Swedish poker has taken a hit. In what was billed as the European Poker Challenge, six men have been indicted on charges of operating an unlicensed poker tournament. The event had attracted a field of 700 who ponied up the 250 Euro buy in, plus 30 Euro which went to the organizers as fees. For those of you who may be mathematically challenged, that resulted in a prize pool of 175 000 Euro which equals just shy of $250,000 USD.

However, the Swedish authorities had something to say about the awarding of a 50000 Euro first prize, as they raided the joint not long after the first hand had been dealt. Also charged in the incident were the two men who rented out the facility, as providing a venue for illegal gaming is treated the same as operating the gaming under Swedish law.

The highly publicized event being interrupted is just another chapter in the ongoing battle within a Swedish government trying to deal with a game that has swept the nation. The authorities have promised to be more aggressive in regards to dealing with underground poker, which is rampant across the nation. Prosecution declares this as “one of the largest cases of this kind”, and trial has been set in November. All accused have denied the accusations, which carry a maximum prison term of four years behind bars.

Well at least the Swedes have a lot of hot chicks, can’t say the same for the UK however in this link.

The Sunday main event of the WCOOP was highly anticipated and nearly 3,000 players joined in on the action at PokerStars. The total prize pool was just under $7.5 million, which makes this one of the biggest online poker tournaments ever to be played.

The final table began well into Monday and another PokerStars team member made the final table. Vanessa Rousso is not only a BIP Poker Babe, she is also a PokerStars team member. She plays under screen handle as LadyMaverick and was seated in seat 1 when the final table began. PokerStars were banking on Vanessa to win this event as Greg Raymer won the WCOOP Omaha Rebuy tournament a little while back.

Vanessa Rousso played a great game and wound up finishing 3rd taking down nearly $464,000 for 3rd place. TheV0id from the United Kingdom took first place and was paid over $1.2 million. It has also been rumored that 6th place finisher was Josh Arieh who was playing under screen handle ‘nitbuster’.

And of course there is always seems to be some sort of controversy in these big events, like there was with the Greg Raymers’ win. He was disconnected, then came back and gave everyone a foam finger. Any who, posters at 2+2 and pocket5’s are saying that Rousso and poker player/announcer Chad Brown were colluding. Well, we aren’t exactly buying into this one, but it made a good read at 2+2.

The winner of the event ‘TheV0id’ is rumored to be under investigation. One poster at 2+2 said that Mark Teltscher and his ’sister’ were both playing in the tournament under the same IP address. Another poster had something similar to say that Mark Teltscher was playing 5 different accounts and the winnings have already been frozen and there is ongoing investigation. We will bring you more information as this story develops.

Related links: Vanessa Rousso Pics + Bio – PokerStars – Greg Raymer Wins Omaha Rebuy

Betfair poker and casino has announced that its annual revenues increase 30% up to £182 million this past year. The new success has be associated with the re-launch of the poker room, which was originally on the Cryptologic network and the awesome new online casino. As of October 1st Betfair claimed they have over 1 million registered members and 443,300 active players.

Although, there have been some relation to new sign ups and hiring Annette Obrestad, 2007 WSOP Europe Main Event Champ, as a spokes model. Who would of thought players would be more impressed with a site, sponsoring a young prodigy rather then a super model. Other girls that are spokes models for poker sites are: Tina Wallman (Carbon Poker), Joanna Krupa (Former Titan Poker Babe) Tila Tequila (Tila Poker).

Anyways, Annette is a damn good poker player and Betfair is a solid poker room.

Related links: Betfair – Betfair Poker Review – Annette_15

Other people are getting dragged into this controversy, after Justin brilliantly scammed Micon for $12k. If you haven’t read the story please visit our condensed version, Of “Give me 12k, and I’ll give you 100k tomorrow”

Justin has been in contact with Justin’s “bizmanager”. We still have no idea, if this is Justin pretending to be someone else. Anyways, here is what has happened in the last couple days. You can find complete posts and more details at Neverwinpoker.com

• Justin is very upset and starts threating to sue Bryan Micon and “crash” NWP, because of certain members posts on NWP. Probably, the Fake wanted FBI page and most likely the fake youtube video that claims that Justin Smith is a pedophile.

• Information of Justin and his where abouts keep coming up on NWP’s forum. His addresses, court records, parents names and even his ID has been posted online. Justin is continues to threaten Micon saying if his Dad gets brought in, “will be the end of you bro, you dont even know.”

• Thursday evening an anonymous person drops off an envelope at 2am at Melissa’s house. Some Vegas hoochie that could potentially be a transsexual with dish plate nipples. At this point she might be connected with Justin in some way.

• The potential transsexual writes a post on her MySpace saying that she is innocent and Justin owes her a lot more money then 9.5k.

• Some Patricia and Michael guy get dragged into the mix of things and this is when BizManager blows up on NWP

• He starts trying to be witty and saying that “You are just as much a liar as anyone else that you’ve blamed on this board. You know that Patsy Arton & Erik Michael are innocents.” Apparently, Micon had promised that when BizManager handed $1500 in cash to Micon that he would take down info about Patrica(Patsy) and Michael. Micon posts that he was going to think about it at the time.

• Then a few posts later he says he just spoke with Detective Madrid from Las Vegas Metropolitan Police indicating that Bryan Micon has committed several criminal acts that include, conspiracy, indemnity theft, defamation of character, and fraudulent accusation of sexual molestation.

• Sunday September 30th. Members have plans to post pictures of Justin’s parents house after finding the address. But it turns out that its Justin’s grand parents and supposedly a member talked to his Grandmother. She said that Justin is in LA right now and he called her yesterday. She also wasn’t surprised that Justin is in trouble, “it’s cost us a lot of money …. it’s cost his father a lot of money ….he’s been in a lot of trouble over the years …… nothing more we can do about him…..“

Thats it for now, read complete details and posts at NeverwinPoker.com

Matt Giannetti just finished up a prop bet where he had to stay in a pool for 12 hours. During the last few minutes of the bet Sean McCabe and Mark Seif were creating a new prop bet that would be a lot more difficult. The bet is that Sean McCabe could stay shoulder deep in the Atlantic Ocean for 24 hours without food. Now think of this, cold water, waves, sharks, and salt in the mouth for 24 hours straight!

It took some battling to get both McCabe and Seif to agree on a $100k. At first Seif only wanted to bet $50k, but McCabe insisted that he would only attempt this crazy prop bet for a minimum of $100k. With both guys being sick degenerates they finally agreed on $100k.

With no other knowledge, one would assume that Seif has a huge edge in this bet. The missing information which favors McCabe is that, he is a certified rescue diver and his experience of putting long hours in playing live tournament poker, this will certainly help him deal with the boredom he will endure.

There are 3 main conditions in this prop bet, Sean McCabe has to enter the water no later then 2:00pm. Seif felt this was the optimal time for harsh conditions. McCabe must stand in shoulder deep water the entire 24 hours. McCabe is only allowed to drink cold fresh water, which will be brought to him on his request. A doctor will be on hand to protect the safety of McCabe. He will use his own discretion on his safety, if he gets pulled out for any medical reason he will lose the bet.

As if this bet was not crazy enough as it stood, these two decided to spice it up even further. Seif has been given the option to alter the state of the Ocean if he gives 2 to 1 odds. This could be a big advantage to Seif, as you’d expect if he exercised this option he would chum the ocean with blood and fish guts in an attempt to attract Sharks and other sea monsters.The WPT and Cardplayer will provide live updates on the bet. Click here to visit WPT for more updates and details about this bet.

———-Update———–

WPT reported BJ Nemeth just recently spoke to Sean McCabe and it looks like the bet may have sunk. Mark Seif and the other people involved are having 2nd thoughts about placing the bet. According to McCabe its not about the money, its about the safety of himself and no one wanted to feel responsible if McCabe got hurt.

McCabe is still trying to keep the bet alive, he is looking for anyone or a group to put up a total of $100k for 1-1 odds.

“Bryan Micon and the brilliant con-artist Justin Smith issue is coming to some sort of conclusion. Micon, posted that he received $1.5k from Smith’s business manager, after they met at the Bellagio. Micon has got back $2.5k and $9.5k left to go. According to Smith’s manager there are some final procedures and tying up loose things in Hawaii right now. Micon let us know at Neverwinpoker.com that apparently Justin is guaranteed some baller sized inheritance very soon. Now, we are just left wondering if Micon is going to get his $90k interest he was promised….

If you haven’t read the full story visit Bryan Micon Gets Rolled for $12k

“It’s rumored that the UIGEA poker regulations will be coming out within the next 7 days and according to the Poker Players Alliance, it could come out as early as tomorrow.

The rules have been approved by the US government office, which government office, we don’t have a clue. We are just regurgitating news that we really don’t understand. The new regulations and rules will be published straight to the Federal Register. From there a commencing period will take place and industry experts will be reviewing the new regulations in a 60 to 90 day period. For more please visit CompatiblePoker.com

Tom Schneider has put up a great article on his site Pokerati.com about how, The Poker Industry Continues to Disappointment me. He rants about how bad behavior, poor sportsmanship and people acting like weirdos is tolerated and a crowd-pleaser in the poker industry.

“Norway may ban online poker according to PokerListings.com, Trond Giske, some guy in charge of something in Norway, has made it repeatedly clear that he is against online gambling. Currently, under Norwegian law online gambling is illegal. If Giske put in new legislation it would enforce the existing laws by banning transactions between banks and poker sites. Read more by visit Pokerlistings.com

As you’ve probably already heard, Bryan Micon was scammed in one of the most elaborate, detailed schemes in history. While we could probably end the article right there and you would be sufficiently entertained, here is a brief timeline to the incident(s).

August 21-25: Micon hangs out with a reported Justin Smith at the Red Rock Casino in Vegas, along with O-town bad boy Erik Estrada. Smith proceeds to put on the “big shot” act, dropping cash and generally trying to impress. He shows Micon his Escalade, and he buys into every little bit of his stories. Smith comes across as a true baller, and no one around seems to be disputing it.

August 27: Smith feeds Micon with some bullshit story of how he’s waiting for money to be wired to him, and asks to borrow $5,000 with promises to pay back $20,000 within 24 hours. Micon can’t get his wallet out fast enough, figuring this is a foolproof way to make a quick buck. They go out, throw around the “borrowed” money at strippers and bartenders, and basically make Micon feel like he has a friend. They even have a sleepover.

August 28: Justin calls Micon, explaining that he’s having difficulties with his bank wire and needs a few more bucks. This time, he asks for $7,000 and promises a cool $100K in return (also within 24 hours). Now I know what you’re thinking, and that’s the fact that the first 24 hours is almost up. I guess Micon figures the $100K is good enough, and disregards the first $20,000 he was promised. Not only does Micon lend the $7,000, he borrows money from a friend to lend to Smith. We’re not even sure how to make fun of this, the story is dumb enough as it is.

August 29: Justin takes one more kick at the can, and says he needs $10,000 more, and in exchange, promises a return of $1,000,000 to Micon. The light of knowledge proceeds to shine itself upon Micon, and he realizes that there is a chance he could be getting scammed. Good thing he’s a quick one, or he’d still be handing out wads. Panicking, Micon records a meeting of Smith apparently begging for more money, and Micon tells him that maybe he can get it for him.

August 30-September 22: Smith tells Micon how he knows Paris Hilton, and they can go to her BBQ. A whole bunch of other bullshit is spewed, and Micon’s skepticism finally makes an appearance.

September 25: Apparently Micon has re-acquired $1,000 of his money, as he was sent it via Moneygram from Justin’s “Business Manager”.

Oh well, let’s all hope he just chalks this up to an $11,000 hard lesson. I’m not sure what else you can call it……

To hear this from the horse’s mouth, visit Neverwinpoker.com

The boys over at Wicked Chops have a great article up about ‘Saving Bodog.com, One Naked Girl at a Time‘ This made us laugh pretty good here at BIP and its definitely worth a read. Basically, Calvin is up to his old marketing tricks and has launched savebodog.com, in effort to retrieve his original domain. The Bodog guys are awesome, here are a few quotes from savebodog.com satire campaign blog.

“All over the world Bodog Girls are staging public protests to speak out against their stolen URL.
“It’s like, without bodoggirls.com I feel totally naked” moaned one of the stunning protesters. “Before all of this, I always felt safe behind our URL. Now it’s been stolen and locked away by some slimy rat bastard lawyer. Do you know how exposed that makes us feel? That’s why we’ve organized this naked protest. We want the world to see what we’re going through.”
Follow the Bodog Girls’ brave example and let us know how this act of tech-terrorism has affected you.”

“A URL hangs in the balance as millions of Bodog Players wander the streets lost and alone.
Newbodog.com is supporting all of Bodog’s traffic but many players are still feeling distraught. Countless individuals have reported feeling like they’ve lost a piece of themselves. Many have fallen into a deep depression from which they fear they may never recover.
In response to this wave of sadness, support groups have sprung up all over the world. If you’re one of those affected, don’t suffer alone. Find a group in your town today.”

Related Links: Bodog Poker Review – Bodog.com – BodogLife

After Chris Moneymaker put on a unsuspected solid performance in Day 1A, it was time for Day 1B players to get in on the action. 215 entrants showed up for Day 1B and many big name players joined up for the chance to win the 1.2 million first place prize.

Recognizable players that showed up are Daniel Negreanu, Poker babe Liz Lieu, Raw Vaswani, Roland de Wolfe, and bald-tennis playing-chick magnet-high stakes player-Patrik Antonius. With the combined fields, there a total of 393 entrants. Which generates a $1.2 million first place prize. This EPT event is even larger then the World Series of Poker Europe Main Event, that took place couple weeks ago with not hot poker babe Annette Obrestad taking first place.

Day 2 has started and most of the big name pro’s got the foam finger. Chris Moneymaker probably won’t be surprising us anymore, he is sitting in 20th place with 76,400 chips about 330,000 back of first place Surinder Sunar. Sunar is putting on a dominating performance and has nearly double the chips that 2nd place Ben Grundy has. The only other notable play left is Roland de Wolfe who is in 21st place with 76,100 chips.

Day 3 takes place tomorrow and the final day is on September 29th. Click here for chip count updates.

The World Poker Tour Turks & Caicos wrapped up day 2 with the WPT fucking up, as they are notorious for doing so. The remaining players of day 1 were asked to vote on how the prize pool should be distributed. The options were top 9 or 10 get paid, top 6 get paid or winner take all.

The problem arose when only 137 players entered the event and the WPT guaranteed to pay 1st place prize a cool million. However, in this case, if the WPT stuck to their guns, only first place would get paid. This is why WPT turned to democracy to figure out the payout structure.

Tournament Director Jack McClelland counted the votes and it was decided that top 9 would place and it was decided that first place prize would be over $430,000. Strangely, 16 players voted for the winner-take-all!

A few players that made it far but busted are, Poker Babe Evelyn Ng, Joe Sebok, Mike Matusow, and Michael Mizrachi. Notable players that are remaining Gavin Smith, Haralabos Voulgaris thank god for cut and paste and Mark Seif who is currently 6th place with 105,000 chips and is 81,000 chips behind chip leader Erik Cajelais.