Better late than never, Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Atlantic City has joined the New Jersey sports betting party. Property officials confirmed Saturday the start of a “soft-play” testing of equipment and systems for the provision of wagering services.

The New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement gave the Boardwalk property the green light to commence the required testing period late on Friday, news outlets report.

Hard Rock now accepts bets on the HardRockSports.com website. Bettors who are located within New Jersey’s borders are able to wager on different sports, including football, basketball, hockey, and baseball. The property is preparing its equipment and system for full start of sports gambling operations ahead of next Sunday’s Super Bowl. Hard Rock also hopes to launch its physical sportsbook before the February 3 game that will see the Los Angeles Rams go head to head with the New England Patriots.

Property officials told media outlets that an announcement regarding the in-person sports betting facility at the casino should be expected in the coming days.

Hard Rock is probably the last Atlantic City casino to go live with sports betting. Of the city’s nine operational casinos, Hard Rock and Caesars were the only ones to lag behind and not launch wagering services shortly after the practice became legal in New Jersey. It is believed that Caesars does not plan to start sports betting operations as its gamblers can easily wager at its sister Boardwalk property Bally’s.

Betting Goes Live with a Minor Oopsie!

Although Hard Rock actually commenced online betting operations on Saturday, the first indication that something was going on came Friday night when a press release by its betting partner Gaming Innovation Group announcing the launch of their jointly operated betting website was mistakenly released ahead of time. The Malta-headquartered online gambling group will also power Hard Rock’s physical sportsbook.

Hard Rock is joining a booming betting market that handled more than $1.2 billion in wagers in the period between mid-June, when New Jersey’s first sportsbooks opened doors, and December 31, 2018. The state’s operational sportsbooks and digital betting operations generated revenue of a little over $94 million during that period.

New Jersey was the second state to go live with sports betting following the May 2018 SCOTUS decision that struck down a federal ban on the activity, being outpaced only by Delaware, which launched full-scale wagering services a couple of weeks after the landmark Supreme Court ruling. Five other states have jumped on the betting bandwagon since then and several more are expected to join in in the coming months.

Hard Rock was one of two casino resorts to open doors on the Atlantic City Boardwalk last summer, the other one being Ocean Resort Casino. Florida gaming and hospitality giant Hard Rock International bought the former Trump Taj Mahal in the spring 2017 and invested more than $500 million to transform it into what it is now.

The property managed to establish itself quite quickly as a major player in the New Jersey gambling space, unlike its rival Ocean, which has lagged behind its Boardwalk rivals since day one. News emerged earlier this month that the underperforming property, formerly known as Revel, was sold to a yet-to-be-revealed owner.

More million-dollar pots are on their way and Jason Koon will be leading the way as an ambassador for the Triton Poker Super High Roller Series.

A breakout star on the tour in 2018, Koon has parlayed his four Triton Super High Roller Series final tables into a place on the team. Acting as a figurehead for the emerging brand, the American pro will help raise awareness of poker in Asia.

In tandem with helping to make poker a mainstream activity in countries such as China, Koon will act as a bridge between western high rollers and their Asian counterparts.

Western Ways Win Over Triton Poker Regulars

During his time at the tables in 2018, the Partypoker representative won the affections of Macau’s notoriously elusive businessman. Opting to run a closed shop where only a select few are invited to play, the organizers have often been wary of outsiders.

But by giving as much action as good-natured table talk, the American struck up a rapport with Triton regulars such as Paul Phua.

These relationship have since earned Koon entry to every Triton Poker tournament and cash game in 2019. Moreover, his role as ambassador will open the door for others like him.

Prior to the Triton Super High Roller Series going live in 2015, cash games in Macau were steeped in mystery. Phil Ivey, Tom Dwan and Patrik Antonius were among a handful of westerners invited to play.

Fast-forward to 2018 and the games have not only opened up to more players but made compelling viewing for poker fans. From Dwan losing a $2.35 million pot (see video above) to Koon scooping $2.26 million, the games have captured the community’s imagination.

With the proverbial cat out of the bag, the Asian tour is set to return. Kicking off on March 2 inside the Marriot Resort Landing Casino, Jeju Island, the first event will feature six high stakes tournaments.

Another round of high stakes cash games is also scheduled to take place with Koon likely to be one of the main players fighting for seven-figure pots.

Jason Koon Continues to Impress

For the young America, becoming part of the Triton Poker team is yet another feather in his cap. As well as representing Partypoker, Koon was recently drafted by the Poker Alliance.

Working alongside Daniel Negreanu and Maria Ho, Koon is part of the lobbyist group’s Advisory Board. Helping the fight for regulated poker in the US, the Advisory Board now has a greater significance following the recent Department of Justice (DOJ) opinion on the Wire Act.

For Koon, representing three different organizations is not only a testament to his rise to prominence but a chance to affect real change for the poker community.

An alleged illegal gambling operation positioned in North Phoenix metro was closed down by the Arizona Department of Gaming.

According to a press release of the Department of gaming, a couple of days earlier, police robbed as well as looked Toso’s Sports Bar and Grill and Real Poker in Phoenix in an activity commissioned by the Arizona Department of Gaming. The raid warrant came as a result of a seven-month-long examination of the Division under suspicions that unlawful betting procedure has actually been happening at the above mentioned area.

As seen on a flier offered by investigators, business, located near the I-17 and Union Hills Drive, has been promoting itself as a gambling and also social club which solutions were supplied to “members only”.

As exposed by authorities, the supposedly prohibited gambling equipments were taken by police officers together with the proceeds. Additionally, numerous suspects can also encounter fees of a class-five felony crime, which might consist of illegal control of a gambling center, promotion as well as taking advantage of gambling activities, in addition to illegal ownership of a gaming device.

The seized illegal gambling devices and wagering earnings are to be submitted as proof to the pending costs at the state Attorney general of the United States’s Workplace.

Arizona Department of Gaming Ensures Gaming Compacts Are Not Violated

The Arizona Division of Gaming’s acting supervisor James Ashley stated in a news release that the Department continues to be concentrated on appropriate guideline of the local gambling sector, safeguarding the general public and making certain that the Video gaming Compacts tattooed between the state and the regional Indian tribesare complied with.

Mr. Ashley even more shared that business owners who are discovered to be offering illegal gambling tasks in their premises will certainly deal with criminal examination and can be stripped of their alcohol as well as various other service running licenses.

For time now, betting advocates have actually been attempting to broaden the state’s governing structure regarding betting. Nevertheless, for the time being, these attempts face the strong opposition of Arizona’s gaming people that have elevated their voices versus the recommended adjustments, declaring they violate their video gaming compacts with the state. Under the deal, the local Indian tribes are provided with the prerogative to operate as well as provide casino-style betting in return to a share of their betting earnings.

At the end of 2018, a piece of regulation was submitted by a state legislator for the 2019 legislative session, with the costs seeking to expand lawful gaming operations in Arizona by lifting the ban on state-run Keno. According to the enroller of the proposed costs, the gaming growth would assist the state obtain more cash for its coffers without always elevating tax obligations.

Formerly, another expense seeking to legalize Keno stopped working after the Navajo Nation opposed, saying that the recommended piece of regulations breached its pc gaming portable with the state.

It looks like it’s game on in the partypoker/PokerStars battle for top dog in the online world, PokerStars announcing a cut-price Sunday Millions buy-in as they attempt to drag players back from their rivals!

By: Andrew Burnett

The Sunday Millions on PokerStars has become something of an institution for players and the Red Spade site alike, but now the buy-in has been cut from $215 to just $109, with the guarantee remaining at $1million.

The past year or two has seen partypoker offering amazing online tournaments and live events to rival the best out there, and it was probably only a matter of time before PokerStars had to indulge in a ‘supermarket wars’-style approach – the Sunday Million action perhaps the first blow.

With the buy-in change being permanent, the poker community is abuzz with excitement at what this will mean for players – and the site – with PokerStars needing to draw in 10,000 players to meet their guarantee.

Questions are already being asked about whether the top prizes will remain the same or not (usually $100k+ to the winner) or whether a flatter payout structure will appear.

Since its inception 13 years ago, the $215 has been the go-to Sunday biggie for many of the world’s leading online players, and a ton of regs and recs alike.

However, with partypoker breathing down their necks with their own Super Sunday special and a never-ending supply of other series’ for players to jump into at the weekend, it seems that PokerStars have decided to up the ante a little.

The Sunday Million will still be the only tournament offering a weekly $1million guarantee – and PokerStars will be taking an extra bit of rake from the newly-designed buy-in if they hit their targets – but they’ll have to hope the permanent nature is reflected in players permanently turning out in huge numbers.

With some of the prestige value gone – or perhaps diluted – by the unexpected changes to the Sunday Million, that may not be as easy as it looks on paper.

Life has actually thrown a lot of obstacles at Jason Young over the previous several years. However a few nights back, it gave him the opportunity to win a major online poker title and also the player recorded that possibility to outlive the substantial area of the WPTDeepStacks Hollywood and collect $263,205 for his initiatives.

The competition took place at Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Hollywood, Florida. It drew nearly record participation, with 1,634 entries paying the $1,100 buy-in to get in the occasion. He WPTDeepStacks Hollywood was the second largest Main Event in the history of the prominent casino poker collection.

The gigantic field produced a reward pool of $1,584,980 that was dispersed in payouts for the top 205 finishers, min-cashes starting from $1,695. After five days of play, Young entered the event’s official last table as the chip leader with a strong pile and also a comfortable advantage over his staying opponents.

Final table action unfolded in the best feasible means for the eventual champ. The gamer never relinquished his leading placement in the chip counts graph up until heads-up.

Each of the 9 last tablists was ensured a min-cash of $26,025. Stephen Ibrahim scooped that minimal payment for his ninth-place coating. Swirl Sabat won $34,125 for completing eighth in the competition. He was complied with by Quinn Bruno, Pedro Aldave, and also Dave Inselberg, who gathered $43,930, $53,785, and $66,760. Kevin Chan and also Paul James Hizer were the alongside leave, taking home $89,000 and $119,820, respectively.

That left it to Leif Force and also Jason Youthful to fight it out for the title as well as the first-place prize.

Heads-Up

The heads-up match was a short but action-packed fight that saw Young shed his chip lead as well as climb up back to declare the title as well as the going along with six-figure payment. Throughout the brief minutes of the battle, Pressure handled to weaken his challenger for a very brief while. Nonetheless, the player could not keep his momentum and ultimately needed to go for the second-place reward of $183,540.

As for Youthful, he scooped the event trophy as well as the $263,205 top reward, which also consists of a $3,000 seat right into the season-ending WPTDeepStacks Champion.

Youthful, who comes from New York yet currently stays in Delray Beach, Florida, won a gold bracelet from the 2008 version of the World Collection of Poker. He after that concentrated his attention on other life quests and also had to desert online poker for a while. Youthful has actually opened up a dining establishment and also has been raising his child all by himself so he hasn’t had much time to play online poker the method he utilized to.

Nonetheless, with his recent accomplishment in the WPTDeepStack Hollywood, the gamer stated he wants to come back as well as “placed in more volume” as he would certainly do back then.

If Ari Engel missed winning an Aussie Millions title in the Mix Max event 3 years back, the Canadian pro more than made up for it by taking down the same occasion at the continuous 2019 Aussie Millions series!

Engel appeared all weapons blazing at the 5th event of the collection that pulled in 284 entrances and also was played with 3 various styles at different phases– complete ring, six-max as well as ultimately heads-up. In the last suit of the eight-player heads-up bracket, Engel defeated Charlie Hawes to win his second Aussie Many millions ring and A$ 65,400 in cash prize.

Aussie Millions has in Engel’s own words, proved to be, ”by far his most profitable venue in the world to play.” He had, in 2016 won his first Aussie Millions title in the A$10,600 NLHE Main Event (A$1,600,000).

“I mean obviously it’s just because of one tournament, but why would I not come back?” 

Engel said. “Just being at the Crown there’s automatically a sense of deja vu. It feels good, but I’m too tired to feel much.”

“Charlie played really well. There’s a good chance if the cards were reversed he would have won,” Engel said, talking about his heads-up opponent, Hawes. When only Engel and Hawes remained in the field, the duo had discussed the possibility of postponing the final match until later, but then decided to go ahead and play down for the title.

The two-day tournament started out as a full-ring tournament but when once the field whittled down to 60 players, the seats were redrawn and play commenced six-handed.

By the time Day 1 concluded, only 35 were left standing with Engel leading the lot with close to 200,000 in chips.

Usman Siddique, Russell Thomas, Jan Suchanek, Jesse Sylvia, Jack Sinclair, Maria Lampropulos, and Shootout Champion Justin Liberto, sadly didn’t find bags to carry forward.

Day 2 saw notables like Dzmitry Urbanovich (31st for A($2,330), Kenny Hallaert (32nd for A$2,330), Andreas Klatt(33rd for A$2,330) and Julien Sitbon (35th for A$2,330) hitting the rail early. Later, Marc Macdonnell (14th for A$3,345) and Aymon Hata (13th for A$3,345) were also eliminated.

The six-handed play continued right till only eight finalists remained in contention. The eight-handed play then continued in heads-up format.

The quarterfinal draw of the Shot Clock Shootout was Casey Kastle versus Alex Lee, Jack Salter versus Ari Engel, Charlton Hawes versus Friedrich Martin and Sarah Bilney versus Hwan Park.

Quarter Final Matches  

The first two matches saw upsets as the top two seeds in the heads-up bracket were eliminated.

In the Hwan Park versus Sarah Bilney match, Bilney was shown the door and joined the rail in eighth place.

As the quarter final matches played out between Engel and Jack Salter, it was Engel from the second match who booked his place in the semi-finals, while Salter was eliminated in seventh place.

“He had all the pressure because I was the short stack. I got it in bad first hand and doubled up, and from then on it was kind of a match,” Engel said, about his collision with Salter. “It was really cool to be able to play a guy that play High Rollers heads-up and not for too much money at that stage. It was a weird experience!”

With Hawes defeating Friedrich Martin, the latter collected a sixth-place payout.

Casey Kastle had started off as the biggest stack among the eight finalists, i.e. 706,000 and his match with Lee turned out to be the longest, as Kastle was eliminated by Lee in fifth place.

The final four contenders namely Lee, Engel, Hawes and Park sailed into the semi-finals.

Semi-Final Match Chip Counts

Here’s a look at the semi-finals bracket:

Semi-Final Matches

In the semi-finals, Engel quickly won his heads-up match to eliminate Hwan Park in fourth place. The second match, between Alex Lee and Hwan Park took considerably longer and eventually, Hawes called an all-in move from Lee on the river with top pair. Lee turned over a rivered pair but it wasn’t enough to keep him in the tournament. 

Final Heads-Up

Ari Engel entered the heads-up clash with Charlie Hawes very close in chips. The match got underway late at night, and culminated with Engel pocketing the title, along with his second Aussie Millions ANTON Championship ring.

An exhausted but ecstatic Engel said after the match, “I feel really good here. I have friends here railing so it’s really good.” 

Aussie Millions A$1,150 Mix Max Final Table Results

Images & Content courtesy: PokerNews/crownmelbourne.com.au

Keep following PokerGuru for more updates from the 2019 Aussie Millions!

The 2019 Aussie Millions is underway, and also the very first high roller event of the collection begins Friday in the land of Joe Hachem.

That tournament is the $25,000 Obstacle, a two-day event that will certainly attract some hefty players. Likewise, on January 27, a $50,000 Obstacle is arranged, the biggest buy-in event of the series.

Crown Casino in Melbourne, Australia is hosting this yearly series previously referred to as the Australian Poker Championship.

From Bahamas to Australia

Several poker players went straight from the Bahamas to Australia. With the 2019 PCA completed, the poker world currently changes to the Land Down Under. And there aren’t lots of better place in the world to be today than Melbourne.

The 10-day projection, according to Weather.com, calls for temperatures in the 70’s and 80’s for a lot of the upcoming week. Positive weather condition makes this journey appealing to many poker pros, specifically those that live in winter months climates. It’s summer time in Australia.

Friday, however, could be a great day to remain inside with temps projected to go beyond 100 degrees. If you have $25,000 to extra, the first high-stakes gambler of the collection need to be attracting.

And then if you have one more $50,000 lying about, the $50,000 Challenge starts Sunday.

Aussie Millions History

Yet the most essential tournament of the series is the $10,600 Main Event, which likewise kicks off Sunday. This event has actually become one of the largest poker tournaments on the planet yearly.

The very first Australian Poker Champion Main Event was hosted in 1998 as a $1,000 buy-in. Alex Horowitz, an Australian, won the 74-player area for $25,900. Since then, well, let’s simply claim the tournament has changed.

Last year’s champion, Toby Lewis, defeated an 800-player area in what is currently a $10,600 buy-in event. He won $1.46 million, which is the 2nd lowest for an Aussie Millions champ because 2006.

Some terrific players have won the Main Event such as Gus Hansen (2006) as well as Ari Engel (2014 ). Lewis is also rather a skilled pro. He has $5.2 million in lifetime event incomes. Last week, he gurgled the WPT Gardens Poker Championship last table (7th area for $85,270). And in February, just weeks after shipping the Aussie Millions, he finished runner-up in the WPT L.A. Poker Standard ($600,630).

Aussie Millions high-stakes victors throughout the years has actually included John Juanda, Erik Seidel, and also Howard Lederer. Phil Ivey could be the top high roller in series background. He scooped the no longer current $250,000 Challenge 3 of its six years (2012, 2014, 2015).

Who will be the huge victor this year? We’ll discover over the next couple of weeks.

Scott Baumstein started his 2018 with a major win at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Hollywood, Florida in the WPTDeepStacks Hollywood Main Event. Baumstein outlasted a field of 1,366 entries to win $223,238 and collected 1,200 WPTDS Player of the Year points in the process. The win, coupled with two more cashes, gave Baumstein 1,350 points on the campaign and he finished the season as the WTPDS Player of the Year.

For his efforts during the calendar year, Baumstein collected a $20,000 WPT passport, good for buy-ins across WPT Main Tour, WPTDeepStacks, and WPT500 events from January 2019 to April 2020.

This year’s WPTDeepStacks Player of the Year race kicks off once again at the Seminole Hard Rock. Players this year can expect to see similar prizes up for grabs when the current season ends in May 2020 in Thunder Valley.

The WPTDS POY package includes a $10,000 passport to be used at global WPT events along with up to four nights of accommodation at select WPTDS properties. Second place in the WPTDS Player of the Year standings earns a $3,500 passport and third place takes home a $1,500 passport.

For the next year and a half, Baumstein is the WPTDeepStacks Player of the Year and started his title defense at the Seminole Hard Rock this season.

Congratulations to Scott Baumstien!