Year in Review: Seidel finally wins WPT title

Erik Seidel finally gets a WPT win.

This is the fourth in a 12-part series taking a month-by-month look at what happened with poker in 2008. The series will publish every other day until the end of the year, covering the major happenings from all corners of the poker industry.

Poker had a big year in 2007 as it bounced back from the UIGEA, setting the stage for an even bigger year in 2008. With December now drawing to a close, it's time to take a look back at some of the biggest developments in poker during April.

Tournaments

EPT San Remo

In only his second live tournament, professional online poker player Jason Mercier captured the PokerStars.com European Poker Tour's inaugural stop in San Remo, Italy.

Mercier came into the final table second in chips behind home-turf pro Dario Minieri, but he would eliminate the Italian in third place by cracking his pocket queens with A-4 of diamonds for the nut flush. Two hands later Mercier busted Antony Lellouche to claim the €869,000 first-place prize.

After the final table, Mercier claimed in an interview that he almost hadn't played the event.

"The funny thing is I was thinking of selling my seat back to PokerStars because my friend backed out of coming like three weeks ago. But luckily two of my online friends told me they were coming and I could meet up with them, so I decided to do it."

Foxwoods Poker Classic

Erik Seidel almost began 2008 with a major win, only to be denied at the Aussie Millions by Alexander Kostritsyn. It only took three months - and one of the tour's longest-ever final tables - for him to avenge his Aussie loss by claiming his first WPT title at the Foxwoods Poker Classic.

Seidel entered the TV table with the chip lead, and none of the Full Tilt Poker pro's competitors ever came close to keeping Seidel from the $967,390 first-place prize. Afterward, the eight-time WSOP bracelet winner told reporters that he didn't know where the Foxwoods win ranked among his career victories.

"But it's a big one. I mean, especially because I've really felt the monkey on my back for a long time. I've cashed a lot on the World Poker Tour and I've only been to one final table, so I really feel like a slacker."

WPT Championship

The longest season in the history of the WPT almost came to a close in a script that couldn't have been written any better for Gus Hansen, who won the first-ever event way back in 2002.

Hansen came into the final table with the chip lead and systematically eliminated Jeff King, Tommy Le, Cory Carroll and former NFL punter John Roveto before turning his attention to David Chiu.

Then Chiu turned the tables on Hansen, coming back from a 6-1 chip deficit to claim the $3.3 million first-place prize. In his postgame interview, Chiu said that everything worked out exactly the way he'd planned.

"My strategy was to let Gus do all the hard work and knock everybody else out, and I would just play heads-up with him. I was thinking that if I placed second or third there was still some good money to be had."

EPT Grand Final

Chorny turns satellite seat into EPT win.

Despite a marathon 14-hour final table loaded with well-known names, it was Canada's Glen Chorny who outlasted the competition in Monte Carlo to claim the Season 4 EPT Grand Final, turning a satellite seat into €2,020,000.

Chorny faced off against the likes of Isaac Baron, Luca Pagano, Michael Martin and Denes Kalo. A short-stacked Antonio Esfandiari also came into the final table with hopes of becoming the second player to win the Triple Crown after Gavin Griffin did so in January, but his tournament ended with an early bust-out.

"I was really happy with the way I was playing in the days before the final table so I felt very confident," Chorny said in his winner interview. "There's no better way to feel than how I do right now. I feel like a rock star."

Legal Issues

Washington, D.C.

Two U.S. Congressmen took the UIGEA by its horns throughout the month of April. Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) and Sen. Ron Paul (R-Texas), at the time a presidential candidate, had the UIGEA at the top of their agendas in April.

On April 2 Frank held a hearing before a subcommittee of the House Financial Services Committee titled during which a wide range of voices condemned the law and the collateral damage its regulations would inflict upon other industries.

Wayne Abernathy of the American Bankers Association called the law "an unprecedented delegation of governmental responsibility with no prospect of practical success in exchange for the burden it imposes."

In mid-April, Frank and Paul introduced HR 5767 with the intent of prohibiting the Treasury Department and Federal Reserve from implementing UIGEA regulations.

The two poker-friendly representatives were joined at the end of the month by Reps. Peter King (R-N.Y.) and Luis Gutierrez (D-Ill.) in sending a letter to Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke calling on the two agencies to stop work on implementing the UIGEA.

Washington State

In Washington State, meanwhile, attorney and PPA state director Lee Rousso announced he was giving up his race for the office of governor when a change to the state's primary system dashed his chances of a dark horse win.

Later in the month Rousso did get some good news when Judge Mary E. Roberts granted him a May 15 hearing in his case challenging the state's online gambling ban.

Industry

WPT settles lawsuit

On April 18 World Poker Tour Enterprises, parent company of the WPT, announced it had settled a long-standing lawsuit filed against it by a group of professional poker players including Howard Lederer, Annie Duke, Chris Ferguson, Andy Bloch and Phil Gordon.

The dispute centered on the WPT's player release form, which the players said required them to waive the rights to their own images for product promotion. WPTE agreed in the settlement on a new release form that was acceptable to all parties.

"We are glad to put this dispute behind us, and we look forward to working with all players to grow the sport of poker," said Steve Lipscomb, WPTE founder and CEO.

Ferguson, speaking for the players, said they were pleased with the outcome of the lawsuit.

"We are especially happy that this new release will apply to all poker players who wish to participate in WPT tournaments and events. WPTE has created some of the best poker events in the world, and we are excited to participate in them once again."

Bodog founder steps down

Ayre steps down from Bodog throne.

Calvin Ayre, the Canadian multimillionaire who founded online poker room Bodog Poker's parent company in 1994, announced in late April that he would step down as CEO of the company.

"While it has been great fun to live my life in front of the world's cameras and online though my blog, I am looking forward to a more private and meaningful period of giving back and working to support the Calvin Ayre Foundation," Ayre said.

Media

Poker on the small screen

With the WSOP drawing nearer, Europeans itching for poker on television were able to get a solid fix. Sky Sports gave the 2007 WSOP Europe the royal treatment in late April, broadcasting the WSOP's inaugural European Main Event on three channels over the course of eight consecutive nights from April 21-28.

Those tuning in got to see in-depth coverage of then-18-year-old Annette Obrestad make a run through the event, capping it with a heads-up victory over John Tabatabai to become the youngest bracelet winner in WSOP history.

... and on the big screen

The film industry has been trying to get poker right again ever since Rounders went over so well in 1998. The quotable Matt Damon drama touched a nerve with the same generation that would start playing online poker in the wake of Chris Moneymaker's win, but the flicks that have followed have been a mixed lot at best.

Director Zak Penn's The Grand, a freeform improvisational mockumentary centering around a fictional WSOP-like poker tournament, barely did $100,000 at the box office when it opened in March. But the shoestring-budget comedy starring Woody Harrelson, David Cross and Cheryl Hines fared relatively well with critics.

The poker drama Deal, starring Burt Reynolds as an aging poker pro, was shot down like an all-in bluff by film critics.

The Chicago Tribune's Michael Phillips summed up the film in his review with backhanded praise for Reynolds: "Moving slowly these days, Reynolds does less than no acting in this role, and he's still the best thing in Deal."

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Check back on Wednesday, when May will be the star of PL.com's continuing year-end wrap-up.

Related Articles:

• Year in Review: Tourney, legal action heat up
• Year in Review: Ivey, Black rack up big wins
• Year in Review: ElkY pounds PCA in Jan.