Poker Players have Stalkers Now?

In past decades, we’ve seen numerous movie stars and musicians being stalked by members of the public.  Their obvious fame and camera time sometimes earns them some overzealous fans who will do just about anything to be like their idols – or be with them.  But I do have to admit that I’ve never really heard of such a thing as a person stalking a poker player…..at least until now.

Patrik Antonius – also known as one of poker’s biggest heartthrobs (if there is such a thing haha) – is the poker player in question who’s being stalked.  However, it’s not by some crazed woman who’s looking to get a piece of Antonius, but rather it is a person who’s posing as Antonius on Twitter.  This goes beyond just posing as Antonius though since the person is also following Antonius’ movements very closely so they have something to twitter about each day.

What’s kind of funny about the situation is that a lot of the posts are trash talk aimed at fellow pro Doyle Brunson.  Some of the posts mention stuff about how Patrik supposedly bluffed Doyle all night and there is even one post which says that Brunson is too senile to play against Antonius anymore.  Understandably thinking Patrik sent the texts; Brunson was a little angry about the situation and said something to Antonius about them.  Luckily, Patrik Antonius didn’t actually send the texts so he has nothing to worry about in that regards.

Still, it has to be annoying to have somebody sending out texts like that and pretending to be you.  I’m not sure about the legality of this situation or if the person who’s doing the twittering can be prosecuted, but hopefully for Patrik this thing comes to an end soon.

Poker Winnings still won’t be Released

If you’re a poker player then just thank god that you don’t live in New York.  Not only did the Southern District of New York decide to seize the funds of over 20,000 poker players, but the government has decided to hold on to the money for quite some time into the future.  In fact, it has reported that it could be years before the millions in online poker money will ever be seen again.

But at least I’ve heard a semi-good reason as to why the money is being withheld now – although it’s not that good of a reason.  A refuted money launderer named Douglas Reddick is at the forefront of the case and, for some reason, he is the main reason why the money won’t be unlocked.  I haven’t heard the full details of the case, but I’m still wondering why charges against the Canadian Reddick is the reason why over 20,000 players had to have their money frozen.

The one good thing about the case is that Full Tilt Poker and PokerStars really took the brunt of the money being seized.  That’s because, when players’ checks started bouncing, both sites reimbursed their players for the cash that was frozen.  So from what I’ve heard, Full Tilt and PokerStars are the ones who are eating the costs of the money that’s been seized.

Still, I think it is ridiculous that New York could potentially hold on to this money for years because of a pending case against one man.  I know the UIGEA has a lot to do with this as well so maybe once it’s repealed, states won’t be able to do crazy things like this with online poker money in the future.

Shaq hits the Poker Tables

Shaquille O’Neal has always been one of my favorite sports personalities.  He’s a big, badass who could easily bully all of the other players on the court at any time and act equally as intimidating to the media.  And while he is a bully on the court at times (just ask Dwight Howard), Shaq has never just been some big guy trying to act all hard to the media.  Instead, Shaq has consistently been one of the most entertaining NBA players off of the court as well with his goofy antics and funny sayings.

His latest venture, a TV Show called “Shaq Vs.”, sees him taking on different athletes and people in their game of skill.  One episode I saw pitted him against NFL quarterback Ben Roethslisberger in a football game; Roethslisberger’s team won despite Shaq’s big game.

Well Shaq has supposedly taken to the felt in one episode of Shaq Vs. as he squared off against Phil Hellmuth, Mike Matusow, Chris Ferguson, and Erick Lindgren in poker.  The episode hasn’t been aired yet so we’ll have to wait and see how he fares against these poker pros, but I can tell you that I can’t wait till this episode is on.

It will be interesting to see the big man at the poker table because I had no idea he played.  In fact, he might very well not play but I’m sure he learned some skills before going against these guys.  I’m wondering how the format will go as well since they could all play at once or in heads-up matchups.  I guess I’ll have to wait and see when the poker episode of Shaq Vs. airs.

APT Macau invites Michael Phelps once Again

As has been the case ever since Michael Phelps teased the poker world by saying he would like to compete in the World Series of Poker someday, the Asian Poker Tour is still in the race to land him at one of their events.  APT officials once again invited Phelps to the APT Macau event that will take place from August 12th to August 23rd. 

And once again, the APT was not short on corniness in their open letter to Phelps which read, “Some media reports even suggest that you may have got in with the wrong crowd in the last 12 months – we promise to keep you out of trouble.  We’ll give you access to pools of sharks, fish, and those that you swim in! If you don’t want to bring your goggles, fair enough; bring a pair of sunglasses and your poker face!  While you are at it, you could ask a certain poker playing President by the name of Barack Hussein Obama II if he fancies joining you!”

After receiving letters such as this, I don’t blame Phelps for not wanting to play in the APT Macau tournament – or any other tournament for that matter.  In fact, he probably thinks that the world of organized poker tournaments is filed with dorks and losers since they keep sending him these stupid letters. 

At least I know his perception of the entire poker world isn’t that bad though since he hung out with Doyle Brunson a lot, and played around Las Vegas some.  Perhaps this might be the year he gets more involved with poker since Phelps has been flirting with the possibility for a while now.  But don’t expect anything major before the 2012 London Olympics are over with though.

Poker Pro drops Lawsuit against US Golf Association

Dusty Schmidt was once an aspiring gold star who was among the top junior players in America.  In fact, Dusty was so good that many wondered if he would eventually wind up on the PGA Tour.  However, tragedy struck when Dusty suffered a heart attack at the age of 23, and this heart attack essentially derailed his golf career.  In addition to having to endure a long recovery from his heart attack, Schmidt also lost his amateur status that was granted by the United States Gold Association.

During his recovery, Schmidt’s pains were soothed as he started playing online poker heavily.  Schmidt became so good that he professed to making over $3 million over the past few years, and even earned over $100,000 during his strongest months.  But even though he is such a successful poker player, Schmidt still longed for the greens of the gold course and reapplied for his amateur status.

That status was granted by the USGA and Schmidt was once again ready to resume his career.  However, the USGA eventually caught wind that Dusty has issued a $1 million challenge to anyone who would take him on in a golf/poker competition.  Because he had issued this $1 million challenge, the USGA basically ruled that he was no longer an amateur player.

This lead Dusty to try and arrange a lawsuit which he has now decided to back off of after finding that there is nothing he can really do to win.  Seeing as how this is the case, Schmidt will ready himself for the professional golf ranks while still funding himself through poker.  And with $3 million already in his bankroll, I don’t think Schmidt will shed too many tears over the amateur status thing.

PayPal is Now an Option for Gambling Again

Like many companies around the time of the UIGEA, PayPal did their best to shy away from gambling since companies feared legal action and prosecution if they got involved in the matter.  And seeing how PayPal is part of a much larger entity in eBay, I figured we had seen the last of PayPal in the gambling sector….at least until the UIGEA is totally repealed.

But much to my surprise, PayPal is testing the waters of the gambling world again by aiding 75 different gambling companies with deposits and withdrawals.  Super Slots and Golden Casinos are among the 75-plus companies that PayPal has decided to work with again which has me wondering how long it will be before they dive back into the online poker world again.

The online poker and traditional gambling industries have pretty much gone side-by-side as far as their fates with gambling laws have went.  And I hope it is a similar situation with PayPal where the most trusted online baking company in the world will decide to do business with poker rooms again.

I can’t imagine how much easier it would be to just hop on PayPal and deposit or withdrawal money compared to the hassles of dealing with checks and other more obscure methods.  And this would eliminate another big problem in that players would actually have an online banking company to go to since NetTeller decided to jump ship.

Of course we’ll just have to wait until PayPal makes the decision to start working with online poker companies again before we can be certain.  However, I think that PayPal will no doubt make the decision that we’re all hoping for.

Will Tom Dwan’s Million Dollar Challenge ever end?

It was months ago when we heard that Tom Dwan was looking to take on anyone and everyone in these million dollars challenges.  Patrik Antonius was the first person to come forth in a challenge that will see Dwan win $500,000 if he is up after 50,000 hands while he will pay out $1.5 million to Antonius if he wins the challenge.  However, that’s IF the challenge ever ends since it seems as if these people are delaying the results as long as they possibly can. 

It’s been well over a month since the two players have last played a hand in this challenge and there has been no news of when they will get back into the challenge.  Last I heard, Dwan had made a huge comeback to retake the lead which may have caused Antonius to want some time off (just guessing).

Since there is no action in his challenge with Antonius right now, Dwan has said that he will travel to London in order to take on challengers from Europe.  The reason Dwan says he wants to play Europeans in London is because there seems to be a lot of interest from people over there as far as his challenge goes.  Unfortunately, these people who want to challenge “durrrr” are heads-up players so he can’t just hop on Full Tilt and take their money like he does to everyone else.

If anybody in London does accept his challenge then I’m really hoping that one of these things actually finishes.  I just want to see some results from all this challenging Dwan has been doing (though I’m sure he’ll win most any challenge).

Who says a Big Name can’t win It All

With almost 6,500 players in the 2009 WSOP Main Event and only 500 or so of these players being big names, many people don’t see a big name pro being able to win the title for a while.  Instead, what we’re given is final tables full of virtual unknowns who have honed their game on the Internet, and come to the Main Event in hopes of making a name for themselves. 

But with 64 players remaining in the WSOP Main Event, we’re finding that a solid percentage of those players include some of poker’s best.  Phil Ivey definitely tops the list of players who are still alive as he sits near the top of the leaderboard, and is poised to make a strong run at the final table as we play down to the final 9.  Antonio Esfandiari is also running very well and is right up there with Ivey in terms of those who could make a big impact on the final table.

And it’s nice to see a member of last year’s final table back in the mix once again with Dennis Phillips still alive.  Joe Seebok and Tom Schneider are two more big names who’ve managed to fight their way through the huge Main Event crowd to position themselves within the top 1% of finishers.

Out of those who are still alive, I’m most excited to see Ivey still in the field since he will definitely draw some fan interest if he happens to make the final table.  Even people who know little about poker either know Ivey or recognize his face so it would be interesting to see how many casual fans would tune in come November if Ivey makes the final table.  Of course, it would also be really cool to see Dennis Phillips make a second final table as well which would be a huge accomplishment considering how large the fields are these days.

Poker Tax may shut down UK Rooms

Ever since the dawn of poker, the UK has been a hotbed for the game with tons of rooms operating across the country.  Unfortunately, rooms like these in the United Kingdom are in jeopardy due to a new poker tax that is threatening the very existence of the game.

Britain is currently in a crisis politically due to several scandals by politicians, and so the countries lawmakers have decided that now is a good time to try and bring in more revenue through increased taxes on casinos.  Before, casinos had to pay a 15% tax on money made from poker rooms which was quite adequate and still allowed the casino to make a decent profit on the game. 

However, a new law has taken effect that taxes all of London’s casino poker operations way more heavily.  Cutting through all of the legal talk, the final number amounts to a tax of about 50% which is a 35% increase on what was previously charged.  Obviously at a tax rate this high, some of London’s most notable card rooms are considering closing their doors instead of trying to fight their way through this unfair tax.

Some of the places that could close include the Grosvenor Victoria Casino and the Nottingham’s From Dusk Till Dawn poker club.  The only good thing about the new law is that it doesn’t seek to impose such a heavy tax on the casinos outside of London which will at least keep other rooms open.  But the damage has already been done in London, and it looks like some of the finest rooms the city has to offer won’t be able to stay in business much longer.

Jeffrey Lisandro is a WSOP Stud

Coming into this year’s World Series of Poker, few people would have ever really considered Jeffrey Lisandro as part of poker’s elite class.  Sure Lisandro is well known among those who follow poker closely and is a respected player, but we’ll just sum this up by saying he’s no Phil Hellmuth or Phil Ivey.  However, that’s all about to change with the way Lisandro has performed at the 2009 WSOP. 

Jeffrey Lisandro recently won his third gold bracelet at the WSOP which ties the record at a single World Series of Poker event, and he still has time to play at least a couple more tournaments if he so chooses.  With 3 victories at the WSOP, many people think that Lisandro is a shoe-in to win the WSOP Player of the Year Award too.  But whether that happens or not, people will still remember this performance by Lisandro at the WSOP.

What’s most impressive about Lisandro’s bracelets is that he has won them all in Seven Card Stud events which will definitely put him in a class by himself in this poker variation.  Jeffrey won a Stud high, Stud 8′s or better, and a Razz tournament which is pretty amazing.  In fact, I’d be willing to be that nobody else will ever win 3 Stud events in the same WSOP.

This is truly an impressive accomplishment and something which I definitely think you’ll be seeing go down in WSOP lore next time websites starting pounding out those top WSOP moments in history articles.