The Nightly Turbo: Hellmuth Raises Money for the Kids, Blanca Games Responds to Cheating Allegations, and More
If you're reading this, that means you made it through the weekend. Good job. We barely did. Thankfully for you though, we did, and can now bring you the top poker news stories of the day. Last week, Phil Hellmuth was involved in a charity poker tournament that raised some serious cash. We'll tell you just how much was raised, along with the response from Blanca Games regarding the new UB cheating scandal, and more.
In Case You Missed It
The largest-ever World Series of Poker Circuit Main Event concluded early Monday morning in Hammond. Wondering who is the owner of a shiny new Circuit ring?Find out in our WSOP-C recap.
Sunday is poker's biggest day on the virtual felt. Sorel Mizzi came out on top of the PokerStars Sunday Warm Up, good for $149,737.10. Who else have huge scores? Read the Sunday Briefing to find out.
The PokerStars.net Million Dollar Challenge was back on the tube this week. John Elway and Gary Payton were the celebrity contenders that showed their skills on the felt. How did it go for the challengers?The Million Dollar Challenge recap has the scoop.
The 2010 World Series of Poker Main Event Final Table is inching closer and closer. Today, we profiled Matthew Jarvis. Find out how he got to the Final Table and what to expect.
Every week, Kristy Arnett heads over to another poker pros home to check out where they grind out their online poker sessions. This week, she checked out Brian Rast's setup at Panorama Towers. Watch the video in the latest Sunday Grind article.
Raise it Up
Last week, Phil Hellmuth emceed the third annual "All In" for Kids charity poker tournament in New York City at the Mandarin Oriental. Over $900,000 was raised for the Center for Fetal Diagnosis and Treatment at The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia.
"All In" For Kids was founded by Beth and Dan Shak. This year, the tournament was presented by Jami and Joel Friedman. Funny man Steve Martin was also on hand to co-host with Hellmuth. The tournament was won by John Foley. More than 40 sponsors contributed to the cause, which benefits children across the country who go to the Center of Fetal Diagnosis and Treatment for therapies that don't exist anywhere else.
Check out the press release for more.
Responding to Cheating Allegations
Blanca Games, owner of UB and Absolute Poker, has issued a statement regarding the recent cheating allegations on UB from XMT Liquidations Inc., formerly known as Excapsa Software. The comments by the liquidation company were made in the context of a dispute between it and Tokwiro Enterprises, which Blanca Games says it "has no interest in," but "wishes to clarify its current understanding of the incident cited in the Liquidator's letter."
"Blanca understands and believes that the incident referred to by the Liquidator dates back to 2004 when the ultimatebet.com brand was owned and operated by Excapsa." An incident that has been reported to the regulatory authorities.
"The 2004 incident has no impact whatsoever on current players and customers of absolutepoker.com or ub.com. Blanca will continue to do everything in its power to protect its players and customers by providing the highest levels of security on its sites," said the press release.
BlancaGames.com has more.
Is Tony the Third Most Hated Man in Poker
The title of Tony G's latest blog is, "I am the third most hated man in poker." We can only assume he's speaking of the poll that Doyle Brunson conducted on his Twitter where he asked his followers to rate the "poker player you want to kill" among other categories. Phil Hellmuth topped the list (although we don't think these followers took into account the money Hellmuth has raised for various charities - come on guys, give him a break!), while Russ Hamilton landed in the second spot, and The G rounded out the top three.
This ranking caused Tony to do some soul-searching, it seems, and he has taken to his blog to apologize (in true Tony G fashion) to Andrew Robl for the way he acted on a recent Big Game episode. "I crossed the line with calling the clock on him and giving him a big welcome to the game. I like the kid and wish him all the best – he’ll thank me in later years for this treatment – he will be a man for it. Robl learned that I am a big crocodile with Lithuanian stripes – unlike Vlad the Impaler I don’t go for the neck; I bite nit heads off clean as this picture shows."
And to all of his haters, Tony says, "I love all my haters, I really do and hope they can vent against me even more."
You can read his entire blog on PartyPoker.com.
Cracking Down
Full Tilt Poker is cracking down on online poker bots. In a recent email sent to a number of players, the online poker site confirmed that several users were using bots, obviously this is against the T&Cs, so the accounts were banned and funds confiscated.
The number of bots and money "won" was not disclosed. “For a number of reasons, we are unable to provide additional information regarding this case, including the players involved and the game type where it occurred,” the email said.
BluffEurope.com has more.
The Team's in Hammond
Kristy Arnett is in Hammond, Indiana, with the rest of the PokerNews Team for the $10,000 Regional Championship of the World Series of Poker Circuit Hammond. She gives you guys the rundown of the $1,500 Main Event that ended in the wee hours on Monday morning and gives you a look at who showed up for the big one.
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