BankrollMob News: Poker, Casino, Crypto & Betting

Blanca Gaming, the parent company of UB.com / Absolute Poker, has finally reached an agreement with the U.S. Department of Justice! This means that all U.S. players with outstanding funds at UB.com / Absolute Poker can expect their money back soon.

In the agreement with the U.S. Department of Justice it says that Blanca Games will stop all games for money in the U.S. and that the authorities will help the company to pay back their U.S. customers outstanding funds.

In the picture you can see the 8 finalists who battled it out on the EPT Madrid Main Event final table yesterday. After many hours of play, Ivan Freitez, from Venezuela, and Torsten Brinkmann, from Germany, were the last 2 players.

Freitez had the poker gods on his side and nothing could stop him from winning the heads-up and lay hands on the first place prize of €1,5 million, as well as a place in the champion of champion tournament. Below are the final table results.

1st. Ivan Freitez, Venezuela, €1,500,000
2nd. Torsten Brinkmann, Germany, €900,000
3rd.Tamas Lendvai, Hungary, €550,000
4th. Andrey Danilyuk, Russia, PokerStars qualifier, €400,000
5th. Juan Maceiras, Spain, Team PokerStars Pro, €315,000
6th. Eugene Yanayt, United States, €250,000
7th. Alex Gomes, Team PokerStars Pro, Brazil, €185,000
8th. Andrew Li, United States, SuperNova Elite, €130,000

If you love poker and have a few extra millions in the bank account that you want to spend on luxurious stuff, then Geoffrey Parker, a London-based maker of the finest games, has something for you! They have created a poker set that costs 7.5 million dollars to buy. The set includes 384 chips in 18-karat white gold, all done in stingray skin on both sides.

Read more » The world's most expensive poker set

Yesterday the 4th day of the EPT Madrid Main Event was played. After many hours of play, the 24-player field had been narrowed down to 8 players and the tournament director called it a day. In a few hours, it's finally time for the final table to start. Up for grabs is a first place prize of €1,5 million, which is one of the top prizes in EPT history.

Read more » EPT Madrid Main Event: Alex Gomes made it to the final table!

Do you consider yourself being the world's unluckiest poker player? Well, there's a difference between bad beats and bad beats in poker. Check out the video below from the 2008 WSOP Main Event ($10,000 buy-in) in which the hobby player Mabuchi flops trips aces against the pro Justin Phillips. On turn Mabuchi hits the last ace in the deck and gets 4 of a kind. However, what looks like an amazing hand is just a setup and probably the worst bad beats in WSOP history...

Read more » Worst Bad Beat in WSOP history?

24 players have chips left and now we're only one day away from the final table where some serious cash is up for grabs. The 2 most notable players in the remaining field are Team PokerStars Pros Victor Ramdin from USA and Alex Gomes from Brazil. Things have changed quite a bit in the top of the field since the start of Day 3. Ole-Kristian Nergard, the Day 3 chip leader from Norway, is in 23rd place with only 105k left, and Kristoffer Thorson, the Day 3 runner-up, is no longer in the tournament. Nothing worked for the Swede during Day 3 and ended up in 56th place for €25,000.

Read more » EPT Madrid Main Event: Eugene Yanayt leads the field

Blanca games, UB.com and Absolute Poker's parent company, has just announced that they have been forced to let go of 11 pros. The affected pros are Joe Sebok (picture), Prahlad Friedman, Eric "Basebaldy" Baldwin, Maria Ho, Brandon Cantu, Tiffany Michelle, Scott Ian, "Hollywood" Dave Stann, Adam "Roothlus" Levy, Bryan Devonshire and Trishelle Cannatella.

It can't be fun for Blanca's management at the moment. They just had to let go of 300 employees in Costa Rica and now they have to let go of 11 US-based pros + they have received lots of criticism in the past week due to the bankruptcy rumors. However, according to a press release, the company is still in discussions with U.S.Attorney's Office to reach an agreement with the U.S. Department of Justice to facilitate the return of US players funds. So let's hope that all U.S. players will get back their outstanding funds soon.

The first two starting days and day 2 of the EPT Madrid Main Event have already been played. 104 out of 686 players will return to play day 3 in a few hours. The remaining field of players includes many PokerStars sponsored players. Victor Ramdin, Alex Gomes and Daniel Weinman - just to mention 3 who can be found in the top of the field.

Leading the tournament is Ole Kristian Nergard from Norway, closely followed by Kristoffer Thorsson (not William Thorson's brother). Nergard missed out on the Main Event last year by a matter of hours, not turning 18 until after the Main Event had begun. It be very interesting to follow him and Thorsson during day 3 of the tournament. 

We will return with an update as soon as Day 3 is over.

The EPT Madrid High Roller event attracted a field of 58 players who could afford the buy-in of €25,000. After 2 days of play, only 8 players had chips left and the final table was set. The final table, as you can see in the final table results below, included some really big names which made it a very interesting final table.

After many hours of play on the final table, the French Team PokerStars pro ElkY and Benny Spindler, from Germany, were playing heads-up. Spindler entered the heads-up with more than double the chips than ElkY. But just a few hands into the match ElkY picked up pocket jacks and managed to get Spindler to call his all-in on the river with top pair against his over pair. Now ElkY had 1.4 million chips to Spindler's 1.5 million. The match was very even after this all-in, and the crowd and the TV viewers had to wait about 1 hour and 45 minutes before the tournament had a winner. This is how the last hand was played out..

Read more » ElkY won EPT Madrid High Roller (€525,000)

Due to a misunderstanding, there's currently no Full Tilt Poker leaderboard freerolls scheduled for next week, including today Sunday May 8th. Monday may also not have any (or only half of them, we don't know yet).

Please keep an eye on our Freerolls section where the freerolls will be listed, as soon as they have been created.

We're sorry for any inconvenience caused!

Not less than 58 players paid €25,000 and entered the high roller event of EPT Madrid. Day 1 of the tournament has already been played and Day 2 is being played at the moment. In the remaining field of players (29 at the moment) are some of the biggest names in the poker world - just have a look at the list of players below. Day 1 chip leader was Viktor "Isildur1" Blom from Sweden, but right now he's in 4th place and instead ElkY leads the field.

Read more » EPT Madrid High Roller: Viktor Blom in 4th place with 29 players left

Team Bodog has now been strengthened by the well-known poker profile Tatjana Pasalic. Pasalic, 26, is best known as a TV presenter, interviewer and freelance worker in the poker world. She came in contact with online poker at the age of 19 and played her first live tournament in September 2009 where she finished 47th out of 440 for $2,937. The year after she finished 6th out of 24 at the PartyPoker.com Women's World Open IV for $3,000.

Tatjana Pasalic will now get to play in the WSOP Main Event and other big tournaments for free with the rest of Team Bodog, so it's probably just a matter of time before she lay hands on a big cash. Pasalic has a very busy year ahead of her since she will continue working with media coverage on, for example, the WPT tour. 

All sites on the US-friendly poker network Merge Gaming (software supports PC and Mac) will stop offering rakeback for new customers on June 1st. So if you don't have an account on the Merge Gaming network already, it's high time to sign up now and make a deposit if you want to secure a rakeback deal for the future. We, BankrollMob.com, offer 35% rakeback at Carbon Poker, Overbet and Poker Nordica.

Click here for more rakeback deals!

A couple of weeks have now passed since FBI and the U.S. Department of Justice closed down 3 of the world's largest poker sites in the U.S. and charged 11 persons with running illegal online gambling operations. Black Friday happened over a night and turned the poker world upside down to say the least. Ever since Black Friday lots of rumors regarding what will happen with U.S. players outstanding funds have circulated on the web.

Read more » UB.com / Absolute Poker files for bankruptcy

Just a quick update to let you all know that the $1000 freeroll has now been set up. It's scheduled for Sunday May 8th at 18 GMT / 20 CET / 14 EST.

All players have already been registered for it - it's only for top 200 finishers in our April leaderboard at Full Tilt Poker.

Our next freeroll will be a $500 freeroll in the beginning of June, for top 200 finishers in the May leaderboard.

It ended up being the Englishman Rupert Elder who took down the EPT San Remo Main Event and laid hands on the first prize of €930,000, a place in the Champion of Champions event, and a gold bracelet worth €16,200. 

Elder arrived at the final table with just about 8 million chips and had a small lead over Max Heinzelmann. Both of them continued playing fantastic poker on the final table and they remained in the top until they were the last 2 men standing. Both players had an easy, genuine respect towards each other, having shared dinner several times during the week in San Remo.

Read more » Rupert Elder wins EPT San Remo (€730,000)

We continue with yet another round of Full Tilt Poker leaderboard in May.

Top 30 wins a share of $500 and top 200 wins entry to a $500 freeroll early next month.

We have freerolls around the clock with various prize pools (hundreds of dollars each day, total $10,075 in freerolls in May), check out the freerolls page for all the details.

How to participate

1) If you do not have a BankrollMob account yet, click here to register a free Mob account so you can participate in our Full Tilt Poker leaderboards.

2) If you do not have a Full Tilt Poker account yet, check out our exclusive Full Tilt Poker offers. There's a $50 (5,000 MobPoints) gift offer and 27% rakeback deal available. You do not have to make a deposit to participate in the leaderboard, but by signing up to any of the our two Full Tilt Poker offers you will be able to get a great deal if you decide to deposit later on.Read more » Full Tilt Poker $11,075 leaderbord in May 2011

After 6 days of play, the EPT San Remo final table is finally set! Below are the 8 finalist who will battle it out today in order to make it all the way to the title and the first place prize of €930,000.

Seat 1) Francesco De Vivo, 1 090 000
Seat 2) Max Lykov, 1 495 000
Seat 3) Rupert Elder, 8 005 000
Seat 4) Max Heinzelmann, 7 885 000
Seat 5) Xuan Liu, 1 740 000
Seat 6) Roberto Spada, 4 775 000
Seat 7) Massimiliano Manigrasso, 2 000 000
Seat 8) Costantino Russo, 2 565 000

Read more » Live stream: EPT San Remo final table about to start!

Day 5 of the EPT San Remo Main Event is over. 24 players out of 987 are still in the game and all of them are guaranteed at least €25k each. Chip leader at the moment is Nicolas Yunis, from Chile, with a 2.281.000 stack, and in second place is Rupert Elder, from United Kingdom, with 1.894.000 chips. 

The two most notable players in the remaining field of players are the Pokerstars pros Max Lykov from Russia (4th place with 1.722.000 chips) and the 2009 WSOP Main Event champion Joe Cada from USA (5th place with 1.619.000 chips). 

The final table will be played tomorrow (May 3rd). Let's hope that both Lykov and Cada will be on it! As soon as the final table kicks off, we will put up a link so you can watch it live. Stay tuned! 

Read more » WPT San Remo: Joe Cada's closing in on the final table

Many thought that the high stakes scene would die after Black Friday when all U.S. players were blocked from playing poker online. Now, when a bit more than 2 weeks have passed, we can conclude that it didn't! There were some really good games going at Full Tilt and PokerStars nosebleed tables during the second half of April, and it was the Nordic players who won and lost the most.

On the winners side we find the finnish Full Tilt Pro Patrik Antonius who ended up with a $2.3M profit, closely followed by fellow countryman Jens "Ingenious89" Kyllonen with a $1.73M profit. The two biggest losers in April were Andreas "skjervoy" Torbergsen (-$1.5M) and Gus Hansen (-$964k).

Read more » High Stakes: Patrik Antonius won $2.3M last month

In Daniel Negreanu's latest blog one can read what he has to say about Black Friday and how it has affect live games in Vegas, how it will affect the 2011 WSOP, and how families depending on online poker will suffer financially. Below you'll find the most interesting parts from Daniel's latest blog about Black Friday.

The Main Event will see a massive drop in players
"While the US has obviously taken a hit in terms of poker, the game is thriving internationally and I expect to see a decent sized field in Madrid. Possibly down from last year, but I don't think the numbers abroad will decrease too much at all. In the US, I definitely think the numbers for events will shrink. The WSOP, for example, will see a massive decline in the number of entrants both in the daily events, and especially the main event. The number of players for the main event will likely revert back to 2004 type numbers in the 3000 range."

Read more » Daniel Negreanu comments on Black Friday

Day 1 a & b are now in the books and we're only hours away from Day 2. Team PokerStars Pro Ruben Visser, from Netherlands, leads the field with a 251,500 stack, and in second place is Nicolas Chority, a PokerStars qualifier, with 233,400 chips.

There are many familiar faces in the remaining player-field. However, three players (all of them Team PokerStars Pros) to keep an extra eye on during Day 2 are Viktor Ramadin in 5th place with 190,500, Vanessa Selbst in 13th place with 161,500, and Joe Cada in 23rd place with 135,500 chips.

Read more » Ruben Visser leads EPT San Remo

Phil "OMGClayAiken" Galfond is one of U.S. finest high stakes players. Phil has won almost 8 million dollars at various poker sites online, however, the most of his winnings come from Full Tilt Poker's nosebleed tables.

Just like many other U.S. poker players, Phil's daily life has been turned upside down since Full Tilt & PokerStars (just to mention 2 sites) were forced to close down in U.S. about 2 weeks ago (Black Friday). And just like many of his fellow countrymen, Phil has been considering whether or not he should leave the country to avoid further hassle.

Read more » Phil "OMGClayAiken" Galfond comments on Black Friday

Good news for US players having funds "frozen" with PokerStars at the moment. PokerStars just issued the following press release yesterday:

"In agreement with the U.S. Department of Justice, PokerStars has made arrangements with a US bank and today began the process of returning player funds to former customers in the US.

The funds to cover these withdrawal requests are readily available.
All player deposits for players outside the U.S. are also completely safe and secure. PokerStars has always held all such funds in accounts that are segregated from company assets, in compliance with the strict licensing laws of the Isle of Man.

The company continues to operate outside the U.S. under the www.pokerstars.com domain name and retains its position as the world's number one poker site. "

So it seems that US players can now rest assured that they will get their funds back eventually!