Speedyfold Poker Blog

I guess you could say the shit has hit the fan. The US Department of Justice (DOJ) has issued an indictment against the 3 major poker sites that are operating in the US online poker market (Pokerstars, Full Tilt, and Absolute Poker). Basically online poker for US players looks like it could be over for the time being, with the exception of a few smaller operators.

11 people were indicted, 2 from Stars, 2 from Full Tilt, 2 from Absolute Poker, 4 from payment processors, and 1 from a bank. Early indications suggest they are trying to get the payment processors and bank on money laundering and bank fraud, and the poker sites on running a gaming site that they allege is illegal in the US because of UIGEA.

If there’s enough dirt some of it may stick, and the sites may end up with quite a chunky fine. The bank and payment processors are probably screwed if there is enough evidence.

It’s unlikely that the DOJ would fair that well making a case off the back of the UIGEA legislation mainly because of the words “unlawful” and “gambling”. It could probably be argued by a team of lawyers/experts that poker is a skill game and not gambling. And it could probably be argued that the game of poker wasn’t unlawful in the first place, therefore not covered by UIGEA.

Perhaps a little dirt linking them a bit too close for comfort to the payment processors will be the DOJ’s main weapon of fear. But a gambling man (or a man keen on skill based wagers) would probably bet on a settlement being reached at some point later down the line. Pretty shitty for US players though. Tough break guys.

It looks like Full Tilt have probably won their battle to block PTR and Sharkscope from tracking cash hands and SNG results. Whilst this battle has run for a little while now, it looks like they have introduced updates now that could well be the long term nail in the coffin for coverage.

The word on the street is that Full Tilt now boots any IPs/accounts which display data mining behaviour, with some time-length considerations to make sure that it is definitely data mining going on. That is certainly no small amount of work to do technically, but Full Tilt obviously viewed it seriously enough to dedicate some programming time and money to it.

I guess mixed feelings in terms of a reaction. Those 2 sites were great resource sites, but at the same time they also did create a bit of an artificial playing field with players constantly looking up their opponents and often cherry picking their opposition.

Full Tilt hasnt done anything restricting OPR though thankfully, nor should they. In MTTs you have no control who you get seated with so it is just a very nice resource for all poker geeks and grinders.

RIP Full Tilt cash/sng stats tracking

It would seem the Full Tilt Pros are getting a bit of a lock on the all time poker winnings list.  Some of which relates to tournaments which perhaps are a little too exclusive to be included.  

If we take Erik Seidel for example, who by all accounts has been doing fantastically lately.  The bulk of his winnings do however come from very exclusive events, often with very small fields.   Often you also find that Team Full Tilt in particular are the group of pros most rolled to play them.  

Let’s look at it in more detail.  Here are Seidel’s latest scores which propelled him to the top of the All-time money winners list:

3rd March 2011 Won the $25K NBC Heads-up - $750,000
27th Feb 2011 Won the $25K High Roller at the LA Poker Classis - $144,570
27th Jan 2011 Won the $250K Super High Roller at the Aussie Millions - $2,472,555
22nd Jan 2011 3rd in the $100K High Roller at the Aussie Millions - $618,139
13th Jan 2011 4th in the $25K High Roller at the Pokerstars PCA - $295,960

If we take the $250K buy-in at the Aussie Millions as case in point.  This attracted just 20 entrants and 11 of those were either Team Full Tilt members or Full Tilt Red Pros (5 of the former, 6 of the latter).

Similarly with the $100K event just about a week earlier.  Out of a tiny field of 38 players, half…yes 19 players were Full Tilt players (10 Members of Team Full Tilt alone).

Let’s not take anything away from Seidel’s acheivements.  Clearly he is on his A-game to win such events against such tough opponents.  But it does also feel increasingly a little like an old-boys club rather than a true all time money winners list from open tournaments.

There was a pretty interesting event at the fixed limit tables recently. In an act of politcal correctness IhateJuice has forced by Full Tilt Poker to change his screen name becamse of complaints that it was phonetically too much like “I hate Jews”. Considering juice/rake is a perfectly reasonable thing for a poker player to hate this seems heavy handed, but what can you do eh. The powers that be have spoken.

Now, IhateJuice is a very good FL Holdem player who has made over $2 million in profit at the FLHE tables on Full Tilt over the last couple of years, mainly at stakes $30/$60 thru to $2000/$4000. More lately it has been very much the higher of these levels.

So, Full Tilt, aware that name changes (particular of such good regulars) are a sensitive issue, informed the FL Holdem regulars via email that IhateJuice has changed his name to “Kagome Kagome” (his chosen alternative).

But he was also allowed to change his location from Germany (where he lives) to Japan, in what he later described as “just for fun”.

Now herein lies the controversy. A player called bicyclekick noticed this guy from Japan by the name of Kagome Kagome whom he had never seen sat at the 30/60 tables. He decided to take a shot against him. bicyclekick started to win some dollars and decided to push Kagome Kagome to play at higher limits. He agreed to this but then bicyclekick went on to lose $7200 until he found out his opponent was in fact IhateJuice. He quit the game but felt he had been hustled by him hiding his identity and allegedly playing sub-par at 30/60 to lead him to believe he had an edge, a fact which IhateJuice denies.

In a generous act IhateJuice shipped 33% of his profits from the game back to bicyclekick, but he was still a little annoyed about the possible unethical nature of the game.

The jury is out. IhateJuice didnt want to change his name, and also for a period had been mentioning it to players at the table after it had happened. It was also decent of him to ship some money back. However name changes are very rare and the “Japan” location does hint at the slight possibilty of a desire to bypass a few bumhunters’ lack of desire to play him. All in all I think IhateJuice didnt do anything wrong really. It was reasonable in-my-opinion to just let Full Tilt inform possible opposition, and carry on as normal. Affected opponents should probably be a little less sensitive, if that doesnt sound a bit harsh. Especially when they often base a lot of their player selection on info that isnt officially permitted by the sites (such as P&L databases).

Full Tilt first introduced synchronized breaks in tournaments, a great help for multi-tablers to actually get a proper break without having to sit out.

PokerStars followed suit in their tit-for-tat battle of feature development and enhancement, and they now have sychroniszed breaks fully operational too.

Gratefullly PokerStars did the right thing and married up their break time with Full Tilt’s much to the delight of cross-site multitablers, myself included.

Now at 55 mins past every hour, it’s all stop in MTT land of the 2 major sites, and those much needed trips to the fridge or WC can be looked forward to and completed without a sprint.

Phil Ivey won a near half-million dollar pot last night playing heads-up PLO on Full tilt. Here is how the hand played out:

Ziigmund raises to $3K from the SB
Ivey re-raised to $9K
Ziigmund re-raised to $27K
Ivey re-raied to $81K
Ziigmund calls

Flop: 6d Qd 9c

Ivey bets the pot ($162K)

Ziigmund raises for 2k more, and is all-in

Ivey shows: Ac As 2s 4d
Ziigmund shows: Ks 9s 2c 7c

Turn: 6c
River: Th

Ivey takes down the $491,891 pot

FTOPS VIII - Great series for player Halfrek

Halfrek wins FTOPS Event 11 ($1050 Buy-in NLHE) and FTOPS Event 21 ($2620 Buy-in NLHE, 2-day event)

When they arrived at the final table Halfrek was positioned ominously, but the chip lead was held be long-term chip leader philivey567.  Whilst philivey567 busted out in 4th, Halfrek was there for the full duration.  Here is the final hand

Full Tilt Poker Game #6473542521: FTOPS Event #21 (47445419), Table 59 - 15000/30000 Ante 4000 - No Limit Hold’em - 22:44:14 ET - 2008/05/18
Seat 1: Halfrek (2,681,910)
Seat 7: JRShaffy (1,813,090)
Halfrek antes 4,000
JRShaffy antes 4,000
JRShaffy posts the small blind of 15,000
Halfrek posts the big blind of 30,000
The button is in seat #7
*** HOLE CARDS ***
JRShaffy raises to 85,000
Halfrek has 15 seconds left to act
Halfrek raises to 275,000
JRShaffy has 15 seconds left to act
JRShaffy raises to 589,000
Halfrek has 15 seconds left to act
Halfrek has requested TIME
Halfrek calls 314,000
*** FLOP *** [Qs Kd 2h]
Halfrek checks
JRShaffy has 15 seconds left to act
JRShaffy bets 500,000
Halfrek raises to 2,088,910, and is all in
JRShaffy calls 720,090, and is all in
Halfrek shows [Ts Ks]
JRShaffy shows [9c Qd]
Uncalled bet of 868,820 returned to Halfrek
*** TURN *** [Qs Kd 2h] [6h]
*** RIVER *** [Qs Kd 2h 6h] [Ac]
Halfrek shows a pair of Kings
JRShaffy shows a pair of Queens
Halfrek wins the pot (3,626,180) with a pair of Kings
JRShaffy stands up
Halfrek stands up
Cubs 217 (Observer): 2 jerseys omg!!
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 3,626,180 | Rake 0
Board: [Qs Kd 2h 6h Ac]
Seat 1: Halfrek (big blind) showed [Ts Ks] and won (3,626,180) with a pair of Kings
Seat 7: JRShaffy (small blind) showed [9c Qd] and lost with a pair of Queens

899 Entrants - $2650 Buy-in

Result

1. Halrek $516,925
2. JRShaffy $325,887.50
3. IfHeDiesHeDies $241,606.25
4. philivey567 $185,418.75
5. binrich $140,468.75
6. ckingusc $101,137.50
7. TheStein $67,425
8. lilfishy897 $52,591.50
9. Hoss_TBF $38,207.50
A notable finish for PearlJammed in 22nd

Not me unfortunately

KingBenno (aka Lord_Opeth on Full Tilt Poker) ran a $332 balance up to $51,598.50 in a small matter of 180 hands.  Amazing stuff (not jealous at all!). 

He had started off with $1200, and lost some getting down to $332, then the comeback started.   Over the course of the next couple of hours, Lord_Opeth levelled up the tables from 10/20 Omaha to 25/50 Omaha and eventually all the way to the dizzy heights of 200/400 Omaha.  His balance at the end was $51,598.50, following a session of just 180 hands!

All his coin flips came good, and certain hands just fell well.   For example, with his balance at about 11 or 12K he flopped 2 pair Queens and Eights, with his opponent doing the same (also Queens and Eights). All the money went in, but rather than him splitting the pot, he redrew to a better 2 pair (Aces and Queens), spiking an ace on the river.

It was basically a lot of balls, and a good chunk of luck.  Well done KingBenno!