According to a number of reports out of California, legendary gambler and poker player Archie Karas (née Anargyros Karabourniotis) was arrested at his Las Vegas home last week for cheating at blackjack. He faces charges of burglary, winning by fraudulent, means and cheating. Karas committed the crime at the Barona Casino, located in Lakeside, California,… Read more »
In a recent interview with CalvinAyre.com’s Becky Liggero, Poker Players Alliance (PPA) Executive Director John Pappas briefly discussed the PPA’s stance on the “poker as a skill game” argument. Most notably, Pappas said it really was not a factor in his discussions on Capitol Hill. The interview was framed around last year’s United States of… Read more »
After what was, from most appearances, an outstanding debut on the East Coast, the forthcoming television poker program “Poker Night in America” will be heading to the West Coast for taping of their second broadcast. It was announced on Thursday that, instead of going to an already established event, “Poker Night in America” will instead… Read more »
Since they came online in April, Ultimate Poker has had to do little to garner the attention of Nevada online poker players. As the only game in town, they basically could sit back and wait for the players to find them. Aside from some in-house promotion around its Station Casino properties and Ultimate Fighting Championship… Read more »
Making their new poker tournaments series a truly international event, the World Poker Tour announced that the inaugural season of WPT Alpha8 – their high stakes tournament poker series – will journey outside of the United States later this month and in early 2014. After making its debut with the WPT Alpha8 Florida event last… Read more »
According to one of England’s top newspapers, three men have been sentenced to prison time for their roles in a 2011 cheating scandal in Cannes, France. In administering their sentence, the French courts also revealed how the men pulled off their scam that has been called “the first of its kind in Europe.” The London… Read more »
Although it seems as if it were an eternity ago, the actions of “Black Friday” – the indictment of several of the top players in the online poker industry and banking executives who handled the money – are only a scant 2½ years in the poker world’s rearview mirror. At a conference earlier this week… Read more »
The World Series of Poker (WSOP) revealed the names of the ten finalists for the Poker Hall of Fame Wednesday. There is no guarantee that any of them will be inducted this year, though traditionally one or two players receive the honor each year. The ten finalists are, in alphabetical order: Chris Bjorin, Humberto Brenes,… Read more »
According to report by Christopher Palmeri on Bloomberg.com, Caesars Entertainment Corporation will house the gaming servers of competitor Wynn Resorts in one of its Atlantic City casinos when the online gambling industry gets underway in New Jersey later this year. It is an interesting decision by Caesars and not just because Caesars and Wynn are… Read more »
Expectations were high with the launch of Caesar Interactive Entertainment’s WSOP.com Thursday. For the first time since its debut on April 30th, Ultimate Poker no longer had a monopoly in the online poker industry in Nevada. Many thought that WSOP.com would instantly become the dominant player of the two, as despite Ultimate Poker’s first-mover advantage,… Read more »
Wynn Resorts has finally made a move to get into the intrastate online poker game. On Monday, it was announced that Wynn and 888 Holdings have entered into an agreement to develop Wynn’s online poker product. Wynn’s site will be on the All American Poker Network (AAPN), a joint venture between 888 Holdings and Avenue… Read more »
Back during the peak of the poker boom, it was oh, so easy to start an online poker site. Ok, maybe “easy” is a bit of an exaggeration, but for the most part, all someone needed to get up and running was some start-up cash and a willing network. And there were plenty of willing… Read more »
PROFILE Name: Sylvain Loosli Age: 26 Birthplace: Toulon, France Current Hometown: London, the United Kingdom For a man who states he is a “cash game player” (much like the defending World Champion Greg Merson), Loosli has made quite an impact on the 2013 World Series of Poker Championship Event final table. With a chip stack… Read more »
PROFILE Name: Ryan Riess Age: 23 Birthplace: East Lansing, MI Current Hometown: Las Vegas, NV One of the breakout stars of the World Series of Poker Circuit battles, Ryan Riess will come to the 2013 WSOP Championship Event “November Nine” in the middle of the pack with his 25.875 million in chips. Riess will take… Read more »
PROFILE Name: Michiel Brummelhuis Age: 32 Birthplace: Amsterdam, the Netherlands Current Hometown: Amsterdam, the Netherlands Although he isn’t a household name to American poker fans, Michiel Brummelhuis may soon become one if he makes a deeper drive to become the first Dutch winner of the World Series of Poker Championship Event. Coming to the “November… Read more »
PROFILE Name: Mark Newhouse Age: 28 Birthplace: Chapel Hill, NC Current Hometown: Las Vegas, NV Arguably the most successful tournament poker player of the 2013 World Series of Poker “November Nine” combatants, Mark Newhouse will come to the final table as the second shortest stack. With his 7.35 million in chips in the Three Seat,… Read more »
PROFILE Name: Marc-Etienne McLaughlin Age: 25 Birthplace: Montreal, Quebec, Canada Current Hometown: Brossard, Quebec, Canada While he might have been a mystery man prior to the 2013 World Series of Poker Championship Event, McLaughlin has a serious tournament resume backing up his deep run to the “November Nine” this year. He will start the festivities… Read more »
PROFILE Name: J. C. Tran Age: 36 Birthplace: Vietnam Current Hometown: Sacramento, CA Ruling the roost of the “November Nine” combatants is one of the most dangerous players on the tournament poker circuit, Justin Cuong Van “J. C.” Tran. He has been murderous on the field in the run-up to the 2013 World Series of… Read more »
PROFILE Name: Jay Farber Age: 28 Birthplace: Santa Barbara, CA Current Hometown: Las Vegas, NV Living the dream of the everyman who journeys to the World Series of Poker Championship Event with visions of a bracelet dancing in their heads, Herbert “Jay” Farber will take his fourth place stack of 25.975 million chips to the… Read more »
PROFILE Name: David Benefield Age: 27 Birthplace: Arlington, TX Current Hometown: Arlington, TX A veteran of the online poker wars, David Benefield will come to the 2013 World Series of Poker “November Nine” with the dubious honor of being the short stack. With only 6.375 million in chips, Benefield has two large stacks on both… Read more »
PROFILE Name: Amir Lehavot Age: 38 Birthplace: Israel Current Hometown: Weston, FL One of the odds-on choices to take down the 2013 World Series of Poker Championship Event come this fall is Amir Lehavot. He will begin play as part of the “November Nine” with a very healthy 29.7 million in chips, good for the… Read more »
When a person commits a violation of the law, there are some changes that naturally come with the territory. One of those things that do not change is that the person continues on with their employment, usually making special arrangements to continue to work. What happens when your job is “international poker professional,” though? In… Read more »
In an outstanding heads up battle, Anthony Zinno came from the middle of the pack to defeat Vanessa Selbst to take down the championship of the World Poker Tour’s Borgata Poker Open on Friday night. Zinno came to the final table with the audacious task of toppling the two chip leaders, Selbst and overall chip… Read more »
After a great deal of hype this summer during its namesake event, Caesars Entertainment and 888 Holdings rolled out their World Series of Poker branded online poker site on Thursday, becoming only the second regulated online poker site to open its doors to Nevada residents. At 9:19AM on Thursday (September 19, hence the start time),… Read more »
After battling through one of the largest tournaments in the history of the organization, the final six players were determined at the World Poker Tour’s Borgata Poker Open in Atlantic City early on Friday morning. 36 players came to the felt on Thursday afternoon with the task of working down to the WPT six handed… Read more »
