In Other Poker News…

This week the WSOP Final Table, Partouche scandal, and many ongoing series and tours have dominated the news, but it’s been a busy week for poker in virtually every venue known to man. None of it’s gone unnoticed here at MyPokerBasics, so we wanted to offer our readers a round-up of some of this week’s other poker events that have thus far flown under the radar.

Yesterday we reported on the APT Macau and noted that several of the tournament’s most high profile competitors had already been knocked out of the Main Event. Today the news is that eliminated pros Phil Ivey and John Juanda decided they’d make their money back in the Hard Rock’s public poker room. The action at the No Limit Hold’em tables was so hot that even Tom Dwan – who still had a seat at the Main Event – went into the Day 2 action late rather than leaving the pro-studded ring game. It was the kind of competition you generally only see at a major tournament or on a poker show, and yet the local players held their own. In fact, rumor has it that only Juanda came out significantly ahead.

Don’t feel too bad for Phil Ivey, though. Macau may be putting the hurt on his cash bankroll, but he was doing just fine online Wednesday night. Ivey made a long overdue appearance at sponsoring site Full Tilt’s high stakes tables. After only 48 hands he was up $174,000, most of which came directly from Ilari Ziigmund who ended the night at the other end of the spectrum – down nearly half a million. Ivey is up a around $24,000,000 lifetime on FullTilt and probably a lot more playing poker in Las Vegas. How much he is up playing liver dealer blackjack games is unknown however.

Full Tilt generated some other headlines this week, not for their currently running FTOPS VIII, but for their recent ban on a specific group of players. It’s just another example of how muddled anti-poker legislation continues to affect law-abiding Americans. Following a number of recent funds seizures by the state of Washington, Full Tilt Poker announced yesterday that residents of the state could no longer play at the real money portion of their poker room. PokerStars made a similar announcement earlier in the week, though they will ban Washington players from even the points-only tables.

Finally, further down the West Coast the NAPT Los Angeles stop is two days underway. Thus far into the Day 1 eliminations, the ousted players are more noteworthy than those remaining. Some of the more recognizable players that have already lost their seats include recent WSOP final tabler Soi Nguyen, WSOPE Champion Annette Obrestad, and 2004 WSOP Champion Greg Raymer.

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