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Top 5 Online Gambling & Poker Moments of 2011
2011 was an eventful year in the online gambling world, and along with everyone else living in the lunar calendar world, we at Gambling City are getting a bit nostalgic as it comes to a close. The good, the bad, the illegal...the last twelve months have seen it all.
And so it is in the spirit of the year's greatest hijinks, high-rollers and people who made us ask "Are you high?" that we look back at 2011. Below, our picks for the "Top 5 Online Gambling Moments of 2011" (and a couple of honorable mentions for good measure).
5) PokerStars Reveals Viktor Blom as the Man Behind the Isildur1 Mask
Pokerstars kicked off 2011 by revealing that the identity of superstar online poker player "Isildur1" was none other than 20-year-old Swedish high-stakes player, Viktor Blom. Prior to the reveal, the "whodunnit" was arguably the worst kept secret in the poker world - next to no one blinked when the curtain pulled back to expose Blom standing behind it. Blom was signed to Team PokerStars Pro but struggled, in the first few weeks appearing as himself, to gain traction and turn a profit.
4) Epic Poker League Launches
Also in January, Federated Sports and Gaming and the Palms Casino Resort announced that they had joined forces to produce a new professional poker league that would later be called The Epic Poker League. It would be open only to the top 200 players in the world according to a ranking system employing several criteria. Annie Duke was announced as the league's commissioner with Matt Savage the tournament director.
3) Progressive Jackpot on Beach Life Slots Gets 'Tsunami-sized'
It wasn't the biggest progressive jackpot ever, but it was the biggest in recent history. In fact, it still is. We announced in mid-November that the Beach Life Slots progressive jackpot had reached an astonishing €3.49 million. Three weeks later, at an average growth rate of €52 per minute, that number had jumped to €4.26. As of today, it still hasn't been won and stands at €4.9 million. Participating casinos include Titan Casino and Europa Casino.
2) Poker's "Triple Crown" Knights Two New Players
Summer of 2011 saw the first of two poker players claim the "Triple Crown" of poker titles (WSOP, EPT and WPT wins), with the second following just a few months later.
Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier put this notch on his belt when he defeated a field of 126 players for the WSOP's $10,000 Seven Card Stud World Champ title. He had won the requisite EPT and WPT titles in 2008, first at PokerStars' Caribbean Adventure and then at the Festa Al Lago.
Jake Cody earned the "Triple Crown" title with his $25,000 No-Limit Hold'em Heads-Up win in November of this year. He had already checked off the requisite EPT and WPT victories when he won the Main Event at EPT Deauville and the WPT London, both in 2010.
As yet, no one has earned EPT, WPT and WSOP titles in a single year. For that, we would surely assign the #1 spot on our list.
1) Black Friday: Darkness Descends on Poker Industry
The #1 spot on our list of "Top 5 Online Gambling Moments of 2011" won't surprise anyone, unless of course, you've been living on a deserted island with no internet and only a tin can and string for communication. Black Friday - or as we like to call it "the shutdown that shocked the world" - occurred Friday, April 15, and was followed by a succession of poker blunders, scandals, seizures and arrests.
We won't go into great detail here - as we said, the subject has been sussed out within an inch of insanity - but the jist is this:
The owners of the world's three biggest online poker sites - PokerStars, Full Tilt Poker and Absolute Poker - were arrested and their sites were shut down by the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigations based on allegations that the sites laundered money and defrauded banks in order to avoid U.S. gambling laws. In late June, Full Tilt Poker's license was revoked indefinitely. PokerStars and Absolute Poker did their best to reimburse their players, whose money was tied up in their suspended player accounts, but Full Tilt appeared either unable or unwilling to do so. Controversy ensued and, though the trials of the indicted parties have begun (last week Absolute Poker cofounder, Brett Beckley, became the first of the eleven arrested to plead guilty to charges of bank and wire fraud and breaking U.S. gambling laws), a full resolution in the matter has yet to be reached.
**Honorable Mention
No top-of-anything list would be complete without honorable mention, so here is ours: U.S. state of Nevada becomes first to approve legal online gambling.
This isn't a big deal if you're in say, New Zealand, but it's huge if you're an American player who has been criminalized for playing your favorite online poker game (not to mention shunned by the "moral minority" for even thinking about it).
In truth, its implications are far-reaching. Nevada is likely just the first domino to fall, as a host of other states, among them California, New York and Florida, have long been considering legalizing one or several forms of intrastate gambling. With the unarguable power of the U.S. to export both its good and less good culture, it's only a matter of time before countries waffling on the subject flick their fingers at their own domino and legalize gambling as well.
As part of the legalization deal, online poker sites seeking to serve Nevada players must adhere to several regulatory strictures before receiving a license. If all goes as planned, legal Nevada gambling could be up and running by the end of next year.
So there you have it, Gambling City's picks for "Top 5 Online Gambling Moments of 2011." Our industry may not have shined the brightest this year - at least in April - but it sure as heck was interesting. Here's to another 2011 years of online gambling fun and foibles. Happy New Year!
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