Main Headlines

GBGC Stock Index Shows iGaming Outgrowing Land Based Gaming

Gaming company stocks have soared with the market but internet gambling companies have grown faster.

  • GBGC’s revision of its gambling industry stock market indices shows that iGaming company shares continue to outperform their land based equivalents.
  • The value of the top 50 companies—based purely on their gambling revenues—has reached $351bn, up 46% in a year.
  • The value of the top 10 internet companies is $15.4bn, a gain of 75% in only a year.
  • $5.7bn of that valuation is accounted for by Playtech. It is followed by Betfair, bwin.party Digital Entertainment, Betsson and Unibet.

Borgata Players File Claim over Chipgate Settlement

The latest claim against the Borgata makes more allegations about the Chipgate affair.

  • Six players of the final 27 remaining when the Borgata Winter Open was cancelled have filed a Civil Action Complaint against the Borgata Hotel Casino and Spa.
  • Duane Haughton, Michael Sneideman, Cuong Tran, Alvin Vatanavan, Christopher Korres, and Cuong Phung are each claiming over $33k.
  • The players are also accusing the Borgata of having quietly paid some of the remaining player an ex gratia sum in exchange for signing a confidentiality agreement.

Alligator Blood Spills Over to Hollywood

A book about the rise and fall of Black Friday informant Daniel Tzvetkoff may make it to the silver screen.

  • One of the most fascinating stories to emerge following the DOJ’s attempts to close down online poker was that of Daniel Tzvetkoff, which James Leighton set out in detail in his book Alligator Blood.
  • Luketic is now buying the movie rights to Leighton’s book turning it into a film.
  • The script has already been written.

Picks from F5 Poker:

Phil “Polarizing” Ivey A Typical Day at the Office

Rakes in $441,000 Tuesday was finally a day to celebrate for Phil “Polarizing” Ivey as he conquered the 8-Game tables on Full Tilt Poker. Ivey won $428,332 playing $1500/$3000 stakes over just 4 sessions throughout the day according to the info over at highstakesdb.com.

Jean-Robert Bellande Talks One Drop, Bilzerian and Saying Goodbye To Broke Living

JRB dishes the dirt on his most recent score. The chaps over at Bluff Europe scored an interview with recent One Drop registrant Jean-Robert Bellande where he talks about all things One Drop, his past business dealings with Dan Bilzerian and what it would mean for him (and poker) if he was the sole survivor in the $1M buy-in summer tournament.

World Series of Poker 2014 – Online Integration To Provide Even More Poker, Bad Beat Stories

Grind Room not to be mistaken for Grindr Room. Lots of interesting things jumped out during the 2014 World Series of Poker Media Conference Call but perhaps one that generated the most excitement was the integration of online poker into the overall festivities.

WSOP Unveils Live Stream Schedule, David Tuchman Returns

32 Days of pure live-streaming poker action! Not everyone can make it out to Las Vegas to participate or witness the poker paradise of the WSOP. For those that are unable to make the pilgrimage, the WSOP is providing 32 days of Livestreaming feature table action with commentary from one the industry’s very best – David Tuchman.

Heartland Poker Tour – Commerce Casino Featured Table Live Stream

$500k Guarantee Main Event – Live Poker on a Thursday.

Ultimate Poker’s Tom Breitling Deals With First Year Friction

More musings from UP’s first year in operation. Maybe the initial projections for legalized online poker were overly optimistic from the prognosticators, that’s not stopping Ultimate Gaming’s CEO Tom Breitling from still believing that this is just the beginning of something really big.

Phil Laak Hangs Ten

The F5 fave is making waves. Surf’s up for Phil Laak who spend a little time with professional best friend (and high-stakes poker pro) Jeff Gross out on Lake Austin in Texas. Laak, getting a little R&R in before heading back to the Commerce Casino to play the Heartland Poker Tour Main Event gets in a good wake surfing ride and almost takes a header.

Exclusive Articles on pokerfuse PRO:

MPN Explains Why it Doesn’t Talk to Players

Microgaming starts a company blog to open dialog to players—but cautions: “players aren’t our customers.” In the inaugural post on MPN’s new network blog, Alex Scott, Head of Poker at Microgaming, explains why it is network policy not to talk to customers on forums nor survey its players.

WSOP Nevada Reaches Two Thirds Market Share

Ultimate Poker Nevada is down almost 75% from its high point. WSOP Nevada has maintained an average of over 100 cash game seats filled for the last six months—enough to give it 66% of the Nevada market.

The Deal

Promotional highlights of the week, including: PokerStars, Full Tilt, partypoker & partypoker NJ, 888poker and 888poker NJ, iPoker France, SkyPoker, and WSOP NJ. WSOP New Jersey Courts Grinders With “Blind” Rake Race

UKGC Publishes Final Version of License Conditions

No surprises in the final version of the UK Gambling Commission’s new consolidated regulations. Following a series of consultations, including one on player fund protection, the UK Gambling Commission (UKGC) has published the final version of its Licence Conditions and Codes of Practice.

Poker Podcasts and Training Vids:

Podcast: 05/14/2014 Poker Action Line Poker Action Line

Marc Perlman, owner of the Heads Up Dealing School, joins BIG Dave and Joe to talk about his new business venture, which incorporates one-on-one instructions to accelerate the training of poker dealers. Marc and Joe share their expertise from over 30 years in the poker business, with an emphasis on teaching dealers the right way.

Podcast: Fasso’s back! Ante Up! Pokercast

With Scott galavanting all over Europe this month, Mike Fasso returns almost two years to the day since his last appearance. He’ll be back next week, too.

Training Video: $15 45-Man Review: From a Babbling Bubble to a Hazing Heads-Up Part Two Drag The Bar

In part two of this two part $15 45-man series, Katie reviews the in-the-money play through the conclusion of the heads-up battle. This part focuses on the differences in calling when dealing with Chip EV mode, versus ICM adjustments. Other important concepts covered include: min-raising versus open-shoving, calling ranges, adjusting to regs, adjusting to passive players, and heads-up play.

Training Video: Search and Destroy 2: Analyzing Trouble Hands – When You Miss the Flop Deuces Cracked

In the 4th and final part, Josh and Christopher discuss more hands that gave Christopher trouble. These hands focus primarily on river play and flop play after missing the flop.

Training Video: Pbogz’s Hyper Turbo Test Part 2 HUSNG


We now present the second installment in Pbogz’s new classroom-style series of presentations for beginnner-level hypers. In this series, Paul teaches concepts by first asking a “test” question with multiple choice answers, and then reveals the correct answer and goes into some length explaining what makes that the correct answer. The final question is a “homework assignment” for which Paul does not reveal the answer.