May 17, 2012
It was an interesting week in the world of tournament poker. Even though there were no WPT or EPT events on the schedule there was still plenty of action taking place at a variety of stops around the globe, and poker pros continued to dominate with names like Deeb, Serock, and Glazier all picking up big wins. Here is a look at some of the tournament results you may have missed over the past week: [more]

May 16, 2012
Toby Maguire, who is best known for his role of Spiderman in that comic strip film franchise, has fully settled with victims in a highly publicized ponzi scheme involving Hollywood underground high stakes poker games.

A hedge fund manager named Bradley Ruderman is currently in prison for operating the ponzi scheme, defrauding a number of clients. He has admitted to losing $5.2 million at the poker tables in the past. Maguire and other celebrities were known to have taken part in the games. [more]

May 15, 2012
The 2012 running of the PokerStars SCOOP (Spring Championship of Online Poker) tournament series has been wild so far, with a number of online poker players dominating the early tournaments, including the impressive run by Viktor “Isildur1” Blom, where the Team PokerStars Pro won back-to-back SCOOP tournaments, capturing Event #2 and Event #3, and over $400k in the process. [more]

May 14, 2012
There are at least two more known competitors in the $1,000,000 buy-in Big One for OneDrop poker tournament that will take place during the 2012 World Series of Poker: Sam Trickett and Andrew Robl. The duo announced that they would be playing in the prestigious, and incredibly exclusive, poker tournament via their Twitter accounts:

Samtrickett1: “Just sent my form off to register for the $1m buy inn tournament.Now im excited for the WSOP………..” May 08 2012 [more]

May 13, 2012
MGM Resorts International is looking to release its first online casino game next month (June 2012).

Chairman James Murren referred to the game as “Casino Mogul”, however, partners of the firm have not decided on an official name as of yet.

“Internet gaming is here!” Murren declared at the 19th annual Southern Gaming Summit.

Of course, Internet gaming for many has been around for the better part of 15 years but MGM has yet to take the bull by the horns. But this year, the state of Nevada finally passed a law regulating intrastate online gambling. Murren hopes federal legislation will be passed in the not-so-distant future.

“It is better at every level than a state-by-state solution,” he said. “You can more accurately regulate, enforce, tax. You can have a better crime prevention component to it.”

“It will be here this year,” Murren said of Internet gaming. “It won’t be here likely at a federal level because the federal government is doing what they are best at ˜ nothing at all.

“It will be done at a state-by-state level and we will be actively engaged.”

The odds of federal legislation being passed remain slim, according to Murren.

“And if it isn‚t happening don’t blame Sen. (Harry) Reid,” Murren said. “Blame the House Republicans. That‚s where it is being held up.”

- Aaron Goldstein