The biggest first place prize of the entire series was doled out just last night in the TCOOP Main Event, a $700 buy-in No Limit Hold’em turbo tournament. The guaranteed prize pool of $1.5 million was absolutely annihilated thanks to an impressive 3,667 people participating. This meant a total prize pool of $2,438,555 and a first place prize of $382,855.67.

There is no surprise that the game’s online elite came out for this tournament in spades. American tournament professionals made sure they were relocated on time to play the big event, and the number of big names in the field highlighted this fact. It turned out to be more than worth it for two in particular, as both first and second place ended up being American players.

It was to be expected that stacks would be shallow once the final table of this event got underway, but the actual stack sizes, once it became 9-handed, bordered on ridiculous. Betudontbet was the chip leader when the final table started, with 25,828,771 at blinds 500k/1m. He was the only player at the table with over 10 big blinds. Have you ever wanted to flip coins for hundreds of thousands of dollars? If so, this was your tournament!

TCOOP Main Event Final Table

With so many short stacks, it was obviously push and pray time for… well, everyone. The bust outs were fast and furious. Realizing that he probably didn’t have much time left, mmbittencour attempted to get a deal going with five players remaining. His chat requests went unheeded by at least one of the remaining players, however, so play continued. Fittingly, mmbittencour ended up busting in 5th place.

Betudontbet, one of the aforementioned relocated American pros, controlled a huge portion of the remaining chips in play for most of the final table. This fact was highlighted when, with three players left, play was stopped so that a deal could be discussed. Andre Coimbra, the final table host, delivered the chip chop numbers, and Betudontbet was calculated to receive $10,000 more than the scheduled first place prize!

Math can be a funny thing. Usually players aren’t happy with giving a player more than first place money, and this final table was no exception. The players opted to keep playing.

Betudontbet ended up getting heads-up with ImDaNuts, another relocated American pro. Both of these players have fantastic online poker resumes. Betudontbet goes by David Emmons in real life, and before this Main Event cash, he had almost $2 million in online tournament cashes. He currently ranks 19th on PocketFives. ImDaNuts, known as Chris Oliver in real life, has cashes that are even more impressive. Currently ranked 23rd on PocketFives, his cashes before this tournament amounted to just under $4 million.

Betudontbet had an over 6 to 1 chip lead over ImDaNuts when heads-up got started, so it almost seemed like Emmons’s victory was guaranteed. To say that heads-up was short is an understatement as it was all over in just one hand: Betudontbet shoved A5o and ImDaNuts called with K7o. ImDaNuts got teased by a K high flop, for an ace fell on the turn to take the pot away. He had to settle for 2nd place.

Congratulations to Betudontbet for winning the first ever TCOOP Main Event! He dominated the final table from the start and received a handsome $382,855.67 for his efforts. Let’s keep in mind that he did all this in just 5 hours and 14 minutes. I challenge you to find a better hourly rate than that!

Final table cashes:

1. Betudontbet – $382,855.67
2. ImDaNuts – $285,310.93
3. Didak04 – $201,180.78
4. Gala_Terry – $140,216.91
5. mmbittencour – $103,638.59
6. DimaDima13 – $79,253.03
7. swissman29 – $45,867.48
8. zyxel888 – $30,481.93
9. MON3Y$HOT – $19,508.44

Like the Indian tribes in California, South Point Casino is hoping to gain loyalty from consumers in preparation for poker legalization in the future. If they build a player base now, they will be ahead of their competition if and when legalization occurs. Tom Mikovits, a spokesman for the casino, explained that they are trying to get players “comfortable with an aesthetically pleasing, good-looking site that’s easy to play on.”

The site has been online since early October, but it only recently became available to people outside of their casino’s player club. South Point Casino is the first Las Vegas casino to create an online poker free to play site, but you can be sure that several more will follow in the weeks and months to come.

Online Poker Hearing in Congress

A special hearing will be held on October 25th in the U.S. House of Representatives’ Subcommittee for Commerce, Manufacturing, and Trade. This topic of this hearing will be online gambling in the United States.

Congressman Joe Barton’s Online Poker Act of 2011 (HR 2366) will be discussed at this hearing. Barton is on the subcommittee and will be present.

The Poker Players Alliance (PPA) has been putting the word out about the upcoming hearing. They believe that it has the potential to be very important since Barton’s bill is being examined. The PPA is asking its members and other poker players to contact their U.S. Representatives if they are members of the Subcommittee for Commerce, Manufacturing, and Trade.

One of the main advocates for online poker legislation has always been the Poker Players Alliance (PPA). The PPA, however, had received the majority of their finances from Full Tilt Poker before the scandals. Knowing that plenty of eyebrows would be raised at this fact, the PPA is now trying to distance itself from Full Tilt as much as possible. There is concern that Americans will question the legitimacy of the PPA since it was almost entirely funded by the site.

Lawmakers that had received money from the PPA and Full Tilt are also in a tough spot. These people are now trying to distance themselves from both entities, especially Full Tilt. Some of them have pledged to donate the money they have received from the PPA and Full Tilt to charity. Such lawmakers include Shelley Berkley, Joe Heck, and Barney Frank.

It is discouraging to know that some of the biggest backers of online poker have pulled back in light of recent events. “Online poker, frankly, is way back in my head,” said Senator Harry Reid in a recent interview.

With elections in the U.S. rapidly approaching, the quick legalization of online poker seems highly unlikely. Politicians know that online gambling is a dangerous issue to deal with, so there is a high chance that its issues will be put on the back burner for quite some time.

Free to Play Site in California

On a brighter note, CalShark.com has been introduced by a few Indian tribes in California. These tribes operate a number of successful brick-and-mortar casinos, and they are pushing for legal online poker in their state.

While these sites are created for “educational and instructional purposes only”, the tribes believe that they are a great marketing tool. If online poker should become legal in California in the future, it is possible that people will remain loyal to these sites as they move to real money gambling.

It looks like residents of California will have plenty to choose from as other Indian tribes are also planning on launching these sites.

The Californian Senate will be looking at the issue of online poker again in January 2012.

Many new poker players like to play online because it’s easily accessible and possible to play for smaller stakes. If you decide to do this, you will need a way to deposit money into your online account. You also need a way to access your profit. One option is Moneybookers, an e-wallet that allows you to transfer money to and from your bank account.

You may or may not know that Moneybookers is in the process of becoming Skrill. They have been slowly making the transition to Skrill for quite some time now, and they plan to have made the full transition by sometime in 2012.

Skrill has partnered with PokerStars to become the official payment processor of the European Poker Tour. As a way to celebrate, PokerStars is hosting the €10,000 Skrill Grand Freeroll Final. This freeroll will take place at the EPT Grand Final, and it will consist of just ten players. To win your way in, you must win a Skrill Grand Final Freeroll qualifier.

The only way to get a ticket for a Skrill Grand Final Freeroll qualifier is by depositing into your PokerStars account using Skrill. If you are registering for a new account, be sure to click one of our PokerStars links and use the PokerStars bonus code “STARS600″ to get an exclusive deposit bonus.

Each freeroll qualifier has an added cash prize pool. For example, the next Skrill Grand Final Freeroll qualifier is scheduled for October 23rd and will have €500 added. This is in addition to the prize pool that will be generated from an hour of €1 rebuys. Rebuys are unlimited.

The Bernard Tapie Group is known for buying bankrupt companies and turning them into profitable companies. An example of this is with Adidas, which it owned between 1990 and 1993. In total they have acquired over forty different companies over the thirty years they’ve been in business.

This exclusive agreement between the Bernard Tapie Group and Full Tilt’s board of directors would allows the Bernard Tapie Group to acquire Full Tilt Poker and all its assets. Although it is just an agreement for now, part of the deal is paying back all of Full Tilt’s players. The Bernard Tapie Group is currently in contact with the Department of Justice regarding paying players back.

The Bernard Tapie Group is hoping that the Department of Justice will use seized funds to help pay players. There is suggestion that this might, indeed, be the case in the near future, but for now it is merely speculation.

Can the Bernard Tapie Group save Full Tilt like they saved Adidas?

American Gaming Association Continues to Push for Regulation

Frank Fahrenkopf, the AGA’s chief executive, continues to be vocal about America’s need for the regulation of online poker. He believes that this is the closest the country has ever been to federal legislation.

In his opinion, it would be best if the states could decide themselves whether or not they will have legal online gambling and require online sites to have licenses. He thinks Congress should scrap pre-existing bills and just pass new legislation allowing this.

The AGA has not backed any of the current bills and is, presumably, waiting for legislation that supports the above suggestion.

Regulation 5A includes the following guidelines for legal online gambling:

A) The legal age for online gambling is 21 years old.
B) Licensees are required to set aside $20,000 at all times to pay for any necessary compliance investigations.
C) Players are permitted only one gambling account and it must use their full real name.
D) Players can deposit funds using credit cards.
E) No transfers of money are permitted between players.
F) Hand histories must be stored by the gambling site for five years minimum.
G) Operators must be proactive when it comes to preventing bots.

Nevada has created these regulations so that they will be ready to issue licenses if one of two scenarios should occur. One scenario is the federal government formally legalizing online poker. The second scenario is if the U.S. Department of Justice informing the Nevada Gaming Commission that interactive gaming is permitted by federal law.

How long will residents of Washington DC have to wait for legal online poker?

Online Poker Stalled in Washington D.C.

Nothing has moved forward regarding legal online poker since the cancellation of the online trial in Washington D.C. at the start of this month. In fact, it appears that things have moved in the opposite direction.

Right now the project is in a consultative phase. D.C. Lottery is planning on holding public forums to help explain the idea of online gambling. It looks like most people don’t need much convincing, however. The Washington Times newspaper held a poll and showed that 85% of those polled were in favor of the online poker legalization.

Despite the public support for legal online poker, several council members are repealing part of a bill that authorizes online gambling.

California Also Supports Online Poker

A poll was conducted in California asking voters whether or not they would support legal online poker if it meant more revenue for the state. Here is how the results ended up:

Voters aged 18-39: 73% interested.

Voters aged 40-64: 48% interested.

Voters 65 or older: 35% interested.

Democrats were 56% for it, while Republicans were 43% for it.

In total 53% of those polled were in favor of online poker in California. As of now, however, there are no immediate plans on board for legalization.

A $215 No Limit Hold’em Event will typically attract players in droves, and WCOOP Event 60 was no different. A grand total of 9,664 players paid the $215 entry fee, which caused the prize pool to demolish the original guarantee of $1,250,000 by a whopping $682,800. A total prize pool of $1,932,800 meant that players would be vying for a first place prize of $284,319.29.

The final table was a bit short on star power which can happen in smaller buy-ins with large fields. Perhaps the most notable player in the final 50 was Matt “All_in_at420″ Stout who finished 38th for $3,575.68. The deepest running PokerStars Pro was Victor Ramdin who finished in 56th for $2,995.84.

Here were the final table chips and seats:

Seat 1 – X-Front – 9,164,935
Seat 2 – The_Stat – 6,842,252
Seat 3 – DeRp0kErGuRu – 10,040,976
Seat 4 – yarik1903 – 15,974,839
Seat 5 – Veg 101 – 8,570,524
Seat 6 – Zanjong – 18,250,976
Seat 7 – tormos – 4,021,132
Seat 8 – Flyboys007 – 2,329,454
Seat 9 – 1WHALEN1 – 21,444,912

Flyboys007′s short stack didn’t last too long as he got the last of his chips in with KK against Veg 101′s A4 suited. Veg 101 flopped two pair and didn’t look back, sending Flyboy007 out in 9th place.

American Matt Stout went deep but couldn't make the final table

As the final table wore on, DeRp0kErGuRu lost a considerable amount of traction and was forced into a coinflip situation with AK suited against Veg 101′s 88. The best hand held up and Veg 101 was responsible for his 2nd knockout in a row as DeRp0kErGuRu finished in 8th.

As play became six-handed, however, Veg 101 saw his chips dwindle. When he eventually reraised all-in with A2 offsuit, X-Front called with KQ suited. Veg 101 was praying for his narrow edge to hold up, but his hopes were dashed when the turn brought a Queen to end his day in 6th place.

1WHALEN1 was the next final table departure as he shoved 24bb over tormos’s raise from the small blind. tormos made the easy call with QQ and was far ahead of 1WHALEN1′s move gone wrong with 52 offsuit. No miracles came and 1WHALEN1 left in 5th. tormos continued to collect the chips as he picked up another big pair in TT against The_Stat’s A8 offsuit. Tormos turned a set which left The_Stat drawing dead and out in 4th place.

Despite coming into the final table with one of the biggest stacks, Yarik1903 would not leave the eventual winner. He got it all-in preflop with TT against tormos’s A9 offsuit, but his hand could not hold. tormos continued his heater and pulled out an ace on the river (Greenstein-style) to dispatch Yarik1903 in 3rd place.

tormos and X-Front were close in chips when heads-up play began, but X-Front began to pull away around an hour into the match. He then finally got the victory, but it came in the form of the ultimate cooler: he got dealt AA versus tormos’s KK. tormos couldn’t find a 2-outer, and he settled for the runner-up prize.

Congratulations to X-Front for winning one of the most prestigious events of WCOOP 2012! He won a fancy WCOOP bracelet along with a fabulous first place prize of $284,319.29. Please see below for the rest of the final table payouts.

1 – X-Front – $284,319.29
2 – tormos – $207,776.00
3 – yarik1903 – $144,960.00
4 – The_Stat – $96,640.00
5 – 1WHALEN1 – $77,312.00
6 – Veg 101 – $57,984.00
7 – Zanjong – $38,656.00
8 – DeRp0kErGuRu – $21,260.80
9 – Flyboys007 – $14,979.20

It has been said that the 23 owners of the site took out $444 million in self payments. Receiving the largest amount of this money were Howard Lederer, Chris Ferguson, Rafe Furst, and Raymond Bitar. They allegedly received $38 million, $24 million, $12 million, and $40 million respectively.

The Department of Justice states that on March 31st of this year, Full Tilt Poker owed its players $390 million but only had $60 million in its bank accounts. Furthermore, Lederer apparently told other Full Tilt insiders that the company had only $6 million in the bank but had liabilities of over $300 million.

It comes as no surprise that the Alderney Gambling Control Commission is rumored to be planning to revoke Full Tilt Poker’s gaming license for good. This would likely be the end of the gaming site as it would then be nearly impossible to find an investor.

American Gambling Association President Looking for Poker Regulation

The president of the American Gambling Association (AGA), Frank Frank Fahrenkopf, is trying to find out exactly how long Full Tilt was robbing its players for. He also wants to know exactly for how much. He would use these figures to help lobby for U.S. laws that will protect poker players.

Fahrenkopf, disgusted by the actions of Full Tilt, went as far as to compare the situation to the Wild West. The current online poker climate is, in his opinion, lawless. He has urged Congress to change laws immediately because he doesn’t want the things that Full Tilt did to continue amongst other sites. He thinks these actions will keep going until online sites are governed by the same regulations as brick-and-mortar casinos.

The AGA would like to see New Jersey and Nevada as the regulatory authorities in the U.S. online gambling market and does not support any current online gambling legislation at the federal level.

FairPlayUSA

The Bid for Regulation Gains More Support

FairPlayUSA is a “new coalition of law enforcement officials, consumer protection experts, poker players, companies in the commercial gaming industry, and other Americans concerned about Internet gambling.” The group recently gained the memberships of former Secretary of Homeland Security Tom Ridge and former FBI Director Louis Freeh.

Ridge has publicly stated that Prohibition has not worked and is not the answer. Criminalization, he said, does not make sense. He hopes that FairPlayUSA can help to create a way to regulate the game and enable enforcement of laws for online poker.

Massachusetts Online Gambling Proposal Has Detractors

A couple days ago, FlopTurnRiver reported that Massachusetts has proposed an amendment that will allow residents to play legal online poker by the end of 2012. The bill was passed by the State House of Representatives by a 123 to 32 vote. It now must pass the State Senate.

If the bill goes through, it would allow people to create an account for legal online poker, but there would also be precautionary measures taken to prevent minors and players from states in which online poker is illegal. Massachusetts would then be the first state to have legal online poker. New Jersey, Nevada, and Florida have all proposed it, but none of them took it all the way.

The Catholic Church, however, may stand in the way of legal online poker in Massachusetts. The state’s four Catholic bishops recently signed a statement condemning the bill: “While the Catholic Church views gambling as a legitimate form of entertainment when done in moderation, the gaming legislation opens the door to a new form of predatory gaming which threatens the moral fabric of our society.”

They went on to say that they understand that “the state is searching for new ways to increase revenue and create jobs aimed at meeting these difficult challenges and to bring about economic stimuli. However, expanded gambling in the form of slot parlors and casinos is an illusory solution to this complicated problem. If anything, expanded, predatory gambling will only add to the need for state assistance in the Commonwealth.”

The population of Massachusetts is 44% Catholic, which gives the religious sector of the state plenty of influence when it comes to politics. It remains to be seen whether or not they can stop the bill in its tracks, however. Since the bill is scheduled to reach the State Senate soon, we will probably find out in the very near future.

2,080 players came out for the event and after the rebuys were tallied, the total prize pool was $811,500. This was over double the original guarantee of $400k! It meant a first place prize of just under $130k.

Quite a few notable players fell just short of the final table, including November Niner Pius “MastaP89″ Heinz. He finished 34th for just $2,475.07, but fortunately he’ll have another crack at big money in November when he plays for millions. Adam “squee451″ Sherman looked to score big in Event 44 to add to his already sizable online winnings of over $2.4 million. He got no further than 24th, however, and pocketed $2,880.82.

The final two tables were populated with three PokerStars pros, but none of them were able to make the trip to the final table. Jude “j.thaddeus” Ainsworth finished in 18th for $3,448.87 and Daniel “KidPoker” Negreanu followed right behind him in 17th for the same payout. George “gkap13″ Kapalas came the closest of the PokerStars pros as he busted just before the final table in 11th place for $6,289.12.

Daniel Negreanu

Here were the final table chips and seats:

Seat 1 – trampek – 327,806
Seat 2 – sizzlinbetta – 1,083,267
Seat 3 – thagrinda444 – 1,126,880
Seat 4 – z0di@c – 674,067
Seat 5 – Pvd170590 – 3,399,580
Seat 6 – Obafemi 9 – 1,652,414
Seat 7 – Teobaldo – 758,703
Seat 8 – BuRR7deuce – 3,578,920
Seat 9 – nutzho – 923,363

Stephen “sizzlinbetta” Reynolds and Getty “nutzho” Mattingsley looked to the be most accomplished players at the final table as each of them had over a million in cashes online. This wasn’t thagrinda444′s first final table of the series as he final tabled Event 30, a $530 10-Max No Limit Hold’em Shootout. He got 10th in that event for $4,515.

Obafemi 9 and sizzlinbetta were the first departures of the final table as each player got in the last of their chips with AT offsuit and both times each player had 3 outs. Neither could hit their outs and they finished in 9th and 8th respectively.

Thagrinda444 was able to improve upon his prior final table by finishing in 7th place. He busted after running AQ suited into the KK of Pvd170590.

Z0di@c was the next player to give AT offsuit a whirl, putting his opponent trampek at risk. trampek held 99 but unlike the AT of Obafemi 9 and sizzlinbetta, Z0di@c’s hand hit the board. This meant trampek was out in 6th place. Z0di@c was also responsible for the next bustout, taking Teobaldo out in 5th place.

Pvd170590 came into the final table just shy of the chip lead, but he went no further than 4th place as his AJ offsuit was coolered by z0di@c’s AA. BuRR7deuce was responsible for nutzho’s bustout with A8 against nutzho’s JQ.

Z0di@c began heads-up play with a roughly 2 to 1 chip lead and didn’t relinquish it, finishing off BuRR7deuce in short fashion. This meant that Z0di@c won a handsome first place prize of $129,840.80, along with a coveted WCOOP bracelet.

Congratulations to everyone that cashed Event 44! Please see below for the final table payouts.

1 – z0di@c – $129,840.80
2 – BuRR7deuce – $97,380.00
3 – nutzho – $73,035.00
4 – Pvd170590 – $52,057.72
5 – Teobaldo – $36,517.50
6 – trampek – $36,517.50
7 – thagrinda444 – $20,287.50
8 – sizzlinbetta – $14,201.25
9 – Obafemi 9 – $8,115.00

It is not known which payment processors will be affected, nor is it known whether indictments will follow the seizures. It is also unknown whether or not the domain names will be seized. The seizures are planned for sometime later this month, although this could change anytime.

There is no clear answer for what you should do if you currently have money in a Merge site. As withdrawals on Merge are extremely slow to process, it is unlikely that withdrawing at this time would have any success. In fact, withdrawing right now might cause your money to be lost within the payment processor and subsequently seized when the DOJ takes action.

... but for how long?

It is unclear as to whether or not Merge keeps player funds in a segregated account as they refuse to comment on the matter. The Kahnawake Gaming Commission, from which they have their primary license, does not require fund segregation.

It was reported that Merge had been seeking a licence from the Malta Lotteries and Gaming Authority (LGA) though, a commission that has strict rules regarding fund segregation. Some Merge skins had even added the LGA logo to their websites already. LGA released a statement specifying that Lock Poker was NOT licensed by them, however, which leads us to believe that none of the network is licensed by LGA yet.

We can only hope that the funds are, in fact, segregated. If the DOJ does seize Merge accounts, there is a chance that they would leave a segregated account untouched. Back when Black Friday occurred, they made it clear that they never seized player accounts and that the sites were expected to return player funds as soon as possible.