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April 24, 2014

Paul Ivey The Poker Stud Faces Casino Lawsuits

Filed under: Casino — Tags: , , — OCE News @ 8:45 am

The Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa in Atlantic city is suing big time poker player Paul Ivey after claiming that he cheated to win a total of $9.6 million in baccarat. The Casino filed their charges against Ivey in federal court this past Tuesday and made headlines as Ivey is easily one of the most well known poker players in the world right now. According to the lawsuit, Ivey and a friend used a defect in the cards to their advantage so that they could arrange and sort the cards that were on the table while playing baccarat. This gave him the opportunity to cheat on four separate occasions that occurred between April and October of 2012 according to the casino.

The cards came from a Kansas City manufacturer, Gemaco Inc, and the cheating tactic supposedly employed by Ivey is called edge sorting which is a clearly illegal according to casino gambling regulations in New Jersey. Joe Lupo, the senior vice president for the Borgata Casino refused to comment on the ongoing legal matter and a lawyer for Ivey also would not comment on the lawsuit. Apparently the pattern on the back of the cards is not uniform therefore the defective cards can be sorted.

The cards each have small white circles in rows across the back that are supposed to be the top of diamonds cut off, but according to the Borgata Casino some of the cards only have a quarter of a diamond showing on them and others only have half a diamond on them. Therefore, players can sort out the possibilities of which cards might be which by simply paying attention to the diamonds. As a result the casino is also suing Gemaco Inc for manufacturing the defective cards. This is not the only lawsuit that Gemaco is facing right now as the Golden Nugget in Atlantic City is also suing the company.

According to the lawsuit issued against Ivey, Ivey and his friend would tell the dealer to flip the cards over in different manners depending on whether they thought the card was going to be a good card or a bad card. By keeping the good and bad cards separate Ivey was able to see after a few hands which of the cards had which designs on the back of them. He then was able to spot which cards were coming out of the dealer chute at will. Ivey also was smart enough to insist the cards be shuffled via an automatic shuffling machine because this does not change the alignment of the card so that he would still be able to see the defective edges of the cards.

This is not the first lawsuit against Ivey for cheating at baccarat. He also is facing a lawsuit in the High Court of Britain from Genting Group which claims he cheated them out of $12 million in a similar manner. Ivey has denied cheating in both cases. The star studded poker player has nine World Series of Poker bracelets and often calls himself the Tiger Woods of poker.

May 20, 2013

Gus Hansen Earns Over $1 Million in Single Day

Filed under: Casino — Tags: — OCE News @ 5:35 am

Poker super-star Gus Hansen did something remarkable in terms of online play recently. He was able to win over $1.5 Million in a single marathon session at FTP (Full Tilt Poker). The session took 19 hours to complete and lasted through the night. One remarkable aspect to this achievement is he was able to pull this off playing FLO8, which is another way of saying Fixed Limit Omaha Hi-Lo. While regular Pot Limit Omaha is gaining a lot speed at online poker establishments, nothing like this has happened in any Hi-Lo game.

Even though winning such a large amount of cash must have brought a smile to Hansen’s face, it is good to keep in mind that for the year, Gus Hansen is down more than $3 Million at FTP. Needless to say, this big win will go a long way in helping the Great Dane and his balance sheet. Gus is now down $1,498,844 for 2013, but he is not the top loser. That title belongs to Phil Ivey, who has lost some $2,297,409 in 2013 and has not been able to cash in the really big money this year as he has done in the past. But, no one is counting Ivey out just yet.

This impressive win for Gus Hansen started when he took $61,000 away from Kyle Ray at the Fixed Limit Omaha Hi-Lo table. Hansen then went on to add to his stack by pulling in $182,000 from Viktor Blom and Alexander Kostritsyn (a 2-7 triple draw). In no time at all, comparatively speaking, Gus was ahead to the tune of $500,000. At times, the Fixed Limit Omaha Hi-Lo table also included Phil Galfond, Kyle Hendon, and two other players. No one left the table with a profit except Hansen and Hendon who managed to win $200,000 in 2 hours of play that took 243 hands.

At the 19 hour mark, Hansen was left facing Ray at the FLO8 heads-up tables. It didn’t long before Ray was standing up for the last time. He had lost a $722,000.

The big losers at the Fixed Limit Omaha Hi-Lo table were Blom who handed over a whooping $627,533 that took some 2,138 hands and Alexander Kostritsyn who lost a tidy $578,778.

While it is true that the amount of cash Gus won is noteworthy, so is the sheer number of hands that were played during this 19 hour game. Imagine, at one point nearly 250 hands of poker were played in a mere 2 hours! This fast pace may have added to some of the players not playing at their finest level, or it may not have contributed. Those who have studied Hansen in the past know that he often likes to play fast, making his decisions in a fraction of time that his opponents take to make theirs. Who knows, this quick pace of play, especially at a Fixed Limit Omaha Hi-Lo table, may have benefited Gus a great deal, especially since it seems to have be been long-lasting over several hours.

March 22, 2013

Casinos Ditch Poker Rooms as Demand For Them Falls

Filed under: Casino — Tags: , — OCE News @ 2:29 am

It was not long ago that poker rooms were all the rage throughout the Las Vegas strip. A number of different casinos actually opened huge rooms that were dedicated to poker, but the demand for those rooms has died out. The Tropicana was the first hotel to offer huge poker rooms, in the heart of the Las Vegas strip. At the time, poker rooms were among the most popular attractions that many casinos had at the time, and seemed to be a worthwhile and long-lasting investment for the company’s.

Following the shutdown of some of the largest online poker sites on the Internet, the public interest in poker waned greatly. The fact of the matter was that online poker had brought many people to the sport, and allow the to be played from the comfort of an individual’s own home, without having to know about the table etiquette that was expected in Las Vegas. Although the poker rooms remain popular for a good amount of time, especially initially after the shutdown of the websites, their title as a big moneymaker many of the casinos waned.

It was never the same moneymaker that slot machines or roulette had been for the casinos, but the huge increase in popularity of the sport had greatly improve their revenues that it is generated. Casinos were ready to make investments into poker, as more people became aware of its prowess as a sedative gain. However, following the shutdown of the online websites, popularity in the game fell harshly. For this reason, the poker rooms begin to become less crowded, with less visitors being interested in playing.

Although many of the proponents of the game are few that it remains as popular as it ever was during the 2000 Zen is still growing industry, the proof does not seem to be there. At least, the game is not as popular without having the ability to learn how to best efficiently from the comfort of your own home, through online gaming. Online gaming legislation has come down in both Nevada and New Jersey, and both states are preparing to launch their own online gaming solutions. However, both states are waiting to see what happens with federal legislation before making too big of an investment into the industry. It is not currently clear if federal legislation will happen at any point in 2013, but is expected to happen at some point in the future.

As of right now, both Las Vegas and New Jersey seem to be vying against one another for supremacy in the online market. It will be interesting to see which state is able to get up and running the quickest. As of right now, Nevada has licensed a total of 19 companies to offer online poker and gaming solutions once they are green light to do so. Right now, much of the online software is in the testing and development phase, expected to launch at some point in the future, to huge fan fare. There has been a lot of talk of it, and it may finally come to fruition.

December 30, 2012

iGame Has Now Been Launched on the Microgaming Network

Filed under: Casino — Tags: , — OCE News @ 2:52 am

The Microgaming poker network has now incorporated iGame. All three of their poker brands, including iGame poker, 24hr pokrer, and PokerHuone now have iGame available, allowing you to play poker with your very own poker lobby, through the Microgaming network.

The release of iGame is significant because this is the first time that multiple casinos have launched a unified poker lobby, which is called the MPN poker lobby. This lobby has introduced the network management board, which was developed by designers and engineers.

A recent statement from Tommi Maijala, who is the Managing Director for iGame Holding Ltd. said that the transition has been easy: “The transition to the MPN has been seamless and problem-free. We are very happy to be a part of a network with such commitment to continual software development and strong player ecology.”

The MPN poker network, developed by iGame has seen a lot of interest in their platform and there are many other operators that are joining in. The software platform has also been incorporated into online casinos like Betsson and Win2Day. iGame says that this is not something that is going to be unique to Microgaming, they are building partnerships with online casinos all across the globe. They’re intending to expand the MPN poker network and they will do it they can to make it widely available across all of the most popular online poker casinos.

The MPN poker network provides a poker lobby where players can connect with one another, communicate, and engage in conversations and games. It’s one of the few poker lobbies to be successfully integrated with multiple casinos at the same time. Microgaming expects that the MPN poker network will be something they stick with, their agreements with iGame are solid and securable, so they don’t expect it to go anywhere anytime soon. They also say that they think it’s good that other casinos are integrating the MPN poker network. This allows lots of casinos to create unified platform that is shared across many different types of websites, so that no matter where you choose to go for your online poker experience, you’ll have a platform that is familiar and comfortable for you.

Betsson and Win2Day, the two other casinos to join Microgaming with the integration of the iGame MPN poker network say that there transition went very successful as well. They were able to integrate the software into their poker network without complications or challenges. Now, users and gamers throughout their community can enjoy the poker network with utmost satisfaction. It is this type of software that is going to improve the experience that poker players have across the world, it will allow them to compete and connect with one another through a unified interface. One day, the software may even make it possible for multiple casinos to compete together, to challenge one another with online casino competitions. This would be an exciting event if it were to take place, surely iGame and the poker lobby software they have could be further expanded to provide this capability.

December 24, 2012

Full Tilt Poker Has Been Dishonoring Player and Affiliate Contracts

Filed under: Casino — Tags: , — OCE News @ 2:49 am

Recent reports behind the Full Tilt Poker Company suggest that their Black Friday roster of professional players are not going to be compensated with back pay after they newly relaunched their website. The company released this information to the players by sending out an e-mail, which went out to everyone within the casino.

Just before Black Friday, Full Tilt Poker was at its peak, and they were able to employ as many as 100 professional poker players. Many of these poker players were called Red Pros and were part of other leagues around the world. Full Tilt Poker is actually establishing their own poker league, they are known as The Professional, but they are a much smaller team than Red Pros.

Dustin Iannotti is Full Tilt’s Manager and the e-mail that he released read: “Other than the non-US player balances, The Rational Group did not assume any liabilities of the previous Full Tilt Poker companies and therefore previous contractual agreements that Full Tilt Poker may have had including with FTP Red Pros were excluded. As such, The Rational Group is not liable and will not pay for any amounts which may have been due to you under your agreement with any former Full Tilt Poker company.”

Of course, Full Tilt’s “The Professional” poker players certainly can’t be happy about not being compensated for what they rightfully deserved. However, the players are not the only ones that have missed out on this. In fact, affiliates of Full Tilt were also uncompensated for their referrals and website traffic that they delivered to the company.

That e-mail essentially states that any earnings, either as a player, or as an affiliate, will be unpaid by Full Tilt. They announced this after relaunching their website, specifying that any of the money you earned from their previous brands is no longer applicable as an agreement, since they have relaunched and are no longer the same company. A lot of the players and affiliates are very upset about this, because they work hard to deliver traffic and sales to the company, and then they’re just left empty-handed. Affiliates put in a lot of time and dedication into making their affiliate marketing campaign successful, so to have this money go unpaid could be devastating to their finances. Affiliate marketers are people just like you, they promote programs on the Internet so that they can make an income and work from home. A lot of them have families to support and when a company like this cuts ties, a lot of the money they were counting on will no longer come. For Full Tilt, they may never recover some of these affiliates that they will lose because of this settlement. Some of the poker players are even expected to leave the league because of this unfortunate news. Online casinos definitely have to be careful with the actions that they take, deciding to pocket the money instead of paying out the people that work hard and deserve it can be disheartening news to deliver.

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