Randal Flowers Wins Festa Al Lago

Randal Flowers is only 22 years old, but he’s already famous in the poker scene. He just became the youngest player in poker history to win multiple World Poker Tour titles. He won the Festa Al Lago main event Wednesday night, defeating 355 players and winning $831,500. His total career cashes are now up to $1.7 million.

Randal Flowers plays online (where he’s won over $1 million) under the moniker “RandALLin”. He’s from Fort Worth, Texas.

Besides his WPT finishes, he also has two WSOP cashes. One of those was a tenth place finish in the six-handed $1500 no limit Texas holdem event.

His first big win was in June 2009 when he won $386,170 at the WPT event in Barcelona. Flowers was only 20 at the time, and he defeated a field of 172 players.

Full story at ESPN.

EPT Berlin Poker Robbers…BUSTED!

The first suspect turned himself in on Monday, which does not qualify him as being “busted” per se, but suspect #2 was apprehended at a subway station in Berlin.

For some reason every time I think of European police, I can’t help but envision scenes from Ronin, and imagine Audi’s racing through cobblestone streets being chased by VW police cars and that all to familiar “Hee-Haa” of the Euro coppers.

But I digress. As of right now the authorities know who committed the brazen daylight robbery, and I assume its only a matter of time before they’re all toast.

These new developments have certainly taken much of the intrigue out of what began as a scary, albeit totally awesome casino heist, and made this robbery look exactly like these doofuses are – Dumb.

Charity Poker Room Not Immune To Gambling Laws

Well there you have it, no one is safe.

I predict in 5 years we’ll only be able to play poker against ourselves, in a basement with the lights off covered in a blanket.

Ok, I may be overreacting here. But with Visa and MC jumping ship I’m getting a bit paranoid.

In actuality a Michigan charity poker company was bilking charities out of user fees buy inflating the cost of using their charity poker services. So, ya, it’s not a witch hunt, its just authorities shutting down some shady faux businessmen.

The reason I think this is newsworthy is because it is newsworthy…as in…”IN the news”. And a debate sprung up amongst my poker playing buddies about how this affects the current political online poker climate.

On one hand, it reiterates and draws attention to the vast  amount of criminal behavior that comes along with any type of gambling, on the other hand, it established how badly strict regulation is needed throughout all facets of gambling, be it a shady Michigan charity poker room or the best poker web sites on the internet.

At the end of the day, we have a poker room that not only provided entertainment but millions of dollars in charitable contributions being shut down permanently, and once again a spotlight directed at the individuals in a position to regulate a hobby for millions that has a relevant role in our culture, as well as the ability to provide funding for those in need.

Visa and Mastercard Start Blocking Online Poker Transactions

Well, we all knew it was coming. Frankly, I’m surrised it didn’t happen sooner. It’s funny how easily giant corporations ignore stuff when it is against them making money. But it is here, and now getting a straight deposit or payout from your online poker site just got a heckuva lot harder.

In reality, it was most likely the precedent of the Rennick case and subsequent appeals that the big wigs were waiting on, to see if they had a chance to skirt prosecution if anything were to happen. The bucketloads of cash the make on Online casinos would far outweigh any legal expense if they thought they could win. But with the Rennick guilty verdict being upheld after this last appeal, they’re pulling the chute.

All in all, this shouldn’t cause the industry to collapse, certainly most regular online poker players have had experience jumping through a hoop or two already trying to deposit or cash out, so most people know the ins and outs of the bizz, but that’s not to say that it wont scare away a LOT of current and potential customers. June 1st 2010 is going to be interesting.

Hellooo North American Poker Tour!

Well, finally. A Tour for us American speaking folks. No more smarmy Brits guffaw-ing their way through our poker broadcasts! Now, how can we get a $5.99 buffet and a lingerie version on the air…..hmmm.

So yes, today in “It has to be true because its on ESPN” news, the North American Poker Tour announced 3 tour stops, the first being PCA, then the Ventian in Vegas and then the Connecticut Mohegan Sun.

Pokerstars also confirms the hostessing duties will be Joanna Kruppa, an that they have a guaranteed “Top Tier” broadcast partner.

When and during which sporting season is still to be determined, but this is a great opportunity to solidify some serious American Poker celebrities. For me, poker tours and TV became popular from the folks that go bonkers for televised darts. So, ya. Also, playing online poker or even casino games in an online casino takes a lot of the hassle away from getting your gambling fix, so if you don’t have the skills or the stones to get on tour…just hang online.

Full Tilt Introduces “Rush Poker”

It’s “intense”, it’s “Wild”! No it’s no not the “Crocodile Mile!” It’s Rush Poker recently launched buy Poker supersite Fullt Tilt poker. Labeled as the “most intense poker action in the world” by its creators. It’s essentially non-stop poker. If you fold, BAM, you’re off to another table to keep playing. You’re out on a hand, BING, new table.

It’s attention deficit disorder poker. I like. I can now have my online poker AND Red Bull!

Check out more at FullTiltPoker.com

Priest Wins 100 K?

Ya, thats right, 100 grand.

Not quite the “man of the cloth” we’re all used too is it?

Heres what the honorable(?) Rev. Andrew Trapp had to say about his participation in the PokerStars.net Million Dollar Challenge:

“At the very least, even if I didn’t win any prize money, I was hoping it would help people to see that priests can have fun and be normal people and hopefully get a little bit of a fun twist on the image of the priesthood,”

The Assistant pastor (Ass Pastor….anybody?) hoped to at the least raise awareness of how the modern priesthood conducts itself, and winning the money for his church was simply a bonus.

Contrary to (hundreds of years of ) popular belief, Trapp says the the Catholic church no longer takes issue with playing card games or drinking a few beers, as long as its within reason.

I frankly, am heading down to the local chrch this Sunday to see if I can’t wrangle up a few worshipers for a game on the weekend, I’ll call it “Tithe Night”

From Wall St. to WPT?

Most finanacial exec’s from now defunct investment banking firm Bears Stearns are simply doing their best to move on, and pick up after the current economic crisis pretty much shattered their lives.

But one former advisor by the name of  Steven Begleiter is hanging out at the final table of the World Series of Poker’s Main Event at the Rio Hotel on Nov. 7th.

He outplayed more than 6 thousand other poker players, and now gets to sit at the final table with the likes of Phil Ivey and Jeff Schulman.

Not bad for a “loose cannon” rookie, and it gives another nod towards former finance and math professionals having increasing success transitioning from recreational to high stakes poker.

“Begs”, as they call him, likens his poker instincts to that of the financial world, out bidding and posteuring during asset acquizition negotiations on Wall Street.

Damn, makes me wonder why I skipped math class so much in high school.

Who would really want to Claim Face the Ace?

As if the new reality-based poker show Face the Ace didn’t have enough problems already with its terrible ratings, the show’s producers have been hit with a big lawsuit by a man who claims he came up with the idea for Face the Ace.  Brandon McSmith has leveled an $85,000,000 lawsuit against the show and says that Face the Ace is modeled after his idea of having amateur players compete against professionals for major cash and a seat in the World Series of Poker. 

And there is certainly some validity to McSmith’s claims too since he pitched the same kind of idea to a company called Poker Productions two years ago.  Unfortunately for McSmith, his seemingly good idea was rejected by Poker Productions which would have made one think that the idea was dead in the water.  However, the idea was not dead at all since we now have Face the Ace and the show was created by none other than Poker Productions.

But whatever the case may be and no matter who wins the lawsuit, both sides would have been better off forgetting this idea altogether.  The ratings for Face the Ace have been horrible (a re-run of Finding Nemo beat the show in ratings) and the prospects are bleak for things getting any better in the future.

As far as McSmith asking for $85 million in reparations, he might as well be asking for a gazillion dollars because this show isn’t hauling in shit money-wise.  Maybe Poker Productions has a decent amount of money or NBC would somehow be liable for some of the assumed damage – I don’t know.   The only thing that I do know is that this show has been nothing but trouble for all parties involved.

New Episodes for Poker After Dark

Unfortunately, a lot of the new poker shows out there are falling by the wayside because let’s be honest….there is only so big of a market for poker TV programs.  Face the Ace is the latest poker show to struggle mightily which makes many people think it might soon be off the air.  However, one poker TV show that isn’t going away any time soon is Poker After Dark which has recently opened its 6th season.

The 6th season of Poker After Dark will feature 12 new episodes where the players will be involved in a series of high stakes cash games.  The buy-in for the cash games is a total of $100,000 and the blinds will start at $100/$200.  Now this may not seem like a whole lot for high stakes cash games since many people in the Bellagio’s famous poker room – Bobby’s Room - play for as much as $8,000/$16,000.  But according to the Poker After Dark producers, the blinds will be tripling at some point during the show which will put them at $600/$1,200.   

The players that will be competing in the 6th season of Poker After Dark include Tom Dwan, Phil Ivey, Eli Elezra, Patrik Antonius, llari Sahamies, and Howard Lederer.  Almost all of the players which will be featured in Poker After Dark have appeared on other poker shows so this is nothing new to them.  Sahamies is the only player who is relatively new to the poker TV scene, but he should have no problem fitting in with these great players since he is one of the top online cash game players.  He plays under the name “Zigmund” and often competes with Tom Dwan and Phil Ivey in the Full Tilt Poker high stakes games.