The Monday Minute recaps the big stories in poker in the last week and the important upcoming events. This week, A DeucesCracked Pro Ships the NAPT, A big week of Legal News, and PartyPoker’s cash game loses a player.

  • DeucesCracked Pro and World Series of Poker Bracelet winner Vanessa Selbst captured the PokerStars North American Poker Tour – Mohegan Sun Main Event Championship on Sunday in dominant fashion.  The $5,000 buy in event attracted a very impressive and star studded field of 716 runners, including the regular host of Team PokerStars Pros who traveled to Uncasville, Connecticut. The second U.S. stop in the NAPT finally drew some surprise names as well, as Team Full Tilt Poker Pro’s Phil Ivey and Tom ‘Durrrrr’ Dwan placed their skills on display.  But in the end it was Selbst who was not to be denied in the event, demonstrating her superior chip gathering ability at the table.  Having begun the final table with slightly fewer chips than leader Michael Beasly, Selbst waisted little time reclaiming  the chip lead that she’d helf for the prior 2 days, and had more than half the chips in play during 5 handed action, as well as a 9 to 1 chip advantage going into heads up play.  The $750,000 score is the largest pay day of her career, and brings her to a total of nearly $1.7 Million in live career tournament winnings, placing her in the top 10 list of money winners all time for women.  Vanessa’s bracelet win came in the 2008 WSOP in the $1,500 Pot Limit Omaha event.  You can watch the entire final table action when ESPN air’s its telecast with Lon McEachern and Norm Chad.
  • Legal news was a hot topic this week as it was announced that Barney Frank has scheduled a hearing of the House Financial Services Committee on Friday to discuss Internet Gambling.   The hearing will focus mostly on Frank’s bill to delay full implementation of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act, which is currently set to be in place on June 1st.  While it is unclear as to the exact motive for the hearing, it will provide an opportunity for the representatives of the Treasury Department and the Federal Reserve Board to speak about the issue, appeaing Frank’s biggest rival at the moment, Rep. Spencer Bachus (R – Ala.) who’d requested the meeting in the December hearings. One thing is unanimously clear is that any discussion on the UIGEA is a good thing, as the financial sector has been clear in their argument that implementation of the UIGEA is burdensome and unlikely to succeed in its mission to stop Americans from gambling online.  The hearing begins on Friday at 10AM EST, and will be Webcast live here.
  • It was a bad week for Full Tilt Poker as the Federal Grand Jury in Manhattan began an investigation on the World’s second largest online poker site.  The investigation also names Team Full Tilt Pro’s Howard Lederer and Chris ‘Jesus’ Ferguson as party to their investigation. Apparently the Grand Jury is investigating charges related to money laundering and whether gambling laws were broken.  But the online giant’s legal woes didn’t end there.  Later in the week, the Commonwealth of Kentucky filed a lawsuit against Pocket Kings – the owners of Full Tilt Poker, seeking to recapture the losses of the residents of the state of Kentucky who participated in online gaming on the site since 2005.   While both lawsuits are definitely news grabbing and not good stories, it is yet to be seen if they have any merit.  Only time will tell.
  • In other legal news, the State of Pennsylvania took a major step backwards this week, overturning a previous ruling concerning poker.  In a 2009 ruling concerning a home poker game, the state court determined that “in conjunction with analyzing skill versus chance….it is apparent that skill predominates over chance in Texas Hold’em poker.”  However, in a complete and utter reversal, the appeals court has recently reversed their decision and ruled that “While the outcome of poker may be dependent on skill to some degree, it is predominantly a game of chance.”  The Poker Players Alliance has loudly voiced their disappointment with the recent decision, and the poker world echo’s their sentiment.
  • The PartyPoker Big Game IV grew a lot less interesting this week with the withdrawal of a single player.  While pro’s Phil Laak, Justin Bonomo, Issac Haxton, and Tony G will be participating, it was Isildur1’s appearance that really had the attention of the poker universe.  Citing “personal reasons” that he needed to attend to, the notorious mystery Swede has reneged on the offer made by Tony G, and will not be participating in the made for TV event.   While the addition of “flashing lights” and Boxing Style-Music Themed entrances have been announced, the lack of Isildur1 really means very few people will notice.

Upcoming Events

Last Season’s European Poker Tour Main event in San Remo, Italy fielded the largest major poker tournament field ever held in Europe.  The 1,177 Players created a total prize pool of €5,713,300.  The 2010 stop begins on April 15th and again features the €5,000+300 buy in.  Italy will likely be buzzing yet again with poker as we expect to see names like Betrand ‘ElkY’ Grospellier, Dario Minieri, and current EPT Points leader Luca Pagano, in addition to the other star studded players on the EPT.

Last night, the Twitter Poker Tour qualified its second player for an opportunity to take on the World Series of Poker as astro_pup (@TracyJSnell) finished in 1st place in the $40+4 Step 2 Weekly Qualifier.  astro_pup now joins CPRPoker in the $200+16 Qualifier where one winner will be guaranteed a $2,000 World Series of Poker package, and a chance to compete for a bracelet this summer while representing the TPT.   If you’d like to join them, week 3 events begin running tonight at 9PM EST on Full Tilt Poker.  For the full week 3 schedule, check here: 2010 WSOP Satellite Schedule