2010 Poker Year in Review — Part I

The legal battle for poker’s future during the first half of 2010 was plagued by the anemic speed that often defines legislative action. There were many hearings, but few decisions were made to advance the game both in the United States and abroad. There were regional victories and defeats here and there, but for the most part, the major issues that will shape the future of the game remained in purgatory.

On the felt, it was an entirely different matter. Tournament fields grew across the country and around the globe, casting a bright light on the future of the game. The year was punctuated by notable female players winning prestigious tournaments, and some of the biggest titles in the United States were claimed by names that had hovered just outside the limelight in previous years.
Read on as Card Player recaps all of the major news and stories from the first half of 2010 in its annual “Poker Year in Review.”

PokerStars Caribbean Adventure Maintains a Spot Atop the Tournament Food Chain
The PokerStars Caribbean Adventure may not have the title of World Series of Poker or WSOP Europe attached to it, but the tournament has grown so much in stature as a marquee event that it very well could be called WSOP Caribbean. Almost all serious tournament professionals know that they will begin their year at the Atlantis Resort in the Bahamas, thanks to this tournament.

The $10,000 no-limit hold’em main event attracted more than 1,500 players and created a first-place prize that eclipsed $2 million in 2010. The total prize pool was more than $14.8 million, up 14 percent from 2009. The 19-year-old champion, Harrison Gimbel, took home $2.2 million, and he also confirmed that the tournament is a showcase for young online-poker talent.

The strength of this PokerStars-sponsored event has led to the start of multiple international poker tours by the company, including the Asia Pacific Poker Tour, the Latin American Poker Tour, the Italian Poker Tour, the Australia New Zealand Poker Tour, and the UK and Ireland Poker Tour, in addition to the European Poker Tour. PokerStars announced the inaugural season of the North American Poker Tour at the 2010 PCA, and the first U.S. event was held in Las Vegas at The Venetian Hotel and Casino. The $5,000 no-limit hold’em tournament attracted 872 players in February, and the champion was Thomas Marchese, who has gone on to make multiple big scores in 2010 and is the current leader in the Card Player 2010 Player of the Year race at the time of this writing.

The Year of the Woman Began With Spring Wins From Annie Duke, Vanessa Selbst, and Liv Boeree

Before the 2010 NBC National Heads-Up Poker Championship, Annie Duke and Erik Seidel had a combined record of 1-10 in the prestigious event that extends an invitation to 64 poker players each year. The two threw past results out the window and went a combined 10-0 to make the championship match.

They each won a game in the championship match to take things to a dramatic winner-take-all third game. Duke won the final game to earn the first NBC Heads-Up title for a female player. Vanessa Rousso had come close in 2009 with a runner-up finish against Huck Seed, and Shannon Elizabeth made the final four in 2007, but it was Duke who blazed the trail for female players with the $500,000 victory.

Duke’s victory in early March was followed by another victory for a female player in early April. Vanessa Selbst won the $5,000 no-limit hold’em main event at the PokerStars NAPT Mohegan Sun tournament; she banked $750,000 after topping a field of 716 players at the second tournament in the history of the NAPT. Both Duke and Selbst were featured in cover stories in Card Player magazine after their wins, and they soon were joined by a third female champion.

Liv Boeree won the 2010 EPT San Remo main event in late April, making headlines in Europe after capturing her first major-tournament title and the top prize of €1,250,000. Boeree instantly became one of the hottest names in poker with her victory, and she became a member of Team PokerStars later in the year, as did Selbst.

Tournament Poker Grows in 2010 Despite Some Bumps in the Road

The tournament trail for the first half of the year begins at the PCA in the Bahamas, and after swinging through Australia for the Aussie Millions, California for the L.A. Poker Classic, and Las Vegas for the NBC National Heads-Up Poker Championship, it heads into Europe in April for the PokerStars European Poker Tour. After attracting record tournament fields in France (EPT Deauville, 768 players), Germany (EPT Berlin, 945 players), and Austria (EPT Snowfest, 546 players), the EPT pulled into Italy and accomplished the same feat. A massive field of 1,240 players participated in the largest tournament ever held in Italy, in San Remo.

Following the San Remo event, 848 players entered the EPT Grand Final €10,300 no-limit hold’em event just a few miles west along the coast of the Mediterranean. Nicolas Chouity emerged as the champion at a final table that reflected the international flavor of the event, and took home €1,700,000.

It is clear that the path to Las Vegas and the World Series each summer now winds along the shores of the Mediterranean, thanks to poker’s growing popularity in Europe, but there were some hiccups mixed in with the success along the way during the first half of the year. An LAPT event in Chile had to be canceled following an 8.8-magnitude earthquake that hit 175 miles north of the host city of Vina del Mar in March. A few days later, UltimateBet announced that it would cancel the 2010 Aruba Poker Classic.

Florida Legislature Approves No-Limit Hold’em Poker

Before the Florida Legislature approved no-limit hold’em poker in April and the law went into effect on July 1, there were few victories for poker in court rooms in 2010. Most stories involving poker legislation at the federal level were defined by hearings that made little progress. H.R. 4976, the Internet Gambling Regulation and Tax Enforcement Act, has been referred to the House Subcommittee on Healthy Families and Communities, and H.R. 2267, the Internet Gambling Regulation, Consumer Protection, and Enforcement Act, awaited a vote in the House Financial Services Committee before the summer began.

California, New Jersey, Florida, and Iowa considered legalizing online poker at the intrastate level, but no bills have been passed and it remains to be seen if the ultimate decision regarding online poker will be decided at the federal or state level. Most local casinos in California and New Jersey oppose intrastate online poker, in order to protect their brick-and-mortar business interests, while most poker players hope for a federally regulated system that will allow players to play at the online cardrooms they prefer, and not state-operated online rooms.

Pennsylvania was a good example of the back-and-forth progress of poker this year; first, the state legalized live table games, and then ruled that poker is a game of luck rather than skill later in the year. Massachusetts passed a law to approve casinos, but some of the language in the law almost criminalized online poker in the state; luckily, the language was taken out of the final bill. All of these stories are good examples of the frustration with poker legislation in 2010.

The Florida no-limit hold’em law made the most progress by scrapping the $100 maximum buy-in for live cash games and the $1,000 maximum buy-in for live tournaments. Poker rooms across the state are now allowed to offer poker around-the-clock on weekends and up to 18 hours at a time during the week. Poker rooms in casinos run by the Seminole Indian tribe can offer poker all week. “Florida becomes another Atlantic City, Tunica, or Vegas,” said Russ Christianson, vice president of gaming operations at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino. “Why would you want to go to Atlantic City in January when you can come to Florida?”

Poker tours in the United States quickly took note. The World Poker Tour announced two poker tournaments at the Seminole Hard Rock Casino in Hollywood, Florida. The Seminole Hard Rock Showdown will take place April 27-May 3, 2011, and it should quickly become one of the marquee stops on the WPT. A smaller, $5,000 regional event was held at the Seminole Hard Rock in November, and 289 players participated, creating a $1.4 million prize pool. Another sign of confidence in the Florida poker market was seen when the World Series of Poker Circuit announced a stop at the Palm Beach Kennel Club in late February 2011.

Comeback Kids: Michael Mizrachi and David Williams Win Major Titles

The poker career of David Williams before the 2010 World Poker Tour Championship $25,000 no-limit hold’em main event could by no means be called a failure. He had won millions of dollars playing the game after blasting onto the poker scene following his runner-up finish in the 2004 World Series of Poker main event. But every competitive profession in the world is defined by, “What have you done lately?” And it had been a while since Williams had won a major-tournament title. He found his way back to a final table at Bellagio in April at the WPT’s marquee event, and emerged victorious from a field of 195 of the best tournament poker players on earth. He won $1,530,537, taking his career tournament earnings to more than $7.8 million.

The redemption song continued when Michael Mizrachi kicked off the summer by winning the $50,000 Players Championship at the WSOP, beating an impressive final table that included his brother Robert, who finished in fifth place. Right on the heels of that $1,559,046 cash, Mizrachi made the final table of the $10,000 seven-card stud world championship and finished in sixth place; then, he finished eighth in the $10,000 limit hold’em world championship, and he still wasn’t done. He then made it through a field of 7,319 players to be the marquee professional of the main event’s “November Nine,” where he finished fifth.

In 2010, these two professionals proved that the life of a poker player can have a second act.

41st World Series of Poker Marked by Record Growth

There was no shortage of intriguing story lines supplied by the 57 bracelet events of the 2010 WSOP, including two big new additions — the $50,000 Players Championship and the $25,000 six-handed no-limit hold’em events. Frank Kassela won two bracelets and WSOP Player of the Year honors. Phil Ivey secured his eighth bracelet, and Men Nguyen added a seventh bracelet to his collection.

The WSOP has become the most important barometer of the health of the poker world, so the biggest story to come out of the summer was the record-breaking attendance. The $10,000 no-limit hold’em main event was the second-largest live poker tournament of all time with its 7,319 players, and nine of the 17 largest live poker tournaments of all time took place this summer in Las Vegas. Overall, 72,966 players from 117 different countries participated in the 57 events of the 2010 WSOP, and the total prize pool was $187,109,850. That took the event’s 41-year total prize money to more than $1.2 billion.

In the next issue, we’ll take a look back at the exciting WSOP final table and all of the other news of the second half of 2010. ♠

A Few of the Top Poker Stories of 2010

1. EPT Berlin Main Event Robbed at Gunpoint: One of the biggest poker stories of 2010 was the armed robbery that took place at the PokerStars European Poker Tour Berlin main event in March. The tournament attracted a record number of players (945), which created a prize pool of €4,725,000, and that in turn attracted the attention of armed robbers.

The tournament came to an abrupt halt on March 6 when four men stormed the registration area. Here is the official release from PokerStars regarding the incident:

Yesterday at approximately 2:15 p.m., an armed robbery took place at the European Poker Tour event in Berlin. Nobody was seriously injured. Four armed men were involved in the robbery, which targeted the tournament registration desk outside the tournament area.

No shots were fired and the suspects quickly fled after a security guard intervened. The police investigation so far has shown that the suspects had a handgun and a machete. Contrary to tabloid reports, no Kalashnikov assault rifles or hand grenades were used. The suspects did not enter the tournament area and the money taken was substantially less than what has been reported.

The brazen robbery made the headlines of major international news outlets. In the ensuing weeks and months, it was determined that the bandits made off with €242,000, most of which is still missing. The four men were eventually captured by authorities and convicted on July 1 of armed robbery. The three youngest thieves, all under 21 years of age, received three-and-a-half years in prison, while the 21-year-old fourth robber, who turned himself in, received a sentence of three years and nine months. The two men who allegedly planned and organized the heist have yet to go to trial, and could face up to 15 years in prison if convicted.

2. Michael Phelps Plays in Borgata Winter Open Event: Fourteen-time Olympic gold medalist Michael Phelps made headlines in poker in 2010 when he played in a $2,000 heads-up no-limit hold’em event at the Borgata Winter Open in late January. Phelps survived until day 2 of the event, and won matches against Paul Wasicka and Adam Gerber before being eliminated just two victories short of the money. Phelps made his first final table in 2009, finishing ninth in a $1,500 no-limit hold’em event at the Caesars Palace Classic.

3. Eric Baldwin Donates $200,000 to the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater: It was no secret in the poker community that Eric Baldwin loves baseball, due to the fact that he played the outfield for his alma mater, the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater. Baldwin had won more than a million dollars playing poker in 2009, and had signed a sponsorship deal with UltimateBet. So, in January of 2010, the Card Player 2009 Player of the Year donated $200,000 to his former school’s baseball program.

The money was used to renovate Prucha Field and install new lights, so that the school could host the 2010 NCAA Division III Midwest Regional in the spring. Not only did the poker media take note of his generous offer, but national media outlets did, as well, especially regional publications in the Midwest.

4. Tiger Woods Turns Down $75 Million Poker Sponsorship Offer: While the five-year, $75 million sponsorship offer to Tiger Woods from PaddyPower, an Irish-based online gaming site, was probably never considered seriously by one of the most famous athletes in the world, it did make big headlines and garner publicity for PaddyPower.
The deal was rejected by Woods’ management company, IMG, in early March. This was during the time when all major news outlets and tabloids in the world were feverishly covering the extramarital affairs of the professional golfer, which had come to light following a November car crash, and eventually led to his divorce from his wife, Elin Nordegren, in August.

5. Poker Players Donate $1.5 Million to Haiti Earthquake Relief Efforts: Charitable donations have long been the best way that poker players have developed positive public opinion for the game, and 2010 was no different. In the wake of a 7.0-magnitude earthquake that devastated Haiti in January, poker players collectively donated more than $1.5 million through online poker sites that went to the Red Cross, Doctors Without Borders, and UNICEF to assist the relief efforts.

This was an impressive amount when compared to the $100,000 donated by the National Hockey League and the $1 million donated by Major League Baseball. It also compared favorably to the $2.5 million donation from the National Football League.

Honorable Mention — Phil Laak Breaks Guinness World Records Mark: It might not have grabbed headlines from coast to coast, but there is always considerable interest whenever someone breaks a Guinness World Records mark. Phil Laak accomplished that by playing a live-poker session for 115 hours straight at Bellagio, and he now holds the world record for the longest continuous live-poker session. ♠

Big-Time Online-Poker Action
By Julio Rodriguez

At times during 2010, there was more action to be found online than live. Although there was plenty of excitement surrounding the seven-figure payouts during the various big buy-in tournaments, most of the action leading up to the World Series of Poker came from the cash-game kings in the nosebleed stakes on Full Tilt Poker.

Whether it was no-limit hold’em, pot-limit Omaha, or mixed games, there was action nearly day and night, especially when then-unknown Swedish player Isildur1 had nearly his entire bankroll sitting on the table. The 19-year-old gambler emerged late in 2009, but he kept the poker world’s attention well into March by taking on all comers, including some of the world’s best in Tom “durrrr” Dwan, Phil Ivey, Patrik Antonius, Ilari “Ziigmund” Sahamies, Brian “sbrugby” Townsend, Phil “OMGClayAiken” Galfond, and Brian Hastings.

Although it has never been confirmed by the man himself, Isildur1 is widely believed to be Viktor Blom. The Swede took a few seven-figure beatings during his journey from the bottom to the top and back down to the bottom, but he has done a solid job of cementing his legacy as a fearless, if not reckless, player who has no regard for money and his competition.

After the Isildur1 story fizzled out, the online community needed a new focal point, and that came in the form of Rush Poker. Full Tilt’s revolutionary new format dramatically increased the number of hands that players could see per hour by transporting them to a brand-new table the moment they folded, skipping the results of hands they were not involved in.

Reportedly, players have been seeing more than 200 hands per hour while just single-tabling the software. With conventional online poker, it would take three and possibly four tables to duplicate that number of hands. As a result, Rush Poker has become a cash-game grinder’s paradise.

Of course, while Full Tilt continued to dominate the news with its cash games, the world’s largest online site, PokerStars, kept offering some of the best tournaments available online.

In April, PokerStars began its second-annual Spring Championship of Online Poker, better known as SCOOP. This unique tournament series offered 38 different events that featured three different buy-in tiers dedicated to experts, novices, and beginners. Although it at times went head-to-head with some live tournaments, it proved to be the far more popular arena, attracting a grand total of 130,746 unique players from an astounding 174 different countries.

When all was said and done, the tournament had awarded more than $63 million in prize money. Ryan “toetagU” Fair enjoyed the largest payday, banking $1,162,350 for winning the $10,000 main event. George “Jorj95” Lind III, a SuperNova Elite player, ran away with Player of the Series honors. ♠