PokerTips Blog

Last week, the Montreal home of 2010 WSOP Main Event Champion Jonathan Duhamel was invaded by robbers who made off with his WSOP bracelet, a black Rolex watch, and an unspecified sum of €500 bills. TSN has reported that four arrests have been made in connection with the case.

According to police, one of the people arrested was a former female acquaintance of Duhamel’s. The woman was charged with conspiracy among other offenses.

Police have thus far been unable to recover Duhamel’s WSOP bracelet. The former champion has offered a sum of $10,000 for information or the return of the prized possession.

2010 World Champion Jonathan Duhamel was recently assaulted in a home invasion in which the assailants made away with his Main Event bracelet among other items. According to the Winnipeg Free Press, Duhamel was treated for minor injuries in a hospital following an invasion of his Montreal home by two men. He has since been released.

The men made their way into Duhamel’s home by ringing the doorbell and forcing their way in when it was opened. In addition to his WSOP Main Event bracelet, the robbers also escaped with a black Rolex watch and an undetermined number of €500 bills. Police in the area are telling residents to be on the lookout for bills of that denomination as they are rare.

Last November, 2008 World Champion Peter Eastgate sold his WSOP bracelet for $147,500. That bracelet, which presumably is very similar to Duhamel’s, was valued by a jeweler as being worth just $16,000. One would imagine that the men who robbed Duhamel will have a hard time selling the WSOP bracelet on the open market for any significant sum without risking being caught.

After weeks of silence, it now appears the Full Tilt Poker bailout buyout by Groupe Bernard Tapie (GBT) is all but complete. Subject: Poker reported today that the two sides completed an agreement that will send Full Tilt’s assets to the French investment firm.

The next step will involve Full Tilt forfeiting their assets to the U.S. Department of Justice from whom GBT will buy them for an already agreed upon price of $80 million. Following this transaction, GBT assumes responsibility for the money owed to non-U.S. players. As part of the deal, the DOJ will drop civil complaints against Full Tilt and will also be responsible for the ~$150 million liability to U.S. players.

This long process is not yet completed, but it does appear that, barring any unforeseen setbacks, Full Tilt players worldwide will be repaid in full which is certainly great news for the poker economy.

James McManus, author of Positively Fifth Street, recently had an article titled Full Tilt Boogie: UIGEA and You featured on the sports columnists site Grantland. The article is a long, comprehensive look at online poker’s struggles in the U.S. from the time of the UIGEA to the present day concerns about the value of Full Tilt money. It’s one of the best rundowns of the state of online poker in the U.S. and is definitely worth a read.

Have a look.

The online gaming company Bodog recently launched new “anonymous” tables on their poker client. The concept is pretty cool in theory: games where your opponents are unidentifiable and referred to only by their seat number at the table. The idea is aimed at circumventing data mining and player notes to create a truly anonymous online poker experience.

However, the guys at hhSmithy.com have demonstrated the tables to be less than anonymous. Have a look at the video below to see how they’re able to use a piece of simple software to exploit a leak in Bodog’s server security.

Bodog’s response to hhSmithy.com’s concerns was to say:

Your money is and has always been safe at Bodog. If you are concerned about the security of your account, having access to an account number is similar to having a screenname before our latest update.

Translation: *yawwwwn* “we don’t really care.”

A hat-tip to the guys at hhSmithy.com for pointing out this concerning online poker software vulnerability. As they pointed out, the site’s software makes it easy to compile a list of user IDs and then try a bunch of standard passwords on all of them to see if you can hack into any of the accounts. This is just another example for why online poker rooms need to subject their product to independent analysis to ensure the integrity of their games.

Subject: Poker is reporting that large amounts of personal information have been leaked from the online poker room UB (formerly known as Ultimate Bet). The data leak includes full names, email addresses, and mailing addresses of all players who have an account with the poker room.

A link to the leaked data was posted on the TwoPlusTwo.com forums and removed eight minutes later. Subject: Poker confirmed the accuracy of the data for known individuals. It is unclear why the information was leaked or who leaked it.

UB has been basically defunct since the U.S. government seized their domains on April 15th of this year. As of June, owners of the site had only about 10% of player balances on hand. As of October, the company planned to liquidate itself and distribute proceeds to players. No further word has been heard from them since then.

The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) began to test their case against online poker in court today. In a report from Forbes, day one seems to have been smooth-sailing for the government.

A hearing was held to determine whether to grant the motion for dismissal of the indictments made by John Campos and Chad Elie. Campos and Elie, both having acted as payment processors, were two of the eleven men listed in the government’s Black Friday indictments. Their lawyer argued, among other things, that the UIGEA exempts financial transaction providers from criminal liability. Lewis Kaplan, the federal judge presiding over the case, said he did not agree that financial service providers are exempt from the law and added, “this is only the beginning of my problems with your argument.”

The Forbes article states that Judge Kaplan did not fire any tough questions at the U.S. Attorney, Arlo Devlin-Brown, and at one point even him off during an explanation of the UIGEA saying, “the whole point of the statue was to wipe out Internet gambling in the U.S.”

Campos and Elie now face trial set to begin in March. Another payment processor indicted along with Campos and Elie, Ira Rubin, will not be part of the trial. Rubin’s lawyer said that his client has reached an agreement in principal with the government.

The U.S. Department of Justice on Monday failed to confirm with Card Player Magazine that they have reached an agreement with Group Bernard Tapie (GBT) to allow for the takeover of Full Tilt Poker.

Last week, a deal between the DOJ and GBT was announced and reported by the Wall Street Journal and CNN Money that would pave the way for the repayment of Full Tilt players worldwide. Yet in a statement to Card Player, a DOJ spokesman said, “We have no comment and are not confirming or denying an agreement with Groupe Bernard Tapie.”

It’s hard to say whether the DOJ’s failure to confirm a deal with GBT as reported by the WSJ is mere standard procedure or perhaps an indicator that the deal is not as set-in-stone as previously reported.

In July, we published a 2011 November Nine preview that focused each player’s odds to win the tournament as offered by PinnacleSports. Let’s see how those odds have shifted in the more than 3 months since that article was written.

Interestingly, all but two players odds have gotten shorter since July and by a much wider margin than the two other players’ odds got longer. In other words, Pinnacle basically increased the overall amount of vig they are taking on this prop by shortening 7 of the 9 player’s odds (some of them considerably) while lengthening the odds of only two players (and not by much).

Biggest Gainers

A huge amount of action must have gone on Ben Lamb in the past few months as his odds have dropped all the way to +434 from +620. He is without a doubt the public’s favorite bet for the 2011 WSOP Main Event Final Table. Taking him not to win at -534 is probably the best bet on the board right now (sorry, benba!)

The first-ever German to make the WSOP Main Event Final Table, Pius Heinz, has seen some love from the betting market. His odds have dropped from +1100 down to +881.

The Englishman on the short stack, Samuel Holden, has dropped to +1208 from +1525.

Apparently there are some people who think it will be in the air next week; Phil Collins’ odds have dropped to +566 from +679.

Mostly Holding Steady

Part of the young American contingency, Matt Giannetti, has seen his odds shorten a bit to +603 from +621.

The wild card of the final table, Ukrainian Anton Makiievskyi‘s odds have shortened a bit to +1083 from +1262.

Young Irishman Eoghan O’Dea‘s odds have also shortened slightly to +429 from +483.

Slightly Longer

The Czech chip leader, Martin Staszko has become a bit better value since July. He is now listed at +423 up from +414.

The elder statesman of the final table, Badih Bounahra from Belize, would now generate a win of $1,086 on a bet of $100 as opposed to just $1,026 had the bet been placed in July.

The final table resumes this Sunday, November 6th, from the Penn and Teller Theater at Rio in Las Vegas.

Subject: Poker is reporting that Groupe Bernard Tapie (GBT) has reached an agreement with the U.S. Department of Justice to allow the French investment group’s acquisition of Full Tilt Poker to continue. The deal will allow for payment of all players worldwide if Full Tilt’s current shareholders approve of the GBT acquisition.

Subject: Poker posted the following email they say was sent from Ray Bitar to FTP shareholders this morning:

Dear members,

I am pleased to announce that today the Department of Justice and Groupe Bernard Tapie have reached an agreement in principle regarding the acquisition of the companies comprising FullTiltPoker. My understanding is the deal provides that in exchange for an agreed upon payment by GBT, and a GBT commitment to assume responsibility for payment of ROW players, DoJ will reimburse US players and settle the outstanding civil litigation with the companies comprising FTP. Beyond these conditions, issues like the time frame and process for repayment of players remain unclear at this point and time.

With DoJ’s consent now in hand, GBT may now proceed to finalize an agreement to acquire the companies or assets that comprise FTP. That agreement will very likely address the status of your shares or interests in the successor company. When I receive that agreement, I will coordinate with our attorneys to ensure the terms of that proposed agreement will be shared with the membership and voted on.

-Ray

If Full Tilt shareholders agree to GBT’s proposal, GBT will assume responsibility of debt to non-US players and the DOJ will create a fund to repay U.S. players. It’s anyone’s guess as to how long this might take.

This news makes the possibility that players will receive the entirety of their Full Tilt balance, and that Full Tilt may one day reopen for business, begin to appear rather likely. However, there still appears to be a long way to go before the deal is complete. Two-thirds of Full Tilt ownership interest must vote to approve the GBT acquisition.