Wicked Chops Poker Insider

  • Jeffrey Pollack Isn’t Dead in Poker?

    (alternate headline: It’s Time to Short William Hill Stock) After Federated Sports+Gaming crashed and burned more spectacularly than any company in poker history, many wondered if Jeffrey Pollack, Annie Duke, and others would...

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Full Tilt Poker

Ray Bitar Will Plead Guilty, Ironically Needs A New Heart


Ray Bitar needs a new heart. Wait, Ray Bitar had a heart?

Ray Bitar needs a new heart. Wait, Ray Bitar had a heart?

Ok ok ok. We won’t make light of this. The man doesn’t deserve physical harm or misery. But seriously.

On Monday it was announced that former Full Tilt stooge CEO Ray Bitar would plead guilty to his criminal charges after striking a deal with the U.S. government.

In an odd twist, Bitar, who many believe at a minimum had no soul, needs a new heart. Say Bitar’s lawyer to the WSJ:

“It’s a very unusual situation. We’ve been able to work out something with the government that takes into account the unique circumstances. We appreciate the government’s courtesy in this regard.”

Additionally, Bitar asked for no “incarceration” as part of the deal, because, well, why the fuck wouldn’t he.

As we argued on Rich Muny’s Poker Advocacy podcast on Monday (here), assuming Bitar survives the transplant (he’s supposedly 50/50 to do so), then the man needs to serve jail time. No way around it. No matter if he cedes over $40M in assets (as has been vaguely reported) or not.

While Bitar hasn’t quite yet entered the Tyson Zone, he’s getting close.

Read more about Bitar’s guilty plea here.

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Poll Results: Lederer and Ferguson Should Be In Jail


Lock 'em up and throw away the key.

Lock ‘em up and throw away the key.

The results are in, and you’re out for blood.

Earlier in the week we polled our readers: were Howard Lederer and Chris Jesus Ferguson‘s settlements fair? Should one or both of them been sent to the slammer?

Over 68% of you thought that both Lederer and Ferguson should be serving time. That far out-paced the second largest vote getter: neither should be doing time and we’re assholes for suggested they should (thanks, 14% of people who must hate-read WCP).

Can’t say the results are shocking, although we expected more in the “only Lederer should be in jail” camp.

New poll coming next week, maybe.

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Poll: Should Ferguson and Lederer’s Punishment Been More Harsh?


Can someone photoshop those bricks from his hands?

Can someone photoshop those bricks from his hands?

With the recent settlement of Chris Ferguson (we refuse to call him Jesus, as should the rest of the poker community) and the U.S. American Government (read more about it here), the ugliest chapter in online poker history (to date) has more or less come to a close. And that begs the question: did Howard Lederer and Chris Ferguson get off easy?

The topic was discussed on the Wicked Chops & Gavin podcast last week, and we’ve heard lots of feedback from industry friends on our take. So we’re putting it out to the people.

To recap, both Lederer and Ferguson avoided a second of jail time. They both paid fines. Ferguson can feasibly work for any legal U.S. online poker entity today if he wanted to (i.e. Caesars, Ultimate Poker, etc.). Lederer can’t get a similar job until after online poker is legalized in the U.S. Read more about the settlements and differences here.

So what do you think? Vote below, results posted at end of the week.


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Full Tilt Poker Relaunches, All Is Forgiven



After 18 long, often absurd months, Full Tilt Poker relaunched today.

As (we) expected, the poker public has been pretty forgiving of the site. According to PokerScout, at post-time (midnight Tuesday), Tilt has just over 5,000 players and peaked at 14,773 for the day.

At those numbers, Tilt is already re-established as the number 2 poker site in the world.

So all is forgiven.

Next up: U.S. Americans getting their money back.

Tilt basically appears to be a slimmed down version of its old self. Gone is the bloat of over 220 sponsored pros (to date, only Gus Hansen and Tom ‘durrrr’ Dwan of the old guard remain, and Viktor ‘isildur1′ Blom has joined the team). Gone is 1/2 of the liquidity base (i.e. U.S. Americans). Gone are the awesome commercials (as witnessed by the less-than-awesome spot above).

But hey, Tilt is back. It may not be better than ever, but certainly it’s better than nothing.

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Full Tilt Poker Set to Relaunch November 6th; Isle of Man Grants License


It’s the new face of Full Tilt Poker.

Well that didn’t take long.

Oh wait, yes it did.

Approximately math math math 17 MONTHS after the AGCC revoked its gaming license, Full Tilt Poker is finally set to relaunch. The site will be live again on November 6th, 2012.

According to Poker News:

On Tuesday, the Rational Group announced that Full Tilt Poker has been granted a license by the Isle of Man Gambling Supervision Commission (GSC), allowing the company to provide online poker services from the Isle of Man. The Rational Group, which operates PokerStars and , acquired the assets of Full Tilt Poker in August and will relaunch Full Tilt Poker on Nov. 6 and repay its non-U.S. customers $184 million.

So what will the new Full Tilt look like? Well, it’ll have Gus Hansen as the face of the site. Whether any other pros are resigned as endorsers, or if any of the old nosebleed action comes back (isildur1 anyone?) remains to be seen.

Read more about the relaunch here.

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