The Nightly Turbo: Phil Ivey Recruits Cole South, PPA Meets with Feds, and More
Phil Ivey is putting together an All-Star team of poker players and instructors for his new training site. Who is his latest recruit? We're covering that story, plus a hearing involving the PPA and Department of Justice, in this edition of the Nightly Turbo.
In Case You Missed It
Norbert Teufelberger, the co-CEO of online gambling giant bwin.party, was detained by Belgian authorities on Tuesday. Get the full story here at PokerNews.com.
How has the action been at Full Tilt Poker since its highly anticipated relaunch? Chad Holloway takes a look at the site's first week under new management.
The 2012 World Poker Tour bestbet Jacksonville Fall Poker Scramble played down to a final table on Monday. Noah Schwartz had a massive lead and was eyeing his first WPT title.
Should major poker tournaments implement a shot clock to keep the action moving faster? Rich Ryan touches on that topic and more in his latest Five Thoughts piece.
Poker pro Jen Harman is set to start in a new reality TV show on the TLC Network. Take a look at the teaser trailer in The Muck.
#TeamIvey Gets Stronger
Phil Ivey has recruited yet another star player, Cole South, to the team of professionals for his training site at IveyPoker.com.
South, a former Full Tilt Poker Red Pro, joins Ivey, Patrik Antonius, Jennifer Harman, and 2012 WSOP Main Event champion Greg Merson as instructors for IveyPoker. The site is intended to provide free coaching to players from able instructors who will “teach the world how to play better poker” through instructional videos.
South is one of the most recognized online players and is known for his hyperaggressive and creative style. He began playing poker online in November 2005 and ran up his bankroll to over $2 million in just two years by playing small stakes and transitioning to high-stakes games.
South has endured significant swings playing against top players like Tom Dwan, Illari Sahamies and Viktor Blom. He is known for winning $1.1 million in a single day, but also suffered significant seven-figure losses to Dwan and Sahamies.
Outside of his poker endeavors, South was part owner of Cardrunners.com and co-author of Let There Be Range, a particularly expensive poker e-book listed for $1,850 on Amazon.com. He has invested and managed a variety of businesses, including Draft Day, Expert Insight, Hold’em Manager, and even a documentary on the online poker boom.
IveyPoker.com is accepting sign-ups and is “in the final stages of developing an innovative social poker game that also provides poker training content from some of the world’s top pros.”
For more, visit IveyPoker.com.
PPA Meets With Department of Justice
While most of Full Tilt Poker's "Rest of World" players have gained access to their funds this month, the poker room's U.S. customers are still left wondering about how and when they will be repaid.
As part of the July deal with PokerStars, FTP's U.S. customers were promised that they would be repaid through a remission process. However, after more than three months since the deal, no plans for such a process have been announced. Naturally, some players are getting worried.
The Poker Player's Alliance is attempting to help. On Tuesday, the PPA was scheduled to meet with the DOJ to discuss the ongoing remission process. According to a TwoPlusTwo post by PPA member Patrick "Skallagram" Fleming, the PPA would be represented by Executive Director John Pappas and attorney Marc Zwillinger. The DOJ was said to have as many as four attorneys present at the meeting.
Fleming said that the PPA has been closely following the TwoPlus Two thread regarding the repayment process, and reassured players that recent concerns about inaccurate account histories will be relayed to the Department of Justice:
As to the latest issue of your account histories not reflecting late changes and uncashed withdrawals, That is a bit of a new development as, remember, we were all assured FTP had already done this fixing. Of course, lots of things we were "assured of" have not proven to be correct. I suppose it is possible the histories are not the same information given to the DOJ - meaning maybe FTP fixed it for the DOJ but not in the account history section for players. Either way, it is encouraging that we have account histories available and that for at least some the numbers are correct.
You can be assured that we will make the DOJ aware of this issue, try and find out the cause, and suggest ways to make sure players are protected.
Read the full thread at TwoPlusTwo.com.
Barzantny Sees Double in Bristol
A week ago, Germany's Wojtek Barzantny didn't have a major live poker tournament win on his résumé . Today, he has two.
Barzantny dominated the PokerStars UK & Ireland Poker Tour series in Bristol, winning two titles in five days at the Gala Harbourside Casino in Bristol. Last week, Barzantny won the UKIPT Online Main Event, defeating poker superstar Chris Moorman heads-up for the title and £77,000. And on Monday, Barzantny pulled double duty by emerging victorious in the UKIPT Bristol Main Event for £90,400.
Barzantny entered the Main Event final table with a massive chip lead and never looked back, eliminating four of the seven players en route to his victory. He held a 1.5-to-1 chip edge over James Greenwood when heads-up play began, and after three hours it was all over. On the final hand, Greenwood raised to 200,000 preflop and Barzantny called to see a 10♣6♣2♦ flop. Baratzny led out for 200,000, Greenwood moved all in for 1,725,000 and Baratzny called.
Greenwood: 7♠7♦
Baratzny: 10♠8♣
Baratzny was out in front with top pair, and the 5♦ turn and 9♣ river secured his second UKIPT victory in a week. According to the PokerStars Blog, Barzantny’s chances of a double victory in Bristol were around 340,000-to-1, but he was able to defy the odds and etch his name in the UKIPT record books.
Here's a look at the final results of the UKIPT Bristol Main Event final table:
| Place | Player | Prize |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Wojtek Barzantny | £90,400 |
| 2 | James Greenwood | £54,500 |
| 3 | Robert Bull | £33,300 |
| 4 | Anthony Forsyth-Forrest | £24,400 |
| 5 | Amanda Sidark | £19,000 |
| 6 | Craig Goddard | £15,100 |
| 7 | Niall Murray | £11,600 |
| 8 | Jonathan Prince | £8,800 |
For an extensive recap of the final table, check out the PokerStars Blog.
Carroll Wins HPT Title
The Heartland Poker Tour's Main Event at the Palms Casino Resort in Las Vegas came to a close on Monday. The event saw an impressive collection of pros hit the felt, including David Williams, Gavin Smith, Annette Obrestad, David Baker, and October Niner Jeremy Ausmus. But it was hometown poker pro James Carroll who won his first HPT title and the $104,253 top prize.
Carroll, a regular in high-stakes tournaments around Vegas, defeated a tough final table that included a WSOP bracelet winner (Randy Ohel), a World Poker Tour winner (Trevor Pope), and an Aussie Millions Main Event final tablist (Michael Ryan). For the win, Carroll collected his largest cash ever in a live event.
The 26-year-old began the six-handed televised final table as the short stack, but told the HPT film crew that he still liked his chances before play began. He battled his way up from the bottom, busting three players at the final table along the way, and ultimately defeated Ryan for the title on hand No. 114. With the blinds at 25,000/50,000 and a 5,000 ante, Ryan raised to 225,000 and Carroll re-raised to put Ryan all-in. Ryan called with A♠10♥ but was in bad shape against Carroll's A♣K♦. The 9♦4♦2♣9♣A♣ board provided no help for Ryan, and Carroll collected his first live title since winning a preliminary event at the WPT Championship in Las Vegas earlier this year.
Here's a look at the final table results of the HPT Palms Main Event:
| Place | Player | Prize |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | James Carroll | $104,253 |
| 2 | Michael Ryan | $58,669 |
| 3 | Vic Gupta | $37,818 |
| 4 | Trevor Pope | $32,707 |
| 5 | Randy Ohel | $25,144 |
| 6 | Dan Alspach | $20,238 |
For more on the HPT event at the Palms, visit HPTPoker.com.
Full Tilt Poker's Traffic Impact
Full Tilt Poker relaunched on Nov. 6 and in just one week has generated enough traffic to move into second place behind sister site PokerStars. As of Tuesday afternoon, around 8,000 players were sitting at real-money cash games on the site, slightly lower than the 9,000 average players before the site was forced to shut down last June.
Overall, online poker traffic jolted from the return of FTP, jumping 10 percent worldwide last week with Full Tilt contributing traffic on just five of the seven days. So far, the site has averaged 8,500 cash game players — nearly triple that of iPoker (3rd place) or PartyPoker (4th place).
It appears, though, that players have not been drawn away from competitors, which implies the players returning to FTP are those who took the 16-month absence since Black Friday. PokerScout.com estimates that Full Tilt’s return has reactivated over 400,000 unique online poker players.
Here's a look at FTP's placement among the top 10 online poker rooms as of Tuesday:
| Rank | Site | 7-Day Average (Real-money ring players) |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | PokerStars | 22,200 |
| 2 | Full Tilt Poker | 8,400 |
| 3 | iPoker | 2,900 |
| 4 | PartyPoker | 2,800 |
| 5 | 888Poker | 2,000 |
| 6 | PokerStars.it | 1,900 |
| 7 | PokerStars.es | 1,840 |
| 8 | Winamax.fr | 1,680 |
| 9 | Ongame | 1,580 |
| 10 | Micrograming | 1,480 |
Check out the full report at PokerScout.com.
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