A UK-based millionaire, who is a philanthropist and hedge fund tycoon by day and an avid poker player a night, has lost over £850,000 playing poker last weekend.

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Talal Shakerchi, a self-made millionaire, loves player high-stakes poker in different parts of Europe. Last Saturday, he played against a few major professional poker players and lost a large sum of money.

The financier, who was born in the Midland, is widely renowned as a skilled amateur poker player. In spite of his reputation, he lost €500k in the initial phase of the game and then bought back into the game with €750k. Shakerchi played against Sam Trickett, internationally acclaimed as the biggest live poker tournament winner in the UK, having won around £13 so far, and Paul Newey, a talented amateur British poker player.

After playing for 12 hours at the high-stakes game, which was held at a Monte Carlo hotel, Shakerchi lost over €1.1 million and had only €84k left with him. A total of six poker players, including Shakerchi, were playing at this €500k buy-in tournament held as part of the European Poker Tour (EPT) finals in Monaco.

Reportedly, Shakerchi, the founder owner of a hedge fund called Meditor, has won over £1 million playing live poker tournaments during the past few years. He began playing poker as a hobby and then started taking part in live poker tournaments, but he was just not lucky in the Monte Carlo hotel. The millionaire, however, took his loss gracefully. At the end of the game, he said, “Goodbye, see you guys tomorrow” to the two players who were left at the table.

The Sunday Times Rich List says that Shakerchi is worth around £100 million and gives generously to charitable causes. A PokerStars.com commentator who was live tweeting the event, said: “While they’re playing 100k+ pots the conversation is very friendly and all 3 of them are laughing a lot.” Later, he said: “Talal seems very unlucky and running very bad – can’t seem to win a hand.”

Shakerchi is known to be addicted to commodity trading, the stock market, and playing at casinos. He is widely acclaimed as one of the top stock pickers in the world. He served at Old Mutual for a few years before founding Meditor in the late nineties.

There was over €4 million on the poker table, and experts said that this was the largest sum of money ever wagered on a game in Europe.

Gambling regulators in Nevada are investigating the relationship between Ultimate Poker, the first licensed online poker room in the US, which is barely two weeks old, and Iovation, a provider of player verification solutions.

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A. G. Burnett, chairman of the Nevada State Gaming Control Board, said in an email that gambling regulators are now working with Ultimate Poker officials. Station Casinos Incorporated has a major share in this US online poker brand.

Ultimate Gaming, Ultimate Poker’s parent company, issued a public statement, in which it announced that it has stopped doing business with Iovation Incorporated, a company that was involved in the Ultimate Bet cheating scandal of 2008. Ultimate Poker, however, is in no way related to Ultimate Bet, a now defunct online poker room.

According to Burnett, Iovation does not have a Nevada license, but CAMS, a service provider licensed in Nevada, has used its services. Burnett said: “This is in the category of where the ultimate responsibility rests upon the licensee (Ultimate Gaming), and I know that they are addressing the issue. We, in turn, will analyze what we received back from Ultimate, and then decide how to proceed from here.”

QuadJacks.com and PokerNewsDaily.com have reported that Ultimate Bet had used Iovation software to view opponent’s hole cards and cheat them of large sums of money. These poker news portals have also reported that poker players are not comfortable with Iovation as it was once associated with Ultimate Bet and had begun sending one another warning messages in forums and chat rooms.

Recently, Ultimate Poker had announced that it is no longer associated with Iovation because poker players had raised concerns over its one-time association with Ultimate Bet. An Ultimate Poker representative had posted on Two Plus Two forum that “as of late Thursday night, May 9th, Ultimate Poker discontinued the use of all services from iovation.” The statement further read: “We understand that there were concerns among some of our customers, we hope this makes our players feel more comfortable.”

CAMS/Verfi, a Nevada-licensed service provider, had contracted Iovation to provide anti-fraud and player verification software to Ultimate Poker. Ultimate Bet founder Greg Pierson is the current chief executive officer of Iovation. He was involved in the Ultimate Bet cheating scandal of 2008, in which Ultimate Bet players were cheated of more than $20 million by Ultimate Bet insiders who used software that enabled them to view their opponents’ hole cards.

Minted Poker, an online poker room that used to run on Everleaf Gaming Network, recently announced that it will be migrating to Plutos Network, one of the youngest online poker networks in the industry. Existing Minted Poker players can avail of a 100 percent rakeback offer, which they can use to unlock their poker funds.

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Minted Poker decided to part ways with Everleaf Gaming Network because the online poker network allegedly held player funds and refused to honor payout requests from players. Besides, Everleaf suddenly announced that it will be withdrawing from the US market, but did not clearly inform existing US players on how they could withdraw their deposits. The network also took a long time to pay its non-US customers.

The Lotteries and Gambling Authority (LGA) of Malta, which issued an online poker license to Everleaf Gaming Network, said that the network has paid “the great majority” of players and that existing player complaints were actually lodged by affiliates pretending to be players. In spite of this assurance on the part of the LGA, complaints regarding payout delay at Everleaf continued pouring in.

Minted Poker is not only migrating to Plutos Network, but is also offering its existing customers a 100 percent rakeback, which they can use to clear their balance amounts. It may be recalled that similar offers were made by online poker companies such as Gutshot and ENET in the past.

Previously, Minted Poker had accused Everleaf of assuming complete control over MintedPoker.EU, as a result of which it could not send any emails and updates to its customers. Since Minted Poker has re-launched on the same domain, it may be safely concluded that it has resolved this issue with Everleaf Network.

Minted Poker players, however, might find it very difficult to clear their previous funds within the required deadline because player traffic to Plutos Network is very low. One of the latest entrants into the poker gaming industry, the network was created only in December 2012.

Since the network became functional only in February 2013, it is not in a position to offer too many cash game tables. Licensed in Curacao, the network has skins such as VBet, Black Room Poker, and WinPkr. According to Plutos Network’s terms and conditions, US online poker players are not accepted at any of its skins. This means that Minted Poker’s promised 100% rakeback offer will not be available to a sizeable chunk of its poker gaming customers.

Crockfords Casino, the oldest casino in the UK, has finally responded to the lawsuit filed against it by professional poker player Phil Ivey for non-payment of winnings to the tune of $11.9 million. The land casino has firmly stated that it doesn’t have to pay Ivey his winnings as he has cheated at the baccarat tables.

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Genting Group, the owner of Crockfords Casino, filed papers in the court, accusing Ivey and his female companion of cheating the casino of nearly $11.9 million. Previously, Ivey had sued the UK casino for non-payment of his baccarat winnings. The poker pro claimed that he had won all that money playing baccarat at Crockfords in August 2012.

The winner of several World Series of Poker (WSOP) championship titles and bracelets, the poker pro has not yet responded to the casino’s statement.

When Phil Ivey got into a winning streak at its baccarat tables last August, the casino got suspicious. It returned the $1.6 million the player had staked at the tables, but informed Ivey that it had to withhold the winnings and investigate his game.

Ivey, who had played baccarat at Crockfords two nights in a row, initially lost a huge sum of $80,000, but returned to the gaming tables with an attractive female companion and began having a winning streak, which continued till he had won around $11.9 million. Genting investigators, who had flown all the way to UK from Kuala Lumpur to investigate Ivey’s spectacular baccarat win, found out that Ivey’s beautiful female companion had recently lost her membership at another UK casino. They also made a careful study of the cards Ivey had used and video footage of the game.

Crockfords did not immediately accuse Ivey of cheating at the baccarat tables, but told him that it had to withhold his winnings till his game was thoroughly investigated. Ivey waited for his payment for several months before deciding to take the case to court.

Lance Bradley, editor of Bluff magazine, does not approve of the casino’s behavior. Stating that Ivey has an excellent reputation, he said: “There’s nothing in his past that would hint at his being a cheater or unethical in any way … People say he’s arguably the best poker player in the world; but, really, there’s no argument: He’s #1. He’s known both for his skill and for his love of high-stakes games. He loves anything where there’s some sexiness at stake.”

Casino king Sheldon Gary Adelson has to pay Richard Suen, a businessman based in Hong Kong, a hefty sum of $70 million after the court ruled in favor of the latter. Adelson is the chief executive officer of Las Vegas Sands Corporation, a giant gambling company that has a very strong presence in Asia.

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Mr. Suen had filed a lawsuit against the casino king, in which he claimed that he had spent as much as $328 million to obtain a gambling license for Sheldon’s company in Macau. As a result, Adelson’s Las Vegas Sands could establish four land casino resorts in Macau, one of the largest and most lucrative gambling hubs in the world. The casino king, however, claimed that Mr. Suen had done nothing to help him secure a license.

The self-made casino businessman, now aged 79, was calm and relaxed throughout the court proceedings. He also brought smiles on the jurors’ faces by cracking jokes and witty one-liners. Some of his comments were about his childhood. He said: “I could have been a rags to riches story. But my parents couldn’t afford the rags.”

The trial lasted one month, at the end of which, the judgment was made in Richard Suen’s favor. The court directed Adelson to pay Suen a sum of $70 million for the role he had played in getting his company a casino gambling license.

Suen had originally filed this lawsuit in 2004, but the case was heard in court in 2008. The judge had ruled in Suen’s favor and had directed Adelson to pay him $58.6 million. However, Adelson had appealed to the Nevada Supreme Court, which had duly dismissed the case.

Sheldon Adelson, however, is not in a hurry to pay Suen. Worth around $26 billion, he is making all the required preparations to submit another appeal. As soon as the judge delivered the verdict, J. Stephen Peek, legal representative for Las Vegas Sands, filed for a re-trial on grounds that one of the jurors had stated that she was biased against the CEO of Las Vegas Sands.

John O’Malley, Suen’s lawyer, is happy about the court’s ruling, but said: “Sheldon Adelson has unlimited resources by any definition of the term and he can keep this going until the state Supreme Court sustains the verdict. I think the court will do so this time and that Sheldon Adelson will finally have to pay his bill.”

Ultimate Poker, the first licensed online poker site in the US, said that it can now verify players who have Virgin Mobile, Verizon, and Cricket on their mobile phones.

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According to Nevada’s online gambling regulations, online poker rooms licensed in the Silver State are required to verify player location to ensure that players are indeed located within Nevada. The state does not permit players located in other US states to sign up at online poker rooms licensed in Nevada. Players are not even required to own property in or live in Nevada; they simply need to be within Nevada if they want to sign up at Ultimate Poker and play real money poker games.

However, mere IP address checks are insufficient to verify player location. This method needs to be coupled with mobile phone triangulation to make sure that players are indeed within the boundaries of the Silver State.

During and after its launch, Ultimate Poker had a few teething problems. The operators of Ultimate Poker realized that most cellular providers, including Verizon, were incompatible with triangulation services. A large number of Nevada poker players, who had Verizon plans, could not sign up at Ultimate Poker.

An Ultimate Poker spokesperson said that the online poker company has been working things out, as a result of which Cricket Wireless, Verizon, and Virgin are now compatible with triangulation services, owing to which the online poker site can now verify players with Verizon, Wireless, and Virgin plans.

As previously mentioned, the launch of Ultimate Poker was fraught with technical issues. In spite of this, US poker players in general and Nevada poker players in particular are overjoyed. Shortly after the launch, referred to as a “field test” by the Nevada Gaming Control Commission (NGCC), players complained of bugs in the software. Many players observed that anti-virus software, firewalls, as well as IE’s malware checker kept blocking the download process.

Despite the technical problems, the launch of Ultimate Poker is considered to be a huge success. PokerScout.com says that the new online poker room is attracting 136 real money players at peak hours. Besides, players are very happy with the low rake of 4.5 percent for all No Limit games.

The Ultimate Poker software, however, does not have any HUDs, and an Ultimate Poker spokesperson said that the operators plan to keep it that way till the software is upgraded to become Mac and mobile compatible.

]]> http://www.tightpoker.com/news/ultimate-poker-can-now-verify-virgin-mobile-verizon-cricket-players-4478/feed/ http://www.tightpoker.com/news/hellmuth-regrets-his-association-with-ultimate-bet-4475/ http://www.tightpoker.com/news/hellmuth-regrets-his-association-with-ultimate-bet-4475/#comments Wed, 15 May 2013 11:56:14 +0000 Renee http://www.tightpoker.com/news/?p=4475

Poker pro Phil Hellmuth has issued a public statement, in which he regretted his 12-year-long association with Ultimate Bet as its minority owner and early investor. The professional poker player issued his statement through Brian Balsbaugh, president of Poker Royalty, and it was first published on Two Plus Two Forums by Kevin “Kevmath” Mathers, an independent compiler of poker news.

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Hellmuth decided to issue a public statement after a former Ultimate Bet computer expert published an audio tape secretly made by Russ Hamilton, former Ultimate Bet owner. The audio tape contains a recording of Russ Hamilton and his associates discussing how they had cheated Ultimate Bet players from 2003 and 2007.

Travis Makar, the former UB computer expert, had published a large amount of data related to Ultimate Bet and this 3-hour-long recording, which Russ Hamilton had secretly created early in 2008, formed part of it. Apparently, Balsbaugh and Hellmuth listened to this audio tape, after which Hellmuth decided to issue a public statement. In the recording, Russ Hamilton and his associates could be heard discussing ways to keep Hellmuth ignorant about the cheating at Ultimate Bet.

Hellmuth stated that he was disgusted when he heard how Hamilton and his associates planned to keep him in the dark regarding the cheating. Simultaneously, he acknowledged that he had willingly risked his reputation by continuing to be a spokesperson for Ultimate Bet to attract new players to the online poker room.

Hellmuth further says, “At the time, I was led to believe that if I left UB right away the business would be impacted and then less likely to pay its obligations to the victims. As such, I made the decision to believe the leaders of UB and stayed on in the hopes that they would make right to anyone cheated.” His statement also reveals that Hamilton and his associates had lied to him and that he had “made a big mistake in trusting them for way too long.”

Hellmuth parted ways with Ultimate Bet in Dec 2010, shortly before the US federal government cracked down on it on April 15, 2011, a day known as “Black Friday.” Hellmuth has, however, not spoken about his share in Excapsa, parent company of Ultimate Bet, and iovation, an online security company owned by Greg Pierson. While Hellmuth has made references to UB founders, he has not mentioned that he had been associated with Ultimate Bet long before Hamilton stepped into the picture.

PokerStars recently announced that it will be giving way $5 million in prizes through several promotions held to celebrate its 100 billionth poker hand.

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A prize of $1 million will be distributed among players associated with the 100 billionth hand and the winner of the hand will win a minimum of $100,000. The rest of the prize will be distributed to the other players associated with the hand as well as those who were playing at the same stakes when PokerStars dealt its 100 billionth hand.

The online poker room will give away $1 million in prizes to all players associated with milestone hands coming before its 100 billionth hand.

PokerStars will be giving away $3 million more in prizes to the winners of several special promotions held in celebration of its 100 billionth hand. These promotions, which will be run during the following six weeks, will include online poker tournaments, cash poker games, and Sit N Go tournaments although PokerStars has not yet made any announcements confirming the same.

PokerStars has been giving away attractive cash prizes to all players associated with its milestone hand, which arrives every five billionth hand. The online poker site gave away prizes worth $1 million at each milestone hand leading up to the 90 billionth hand plus $1 million more when the 90 billionth hand was dealt.

Since the online poker site deals an average of 5 billion hands in three months and the 95 billionth hand was celebrated late in February, players can expect the 100 billionth hand anytime next month.

The winner of the 95 billionth hand was PokerStars poker player RichB17, who was playing at the $0.08/$0.16 stake No Limit Texas Hold’em table. Since he held a combination of Four of Hearts and Jack of Spades, he got a Six High Straight on the river, which won him the jackpot of $23,924.

PokerStars’ milestone hands are very popular among its customers, and whenever PokerStars gets close to dealing a milestone hand, its player traffic rises. Since PokerStars’ has already given away $2 million and will be giving away $3 million more, traffic to the online poker room is expected to shoot up during the next two months.

Lee Jones, head (poker communication) for PokerStars, announced at the grand final of the European Poker Tour (EPT) that the online poker room is planning to launch a promotion called Road to 100 Billion.

]]> http://www.tightpoker.com/news/pokerstars-gives-away-5-million-in-milestone-promotion-prizes-4471/feed/ http://www.tightpoker.com/news/pokerlistingscom-to-hold-second-battle-of-malta-in-september-4468/ http://www.tightpoker.com/news/pokerlistingscom-to-hold-second-battle-of-malta-in-september-4468/#comments Fri, 10 May 2013 01:00:53 +0000 Renee http://www.tightpoker.com/news/?p=4468

PokerListings.com has announced that the second edition of its annual Battle of Malta will be held from September 26 to September 29 in Malta’s Portomaso Casino. Interested players can qualify for the same at the end of this month at Party Poker and immediately at 888 Poker.

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The event, which challenges players to win their share of a €200,000 prize pool, will feature a Second Chance Tournament with a guaranteed prize of €10,000 and plenty of exclusive parties. The Second Battle of Malta promises plenty of fun, sun, poker, and cash for any poker player who cares to take part.

Just like before, the €200,000 event will be hosted by Kara Scott, the prominent ESPN/WSOP personality. The buy-in for the Battle of Malta Main Event will be just €550 and prominent poker players such as Daniel Cates, Andreas Hoivold, and Johannes Strassman will be taking part. PokerListings.com will present live video coverage of the Battle of Malta.

Any poker player, operator, or affiliate is welcome to take part in PokerListings.com’s Battle of Malta 2013. Players can either buy-in directly to the event or get an exclusive package for the same at PokerListings.com. Each PokerListings.com Battle of Malta 2013 package comprises a 4-night stay at Malta’s 5 Star Corinthia Hotel, the main event buy-in of €550, entry to giveaways and side events, daily breakfasts and buffet lunches, complimentary BOM VIP party and opening cocktail party, and others.

Interested players can purchase the €1,400 package or a Main event seat for €550 by sending an email to battleofmalta@pokerlistings.com.

The Battle of Malta comprises an NL Texas Hold’em tournament based on the re-entry format and carrying a guaranteed prize of €200,000. The focus of the event is to provide an exclusive poker experience for casual poker players. It offers an opportunity to not only win attractive cash prizes, but also get a poker holiday and interact with poker players from different parts of the world in a friendly atmosphere. The staff of the Battle of Malta comprises certified members of the Poker Tournament Directors Association (TDA), employees, and poker pros from different parts of the world. The first Battle of Malta attracted a field of 349 players. The final heads-up match was played between Niccodemo Piccolo and Giulio Astarita and, ultimately, it was Piccolo who took home the first place prize of €35,000.

For more information about the Battle of Malta, players can visit http://www.pokerlistings.com/battle-of-malta.

Online poker players in the US can finally play poker in a safe, licensed, and regulated environment two years after the federal government crackdown on major poker rooms Full Tilt Poker, PokerStars, and Absolute Poker. The first licensed online poker room in the US, Ultimate Poker, was finally launched in Nevada a few days back.

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The Nevada online poker market, though licensed and regulated, might not be liquid enough to attract high-stakes poker players who left the country after the events of Black Friday, but it is definitely a positive move. Ultimate Poker, an online poker brand belonging to Ultimate Gaming, dealt its first real money poker hand on April 30, Tuesday, at 9:00 a.m.

Ultimate Poker got a Nevada poker license in October and then created proprietary poker gaming software for its online poker product. This software got the regulators’ approval last month. Antonio Esfandiari, the poker player who has more live poker tournament winnings to his credit than any other player in poker history, is the first poker pro on Ultimate Poker.

Ultimate Poker has been launched at a time when the 44th World Series of Poker (WSOP) is just a few days away. Poker players from all over the world will be travelling to Las Vegas in large numbers to take part in one of the most lucrative poker tournaments in the world, and when they have some free time, they can play high-stakes online poker on Ultimate Poker.

Ultimate Poker accepts only players who are based in Nevada because the state has only legalized intrastate online poker. The online poker room can find out its members’ location by using the GPS tracking software on their mobile phones and getting the information required to determine if they are playing within the borders of the state. Verizon, the prominent mobile phone company, has not yet gotten associated with Ultimate Poker, but Ultimate Poker Product Manager Chris Danek said that the company will resolve this issue within a short time.

Delaware, though the first state to legalize intrastate online gambling, has not yet launched any online gambling product. New Jersey recently legalized online gambling and is now creating a regulatory framework for the same. It looks like it is just a matter of time before online poker returns to a fully regulated US poker market.

Meanwhile, recreational as well as professional players are free to play poker for real money in Las Vegas.