Matthew LeLacheur

According to an email sent out by Mark Bryan, a gaming analyst at Merrill Lynch, the Australian government plans to legalize online poker sometime in the next six to 12 months. This move will coincide with a relaxation of other online betting restrictions, such as “in-play” live bets (bets made after the event has already [...]

The two day SCOOP 2012 Main Event tournaments began on Sunday May 20th. Play was halted at the conclusion of level 20 (10 hours) and resumed early this afternoon. After two weeks worth of events, and many players entering many of the available events, a mere 10 hour first day was welcomed by those who [...]

PokerStars has set a new record for the largest ever online poker tournament series. This year’s Spring Championship of Online Poker (SCOOP 2012) ran for two weeks, featuring 40 events of three tournaments each for a total of 120 events. Registration for the last event has just closed, resulting in a grand total of $65,332,179 [...]

Event number 30 of PokerStars’ SCOOP 2012 was action-packed and took surprisingly little time to determine the winners. It was a Turbo “SuperKnockout” 6-Max bounty tournament, in which half of each player’s buy in became a bounty on their head. This prize structure, along with the quick 5 minute blinds turbo structure and 6 handed [...]

Spain’s new cash-strapped, conservative government is now demanding that online poker license applicants pay backdated taxes for their last 4 years of operation within Spain. This abrupt ultimatum comes just weeks before the first licenses were slated to be issued on June 1st. It has been reported that Pokerstars is facing a €200 million tax [...]

On Thursday, the Regulatory Oversight and Gambling Committee of New Jersey voted 3-1 (with one member abstaining) in favor of sending an online gaming bill (A2578) to a vote at the full Assembly. This is a good step forward for those in favor of online gambling in New Jersey. Bill A2578 is worded such that [...]

The second of three knockout events during PokerStars’ SCOOP 2012 kicked off yesterday as Event #13. Players played down to approximately the final three tables, at which time they went on break for 12 hours, resuming today, May 11th to finish off the tournaments. Event 13 Low buy in $20+$5 bounty+$2, $200k gtd An astounding [...]

Event #8 of the 2012 Spring Championship of Online Poker (SCOOP) has concluded after many hours of play. This event was the “SuperKnockout” event, which featured a very large bounty on each player’s head. Most bounty/knockout tournaments put a small, token bounty on each player of approximately 20% of the prize pool. But in a [...]

Today bwin.Party announced a formal agreement with the United Auburn Indian Community (UAIC) to provide online poker to the residents of California if intrastate legislation is enacted. The UAIC is a federally recognized Californian Indian tribe that currently owns and runs the Thunder Valley Casino Resort, which is near Sacramento, California. This partnership is important [...]

It’s time again for another promotional period on the Road to 100 Billion Poker Hands at PokerStars. For this 80th Billion hand milestone, PokerStars is giving away money to the lucky players who play on every millionth hand starting at 79,700,000,000 and ending at 80,000,000,000. There is up to $1 million up for grabs. There [...]