The Latest on the PokerStars and Full Tilt Poker Acquisition

We’re two weeks out from when news originally broke about PokerStars acquiring Full Tilt Poker. While no officially announcement has come from either PokerStars or Full Tilt regarding the progress of the deal…

Will The Palms Have to Honor Epic Poker’s $1M Freeroll?

Well this is interesting. While we can’t get any official word yet, we are hearing significant chatter among players and local Vegas gaming sources that the Palms casino may end up having to…

Full Tilt Poker Near Relaunching, Latest Developments

All systems point to “go” for the relaunch of Full Tilt Poker. On February 14th last month in Dublin, Ireland, the company incorporated itself as “New Full Tilt Limited” with Laurent Tapie listed…

An Oral History of Black Friday

The following is a collective oral history told by people in the poker industry about the events of April 15th, 2011–otherwise known as Black FridayTM.  The mood in the industry was optimistic leading…

Confirmed: RaiseOnce on PokerStars is Phil Ivey

File this under “unshocking” but we’ve confirmed through sources that RaiseOnce on PokerStars is in fact Phil Ivey. Back in 2010 when Full Tilt Poker was still actually in business, RaiseOnce won a…

Groupe Bernard Tapie Meets in Dublin, Deal Getting Closer

Well, it’s the end of March. And despite Groupe Bernard Tapie‘s public proclamations about completing the Full Tilt Poker acquisition and relaunching the site in March clearly not coming to fruition (something we said…

Full Tilt Poker Gearing Up For Relaunch; European Balances Honored, U.S. in Question

For the past few months, we’ve been fairly out-spoken in our belief that the Groupe Bernard Tapie – Full Tilt Poker acquisition was going to fall through. Recent developments, from GBT outing of Tilt debtors…

Brodsky, Pritzker Gone: Federated Sports+Gaming Lose Key Board Members

In the wake of their Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing, Federated Sports+Gaming, parent company to the Epic Poker League, has lost two of its most influential Board members. Two weeks ago, Chicago billionaire J.B….

GBT “Reasonably Confident” and “Focused Exclusively” on Completing Tilt Acquisition

As we’ve recently written, we’re hearing major conflicting reports as to whether or not Groupe Bernard Tapie (GBT) actually completes their acquisition of Full Tilt Poker. One very well-placed source we spoke with…

Federated Sports+Gaming Bankruptcy Details Emerge

UPDATED: 03/05/12 Details are emerging from Federated Sports+Gaming bankruptcy filing. Wicked Chops Insider has obtained information from court records that indicate the company is in an even more dire financial position than first…

Heartland Poker Tour Sued Federated Sports+Gaming for Non-Payment

More details are emerging from the Federated Sports+Gaming bankruptcy filing. According to court records (and credit 2+2 poster pacecar86 for the link), All In Production, LLP, the parent company of Heartland Poker Tour,…

Sources: Pinnacle Entertainment Got “Cold Feet”

According to multiple sources, Pinnacle Entertainment got “cold feet” in recent weeks as they pursued an acquisition of Epic Poker. Epic’s parent company–Federated Sports+Gaming–filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy on Tuesday. In the bankruptcy filing,…

BREAKING: Poker After Dark to Return March 5

The popular Poker After Dark is set to return with previously unaired episodes on the NBC Sports Network starting March 5th. PAD was produced by Poker PROductions and underwritten by Full Tilt Poker. It frequently…

Updated Online Poker Legalization Barometer – A Big Plunge

Online poker’s 2012 legislative chances took a hit last week. Since we debuted our legislative barometer, we’ve maintained a greater than 50% chance that online poker gets regulated at the Federal level in…

In or Out: Conflicting Reports on Tapie and Full Tilt Poker

We’ve rewritten and changed the title of this post a half dozen times in the past week. So instead of waiting to form a firm opinion as to what the hell is going…

Caesars IPO Should Have Little Impact On Online Poker Plans

Big news today as Caesars Entertainment (CZR: Nasdaq) IPO’d. The stocked opened trading on Wednesday at $9 per share and closed up 71% at closing price of $15.39. Good news for some for…

Full Tilt Practically Drawing Dead to Relaunch by March

In a recent interview with Gaming Intelligence, Laurent Tapie said that he hopes to have a re-branded Full Tilt Poker launched by March 1. Ok then. There’s a better chance of Layne Flack repaying his debt…

The Real Motivations Why Groupe Bernard Tapie Threw Tilt Debtors Under the Bus

On Thursday, PokerStrategy.com published an interview with Groupe Bernard Tapie lawyer Behn Dayanim. In it, Dayamin mentions that the complicated acquisition of Full Tilt Poker was in “serious jeopardy” in part due to a…

The Poker Rumor Mill: Week of January 23, 2012

Starting this week, we’ll be rolling out a new Poker Rumor Mill feature. These are nuggets of information that don’t necessarily warrant a full post, but will be passed along to our Insider…

Exclusive PokerVT Content: Jason Somerville Hand Review

New Wicked Chops Insider benefit: twice monthly we will upload free PokerVT lessons for our subscribers. Along with the content, we’ll provide special discounts to PokerVT subscriptions. The first course is behind the…

Zynga Poker Changes Mind, Now Exploring Real Money Gaming

Well that didn’t take long. Back in November, we wrote a column explaining why Zynga Casino GM Lo Toney‘s statements about his company not being interested in real-money poker where either a) misguided,…

Did Epic Poker Find a Sucker?

As we broke last week, Pinnacle Entertainment is in negotiations to acquire Epic Poker. We attempted multiple times to contact Epic Poker for comment or details, but they ignored our requests. Pinnacle has refused to comment as…

The Top Five Full Tilt Commercials That Take On a Different Meaning Today

The Entities who comprise Wicked Chops Poker were discussing the genuine brilliance of Full Tilt’s advertising campaigns recently. Despite all of the issues that arose from the leadership of Ray Bitar, Full Tilt…

EXCLUSIVE: Pinnacle Entertainment in Negotiations to Acquire Epic Poker

According to multiple industry sources, Pinnacle Entertainment is currently in negotiations to acquire Epic Poker.

Updated Online Poker Legalization Barometer for 2012

In late November we rolled out our first Online Poker Legislative Barometer. As a refresher, the Barometer is our weighing of industry executive, lobbyist, and media for their take on the likihood that the…

How Will the DoJ’s New Stance on Wire Act Impact Internet Poker in 2012?

To paraphrase one of Paulie Walnuts all-time best lines in the Sopranos, people in the poker industry wouldn’t mind “giving 2011 back to the Indians.” But the last two work days before Christmas, a…

The Unlikely Success Story of the Heartland Poker Tour

Editor’s Note: The following column is the second in our on-going “”Underreported Success Stories” in poker. Last month we featured Dominik Kofert and PokerStrategy. This month, we look at the unlikely success of…

The WCOFF Sounds An Awful Lot Like Full Tilt

ESPN’s Outside the Lines recently did a feature on the now defunct World Championship of Fantasy Football (WCOFF). The WCOFF was the largest fantasy league in the world. The winners of their Main Event…

Dr. Pauly’s Picks: NFL Week 15

By Paul McGuire We’re late into the NFL season and it’s the perfect time to cherry-pick games involving teams that are faced with must-win situations if they want to advance to the playoffs….

Tilt-Tapie Agree to Asset Transfer: Three Things It Means for You

Earlier on Thursday, Subject:Poker reported that Full Tilt Poker shareholders agreed to transfer the company’s assets to Groupe Bernard Tapie. The asset transfer paves the way for GBT to complete its deal with…

Top Facebook Free-Play Poker Sites

With Zynga’s IPO scheduled for this week–there is increased attention focused right now on free-play poker.

Zynga Poker is like the SEC football of Facebook free-play games. It simply dominates all other comers. While we think it’ll be difficult for any of the free-play Facebook poker sites to convert their customers to real-money players in the future, sites like Zynga Poker are still significant revenue generators–and an underreported sector in our industry.

Dr. Pauly’s Picks: NFL Week 14

By: Paul McGuire I had a rough weekend in Las Vegas. My goal was to win enough money to buy my loved ones nice Christmas gifts, but the gambling gods saw things differently….

Adelson Opposes Online Gaming: Just Inconsequential Sour Grapes?

The Las Vegas Sun is reporting that Las Vegas Sands Chairman Sheldon Adelson is now “morally opposed” to online gaming.

AnonymousX: Thoughts on Potential Full Tilt Deal and Legislation

Well, it looks like Full Tilt Poker may actually be saved by Groupe Bernard Tapie. I don’t know if “surprised” is the word I’d use about this news so much as “pleasantly optimistic.” I guess I always felt that the software and database had a certain amount of value. I just never had any idea of how much. Now I know.

Dr. Pauly’s Picks: NFL Week 13

Like the cowboy said in The Big Lebowski, “Sometimes you eat the bar, and sometimes, well, he eats you.”

In Other’s Words: The Rise and Fall of Ray Bitar

The following feature is an accumulation of interviews–told in an “oral history” format–by people who know Full Tilt Poker CEO Ray Bitar. While we had to conceal the identities of the individuals in this story in order to get them to agree to talk, these are their real stories, and are transcribed from their own words.

Legislative Barometer: Chances for Online Poker Legislation by 2012

We’re rolling out a new feature for Wicked Chops Insider today: the Online Poker Legislative Barometer. The concept is simple: we’re asking connected industry executives, lobbyists, and media members for their take on the likihood that the U.S. passes online poker legislation by the end of 2012.

Dr. Pauly’s Picks: NFL Week 12

It’s Thanksgiving week, which is the time of the year when Americans stuff their faces and pretend to get along with their dysfunctional family members while watching football. Many of my fondest childhood memories of Turkey Day celebrations were centered around watching football games with my father and uncles while they binge-drank on beer and whiskey.

Zynga Has No Plans for RMG, But They Should

In an interview with eGaming Review during the IFP event in London last week, Zynga Casino General Manager Lo Toney said that his company has, “No plans to enter the real-money market.” This is…

Groupe Bernard Tapie – Full Tilt Poker Acquisition: Deal of the Century?

The sale of Full Tilt Poker to Groupe Bernard Tapie (GBT) is almost done. The DoJ and GBT reached an agreement that now needs to be approved by Full Tilt shareholders (likely) and then officially executed by the DoJ.

Nevada Gaming Control Online Poker Application Analysis

The Nevada Gaming Control Board has announced it will begin taking applications to license online poker operators beginning in February 2012.

Here’s our quick analysis of what this means for Nevada and the industry.

Why The Full Tilt Poker-Tapie Deal May Actually Makes $ense

We like to take contrarian points of view. Especially when it comes to business. And sports betting. But that’s another post for another day.

In business, if everyone was right about everything–or followed the herd mentality–then just about everyone would be rich, right?

The WSOP Ratings Conundrum And Future of Televised Poker

Bristol, we have a problem.

2011 WSOP produced shows on ESPN pulled record low numbers. But the live shows exceeded everyone’s expectations and proved that poker is a viable real-time viewing product.