Here’s the Deal – Mizzi Denies Wrongdoing, Commerce Faces Backlash

Here’s the Deal presents a week’s worth of poker news - the good, bad, and sometimes ugly - in one place. Between the poker tournaments, player happenings, and political updates, there is a little something for every poker enthusiast.

Poker Events

It was the perfect time of year for players to fly to a place like Cyprus in the Mediterranean, and the Full Tilt Poker Merit Cyprus Classic was the perfect excuse. There were several event options for players, including a High Roller tournament that garnered a field of 36 and ended up awarding $373,207 to Perica Bukara for his ultimate victory. And then there was the Main Event, a $5,400 buy-in NLHE tournament that brought 181 players to the tables over the course of two starting days. The prize pool was set at just under $1.3 million, and the top 18 players were paid. When all was said and done, it was German pro player Andreas Krause who beat Mathieu Clavet in the heads-up portion of the tournament to grab $415,780 for the win.

The World Poker Tour was also in action over the past week with its long-time favorite Legends of Poker stop in Los Angeles. The WPT reduced the buy-in for the Bicycle Casino tournament this year, making it only $5,000 to enter the Main Event, and after two starting days, it was determined that the final registration number was 462, which made the prize pool $2,515,072. It was used to pay out the top 45 players, and the final table of six played down until Andrew Frankenberger was able to defeat Kyle Wilson to take the second WPT title of Season 9 and the $750,000 in cash that went with it.

The World Series of Poker Circuit got its current season underway on August 19 in Council Bluffs, Iowa, and the Horseshoe played host to numerous events, many of them awarding WSOPC rings to the winners. But all eyes were on the Main Event that started on August 29, and the $1,600 buy-in NLHE tournament brought 251 players to the tables, making for a prize pool of $361,440. After the top 27 players were paid, the action relied on the final table participants, and they did not disappoint as WSOP bracelet winner Blair Hinkle defeated Shiva Dudani to take the title, the ring, a 2011 WSOP Main Event seat, a seat at the televised 2011 WSOPC National Championship event, and $88,555 in cash. Dwyte Pilgrim was looking to make history in the event but finished third, though he remains in contention for several Player of the Year awards.

The PokerStars-sponsored European Poker Tour recently launched its seventh season in Estonia and took a short break before heading to Vilamoura in Portugal. August 28 was the start of the Main Event, and a total of 384 players took to the tables for the action, which created a prize pool of €1,862,400. The playdown found several big names headed to the final table on September 2, including longtime pro Rob Hollink and UK football legend Teddy Sheringham.

The World Poker Tour was already on its third stop of its current season, and only days after having wrapped the Legends of Poker in Los Angeles, the action headed to the Palm Beach Casino in London for the London Poker Classic, one of the WPT’s first forays out of the United States this season. But with dates conflicting with other tours, the turnout was less than anticipated or hoped, as only 171 players were in the pack, though big names like Phil Ivey and Erik Seidel did turn out for the action. The prize pool was set at £820,800 for the last 18 players standing, and the final table would be decided promptly and played out on September 4. 

In the world of online poker, the UB Poker online tournament series recently wrapped, as the UBOC5 was recorded along with its sister series Mini-UBOC5. The latter boasted of lower buy-ins for players and was warmly received, as evidenced by its $50 Main Event that attracted 1,684 players and boosted the prize pool well past the $50K guarantee to where it landed at $84,200. And in the end, JLC123 won the tournament for nearly $18K. As for the Main Event of the primary UBOC5 series, a total of 1,032 players entered the $1K buy-in NLHE deep stack event, which eclipsed the $1 million guarantee with a $1,032,000 prize pool. And when it was finished, CHAZ_MAN_C claimed the title and more than $136K.

Poker Players:

The most talked about players of the week were Durrrr and Jungleman12, better known to their parents as Tom Dwan and Daniel Cates. As the “Durrrr Challenge” continued for what seemed like an eternity between Dwan and Patrik Antonius, others were beginning to express interest in the matter. That prompted Cates to initiate discussions with Dwan, and the challenge was accepted, though it was set up to be primarily no-limit hold’em without the usual PLO aspect. But over the course of 50,000 hands, Dwan looked to pick up $500K if he won but Cates would take home $1.5 million should he be ahead in the end. And after only a few sessions, Cates was up quite a bit of money, though if first challenge taught anything it was that swings are inevitable in these types of high-stakes, heads-up games.

More news that captured attention this week revolved around Sorel Mizzi. After seemingly overcoming a cheating scandal of years past, Mizzi was recently accused on the 2+2 forums of attempting to arrange a ghosting scenario with another player, a practice that is against the rules of any major online poker site. The accusations stemmed from an instant message chat log between Mizzi and Steve Weinstein and showed Mizzi asking that the two use a remote desktop program that allows one person to control the actions of another’s computer in order to play online poker. But Mizzi responded to the accusations to say that he is being blackmailed, and the released conversations were merely chatter over the course of a long period of time and were taken out of context.

And one of the most overlooked stories of the week involved the selling of Cereus Network to a company that most in the poker industry had yet to become aware of. Blanca Games  announced on August 26 that it purchased Cereus, complete with UB Poker and Absolute Poker, after receiving authorization from the Kahnawake Gaming Commission. Blanca founded a bingo company and Helix Gaming International, and CEO Stuart Gordon commented that the purchase of Cereus was one of more acquisitions to come in the future. He noted that Cereus’ players would find no immediate changes to their gaming experience but that there would be eventual improvements made to the sites involved.

Poker in Politics

Senator Harry Reid has been one of the unknown factors in the fight to pass online gaming regulation in the U.S. Congress, but the Senate Majority Leader recently made known, to the surprise of many, that he is willing to support such a bill as Rep. Barney Frank has introduced. HR 2267 passed the House Financial Services Committee and may reach the House of Representatives for a vote in the future, but should it make it to the Senate, Reid noted that he would be willing to support it if it became solely an online poker bill. His ties to numerous Las Vegas casinos made it unlikely that Reid would support a vast online gaming bill, but online poker would do little damage to the revenues of said casinos, according to most studies. But Reid’s support of online poker only would require a revamping of Frank’s legislation going forward, and no word has come from Frank’s camp regarding the topic.

The biggest political rift of the week was a result of the aforementioned House Financial Services Committee hearing that saw the passage of HR 2267. One of the people that testified against the bill at that time was Tom Malkasian, a board member representing Commerce Casino in Los Angeles. The Poker Players Alliance then organized a campaign against Commerce in the form of an online petition on a website named “Players Before Profits,” which has since gained more than 7,000 signatures, including those of many of the most well-known players in poker. Commerce responded with a letter to the poker community, one that was co-signed by other Los Angeles casinos like the Bicycle Casino, Hawaiian Gardens, and Hollywood Park. They defended their position against the legislation so as not to lose revenue and eventually jobs, as legal online gaming on a federal level would hurt brick and mortar casinos, and they urged an online poker-centric approach on a state level. The PPA then jabbed back that the only reason those casinos would not support the bill is fear of competition. The arguments on both sides are explained here.