The Nightly Turbo: More Full Tilt News, Duhamel Leads GPI Player of the Year, and More
After a frantic day of statements and speculation on Tuesday, the rumor mill calmed a bit on Wednesday. While we wait on more developments involving PokerStars and Full Tilt Poker, there's still plenty else going on around the poker world. We'll bring you those stories in this edition of the Nightly Turbo.
In Case You Missed It
Day 1a of the 2012 PokerStars.net Asia Pacific Poker Tour Cebu Main Event got under way on Wednesday. For a look at the action, check out our APPT recap.
We all know what poker players do on the felt, but what about in "normal" life? In the latest from the Off the Felt series, we talk to Brett Richey about prop bets, music, and more.
The richest tournament in Europe's history played down to a winner on Wednesday. Find out who took it down in our EPT Super High Roller recap from Monaco.
Super High Rollers are arguably the most compelling events on the tournament circuit. Lynn Gilmartin takes a look back at the first four Super High Rollers that have come and gone in the first four months of this year in the PokerNews Video Vault.
AGCC Calls Off FTP License Hearing
On Wednesday, the Alderney Gaming Control Commission (AGCC) announced that the Category 2 gaming application submitted by Full Tilt Poker subsidiary Orinic Limited has been withdrawn. The news comes one day after Groupe Bernard Tapie confirmed it had ended negotiations with the Department of Justice to purchase the assets of FTP.
GBT laywer Behnam Dayanim told PokerNews on Tuesday that the company was ready to re-launch Full Tilt Poker once negotiations with the DOJ were complete, but the deal fell through due to "unresolvable" legal complications. Now, PokerStars is allegedly in discussions to purchase its long-time rival for $750 million.
Last week, the AGCC set a public hearing for May 3 to discuss the Orinic Limited license application, but that hearing has been cancelled.
Read more at PokerNews.com.
Duhamel Occupies Top Spot in Global Poker Index Player of the Year
Andrew Badecker continued his climb up the Global Poker Index Player of the Year standings this week, but Team PokerStars Pro Jonathan Duhamel maintained the top spot for the 10th consecutive week. The award, which is presented by PokerNews, honors the player who has the strongest performance in live tournaments during the calendar year, according to the USA Today Global Poker Index point system.
Badecker moved up one spot to No. 2 in the rankings following a pair of deep runs at the Irish Open and the World Poker Tour Vienna Main Event this month. Samuel Chartier slid to No. 3, and Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier jumped 13 spots to No. 4 after claiming victory at the European Poker Tour Berlin High Roller for $301,992.
Also on the move this week was Anton Wigg, who added another win to his resume at EPT Berlin last week. Wigg won a no-limit hold'em turbo side event for $48,698. For the year, Wigg has five cashes for more than $150,000. He moved up 955 spots to No. 12 in this week's GPI POY rankings.
Here's a look at the Top 10 of the Global Poker Index Player of the Year:
GPI Player of the Year Top 10
| Place | Player | Total Score | Change in Rank |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Jonathan Duhamel | 595.68 | -- |
| 2 | Andrew Badecker | 420.24 | +1 |
| 3 | Samuel Chartier | 396.50 | -1 |
| 4 | Bertrand Grospellier | 392.48 | +13 |
| 5 | Steve O'Dwyer | 358.93 | +5 |
| 4 | Erik Cajelais | 342.87 | -2 |
| 5 | Bruno Lopes | 337.27 | -2 |
| 8 | Koen De Visscher | 333.69 | +7 |
| 9 | Eui Kim | 327.01 | -3 |
| 10 | Noah Schwartz | 326.05 | -3 |
For the full GPI Player of the Year standings, head on over to EpicPoker.com.
Major Changes for the European Poker Tour
If you weren't able to travel around to many of the 13 stops on the European Poker Tour this season, PokerStars has made the experience easier for Season 9. The world's leading online poker site announced Tuesday that it has trimmed the number of EPT stops from 13 to eight, but there will be even more poker on the slate because of partnerships with the UK & Ireland Poker Tour and the Estrellas Poker Tour.
Season 9 will feature stops in Barcelona, San Remo, Prague, the Bahamas, Deauville, London, Berlin, and Monaco. Each destination will include nearly two weeks of events, many of which will cater to mid-stakes players seeking competition against the game's top pros.
"We looked at every EPT season up until now and asked ourselves how we could make the tour even better for the players," said EPT President Edgar Stuchly. "In the end, every change comes down to making this a better tour for the people who make this tour what it is: our players."
The EPT will be offering more High Roller events in the upcoming season, including a €50,000 event in Barcelona, and €25,000 High Roller and €100,000 Super High Roller tournaments at the PCA in the Bahamas and Monaco.
For a full look at the EPT Season 9 schedule, check out the article at PokerNews.com.
Patrick de Koster Wins WPT Marbella
Patrick de Koster won the inaugural €1,650 World Poker Tour National Series Marbella Main Event on Tuesday evening. The 27-year-old from the Netherlands collected €150,000 after besting a field of 377, the largest ever for a WPT National Series Event.
De Koster defeated U.K. pro Peter Linton heads-up to win the tournament. The match lasted less than 30 minutes and ended when de Koster's AxKx held up against Lipton's Kx10x. Lipton earned 82,000 for second place.
“This is amazing,” said de Koster, whose previous biggest cash was for $44,000 at the 2010 WSOP Main Event. “I’ve been thinking for some time that I have wanted to buy a small apartment and now I am able to do this."
World Poker Tour National Series Marbella Results
| Place | Player | Prize |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Patrick de Koster | €150,000 |
| 2 | Peter Linton | €82,000 |
| 3 | Jose Carlos Lopez | €54,500 |
| 4 | Philip Porter | €38,800 |
| 5 | Inma Marti Torres | €29,000 |
| 6 | Antonio Gonzalez Miranda | €22,950 |
| 7 | Jose Luis Plaza | €17,200 |
| 8 | Daniel Keller | €12,850 |
For more information on the WPT National Series events, visit the World Poker Tour website.
Online Poker Traffic Report
On Monday, PokerScout.com released its online poker traffic rankings for the previous week. The tracking site reported a drop of 2.7 percent worldwide, with eight of the top 10 sites seeing a decline.
Now that we're more than a year removed from Black Friday, the iPoker Network and PartyPoker have joined PokerStars to form the new "Big Three" of online poker — although PokerStars is still in a class of its own. PokerScout reports that PokerStars has seen an 8 percent traffic increase since this time last year. According to PokerScout, a major reason for that growth is due to an increase in European customers after the debacle at Full Tilt Poker.
As for year-over-year traffic numbers, online poker has seen a worldwide decline of 19 percent since this time last year, much of that because of the falloff at Full Tilt Poker and the CEREUS Network. Some of the biggest gainers during the past year were the Winamax.fr (up 47 percent), 888poker (up 44 percent) and the Merge Gaming Network (up 27 percent).
Read the full report at PokerScout.com.
Welcome to Cebu!
The Asia Pacific Poker Tour (APPT) kicked off in the tropical island of Cebu on Wednesday. Sarah Grant explored the Shangri-La Mactan, the host resort of APPT Cebu.
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