Daily Poker News Review: Monday, August 18, 2014 Daily Poker News Review: Monday, August 18, 2014

Main Headlines

Why Amaya Thinks Casino and Sportsbook Will Benefit Poker Players

Casino will come to PokerStars in Spain and Italy this year.

  • CEO David Baazov contends that the addition of new customers that will be acquired via Amaya’s expansion into online casino and sports books will help increase liquidity for the company’s online poker sites PokerStars and Full Tilt Poker.
  • It is Amaya’s position that half of its existing poker players engage in these additional verticals and therefore combining them under the Rational name will allow players to earn loyalty points on a single platform.
  • Another vertical in which Amaya plans to expand into is the branding and licensing of the poker stars name for use in land-based poker rooms and live events.

GUKPT Goliath Draws Largest Live Poker Tournament Field Outside the US

The Grosvenor Casino in Coventry managed to organize the 3,394 entrants over six Day 1s.

  • The Grosvenor UK Poker Tour (GUKPT) Goliath event ended after drawing a record attendance of 3,394.
  • The Goliath broke the record for the largest live poker tournament field ever outside the US.
  • The previous record was set last month when the 2014 Beijing Millions—sponsored by PokerStars—attracted 2,732 participants.

High Stakes Online Cash Report: Chun Lei Zhou Suffers Big Losses for a Second Week in a Row

Over the last 7 days Chun “samrostan” Lei Zhou lost close to $1 million making it a disappointing $2 million deficit over the last 2 weeks.

  • Over the last 7 days Chun “samrostan” Lei Zhou lost close to $1 million making it a disappointing $2 million deficit over the last 2 weeks.
  • Mikael “punting-peddler” Thuritz led all winners for the week with over half a million dollars in winnings.
  • Dan “jungleman12” Cates is still the leader in online high stakes winnings with $2,748,772 posted so far.

partypoker Tries Another $500k Guaranteed Sunday Major

$100k is guaranteed to the winner of the event to be held on September 21.

  • partypoker is again raising the guarantee for its flagship Sunday major tournament to $500k.
  • The special event will run on September 21.
  • The last time partypoker upped the guarantee to $500k was in mid-May. That event generated a prize fund of $568k, and the company hopes to beat that figure for the September event.

This Week in Poker Podcasts: Tony Dunst, Poker Advocacy and Ryan Eriquezzo

The latest from the Pokerfuse Poker Podcast Directory.


Poker Training Videos This Week: Three Bet Pots, 180-man MTTs and Hero Calling

Improve your poker game with our top picks from the pokerfuse poker video directory.

Picks from F5 Poker:

Phil Hellmuth Takes The ALS Ice Bucket Challenge

Calls out Daniel, Antonio and Ty. Phil Hellmuth may be a brat, but he’s a good-natured, charitable one at that.


Antonio Esfandiari Takes A Cold Shower for ALS Research

Calling out Jeff Gross and Michael Phelps. The ALS Ice Bucket Challenge is making the rounds in poker and now it’s Antonio Esfandiari who gets doused in blistering cold ice water. So cold in fact it takes his breath away for a moment.


Poker Night In America’s Outspoken, Prolific, Sexy Son Of A Bitch – Nolan Dalla

PNIA’s Creative Director puts himself center stage. Here’s another full length episode of the made-for-TV poker cash game, Poker Night In America, Episode 6 picks up right where the last one leaves off, with Phil Laak, Will The Thrill, David Williams, Layne Flack and more jockeying for position at the Turning Stone felt.


Jason Koon Gets High In Macau

Poker players love their adrenaline. This weekend poker pro Jason Koon posted this shot of himself leaping off the tallest bungie jump platform on the planet.


November Niner Bruno Politano Signs Ambassadorship Deal With 888Poker

Short stack Foster joins the team. News from the 888poker camp has them bucking the industry trend of giving walking papers to team pros and actually signing up one of the 2014 November Nine.


EPT 100 Goes To The Topless Beaches Of Barcelona

Get busted from the tourney? Hit the showers. It’s time for Season 11 of the European Poker Tour and the tour’s 100th event.

Exclusive Articles on pokerfuse PRO:

Amaya: PokerStars Casino to Launch This Year

PokerStars Spain and PokerStars Italy will be the first to see casino products before the end of 2014. During an earnings call following the publication of its second quarter results, Amaya confirmed that it would be launching casino games on PokerStars Italy and PokerStars Spain before the end of the year.


Checking Around

An industry-focused summary of online poker community discussion in the last week. United States


Adjarabet’s Post-Promotion Plunge Takes it to Year Low

A big boost, but the subsequent 35% fall in cash game traffic was precipitous. The end of Adjarabet’s “Big Hands for Cash” promotion on July 31 precipitated an immediate fall in cash game traffic—but the fall continued way past the pre-promotion levels to leave the poker room at its lowest point of the year.


New Zealand MP Promises Offshore Gambling Legislation

New laws could regulate and tax online poker after the September general election. New Zealand MP Ross Robertson has said that the government will introduce new legislation to control offshore gambling if the Labour Party returns to power at the next election.

Poker Podcasts and Training Vids:

Podcast: Druff & Friends – 08/16/2014 – The Evils That Is Poker Poker Fraud Alert

Druff discusses the terrible fearmongering article about online poker in Newsweek. California will not have legalized online poker until at least 2016. Amanda Musumeci and Kim Shannon are in a poker catfight, but who is right? Shady California tribe claims its “PrivateTable” poker site will accept real money in late August. Phil Ivey’s Asian female baccarat accomplice sues Foxwoods. One Drop winner Daniel Colman gets self-righteous and hypocriticagain, in response to commentary about him on ESPN broadcast. Did 888.com really steal from Kevin MacPhee? Odds released on WSOP Main Event final table. Gear Poker drops off of Equity Poker Network. Bet365 runs shady promotion, taken to court by Aussie authorities. Eight arrested in Caesar’s Atlantic City robbery investigation. Editorial: Poker isn’t an evil game.


Podcast: Thinking Poker Podcast Episode #91: Brian Rast PokerNews Podcast

Andrew and Nate return to break down a hand sent in by a listener and talk a bit more about Episode #100. They are then joined by Brian Rast, who discusses his greatest poker accomplishments, how he discovered Macau, teaching his son about poker, and much more. 


Training Video: 180-man MTTs with bigdogpckt5s Tournament Poker Edge

The bigdog is back and this time he tackles the 180-man MTT format. This is a 4 part series.


Training Video: Ghost: WiltOnTilt – Seals With Clubs Part 2 Deuces Cracked

WiltOnTilt continues his journey into the bitcoin games across various stakes and various table sizes!