Poker Blog & Poker Forum

Full Tilt Poker is the online poker room where most of the high stakes action on the Internet takes place. HighstakesDB tracks the betting at Full Tilt Poker on a hand to hand basis and compiles the results into the biggest winners and losers every month.

Phil Ivey tops the list of winners for August 2010 with just over $2 million against his name, which is way ahead of the next poker professional at Full Tilt Poker. If things continue this way then Ivey can cross more than $20 million in life time winnings in September. For someone who started out only in October 2006 this is a huge feat. Ivey crossed the $5 million mark in September 2008, the $10 million mark in April 2009 and the $15 million mark in November 2009. And all this is at Full Tilt Poker only. The biggest single pot won by Ivey was of $832,940 in November 2009.

Numbers two and four on the August 2010 list are jungleman12, real name Dan Cates, and durrrr, real name Tom Dwan. Cates has won $1.1 million in August at Full Tilt Poker and Dwan has won $0.7 million. Cates and Dwan make an interesting combination because they have a challenge going between them, which is popularly called The Durrrr Challenge 2. The first challenge, between Dwan and Patrik Antonius, went into hibernation after 19 months of slow paced progress because Antonius is so far behind that he has no hope of catching up. Fortunately for poker fans the second Durrrr Challenge has started at a brisk pace and 10% of the slated number of games has already been completed. As things stand now, Dwan is down by half a million dollars but it is early days. Fans are hoping that this contest will not become one sided and slow down to a snail’s pace. Dwan started playing at Full Tilt Poker in November 2006, about the same time as Ivey. However Dwan has had a volatile life with maximum cumulative winnings at $8 million in April 2010. He is currently at $5 million.

The biggest loser in August 2010 is Gus Hansen at $2.9 million. Like someone at a poker forum remarked, Full Tilt Poker should change his password and forget to tell him.

Two female brand ambassadors associated with the online poker room UB.com have been in the news this week. Both are completely different from each other, have different roles to play and have been in the news for completely different reasons.

Trishelle Cannatella is the poker babe face of UB.com. Known as a “hot tub three-way specialist” it is her role to bring the punters to the UB tables. This is what she is doing in UB.com’s Online Poker Championship Series, which guarantees over $4 million in prizes. On Tuesday she hosted several events, which had about 500 players each. They were vying for a share of the prize pool but were also there to “hang and chat” with the vivacious Trishelle. UB player Discomonky will never forget the evening because he succeeded in knocking out Trishelle, something he could only do at the poker table, and winning the bounty. Players at UB.com will be missing their poker babe for a few days because she has decided to spend time with the seals in an Alaskan cruise. But in her last post before signing off she said, “Hope to see everyone playing the UBOC million dollar championship on Sunday.”

The other UB woman in the news is Annie Duke, who represents the professional face of the poker room. Her spat with Daniel Negreanu, in which he called her a f****** c***, seems to be splitting the poker world into two groups. Negreanu is the brand ambassador of rival poker room PokerStars. When some women players at PokerStars spoke against Negreanu, the poker room stood up for their ambassador. Katja of the support team responded to the protests by stating that there is bound to be some friction between outspoken poker players. The response went on to say, “Although Daniel Negreanu is a Team PokerStars Pro, he is an entity to himself and as such will always be encouraged to express his views and speak his mind as he would otherwise do so, PokerStars Pro or not.”

Annie was not amused. Her response to the matter earlier had been a dignified one, but she really let fly at PokerStars in an open letter. She pointed out that the words “f****** c****” were not a view or an opinion but an “abusive epithet”. The least that PokerStars was expected to do was distance themselves from Daniel Negreanu’s remarks. She also drove home the point that a Nike sponsored NFL footballer would have been thrown out by both Nike and NFL for using such language at a female reporter.

Now that the euphoria of the passage of HR 2267 in the House Committee has died down, experts are examining the fine print and opining what this means for the online poker industry. Joe Brennan Junior of iMEGA pointed out one of the most significant amendments. He said, “No one who took a bet or wager on or after the enactment of the Unlawful Internet Gaming Enforcement Act in 2006, processed payments, or received ‘assistance’ can be licensed.” This puts two of the largest online poker rooms, Full Tilt Poker and PokerStars, in a tight spot. As of now, online poker in the United Stated without Poker Stars and Full Tilt Poker is inconceivable. Most of the leading poker professionals are brand ambassadors to one or the other. Therefore the industry experts have come up with various suggestions as to how things can work out. The most common expert opinion is that PokerStars and Full Tilt Poker will be bought over by a big US company. Harrah’s, MGM and Facebook are some of the names that have been thrown about. However, one expert pointed out that this would be too big a risk for the buyer, because Mr. Bachus has plugged this loophole in his amendment. Entities that purchase tainted entities, purchase customer lists of tainted entities and purchase operations of tainted entities also cannot be given licenses. Another suggestion has been that PokerStars and Full Tilt Poker can purchase a European company that is eligible for a license and ask its players to join up there. In all this one cannot forget that HR 2267 would never have passed but for the untiring efforts of the Poker Players Alliance. And it is well known that PokerStars and Full Tilt Poker are the biggest supporters of the Poker Players Alliance. HR 2267 has yet a long way to go before it is made law and some way out is sure to be found. Meanwhile PokerStars is putting up a brave front. First of all PokerStars has said that it completely supports HR 2267 and will do whatever it can to try and get the bill through the House and the Senate in this Congressional term itself. Then a statement from PokerStars said, “As reflected in legal opinions provided to PokerStars, its activities in the US are and at all times have been lawful. Therefore the amendment will not adversely affect the availability of a license for a respected operator such as PokerStars.”

Now that the euphoria of the passage of HR 2267 in the House Committee has died down, experts are examining the fine print and opining what this means for the online poker industry. Joe Brennan Junior of iMEGA pointed out one of the most significant amendments. He said, “No one who took a bet or wager on or after the enactment of the Unlawful Internet Gaming Enforcement Act in 2006, processed payments, or received ‘assistance’ can be licensed.” This puts two of the largest online poker rooms, Full Tilt Poker and PokerStars, in a tight spot. As of now, online poker in the United Stated without Poker Stars and Full Tilt Poker is inconceivable. Most of the leading poker professionals are brand ambassadors to one or the other. Therefore the industry experts have come up with various suggestions as to how things can work out.

The most common expert opinion is that PokerStars and Full Tilt Poker will be bought over by a big US company. Harrah’s, MGM and Facebook are some of the names that have been thrown about. However, one expert pointed out that this would be too big a risk for the buyer, because Mr. Bachus has plugged this loophole in his amendment. Entities that purchase tainted entities, purchase customer lists of tainted entities and purchase operations of tainted entities also cannot be given licenses. Another suggestion has been that PokerStars and Full Tilt Poker can purchase a European company that is eligible for a license and ask its players to join up there.

In all this one cannot forget that HR 2267 would never have passed but for the untiring efforts of the Poker Players Alliance. And it is well known that PokerStars and Full Tilt Poker are the biggest supporters of the Poker Players Alliance. HR 2267 has yet a long way to go before it is made law and some way out is sure to be found.

Meanwhile PokerStars is putting up a brave front. First of all PokerStars has said that it completely supports HR 2267 and will do whatever it can to try and get the bill through the House and the Senate in this Congressional term itself. Then a statement from PokerStars said, “As reflected in legal opinions provided to PokerStars, its activities in the US are and at all times have been lawful. Therefore the amendment will not adversely affect the availability of a license for a respected operator such as PokerStars.”

The House Financial Services Committee on July 28, 2010, passed the Internet Gambling Regulation, Consumer Protection, and Enforcement Act by a vote of 41 in favor and only 22 against. This bill number HR 2267, is also known as the anti-UIGEA bill because it seeks to overturn the provisions of the UIGEA and set up a licensing and regulatory regime for online gambling in the United States.

Though this is only a small step in the journey of the bill, this is the first tangible good news that online poker players have received after the UIGEA was imposed in November 2006. The Poker Players Alliance (PPA) has contributed immensely in gathering support for this bill and its members are naturally overjoyed. The PPA immediately released a public statement. Former Senator Alfonse D’Amato, chairman of the PPA said, “I’m glad the Financial Services Committee today overwhelmingly chose to act and protect Americans as well as preserve the fundamental freedoms of adults and the Internet.” D’Amato also thanked Barney Frank for his leadership of the bill and promised all support in the future. John Pappas, executive director of the PPA, thanked the legislators who contributed to the bill by moving suitable amendments.

Earlier there was a minor hiccup when the bill was not taken up for discussion on Tuesday July 27 as originally scheduled. This week saw an unrestrained support for online gambling and online poker from many different quarters. Major newspapers like the New York Times and the Washington Post carried lead articles. Online poker forums and news sites exhorted poker players to contact their legislators by phone or e-mail asking them to gather support for the bill in the House Committee. Annie Duke, who had testified in the hearing on the bill last week, re-tweeted the message from PPA to all her followers. The message said, “Thank you poker players! The thousands of letters, calls and tweets really made a difference.”

The path of the bill becoming law is a long one. The House Financial Services Committee has to report the passage of the bill to the House of Representatives. The bill will have to be discussed and voted in the House of Representatives. If passed there, it would have to be discussed and voted in the Senate. If the Senate also passed the bill it would go to the President for his signature.