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The Poker Year In Review - July

Phil Hellmuth Gets Second Again, Full Tilt Players Migrate Elsewhere, And November Nine 2011 Set In July

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November Niner Eoghan O'DeaPhil Hellmuth again came close to winning his 12th WSOP bracelet but, again, fell one short to Brian Rast in the $50,000 players’ championship. Players compete in eight games (limit hold ‘em, Omaha high-low split eight-or-better, razz, seven-card stud, stud high-low split eight-or-better, no-limit hold’em, pot-limit Omaha and 2-7 triple draw lowball) and the field comprised 128 of the world’s best players. Rast collected $1,720,328 for his victory and Phil Hellmuth would have to make do with $1,063,034.

Online poker rooms across Europe saw a bounce in key player metrics since Full Tilt was ordered to shut down by the Alderney Gambling Control Commission.

Ladbrokes reported player acquisition up 100 percent while PokerStars mopped up over 60 percent of players who migrated from Full Tilt according to analyst Daniel Stewart & Co.

French online gambling regulator ARJEL added to Full Tilt’s woes when it suspended its French license and shut down its .fr site. According to the ruling Full Tilt was given notice to prove it had sufficient funds to pay players in France but was unable to do so.

The WSOP main event was whittled down to nine from 6,865. BoyleSports priced up the November Nine:

Eoghan O’Dea — 9/2
Martin Staszko — 9/2
Phil Collins — 11/2
Ben Lamb — 11/2
Matt Giannetti — 15/2
Anton Makievskyi — 9/1
Pius Heinz — 9/1
Sam Holden — 10/1
Badi Bounahra — 14/1

888.com saw its business to consumer (B2C) poker revenue rebound strongly after several quarters of decline with revenue up 58 percent in the second quarter of 2011 to US$13 million from US$8 million a year earlier. The company said this was, “due to the success of the Poker 6 platform”.

bwin poker launched its Android mobile devices app to join its iPhone poker platform which has been available since January.