of online gaming. Three states, Nevada and New Jersey included, recently authorized online gaming. More states have tabled similar legislations that would have the same impact for online gaming, especially for their in-state players.

UltimatePoker.com Becomes the First Regulated US Poker Site

Las Vegas’ launch of the first Nevada, USA based poker site is a step forward in the US online poker saga. UltimatePoker.com will be the first legal and regulated online poker operator serving in-state gamblers and residents of Nevada.

Ultimate Poker is part of the Las Vegas’ Station Casinos LLC that runs 16 local based casinos within Southern Nevada and touts itself for being the first provider of secure, legal online poker in the nation. Ultimate Poker is owned and operated by the owners of the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), hence, the name.

In February, Nevada made an enormous stride when legislation was finally passed that would legalize online intrastate poker. Ultimate has moved forward very quickly after the green light was given from Nevada gaming regulators in early April. Online poker will run round the clock, though there are a few restrictions. Players must be 21 years or older and reside within the state. Players will be able to engage in online poker on their personal computers or live at the Station casino. Payment transfers will take place through wire transfers, MasterCard, and checks.

For Northern Nevada, Ultimate Poker plans to market its online poker starting with the use of media and word of mouth. Locally, the casinos that have struggled with a 30% drop in gaming revenues within the last decade are watching closely. Casino poker offers about 1% of the entire gaming revenue within Nevada, and the new poker companies are expected to grow in the industry.

The main demographic includes 21 to 45 aged males who value technology and have disposable income. Yet to come are the bigger concerns, particularly the crossing of state lines for online gambling that will require the interstate compacts and may spur federal regulation.

Although there are questions regarding marketing and the limited amount of traffic intrastate online poker can generate, the ground is still new with many expectations and plans to see the online poker industry succeed in Nevada.

Other states are following in Nevada’s footsteps. Delaware and New Jersey are struggling with plans of setting up full-fledged online casino gambling, though they are still establishing the route to operational status.

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