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On Black Friday, April 15, 2011, the profession of being an online poker player in the U.S. virtually ceased to exist.

Hundreds, if not thousands of players who made their living online were suddenly faced with some brutal choices: play in the black market; move overseas; switch to playing live; or give up poker and get a real job.

The poker exodus saw players move to Mexico and Canada, often commuting back to their families at weekends. Some even moved to exotic and largely unregulated locales such as Argentina, Tunisia, Malta and the Lebanon.

Seven years on, and it’s finally OK to be an online poker pro in the US again—and it’s about to get easier.

New Jersey to the rescue

At 9 a.m. PST on Tuesday, April 30, 2013, Nevada-based Ultimate Poker dealt the first legally regulated hand of online poker played in the US since Black Friday. Sadly Ultimate Poker didn’t make it, but online poker continued in the hands of WSOP.com and its platform provider 888.

By the end of November 2013, Delaware and New Jersey had passed their own new laws and it looked like online poker would soon sweep the country once again.

Well, that didn’t happen. Delaware’s laws were a bust, providing zero incentive for the three licensed racino operators to market the game. Other states failed to get the necessary legislative votes, leaving New Jersey as the only state with a large enough population to support a vibrant online poker community.

March 21, 2016 even saw PokerStars launch in New Jersey after it finally secured regulatory approval and a casino partner.

Hot competition between WSOP, 888, PartyPoker, Borgata Poker and PokerStars kept the New Jersey online poker dream alive. And kept at least one market where it was still possible to make a living online from the great American game.]

Michael ‘Gags30’ Gagliano proves the possibility

PocketFives ran an interview and profile of Michael ‘Gags30’ Gagliano, known locally just as Gags: an online poker pro who is also a Borgata ambassador. His August results have been particularly impressive:

“Those results include over $100,000 in cashes and six outright victories in August to date. He has two scores of $30,000 or more during the month and, in total, he has recorded 10 scores of four-figures or more in the month.”

Gags is a tournament pro, and he acknowledges the fact that life has got better now that New Jersey, Delaware and Nevada share player liquidity (at least on WSOP.com).

“Fields are larger and there’s more recreational players but there’s also more good players. So it’s like this weird combination where like, yea it’s larger but when you get deep in tournaments it tends to be tougher deeper because there’s more good players around.”

WSOP bracelets can now be won in New Jersey

Gags isn’t the only serious player in New Jersey. Matt Mendez grew up planning to win at the WSOP:

“At 12 years old, I thought I was going to win 20 bracelets, right? Sixteen, same thing. Twenty-one, now I can win a ton of bracelets. As 24, 25, 26 comes, you start thinking ‘If I’d won a few bracelets, I’d feel accomplished in my poker career.’”

He made a living on the live poker circuit for a while, but decided not to make the trip to Las Vegas for the 2018 WSOP. The shared player pool between New Jersey and Nevada meant that he could still pursue his bracelet dream without leaving his wife and kids.

And the dream came true. Mendez won the $565 Pot-Limit Omaha 6-Handed event played online at WSOP earning prize money of over $135,000 and the coveted bracelet.

Shared online poker liquidity across a distance of around 2,500 miles gave him his dream shot and he became the first player to win a main series WSOP event outside of Nevada. Mendez acknowledged the importance of the interstate compact that made it possible.

“And then poker changes with multistate poker. Because of that, I’m able to sit on my couch and have a couple opportunities from Jersey to win a bracelet.”

Pennsylvania is about to make online poker a whole lot larger

All the US poker news is focused on when online poker will launch in Pennsylvania. PokerStars said that it planned to launch in Q1 of 2019 depending on regulatory approvals. The Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board has been working overtime to deal with the flood of applications it has had for the newly legalized online gaming, and Stars now has its approval.

PokerStars, through its partner the Mount Airy casino, should be ready to go early next year, but 888, partypoker, and WSOP will also be readying for an early launch.

Best news of all is that the Pennsylvania laws allow for interstate compacts. Delaware has a population of less than a million; Nevada has less than three million. New Jersey has had to do the heavy lifting to keep online poker alive with its population of 9 million.

Now Pennsylvania is coming on board and with its population of 12.8 million, the state regulated online poker market in the US is about to double.

Shared liquidity may take a little longer, but Pennsylvania players will end up as part of the larger player pool with New Jersey.

Gags told P5s what that would mean:

“Obviously growing prize pools and as the market gets bigger I think you’ll start seeing more things like Sit & Gos which used to be popular. You know, they run in New Jersey but they’re not super popular. I think those will start coming back as we just get more liquidity.”

The online poker pro may be a rare bird in the US, but Pennsylvania’s new laws will help preserve it from extinction. Who knows, maybe a few of the poker exiles in Mexico will come home too.

The post It Is Getting Easier To Be An Online Poker Pro In The USA appeared first on .

A poker player who spent years creatively skirting around his ban from Caesars properties to play in the World Series of Poker is now suing the organization for kicking him out deep in the middle of the 2017 Main Event.

Maryland’s Joseph Stiers knew full well that Caesars had previously banned him from all its properties when he registered for the 2017 WSOP Main Event. It is precisely the reason why he did so as Joseph Conorstiers from Washington, D.C. in 2016, combining his middle and last names in an effort to fool WSOP staff into letting him play.

It worked. Joseph Conorstiers finished 640th for $18,714.

In 2017, he reportedly dropped the Stiers name altogether in a further effort to conceal his identity. This time he registered for the 2017 WSOP Main Event as Joseph Conor.

He actually managed to run up his starting stack to around 630,000 in chips heading into the dinner break on Day 3. Then WSOP brass figured out who he was. They kicked him out on the break and pulled the chips from play.

Now, Stiers has the gall to cry foul. He filed a federal lawsuit in June seeking equitable and injunctive relief and punitive damages.

Stiers Vs. Caesars

Stiers’ ban from all Caesars Entertainment properties stems from when he was caught counting cards playing blackjack and 86’d from the Horseshoe Casino in Maryland in 2014. He admits he counted cards, but has been arguing against Caesars’ right to ban him for it ever since.

Any notion that Stiers was unaware it was a ban from all Caesars properties is dispelled by the fact he acknowledged it when he courted media attention for his case in 2015. He called the ban unfair in the Baltimore Sun, admitting all kinds of things to Sun staffers. This included the fact he’d been barred from WSOP events. Plus, he’d been kicked out of the middle of a poker tournament in Maryland in much the same way he would eventually be booted from the 2017 WSOP Main Event.

The ultimate freeroll

In the suit, Stiers now claims the WSOP freerolled him. He says the WSOP allowed him to buy in to as much as $200,000 worth of prelim events while he was losing. Then, it sought to institute the ban only when it appeared he might run deep in the WSOP Main Event:

“Caesars/WSOP had always accepted my money and retained my money when I was losing poker tournaments, which totaled to over $200,000, but only enforced this trespass eviction during a tournament when I was in a position to win up to $8 million and had around $150,000 in current chip equity.”

Clearly, WSOP security needs to take some responsibility for failing to effectively police its ban on Stiers. However, it’s highly unlikely there was any nefarious reason for this failure. Accusing the organization of freerolling him is a massive stretch.

Falling through the cracks

It’s much more likely Stiers attempts to fool the WSOP by concealing his real name actually worked. Plus, he initially fell through the cracks in a year where the WSOP saw a record 120,995 entries over its 74-event schedule. Then, only when Stiers emerged as one of the leaders heading into the dinner break on Day 3 of the WSOP Main Event, did they realize he was there.

Kicking him out, removing the chips from play, and refusing to refund the $10,000 buy-in all seem like reasonable actions by the WSOP. The organization is certainly within its legal right to do all that. They have the right to ban people for a variety of reasons. Plus, they retain the right to kick them out when they get around the ban by using a false name.

Caesars has responded to the suit by claiming it did nothing wrong. They say Stiers entered the tournament under a different name, giving them every right to kick him out.

Lawyers for the organization want the case dismissed with prejudice. Plus, they want Stiers to pick up the tab for their services. Odds are they’ll find a judge to agree with them.

Not much of a case

Stiers doesn’t really have much of a case. This evidenced by the fact he is acting as his own legal representation. A move that suggests no decent lawyer is willing to take on the case.

He’s also grasping at a number of different straws. At one point, he asks for the right to play in future WSOP events. At another, he wants the WSOP to pay him an estimated $20,000 he would have cashed for had the WSOP blinded off the stack instead.

Stiers claims the ejection ruined his career as a poker pro. However, at the same time, it was false and misleading advertising by the WSOP that induced him to start that career.

Professional gambler or gullible rube

You might be a banned professional gambler who duped the WSOP in letting you play. You might even be able to claim you deserve to be compensated for gaming the system. It’s even plausible that you are a gullible rube who was coerced into pursuing poker as a career despite the potential financial dangers. You just can’t be all of that at the same time.

Stiers suit fails to recognize something a federal court will before long. That is that US courts have ruled previously gaming establishments like Caesars have every right to exclude any person from their premises. Just as long as the reason is not discriminatory or unlawful.

The truth is clear. Caesars Entertainment banned Stiers from all its properties for counting cards while playing blackjack. Whether we like it or not, they have the right to do that.

Ignoring the ban

Apparently Stiers didn’t like it, because he continued to ignore the ban and show up at the WSOP. He took advantage of some rather lackadaisical security. Plus, what appears to be a loophole allowing him to play under different versions of his name. He got away with it for a while. Eventually, Caesars and the WSOP caught him.

The WSOP is most definitely guilty of failing to properly implement a ban it has every legal right to institute. No court in the country is likely to find anything other than that.

In this particular skill game, it looks like Stiers has run out of luck.

The post Maryland Poker Player Suing The WSOP Doesn’t Have Much Of A Case appeared first on .

The World Poker Tour traveled to the Bicycle Casino on Aug. 18 for the $1 million guaranteed WPT500 Los Angeles event. A total of 2,509 entrants joined the action in the span of 16 starting flights to put the prize pool up to $1,254,500. Day 2 started on Aug. 26 with 125 runners and finished up with the final nine playing to a winner on Aug. 27.

Michael Copeland finished on top of the field after starting the final table as chip leader to win the $181,950 first-place prize.

Final table lineup

Seat 1: Jorge Pineda – 7,200,000 (36 bb)
Seat 2: Erik Nason – 5,375,000 (27 bb)
Seat 3: Michael Copeland – 19,000,000 (95 bb)
Seat 4: Luke Nguyen – 2,775,000 (14 bb)
Seat 5: Jose Torres – 3,250,000 (16 bb)
Seat 6: Aaron Messmer – 4,725,000 (24 bb)
Seat 7: Travis Tachibana – 2,500,000 (13 bb)
Seat 8: Alexander Beleson – 2,250,000 (11 bb)
Seat 9: Sanjay Mayekar – 1,875,000 (9 bb)

Pineda does the early dirty work

Copeland’s wide chip margin at the start of the final table left a lot of ground to be made up by his competitors. Jorge Pineda did himself a few favors right away with two eliminations to bring the field down to seven.

Pineda busted Alexander Beleson with pocket aces versus ace-queen in the first level of the day to pick up a dozen big blinds. In the same level, Pineda sent Travis Tachibana out when his pocket queens held versus the ace-four offsuit of Tachibana.

Copeland regains control

Pineda lightened the field and Copeland then resumed building his stack in anticipation of shorthanded play.

With the blinds up to 125,000/250,000, Copeland dispatched Sanjay Mayekar’s last 4.325 million as a result of pocket kings flopping a set versus ace-queen after all the chips went in preflop.

Copeland added to his advantage by taking out Luke Nguyen. King-jack for Copeland turned a pair against Nguyen’s pocket sixes to put Copeland in front for the remainder of the event.

From five to two

The journey to heads-up play was quick with the blinds reaching peak proportions. Copeland and Pineda combined to hold 35 of the 50 million chips in play at this juncture. Soon enough, the pair was heads-up for the WPT500 title.

Erik Nason fell to Aaron Messmer to go out in fifth place. Nason shoved 4.65 million under the gun at big blind 300,000 with king-ten offsuit and Messmer called in the small blind with two nines. Messmer flopped a set and Nason failed to improve.

Messmer disposed of Jose Torres in fourth place to give himself a fighting chance three-handed. Torres pushed in 12 big blinds on the button with king-six offsuit and was met by Messmer’s ace-jack of hearts in the small blind. A straight draw flopped for Torres but he did not catch anything else to give him the pot.

Copeland felted Messmer and brought a strong chip lead into heads-up action versus Pineda.

The blinds were 250,000/500,000 when Messmer jammed 6.9 million on the button with seven-four of hearts. Copeland called in the big blind with ace-eight of diamonds. An ace appeared on the flop and Messmer never caught up.

Copeland closes

Copeland started heads-up play with 71 big blinds to the 31 of Pineda and wasted little time in locking up the win.

Pineda moved all-in on the button for 20 bigs with ten-nine offsuit and Copeland found ace-jack of clubs to call. Both players flopped the better of their high cards to pair and Copeland survived to the finish line.

Final table results

1st place: Michael Copeland – $181,950
2nd place: Jorge Pineda – $120,610
3rd place: Aaron Messmer – $87,565
4th place: Jose Torres – $65,330
5th place: Erik Nason – $49,270
6th place: Luke Nguyen – $37,565
7th place: Sanjay Mayekar – $28,960
8th place: Travis Tachibana – $22,570
9th place: Alexander Beleson – $17,790

Lead image courtesy of WPT/Flickr

The post Michael Copeland Wins WPT500 Los Angeles For $181,950 appeared first on .

Maybe del Lago won’t be the first New York casino to go belly-up, after all.

Empire Resorts recently filed a troubling financial report covering Resorts World Catskills and the attached Moniticello Raceway. The billion-dollar casino complex is the newest in NY, and its situation is already looking grim.

The filing reveals sharp losses and mounting liability in excess of a half a billion dollars, raising serious questions about the property’s future.

Empire Resorts deeply in debt

The report looks bad from top to bottom.

Since opening Resorts World in February, Empire Resorts has lost more than $58 million. It’s trending the wrong way, too, with more than $37 million of that loss coming during the fairer-weather months of Q2.

Prior to opening the casino, Empire Resorts projected $277 million in first-year revenue. Estimates from some of its consultants were even more aggressive, surging past $300 million.

Through the first half of the year, Resorts World earned just $82 million in net revenue, posting losses of $41 million from gaming operations. Interest payments added another $17 million to that red number.

At the time of filing, the company held $16.7 million in cash on hand and assets totaling $30 million. Liabilities and stockholder equities, meanwhile, exceed $780 million. The majority of that total is attributable to long-term debt stemming from development and construction.

The company responds

The company’s statements don’t exactly paint a rosy outlook for the future, either:

“We cannot be certain that our business will generate sufficient cash flow from operations, that our anticipated earnings from the Casino will be realized, or that future borrowings will be available under our existing debt arrangements or otherwise to enable us to service our indebtedness or to make anticipated capital expenditures. As a result, we may need to raise additional capital or incur additional indebtedness, including from our largest stockholder or by issuing securities …

Our future operating performance and our ability to service our debt will be subject to future economic conditions and to financial, business and other factors, many of which are beyond our control.”

Yikes. Empire Resorts received a credit downgrade from Moody’s Investor Service in June, further inhibiting its forecast.

Results were reported by NYup, and you can browse the full SEC filing here.

No financial help is likely

Resorts World is not the first of the commercial NY casinos to ask for help, and it likely won’t be the last. All four are struggling just to pay their bills, let alone meet revenue projections.

Regular readers are likely familiar with the ongoing issues at del Lago in Waterloo. Co-owner Wilmorite has asked for assistance on at least two occasions since opening early last year, but the state has so far refused to intervene. Rivers Casino received a similar stiff-arm, too.

Resorts World hasn’t gone begging in Albany as far as we know, but that time may be approaching. Facing the bad news, Executive Vice President Charlie Degliomini tried to frame the report in a conversation with NYup:

“Realistically, you should wait about three years after all the pieces are in place to make a qualified analysis. We are still ramping up here. It will take some time to have stability.”

Ongoing expansion

Indeed, the property has been undergoing expansion since opening, including a $33 million project slated for completion in December. A proposed $150 million waterpark and hotel should be ready next year, too, and the new amenities could help turn the tides.

Degliomini also cited the job creation (1,600 employees) and state tax payments as counterpoints to the revenue gap. “By every measure of why we were selected at this location, we are a success,” he said.

Each casino owner will measure results differently, but a $60 million shortfall in six months sure doesn’t look like a success. And given lawmakers’ reluctance to offer assistance to its competitors, Resorts World is likely on its own to fix the problem.

The post Resorts World Catskills Spirals Toward Trouble With Massive Revenue Shortfall appeared first on Play NY.

Three-handed no-limit hold’em action at the Casino Del Sol Poker Room in Tucson, Arizona this week led to what has to be considered one of the worst bad beats of all time.

The player who ended up in third place on the river posted a picture of the outcome (seen above) on a Reddit poker forum. He later explained that he’d flopped quad nines and a second player in the hand flopped tens full. Apparently, it checked to the turn, where a third player in the hand picked up a gutshot straight flush draw.

The ten of diamonds river gave that player his straight flush, but it also made quad tens for the player who’d flopped the boat, leaving quad nines in third.

Bad beat out of the bad beat

Ordinarily, it wouldn’t matter who came in second or third in a hand, but the Casino Del Sol Poker Room had an $18,000 bad beat jackpot on the line.

That meant the player who made his straight flush earned an additional $4,500, or 25 percent. Plus, because the Casino Del Sol Poker Room bad bead jackpot rules state that bad beat payouts are based on the strength of the hands at the end, the player who rivered quad tens while drawing dead was considered to have taken the bad beat.

That means he got 50 percent of the jackpot, or $9,000. In the meantime, the player who flopped quad nines had to settle for $665 — the same share of the other 25 percent everyone else at the table earned.

He was bad beat out of the bad beat, leaving him with little more than a consolation prize consisting of a legendary story and the sympathy of any Reddit forum posters that managed to get past the oddly designed cards used at Casino Del Sol.

Cards can be cruel

The hand also serves as a warning to all players that cards can be cruel. A not-so-gentle reminder to everyone, that the poker gods giveth, and the poker gods taketh away. And of course, that all outs are undoubtedly real in Texas Hold’em, and just about anything can and will happen.

Remember when Nicolas Manion picked up pocket aces against Antoine Labat and Yueqi Zhu both holding pocket kings on the bubble of the 2018 World Series of Poker Main Event final table last month? If that absolutely insane hand didn’t convince you of these things, this one surely should.

The worst bad beats of all time

It’s a reminder, at the very least, of some of the worst bad beats of all time captured on TV.

Like the one where Motoyuki Mabuchi ran quad aces into Justin Phillips‘ royal flush to bust out of the 2008 WSOP Main Event. The jury is still out on whether it was worse for Mabuchi to lose the hand to a man wearing a wife beater tank-top on national TV, or the fact that well-known comedian and actor Ray Romano was at the table to witness it all. Either way, things really couldn’t have been any worse for Mabuchi.

Or maybe the one where Cary Katz knocked Connor Drinan out of the Big One For One Drop, four-flushing in a hand where they both had pocket aces. A beat clearly exacerbated by the fact the Big One For One Drop has a $1 million buy in.

The sad tale of Matt Affleck

Then of course, there’s always the sad tale of Matt Affleck in the 2010 WSOP Main Event.

With just 15 players left, holding pocket aces, Affleck got it all in versus Jonathan Duhamel for the chip lead. Duhamel had pocket jacks, but he’d flopped a gutshot that became an open-ender on the turn. Affleck was still a huge favorite to win and take a massive lead into the playdown to the final nine.

However, an eight on the end made Duhamel a straight, breaking Affleck’s heart. The rest is history, as they say, and Duhamel went on to win the 2010 WSOP Main Event title.

It’s one of the worst beats of all time. Particularly considering the circumstances and amount of money ultimately on the line.

But alas, much like Arizona hand, just another sad reminder that defeat can be snatched from the jaws of victory. And that poker is among the cruelest of games.

The post Arizona Bad Beat A Reminder Poker Can Be The Cruelest Of Games appeared first on .

Get ready to celebrate — Downtown Springfield is hosting a massive party for the new $960 million MGM Springfield casino and resort complex.

MGM Springfield’s grand opening is set for Friday, Aug. 24, and will include a parade down Main Street featuring the Budweiser Clydesdales, local dignitaries, some surprise entertainment and MGM staff.

The Main Street procession will begin at 10:30 a.m. local time at the corner of State Street and Main Street. It will end at MGM Springfield’s front doors, which will officially open to the public at 11 a.m.

Highlights include a 125,000 square-foot casino

The 2 million-square-foot property, spanning 14.5 acres across three city blocks in Downtown Springfield, includes a 125,000 square-foot, smoke-free casino. Inside, gamblers will find as many as 2,550 slot machines and 120 table games, and a poker room and a high-limit VIP gaming lounge.

MGM Springfield also features a 250-room hotel, various shopping and dining options, and a new 3,400 space parking garage at Union Street and East Columbus Avenue offering free parking.

Parking and traffic information

Traffic in Downtown Springfield is expected to be quite hectic throughout the entire opening weekend.

In a story this week, MassLive.com advises readers that Springfield will address traffic on Interstate 91 and some local roads by closing Exit 6 for a few hours beginning at 6 a.m. Drivers headed to the opening have been advised to use Exits 4, 5 or 7.

Once all 3,4000 garage spaces are filled up, visitors are being encouraged to park for free at the Big E.

An express shuttle will start taking people from Big E to the property at 6 a.m. and will run every five to 10 minutes through to 8 a.m. Saturday. Memorial Bridge will feature an express lane for the Big E shuttle.

Additional transportation options

MGM Springfield has also teamed up with Uber to provide designated pick-up and drop-off locations for anyone using the ride-sharing service. Additionally, The Loop, a free public transportation service linking MGM Springfield to Union Station, the Basketball Hall of Fame, the Springfield Armory and other downtown destinations will launch Friday.

Ultimately, The Loop will run 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. every Wednesday through Sunday.

Additionally, parking will be available at:

• Civic Center Garage at 41 Harrison Ave.
• I-91 South Garage at 1620 East Columbus Ave.
• I-91 North Garage at 1870 East Columbus Ave
• Union Station Garage at 1771 Main St.
• Tower Square Garage at 1500 Main St.
• Monarch Garage at 1414 Main St.

The Republican at 1860 Main St. is also offering parking for $10 per car. However, parking restrictions will be in effect for streets surrounding MGM Springfield throughout opening weekend.

Downtown Springfield road closures during the grand opening include:

• Main Street from Court Street to Union Street
• State Street from MGM Way to Dwight Street
• Union Street from Main Street to Hall of Fame Avenue

MGM Springfield gaming revenue projections

MGM Resorts is certainly bullish on the local gambling market.

The gaming giant has projected the property will earn $500 million in annual gross gaming revenues by year three of operations. Close to 87 percent of that will come from patrons in Western Massachusetts and northwestern Connecticut.

More than $400 million is expected to come from slot machines and the rest from table games. In its fourth year, MGM has projected the property will be earning closer to $512 million in overall gross gaming revenue and $525 million in year five.

More amenities to enjoy

More than just a casino and hotel, entertainment options at MGM Springfield include a TopGolf Swing Suite, full-service spa, luxury cinema, Tap Arcade and 10-lane Bowling Alley.

High-end dining options will include Chefs Michael Mina and Adam Sobel’s Cal Mare and Hell’s Kitchen season 14 winner Meghan Gill’s The Chandler Steakhouse.

Casual dining options include the South End Market with Wicked Noodles, Jack’s Lobster Shack and Bill’s Diner.

Additionally, there are several bars and lounges on the property. This includes Lobby Bar, The Knox Bar late-night gaming lounge serving until 4 a.m., and Commonwealth Bar & Lounge.

There will be plenty of live entertainment throughout grand opening weekend. This includes Dropkick Murphys playing at The Plaza at MGM Springfield on Saturday, Aug. 25. The A-list entertainment lineup kicks off Sept.1 with a Stevie Wonder concert at the new MassMutual Center.

Massachusetts’ second commercial casino

MGM Springfield will be Massachusetts’ second commercial casino, and promising to be New England’s first integrated luxury resort, casino and entertainment destination.

The Plainridge Park Casino in Plainville became the state’s first casino when Penn National Gaming opened the slots parlor back in 2015. The $2.4 billion Encore Boston Harbor (formerly Wynn Boston Harbor) will become Massachusetts’ third commercial casino property when it opens in Everett in the summer of 2019.

The Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe is currently building the state’s first Native American casino. The $1 billion First Light Resort & Casino has plans to open in Taunton sometime in 2018.

The post The MGM Springfield Opening: Everything You Need To Know appeared first on Play MA–Legal gambling for Massachusetts.