The Poker Year In Review - February

Lucien Cohen and his mascot plastic rat made Martin Jacobson runner-up for the second time in an EPT when the Frenchman topped an 891-strong field to take the €888,000 top prize at the Deauville stop of the European Poker Tour.

A spokesperson for Dublin-based company Pocket Kings, service provider to Full Tilt Poker, revealed the intention to add 100 jobs to its payroll to bring the total to 800. A bright future was expected.

In Netanya, Israel, a 28 year-old man was charged with murder over a poker debt. Meir Krafit was alleged to have shot Yossi Turjeman with a nine-millimeter handgun in the victim’s own home over an accumulated poker debt.

British poker player Marcus Bebb Jones lost his appeal against extradition to the U.S. over the alleged murder of his wife in 1997. Bebb-Jones, who once shot himself in the head in a suicide attempt, faces a life sentence or execution if convicted of the murder in the U.S..

Italy opened up its online poker cash games to players in the market. Operators offering online cash games faced a tax on gross profits of 20 percent and the maximum allowable buy-in was initially set at €250 with a maximum stake of €1,000 per session.

French regulatory authority of online games, ARJEL, suspended French home games on PokerStars in order to ensure compliance with French law.

The Daily Telegraph broke the news that British bookmaker Ladbrokes was in talks with Israeli gaming operator Playtech, owner of the iPoker network. Playtech’s relationship with William Hill would prove to be a stumbling block as William Hill secured an interim injunction against Playtech to prevent it from making “significant amendments” to the joint venture project between the two companies.

The Bad Beat Jackpot was astoundingly won twice in 24 hours on the Microgaming Poker Network.

The FTOPS XIX main event set the record for the largest prize pool in the site’s history, $8,687,400. A deal was made threehanded which saw eventual runner-up Blair “blur5f6” Hinkle earn $1.1 million while the winner, “GIAMPP”, received just under $900,000.

Michael Tureniec was crowned king of the PokerStars European Poker Tour Copenhagen main event earning his first EPT title.

Gus Hansen started 2011 just as he did 2010 — winning more than $2 million on the virtual felt. He had most of his success in online pot-limit Omaha cap games.

Related Articles

British Gambling Giants To Merge For $5.3 Billion

Ladbrokes Poker To Move To Playtech

Ladbrokes Poker Revenue Down 23 Percent In 2012

Most Viewed Articles