The Full Tilt debacle did nothing to make people dislike Russ Hamilton any less...

The results are in.

Last week we polled our readers as to whose WSOP Main Event championship banner should be yanked (if anyone’s). We listed the usual suspects (Russ Hamilton, Chris Ferguson, and Amarillo Slim) as well as leaving an option open for our choice: no one’s banner should be hidden.

Here’s how our readers responded to Which Main Event Winners Should Have Their WSOP Banner Removed?:

• Russ Hamilton – 37.25%
• Chris Ferguson – 30.23%
• Amarillo Slim – 6.5%
• None – 23%

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Let the bidding begin for FS+G assets.

Alternate headline: HPT Overbids for Federated Sports+Gaming Assets

On Tuesday, May 8th, All In Productions (AIP), parent company of Heartland Poker Tour (HPT), submitted a bid to the United States Bankruptcy Court in Maryland to buy back their company.

AIP’s bid for HPT is for a total of $1.5M. According to previous court filings, Federated Sports+Gaming (FS+G) owes HPT approximately $1.9M for not completing its acquisition of the company. The $1.5M bid would basically excuse that debt.

AIP’s bid also included a $100,000 offer to acquire the “good” assets associated with FS+G, the parent company of the failed Epic Poker League. Those assets would potentially include the Global Poker Index, production elements associated with the Epic Poker television show, contracts with partners like the Palms, and roughly 100 Wicked-related domain names.

The bid, obviously, does not include the $7M in debt accrued by FS+G in just over a year.

We spoke with a corporate bankruptcy attorney for a better understanding of the filings. Layman’s terms: In bankruptcy, somebody bids on assets of the company–the bidder can choose which assets and obligations they take on moving forward.

Now that a bid has been submitted, there is a 30-day timetable for said bid to be accepted by the bankruptcy court. However, the 30-days will likely be extended as the Judge assigned to the case establishes timetables and procedure for other entities to submit bids. Those bids have to meet a qualifying criteria (detailed in the attached filings). An auction will eventually take place. All qualifying offers must be in place three days before the auction. Eventually, there is a final sale motion where the judge approves the sale(s) to a bidder(s).

The interesting note here is that had FS+G not filed bankruptcy, control of HPT would’ve returned to AIP anyway. AIP is attempting to get back what they would’ve rightfully received (i.e. control of the company again) since FS+G was unable to fulfill the terms of its HPT acquisition.

Whether anyone else gets in on the bidding remains to be seen. We’ve maintained all along that HPT is the only true valuable asset in FS+G’s portfolio. Any substantial bid would likely be to acquire HPT. The Epic brand is simply too tarnished. They don’t own their SMG platform. There’s just not a lot of meat to the Epic bone.

We reached out to representatives of both HPT and FS+G for comment. Neither has responded yet.

Federated — #92 — Motion to Sell Substantially all of Debtors’ Assets

Federated — #93 — Emergency Motion (A) for Order Establishing Bidding Procedures

Federated – #94 — Motion for Expedite Hearing on Emer Motion for Order

Federated Sports — #95 – Order Denying Motion to Expedite Hearing

Federated Sports — #96 – Motion to Expedite Hearing on Emer Motion for Order Establishing Bidding Procedures

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Dan Harrington deserved better...

It came up on the 2012 World Series of Poker media conference call and has been a topic of conversation since Russ Hamilton and UB super-used $20M+ from its customers: should past Main Event champs who have (allegedly) disgraced the game still have their banners hung in the WSOP tournament area?

There’s been an on-going shuffling of Hamilton’s banner over the years. And while Amarillo Slim (rest in peace) never got the cover-up, some have argued he should have as well.

This year, after the Full Tilt debacle, “some” are arguing that Chris “Jesus” Ferguson‘s mug should be tucked away.

So we’ll put it up for a poll. Whose banner should be removed? Should anyone’s? Have at it.

Editor’s Note: Our take is that all banners should stay up unless the offender did something specific to the WSOP itself.

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Girls on the Rail is expected to be a focal point of conversation on today's WSOP media call.

The 2012 WSOP will hold its media call at 1:30pm PT / 10:30am PT. It’s our one live blog we do each year. Here we go…

10:30:01am – The call did not promptly start at 10:30. Given we’re at least 10 minutes late for every meeting, hard to complain about it.

10:31am – And we’re off!

10:32am – Seth Palansky intros and passes the mic to Ty Stewart. Disappointed that Ty did not begin the call self-anointing himself as Commissioner.

10:33am – Ty says that they’re “not gloating.” Translation: they’re gloating.

10:34am – Ty says that “poker is here to stay.” Also here to stay: The Internet, phrases like “ridic” “obv” and “kewl,” and apparently skinny jeans.

10:37am – Not here to stay–this conference call. Ty dropped for 10 seconds.

10:38am – Jack Effel is in the house. He begins his statement by singing that he’s this.

10:39am – Ok maybe he didn’t do that.

10:42am – Effel running down the new tournaments and events. They’ve also added 90 new tables for side events and tournaments. WSOP/Rio trying to keep as much action in-house as they can (and away from Venetian, Bellagio, etc.) Good for players, good for bottomline. WSOP always finding ways to make some cash.

10:45am – Effel says there will be more table talk allowed. You can say anything you want regarding the contents of your hand so long as you don’t expose yourself your hand. They want people to loosen up more. And there is some loosening up of the excessive celebration rule as well. Hopefully this doesn’t lead to the reemergence of one Barry Paskins. Actually, hopefully it does.

10:50am – That was efficient. Already going to questions. +/- on Gary Wise q’s is 1.5. Oskar Garcia at 2.5. Dan Cypra gets in first and says he “loves this day every day.” Day by day.

10:52am – Ty says that “poker is not a church.” But Scientology is? How’d this happen.

10:57am – Will men be allowed to play in the ladies event? Yes. Oh well.

11:02am – Only the final table will have live streaming. The Tuesday night ratings of the pre-packaged shows took a hit, so the move should help boost those ratings again (as those shows last year we’re essentially an edited re-air). But every hand of the final table will be broadcast.

11:07am – One headline out of 2012 WSOP: Seth jokes that it’s “Jack Effel’s weight loss.” Ty says it’ll be a “$200m total prize pool and record breaking WSOP.”

As long as it’s not, “Terrorists underwear bomb Amazon Room” we’re pretty much OK with anything else.

11:09am – No formal plans to honor Amarillo Slim. See if that sticks.

11:14am – This is funny.

11:20am – WSOP expects the $1M buy-in to reach its 48-person cap. That’ll be a massive first place prize. They’ve already received deposits (though not full amount) for many players.

11:22am – Let’s just say it’s possible we won’t see Chris Ferguson’s banner around.

11:24am – In the clear! WSOP.com does not stand for Wicked Series of Poker. Whew.

11:25am – Love that Kevmath’s phone buzzer keeps going off. The buzzes you hear is poker information and data being directly transferred into the computer database embedded in his brain.

And that’s a wrap…less than a month till the start of the WSOP. Appropriately, the call ended with Ty singing this. For real.

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The WSOP is making its way down under.

On Monday the World Series of Poker, in a partnership with the Crown Casino, announced the launching of the WSOP Asia-Pacific. The latest expansion of the WSOP brand is set to begin in April of 2013 and will offer five bracelet events.

Rumors of the partnership were running rampant earlier this year as WSOP Executive Director Ty Stewart was spotted at the Crown Casino during the Aussie Millions. A few months later, the event is inked and ready to go. Says Ty:

“Our goal is to establish the worldwide grand slam of poker and use our platform to elevate the game through a series of major championships.”

This is, as far as we can remember, the first time the WSOP has discussed establishing a “grand slam of poker.” The grand slam concept is something many high-profile players have expressed interest in for years. How the WSOP attempts to market and pull this off could be challenging–especially since players revere events like the WPT Championship, EPT Grand Final, and the Crown’s own Aussie Millions. However, having a Grand Slam of events is something identifiable with the public and mainstream media and could certainly raise the profile of the game if pulled off properly.

Read more about the WSOP APAC^TM here.

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