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Poker News Wrap Up: August 9th – 16th

This week in the pokerverse, old was the new new, as almost all of the major stories of the week involved an update or revisitation of some sort. The dominant stories continue to deal with the legislative battles being fought over online poker’s future. Below are the highlights from the poker news week that was, August 9th – 16th.

Charge were finally filed in conjunction with the $30 million plus of poker player’s funds frozen back in June 2009. The target: Douglas Rennick, head of payment processor corp Account Services. Rennick is now looking at a variety of charges stemming from the alleged $350 million in payments the DOJ says his company processed for online gaming clients, including bank fraud and money laundering.

As the DOJ moves to shut down payment processors for online poker sites, other forces are working to clear a path for explicitly legalized and regulated online poker in the US. Taking the long route: Kevin Raley, who is petitioning for his day in front of the Colorado Supreme Court so he can make the argument that poker should be considered a game of skill. Taking the more direct route: a consortium of California gaming interests, including Indian tribes and card clubs, who are apparently banding together to make a push for regulated intrastate online poker in the Golden State.

Online cheating scandals were back in the news this week. There’s been a small storm brewing over at 2+2 regarding alleged security leaks at Pitbull Poker that continues to develop, with Pitbull not being as forthcoming as some players would like about the whole deal. This week also heard rumors of a return to the grandaddy of superuser scandals, the UB / AP mess, via a mainstream media rehashing (ala 60 minutes) of the entire story (so says Todd Witteles over at Neverwin).

A couple of interesting tidbits regarding televsied poker: Face The Ace continued to perform horribly and has been yanked for the time being; word is it will return in the fall, possibly on weekdays. Pundits are expecting a better fate for the reality-show style Two Months, Two Million (2M2MM), which premiered this past weekend on G4.

Finally, the first opponent for Tom Dwan’s ‘Durrrr Million Dollar Challenge’ (that’s the live version of the durrrr challenge, not the online one) was unveiled: Sammy “any two” George. Dwan has to be kicking himself for offering odds just to get Patrik Antonius heads up when relative no-names like George are willing to chuck a half million onto a decidedly lopsided table.

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