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Poker News Round-up: Week #39 Ross Boatman in London Burning Thanks to Robert Butt for taking time out of his busy schedule of answering a never-ending barrage of rakeback enquiries and suffering a never-ending barrage of online bad beats to cover this column for the past two weeks. A trip for myself to Dubai in the gambling intolerant United Arab Emirates looked set to provide a complete break from cards, yet moments after turning on the television during a mid-afternoon raid on the mini bar, a face appeared before me that I recognised well from the world of poker. A few pounds lighter back then and with the luxury of being able to buff his hair up into a style that I dread to think might have actually resembled my own at that time, Ross Boatman was playing the cheeky chappy in an 80s episode of London’s Burning and I was reminded of the WSOPE that I was missing back home.  Annette Obrestad The WSOPE main event was won by someone who has managed to make herself one of the hottest names in poker by the age of just nineteen. As one of only three players to have recorded tournament winnings in excess of $1 million both online and live, Annette Obrestad’s achievements are all the more remarkable bearing in mind that she won’t be old enough to play in the WSOP in Vegas until 2010. She may have to find somewhere else to ply her trade though if Trond Giske, culture minister in her native Norway, has his way. Giske is a vehement opponent of online gambling and wants to introduce a bill similar to the American Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act which would ban transactions between online gambling accounts and banks or other payment processors. Any player with a Norwegian IP address could potentially be denied access to the major online poker rooms. Giske is likely to face stern opposition from elsewhere in Europe where internet gaming companies are based though such as Gibraltar and Malta. Norway is a member of the European Free Trade Area agreement and could find itself standing alone in a multi-national dispute if it attempts to restrict the trade of a company in another country. That very same prospect didn’t seem to prevent the USA from getting into such in a position though. America still won’t admit that by prohibiting its citizens from using online casinos elsewhere in the world it is in violation of World Trade Organisation agreements. WTO panels have though decided that the US clearly reneged on agreements they had signed up to and have decided that compensation can be sought from those countries affected. The European Union, Antigua, Macau, India and Australia are all seeking compensation and some of the figures being mentioned are enough to make the eyes bleed. This is being touted as the most significant case in the history of the WTO and it is thought that the combined claims of all countries affected could top $100 billion. The US has now begun to make offers of compensation which are predictably well below the estimated losses of those who suffered as a result of the UIGEA, and these offers are likely to be rejected. Negotiations look set to continue but the US’s position is very weak here and they could end up paying out crippling sums of money. Bill Frist, Jon Kyl et al who were responsible for smuggling through the UIGEA as part of the SAFE Port Act have created a monster which threatens to have serious repercussions for America’s economy. Back in England, protracted legal wranglings of our own have come to a conclusion in the case of the Dusk Till Dawn club in Nottingham. It was originally planned for the club to open a year ago but there were objections from three casino chains who spied competition on the horizon and didn’t like the look of it. Gala, Stanley’s and London Clubs International all made objections on the ostensible grounds that there was insufficient demand for the club. In the face of strong evidence in the form of thousands of applications for membership and letters of support from the Gambling Commission, London Clubs International withdrew their objection virtually as soon as the court hearing began, knowing that they had at least succeeded with their delaying tactics. Gala and Stanley’s though seemed determined to see it through to the bitter end but the dead horse they were flogging remained decidedly deceased. Nottingham Magistrates Court found in favour of Dusk Till Dawn and managing director Rob Yong is now free to open his doors to customers, which will probably happen before Christmas. With a capacity to seat over 400 players at a time it could be argued that this would now be the best venue to host future WSOPE events, which would stick in the throats of the casino chains quite nicely, although Harrah’s ownership of LCI would make this unlikely. Meanwhile, the World Poker Tour has had to make a rather embarrassing climb down at its latest event - the WPT Turks and Caicos Poker Classic. Following the success of Ultimatebet’s Aruba Poker Classic last year, the WPT thought it reasonable to assume that the prospect of playing poker for large sums of money on an idyllic Caribbean island would once again attract a large turnout. They even announced a guaranteed first prize of $1 million to help tempt players to the inaugural Turks and Caicos event. However, as the event kicked off it soon became apparent to tournament organisers that there was going to be a problem as with only 137 entrants paying $7,500 each there was not even going to be $1 million in the whole prize pool, never mind just for first place. Tournament director Jack McClelland called the players together and offered them the choice of either awarding the whole $996,675 prize pool to the outright winner, or accepting that the WPT guarantee was in fact no such thing and that the money could be paid out for the top nine players. Players voted for the latter option and first place is now worth just $436,675, so whoever wins is now going to feel rather aggrieved, and it would not be surprising if someone decides to sue the WPT. Ross Boatman as firefighter Medhurst It can’t have helped the attendance figures that the WPT event was running concurrently with the London EPT event, at which 392 players turned up meaning the field is very slightly smaller than last year. At the time of writing, British poker stalwart Surinder Sunar is a healthy chip leader after winning a set over set confrontation late on day two. But for an agonising number of near misses at winning a WSOP event, Sunar could have been going for a full set of bracelets here after winning the WPT Paris event in 2004. None of the Mob remain as play resumes today with 40 players left, although I should probably mention that firefighter Medhurst picked up a very respectable cash for over £30,000 by taking second in the £1,000 no limit hold’em event earlier in the week.
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