Tobey Maguire, Gabe Kaplan, Nick Cassavettes Among Former Defendants
After nearly a year of legal wrangling, the celebrities and high rollers who siphoned millions from a fraudster in underground poker games have all settled out of court and agreed to give back a combined $1.75 million, the New York Post reported Tuesday.
The former clients of Brad Ruderman, a man currently serving time for investment adviser fraud, are recouping money won by the likes of actors Tobey Maguire and Gabe Kaplan, film director Nick Cassavettes, as well as socialite Rick Salomon and businessman Alec Gores, according to Celebuzz.
In 2009, Ruderman was charged with stealing $44 million, about $5 million of which he lost in the poker games. In total, 22 individuals who played in the games, which reportedly ran from 2006-09, were sued.
Late last year, People Magazine reported that Maguire agreed to individually pay back a sum of $80,000 to the victims of Ruderman’s fraud. He was potentially on the hook for more than $300,000. Gores was potentially liable for the heftiest sum — $445,500.
As part of Maguire’s settlement, he maintained that he committed no wrongdoing and he didn’t know that the money he won came from illicit financial activities.
Seeking Player Analysts to Add Color Commentary to Webcasts
During the 2012 World Series of Poker, WSOP.com, the official website of the World Series of Poker will be the exclusive home to live video of all 60 of the final tables of the official WSOP gold bracelet events.
Up to three final tables a day could be streamed, but in most instances, two different final tables will stream, with scheduled start times of 1:00 pm PT and 2:00 pm PT.
All live streaming will begin when the official final table gets underway, thus hard start times are difficult to predict but announcements will be made via the WSOP’s official Twitter feed atwww.twitter.com/WSOP.
Two distinct streams will be available.
The primary stream will feature six different cameras along with announcer/analyst commentary. These webcasts will feature flop games in most instances and be streamed from the main WSOP stage inside the Amazon Ballroom at the Rio.
Renowned play-by-play anchor David Tuchman will serve as the WSOP’s official announcer for the primary webcasts and will be joined by a rotating group of player analysts. Jay “WhoJedi” Newnum will serve as the WSOP’s Video Coordinator overseeing the streaming project, and any players interested in being part of the coverage are encouraged to contact Jay via Twitter @WhoJedi. [ Read the full post... ]
Tom “durrrr” Dwan reportedly raked in a colossal $3.8 million (USD) pot in Macau this week according to Poker Portal Asia.
Dwan won the pot, which amounted to HKD $30 million, against a Chinese businessman while playing No-Limit Hold’em with blinds of $1,300/$2,600.
According to Poker Portal Asia details were sparse on the hand but Dwan apparently picked up ace-ten against his opponent’s ace-deuce.
The flop came an action-heavy A-T-2 giving both players aces-up and a betting war ensued.
Eventually all the money went in on the flop and, after fading any trouble cards on the turn or the river, Dwan picked up the scale-tipping $3.8 million pot.
The article didn’t state whether Dwan ended the session a winner.
If confirmed, the pot would rank as one of the biggest in the history of poker.
Main Event Joined By $1 Million ‘Big One for One Drop’ & WSOP Circuit National Championship
ESPN has released the schedule for their television and live streaming broadcast coverage of the 2012 World Series of Poker.
Once again, the WSOP main event will be the primary focus, with episodes of the year’s biggest poker event kicking off on Tuesday, August 14th and continuing until the final table plays out with a 15-minute delayed virtually- live broadcast of the final table on Tuesday, October 30th.
Preceding the main event coverage will be two new events to ESPN’s coverage, the $1,000,000 buy-in Big One for One Drop no-limit hold’em event and the WSOP Circuit National Championship.
Commentators Lon McEachern and Norman Chad will once again be calling the action, with reporter-at-large Kara Scott also returning for 2012.
High-Stakes Cash Game Pro Sam Trickett Tells Card Player He Will Play
The most expensive open buy-in tournament in the history of poker has a 48-player cap, and despite some criticism from the game’s community, the World Series of Poker and the event’s organizer, Guy Laliberté, aren’t budging.
The $1 million buy-in charity event is scheduled for nationwide TV exposure, and drama is good for ratings and interest in the cause.
“It’s every show producer’s dream to always leave at least one person at the door, unable to buy a ticket,” Laliberté told Card Player. “That’s how you know you have a really great show. It’s a fundamental principle of marketing. I remember when a special edition Ferrari came out. They calculated that there were 350 people in the world who would buy it, which is why they only made 349.”
As the 2012 festival nears, some of the game’s best are fixated on the tournament that will award as much as $15 million to the winner. Over his 24-year career, poker pro Erik Seidel has accumulated $16.9 million in earnings — good for the top spot on the all-time money list.
Episodes To Air On DirectTV and Comacats SportsNet New England Starting May 7
Professional poker player, radio personality and Card Playercolumnist Bernard Lee is introducing a brand new, televised version of The Bernard Lee Poker Show to celebrate its fifth anniversary.
A total of three episodes will be broadcast on Comcast SportsNet New England and Direct TV starting May 7, and will feature pros such as Chris Moneymaker, Dennis Phillips and Phil Hellmuth.
The first-run episodes will air Monday nights at 8:30 p.m. and repeats will air the following Sundays at 1:30 p.m. Viewers can also see the episodes on the newly launched BernardLeePoker channel on YouTube. The audio version of the show airs on Tuesdays at 6 p.m. on 1120AM (Boston), 970AM (Worcester) and 1390AM (Cape Cod) on the Money Matters Radio Network.
Lee has won nearly $2 million on the live tournament circuit since breaking out with a 13th place finish in the 2005 World Series of Poker main event. You can read his columns in each issue ofCard Player magazine.
The World Series of Poker is expanding to Australia next year and will host five gold bracelet events as part of the WSOP Asia-Pacific.
WSOP Asia-Pacific will take place at the Crown Casino in Melbourne, a location already popular with poker players for its signature Aussie Millions event.
“Our goal is to establish the worldwide grand slam of poker and use our platform to elevate the game through a series of major championships,” said WSOP Executive Director Ty Stewart.
“With WSOP Las Vegas growing annually and WSOP Europe poised for long-term success after five years, the time is right to turn our attention to the dynamic poker scene in Asia and Australia. Given Crown’s success with the ‘Aussie Millions Poker Championship’, we couldn’t ask for a better partner than Crown to establish the Asia-Pacific’s definitive poker festival.”
The inaugural WSOP Asia-Pacific is set to take place April 4-15, 2013. The series will fill out the WSOP schedule over the year and add to the original WSOP and WSOPE.
Day 4 is done in Monte Carlo and France’s Lucille Cailly has become the first woman ever to make the final table of the PokerStars.com EPT Grand Final.
Cailly, who is already guaranteed the biggest payday of her poker career, sits third in chips behind leader Bernard Guigon and BrazilianRodrigo Capriolo who heads into the finale in second.
“It’s hard to think that €1.5 million is just seven players away but it would mean the world to me to win,” Cailly told PokerListings.com moments after the final hand.
“To be honest I don’t think I can realize that I’m at the final table of one of the biggest poker tournaments in the world.
“I have no words. I’m speechless,” she said.
When Lucille Cailly made the final table tonight she bested the previous record for a female player at the Grand Final, set by Isabelle Mercier in Season 1 when she finished 10th.
So-called knowledge forum Big Think has posted a video on business ethics by Howard Lederer.
Yes the same Howard Lederer that was involved with the much-maligned Full Tilt Poker that has failed to pay back its players for over a year now.
It’s hard to believe this isn’t a level but we’re thinking it was filmed over a year ago.
Incredibly Lederer starts the article by saying that in the poker industry all you have is your good name and there’s no way you could borrow a bunch of money and then not pay it back.
The PokerStars.com European Poker Tour has announced its Season 9 schedule, promising more poker and bigger prizes than ever before.
The schedule has been cut down in terms of tour stops, with eight compared to the 13 we saw in Season 8, but despite the condensed schedule each stop will boast an expanded program of events, including a €10,000 tournament in every city.
The Grand Final will once again return to Monte Carlo and will include a €25,000 High Roller and a €100,000 Super High Roller. The PCA will host the same two high-stakes events but the numbers will be in dollars instead of euros.
The focus for Season 9 will be making every EPT stop a true festival of poker, including more events, more prize money and more ways to qualify.
“EPT Season 9 will bring a new level of innovation to our tour and will enhance the experience for all players,” said EPT President Edgar Stuchly.
The EPT will be partnering with regional poker tours like the UK & Ireland Poker Tour and the Estrellas Poker Tour to offer events accessible to every bankroll.
Additional improvements for Season 9 include enhanced online qualification through PokerStars, as well as a brand new EPT Hotels Concierge service to assist players with anything from buying concert tickets to replacing forgotten personal items.
Tobey Maguire, Gabe Kaplan, Nick Cassavettes Among Former Defendants
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