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The number of disputes involving online casinos is declining according to early figures released by the eCommerce and Online Gaming Regulation and Assurance (eCOGRA) group.
First quarter figures released by the regulation group show that official complaints and disputes are down on last year. Tex Rees, the fair gaming lawyer with eCOGRA investigated a total of 145 disputes in the first quarter of 2009, down from 171 the same time last year.
In all a total of 197 complaints were made via the eCOGRA online channel but 25 were rejected under the grounds of being abusive or non-specific in nature or as involving non-eCOGRA accredited operations.
Of the remaining 145 disputes, more than half (73) involved cash-ins. Locked accounts made up 21 % of the disputes (30), while 19 % were complaints about bonus issues (27). There were 15 grievances regarding miscellaneous issues.
Interestingly were the results of these complaints after the investigation. Rees ruled 59 of the 145 cases in favor of the player. Rees reported that the total number of disputes handled in 2008 (743) were down from the total number in 2007 (783). At the current pace that number would dip to 580 in 2009.
How would you like to go to the Playboy Mansion?
Yeah, that’s what Cake Poker thought. Next question: how would you like to go to the Playboy Mansion for free? Even better.
Cake Poker will be running an exclusive freeroll tournament for all Card Player readers who have signed up for the poker site with a Card Player signup code or through a Card Player affiliate link.
The tournament will kick off Sunday, May 3 at 3:30 p.m. The top five finishers will win an entry (worth $25) into the rebuy satellite on Monday at 9:30 p.m. All players who have used Card Player to sign up for their Cake accounts are eligible.
The tournament can be found under the ‘Private’ tab, entitled Card Player Mansion Freeroll. The password is ‘MANSION’ (all caps), and registration for the event has begun.
Card Player, the exclusive poker media sponsor for the tournament, announced the details of the Playboy Mansion event last week. On July 11, the Mansion will open its doors for celebrities and poker players for the Aces & Angels Celebrity Poker Tournament.
The Kardashian sisters, glamorized by the E! television show Keeping Up with the Kardashians, will host the festivities.
Ticket prices for the event range from $1,000-$3,500, with the proceeds of the evening benefiting the families of Southern California firefighters who were either injured or killed in the line of duty.
Aces & Angels, founded in 2007, has already raised over $427,000 for the cause.
The much anticipated return of the legendary The Poker Show, sponsored by Boylepoker.com and hosted by Jesse May and Padraig Parkinson, did not disappoint expectant listeners this week with the first three shows providing several ‘soon-to-be-classic’ interviews, controversial comments, some live censorship, and a Phil Hellmuth world exclusive.
“I’ve agreed to attend sensitivity training at Jeffrey Pollock’s demand,” announced Phil Hellmuth at the end of his 20 minute interview on Monday, referring to the upcoming World Series of Poker in Las Vegas. “Scotty [Nguyen] and I have agreed to attend… while they train their crews and their floor people for three hours.”
When asked if he thought that was going to be enough time, he replied deadpan, “No”.
Elsewhere The Poker Show team did a hilariously memorable interview with Jeff Duvall on how he won a £15,000 pot in London’s Victoria casino the previous evening, a cheeky Roland De Wolfe gave listeners his unlikely top five players for this year’s WSOP, and a possibly inebriated Rory Liffey was cut off one minute into his interview due to controversial and expletive-riddled comments, only to ring back, abuse the presenters and hang up on them.
This segment will be edited from the podcast of the show but could appear on YouTube in the near future.
On top of the spur-of-the-moment censorship of Liffey, the show has created controversy online, spilling over into poker forums, with accusations from some posters about presenter Padraig Parkinson’s poker skills causing some virtual gasps.
Guests on the first three shows read like a who’s who of poker with Dan Harrington, Phil Hellmuth, Phil Laak, Rory Liffey, Liam Flood, ‘Mad’ Marty Wilson, Kara Scott, Donnacha O’Dea, Barny Boatman, James Dempsey and the Shrewdies on Tour, Black Belt graders (Including PokerPlayer’s own Nick Wright), Paul ‘Dr. Pauly’ Maguire, John Duthie and Kirsty Thompson from the EPT.
After losing $ 2 million in the preceding two days, Tom ‘Durrrr’ Dwan, who was due to appear on the show, was unavailable but the show is confident it will get hold of him for a chat soon.
Fans who missed the show can listen again at http://thepokershowlive.com/listenagain.htm.
The all-new radio show sees SKY TV presenter Matt Broughton join the experienced broadcast team on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday nights from 8 p.m. to 11 p.m. at www.thepokershowlive.com where they will discuss, debate, and decipher the technicolour world of live and online poker with a series of special guests, contributors and phone-in questions and commentary from members of the poker playing public.
Boylepoker pro, Padraig Parkinson, who co-hosted the original ground-breaking Poker Show from Las Vegas several years ago, said, “After a few technical hitches we really got into our stride quickly and I remembered just how much fun this could be. I have a feeling this is either all going to end in tears or we will have created a monster. Either way, I’m going to love it.”
Paul Spillane, head of poker at Boylepoker, said, “I was a big fan of the original show and jumped at the chance of sponsoring the new radio version. I have to say I am not disappointed and think this is going to be even better than the TV version. I’m still quietly laughing at some of the things that went on in the first three shows.”
Poker players are actively encouraged to get involved in each show. Players can add The Poker Show to Skype or, for MSN users: thepokershow@live.co.uk. The presenters can then chat to participants before or during the show, live on air. They can also email comments or contact details to chat@thepokershowlive.com.
Online poker rooms are lining up to offer qualifiers to the upcoming Asian Poker Tour Macau event, part of this season of the APT. The event will run on August 12th and will run through the 23rd. Qualifiers will be found on a number of online poker room networks, such as the PartyPoker, Ongame Network, Bwin, PKR and the iPoker Network. Qualifiers will offer prize packages that will likely include travel and accommodation as well as the buy in for the event. The main event will have a price tag of $4,300.
Team Poker took a step forward with details of Team Championship of Poker, one of the biggest team tournaments ever to be held.
The Citywest Hotel, made famous by the Irish Open which it holds every year, will be home to Team Championship of Poker, perhaps the biggest team poker event to date.
With over €350,000 set to be up for grabs, the turnout should be high. Organisers for the event are aiming for 150 or more teams of six members each.
Team events are by no means common place in the casinos of the world. Indeed little is known about the format. Perhaps the inherently selfish nature of poker doesn’t lend itself too kindly to team work or perhaps players don’t like to share their spoils.
There are notable exceptions such as the Dream Team Poker tournament in March this year which saw all of the major pros turn out for some team fun, but that was all it was for many; fun.
No security necessary — just $26 million in chips, David Grey, and a pistol-carrying Todd Brunson.
Perhaps there were safer ways to transport The Corporation’s winnings after Phil Ivey took Andy Beal to town, but it was what it was. A quick drive to Bellagio, and the players divvied up their earnings.
Grey returns to The Scoop on Card Player TV (sponsored by Full Tilt) this week for Part 2 of his interview with Adam Schoenfeld and Diego Cordovez.
He discussed the final epic match between Phil Ivey and Beal, and how people were concerned when Ivey only won a small amount after his first session (compared to the stakes). But the next day, Ivey dominated the match to finish up $16.6 million, according to Grey.
Beal finally had enough and called it quits.
Grey also discusses today’s high stakes action, explaining that many of the nosebleed players still don’t really have an appreciation of the volatility of the game, and a variety of other topics on this week’s episode.
New episodes of The Scoop debut every Friday.
Yevgeniy Timoshenko dominated Day 6 and will enter the final table with a huge chip lead. Christian Harder and Bertrand Grospellier are currently his biggest threats.
Day 6 of the WPT Championship featured an epic struggle between the remaining 10 players, as they all wanted to take one of the six seats at the final table.
After three hours of play, Bruno Fitoussi was the first to hit the rail. Eugene Katchalov followed him 30 minutes later and after more than an hour, Justin Young and Brian Rast made their way out, thus leaving the remaining six players in a race for the $2,149,960 top prize.
After the frantic activity of the first six episodes, the eight new players in last week’s High Stakes Poker installment provided a game that was long on talk, but short on meaningful poker action, with the possible exception of a few nice plays by former World Series of Poker champion Joseph Hachem. The eighth episode provided a chance for Messrs. Antonius, Esfandiari, Laak, Negreanu, Simon, Cassavetes, Lederer and Hachem to redeem themselves. With the players now a little more used to the styles of those with whom they were unfamiliar, it was expected that play would open up a bit. Let’s take a look at this week’s action.
After an uneventful first hand, Daniel Negreanu raised to $2,500 with 6♠-5♠. He got one call from Patrik Antonius with A-10 offsuit. The flop came 8-4-3, with one spade. Daniel put out a continuation bet of $4,000 and Patrik called again. The turn was the A♠, giving Daniel a flush draw to go with his open-ended straight draw. He bet $10,000 and Patrik called once again with top pair. The pot was now $35,800, and the river’s 4♠ filled Negreanu’s flush. He checked, and Antonius bet $18,000, which Negreanu called, to take down the $71,800 pot.
After the commercial break, commentators Gabe Kaplan and AJ Benza reflected the collective consciousness of the audience, making it clear that they were not at all happy with the focus on prop betting, and would prefer more poker and less talk. AJ even went so far as to suggest splitting up Antonio and Phil, who tend to be non-stop talkers at the table, and the ringleaders of whatever prop betting is taking place.
The next hand highlighted the difference in play between this group and the previous one. After Negreanu raised to $2,500 with pocket nines, Antonius called with Q♠-8♠, and Laak re-raised to $16,000 with pocket aces. Lederer then threw away a pair of sevens, and Hachem, continuing his fine series of reads, folded A-K! It is likely that players at the previous table would have played both of those hands. Negreanu called and Antonius folded. The flop brought K-10-2 and both players checked. The turn was a 7, and Laak bet $17,500 into the pot of $37,300. Negreanu folded, and everyone at the table, led by Esfandiari, predicted that Laak had either a set of kings or pocket aces.
A bit of controversy ensued in the next hand. Negreanu raised to $2,500 with pocket kings, which Laak and Lederer called, with a pair of eights and K♦-J♦ respectively. Cassavetes then raised to $17,500 with A-J offsuit. Negreanu re-raised to $29,300, and Laak and Lederer folded, but Lederer’s hand became exposed when he folded! Nick finally wound up folding, and Negreanu ranted a bit about the exposed cards, thinking that Cassavetes had pocket jacks.
The next hand saw Antonius raise to $3,500 with a pair of sevens, which Negreanu called with K♣-J♣. The flop of J-2-J gave Negreanu trips, and he check-raised Antonius’ $5,500 bet to $17,500, which Antonius called. The A♥ came on the turn, and Negreanu check-called the $27,000 that Antonius fired into the pot. The river brought a third heart, the nine, and both players checked, leaving Negreanu to rake in the $98,000 in the middle.
After another two uninteresting hands, prop betting took center stage once more, as Cassavetes bet Esfandiari that he couldn’t do 35 pushups. This led to arguments about proper push-up form, and three plates being placed under Esfandiari’s chest, which he had to touch but not break while doing each pushup. He easily did 47, and won the bet. Thus far, this was the most passionate the players had gotten about anything all evening.
After the prop bet had been settled, Esfandiari raised to $2,300 with pocket nines. Antonius called with A♦-8♦, and Hachem then raised to $10,500 with A-8 unsuited. It turned out that Cassavetes ALSO had A-8, but he folded. Both Esfandiari and Antonius called. The flop of 7-J-5 gave no help to anyone, and Esfandiari bet $25,00 into the $34,300 pot. After the others folded, Kaplan commented that while the players have not been gambling much, they have read one another’s hands very well.
On the next hand, Lederer decided to slow play pocket aces with a call. After Simon called with 5-4, and Negreanu followed suit with K♠-Q♠, Esfandiari raised to $7,300 with 10-2 offsuit! Lederer then showed his true strength by re-raising to $28,000 and everyone folded, with Negreanu making a big show of faking exposing his cards.
In the hand of the night that most represented how cautious these players have been in contrast to the first group, Antonius raised to $3,500 with 7-5 and Laak called with A-K. The flop gave both players pairs, as it came J-7-K, with two diamonds. Both checked. The turn brought the 4♦, Laak checked and Antonius bet $5,000 into the $9,400 pot. Laak called, and the river was the A♣. Both players checked, and Laak won the small pot.
The final hand of the evening was the most interesting of the night’s action. Laak raised to $3,600 with 10♠-7♠, and Hachem called with K♥-3♥. The flop was 2-6-5, with one heart and no spades. Both players checked, and the turn was the 3♠, giving Hachem a pair. He bet $3,000, and Laak raised to $13,200, sensing that Hachem did not have a four, and representing an overpair. Hachem, in turn, read Laak equally well and called, creating a pot of $35,600. The river was the A♦, and Hachem fired out once again, putting out a bet of $20,500! Laak announced to the table that he knew he was supposed to make it $63,000, but folded instead. To add insult to injury, Esfandiari said he knew that Hachem had a 4, and paid Hachem $500 to see his hand, which only cemented Laak’s frustration, knowing he could have taken the pot with a raise on the river.
Once again, aside from Hachem’s excellent reads and plays to back them up, the play this week was generally lackluster. However, next week figures to shake things up considerably, as the preview of the show revealed that Sam Simon will be leaving the game, to be replaced by none other than Tom “durrr” Dwan! See you then!
*Read Clearspine’s Blog *
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Competitions
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Freerolls
On completing and entering this freeroll, you will automatically be entered into a freeroll for one of the prizes. No correspondence will be entered into and the winners will be notified by post or email within 28 days of the closing date. The freeroll is not open to employees of Dennis Publishing or participating companies. No cash alternative will be offered. The prize (s) described are available at the date of publication. Events may occur that render the promotion or the rewarding of the prize impossible due to reasons beyond PokerPlayer’s control, which may at its discretion vary or amend the promotion and the reader agrees that no liability shall be attached to PokerPlayer as a result thereof. Proof of emailing will not be accepted as proof of delivery and no responsibility can be accepted for entries lost, delayed, mislaid or for any technical failure or for any event which may cause the competition to be disrupted or corrupted. Where necessary, in order to determine an outright winner or winners to a freeroll, the Editor reserves the right to request entrants to take part in an eliminating contest (or ‘tie breaker’). Where for any reason there are more winners than prizes on offer, the Editor reserves the right to conduct a simple draw to determine the winner or winners of the prizes. Unless otherwise stated, entry to all freerolls is restricted to entrants of 18 years of age or over. Names of winners will be available on receipt of a request enclosing a stamped self-addressed envelope to: Competitions Manager, Dennis Publishing, 30 Cleveland St, London W1T 4JD. If the winner of a freeroll is unable to take up a prize for any reason, the Editor reserves the right to award it to an alternative winner, in which case the first winner chosen will not be eligible for any share of the prize whatsoever. The Editor’s decision is final and it is a condition of entry to any freeroll that the entrant agrees to be bound by these rules whether they be published or not, and that the decisions of the Editor and judges on any matter whatsoever arising out of or connected with the freeroll are final. No purchase of the magazine is necessary.
The Latin American Poker Tour is currently running their Mar del Plata event in Argentina, and big name poker stars such as Chris Moneymaker are on hand to try it out. The LAPT, the brainchild of online poker room Poker Stars, has been described by Moneymaker as “wild west poker” in regards to the sometimes crazy actions players take in regards to bets and calls. The LAPT Mar del Plata event will wrap up with a $5,200 Main Event, each player starting with $10,000 in tournament chips and play running down until there is one player remaining as champion.
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