BankrollMob News: Poker, Casino, Crypto & Betting

The final table of the EPT Main Event begins in a few hours. Eight players are about to battle for the first place prize of €400,000. The fact that most of them aren't used to play final tables where so much money is up for grabs might be something that can affect the quality of the game. However, I'm sure it will be an extremely interesting and thrilling final table to watch no matter what. No doubts about that! May the best poker player win! 

Read more » EPT Tallinn - Main Event: The final table begins today

420 players entered the EPT Tallinn Main Event this time. Day 1a and 1b of the tournament are both already in the books and at the moment 210 players are seated as Day 2 is about to start. In the top of the field are Perica Bukara 210,600, Ali Tekintamgac 203,200 and Matvey Linov 193,400 followed by many not so familiar faces. In general there were very few notables that took part in EPT Tallinn this year and unfortunately 2 of the biggest names were sent packing during the very first day of the tournament. I'm talking about the EPT veterans Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier and Dario Minieri. 

I have a feeling that we are going to see many new faces on the final table in the EPT Tallinn Main Event this year. But it doesn't mean that it will be a boring one to watch. A final table with lots of money up for grabs is always enjoyable to watch (at least if you ask me).

410 players paid the buy-in of $1,1000 and entered the Florida State Poker Championship Main Event at the Isle Casino and Racing in Pompano Beach. One of the participants was no one else than Mike "the mouth" Matusow who was in town for a poker seminar. And believe it or not, Mike ended up winning the whole tournament and grabbed the first-place prize of $103,000. A decent amount of money for many poker players in the world but probably peanuts for Mike Matusow who owes Ted Forrest $2 million for a weight-loss prop bet he lost a while ago. However, it seems like Mike was quite happy with the win after all.

"This title, even though, it may not be the WSOP Main Event or WPT event, was very important to me. I came down here to put on one of my famous one day power poker courses to help Florida players adjust better to the new limits and in turn I proved to people that when you are well trained and prepared you can expect to win." said Mike Matusow after the win.

7,319 players signed up for the 2010 WSOP Main Event in Las Vegas. Brandon Steven, car dealer and father of 5 from Wichita, Kansas, went out on 10th place after 8 days of poker. In other words, he was very, very close of making it to the final table and being guaranteed at least $810k with the chance of winning the first place prize of almost $9 million dollars and getting the world champion title.

Even though Brandon Steven didn't make it all the way to the final table, he still received $635k and should be quite happy with his results, or? Well, according to what he said in an interview with ESPN, it doesn't seem that way. 

Read more » 2010 WSOP: Brandon Steven is very disappointed with his 10th place in the Main Event

Samuel McMaster Jr, a stockbroker, has swindled his customers on about $500,000 and for that he was taken to court. The court came to the conclusion that McMaster was guilty to 26 charges and therefore risked to face 12 years behind bars. But instead of sending him to jail straight away, the people who he owed money decided to give him a unique chance - to play poker and try to win back the money.

Read more » Stockbroker sentenced to play poker

When Phil Laak, 37, and his friends (Antonio Esfandiari and Brian Rast just to mention 2) rented a few quad bikes and decided to race against each other, it was supposed to be a fun and thrilling experience. But it ended up being one of Phil Laak's worst nightmares after that he crashed with his quad bike and ended up at the hospital with 7 broken legs and other injuries.

Read more » Phil Laak seriously injured in crash

URnotINdanger2 is a well-known figure at Full Tilt's nosebleed tables. He has played for huge amounts of money against Tom "durrrr" Dwan, Isildur1 and many other superstars in the online poker world. Even though URnotINdanger2 has been around for quite some time now, he has never revealed his real identity (just like Isildur1 & Martonas). Well, a few days ago URnotINdanger2's identity was finally revealed by a poker magazine. 

Read more » URnotINdanger2's identity revealed

Wow, that's all I can say about the action we have got to see at Full Tilt Poker lately. Finally those high stakes games where hundreds of thousands change owner, every single day. It's also great to see that most of the notables in the high stakes world are back at the tables again. However, one player who has impressed a lot lately is the king of high stakes, Tom "durrr" Dwan. For example, during Sunday no one stood a chance against him and he ended up as the biggest winner.

Read more » HighStakes: durrrr crushed his opponents and won $750k

Joe Cada, 22, wrote poker history last year when he became the youngest player ever to win the WSOP Main Event. For the win he received nothing less than $8.5 million, however, he only got to keep half of his winnings because he was staked by some friends. 

According to many interviews with Joe Cada after the win, he has been very careful with the remaining part of the winnings and it also seems like he has tried to live an ordinary life, even though he's rich and famous. Sometimes, however, it doesn't seem enough to keep a very low profile, at least if we should believe what Joe Cada wrote on his Facebook a while ago.

Read more » 2009 WSOP Champ robbed - by his own friend!

Here's the last update (as of yesterday) for the Party Poker $50,000 leaderboard in August. It started August 4th so there's still plenty of time for you to take part. For more information about the leaderboard, please check out this article: Party Poker - $50,000 Leaderboard in August.

Below is top 150 players from the leaderboard as of August 5th. Hopefully sometime next we'll be able to provide a link at which you can view the leaderboard updated at least every 24 hours directly at Party Poker.Read more » Leaderboard Update - Party Poker $50,000 August Leaderboard

Proposition bets have been around in the poker world for many, many years. It seems like poker players/gamblers always have had the need for something else going on when they are not sitting at a poker table. If you ask me, the most interesting and fun prop bets to read about usually are the ones that don't have anything to do directly with poker, and of course lots of money has to be involved. It adds to the fun!

Read more » 3 poker legends and 3 classic prop bets

Scotty Nguyen, 47, the ex-WSOP CHAMP, doesn't need any closer presentation as he has been a "regular" in the poker headlines (for many different reasons) for many, many years. There has been so much things going on in his life that many have asked themselves why he never writes a book about it?

Well, maybe we don't have to wait so much longer before there is a book in the stores. Scotty has just announced on his Twitter that he's looking for someone to write a book about his life. But, he doesn't want to write it himself and hire a so-called ghost writer - - Scotty wants one of his fans to write the book about his colorful life.

Read more » Scotty Nguyen: "I need an author, baby!"

After a very action filled and interesting weekend at the high stakes tables many players took a well needed break on Monday. But we only had to wait until Tuesday before the games were on again. Most interesting player to follow that day was Tom "durrrr" Dwan who played lots of hands and was involved in many big pots. After about 6,200 played hands, he had won nothing less that $720,000 from Patrik Antonius, UrnotINdanger2 and other notables. Durrrr has been playing extremely well in the past few days, but he also been very lucky in many big pots.

Read more » HighStakes Report - Tuesday: durrrr wins $720k

He's one of the richest and most successful poker players in the world, he masters all the major poker games, he's as good at playing tournaments as cash games - both live and online. Phil Ivey is the ultimate poker player and probably also the most famous one in the world right now.

So what are the downsides of being rich and famous in the poker world? Well, it doesn't seem to be a walk in the park at all times. At the 2010 WSOP for example, Phil Ivey had to hire a bodyguard because people didn't let him be alone for 1 single minute.

Read more » Phil Ivey hired a bodyguard at the 2010 WSOP

Ever taken a shot at the big money in some of the big online tournaments on Sundays (PokerStars Sunday Million, Full Tilt's $750,000 guarantee etc)? If you have, did you ever manage to make it deep in any of these tournaments and win some serious cash? Whatever your story might be, you will be impressed after reading about Jordan "Jymaster11" Young and his results at Full Tilt last Sunday.

Read more » Jordan Young took home Full Tilt's 2 biggest Sunday tournaments - the very same day!

Join Party Poker for a month of intense poker and race against fellow players for some amazing leaderboard prizes - a total of $50,000 in prizes!

All you have to do is play real money poker at Party Poker. The more points you earn throughout the month, the higher you climb up the ranks and the bigger your share of the prize pool will be.

$50,000 will be paid out to players during the promotion which runs from August 4th to August 31st (both dates included). The leaderboard updates at least every 24 hours.

Read more » Party Poker - $50,000 Leaderboard in August

July was a terrible month for some of the poker world's best players, and notables such as Phil Ivey, Tom "durrrr" Dwan and Cole South all ended up on the month's top 5 losers list. Luckily one notable managed to make it to the top 5 winners list and saved some of the high stakes world's reputation. Patrik Antonius had a fantastic winning streak last month ($614,000), he played very solid poker and was never really in danger of losing.

Read more » HighStakes: July - a disaster month for durrrr and Phil Ivey

Do you remember Martonas? For those who don't remember him, I can inform you that he's from Sweden and used to play high stakes at Full Tilt Poker over a year ago. When Martonas started showing up at Full Tilt, he won about $2.5 million in less than 2 weeks time (most of it from durrrr) and create headlines all over the poker world. But it didn't take long before he lost it all again (most of it to durrrr) and disappeared from the scene shortly after.

Many thought that we would have to wait for a very long time before another unknown player like Martonas would show up and play against the world's best. However, most people forgot about him almost straight away when another unknown swede entered the scene and broke all the records. You know who I'm talking about, right?

Read more » High Stakes legend "Martonas" back at the tables

We're pleased to welcome Titan Poker back into our Weekly Freerolls program with $700 worth of freerolls in August, two $200's and three $100's.

One Titan Poker freeroll will be played every Tuesday in August and the first one is tomorrow, August 3rd at 8pm GMT.

As with most of the freerolls, you need to have an account at the poker site, created through BankrollMob. If you do not already have an account with Titan Poker, you can view our Titan Poker bonuses (free $150 no deposit bonus and 5000 MobPoints gift offer) and signup today to qualify for our weekly freerolls and of course get the bonus as well.

It is a very long way to go before gambling companies can offer games in the U.S., however, it feels like things are moving in the right direction at the moment as the majority of the congressional finance committee have approved a proposal to allow online gambling in the states.

Now, as you probably already have figured out, they must work out a master plan with guidelines so that the country can gain some extra income from allowing foreign betting companies to operate on the US market. There are about 50 million Americans who play poker regularly (online, at casino, home games etc), so you can imagine how much money there is to make.

Read more » USA: A step in the right direction

In December last year, one could read about merger speculations between bwin and PartyGaming in the british newspaper The Sunday Times. However, later on bwin denied that they were holding advanced talks with PartyGaming about a merge. Yesterday, almost 8 months later, PartyGaming announced that they have been negotiating with bwin for some time about a merge of the 2 companies.

Now, If everything goes according to plan and the shareholders agree to sell, PartyGaming will buy bwin for $1.76 billion and create the world's biggest publicly traded online gambling company.

Read more » PartyGaming, bwin merge to create the world's biggest online gaming company

For almost 3 years, the online gambling market in France was owned by a state run monopoly. In April this year, a law was passed to allow for regulated gaming, opening up the market to foreign operators who follow strict guidelines and rules. In June, 11 sites received a license, followed by another 7 sites. On Monday, ARJEL (Autorité de Régulation des Jeux En Lignee - Authority of Regulation of Online Games) issued 9 new licenses to companies that want to offer internet gambling services to French customers (Full Tilt and PKR are 2 of the biggest sites among these 11).

In total, 27 sites foreign sites now have received a license to operate in France. Hopefully more countries with gambling monopoly will follow in France's footsteps and start issuing licenses to foreign betting companies.

Ron Fanelli made a living from poker during the first half of 2000 and became a well known face on the TV channel Poker Channels program, mostly thanks to the british journalist and poker player Victoria Coren, one of the channel's hosts. Ron Fanelli moved to Thailand in 2006 and quickly got married and had a kid with his wife. A few years later, his wife left him to the other side of the country and took their kid with her. After this, things started going really bad for Fanelli as he started sleeping with prostitutes and drink lots of alcohol frequently.

Read more » Poker Pro arrested for murder & dismemberment

A large security hole was found on the Cake Poker network the other day. The security hole means that information with bad encryption (not SSL like many other sites) is being sent between Cake Poker's servers and players, which makes it easy for a hacker to crack the code and see hole cards, login details and other information.

Lee Jones, cardroom manager at Cake Poker, explained in a forum thread that he had asked the security team to look over its security a few months ago after that he had heard about another poker site where the security was lacking when connected to an unencrypted wireless network.

Read more » Security hole found at Cake Poker