With Oliver Tse closing his agency doors, it looks like someone new is stepping in to fill the void.
We’ve been watching Dennis Phillips from media row hanging with Mike Carroll (remember him) and a few others as they carry on discussions with various players remaining in the Main Event.
Naturally, we were like, “What the fuck are those two doing together?”
Turns out Phillips is trying to broker some Poker Stars deals for players. Phillips has gone as far as following players into the bathroom and approaching them for deals. We even overheard him telling Jordan Smith that he wanted to take a picture with him, then tried to talk him out of a deal with another site and with Stars.
Multiple industry sources have said that he’s not just pushing players to Poker Stars as an advocate of the site, but that he is doing so to get a cut or percentage of the deal.
Listen, we’re all for people making an extra dollar, especially in The EconomyTM, but Phillips was the “regular guy” who wanted to stay “above the fray.” And by befriending and directing these people to only one site, he’s limiting the bargaining power those individuals have with other sites to get a better deal.
Looks like Phillips though is quickly making the transition from “poker ambassador” to “poker agent.” And if that’s the case, will we see “Salty” Joe Hachem, Daniel Negreanu, or Phil Ivey brokering deals at next year’s WSOP?
Probably not.
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Event this GOTR can't believe what they're giving away on Stars this weekend...
Poker Stars is running $16.50+R turbo qualifiers all weekend into $320 tourney on June 14 at 20:15 (military time) ET to win a pretty killer WSOP and golfing package. Here’s the details:
As posted last month, Daniel Negreanu is hosting a charity golf event (Daniel’s Big Swing) to benefit the Lili Claire Foundation. The event is a chance to play golf and gamble with Daniel and a bunch of other pros (Erick Lindgren, Bill Edler, Josh Arieh, Gavin Smith, to name a few).
If you win an entry on Stars, you receive: 1) Around a $2-3k entry into Big Swing, all proceeds going to Lili Claire, 2) a $1,500 WSOP seat, 3) $750 in airfare, 4) a hotel room at Planet Hollywood.
RawVegas.tv will be on hand to cover it all, so you might end up being sort of famous via the Internet. Or at least have some proof for your friends that you won some $$$ off pro poker players.
Or if you’re a baller and just want to buy into the charity golf tourney without qualifying, contact Elaine at Poker Royaltyhere. If you go that route, then book your Las Vegas hotel room here.
Sooo…the $320 Poker Stars qualifier is on Sunday, June 14. Find it by searching for tournament ID 170942700. And below is a list of all the $16.50+R turbo sats to the $320 qualifier:
Not pretty: having your online poker winnings frozen upon cash out. Pretty: the Vikki Blows photo shoot here.
This story is officially getting big.
Last week, Pokerati first reported that the Feds had frozen funds from Poker Stars, leaving players unable to cash out their winnings. Later that day, we received an email from a high-stakes Full Tilt player saying he tried to cash out a check, which bounced, and was unable to cash out his winnings as well.
Since then, it has come out that Wells Fargo, Citibank, and two smaller institutions received requests to freeze funds in accounts belonging to payment processors Allied Systems and Account Services.
The total take frozen: $33M.
The irony is that the majority of funds were frozen in California, but the request to freeze them came from the United States attorney for the Southern District of New York, where it is not illegal to place bets. Speculation abounds that this is a last ditch effort by a staunch Republican U.S. Attorney on the way out to make some noise before he’s replaced by President Barack Obama’s new nominee for the job, Preet Bharara. Makes sense, but doesn’t make life easier for those trying to cash out winnings for the WSOP Main Event seats.
For now, read more at the NY Timeshere, NYC Rounders here, and Pokerati here.
* Thanks to Kid Dynamite for the link. How’s that KD.
Aubrey O'Day was in some all-girl R&B group called Dannity Kane that P-Diddy put together, but then she left because she has perfect natural breasts. Actually we have no idea if that's why because what the fuck do we look like, detectives? If only there was some sort of way that one could enter in someone's name somewhere and a bunch of news and bio related information was then returned to you about said person. The day someone invents such a searching device or portal if you will, that individual will probably be a very rich person. Anyway, O'Day seems like a cool chick if you're into potty mouthed girls with morally casual attitudes, so watch the vid below and view NSFW pics of her here.
:: The Poker Beat had a spirited debate on the newsworthyness of the Russ Hamilton ambush video we did last week. We say if you spend over 20 minutes debating if a piece is newsworthy, then yeah, it's probably newsworthy. [link]
:: GoDaddy.com is sponsoring the 2009 NBC National Heads-Up Poker Championship. Rather them spend their money on that than more lame Super Bowl commericals. [link]
:: Poker Stars finds more creative ways to advertise, this time by having "Salty" Joe Hachem, Vanessa Rousso (who went to Duke), and Lorenzo Lamas giving dating tips on the Huffington Post. [link]
:: Mike Matusow sounds like he's ready to go O.J. on Russ Hamilton (go about 6 mins in). [link]
:: Looks like the durrrr challenge is about set to begin. [link]
:: The NHL thinks it's Eh-OK! for their players to be endorsed by dot-net poker sites. [link]
Poker Stars is no longer allowing its players to participate on Poker After Dark.
We received an email to the site today detailing how earlier this week Stars told its sponsored players that they will not be able to play on the popular late night show. The reason: the way Full Tilt Poker, who underwrites the production of Po ker After Dark, markets the show internationally.
While U.S. American broadcasts aren't overtly distinguishable as a Full Tilt production, foreign markets receive a more branded version of the program.
An initial request for a quote from Poker Stars was not returned in time for this post, however we will keep you posted if they do.
Hopefully this doesn't begin a Biggie/Tupac, East Coast/West Coast style fued between the two online poker giants, who have more or less co-existed comfortably for years. Last thing we want is Stars getting capped on the Vegas strip followed by Tilt pumped with a lead salad in LA. Nobody wins in that scenario, guys.
All right, Poker Stars. If you're gonna do these athlete celeb sponsors, let's lay down a couple rules: 1) no gingers (ah-hem), and 2) at least kind of sort of educate them on some poker basics.
Now we all know Canadians basic passions in life go something in order like ice fishing–>curling–>socialism–>Bare Naked Ladies–>hockey. So the entire nation of Canada then probably saw Mats Sundin on Hockey Night in Canada After Hours not able to answer a basic poker question from special call-in guest, Daniel Negreanu.
Go to about 2:30 in the vid. Guess Mats needs to spend more time on PokerVT.
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