The Weekly Turbo: Epic Poker League, 2011 WCOOP Schedule, and More

July 03, 2011

Before you get your cookout on, catch up on what you missed this week. Federated Sports + Gaming announced the name of its poker league, PokerStars released its 2011 World Championship of Online Poker schedule, and more.

It's All in the Name

Since Federated Sports + Gaming announced its poker league, we've been in the dark on what the name is. Thanks to the press release we received in our inbox this week, we've been shown the light. The name of the FS+G poker league is the Epic Poker League.

"This is no ordinary tournament league," said Jeffrey Grosman, chief operating officer of FS+G. "Our fields will be some of the toughest in poker history and we expect the competition to be nothing less than epic. In selecting a name that could live up to the players' incredible skill and talent, epic was a natural fit.”

The Epic Poker website will launch in full before the kickoff of the first event and will feature poker pro profiles, rankings, stats, and more. The first event kicks off August 5 and players can satellite in through $340 super satellites at The Palms.

Find out more about Epic Poker at FederatedInc.com or EpicPoker.com.

2011 PokerStars WCOOP

For all you online poker players out there, we've got some good news for you — PokerStars has released its schedule for the 2011 World Championship of Online Poker. It all kicks off on Sunday, Sept. 4 at 1000 EDT (1400 GMT) with a $215 buy-in no-limit hold'em six-max event. Two other events, a $10,300 no-limit hold'em high roller, and a $215 no-limit hold'em event will also begin Sept. 4.

The 2011 PokerStars WCOOP schedule has 62 events on the schedule. Everything from no-limit hold'em to badugi to an 8-game event are on the schedule, so you won't want to miss it. And of course, you'll be able to satellite your way into events.

There is one Team PokerStars Pro who will be making arrangements for the 2011 WCOOP. Daniel Negreanu tweeted on Thursday: "In other news: you will see my on PokerStars.com by Sept in time for WCOOP! Getting a place in downtown Toronto. Should be fun!"

Want the whole schedule? Read the PokerStars Blog.

Where in the World is the World Poker Tour Going?

The World Poker Tour has released its Season X schedule through Dec. 31, 2011. There are 11 events scheduled so far; additional events and announcements are coming soon.

According to the press release we got this morning, the WPT will be holding a press conference before Day 1A of the Legends of Poker Main Event, where new on-air additions, enhancements, and big changes will be announced.

So where and when do you need to book your tickets?

Click on over to WorldPokerTour.com for more.

He's the Nuts

The latest installment of ESPN's The Nuts is back. The monthly blog post ranks the best players in poker at the moment. The Panel includes PokerNews' Editor-in-Chief Matthew Parvis, PokerNews' Tournament Reporting Manager Don Peters, ESPN's Andrew Feldman, Gary Wise, and Bernard Lee, among others.

After taking the month of May off, there's been quite the shake up in The Nuts rankings for June. Erik Seidel, now in second place, has been knocked out of the No. 1 spot by a young gun who has been mashing through poker tournaments lately. Jason Mercier is now at the top of the rankings list. "Remember when we thought Mercier was just on a sick heater? Yeah, that heater has lasted more than three years already and doesn't seem to be ending anytime soon," wrote Feldman.

John Juanda who bubbled the list in May has rocketed up to the third spot. Also not on the list in May was Phil Hellmuth and Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier, who are sitting in eighth and tenth respectively. Hellmuth isn't alone in the eighth spot though, he's tied with Daniel Negreanu. Where's Ivey? Phil Ivey dropped from No. 2 to No. 6 this go around.

Want to check out the entire list? You can, at ESPN.com.

Copag Sponsors Tours

It was announced Wednesday that Copag inked a deal to become the official playing card sponsor of Global Poker Tours Limited, the organization that puts on the PokerStars-sponsored tours.

“We are very proud of this strong partnership and glad for the opportunity to have our playing cards in the most important poker events worldwide. When we started working on the international market years ago we dreamed of an opportunity like this. The quality of our products and service to our customers has enabled us to achieve this great partnership," said Marta Mateus, international business director of Copag.

PokerStars-sponsored tours that are sponsored:

• Asia Pacific Poker Tour (APPT) - Seasons 5-7
• Australia New Zealand Poker Tour (ANZPT) - Seasons 3-5
• Belgium Poker Series (BPS) - Seasons 1-3
• Estrellas Poker Tour - Seasons 3-4
• Eureka Poker Tour - Seasons 1-3
• France Poker Series (FPS) - Seasons 2-3
• Macau Poker Cup, and Macau Millions at the PokerStars Macau poker room
• Russian Poker Series (RPS) - Seasons 2-4
• UK & Ireland Poker Tour (UKIPT) - Seasons 3-4
• The 8th Annual PokerStars Caribbean Adventure (PCA)

"Our network of live tours and events touches tens of thousands of live poker players on five continents each year, and we're pleased that each one of them will have the opportunity to touch and play with Copag cards," said Jeffrey Haas, managing director of GPTL. "Having high quality cards in play is essential to creating a great player experience, and we're proud to be working with Copag."

Check out the press release on the PokerStars Blog.

Uh Oh

Jamie Gold is in hot water with the Borgata Hotel Casino and Spa in Atlantic City. The 2006 World Series of Poker Main Event winner allegedly owes the casino a little over $50,000.

If we understand the TMZ report correctly, the Borgata "won a default judgement against Gold for $52,279.47 back in 2010 — after the casino claimed Gold bounced a check there."

While the casino won the judgement, it was in New Jersey. Gold lives in California, so to get the judgement enforced there, the casino had to file papers in the Los Angeles Superior Court.

According to TMZ, there has yet to be a ruling in California.

For more, head on over to TMZ.com.

LOLCartoonaments

When we watched the latest video from The Micros we were laughing our butts off. There are so many awesome one-liners in this one and Jennifer Harman's children learned quite a bit from watching the show. Taylor Caby does not approve, and even Phil Ivey called in. Oh and Kara Scott did her best Street Fighter impersonation. But one of our favorites came from Antonio Esfandiari, "We like that he's a nit from Asia, but maybe he can do some magic too!"

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