The Weekly Turbo: Phil Ivey Divorce Drama, November Nine Taxes, and More
We're trying to get you caught up on the week's top poker news stories. In this edition of the Weekly Turbo, we bring you a petition filed by Phil Ivey's ex-wife, the taxes facing each member of the 2011 November Nine, and more.
Judicial Bias Alleged in Phil Ivey Divorce Case
The drama surrounding the world's greatest poker player added a new chapter this week. According to the Las Vegas Review-Journal, Phil Ivey's ex-wife has reportedly filed a petition with the Nevada Supreme Court claiming that there may have been bias involved in the original judgment of the couple's 2009 divorce.
Luciaetta Ivey claims that a $5,000 contribution was made by Ivey to Family Court Judge Bill Gonzalez three months after the divorce was finalized. The petition says that Ivey didn't make any other contribution to another Family Court Judge, and Luciaetta told the Review-Journal that she was "blindsided" when she discovered the donations.
Read more about the story here at PokerNews.com.
No Tax on Heinz
Pius Heinz collected $8.7 million for winning the World Series of Poker Main Event last week. How much of that will be taxed by his native country, Germany? None, according to Russ Fox of Clayton Financial and Tax.
CNBC sports analyst Darren Rovell tweeted a story by Fox that breaks down the tax situation for each of the 2011 November Niners. Fox says that Heinz benefits from the U.S.-Germany Tax Treaty under which gambling income earned is "exempt from U.S. taxation." And, since Germany considers gambling to be a use of after-tax money, Heinz will keep all of his $8,715,638 in winnings.
Not a bad deal, considering 2008 champ Peter Eastgate handed over a reported 73 percent of his winnings to his native Denmark. Of his $9.1 million score, Eastgate took home less than $3 million.
A chart by Fox shows that $5.4 million of the $28.2 million awarded at the 2011 Main Event final table is considered taxable income. That's a total tax bite of 18.91 percent. Last year, the total tax bite at the final table was nearly 43 percent, but Fox notes that every player at the 2010 final table was subject to taxation.
For a closer look at the tax hits for each of the November Niners, check out taxabletalk.com.
Andy Frankenberger Wins PartyPoker Premier League
He's the reigning World Poker Tour Player of the Year. He recently won a World Series of Poker bracelet. And now, he's champion of the PartyPoker Premier League Mixed Game Championship.
On Thursday, Andy Frankenberger bested an impossibly tough final table to win the latest version of the PartyPoker Premier League. Frankenberger entered the final with the fifth most chips based on his performance in the three preliminary heats but claimed victory after defeating Andrew Feldman heads-up for the title.
Frankenberger now stands beside Juha Helppi, Andy Black,JC Tran and David Benyamine as Premier League champions.
Frankenberger and Feldman battled for more than two hours before Frankenberger found a lucky river card on the final hand to end the match. Feldman was all-in preflop holding K♥Q♣ against Frankenberger's K♦10♠, but the J♦8♦9♣A♣Q♠ board gave Frankenberger a Broadway straight and the title. He earned $100,000 for the victory, while Feldman collected $65,000 for his runner-up finish.
Here's a look at the final results from the PartyPoker Premier League Mixed Game Championship:
| Place | Player | Prize |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Andy Frankenberger | $100,000 |
| 2 | Andrew Feldman | $65,000 |
| 3 | Sorel Mizzi | $45,000 |
| 4 | Max Pescatori | $35,000 |
| 5 | James Dempsey | $30,000 |
| 6 | Matt Giannetti | $25,000 |
All the action from the PartyPoker Premier League Mixed Game Championship can be found at PartyPoker.com.
Jake Cody Joins Team PKR
Last week, PKR.com announced that it was set to unveil the newest member of Team PKR Pro. According to a statement made by the site, the would-be arrival is "among the best poker players in the world."
Turns out PKR wasn't kidding. On Thursday, Triple Crown winner Jake Cody joined the team of sponsored pros at PKR and will represent the poker room in the biggest events across the globe.
"I'm very excited about joining Team PKR Pro" said Cody, who has major wins at the World Series of Poker, European Poker Tour and World Poker Tour.
"I've been patient with sponsorship, waiting for the right deal to come along. When I spoke to PKR I was really impressed with the whole setup and the ideas that they have going forward, and I knew straight away I wanted to be part of it! It's a great site to be involved with right now and I think I can help take it to the next level."
Get more on this story here at PokerNews.com.
Germany Wins IFP Nations Cup
On Friday, the International Federation of Poker (IFP) crowned a champion at the inaugural Nations Cup in London. The event, which was featured as part of theLondon Mind Sports Festival, consisted of 12 teams with some of the best players in the world facing off in a unique variant called "duplicate poker."
After two days of play, team Germany secured the Cup by earning 24 points in the final round. The team was anchored by superstars Tobias Reinkemeier, Sebastian Ruthenberg, Moritz Kranch, Hans Martin Vogl and Sandra Naujoks.
Brazil and France took second and third place, respectively, while the surprising Team Zynga took fourth place. The Zynga team was made up of six members of the Zynga community and fared better than the likes of the United States, Ireland, and the U.K., which were represented by some of the game's most successful figures.
The tournament was played in a format intended to minimize the luck involved in poker. Each table was dealt the same hands, with players receiving points for how successful they were in a hand when compared to those with the same cards.
Said IFP President Anthony Holden, "With all players in a particular seat given the same allocation of cards the only determining factor in the result of the tournament is how skillfully each player uses them."
Many of the players who competed in the Nations Cup will now compete in the IFP World Championship on Nov. 19. More than 130 of the world's top players are expected to square off for a top prize of $250,000. The event, known as "The Table," will be filmed for a worldwide audience.
Details on the Nations Cup and the IPF World Champions can be found at the International Federation of Poker's website.
Gus Hansen Squashing the Competition
We all know Gus Hansen to be a world-class poker and backgammon player. Now, the Great Dane is attempting to become world champion in a sport we'd never heard of.
According to his blog, Hansen has been training to compete in next week's Racketlon World Championships in Austria. The sport, which we learned is one of the fastest growing in the world, combines the four most popular racket games — table tennis, badminton, squash and tennis — with each match consisting of four sets, one in each aforementioned game. The winner is determined by the player that scores the most overall points over the course of the match.
Hansen, 37, was a youth tennis champion back in the day, but he admits on his blog that he's not very good at badminton or table tennis. Actually, he says he "really sucks" at badminton, which leads us to believe he doesn't stand a chance at a world championship event. However, he did say that he beat Racketlon World No. 1 Christoph Krenn at squash last month, so who knows.
We’ll definitely be keeping an eye on this when the Racketlon World Championships begin on Nov. 24. Check out Hansen's blog for more about his latest venture.
Veldhuis vs. ElkY in the Ring
We've been waiting more than two years for the kickboxing match between Team PokerStars Pros Lex Veldhuis and Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier. For the fight, less than a week away, Veldhuis has laid out the official rules and stipulations on his blog.
The match, on Nov. 22, will consist of five three-minute rounds and there will be a winner only if a fighter is knocked out or quits. Otherwise, the match is a wash. Spinning kicks and punches are permitted, but headbutts, elbows and kicks to the groin are not allowed. There will be a judge in the ring to make sure the rules are enforced.
Veldhuis is confident he's going to win, saying that Grospellier's "coordination seems a bit bad and I don't think he is a natural athlete." However, he does admit that his friend is in better shape and that all in all the matchup is pretty even.
"I am more athletic and I have better coordination, plus some experience in fights," Veldhuis writes. "ElkY is in better shape and has been working out more consistently, going on special training camps and putting in a lot of hours."
We're exited for this fight to go down, but Doyle Brunson appears to be worried for their well-being.
@RaSZi Sounds like an ego fight. U guys are nuts, someone is going to get badly hurt."A couple of street fights?" I must have had 20. No fun
— Doyle Brunson (@TexDolly)
@TexDolly kickboxing/mma is a pretty normal sport and accepted sport, esp these days. People rarely get hurt badly. Just a propbet ^_^
— Lex Veldhuis (@RaSZi)
@RaSZi Yeah right! When you have broken bones, tell me about it. If you got hurt training, imagine how hard the real deal will be.#goodluck
— Doyle Brunson (@TexDolly)
If you'd like to place a wager on the fight, Veldhuis is still looking for more action. You can check out Lex's blog or message him on Twitter if interested.
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