The 2012 WSOP is just a few days away. Last year, the WSOP started off with a bang. On the first day of pro play, Phil Ivey issued a statement saying that due...
We’re two weeks out from when news originally broke about PokerStars acquiring Full Tilt Poker. While no officially announcement has come from either PokerStars or Full Tilt regarding the progress of the deal...
Posts tagged as:
Who is going to replace Hellmuth and Duke next week?
Team UB pro Joe Sebok has been doing the media rounds today discussing the departure of Phil Hellmuth and Annie Duke from UB today.
We caught up with him for a brief podcast on why the departures happened, how much of a break UB is making with its past, and where UB is headed in the future (plus who the “big announcement” joining the team could be).
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
{ 3 comments }
So what logo will Phil Hellmuth be wearing during next year's WSOP entrance?
In a move that surprises no one, Phil Hellmuth and UB have announced they are parting ways today.
In a move that surprises some, Annie Duke has announced she’s leaving UB as well.
The timing of the announcements today obviously aren’t a coincidence. UB has a history for releasing big news during dead press times (Exhibit A: super-user list on 9/11), and this is something that must’ve been in the works for awhile between the parties.
Having said that, this feels like a win-win-win for everyone involved. For UB to effectively move from the past, cutting ties with Hellmuth and Duke (and of course, Excapsa) was a must.
And for Hellmuth and Duke to shake the dirt off their shoulders from the UltimateBet super-user scandal and rebuild their reps, leaving UB was a must as well.
UB is moving in a different direction with their team and marketing efforts, building up more of a youth-orientated squad headlined by Eric Baldwin, Adam “Roothlus” Levy, and Maria Ho. We expect this trend and complete remodeling of the team to continue in the near future.
What’s next for Hellmuth and Duke? That’s not as obvious. Although one person who has to be happy about this is Hellmuth’s agent, Brian Balsbaugh at Poker Royalty. Love him or hate him, Hellmuth is the biggest needle mover on TV for poker. A deal with any number of sites (U.S. or non-U.S. facing)– or perhaps some new venture– feels almost inevitable for Hellmuth. The only question is how fast will he be scooped?
Also, if Hellmuth actually does land on Dancing with the Stars and manages to last a few weeks, that would absolutely broaden his appeal to other poker–or more mainstream–sponsors as well.
As for Duke, she’s done a great job positioning herself for more mainstream opportunities, and we could see her expanding past the traditional online poker sponsorship opportunities.
Anyway, it should be an interesting few months for Hellmuth, Duke, and UB.
Expect a podcast with Team UB member Joe Sebok about all of the changes later tonight or tomorrow. We will try to land a podcast with Hellmuth, or his agent Brian Balsbaugh, early next week.
Read Duke’s statement here.
Read Hellmuth’s statement here.
{ 0 comments }
For the most part, standard spinning/damage control, but at least they’re getting out in front of the issue for a change. On the extended online version of the interview, Joe Sebok asked how Paul would respond to people who say that UB/Cereus has lied to people in the past, so they’re probably lying about this latest security issue as well. Leggett responds that he doesn’t “blame people for feeling that way.” He also said that it was “…very unlikely that someone was able to exploit [the security breach].” Probably not the explanation people want (just amazing that after all of the past problems there was yet another breach) but Paul goes on to note that the company refunded $24M to players from the past scandal (last we read it was $22M but maybe that $24M total includes the fines as well)
Watch the above clip for the full interview.
{ 1 comment }
From what we’ve seen of the show (i.e. the above clip, dug up by Pokerati), it’s got that Mike & Mike in the Morning feel, which will be something new for poker TV programming.
Definitely worth a watch on our end. Anyone else tuning in?
{ 1 comment }
Click image to see the 117 usernames released today by the KGC in connection with the UB cheating scandal.
They say if you have bad news, release it on Friday. And if it’s really, really bad, release it on Friday, September 11, late in the day when the Entities are only thinking about shit like who the next Friday Night Parting Shot Girl should be.
With that said, it should come as no surprise that the folks at the Kahnawake Gaming Commission did the latter in waiting to release its final decision with regard to the Ultimate Bet online poker cheating scandal.
The findings are the result of a year long investigation into the scamming of millions of dollars from players allegedly conducted by Russ Hamilton and others at Ultimate Bet from June 2003 up until December 2007. As a result of the investigation Ultimate Bet’s owner Tokwiro Enterprises has been forced to pay $1.5 million in fines and reimburse more than $22 million to the players affected by the cheating.
Most noteworthy from the report is that a total of 31 individuals other than Hamilton (who was already named a year ago) have been identified by the KGC as being associated with the cheating scam, and all names have been turned over to law enforcement authorities (who knows where though). The names have not been released publicly but all 117 usernames are included in the report (click post image to see them all).
Our hunch is that it won’t be long before some others are named publicly, including some known poker pros.
After the jump, some noteworthy nuggets from the 11-page document the KGC released (download PDF here):
{ 10 comments }
Just getting Part II of our podcast up. No poker here. 100% discussing and debating The Walking Dead. We’re joined by an esteemed panel, including Jason Newitt, Dave “F-Train” Behr, Jeff Holsey, and Entities Chops and Colin. If you were a fan of the show, you’ll like the debate. We discuss problems with the show, [...]
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
We recorded a two-parter podcast yesterday. Part I is now live and discusses The Rise and Fall of Ray Bitar WCi feature with its author, Dave “F-Train” Behr. In it, F-Train details the interview process for the feature, as well some conclusions that could be drawn about the man who helped make Full Tilt Poker the [...]
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
LIKE Wicked Chops Poker on Facebook
