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Alyssa Miller Brings You Today’s Poker News Link Dump

by Wicked Chops Entity on 9.19.2011 in Poker News | no comments

Alyssa Miller is one of around 6 billion people who still can't play on Full Tilt Poker while wearing lingerie. It's a crying shame.

We’ve been light on content as we’re busy gearing up for the launch of Wicked Chops Insider next week. So let’s catch up with a poker news link dump.

:: Full Tilt Poker had their hearing with the AGCC today. So far, nothing to see here. [link]

:: In other FTP news, the Hendon Mob has severed their exclusive relationship with the company. [link]

:: In semi-related FTP news, PokerStars may be introducing their own rush poker. [link]

:: In semi-related Stars news, their Radio WCOOP has been crushing it. [link]

:: In totally unrelated Tilt or Stars news, Terrance Chan won a MMA fight. [link]

:: In related MMA news, get your MMA news and betting advice at MMA Fix. [link]

:: Will Failla continues his heater at the Partouche Poker Tour. [link]

:: And in other tournament news, the WPT brings in some record numbers at the Borgata Poker Open. [link]

More Alyssa Miller pics in the gallery.

Tagged as: Alyssa Miller, Full Tilt Poker, Poker News, PokerStars

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Top Poker Sites: Largest Rooms Post Black-Friday

by Wicked Chops Entity on 9.15.2011 in Poker News | no comments

Overlooked fall-out from Black Friday: no more Joanna Krupa on the NAPT.

Today is the five month mark since Why’s-It-Gotta-Be-Black Friday.

Crazy–just five months ago, even with a myriad of payment processing issues– Full Tilt Poker and UltimateBet were unbelievably profitable entities. Now, gone.

With that in mind, here’s a look at the top 10 poker sites (by active players) in the world today.

Stats via PokerScout:


Just outside the Top 10 are U.S.-facing sites Merge (12th – 1,080 active weekly average), Bodog (13th – 1,000 active weekly average), and Cake (18th – 730 active weekly average).

Looking back at the week that was 4/15–Merge was already experiencing a massive year-over-year surge (up 333%) as was 888 (58%).

Cake Poker (down 69% the week of 4/11 year-over-year) and PartyPoker (down 22%) were getting kicked in the nuts. But they’ve both seen obvious gains since 4/15 with the top losers being (obviously) Full Tilt (down 100%) and UB (down 97%).

Tagged as: Black Friday, Full Tilt Poker, Poker News, PokerStars, UltimateBet

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PokerStars Dumps Dennis Phillips, Other U.S. Sponsored Pros

by Wicked Chops Entity on 9.6.2011 in Poker News | no comments

4/15 claims yet another victim.

Some things in life are inevitable: death, taxes, no more blowjobs once you get married…

And in the poker word, it was inevitable post-4/15 that the major U.S.-facing sites were going to start trimming their U.S.-based rosters.

While Full Tilt more or less accomplished this by shutting down their site completely this summer, it appears PokerStars took a more measured approach.

Over the past week, Stars began trimming its U.S.-based Team Pro roster (view here), releasing two-time WSOP  Main Event champ and all-around good guy Dennis Phillips, as well as Tom McEvoy and Bill Chen.

Phillips as a two-time WSOP Main Event winner is the most high-profile of the group. An absolute fan favorite, Phillips was an underrated no limit hold’em tournament player as well as aspiring agent.

McEvoy was an actual WSOP Main Event champ back in 1982 and likely Poker Hall of Famer (potentially this year).

Bill Chen…he…well, he seems like a nice guy?

Expect the sponsorship belts to continue to tighten for all but the A-list U.S.-based pros in general over the next year, including a massive purging if Full Tilt ever does become operational again.

Tagged as: Dennis Phillips, featured, Poker News, PokerStars

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The New Poker World Order

by Wicked Chops Entity on 4.17.2011 in Poker News | 30 comments

When the DoJ indicted leadership at the Big 3 domestic online poker operators for violating the UIGEA, money laundering, and bank fraud on what is being called Black FridayTM (why’s it gotta be black?), an entire economic ecosystem was essentially wiped out, just like that.

The A-Bomb was dropped. And as a few days have now passed, we’ve assessed the damage.

Grab a cup of coffee and block out some time, here’s our take on the New Poker World OrderTM.

Black Friday = Reid Bill (-Indictments)

First, revisit your notes from the Reid BillTM. This freeze-out may be a little chillier than it would’ve been had Senator Harry Reid not backed off his bill in December to regulate online poker, but the principles are the same. There won’t be online poker in the U.S. for some time, but legislative branches across the country have been working quickly in 2011 to change that. Maybe they move more quickly now, maybe they don’t. We don’t know. But if Caesars and MGM really need Harry Reid to make good on getting him re-elected, now would be the time to apply some pressure.

Simply put, we’ll see what kind of juice Caesars/MGM/et. al. really have now.

For the industry, there really isn’t much time to mope, it’s just time to move on. At the end of the day, the SDNY put together about as solid as a case as they could. Read the indictments. It’s all there. And notice who they left off. And notice when they unsealed the indictments (Friday afternoon). SDNY is putting faceless people (to the mass public) to these crimes so there will be no outcry about it. They did this towards the end of the weekly news cycle so it didn’t get much mainstream coverage. They know what they’re doing.

We agree with Bill Rini’s take, the UIGEA counts are somewhat secondary. They’ve apparently got the Big 3 U.S. operators on money laundering and bank fraud. That’s all they need. Settlements will be made. A few people will do real time. And the rest of the industry will scramble to pick up the pieces.

Who lost the most? Who stands to gain the most? As always, here’s our Winners & Losers.

[click to continue…]

Tagged as: DOJ, featured, Full Tilt, Online Poker, Poker News, PokerStars

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DOJ Indicts Top Online Poker Sites

by Wicked Chops Entity on 4.15.2011 in Poker News | 16 comments

Wow.

As one industry insider put it, “Today is D-day.”

From MarketWatch:

Federal authorities unsealed an indictment Friday against the founders of the three largest internet poker companies operating in the U.S. The indictment charges eleven defendants, including the founders of PokerStars, Full Tilt Poker, and Absolute Poker, with bank fraud, money laundering, and illegal gambling offenses, according to Federal authorities in New York. Restraining orders were issued against more than 75 bank accounts used by the poker companies and their payment processors, while five Internet domain names used by the companies to host poker games were seized, federal authorities added in a statement.

Read the DOJ indictment here.

In total, there are nine counts, including: Conspiracy to violate UIGEA; Violation of UIGEA; Operation of Illegal Gambling Business; Conspiracy to Commit Bank and Wire Fraud; Money Laundering Conspiracy.

Developing…

Tagged as: DOJ, featured, Full Tilt, Online Poker, Poker News, PokerStars, UB

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