The Nightly Turbo: $800,000 Bad Beat Jackpot Winner, GPI Player of the Year, and More
Looking for the day's biggest poker stories? You've come to the right place! In this edition of the Nightly Turbo, we're covering a massive bad beat jackpot in Atlantic City, a new leader in the Global Poker Index Player of the Year race, and more.
In Case You Missed It
Six players reached the final table of the World Poker Tour Parx Open Poker Classic on Tuesday. Find out who was leading the way in our WPT recap.
Did you miss ESPN's coverage of the World Series of Poker on Tuesday night? Get caught up in our WSOP on ESPN recap.
The WPT is making its first appearance at Parx Casino this week. The PokerNews Podcast crew caught up with several players who participated in the event, including Mike Sexton, Matt Glantz, Shaun Deeb, Allen Kessler, Allen Bari, and Chris Klodnicki.
Is your online poker grind causing wrist pain? Lynn Gilmartin offers some advice on how to prevent Carpal Tunnel Syndrome.
New Record in Atlantic City
Atlantic City's biggest bad beat jackpot ever was paid out across Caesars Entertainment's four properties on Monday.
More than 400 players shared nearly $787,320 at the Caesars Atlantic City, Bally’s Atlantic City, Harrah’s Resort Atlantic City, and Showboat Atlantic City properties. The biggest winner, Narong Sae Whited, collected $237,154 after running quad nines into the king-high straight flush of Nick Angelakopoulos. The remainder of the jackpot was evenly split among the other 409 players, with each receiving $958.
Here's a pic of the momentous hand courtesy of the Total AC Poker Facebook page:
Caesars' Bad Beat Jackpot in Atlantic City had gone untouched since March 1, 2012, when a winning table shared $281,000. The previous record was $672,115.
“Record-setting jackpots were made to be won,” Don Marrandino, Caesars’ eastern division president, said in a statement.
Caesars' shared Bad Beat Jackpot in AC has been reset and already stands at more than $400,000 as of Tuesday, according to a Caesars spokesperson. The minimum losing bad-beat hand starts at four kings will be lowered every other week by one four of a kind ranking until it reaches four deuces.
Press of Atlantic City has more.
You Mad?
German poker pro "Mad" Marvin Rettenmaier is the new leader in the Global Poker Index Player of the Year standings following a brilliant run on the World Poker Tour.
Rettenmaier's victory at the World Poker Tour Merit Cyprus Classic last week allowed him to pass David "ODB" Baker for the top spot in the rankings. Rettenmaier also won the WPT World Championship in May, after which to eclipse $3 million in lifetime tournament cashes. His recent success has given him a comfortable lead in the Player of the Year race heading into the fall schedule.
Erik Cajelais, who also made the final table of the WPT Merit Cyprus Classic, climbed six spots to No. 5 in this week's GPI Player of the Year standings. The Canadian pro also took fourth in the WPT Bay 101 Shooting Star Main Event in March for $256,300 and finished runner-up in the $2,500 Mixed Hold'em event at the World Series of Poker ($129,766).
Here's a look at the Top 10 of the Global Poker Index Player of the Year standings:
| Place | Player | Total Score | Change in Rank |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Marvin Rettenmaier | 802.42 | +1 |
| 2 | David Baker | 715.90 | -1 |
| 3 | Jonathan Duhamel | 668.79 | -- |
| 4 | Dan Smith | 662.47 | -- |
| 5 | Erik Cajelais | 639.53 | +6 |
| 6 | Kyle Julius | 637.63 | -1 |
| 7 | Phil Ivey | 629.12 | -1 |
| 8 | Daniel Negreanu | 607.28 | -1 |
| 9 | Andrew Lichtenberger | 605.49 | -1 |
| 10 | Tommy Vedes | 598.40 | -1 |
The Global Poker Index Player of the Year, 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.
For the full GPI Player of the Year standings, head on over to GlobalPokerIndex.com.
Poker Approved in Maryland
Maryland officials have passed a measure to allow poker and other table games in casinos across the state. The House of Delegates passed the bill 71-58 late Tuesday night, and the bill made its way through the Senate by a vote of 32-14 on Wednesday morning.
Lawmakers also approved the development of a Las Vegas-style hotel-casino property near Washington, D.C. The property, which will likely be run by MGM Resorts International, will be located at the National Harbor waterfront complex in Prince George’s County and feature 250 table games, 4,500 slot machines, retail outlets, restaurants and a luxury hotel. State legislative leaders signed off on MGM's plans in June.
Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley signed the bill into law Wednesday afternoon. O'Malley has been a major supporter of the measure, stating publicly that the state needs to create jobs and remain competitive with other states.
Read more at the Washington Post.
DeepStacks Expands
The DeepStacks Poker Tour is in the middle of its first season on North American soil, but the tour is already preparing for international expansion in 2013.
On Wednesday, DeepStacks announced that it has teamed up with the Players Poker Championship (PPC) to host a series of international poker tournaments beginning in Aruba next May. The poker festival will be highlighted by the $2,500 buy-in DeepStacks Poker Tour PPC-Aruba Main Event, which will run from May 6 through 9 at the Westin Resort and Casino. A handful of DeepStack Pros are already confirmed for the tournament, including Michael Mizrachi, Mike Matusow, Tristan Wade and Randal Flowers.
"Adding the PPC as a key strategic partner allows us to expand international operations immediately,” said DeepStacks CEO Chris Torina. "Aruba is one of the most beautiful locations in the world, and bringing the DeepStacks Poker Tour there shows we are serious about offering the very best in tournament poker.”
For more, read the story here at PokerNews.com.
Online Poker Traffic Report
PokerScout.com released its weekly traffic rankings on Monday. The online poker tracking site reported a drop of less than 0.1 percent, enough to mark the third straight week of declines worldwide.
We're expecting to see that downward trend end next week. PokerStars has launched its 85 Billionth Hand promotion, which will see more than 300 players collect a share of up to $1 million in the coming days. Players have flooded the ring game tables during similar promotions in the past as the lion's share of the Mega Milestone hand will earn one lucky player at least $20,000.
The big story at PartyPoker last week was the launch of its own version of fast-fold poker, called FastForward. The new feature is still in real-money beta testing, which means it likely hasn't had an effect on traffic numbers quite yet, but PokerScout believes that FastForward may struggle to compete with PokerStars' Zoom Poker and Full Tilt Poker's Rush Poker once the site is relaunched within the next three months.
Here's a look at the top 10 online poker rooms as of Wednesday:
| Rank | Site | 7-Day Average (Real-money ring players) |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | PokerStars | 21,600 |
| 2 | iPoker | 2,650 |
| 3 | PartyPoker | 2,350 |
| 4 | 888Poker | 1,900 |
| 5 | PokerStars.it | 1,620 |
| 6 | Ongame Network | 1,560 |
| 7 | Winamax.fr | 1,300 |
| 8 | PokerStars.fr | 1,220 |
| 9 | Revolution Gaming | 1,200 |
| 10 | Microgaming | 1,080 |
As for year-over-year numbers, online poker has dipped 23 percent since August 2011. PokerStars still maintains a sizable lead over the competition despite dropping 23 percent over the past year, and the iPoker Network (down 37%) and PartyPoker (down 44%) have struggled to keep pace. Meanwhile, Revolution Gaming (up 56%) continues to see growth, especially after the network was rebranded from the Cake Poker Network.
Check out the full report at PokerScout.com.
The Return of Tony G
Tony G skipped the entire World Series of Poker because of his responsibilities with the Lithuanian basketball team. But now that the London Olympic Games are over, Tony is recommitting himself to poker. In his blog at PartyPoker.com on Wednesday, Tony said he plans to make his return at the WPT Grand Prix de Paris, where he's made two final tables in the past.
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