Poker Blog & Poker Forum

The Subject Poker web site last week put out details of some murky bank account transactions of Chris Ferguson related to the Full Tilt Poker Black Friday saga and insinuated that the poker player could be stalling the beleaguered online poker site’s takeover by Groupe Bernard Tapie. Ferguson and his attorney Ian Imrich have been unavailable for comment. It is significant that Imrich was earlier the attorney for Full Tilt Poker.

It was reported that from April 2007, Chris Ferguson funneled about $60 million of his Full Tilt Poker distribution payments into bank accounts held for him in the name of Pocket Kings Ltd, but which were under his control. Pocket Kings Ltd is a subsidiary of Full Tilt Poker. Ferguson was able to withdraw about $45 million of this amount, some of it allegedly after Black Friday. Apparently he allowed Full Tilt Poker to use the balance $14.3 million to meet its post-Black Friday expenses. Now Ferguson wants to recover that amount before Full Tilt Poker implements the deal with the Department of Justice and Groupe Bernard Tapie. He is using his clout as a shareholder in the online poker site to derail the agreement that could see American players getting their money back.

Some known poker players have spoken out against Ferguson. Gavin Griffin said on a sentimental note that he once liked Chris, but is now disgusted with him. WPT Raw Deal host Tony Dunst was vitriolic. He said, “If Chris Ferguson shows his face in poker again I’ll happily be the first one to drive a stake through that piece of shits ankle.” Dunst added, “I’d bring retribution to Lederer too if I weren’t so confident that the fat fuck will eat himself to death if he has any money left.”

Tom Dwan is one of the Full Tilt players who have not been implicated in any hanky panky. Dwan joined Full Tilt only a few months before Black Friday. He had this to say from Australia where he was playing in the Aussie Millions. “Well obviously the whole Full Tilt situation still makes me sick to my stomach every time I think about it. It sucks that I went on a USO Tour where there were a bunch of soldiers talking about how they could play online poker wherever they were in the world, and then came home and weren’t allowed to.”

The PokerStars Caribbean Adventure (PCA) is the first big event on the poker calendar for 2012. As usual it is being held at the luxurious Atlantis Resort & Casino on Paradise Island in The Bahamas. The $100,000 Super High Roller has just been completed and it was a fitting beginning to the New Year.

The final table of eight players was the most star studded one seen in a long time. The poker fans have been dreaming of such a table at the WSOP Main Event for years. At the top of the table was Galen Hall, the winner of the 2011 PCA Main Event, hoping to create history at the Atlantis with back to back wins. Jonathan Duhamel, having put aside the home robbery by his ex-girl friend, was in the second spot. The veteran Daniel Negreanu, the leader in the all time live tournament earnings, was in third spot. Viktor Blom was next. As Isildur 1, Blom has ruled online poker rooms, but has yet to make a mark in live tournaments, where he has only one cash to his name. He finished 16th at the 2011 WSOP Europe Main Event. Dan Shak was the last player with the million plus chips. The last three were Scott Seiver, Mike “Timex” MacDonald and Humberto Brenes.

Brenes was the first to get eliminated, followed by McDonald and Seiver. All this while, Blom was grinding away making small but steady gains. Of the biggest names Negreanu was the first to go. His live tournament earnings will go up by a minuscule $250k. Soon after Duhamel was eliminated, Blom seized the top spot and things were tight from then on. Hall went next and Shak lost to Blom in the heads up.

It was a different Blom at the PCA Super High Roller. The aggressive raises were replaced by a patient waiting game. There is a list somewhere of top class poker players who have not won a major event. That list will now have one name less. Blom is a member of Team PokerStars, the sponsors of the event and this is what the PokerStars blog says. Famous among fans and infamous among the media for his reticence, Blom nearly escaped after his victory without saying a word. Instead, he gave a rare on-camera interview during which he said, in part, “It feels good to succeed.”

In a clarification, which has been described as a surprise Christmas present to the online gambling industry, the Department of Justice (DoJ) made its opinion known on two issues. The first was that henceforth the infamous Wire Act of 1961 would apply only to sports betting. The second was that states could license and regulate non-sports related intrastate online gambling. The legal opinion issued by the DoJ was in response to inquiries from New York and Illinois about online lottery sales and a letter written by Senate Majority Lead Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and Senator Jon Kyl, (R-Ariz.) asking for clarification on the legality of online gambling.

The letter from the DoJ was signed by Assistant Attorney General Ronald Weich. Weich acknowledged that the Department was altering its view on the Wire Act after its Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) reviewed the law. Earlier, the DoJ had maintained that the Wire Act covered all types of online gambling. Weich wrote, “Although the OLC conclusion differs from the Department’s previous interpretation of the Wire Act, it reflects the Department’s position in Congressional testimony at the time the Wire Act was passed in 1961.” It may be recalled that the DoJ had prosecuted PartyGaming founders under the Wire Act not long ago. Weich gave the green signal to New York and Illinois stating that online lottery sales would not violate the law.

However, Weich stopped short of stating that online poker is legal. He made it clear that if a state banned online poker then the DoJ would investigate and prosecute the offenders under the UIGEA and other sections of the criminal code. The other ominous warning was, “If Congress wishes to give the federal government greater enforcement authority over non-sports related Internet gambling, it could do so by amending the Wire Act.”

The online poker advocates responded quickly and favorably. John Pappas, executive director of the Poker Players Alliance said, “This is a much needed clarification of an antiquated and often confusing law. This will provide policy makers at both the state and federal level with the legal confidence to move forward with licensing and regulation of online poker and other non-sporting activity within their respective jurisdictions.” With this clarification Nevada is in position to become the first state to offer intrastate online gaming to its residents. Pappas called upon the federal policy makers to seize the moment and enact federal licensing and regulation laws.

When the Epic Poker League (EPL) took members it issued a card to each. The members of the poker community with the highest stature were given a 5 Year Card. The cards in decreasing order of ranking were 3 Year Card, 2 Year Card Category A and 2 Year Card Category B. Now the EPL has created the highest card, the lifetime player card, and conferred it to Doyle Brunson. This will make him automatically eligible to play all future EPL tournaments. Doyle has $6.1 million in lifetime tournament earnings and 10 WSOP gold bracelets, but the honor was not really meant just for that. EPL Commissioner Annie Duke said that this was an acknowledgement of the efforts pit in by Doyle over several decades to make poker popular and accessible.

In his inimitable style Doyle responded, “It’s unnecessary but I guess it’s nice to be remembered for what we went through to get poker to this point.” In an interview with The Associated Press, Doyle reminisced that at one time poker was looked down upon in Las Vegas. Then he and a group of card sharks known as the Texas Rounders came to Sin City and popularized Texas Hold‘em games at the Golden Nugget.

Earlier Doyle had been given one of the two year cards under league eligibility rules, which are weighed to emphasize recent success. Jeffery Pollack, executive chairman of FS+G that owns the EPL, said that Brunson’s contributions to poker are timeless, making him the game’s statesman. “The modern history of poker is Doyle’s life,” he added.

Doyle did not play in the EPL’s first two main events. Reading between the lines it is evident that the EPL goofed up in giving Doyle a low rated card and he was not amused. Now they have made good their error in the most suitable way. However, Doyle is not likely to play significantly more tournaments because of the lifetime card. He said, “As I’m getting older, these tournaments are getting too hard to come through. It’s probably not worth it to me anymore to really go on the tournament grind, so I don’t plan on playing a whole lot of tournaments the rest of my life. I much prefer to play cash games.”

WSOP 2012 will have a new event with an unprecedented $1 million buy-in. Titled “The Big One for One Drop”, this event is the creation of One Drop Chair and Cirque du Soleil Founder Guy Laliberte. Laliberte had worked on this concept with Caesars Interactive Entertainment CEO Mitch Garber. The idea was to combine poker players’ charitable nature with WSOP’s global reach to create an unparalleled poker event for raising the awareness to the acute shortage of water in many parts of the world.

The Big One for One Drop will take place from July 1 to July 3, 2012. Already 22 poker professionals have committed their participation. 22 is the minimum requirement for a WSOP official bracelet event. From each $1 million buy-in, $111,111 will be donated to One Drop towards raising funds for a legacy project of providing clean water access in a needy country. The balance amount will go to the prize pool. With 22 participants the expected prize pool will be nearly $20 million. The event will be capped at 48 players. The expected first place prize would very likely be $10 million or more and the winner will also receive a specially-designed WSOP platinum bracelet. A record 20% of the field will be in the cash. The event will be played as No-Limit Hold’em. WSOP is planning for ESPN to televise this event.

The players who have confirmed and have allowed their names to be made public are Guy Laliberte, Bobby Baldwin – four times bracelet winner and CEO of MGM-Mirage Resorts, Phil Ruffin – owner of Treasure Island Resort of Las Vegas, Andy Beal, Patrik Antonius, Gus Hansen, Daniel Negreanu, Johnny Chan, Tom Dwan, Tony Guoga, Jonathan Duhamel, Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier and Daniel Shak. Some others players have confirmed their participation but wish to remain anonymous for the present. Seats will also be offered through the following satellite events: The Montreal Group seat, Loto-Quebec seat, Caesars seat and European satellite seat.

Duhamel (in picture), who is a spokesperson for One Drop said that he was thrilled to participate in the biggest poker event ever organized. One million dollars is a lot of money but the cause is a great one. “Life starts with water and because of its uneven distribution a person dies every 20 seconds.” He further committed to give 5% of his winnings from this tournament to One Drop.