Las Vegas NV – This is going a little off topic based on what this site is about but I want to take this time out for an announcement. As most of you have heard; Scott Matusow is no longer part of Short Stacked LLC (MakePokerLegal.com parent company). He has left to peruse other interests of his. Scott and I started working together in 2006 when we hosted our own radio show and worked on a lot of different things over the course of 5 years. Scott officially started with me and Matt Downie (Short Stacked LLC) in April of 2010. Scott has definitely put in a lot of work over the past year. The entire team here at MakePokerLegal.com has worked tremendously to provide important information with regards to the world of online poker, poker bills, live poker, our poker room, the radio show and so much more. Scott will, from time to time post some blogs and articles here on the site. He has started his own website ScottMatusow.com and his radio show has moved over there as well. He will still cover the topics of poker, politics, religion, sports, midget mud wrestling, UFO’s and much more on his new radio show on his site.
Paul paulgees81 Volpe made the online poker world his personal playground in July. All told, he cashed for over $200,000 in tournaments that are tracked for the PocketFives.com Rankings during the month and took down the Monthly PLB title. His largest payday during the stanza was a massive $51,000 haul for winning the PokerStars Wednesday Quarter Million on July 28th, earning him 532 PLB Points towards his month-long tally of just over 3,000. PocketFives.com sat down with Volpe to recap his stellar month.
Amazingly, Volpe’s first Rankings-eligible cash didn’t come until July 9th. Two days later, he final tabled the PokerStars $100 Rebuy for $10,000, one of three final tables he turned in on July 11th alone. One week later, Volpe placed second in the Full Tilt $100 Cubed for $13,000 in a tournament won by poker author Jon PearlJammer Turner (pictured). On the 20th, Volpe bested the competition in the Full Tilt $30K Super Turbo Knockout for $9,700 and then, three days later, won the site’s $75,000 Guarantee for an $18,000 take.
Volpe made the final days of July count by winning the Absolute Poker $75,000 Guarantee for $21,000 on July 26th, outlasting James croll103 Carroll (pictured) heads-up. Following his win in the Wednesday Quarter Million, Volpe was the runner-up in the Nightly Hundred Grand on PokerStars for another $14,000. He posted a total of four wins in major online poker tournaments during the month.
What attributed to his rash of success in July? Volpe told PocketFives.com, “I think I was running a little better, but have been playing my best over the last few months.” He elaborated, “When I went to Las Vegas, I played with a lot of my friends and changed a few things. Since then, I’ve been doing great. I’ve been a lot more aggressive late in tournaments and that has helped a lot.” Volpe nearly took down the Monthly PLB race in June, ending up in third place.
Volpe sits at #20 worldwide in the Rankings and took down his first Triple Crown during his Monthly PLB run. In fact, it was the eighth largest total ever logged for a Triple Crown title. We asked Volpe to toss out several names of poker players whose games he admires. His response: “I’ve been playing a lot with Mark dipthrong Herm (pictured), JBT449, Ryan ryanbluf Karp, and BBOY3110 this summer and they have helped me a lot, so I’d have to say them. Obviously, people like Steve gboro780 Gross, who have been winning forever, also have great games.”
In the live arena, Volpe cashed in a $1,500 No Limit Hold’em event in January held as part of the Borgata Winter Open for $6,400. Last year, he made the money in a $1,500 World Series of Poker tournament for nearly $7,400. Online, he’s recorded top two finishes in the Wednesday Quarter Million twice since October for nearly $90,000 total. Volpe explained why he’s had such a top-tier track record in the weekly event: “It has a great structure and plays very deep at the end. I think that helps me a lot.”
In the August 11th installment of the Rankings, Volpe shot up to #20, a nine-spot leap on the week. He boasts the eighth best PLB tally in the land and will likely continue to rise should his results keep up. “I definitely enjoy following the Rankings,” Volpe told us. “They motivate me and I like to compete, so the Rankings are a way to do so. I would love to be #1 one day.” The top spot this week once again belongs to the aforementioned Gross (pictured), a DoylesRoom Brunson 10 member.
Click over to the Monthly PLB landing page to view past winners and the top all-time monthly performances.
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Scott here with ya all!! Recent Amendments to Bill HR 2267, the bill which as passed the House commitee, and at some point in the future, will likely head to a House floor vote, then Senate, provides proper regulation and safeguards to allow offshore poker sites to get ONSHORE, incorporate, and to be licensed legally to serve USA citizens “online poker” This is why I now support this bill. However, in one Amendment, it states that any offshore site that violated the unlawful internet gambling act while in effect, will NOT BE ALLOWED a license in the USA..
As Washington continues hammering out the framework for legalized online poker in the United States, Nevada’s brick & mortar casinos are patiently watching and waiting for their chance to grab a piece of the lucrative business. With rumors of punitive punishments looming against Internet poker rooms currently doing business in the US, Nevada casinos have been quietly supportive of legislation, hoping to enter the market when it is possible.
An embarrassing security flaw has the Cake Poker Network scrambling to shore up its data encryption to protect players’ hole cards, passwords and usernames at various Cake Network skins. Lee Jones, Cake Poker Network cardroom manager, recently acknowledged the problem while issuing an apology to members at the online card room.
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On Wednesday 21 July, there is a meeting scheduled at the House Financial Services Committee that will discuss HR 2267, which now has 69 co-sponsors from both Republican and Democrat politicians. The last hearing was on December 3, 2009 and was met with positive comments from those involved. In that particular meeting there were no representatives from the US Treasury and Federal Reserve, the people responsible for delaying the initial date of the UIGEA, but it is believed they will be present next Wednesday.