BankrollMob News: Poker, Casino, Crypto & Betting

The European Poker Tour Barcelona High Roller tournament saw a field of 101 players (10 reloads). After 3 days and several hours of play on the final table, Alex Bilokur and Laurent Polito were the last men standing. The two agreed on a deal that gave Bilokur the larger cheque. Bilokur, who earned $1.1 million for winning the $25k High Roller at the PCA last season, added another $295,451 to his bankroll after being eliminated in second place by Polito. Laurent Polito, whose biggest win before was "only" €64,000, received €270,229 and the exclusive Shamballa Jewels bracelet for taking down the tournament.

Top 10 finishers:
1. Laurent Polito, France - €270,229
2. Alex Bilokur, Russia - €295,451
3. Tobias Reinkemeier, Germany - €119,660
4. Stanislav Labutkin, Russian Federation - €95,180
5. Carlos Mora Alvarez, Mexico - €73,430
6. Jean-Noel Thorel, France - €54,390
7. Bertrand Grospellier, France - €43,510
8. Joao Vieira, Portugal - €32,630
9. Kristijonas Andrulis, Lithuania - €27,190
10. Jonathan Duhamel, Canada - €27,190

Last Thursday, South Point Poker LLC was approved by Nevada Gaming Commission and became first U.S. casino operator to be licensed to operate a real-money poker website. So what makes this inaugural member so special? South Point Poker LLC is not only a developer of its own online poker gaming software, it also currently holds licenses as an interactive gaming manufacturer and as a a service provider. The site is expecting to have real-money games available in mid-October this year.

South Point Poker wasn't the only one to receive a license last Thursday. Reno's Monarch Interactive Inc received an operators license, and Global Cash Access Inc received a license to provide online payment services. According to Las Vegas Review-Journal, another 30+ companies are now waiting for their license applications in the state of Nevada.

The High Roller event ($10,000 buy-in) attracted a field of 111 players when it kicked off yesterday in the afternoon. Many players invested another €10,000 because it was possible to re-load one time, which made the total prize pool €1,087,800. In the picture you can see Dan Smith, the Super high Roller winner, capping his cards with a bundle of buy-in.

Now, Day 2 of the event is underway and 82 players still have a chance of taking home the first place prize of €359,000. Taylor Paur is the chip leader with 220,400. In the top of the field are also, for example, PokerStars Team Pros Jonathan Duhamel (140,100), Bertrand Grospellier (129,100) and Angel Guillen (123,700). 

Day 4 of the EPT Barcelona main event just came to an end with 24 survivors. Samuel Rodiguez, who started the day with the 2nd largest stack, is now in a big lead with 5,330,000. Antonin Duda, who lead the way into Day 4 with 1.47 million chips, is also alive, but he has dropped to 4th possition with 2,054,000 chips.

Notables such as John Juanda, Ilari Sahamies and PokerStars Team SportStar Fatima Moreira de Melo will also return to play today with hopes of making it to the final table, where some serious cash is up for grabs. The next 8 players to hit the rail will receive €29,400 each, which is nothing compared to the money that is up for grabs on the final table. For example: the winner of the tournament will get €1,007,550, the runner-up gets €629,700 and a 3rd place finish pays €404,050.

The action has been great almost every single day at PokerStars nosebleed tables these past 2 weeks or so. Yesterday was no different as Phil "MrSweets28" Galfond, Ben "Sauce123" Sulsky, Viktor "Isildur1" Blom and Ilari Sahamies battled it out at the $200/$400 PLO tables for about 6 hours. Galfond and Sahamies dominated the play and ended up as the biggest winners of the session. In total, Sahamies netted $416k and Galfond $442k.

Read more » Sahamies & Galfond Win $400k Each and Blom Continues to Lose!

We are very happy to announce that all mobsters are welcome to participate in a new exclusive series of freerolls at RummyRoyal. Each of the weekly freerolls has a prize pool of $100!

BankrollMob will host a series of weekly freerolls at the premium online rummy brand - RummyRoyal. Each of the freerolls has a prize pool of $100. The first freeroll is scheduled at 22:00 GMT on Monday the 27th of August. BankrollMob will monitor the results, keep you updated on a weekly basis and possibly be able to find out the answer to the question that has keept many scholars, philosophers and prophets busy since the creation of the universe; which mobster is the best online rummy player?

How to participate
1. All participants must be members of BankrollMob - sign up for a free Mob account here!
2. Create a RummyRoyal account and claim your exclusive $5 No Deposit Bonus!
3. Make a deposit of at least $10 to get access to the exclusive series of freerolls. You will automatically qualify for the 150% up to $300 first deposit bonus at Rummy Royal!

Exclusive RummyRoyal Freeroll details
What: Exclusive Freeroll for members of BankrollMob
Where: RummyRoyal
When: Every Monday at 22:00 GMT
Buy-in: Freeroll
Game: Kalooki 51
Prize pool: $100
Prize structure: 1st $50, 2nd $30, 3rd $20.
Tournament Name in Lobby: $100 BRM Freeroll

For more details on the exclusive $100 Freeroll - please click here!

About Rummy
Rummy is, like poker, a group of skilled based card games. The game is usually played between 2 to 6 players with a normal 52 card deck. The aim of the game is to get rid of your cards before your opponents and by doing so, get your points. This is done by forming two types of card combinations:
- Runs: Consecutive sequences of three or more cards of the same suit.
- Sets: Three or four cards of the same rank. If you are using two decks, a set may include two identical cards of the same rank and suit.
The most common rummy games are Gin Rummy, Kalooki 51, Kalooki 40 and Rummikub.
Every player is dealt 10 cards. The remaining cards are put on the center of the table as one pile of stock cards. The top card is turned over as the first card of the discard pile. The player next to the dealer is first to make a play. You either pick up the top card of the stock pile or the turned over card of the discard pile. Then you may place you hand in the two types of the card combinations. If no combination can be made, the player discard one card from their hand and the game continues to the next player to the left.
Once the stock pile is finished the discard pile is shuffled and it is turned into the new stock pile and the game continues.

After 3 days of play, PokerStars' European Poker Tour Barcelona main event player field has been narrowed down from 1082 players to only 61. Day 4 will begin in a few hours with Antonio Duda as the chip leader (1.47 million), closely followed by Samuel Rodriquez (1,141,600). In third place is no one else other than the Finnish high-stakes guru Ilari Sahamies with 1,269,000 chips, followed by John Juanda (968k) and Fatima Moreira de Melo (955k) in 4th and 5th place, so expect Day 4 to be something special! 

All of the remaining players are guaranteed to walk away with €11,550 each. The 9 players who make it to the final table will be guaranteed at least €55,100 each. However, no one will probably be happy with that amount since the first prize is an astounding €1,007,550!

We will be back with another update tomorrow!

During the last 7 days of August, Titan Poker will honour all new BankrollMob depositors with exclusive tournament tickets. This is of course on top of the very generous deposit bonus of 200% up to $2,000. This limited time offer will be available for new depositors between the 23rd and the 31st of August.

If you are not a depositor at this great iPoker room yet, then it's surely about time you become one. During the promotional period, you will be able to get an extra $5.50+0.50 value in the form of a tournament ticket. The ticket you will receive is a free entry to the $150K GTD qualifier Stage2 Turbo 8 ($5.50+ $0.5) which is played every day.
The $150K GTD is played the last Sunday of every month. If you make a deposit during the last 7 days of August, you will be able to get a free seat to one of the biggest tournaments on the iPoker network and the chance to get your hands on some serious cash!

Requirements:
1. You must be a member of BankrollMob in order to claim this offer- click here to create your free account at BankrollMob.
2. Sign-up at Titan Poker using this link!
3. This offer is only valid for new depositors at Titan Poker. The minimum deposit to claim your tournaments token is $20.

Click here for all our exclusive Titan Poker promotions!

About Titan Poker
Titan Poker is the number one online poker room in Europe and part of the iPoker Network.  With tens of thousands of online players at peak hours, they guarantee millions of dollars in monthly prizes, feature special sit 'n' go tournaments with progressive jackpots as high as $300,000, and award players with entries to major worldwide poker tournaments, including the World Series of Poker*, the Irish Open, ECPokerTour, and the Asian Poker Tour.

Viktor "Isildur1" Blom was last week's biggest winner online with a profit of $895k - about 360k more than the 2nd biggest winner, Phil "MrSweets28" Galfond. But it wouldn't take long until he lost most of those winnings.

On Monday, Blom took on Ben "Sauce123" Sulsky on four tables of $200/$400 PLO with antes. The match lasted for staggering fifteen hours and included 85 pots of over $100k. Blom lost $200k in the first 60 hands of of play, but then went on a winning streak over the next 1000 hands or so and took $650k from his opponent. At this point Blom was up $1.6 million since Friday.

Read more » Ben Sulsky Wins $600k from Viktor Blom in Epic 15-hour Heads Up Match

Today Sweden's biggest newspaper Aftonbladet wrote that some of Sweden's most well-known poker players have fallen victim to blackmailing and robbery. For example: one of the players was forced to hand over 224,000 sek (about 27,000 Euro) in cash at Casino Cosmopol in Gothenburg, Sweden, after being threatened with a gun to his head in his own home.

Read more » Poker Players Blackmailed & Robbed

PokerStars dealt its 85 billionth hand on Monday. 6 lucky players on a $0.02/$0.05 table got more than $93,000 combined as a part of the Road to 100 Billion promotion. It took a few moments before the players on the table realised that they had been dealt into the milestone hand, but the excitement escalted quickly. 

Read more » PokerStars: Russian Wins The 85 Billionth Hand & $26,300!

Viktor "Isildur1" Blom's first week without a sponsor now is in the books and it can't be described as anything else than success. In fact, he ended up as the biggest winner online with a profit of impressive $859,582 - about $360k more than the second biggest winner, Phil "MrSweets28" Galfond.

Read more » Viktor "Isildur1" Blom Won $859k Last Week!

A total of 55 players entered (nine €48,500 re-loads) entered the EPT Barcelona Super High Roller (€50,000 buy-in), which generated a total prize pool of €3,072,960 - the richest tournament ever held in Spain! It ended up being Dan Smith, 23, who took home the tournament for impressive €962,925 after defeating well-known Mexican pro JC Alvarado, 27, heads up.

Read more » EPT Barcelona: Dan Smith Wins the Super High Roller

Yesterday we wrote about Viktor "Isildur1" Blom's epic 11-hour heads up match against EireAbu, one of the most successful PLO HU players on PokerStars this year. The match took place on Tuesday - only hours after PokerStars and Blom announced that they had parted ways - and Blom won the battle and about 200,000 USD. The Swede is up another $40k in the past 48 hours from playing Pot-Limit Omaha and No-Limit Hold'em on PokerStars. However, he hasn't been doing so well in other games...

Read more » Isildur1 takes on new games and loses big!

The long-anticpated Super High Roller in Barcelona, Spain, is now just 1 hour away and lots of well-known faces in the poker world are getting ready to compete for some serious cash, including Phil Ivey, Jonathan Duhamel, ElkY, Daniel Negreanu, Jason Mercier, John Juanda and Erik Seidel.

According to the latest updates, Nearly 50 players are confirmed to be registered for this brand new event, which is set to become the largest poker tournament ever held on Spanish ground. The event will be played over the next 3 days and players will begin with 250,000 chips each. The blinds will start at 500/1000 (100 ante) and all levels will last an hour.

On Tuesday, PokerStars announced that Viktor "Isildur1" Blom and the site mutually had agreed to part ways. The very next day the world's largest poker site signed comedian Gerry Dee, the star in the weekly sitcom Mr.D on CBC. Dee will represent PokerStars' free-play site PokerStars.net and will be starring in an upcoming PokerStars commercial that will air throughout the fall to promote a series of free online poker tournaments where Canadians can win a trip to Bahamas and play in the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure.

"I'm better at math and statistics than the teacher you see on TV, so I'm not a bad poker player. I'm no pro but I've always been a bit of a poker buff. I really admire the skill it takes to compete at the top level. I'm excited about this partnership and am looking forward to improving my game!" said Dee.

Click here to check out Gerry Dee at the 2009 Just for Laughs Festival.

A big congratulations to Anthony Gregg on winnings World Poker Tour Parx Open Poker Classic. Gregg outlasted a field of 500 players that included many big names in the poker world. In the final hand Gregg limped for 250,000 and Stephen Reynolds moved all in for about 3.4 million. Gregg made the call with K9 and Reynolds showed A4 and needed to hold to stay alive.

Read more » Anthony Gregg Wins WPT Parx Open Poker Classic ($416,127)

On Monday, Atlantic City's biggest bad beat jackpot ever was paid across Caesars Entrainment's 4 casinos. More than 400 players received $958 each from the $787,320 jackpot at the Caesars Atlantic City, Harrah's Resort Atlantic City, Showboat Atlantic City and Bally's Atlantic City.

Read more » 2 Bad Beat Jackpots Hit In Atlantic City!

On Tuesday, it was announced that PokerStars and Viktor "Isildur1" Blom had decided not to renew the contract. After the "break up", Blom said "I've enjoyed my time as a Team Pro and I wish everyone at PokerStars the best. Now I just want to concentrate on playing poker." 

Blom seems to be a man of his word as he opened up six $50/$100 PLO tables and played against EireAbu (one of the most successful PLO heads up players on PokerStars this year - rumored to be a Dutchman playing from Ireland) just a few hours after he made the announcement. And guess what? The match turned out to be one of the longest and most interesting heads up matches of 2012 (so far).

Read more » Epic 11-Hour Heads Up Match Between Isildur1 and EireAbu

Phil "MrSweets28" Galfond had not been playing on PokerStars since May, before the 2012 WSOP kicked off, until he made his long-awaited return on Monday. Before he started playing he tweeted "First online poker session since may. Excited to be playing, but I definitely have some rust to shake off."

Read more » High Stakes: Phil Galfond's Back With a Vengeance

Last week, PokerStars's purhase of Full Tilt through the U.S. Department of Justice was completed, which meant that all non-us players will receive their money within 90 days. However, customers in the U.S. might have to wait a bit longer than that before they get their money refunded.

According to an employment notice listed on the DOJ website, the government is seeking a third-party claims administrator to help facilitate the remission process for Full Tilt Poker players located in the U.S. The deadline to apply for the position is August 31st, so it might take a few more weeks before information about the remission plan is made public.

Last night, Eric Hollreiser, PokerStars' head of corporate communications, made the announcement that Viktor "Isildur1" Blom and the company have agreed not to renew his expired contract.

"In his short time as a poker player, Viktor has played against the biggest names in poker at the highest stakes in the toughest games. It's hard to recall a player who has kept the poker world so riveted at such an early stage of his career. We'll be watching with great interest and we wish him nothing but success." Hollreiser told PokerNews.

Read more » Viktor Blom and PokerStars Part Ways

Canadian poker pro Matthew Marafioti's name has been dragged through the mud in the past weeks. It all started last month when he and his ex-girlfriend Lauren Kling broke up and he called her names via his Twitter and Facebook.

Last week, things got really bad when an anonymous person posted Skype and Facebook conversations between Marafioti and Swedish hacker and poker player Samer Rahman in which the two talked about hacking the computer of Canadian poker player Will "molswi47" Molson so that Marafioti could see his cards.

Read more » Poker Players Show Their Anger Towards The Alleged High-Stakes Scam

It seems like a new high-stakes poker scam has been revealed. It all started last week when an anonymous person posted very shady Skype and Facebook conversations between Canadian poker pro Matt Marafioti (the guy who wrote not-so-nice-things about Lauren Kling after the break-up last month) and Swedish poker player and IT expert Samer Rahman, who was accused in 2007 of helping fellow countryman Mohamed Kowssarie to steal millions of dollars from Patrik Antonius and Johnny Lodden in a hacking scheme.

Read more » Alleged High-Stakes Poker Scam

PokerStars Road To 100 Billion promotion is once again interesting as the 85th billionth hand is coming up - along with some nice cash prizes! There's up to $1,000,000 to play for, and all you have to do is to play cash games tables and be dealt into a millionth hand from 84,700,000,000 to 85,000,000,000. If you are sitting at a table where a millionth hand is being dealt, you might win thousands of dollars! If you win the 85th billionth hand, you are guaranteed to get at least $20,000!

Click here for further information on this promotion. Good luck!