Full Tilt’s ninth edition of the Full Tilt Online Poker Series (FTOPS) begins today with the first of 25 events, a $200+16 event hosted by Allen Cunningham which boast a million-dollar purse guarantee.

Start a Clean Slate at a New Room, a New Sharkscope, and Keep HFL Free in the Process

(PN) The United States abruptly announced a postponement in scheduled trade talks with representatives of the European Union that were to discuss online gambling and the stance of the current US administration, which in the EU’s view is in violation of World Trade Organization treaty.

The trade talks, scheduled for early August, were put on hold with little advance notice by officials of the US Trade Representative’s office. This was the same federal agency that sent a curt two-page rebuttal to an extensive EU fact-finding inquiry that attempted to probe the exact reasons for the US’s stance against international online gambling, including the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA) and the US’s unilateral withdrawal from its related WTO commitments. While the USTR was only one of several government agencies contacted about online gambling, its response seemingly superceded that of other agencies approached by the EU.

For its part, the USTR office is increasingly under siege from several quarters regarding its trade stance. The USTR’s recent talks with online-gambling haven Antigua & Barbuda ended in an impasse, and the agency has not yet responded to Congressional calls to release the specific terms of earlier agreements made with the EU, Canada and other countries related to its previous WTO battle with Antigua. All this comes as the UIGEA itself has floundered amid its own undefined terminology and the increasing and bipartisan pressure against the unfunded mandate on US businesses called for by UIGEA rules.

Start a Clean Slate at a New Room, a New Sharkscope, and Keep HFL Free in the Process

4:59am: Poker can be a crazy game. No, scratch that, poker IS a crazy game, and there’s really nothing we can ever do to change that, especially being no limit players. Take for example, my last match of the night, which would have put me up nearly $500 (if the hand holds):

PokerStars Game #19267291875: Tournament #99347957, $100+$5 Hold’em No Limit - Match Round I, Level II (15/30) - 2008/08/01 - 05:51:24 (ET)
Table ‘99347957 1′ 2-max Seat #1 is the button
Seat 1: trujm (1695 in chips)
Seat 2: TDiddy75 (1305 in chips)
trujm: posts small blind 15
TDiddy75: posts big blind 30
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to trujm [Ad Qd]
trujm is disconnected
trujm is connected
trujm: raises 60 to 90
TDiddy75: raises 270 to 360
trujm: raises 1335 to 1695 and is all-in
TDiddy75: calls 945 and is all-in
Uncalled bet (390) returned to trujm
*** FLOP *** [Jh Js Kh]
*** TURN *** [Jh Js Kh] [4h]
*** RIVER *** [Jh Js Kh 4h] [Jd]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
TDiddy75: shows [Kc Qc] (a full house, Jacks full of Kings)
trujm: shows [Ad Qd] (three of a kind, Jacks)
TDiddy75 collected 2610 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 2610 | Rake 0
Board [Jh Js Kh 4h Jd]
Seat 1: trujm (button) (small blind) showed [Ad Qd] and lost with three of a kind, Jacks
Seat 2: TDiddy75 (big blind) showed [Kc Qc] and won (2610) with a full house, Jacks full of Kings

Should I be mad that he had three outs preflop, and I was nearly a 3:1 favorite to win the hand? Maybe, but the point is that playing heads up sngs for a living takes some really, really thick skin and you have to be able to forget about this kind of stuff. You play so many games, that it almost becomes like a given that things like this are going to happen, so just take them in stride, and don’t look back.

My overall record tonight finished at 14-10, and although I got unlucky in quite a few matches, I’ll take it. Where else can you go and sit on your ass all day and make $300? If the agony of taking bad beats is the only thing that makes my job unpleasant, then I welcome all bad beats with open arms.

Here is how I finished the night:

Set 1: 3-0
Set 2: 2-1
Set 3: 0-3
Set 4: 2-1
Set 5: 1-2
Set 6: 2-1
Set 7: 2-1
Set 8: 2-1

By the looks of things, tonight was an incredibly consistent performance, and instead of cursing the “poker gods” about how I should have actually finished 17-7, rather than 14-10 (if hands that should have held up would have), I need to be really thankful that people are willing to put their money in behind at this level. Until then, I’ll take $280 profit all day long. Wouldn’t you?

6:46am: (P5s) The U.S. government recently seized $24 million from bank accounts linked to Bodog, the giant, illegal-under-U.S.-law Internet gaming operation founded by Canadian tycoon Calvin Ayre.

Federal filings make very clear that a serious criminal investigation of the Bodog enterprise is ongoing. At a minimum, word of the seizures is likely to rattle the confidence of U.S.-based online gamblers that they will receive their winnings, not only from Bodog but from the industry’s other remaining participants.

Detailed in court filings in a Baltimore federal court, the Bodog-related seizures from such well-known institutions as Wachovia (nyse: WB - news - people ), Bank of America (nyse: BAC - news - people ), SunTrust Banks (nyse: STI - news - people ) and Regions Bank, a unit of Regions Financial (nyse: RF - news - people ), increase the possibility of criminal action against Ayre himself. There already has been published speculation in his native Canada that he is under secret indictment somewhere in the U.S.

The U.S. attorney’s office in Baltimore, which launched the two lawsuits to take the $24 million, did not respond to a request for comment.

The flamboyant Ayre–media reports often call him a “playboy”–is now believed to be in Antigua and Barbuda, a country in the eastern Caribbean. He has denied being on the lam. A request on Wednesday for comment from Ayre, sent through the Web site of his Antigua-based Calvin Ayre Foundation, was not immediately returned. Nor were call and e-mail messages sent to public relations contacts listed on Bodog’s Web site.

In early 2006 Ayre rocketed to international prominence–and the cover of Forbes magazine’ annual issue on the world’s billionaires–for his stewardship from Costa Rica of Bodog Entertainment Group and his open flouting of authorities in the U.S., his major market. The story headline: “Catch Me If You Can.” The operation was said at the time to be handling $7.3 billion yearly in poker, casino and sports event wagers.

But since then, Ayre has been the subject of law-enforcement raids abroad and growing regulatory scrutiny, especially in the U.S. In late 2006 President Bush signed a law strengthening the prohibition on online gambling. Ayre fell off the Forbes worldwide billionaires list after just one year, amid a decline in his industry’s fortunes.

In overall actions against the industry, federal prosecutors in New York have charged executives of Neteller with illegally processing online gaming transactions. This summer, Canada’s ESI Entertainment Systems, an Internet payment business, entered into a “deferred prosecution agreement” with the same prosecutors. The company admitted to criminal wrongdoing and agreed to disgorge $9.1 million in criminal proceeds for its role in processing $2 billion in Internet gambling payments for hundreds of thousands of U.S. customers. Criminal cases have been started against various online gambling shops.

Ayre has been trying to put legal distance between himself and the operation he founded in the 1990s. For years its business was run through Internet servers belonging to Mohawk Internet Technologies, located on the Kahnawake Reserve Indian reservation in Quebec, Canada. In September 2007 Bodog said its North American operations would be licensed to Morris Mohawk Group, also located on the reservation and run by tribal chief Alwyn Morris.

Three months ago, Ayre, now 47, said he had transferred ownership of Bodog itself to Morris Mohawk Group. “It’s true; I’m packing it in,” Ayre wrote on a Web site.

Court filings in Maryland say that in January and February a total of $14.2 million was seized from accounts in the name of JBL Services and Transaction Solutions at Wachovia, Regions Bank, Bank of America and Sun Trust Bank. In July, filings say, another $9.9 million was found in eight accounts at Nevada State Bank, a unit of Zion Bancorporation (nasdaq: ZION - news - people ), in the name of Zaftig Instantly Processed Payments, doing business as ZipPayments.com. The companies are described as helping to facilitate parts of the Bodog operation.

The court papers detail an elaborate international structure put together to allow Bodog to collect money and write checks to winning gamblers in the U.S. One affidavit by Randall S. Carrow, a special agent with the U.S. Internal Revenue Service’s Criminal Investigation Division, said that $248 million involving entities linked to Bodog was processed through Wachovia Bank, from which $11 million of the $24 million was seized.

In a statement to Forbes, Wachovia said the bank cooperated with law enforcement, doesn’t knowingly allow Internet gaming operations to open accounts, and the funds ending up at the bank were in accounts of a third-party credit card servicer. The statement also hinted that various accounts might have been kept open at the request of investigators to aid their efforts.

According to Carrow’s detailed sworn statements, the IRS’s Criminal Investigation Division started looking at Bodog in 2003 and opened a formal probe in 2006. The extensive sleuthing has involved close examination of public and bank records, the enlisting of unnamed cooperating witnesses and informants, and undercover efforts to make bets on football and collect winnings.

Ayre, says Carrow’s statement, is president of Middleton Financial, a Nevada corporation described as a key cog in the U.S. Bodog machinery, as well as Stratham Finance, said to be based in Malta. Other entities linked to Ayre in the court filings are Gateway (nyse: GTW - news - people ) Financial Services, EBanx Ltd., Gregor Financial Ltd. and Calvtek Industries. The filings list dozens of businesses involved in processing Bodog transactions.

The ongoing federal pressure to disrupt Bodog’s financial transactions may be bearing fruit. Carrow’s affidavits say several checks issued from Bodog to its undercover gambler bounced.

A break in the inquiry came in May, one of Carrow’s affidavits says, when an undercover operative for “another state’s gambling commission” received a check that didn’t bounce from an account at Nevada State Bank, which is headquartered in Las Vegas. That led to the $9.9 million seizure this month. The bank had no immediate comment.

Carrow’s affidavits were filed in connection with the U.S.’s successful efforts to get a federal judge to authorize the seizures. But to keep the money permanently, federal prosecutors must file a civil lawsuit and allow a challenge by anyone with a claimed interest. No one fought the $14.2 million seizure, and it was ordered forfeited to the feds. The lawsuit over the $9.9 million–its official name is United States of America v. $9,869,283.05–was just filed.

Even before the advent of Bodog, Ayre carried considerable baggage. Close family members were convicted of drug trafficking. (Ayer himself was never charged.) In 1996 Ayre was banned for 20 years from the British Columbia securities industry for stock market offenses. By that time, he was already moving into online gaming.

“One of the things that drives me is the excitement that I could fail,” he told Forbes in 2006. “What better buzz can you get?”

(PN) The growing chorus of voices calling for an end to the ban on internet gambling has just added two unexpected members – associate professors Kathryn LaTour, from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, and June Cotte, from the University of Western Ontario in Canada – but not because these self-described non-gamblers support internet gambling. Rather, they see lifting the ban as a necessary precursor to the implementation of effective regulation of the industry.

LaTour and Cotte co-authored a report, to be published next February in the Journal of Consumer Research, entitled “Blackjack in the Kitchen: Understanding Online Versus Casino Gambling” in which they recommend the full legalization and regulation of online gambling in the United States and Canada in order to reduce some of the activity’s harmful effects.

The two did not expect their study to yield such a result. “If you told me I was going to come to that conclusion at the start of research I would have laughed,” said Cotte. But, after interviewing 20 regular casino gamblers and 10 regular online gamblers, they found differences which they found troubling and which led them to their conclusion that online gambling needs to be legalized so that it can be regulated. According to their study, online gamblers gambled more frequently and aggressively, gambled for longer hours at a time, and had a less accurate idea about their losses than their casino-playing counterparts.

For the researchers, the current ban on internet gambling is not the answer. “The horse is out of the barn,” said Cotte. Indeed, the non-gambling professor was shocked to find the industry was already bringing in $12 billion to $15 billion a year. “There is a huge amount of people who are already doing this,” she said. Instead of maintaining the ban, which only serves to move internet gambling off shore, the study suggests ways in which the industry could be regulated to deal with some of its potential for harm.

“You could require the North American online casinos to have things like cooling-off periods, where if you run out of money you don’t instantaneously hit a button and upload some more. In a casino, if you run out of cash, you at least have to walk to an ATM,” Cotte said.

Other suggestions include the implementation of a pop-up notice on a site to alert the user that they have crossed a threshold in the amount of money lost and/or the amount of time spent at the site. They also recommended increasing the size of the wins or losses on the page so that users could more easily track their transactions. On-line counseling, information of treatment for problem gambling, and strict age checks could also be added to the regulations of the gambling sites. In addition to integrating safety features into legalized online gambling sites, both researchers thought regulating the industry could lead to increased revenue. “There are a lot of tax dollars out there that could be collected,” LaTour said.

(PN) Game Show Network has confirmed that the popular poker cash-game program, “High Stakes Poker,” has been renewed for a fifth season. The show, one of the highest rated on the network, is expected to begin filming new episodes in September, according to a report quoting co-host AJ Benza, who along with Gabe Kaplan will be returning for the newest run of shows.

The future of “High Stakes Poker” was placed in doubt after a widely-reported, planned shift by GSN toward programming targeting a more youthful demographic. Despite the show’s high ratings – among the highest of any of the network’s offerings – its viewership demographic skewed older and was not necessarily in line with GSN’s future target audience. Also up in the air for a lengthy period was the televised future of the World Poker Tour, which had moved to Game Show Network after a five-season run on Travel Channel and recently announced that it was moving again, this time to FOX Sports Network.

Jennifer Minezaki, GSN’s Director of Public Relations, confirmed the renewal of “High Stakes Poker” in a brief statement. According to Minezaki, “GSN has picked up the option on the fifth season of ‘High Stakes Poker’ and continues to enjoy poker on its air.” Minesaki had few additional details to offer about the upcoming season at this time.

2:44pm: This article is courtesy of PokerNews. I think this is good news for online poker because the US Goverment has been continually feeling pressure, from multiple sources, to exclude poker from “online gambling” due to it’s element of skill. I believe eventually that they will give in to this pressure and regulate online poker.

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A delegation of European Union trade officials will conduct talks with US officials at the end of this month over prosecutions and market restrictions concerning online gambling that appear to European interests to be restrictive and discriminatory in nature.

The meetings follow the abrupt brush-off in June of an extensive questionnaire prepared by EU officials in an attempt to learn American justifications for certain prosecutions and the forced exclusion of many EU-based gambling concerns from the US market. That exclusion, of publicly-held companies who were affected by the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA), led to a formal complaint being filed with the EU by the Remote Gaming Association, a group representing several large European concerns.

Last month, the EU’s detailed 5,000-word questionaire seeking explanations for the US’s stance regarding online gambling was sent to several federal authorities, but the US Trade Representative’s office (the same administrative agency responsible for unilaterally attempting to withdraw some of America’s previous commitments under the World Trade Organization’s GATS agreement), instead sent out a succinct and dismissive reply. The response, authored by USTR official Susan Schwab, included only two pages – one of which was a cover sheet – and stated that there was “no basis for any allegation of ‘discriminatory enforcement’ of US gambling laws.”

EU Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson will head the delegation that will meet with US officials, which was announced shortly after the USTR’s brief response. While the outcome of the meetings could take many forms, one conservative publication recently admonished the current US administration for the poor quality of the UIGEA code. Eli Lehrer, writing for American Spectator, termed the UIGEA and the 1961 Wire Act as “gambling laws that rank among some the worst written sections of the United States Code.”

Lehrer also noted that while no EU action over online gambling may occur, one retaliatory possibility is sanctions of some form against America’s banking industry, since that market was tasked by the UIGEA to serve as the US’s enforcement arm in policing gambling-related transactions.

2:01am: (PN) Congressman James McDermott (D-WA) has taken a second stab at creating a federal revenue/tax-generating mechanism for online gambling with the introduction of his “Investing in our Human Resources Act of 2008.” Formally designated as HR 6061 (House of Representatives Bill #6061), McDermott’s new measure would allocate up to $40 billion to provide educational and job-training assistance to current and former foster care participants, along with workers trapped in declining market sectors. The $40 billion would be generated by US federal taxation on internet gambling.

It’s not the first time McDermott has eyed online gambling as an untapped source of potential federal tax revenue. McDermott was the author of the 2007 Internet Gambling Regulation and Tax Enforcement Act (IGRTEA, HR 2607), which was pitched as a “companion” bill to Rep. Barney Frank’s heavily considered Internet Gambling Regulation Enforcement Act. McDermott even distributed copies of a report constructed by auditing and assurance company PriceWaterhouseCoopers which claimed that the US government was missing out on between $8 billion and $42 billion in unregulated internet gambling revenue, the latter figure of which is roughly the same high-end figure cited by McDermott in his most recent proposal. McDermott’s original IGRTEA languished as the more prominent IGREA bill championed by Frank failed to clear a powerful Congressional committee.

McDermott’s bill, however, carries the stipulation that it would only go into effect if what Poker Players Alliance Executive Director John Pappas termed a “Frank-style bill” were passed. Indeed, the PPA was one of the first organizations to comment on the new legislation, and a complete copy of the proposal is available on that site. Said Pappas: “McDermott is on the tax writing committee in the U.S. House of Representatives and he’s been an advocate for extracting revenue from internet gambling. The PPA hasn’t had an opportunity to review his proposal thoroughly, but we like the out-of-the-box thinking to be able to connect the benefits of legislation to a worthy cause.”

3:06am: The live session was yet another card dead affair. Finally, after waiting 5-6 hours to pick up some sort of drawing hand or hand with “possibilities” I picked up Kc10c, on the button, and called a $25 raise in a 6 way pot. The flop came: Qc 9c 4d.

Someone in early position led out for $75, and the original guy who raised called behind him. The call was a no-brainer at this point, and I even contemplated a raise. However, I didn’t want to scare a third person who would potentially pay me off (if it hit) away.

The turn: Kd

The initial bettor checks, and the original raiser bets $75. I decided that my hand is probably no good, but I am indeed priced into this pot from and odds point of view. The other man calls, and we see a river with over a $600 pot.

The river: 2s

Everyone checks to me, and I thought about value betting the King, but it really didn’t make sense. As I’ve discussed before, ONE PAIR usually does not take down pots of this size, so value betting the river would go against that belief, which is usually right more often than it’s not. Having said that,  I checked behind everyone, and took it down - as both guys held a queen.

Following that pot, which was the only pot of “significant” size that I won all night, I decided to call it a night and ended the session up $500.

On to some heads up…

*EDIT*, Finished 2-0 in my heads up session. Up $700, and calling it a night. Good luck everyone!

(PN) 6,844 players started the 2008 WSOP Championship for the second largest field in WSOP history. After a long and grueling Day 7, there were nine. Dennis Phillips had the lead going into Day 7, and when the last chip was counted, the oldest player in this admittedly young field was still on top.

Play started shortly before 12:30 pm, with 27 players remaining in the field. Within the first 20 minutes of play, we had our first elimination when Michael Carroll’s A-9 couldn’t overtake Gert Andersen’s pocket fours after an A-5-4 flop. At 3:30 am, more than 15 hours later, Dean Hamrick took his A-J against Craig Marquis pocket queens. The board didn’t help Hamrick and the final table was set after his 10th-place elimination. Hamrick received $591,869 for his performance. The rest of the remaining players received $900,670 which is the guaranteed payout for ninth place.

By the time the final table kicks off, more than three months from now, we’ll know more about the “November Nine” than perhaps has ever been known about a final table – probably down to their shoe sizes. But on Day 7, we got to see how they navigated their way to what will surely be a life-altering event, with over $24 million of the prize pool yet to be decided.

Phi Nguyen was one of only two WSOP bracelet winners left in the field when play began on Day 7. Nguyen won the WSOP $2,500 NLHE event in 2003 and the $1,500 NLHE Shootout event in 2004. Phi Nguyen became the 26th-place finisher when he reraised all in with A-10 to face off against Paul Snead’s pocket jacks. Nguyen failed to connect with the board, and he walked away with $257,334 for the 77th tournament money finish of his career.

Aaron Gordon, at age 21, was the youngest player to start Day 7. Gordon limped pre-flop and then reraised all in against Darus Suharto. Gordon’s Q-10 didn’t improve and Suharto took the pot with pocket jacks. Aaron Gordon finished in 24th place. Tim Locke finished in 23rd place when his pocket sixes were overtaken by Ylon Schwartz’ pocket threes, when a three fell on the turn. This was Locke’s first live tournament.

I got him, I got him!!” cried Paul Sneed. With 11 million in the pot, and the flop, Sneed’s had the decisive edge over Scott Montgomery’s . The increased Sneed’s edge, reducing Montgomery’s outs to only two. Montgomery beat the odds, catching the to cripple Sneed. Sneed went out on the next hand when his A-10 was dominated by Craig Marquis’ A-K. Paul Sneed finished in 21st place.

After Phi Ngyuen’s elimination, Brandon Cantu was the only WSOP bracelet winner left in the field. Cantu won his WSOP bracelet in a $1,500 NLHE event in 2006. Cantu became the short stack in the field after calling Dean Hamrick’s all-in bet, pre-flop. Hamrick had pocket aces and Cantu flipped over a surprising 10-5. The board came 8-7-5-8-10 and Hamrick’s two pair outranked Cantu’s two pair. Cantu got the rest of his money in with pocket nines against Peter Eastgate’s . The board produced four diamonds and Brandon Cantu was eliminated in 20th place.

Tiffany Michelle lost her bid to become only the second woman to make the WSOP Championship final table. Michelle, who sailed effortlessly through the first six days of play, had trouble gaining traction on the seventh. Finally, holding A-J, Michelle pushed all in on an A-10-9 flop and was called by Peter Eastgate. When Eastgate flipped over pocket aces, Michelle’s fate was all but sealed. A five on the turn left Michelle drawing dead. Tiffany Michelle finished in 17th place for $334,534.

Peter Eastgate spent the afternoon successfully building his stack to take the chip lead. Dennis Phillips had a less profitable start, but started his upward climb by eliminating Nicholas Sliwinski in 13th place. Phillips flat-called Sliwinski on the flop. Phillips flat called Sliwinski again on the turn. And Phillips called Sliwinski’s all-in bet on the river. Sliwinski showed for two pair while Phillips flipped over the for the flopped flush.

Before the Main Event even started, Chris Klodnicki already had a memorable 2008 WSOP. Klodnicki finished in second place behind Barry Greenstein in the WSOP $1,500 Razz event. His memories of the Championship event, however, would end in 12th place. Klodnicki got all his chips in on the royal flush draw, holding on the flop. Klodnicki would need that royal, once the came on the turn as Scott Montgomery’s Q-J found a boat. The one outer never came.

Phillips climbed higher when he forced Peter Eastgate out of a large pot with an all in bet on the turn, with the board showing 8-4-2-10. Phillips went on to take down a three-way pot against Ylon Schwartz and Scott Montgomery. Schwartz bet on the 9-5-2- flop was called. Everyone checked the ace on the turn. And with the action checked to him on the river, Phillips led out with a 1.2 million bet, which was called by both players. Phillips’ pocket kings were good, and he was at the 24 million chip mark.

Joe Bishop doubled up two players, leaving himself vulnerable with only 11 players left. Bishop got all his money in with A-3 to David Rheem’s pocket deuces. The A-3-5 flop put Bishop ahead, but the four on the river gave Rheem the wheel and Bishop an 11th-place finish.

Play slowed appreciably and predictably as no one wanted the dubious honor of final-table bubble boy. Dean Hamrick finally swung for the fences and came up short. Tournament Jack Effel announced the final-table participants to thunderous applause, adding “Players, you may now go on your 117-day break! Good night from the World Series of Poker!”

The 2008 WSOP $10,000 NLHE World Championship Final Table:

Dennis Phillips 53, St. Louis, Missouri, 26,295,000
Ivan Demidov, 27, Moscow, Russia, 24,400,000
Scott Montgomery, 26, Perth, Ontario, Canada, 19,690,000
Peter Eastgate, 22, Odense, Denmark, 18,375,000
Ylon Schwartz, 38, Brooklyn, New York, 12,525,000
Darus Suharto, 39, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, 12,520,000
David Rheem, 28, Los Angeles, California, 10,230,000
Craig Marquis, 23, Arlington, Texas, 10,210,000
Kelly Kim, 31, Whittier, California, 2,620,000