The Nightly Turbo: Lederer Speaks With TwoPlusTwo, £100,000 London High Roller, & More
Howard Lederer had a follow-up interview with TwoPlusTwo on Wednesday to discuss more about what happened at Full Tilt Poker. We take a look at that and more in this edition of the Nightly Turbo.
In Case You Missed It
Didn't have time to watch every episode of The Lederer Files? Check out Part II of the recap written by Chad Holloway.
Roger Hairabedian won France's first World Series of Poker Europe bracelet on Wednesday. We cover that story and more in our Day 6 WSOP Europe recap.
Phil Collins made his second appearance on the Strategy with Kristy Podcast this week. Collins answered questions from listeners, including one about his former backer, Erick Lindgren.
Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier maintained his lead in the Global Poker Index this week. Mickey Doft breaks down the biggest movers in this week's GPI rankings.
The WSOP Europe has already provided some exciting moments during the first week. Chad Holloway looks at the Biggest Poker Hands from Week 1.
Howard Lederer Joins TwoPlusTwo PokerCast
After ending his 15-month silence in an exclusive interview with PokerNews this month, former Full Tilt Poker executive Howard Lederer joined the TwoPlusTwo PokerCast on Wednesday to answer follow-up questions from co-hosts Adam Schwartz and Mike Johnson, and the poker community.
Among the topics discussed during the four-hour phone interview were the lack of responsibility taken by the four-member board of directors; the role of CFO Gil Coronado in the financial downfall of the company; and the decision to continue owner distributions despite the knowledge of a nine-figure backlog.
Lederer also discusses the decision of owners not to return distributions after Black Friday. Lederer said the idea was brought up, but it was "never a possibility." Other than the $14 million Chris Ferguson lent to the company after Black Friday, not a single owner — including Lederer — offered to return distributions to the company.
"You have to realize we couldn't get members to return their loans," said Lederer. "So the idea of getting them to return their distributions was just a pipe dream."
Lederer said he considered repaying some of his dividends but didn't have a lot of cash on hand. When asked if he tried to liquidate assets, Lederer said he would've had problems trying to sell one of his seven homes in Las Vegas.
To listen to the full interview, visit TwoPlusTwo.com or iTunes.
High Roller in London
While most of the attention of the poker world was on the World Series of Poker Europe and World Championship of Online Poker this week, a £100,000 buy-in High Roller tournament was held at Aspinall's private gambling club in London. The tournament wasn't publicized by many media outlets, but several high-stakes regulars made their way to London for the costly event.
According to co-organizer Jim Preston, there were 20 players to start, creating a prize pool of close to £2,000,000. Phil Ivey, Sam Trickett, Philipp Gruissem, JC Tran, Jonathan Little, Nam Le and Erik Seidel were among the pros in the field. However, it was the illustrious Asian businessmen who emerged as the top performers
After all of the top pros hit the rail, Richard Yong and Paul Phua battled heads-up for the £1,000,000 top prize. Phua ultimately took it down, and Yong collected £570,000 for his runner-up result. Winfred Yu (£300,000) and Terje Augdal (£200,000) placed third and fourth, respectively, to round out the in-the-money finishers.
John Juanda sent out his congrats to Phua, Yong and Yu via Twitter on Wednesday:
Congrats to my good friends Paul Phua, Richard Yong& Winfred Yu for finishing 1,2,3 in £100K SHR in London. LOL@Macau Businessmen #Aspinalls
— John Juanda (@LuckBoxJuanda)
Oklahoma City Poker Ring Busted
An Oklahoma City man and his two sons are among 10 defendants named in an 81-count indictment for their involvement in a multimillion-dollar gambling ring.
The indictment, unsealed on Monday, alleges that Teddy Mitchell hosted illegal poker games at a residence in Oklahoma City, as well as acting as a bookmaker for sports betting. While Teddy Mitchell is accused of being the leader of the operation, all of the defendants are accused of being members of the illegal gambling business, including Teddy's sons, Dryden Ryley Mitchell and Billy Nick Mitchell.
The government seeks a forfeiture order for over $8.1 million in cash and property as the alleged proceeds from illegal activity. The Mitchells pleaded not guilty to the charges, which could lead to sentences of up to 20 years in prison and a $500,000 fine, as well as forfeiture of all proceeds from the illegal activity.
According to the Associated Press, the investigation of the illegal gambling operation began after Teddy Mitchell's wife was found beaten to death inside of the couple's home in November 2010. The crime remains unsolved, but the family — especially Teddy — has been under an "intense microscope since the killing took place.
"The murder case couldn't get solved, so they started coming after them for this stuff," said Dryden Mitchell's attorney, Billy Bock, to the Associated Press. "Julie gets killed and they kick the dust off this investigation."
The Associated Press has more.
Online Poker Traffic Report
PokerScout.com released its weekly traffic rankings on Monday. The online poker tracking site reported a drop of 1.4 percent, marking the second straight week of declines worldwide.
The top of the rankings hasn't changed for most of the past year, with PokerStars holding a sizable share of the market and the iPoker Network and PartyPoker battling for second. However, with PokerStars' confirmation that Full Tilt Poker will reopen during the first week of November, there could be a significant shift in the rankings. Full Tilt Poker ranked second in online poker traffic before the site was shut down last June, and it could land there again under the guidance of the world's leading online poker site.
The only movement in the top 10 of the traffic rankings this week was Ongame Network's jump from seventh to fifth place, forcing PokerStars.it and Winamax.fr down to sixth and seventh, respectively. Revolution Gaming, which had climbed as high as eighth in the rankings after rebranding from the Cake Poker Network this summer, is on the top 10 bubble behind PokerStars.es and PokerStars.fr.
Here's a look at the top 10 online poker rooms as of Thursday:
| Rank | Site | 7-Day Average (Real-money ring players) |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | PokerStars | 22,000 |
| 2 | iPoker | 2,800 |
| 3 | PartyPoker | 2,700 |
| 4 | 888Poker | 2,050 |
| 5 | Ongame Network | 1,640 |
| 6 | PokerStars.it | 1,600 |
| 7 | Winamax.fr | 1,600 |
| 8 | Microgaming | 1,420 |
| 9 | PokerStars.es | 1,360 |
| 10 | PokerStars.fr | 1,260 |
Check out the full report at PokerScout.com.
Calling the Clock: David Tuchman
David Tuchman is handling commentary for the WSOP Europe live stream this month. Sarah Grant turned the mic on him for the latest edition of Calling the Clock.
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