DraftKings-WSOP Partnership on Hold After Nevada DFS RulingALL COUNTRIES CAN PLAY @ ATLANTIS GOLD CASINO!
The World Series of Poker and daily fantasy sports (DFS) operator DraftKings have had a fruitful, mutually beneficial relationship, but the marriage has ended after Nevada labeled DFS as gambling and determined that operators will need gaming licenses to exist in the state.
Dan Cypra of PocketFives reported that DraftKings asked the WSOP to cease sponsorship activities, and the WSOP will comply. The DraftKings lobby is now devoid of satellites to WSOP tournaments, and Cypra speculated that DraftKings commercials and sponsorship mentions will likely be absent from WSOP broadcasts in the near future.
DraftKings has been a heavy presence at the WSOP the past few years, with one of the first notable appearances coming in 2012 when Greg Merson made the final table of the Main Event and ultimately won while sporting a DraftKings patch on his left arm. Things progressed from there and hit a peak at the 2015 WSOP with more than 100 players qualified through DraftKings satellites and the DraftKings Lounge occupying the prominent stage of the Pavilion room.
Poker and DFS have had a lot of natural crossover appeal as games blending skill and chance, as DraftKings Chief Revenue Officer Matt Kalish said in an interview with PokerNews this summer.
"I think the biggest reason why is there's something that people have in common who are attracted by strategy or skill games," he said. "Anything that has depth and complexity and isn't easily solved."
Thus, DraftKings made it a goal to increase its presence at the WSOP, and Kalish said he had high hopes the partnership would continue to expand into 2016 and beyond. Now, though, DFS sites have had to hastily pull out of Nevada after the announcement that operators would need gaming licenses.
Things could change in the coming months as the murky legal landscape surrounding DFS comes into clearer focus, but for now at least, the relationship between DraftKings and the WSOP is on ice.
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Forfeited Online Casino Money Offered by US to Kaplan CustomersALL COUNTRIES CAN PLAY @ ATLANTIS GOLD CASINO!
A required US government post gives ex-players at BetOnSports a chance to claim the millions forfeited by the online casino's founder.
After Gary Kaplan, founder of BetOnSports, agreed last week to accept a plea deal from the US government that includes a forfeiture by him of $43.6 million in what is acknowledged as illegitimate gains, officials are giving former members of the online casino a chance to get a refund. Bettors and players at the Internet sports betting website will have first claim on the seized funds.
Conditions for acquiring a share of the money are still murky. It is expected by gaming industry observers that players involved in the $16 million owed by BetOnSports when legal investigations forced the site closed will have top priority amongst petitioners.
Those wishing to apply for an award from the online casino forfeiture must file in writing with the federal court in St. Louis. The information regarding procedure for claiming can be found at www.forfeiture.gov.
"The United States hereby gives notice of its intent to dispose of the forfeited property in such manner as the United States Attorney General may direct," says the written notice posted by the government.
"Following the Court's disposition of all petitions filed, or if no such petitions are filed, following the expiration of the period specified above for the filing of such petitions, the United States shall have clear title to the property and may warrant good title to any subsequent purchaser or transferee," the document concludes, there by establishing the US government can do what it wants with remaining funds.
California Online Poker Bill Shelved Despite Lack of OpponentsALL COUNTRIES CAN PLAY @ ATLANTIS GOLD CASINO!
Intrastate Internet poker will not be regulated by the state of California anytime soon, as proponents couldn't come to agreement about licensing requirements.
With supporters far outweighing opponents, the bill regulating California intrastate online gambling seemed a lock to pass. But, with varying interests unable to produce a single viable plan, the proposal to allow instate online poker operators failed to receive a vote in committee, and will probably be left off this year's agenda.
California lawmakers are desperate for revenue to prop up the state's budget, and taxing online poker seems an option that could raise almost a billion dollars annually. But tribal leaders and card room operators already licensed in the state balked at allowing a chance of outside competition, although they had supported Internet poker under their control.
State Senator Roderick Wright, who had proposed the bill which would let California residents gamble online with operators licensed inside state boundaries, withdrew the measure, saying it still needed work. He opined it would probably be past the end of the year before the bill would again be brought forward.
Leaders from the Morongo Band of Mission Indians, the tribe that initiated discussions of intrastate Internet poker, objected to the wording of the bill, which they felt left open the possibility that Las Vegas gaming companies and foreign online casino operators could claim a license to serve California.
The Poker Players Alliance took the opposing point, wanting such established online poker operators as Full Tilt and PokerStars to have the right to bid for licensing. PPA spokesmen also denounced a clause that would make gambling with unlicensed online casinos a crime.
Until a consensus among the involved parties can be reached, it appears California will be stalled in its attempt to avoid the UIGEA and establish intrastate Internet poker operations.
Germany attacks Canberra in quest for ANZPT crownALL COUNTRIES CAN PLAY @ ATLANTIS GOLD CASINO! ^
We started out nearly eleven hours ago with 76 hopefuls entering the Casino Canberra poker room in their quest for ANZPT glory. We had previous ANZPT champions, Australian poker legends and several young guns in contention. But after a day full of psychological warfare, we are left with just fifteen men standing.
They're a happy bunch and will sleep well tonight knowing they are a minimum of $4,690 wealthier. Some will be more than satisfied with that, but there are a few others who want nothing more than to go all the way to claim the title and $73,700 first place prize.
Along the way today there was plenty of roadkill, with the biggest of them all falling in the opening minutes of the day.
Team PokerStars Pro Tony Hachem was in dire need of a quick double up and when he looked down and found the pocket rockets it seemed like a perfect opportunity. However a cruel river gave his opponents trips and Hachem departed.
Other high profile casualties included ANZPT Adelaide champion Octavian Voegele, ANZPT Sydney winner Michael Kanaan, day one chip leaders Scott Kerr and Leo Boxell, Rennie Carnevale, Michael Guzzardi, Sal Fazzino and ANZ Player of the Year contenders Oliver Grujic, Sebastian Pagana and Graeme Putt.
It left the door open for reigning Aussie Millions champion David Gorr as the only player in the current POTY top ten to remain in contention. Gorr battled for long periods today on a short stack, and had to survive some intense duels with the ultra-aggressive James Broom, but Gorr managed to make it through the day and can now finish as high as second in the rankings with a good result tomorrow.
As players approached the money stage, the likes of Luke Edwards, Jarred Graham and Germany's Khiem Nguyen moved through the field to grab the chip lead. Nguyen was particularly impressive as he picked the right spots to throw jabs and accumulate. When he eliminated David Steele he shot into the chip lead and never relinquished that position as he enters the final day of play as our chip leader.
When George Moussa's courageous run came to an end in devastating fashion at the hands of a creative Tristan Bain, the bubble had burst and we were in the money. Here's the redraw for play tomorrow:
We'll recommence play at 12:15pm tomorrow (GMT+10) and play all the way down until a new ANZPT champion is crowned. Looking at the lineup, it's set to be a stellar final table and should provide plenty of great highlights from the nation's capital. Until then, enjoy your Sunday evening and we'll see you tomorrow!
ANZPT7 Melbourne Day 3: Open the floodgatesALL COUNTRIES CAN PLAY @ ATLANTIS GOLD CASINO!
We've reached that point.
The bubble burst with the final hand of last night's action and now it's time for the shortstacks to get it in and gamble.
The 63 remaining players have all guaranteed themselves a $3,200 return and will be chasing that $261,200 top prize when the champion is crowned tomorrow. The plan today is to play down to our final seven and we're expecting to arrive at some point in the next eight levels. There are a few shortstacks in the mix after play slowed down before the bubble last night so we could be in for an action-packed start here for Day 3.
That bubble would burst last night as the new chip leader emerged. Kenn Langcake sent Minh Nguyen to the rail in 64th place with aces over kings to snatch the top spot in the dying stages. Langcake now sits with 440,500 in chips as play begins.
Rumour has it this is Langcake's first live event with no live cashes to his name, but he has seen significant success on the virtual felt. Locking up a Main Event cash here it's a great start to his live poker career and he's found himself in prime position to make a deep run.
Current chip leader Kenn Langcake
Joining Langcake as the frontrunners include Mario Doria with 422,000, Samuel Higgs on 416,500 and Day 1B end-of-day chip leader Hyeong Wook Choi with 401,500.
Also still in the race are ANZPT Sydney reigning champion Jim Psaros (277,500), Australian Poker Hall of Famer Leo Boxell's son Danny (88,000) and Aussie Millions Main Event winner Manny Stavropoulos (186,000). Trailing the field as play begins is Rory Young with 32,500 in chips.
There is only 16 minutes left of Level 15 as the action recommences. Blinds continue at 2,000/4,000 with a 500 ante and the average stacks sits at 165,000. We'll see 63 become just seven tonight as we edge closer to our last-ever ANZPT Main Event final table.
We hope you can join us here at the PokerStars Blog for all the stories from Crown Melbourne and be sure to check in with the team at PokerNews for all your live reporting needs!
A robust crowd of 7,919 players bought in to this week's Sunday Million, the prize pool topping out at $1,583,800.00. 1,170 places were paid with first place set to earn $237,574.32. Among the 19 Red Spades in the field were Jake Cody, Marcel Luske, Christian De Leon, Vicky Coren, Joe Cada, Nacho Barbero, Andre Akkari, Fatima Moreira De Melo and George Lind III. However Team Online's Tyler "frosty012" Frost (1,050th) was the only one to cash.
Blinds were up to 150,000/300,000 with ten players remaining. Short stack Skeiedk open-shoved 1.46 million from the cutoff and aces_up4108 called with [Ad][7c] on the button. Skeiedk's [Qd][3d] did not improve on the [Kh][6h][5c][2c][6c] board, ending his run on the final table bubble.
Final table chip counts
Seat 1: DafDaf1986 (14,561,139 in chips) Seat 2: SvenskTruita (3,519,640 in chips) Seat 3: blackaces93 (12,234,597 in chips) Seat 4: sandal1968 (6,652,127 in chips) Seat 5: d-mon-d (4,654,826 in chips) Seat 6: M_ad_04M_ax_ (16,643,381 in chips) Seat 7: alextoon1 (6,053,783 in chips) Seat 8: aces_up4108 (7,581,019 in chips) Seat 9: geramas.G (7,289,488 in chips)
d-mon-d, sandal1968 exit early
D-mon-d, a Norwegian with a runner-up finish in the Sunday 500 and a WCOOP final table under his belt, came into today's final table as the second-shortest stack, but was the first player eliminated. With the blinds up to 200,000/400,000, blackaces93 shoved for 6.9 million on the button and d-mon-d looked him up with [Ad][Jd] in the big blind. Although blackaces93's [Ah][5s] was dominated, he caught a five on the flop and two pair on the turn. Unlucky d-mon-d found himself on the rail in ninth place when the board ran out [7h][5h][2d][2h][9c].
Three hands later, sandal1968 looked down at [Ad][Kh] and open-shoved for 3.93 million from the hijack. Alextoon1 reshoved for 5.73 million on the button with [Ts][Th] and both blinds folded. Alextoon1 won the coinflip, the board finishing [9h][8d][2h][3h][3d] to send sandal1968 home in eighth place.
SvenskTruita stays alive, geramas.G doubles
Short stack SvenskTruita stayed alive by doubling twice, first through aces_up4108 when [Ks][Qd] dominated [Kh][Tc], and later via DafDaf1986 with [Qs][Qh] holding against [Ah][8d].
Geramas.G surged ahead thanks to a lucky flop. Holding [Jc][Jd] vs. M_ad_04M_ax's [As][Ad], geramas.G hit top set when the flop landed [Jh][3d][2s], snapping off pocket aces. Geramas.G slyly checked the flop and M_ad_04M_ax checked back. Geramas.G bet 1.6 million on the [8d] turn and fired another 2.8 million when the [5c] rivered. M_ad_04M_ax raised to 6.4 million and geramas.G called all-in for 2.57 million only to show his opponent the bad news. Geramas.G moved up to second in chips with 17.6 million, just behind DafDaf1986's 18.9 million.
blackaces93 finishes off aces_up4108 in seventh
Left with less than 5 million after doubling up SvenskTruita, aces_up4108 struggled to gain traction. With 4.68 million left at the 250,000/500,000 level, aces_up4108 found pocket eights and open-shoved, only to run into blackaces93's pocket jacks in the big blind. Aces_up4108 did not improve and hit the rail in seventh place, good for $31,676.00.
DafDaf1986 goes from first to sixth
Geramas.G kept the pressure on and ground his way into the chip lead with 19.5 million, surpassing DafDaf1986, who was still close behind with 18.1 million. However, geramas.G took down a 12.3 million pot when he turned kings up against DafDaf1986, leaving him on 12.1 million in chips. Geramas.G moved up to 27.8 million and seized the chip lead.
The blinds rose to 300,000/600,000 and DafDaf1986 slid to 8.3 million before he opened for a min-raise with [As][7d]. Blackaces93 shoved for 8.9 million from the big blind and DafDaf1986 called, only to watch him reveal [Ts][Th]. DafDaf1986 did not improve on the [Ks][6d][6h][Qd][9s] board and was eliminated in sixth place, earning $47,514.00.
Down to only six big blinds, SvenskTruita called all-in with [As][2c] in the big blind when geramas.G made a small blind shove with [Jd][4d]. SvenskTruita's ace-high was good on the [Qh][8s][5c][6c][Th] board and he doubled to 9.67 million.
Only moments later, geramas.G rebounded and then some. With the blidns up to 400,000/800,000, M_ad_04M_ax opened for a min-raise to 1.6 million and geramas.G looked down at [Ac][Ad]. Geramas.G three-bet to 4 million, M_ad_04M_ax shoved for 9.16 million and geramas.G snap-called. M_ad_04M_ax's [Qh][Jh] did not improve and he went out in fifth place, collecting $63,352.00.
Meanwhile, alextoon1 had fallen to only 7.8 million in chips and called all-in from the big blind with [Jh][Td] when blackaces93 made a small blind shove. Blackaces93 was behind with the lowly [Th][6c], but caught a pair of sixes on the turn to end alextoon1's run in fourth place ($79,823.52).
Chop it three ways
As play turned three-handed, blackaces93 led with 39.7 million, geramas.G was a strong second with 30.3 million and SvenskTruita, the shortest stack to start the final table, was still hanging on with 9.2 million.
Blackaces93 took a massive 36.5 million pot off geramas.G when his [Kd][6d] rivered a king-high straight, but geramas.G got it back three hands later when they got their money in on a [Kh][3d][4c] flop. Geramas.G's top pair with [Kd][Qs] hung on vs. blackaces93's OESD with [2c][5s] and he doubled back up to 37.2 million.
Shortly thereafer, SvenskTruita open-shoved for 6.95 million from the small blind and blackaces93 called with [3c][3d] in the big. However, SvenskTruita's [Qd][6d] turned a pair of sixes, good for a double-up to 14.1 million.
At that point, blackaces93 suggested they discuss a potential deal. Both SvenskTruita and geramas.G agreed and the action was paused. Here's a look at how they stacked up:
After final table hose Tyler "frosty012" Frost presented both chip counts and ICM numbers, the final three agreed to a modified ICM chop that awarded an extra $5,000 to chip leader geramas.G. With $20,000 still to play for, cards went back in the air.
geramas.G eliminates blackaces93 in third
Only three hands after the action resumed, blackaces93 four-bet shoved for 26.7 million with [As][Tc] and geramas.G called with [Qs][Qd]. Geramas.G's pocket queens held up on the [Kh][8h][5c][5s][9c] board, busting blackaces93 in third place. Thanks to the deal, blackaces93 departed with $170,164.00, just short of second-place money.
Heads-up chip counts
Seat 2: SvenskTruita (12,621,616 in chips) Seat 9: geramas.G (66,568,384 in chips)
Geramas.G. brought a better-than 5 to 1 chip lead into heads-up play and didn't take long to finish off SvenskTruita. The money went in as soon as both players picked up ace high, geramas.G's [Ac][Th] winning the kicker war against SvenskTruita's [Ah][7c].
Congratulations to Greece's geramas.G on his Sunday Million win! He banked $210,000.00 thanks to the three-way deal. Kudos are also due to SvenskTruita, who came into the final table with 11 big blinds and spun it up into a runner-up finish good for $150,413.32.
After Gary Kaplan, founder of BetOnSports, agreed last week to accept a plea deal from the US government that includes a forfeiture by him of $43.6 million in what is acknowledged as illegitimate gains, officials are giving former members of the online casino a chance to get a refund. Bettors and players at the Internet sports betting website will have first claim on the seized funds.
With supporters far outweighing opponents, the bill regulating California intrastate online gambling seemed a lock to pass. But, with varying interests unable to produce a single viable plan, the proposal to allow instate online poker operators failed to receive a vote in committee, and will probably be left off this year's agenda.
We started out nearly eleven hours ago with 76 hopefuls entering the Casino Canberra poker room in their quest for ANZPT glory. We had previous ANZPT champions, Australian poker legends and several young guns in contention. But after a day full of psychological warfare, we are left with just fifteen men standing.
