Brian Townsend Confesses To Online Poker Multi-Accounting

American professional poker player Brian Townsend came clean Tuesday, confirming the growing suspicions of many poker fans by confessing in a blog post that he was in fact guilty of multi-accounting at two of the most prominent online poker rooms in the industry, PokerStars and Full Tilt Poker.

Townsend, currently one of the top instructors of poker video tutorials at CardRunner.com, admitted to using two identities at PokerStars – his usual name “aba20”, with which he is known to be Brian Townsend and participated in higher stakes games, plus “Makersmark66”, Townsend’s lower stakes username.

In March of 2008, Brian Townsend dropped his known nickname at Full Tilt Poker, “sbrugby”, and became a Red Pro instead, using his real name “Brian Townsend” to play at the online poker room. According to his blog admission, Townsend was also playing under the nickname “Stellarnebula”.

In recent years, the discovery of multi-accounting – a practice that is strictly forbidden by PokerStars and Full Tilt Poker, as well as every other respectable poker site – has caused several scandals in the online poker industry.

Full Tilt Poker has already handed down punishment to Brian for his iniquitous actions. Townsend has been suspended from Red Pro status at Full Tilt Poker for the next 6 months. PokerStars, on the other hand, has yet to comment on the matter.

In Townsend’s public ‘blogged’ apology, he affirmed that he never abused his multi-accounts for collusion purposes, seating both in the same tournament or cash game. Allegations nor evidence of that sort were ever brought up, and Townsend is adamant that he has not participated in such activities.

In concluding his apology, Brian Townsend stated, “I hope that people can not only look to me for poker education but also for the way to live their lives. I made a mistake and I am willing to take responsibility for it. I am willing to stand up and face the music. I apologize to entire the online community. I will never partake in this type of activity in the future. This post should act as a full admission of my guilt, and I sincerely apologize to anyone that I’ve wronged.”

Townsend made the decision to come clean after speaking at length with Cardrunners COO Lee Jones, former PokerStars manager and EPT host. Knowing his actions were not that of a true professional poker player – who should be a role model, not a red mark on the reputation of the poker community – Townsend has gone a step farther than apologizing by reprimanding himself with a hefty fine. Townsend will be donating $25,000 from his Cardrunners earnings to a yet-to-be-determined charity.

Final Six Convene Today for World Poker Tour Legends

Oh, how the mighty have fallen. The excitement in the poker world was high this week as several top pros made it deep in the World Poker Tour Legends of Poker at the Bicycle Casino in Los Angeles this week.

However, as the final three tables whittled their way down to the final six who will return today for the televised final table, pro and pro fell by the wayside leaving Amit Makhija as the chip leader and John Phan as the most recognizable name at the table.

When play gets underway today at 4 p.m., the players heading back into action will be:

• Amit Makhija, $3.225 million
• John Phan, $2.415 million
• Zach Clark, $2.025 million
• Kyle Wilson, $1.425 million
• Paul Smith, $1.130 million
• Trong Nguyen, $980,000

Layne Flack just missed out on making the televised final table as he went out in eighth place. He was taken out by John Phan, who pretty much solidified his spot at the final table with Flack’s bustification.

Phan had made it $110,000 to go pre-flop, and Flack reraised it up to $360,000.

Some of the other players who made it all the way down to the final three tables but couldn’t quite make it to the final were Allen Cunningham, Maria Ho and Lee Markholt.

The final table today, however, could be quite interesting as Phan looks to add another win to cap off his summer of poker. He walked away with two World Series of Poker bracelets this year and has a couple of final tables at WPT events from this summer as well.

Phan still has to get past Amit Makhija, who has nearly $1 million in chips more than him. Plus, Makhija has an online poker reputation to back up his play and a pretty serious desire to win.

“I’m just trying to play for first place. I want the title,” Makhija said in on of his interviews. “I want the win. It will be a real big accomplishment for me.”

Online Poker Rights Defended Well by Ben Affleck

Poker made a public splash at the Democratic Party Convention in Denver as a charity tournament drew stars and celebrities to play, and raised over $60,000 for the Paralyzed Veterans of America. Actor-director Ben Affleck was the most recognizable face in a crowd of famous participants, and Affleck succeeded in outlasting over a hundred other players to win the tournament.

The tournament was sponsored by the Poker Players Alliance under the motto “Poker is Not a Crime: Join the Fight.” The Alliance paid for playing space at Coors Field, the operating costs including dealers and equipment, and covered the per-person buy-in of $500.

The event was designed to draw attention to the online poker debacle, in which the federal government has persecuted online gambling sites and their owners since the UIGEA was snuck onto a 2006 port security bill. Affleck, Sarah Silverman, Montel Williams, and Richard Dreyfuss were among the players that both supported the worthy cause and gave notice that poker, America’s game, should be left alone by politicians.

Ben Affleck, who has been rumored for years to be contemplating a political career, showed through his actions his sympathy lies with poker enthusiasts whose game has been attacked by close-minded religious demagogues.

Democrats have been given an opportunity to attract large groups of disenchanted Republicans following the reinstatement yesterday in the Republican platform of wording that condemns online wagering. Hundreds of poker players naming themselves core Republicans had written on the platform website of their desire to see the party honor its commitment to individual liberty and remove language asking for a ban on Internet gambling, and the party responded for a few hours by striking the clause.

But Republican officials reacted quickly to protests by radical special-interest groups, and alienated thousands of voters with the return of the passage. Democrats could draw strongly from this disaffected voting block by following Affleck’s example and embracing poker and its fans.

Titan Poker Hits $7,000,000 Mark In SNG Jackpot Payouts

Titan Poker, the pride and joy of the iPoker Network, happily announced today the pay out of more than $7,000,000 in Sit’n’Go Tournament Jackpot prizes.

Titan Poker was launched in 2005, and it wasn’t long before the online poker room introduced its now famous Sit’n’Go jackpot tournaments. Since that time, the popularity of these tournaments has grown enormously.

Robin Steel, manager of Titan Poker, commented on the inspiring growth of Titan Poker and its SNG tournaments. “This shows that Titan Poker’s jackpot tournaments are very popular, and
are continuing to grow at a fast rate.”

Titan Poker offers 4 SNG Progressive Jackpot tournaments – the Fort Knox, the Rio, the Maui and the Dirty Dozens. The favorite, by far, is the Fort Knox, with the highest Sit’n’Go Progressive Jackpot, starting at $50,000. The buy-in at a Fort Knox 6-seater SNG is $50+$9. Any player who manages to win 6 of these tournaments in a row will release the jackpot of $50k, which continues growing until a jackpot winner is revealed.

The Rio SNG Progressive Jackpot starts at $25,000. Also a 6-seater Sit’n’Go, the buy-in for the Rio SNG is $20+$3.50. Again, 6 wins in a row releases the $25k+ progressive jackpot.

The Maui SNG Jackpot is also a progressive, starting at $15k. The buy-in is only $5+$1, entertaining a full table of 10 players. Since there are more participants, you’ll only need to win 5 of these Maui SNGs in a row to release the jackpot.

Last is the Dirty Dozens SNG Jackpots, with a buy-in of $2+$.40 and two 6-seater tables (12 players). The progressive jackpot starts at $2,000, requiring 4 wins in a row to release the jackpot.

With more than $7,000,000 awarded thus far in Titan Poker’s progressive jackpot Sit’n’Go tournaments, it’s no wonder they continue to draw such large numbers.

Legends of Poker Q&A – Amit Makhija

Makhija Talks About His Rise from a Short Stack Today and His Tough Opponents

Amit Makhija is known online as “AMAK316,” where he has won $352,265 in online tournaments. His live winnings have climbed to match that amount during 2008 ($354,903), as he has cashed a total of seven times in the first eight months of the year on the tournament trail. His largest cash came in the $10,000 pot-limit hold’em world championship that opened the World Series of Poker this summer when he made the final table and busted in fifth place ($198,528). He also finished in 20th place in the European Poker Tour Grand Final in April and took home $73,205. Those are his two largest cashes, to date, and Makhija definitely has his eyes set on the $1,091,428 first-place prize that will go to the winner at the WPT Legends of Poker here in Southern California on Thursday. He started the day low, but as you will read below, that did not dampen his spirits.

Ryan Lucchesi: You started the day with just 11,000 and then grew that to 70,000 before the previous break. Now you have over 100,000. Tell me about how you grew your stack throughout the day.

Amit Makhija: In the first orbit I doubled up with kings against A-Q. After that it was pretty smooth, and then I bluffed off half of my stack, and it was just terrible. I picked up a few pots and then re-stole a couple of times, and then I got aces vs. A-Q preflop, and those held. Then I had a bunch [of chips], and then the very next hand, the same guy that I doubled through tilt-shoved over one of Isaac Baron’s raises, and I isolated with jacks and Isaac folded. [My opponent] had K-Q suited, and then the flop came out king high, and I runner-runnered a straight with my jacks, and that put me up pretty good to like 80,000. Recently, I just played hand against some guy who was kind of playing back at me all day, and I raised preflop at 600-1,200 [blinds] to 3,200 and he made it 11,000, and I shoved for … he had about 40,000, so I shoved for 40,000. He tanked and called with sevens, but my nines held up, and I put some chips together. That’s pretty much how my day has been.

RL: What was your mindset this morning coming in with just 11,000?

AM: It was kind of depressing having one-third of the starting stack coming into the morning, but I’ve played that kind of stack all of the time online. A short stack is not that hard, and it was still 25 big blinds. So, I wasn’t going to panic and I was going to be patient and wait for a good spot, and I was lucky to find a couple, and my hands held up and it’s been pretty smooth.

RL: How big of a help is it to get the practice playing with a short stack online for when you have to deal with it in $10,000 buy-in live tournaments?

AM: I see one of the biggest leaks that a lot of people who play only live have is that when they get really short they just start shipping their chips in and they get pretty impatient and they don’t know how to play the short stack well. I feel like that is one of the advantages that online players have.

RL: Has your live tournament success this year, with seven cashes total, including your deep finish at the EPT Grand Final and WSOP final-table appearance, inspired you to play more live tournaments in search of your first major victory?

AM: I have just been playing live for a little while and I have cashed in most of my bigger buys-ins, so I have been running really hot. That’s been good … I feel like I’m ready to win one of these. I’ve been close a few times; Monte Carlo was really painful going out 20th, being close to such a big cash. That was my first deep run in a major.

RL: Did you use August to work on certain aspects of your poker game or just relax?

AM: I actually didn’t play any tournaments online or live during August. I got better at cash games; I was playing a lot of cash games. But most of the time, I was just taking it easy. I got a personal trainer and tried to get into shape a little bit and just tried to stay away from poker, and get into a better schedule.

RL: What part of your cash game strategy were you trying to brush up on?

AM: Mostly heads up, I’ve been watching training videos online and trying to get good at heads up cash. It’s been going pretty well, actually, and I had one of my better months of the year in August after the Series.

RL: Now that you have reset yourself during August, what events are you looking to play during the last half of the year?

AM: The next few ones are Borgata coming in September, and I’m going to be playing the WCOOP (World Championship of Online Poker) online, which is huge this year, like $30,000 in buy-ins on that. And then I’m going over to Europe and playing the World Series of Poker Europe, and then EPT London. It should be interesting.

RL: One last question about today. You have Isaac Baron in the 5 seat, Jon Friedberg in the 7 seat, and you’re sitting in the 8 seat. How are you approaching those guys with position?

AM: I’m super thankful to have position on both of those guys, because on Saturday Isaac had position on me literally all day, and that kind of sucked, because it made me play really tight, and I didn’t really get anything going with that. With position on them, I know what they’re going to do before, and I know how both of them pretty well. I’ve played hundreds of hands with Isaac, at least, and I think he is the best no-limit hold’em tournament player in the world. He’s really, really good … and he’s just crushed online, and obviously I’m worried about him, but I kind of know his game, more or less. I’m not as worried, I feel like I know what he does in certain situations.

Source: CardPlayer.com

Online Poker Historic Victory in Republican Party

By Craig Henderson

For the first time in over ten years the Republican Party Platform does not include language stating that online gambling should be restricted in the United States. Earlier in the month it was discovered that the Platform did include such language, but a loud outcry by the Poker Players Alliance, along with the rest of the online poker community, has forced the party to remove the nanny-esque language.

On the Republican Party platform site there was a spot for members to leave messages to the party who wanted to comment on issues. Much to the party’s surprise, a majority of the comments came from online poker players.

“I don’t think the Republican party leaders realized how many of their members are online poker players,” said one irate Republican from Florida. “With the language in their platform about banning online poker and gambling they were losing thousands of voters that otherwise would vote Republican without a second thought.”

Another online poker player had this to say: “Taking away online poker may seem like something insignificant to Republicans, but when you take away someone’s hobby that is very significant. I work all week, I don’t go to bars, I don’t do drugs, I hardly have any social life; but on Friday and Saturday night I enjoy playing poker online with the new friends I have made. Although I believe in the majority of Republican party principals, if you take away my only hobby I will not vote for you.”

Greg Raymer, a professional player who won the 2004 World Series of Poker commented as well: “Why has this party, that used to protect my rights, now become the party that wants to create a Nanny-state?”

Although the language was removed the Republican party is still held responsible for adding pork to a must pass Port Security Bill that forced legitimate publicly traded companies out of the US market.

“This is a very small move on their part, but they have quite a bit to make up for before poker players forgive them,” said Joe Granger from West Palm Beach.

How Much Italians Spend Playing Online Poker Today?

An average of 600 euros per person!

(Italy).- According to a survey performed by the Consumers Defense and Orientation Association (ADOC), released by Agipronews agency, each Italian citizen spends an average of 600 euros a year playing poker in Internet, which represents a total of 350 million euros.

The same survey revealed that near two million Italian citizens have participated at least once in a game of chance in Internet, and one fourth of them usually play in specialized sites abroad. The release of ADOC study was performed at the same moment than the Italian Parliament prepares to legalize Internet games of chance in the country.

“The mania of online gaming attracts Italian people more and more, as shown by the fact that visits of our compatriots to Internet casinos have increased a 25% in a year. Gambling may become an addiction,” comments ADOC in a press release in which he analyzes the results of the pool.

According to the association, 16,000 Italian citizens may be considered to have gambling problems, which always lose and get into debt, with an average level of debt that ranges between 10,000-12,000 euros but may reach 40,000 euros.