On the latest episode of ESPN.com’s Inside Deal, Absolute Poker Pro Mark Seif joined Andrew Feldman and Bernard Lee in the Bristol studio to talk about the latest poker news, balancing poker and a family life and even got into some details about the Absolute and Ultimate Bet poker scandals.
Feldman filled in as co-anchor for a vacationing Laura Lane and he and Lee kicked off Tuesday’s show with the announcement that the upcoming Sports Legends Challenge had been postponed until 2010. The event was set to take place in the Bahamas later this month and Lee offered some insight into why the event struggled to get off the ground. “On the surface, the concept sounds like a great idea”, Lee explained. However, he went on to suggest the high cost of attending ($10,000) and the worldwide decline of the poker economy were the major factor’s affecting the event’s success.
Next on the agenda was a rundown of the ruling in the Interactive Media Entertainment and Gaming Association (iMEGA) case against the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA). Lee and Feldman discussed the affect the ruling against iMEGA’s case would have on the poker industry and also made sure to point out the upside of the decision, which was the clarification that the UIGEA did not make online gambling illegal and it was primarily up to the individual state laws in order to determine what constitutes an illegal financial transaction under the UIGEA.
For the next segment the two hosts were joined in studio by Seif, who began by giving some insight about what it is like to play on the poker tournament circuit for a living. Feldman ribbed Seif about his recent downswing and Seif had a surprising explanation of who was to blame for his struggles: his two young daughters.
“My beautiful two little girls, Sarah and Ashley, have definitely cost me $10 million”, Seif said with a laugh. He and Lee are both fathers and poker players and the two shared their difficulties finding enough time for their families and how long nights with young kids adversely affected their poker game.
The subject changed to a more serious matter when Feldman began to ask Seif about the scandal at Absolute Poker. Seif summed up the findings of the Kahnawake Gaming Commission (KGC) for those who weren’t in the know about the incident:
“[The KGC] determined there was a high ranking consultant for a period of about six weeks who abused his power to get into our back end software and was able to manipulate our system”, Seif stated. He went on to add that the company has gone to great lengths to compensate those who were affected by the breach, paying out almost $1.6 million when there was only an estimated $800,000 that was stolen by the individual.
When Feldman inquired about the subsequent Ultimate Bet scandal involving Russ Hamilton, Seif pointed out the key differences between the two incidents, noting that the Absolute Poker problem pertained to a single individual over a short period of time, while the UB problem involved a group of people over a much longer stretch of months. The discussion concluded with Seif assuring Lee and Feldman that, “the company has become very, very transparent.”
The two hosts also sought out Seif’s insight regarding poker free agency, as his deal with Absolute Poker is up for renewal in just six months. Seif commented on the changing nature of sponsorship deals, saying the growing number of sponsored players is bringing down the potential value of any given deal. The trio got to discussing the expected value of a sponsorship deal for any of the November Nine and Seif suggested one could be worth anywhere from $100,000 to $1.5 million depending on where the player ultimately finished. The subject of Darvin Moon came up once again and Feldman was baffled as to why the man would not consider some sort of final table deal.
The final segment was dedicated to some rapid fire questions for Seif, who addressed everything from his favorite steakhouse to how he feels about Scandinavian poker players. The episode wrapped up with Seif filling viewers in on a charity close to his heart, the Fallen Heros organization, which raises money for the family of police officers and fire fighters harmed or killed in the line of duty.
Within this week’s show Feldman also announced the details of an upcoming charity tournament to raise money for Kent Senter, the 55-year old featured on recent episodes of the WSOP on ESPN who is battling melanoma. Since playing in this year’s Main Event, Senter’s health has taken a turn for the worse. This Saturday PokerStars will be offering a $10 rebuy tournament at 8PM ET to raise money for the Senter family. The winner will receive an entry into PokerStars’ upcoming World Championship of Online Poker Main Event and proceeds from the tournament will go towards covering Senter’s medical expenses.
For more information on Senter and the full episode of this week’s Inside Deal, head on over to ESPN.com.
