The Nightly Turbo: WPT Leaving Amnéville, Bovada Blocks Washington State, and More

The PartyPoker Big Game VI is under way in Vienna, Austria. If you want to watch the action during the next two days, we've providing a live stream right here at PokerNews.com!

In other news, the World Poker Tour is reportedly leaving Amnéville, and Bovada has blocked players from Washington state. We'll cover those stores and more in the latest edition of the Nightly Turbo.

In Case You Missed It

Want an even closer look at the PartyPoker Big Game VI? Follow all of the players with the help of our PartyPoker Big Game Social Media Guide.

The World Poker Tour Vienna Main Event kicked off on Tuesday. David Breitfuss led the 73 players that survived Day 1a.

Daniel Negreanu was back with his Weekly Rant on Wednesday. This week, Daniel discussed iSeriesLive, Epic Poker, and much more.

Aaron "aejones" Jones has long been one of the most respected high-stakes cash-games players online. In the latest Strategy with Kristy podcast, Jones analyzes poker hands sent in by listeners.

A winner was crowned at World Series of Poker Circuit Horseshoe Council Bluffs on Tuesday. Find out who claimed the ring in our WSOPC recap.

Many of poker's best online players never get a chance to shine in the spotlight. We're here to change that. In this edition of Online Chat, Ben "milkybarkid" Grundy talks about his biggest swings, how he chose his screen name, and more.

Bon Voyage?

According to a report by Lorraine France Bleu Nord, the World Poker Tour will not be renewing its contract with the Seven Casino d'Amnéville at the end of this season. The casino in Amnéville, France played host to WPT events in 2010 and 2011, but declining attendance and a "lack of glamor" could have played factors in the decision to abandon the city, according to the report.

The WPT saw 543 entrants put up the €3,500 entry fee at Amnéville in 2010. The tournament was considered a huge success as Sam El Sayed collected more than €426,000 for his victory in one of the country's largest tournaments ever. However, those numbers dropped considerably in 2011 when only 379 players entered the event. WPT Grand Prix de Paris had fewer entrants (312) than Amnéville in 2011, but the event in Paris featured a €7,500 buy-in.

Read more at livepoker.fr.

Bovada Blocks Washington State

In March, Bovada announced it would no longer accept new players from New York, Utah, Maryland and Washington. The site then banned existing players in Maryland from accessing the site. Now, the Bovada will also block players from Washington state, giving them until the end of April to request their funds.

Players in Washington recently received an email from Bovada saying that the poker room was unable to continue offering its services in the state because of "continuing difficulties finding and maintaining acceptable payment options." Here's an excerpt from the e-mail:

As a resident of Washington, your account has been closed to further activity. Your balance remains safe and in place – simply contact us prior to April 30th to arrange for a payout via the most suitable method. Past this date we cannot guarantee an immediate availability of options for payments to your state.

Please note that due to this decision we expect an increase in payout requests and this may delay receipt beyond our standard 15 days. We always honor our payouts so rest assured you will receive your funds.

Washington state has long been opposed to online gambling within its borders. In 2010, the Washington Supreme Court upheld an amendment that made wagering on online poker a Class C felony. PokerStars and Full Tilt Poker, the two leaders in the U.S. market at the time, exited the state shortly after the ruling.

Follow the player reactions at TwoPlusTwo.com.

Duhamel Preserves Lead in Global Poker Index Player of the Year

Team PokerStars Pro Jonathan Duhamel maintained the top spot in the Global Poker Index Player of the Year standings this week. The award, which is presented by PokerNews, honors the player who has the strongest performance in live tournaments during the calendar year, according to the USA Today Global Poker Index point system.

There were no changes in the Top 10 of the rankings this week. Duhamel kept a healthy lead over the rest of the world with 595.68 points, nearly double the score of anyone else in the world. Erik Cajelais, Bruno Lopes, Eui Kim and Noah Schwartz rounded out the top five, respectively.

Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier moved up 12 spots to No. 14 in the rankings this week. Grospellier made two final tables in March, including a third place finish at the 2012 France Poker Series Showefest High Roller. Other big movers this week were Raj Vohra (up 235 spots to No. 110), Yury Kerzhapkin (up 557 spots to No. 123) and Micah Raskin (up 247 spots to No. 146).

Here's a look at the rest of the Top 10 of the Global Poker Index Player of the Year standings:

GPI Player of the Year Top 10

Place	Player	Total Score	Change in Rank from Last Week
1	Jonathan Duhamel	595.68	--
2	Erik Cajelais	342.87	--
3	Bruno Lopes	337.27	--
4	Eui Kim	327.01	--
5	Noah Schwartz	326.05	--
6	Faraz Jaka	308.34	--
7	Samuel Chartier	305.79	--
8	Oliver Speidel	300.53	--
9	Steven O'Dwyer	290.17	--
10	Jose Manuel Nadal	287.10	--

For the full GPI Player of the Year standings, head on over to EpicPoker.com.

Unibet Purchases Bet24

Unibet Group plc acquired one of its competitors in the European gaming market on Wednesday. The company purchased Nordic Betting Plc, best known for its Bet24 gaming operation, for approximately €13.5 million.

Bet24's poker arm resides on the OnGame Network and is home to a growing list of sponsored pros such as Jesper Hougaard, Paul Foltyn, and World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP) Main Event winner Thomas "kalllle" Pedersen. The company also recently signed Danish football national team coach Morten Olsen and former Liverpool FC player Jan Mølby to represent the Bet24 poker brand.

The future of those players is now unknown as Unibet plans to rebrand Bet24’s products and services and migrating Bet24’s customers to its own platform. However, Unibet will transfer approximately 45 Nordic Betting Ltd employees to its operations in Malta.

Read more at PokerNews.com.

UKIPT Nottingham Eyes Record Books

The PokerStars UK & Ireland Poker Tour (UKIPT) Nottingham Main Event got under way on Wednesday. The £700 + £70 buy-in tournament is being played at the Dusk Till Dawn poker club and features a massive £1 million guaranteed prize pool.

The tournament needs to draw around 1,460 players to reach the guarantee, and it got off to a great start as 532 players registered on the first of three Day 1 flights. Should the event hit the guarantee, it will mark the largest field ever in England.

Be sure to follow the PokerStars Blog for live updates from UKIPT Nottingham, and check back to the Nightly Turbo for results.

Get all the latest PokerNews updates on your social media outlets. Follow us on Twitter and like us on Facebook today!

Comments

joeschmoe 04-12-2012 03:09

Like any other state, Washington is home to certain influential, organized business and social interests that tend to steer public policy.

The population has a limited amount of disposable money, and everyone is fighting for a piece of it. The dollars spent (lost.. raked..) playing online poker cannot be blown off in some local b+m Indian casino (WIGA - Washington Indian Gaming Association)... nor will it be spent at other large and small local businesses, which are going through pretty rough times lately.

Tax revenues could suffer I guess, but pocket money eventually gets spent, and it will be taxed at least once, twice, three times or more, depending on how and where it's spent.
Aside from that, politicians aren't shy about raising taxes, or just borrowing money, when revenues aren't covering all their expensive little pet projects.

Generally, politicians have no opinion. Whatever the "people" want is OK with them. They craft laws that benefit big business campaign donators, large organizations like workers unions, as well as the huge voting blocks of the less fortunate.
flintsword 04-11-2012 17:54

It is time to let go of the Global Poker Index ... "Player of the Year" using an index from a firm in bankruptcy makes poker look bad ... ease it out into the yard and put the global index out of its misery. By using the Global index EVERY POTENTIAL INVESTOR or SPONSOR will face a failed poker organization behind the index. Shoot it and move on.

PokerNews is a strong enough (and solvent !!) organization to launch its own index with rules. Your Leader can get PartyPoker on board and if you get Daniel Negreanu to input (a good thing) you might also get PokerStars on board. Do a cross-deal thehendonmob.com for their database. Name it "The International Poker List" sponsored by [fill in the blank] and make it 30,000 poker players long. Every month you can report who made the biggest jump and it might well be some nameless unknown. Once a year give out a trophy for most improved player and if it is a breakout player, so be it. Give out another trophy for best improved in the top thousand players.

POKERNEWS has done everything short of buying Epic and buying lunch for Epic shareholders ... the time has come to (gently) pull the plug. Epic failed and that is a sad fact. We face the music and move on.

We gain absolutely nothing for poker by perpetuating the rankings of poker players to a list from a poker company that is out of the loop.
flintsword 04-11-2012 17:29

I never understood why Washington State, home to Microsoft & basically forward-thinking, would not understand & regulate online poker instead of this retarded "ban the evil poker" posture they are taking. For a state with a need for revenue they sure like throwing money out the window by toeing the line with religious fundamentalist decrying the evils of gambling and throwing poker in the same basket as roulette or slots ... pretty dumb for a state that should be a lot more modern.

Read 3 comment(s) on this article

What do you think?
Register to leave a comment or login with facebook