“Black Friday” Arrests Continue
Black Friday, as the 15th of April has become known has claimed another victim. The arrests 
that followed the indictments of various online poker providers led to the shutting down of those domains in the United States, the seizure of the URLs (now returned) and accusations of protectionism from all concerned.
The latest arrest has been Ira Rubin, thought to be the character suspected of tricking banks into accepting payments to online casinos by disguising them as other purchases. He is illegal gambling, wire fraud and money laundering. The three other suspects (there are eleven in total) who have been arrested so far - Chad Elie, John Campos and Bradley Franzen - have all been released on bail.
Interestingly a number of smaller online poker providers are still accepting players, Cake & Bodog to name a couple. Because the UIGEA prevents the issuing of future licenses to any sites that were active in the market pre-2006, these operators must be taking the calculated gamble that their current activities are worth possible future action.
Chris Johnson Wins Caesar’s Palace WSOP Circuit Event
Chris Johnson, a Las Vegas resident, claimed the first prize of $153,599 at the recent World Series of Poker main event at Caesar’s Palace in Las Vegas. Marginally the chip leader as the final table began Johnson and Brian England from New Jersey were the last two players to feature in the head to head.
By this stage the chip stacks were massively in favour of Johnson - $8,250,000 to $1,750,000 and consequently the remainder of the match lasted just five minutes. Both players had strong cards on the final hand and England was confident enough to re-raise pre-flop all in with A
J. Johnson however held A
K and called the bet. The community cards were dealt and turned in Johnson’s favour with K
J 10 9 2
and the game was over.
Here’s the final top ten money finishers:
