Home / Poker News August 2011 / The Poker Grapevine – A-Rod in Hot Water
The Poker Grapevine – A-Rod in Hot Water
Posted by: Randy Williams - Thu, 2011-08-04 15:15
His passion for poker may have gotten MLB player Alex Rodriguez into a little bit of hot water. Rodriguez had apparently attended high stakes illegal poker games organized by Molly Bloom at the Beverly Hills mansion of Cody Leibel, a record-label owner. Several high profile poker players and celebrities were involved in those games, including Tobey Maguire and Dan Bilzerian. To make a long story short, the games were brought into the attention of law enforcement officials and the whole thing ended up stirring up quite a handsome storm in the press. Wisely, Rodriguez decided to lay low and sure enough, his name wasn’t dragged around quite as much as that of some of the other participants. He did earn a warning from the MLB though, a warning which he apparently pretty much ignored, setting up his own high stakes poker game in Miami with the help of the same Molly Bloom.
Having become a repeat offender, A-Rod is now looking at possible suspension.
In other news: a major online poker portal decided to stop promoting online poker sites which still accept US players. The decision came in light of the difficulties that poker sites like Ultimate Bet and
Full Tilt Poker are struggling with in regards to the repayment of US player funds stuck in their coffers.
The same portal also announced it would introduce a service meant to help US-based online poker pros relocate to a country/jurisdiction where playing online isn’t illegal.
In still other news: the
PokerStars EPT’s 8th season kicked off in Tallinn the other day. PokerStars have apparently managed to secure cooperation with a major sponsor: online payment processor Skrill (aka Moneybookers) will thus become the official sponsor of the tour as its official payment-provider.
What the sponsorship means for players and railbirds is that Skrill representatives will be on-hand at various
EPT events to help people sign up and create accounts.
