Love Nuke

Names of few famous celebrities where making headlines last week for their alleged involvement in an illegal celebrity poker tournament. The name which was most dragged into the whole issue was Tobey Maguire who is facing lawsuit for his connections with former hedge fund manager Brad Ruderman. Apart from Tobey other celebrity names that were associated include Ben Affleck, Leonardo DiCaprio, and Matt Damon though none of them are facing any legal issues surrounding the controversy. The game, run by convicted con man and former hedge fund manager Brad Ruderman, attract a fairly well-heeled clientele of the Hollywood elite.

Tobey Maguire, star of the Spider-Man films, has hired a lawyer to argue that the poker gameisn’t illegal, as he’s being sued in connection with them and a $300,000 debt that was paid off with money Ruderman took from investors.

Reports now indicate that cocaine and hookers were also present at the games, with inside sources saying that

“It was known to a handful of us that one player would keep two hookers down the hall of the hotel in another room. He would disappear for 30-minutes at a time, leaving the main players in the game frustrated. In reality, he was getting to do blow (in a room with) two hookers.”

How Maguire plans to argue that a poker game run by a convicted con artist(a game in which Maguire himself is reported to have been winning over a million dollars a month in) ought to be interesting. But even more interesting than that is the unknown identity of the “one player”. No indication yet on who that might be, but it will probably be very newsworthy when it gets out, as it almost certainly will.

Since Black Friday, online poker in the United States has never seen worse days, even after the UIGEA came into force in 2006 and the biggest poker site in the United States PartyPoker, withdrew from the U.S. market. Player poker online casual all levels of the chain for high stakes online pros and everything had to adapt to life with fewer poker sites in the United States.

Online poker pros who live in the U.S. and earned a living playing poker online now in financial difficulties, especially when a large portion of their portfolio and if some are still linked to the seizure of their online poker account. After moving to Europe, as difficult as it seems.

Such an online poker pro Brian Mogelefsky, who had left the family in North Carolina after being forced to close its mortgage business because of the national financial crisis, it is now facing another crisis, as its sole means of income Poker Online is annihilated by the Government of the United States.

Head of the Poker Players Alliance John Pappas says that Mogelefsky’s story is not rare, as 50,000 online poker players who made a living playing online poker are now out of work since Black Friday when Poker Stars, Full Tilt Poker, and Absolute Poker were all shut down to US players. Now this sector of the US public has now joined the unemployed Americans group.

Some players whose cash is tied up in an account at one of these online poker sites that no longer accepts US players may or may not get their money back. If they had a Poker Stars account, their chances are better, as Poker Stars has paid out some players; therefore, it seems likely they will continue to make pay outs.

It may be months if ever before Full Tilt or Absolute pays back any of their former US players. Most have already accepted the fact that their money is gone.

Given the state of affairs in the U.S. market for online poker, professional poker players to leave their jobs, their businesses have closed, and depended on their revenue base online poker now face bleak financial times and is a new way of doing so month, whether to return to his original career or find new ones.

Small-screen stars of the big screen in competition at the home of the best poker Foundation Celebrity Poker Tournament Casino Royale. Celebrities, and honestly did quite well.

Professional poker player Annie Duke has been a fan favorite, but the winner WSOP not get to the final table with “American Pie” star Shannon Elizabeth and “Off the Map” actor Nicholas Gonzalez.

But the true stars of the show were the two charities that benefited from the event, SPCALA and the I’m Too Young For This Cancer Foundation—well and of course Corey Feldman.

According to H.O.M.E., the Celebrity Casino Royale poker tournament was a success and the foundation is now well “on its way” to reaching its $200,000 fundraising goal for the two non-profits.

Congrats on a successful event!

Photos below are Shannon Elizabeth, Nicholas Gonzalez, Tiffany Michelle, Maria Ho, The Miz, Carl Weathers, Michael Gladis, Josh Henderson, Annie Duke, and Alexis Bellino.

Laci Sopeland likes to thank all the volunteers who contributed to the third annual Lorraine Cline Memorial Poker Ride a great success.

“A big thank you to the family Cline Ranch in the OC bar,” he said. “It’s been a great day for many wonderful people and their families. We hope you all come back next year.”

A record number 205 poker hands were sold, but Sopeland says the number who went along just for the ride was much larger because it included some 18-years-of-age and under entrants prohibited from purchasing hands.

All proceeds from the ride will benefit local cancer victims and their families.

The Poker winners were: first, Shannon Hounshell, Payson, $300 payout and she donated $100 back; second, Jeremy Wilson, Globe, $200 payout and he donated $100 back; third, Denise Bishop, Phoenix, $100 payout and she donated it all back.

Softball stats

The official statistics from the Lady Longhorns’ 3-2 state opening round loss to Santa Cruz are in and they show that freshman Devann Runzo turned in a sterling pitching performance, giving up just one base hit, a single.

Offensively, the Horns pounded out seven hits and were led by senior Rylee Halenar who was 2-for-4.

Kaitlyn Wessel slugged a triple, Natalie Black had two singles and Taylor Petersen and Runzo each singled.

Petersen and Black each drove in a run.

Golf continues at PGC

Jan Parsons is touting the fun, camaraderie and skill enhancement that beginning women golfers can enjoy during the “Drive, Wine and Dine” nights and also the healthy competition that traditionally highlights the Wednesday Businessmen’s Twilight golf play.

The Drive, Wine and Dine events, which are priced $15 for each night, will be held at 5 p.m., May 17 and May 24.

Parsons says the sessions are designed to “teach golf basics, practice what you learn, eat, drink and socialize.”

She says the sessions are also for ladies who want to learn to play golf as well as those who are beginning golfers.

The weekly businessmen’s twilight league plays at 5 p.m. each Wednesday at PGC.

The fee is $25, which includes nine holes of golf, prize money and dinner catered by Teri’s Good Stuff.

Little League golf benefit

Payson Little League is hosting its annual benefit golf tournament on May 21 at Payson Golf Course.

The four-man scramble tees off at 8:30 a.m. with a shotgun start. The entry fee is $65 per player and is tax deductible.

The fee includes 18 holes of play, cart, catered lunch, prizes and contests.

Among the contests will be closest to the pin, longest drive and a “Las Vegas hole” where players can wager on whether they can slap a tee shot into a pre-drawn circle.

Also, Little League is in need of whole, prize and team sponsors.

Tournament co-director Duane Kaufman said the program of the Little League local desperately dependent on the funds earned in the annual tournament and invites all golfers to submit in support of Rim Country adolescents.

All poker fans must be familiar with the guy, behind the WSOP – World Series of Poker; yeah I am referring to Jeffrey Pollack. Jeffrey Pollack has rolled out new poker league for poker celebs only., solely for poker celebrities and poker pros.

Well it was often preached by him that poker could be anyone’s game. He used to tell that one should always remember that if you have got the poker skills into you, you’ve got that potential to make millions out of nothing. Now, however, he’s changing his tune. No fish allowed!

Pollack is launching a pro league aimed at showcasing poker’s biggest names including Phil Hellmuth, Scotty Nguyen, Vanessa Selbst, Chris Ferguson, Phil Ivey and Daniel Negrenu. However, it’s not just poker celebrities that are going to be the stars of Pollack’s league. He is basing his league off of overall consistent winnings and cashes, which leaves out 2006 WSOP winner Jamie Gold. After Gold’s $12 million win, he struggled to earn cashes in the poker circuit.

“I think I coined, ‘Anyone can enter; anyone can win,’ ” says Pollack. “… That’s great, and that’s the mantra for every other poker tournament. …This is about celebrating the best live event tournament players in the world.”

The eligibility rules were set by poker pro Annie Duke, who will not be among the pros in the league, but will serve as commissioner.

“It’s not that I’m happy about giving up poker (in the league). It’s that I would make the trade in order to be able to be able to execute this concept. It’s something that I’ve wanted to do,” Duke said. “We put a lot of thought into it just thinking about what it is that would define one of the best live tournament players in the world.”

Players who meet the criteria will be given cards for the first season were announced, with cards awarded based on major titles, and cashes. Players have to have had a lifetime achievement of wins and to have won since 2008.

“We wanted to make sure that we were grabbing the best of the best today,” Duke said.

Therefore, also ineligible is Chris Moneymaker, whose 2003 WSOP win helped to reinvent the poker industry.

Duke acknowledges Moneymaker’s contribution to the poker world, however, adding, Moneymaker is “on the bubble.” The list will be updated after Aug. 1 following this year’s WSOP Main Event.

In this poker league there is a buy-in of $20K and it is going to be held at the Palms Hotel and casino. There will be four “Main Events” held in August, September, December and February. The top 27 players advance to the championship Feb. 13-14 where contenders will vie for the $2.6 million in prize money. At present, there are all in all 218 players with tour cards. Well we cannot be a part of it but off course we can keep an eye on updates..!

The largest global brand in Paris, Bodog, began his series of 2011 World Series of Poker qualifiers. The Texas Hold’em poker players are invited to participate in multiple tournaments with the possibility of obtaining a seat for the start of the WSOP Main Event on July 7 in Las Vegas.

For as little as $1, players can enter Bodog Poker qualifying tournaments to be in with a chance of heading to Las Vegas, playing poker in the $9,000,000 Main Event and, of course, attending the legendary Bodog parties.

“Bodog has a long history of sending player to the WSOP and we would love another of our players to take a bracelet in 2011,” says Bodog Poker Manager Nicholas Sims. “Most poker players dream of ending up in Vegas partying, with a WSOP bracelet, not to mention the millions of dollars that can be won at WSOP.”

If you think you can’t, think again. Each Bodog poker player to participate in a qualifying tournament is 1 in 25 chance of winning a seat in the WSOP. But that’s not all, all players also benefit from custom Bodog poker experience at home.

Bill that would legalize Internet poker Iowa state seems to have little or no chance of passing in its current form, making Iowa the last to reject state laws regulating gambling line.

However, calculations can be definitively dead. Instead of calculating Likely to edit the report calls rather than gambling on the Internet from Iowa Racing and Gaming Commission, which could give tips on how to improve the bill, and how it might affect the current state of the gaming industry gambling.

According to supporters of the bill, somewhere around 150,000 Iowans currently play online poker for real money. If the state were able to regulate online poker and keep that play on an in-state network, it is estimated that such a site could generate as much as $30 million in new tax revenue for Iowa each year.

The Iowa bill was less expensive and more focused than bills in other states, such as the one that was eventually vetoed by Governor Chris Christie in New Jersey. The bill would only have regulated online poker, without legalizing other Internet casino games. As with most bills proposed at the state-level, the legislation would only have legalized intrastate poker, meaning Iowans would only be able to play against each other.

However, opposition to the bill was strong from the moment it was proposed. Some Iowa legislators opposed the further expansion of gambling in the state on moral grounds, either opposing to gambling in general, or fearing those minors and those with gambling addictions would be able to gamble more easily if it were available online. Others were more concerned with how the proposed online poker room would affect Iowa’s existing casinos, especially if the legislation were later expanded to include other casino games.

Iowa is just one of many states considering online gambling as a means of increasing tax revenue. Other states are considering legislation such as Florida, New Jersey, Nevada, Hawaii and California.

Meet Jessica Cupini. She’s a senior at West Virginia University, pursuing an MDS degree while working and raising her son with aspirations of attending law school.

In a few weeks, she will have the chance to be a millionaire.

Cupini will make her national TV debut playing against celebrities and professional poker players as part of the “PokerStars.net Million Dollar Challenge” Sunday at 4:30 p.m. on FOX.

“It’s completely surreal,” she said. “You look at all these tournaments every day, and you think ‘that will never happen to me.’ I’ve been playing on that site for years, and I’ve seen others do it, and I never thought it would happen to me.”

Cupini was able to audition for the million-dollar competition after entering the Top 10 on the website.

From there, she was able to film an audition video followed by follow-up interviews.

“I loved everything about Jessica,” said Jessica Cummis, casting director for the Challenge. “Her energy, her attitude, her fun nature, her excitement, her obvious love for the game of poker. It really came through in her video and her interview.”

Cupini said she first started playing poker when she was in high school, learning on the very same website.

Despite making the leap from competing online to playing directly opposite professional poker players and “Dancing with the Stars” co-host Brooke Burke, Cupini kept her calm.

“With my personality, I’m really outgoing,” Cupini said. “I love to be the center of attention. I wasn’t intimidated at all. The stars were all really nice; the professional poker players were great. Everyone made me feel really comfortable.”

That attitude helped her land the spot on the show, according to producers.

“Jessica proved on PokerStars.net that she was an excellent poker player, then it came down to how she would come across on TV,” said Mark Mayer, executive producer of the Challenge. “What really set her apart was her personality and her story. She’s smart, fun, has a great smile and a wonderful sense of humor. She was just a pleasure to be around. Plus, we loved her ambition and what she wanted to accomplish if she wins the grand prize. Jessica is a perfect fit for the show and a great contestant.”

Despite never competing alongside players who made their name in high-stakes games, Cupini was able to keep focused and play her game.

“You always want to play your best game against the celebrities and show them up,” she said. “I was definitely on my A-game the whole time and was very focused. I played my best game and played with the cards that were dealt to me.”

If Cupini wins in Sunday’s competition, she will win a free trip to the Bahamas. Should she advance further, she has the chance to play for $25,000, $100,000 and eventually $1 million.

Despite the potential to win big money, Cupini wants to stay grounded.

“No matter how much I won or didn’t win, I’d definitely still want to try to get into law school,” she said. “I’d definitely want to buy a car, but most importantly, I want to contribute to my son’s college fund. He is 14 months old now, so I need to start saving, because I know how expensive it is.”

It was the first of many busy days at the Rio on Saturday for the 41st Annual World Series of Poker. Hoai Pham won the first bracelet of the WSOP, the first $1,000 buy-in no-limit hold’s event attracted 2601 players, and Kirk Morrison leads the $50,000 Players Championship.

Event #1: $500 Casino Employees Event

When day 2 of the first WSOP event of the year began on Friday, 53 of the original 721 players were still in the hunt, but when the long day was over, it was Hoai Pham who was crowned the champion earning himself $71,424.

Pham, a dealer from San Diego, traveled to Las Vegas specifically for this event, and after playing only 12 heads-up hands with his opponent Arthur Vea, found himself in a dominating position on a  flop holding . Vea checked the flop to Pham who moved all in. Vea mustered up a call holding  and was unable to get any help.

After the tournament, Pham, the newest WSOP bracelet winner, told reporters, “This is magical.” He will be presented his bracelet at 2 p.m. in the Pavillion Room, and he has asked that the Vietnamese National Anthem be played.

Event #2: $50,000 Player’s Championship

With only six players eliminated from the Player’s Championship, day 2 would certainly be the first day of considerable action at the Rio on Saturday. Kirk Morrison, who seems to disappear from the game of poker completely from time to time was certainly noticed in this event ending the day with 741,000 chips.

Morrison took the lead for the first time in an Omaha hi-lo hand about midway through the day. The board read  when Morrison bet. Ralph Perry called and Justin Smith check-raised. Both Morrison and Perry called, and they all saw the  hit the river. Smith led out betting this time, but Morrison raised, prompting a fold from Perry. Smith made the call only to see Morrison scoop the pot with .

Andy Bloch, the runner-up of the inaugural $50,000 H.O.R.S.E. event sits second with 716,500, and he is followed by Mikael Thhuritz, Nick Schulman, Robert Mizrachi, Daniel Alaei and Brett Richey who round out the top eight. Team PokerStars prosNoah Boeken, George Lind, and Barry Greenstein are all still in the hunt, although Greenstein and Lind are both severely short-stacked.

Event #3: 1,000 no-limit hold’em

Last year’s $1,000 stimulus event was such a success that the WSOP has added a number of these small buy-in events, with this one being the first. When registration finally closed after two hours, 2,601 players plopped down the cash to play, and with day 1B starting Sunday, this event is looking to easily finish up with 6,000 total players.

When the day closed early on Sunday morning, only 276 players were left, all led by Terry Fleischer who bagged 119,300 in chips. He is followed by Nancy Todd Tyner, Jerrymee Jose, Drew Crawford and Anders Taylor.

Notables still In contention for the WSOP bracelet are Amarillo Slim Preston, Tommy Vedes, Blair Hinkle, Jonathan Little, Allie Prescott, Jon Friedberg, and Team PokerStars Pro Vanessa Rousso, who ended the day with about 26,000.

Rousso told her table early in the day that she was running the best she ever has after showing her flopped boat holding  on a  board, but then got unlucky a few hours later when the board made a better hand than both Rousso’s aces and her opponents’ jacks. They had gotten in all in preflop, and the board rolled out .

The highly anticipated “PokerStars Big Game” began taping last week and is set to air across the United States beginning on Monday, June 14th. The one-hour show will air five nights a week on FOX affiliates and feature five of the biggest high-stakes poker players in the world and one PokerStars qualifier competing against each other in a cash game format. Air times will range between 1:00am and 2:00am.

The “Big Game” will stage a $200/$400 No Limit Hold’em game with a $100 ante, with each player buying in for a minimum of $100,000 and a maximum of a $500,000. No official announcement has been about the lineup of players, but Team PokerStars Pro membersDaniel Negreanu, Vanessa Rousso, and Barry Greenstein, as well as Phil Hellmuth, Freddy Deeb, Tony G, Phil Laak, Doyle Brunson, and Todd Brunson have been confirmed as participants.

PokerStars is also staking a “Loose Cannon” qualifier with a $100,000 buy-in each week. The qualifiers will earn their seats by winning specially-designated satellite tournaments on PokerStars. All players from the United States and Canada are eligible to play in the free-to-enter “Big Game” Round 1 qualifiers, which are running four times per day through June 25th. Each player that reaches the final qualifying round will be invited to send in a casting video explaining why they think they should be on the “PokerStars Big Game.” The selected few will take their seats on national television and be allowed to keep whatever amount they win over the $100,000 mark.

PartyPoker’s Tony G, who has taken part in the early tapings of the show, expressed his thoughts about the idea of an online qualifier in his most recent blog: “Kudos to PokerStars for coming up with this amazing concept of a Loose Cannon. The player gets a $100K freeroll, but only gets to keep what he wins. The home viewer has someone to relate to as they watch the Cannon fire up his game. And let’s get back to Phil Hellmuth – he suffered badly again, not to mention being outclassed, and against all odds, he was humiliated yet again.”

Hellmuth made brief mention of the “Big Game” via Twitter on Saturday: “A hand came up in ‘The Big Game’ (on FOX soon) that was so sick I dare not talk about, ever! I guarantee it will be talked about worldwide!!” His Tweet quickly got the attention of the poker community and speculation circled about who was involved in the hand. In a thread on the TwoPlusTwo forums, PokerStars representative “PS SteveD” said the hand in question is “good TV.”

On-air host Amanda Leatherman will provide updates and interviews throughout the “Big Game” when it debuts on FOX on June 14th. Leatherman is the live webcast host for the PokerStars North American Poker Tour (NAPT), which has been hugely successful in its first season.

Day 1b of the World Poker Tour Grand Prix de Paris got underway on Sunday afternoon at the Aviation Club de France in beautiful Paris, with 141 players forking over the €10,000 buy-in to join the 106 that started the tournament yesterday. Play was finally halted well into the early hours of the morning after six levels of play and it was Iulien Iacob who looked to be the chip leader with about 180,000.

Iacob has been at the top of the counts since the early part of the day, crossing the hundred-grand threshold when he crippled Casey Kastle without even reaching a showdown. The board read  and with more than 20,000 in the pot, Kastle decided to save his last 5,000 after Iacob put Kastle all-in on the river. Iacob later picked off a Tommy Vedes bluff attempt holding  on a  board. Vedes flipped over , and Iacob said simply, “Don’t bluff me.”

Ilan Boujenah also built a sizable stack, sitting around 140,000 and he earned much of his coin late in the day. He was involved in one hand where Theo Jorgensen opened for a raise and Jari Mahonen shoved all-in with a below-average stack holding . Boujenah woke up with pocket kings and made the call. Jorgensen got out of the way before the dealer spread out a board, eliminating Mahonen and boosting Boujenah’s stack to the top of the counts.

Joining Iacob and Boujenah at the top of the pack were Theo Jorgensen, Jonathan Layani and Eric Sadoun, who all have breached the 100,000-chip mark. Andrew Feldman, Alexander Kravchenko and Isabelle Mercier also have survived the day and will join the 53 survivors from Day 1a right here at the Aviation Club on Monday afternoon for Day 2.

Almost half of the day’s starters were not so lucky however and among the busted are John Juanda, Casey Kastle, Freddy Deeb, Josh “JJProdigy” Field, Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier and David Steicke. Some of those names will surely be back in action on Friday playing in the €20,000 high-roller event taking place here at the Aviation club.

With the registration complete, the return of the WPT Grand Prix de Paris saw 247 total runners, creating a prizepool over €2.3 million that will be spread out amongst 27 players. The winner of the event will pocket a hefty €633,902 for their efforts along with the coveted World Poker Tour title.

Starting on Tuesday, May 4th on the virtual felts of PartyPoker is the Million Dollar Hand promotion. Up to $1 million is up for grabs and the Million Dollar Hand will wrap up on May 23rd.

For every 15 PartyPoints you rack up on PartyPoker during the promotional period, you’ll receive a random playing card. Once you collect five cards, you’ll receive cash prizes based on the value of your hand. One pair will net you $3, while two pair pays out a cool $10. Players who pick up three of a kind will receive a $20 cash prize, while those who make a straight will earn $50. PartyPoker Million Dollar Hand players who are dealt a flush will pocket $100, while a full house is worth $150.

Then, the big money kicks in. Players who make a four of a kind in a five-card hand will bank $1,000, a straight flush is worth $10,000, and a royal flush will earn players the top prize of $1 million in cold, hard cash. PartyPoker is not capping the number of royal flushes that can be hit and players can unlock their first card by logging into their PartyPoker accounts. A maximum of two hands per day, or 10 cards, can be revealed.

PartyPoker officials are looking forward to a throng of players descending upon the site. A PartyPoker spokesperson commented in a press release distributed last week, “The Million Dollar Hand is back! As Mike Sexton says, ‘May all your cards be live and your pots be monsters!’ Thousands of cards will be revealed [starting] Tuesday, May 4th. The question remains – will the big one hit this time around? We’ve seen straight flushes and scared the insurers, but nobody has hit the royal…yet!”

The last time the Million Dollar Hand ran on PartyPoker was in October, with the same payouts on the line. The promotion wraps up at 23:59 ET on May 23rd and any unrevealed cards will not be able to be used. The 15 PartyPoints can only be accrued while playing on real money ring game tables on the site, which does not accept action from the United States. All cash prizes will be paid out within an hour of being earned.

PartyPoker is concurrently running a Million Dollar Hand VIP Race. In addition to the standard cash prizes earned in the Million Dollar Hand promotion, VIP players will receive points that count towards their own special race. Extra VIP race points can also be earned if players amass more than 300 PartyPoints in a day. The top 200 finishers on the VIP race leaderboard will make the money, with a grand prize of a $13,000 World Series of Poker (WSOP) prize package up for grabs for the first and second place racers.

Every player who lands in the top 600 also claims entry into the Million Dollar Hand VIP Freeroll, which offers up two more $13,000 WSOP prize packages. The Main Event of the 2010 WSOP kicks off on July 5th with the first of four starting days. The tournament plays down to a nine-handed final table on July 17th and its members will return to the Rio All-Suite Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas in November to determine a winner.

Amazingly, the top 30 finishers in the VIP race will collect four-figure paydays, with a minimum payout of $100 up for grabs. According to PokerScout.com, which keeps tabs on online poker room traffic, PartyPoker is the third largest site world wide in terms of real money ring game players, with a seven-day running average of 4,200. During peak hours, which occur in the evening throughout Europe, around 7,000 cash game players call the site home. PartyPoker’s traffic is virtually identical to that of the iPoker Network.