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While the Coronavirus (COVID-19) lockdown leaves many of us bedraggled and bored, weighed down by wave after wave of nothingness, there is an equal number of people who are taking the time to smash bottles of Perrier water alongside the hull of brand new ships. 

You don’t need to retch. 

You need to react. 

partypoker and Poker Central are reacting. Between them, they turned the potential of a Poker Masters Online Series into a $35.4m powerhouse that saw 124 unique poker players finish in the money (ITM) throughout 30-events where seven players accrue more than $1m gross, including the winner, Alexandros Kolonias, who finished with the Purple Jacket.

Rob Yong.

Cary Katz.

These aren’t people who take their foot off the gas.

So what next?

Super High Roller Bowl Online

partypoker and Poker Central have announced that the 2020 Super High Roller Bowl (SHRB) will move online. 

Between May 23 – June 1, the world’s best poker players will gather on partypoker to compete in 28 events with buy-ins ranging from $10,000 – $100,000. The organisers promise $20m in guaranteed prize money and expect that to be doubled. 

Two-day events are the staple menu, the first of which is a $25,500 buy-in, $1m GTD No-Limit Hold ’em (NLHE) 8-Max. 

As with the Poker Masters Online Series, the player who accumulates the most points during the first 27-events is declared the champion and will collect an SHRB Championship ring and a free seat into the $102,000 Super High Roller Bowl Online, a two-day 8-max NLHE freezeout event with a 300,000 starting stack and a $3m guarantee.

Poker Central will stream ten of the final tables on PokerGO, and all the competitors will receive an annual subscription worth $99.

Cary Katz created Poker Central in 2015, and over time it became the ‘Netflix of Poker’, providing digital entertainment, on tap, for the global poker community. At $9.99 per month, it is as cheap as chips.

One of the strengths of digital services like Netflix or Amazon Prime is their ‘Original’ content. Poker Central began creating ‘Originals’ of their own. Still, it wasn’t until they began merging high stakes live tournaments with digital content that PokerGO became a must-have purchase for a fan of poker.

The Super High Roller Bowl will make a successful transition. There’s nowhere else high rollers can play, but it’s not the SHRB’s final resting place.

Katz loves live poker and plays more than most, so he will be champing at the bit to get the Poker Masters and SHRB back into the PokerGo Studios, but in the meantime, he will sit behind his computer and mash some buttons with the best of them.

Super High Roller Bowl History

The Super High Roller Bowl (SHRB) launched in 2015 and quickly became the most anticipated event in the poker calendar for high stakes players. 

The first event became the most expensive in history outside of the $1m Big One for One Drop, and Brian Rast defeated 43-entrants to win the $7.5m first prize in Las Vegas.

The buy-in dropped to $300,000 for the next two years. In 2016, Rainer Kempe topped a field of 49-entrants to win the $5m first prize, and the following year Christoph Vogelsang defeated a then-record field of 56-entrants to claim the $6m first prize.

2018 was a busy year for SHRB organisers. The decision to change the spring date to winter saw two events in a calendar year. The first attracted 48-entrants and Justin Bonomo won the $5m first prize, and Ike Haxton bagged the second, beating 36-entrants to win the $3.6m first prize. It was also the first year that the SHRB brand went global with SHRB China pulling in a record 75-entrants, and Bonomo picked up his second major title of the year and $4.8m in prize money (Bonomo would also win the $1m Big One for One Drop in the same year).

The success of the Chinese tournament prompted Poker Central to partner with more established live tournament operators to showcase the SHRB event at their masthead competitions around the world. Cary Katz won SHRB London, and Daniel Dvoress won SHRB Bahamas. The form continued into 2020 when Timothy Adams became the first player to win two SHRB titles in both Australia and Russia. 

Sam Greenwood

The ending may have been more Game of Thrones than Breaking Bad, but Sam Greenwood doesn’t care how he wins his titles as long as he wins them.

Greenwood’s incredible year ($8.1m and rising) continues to cartwheel after the Canadian was the last man seated at the end of a 67 entrant (23 re-entries) €25,000 No-Limit Hold’em (NLHE) at the European Poker Tour (EPT) in Prague. Greenwood beat his good buddy, Steve O’Dwyer, in heads-up play, after a final table that never seemed to end.

O’Dwyer was making his second final table of the series after finishing fourth in the €50,000. Matthias Eibinger was also making his second final table after finishing third in an earlier €25,000, Danny Tang was making his fourth final table after finishing third in the first €25,000 event, and catching a second and s sixth in €10k games.

Let’s see how Greenwood mowed people of that ilk down.

Final Table Seat Draw

Seat 1: Steve O’Dwyer – 1,950,000
Seat 2: George Wolff – 245,000
Seat 3: Sam Greenwood – 410,000
Seat 4: Matthias Eibinger – 260,000
Seat 5: Jans Arends – 640,000
Seat 6: Sam Grafton – 1,780,000
Seat 7: Mustafa jukovic – 530,000
Seat 8: Danny Tang – 400,000

The blinds were at 10k/20k/20k when most people watching from the rail assumed that Sam Greenwood’s long day at come to an end. Steve O’Dwyer opened the hijack with a 40,000 bet, and then called after Greenwood had three-bet to 200,000 from the button. The dealer placed Kd6d6s onto the felt as gently as a father places a sliver of gold onto his daughter’s tiny ankle, and O’Dwyer check-called a 60,000 Greenwood c-bet. The 7d hit the turn, and O’Dwyer put Greenwood all-in. The Canadian folded, leaving him behind a stack of six big blinds.

A spot of Dutch on Dutch action saw Joris Ruijs exit in the ninth place. Ruijs got it in holding AcKd against the pocket queens of Jans Arends, and the queens held. The queens then made their way to the whorls of Greenwood who shoved for 142,000 on the hijack seat, and Arends called and lost with AcJd.

Matthias Eibinger then doubled through Sam Grafton when pocket aces operated on AsKs removing all of the vital organs with typical precision. Danny Tang joined the double-up fun when AdQd beat the KcTs of Mustafa Jukovic. And Jukovic got some back when he doubled through O’Dwyer when AhJs rivered Broadway to beat pocket aces.

George Wolff then doubled through O’Dwyer Kc7c>As8d, and Eibinger did likewise when AcQh cracked the kings of Tang, and kings were useless for Grafton as they doubled up Jukovic who hit a wheel with AsKc.

Wolff doubled when Qd8d beat Eibinger’s Ad7s.

“The short stack always wins,” came a cry from the final table.

You can call it a hoodoo.

Grafton got it in holding 7s5s, and Jukovic called and lost with KsQc after Grafton flopped a two-pair hand.

Arends then took the chip lead when his pocket aces doubled through the pocket kings of O’Dwyer, and the Dutchman gave some of those chips to Tang when Jd4d failed to beat pocket eights when all-in, pre.

Wolff continued to double-up, this time KhQh beating Grafton’s AsKs, and Greenwood followed suit when QhJh hammered the pocket sixes of Arends.

Then after more double-ups than massage workshops in Bali, we had an elimination when Tang’s pocket sevens dismantled the Ad5d of Eibinger. The Austrian flopped a second ace to take the lead, but Tang turned a set to send Eibinger packing.

Grafton doubled through O’Dwyer when pocket jacks beat QsJs, and so did Wolff when AdTc slapped pocket fives – but O’Dwyer still held onto the chip lead with six remaining after enacting revenge on Wolff when 9d8d out flopped AhKc to send his compatriot to the rail in the sixth place.

Tang went next, and when he did, it was a humdinger.

With blinds at 40k/80k/80k, Tang opened to 500,000 from the hijack, O’Dwyer moved all-in, Greenwood followed, and Tang made it three to the flop.

Tang: KdQd
Greenwood: AcJc
O’Dwyer: AhTd

Tang flopped a king to potentially triple up, but Greenwood rivered a flush, to actually triple up, eliminate Tang, and bring him neck-and-neck with O’Dwyer.

Greenwood was on fire, and the next player turned to ash was Jans Arends. It was a flip with Greenwood’s pocket tens beat AhKh.

Grafton pissed on Greenwood’s flames when Qc2s doubled through Ac6s before Grafton hit the bottom of the chip stack leaderboard when O’Dwyer doubled with Kc9d versus Qh7c.

Grafton doubled back when JsTh beat the Ks3s of O’Dwyer but ran sixes into aces, leaving O’Dwyer with the chip lead going into heads-up with Greenwood.

Heads-Up Tale of the Tape

Steve O’Dwyer – 3,965,000
Sam Greenwood – 2,635,000

O’Dwyer was by far the most experienced heads-up player of the two in this format with 24 wins and 16 losses but had lost his last three battles including most recently the Master Classic of Poker in Amsterdam.

Greenwood had won ten of his eighteen previous heads-up encounters, winning his last bout against Robert Flink during the British Poker Open (BPO). That win followed two bitter pills in Triton events this year, losing to Mikita Badziakouski in an HKD 750,000 Short-Deck No-Limit Hold’em event in Montenegro, and to Michael Soyza in an HKD 500,000 No-Limit Hold’em event in Jeju.

All of which is irrelevant, after the pair agreed to an ICM chop. O’Dwyer took the most money, and Greenwood flipped his way to the title.

Amen to that.

Final Table Results

  1. Sam Greenwood – €384,968*
  2. Steve O’Dwyer – €411,311*
  3. Sam Grafton – €216,310
  4. Jans Arends – €163,220
  5. Danny Tang – €126,770
  6. George Wolff – €98,250
  7. Matthias Eibinger – €77,650
  8. Mustafa Jukovic – €60,220
  9. Joris Ruijs – €45,960
    *Indicates a heads-up ICM deal for all the marbles.
Bryn Kenney

Bryn Kenney now has $55,860,195 in live tournament earnings after winning the $25,000 No-Limit Hold’em Super High Roller at the World Poker Tour (WPT) Seminole Hard Rock & Roll Poker Open.

Not a lot is it?

The lone wolf defaced a field of 45-entrants with his unique style of poker earning $354,565 after defeating the in-form Brock Wilson in heads-up action. The win puts Kenney into serious contention for the Global Poker Index (GPI) Player of the Year (PoY) race should he choose to tattoo his presence on either the WPT Five Diamond World Poker Classic in Las Vegas or the European Poker Tour (EPT) in Prague.

Kenney earned 316.67 GPI PoY points for his win to move into 8th place, with Shannon Shorr dropping into 7th. Kenney’s now one of the favourites because he is the only player ranked in the PoY Top 20 that hasn’t scored in 13 qualifying events. The only other rival to the crown who found his way to the final table was Anthony Zinno, but the three-time WPT earned diddly squat in GPI points for his fifth-place finish.

It’s the third time a $25k+ event has appeared in this series. In 2015, Jason Mercier conquered a $25k field of 83-entrants to win the $517,187 first prize, and in 2016, Ben Tollerene vanquished 21-entrants in a $50,000 No-Limit Hold’em event for $459,228.

When the final table began, Mercier was in a decent position to defend that title, starting second in chips to Brock Wilson.

Let’s see how it went down.

The Nutshell Action

Final Table Seat Draw

Seat 1: Jerry Robinson – 200,000
Seat 2: Bryn Kenney – 685,000
Seat 3: Jason Mercier – 1,340,000
Seat 4: Brock Wilson – 1,425,000
Seat 5: Anthony Zinno – 570,000
Seat 6: Andjelko Andrejevic – 330,000

With blinds at 10k/20k/20k, Bryn Kenney opened to 45k from the hijack seat, Brock Wilson three-bet to 150k from the penthouse position, Kenney moved all-in for 670,000, and Wilson took a look.

Kenney needed help.

AQ v KK.

Help arrived in the form of an AdTc4d flop.

However, Kenney couldn’t consolidate, as a few hands later, Jerry Robinson took a swing at the All-Time Money leader, and gave him a bruise worth 130k chips – Robinson’s AQ outdrawing the pocket deuces of the man from New York.

The third double up of Level 16 saw Wilson take from Mercier. This time his pocket kings held against A8o.

Then we lost Andjelko Andrejevic in the same level when he moved all-in from the cutoff for 150,000. Robinson also moved all-in for 230,000 from the button, and Mercier made the call, covering both players.

Robinson: AcQs
Mercier: 9d8d
Andrejevic: KsQd

Andrejevic took the lead on a king-high flop, only for Robinson to hit an ace on the turn to retake it. The river helped nobody but the man in charge, and Andrejevic exited in the sixth position.

Level 17 was the level were Anthony Zinno’s seat stopped swivelling.

With blinds at 15k/25k/25k, Wilson opened to 55k from under the gun, and Zinno made the call in the cutoff. The pair stared at the 9s6s3s flop like a couple of old biddies staring at a bus schedule before Zinno bet 60k, and Wilson called. The turn was the 5c; Wilson checked, Zinno bet 130k, and Wilson moved all-in with the covering stack. Zinno made the call and showed QsJs for the queen-high flush, but Wilson’s nut-flush crushed Zinno like a pack of cigarettes sitting in a too-tight jean pocket next to super warm thighs.

Then we lost the 2015 champion.

With blinds at 15k/30k/30k, Mercier moved all-in for 745k, after Kenney had opened to 75k. Kenney made the call, and Mercier was left feeling like brine when pocket kings battered his AQ.

Heads-up came into view after Robinson took a cold bath in the third-place. The blinds were still 15k/30k/30k when Robinson moved all-in for 600k, and KsTd and Kenney called and eliminated him with 9s5s after rivering a flush.

Heads-Up Tale of the Tape

Bryn Kenney – 3,340,000
Brock Wilson – 1,160,000

Kenney began with the chip lead, and the most impressive heads-up stats, having won eight of his previous ten encounters, whereas Wilson had won four from seven.

The one common denominator was both had taken the lion share of the money in finishing second in their previous heads-up encounters. Brock Wilson banked $619,536 against the $520,464 of Adrian Mateos after cutting a deal in the $25,500 No-Limit Hold’em MILLIONS Super High Roller in the Bahamas. Kenney collected $20.5m versus the $16.7m that Aaron Zang banked after cutting a deal at the Triton Million London.

Wilson drew first blood when he doubled with Ah3d versus Kh8c, and with the stacks even, the pair agreed upon a deal that saw Kenney collect $354,565, leaving $301,215 for Wilson. As Kenney was the slight leader at the time, he took the title.

ITM Results

  1. Bryn Kenney – $354,565*
  2. Brock Wilson – $301,215*
  3. Jerry Robinson – $161,170
  4. Jason Mercier – $111,150
  5. Anthony Zinno – $77,805
  6. Andjelko Andrejevic – $61,135
  7. Lazaro Hernandez – $44,460
    *Indicates a heads-up deal.

If you peer over the treetops and take a gander at partypoker’s MILLIONS World Bahamas, two stories emerged as the final embers of an incredible event blew into the sea.

Wai Leong Chan

We’ll begin with the story of Wai Leong Chan.

Chan is one of the stars of the Triton Poker Super High Roller Series earning $7.5m through 12 in the money (ITM) finishes, and only Paul Phua and Jason Koon have cashed at a faster rate.

But he has had trouble crossing the finishing line.

His trophy cabinet remained damp, with his last recorded live tournament victory coming in 2011 when he took down a 92-entrant $215 No-Limit Hold’em event during the Asian Poker Tour (APT) in Manila, for $7,136.

How times have changed.

Chan has felt the plough blade to the head feeling of finishing runner-up in three major events:

2018 Triton Poker No-Limit Hold’em Main Event in Jeju – $3,252,348
2018 €25,000 at the European Poker Tour in Barcelona – €420,800
2019 $250,000 Super High Roller Bowl Bahamas – $2,677,500

But when it comes to holding the monopoly on the close but no cigar heartache of live tournament poker, then Chan doesn’t come close. Consider that his heads-up opponent, Ike Haxton, has racked up 14 runner-up finishes since opening up his account in that spot during the 2007 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure (PCA) Main Event in the Bahamas.

It’s been an incredible series for Chan who also finished runner-up to Daniel Dvoress in the $250,000 Super High Roller Bowl (SHRB) for $2,677,500. After winning the 52-entrant $25,000 Super High Roller Finale, Chan’s live tournament score shot up to $11,742,177, the vast majority of which came in the past 24-months. Haxton put in a decent performance at the Bahamas finishing 5th and 2nd in $25k events, and 88th and 21st in $10k games.

The former Poker Master, Ali Imsirovic, finished 4th in this one, and 7th in the $50k. Jason Koon finished 7th in the $250,000 SHRB and 5th in this one. And you don’t see Rob Hollink in these things often, but the Dutchman finished 6th in this one and 21st in the other $25k – his only two live tournament scores of the year.

Lastly, Kristen Bicknell continues to impress on the high roller circuit. Bicknell won a $25k event at the Poker Masters for a career-high $408,000 and also made the final table of the World Poker Tour (WPT) Montreal Main Event finishing fifth. Bicknell finished 15th and 7th in the two $25k events here and also cashed in the Main Event finishing in 69th place.

ITM Results

  1. Wai Leong Chan – $380,000
  2. Isaac Haxton – $250,000
  3. Sean Winter – $191,000
  4. Ali Imsirovic – $150,000
  5. Jason Koon – $120,000
  6. Rob Hollink – $95,000
  7. Kristen Bicknell – $75,000

Kahle Burns Leads Global Poker Index (GPI) Player of the Year (POY) Race

Sean Winter has also had a cracking series, finishing 14th and 3rd in $25k events, and 5th in the $50k. Winter lost the GPI POY lead to Kahle Burns during MILLIONS World, so the 224.96 points earned for a third-place finish in the final $25k was worth its weight in gold. Winter picked up 427.62 GPI points during the trip, and he currently sits in the second position. Kahle Burns leads after picking up 482.2 points, Stephen Chidwick collected 238.27, Rainer Kempe 368.34, and Manig Loeser had to make do with the bagel.

GPI POY Race

  1. Kahle Burns – 3,548.08
  2. Sean Winter – 3,525.43
  3. Stephen Chidwick – 3,428.36
  4. Rainer Kempe – 3,421.86
  5. Manig Loeser – 3,327.95

You sense this will go down to the wire with the Master Classics of Poker (MCOP) in Amsterdam, the EPT in Prague and the WPT Five Diamond in the Bellagio key events.

The current is off, so I bend to my knees and place an ear onto the Third Rail. 

Silence. 

Vultures circle overhead, waiting for me to leave the dregs of high stakes tournaments that surround me.

The British Poker Open.

The World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP).

It’s time to visit the Opera; find a restaurant that serves lion marrow, or wrap that Fabergé egg. 

That’s ok for them.

I still have to write something.

We begin our rather scant look at the involvement of high stakes poker players in live-action with a look at the most recent World Poker Tour (WPT) Main Event in Maryland. 

The $3,500 No-Limit Hold’em WPT Maryland Live! Main Event pulled 495 dogs off the street to fight over a bone worth $319,415. Nitis Udornpim won the event, but to do so, he had to defeat a man who is not afraid of dipping his toes into $25k+ games: Anthony Zinno. The triple WPT Main Event winner finished fourth, and the $111,415 he collected from the cashier is his second-best score of the year behind the £279,920 he received for winning his second bracelet in the summer. Other high rollers who made money in the event were Darren Elias (17th) and Joseph McKeehen (35th).

After the Maryland Live! Casino waved bye-bye to the WPT, the Dusk till Dawn (DTD) cardroom in Nottingham welcomed them for WPT UK. There are no high rollers planned for the series, but several showed up to honour the late, great Dave ‘Devilfish’ Ulliot by competing in the $5,300 No-Limit Hold’em Devilfish Cup. Online star, Richard Trigg topped the 209-entrant field to win the $250,000 first prize. On the high stakes front, Kahle Burns finished 9th, and Jack Salter finished 18th. Burns is enjoying the best live tournament career of his life, bagging $2.27m in gross live earnings. Salter, on the other hand, has not had the best of years, earning 869k.

Bits and Bobs

In August, Jason Mercier won the $50,000 No-Limit Hold’em Super High Roller at the Seminole Hard Rock Poker Open (SHRPO) before signing off to be at Natasha Mercier’s side while she has their second baby.

It’s popped out.

Rainer Kempe is preparing for the World Series of Poker Europe (WSOPE) by offering his fans an opportunity to win a 1% sweat of his action in the €10,000 Main Event. Kempe, who sits #2 on the Global Poker Index (GPI) Player of the Year rankings, is offering the deal through his ambassadorial relationship with the online poker room GreySnowPoker.

Finally, a magical moment from Garrett Adelstein has been doing the rounds. Adelstein was competing in a $50/$50/$100 cash game streamed Live at The Bike when he turned it on with an impressive fold on the river. The timing of Adelstein’s performance is perfect in the wake of the Stones Live Stream debacle currently doing the rounds. 

Adelstein called a raise from the villain holding T7o and then check-called a 982 rainbow flop. The villain held QTdd, which gave him the nut straight when the Jd hit the turn. Unfortunately, for Adelstein, it gave him an inferior straight. Adelstein check-raised from $475 to $2,600 and then called when the villain raised to $8,000. The 5h hit the river, and villain bet $14,500, leading to this moment.

“Please allow me to introduce myself. I’m a man of wealth and taste. I’ve been around for a long, long year. Stole many a man’s souls to waste.”

That, ladies and gentlemen, is the opening salvo fired from Mick Jagger’s famous pout during his rendition of ’Sympathy for the Devil.’

From the Rolling Stones to the Stones Gambling Hall in Citrus Heights, California, and those lyrics seem oddly prophetic, right now.

We begin this little hot toddy of a glimpse into the whacky world of high stakes players involvement in live poker games, with a look at a game that’s as far removed from the high stakes scene as you can get. 

The Stones Gambling Hall has been live-streaming a $1/$3 (sometimes $5/$5) live cash game for some time, and the ‘man of wealth and taste’ in that game is Mike Postle. 

Postle is the type of player that has more moves than a Shaman doing a spasmodic dance around a gutted calf. And it’s drawn some suspicion that his movements have ‘stole many a man’s souls to waste.’

Woo! Woo!

Outing Postle

Veronica Brill is a one time commentator of the game in question and still features in that role from time-to-time. Brill was the first person to draw attention to Postle’s unlikely win-rate through a series of tweets beginning with this one.

At first, she doesn’t name Postle as the cheater.

“Am I sure that this player is cheating? No. Do I think that there is a greater than zero % chance that he is? Yes.”

But it becomes evident that Brill is pointing a digit at Postle when she posts videos of the man playing supersonic poker. Brill backed up her claims by stating that ‘numerous professional poker players had also voiced concerns.’ Brill decided to post on Twitter after alerting the person running the stream some months ago. 

Here’s one of those videos.

Get Joey Ingram In Here

It didn’t take long for poker’s Columbo to get on the case.

Joey Ingram created a five-hour video highlighting several ‘suspect’ hands involving Postle. If you have five hours spare, then knock yourself out.

If you don’t have five hours spare, then you’re in luck. Doug Polk carved his findings down to a 28-minute video.

Despite the cheating happening in $1/$3 games, the incident has caused quite a stir within the high stakes legions.

https://twitter.com/haralabob/status/1178882818081992705?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

Postle’s Response

Postle didn’t hide. 

Responding on Twitter, Postle said that the allegations would force him to gloat about his 16-year poker career to prove his innocence. Postle called his playing style: ‘unique high variance.’

Vougaris’s ‘travelling wizard’ puts his magical insights down to a few critical factors. 

“Putting in an enormous time into not just studying the game, but into human behaviour, picking up on betting patterns, as well as being blessed with very good instincts.”

Stones Defends Then Suspends

Initially, the team at Stones defended the integrity of the game, claiming that a third party investigation team had looked into the allegations, and found zero evidence of any wrongdoing. Tournament Director, Justin Kuraitis, was magnanimous in his support. 

“It is unfortunate that these allegations were made public with absolutely no evidence,” Wrote Kuraitis. “The reputation of my team and an exciting/fun player are now being publicly mobbed.”

Since Ingram’s detailed investigation, Stones has decided to shut down all poker operations while a third party investigation team takes a fresh look. Ingram responded by pleading with them to choose a different team than the first bunch calling them ‘the worst investigation team in the history of investigations.”

The scandal has picked up such a head of steam that Scott Van Pelt covered it on SportsCentre.

The Numbers

While there is no direct evidence that Postle cheated, it seems the numbers are going to make it extremely difficult for Postle to back out of this one. 

As this Twitter poster notes.

“I cannot begin to fathom how many times you would have to win Powerball in a row to get this probability. Actually, you know what f*cuk you, I’m going o tell you. The odds of winning Powerball is 292 million to 1. This guy to do this at a 40bb/100 win-rate would be the same as winning the Powerball millions 11 times in a row; this is several orders of magnitude higher than the atoms in the universe.”

How?

Postle seemed to play exclusively on the livestream, where the casino live streams the action. The format allows someone to see the hole cards, and to pass on that information to Postle, allowing him to play in God mode. 

Ingram’s investigation also revealed instances where Postle lost in the game, and how it coincided with the absence of a particular member of the Stones team. 

It gets uglier.

One of the players Postle beat was Kevin “Racks” Roster, the amateur poker player who melted our hearts at the World Series of Poker (WSOP) dying of cancer. 

Poker legal eagle Mac VerStandig is already on the case.

We will keep you up to date with the investigation as it unfurls.

Phil Ivey

If you ask me this question – “how does a case go through court?” my answer would look something like this:

  1. You have your day in court.
  2. You win, or you lose.
  3. There is an appeal.
  4. You win or lose for good.

It’s not.

After watching ‘Making a Murderer’, I’ve learned that taking a case through the courts is like watching a colony of ants devouring a wounded elephant lying in a pool of treacle. 

And that’s a good thing for Phil Ivey. 

The man the poker Shaman believes is the best there is, and the best there ever was may have lost his $10.13m fight with Atlantic City’s The Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa, but the war rages on, and there is no dying of the light in sight. 

Thanks to the due diligence of Haley Hintze over at Flushdraw, we know that last week, the U.S. Third Circuit Court of Appeals heard oral arguments from both sides of the fence, before the spitting contest moved to a New Jersey appellate court. 

From what I can glean from Hintze’s research, the court was expecting The Division of Gaming Enforcement (D.G.E.), and Casino Control Commission (CCC) to provide information on the legal framework in which, the Ivey v Borgata case might sit. 

Neither the D.G.E. nor the CCC provided a framework, and so the judge asked the two sides to present known cases where New Jersey gambling law N.J.S.A. 5:12-115(a), had been a critical factor in deciding the case. 

The Arguments Begin: Ivey is on the Button

I don’t know if they flipped a coin or played a game of Ip, Dip, Dog Shit, but the counsel for the Borgata played their hand out of position, with Ivey’s legal team sitting on the button. 

The Borgata’s representation, Jonathan Massey, quoted this section of the N.J. lawbook.

“Section 115(a)(2) makes it unlawful,” he wrote, ‘[k]nowingly to deal, conduct, carry on, operate or expose for play any game or games played with cards, dice or any mechanical device, or any combination of games or devices, which have in any manner been marked or tampered with, or placed in a condition, or operated in a manner, the result of which tends to deceive the public or tends to alter the normal random selection of characteristics or the normal chance of the game which could determine or alter the result of the game.”

Nothing new there then. 

Ivey and his partner “Kelly” Cheung Yin Sun, knew they could manipulate the cards in a manner where the normal chance of the game would change, and Massey argues this is enough evidence to take back the $10.13m and change. 

Massey also reached into the gambling archives, emerging with the Houck v Ferrari case. It has nothing to do with pirates or elite car manufacturers. Instead, it’s a case where a bunch of blackjack players were found guilty of breaking gambling laws, after deploying ‘hole-carding’ techniques – a method of seeing the dealer’s down card, and then adjusting bets accordingly. 

Massey reminded the appellate court that in the Houck v Ferrari case, the court decided that ‘hole-carding’ altered the typical randomness of the game and that they should view ‘edge-sorting’ in the same light. 

Ivey’s Turn

After heading back to their hotel room, doing some smudging, watching an episode of Making a Murderer, having 40-winks, waking up and eating runny eggs, Ivey’s brief, Louis M. Barbone played his hand.

As Barbone was on the button, he did have the ability to comment on Massey’s 2014 Blackjack case, stating that The Borgata willingly allowed Ivey and his accomplice to change the randomness of the game. Therefore, The Borgata has to share responsibility for acceding to their demands. 

The case that Barbone used to prove that edge-sorting should be an acceptable practice in Baccarat, was another blackjack case involving a renowned card-counter Doug Grant. 

“As recognized in ‘Doug Grant’, where the rules of the game are being followed, the normal chance and randomness of the game cannot be manipulated.”

The appellate panel will now digest and decide sometime in the next 20-years, and we promise to bring you the resolution, probably when Jason Mercier’s kids are being inducted into the Poker Hall of Fame.

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