The Nightly Turbo: Brunson Defends Lederer, Seidel Added to Premier League, and More
Some of poker's most notable players made headlines on Tuesday. Doyle Brunson, Daniel Negreanu, Erik Seidel and Dan "Jungleman" Cates were all in the news, and we'll bring you all of their stories here in the Nightly Turbo.
In Case You Missed It
Daniel Negreanu lashed out against Full Tilt Poker's board member last week. Negreanu is one of the subjects of Rich Ryan's latest Five Thoughts.
Day 1b of the PokerStars.com European Poker Tour Copenhagen wrapped up on Tuesday. Mads Wissing finished on top, but he'll be chasing Day 1a leader Steven O'Dwyer when Day 2 begins.
Winners of the 2011 Montreal Open were left empty-handed after the event's sponsor, Full Tilt Poker, closed up shop. Chad Holloway examines the lingering issues surrounding the tournament.
Daniele Nestola won the 2012 PokerStars.net Latin American Poker Tour Grand Final on Monday. Get all the details in our final table recap.
Doyle Brunson Talks Full Tilt Poker
Aside from a controversial joke he made on Twitter last April, Doyle Brunson had been relatively quiet about Black Friday — especially regarding the severe financial situation at Full Tilt Poker. However, after Daniel Negreanu verbally attacked the FTP shareholders (again) in a video blog last week, Brunson defended his friends in his own blog on Monday.
"It looks like Bitar, Ferguson and Lederer are taking all the heat," Brunson wrote. "Ferguson had a lot of faith in his friend Bitar. It is widely perceived that Howard Lederer was still heavily involved in running the company even though he retired two or three years earlier. I've been in contact with Lederer the last few months. When someone I've known for years, trusted and respected looks me dead in the eye and says he didn't know about the financial problems, call me a big old Texas sucker because I will believe them.
"I have not talked to Ferguson but I understand he says what Lederer told me, that they didn't know. There are at least four stockholders that own more of FT than Lederer. Where were they? The guilt should be shared IF it's true Lederer and Ferguson didn't know of the financial mess."
Doyle's comments got a rise out of several members of the poker community, including Negreanu.
@TexDolly your buddy Howard knew FTP was accepting deposits POST BF. That is shady and unforgivable. No excuse whatsoever justifies that.
— Daniel Negreanu (@RealKidPoker)
To read Doyle's full blog, check out doylebrunson.com.
Seidel Joins PartyPoker Premier League
The lineup for the fifth edition of thePartyPoker Premier League continues to get stronger. On Tuesday, poker's all-time money winner, Erik Seidel, added his name to the mix of players who will put up $125,000 to compete in the televised event in Vienna, Austria, from April 4 through 10.
Seidel joinsPatrik Antonius, Tony G, Luke "Full Flush" Schwartz, Sam Trickett, Vanessa Selbst, Andy Frankenberger, and others for the PartyPoker.com Premier League Poker V. The 16-player event is part of the World Poker Tour Vienna festivities and will award the winner with a massive top prize plus entry into the $25,000 WPT World Championship at Bellagio.
"I am born to crush the Seiborg by the Danube," Tony G. said on Tuesday. "Forget Tony the Tiger I am Tony the Terminator!"
Visit Tony's blog for more information on the Premier League.
ISPT Planning Second Event
The International Stadiums Poker Tour (ISPT) still needs to get a gaming license in order to launch its inaugural €20,000,000 Guaranteed tournament at London’s Wembley Stadium. However, that's not stopping ISPT co-founder and president Laurent Tapie from eying future stops for the tour.
According to eGaming Review, Tapie has plans to follow up the event in London with second event in Paris or Monaco. The ISPT's goal is to attract up to 30,000 players to each event, so it would need to find a stadium with that capacity.
Groupe Bernard Tapie's original plan was to have most or all of the 30,000 players qualify online, presumably at Full Tilt Poker after the sale of the site went through. However, with that acquisition still on hold, there's no telling how the ISPT will bring that number of players to London.
You can find more on this story over at eGamingReview (if you have a subscription, of course).
Iowa Approves Online Poker Bill
An Iowa subcommittee has approved a bill that could pave the way for intrastate, interstate and international platforms for online poker. On Monday, a three-member Senate panel voted to send Senate Study Bill 3164 to the Senate State Government Committee, which may consider passage as soon as this week.
Iowa lawmakers feel that the state is missing out on up to $13 million in annual taxes from online gambling. For years, Iowa residents have placed bets at offshore operators that aren't regulated by the U.S. government.
“We have it out there. It needs to be controlled,” said Senator Wally Horn (D-Cedar Rapids).
Read the full story at PokerNews.com.
Another Challenge from Jungleman
Apparently, playing cash games for millions of dollars doesn't provide enough action for some high-stakes poker players. They need to pound each other's faces in, as well.
Last November, Team PokerStars Pros Lex Veldhuis and Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier met in the ring for a kickboxing match, which Veldhuis won by knockout. Now, Dan "Jungleman" Cates has challenged Andrew Feldman to a fight during the 2012 World Series of Poker.
@Andrewfeldman1 so you still want to do the fight? Let's schedule for this WSOP perhaps? #Ringmatch
— Daniel Cates (@junglemandan)
"@junglemandan: @Andrewfeldman1 so u still want to do the fight? Let's schedule for this WSOP perhaps? #Ringmatch" Sure lets do it! #hu4rolz
— Andrew Feldman (@Andrewfeldman1)
We hope they're actually talking about getting into the ring and not sitting in front of a TV screen playing Street Fighter on Xbox. If that's the case, Randy's Lew's got next.
Betfair Poker Signs Peter Eastgate
On Monday, 2008 World Series of Poker Main Event champion Peter Eastgate became the newest member of Team Betfair Poker. Eastgate will make his first appearance wearing a Betfair logo at the 2012 WSOP Main Event in July.
Eastgate left Team PokerStars in 2010, but made his return to poker at the 2011 NBC Heads-Up Championship. The London native has nearly $11 million in live tournament earnings, including $9,152,416 for his victory at the 2008 WSOP Main Event.
We have more on this story at PokerNews.com.
Online Poker Traffic Report
On Monday, PokerScout.com released its online poker traffic rankings for the previous week. The tracking site reported an overall drop of 3 percent, marking the second straight week of losses after a huge gain to start the month.
The biggest falloff in traffic was at the Everleaf Gaming Network, which withdrew from the U.S. after receiving a cease and desist order from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. Traffic at Everleaf's 100-plus skins dropped 16 percent from the previous week. Time will tell if other offshore sites like Bovado, Cake and the Merge Gaming Network will follow Everleaf out of the States.
As for year-over-year numbers, online poker has seen a worldwide decline of 28 percent since this time last year. Along with the traffic extinction at Full Tilt Poker and the CEREUS Network, the International Poker Network (down 49 percent), PKR (down 25 percent) and the Ongame Network (down 21 percent) have seen a significant decline.
The biggest climbers over the past year are the Merge Gaming Network (up 85 percent), 888poker (up 77 percent) and Bodog (up 62 percent).
The full report can be found at PokerScout.com.
Carnival!
Today is Fat Tueday, so we thought it seemed fitting to show you some footage of Brazil's Carnival, which took place during thePokerStars LAPT Grand Final. Team PokerStars Pros and staff hit the streets of Sao Paulo to celebrate the country's biggest festival.
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