Friday was a polarizing day for online poker within the Usa. One operator, Ultimate Gaming, announced that it was withdrawing from New Jersey, while another, Caesars Entertainment, celebrated the one-year anniversary of WSOP.com in Nevada.
While Ultimate Gaming was on the point of exit Atlantic City, New Jersey, the fourth-largest World Poker Tour Main Event was about to conclude across town at Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa. Borgata continues to peer sustained success while the remainder of Atlantic City continues to disintegrate around it.
We'll also comment on the approaching World Series of Poker Asia-Pacific, reported progress in California for online legislation, and real money deposits at Nevada convenience stores on this week's Five Thoughts.
1. Ultimate Gaming Exits, WSOP.com Celebrates
Ultimate Gaming terminated its contact with Trump Taj Mahal Associates LLC on Friday, 10 days after the casino filed for bankruptcy, because of “multiple breaches by Trump Taj Mahal Associates.” The net poker site and casino ceased operations on Sunday, Sept. 21 at 11:59 p.m. ET.
Players can have access to their accounts online until Oct. 5, and can receive refunds for all U-Dollars and tournament tickets.
The New Jersey Department of Gaming Enforcement requires online gaming providers to partner with land-based casinos, so Ultimate Poker was left stranding once Trump Taj Mahal announced it was closing its doors in November. Trump Taj Mahal is the fifth Atlantic City casino to announce its closure in 2014.
While Ultimate Gaming was on the point of exit the brand new Jersey Turnpike one last time on Friday, WSOP.com celebrated its one-year anniversary in Nevada. Upon launching in 2013, WSOP.com quickly took the lead because the most well liked site within the state, edging out Ultimate Poker. Within the last year, WSOP.com has registered greater than 100,000 accounts, has dealt greater than 15 million hands of real money poker, and has hosted greater than 14,500 tournaments in Nevada.
The World Series of Poker announced on Friday the signing of 2012 WSOP Main Event champion Greg Merson because the site's first brand ambassador. Merson earned $8.5 million and Player of the Year honors for taking down the largest tournament in poker, and has raked in nearly $1.1 million in live tournament earnings since.
"WSOP is probably the most exclusive brand in all of poker, and i'm honored so as to help them promote online poker back to its full potential," Merson told PokerNews after the inside track broke.
During the summer, PokerNews Editor-in-Chief Donnie Peters read the tea leaves and predicted this outcome:
Merson even favorited the tweet on the time.
The WSOP's decision to bring forth a brand ambassador makes sense, and there are several other qualified players (cough, Phil Hellmuth, cough) who may also promote the brand, but it is a bit contradictory. When WSOP.com launched, Caesars officials explicitly stated that they weren't going to bring about any "pros" to be able to avoid conflict.
In the end, they got it right. Brand ambassadors, when chosen correctly, could have an excessively positive impact, and Merson is an overly driven and very bright individual who will represent the WSOP well.
On the whole, I DON'T THINK this was a favorable weekend for online poker in America. State-run regulatory bodies continue to suppress the expansion of online operators, and, although they were fourth in traffic in New Jersey, Ultimate Gaming was forced to cease operations because their partners failed, not because they selected to. For the past few years many industry members and players have looked to PokerStars as a savior as a way to come galloping into the us and save us all, but they too might be suffocated by bureaucracy regardless of where they go.
2. Darren Elias Wins Fourth-Largest WPT Main Event
As a fifth Atlantic City casino prepared to close its doors, Borgata continued to crush. The Season XIII WPT Borgata Poker Open attracted a complete of 1,226 entries, making within the fourth-largest Main Event in WPT history. Eight of the ten largest WPT Main Events have now taken place at Borgata.
Darren Elias took down the large event, besting Kane Kalas heads as much as earn $843,744. For his efforts, Kalas, the son of the late great Philadelphia Phillies and Eagles announcer Harry Kalas, pocketed $500,364.
Elias, 27, is the unique" End Boss" in line with the aforementioned Greg Merson. Mutual friend Tony Gregg could also be known as "End Boss," and i am unsure how this result affects the tip Boss Power Rankings. At this time I've got:
Sorry boys, but you cannot top the hardest End Boss of them all.
Here are the effects from all of the WPT Borgata Poker Open final table:
| 1 | Darren Elias | $843,744 |
| 2 | Kane Kalas | $500,364 |
| 3 | Jose Serratos | $308,067 |
| 4 | Aaron Overton | $259,012 |
| 5 | Blake Bohn | $213,999 |
| 6 | Ray Qartomy | $174,637 |
Aaron Overton and Blake Bohn are two names that truly stick out to me. Bohn seems to have quadruple the common in the future in every Mid-States Poker Tour event, accumulating chips left and right with an excessively aggressive style. His aggression and confidence doesn't take successful when he plays bigger buy-in events against more qualified players - he plopped down six figures in 2013 to play within the $111,111 ONE DROP High Roller and finished in 15th for $208,968. In advance of making the WPT Borgata Poker Open final table, Bohn finished seventh within the Seminole Hard Rock Poker Open $10 Million Guarantee for $213,999.
Overton also sticks out to me because he's a classic East Coast grinder. I've covered him several times in Atlantic City at WSOP Circuit events, and it is usually fun to peer someone who have been grinding for a long time get away. Previous to this final table, Overton's biggest score came in 2011 when he finished seventh at NAPT Mohegan Sun for $50,000.
As all of us know, the day after that NAPT final table was Black Friday.
Two days after Elias' victory, Borgata played host to the inaugural WPT Monster Invitational. This made-for-TV, winner-take-all event featured six poker icons with over $60 million in combined live tournament earnings: Vanessa Selbst, Phil Laak, Antonio Esfandiari, David Williams, Tony Dunst, and Scotty Nguyen.
In the end, Williams bested Laak in a wild heads-up match to win a Hublot King Power Unico watch; seats into the WPT World Championship, WPT Five Diamond World Poker Classic, and WPT L.A. Poker Classic; a couple of Monster 24K headphones; and $20,000 in cash.
Photo courtesy of the sector Poker TourWilliams joined the PokerNews Podcast this week to talk about the victory, the table, and the entertainment value of invitational events.
These made-for-TV events are gold, because they showcase superior talent and the players are encouraged to entertain the audience. Donnie and i've both discussed the shortage of fun in poker, and our worries directly correlate with the lack of shows like Poker After Dark, High Stakes Poker, and The PokerStars Big Game. These shows, while they highlighted great players, were all about entertainment, and a few of the most well liked poker videos on YouTube are from invitational events, not your average live event.
Hopefully the arena Poker Tour can continue to host these entertaining invitational tournaments, and great sponsors like Monster Products can support the cause. With a view to be truly successful, poker must adopt a PGA or NASCAR-like model, and it starts with sponsorship exposure.
3. WSOP APAC every week Away
The WSOP Asia-Pacific kicks off in barely over a week's time at Crown Melbourne, and PokerNews can be to be had to offer live updates from all 10 of the bracelet events.
The action begins with the AU$1,100 No-Limit Hold'em Accumulator on Oct. 2, and is highlighted by the AU$10,000 Main Event in Oct. 12. There's also the AU$1,650 Dealer's Choice 8-Game, AU$5,000 Pot-Limit Omaha, and AU$25,000 High Roller.
The main storyline heading into WSOP APAC is the 2014 WSOP Player of the Year race. Both Brandon Shack-Harris, who leads with 752 points, and George Danzer, who trails slightly with 745.2 points, may be at Crown to contend for the title. There's also Daniel Negreanu, who sits at No. 4 with 519.08 points. Negreanu would have to rattle off some big results, but he's no stranger to WSOP success outside of Las Vegas, winning a bracelet at both WSOP APAC and WSOP Europe en path to winning the 2013 WSOP Player of the Year award.
Whoever wins the WSOP Main Event in November will earn 500 points, that is currently good for fifth place within the Player of the Year standings, but there'll be several members of the November Nine MIA in Australia. PokerNews has independently confirmed that Jorryt van Hoof, Felix Stephensen, Martin Jacobson, Billy Pappas, and Daniel Sindelar don't plan to wait the WSOP APAC. As of right now, Brazilian Bruno Politano is the one confirmed November Niner.
Van Hoof, Jacobson, and Stephensen will likely play within the EPT London poker festival as it is far in the direction of their respective homes. As for the yank players, I AM NOT sure why they might decide to skip the development. At the whole, it's unfortunate that these players may not be in Australia to compete for Player of the Year points and a possible bracelet before the primary Event final table. It would've been an excellent opportunity for a few of these players to get some exposure, and maybe help them build a little bit a brand before November.
Crown has a distinct place in my heart, and that i know that Director of Poker Jim Preston, Corporate Affairs queen Natasha Stipanov, and the remainder of the workers on property will deliver another great series.
4. California Tribes and Horse Tracks Make Progress
Our own Matthew Kredell joined the PokerNews Podcast last week to talk about the legislative landscape within the United States, and he hinted at some progress in California. He later confirmed these statements in a subsequent article, highlighting some discussions between Indian tribes and native horse tracks.
Kredell spoke with Robyn Black, a lobbyist for the California Thoroughbred Breeders Association, who forecasted some positive news for the approaching New Year.
“We've been communicating with tribes and that i think in the future in 2015 we're actually going to look this type of bills move, and that i expect horse racing to join that,” Black said. “It's probably going to happen in 2015, or it's not going to happen.”
The latter a part of that quote is a bit of ominous, but sometimes ultimatums spark urgency and progress.
Initially, the California tribes were staunchly against racetracks offering online poker because they believed it's a selection of gambling that violates tribal exclusivity. However, internet gaming is a brand new entity, and horse tracks in California have offered online horse betting for over a decade.
Black tells Kredell that the tracks weren't excited about the legislation process at the beginning of 2014 because they saw that the tribes themselves were divided. Once the tribes came to a consensus, then the tracks entered the conversation.
From a layman's perspective, it kind of feels as though both the tracks and the tribes remember the fact that online poker has great potential in California, and the one method to maximize that may be to interact. Of course, one side may not be concerned about sharing a big component of the pie with the other, but in place of in-fighting and stunting progress altogether, they take into account that it's going to take compromise with the intention to induce change.
From a regulation perspective, including tracks can have a good impact because they've been offering some kind of "online gaming" for the decade. They understand what it takes to forestall underage gambling and agree to the entire necessary regulations from the state.
“We've been taking wagers on the web for a decade and feature a superb record in keeping out underage children, protecting consumer info and handling problem gamblers,” Black told Kredell. “Anyone with those concerns, just take a look at what horse racing has done in a decade of Internet wagering.”
5. Grinding at 7-Eleven
While Ultimate Poker was the primary regulated online poker room to launch in Nevada, SouthPointPoker.com, now Real Gaming, was the primary company to receive a web-based poker license in Nevada. Now, you'll be able to deposit on their site from any 7-Eleven or Family Dollar store within the state using the PayNearMe network.
In order to deposit, players must print or download a payment barcode from RealGaming.com. This barcode can then be scanned at any 7-Eleven or Family Dollar store, and the funds can be immediately credited to their account.
This is pretty brilliant, and a straightforward way for players to get funds online in the event that they don't live near Las Vegas or their banks are still hesitant to trust a web based gaming site. Payment processing remains one of the most biggest hurdles for online gaming, and third-party providers like PayNearMe, Skrill, and Neteller will play massive roles going forward.
The only unfortunate a part of this news is that withdrawals don't seem to be included. Now, while I DO NOT expect players so that you could visit 7-Eleven and take a couple of hundred bucks from the money register, there need to be some more or less reverse method where they may be able to scan a separate bar code and get some small amount of cash back. With no proper withdrawal process that is somewhat useless.
Still, it is a step within the right direction. We want our online poker operators to be innovative help their customers however they are able to. Albeit simple, this will likely help Real Gaming drive traffic to their site and make players in Reno, Carson City, and Spring Creek more than happy.
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