PokerWorks

Poker News Nuggets are presented on PokerWorks each week to give readers a glance at some of the big news stories in and around the poker industry. From international poker tournaments to player prop bets, from political happenings to sponsorship deals, game enthusiasts can stay informed with these weekly tidbits of information.

What They’re Playing

EPT Tallinn:  The PokerStars-sponsored European Poker Tour is off and running for its seventh season of tournaments, and its new stop in Tallinn, Estonia kicked things off on August 11. The first of two starting days brought 181 players to the tables at the Swissotel, and many more are expected to round out the field for the €4,250 buy-in tournament, which will wrap on August 16 with the final table action.

ANZPT Gold Coast:  PokerStars is also handling its Australia New Zealand Poker Tour, which is starting to wind down with its third to last stop in Gold Coast, Australia. Conrad Jupiters was the place to be for the start of the ANZPT event, and there were 140 players up for the challenge. Day 1 reduced that field to only 69, and a few more days of action will crown a new champion for the series.

FTOPS:  Full Tilt Poker is now more than halfway through its 17th edition of FTOPS, the semi-annual poker series that boasts of tens of millions of dollars in prize money. The first half of the 34 events already awarded more than $9.2 million, and of the 17 events in the books, Full Tilt red pro Brandon Adams even took one down, winning the limit Omaha hi/lo on August 9. The series will wrap with the Main Event on Sunday, August 15.

Who’s Playing

Mike Matusow:  Poker players fully understand the ups and downs of tournament poker, but it was undoubtedly a relief for Mike Matusow to capture his first win in awhile. He won the Florida State Poker Championship Main Event this week, which took place at the Isle Casino and Racing facility in Pompano Beach, and the first place prize was a solid $103K for beating the 410-player field. Rumors floated before and after Matusow’s victory that he needed the money to help pay off his recent $2 million bet to Ted Forrest, but he wrote on Twitter that it wasn’t true; the bet was already paid before he won his Florida championship money and title.

Paul Leggett:  The COO of Tokwiro Enterprises, home of UB Poker and Absolute Poker, posted another blog entry this week. Paul Leggett decided to address numerous issues that surfaced in recent weeks in the poker industry, as investigative reports by Haley Hintze and Wicked Chops Poker released new information and gave rise to more questions never answered by the original investigations into the scandals. Leggett cleared the air that no one associated with cheating accusations continues to work for Tokwiro, and he discussed some of the issues surrounding the Excapsa settlement and Russ Hamilton’s involvement in it all. While there always seems to be more questions than answers as people dig deeper into the information, Leggett tried his best to quell some of the public concerns for now.

Where They’re Playing

Congress:  Well, Congress isn’t actually doing much of the playing, but the Internet Gambling Regulation, Consumer Protection and Enforcement Act is still making news. Weeks after H.R. 2267 passed the House Financial Services Committee, the piece of pro-gaming legislation is still being discussed, as word has been put forth that it may have its best chance of passing the House of Representatives as an attachment to a must-pass bill, much like the way the UIGEA became law in 2006. But perhaps the most interesting news relating to the bill pertained to the opposition of sports leagues to Rep. Barney Frank’s new legislation. The NFL, one of the biggest opponents of the law, recently stated that the removal of sports betting from the bill allows the organization to back down from its staunch opposition.