Year in Review: Tourney, legal action heat up

Third time's the charm for Ferguson.

This is the third 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 ugliness of the UIGEA, setting the stage for an even bigger year in 2008. With December drawing to a close, it's time to take a look back at some of the biggest developments in poker during an historic year.

March was the busiest month of early 2008 for major tournaments around the world, but there just as much going on throughout the industry, including on the legal front.

Tournaments

NBC National Heads-Up Poker Championship

NBC's annual poker tournament went off again at Caesars Palace at the beginning of March, and it saw one of poker's best players take home the title once again. Previously a two-time runner-up, Chris Ferguson joined the ranks of Phil Hellmuth, Ted Forrest and Paul Wasicka as heads-up champs when he beat Andy Bloch in the final.

Ferguson said in his interview that he felt blessed to have a shot at the title after finishing in second place twice.

"I thought it would take me years to get another shot at winning this thing," he said.

Bay 101 Shooting Star

In San Jose, Calif., it was Brandon Cantu's time to shine on the WPT. The young gun topped a field of 376 players to win the $1 million first prize in the unique "Shooting Star" tournament.

Cantu's journey to the championship was by no means an easy one; his final-table competition included a lineup including Steve Sung (second), Jennifer Harman (third), John Phan (sixth), J.C. Tran (seventh) and Lee Watkinson (ninth).

The new millionaire was at a loss for words to describe his win. "It's amazing. I don't know what to say. I'm just going to keep saying it was amazing," he in his post-win interview.

EPT Polish Open

In his only career live tournament cash, 40-year-old Michael Schulze of neighboring Germany claimed the title in the first PokerStars.com European Poker Tour event ever held in Poland. Schulze won 2,153,999 PLN ($926,220) for topping a field of 359 players.

His heads-up opponent, Ricardo Sousa, fell just short of becoming Portugal's first major tournament winner, while 2007 Master Classics of Poker champ Trond Eidsvig (eighth) made his third EPT final table of the season.

"I think it's one of the most amazing days in my life. It's not like anything I'll ever do again, in my opinion," Schulze said in his interview. "I'm not a professional; I do it for fun."

WSOPC Circuit - Caesars Palace Atlantic City

"Sheets" picked up a live win to add to all the online poker cash he's earned.

Online tournament veteran Eric "Sheets" Haber topped 277 entrants at Caesars Palace in Atlantic City to claim his first major live tournament title and its first prize of $431,136.

"I really cherish the opportunity to play live because I'm married with kids and I don't get a chance to play very many of these things," Sheets said after his win.

"There's also a certain extra effort you have to put in when you are dealing with real people. To be able to grind it out for days and days and then get to the final table and still be able to make good decisions is an amazing feat. This is what it's all about for me."

Wynn Classic

The Wynn Las Vegas was the site of another March poker redemption song, this time for Chris Moore, who triumphed over a field of 183 players to win the $692,286 first prize at the second annual Wynn Classic.

Moore had finished in third place in this tournament the previous year, but the second time was the charm for him. He outlasted aggressive young WSOP bracelet winner Ryan Young in heads-up play to claim his win.

"When we got to three-handed today I did feel a little bit of pressure. I really didn't want to get third again," Moore said in his post-win interview. "I don't play a ton of $10k events and there's only so many chances you're going to get to have a really big finish. It's so nice to win something like this that even second place would have been disappointing."

Irish Poker Open

Channing changes his luck around in the Irish Poker Open.

The second-oldest poker tournament series in the world added another volume to its annals in March when Neil Channing emerged with the winner's trophy and a first prize of €801,400. A field of 667 players created the €3 million prize pool, one of the richest in European history and one which shattered the €2 million guarantee.

Channing entered the final table with a third of the chips in play and took out half his opponents himself. Just two and a half hours after play had begun, he hoisted the trophy as the latest Irish Open champ.

"I spent the whole night thinking I'd better not f**k this one up, and I came back confident that I should win it. I felt like it would be a surprise to me if I didn't win," Channing said in a postgame interview.

WPT World Poker Challenge

In its final go-round on the WPT Schedule, the Reno World Poker Challenge saw Lee Markholt top a field of 261 players to walk away with his first WPT title and earning $493,815 in the process.

The final-table lineup was a deadly one that included Bryan Devonshire (second) and David Pham (fifth), Michael Mizrachi (seventh), Chau Giang (eighth), and Pat Poels (ninth). Phil Ivey also finished just outside in 10th place.

Markholt told PokerListings that other than being able to play the small-ball style he prefers, having friends and family in the audience was his biggest asset.

"Having them here can be huge," Markholt said. "It's really great to know you have some support, win or lose, but I knew they were on the way."

Industry

PartyPoker CEO steps down

PartyPoker had been the king of online poker before the UIGEA, but the room fell on hard times when it closed its doors to American players. In early March Mitch Garber, PartyGaming CEO, announced he would step down from his post.

Garber had the misfortune of helming the company through a 67% drop after the UIGEA was passed, reason enough for him to decide to relocate his family back to North America.

PokerStars launches LAPT

Welcome LAPT!

While its competitors floundered in the post-UIGEA market, online poker giant PokerStars thrived. It announced it would capitalize on the success of its live European and Asian tours with the launch of the Latin American Poker Tour in early May.

"Poker is exploding in Latin America and the game is more than ready for its own major poker tour," said LAPT President Glenn Cademartori. "In every regard, the LAPT is going to put Latin America on the map as the newest hotspot to play high-stakes international poker."

Legal Issues

Massachusetts targets online poker

In Massachusetts, Governor Deval Patrick pushed a Casino Expansion Bill before the state legislature that included language targeting online poker. The bill called for those playing poker online to be punished by jail terms of up to two years and fines of up to $25,000, while pushing to expand legal, licensed casinos within the state's borders.

The Poker Players Alliance and the Global Poker Strategic Thinking Society joined forces to rally against the bill on March 18.

U.S. settles one net gambling dispute, ignores another

Ripples from the United States government's decision to limit competition for the online gambling market within its borders continued to be felt in March.

In a deal similar to those negotiated with Canada, the European Union and Japan, the U.S. settled its dispute with Costa Rica by opening up markets in research and development, storage, technical testing and analysis to the Central American nation.

Antigua and Barbuda waited for March 31 to hear from the U.S., but Uncle Sam never called. The tiny Caribbean country had won $21 million per year in arbitration over its five-year-old WTO dispute with the United States several months before, and the 31st was the deadline for the U.S. Trade Representative to offer a settlement proposal.

That deadline came and went without any American action, leaving the future of the settlement in doubt.

EC targets proposed French gambling law

In March the European Commission continued its campaign against anticompetitive laws within the EU's member nations. The EC issued a detailed opinion against the French government's draft decree that would have enacted a law in France similar to the American UIGEA.

The decree would have required banks to block transactions coming from online gambling operators outside France, even those fully licensed and regulated in other European nations.

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Tune in again Monday for PL.com's recap of April's highlights in our continuing year-end roundup.

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