Bizarre Poker Disqualification in Atlantic City
In what many poker professionals and media members believe is a first, the chip leader in a major tournament was disqualified at the final table and his chips were removed from play. The bizarre incidents took place during the first event of the World Series of Poker Circuit now running at Caesars in Atlantic City, New Jersey.
Reports of players and spectators who were there, relate a story even more bizarre than the tournament report given here, this release comes from Nolan Dalla, the WSOP Director of Media. The report has been edited to include only the outlandish actions.
8th Place – Next, an odd thing happened when “Karate Mike” Santoro got chopped off the final table under the most unusual circumstances. Committing every poker player’s nightmare blunder, he admittedly misread his hand when four diamonds were on board, and (mistakenly) thought he held the king of diamonds.
7th Place – Don Mercer was one of two North Carolinians at the final table. On what proved to be his last hand, he took a tough beat when his A-J was crushed by the chip leader’s Q-4, resulting in a seventh-place finish. Mercer had A-J suited but Andy Santiago managed to flop two pair – queens over fours.
Then, the real drama began. One of the biggest hands of the tournament unfolded when the eccentric and boisterous Virginian, Lesley Thornburg got tremendously lucky and survived his first all-in of the day. Thornburg, who had been given two warnings for unsportsmanlike behavior on the previous day, pushed everyone’s patience to the limit with a ceaseless display of loud comments and baiting tactics lasting several hours. Nearing disqualification, opponents breathed a temporary sigh of relief when he called an all-in raise by Andy Santiago – holding a totally dominated hand (Thornburg’s A-7 a huge dog versus A-Q). Kaboom! A seven flopped and the Virginian had seized the chip lead with a cavalier display of luck.
6th Place – Just two hands later, Thornburg the new chip leader caught lightening in a bottle once again. He called an all-in bet by Edward “Yank” Sullivan, who had raised all-in pre-flop with 7-7. Thornburg tabled 4-4 and needed help. Wham! A four flopped, and the huge crowd turned a mental backflip. Thornburg ended up making a full house and all poor Yank could do was walk away with a bad beat story.
5th Place – Then, all hell broke loose. Literally. Holding onto a perilous chip lead, Thornburg lost self-control and began jamming chips into the pot with reckless abandon. Warned by tournament officials (repeatedly) to stack his chips properly and obey the rules, Thornburg crossed the final demarcation of everyone’s patience when he shoved half of his stack into the pot and then later announced, “all in.” Fed up with the annoying and confusing antics, officials announced Thornburg’s immediate disqualification.
Thornburg’s chips were removed from play. By default, Andy Santiago had regained the chip lead. Following the ejection, play was considerably more civil with the remaining four players cordially trading chips and conversation back and forth.
As mentioned before, spectators onsite say that Nolan's description in this report is kind if not overly generous to the antics of the disqualified player. One veteran player and sometimes poker writer told me:
"I am surprised he was not tossed out of the building the day before and I am equally surprised that someone didn't deck the obnoxious bastard on several occasions. Hell, I would have taken a poke at him, if the story hadn't been so good."
Bodog Poker Open - The Biggest Tournament in Bodog History
This Sunday, the Bodog Poker Open Main Event, which happens to be the biggest series of poker tournaments that the online poker room has ever held, is starting at 4 p.m. EST. You DO NOT want to miss this one.
This tournament is even more valuable than most since Bodog is throwing an extra $25,000 into the prize pool and awarding the winner with an engraved Omega Speedmaster watch (the first watch on the moon - worn by Buzz Aldrin, and the official watch of all astronauts since) worth well over $4000.
You can buy directly into the Main Event with cash or tournament credits or win your way in through various low-cost satellites which are running all day Saturday and right up until the tournament starts at 4 the next day.
A Reasoned Look at U.S. Poker Regulations
Cindy Skrzycki writes a regular business column for Bloomberg Business News. This article comes from the Washington Post and was issued in a section called "Regulators". Her headline was "Internet Gaming Rules Face Long Odds"
It's not easy making rules for a U.S. law intended to deter illegal Internet gambling by choking off the flow of funds to offshore sites. That's because no one seems to agree on what the law covers.
Officials at the Treasury Department and the Federal Reserve found that out after sifting through more than 200 comments from banks, gamblers, church groups and members of Congress on recommendations for the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006. The basic sentiment was that their Oct. 4 proposal, which depends on financial institution enforcement, won't work.
The outcome will affect 23 million online gamblers, some 2,500 Internet sites and the growth of an industry with an estimated $15 billion in annual global revenue. The law bars financial institutions from processing payments involving Internet gambling -- with the notable exceptions of Indian gaming, state gaming and horse racing.
"If the federal agencies themselves cannot agree on the law, what hope is there that banks can resolve these confounding legal issues?"
the American Bankers Association said in commenting on a conflict between the Treasury and Justice departments on the legality of betting on horses.
The Washington trade group said the suggested rules are more likely to catch its members in a compliance trap than stop profits from illegal gambling from escaping offshore. The proposal says generally that it covers the making of bets on the Internet that already are illegal under state or federal law. It just doesn't spell out those games of chance.
Banks and other financial institutions would have to make a reasonable effort to stop payments to Internet gambling sites through credit cards, checks or electronic funds transfer. The final rule is overdue, as regulators review the flood of comments.
"This is an issue that there is so much interest in that we don't want to rush," said Jennifer Zuccarelli, a spokeswoman for the Treasury Department.
"We are just trying to hear from everyone."
There are a variety of complaints. Gamblers point to what they see as hypocrisy in the proposal. Why hamper Internet gambling, they argue, when states enthusiastically license casinos, and taking long odds on a state lottery ticket is perfectly legal?
Former senator Alfonse D'Amato, a New York Republican representing the Poker Players Alliance in Washington, told the agencies that its constituency should not even be included because poker is a game of skill, not chance.
"What is legal now?"
Joseph Kelly, a professor of business law at the State University of New York College at Buffalo and an expert in online gambling, said in an interview.
"God only knows."
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"If you operate in Antigua and take sports bets from the U.S., you are committing a felony,"
he said. On the other hand, sports betting is allowed in Nevada and some other states.
The legal issue is crucial because of conflicting court decisions, differing state laws and applications of older federal laws. Prosecutors and the horse-racing industry have disagreed since 1978 on whether it's legal to bet on horses across state lines. The law said it
"is not intended to resolve any existing disagreements over the horseracing law."
.
Then-Senate Majority Leader and presidential hopeful Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) pushed the bill through Congress just before it adjourned in 2006.
Almost immediately, big players in the industry such as PartyGaming in Gibraltar, which runs the PartyPoker.com and PartyBingo.com Web sites, pulled out of the U.S. market. They had been successful in blocking similar legislation for almost a decade.
"There was a pretty concerted lobbying effort to keep this from happening,"
Susan Schneider, former head of the Interactive Gaming Council, a trade association in Vancouver, B.C., said in an interview.
Antigua, home to some big online gaming sites, objected through the World Trade Organization to the U.S. crackdown on Internet gambling. The WTO ruled in December that the United States must pay the island nation $21 million for violating trade rules.
The online gambling industry and its suppliers fear that the proposal to place the burden on legitimate payment operators will encourage gambling operators to set up fictitious accounts as a way around any rule.
Republican Sens. John E. Sununu (N.H.) and Pete V. Domenici (N.M.) asked regulators to come up with a list of restricted transactions.
Otherwise, they predicted,
"Risk-averse financial institutions will simply choose to block every transaction" that could resemble gambling, "whether legal or not."
Advocates of regulating, taxing and licensing Internet gambling -- as some European countries have done -- think the United States should appoint a federal commission to study those issues.
In the meantime, Frank Fahrenkopf Jr., president and chief executive of the American Gaming Association, said many privately owned offshore sites continue to let Americans wager, win and lose.
"Money is fungible, and it gets to where it wants to go,"
Fahrenkopf said.
"I don't know of prohibition of anything that ever worked."
Full Tilt Dumps Jonathon Little
It appears that another online site has run into TOS violations and this time it has cost a pro player his sponsorship.
Full Tilt has dropped Jonathon Little from it's team because he allowed his Full Tilt account to be played by other players. In a statement today, a spokesperson said:
"Despite having a great year on the WPT, Jonathan Little is no longer affiliated with Full Tilt Poker. He violated the terms and conditions of Full Tilt Poker by allowing other players to play his account. While we encourage our pros to play as much as they can, we do not allow them to share their account with any other players.
When a player on Full Tilt Poker plays against and chats with a red pro on the site, it is imperative that they be able to trust that it is really the advertised pro playing the account. Given that Mr. Little violated that trust, we have decided to sever his ties to the site, and close his account.
Full Tilt Poker values the trust of its players and will deal with any violation of that trust swiftly. We apologize to any of our players who may have been misled during the past few months by Mr. Little's actions."
When will they ever learn? I mean the poker sites not the poker youth; why do you think they are called 'internet whiz KIDS'.
Flipchip Photo Gallery 2008 Heads-Up Tournament
Orel Hershiser was all the talk at this year's NBC National Heads-Up Poker Tournament just completed at Caesars Palace Las Vegas. Gathering a crowd of admiriing fans where ever he roamed the baseball legend brought along his portable trophy case to the tables. He had each of the three opponents he defeated - Ted Forrest, Allen Cunningham, Freddy Deeb - sign a baseball that was proudly displayed and probably served as an intimidation factor. Unfortunately for Orel, the past performance display didn't affect Andy Bloch in match 4 as he took all of the chips and the win. Andy also received a baseball signed by Hershiser.
Flipchip offers some of his favorite photos from the three days of big time poker entertainment. You can catch all the action in the seven part mini-series scheduled for seven consecutive Sundays beginning in April on the NBC Television Network. Check your local TV listings for times and dates.
More photo after the jump...
Israel to Block Poker Sites
We have all heard a phrase that goes something like: "Hold'em is a game that takes a moment to learn and a lifetime to master." Or something similar to that. Well here is a new one for Poker in the Twenty-First Century:
"Internet Poker a moment to learn and a million years to regulate by every dumbass bureaucrat with half-a-brain and a moral compass made out of silly putty."
I must say the proposed Israeli solution, which is rumored to have no chance to pass the High Court of Israel, but I must say this new solution is not all that bad an idea. The proposed law unfortunately lumps poker in with pornography and "violence websites" but the idea is that they all will be blocked from any internet connection in all of Israel. However, one phone call will allow you to access any blocked site. In this way, the children are protected.
Its certainly better than an outright ban. And it really doesn't seem like much of a burden to make a call and say: "Give me naked fat chicks!" Opps! I mean: "I want my online poker please."
Whether it passes or not, this latest proposal will go into the ever growing ledger of Internet prohibition proposals by politicians who hate to allow citizens to actually exercise personal freedom. Chalk up a venial human rights sin for the Israelis.
Chris Jesus Ferguson Claims Heads-Up Championship
Third time's the charm for professional poker player Chris "Jesus" Ferguson. Sunday evening was the third time he has sat at a final table in the NBC Heads-Up National Poker Championship facing a single opponent championship. Ferguson finished second to Phil Hellmuth in 2005 and repeated a second place finish to Ted Forrest in 2006; but, this night belonged to the most recognizable player in all of poker.
Ferguson quickly found himself behind after Andy Bloch grabbed the lead in the best two out of three format by winning the first match. The second match saw the two players pushing chips back and forth across the felt and once again Bloch begin to take a small chip lead. Finally, Ferguson began to catch and doubled through to take the lead. The momentum moved to Ferguson's side of the table when he pushed all of his chips into the middle with pocket Queens and after much deliberation Andy called with K-3o. The flop brought out another Queen for a set and the turn produced the case Queen for quads. The match was tied at one all.
Lady Luck continued to ride with "Jesus" in the rubber match and he chipped away Andy's stacks, finally putting him all in. Ferguson showed pocket Jacks to Bloch's suited 10-4. Bloch received no help from the board and Chris Ferguson claimed the championship and the half million dollars. Andy Bloch carted away a quarter million for his second place finish.
UK Poker Update
Last year when the United Kingdom announced it's "White List" regulations, I actually thought this might be a step forward for online poker. Rather then ban online poker ("Black List"), the UK decided to approve gaming companies based on where they operate. As long as there is and was going to be governmental regulation this seemed like a step forward. Let's review how the UK White List laws have gone so far.
The 2005 U.K. Gambling Act, which was passed and enacted in September of 2007 all gaming locations will be subject to the licensing conditions of one regulatory body. The Gambling Commission now grants licenses to British based gaming operators (if you operate inside the White List zones) who conform to its requirements regarding fair play, security, as well as information regarding help lines and support centers.
One good improvement for live play is that no longer is membership required at casinos, you can walk into a poker room and play the same day. In the past the two day waiting period has meant many first time foreign players could not play in major poker tournaments in the UK, being unaware of the "membership" laws.
The new regulations include the ability for poker rooms and poker online sites to advertise on television and radio. All of this advertising is limited to late night and will be required to carry information of gambling help lines and, of course for online, be in compliance with the White List geographic regulations. If your server is not in a White Zone geographically, you cannot run advertising.
But it appears the online sites have been ignoring the laws and simply choosing not to take advantage of the new advertising rights but continuing to play on. Fewer than 20 online offshore sites have chosen to register with the Gaming Commission preferring instead to remain outside their regulation and control. Fears of increasing control and even taxation have kept many operators from becoming White List members. In addition, the expansion of the geographic limitations of the List to areas like Antigua has been met with a series of problems, none of which seems to have a clear or specific regultory explanation.
So some online sites are avoiding the White List opportunity and others are attempting to comply only to be turned away without uniform statutory explanations. Thus far the White List appears to be a different sort of law but the "White " in White List may not be all that much better for poker websites than the "Black" in Black List.
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