flintsword

Covering his bets is a smart move and waiting to see how he feels on the morning of the Day 1A of the Main Event is a very smart move. Hope he plays but hope even more that his health is maintained.

I believe that Brad Booth was a significant victim of that scam but you should contact him directly.

Wow ... this is an amazing & innovative step forward for PokerNews ... essentially turning the players into on-the-spot reporters , or even better, PokerNews Assistants aside from the expected duty of beer-for-the-thirsty-PokerNews-Geeks

Now that's what the poker public wants ... qualification into serious tournaments! I have been waiting for FullTilt to finally start this up again. I won my entry to the WPT Cyprus 2009 on FullTilt and after the old full tilt fiasco won entries on other sites. Smart of FullTilt to start competing in live event qualification, though it would be smart for PokerStars to buy one of the other medium sized poker tours to outflank PartyPoker's (brilliant) purchase of the World Poker Tour

Now that Darcourt has made the biggest leap, how about an article on this fascinating guy. I had this player on my right in the last three tables of a WPT event (WPT Paris 2011) and his aggression was something impressive. His pink hair for a player his age was a nice change.

While you are at it, now that you have a pink haired player high up on the list, an odd-ball idea might be "what hair colour do you need to be in the top 20 of the GPI?"

Three more weasels tossed into jail & for good reason. For the victims, the past is the past and time heals all wounds. To Joe Sebok congrats on finding a refuge from this in the amazing American wine industry. I am not alone in encouraging you to play poker again when the time is right. Take a vacation in a free country like Canada and play online under a pseudonym which would give you the privacy you deserve and allow you to enjoy poker without any publicity. In time you will feel cool about playing live but take your time, play some serious drums, and enjoy the amazing wine industry.

This needed to be done. Get the old timers on screen with their input.

Well congrats to Joseph Cheong for this win. These High Roller tournaments put a lot of cash at risk, in this case $HK 1,000,000 ( !!! ) but looks like the investment paid off. There seem to be a small cadre of young poker players that specialize in these nose-bleed entry High Roller events. Their wins & final table cashes are huge, getting either dropped jaws, congratulations, or a lot of envy

Hey, it is all good and it should have been noted that Joseph Cheong has gone from 35th on the 2013 Money list with $608,930 to 3rd with $1,948,930 ... an awesome performance.

A nice step forward but until the pool of poker players becomes larger than Nevada, this internet site will go nowhere except ... if it reaches out to the rest of the sane world, where internet poker is legal. If that is the case this Nevada site could blossom. It would be ironic in the extreme that this Nevada site could get online poker licenses in France, Spain, Italy, etc before being allowed to reach out for California.

This of course assumes that the U.S. DOJ lets them play in the first place which is far from likely given the DOJ track record to date.

Good luck and a smart move in the push to crack the current Online Poker Prohibition in the United States!

The poker boom continues in civilized countries like Britain, where the average poker-playing Joe can qualify online for the WSOP in Las Vegas. This is great and this is the way it was in the U.S. before the DOJ decided to launch their crusade against poker by starting the ball rolling for the ongoing Online Poker Prohibition in "the birthplace of poker".

So congrats PKR and keep sending qualifiers into the WSOP. Maybe when enough American poker players see British, French, etc poker players traveling & playing in WSOP events for $4 they will start to get active and ask their ELECTED government officials what's the deal with UNELECTED government agencies (DOJ) stopping U.S. citizens from playing poker online.

The great thing about tracking down these players is that they truly are the backbone of the game. Winning players with a serious bankroll that play in the WSOP like clockwork. All of Tom's suggestions regarding are absolutely correct. Take the NLH addiction of the executives of the WSOP. Eliminating variants is a serious strategic error and (ironically) a significant business error. The Las Vegas WSOP should be the testing ground for variant events and since the Vegas WSOP is the start of the WSOP international boom, the antique variants should stay.

The comment that the WSOP guys have basically got it right is correct. Expanding the WSOP franchise internationally is a genius move and if the DOJ Poker Prohibition continues to gather steam in the U.S., eventually attacking poker in a more general way, the WSOP will be well established where the DOJ cannot kill it off.

Every WSOP should have their "event player" identifying the player that has racked up the most points in that WSOP event. The International WSOP POY would be the sum of all scores. Having WSOP event players identified has the added bonus of downstream having a special tournament just for event Player winners. Tom has a good suggestion there.

Keep bringing these guys in with their comments because they are a breath of fresh air after the FullTilt + GPI craziness.

Great recap ... possibly one of the best so far this year. The excitement of real players making footprints in world-class tournaments (Negreanu, Ivey, Dwan, etc) is finally taking over from news about assorted poker weasels (old Fulltilt founders, GPI founders, etc) to make poker the game the focus instead of the personality quirks of people with dubious morality.

Loved the tweaking of the bracelet race by creating a new category "Main Event Final Tables on different Continents" ... it shows hard work, imagination, and a sly ability to create out of thin air competitive reasons for more people than just Ivey and Negreanu. Kudos to the writer.

The stars could align for an epic November Nine with Ivey, Negreanu, a woman, and an international cast of young, mouthy, competitive Euro-brats all able to create sound bites. It would be too much to hope for Mike Matusow & Helmuth to also be there but they would make great Final Table bubble news (ha ha).

Poker is getting more interesting mainly because the Global Poker Boom is intensifying ... except in the U.S.

Good luck with that! Given the current (crazy) DOJ-fueled Online Poker Prohibition in the U.S. ...Caesers stands as much chance of getting a licence with playing online poker players as the U.S. FullTilt poker players have of getting their money this year or in 2014 even.

Looks like Las Vegas has finally figured out that online poker would have helped their sagging revenue numbers. Late in the game boys and yes ... the biggest (& arguably the best games) are in Macau now.

One more step towards poker ratings that will better protect casual players from significantly stronger players and class tournaments.

Just read the entire Indictment again. Looks like Edler was scooped up in the net mainly as a winning player in a poker game with proceeds of crime on the table. He is rarely named directly although at one point they have him as an operator of a sports betting operation, but otherwise it looks like the DOJ wants all proceeds of crime back and in cash.

The indictment is pretty thorough and looks to be some pretty serious hardened gangsters mixed in with poker players that should have known better that to get involved with people that were clearly Russian gangster types (The hint being they are covered in tattoos and had long criminal records).

Hope Bill Edler can address and solve these charges. They appear out of character for him but then again, I am just a spectator.

Did you notice that of all the POY winners, Daniel has the most final tables? A repeat POY would be quite a feather in his cap. That said, if he has another year like 2004, it is going to be quite a ride in 2013 for both Daniel and us, the spectators.

Let's also not forget another big record on the line in the upcoming WSOP ... that of writer Matt Matros, who has won a wsop bracelet in 2010, 2011, AND (!!!) 2012 ... which is quite an achievement. Will he win another one in 2013 for a record?

Who holds the record for the most WSOP Main Event + WSOPE + WSOPAPAC Final Tables?

Just in case poker players in the U.S. have not gotten the message yet, the online poker prohibition in effect in the U.S. is now expanding to include live poker. The U.S. DOJ is also tackling organized crime at the same time but it is no coincidence that poker is involved. It is pretty clear that the ultimate goal is to criminalize the playing of poker.

That high profile poker players got caught in the net is also logical because the games were run by organized crime and poker players "can" play poker without being involved in the organized crime. That said, the U.S. DOJ sees it differently and takes the position that if you play in the game the money you win is still (in their eyes) the proceeds of crime.

It is not an unreasonable position to take, so it is hard to criticize the U.S. DOJ for taking that position since the money in question comes from hard crime such as prostitution, extortion, theft, the list is endless. When the cash hits the table in illegal gambling dens in the U.S. it is still tainted.

If however the money hits a legal poker table in Las Vegas or Macau it is fair game, presumably because the connection to organized crime is not clear-cut.

At least the DOJ is focusing on organized crime as opposed to victimizing mom pop recreational poker players any more.

The bottom line is sad though. If you are a professional poker player, the U.S. is a very dangerous place to live. Guilt by association is the new rule and in the same way that patrons drinking Gin in a Speakeasy were routinely arrested along with the owners of the Speakeasy during the Prohibition on alcohol ... if you are playing as a participant in a poker game you are arrest-able by association.

The solution? Face the reality that the U.S. DOJ has declared open season on poker players. While in the U.S. stick to official events in registered and regulated casinos. Leave the U.S. to play online poker with the civilized world. Also, quite frankly, before the DOJ starts targeting Las Vegas casinos as money laundering operations and closing those as well, think about playing poker outside the U.S. to avoid this squirrel show.

Guilt by association is a terrible situation to deal with because you could basically be innocent but you are in the net with the real criminals and in the U.S. DOJ eyes ... you play poker so you are automatically suspect ... if not guilty without a trial.

The sweeping context of the bill highlights fundamental legislative incompetence since it criminalizes immediately hundreds of thousands of Florida citizens playing computer games. Nice job. I understand you want to close down the fraudulent internet cafes but this bill is sweeping my only surprise is that they did not go all the way and ban all games and all computers while they were at it. Wait till the casinos figure out that sections of the bill could be applied to them.

Closing the Bitar chapter of this entire sordid scene. Bet of luck for the heart transplant. The man is sick, wish him well, and kudos to the DOJ to accommodate his life-threatening illness.

Meanwhile I note that the U.S. DOJ - once again - has skimmed money from this this plea bargain that they keep.

U.S. citizens are still no closer from getting their cash. I am not holding my breath. The birthplace of poker actually has an ongoing Online Poker Prohibition ... I am amazed. U.S. citizens have literally been driven out of their country, the U.S.A., to play online poker in other countries which have regulated, online poker environments, ironically creating revenue to other governments smarter than the U.S.A. because they have set up regulations and derive tax revenue (a LOT of tax revenue) from online poker.

Outstanding ... Congrats Daniel for a great tournament. The fifth bracelet is not bad, the fact it is a Main Event bracelet is even better ... then there is the 1,000,000+ $A. Things are definitely looking up.