What is Black Friday in poker? Black Friday at PartyPoker. Incredible scope of impudence

It's no secret that last Friday will forever go down in world history poker, as the day when online poker suffered one of its most serious blows, and no one will undertake to predict how it will all end.

April 15, 2011. An ordinary unremarkable Friday. Hundreds of thousands of people play poker online, and life seems to go on as usual. Tournaments with guaranteed prize pools are held, tables with cash games are full, and suddenly, unexpectedly, the number of players in the leading poker rooms begins to decline rapidly. At first, no one attached any importance to this, but when within a few hours there were practically no US players left on the tables, and this was at night, many players opened English-language poker forums and went into a stupor.

The largest poker forums have never experienced such a number of messages per unit of time in their history. Hundreds and thousands of messages were published every minute with the questions “What happened?”, “Why can’t I play poker?”, a little later the hysteria reached a critical level when it turned out that players from the USA could not withdraw their money from poker rooms. Having learned about this, many players from other countries began to try to make cashouts, but not everyone succeeded in doing this, which served as a reason for even greater hysteria, and messages began to appear on all poker forums that this was the beginning of the end of online poker.

Let's try to understand the situation that happened, putting aside emotions.

Back in 2006, the number 1 poker room was Party Poker, which was played by the vast majority of players, including those from the United States. IN certain moment, the US government has temporarily banned accepting money for gambling from citizens of its country. Party Poker immediately stopped accepting players from the USA, but some poker rooms decided to take advantage of this and began to actively promote their services in the American market. Among these poker rooms were, and a number of others. Both poker rooms received a huge influx of players from the USA, and thanks to competent management, within just a few years they took leading positions in the online poker industry. Everyone knew that they were breaking US law, but no one really cared. Some sources write that both poker rooms spent their money through shell companies that were allegedly engaged in various business activities, although in fact they existed simply to carry out the activities of the poker rooms. Moreover, some sources write that both poker rooms bought out shares of banks that needed subsidized funds, in exchange for the fact that the banks carried out financial transactions that were so necessary for these poker rooms to ensure settlements with players from the United States.

Apparently, law enforcement agencies did not have any leads so that anything serious could be brought against the owners of poker rooms. This was the case until Daniel Tsvetkoff decided to come to the United States and was happily taken by FBI agents.

Daniel Tsvetkoff is one of the most controversial and influential figures in the poker industry. Daniel's net worth is estimated at US$1 billion. Officially, Daniel is the owner of various companies specializing in website creation. But in fact, all his organizations were transhipment points for money laundering in poker rooms. Billions of dollars flowed through Tsvetkoff's bank accounts every month. The cost of the house in which the Australian billionaire lived was $28,000,000, and the cost of the yacht was not much less - $27,000,000, and his life could be envied until the poker rooms accused him of stealing money. From unofficial sources it became known that poker rooms suspect Daniel of stealing more than $100,000,000; moreover, there is an opinion that it was the poker rooms that handed Daniel Tsvetkoff over to the US authorities.

A year ago, FBI agents arrested him. According to preliminary data, he faced about 75 years in prison. The court also refused to release him on bail because he was afraid that Tsvetkoff would leave the country. A year ago, this topic was very closely discussed in the poker world, and now, when he was practically forgotten, his name came up again in connection with recent events. Today, Daniel is in the witness protection program, and it is believed that it was he who provided all the insider information about the financial schemes and money laundering of poker rooms, in exchange for a more loyal attitude from the American Themis. Only he could know all the accounts and all the information that the FBI published in its press release.

What is really happening today?

Fact 2. The FBI has published a list of 11 people who are on the federal wanted list. Two of them living in the United States - John Campos and Chad Ely - have already been arrested. According to unverified reports, another person was arrested last night, but who exactly has not yet been clarified. All defendants in this case are owners or directors of poker rooms. All of them are accused of tax evasion and creating fraudulent schemes for money laundering. The size of the fine indicated by the FBI is $3 billion. Anyone on this list faces a prison sentence of up to 75 years. The FBI has already filed a request for the extradition of all defendants in this case located outside the United States.

Fact 3. Massive wave of cashouts. In connection with the latest events, a wave of cashouts hit both poker rooms. Players are worried about their money and are trying to withdraw it. Also, people have appeared on many poker forums actively encouraging everyone to withdraw their funds. Due to the large number of requests for withdrawal of funds, payment systems of poker rooms cannot cope with withdrawals. Moreover, given that poker rooms have frozen about 75 accounts in various payment systems, today it is not possible to withdraw money at all in some payment systems. The management of the poker rooms issued a press release in which they promise to solve this problem in the coming days.

Will poker rooms be able to satisfy everyone who wants to withdraw funds? This is probably one of the most complex issues. The poker community was divided into two approximately equal camps. These two camps have only one thing in common: everyone is sure that poker rooms do not have 100% of their players’ money in their accounts, since it is much more profitable to turn over funds and receive additional profit. And if one camp believes that poker rooms will cope with such an outflow of money, as a last resort, by taking out a loan from banks, then the other half argues that in the near future both poker rooms will stop issuing money to players or will introduce very strong limits on withdrawals of funds.

Fact 4. American players can no longer play poker in these poker rooms. The number of players in B decreased by 18%, and in - by 40%. Due to the sharp outflow of players, both poker rooms have reduced the guaranteed prize pools of almost all of their tournaments. At the same time, European poker rooms became more active, for example Titan Poker, which offers very favorable conditions to players who will register this month. The first deposit bonus will be 200% with a maximum amount of $1,000; players already registered in the poker room will be able to enjoy a reload bonus of $200.

None of the poker experts can predict how this situation will end, but everyone agrees that online poker will no longer remain the way it was before this Friday. The most popular version is that after some time poker rooms that have not violated US laws will be allowed to accept players from the United States and there will be a significant redistribution of influence in the poker market. Most experts agree that they will be able to seize the leading position in the near future and, also, their position can be significantly strengthened by the iPoker network, led by last days increased by 10%.

Last Friday, the FBI indicted the largest poker companies - Full Tilt, PokerStars and Absolute Poker\UB - for fraud, illegal Internet gambling, violation of the UIGEA and money laundering.

76 bank accounts belonging to these companies were frozen.

The FBI has issued arrest warrants for Isaiah Schonberg (founder of Pokerstars), Raymond Bitar (owner of Full Tilt), Scott Tom (owner of UB), and eight others key figures the above rooms.

Most of the defendants are US citizens, but live outside the country (with the exception of John Kemos and Chad Ely, they have already been arrested). In this regard, the FBI sent a request to Interpol to assist in finding the remaining suspects.

The above-mentioned individuals have been charged, some of which carry multimillion-dollar fines, as well as prison sentences of up to 30 years.

Scott Tom (the owner of UB) is charged only with violating the UIGEA, in the worst case scenario he faces five years in prison and a fine of $250,000. It is worth noting that, despite statements from representatives of the poker room, Tom did not resign from his post after the scandal with the super- user.

Attendance at Full Tilt and PokerStars, which have already blocked access to their resources for US users, has dropped significantly. Compared to last weekend, PokerStars traffic is down 18 percent, Full Tilt is down forty percent, and Absolute Poker\UB, which still accepts US users, although it doesn't allow them to make a deposit or cash out, is down twenty. .

Meanwhile, Bodog's traffic was up 21%, Merge Gaming Network's traffic was up 13%, iPoker's was up 10%, PartyPoker's was up 6%, and Ongame's was up 3%. Despite the fact that Full Tilt and PokerStars no longer have American clients, these poker rooms are still industry leaders.

Pokerstars and Full Tilt reached out to their non-US customers and assured them that there was no reason to worry - non-American money was completely safe. “For all customers outside the US, everything remains the same.”

Absolute Poker\UB has not yet received such statements.

Daniel Tsvetkov, the founder of Intabill, a payment system whose actions once harmed a large number of Pokerstars and Full Tilt clients, may be to blame for all the latest misadventures in online poker.

Last year, when Tsvetkov, for an unknown reason, flew to the United States from Australia, he was detained and placed in custody; a little later, Tsvetkov, who was facing a seventy-five-year prison sentence, was released on bail. He is currently in New York; the police have not disclosed his whereabouts.

It is possible that Daniel, who has worked with the largest poker rooms for a long time, and is now accused of fraud and money laundering in the amount of $543M, made a deal with justice and provided the FBI with information about the schemes that Pokerstars and FTP used to circumvent the UIGEA.

Due to recent events, the Onyx Cup, a super high roller series sponsored by Full Tilt, has been canceled.

The same fate will most likely befall the NAPT, a series of tournaments held in the United States with the support of PokerStars.

The broadcast of the last stage of the NAPT, which was supposed to air on ESPN, was cancelled. Due to recent events, the Inside Deal TV program, sponsored by Pokerstars, also disappeared from the channel’s broadcast program.

Steve Wynn, owner of the Wynn casino and hotel chain, a big poker fan who recently formed an alliance with the largest poker room in the world to begin the fight for the legalization of online poker in the United States, announced the severance of relations with Pokerstars.

American players found themselves cut off from online poker. Currently, they can only wait for the legalization of online poker in the United States. When this does happen, the likelihood that Pokerstars and Full Tilt will be welcomed there with open arms is quite low.

In the USA, the FBI blocked the websites of the largest rooms and filed a lawsuit Full Tilt Poker, PokerStars, UB and AP Poker.

Representatives of poker rooms PokerStars, Full Tilt Poker, UB and AP Poker was indicted by the FBI last night on charges of fraud and illegal online gambling.

PokerStars have already stopped customer service throughout the US and published the following message:

“As you heard, we were forced to close access to real money gaming for all US citizens. This decision is due to the initiation of criminal cases against our company in this country. This situation concerns exclusively the American market and will not in any way affect your ability to use our services in the future.

Rest assured that players' accounts are completely safe. There is no reason to worry. For all users outside the US, everything remains the same.

The PokerStars website has moved to the pokerstars.eu platform, and the address of our support team has also changed - We apologize to our players for this inconvenience.

We get great amount letters from users, so we ask you to understand that replies to letters may arrive with some delay. We answer all emails as quickly as possible. Thank you for your patience and understanding of the situation."

Full Tilt supports poker players and its CEO

Dublin, Ireland (April 15, 2011) – Full Tilt is saddened by today's allegations against its CEO Raymond Bitar and expresses its support to Mr. Bitar and Nelson Burtnik.

Online poker is a skill-based game that is loved by millions of people in the United States and around the world. Full Tilt Poker continues to believe that players should have the right to play their favorite game online.

Mr. Bitar and Full Tilt Poker believe that online poker is legal, a view shared by many of America's best legal minds. FTP was and remains true to the principles fair play and compliance with the law.

“I am surprised and disappointed by the government's decision to bring these charges against us. I expect that both me and Mr. Burtnik will be fully acquitted,” Bitar said.

Unfortunately, as a result of these actions, Full Tilt Poker has decided to suspend cash play in the United States until this situation is resolved. However, FTP will continue to provide its online poker services outside the United States.

As we wrote yesterday, the US Department of Justice released an indictment containing 11 defendants. Here they are:

It is assumed that all companies have "laundered" at least $3 billion. According to the indictment, Campos and Elie were arrested Friday morning in Utah and Las Vegas. Franzen is due to appear indictment on April 19, 2011. Other - Scheinberg, Bitar, Burtnick, Tate, Tom, Beckley, Rubin, and Lang are not in the United States and have not yet been arrested.

Found a source of information?

businesinsider.com reports that information was provided to US courts by a former employee PokerStars And Full Tilt Poker. Daniel Tsvetkoff has been involved in the past with the financial services of these poker rooms. Despite his high income, he stole additional amounts from the rooms.

Both poker rooms tried to recover the amounts stolen by him through the courts, but they failed. As a result, the rooms decided to extradite Tsvetkoff to American authorities after he arrived in the USA. He was charged with approximately the same charges as the room managers.

According to reports, Tsvetkoff has decided to reach an agreement with the US justice system to reduce his sentence. Using his insider information, he helped the FBI create charges against poker rooms.

A few weeks ago, an influential casino chain Wynn Resorts announced its intention to fight for regulation of American online poker together with PokerStars. Today this network has officially ceased cooperation with PokerStars.

Tom Dwan writes on his Twitter: “I’m not too worried about my money on PokerStars and Full Tilt Poker. But with other rooms it’s worse. I give 85-90% that American users will return to the online poker market. 99, 93% - that all Americans will have the opportunity to withdraw money."

He expressed his opinion and Max Katz: ""The main question is whether the largest rooms will cope with the wave of cashouts in the coming hours and days. If they don’t cope, today is the end of online poker. If they cope, it will all be in a different form and with other main players, but they can survive. Available money from the rooms will run out very quickly. Usually no one keeps reserves of available cash in case everyone, or a significant number of users, request cashouts at once. Some small rooms in general often sinned by spending 50%-90% of money on marketing, based on the fact that There cannot be a rapid outflow of users, leaving only a small part of the deposits quickly available, backed by money. The question is whether the large rooms acted as well."

Meanwhile, Eric Lindgren doesn't seem to take things seriously: "It's all Daniel Negreanu's fault! I told you that if he started winning at online poker, the world would end."
According to the site PokerScout, which tracks the traffic of all poker rooms, attendance Full Tilt Poker decreased by 16%, despite the fact that Americans are still allowed to gamble there for money. Attendance PokerStars, where US residents are currently banned from gaming tables, fell by 26%. Net Cereus(which includes UB and Absolute Poker) lost 23% of its users. At the same time, attendance PartyPoker grew by 4%, and networks iPoker- on 10%. The data is compared to last Friday.

PartyGaming share prices have already increased by 11.17% today.

Updates:

PokerStars has reduced guarantees for major tournaments:

Onyx Cup is cancelled.

Previously announced offline tournament for super high rollers with buy-in $100,000 Onyx Cup will most likely be cancelled. In any case, its first two stages, which were supposed to take place in Las Vegas in May and July.

PokerStars, in turn, assures its users that offline series ERT And R.P.S. nothing is in danger. Unlike the North American Poker Series, whose future is now in question.

According to website statistics PokerScout, V this moment the greatest losses (up to 40 percent) in terms of the number of users are incurred by Full Tilt, a significant part of whose clients are located within the United States. Eg, PokerStars missing a fifth of clients.

They got down to business and ESPN. They deleted they stopped cooperating with PokerStars and removed them from their site. There was no official statement. Sponsored has also been removed from the site. PokerStars poker ESPN club - it cannot be sent.

Message from Joe Pappas

Director Poker Player Alliance Joe Pappas On the organization’s website, he published a video appeal on behalf of the world’s largest union of poker players.

New promotions and games with really great prizes will start soon on our new page in

Australian payment operator that became the key for US authorities to pursue the top three online poker rooms V "Black Friday", can become the main trump card for the prosecution, acting as a witness in the trial against two defendants in a high-profile case. April 9 Dan Tsvetkov, the former owner of Intabill will appear in a New York court in the trial against Chad Alley and John Campos.

Ely and Campos are charged with three counts of violating the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006 ( UIGEA), money laundering and participation in the organization of illegal gambling business. They are also accused of fraud to deceive banks.

Federal charges against defendants in the case black friday " will remain in effect. Manhattan District Judge Lewis Kaplan denied the motion to dismiss the case.

The petition was filed by John Campos, former Vice President Utah bank who received sums of money from online poker sites in exchange for conducting transactions related to online poker and Chad Alley, a payment processor who also facilitated the flow of funds between American players and offshore sites.

« The argument that poker is not gambling, declared insolvent" Kaplan concluded in the eight-page memo.

Ira Rubin , one of 11 indicted by the US Department of Justice in the case " black friday» pleaded guilty to conspiracy. His sentence will be announced on May 17.

Rubin admitted that he worked with online poker rooms and Full Tilt Poker as a payment processor. He explained that money transfers for gambling sites were made as fictitious payments for non-existent goods. Thus, banks did not understand the true purpose of these payments and could not prevent them. This criminal scheme operated from 2006 until April 2011.

In July 2011 Ruby offered $300,000 bail and permission to live with his parents in Florida, but Judge James Colt denied Rubin bail on " a number of reasons", including the risk of leaving the country.

Holder of the prestigious title " online player of the year "According to the magazine Card Player became Jason" jdpc27 » Wheeler. Over the past year, he has earned 8,076 OPOY points and $768,877 playing online.

However " black Friday" could very well end the career of a brilliant pro, who had to move to Mexico to continue playing online.

US Department of Justice responded to a series of complaints John Campos And Chad Eli involved in the case of "Black Friday". Both allegedly petitioned to have all charges against them dropped, but the Department denies that such a fact occurred.

The US Department of Justice sent a detailed response to the petition of Chad Ely and John Campos, two of the 11 defendants in the case. black friday».

Both defendants were arrested in the morning "Black Friday" for their participation in an illegal payment scheme with the help of a Utah banker, but were later released on bail.

Chad Ely And John Campos , two of only 11 people indicted by the US Department of Justice on April 15, 2011, decided to fight the charges in court, demanding that all charges be dropped.

One of the defendants, Chad Ely, is an executive at a payment processing organization who was indicted in connection with the Justice Department's investigation into PokerStars.

Having worked properly in poker rooms PokerStars, Full Tilt Poker and Absolute Poker, the Department of Justice charged Eli with four counts of violating the UIGEA, three counts of operating an illegal gambling business, conspiracy to commit bank fraud and money laundering conspiracy.

Online poker Full Tilt Poker room issued a statement that was exclusively posted on the renowned poker news site PokerNews.com. These events were preceded by a promise from the management of the poker room to make the entire situation around its affairs as transparent as possible. Black Friday.”

Main Event Winner WSOP 1998 Scotty Nguyen and recent 2011 PCA fourth-place winner Sam Stein shared their views on the future of poker in the United States in an interview with CardPlayer Magazine.

Nguyen, who was interviewed during the $1,000 Buy-In Event at the Bellagio in Las Vegas, stated that after " black friday “Poker has a chance to return to the old days, when you could quickly and easily find a good game in real casinos.

Black Friday is the day of the world's largest sale! Almost any business company does everything possible to provide its customers with the biggest discounts and bonuses.

Online poker keeps up with global trends, and that is why Partypoker will give its players a bunch of bonuses over the next few days.

Black Friday at Partypoker

There will be 3 happy hours throughout the day, during which you can triple your cashback points earned.

This means that you will receive 3 points for every $1 in rake.

Please note that each hour will have its own additional condition:

• Play via mobile app partypoker with 12:00 to 12:59 (CET) to earn triple points
• Earn triple points from 13:00 to 13:59 (CET), playing at the Sit & Go Jackpot and Sit & Go Hero tables
• Earn triple points by playing multi-table tournaments from 15:00 to 17:00 (CET)

In addition to Black Friday Happy Hour, the Happy Hour promotion will run as usual from 6:00 pm to 7:00 pm and 9:00 pm to 10:00 pm (GMT). This is another opportunity to get double the points and increase your rakeback.

Cyber ​​Monday

Cyber ​​Monday is a continuation of Black Friday, and on this day Partypoker players will have the opportunity to receive a deposit bonus, as well as several special tournaments.

Deposit Bonus

On Monday, if you deposit more than $50 into your Partypoker account, you will receive lottery ticket, which can be used the next day and win one of the following prizes:

• $215 Title Fight ticket
• $44 ticket Title Fight satellite
• ticket for $8.80 Title Fight satellite
• $1.10 ticket Title Fight satellite
• cashback points

Special Cyber ​​Monday Tournament Schedule

More than 30 MTT tournaments will be held at Partypoker on Cyber ​​Monday.

The $109 buy-in Heavyweight Apollo tournament will have a double prize pool, with the tournament guarantee being $10,000 instead of the usual $5,000 that day.

There will also be 50% off select buy-ins on Cyber ​​Monday. Discounts will apply to 6 Featherweight tournaments with $500 guarantees. On Monday, the buy-in for the tournament will be only $2.75. There will also be a discount on the $5,000 Heavyweight Progressive Knock-Out Freezeout, with the buy-in reduced to $55.

Rakeback deal from VIP-Grinders

If you don't have a Partypoker account, but want to take advantage of all the Black Friday and Cyber ​​Monday bonuses, then register using our link and you will receive:

• 40% fixed rakeback in the first month of play
• $500 First Deposit Bonus
• 15% additional rakeback from VIP-Grinders
• Access to our private rake race with prize fund $25.000