Daily Poker News Review: Tuesday, March 11, 2014 Daily Poker News Review: Tuesday, March 11, 2014

Main Headlines

Mexican Government Gets to Work on Draft Gambling Bill

The Mexican government is to take a more active role in getting a new gambling bill on the books.

  • The Ministry of the Interior in Mexico has announced plans to establish a National Institute of Gaming and work with the House of Representatives to finalize a draft of new gambling laws.
  • The proposal for a National Institute of Gaming will be presented to parliament next week.

Poker Players to Have a Voice at iGaming North America 2014

Shaun Deeb and Jason Somerville among the panel, chaired by pokerfuse’s own Michael Gentile.

  • The Poker Players Panel, sponsored by PokerTracker, gives professional and semi-professional players to offer their unique perspective on the industry to a crowd of industry attendees.
  • Pokerfuse’s Michael Gentile will chair the panel.
  • Shaun Deeb, two Ultimate Poker Pros and a Las Vegas semi-pro will are panelists.

Playtech Founder Wants $100 Million to Compete with Skrill and NETELLER

Entrepreneur Teddy Sagi plans to offer players a better digital wallet.

  • Playtech founderTeddy Sagi is raising $100m for his SafeCharge payment processing company.
  • He plans to use the money to launch a digital wallet for use in online gambling transactions.
  • The launch of a digital wallet will put the company head to head with established names like Skrill and NETELLER in the customer facing market.

High Stakes Online: In Spite of Viktor Blom’s Volatile Play, He Remains in the Black

Known to the online poker community as Isildur1, Viktor Blom has a reputation for his hyper-aggressive high stakes cash game style—a style that has seen the Full Tilt Pro remain profitable in 2014 in an attempt to build on his 2013 finish of $542,796 in the black.

  • He is currently sitting on a handsome $250k profit in just under 75,000 cash game hands this year—but these numbers conceal the big swings the Swede has had to stomach to bank that $3.33/hand winrate.
  • Blom was on the wrong end of the biggest pot recorded in No Limit Holdem so far in 2014. The pot was contested between Blom and Ike Haxton back in late January.
  • There is still plenty of time left in the year for the figures to change.

Picks from F5 Poker:

Moorman, Charania and More Weigh In on Weirdness

PokerNews looks for more ways to entertain. This PokerNews video from earlier in the year has finally surfaced where hostesses Kristy Arnett and Sarah Grant take a page from the boys of Workaholics and try to “get weird.”


Phil Ivey Has Too Much Time On His Hands

Ivey aspires for new training site to make poker a better game. Phil Ivey is becoming a personable promotion machine. As high stakes poker games dry up for the man considered to be the biggest poker talent on the planet, Ivey looks to spend more time on various business ventures. Number one on his list – Ivey Poker. In this video Ivey sits down to a one-on-one interview with Bluff Magazine’s Thomas Keeling to talk all things training videos.


Former WSOP November Niner Filippo Candio Calls It Quits, Retiring From Poker

Candio sick of unproven tax evasion accusations. 2010 World Series of Poker November Niner, Filippo Candio, announced on his Facebook Page this week that he is stepping away from the game of poker. According to PokerPT, Candio made the announcement after a televised news story aired that accused Candio of tax evasion.


2Pair Magazine Hangs The “Help Wanted” Sign

Expanding coverage in all directions. The new kid on the block in the poker magazine game, 2Pair Magazine, is looking to spread their wings and expand. Recently the magazine (with their successful fledgling tour) put out the call, looking for help in a number of areas including writing, photography and tournament coverage.


Matt Marafioti — “I still trying to think of how I can sue these guys”

Marafioti on Twitter, being afraid to fly and his internet bad boy image. Bay 101 Shooting Star Tournament Director Matt Savage locked down a few minutes with the always compelling poker bad boy Matt Marafioti to talk tournaments and his tough guy image. Marafioti, in an exceptionally good mood, praises the healthy crowd and the tournament at Bay 101 while recounting how his past few outings ended up in typical bad beat fashion.


WPT’s Tony Dunst Breaks Down Selbst’s Poker, Fashion Choices

Watch this promo clip from the Raw Deal. Last week, the World Poker Tour released their preview of Episode 2 of the Borgata Poker Open. Now, they’ve taken the same clip and let Tony Dunst get his hands on it. The Raw Deal host breaks down the action street by street from inside the mind of protagonist Vanessa Selbst. As you’ll see, Dunst likes just about everything Selbst chooses to do in this clip…well, except for what she wears to the final table.

Poker Podcasts and Training Vids:

Podcast: The Bernard Lee Poker Show 03-11-14 with Guests Bernard Lee! and Dale Hunter Bernard Lee Poker Show

Bernard just took down the inaugural RunGoodGear.com Main Event at Downstream Casino! Ace Jones from RoundersRadio interviews Bernard about the win. Later in the show Bernard chats with Downstream Poker Room Manager Dale Hunter about the succes of the tournament.


Podcast: PokerNews Podcast Episode #206: Shoeless Joe Esfandiari feat. Chris Moorman PokerNews Podcast

The crew is back to break down all of the latest news and talk with Season XII WPT L.A. Poker Classic winner Chris Moorman. Moorman discusses the crazy three-way all in at the final table, misreading one of his hands, shot clocks, and more. 


Training Video: TPE Member Hand History Review – OneTime1Time Sunday Million FT Tournament Poker Edge


Training Video: Bout Tree Fiddy Part One Drag The Bar

In part one of this two part series, Katie reviews the early stages of a $3.50 Rebuy 180-man up to the beginning of the final table. Key concepts discussed include: overbet shoving, adjusting to regs, using Nash Equilibrium, recovering from negative occurrences while playing, exploitive play, capped ranges, calling ranges, 3-bet shoving ranges.


Training Video: Ghost: Anonymous 6M on Bovada – Episode 1 Deuces Cracked

Wilt switches it up and queues up a few tables of $400NL on Bovada, along with a $600NL FRNL game. Follow along as Wilt discusses adapting his HUNL game to fit a 6M gameplan, with a focused discussion on setting betsizes to maximally exploit different opponent’s strategies.

Exclusive Articles on pokerfuse PRO:

MPN Traffic Suffers with Big Brand Departure

The loss of Unibet has caused a substantial decline in cash game traffic, but if the past is any indication of the future, MPN should bounce back. Since Microgaming rebranded its online poker network to MPN over a year ago, it has innovated, recruited new skins and added social features attractive to the recreational player.


Problem Gambling the Focus of Latest Dutch Gaming Bill Draft

Remote Gambling Act to introduce Dutch national regulation of online gaming submitted to EU for approval. The latest text of the Dutch Remote Gambling Act emphasizes measures to tackle the issue of problem gambling. The bill has now been sent to the EU Commission for approval before it returns to the Netherlands in three months.


FTOPS XXV Continues to Innovate Despite Lower Guarantees

Side promotions targeting recreational players are balanced by the chance to gain Black Card Pro sponsorship. The Full Tilt Online Poker Series (FTOPS) returns in its twenty fifth incarnation with the first events on March 30 and a total of 31 events to be completed by April 13th. This Spring FTOPS brings $6 million in guaranteed prize money, and a number of innovations.