AC Poker Blog

Last Thursday was Spoon’s birthday as he joined the ranks of the other 33′ers amongst the group so we planned a day of poker followed by a night of debauchery but as you’ll learn the poker stretched long into the night.

We headed to Bally’s Billy’s Poker Room (confusing I know) for the 1PM $55 daily we got in just a few hands into the second level and on the first hand I would learn a new poker rule. I looked down at JJ in early position and with the levels at 50-100 I intended to raise to 500 so I threw out one light blue chip without a word. The player next to me says that’s a call and puts in a 100 chip… I’m like no that’s an obvs raise the floor is called and the decision is not in my favor it’s ruled a call and I promptly lose 15% of starting stack on the hand in tilty fashion. Fast forward to a few hands later I had won a hand or three and managed to bump my stack up over the starting amount by a bit. I look down to A8o in middle position I throw out a healthy raise and find just one caller. We’ll call him Cool Watch well because he had a really cool watch. I hit the ace on the flop and he called me down. I put him on the Queen which had also hit the flop. So after he min raised my opener on the turn I shoved back all in. I was right, sorta. He had the Queen alright but he also had the Jack and I was down to just a handful of outs but in a symbol of the type of day it would be for me before I could rise up from my seat the 8 fell on the river an I would rake in the large pot. Shortly after Spoons would bust but I played better after his departure. A few levels later at the key point in the tourney where the escalation of the blinds leaves few players with even 20BB’s in their stack. I would pick up a few big hands and win a few big pots. As the players dwindled a six way chop was discussed with one guy willing to take a bit less to sign for first. Deal. +216 for the day so far.

Onto the Debauchery…

Ricky arrived while I was finishing up at the table and we checked in to the room … Brother Bob also arrived and just wow those are the best sunglasses I’ve ever seen. Much of the time here was spent drinking more Miller Lites and me convincing Spoons to enter the 7:00 at Bally’s with me. I laid out the stats:

“Spoon’s Do you realize that I cash in 80% of the tourneys that we both enter in AC … You’re like my tourney wing man bro!”

“…But how many of those have I cashed in…”

“Good Point”

Shortly after I convinced ala mode that we should hit the Beach Bar and then play the Bally’s … We pre-regged the tourney at 6:20 and scooted to the boardwalk. The Beach Bar was quick and dirty a round of birthday Jaeger Bombs followed by something fruity and liquory and I was feeling fantastic tuned up and ready to donate.

The Night Tourney

Showed up at 7:07 and caught an earful from the floor guy. I noticed that while it was early some damage had been done to a few players at the table but the player to my left had close to double his starting stack. Immediately it was obvious to the other players that I was having a good time that night. It seemed the short stacks wanted to tangle but I would look down at an A8 and 88 against their shoves and I quickly called off without much thought and busted them both. I’m not sure exactly how much I had to start this hand but it went something like this I looked at K5s in the SB I complete and the BB checks. Flop came out 10 J Q with one spade checked by both of us to the turn and blank spade arrives I fire out and the player to my left re-raised all in. I had a decision here but once I looked at my stack and realized I would still have bout 8k left if I lost … but the chance to rake in a huge pot if I flushed out on the river was too great. I called. He showed KJo so my percentages where skewed here I really needed the spade on the river and it came. I raked in another huge pot. I shook the players hand counted the stack (77k at 400-800) and said thank you to Mei.

What happened in the few levels after was what my good friend James used to describe as shotgun poker. I had 77k no one else at the table had more than 15k so I began opening to 5.5k then 6.5k then 7.5k … no callers… “he’s just playing his stack” said one player. Maybe I was but I had a lot of chips even more moxy and I was feeling bullet proof. During this time Mei left the table and was replaced by Yu. In my jovial state of mind it was inevitable what was to happen next.

Me and you and you and me
blah blah blah blah blah blah blah
blah blah blah blah blah blah blah
So happy together

- The Turtles

So now I’m drinking and I’m humming and singing this song as I’m 5,6,7x open raising pots left and right. I doubled up one player busted a few more and now we’re down to around 18 and two tables and Spoons is still in the game and we’re at the same table separated by just one older gent.

Now I’m just thinking the main goal here now is for both me and Spoons to cash and then for us to take this guy to the nudie. So I tighten up my game a bit both for that reason and that I really haven’t seen much of these players but I know they’ve at least caught a glimpse of what I had been up to. Just before the break I got into a bad spot and bluffed off a third of my stack with bottom pair. sigh. We left on the ten minute break to hit up the room and recover. I played my motivational song (Alan Parsons Project Sirius) during the break and regained my focus. Spoons was taking too long and I left him in the room to get back to the tourney. When I got there only one table was left and play was paused.

Kenneth

The new dealer was Kenneth. I was next to him in the 1 seat. I said hi. He grumbled. I would quickly learn that he didn’t like me much. He wasn’t Mei or Yu… I was card dead for a while with 10 players left play had gotten much tighter and the other players openly root for the all-in player to depart. During this time there’s one guy with just one orange (1k) chip left while the blinds where 4k-8k… one would depart before him… and another… and when he left we where down to 7 with just 5 scheduled to get paid and two to get played. Spoons is left but he’s short stacked along with the nice older lady in Seat 6 in the same boat. I’ve got some more chips than both of them but not much more and the blinds are now up to 5k-10k no one has any more than 18BB — it’s a shove fest.

The Double Bubble

I’m all in favor of a chop here even a chip chop but there’s no consensus among the remaining players for that so I proposed a double bubble. $10 each to the double bubble next two players to double bubble get knocked out. Apparently I mentioned it too many times for Kenneth’s liking and he says to me: “Ok that’s enough!” … I was taken aback but I realize I can be a bit of a repeater so I’d like to apologize Kenneth if I offended in any way. I meant no harm. So play dragged on as no one wanted to go out in 7th…

The lady goes in with just 2.5BB remaining but she has bullets and holds but things don’t improve much for her and a round later I pick up QQ on her BB and she calls my all-in. Her Ace never came and she would go out in 7th. Shortly after we agree to a $10 button for 6th place and the blinds jump to 10k-20k it’s the SB for Spoons and he’s only got 5k more. I look down at 83o he had some weak Ace. I flopped two pair and bust my wingman on his Birthday with two rags. Sorry Bro.

In the Money

Shortly after Spoons made his exit the other older gent would bust in 5th place and we’re down to 4 players. Now to foreshadow my thinking going into this hand; as much aggressive shotgun poker as I had played that day I really never showed down any rags really… well besides that 83o (Sorry again). So I’m on the BB with 20k of mine in the pot the chip leader folds UTG and the BTN calls SB calls also so there’s 60k in I have 75k behind and look down to 56s and I barely think about it for 10 seconds before I shove in. Button calls me pretty quick and he’s much stronger than I thought with A10o … I lose the pot and I’m down to just one chip and 5k. Gone on the next hand with no prayers answered +161 for the evening tourney.

I was debating my play there for a minute but in the end it was shove there with 75k or next hand with 55k or soon after with even lesser it was a shove fest and I had been on the upper end of it all day before then so I couldn’t be disappointed really. That’s Poker! Nice hand there Adam I hope you went on to win that. I went on to drink more Miller Lites and win bucks on penny slots. Ah yea.

Jason Deutsch has playing online since 2008 racking up over 500k in career earnings and while I was covering the Borgata Spring Poker Open last week I had the pleasure of meeting Jason. After he finished the event in 5th place bringing in over 60k for that effort he agreed to answer a few questions for the readers of the blog so without any further delay here it is.

ACPB:  You’ve been an accomplished player raking in the MTT’s since mid 2008 how has the Black Friday shutdown affected you?

JD: The shutdown has affected my life greatly. I have been winning consistently at HSMTTs for over 3 years now, and have been planning on playing professionally for the foreseeable future. Life without online poker is going to be tough for a lot of reasons, but mostly due to not having the income source that I’ve depended on.

ACPB:  Being younger and recently wrapping up college had you been considering poker as a possible career path?  Does the recent turn of events regarding online play change you mind about things?

JD: Actually, I graduated last May from the University of Delaware with a degree in Marketing (I never got around to changing my e-mail address). I had decided last summer I was going to stick with poker for as long as it was going well, because I surely would never make the kind of money in a “regular” job as I was making playing poker (at least not in the beginning). The recent turn of events has me thinking a lot about my future. Honestly, I can’t ever see becoming a “live-pro”. As much as I love poker, I haven’t had nearly the success live as I have online, and frankly I just don’t enjoy it as much. Grinding out cash and tournaments and being in a casino day after day seems pretty miserable to me.

ACPB:   Was this the longest you’ve lasted in a Multi-Day Championship event?  What’s it like to go until 3 AM and then be right back at the table that morning at 11 AM?

JD: Yeah, this is the longest I’ve played in a single live tournament. The longest before this was the 2010 WSOP main event, in which I busted on Day 3—without cashing. The days were really tough, especially the final day. I only got about 4 hours of sleep the night before, and had already extended my stay an extra night regardless of how I ended up finishing…..I had a lot of sleep to catch up on when it was over.

ACPB: What’s it like playing for 276k with your Mom and someone who has a piece of your action hanging out right behind you?

JD: The final table was really exciting for me. My live results so far have been terrible, and I really needed to make a big final table one of these days to keep my confidence up, which is a crucial part of tournament play. Without confidence in your game, it’s impossible to win these things. As far as the money was concerned, yeah, 276k is a lot of money. But, honestly I wasn’t really nervous at all. I have been at major online final tables before where the money was similar, so mostly I was just excited about being at a live tournament, with people watching, news coverage, picture galleries.

I haven’t been backed since last November, but I assume you are speaking about Christian Harder watching behind me. I sold Christian a percentage, so he was there sweating out his piece, but we are good friends anyway so he would just be there to support me. Having my mother there was great—it was the first time she had ever seen me at a final table of a live tournament. She was pretty nervous the entire time, so she had trouble sitting through all of it. I wouldn’t be here today without the support of my family, so it means a lot to me that she was there. My father also is very supportive, he was texting me constantly for updates.

ACPB:  How do you feel knowing that your Mom is following me on twitter and not you?

JD: Haha, I didn’t even know my mom was on twitter—but my guess is she’ll start following me soon. My goal with twitter is to one-day surpass the amount of followers of Christian Harder–@realcharder30 for all you reading at home.

ACPB: I’d like to help you out with this! Follow Jason on Twitter @MrPerfekt

ACPB:  You had a good sized chip stack there for a while at the Final Table.  Can you pin point any specific hands that helped you build up that stack?

JD: I luck-boxed pretty hard at the final table. With 9 left, Matt Matros shoved over 20big blinds over my open raise with A7s, and ran into my pocket Aces—he turned a flush draw, but I held. Also with 7 left, Bartley Dowling shoved about 18big blinds from late position, and I was in the blind with pocket Jacks….I flopped a full house there. After that I had a big stack and just started taking small pot after small pot, choosing my spots carefully.

ACPB:  So let’s talk about the biggest hand of the tourney when you tangled with Russell holding a pair and a flush draw and looking to connect on the river for mad stacks…  but that never happened… Can you break down your thinking a bit throughout that hand?

JD: I haven’t stopped thinking about this one for three days now, lol. Russell opened under-the-gun to 135k, and I was in the SB with J7hh. I thought it was a good spot for him to pick on the short-stacked tight BB, so I decided to 3bet to take the pot down. I made it 330k and he called. I flopped gin when it came 7x3h2h, and hoped I could get the money in right there. I bet 325k hoping to induce somehow, but he just called. The 4x turn made things difficult. I honestly was not sure what the best plan of attack was, but I elected to check. Russell bet 525k, leaving about 1.6mil behind. I decided to go all in, knowing that he would have to fold his air, and hoping maybe he would fold a hand like 88-TT, thinking I had a big pair like AA. Russell made a very good call with pocket TT, and I bricked my 14 outs (32% equity) to cripple me and give Russell the ~6 million chip pot. In retrospect, check/calling the turn was probably the best play.

ACPB:  Have you thought about what the next stop on the tournament trail will be?

My next stop on the tournament trail is Vegas this summer for the WSOP. I have a house rented out with 3 very good poker friends—Christian “charder30” Harder, 2010 WSOP bracelet winner Shawn “jordankickz” Busse, and Eric “Avril Sharapova” Ladny. We are all close friends and they are all great players so I’m looking forward to being around them and learning from them. I will be there for the duration of the WSOP I’m planning on playing about 20 bracelet events, and some Venetian events, and hopefully doing a lot better than last year—where I mincashed in one tournament out of 23 played.

ACPB: Thanks for taking the time to answer a few questions we hope to see you putting on a championship bracelet in the upcoming WSOP starting in just a few weeks.

We’re now down to just 10 players remaining in the hunt for the top prize of over 270k. Having fun today railing met some twitter folks today in the stands @onafolddraw and @Keon_S who are here sweating their boy from Maryland Adam Cook. He’s at around 800k as we move to the final table. We’ll see what happens as there’s much more action yet to come this evening but I like this kid’s chances. Stacking a lot of chips and felting opponents all afternoon is Jason Deutsch (just found him on twitter @MrPerfekt) he’s up around 2.3M and he may be the chip leader at the moment. He’s being sweated by Christian Harder… well not so much really… Mr. Harder has been getting a massage for the last hour over in the corner but I’m sure he’s sending his special positive vibes to his buddy Jason.

I’ll keep this post updated throughout the evening as the players exit to the cashier’s window. For more frequent updates follow me on twitter here.

Update 4/27 – 7:55 – The bust-outs are coming fast and furious now with 3 players eliminated in the first 15 minutes of play.

Hitting the rail:

10th Matt Matros $14092
9th Aaron Overton $21680
8th Salah Siraj $31435

Update 4/27 – 8:41 – Still seven players left in the hunt.

1 – David Stefanski
2 – Jason Deutsch
3 – Alex Bolotin
5 – Russell Crane
6 – Adam Cook
8 – Bartley Dowling
10 – Adam Levitan

Update 4/27 – 10:30 – Now down to 5 players at the final table. The tournament director is now removing the 1k chips from play.

Here’s who have joined us amongst the railbirds:

7th Bart Dowling $41191
6th Adam Levitan $51489

Some big hands in that level most notably when Adam Cook crippled Adam Levitan when he made trip Aces on the turn. Some chip counts…

2.68 million average stacks now

Jason Deutsch 4m
Adam Cook 2.5
Russell Crane
Alex Bolotin
David Stefanski

unknown will update shortly… player on break now restarting 4 minutes

Update 4/27 – 11:55

Down to four players left as the players take another 10 minute break now. A huge hand in the prior round led to the exit of Jason Deutsch. On the turn with two hearts on the board Russell Crane shoved the turn Deutsch insti-called needing a heart to hit his flush but one never came on the river and Russell’s pocket tens would hold up. That made Russell the new chip leader and left Deutsch crippled. His demise would come at the hands of David Stefanski who shoved on Jason’s big blind holding just Q2o he was ahead of the 10 5 offsuit for Deutsch who would see it all turn to black when a Queen hit the flop and the river.

5th Jason Duetsch $61787

So we’re left with four now.

Chip counts soon to follow.

Update 4/28 – 12:22

Wow that was fast as we came back from break Russell continued his well timed heater busting 2 players in 3 hands.

4th David Stefanski $78588
3rd Alex Bolotin $97558

On the second hand of heads up play Adam looked 99 while Russell picked up pocket queens. All the chips went in pre-flop and the board would bring no help for the over-paired Adam. He finishes in second good for $159886 and the winner Russell Crane takes the top prize of $276949.

Congrats to Russell Adam and all the final table players we had the pleasure of watching grind it out today. Congrats fellas!

Update 4/28 – 2:50

Added some links to the text here. Full recap of the days action to come later today!

The field of 165 players from Tuesday was by the end of play at nearly 3AM Wednesday reduced to just 25 players left. Among those still in the hunt are Day 2 chip leader Mark Wahba (468k), Matt Glantz (800k), Adam Cook (601k), Billy Gazes (467k), and our chip leader at the end of Day 2 Ryan Eriquezzo (997k). Check here for the full list of chip counts as we head into Day 3 beginning at 11 AM today.

Adam Cook had emerged as a player to be reckoned with during Day 2. He was piling up chips and felting opponents all day as he hovered near the chip lead thru most of the evening, but after midnight things went awry a bit for the Maryland player as he tweeted:

He’s still in the middle of the pack with 600k and many flops to be seen here on Wednesday. Good Luck on Wednesday Adam. Looking for him on twitter? You can follow Adam here @AdamNCook not sure if anyone else left in the field is a twitterer… thought I might have found chip leader Ryan Eriquezzo yesterday but that was confirmed as not the Ryan we’re looking for by @Kaelaine yesterday. If there are any other players left in the field who are on twitter I’ll be sure to find and follow them today.

The action resumes at 11AM today… which means I am running late as per usual… hope to be down there by 1 PM to bring you the action live from the Borgata Poker Room.

I will be live tweeting and Live Blogging so stay tuned to acpokerblog.com for all the latest!

After the split start the fields merge on Tuesday at 11 AM. 42 survived day Day 1A while 123 would survive to from Day 1B to reach Day 2 of the championship event. Creating a group of 165 players in search of the top prize of over 270k. Only 45 however will get paid so there’s many unhappy eliminations to come on Tuesday. I will be down at the Borgata live blogging Day 3 and 4 on Wednesday and Thursday this week to bring you closer to the felt.

The chip leader to start Day 2 is Mark Wahba with 345k. He’s won here recently taking an event at the Winter Poker Open for 14k back in February. Good Luck today Mark there’s a number of sharks still left in the water.

Among those we’re following:

Ryan Eriquezzo 176k
Matthew Glantz 170k
Daniel Buzgon 149k
Paul Volpe 145k
Jeff Gross 75,500

I’ll do my best to bring some updates to you from the twittersphere in this post all day today (refresh often; not too often tho!) so make sure to follow @acpokerblog and also be sure to stay locked to the Borgata SPO blog for all the latest they do a great job there!

Getting back to the grind here. News coming in from the Borgata today that today’s Event 13 field will reach well over 1000 players and feature a 40k top prize. Not too bad for a $200 buy-in event! Let’s take a look at some the week’s prior action.

Event 6 – $1090 No Limit Hold ‘Em

The first large buy-in event of the series would bring out 90 runners to the Borgata Poker Room at the final table three young bucks would battle it out for the top prize of $30,555 but James Casement Jr. would continue his string of strong showings and walk away with the victory. Alex Torres would finish 2nd good for $16,587 and local player Jennifer So would take 3rd good for $10,476 while recording just her third major tournament cash. Here’s the full results.

Event 7 – $350 No Limit Hold ‘Em (Big Stack)

This one would be a test of endurance starting Saturday at noon and not wrapping up until 7 AM on Sunday the winner would truly deserve the top prize of $38,166. Outlasting 440 players en route to the victory Patricia Barsanti-Chou should not be unfamiliar to regular readers of the blog. She’s found success in AC many times before most recently before this event she had taken 4th in the WSOP Circuit at Harrah’s Event 2. Congrats on the win Patty! Take a look here for the full list of winners.

Event 8 – Recap $450 Deep Stack Double Play No Limit Hold ‘Em

477 total entries over a split day one inflated the prize pool to $190,800 with a top prize of $47,287 but when it was all over New York player Alek Givotovsky would be the winner. He’s a new face on the circuit with just 3 cashes and all them coming in 2011. As always we’ll keep an eye on him. Congrats on the win Alek. Check here for all the winners.

Event 9 – $350 Omaha H/L 8B

The Omaha Hi/Lo 8 or Better would bring 120 players to the Borgata Poker Room creating a 36k prize pool to go to battle over. A few notables would take part in this one with Allen Kessler and Chris Reslock in the field. Only Kessler would cash finishing in 9th place. In the end Carlos Santos would navigate through this skilled field to emerge victorious and he’ll bring home $10,476 for the win. Check here for the full list of winners.

Event 10 – $350 No Limit Hold ‘Em

This one attracted 174 entries and would last 14 and ½ hours when all the dust had settled Craig Hunkele from Pennsylvania would outlast another player from his home state Josh Weizer in a heads up battle that tested the endurance of both players. Craig records just his third major tournament cash winning $15,190 while the online pro Josh wins $8,354 and is adjusting to playing poker while not wearing his jammies after last weeks crackdown. Congrats on the big win Craig. Check here for the full list of winners.

Event 11 – $350 HOSE

Many notables entered this one hoping to flex their mixed game chops at the Borgata Poker Room including Allen Kessler, Chris Reslock and John D’Agostino none of them however would visit the cashiers window with only 9 of the original 74 runners to get that privilege. When things wrapped up Dave Stann would walk away with the trophy and $7,537 after the aforementioned visit was complete. He’s another online pro who decided to take exile in a poker room near you, but in his case, he decided to hop on a plane as the California player told the Borgata Blog:

After the drama of black Friday, I wanted to leave L.A. and get as far away from it as possible

Well nice way to do that Dave. Congrats on the win! Here’s the full list of winners.

Event 12 – $200 Big Stack No Limit Hold ‘Em

When the count was finished there would be 990 Entries for this Double Entry Event that began at 11am on Wednesday and wouldn’t conclude until 6:30AM the next morning but only 90 players would get paid. Many big names would take a shot in this one but none would cash. In this test of endurance the one who would wind up as the winner was running on 2 hours sleep another New York player, this time from western part of the state Buffalo, James Morgan would take home $36,731 for the win. I hope you got some rest James! Congrats on the win! Here’s the full list of winners.

Event 13 – $230 Double Stack Semi Turbo No Limit

The double entry format wound up with 288 entries creating a $57,600 prize pool with a top prize of $15,644 and the Borgata regs came out in force. Finishing in 8th place Michael McGuinness (brother of JohnMcG) would make a deep final table run but he fell short of his ultimate goal of the top prize. He would collect $1,676 for his effort. When it was all said and done Wisconsin player Aaron Dillard would claim the trophy and the first prize money $15,644. Congrats on the victory! Here’s the full list of winners.

Event 14 – Seniors event

124 Seniors showed up at the Borgata Poker Room to build a $37,200 prize pool. Toms River native Bob Polunas would finish in second place cashing for $5,954 but the winner in the end would be Pennsylvania player Harvey Layton and he would bring home the trophy and the $10,826 top prize recording his second major tournament cash. Check here for the full list of winners.

Started this post on Saturday but with all the bad/sad news in the online poker world since Friday it just kept getting pushed to the back burner. We’ve said enough about all that here for now as not much has changed since my last post on the Black Friday events. So let’s move on here and catch up on the Brick Mortars scene again. Many thanks to the great folks blogging it out over on the Borgata’s official Spring Poker Open blog here as they’re bringing the updates to us with the quickness all day all night and into the morning.

Event 1 – $350 No Limit DeepStack

The turnout crushed the guarantee by over 100k in the opening event with 727 entries and 72 of those players would visit the cashiers window. Just one notable player on the payout list with only Mike ‘Little Man’ Sica finishing in 21st and bolstering his bankroll with $1,308 for the showing. Winning the event would be Brooklyn native Michael Dentale and he claims the top prize of $57,267. Check here for the full list of winners.

Event 2 – $350 No Limit Hold-em

263 runners registered for the 2nd event creating a $78,900 prize pool for the tournament but in the end Gil Sacks a regular at the Borgata would rake in all the chips and take home top prize of $21,429. Regular readers of the blog will recall Gil from his recent 5th place finish in the 2011 Borgata Winter Poker Open Championship Event. Congrats on the win Gil! Another name of interest slash guy I went to high school with appearing on the payout list was that of John DeGeorge who claimed $3,827 for 6th place. He had also cashed in the opener and we’ve seen his name pop up more than a few times on recent payout sheets so we’ll be keeping an eye on him over the remainder of the series and in the future. Check here for the full list of winners.

Event 3 – $350 7-Card Stud

Just 47 players signed up for the stud event including AC regular Chris Reslock although he would not make the final 5 who would get paid. When the dust had settled Bill Munley would add a major tournament win to his resume of 7 previous cashes and he’d gladly collect the $6,154 first place prize money. Check here for the full list of Event 3 winners.

Event 4 – $560 NLHE

Event 4 attracted 195 entrants and created a $97,500 prize pool. Only 18 of those would collect however and the Ladies took home the largest chunk of the prize money as Marcelia Keene claimed the first place prize of $28,372 and Kim Edmonds (of Toms River) took 3rd place and $8,984. Recording their second and fourth tournament cashes respectively. Congrats to both of you ladies! Here’s the complete list of winners.

Event 5 – $350 Pot Limit Omaha

The only Pot Limit Omaha event of the Spring Poker Open brought out 64 players to the poker room but just 9 players would cash in this one. The top prize of $6,518 would eventually be claimed by another New York player Justin Zacks who adds his first win to go along with his 3 prior cashes to his resume. Nice work and congrats on the victory. Click here for the full list of winners.

Still playing catch up here will update folks on the remaining events on Wednesday be sure to check back then.

It’s over 48 hours now since the news of the demise for online poker’s major players originally broke on what’s now been called #BlackFriday in the poker twitterverse. From that time when the indictments where made public much has been speculated on… but not much more has been learned as far as how this will really change things in the long term.

In the short term…

Online Poker in the US has been pushed in the shady dimly lit corner of the bar. Some sites like BoDog, Cake, Lock and others are still operating in the US but players that are still grinding online in the states today must be very concerned with how they may get any online winnings from the cyber world into their bank accounts or they’re blissfully unaware (not on twitter). I think these sites too are on borrowed time. Once the word spreads amongst the poker community regarding the inevitable cash out problems the well will run dry.

This will surely have a ripple effect on the WSOP and other live tournaments propped up by PS and FT. Such bad timing to announce the Oynx Cup recently by Full Tilt. They’ve already announced that it will be cancelled. In addition ESPN pulled out of airing the NAPT this coming Monday. Stars series such as the EPT, NAPT and LAPT are also in doubt at this moment. One would expect them to finish the announced events for this year but anything beyond that is a mystery. WSOP main event numbers will be down for sure. But the 10,000 lb gorilla in the room that I posed to Andrew Feldman is:

He did respond (thank you), with a (the suits said no talk yet) no comment, my speculation on the no comment is that is doesn’t bode well for the WSOP… they may need a new network before too long? I would think someone else would surely scoop up the coverage if the current deal between ESPN and the WSOP was to go up in smoke but with the major advertisers for televised poker out of the US market who knows?

Much of the poker media is expected to take a big hit with many of the sites relying heavily on affiliate deals with the Big 3 and many expecting that well to dry up with the major players no longer able to cash in on the lucrative US market. Live tournament coverage may decrease. Myself I can keep this acpokerblog.com train rolling frankly cause it’s almost a hobby at this point for me and not something I currently depend upon for income (Although I have high hopes for that day to come in the future I know this little blog is just in AA Binghamton right now) but of more concern to me at this moment are the many whom I’ve enjoyed following recently and how this will affect their livelihoods. I really hope things work out for everyone but sadly I know this is not the case. It’s just not the best time out there to be jobless and sadly I fear many in poker media may soon be just that. I am willing to help any of those in the poker media who may find themselves in that situation over the coming weeks and months set themselves up a new home on the web free of charge.

The biggest concern for many of the online grinders is the safety of their funds online and when they might be able to get them? The short answer it looks like not any time soon. However both FT and PS have released statements assuring players of the safety of their funds this may be of little concern to some with a stack of bills and no idea when they might once again be able to cash out. Big time pros Tom Dwan and Phil Galfond have come out and backed their bluster with 1 million from each of their respective bankrolls if PS and FT can’t pay up… that’s a nice gesture but one would think with that kind of statement they’re both very confident that players will eventually get paid and while that may be a soothing statement to some but to others the question of just when that will be looms much larger in the here and now.

Who’s leaving the US to play online… I’m sure there will be quite a few who do make that choice over the next few weeks but that is cloudy at the moment also. Just moving to a locale where online poker is legal may not be enough to get back in the online game right now. You may actually have to be a citizen of that country. US players who have dual-citizenship have a leg up on the rest of the field right now in this regard. It’s been tweeted that Eli Elizra is playing on FT in Israel today I’m assuming he can for that reason. I tweeted in jest earlier that:

@kevmath #OnlinePros get your Canadian MiFi hotspots and head for the border!

…but it seems that won’t work… unless you’re Canadian too? Could we see Daniel Negreanu heading back to Toronto? Well that’s just speculation really…

In the Long Term…

Let’s revisit this post in 6 months; OK?

Update

4/17/2011 – 7:45 – Since I first published this post Andrew Feldman of ESPN was able to respond:

I’ve relayed that tweet along to my followers but I felt the need to update the post here as not everyone who may read this is not following @acpokerblog on twitter. Thanks for reading.

Some thoughts as I try to process all of this…

I started reading Cowboys Full The Story of Poker by James McManus two weeks back never knowing what was to come about on this Black Friday. As the events of today unfolded in front of my eyes I couldn’t help but to think back about some of the stories told in the early portions of the book. Many tales of riverboat card sharps cheating square players out of everything they owned with marked or cold decks or other tricks like using small mirrors used to view each card as it was dealt make up the early days of poker. In that era it wasn’t a game of math or odds or even making that great read on an opponent when they where bluffing. No in that era it was all about the professionals or the sharps and even though they where most likely better poker players than their marks at the table their edge in skill was not enough. The greed fueled their desire to cheat the other players of their chips and cash and whatever else they might just risk with four Kings in their hand.

And so in these times the Feds seem like the best of the worst. The most skillful sharp around. I mean it’s so obvious now they carefully crafted this plan to rob the biggest game around for over 5 years. The 2006 Safe Port Act under which UIGEA was enacted was never designed to stop online poker here in the US. It was but only a warning shot, and one that only, Party Poker would heed. The other major players in the US online poker market decided to stick around and why not. I mean the $$$ flowing in had to be immense. Poker Stars was rumored to be pulling in 1M in profits each day and besides all of the servers and accounts where sitting overseas so far far away from the Feds reach. All they needed to do was to figure out a way to skill fully dance about this new legislation without waking the sleeping giant. According to what is laid out in the indictment many shady tactics had been used to make that happen. Fake companies, buying large stakes in smaller banks, amongst other tactics that the Feds looked the other way on for months and years are now calling fraudulent… but really in the end… how much different are the folks indicted today from those who where behind the collapse of the US housing market and banking system with it in 2008… sigh. One major difference those folks won’t be standing in front of any Federal Judge to answer for their actions.

As readers of the blog know I have played online poker in the past on PokerStars (come at me bro!) but fortunately for myself I didn’t have any significant funds tied up there as Black Friday hit but many of those poker players that I do follow on twitter could not say the same. I’m sure that there’s quite a few out there with 100k or more in limbo right now. PokerStars has released a statement saying that player funds are safe and that players should not be worried but that’s done little to calm the collective nerve of the community. As these poker players are people living in America and that means they have that stack of bills each month with no end in sight and some online funds needed for life’s expenses this could get ugly for some who have a large chunk stuck in cyberspoice.

As for the upcoming WSOP… numbers for the main event and many others will surely drop sharply with no US players to scoop up seats thru the many online satellite avenues but that’s the lesser concern in my opinion. The real concern, at least for the suits who run both the WSOP and ESPN is — Who will be airing commercials on the television broadcasts? I mean that is where the bread gets buttered for the WSOP and one would gather that neither FT or PS will be airing too many or maybe none in 2011. It will be interesting to watch the NBC coverage of the Heads-Up tournament this weekend. No not for the action on the felt. I’ve never really cared for those broadcasts much too much Spoonseque play for me. But rather to pay attention to the commericals being aired during breaks. I’m sure before today (or yesterday now… seems like it was 1:38 ten minutes ago… damn) both FT and PS had booked to run multiple commercials for each hour. One would have to expect that’s changed with today’s news.

April has arrived with it comes some rain some flowers and some big poker tournaments return to the Borgata starting next week as the Spring Poker Open will get underway on April 13th. Check here for the full schedule of events (printable version here) and here for everything else you’re looking for including special Poker room rates.

There’s not too much there now but once the action gets underway the Borgata Spring Poker Open Blog will assuredly have the most up to date info on the tournament winners and losers. I recently found Kaelaine on twitter she along with ‘Gorilla’ (haven’t found him yet) do excellent work on the official blog and you should definitely be following her. Also don’t forget to enter for your chance to win a free seat into the Borgata Spring Poker Open Championship starting on April 24th. Can’t beat a free roll in an event with a 500k guaranteed prize pool. As of right now it’s still up in the air as far how many of the events I will be able to cover (or play in) but I’m hoping to make more than a few trips down over the 2 plus weeks. As things get a bit closer into focus I’ll have a better idea on just which events I’ll be covering.

The opening event #1 on April 13th will be the DEEP STACK No Limit Hold’em (2 Re-Entry) $100,000 Guaranteed. I’m expecting them to have no problem meeting that number with 2 Re-Entries but it will be interesting to watch as the Borgata would not be happy if they had to add to another prize pool to reach the guarantee. I had guessed the Deep Stack Tourney in March would reach the required number however the ballooning Bad-Beat Jackpot at the Taj Mahal and the WSOP Circuit Event at Caesars both conspired to leave the Borgata short by 32k on that one. I’m also expecting Day 2 play to stretch well into the night and creep into the early morning hours as it did in the similarly structured opening event of the 2011 Winter Poker Open won by Alex Rocha and which Uncle Leo registered a third place finish. What’s that all mean? I tend to favor the young bucks in these ones but that doesn’t mean much really.

Other events of note on the schedule for me include:

Event #3 Seven Card Stud Thu 4/14 12pm $300+$50

Event #5 Pot Limit Omaha – High (1 Re-Entry) Fri 4/15 12pm $300+$50

Event #7 BIG STACK No Limit Hold’em Sat 4/16 12pm $350+$50

Event #9 Omaha H/L 8B Sun 4/17 12pm $300+$50

Event #12 BIG STACK No Limit Hold’em (2 Re-Entry) $75,000 Guaranteed Wed 4/20 11am $170+$30

Event #18 SPRING OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP DOUBLE PLAY No Limit Hold’em $500,000 Guaranteed $2,500+$200
Day 1A Sun 4/24 11am
Day 1B Mon 4/25 11am
Day 2 Tue 4/26 11am
Day 3 Wed 4/27 11am

Event #21 No Limit Hold’em (1 Re-Entry) $50,000 Guaranteed Wed 4/27 12pm $170+$30

Event #23 DEEP STACK No Limit Hold’em (1 Re-Entry) Fri 4/29 12pm $250+$30

I’m looking forward to a great series. As for me I may play in the Omaha Event again we’ll see. Not quite thrilled that it’s a 1 Re-Entry event now (did that change?) so I’m up in the air about it right now. If not that one or if I happen to play it and win… possibly Event #12 or #21. I would be interested in having a guest blogger or two so let me know if you might be interested I can’t pay much (anything really; sorry so poor) but if you’re still interested you can reach me via email at bb at acpokerblog.com (haha spammers!) I will be surely covering the Championship Final Table and pumping out a bunch of tweets and blog posts during the 2011 Borgata Spring Poker Open so be sure to follow me on twitter here and bookmark this page (Control + D) to stay on top of all things acpokerblog.com