PokerRoom May Be Back Soon

PokerFuse.com recently released an article quoting a tweet from Bwin.com SEO Manager Josef Rantamäki .  He tweeted, “Wow! www.pokerroom.com will be relaunched and once again offer real money poker games.”

Soon afterwards, after PokerRoomBlog called him out on the blog, he tweeted, ” @PokerRoomBlog Sorry I just got excited when I saw the banner on your home page. Can you confirm or deny these rumors?”  Of course, PokerRoomBlog neither confirmed nor denied the rumors.

This smells like Rantamäki jumped the gun on tweeting the information and this was an effort to cover up his tweet.  Naturally, it didn’t work as word is now being spread around the internet of the pending reopening of the site.

PokerRoom was first opened in 1999 and became one of the first online poker site to spread real money poker games online.  In the 10 years that followed, PokerRoom became one of the leaders in the industry and were among the first sites to offer a Mac Poker client for online users.

The site experienced tremendous growth post 2003 thanks in large part to the poker boom and joined the Ongame Network.  Until 2006, it was among the top sites in the world until the United States passed the UIGEA, making it illegal for US banks to process online gaming transactions.  Ongame then pulled out of the US market.

While still one of the major names on the Ongame Network, the real money poker site was shut down in 2009 but the domain has remained active.  If true, this would bring one of the oldest sites back into the forefront of online poker.

A date for the relaunch of the site has not been announced, but a new banner on the site give players the option to sign-up for future updates.

Claudio Cecchi is the current chip leader

A ton of big names went down on the two Day 1′s.  Vanessa Selbst, Carlos Mortensen, Vitaly Lunkin, Jeff Madsen, Faraz Jaka, Roland de Wolfe, Greg Mueller, Joe Serock, Johnny Lodden, Liz Lieu, Viktor Blom, Dennis Phillips, Sandra Naujoks, Praz Bansi, Chino Rheem, Max Pescatori, Ban Shak, Chris Bjorin, Jason Mercier, David Williams, Chris Moneymaker, and Antoine Saout were all among those that went down in Day 1 play.

Some big names did manage to break through to Day 2 play.  Phil Ivey will start Day 2 with 117,900.  Joe Hachem will start with 108,400.  Barry Shulman will take 129,200 into Day 2 and Greg Raymer will start with 105,200.  Daniel Negreanu will start with 122,200 going into Day 2 play.  Other notables heading into Day 2 are Allen Kessler, Ivan Demidov, Alex Kravchenko, Men “The Master” Nguyen, Chad Brown, Scott Montgomery, Jeff Lisandro, Liv Boeree, and Boris Becker.

This is the first major event after the World Series of Poker Europe with many of these players hanging around after playing for up to two weeks over at the Casino at the Empire.  Phil Ivey made a deep run in the WSOP-E Main Event and Jeff Lisandro won his 5th WSOP bracelet during the WSOP-E.

Aaron Gustavson won last years EPT London event.  He defeated a field of 730 players, including 2008 WSOP Main Event winner Peter Eastgate heads-up.  Gustavson took home £850,000 for his win.  Eastgate took home just over £530,000, which wound up being the last big score of Eastgate’s career, or such as it stands.  Eastgate recently walked away from poker and is currently in retirement from active circuit play.  Many feel he will return at one point or another.

Claudio Cecchi goes into Day 2 with the overall chip lead at 237,000.  Soheb Porbandarwala is right behind him with 218,600.  Around 400 players will return to play Day 2 with 128 of those players finishing in the money.



PokerStars players can thank the WA Supreme Court for their inability to play

Justice Richard B. Sanders felt that the legislature were within their powers to pan online gambling, stating that “balanced public policy concerns and determined the interests of Washington are best served by banning Internet gambling.”  “The Legislature chose the advantages and disadvantages of a ban over the advantages and disadvantages of regulation. The evidence is not conclusive.” “Many may disagree with the outcome. But the court has no authority to replace the Legislature’s choice with its own.”

PokerStars released their own statement regarding their decision to prohibit real money players in Washington from accessing their site.  They stated, “To date, PokerStars has operated in Washington on the basis of legal opinions where the central advice was that the state could not constitutionally regulate Internet poker, or at least could not discriminate in favor of local cardrooms and against online sites. Last week, however, the Washington Supreme Court for the first time rejected that position and upheld the state’s Internet gaming prohibition.” ” In light of this decision, following extensive consultation with our legal advisors, we believe that the right course of action is to now block real money play by Washington residents on the PokerStars.com site. This policy will remain in effect until the law changes or subsequent legal challenges succeed…”

The ban on Washington state will not affect players abilities to cash out their balance.  PokerStars reiterated,  ”Our decision to block real money play in Washington does not affect the balance of funds in customer accounts, which remain completely safe. Our payment services team continues to be available to Washington State residents to assist with cashout requests.”

PokerStars becomes one of the first sites that operates within the United States to enact a ban on states that have laws on the books against illegal gambling.  Several states have laws on the books banning illegal gambling including Nevada, Louisiana, Michigan and Illinois.  Most online poker sites have not taken the steps to outright ban users from states with these laws because they are of the opinion that poker is, or should be, exempt.

James Bord Wins WSOP Europe Main Event

Many of the big names of poker took their shot at this event over the two Day 1′s. Phil Hellmuth made the biggest entrance, as he came in with 11 Lady Gaga impersonators in two. Eric and Michael Mizrachi, Viktor Blom, Phil Ivey, Phil Laak, defending champ Barry Shulman, Jennifer Tilly, and Hoyt Corkins were among those in the field.

Day 2 saw the storylines begin to emerge. Daniel Negreanu was looking to make the final table of this event for the third straight year. Viktor Blom finished the day as chip leader and Phil Ivey finished in 6th chip position. Barry Shulman was knocked out during Day 2, so a new champion would be crowned.

Day 3 was when the money bubble was burst. Daniel Negreanu made a deep run, but was knocked out shy of the money, putting a great three year run to an end. Both Phil Ivey and Viktor Blom made the money and were among the 22 players to make Day 4.
Unfortunately, we lost both big names in Day 4. Ivey made an early miscalculation and shoved A-10 into A-K of Ronald Lee. He missed and finished in 19th. Viktor Blom blew off most of his stack early and later shoved with pocket eights. Brian Powell called with K-Q and caught a queen on the flop. Blom couldn’t catch and eight and was out in 16th.

Dan Fleyshman entered the final table as chip leader with Roland de Wolfe the only headliner. This is how the remaining nine players started final table play:

Seat 1: Roland de Wolfe            1,377,000
Seat 2: Marc Inizan                    349,000
Seat 3: Nicolas Levi                   428,000
Seat 4: Fabrizio Baldassari     677,000
Seat 5: Brian Powell                  842,000
Seat 6: Dan Steinberg               1,520,000
Seat 7: James Bord                   1,331,000
Seat 8: Ronald Lee                     1 ,899,000
Seat 9: Dan Fleyshman            1,946,000

Fleyshman faltered early and finished in 7th, while de Wolfe was knocked out in 4th. Heads-up play started with Fabrizio Baldassari as chip leader over James Bord. Bord was hand delivered the chip lead when Baldassari picked the wrong time to shove with Qs-8s. Bord woke up with A-K and it held to give him the lead.

The final hand saw Bord shove with pocket tens and Baldassari call with pocket fives. the board wound up missing both players and James Bord is the champion. This was the Englishman’s first bracelet. In addition, he took home £830,410 in prize money.

Event #1 – Phil Laak Wins First Bracelet

Going into the final table of Event #1, the £2,650 Six-Handed No-Limit Hold’em Event, Andrew Pantling held an almost 2 to 1 lead over the field. Chris Bjorina and Phil Laak both headlined the final table with Laak just being a month removed from a near-fatal ATV accident.

Phil Laak Wins First Bracelet

Laak navigated his way through the field to make it heads-up with Andrew Pantling, with Pantling holding the lead. The lead flip flopped for a while but eventually, Laak took the lead after flopping two pair against the top pair of Pantling. He won the event shortly afterwards when his K-5 outdrew the A-9 of Pantling. Phil Laak won his first ever WSOP bracelet and took home £170,802 in prize money.

Event #2 – Jeff Lisandro Wins 5th Career Bracelet

Event #2 was the £5,250 PLO event and heading into the final table, four big names remained. November Nine member John Racener, Chris Bjorin, Jeff Lisandro, and Jeff Madsen made the final table. This was Bjorin’s 2nd final table of the WSOP Europe.

Lisandro has now won 4 bracelets over the last 2 years

Heads-up play of this event saw pro Jeff Lisandro face off with Joe Serock. Serock held the chip lead going into heads-up play. Jeff Lisandro would overtake the lead and take a 3 to 1 chip lead when his Ks-Kd-5c-2d outflopped the As-Ad-Jh-10h. Lisandro would win the event the next hand when Serock’s Ks-7s-6h-5h failed to hit anything on the board against Lisandro’s As-Qs-6s-2s.

This was Lisandro’s fifth career bracelet and first bracelet in a variant other than stud. He won £159,514 to go with the bracelet.

Event #3 – Scott Shelley Denies JP Kelly 3rd Bracelet

Scott Shelley denies history to JP Kelly

The £1,075 No-Limit Holdem event saw defending champion JP Kelly make the final table of the event. Kelly was looking to become the 3rd youngest bracelet winner ever. He nearly got there as he made it heads-up with Scott Shelley and held the lead. However, Shelley took the lead and eventually the bracelet after calling an all-in bet pre-flop with pocket threes against Q-J of Kelly. The flop gave Shelley a set and that set held to give him his first career bracelet. In addition to the bracelet, he took home £133,857 for his win.

Event #4 – Gus Hansen Wins First Bracelet

Event #4 was the first ever heads-up event in WSOP Europe history. The £10,350 No-Limit Hold’em High Roller Heads-Up Event saw Gus Hansen make the finals against Jim Collopy. The finals were a best of three series and Hansen quickly took a 2-1 lead. He nearly swept Collopy after taking a huge lead in the 2nd game, but Collopy made a comeback to tie up the match.

Gus Hansen finally get the monkey off his back

The third match was then delayed until Sunday. Laws in the U.K. prohibit an event going past 3 a.m. Then, the two players wanted to play in the Main Event, and as such the event was delayed till Sunday. Collopy took an early 3 to 1 chip lead, but Hansen came storming back to take the lead, one which was never relinquished. The final hand saw Collopy shove with K-4 and Hansen called with pocket fours. The fours held and Gus Hansen won his first ever WSOP bracelet. In addition, he won £288,409 in prize money.

As you can see, the pros came out in force and left their mark on the WSOP Europe preliminaries. Will this trend continue into the 2011 WSOP? Only time will tell.