The Nightly Turbo: Internet Gambling in Illinois, Seiver Joins Premier League, and More
On Sunday, Illinois became the first state to offer intrastate real-money gambling on the Internet. Is online poker next? We'll cover that story and more in this edition of the Nightly Turbo.
In Case You Missed It
How did the Sunday Majors play out on PokerStars? Who took down the biggest score? Find out in the Sunday Briefing.
A shining star was born on Sunday when 18-year-old Veronika Pavlikova won the 2012 PokerStars.fr France Poker Series Snowfest Evian Main Event. Get all the details from her victory in our recap.
Poker pro Alec Torelli was back with another blog on Monday. Torelli discusses the public's perception of poker players.
Did you miss Sunday's World Poker Tour coverage on FSN? Read our WPT recap to get caught up.
A champion was crowned at the 2012 PokerStars.net Latin American Poker Tour Chile on Sunday. After a six-way chop, Aliro Diaz hoisted the trophy and took home $76,560 in prize money
When did Melanie Weisner first realize she could be a winning poker player? Find out that and more in the latest edition of Seat Open.
Freddy Deeb led the way after Day 2 of the World Series of Poker Circuit Main Event at Harrah’s Rincon. Find out who else was in contention for the ring in our WSOPC recap.
We're down to the Elite 8 of the PokerNews Fan Bracket. Check out the matchups over at The Muck.
Editor's Note: On Friday, PokerNews ran an interview with Ken Aldridge, a poker player who is attempting to get staked to play The Big One for One Drop. It was never PokerNews' intention to appear as though it was endorsing Aldridge's attempt to raise money, or his method of doing so. The interview has since been removed from PokerNews. We apologize to the community and anyone who took offense to the piece for this oversight.
Illinois Launches Online Lottery Sales
Illinois made history over the weekend by becoming the first state to offer games of chance on the Internet. Illinois Lottery officials said the first online lottery ticket was purchased online Sunday morning, and by the end of the day more than $15,000 in tickets were sold.
The move come a little more than three months after the Department of Justice changed its position on the Wire Act of 1961. On Dec. 22, the DOJ released a response to Illinois and New York regarding the Wire Act's effect on intrastate sales of lottery tickets via the Internet. In the memo, the DOJ found that the Wire Act only applies to sports betting.
That statement has opened the door for states like Nevada, New Jersey, and California to introduce online poker bills with hopes of launching an online poker operation by the end of the year. Nevada approved online poker regulations last December, and more states are attempting to follow.
Frank Fahrenkopf, president of the American Gaming Association, recently told USA Today that at least 21 states and the District of Columbia are considering online lottery sales or other wagering such as poker. Washington, D.C., was the first jurisdiction to pass online poker legislation last year, but the measure was repealed in February.
Read more at the Las Vegas Review-Journal.
Seiver Joins PartyPoker Premier League V
The upcoming PartyPoker Premier League V will be part of the World Poker Tour Vienna festivities, so it's only fitting that a former WPT Championship winner has rounded out the star-studded lineup.
PartyPoker announced Monday that Scott Seiver has taken the final slot in the PartyPoker Premier League V in Vienna, Austria, from April 4 through 10. The 26-year-old pro, who won the WPT World Championship at Bellagio last year for $1,618,344, joins a loaded lineup of stars that includes Tom Dwan, Patrik Antonius, Vanessa Selbst, Sam Trickett, Tony G, Luke "FullFlush" Schwartz, Erik Seidel, Andy Frankenberger, Yevgeniy Timoshenko, Eugene Katchalov, Phil Laak and Daniel "Jungleman" Cates.
Seiver also has a World Series of Poker title on his resume and boasts more than $4 million in live tournament earnings during his career. Now, he'll have the opportunity to face off against many of the world's best players in the $125,000 buy-in event.
“I cannot wait to play the PartyPoker.com Premier League — I love the format and I am looking to go in and stir it up. Table talk is an important part of my game," Seiver told the PartyPoker Blog.
Read more at PokerNews.com.
PokerStars Releases SCOOP Schedule
The third annual Spring Championship of Online Poker (SCOOP) is less than two months away, and players can now get a glimpse of what the schedule will look like when the series kicks off on May 6.
PokerStars recently released a preliminary slate that features feature 38 events, each with three different buy-in ranges (low, medium and high), creating 114 tournaments for players to participate in. Among the variants on the schedule are no-limit hold'em tournaments, limit hold'em, pot-limit Omaha, no-limit Omaha, 8-Game mix, and Badugi.
The first event is scheduled to kick off on Sunday, May 6, and the series will likely culminate with a Main Event on Sunday, May 20. The Main Event features buy-ins of $82 (low), $700 (medium) and $7,500 (high). The schedule hasn’t been finalized, and PokerStars has requested that players send in questions and requests to [email protected].
Check out the schedule at PokerNews.com.
Bet24 Pro Team Gets Stronger
On Monday, Bet24 added four news members to its growing poker team, increasing the number of players on the roster to 20. Paul Foltyn, Michael Schuerpf, Stjepan Jokic, and Mads Åmot are the latest to join the team that already includes former WCOOP Main Event champ Thomas Pedersen, Stefan Mattsson, and team captain Jesper Hougaard.
"As a team captain, I couldn’t have picked a better group of diverse players like this with pro live players, sports stars, TV stars, online poker super stars and rising poker stars," said Hougaard, who signed with Bet24 last December.
Foltyn, who hails from the U.K., is arguably the biggest name to join Bet24's pro team since Hougaard. The 27-year-old has more than $4 million in online tournament earnings to go along with nearly $1 million in live winnings. In 2011, he won a PokerStars Spring Championship of Online Poker event for $188,000.
Read more about the Bet24 Pro Team at Bet24.com.
Welcome to Campione!
The PokerStars European Poker Tour is making its first stop in Campione. Sarah Grant takes a look around the small Italian village located in Switzerland.
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