Author Jennifer Newell details the poker week in review, touching on live poker events and online poker news

Poker to the Point: Week ending February 3

Allow us to present a weekly round-up of poker news. Players, fans, executives, and any other interested party can follow our Monday column to catch up on the previous week of action, from live tournaments around the world to legislative happenings in the United States, all quick and to the point. Let's go.

Live Tournament Circuit

The World Poker Tour was at the Borgata over the past week for the main event of the Borgata Winter Poker Open series. Early events showcased players like Allen Kessler, Ting Ho, Jeffrey Papola, and Brian Lemke in the winner's circle. The WPT Main Event offered a $3,500 buy-in with reentries and a $2 million guarantee, and the field grew to 1,042 entries for an actual prize pool of $3,335,442. The top 100 players were paid, and the final table results were:

1st place: Andy Hwang ($730,053)
2nd place: James Anderson ($438,698)
3rd place: Mike Gogliormella ($265,475)
4th place: Matt Haugen ($222,336)
5th place: Jeremy Druckman ($182,514)
6th place: Matt Salsberg ($147,671)

Las Vegas' Caesars Palace played host to the NBC National Heads-Up Poker Championship, a 64-player invitational heads-up tournament filmed for television and requiring a $25K buy-in. The field originally consisted of players from Doyle Brunson to Jennifer Tilly, but the final match-up found Phil Hellmuth pitted against Mike Matusow. The best-of-three final round resulted in Matusow hoisting the trophy and pocketing $750K.

In Melbourne, Australia, the Crown Casino hosted its annual Aussie Millions series, which consisted of multiple preliminary events, two high roller challenges, and a main event. The first of the high rollers was the $100K Challenge, which drew 21 entries and a $2,167,000 prize pool. Dan Shak finished fourth, followed by Masa Kagawa, and Igor Kurganov fell to Andrew Robl, the latter of whom won $1 million. Later in the series, the $250K Challenge had 18 entries and a $4.5 million prize pool. Igor Kurganov took fourth as the first player to cash, Fabian Quoss took third, and Sam Trickett defeated Tobias Reinkemeier in the heads-up battle. Trickett won $2 million. The Aussie Millions $10K Main Event drew in 629 players for a $6.29 million prize pool, out of which the top 64 players were paid. The final table played out as follows:

1st place: Mervin Chan ($1,600,000)
2nd place: Joseph Cabret ($1,000,000)
3rd place: Patrik Antonius ($600,000)
4th place: Dan Shak ($400,000)
5th place: Jarrod Glennon ($290,000)
6th place: David Yan ($220,000)
7th place: Jay Tan ($150,000)

The European Poker Tour arrived at Deauville, France, and teamed up with the France Poker Series for a festival of sorts. The FPS Main Event drew 828 players and a €794,880 prize pool, and Patrick Braga of Canada won it for €165K. The EPT Main Event is currently underway with an undetermined prize pool at the time of this post.

In Tunica, Mississippi, the World Series of Poker Circuit Main Event has reached the final table at the Harrah's property. Of the series, the Main Event offered a $1,675 buy-in NLHE event that attracted 666 players for a prize pool of $999,000. The top 72 players were in the money, and the final table is set to play out later today with $204,795 reserved for the winner.

Global Online Poker News

Full Tilt Poker was in the news as it became public knowledge that former company Pocket Kings appointed a liquidator for all remaining assets. Former part-owner Chris Ferguson is reported to be in talks with the Department of Justice to settle his civil complaint as Howard Lederer and Rafe Furst have done. US Attorney Preet Bharara has until February 19 to respond to Ferguson's motion to dismiss due to the ongoing discussions. The newly relaunched Full Tilt Poker was showing solid traffic, and despite being in third place behind PartyPoker, FTP showed momentum and the potential to be a true second place contender. PokerStars is also doing its part to help FTP by offering ring game tickets to players who link their accounts on the two sites.

PokerStars, meanwhile, continues to wait for approval to purchase the Atlantic Club Casino Hotel in Atlantic City, New Jersey. The casino owners threatened to deliver 1,729 pink slips to employees if the deal does not go through, and all eyes are on State Governor Chris Christie to sign the pending online gambling bill, which would likely be the stamp of approval for the casino deal. Said bill has a deadline of today for Christie to veto, sign, or leave alone to pass without signature. He also has the option of a conditional veto to send back to the legislature with recommended changes.

Other states in America are flirting with online gambling. Iowa's State Senate Study Bill 1068 was introduced to the State Government Committee, and it is another attempt to study the potential of Internet poker regulations. Last year's bill passed the Senate but died in the House. Pennsylvania's Rep. Tina Davis announced plans for an online poker legalization bill that she intends to submit to the state legislature. Internet gaming licenses would cost $16.7 million and the state could generate billions in revenue and tens of thousands of jobs. Hawaiian senators made another proposal for online gambling after a failed 2012 attempt. The bill looks to regulate the Internet gambling of its residents as overseen by the Hawaii Internet Lottery and Gaming Corporation.

Delaware, which passed an intrastate online gambling bill in mid-2012, has issued a request for bids from companies who are interested in offering the technology platform and operations services for the system. The Delaware State Lottery is overseeing the process and hopes to have the online gambling system available to customers by September 2013.

Nevada Online Poker News

As the Nevada legislature starts a new session today, one of the items up for debate is Assembly Bill 5, a proposal to allow the state's governor to authorize interstate online poker. The bill was touted by Governor Brian Sandoval in his State of the State address last month, and it was drafted by the Nevada Gaming Control Board. If passed, it would give Sandoval the power to deal with other governors for the purposes of authorizing online poker between states without federal government approval.

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