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Today in the 3-Bet we find Howard Lederer settling his civil case with the DOJ for much less than the asking price, a growing list of rivals set on taking Isildur1's $100k PCA High Roller title and Dan Michalski of Pokerati laying out the new poker world order in old-timey map form.
1) Lederer Settles With DOJ, Gets Off Easy
It certainly says something about your level of wealth when you end up on the wrong side of a DOJ civil suit, forfeit millions in cash and property and still the general consensus is you got off easy.
As you’ve likely seen, Full Tilt Poker principal Howard Lederer settled his pending civil case with the US Department of Justice yesterday.
In return for dropping the case, Lederer gave up an undisclosed amount of cash in various bank accounts, some houses in Las Vegas, a 1965 Shelby Cobra and agreed to a $1.25 million payment.
The full number wasn’t disclosed but it seems to be much, much less than the $42.5 million originally sought in the suit.
As part of the agreement Lederer avoided confessing to any wrongdoing, although he his forbidden from being involved in any future business related to online gambling.
Lederer joins Rafe Furst in settling a civil case while Chris Ferguson’s remains in play. Lederer also reportedly had a 150-person Christmas party at his remaining Vegas mansion last night while American Full Tilt players still wait for disbursement of their seized funds.
2) Over 30 Already in $100k PCA Super High Roller
One of our favorite moments this year was easily Viktor “Isildur1” Blom's triumph at the PCA's $100k Super High Roller in January.
Taking home $1.2 million, Blom not only snapped his 0-for-30 streak in live events and defeated an A-list field of 38 players, he finally silenced most of the haters that say he's just an online luckbox.
With the 2013 PCA High Roller coming up quickly (cards drop Jan. 5), PokerStars has announced 30 players have already bought in for a stab at Isildur’s title.
As PokerStars only releases names of players who agree to it, just 14 names are public so far. Blom isn't one of them, but it’s virtually impossible to imagine him not defending his title - especially after crushing Tom Dwan for $200k just last week.
The current entrants list:
Jonathan Duhamel Tony Gregg Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier Philipp Gruissem Isaac Haxton Phil Hellmuth John Juanda Eugene Katchalov Tom Marchese Jim McCrink Jason Mercier Daniel Negreanu Bill Perkins Scott Seiver3) PokerStars, WSOP and WPT Battle for Poker Tour Supremacy
We always enjoy Dan Michalski's work over at Pokerati and one of his recent posts grabbed our attention not just for his awesome old-timey maps (Svalbard ftw) but for his painstaking efforts to chart the growth of the three major poker tours over the last few years.
Michalski says it's by no means a scientific examination (it's "pretty accurate," he thinks) but it looks pretty comprehensive/close to us.
It's a great set of visuals to track the expansion/contraction over the last few years of the three major live poker-tour proprietors, meaning
WSOP/Caesars/888 WPT/BwinParty/MGM Resorts PokerStars.net/PokerStars.comThese days it looks like PokerStars' game to lose, so to speak, for global domination but the WPT is certainly making some interesting moves including its first-ever foray into mainland China this month.
Find more great old-timeys maps on Pokerati here.
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