Industry News

Swedish Supreme Court Rules On Poker
The Swedish Supreme Court has ruled that poker is both a game of skill and a game of chance depending on what the format is.
Judge Göran Lamberth explained the long-awaited ruling to the media in early April, saying, “We have found that the main tournament and its side tournaments were not random chance games, but that skill does come in to it.”
However cash games, which allow players to play and bet when they like and leave the table at any time were “a game of pure random chance,” according to Lamberth.
The court ruling was the end of a long legal battle to have poker framed within the law after poker tournament organisers were convicted of running a tournament in 2007.
Their convictions were quashed on appeal.
Earlier this year the judges presiding over the case were given expert mathematical testimony and poker lessons to assist them with the case. ♠
Italian Taxman
Investigates Poker Pros
Online poker professionals in Italy may have a few worries on their mind at the moment. The Italian Revenue Agency and the Guardia di Finanza have set the wheels in motion to investigate the income earned and tax declared of players who have signed contracts with Italian and international poker rooms.
A letter along with a form was recently sent to these players, questioning them about their winnings, sponsorships, foreign bank accounts, and any income received from image rights and royalties. Any winnings from a site which does not have an establishment within the country will be subject to taxation. The players must fill out the form with all the relevant information and hand it into their local tax office.
Foreign bank accounts associated with online gaming will be monitored and if the balance or any movements in and out of the account exceeds €10,000, it should be declared as a financial asset that could produce foreign income which will then be taxed accordingly. ♠
Shaky Start For
bwin.party Digital
bwin Interactive Holdings and PartyGaming plc have officially merged and started trading on the London Stock Exchange, but pulses have already been set racing at the newly monikered bwin.party due to a proposed new betting tax regime in Germany.
It has been proposed that Germany’s state betting monopoly should be opened up to private companies who will be allowed to bid on seven national betting licenses. The companies will then have to pay a 16.7 percent tax on gross profits. Plus online poker and casino operators will have to hold an existing land-based license.
bwin.party’s shares slumped by 16 percent on the news of the proposed regime. The company is hopeful that the government will comply with European law and implement a commercially viable licensing regime. ♠
Dutch Banks May Block Online Payments
Ahead of the proposed regulation on online gambling in Holland, Dutch banks will be asked to block payments to all gambling sites operating there.
Online gambling is deemed illegal in the country and the junior justice minister Fred Teeven said that the government hopes banks will begin blocking credit card transactions to and from these sites including online poker sites.
Banks will receive a “blacklist” via the Dutch banking association but enforcing the payment blockade will be voluntary. ♠
888 Poker
Revenue Down, CEO Out
888.com has issued its full year results for its financial year 2010. Poker revenue at the company plummeted 25.6 percent to $38.4 million from $51.6 million in 2009.
Chief executive officer, Gigi Levy, who decided to step down from the company soon after the results were published, said of the poor performance, “Trading in 2010 has been challenging. It was impacted in the first half by the deterioration of online poker across the industry, with the daily average ring game players falling by approximately 25% in the period from January to July. There were encouraging signs towards the end of the year that 888’s Poker 6 offering is significantly bucking this trend, with Revenue from poker rising 28% to US$11 million from Q3 to Q4 in 2010.”
However profits fell 37 percent to £18 million in 2010.♠
Ladbrokes Poker
Revenue Down One-Third
British bookmaker Ladbrokes plc has published its interim financial statement for the first quarter of 2011. Poker suffered a blow with net revenue down 32.8 percent compared to the first quarter of 2010.
However the company said there are “some signs of stabilisation with flat quarter on quarter net revenue and new signups showing quarter on quarter growth of 18.1 percent”.
The report also confirmed exploratory merger talks with 888 had been terminated with no agreement being reached. ♠
888 And Ladbrokes Halt Merger Talks
888.com has announced talks with Ladbrokes over a potential merger had been “discontinued”.
The company, which is losing its CEO Gigi Levy, had been in talks with the British bookie since the end of December 2010.
The collapse of merger talks between the two operators leaves the door open again for Playtech to push for a deal with Ladbrokes despite facing stern opposition from its current partner William Hill. ♠
Poker Revenue Up 17
Percent At bwin
Ahead of its merger with PartyGaming, publicly-quoted German betting giant bwin reported gross gaming revenue in its online poker business up 17.4 percent in 2010 to €139.5 million compared to €118.8 million in 2009.
The company said the increase was “largely attributable to the contribution made by Gioco Digitale [in Italy] and the successful market launch in France.”
The company added that, “Whilst these newly regulated markets are performing well, the international poker business (.com) is still dominated by poker providers offering real money gaming to US customers, giving them significant advantages of size and player liquidity.”
bwin has around five million registered poker players on its database in Italy and had a market share of 22.3 percent of the Italian market, the world’s second biggest according to the company’s annual report, at the end of last year.
Net gaming revenue in poker expanded by 4 percent in 2010 to €93.1 million compared to €89.5 million a year earlier. ♠
Merge Poker Network
Expands
Online poker room AWH Poker has moved from the Boss Media Network to the Merger Network.
The company joins popular rooms such as Carbon Poker and Lock Poker on the U.S-friendly network meaning it can now accept players from North America – one of the few networks continuing to do so after the Department of Justice-led shutout.
In a statement the companies said, “This a wonderful opportunity for both existing affiliates and other webmasters to promote AWH poker and also an exciting time for poker players to get involved.
“At AWH, they work closely with affiliates and are always happy to hear any ideas you might have. The aim of AWH and their affiliates is the same, to have a mutually beneficial relationship, maximize your income and keep poker players happy.” ♠

Phil Galfond Up $2.5
Million on Full Tilt
One of the largest downswings of Phil “OMGClayAIken” Galfond’s career is finally over. Galfond was in the midst of a $2 million slide in late February, but since March he has completely turned things around, winning about $2.5 million on the virtual felt.
Even though Galfond has been on fire, the biggest winner in the first week of April was Scott “URnotINdanger2” Palmer. Palmer won $700,000 playing $200-$400 and $300-$600 pot-limit Omaha on Full Tilt Poker.
Palmer was the beneficiary of the largest pot in that seven-day period. He flopped a dry top set on a board of Q♣ 10♠ 3♠ and managed to scoop the pot with three other players all in. Galfond was in the hand as well, and had a big draw with the K♣ K♠ 9♠ 7♥. However he was unable to come from behind to crack Palmer’s set of queens.
Despite losing the hand, Galfond won $600,000 in early April playing a mix of the draw games and pot-limit Omaha. Galfond has been the biggest winner in high stakes deuce-to-seven triple draw this spring.
While Full Tilt Poker’s Double Guarantees Week helped create massive tournament prize pools, it seemed like an ancillary benefit was an increase in nosebleed action — amidst tripled multitable tournament prize pools, full ring $200-$400 pot-limit Omaha was running, which is a rarity these days. Though Phil Ivey was winning, which isn’t rare. ♠
“jungleman12”
Slaying Durrrr Challenge
Dan “jungleman12” Cates passed the $1 million mark in the last week of March in his lead over Tom “durrrr” Dwan in Full Tilt Poker’s Durrrr Challenge. Cates, who was recently written about in the New York Times Magazine, picked up an additional $300,000 across two short sessions to bring his profits to $1,251,059 through nearly 20,000 hands.
With about 40 percent of the contest completed, the graph between the two competitors shows that it has been all Cates — aside from some minor hiccups.
Altogether, Cates and Dwan have wagered about $130 million at $200-$400 no-limit hold’em, and have logged more than 34 hours at the virtual felt in 19 separate sessions.
Over at the nosebleed pot-limit Omaha tables on Full Tilt Poker, Gus Hansen continued his amazing upswing. The Danish pro added about $400,000 to his winnings at the end of March, bringing his profits for 2011 to about $4.4 million (see Gus Hansen Continues Online Ascent). ♠
“Isildur1” Decimates Negreanu for $150,000
In mid-March Viktor “Isildur1” Blom crushed Daniel “KidPoker” Negreanu in part I of their PokerStars SuperStar Showdown contest.
The $50-$100 no-limit hold’em battle was scheduled to be 2,500 hands played across four tables, but Negreanu was the victim of numerous coolers and unfortunate river cards en route to losing his entire $150,000 challenge bankroll after just 1,439 hands. Near the end of the match Negreanu commented on how things were going:
KidPoker: pretty sick run
Isildur1: yeah it’s just sick
Isildur1: I hit nuts all session long
KidPoker: that makes it easy :-)
Isildur1: yep hehe
After 1,300 hands, Negreanu was left with only about $15,000 of his challenge bankroll, and all of it was on a single table. The Canadian grinded away, eventually falling down to $10,000 when the final hand of the match took place.
Negreanu held the K♠ J♣ in the big blind and three-bet his Swedish opponent to $1,000. Blom put Negreanu all in, and Negreanu decided to call.
Blom exposed the A♣ K♥ and was way ahead. However, the flop was great for “KidPoker” as it came J♣ 10♠ 7♦ to give Negreanu top pair. The turn ended Negreanu’s brief moment of hope as the Q♣ peeled off the virtual deck, giving Blom broadway. The 4♦ on the river failed to chop the pot, and after 1,439 hands Negreanu had dropped $150,000 to Blom.
Despite preparing extensively for the match, Negreanu became the first player in the short history of the SuperStar Showdown to fail to last until the 2,500-hand mark. With the win, Blom was up about $310,000 in SuperStar Showdown. ♠
Negreanu Wins SuperStar Showdown Rematch
At one point during part II of their SuperStar Showdown rematch, Viktor “Isildur1” Blom was in the midst of another slaughter of Daniel “KidPoker” Negreanu.
Negreanu was down $119,600 in just 1,279 hands, just one week after losing his entire $150,000 roll in speedy fashion. Everything was looking disastrous for the Canadian once again, but he was able to beat the odds and amazingly finish the 2,500-hand quota in the black $26,500
The $50-$100 no-limit hold’em battle between Blom and Negreanu came to a close with Blom winning $123,500 across their two-part duel. ♠

Gus Hansen Continues
Online Ascent
Gus Hansen went on a tear mid-March winning $1 million across a slew of pot-limit Omaha and limit deuce-to-seven triple draw sessions on Full Tilt Poker.
Hansen’s profits have brought his 2011 earnings to a massive $4 million. However, the Danish poker pro is no stranger to fast starts. In both 2009 and 2010 Hansen opened with multi-million dollar wins in the first few months of the year, only to finish the respective calendar year in the hole.
Despite playing pots barely into six figures these days, as compared with the half-million dollar ones of the past, Hansen has built arguably the best foundation he has ever had for a successful year on the virtual felt.
Most of Hansen’s biggest action was against Andreas “skjervoy” Torbergsen at $500-$1,000 pot-limit Omaha — capped and uncapped.
While Hansen has been winning at the highest pot-limit Omaha stakes offered online, nosebleed newcomer XWINK dropped down to play short stacked against Dan “jungleman12” Cates at $50-$100 and $100-$200.
It appeared that nearly all of XWINK’s profits had evaporated over the previous few weeks (see XWINK Drops $1 Million), after the unknown Canadian had won $2 million over a three-day span earlier in early March, playing as high as $500-$1,000 pot-limit Omaha. ♠
XWINK Drops $1 Million
At the time of writing, unknown high stakes newcomer XWINK had been on a gravity railroad, losing a mammoth chunk of his profits from the nosebleed games on Full Tilt Poker.
The Canadian began one of the weeks in March playing in a multi-table $300-$600 pot-limit Omaha session with Andreas “skjervoy” Torbergsen.
Their match was hyper aggressive throughout, as each player had gargantuan stacks on multiple tables, with Torbergsen reaching $1 million on one of their five tables.
Despite showing a profit on some of the other tables, XWINK suffered a large loss versus his Norwegian opponent. A couple of days later, XWINK dropped a combined $700,000 to NoPasaran and Dan “jungleman12” Cates in volatile pot-limit Omaha sessions.
With the losses over a seven day period, XWINK is in the black just $500,000 after winning $2 million over a three-day span earlier in March. ♠