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Poker News Round-up: Week #01A quiet post-WSOP period was livened up by some scandals, or in some cases alleged scandals, during August starting when some players returning from Vegas began to question the events put on by the CEO Poker Tour. Although some uncomfortable questions had been asked while the events were in progress, it was not until people got home and started examining the numbers that the truth became apparent – the CEO Tour were skimming money from the prize pool for themselves. Unsurprisingly the next event planned on the CEO tour at Caesar’s Palace in November saw an absence both of players willing to donate to CEO coffers and also organisers ready to face the public, and the CEO tour now looks to be finished. One of the more intriguing stories of the year emerged when a former associate of Phil Laak claimed that the Unabomber had hired someone to kill him. Allegations of a road accident and drug running were made by an old contact in Thailand, who had apparently tried to confront Laak at the WSOP, only for Laak to flee through a fire exit. Sadly we never got to know whether Laak might have been guilty of these amazing accusations, or if the other party was just a lunatic as the pair apparently took the boring route (as far as the rest of us are concerned) and managed to sort out their differences in private. Stories of cheating were to become a regular feature of the latter part of 2007, the first of which involved Dustin “Neverwin” Woolf. His Pokerstars account was suspended after security found him using other accounts to play on in order to shield his identity and playing style from opponents. Not exactly the worst kind of cheating but against the rules nevertheless, and besides, the worst kind would follow soon enough anyway.  Annette Obrestad Possibly the most enthralling story of the year was generated in September when the World Series of Poker ventured outside the USA for the first time ever for three events held in London. The main event, with a hefty £10,000 buy in, was claimed by an 18 year old Norwegian girl as Annette Obrestad destroyed a very strong field to take the £1 million prize. Already known for racking up a multitude of big wins online, Obrestad showed that she would also be a major force for years to come in the biggest tournaments and promptly backed up this result with a second place at the EPT Dublin one month later. October’s news was dominated by two cases of cheating, very different in nature but both highly significant in the history of online poker. Although JJ Prodigy’s ban from Party Poker for entering more than one account into the same tournament had been big news at the time, the disqualification of TheVOid from a Pokerstars event caused an even bigger stir. The event in question was Pokerstars’ blue riband tournament of the year - the main event to their World Championship Of Online Poker with a $1.2 million first prize and the UK based winner had been caught cheating. Rumours abounded that the owner of the account was a well known player on the European tour, but Pokerstars never revealed the identity of the culprit, nor even specified the reason for his disqualification but it is widely assumed to be for multi-accounting. The most high profile case ever of a player being caught cheating was actually soon overshadowed by what followed next – players being cheated by a major site. Several players on Absolute Poker concluded that the unusual actions of a handful of players on the site, coupled with their remarkable success, could only possibly be explained by them being able to view all opponents’ hole cards during play. The internet abounds with conspiracy theories but on an almost daily basis in October more and more evidence came to light that superuser or God accounts did actually exist. Absolute refuted all claims that this was at all possible for weeks until eventually in November they decided that denial would have to be replaced by damage limitation when they admitted that players had indeed been cheated. A facility existed within their system for a particular account to log in and observe all hole cards - information which could then be passed on to the partner account in this scam which would be sat in the game. The fact that the observing account was being used by somebody employed by Absolute made this a real blockbuster story, but one of the most amazing aspects of the tale is how Absolute fared in the aftermath of this. Despite calls by many for a boycott of Absolute, the total traffic on the site seems to have been unaffected by the scandal. To this day thousands of people still use the site, either unaware of or unconcerned by the cheating that has taken place there. Another cheating story surfaced in November, this time involving one of the biggest names from the internet game. The initial news story was that Bluff Magazine employee Chris Vaughn had won the Pokerstars Sunday Million and then the Full Tilt $1 million guaranteed on consecutive Sundays. However, it emerged that whilst it was Chris Vaughn’s account which placed first in the Full Tilt event, it was actually Sorel Mizzi who had won after buying Vaughn’s position in the tournament then taking command of the account. Disqualification and account suspensions for both ensued, so whilst 2007 has been notable for the cheating issues, honest players can at least take comfort that in many cases such as this and with TheVOid on Pokerstars serious amounts of money are being forfeited when the cheats are caught. Tony G showed there is a philanthropic side to some poker players at least when he made the journey to Russia in December for the Moscow Millions. Having won the tournament, he then donated all his $205,000 winnings to a local orphanage. The third placed finisher that day was another Russian to receive good news in December – Alexander Kravchenko’s excellent year which included a first WSOP bracelet was capped by being named as European Player Of The Year.  Chip Reese Sadly, poker lost one of its greatest ever players as the end of the year approached when David Reese died aged 56 following a short illness. Known more commonly as Chip, Reese was a man about whom nobody had a bad word to say. Respected as much for the way he always conducted himself as well as the standard of his play, he was a pros’ pro and one who will be much missed.  Joe Beevers wins Poker Milllion VI As Christmas 2007 approached, there was one last chance for someone to win a million dollars and The Hendon Mob’s Joe Beevers was one of the six finalists in contention to win the Ladbrokes Poker Million. Having already secured a big win at the GBPT grand final, Joe came into the tournament in good form but it was a tough field consisting of Howard Lederer, Liam Flood, Ian Cox, Marty Smyth and Julian Gardner. There were hairy moments of both good and bad luck for Joe, but eventually the best hand held up and pocket nines were enough to get all the chips as Mr Beevers defeated Marty Smyth heads up for the million dollar first prize. So now 2007 is over what does 2008 hold for the poker world? As far as online poker is concerned it’s hard to say where that’s headed. Many believe that poker action will return to normal in the USA in 2008 including well known players and politicians. Barny Frank is gradually building up more and more support for his Internet Gambling Regulation And Enforcement Act which would replace the UIGEA and has forty five representatives who have pledged to co-sponsor his bill. However, getting a law overturned once it has been passed is no quick process and there will be plenty of vociferous opposition along the way. Many within the US government would rather pay billions in compensation claims than see its citizens be allowed to play poker online. And there may be little support elsewhere in the world. Germany has recently moved to protect its state run lotteries by banning online gambling with a law similar to America’s UIGEA. With Norway and France also showing some disdain for online poker, countries in which poker is allowed to flourish such as the UK could become more and more important for poker. The WSOP Europe is set to return in 2008 and it would be no surprise to see the schedule expand to include more bracelet events in time. The domestic tours such as the GBPT and GUKPT also look to have established themselves firmly in the poker calendar and are attracting plenty of good players to their festivals. With so many more high quality live tournaments taking place on these shores than a few years ago, the future does at least look bright for poker in the UK. Having provided bracelet winners at the past four WSOPs, we look in a better position than ever to collect another one make it five in a row in 2008.
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